Star Trek: Theurgy

Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

April 30, 2020, 03:55:13 PM

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CHAPTER 01: INCENDIARY PROSPECTS

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Captain's Log, stardate 57649.24. One hour ago, Romulus declared war on the Federation.

Paris has just gone dark, the number of casualties unknown. Our inside man in Starfleet Headquarters has transferred the intel to us through the subspace buoy. A thalaron bomb decimated the entire city. Already, Praetor Tal'aura has officially assumed responsibility for the attack, and whilst ignoring the treaty in which thalaron radiation have been banned, she has launched a new offensive against both Remus and Donatra's rebel fleet. I have already summoned the Senior Staff. I also gave the order to reintegrate Thea's three Vectors, and while our ship is still docked at the shipyards, we can no longer remain at Aldea.

The reason is twofold. Starfleet Command is making a deliberately poor job at containing the ensuing panic, and the message from Romulus is circulating on multiple worlds in the Federation. In it, Praetor Tal'aura made it clear that the Romulan Star Empire's incendiary act is in response to Starfleet arming Donatra's rebel fleet. While the crew know that it was one of the Infested that sent the rebels the coordinates to the Federation's hidden weapon research facilities, Starfleet Command laid the blame at our feet. Just like the desolation of subspace that we created in the Azure Nebula, only with word of the Borg invasion suppressed. Starfleet Command make the FNN peddle their lies, and just recently, it has caused a schism among our allies. With Martok's chancellery questioned, and the risk of Aldean hospitality coming to an end, we can't outstay our welcome.

The second reason came from Doctor Nicander, who at my order used his cognitive connection to other Infested. This, to predict the detonation of more bombs across the Alpha Quadrant... and we must act in response.

- Captain Jien Ives, USS Theurgy NX-79854

[ Captain Ives | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]
[Show/Hide]

The Senior Staff had gathered on the Main Bridge of the Theurgy, and on the viewscreen, the message from Rear Admiral Anderson had played out. Footage of the detonation in Paris had been shown in vivid detail, as well as people disintegrating into ash on the streets. The Praetor's chilling declaration of war had followed, along with a promise from Anderson that he'd send another message as soon as he was able. Captain Ives stood in front of his chair at the centre of the bridge - in his male form - and his oaken eyes were cut sharp by his frown.

"After I saw this," he said and turned to the officers assembled around him, some at their stations and some not, "and while you gathered here, I went to the brig. Doctor Nicander confirmed it. Other cities are targeted, and this is not just an act of war on behalf of Praetor Tal'aura's... for she's one of them."

Jien paused to let them all digest the meaning of it. Vael Kaeris had isolated the anyonic frequency needed to free Nicander from his parasite, and the team researching the bio-luminescence of Radiants had been successful in replicating the transphasic wavelength, so their Infested informant could now help them without risk of being lost to the entity that possessed him. They could free him, but he had agreed to be their eyes behind enemy lines for as long as he could. At Jien's order, the Câroon had made the first incursion under these conditions, and what the Doctor had revealed had been chilling to hear.

Yellow Alert had been issued, and Thea was once more in standard operation mode. Klingon and Aldean officials in the shipyards had been given minimal notice before the ship reintegrated into one, this having happened just minutes ago, while the message from Anderson had been played on the viewscreen. Repairs were more or less complete, and unbeknownst to their hosts at Aldea, the ship had also been fitted with technology from the Vigilant of Sa. Indeed, the Voice remained in the Epsilon Mynos System aboard the cloaked Erudite, coordinating the rebellion of the Antecendants from there. This, at the promise of utilising the farsight of Doctor Nicander to oppose Infested in their own ranks.

"Here is the recording from the brig. I want you all to hear this, before we decide on our next action. You should know that I told him nothing of what Anderson sent us. Thea?"

"Aye, Captain," said the Ship A.I., standing off to the side on her bridge. She looked a bit pensive as she played the surveillance recording from the holding cell, and the viewscreen switched from the ochre view of the Aldean planet surface to the sterile bulkheads and deck of her brig. Jien could see his own back - only being in his female form - in front of the forcefield separating him from Nicander, and the Doctor had just agreed to do what was asked of him.

Pacing barefoot in the close confines of his cell, Nicander rubbed his temples with his pale grey eyes closed. Barechested, he was taking deep breaths, perhaps in trepidation of what might accost him when repeating the feat he'd preformed in the Azure Nebula. Perhaps he feared what he might see when he opened himself up once more, letting himself join with the same darkness that had shown him the shield harmonics of the IKS Rotarran. Perhaps he regretted volunteering his sanity for the benefit of the mission, but if that was the case, he said naught of it. "Yes," said the Doctor eventually, "I see the inside of the Romulan Senate Chamber. The eyes I see through is a woman's... I can see her hands beneath her eyes. She's... debating with Romulans around her. The attention of the room is on her. Guards are present, and they are carrying a Senator out of the room. A rival? Forgive me, I don't know who these people are. There is a holographic display in the centre of the Senate chamber... showing Paris. By the winds, I can see the office of the President falling asunder." The Doctor stopped his pacing, and he ran his mismatched hands through his unkempt hair. "Captain, is this why you came here? Is it true? Is it... Argh!" Suddenly, something happened to the Câroon in the cell. He stood up straighter and levelled eyes shining white against Jien. Trepidation had turned into icy hatred, and the words that spilled from his shining mouth seemed to come from beyond the confines of the present. "You could have enjoyed your end in ignorant bliss, revelled in pleasure while the Queen claimed you all. Yet now, you will all die in full awareness of what will come for you." There was shouting from off screen, Security officers scrambling to interject themselves between Jien and the infested. The thing that possessed the Doctor ignored them, his white eyes still upon the Captain - a terrible smile on his lips. "You brought this upon yourselves. More cities will fall, and there is naught you can do to stop this war. Make the attempt at your peril, for we've just begun." Then, Nicander leapt towards the forcefield, as if trying to breach it regardless what it might do to the Host body. The Brig officer activated an energy field inside the cell, and the light in the Doctor's eyes went out. He fell to the deck - unconscious. Vapour rose from the cloth of his uniform trousers, but he seemed otherwise unhurt.

The screen went blank as the recording ended, and Jien resumed speaking. "Nicander is fine, having returned to being his usual self again..." he said, and turned to look at the gathered officers anew. "Though that's not all. With this development, and the accusation that we armed the Praetor's enemies and caused this incident, I fear Martok might have difficulty defending his affiliation with us. We should depart Aldea, but I want to hear your thoughts on our next step. The word is free."

Momentum, he thought. For as dreadful as the news of Paris were, Jien could not let his feelings show. Look forward, and find the path.

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OOC: This thread is set on the Main Bridge of the Theurgy, and the posting deadline for those writing Senior Staff members is 7 days  starting from now. It's now open to post Supplemental threads for Chapter 01, where you can post one-on-one with other writers in your own IC scenes during the time while Thea reintegrates and Yellow Alert have everyone on their feet and ready. The limitation of the IC time-span for these Supplemental threads will span from 1100 hrs. to 1200 hrs., where the Theurgy will depart from Aldea. The naming convention for these one-on-one Supplemental threads that belonging to Chapter 01 is: CH01: S [D01|YYYY] Insert Title (YYYY marking the time before 1200 hrs.).

Senior Staff writers, here are the optional Objectives for this thread, which you can all pick and choose from when writing your posts: [Show/Hide]

• There may still be Theurgy crew down on the planet, and they will have to be informed that Yellow Alert has been sounded, and that they are to report to their duty stations on the ship. Make sure this happens while the meeting is ongoing.
• Ideas about what to do about the threat of more bombs can be aired, the distance to the Alpha Quadrant being an issue. Splitting up the ship might be an option so that the Theurgy can cover more ground, yet only the Stallion (Vector 03) has the quantum slipstream burst drive installed.
• The suggestion that the Savi might help them might come up, since they have a common enemy. It might be suggested that since the Erudite can get to Federation space more quickly than the Theurgy, perhaps Echtand can do something.
• The idea that the Allegiant do fit in the Erudite's large shuttle bays might come up, but the problem remains that without Nicander, it might be difficult to predict where more thalaron bombs might detonate.
• It could be suggested that Nicander is incarcerated on the Allegiant instead, one of the rooms on it made into a holding cell.
• Alternatively, they continue to use the subspace buoy to communicate between the Theurgy and the Erudite, like they have been leaving and getting messages with Director Anderson.
• Should only the Allegiant go on the Erudite? Perhaps some Lone Wolves ought to go with it? With the Aldean sensor scramblers, and with the Allegiant having a Reman cloak, they might work together in the bomnb-defusing assignment.
• Who should command the Allegiant, if it should be sent?
• An incoming hail from Martok should come towards the end of all this, which I will post when it's my turn again.

Looking forward to getting the show rolling! I am open to start other threads for the rest of the crew, if you have ideas for scenes that might involve a lot of characters as they go to Yellow Alert. I have some plans for this here in Chapter 01 already, but PM me!

Re: Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

Reply #1 – May 01, 2020, 11:02:14 PM

[ Cmdr Ranaan Ducote | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]

Ducote paced back and forth behind the centre seat, in front of the holotable, while he processed the news from Anderson. The Breen attack on San Francisco during the war had been one thing, a demonstration of the Dominion's reach... but the city had been damaged, not scoured clean. Thalaron weapons had an obvious signature, there was no missing it. Parasitic assistance aside, there should have been no way to smuggle one onto or build one on Earth, let alone the Federation capital.

That, and his paternal aunt Juliette lived there. He hoped she'd been able to get out in time... she lived towards the outskirts at least. A different situation, but his father's office was in Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco and he'd been okay during the Breen attack. She should be alright. He decided to assume that she was, until he heard otherwise. Conveniently, that was going to be a long time yet regardless.

The XO paid attention to the captain while s/he spoke, one hand in his pocket tracing the lines of his type-I phaser, for all his appearances to the contrary. A yeoman handed him a PADD confirming that the ship was fully locked down and back in standard operation, her three Vectors reunited at last. He flicked through to the crew manifest and saw far too many red lines for his liking, so tapped his badge.

"All ground-side hands; Ducote. Report to your beam-out locations immediately. The ship is at yellow alert - anyone not aboard in the next thirty minutes will be left behind."

On the next page of the PADD were listed the various complaints and protests at summary expulsion issued by the dockworkers and their Klingon hosts. Ducote simply wiped them. He was in no mood to play diplomat and smooth ruffled feathers for the sake of appearances and ego. Not now. With effort, he focused his attention on the recording of Nicander's foray into the nether on their behalf. The hybrid kept his private thought, that Nicander-plus-parasite seemed only slightly less fun to talk to than Nicander-without, to himself.

"... We should depart Aldea, but I want to hear your thoughts on our next step. The word is free."

Ducote came to a halt, leaning against the portside stanchion behind the captain's chair and folding his arms. A deep breath escaped him. They could release their flight logs to the entire quadrant and no one would read them. Against the FNN, their protests that they hadn't been anywhere near Romulan space since the ship's return from its original diplomatic mission there might as well be piss into the wind. And given that there were parasites on either side of the equation, however shaky the Praetor's given reason, the Federation was more than likely to oblige them and work up their own casus belli.

"If they want a war, we have to deny them one," he said. "We have the slipstream drive; we can dodge the fleets on both sides and just ruin supply lines if we have to. As long as we can stay ahead of them, and figure out where the next bombing targets are, we can stop them."

For now, anyway. And that did rather leave unsaid the huge task that those things represented. 'Oh sure, just anticipate and thwart an extradimensional terrorist threat against mass civilian targets, how hard could it be...'

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ooc: recall notice issued

Re: Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

Reply #2 – May 02, 2020, 12:21:47 AM

OOC: This is a replacement post by Steelphoenix since Vivian has been retconned out of the scene. All references to Martin will also be altered to point towards Vael Kaeris instead, the current Chief Science Officer.

[ Lt. Cmdr Vael Kaeris | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]

Vael watched the display quietly.  Earth was not his home, although he supposed he could understand the visceral reaction unfolding around him by those more attached to the venue.  There was some satisfaction that the doctor had managed to spin some semblance of gold out of the haystack of his possession and it would fall Vael and his team to ensure that his efforts were not ultimately futile.  When time came, they would have to ensure his cleansing and liberation.

But in the meantime, there were far more pressing matters unfolding that required his focus.  Tracking the parasites had been a notion he considered, but attempting to pinpoint an infected host somewhere in the known universe was a pipe-dream, and if these actions were carried out by proxy forces, there was little point.  After all, how could one differentiate one hydrogen atom from another half a galaxy away? 

He considered.  "If this is the newest ploy of the parasites, then they still need to maintain the facade they've fashioned for themselves.  That, ideally, should limit their targets.  They are unlikely to strike unimportant or unpopulated locations -- such would serve neither their real nor their false narratives."  Tapping his chin, he continued.  "Further, it seems as if they have escalated this confrontation to a personal level, so if we cross reference a list of potential targets with those of particular significant to members of the crew, we may be able to establish a reasonable targeting vector to intercede."

