Ops Update

Posted on Sat Apr 4th, 2009 @ 11:32am by Captain Elsie Halliwell & Master Warrant Officer Sam Jackson

1,075 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Wolves in Sheep's Clothing
Location: Mess Hall, Deck 2
Timeline: Current

ON:

Lane left Commander Kemmer to see what he could pull up on the new Mission Advisor the Archimedes seemed to have acquired, and he snaked his way through the corridors to the turbolift.

"Deck 2, Mess, please," he uttered, his mind elsewhere, as the steel doors encased him in the pod. Tapping his boot anxiously on the flooring beneath him, he could feel the agitation and harnessed rage within him bubble. Taking a deep breath, he expelled the air and blew it out from his puffed cheeks.

As he entered the mess, Chief Warrant Jackson was already sat at a vacant table sipping what looked to be a coffee. Lane strode over to the replictor, ordered and briefly stopped to take in the view from the colossal glass windows on his right. A small, blue green planet hung in space before his eyes, and he squinted as it's sun peered over its horizon, shining into the room. It didn't look any bigger than Earth. Or any more beautiful. And yet, somehow, the vision clamed him.

The Trill spun on his heels and returned to join Jackson, smiling as he took his seat.

"Hello, Sam," he said, warmly. "I apologise about before. What can I do for you?"

"No dramas sir" Sam paused "There have been a few more problems since we last spoke"

"Go on, Sam," he said in a concerned tone

"We've been getting phantom dropouts across most of the ship's systems." Sam paused a moment "And they've been getting more frequent."

"How frequent?" the Trill asked, "And when you say 'phantom', you mean that you can't trace the source?"

"Aye sir" Sam paused "We've had an entire replicator out of the wall and stripped it apart, nothing wrong with it but it still doesn't work. I'm planning on getting Science to do a more detailed analysis."

"Sounds prudent, Chief," Lane replied, holding his chin in his hand. "I already have Larkin teamed up with Doctor Mabren working in the gel-pack system together. What with the packs themselves them consisting primarily of organic matter, it just seemed natural. I'm still waiting on their report, as it happens. I just hope that it throws up something that we can use, something tangible. Otherwise we'll still be chasing ghosts through the systems even after we leave Citadel Prime."

"Definitely" Sam paused "More worrying for me is if these failures affect a system to do with the warp core, we could have a full scale breach on our hands."

"Exactly," the Trill replied, raising one eyebrow. "Any suggestions, Chief? Or hypothesises?"

"I'll be honest right now this has me stumped. It's not in the computer core, so that rules out a virus and there seems to be nothing wrong with any of the hardware we've tested. It's almost like whatever this thing is, it disrupts a system and then moves before we can get there and find it. It's almost like it's intelligent."

"Intelligent?" Lane sat up straight in his chair, and picked at his combadge with his finger anxiously, letting it glint slightly in the sunlight that poured in through the windows. "Chief, are you suggesting that this is intelligence of some kind? A premeditated action?"

"It's a distinct possibility sir" Sam replied gravely

The Trill looked out blankly through the windows and sighed. "Once Commander Arkham got back onboard, I was going to hold a staff briefing. This isn't the first time that my own thoughts have gravitated towards the same conclusion. I, uh, have to admit, Sam. I thought it was the stress of taking on my first command coupled with the restlessness of sitting up in orbit that irritated my own paranoia. But, as the days unfold, I… well, I… think it to be something more."

With one swoop, he wiped the table before him with his hand in agitation. "I even had Ensign Turoc conduct a less than discreet security sweep of all decks. But nothing, other than an hallucination caused by his inhibitor. Do we have anything to go on? My daughter's running around this ship with a very dear old lady. I can't confine them to quarters just to quash my unfounded worry."

Sam was a little surprised, he had expected the Commander to react somewhat badly, but... "Sir, the best thing we can do now is have science run a sweep of some of the damaged units we've pulled. Anything overly rash would be unwise, if this is a person it may cause them to escalate the dropouts or if this is some kind of sapient computer program cause it to escalate." he paused again "So far though the power failures have been comparatively benign, we've seen transporters, replicators and holodecks mostly."

"Agreed, Sam, which is why I haven't done anything significant about it. I'm really just holding off until I get the report back from Larkin and the Doc. I just hope that this is all for nothing."

"You and me both boss." Sam paused again "Is Commander Arkham okay?"

"She… will be," he said, attempting to stifle the shadow that crossed over him as her name was mentioned. "She'll be heading back up tomorrow, and you know what that battleaxe is like. This place had better be… ship-shape, for lack of a better term." Lane tried to make light of the situation that had him gripped by the throat. The politics of Command never interested him, until that politics spilled over onto his ship and enveloped it. "She'll be arriving with company, Chief. A Mission Advisor of sorts."

"Oh that is never good" Sam replied gravely "When that happens you know Starfleet expects something big."

"And, quite possibly, doesn't have every confidence in the new CO they have tasked for the mission," he replied, thinking out aloud. "But," he said, sliding back the chair with the fold of his knees, and slapping his hand down on the surface of this table in front of him, "I just hope that it is that, Chief."

"Well even if Starfleet isn't confident in you, this crew is sir and end of the day, that's what matters"

A smile filtered across the Trill's face as he cocked his head to the side to look out upon the streaming sun. "Thank you, Chief," he said, slapping his free had in the man's shoulder. "I know."

OFF:


Commander Coltan Lane
Commanding Officer

AND

Chief Warrant Officer 2nd Class Sam Jackson
Chief Operations Officer

 

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