Turning his focus from the screen to the captain, he added.  "Once localized, we would have a better opportunity to scan, isolate and neutralize any potential bombs.  Our chances of success in that regard could be expedited if we could secure a copy of the forensics reports from Paris."  This might well be an opportunity to call on their new allies under Anderson.  "However, depending on the number of targets the initial evaluation pans out, it may be necessary to stretch our resources and split the ship to cover multiple locations at once."

As he spoke his mind cataloged a multitude of new research projects that would need to introduce even as they continued the long term anti-parasite efforts.  He could not allow the war to be drowned out by the skirmishes.

Although another though occurred to him-- one that he would bring Ducote later.  If Starfleet had been infested at the highest ranks, could there have been any traceable pattern in their recent travel, especially as regards Paris?  Any sudden trips to San Francisco?  Cancellation of appointments with the Federation President?  The bombs were not the only things that needed to be tracked.

Re: Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

Reply #3 – May 04, 2020, 04:31:54 AM

[Lt. Cmdr. Natalie Stark | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 |  USS Theurgy ]Attn: [Show/Hide]

Like everyone else on the bridge, Natalie could not help but draw parallels between the Breen assault on Earth during the Dominion War and the horrific attack that they had just learned of, purportedly by Preator Tel'Aura, on behalf of the invading parasites. Unlike many of the others, however, Natalie had to deal with the rush of flashbacks that assaulted her memory. She had been there, present at the Academy during the attack. Just days before that class would have graduated, the Breen rained down fire from above in a blitzkrieg attack. She could remember it all, the smoke, the terror, the darkness in the shelters. The call to action after...

Blinking rapidly, Natalie came back to the here and now with a ragged exhalation. Those blue eyes were wide, but they darted down and away from the view screen - away from Nicandar - and to her console, once again checking the read outs. Theurgy was fully reintegrated for the first time in over a month, and her operations read out had far more on it than before the ship had arrived on Aldea. The EPS grid and ODN network had been overhauled to accommodate many of the new upgrades that the ship had acquired during their lay over, and there was the whole subsection devoted to an actual slipstream drive. That fact still seemed unreal to Natalie.

Though maybe that was the shock of the moment. Natalie might have been Martian born and bred, but Earth was the political center of the Federation. An attack on the Capital of the Federation was an attack on all of the Federation. And if Nicander was to be believed - If the thing inside of him was to be believed she corrected - then Paris was but the first of many to come. Like the first violent peal of thunder ahead of the storm. Another reminder of San Francisco, and the first real thunderstorm she'd ever experienced during her Freshman year.  She remembered that night well, how the suddenness of it all had left her bloody terrified, and Vanya - Vanya. Just how would the Romulan android take the news that her former empire was being used as a pasty to insight another interstellar war? 

Dammit Nat, you're an officer now, not a cowering Cadet. Focus!

Thus chastised, she executed a series of commands, prepping the flow of power toward transporters for the moment. She'd picked out Ducote's quiet order from the back of the bridge and knew that over the next half hour the ship would be working over time to recall its personnel from the planet. She also cut the last of the external power ties - though most of those had been severed during the reintegration process. Thus done and dusted, she turned in her chair, having left a sequenced command primed and ready to divert power as needed to the engines, and another sequence to boost the passive sensors for any incoming threats. Given their luck, Natalie was understandably paranoid. God only knew what might come barreling out towards them at a moments notice. 

What remained now was settling on their next course of action. Resting one hand on the edge of her console, Natalie swept her gaze across the assembled crew on the bridge. Each face mirrored in some way what she was feeling: worry, horror, sadness, concern, anger, determination, resolve. All of it was there. From humans and non human's alike. The Federation was their home, and all of them had been to Earth before. Natalie was far from the only one that had taken a tour of the Palais de la Concorde and would not have the chance to do so for a very large time to come. Yes, Starfleet Command had been overrun with the infestation, and yes, they were cast as the villain in all of this, but the Federation was home. How then, could they save it?

"With respect, its all going to come down to him, isn't it? To Nicander.". She surprised herself by speaking up, gesturing back at the now blank view screen. The image of the ships former doctor was gone, but certainly not out of any of their minds. Swallowing back the still lingering taste of bile that accompanied her speaking his name, she soldiered on. "Unless and until the doctor can help us narrow down where these bombs are, ther is only so much we can do. Even if we split the ship in three - say by dropping out of slip stream in or near a system and dropping off a vector and then leaping back in - we can be maybe in three, four places at once if we use some of our auxiliary craft? The Allegiant or the Sabine.

"But Captain, we need to know those places. And we're going to continue to need Lucan Nicander to do that." A glutton for punishment, Natalie met the Captains gaze full on when he looked at her. Not the easiest thing for the young woman to do, but over the past month she had gotten much better about it. At least, that's what she thought. What anyone else believed was nothing she could be sure of. "We need to be in as many places as we can be, sir, as quickly as we can. And we need to get out of this system as fast as we can. If we're not here, we can't be used against the Chancellor. But until the doctor can give us an idea of where we need to be..." Her voice trailed off and she gave a lackluster shrug. 

"Pick an abandoned system closer in to Federation space, or even a point between systems. Somewhere that isn't here, but closer to where we need to be?" That was as good a recommendation as she could come up with on the fly, but even that didn't sit as well with her as she'd like. Hopefully however, by planting the seed of the idea, another of the gathered Senior Staff could nurture it into a workable option.

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ooc: elaborating on the need for Nicander an the possibility of using aux craft.

Re: Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

Reply #4 – May 04, 2020, 03:40:35 PM

[LCdr Blue Tiran-Ducote | Bombs Away | Fucking Parasites Corrupting My Organization | Too Close to Home]
@Top Hat @Auctor Lucan @Brutus @Kinvarus @Fife




Standing on the Bridge, Blue Tiran leaned against the Engineering console and watched her husband pacing back and forth and occasionally leaning against the center seat.  She knew hoe he was, he was going to take as much of this on himself.  Find a solution, come up with an action plan, assign the proper members of the ship, get something going.  Ducote was a man of action, it was one of the few things they had in common because she was much the same way.  She was a hands on problem solver and standing here now listening to the horrors of what had happened in Paris, and how they weren't going to stop.  No, apparently, this fucking shit was just getting started.  Paris was leaked to them and that meant they were supposed to know.  This was a fucking calling card, a come get me, a fucking childish attempt at garnering their attention and calling them out to blame.  Labeling them as the ones that attacked, she was already tired of being on a ship that took the brunt of all the Federations bad shit.  The parasites needed to be ousted but that wasn't going to happen anytime soon.

She had been working with that over bubbly excuse for a Scientist to get the device ready and available to be used on Nicander.  Only to have the fucker decide he didn't want to fucking have it used on him in the first place.  Some kind of fucking double agent or whatever.  On one hand, kudos to him for sacrificing his freedom to some kind of alien ass worm, but on the other hand the man was full on stupid.  If they could eradicate the fucker, she would be all too pleased to see it fucking go.  She supposed there were arguments to be made on both sides of the fucking table.

Ducote was recalling people to the ship, fuckers were all about being on holiday, she had enjoyed one fucking day off with her -then fiance- before they had gotten the fuck back to work.  After all of the Savi shit, she really could have used more than that, but they both knew where their responsibilities lay and it wasn't like Ives was coming around to make sure they got some actual time off.  Blue had been working ridiculous hours especially lately with getting the ship aligned with the Savi slipstream engine that would enable them to have a whole lot more power.  The Captain opened the deck to anyone to speak and Ranaan dove right in. 

He didn't want a war, that-a-boy she thought to herself as she looked over at him with her striking blue eyes.  She knew they were probably the most mis-matched pair on the Theurgy and she didn't care a lick about it.  Blue was the person that she was, and honestly, Ducote was everything she could have asked for.  She had heard rumblings about her position and his position, but they had those positions before on the Endeavour and it wasn't because of their relationship.  He told the Captain they could use the slipstream to thwart the supply lines and what not of the Romulans and hopefully the fuckers would starve to fucking death.  Her eyes shifted away from her husband as another, Kaeris from the Endeavour, spoke up. Then Stark, oh Stark, Blue had an uncomfortable and odd conversation with the woman in her office not all that long ago with the addition of a new and quite helpful crew member.  Blue remembered feeling like there was more that the woman had wanted to know about her new Chief Engineer, but she hadn't asked much of anything personally was which fine with Blue she didn't like everyone to know everything.  People mostly took Blue at face value but those that stood beside her long enough realized that she wasn't all just screaming, yelling, and twinkies.  There was more to Blue and she honestly actually cared for those on her deck.  She just had a shit way of showing it.  Though there were times it came out publicly.  She had redeeming qualities. 

Stark mentioned that they needed to know where the bombs were to be able to actually do much of anything.  Which was totally fucking true.  They had no time to scour the Earth for the fuckers.  “Well, Stark,” Blue started.  “If we get the information that Science wants on the fucking bombs, we may be able to fashion some sort of fucking scanning system that could help us locate them.  Hopefully long range, but honestly if they were as fucking smart as they should be, they'll have some kind of cloak or something around them.  There is going to be a lot of fucking things to consider.”

She brushed a hand through her mass of black and blue curls.  Which promptly fell back where it had been, it had been a running gag in the Ducote-Tiran Quarters about her hair for years because it always seemed to be un-tameable and Ducote often said it was like it's owner.  Bastard. she thought for a moment a little grin playing on her lips as she finally turned to her own thoughts for the meeting.

“We can't forget we currently have a fucking ally.” she said as she crossed her arms over her chest.  The thought of being on the Savi ship still made her stomach sink and made her want to vomit.  She occasionally still had nightmares, but they were getting better with therapy, Cross, and Ranaan.  But, they still came and they had come back hard after she had gone to the ship for the slipstream drive.  She tried not to let Ducote know that she was struggling, but, he tended to figure out she was having a hard time when she shut her mind down.  He would come over to her, and put his arms around her and just sit with her.  Often putting on their favorite movie, replicating some nachos or popcorn, and they would just quietly spend time together.  When she relaxed and opened back up he would answer silently with a kiss to her temple.  He never asked her to talk about it.  Sometimes she did though, but she didn't want that guilt on him, he could not have rescued her any faster, and she had been instrumental in helping not only the Savi but the people on this ship as well. 

“It goes to say that the Erudite has drives that are far faster than the Theurgy.  Those fuckers want the parasites gone as much as we do.  If we bring in Echtand, maybe we can get them to head that way first.  They could act as a communication liaison and help us make a stand.  They have so much technology that we don't, even with their gifts, the Theurgy is just subpar in comparrison.” she gave a shrug.  It was true, she wasn't trying to be a bitch she was only speaking the truth.

“If we wanted our own delegation we could even put the Allegiant on the Erudite, it'll fit in the bay easily.  With the specs I may or may not have stolen, I found that the bay is large enough for not only the Allegiant but it's probably big enough for our fighters as well, so we could send a few of them too.  I don't know without some scanner though, that sending the Savi loaded with voluntary Fleet, would be of any use without being able to locate the bombs.  The only person that has that information is the man in the Brig.” she pointed to the holo display that had now shut down anyway.  His words of their doom echoing in her mind, but she was not nearly as afraid of them and him as she was of other things in the universe.  She had known true loss, and though it had turned out that he had not been loss, knowing what it felt like.. knowing how painful it was to live with that... she didn't ever want to do that again. 

Re: Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

Reply #5 – May 05, 2020, 12:28:15 AM

[Selena Ravenholm | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 1 | USS Theurgy]

Selena was only half listening to the Captain as they laid out the situation to the senior staff gathered all around the Bridge.  She was half surprised she was allowed to stay honestly, she could work the comms from just about anywhere, but for some reason the new CIO asked that she keep her chair for the time being.  Maybe it was just so that there wasn’t even a minor interruption in the communication links between Thea, Aldea, and the shipyards, her job had certainly become frantic and chaotic since that message from Anderson arrived through the back channel.  Ducote’s recall of everyone off of the surface was no surprise, she had a mass secure broadcast ready to go as soon as he recorded his order.

While she may not have been listening in with her full attention, when Nicander’s hijacked voice boomed from the speakers her blue eyes locked to the viewscreen and she could only watch in horror as the parasites declared their doom.  Selena shivered at the sound of it all, the callousness of wiping out millions or even billions of people just to make a point.  The idea that they’d gotten to the Romulan praetor, whoever it was at the moment, was bad enough, conventional war was a horror show on its own.  This was something else entirely.

Several calls came in from the surface and shipyard just then, all wanting confirmation of Ducote’s recall order.  At first she didn’t blame them, they’d been promised a lot more shore leave then they were actually getting, but they could’t be questioning the new XO, not now.  “Recall confirmed, get back to the ship now.” she recorded as a curt reply to those and any other questions.  She’ll make sure a list gets recorded to pass on to Ducote by the time they leave.  Anyone wants to try things can go through him.  In the background she could hear Ducote, Stark, Kaeris, and Blue all pipe up with questions and ideas on how to combat the parasites’s new play, ever the optimistic Starfleeters.

But Selena wasn’t Starfleet like they were, current uniform notwithstanding.  Someone had to be a realist here, and it looked like that was going to be her job.  “Ok, so lets say we come up with a way to pinpoint the bombs from a sector away.  What next?  We’re already #1 on the Federation’s shit list, if we show up on any Federation sensor, whole or part, every ship in 9 sectors will be racing to us at maximum warp.  Planetary defenses will lock the entire orbital area down making a ground approach impossible.  And even if we make it past all that, what then?”  She held up a hand and raised a finger with each of the next points.  “You can’t shoot the bomb with a phaser, the feedback explosion would wipe out the city it’s in, just look at the Bassen Rift and what little’s left of the Scimitar.  You can’t hit it with a hammer or break it apart like a nuclear device, it’ll release what radiation is contained within and melt everyone for blocks.  You’d have a hell of a time trying to disable it with a technician, you probably wouldn’t get the time before security phasers you into next week.  You can’t take it with you, if you thought that the numbers chasing us already were bad just imagine the manhunt if Starfleet gets word that we have an active thalaron device.  I suppose you could try beaming it into some patch of empty space but who knows if the damned thing isn’t booby trapped for just such an event.”  A full hand was splayed out in front of everyone by the end.

“We can’t go in there ourselves is what I’m saying.” the hacker quickly added in before someone could jump on her for her lack of optimism. “We have contacts in the Federation, and even Starfleet itself now.  We should work in the shadows when it comes to the thalaron problem: identify where the bombs are, and if we can figure it out, how long until they blow.  Once we know that we pass the information along to Anderson or whoever we can get ahold of, and let them handle it.  In the meantime, the ship should be running interference between the massing fleets, stall the opening battles as long as possible until we can expose Tal’ura and get the parasites out of the equation.”

Done for now, Selena slumped back in her seat and shared a quick look with the new Intelligence chief that had been next to her the entire time.  She didn’t care what they thought of her rant, it had to be said.  For now though, it was back to work, something was going on with one of the airlocks and apparently different teams were arguing over whose job it was.

Re: Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

Reply #6 – May 05, 2020, 06:01:06 PM

[Lieutenant Elro Kobol | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 |  USS Theurgy ] @Auctor Lucan @fiendfall  @Argyros @Fife @trevorvw

The images before his eyes were disturbingly familiar in a multitude of ways...

Elro had visited Paris several times in the past; it was a popular weekend getaway for his Mother and Father, so he’d seen his fair share both in person and in holo-photos around his childhood home. He’d eaten their pastries and visited the Arc de Triomphe, walked along the seine and gazed up at the Eiffel Tower. He wondered how many people were just like him, innocently visiting the City, only to have their lives desecrated in the most visceral of ways…

A part of him, a small selfish part, hoped that his parents wouldn’t have been there. It would be unlikely, as their visits were limited to weekends only, but he had no manner of knowing how his own disappearance would have affected them. He grimly looked over the footage, the ashen corpses being stirred by the wind and shattering into mist, and exhaled slowly at the recognition that their enemy was willing to lower themselves to such atrocity.

In the other way, it reminded him of when he’d watched footage of the liberation of Betazed. Of course, the themes carried a very different bouquet of emotion, the liberation being a victorious triumph, as opposed to the frigid silence that blew through the bridge. But there were similarities between the two. The unbearable outcome of so many Cardassian experiments being laid out bare in the streets, Betazoids not unlike himself, twisted and mutilated, writhing in agony from the impacts of the 'medical' research that was little more than torture without gain…

It’s what had made him so driven in the study of medical ethics.

The footage was followed by a recording taken from their own holding cell, and the bridge were forced to witness Commander Nicander have himself inhabited by another force, one who spoke through his lips and warned them of the fate they’d chosen. The promise that more cities would fall, and war would be inevitable. At least Elro had the comfort of knowing that the light device developed by Commander Tiran's team was indeed successful; it was the only positive news they seemed to have.

The Captain spoke as soon as the recording concluded, advising them that their departure from Aldea would be imminent. It was now likely that their Klingon ally would be unable to house them any longer.

A silence followed, before Commander Ducote ordered all away teams to return to the ship immediately. He then began offering tactical advice, and was joined by Commander’s Stark, Kaeris and Tiran. Elro listened to each of them, even at the points where separate remarks overlapped somewhat, and found it perhaps even more difficult to stomach the situation. A cybernetically enhanced individual that he had never formally introduced himself to, suggested a stealthed approach and a utilisation of their allies within Starfleet, but hardly an optimistic outlook.

When the oppertunity came for a new voice to be heard, Elro faltered. It was more difficult for Commander Hathev and himself, the former stood not far from his side as the situation unfurled around them. The other Officers were able to offer suggestions and war plans, whereas clinically speaking, not much he could offer would be of any use. He had some limited information about Nicander that he supposed was relevant, so he figured that it would be best to begin there.

“Whilst the situation is certainly bleak, thankfully the device developed by Commander Tiran and her team seems to be completely successful at repressing the trauma brought on by the use of the 'farsight'. It seems as though Commander Nicander can continue to check in on the parasites without any immediate risk to his psyche. Whether the same can be said for the long-term, I cannot say...” He confirmed, to alleviate any concern the senior staff might've had in regards to the man's welfare, despite that nobody on the bridge had yet addressed it. Either they all knew about the device already, or they were currently too preocupied to question it.

The latter thought was not ideal, but he supposed he could excuse them, given the situation.

He returned to silence as he finished, allowing himself time to mull over other potential avenues of information that he might be able to bring to the table. He didn’t know much about thalaron radiation, but what little he did know was unpleasant. He knew that it did not behave the same as gamma rays, it didn’t just damage genetic material and poison the body; it caused immediate cell necrosis at the subatomic level.

Gamma radiation had innoculations to resist its effects. Thalaron radiation had no such thing.

The idea, in theory, was implausible, but there was no reason to say it wouldn’t be possible. But the Federation had never so much as entertained the idea of research into thalaron radiation; it was prohibited by countless treaties. A lack of information would mean that even if they knew how to develop some sort of inoculation, they would have no research, field studies, or data to use to aid them in developing it. They would have to experiment with thalaron radiation themselves to conduct trials, alongside somehow combining medicine with particle physics...

In short, it was impossible.

Until reviewing Commander Tiran’s words struck inspiration in his mind…

“If I may add, I think Commander Tiran might be correct in approaching the Savi, as uncomfortable as I am with the idea.” Elro confirmed, nodding his head lightly in the direction of the Chief Engineer, before turning ever so slightly towards the Captain. “Medically speaking, the chance of us developing any sort of protection against Thalaron radiation is infinitesimal. We have no research, insufficient equipment, no way to perform field tests…”

“The Savi, on the other hand, are hardly bound by the same ethical laws as ourselves. They might’ve done research into thalaron radiation for themselves, possibly even developed an inoculation.” He paused, reminding himself not to get ahead of himself, it was all theoretics. “At the very least, their medical and scientific technology is vastly superior to ours, and they might be able to assist us with the research into a medical defense.”

“Perhaps if we’re able to get the word out to the Federation that we have developed an inoculation, it will force the Parasites to abandon their plan.” Elro finalised. “At the very least, if we can find something to protect the crew from thalaron radiation, we can try and find the facility that made these devices in the first place, and eliminate the source...” A thought suddenly occured to the Betazoid, and he took a moment to pause, his sentance hanging limply as a thought occurded to him that perhaps they were all missing in the face of the video they had just witnessed.

His brow furrowed, and his mind raced, a mind that usually fired through checklists of diagnostic criteria now applying years of logic to the incident before them. He wasn’t an expert, but perhaps he was the only one who’d remained objective enough to consider the particular thought? Commander Hathev hadn’t yet spoken, but even through his dampened paracortex, the emotional volatility of the room was hammering against his mind like a raft in a storm. It would be easy to become fixated on the goal without first considering the objective...

He was hardly qualified to make tactical suggestions, but he could offer a theory to someone better equipped to address it. At this stage, every idea seemed valuable.

“Forgive me for stepping out of my area of expertise, but if the parasites had an entire cache of weapons of mass destruction ready to deploy, why wouldn’t they do so?” He began, softly spoken and clinically calm, save for one gesturing hand. “If their objective is to insight mass hysteria and war, there were better targets surely. If they’d dropped a Thalaron bomb on Qo’noS, the Klingons would already have their fleet en-route to the Neutral Zone, which would have put the Federation at a very difficult diplomatic impasse. If they wanted war, that would be all but guaranteed to begin it." He'd only recently seen how even a somewhat diplomatic Klingon responded to an affront, and that was only a betrayal. Dropping a weapon of mass destruction on their home planet would be nothing short of a crusade.

“Instead, they targeted Paris, a very specific way to disrupt the Federation, to send out a message of fear, to hinder any attempts for us to gain allies...” Elro pondered as to whether flushing them out of hiding had been the plan all along. “But they certainly had more efficient methods of starting a war, if that had been their primary intention.” He allowed himself a slight controlled nod in confirmation. “My concern is that perhaps the words of Nicander’s visitor were a ruse, an attempt to make us act impulsively, hunting for thalaron radiation and setting us up as an easy target…” He paused, considering the alternate option. “Or alternatively, a bait to flush us out of hiding; I doubt the parasites would think twice about killing millions just to find our hiding place. And it seems they are to succeed at doing so...”

“We simply don’t have enough information to determine whether it’s logical to believe that they do have multiple thalaron bombs located across Federation space. If we dedicate all of our resources into thalaron research, and it turns out to be a ruse, it could be enough to end our mission.” He concluded grimly. “But if we don’t take it seriously, we might see more cities crumble into dust that we could have prevented…”

Elro found his eyes affixed at no point in particular, before turning himself back up to address the rest of his colleagues more directly.

“I’m hardly qualified to comment, but it seems that we can’t afford to leave either avenue unexplored… But neither can we blindly devote our attention to a cause that may well be a red herring.” He sighed lightly. Apparently the parasites were more cunning than they could have guessed. “Until we get more information, I'd suggest that we don't take any immediate action. No matter the outcome, rushing to the defense of the Federation is surely what they'd expect us to do, and we are, after all, their primary target. Regardless of what any of us think, we can't deny that this attack wasn't at least somewhat intended to disrupt our operations; if we rush into action, we'll almost certainly act in the way they want us to.”

It made the most sense in his head, but that by no means meant that he was correct.

Thankfully, that was not a decision the Doctor would be required to make. Saving lives on an individual scale was more within his comfort zone.

Saving lives on a galactic scale was perhaps a little beyond his skill set...

Re: Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

Reply #7 – May 06, 2020, 10:36:44 AM

[ Lt Cmdr Thomas Ravon | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]

Having been on the bridge when the news and information trickled in Thomas looked stoically at the viewscreen, even after the message had ended. This entire crusade they had started had possibly lead to this? the loss of countless of civilian lives? He couldn't help but wonder if they were responsible for this, for forcing the hand of the parasites to such drastic measures. Regardless, there was now little that they could do about it. They had to plan ahead and deal with the problem of more bombs being spread over other cities on different planets. Ravon had taken post next to Cameron Henshaw, he remained standing up as Henshaw was one of the few people aboard the bridge he actually had a lot of contact with. Considering she was somewhat responsible for mission ops. He looked down at her for a minute before smiling faintly at her and looking back to the other officers.

He listened to some of the other senior officers as they offered ideas and advises on how to proceed. Thomas kept himself on the background for now as all of this had purpose, yet held little importance to his own department. It wasn't like they'd be able to let the squadron drop bombs to defuse bombs or anything of the sort. He did listen in to what the others had to say, some things sounding more risky than the other, though in general a lot of good ideas were being thrown around.

Blue Tiran however came with the idea to use a part of the fighter squadron on the Erudite. Ravon saw his chance to step in, he did think over his words first though as he looked around to the others who spoke up next. "To cut back on Miss Tiran's suggestion. I'm quite certain that the wolves would be willing to help in any way or capacity that they're able. Be it here or aboard the Erudite. Of course, if we could find a way to scan for those bombs, the fighters could prove to be helpful if it's shorter range. More fighters means more ground to be covered. Though I must warn that whilst our ranks are replenished, we should be weary for any counters towards us." Thomas said "How much as I mourn the loss of Paris and the people there... It could be a ruse like mister Kobol  said. Perhaps one to lure us out in the open indeed. To force our hand into playing back into their game. I would advise for caution." he concluded.

"As for our jolly doc, how stable is he if those fuckers can just break through when he taps into their network? Sure his knowledge is a huge benefit, though how do we know that we won't be getting false information for that matter?" he asked. Despite the help Lucan had given them, Ravon was still  weary about the man. The fact that he had managed to remain undetected for so long, he wondered that he couldn't be just playing his part more elaborately now. Then again, he wasn't a security officer, they ought to have checked that wouldn't they?

"Which also raises the point... If we do sent the Allegiant, who will be commanding the vessel?" he asked as well, having seen decent progress with Dewitt in command of the ship, he also knew she was aware of the tactics used by the Lone wolves, which would only benefit the survival of his squadron.

Re: Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

Reply #8 – May 06, 2020, 03:14:29 PM

[Zyrao Natauna | When War Dawns | Call Your Favorite Strategist | Bombs & Battles]
@Top Hat @Auctor Lucan @Nolan @chXinya




It wasn't odd for her to receive a message from Commander Ducote.  Of the Command team, she and he were in contact the most.  Through him, she had helped various departments with their Klingon woes and described just how much she wished to find a place to stay on the Theurgy.  Something that had yet to be remedied, though, she supposed soon.  It was not as though she had to stay, though she had reasons to now.  Not because of Thomas, though he was one of the reasons, but because she felt as though she could easily work here and do well.  The problem lay in the fact that once they left Aldea the necessity for a Klingon Liaison would be severely diminished.  Twiddling her thumbs was not something Zyrao did well with, she would prefer to stay busy, and thus had reached out to the Commander in the hopes that he could find something more suitable for her every day life. 

The message had invited her to a staff meeting.  Her eyes shifted to the chonometer on her desk, and realized that she had time together there, however the meeting had already started.  Still, she was asked for her expertise on whatever was going on, and so she collected her PADD sliding it into the pocket of her black cargo pants.  She wore her black tank top with the Starfleet combadge on and the emblem of the House of Martok at equal height next to one another.  Another thing the Commander mentioned he would broach Ives about getting her actual rank through testing, experience, and what other requirements were necessary.

None of these, yet, had been answered, but she tried to be patient and wait Ducote out.  He didn't seem like the type to trick her into staying on the ship without purpose.  He would know better than most a idle officer, like Zyrao, could be a bad thing.

It took some time to traverse the ship and head over to the Bridge where the meeting was said to take place.  Brushing a hand through her dark hair just before the door to the Bridge sprung open.  Zyrao stepped on Bridge, grey eyes shifting to the Commander, giving him a nod of thanks for the invite.  It said a lot that she had been invited to a senior staff meeting, though she assumed it was because they needed her more than desired her there.  Still, her skillset was paramount and could hopefully be of use here.  The Engineer, the Commander's wife from what rumors she had heard, had just finished speaking about how they could fit the fighters inside the Erudite and use the Savi as an ally. 

Surprise coming from that one.. rumor has it she had a rough time at the hands of the Savi.  Zyrao had to admire her sheer balls being able to put something traumatic behind her and being able to move forward.  Calling who had once been enemy an ally.  Zyrao took a moment to look at the holo information so that she could get a better feel for the situation at hands.  It looked as though a bomb had gone off, a very powerful one, on the planet Earth.  She had never been there but she had heard some things from natives.  Much of the ship called Earth 'home' in one fashion or another.  The bomb had decimated all of the structures and infrastructure.  It had likely killed man.  The soft glow of the holo on her skin caused her pale tones to pale even more as she took in the information available impartially.  She knew no one on, from, or tied to Earth truly.  There was secondary information about Nicander. 

Another ping.

Zyrao pulled her PADD out of her pocket, that specific chime was set to the Commander so that she knew when he needed something from her.  Pulling it out she realized that he had forwarded her the information from the parasite intel that had been gotten from Ives talking to the Infested doctor under lock and key.  Her brow rose, as she put a small bud in her ear and listened to the interview with the man, the glowing eyes, the hunger for death in his face.  It was something she had never seen before, but similar to the murderous tones that she had witnessed throughout her life.  Grey eyes shifted up to Ducote, and her brow rose. 

This is what you called me for, you bastard? she asked silently, but he probably knew that she was joking.  She was not telepathic but she had spent enough time around the Commander he could probably slightly read her face anyway.  Tucking her PADD back away, she listened as Ravenholm finished up whatever she was saying, Zyrao had been too busy assessing the situation as a late comer to have paid heed to all of it.  She was stating that they had contacts in the Federation and Starfleet and she felt that they should remain in the background until they had more information.  She wanted the ship to run interference and count on others to attend the bombs on the planet.

Then the Doctor began to speak.  Apparently Commander Tiran and her team had developed some sort of device that could repress the trauma of farsight.  Zyrao's grey eyes shifted to the blue striped Engineering Chief who leaned casually against one of the consoles, arms crossed underneath her chest, with a bit of a scowl on her face.  Though there was pride in her eyes.  Tiran is gifted at many things.. including keeping up her facade...  The Doctor was more verbal about his discomfort with the Savi alliance than Tiran, which was surprising, but Zyrao still listened as he spoke about the situation.  He admitted the Savi had a great amount of technology at their disposal and they could help them research the thalaron radiation and see what they could come up with to help innoculate or protect the Theurgy crew, even the planet?, from the horrors of radiation.

Then he began to get tactical.  Stay in Sickbay, doc. she thought as she checked the Commander, again, and shared a bit of a grin before her eyes shifted back to the doctor.  “Because.”  Zyrao finally spoke for the first time.  “They're luring in the Theurgy.  They want us, for their means, for their own devices, whatever it is.  If they wanted maximum effect on the universe as a whole, Qo'noS would have been a fantastic idea.  However, we are their mark, I believe.  And much of the ship's crew were born on Earth, furthermore, that is the home that most consider simply because of the Academy locations.”

He did make a point that going straight for Earth is exactly their point.  They wished to pull the Theurgy out of hiding and they were going to get their way if they weren't careful.  The man made some good points, but this was about more than just the Theurgy.  She had to admit, she had not noticed Thomas on the Bridge when she stepped on since she had come straight for the holo.  Now, her eyes shifted over to the man she spent most of her free time with these days.  Her eyes warmed slightly at the sight of him as he, too, built upon Tiran's ideas about the fighters.  Seems like there is a great deal of support for Tiran's ideas. she thought for a moment as she thought about what she, herself, would suggest.

“I second both Ravon and the Doctor's thoughts concerning our parasitic friend.  Can we be certain the parasite is not just playing upon our need to protect a home?  That is not to say that Paris is not a great loss, it is, however, it very much could be a ploy to pull us out of our current positions and open ourselves up to vulnerability.  Do we have any protection against the rest of the ship being infested with the parasites?  It could be the ultimate goal.  We have the information on them, we know of their existence, and the Theurgy has been trying to inform the Federation for some time.  The Task Force has clearly failed, it seems that the parasites are trying a new tactic.  The fear tactic.”

Thomas had brought up the Alegiant.  Causing Zyrao to nod and snap her fingers pointing at Thomas.  “That.  Is a bright idea.” she admitted.  “I think that playing it careful is the best course of action.  Allies are always good, and Commander Tiran seems to have a good report with the Savi people somehow, she would be the wisest one to reach out, that or the Captain.  They've helped us, of their own free will, in a new engine of sorts.”

“It's a slipstream drive.” Tiran said without being able to stop herself.

“Sure.” Zyrao said without skipping a beat.  “The important thing here, though, is the fact that it was unsolicited.  They came to us, voluntarily gave us technology that will make it nearly impossible for us to be caught by standard Federation ships.”

Zyrao brushed a thumb across her lower lip.  Then looked to the Engineer.  “Tiran, could the Alegiant and the fighter squadron fit in the bay?”

“Easily.” she stated.

Zyrao nodded.  “Okay, the Alegiant has that Reman cloaking device, the Savi have all sorts of technology and our fighter pilots are well trained.  My thoughts are, that the Theurgy goes, but carefully, staying out of all sensor ranges.  We ask the Erudite to transport the Alegiant and the Squadron closer, to scope out Earth, see what is going on, if there are more bombs and what not that would actually prompt further action.  The last thing we want to do is walk into a trap.”

Re: Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

Reply #9 – May 07, 2020, 07:31:49 AM

[ Lt. JG. Derik Veradin | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]
[Show/Hide]

Derik’s hand balled into a tight fist against his lips as he watched the recordings from his station. Up front and center he’d had an unobstructed view of the recordings. Paris. The Federation Capital. Snuffed out like a candle. Trill had been attacked in the Dominion war but this was….this was nothing like that. Casualties on Trill could be buried. This? There was nothing left. Nothing but empty streets and the dust of so many souls lost. To make matters worse, Praetor Tal’aura claimed full responsibility. She was another damn Shinzon. Yet she had succeeded where he had failed. Her attack had been executed and now there were more on the way. Fuck this was bad.

Doctor Nicander’s recording didn’t fill the Trill with confidence either. Despite the farsight apparently working, the parasite had managed to once again, even if only for a moment, regained control. Derik flinched as Lucan lunged at the forcefield with such savagery. The action was only mitigated slightly by the near instantaneous success of the device that had been developed to free him of the creature’s control. Least it didn’t seem like it hurt him too bad when they used it.

He listened as each of his fellow officers voiced their opinions and ideas on the situation, many of them citing using the Savi to help. As they spoke of the Theurgy’s new drive, Derik bit his inner cheek to keep himself from talking over them or interrupting. It was new technology and they had yet to run a field test. He had faith in their engineering team’s expertise but it was Veradin who would be pushing the “go” button as it were if they remained linked.

He took several deep breaths as his turn to speak came up, crossing his arms tightly to keep from fidgeting. ”Splitting Theurgy again poses an extreme risk. With the uncertainty of our destination, we would be making our job more difficult. The ship should stay integrated until we know where we are going. Given this, I have to concur with Lieutenant Commander Stark. We need to get closer to Federation space so we can reduce our response time.”
A brief pause for air. ”That being said, Ms. Ravenholm is also right. I’m not sure there is much we can do using the Theurgy. Despite our new burst drive, getting to the bomb’s locations is only part of the problem. Our options once we arrive are limited. Every separation only makes us more vulnerable. We nearly lost the Helm in our last battle when feedback almost overloaded the core.” He spoke plainly, merely to remind them of the fact that splitting gave each vector a new set of vulnerabilities.

”Using Echtand and the Erudite is certainly an option but let’s not forget he has his own agenda. He could indeed carry some of our ships where they might need to be, but his priorities only line up with ours to a point. Whatever team we sent would essentially be at his mercy. If something comes up in his own war, he might very well divert towards that instead of what we need. And while your optimism on a cure from the Savi is potentially warranted Doctor Kobol , I would not get my hopes up. Thalaron radiation is just as dangerous to us as it is to them. I have very high doubts they would have too much more information than us.

”As for why they only used one bomb Doctor, I’ll refer you to a specific event in Earth’s own history. In their second World War, the then United States of America deployed two Atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in direct retaliation to the Japanese’s attack on Pearl Harbor. Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost in those attacks, with Hiroshima’s toll being over eighty thousand from the blast and another thirty-six in the following weeks due to fallout. When the USA dropped those two bombs, do you think they only had two? Or were they just making a point with the first two strikes? Forgive me sir but it’s unwise to assume they only have one. We should operate under the assumption they have many more until we know otherwise. This could very well be our ‘Pearl Harbor’. I’m deeply concerned about the retaliation to ensue.”

Veradin didn’t want to rant but he needed to say his bit. He could still taste blood from biting his inner cheek minutes ago. ”I’m not saying that it’s not a ruse to lure us out. I wouldn’t doubt that at the very least that was part of their plan. They could even attempt to make it seem like we are in league with Tal’aura in the attacks. We should conduct any aid in as covert a manner as possible. Tap our resources through our allies, back up Anderson as much as we can without exposing our link to him.”

Re: Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

Reply #10 – May 07, 2020, 11:06:05 PM

[ Lt. Cmdr. Cross | Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]
[Show/Hide]

Cross had watched the message as it played on the main viewscreen, the former hybrid’s brow knitted together as he scowled at the footage which showed the decimation of Paris. His organic hand hurt as is clasped his artificial wrist tightly, and his jaw was set tightly as his pale eyes regarded the destruction. Cross had never been to Paris, had no connections to the city whatsoever, but that something of this magnitude could happen at the heard of the Federation was unthinkable. That someone, or something could commit such a heinous act for no other purpose than to spread chaos and plunge the quadrant into war was intolerable.

Cross swallowed hard against the vile taste rising in his mouth as he looked away from the viewscreen, his gaze moving across the other officers gathered on the Main Bridge, studying their expressions. His eyes were drawn back to the viewscreen, however, as Thea changed the display once more to show the brig, where Doctor Nicander was now visible. There was suddenly light shining from the prisoner’s mouth and eyes, and he could be heard speaking something between a threat and a warning. Cross’ jaw tightened as he watched, so that he was openly scowling as the image faded from the screen before them. Leaning forward and unclasping his hands to rest them on the tactical console in front of him, he listened to the various suggestions and points which were put forth by the other officers, schooling his features into something more calm as he listened.

”I think splitting up the Vectors is extremely risky, Captian.” Cross finally spoke when the others had all finished. ”They obviously anticipate us trying to stop them. Blaming us for this incident only makes it that much harder for the Theurgy to try and convince anyone of the existence of the parasites.” Cross sighed. ”At the risk of sounding like a pessimist, even if we had an entire fleet at our disposal, we couldn’t possibly hope to track down every one of those devices before they are detonated. If we were to drop off Vectors in certain areas to try and locate other bombs, those Vectors would be vulnerable. Given that it’s taken us this long to repair the damage form the last time the three Vectors split up, I think it inadvisable to take that course of action at the moment.”

Re: Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

Reply #11 – May 08, 2020, 01:34:02 AM

[ Ensign Cameron Henshaw | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]
[Show/Hide]

The news had shocked her but more than anything it had angered her. She watched the footage from where she was at the holotable, jaw tight as her eyes transfixed themselves on the now blank image. She’d seen death and destruction first hand, in person, up close. It wasn’t the imagery that disturbed her, it was the sheer gall of it. She too, drew the parallels with the Dominion. Her eyes looked away after a moment before she started to let them bounce between the members of the senior staff and finally, up to Jien, as if asking for silent approval, she wasn’t on the senior staff. She gave a quick nod to Thomas, a simple, silent greeting.

Her hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, per usual, and her uniform was pressed to perfection. She stood tall in front of her station and kept a careful eye trained on the reflection of the conversation behind her in the LCARS panel before she just gave up the act and turned around to pay full attention once again. She ground her teeth idly as she listened, fingernails digging into the flesh of her palms as she continued to watch the discussion and think of the ghost of the image that had been there just moments ago.

Her eyes shut briefly before she straightened up and rolled her neck. Her attention went quickly to the scene playing out with Nicander. Cam said nothing for a moment and when the floor was opened to the staff, she took a moment to study the Captain, to try and get a read off of him. Perhaps though, subconsciously it was something else entirely. Her attention quickly bounced around between the others though as they all began to speak. She listened to what they all had to say carefully, and even seemed to take some notes on a PADD, that had a moment ago been sitting next to her console, in case she needed to take her work home. Now though, it was meeting notes.

Cam was certainly not a member of the senior staff but she was the Captain’s yeoman. Fuck approval. She continued to do some of her normal work as she listened and bit her lip before she spoke up, giving an apologetic...ish, look to the Captain, “I think that they’re expecting us to split up, and that doing so would be remarkably dangerous. As others have said, this could very well be a ruse.” She didn’t like it. Not at all. “But,” She added, “we can’t do nothing at all, so I think it’s worth looking into using the Allegiant,” She gave a nod to Stark, “since we need Nicander to find the bombs, couldn’t we convert a room aboard the Allegiant into a holding cell for him?” She looked between those present before she turned chocolate eyes back to her LCARS panel and tapped a few buttons as they flashed, clearly some sort of program was running. An image of the Allegiant came up on Cameron’s screen and she started browsing through the various rooms. She did have some engineering experience.

Though she quickly shut up and got back to her regular work, even if it looked like she was still clearly listening and intending to continue participating. She just wanted to listen some more first.

Re: Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

Reply #12 – May 08, 2020, 06:18:24 AM

[ Lt. Cmdr. Kai Akoni | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | USS Theurgy ]

Kai stood in bewilderment as he watched the video unfolding in front of him, which almost seemed unbelievable. For Paris to be hit with a Thalaron bomb must have taken some extreme subterfuge and cunning.

The attack was more or less a knife wound right to the heart of the Federation…and here they were, the Federation’s most wanted criminals, unable to help. However, if Kai had learned anything aboard the Theurgy, it was the fact that this crew can seemingly do the impossible and come across the other side relatively in one piece.

He listened to the banter of the assembled crew, listening to all the opinions being offered to Captain Ives. Kai really couldn’t disagree with any of them. They all made sense, and yet for the first time in his life, something odd happened.

Kai was speechless. That was honestly the first time in his memory that he could ever remember being left that way. Although, he did like Ensign Henshaw’s idea about converting a room aboard the Allegiant to a holding cell for their ever present guest down in the security centre.

The large man had managed to find some words and spoke up, ”I like the idea of moving Nicander to the Allegiant…all-though we’ll have to make sure it’s sufficient enough, and I could spare a security team to keep things safe, if you approve that course of action sir”

He felt like he hadn’t added much, but that’s all he could muster as he thought about what had happened in Paris, and the possibility of any more bombs throughout the Federation.

We’ve got to stop them at any cost, he thought to himself as he had his eyes trained on his Captain, waiting for whatever was to happen next. 

Re: Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

Reply #13 – May 08, 2020, 07:08:38 PM

[Lt. JG. Salem Martin |Main Bridge | Deck 01| USS Theurgy]
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There was a strange sort of quiet horror in Salem's gut as he looked at the footage of paris on the viewscreen. Sitting at the tactical station he felt a chill run through his veins. He had little if any connection to earth aside from the fact that it was the heart of Starfleet he could count the times he had been on that world in one hand, mostly during his time recovering after being in a cardassian prison. He had been given a medal by the admiral now in charge of the task force that hunted them, so there was a small bit of history there but no emotional connection he didn't know anyone at Paris.

the heads of various departments were gathered up for a senior staff meeting, but there was no order to vacate the bridge so he got to listen to everyone take their turns speaking. He caught a few things that he normally wouldn't have been privy too. The three main take away from all the talk was.

1, contacting the savi to add their defenses to our own. This one was a bit unsettling because they couldn't really depend on the Savi from what he had read on them and been privy too in the attack on the borg cube they had incredibly advanced weapons and technology, they even provided some as a means to form an alliance, but accepting more help from them would possibly put them more in debt with them. The Savi always seemed to have their own goals, and it could be dangerous to rely on them for too much.

2. Splitting the vectors, only one ship out of the three had the fancy new slipstream drive, and it wasn't the part with the guns. A lot of people were against that plan because they shared the notion that it would split up too much of their resources. They would need the reaction time of the slipstream drive if they were actually gonna try and stop the bombings, they would need the weapons of the sword, the valkyries in it's hanger bay, and they would probably need the brain of the helmet. Keeping the ship intact seemed like the logical move for now.

3. Elro had way more of a tactical mind than he thought, and that was kinda hot. Salem shook off that particular sense but focused on what Derik and Elro said he could easily guess why they would choose to strike at the heart of the Federation with only one bomb.

He felt like he really shouldn't speak up, but at the same tie there were others who had been on the bridge before the meeting that were sharing their thoughts, and he kinda wanted to tune in. He turned his chair towards the staff. "We do have access to the subspace bouy, and can send a message to our contact in the Federation." He wasn't privy to all that detail but he had been on the allegant mission to set up that contact. "If we jump too early we would be going into a blind situation, it would be better if we were able to establish some line of communication find out more about the federations response to this, this isn't really like the bombing of hiroshima, more like the attack on pearl harbor it will be used as a rallying cry by their agents and propaganda to send the Federation into the war if we act too early we could be seen as antagonizing forces. We are still Federation enemy number 1, and according to the fake message sent out to the universe our ship is allied with romulan forces even if that's not the reality. Any movement we make now will be seen as aggressive no matter where we go, so it would be best to hide get information and build a network so we can better respond to the escalating tensions. It will take time for the Federation to rally it's self."

"That's probably why they chose paris as well, to give themselves time to build a proper response, it will enrage the public draw them towards the parasite cause, Starfleet will see more people enlisting and they will get the chance to build up their forces and plan after the borgs destruction."

Re: Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

Reply #14 – May 16, 2020, 05:33:14 PM

[ Lieutenant Frank Arnold | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @BZ
[Show/Hide]

Frank had come directly from the shuttle bay, most certainly caught flat footed by the orders to immediately recall and take up Yellow Alert. When he arrived to the bridge, he simply quietly stepped in. He wasn't precisely sure he was meant to be here, and not in Main Engineering, but either way he took up standing behind one of the seats near Blue, massive hands clasping the backrest, and just watched. Paris, that shining gem that gave the old world Joan de Arc and Vitton, was now a ruin of Thalaron EM radiation, ash, twisted remains, and broken hope. And the Federation was at war. Out of his mind for now, he put the thoughts of his father, receiving his treatments on earth, and turned to the job.

He had a question, but as he listened to the officers around him speak, those more senior than him, they were troubleshooting the problem, working it from top to bottom. With that in mind, he pushed the notions of suggesting taking the Theurgy to the nearest Romulan outpost and showing them what the Federation was made of, out of his mind. After all, that wasn't productive. What was productive was the data he had on his PADD, the results of his scans of the repaired hulls, all three Vectors. They were still raw data of course, but right now he reckoned that would do.

Frank turned his eye to Blue, just for a moment, and offered lowly to her, only a whisper, "I've finished my scans, just now, I came straight here. I'll get you the full report when I can, but I don't reckon we're going to have a problem, I found nothing out of the ordinary." That was all he'd offer, that was the useful information she needed, anything else he had to say was purely inflammatory, and would likely only result in him not being invited back to the bridge. The momentary satisfaction of venting his frustrations about pointy eared deviants, was certainly not worth it.

He raised his brow as Blue suggested the Savi, after their conversation on one of his first days aboard the Theurgy, he reflected that she truly was a pragmatist, to put aside her past experiences, to solve this problem. He just smiled, and waited impatiently for a few moments, as he settled back into his chair, tapping his foot slowly. 'Why am I here? There's nothing productive for me to do here.' With that thought in mind, he stood up again, and would lean into Blue's ear, saying very lowly, his mustache almost tickling a lobe, "If we're to be departing Chief, I'm going to go start the departure checklists in Engineering." With that, he'd turn his attentions to the door, and do as he said unless asked to stay longer.

Re: Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

Reply #15 – May 17, 2020, 04:59:50 AM

[ Lt. Cmdr. Andrew Fisher | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]

Fisher stood silently and watched along with the rest of the gathered senior staff, his rapt attention on the viewer as the footage of the destruction of Paris played out for them. It was a harrowing thing to witness; an awful something that sank deep into your soul and bruised it permanently. Fierce anger and sorrow swept through him as he saw the Federation Capitol Building crumble in the backdrop, as city streets lined with tens of thousands of people withered away into nothingness. In an instant, the very heart of the Federation, a shining beacon of hope and prosperity for so many had been obliterated beyond any resemblance. It was an act of terror that demanded retribution of the most severe kind against those who’d orchestrated it.

But while the Romulan Praetor had publicly claimed responsibility for the attack, she hadn’t truly been the power behind it. No, the Alien Parasites that had been infesting the highest levels of the Federation and beyond had been its horrible masterminds. Worse still, it would plunge the whole of the Galaxy into another war, so soon after the worst one waged in recorded history had ended. This had been the great chaotic nightmare that Admiral Anderson had warned Andrew of prior to his assignment with the Theurgy, only it was quickly approaching a level far greater and more horrifying than even he had imagined. It’d even been punctuated by the ominous threat of more death and destruction by an elusive enemy that spoke through the ships previous Chief Medical Officer.

As the unforgettable presentation wound to a close, one-by-one the other senior officers began offering up their opinions of how to approach the myriad of monumental problems facing them.

He however stood stoically beside the seated Selena Ravenholm, the cybernetically-enhanced communications specialist he’d barely had time to grow acquainted with over the previous week and a half. She’d been monitoring communications when the first bits of news about something happening in Paris had started to spread, and he’d wanted her to remain active at her post on the Bridge when the meeting had been called in case something else had come in fresh off the wire. He knew that information was going to be at an incredible premium over the coming weeks as the Theurgy and its crew tried to counteract whatever else the parasitic aliens had in store for them, and he didn’t want to risk missing anything at all.

Silence had been an oft-deployed shield for the veteran Intelligence Operator, but there was something else lingering in the recesses of his mind that kept him decidedly quiet: a sense of guilt. Months earlier he’d been involved in an intelligence operation to retrieve a prominent Romulan Scientist that had worked on Shinzon’s Thalaron weapon. The operation had been botched when his Romulan contact with the Tal-Shiar had betrayed him and taken the Scientist captive for himself. Alarak had sworn to Fisher that the Scientist had died during interrogation, and to take solace in the fact that another Shinzon related loose end had been tied up neatly.

But what if it hadn’t been tied up so neatly, as Alarak had suggested? he considered.

Visibly he shook his head to dismiss the wandering thought, he returned his focus to the conversation at hand.

A variety of approaches had been laid out, each of them with a ton of potential rewards and challenges to be overcome. Ultimately it would be up to the Captain to decide on which course of action to take, but Andrew knew there were a few he’d explore regardless. It never hurt to keep a multitude of options open in the event that one led to failure and another led to success.

One thing he was damn sure of. He’d be reaching out to his old Tal-Shiar ‘buddy’ immediately.

Re: Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

Reply #16 – May 27, 2020, 01:17:00 PM

[ Lt. Cmdr. Rutherford | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]
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It had been only a week since Samantha had been thrust into this crazy situation … or at least a situation that would’ve seemed crazy by previous standards. She had taken over a diplomatic department that was – well – small, for a ship this size and a task this big. But she would make do. They were a bunch of highly qualified people whom she already respected tremendously.

Arriving on the bridge to a room filled with the top of the brass the leggy blonde nodded at the present officers with acknowledging esteem before assuming her position by one of the large support beams next to the intelligence station. Hands clasped behind her back she watched the viewscreen flicker to life at the beckoning of Captain Ives, pursing her plump lips in contemplation. It had to be important given the circumstances.

Flashes of bright orange and white hues, small explosions, reflected off her face and blue eyes. Streets lined with eerie shapes of humans, drawn up like gravity, European architecture clearly identifiable between the panes of glass and steel. The Eiffel Tower … the officers’ groomed brows drew closer together in a furrow. It was Paris, her grandparents, the Federation Council! Shock washed over her body like a wave of fire through her nervous system. Vulcan discipline kicking in at the very thought of her grandfather she wouldn’t let it phase her though the way Sam’s body tensioned for a moment could’ve been easily identifiable by anyone standing next to her and was an obvious representation of her 3/4th human side not entirely cooperating.

She only managed to catch the hot points of the following recording of their brig. But that had already helped put things into a logical order, while the rest of the room offered their own individual views. That’s what it would come down to: an amalgamation of everyone’s skill, experience and advice … and Captain Ives’ final judgment to tie it together into action.

Not being entirely familiar with the whole smoke and mirror game unfolding yet since only joining the ‘adventure’ recently Samantha found that to be an asset. Being emotionally involved through all the hardship, most of these officers had gone through, provided an abundance of experience but also an environment highly conducive to biased opinion. Not so for her, as of now - in both regards.

“I think the doctor has a valid point.” the Commander spoke up finally, her voice steady and collected, after she felt like she’d evaluated all the suggestions. Specifically, one that maybe had been disregarded all too quickly by the general opinion. “It might’ve been just a message. One specifically tailored to lure us out. WMDs are usually used as a measure of deterrence rather than actual war.” She informed, taking Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the entirety of the Cold War of the 20th century into account for her judgment.

“The move doesn’t make any sense to me other than a symbolic gesture, a chess move. If they eliminated all life in the Quadrant with a rain of thalaron bombs, what then? What would their endgame be? The parasites don’t exactly strike me as the trigger-happy, impulsive, emotional type. The eradication of all life just isn't ... logical!” … was her professional diplomatic (and 1/4th Vulcan) opinion. “And until we know what their agenda is – and everyone has one – we’re just putting out brush fires. So we should focus on them, our intelligence sources …” she looked to her side to Fisher. “… our scientific expertise …” her blue gaze thus shifted to Kaeris. “… and our diplomatic efforts.” Samantha’s glance finally rested on Ives, even though she saw that particular ball more in her court.

“We’re not the only power in the quadrant with an intelligence service and – no offense …” a polite nod towards Commander Fisher. “… since I may not be entirely up to speed yet, but have we been able to establish any connections possible with old sources, contacts in other agencies who might be privy to the same kind of information we are? Potentially more?! We can’t be the only ones who figured out something is off. Klingons aside.”

Strictly from a diplomatic position it was extremely difficult to advise on any kind of approach without having the necessary intelligence to back it up. It wasn’t usually the Commanders attitude to throw up more questions than had been answered but at this point maybe that was the right thing to do before running blindly into a trap out of sheer desperation just to do SOMETHING. She understood the emotional motivation behind it, it was nagging at her in the same way, wanting to find out what happened to her grandparents, find out who did this, avenge the fallen … but they wouldn’t be able to do that dead.

Re: Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

Reply #17 – May 28, 2020, 02:06:32 PM

[ Captain Ives | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]
[Show/Hide]

With his back to the viewscreen, Jien listened to those present on the bridge as they gave their thoughts on the immediate situation.

The main objective, as Ducote put it, was to halt this war that the Infested were seeding. Nicander was the best available means to predict their next step, as Stark quickly pointed out, and between several present officers - Commander Tiran and the newly arrived Zyrao Natauna included - the idea to ask the Savi for help and deploy the Allegiant developed. Ravon saw reason in giving the scoutship an escort of warp fighters as well, but as Ravenholm pointed out, they didn't even have a solid method of defusing the bombs just yet. Kaeris might, however, eventually provide a means to either scan for them or neutralise the effect of the radiation - if they were lucky - but Anderson would indeed be essential in a range of tasks, as long as he didn't expose himself. Not only would the Rear Admiral on Earth give them information, he would also be able to act on whatever they gave him across the established subspace communications they were utilising.

Of course, the Voice - the leader of the rebel Savi - might be able to help their own scientists. Like Kobol  and Derik suggested, could they be trusted beyond their Code and their current alliance? Even to the point of giving them the only bargaining chip they had, the Doctor's ability to spy on the Infested Scion leaders, by sending him along with the Allegiant? Dared they trust Echtand to not utilise the Doctor purely for the Flotilla's own side of the war? Cameron and Akoni suggested it, and Jien saw their unvoiced point, in how the Doctor's immediate presence might expedite bomb defusing... and would the Savi even agree to help deploy the Allegiant without them handing over the Doctor? Would their current means of communication with the Erudite be enough to give the Allegiant and its escort fighters the coordinates they needed?

In the end, Rutherford both emphasised the absolute necessity of gathering more intel, and to stop the mobilisation towards a new war through scientific and diplomatic means. She didn't know their enemy yet, however, which had Jien speak up.

"I believe the attack on Paris might be exactly what that thing inside Nicander said. A beginning. Qo'noS might be next for all we know, but I do believe that this act was a means to firmly distract them from whatever we might say, and also rally the Federation worlds towards a Romulan threat." Looking towards the officers that had suggested it, Jien continued. "On a more base level, I also think it's partially a way to lure us out of hiding, but more pointedly... a response to us stopping the Borg invasion. As agents of chaos, this is their second option - a galactic war without the Niga virus and the Borg undermining all fronts. Instead, they bolster all wartime efforts and play all sides for fools, making sure there are no winners. The Infested might be calculating, but in the end, they merely want us all gone - our existence a festering wound, as they call it."

Nicander's words, as relayed to him by Stark. It had only been a matter of time until the Doctor's prediction had come true, but Jien had underestimated just how vindictive the Infested would be - using the Praetor in such an overt fashion to seed the war they wanted.

"I consider the thalaron bombs merely a current means at their disposal... for they have yet to use the Savi technology that the Scions have access to. It's only a question of when the Scions will offer technology to either or all sides of this conflict, to ramp up the pace of destruction as much as possible. We already know that it's a question of 'when' rather than 'if', since we've detected Savi technology in the Calamity's construct. The Praetor might have taken the Borg Queen's place in their plans, but we do know far more about them than before. This w-"

A chirp was heard, and someone spoke up. "Incoming hail, Captain. It's Martok."

"Patch him through," he said, with a glance towards Zyrao. The Liaison has been bypassed, so it had to be a matter of urgency.

[Ives,] said the grizzled Klingon, his face dominating the viewscreen, [I assume you've heard?]

"Yes, and we're about to depart. We already know that you hiding us might put you-"

[Too late. Gorka, Son of Margon, have revealed it already. Within hours, everyone between the Breen and the Romulans will know you've been hiding here, under my protection. Gorka's grandfather sits on the High Council, and I have been challenged. In me being here, I have a long voyage to Qo'noS, and Gorka's ships are in the way - having a head start already.] The High Chancellor sneered, his opinion towards this rival clear. [The Empire is about to split in two over the belief in the existence of our real enemy, one side thinking me mad and the other remaining loyal. Those opposing me are cowardly opportunists... yet because of their lies, some still believe you armed Donatra's fleet, and in aiding you, they suggest my wits have become weak. Some have actually been convinced I made up the songs about the Borg threatening our border. I need to return to Qo'noS, and speak to the High Council...]

Hearing this, Jien knew that if the Theurgy would have any hope in rallying more allies than the Klingons, they had to aid Martok in any way they could. Yet at the same time, the threat of more bombings remained. It seemed some of the decisions had become easier, while others remained dilemmas. Nonetheless, orders had to be dealt.

"The Theurgy is faster than the Vor'nak," he heard himself say, only omitting just how fast, since the terms of the alliance with the Savi said they couldn't reveal where their new technology came from, "so we can bring you to Qo'noS, and through Gorka's forces if we have to."

[My affiliation with you is part of the problem,] snarled Martok. [How do you think me arriving aboard your ship will look?]

"We both know the Empire can't be divided now, facing this enemy," Jien pressed, stepping closer to the viewscreen. "Chances are that there are Infested in the High Council right now, and this ship carry the technology to deal with them. We know how to isolate the parasites from their Hosts, and it's science we need to use on more fronts than yours. If there are Infested there, we can expose them in front of the High Council."

Grumbling, Martok clearly didn't like the 'if' in that proposition. Nonetheless, after a few seconds, he looked back at the screen. [Fine,] he glanced towards Zyrao, standing at the back of the bridge, [My liaison will let you know when I am ready to come aboard. Make room, because I will not be coming alone.] And then the screen went blank.

Turning to his Senior Staff, Jien had his orders ready. "Commander Tiran, work with Rutherford to arrange the help we need from the Savi. Veradin, plot a course to Qo'noS, and the Allegiant needs to be ready for deployment immediately. Ducote, inform Dewitt that she'll command our scoutship anew, and aid her in assembling a crew. Ravon, pick wolves to escort her. Cameron, recall the Lone Wolves that are out on patrol." He looked towards Akoni next, with his glance lingering on Cameron for a moment though, since it had been her idea. "Nicander will stay aboard, since he's the only thing we have to keep Echtand to his word. Fisher, I need you and Ravenholm work with Akoni to make sure our Savi communications link not only work at adequate distance... but that whatever Nicander can reveal from his cell reaches the Erudite and the Allegiant, wherever they will be. Petty Officer Dyan Cardamone was able to contact the Asurian Queen before and after the battle at Starbase 84, despite how we were in the middle of the Azure Nebula, so we know it's possible. Ask her how she did it."

Addressing the larger machinations at play, Jien's eyes stayed on Fisher. "I need whatever you can find on this Gorka, Son of Margon, and his family line. However, with the development of the Praetor's actions, we also need whatever is available on the thalaron radiation and what can be learned from the bomb in Paris. Give it all to Commander Kaeris and Lieutenant Kobol , but I also want the schematics for the transphasic light device and the anyonic phase variation ready for broadcast, so that the science we have gathered on the enemy can be used by more than just us. While Martok's forces already use the phase variation, Anderson might actually use it from his end as well, as long as he is careful. Stark!" Jien turned to the Ops station. "Beam up those who have yet to return aboard, and if there are still people missing and you can't get a lock on them, you must deploy personnel to retrieve them before we depart. We're not leaving anyone behind, regardless where they might be."

Turning his oaken eyes to Zyrao, Jien made the obvious request. "Let me know how many Klingons will come aboard with the Chancellor, and we need to know which ships between here and Qo'noS are loyal to Martok, for we might need their aid if we drop out of slipstream in a hornet's nest between here and there. Commander Cross, work with Zyrao in this regard and prepare all three Vectors for this eventuality. If any Klingons ask about our upgrades, say nothing, for I will have an answer ready for them. Hathev, you and I will contact the Aldean Defence Committé before we depart, just to smooth any ruffled feathers, and to give them all our research data on their Gestalt Program. There is no point in burning bridges behind us."

With a deep breath, Jien gestured for the Vulcan to accompany him to his ready room for that, and given the situation, he didn't feel like there were any motivational words to be said. In stride, he adjourned those present. "You all have your orders. Depending on Martok, we leave within the hour. Dismissed."

How might he ever rally them, given what they've just seen? Those images from Paris. Anything said would be naught more than untimely platitudes. Better to give everyone something to do, and think of the proper words once they were en-route.

---

OOC: One more post from each of you, setting out on the orders given. Let me know if you feel like you have nothing to post with your characters so that I know, but 7 days start now for those who wish to tie up this scene. To finish it off, I will post how the Theurgy actually departs from the spacedocks, at 1300 hrs., to end this thread.

Starting from now, it's open to post more Supplemental threads for Chapter 01, where your characters carry out orders in one-on-one threads of even group threads with other writers. The limitation of the IC time-span for these Supplemental threads will not only span to 1300 hrs. on Day 01, where Martok comes aboard and the Theurgy will depart from Aldea. You can also post threads leading up to the Allegiant leaving the the Theurgy, which will be at 1900 hrs.. The naming convention for these one-on-one Supplemental threads that belonging to Chapter 01 is: CH01: S [D01|YYYY] Insert Title (YYYY marking the time before 1900 hrs.).

My next task is to set up a batch of Story Objectives, some of which will detail scenarios in which officers still down on Aldea will need to be extracted, be it by Security or by superior officers. I will also set up Objectives for the many tasks at hand, so stay tuned for those! Those Objectives, however, should not deter you from making new threads of your own volition, regardless if you write a Senior Officer or not.

Consider the upcoming Objectives mere icing on the cake, while you all surely have ideas of your own at this point!

Re: Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

Reply #18 – May 28, 2020, 07:37:31 PM

[ Cmdr Ranaan Ducote | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] attn: @Auctor Lucan @BZ

Once his part had been said, Ducote remained quiet through the others' input. He had a few thoughts on what they'd said, but that didn't mean he needed to comment. Mostly everyone seemed to be on the same page, with a few differences that amounted to personal weighting of priority more than anything else. The mental tone in the room (of those he could read) was understandably a little shocked but no one seemed particularly overwhelmed. It was one of the (dubious) upsides to the ship's predicament, he supposed; most of the crew (and certainly the ones who'd been around since the start) had at least a degree of resilience above and beyond what might otherwise have been expected.

The 'good' news about the parasites' back up plan for the war was that it was actually winnable without the wildcards of the Collective and the Niga virus. All other things remaining as they were, of course. Which was obviously how things were going to play out. Nothing else could possibly go wrong, right? The problem of the inevitable Savi upgrades to the infested forces was one thing, which they had managed to leapfrog with their own engine addition.

An uncomfortable thought, in the context of all of Nicander's talk of 'cycles', was that the chain of events leading to that exact eventuality was caused by the Theurgy's adoption of the slipstream drive... that the parasites would react to their use of the slipstream drive by augmenting the technology of the other belligerents. Whatever. That decision was firmly far too far along its implentation to reverse now regardless.

Martok interrupted. Ducote sighed heavily as he took it in, looking at the deck for a moment. The machinations of Klingon politics never ceased, but now it was easy to assume that any of their opponents might just be yet another host for the parasites. He'd have to be careful to curate his assumptions in that regard, now. Generalised paranoia was bad enough without something to actually focus it on.

Ives issued hir orders, and Ducote pulled his PADD from a thigh pocket to look over a couple of his crew rosters. Dewitt was still in something of a limbo state on the ship - while the captain had backed her decision to remove Trent from command, there was still an undeniable gulf now between her and the other officers that he found hard to address. From the ship's scuttlebutt, she hadn't let it affect her personal life however. While he did that, he sent a message to the auxiliary craft ops crew to make sure the Allegiant was flight-ready.

It seemed that Blue was going to be joining their new chief diplomat in talking to Echtand again. On one hand, he was happy to delegate that particular duty to those less-inclined to shoot the insectoid bastard on sight, but on the other he felt for his wife having to confront the source of her most recent trauma over and over again. He had full confidence that she could take it, but he felt it rather unfair that she should have to. ~Tell Moby I said 'hi', Trouble,~ he sent to her privately, with precisely no expectation that she actually would. Blue knew full well what he thought of the Savi, however much of his sentiment went unexpressed.

Pushing off the stanchion, he turned towards the rear of the bridge with the captain's dismissal and tapped his badge. "Commander Dewitt; Ducote. Report to mission ops."

Re: Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

Reply #19 – May 28, 2020, 08:32:14 PM

[ Lt. Cmdr. Rutherford | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] attn: @Auctor Lucan @BZ
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In Samantha’s experience there was always the off chance that the opposition was so ravaged by pride that they willingly relayed true information about their intents and plans to the enemy under the illusion of sacrosanctity. Which was in almost all cases the prelude to a swift fall. It was far more common that the majority of what you were told in so called ‘confidence’ was blatant lies. But the Diplomat also entertained the possibility that they were faced with an enemy that did not conform to the norm. And since that distinction was at the base of any successful approach, she took it as an unspoken duty to investigate.

The notion of the total eradication of all life was chilling, even to the Commander, but it also still made the hairs on the back of hair neck stand up in doubt. From the information available on the parasites she had deducted they could not exist in this reality without a host, so eradicating all life was … illogical. But maybe she would have to prepare herself to admit that even logic had a limit that the ‘nameless darkness’ existed beyond. But what would that mean if logic was already her safety net when human emotions failed to comprehend someone’s or something’s motivation?! It would make her pretty useless as a diplomat.

Either way, at least the propagation of Savi technology throughout one or more of the powers of the quadrant that were controlled by the parasites would surely be an obvious development to raise some brows. As the Savi didn’t exactly seem known to share their work lightly. One could even argue their science and technology were their only reason for living these days. Such instances could certainly be used diplomatically to put certain people in charge to question.

It was then that Chancellor Martok came on screen, temporarily halting Samantha’s runaway train of thoughts. So now the Klingon Empire too was divided, even more obviously so than before at least. The officer started to understand why a diplomat was needed for the mission: the rifts between the factions and within the factions themselves were … abysmal. Relations surely had deteriorated quickly. And in every instance, someone seemed to find reason to incriminate the USS Theurgy. She had to admit, this was her most passive posting yet.

So, they all had their orders and the general tone suggested that they were indeed planning to stretch themselves thin for the time being to put out as many fires at once as they could. She respected the decision and would make sure her department was going to offer all the aid and assistance in this mission they could. Nodding at the Chief Engineer the blonde was ready to formulate an approach as soon as she could understand what exactly it all was that they were asking for. Appealing to the Savi’s innate sense of exploration and science was surely a viable approach if they could spin an exchange that way.

But there was still the matter of an unspecified pack of Klingons coming on board and it made sense for the Klingon Liaison to take care of the ‘guests’. But she would still try to catch the Chancellor for a moment if only to show rank and face. The rest of them could remain security’s problem. Diplomatic attention didn’t usually extend beyond the upper one or two tiers of a civilization’s command structure. Switching her duty face towards Zyrao the blonde already took a step backwards toward the turbolift next to the intelligence station.

“I’ll have my department initiate diplomatic protocol, let me know if you need any help.” The diplomat smiled in a lop-sided grin towards the end, meant to convey that she thought the capable looking woman could hold herself against a couple of Klingons. She’d get formalities going that were required for foreign visitors on a Federation ship. Automatic security precautions, transporter clearance, information sharing with various departments that could be affected, clearance of VIP quarters, that sort of administrative duty.

Stepping into the turbolift she clasped her hands once more behind her back waiting on Commander Tiran to catch up. She was looking forward to the task at hand, it would be a nice distraction from the mess as a whole. As a Starfleet captain Ives surely shared the talent of breaking down a catastrophe into manageable little fiascos. Also working with the Chief Engineer would be interesting, it wasn’t exactly a department Samantha had a lot of knowledge in. But the thought of the parasites’ elusive motivations would not leave her …

Re: Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

Reply #20 – May 28, 2020, 09:41:17 PM

[Lt. Cmdr. Natalie Stark | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 |  USS Theurgy ]Attn: @Auctor Lucan @Swift  [Show/Hide]

There was a saying that came to Natalie's mind as she listened to the rest of the officers of the Theurgy - both old and new - hold their confab on the bridge in the wake of the horrifying news coming out of Paris. Or well, out of Earth. Nothing was really coming out of Paris itself. No one was left, and things on the ground were entirely too hectic for there to be any concrete news there. Which might actually be for the best. Not that a ship that had been so heinously branded traitors by Starfleet had any real expectation of information from Earth, save by a certain back channel. The saying on her mind however, proved itself very apt when Chancellor Martok called out to the ship. The best plaid pans of mice and men often go astray.

Any plans they were making had to be immediately put on hold based on the news that their location had already been leaked to the Klingon High Council. Natalie felt herself go stiff as a board when Martok announced who had done the damage. Her hand lept up to her throat, the point at which a blade would have embedded itself weeks ago, had not the brother of the man named stepped between her and the hidden blade when she had met Gorka, Son of Margon. She had other interactions with the towering Klingon man, but that was the only major in person encounter. She had not let herself be cowed at the meeting. She'd saved her panic attack for the confines of her quarters hours later, after she had seen to Lt. (jg) Douglas, and filed a report. Only then had she let herself address the fact that Gorka, or his purported boss of the moment, Administrator M'Kish, had tried to have her killed. And now he was back in the picture to the determent of everyone.

M'Kish had warned me that not everyone supported Martok. Not on the council, not in the KDF, and not in the Aldean system. I thought we had headed his words well enough, but it seems not.

The exchange between Ives and Martok was straight and to the point, and a part of her wondered just how the Captain was going to explain the presence of a slipstream drive system aboard the Theurgy. This and this alone was how they were going to get from Aldea to - if not in direct orbit of about the First City of the Klingon Empire on Qo'noS, then much nearer than the Chancellor could other wise hope in such a swift time frame as to cut the legs out from under the rising Challenge to his position. There was little else that could be done; even Natalie could see that they needed Martok in charge of the Empire if a galactic war was about to open up in the near space of the Alpha and Beta quadrants. So they'd be getting an influx of Klingon warriors and a very irate Chancellor on-boarded and then away they went, leaving the Allegiant and whatever crew were assigned to that mission. For one brief moment she thought of volunteering for that herself - but Dewitt was already going to be commanding it, and Nat feared she would just be in the way.

 They need me here she decided, and gave a nod once, to herself, and then another to the Flight Control Officer next to her, Mr. Veradin. Since the loss of Cale Winterbourne, the Trill officer formerly from the Resolve had held the post down the longest, and she was just about used to seeing him there next to her. He had his tasks set for him, and she would need to coordinate with the use of the slipstream dirve. She already started pulling up that new control monitoring system when Ives ordered her to coordinate the transport of all remaining crew. "Aye aye Captain."

An easy order to give, but a much harder one to see through.  However there was something just ever so slightly more pressing than hunting down wayward crew. Working quickly while the captain finished issuing orders, Natalie issued a command of her own to start beaming up all crew, regardless of if they had reported back or not. Once they had a list of those that were not aboard - and Thea would tally for her as they arrived, combined with feedback from the Transporter officers - she'd borrow a few security personnel from Lt. Cmdr. Akoni and form what used to be called a shore patrol to round up the stragglers. Heaven help them if she had to go down there and drag anyone back herself. There was plenty that needed to be done up here on the ship, and judging by what Ives just said, little time to do them in. With that in mind, she turned  her chair away from her station and looked back out at the bridge, catching the Captain as they started across toward the ready room with Counselor Hathev

"Captain," easy enough to get their attention that way, if not for the sense of urgency in her voice, the simple fact that Stark tended toward being quiet would be cause enough. "Mr. Fisher would be well advised to start with members of our own crew when it comes to Gorka." Oh, yes, that drew some attention. With an apologetic look toward the newly minted Chief of Intelligence, mostly for getting the drop on the man, Natalie continued.

"I've met with Gorka face to face, and worked with him here in the Aldean system in regards to the some of the pirate issues pertaining to deuterium mining operations in the sector. I do believe he tried to have me killed at one point - or his boss, I suppose, but it didn't stick. He also happens to be the older brother of Lt. Douglas." She frowned. "Half brother, if I remember correctly. Regardless, we may have a leg up even on the Chancellor when it comes to Gorka, having a resource in the junior Lieutenant. My own reports on the man are on file, but I'd be happy to provide any further insight or field any questions I can." That last was as much to the Lt. Commander as it was to Captain Ives.

Re: Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

Reply #21 – June 01, 2020, 03:43:18 PM

[LCdr Blue Tiran | Can We Go Now? | You Didn't Even Provide Snacks | Did I Eat Lunch?]
@stardust




Blue was aware when her Assistant Chief took up real-estate behind her on the Bridge.  She had been really fucking surprised that he had been called, and wasn't down on the Engineering deck doing what he needed to.  Taking over when she was fucking gone, like she was now, but she also figured that he needed to see how the greater workings went.  She could send him back down in a little bit it wasn't a bad idea that one of her Assistant Chief Engineers actually knew the bigger picture, however she hoped that he could keep every fucking thing to himself without spreading it to the fucking crew just yet.  The crew would not like the idea of the Savi coming to their aid in more ways than they already had and it was best that Blue was the one that broke the news. 

Blue's attention shifted from the conversation around her to the new Assistant as he leaned forward and whispered to her so that he wouldn't disrupt the rest of the ideas being tossed around the Bridge.  He had finished  his scans and had come straight to her.  He would get her the full report when she was back on deck but suffice to say he didn't find anything that needed attention.  She gave a silent not and a bit of a quirk of her lips offering a 'good job' without having to say the words.  For a little bit he watched the ideas being pushed around the Bridge and listened to her own thoughts on the matter when he finally leaned forward again stating he wanted to get Engineering checklists a look over before departure.  She didn't turn this time, because he was way too close, and that would be fucking awkward.

“Get them ready.” she said in a low whisper and a nod.  Oddly enough, Arnold and Blue seemed to get along well enough that they worked fairly well as a team, as far as she could fucking tell.  They hadn't been really tested on it yet, but testing would come during this mission she had no fucking doubts about that.

The meeting continued to flow after the departure of her Assistant and finally, it was time to give out the orders.  Tiran continued to lean against the console when her name was called, she was told to work with Blondie McMake-up and arrange the help they needed from the Savi.  Her crystalline blue eyes shifted to the blonde woman and gave her a quick nod so that she could know exactly who she was.  There were so many new faces and she wasn't sure that everyone knew who the fuck she was.  They should, they would, but they didn't come on with a working knowledge of the most foul mouthed officer on board the ship.  Ranaan's voice echoed in her mind and her eyes snapped up to him.  She gave him a glare that was cold as fucking ice, and then warmed to a small smile giving him a little shake of her head as she shot him the middle finger.

As the meeting adjourned, Blue made her way to Rutherford only to find that she was in the turbolift already.  Blue shot her husband a smile and winked at him in a flirty way before heading for the Turbo herself.  Standing next to Rutherford she looked at her for a moment.  "So you got any experience with the white headed fuckers?"




[Zyrao Natuana – Klingon Liaison | Martok's Surprise | What the Fuck | Problems Arise]
@Auctor Lucan @stardust




There were far too many people, too many voices, and too many inputs on the Bridge.  She did not envy the Captain having to sort out the thoughts and ideals of every person on this bridge.  Not only trying to decide who was most valid but which ideas out of the various ones available were actually worth their weight.  Zyrao stood in the back with her arms crossed and tried to keep track of what everyone wanted and thought they should do.  Many were on similar but divergent paths, however, she hoped that everything would go smoothly it hardly did.  You not only had so many departments,  you had a huge ship, three vectors, a fighter squad, people from all different ships, and the Klingon involved.  Not to mention the sheer slew of new people that had come in suddenly.  Zyrao was surprised to learn there were still people out on Aldea, though she supposed that with a crew like this, they were going to take any kind of opportunity they could to make sure they got to experience as much fun and rest as possible.

A chirp was heard and Zyrao looked up at the word of it being Martok.  Her brow rose, she was not at her desk at the moment and thus might have missed his call though it should have been patched through to her PADD.  However, since she was in a meeting perhaps it had been paused or blocked, she was uncertain but it was something she would have to figure out at some point since it was literally her job to be the go-between for the Theurgy and Klingon. 

Martok came on the screen and began to talk about the dangers of them being there.  Ives went on about how they had put them into danger and Gorka had already revealed it.  Already other races knew that they had been hiding here which meant it wouldn't be long before the Federation did as well.  The Klingon strain was already in danger and was now even more so with the tension of the Theurgy being here.  He was told to have a weak mind because he had allowed them to come and to stay and that he was working with them.  Her brow rose, but she stated nothing.

Ives was quick to come with an idea to get Martok to Qo'noS.  However the klingon was not pleased with the plan.  Zyrao thought to step forward and help them speak a little bit more smoothly but the Captain plowed forward and she figured they were going to be doing fine for the time being.  If she needed to, she was only steps away and could step in if it was necessary.  Martok finally agreed to stay on the Theurgy and then he looked towards her with her eyes.  He mentioned that he would let her know when she was ready to come on board.

Martok on board could be both fun and bad.  If he finds out about my actions on SuD Lang from someone.. but no someone would have mentioned it already.  Few people know I betrayed my own.  Hi-Jak was -  Zyrao's eyes widened, as she looked over to the Captain who was already giving orders to all the people around him.  She needed to speak with the Captain immediately and it was of great importance but it wasn't something she was going to talk about loudly in front of everyone in the room.  At least, she wasn't going to call it out, this was something she wasn't sure that everyone knew about. 

Ives turned to her and told her to let him know how many Klingons would come with Martok and so they could make sure that they had places to stay.  She was also to work with commander Cross and make sure all three vectors were prepared, and not to allow the Klingon to know anything about the upgrades until Ives stated he was ready to let them know.  She gave a quick nod.  One of the new officers, a blonde, said to let her know if she had any issues and Zyrao gave a dark and deadly grin.  "You can come help any time." she gave the woman a wink before she turned her serious face back on and looked to the Captain.

Once everyone had fallen into their orders Zyrao stepped forward and crossed the Bridge to the Captain.  “May I have a word?” she asked quite seriously so there was no question if it was something of import or not.  She nodded her head towards one side of the Bridge so they could have a little bit of privacy. 

“Captain, I have two concerns with the Klingon coming on board.”  he probably thought one of them was personal, but neither actually were.  If she were ever found to be a traitor then she most definitely would answer for such but she hoped not since she was the arm of the Theurgy.  “Firstly, the Savi and the Klingon are not going to be able to co-exist.  I would suggest that they be placed to stay on two differing Vectors as much as possible to eliminate as many random encounters as possible.  It is the best situation because we are probably already going to have the ego battles while they are all assisting the Theurgy at the same time.”

She then held up another finger, signaling two.  “Secondly, is there some way that we could disguise Hi-Jak on board?  If Martok and the other Klingons find out that he is not only still alive but back where he was initially I'm not sure I can mend that relationship. It's important that no one finds out that he is still alive.  There has to be a way to disguise him while we have the Klingon onboard, Captain.” she admitted waiting to see what Ives would say about her thoughts.

Re: Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

Reply #22 – June 02, 2020, 10:25:03 AM

[ Lt. Cmdr. Andrew Fisher | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan @Brutus

Fisher looked to the newly assigned Chief Diplomatic Officer as she spoke, backing up the idea posed by the Doctor that the attack on Paris had been more than just a prelude to war. That it’d been a message meant to instill a sense of panic in those who would dare oppose the Alien Parasites’ plans for the eradication of all life, luring the Theurgy back into the light. And though it may have flown in direct defiance of his general practice of remaining in the shadows, he knew they couldn’t rise above such a challenge in this time of crisis. They needed to act decisively, even if it would mean playing right into their adversary’s hand.

‘Sometimes you just have to call, even if you’re sitting seven-two.’ He thought to himself.

He could understand Commander Rutherford’s motivations for wanting to explore diplomatic avenues, especially considering their extreme lack of overall knowledge on the enemy. Hell, he was still holding out a small notion of hope in that regard but ultimately felt that any kind of mutual agreement between them was unlikely. Any kind of accord that she and her people would negotiate for, would likely be of the kind that followed a miraculous and complete victory. The kind that had been signed in the wake of the Dominion War some six-years ago; that of an unconditional surrender. Because like the Founders before them, their arrogance was absolute.

Were it not for the fact that Paris had just been completely and utterly destroyed, he might have felt a pang of pride over the Founder’s arrogance having been undone by the Federation and its allies.

Instead, he felt only dread at the immense challenge facing them, and the fact that unlike the Founders, they wouldn’t agree to an unconditional surrender if things went monumentally worse. Only total and complete annihilation would be acceptable to them.

Because he understood that many more would die before any of this would draw to a close. People he knew, respected and even potentially loved would be lost during the struggle about to take place. People standing beside him in this very moment would see their lives brought to an abrupt end. He’d barely come to know any of them beyond that of a friendly acquaintance at this point, and he felt a sense of caution about opening himself beyond that. He’d been through more than enough loss and pain already, more than most others had gone through in such a short period. But he also knew that it was the comradeship of those around him, that would keep him strong and vigilant against their common enemy.

Besides, he’d need their help in order to give his Captain what he needed now more than ever. Answers.

Understandably, Ives had given a number of orders for the new Chief Intelligence Officer. There was a lot that had to be known if the Theurgy was going to be able to turn the tide. Listening to each demand, he nodded steadily as in his mind he began making notes, and planning on how to meet each of them. The Captain had already given him some leads that he would be following up on as soon as possible, adding to the dozen or so others already on his list. Chief among them his contacts in rival Intelligence Networks, at least the ones who hadn’t gone dark in recency.

“Yes sir.” He acknowledged as Ives finished.

There was no sense in making any long-winded promises, or reassurances of outcome from his department. Unlike the others, confidence in Intelligence was highest when everything was quiet, at least that had been the case in his past experiences.

He’d been just about to leave the Bridge in order to get started when Commander Stark waylaid his attention, offering him another few leads to follow-up on regarding Martok’s latest challenger, Gorka Son of Margon. He’d already been aware of the relationship between Gorka and Lieutenant Khorin but hadn’t yet seen the files on her own experiences with him. The sheer amount of information he’d already gone through would have driven most mad with delirium, and yet there was even more beyond that. Still, there might have been more he could gather from Stark if he went to her in person on the matter, as he would also surely attempt to do with Lieutenant Khorin.

Sometimes the finer details failed to jump out in those reports.

“I’ll be sure to follow-up with you, Commander Stark.” He promised her, giving a simple nod as he moved for the turbolift, needing to tend to some more immediate arrangements before the Theurgy departed from Epsilon Mynos.

Re: Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

Reply #23 – June 06, 2020, 01:39:51 PM

[Selena Ravenholm | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 1 | USS Theurgy]

Even though she’d spent the time after her little near-rant working the communications console Selena kept one ear on the discussion around her.  She smiled a touch, no one objected to someone not on the senior staff speaking up in a senior staff meeting and she appreciated that.  There were a few instructors at the Academy who would’ve reamed her for talking out of turn like that, but none of them were here thankfully (she even doubted they would’ve been able to stay on the run more than a few days if they were in Captain Ives’s shoes.)

When Marok hailed Selena’s eyes widened in shock.  It wasn’t every day that the head of state for one of the major powers called while you were on duty, and even then it was probably a once in a lifetime moment when it came in marked as a high priority.  The cyborg immediately reacted with the unthinkable: interrupting a Captain mid-speech.  Ives took it in stride and soon Martok’s face was filling the Bridge with even more bad news.  Klingon politics was never her strong suit, but she knew enough to know that you wanted to stay as far away from them if you wanted to keep all your limbs.  Literally.

As soon as Martok made his choice and ended the call Ives didn’t waste any time of their own and the orders came fast.  Selena nodded when she heard her name, she’d already been working on applying some old tricks of hers to keep long-distance clandestine contact between different elements, now was time to see if they actually worked. She tapped a quick message to Fisher and attached a quick ready-to-go summary for his perusal then looked over to Akoni with a questioning look: “My place or yours?”  One last bit of business before handing over the console to Thea or whoever was going to take over for her: Stark got a quick list of whoever had called in questioning the recall order for earlier.  She doubted anyone would be stupid enough to try to remain behind, but you never knew and they were the probable suspects.

Seeing Fisher already heading for the turbolift, Selena moved fast, quickly logging out of the console and using the same fingers to push the seat around and launching herself out of it, landing by Fisher’s side in a single deft motion.  “I’ll have to run down to engineering for a bit, I have a way to keep everyone looped in no matter the distance but I need to work with a tech-head to get the necessary software installed.”  Leaning closer to whisper, “I might have some alternate source research on Gorka.  I’ll send it your way if you want.”

Re: Chapter 01: Incendiary Prospects [ Day 01 | 1130 hrs. ]

Reply #24 – June 06, 2020, 05:24:58 PM

[ Lt. JG. Derik Veradin | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]
[Show/Hide]

Listening to Captain Ives offer to take Martok to Qo’nos was somewhat of a surprise. Sure, with the power struggle that the Chancellor was offering, he would have a difficult time getting home. Helping the Klingon bypass much of the opposition would certainly aid in keeping their alliance intact. However, now they couldn’t necessarily trust Klingon ships they came across. The number of their allies kept flexing too much for the Trill’s tastes. Reluctantly, the leader of the Klingon High Council agreed to the Captain’s proposal.

“Veradin, plot a course to Qo'noS, and the Allegiant needs to be ready for deployment immediately.”

The order given, Derik turned in his station, setting a course for the Klingon home world while starting calculations on using their new slipstream drive to get there. They could certainly reach Qo’nos quickly but it was also important not to tax the new engines any more than necessary. They would likely see heavy use in the coming days. Yet using the drive wasn’t the only potential problem. If Martok, and however many Klingons the Chancellor was getting to tag along came aboard, then the crew would have to be extremely careful with what they might say within earshot. ”Damned if we do, damned if we don’t” eh? I swear that should be our epitaph.

The calculations complete, the helmsman tapped into the comms array.

”Veradin to the Allegiant Maintenance Team.”

”Go ahead sir.” The response came immediately.

”Have the Allegiant ready for launch. Double Time. I want her ready to depart as soon as possible. She’s got a new mission.”

”Aye sir. Will have her fueled and ready in thirty minutes.”

Satisfied, Derik cut the COMM and went back to refining the calculations. Depending on how well the engines functioned, especially since they hadn’t run a test after their installation, The Theurgy could reach Qo’nos in maybe 2 or 3 jumps conservatively. One if they pushed them hard. A quick diagnostic run of the engines showed positive results, save for a minor variance with the Sword’s starboard engine. A few quick taps and that was solved. He did however set a subroutine to watch that specific nacelle incase the variance returned.