The Quandary

Posted on 28 Jun 2013 @ 2:32pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Lieutenant Commander Amynta Markos & Petty Officer 1st Class Siren Hex Saalm & Warrant Officer Evan Kell

2,155 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: Runabout - Deep Space
Timeline: MD 08 - 0800 hrs

Previously, on Explanations...

Lirha grinned at the prospect of seeing Siren with green skin and dark hair, and thought that she could probably pull off the look pretty well. "The idea certainly is appealing." she said in jest, then finally shook her head to return to a more serious nature. "However, I am confident that between all of us, we will be able to decipher the true meaning behind this Romulan's defection...if there is indeed one."

Taking another swig of her hot chocolate, Lirha looked around the table to see if anyone had anymore questions. She was a bit surprised that no one had asked about Project Sienna but that was also a relief since the less people who knew about the highly-classified experiment, the better. "Very well, then." she finally said after a short period of silence. "If there are no further questions, I would like everyone to go get some rest. We have a two-day trip ahead of us and I would prefer that everyone is sharp once we arrive at SB-185. I will take the first watch at the helm and we will rotate on four hour shifts." she explained.

"Alright," the Capellan sat up in his seat. "We'll see what happens, won't go in unprepared." It was like Rice said, they all had their captain's back. He stood and grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair. "Understood," Kell acknowledged, leaning on his hands.

Siren nodded, standing as well. She'd definitely grab some more sleep after the interruption to her night, but she'd also take the chance to read up on what she could get her hands on through the computer regarding what the Captain had told them. It didn't hurt to do a little homework, especially as she hadn't been on the Galileo as long as some of the others.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Lirha's eyes slowly fluttered open and she groggily began to take in the scene around her. She was sitting in a chair - at the helm of runabout with a myriad of navigation consoles all around her - but several long moments of recent memory recollection produced no results. She remembered rotating helm watches with the rest of her team and showing up for shift three hours ago...but beyond that, couldn't remember a single thing about what had transpired during the last hour or so.

Taking a minute to try and clear her head and interpret the data being presented to her, it eventually became obvious that their craft was on its original course towards their destination at the previously designated speed. Additional checks of the computer system produced no abnormal results and by all intents and purposes, Lirha assumed that she had simply fallen asleep at the helm. Yet...that idea did not make sense to her. She had obtained enough rest in Siren's bunk the previous night and she had never fallen asleep while on duty before in her entire career. Craning her head to look back around the shuttle, she noticed that no one else was present in the main cabin and apparently everyone was still in their bunks.

Then, after turning her head around to look towards the back of the shuttle, a sharp painful sensation suddenly manifested itself within the nerve endings of Lirha's upper vertebrae. She let out a surprised gasp and clutched the back of her neck for a long moment, then began to massage her trapezius muscles to quell the uncomfortable sensation. A painful groan escaped her lips and she leaned herself back in her chair and took several deep breaths in the hope that the pain would quickly subside.

Aria groaned as she woke up, pushing herself off the floor. How she had ended it was beyond her. Had she fallen out of the bunk? She rubbed her face, wiping it in case she had drooled (like that one time when she had way too much to drink and there was that cute guy's shoulder and...) she cut her mental trail off, blinking awkwardly. Her body ached. She rubbed her back, moving slowly to the main bit, limping slightly. "Hey..." she yawned and then grimaced as she touched her chin. A bruise. She must have clunked out. "Sorry...I missed my...whatever it was..." she stopped, looking at Lirha with concern. "Are you okay?"

The captain was surprised by the voice behind her and swiveled around once again, this time taking in the sight of Aria. "Yes...I think." she uneasily replied. "I must have...fallen asleep." she mumbled, still somewhat confused and embarrassed to admit the fact to one of her junior officers. "And my neck is sore." she added after a brief pause while continuing to rub it.

"Let me rub it," Aria frowned as she moved to her, with concern. She stepped as close behind her as she could, clearly acting as a friend now they were alone rather than a CO and a junior officer.

Hesitating for a moment, Lirha didn't think that was exactly the best course of action. While she would normally never turn down an opportunity for a neck rub, the muscles surrounding her spine were painfully sore, and she feared that any added pressure would only make things worse. "No...I am not sure if that would help right now...but thank you for offering." she apologetically replied to the petite security officer with a sad smile.

"Got it," she smiled and instead touched her arm reassuringly, pulling away. "Then let me get you some strong, sweet tea instead."

"That would be nice...thank you." the captain politely replied while giving Aria a small and forced smile to try and hide her discomfort.

Aria nodded, her eyes gentle as she moved away, to get her the tea.

Amynta sat up, grimacing as she touched her head. She shook her head, taking a deep breath. A wave of sickness washed over her and she touched her chest. "Shit..." she whispered and pushed herself up. She removed her uniform top, her jacket already discarded. She moved to the replicator, getting herself some water and drank some before dipping her hand in it, to run it over her throat. "Red?" she turned her head, looking over at where Hex was. She must have had something bad to eat before she went. She felt unsteady.

"Yeah?" Siren was leaning in the doorway as she watched Amynta, her arms folded. She'd just woken up too, feeling a little groggy, but otherwise not noticing or feeling anything strange. She'd fallen asleep in her bunk and woken up in it. Nothing unusual in that. But Amynta...? "What's wrong, Amynta? You look like death warmed up."

"Just a bit of a headache," Amynta smiled weakly and shook her head. "Coffee. Coffee makes everything better, and a hypo full of nice things..."

Kell inhaled sharply once, blinked and looked around him, sitting up at the table near the back of the shuttle. He frowned to himself, and looked down at his lap. His PADD with Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness sat discarded by his knees where he'd left it. Had he fallen asleep? He looked around. "Must've been a long night," the Capellan ventured thoughtfully.

Finally standing from her chair, Lirha moved to the back of the main cabin and motioned for her team to briefly assemble. She felt a bit woozy and her intuition told her that something was not completely right, so she decided to ask around for more clues. "How is...everyone feeling?" she began to ask. "I seem to have fallen asleep but...I cannot remember anything from the last hour or so. Not even my dreams."

Siren moved to the table with the others, watching Lirha with concern before shaking her head with confusion. "I'm alright. I was asleep. I was pretty far gone, but I'd done a lot of reading," she bit the inside of her lip with thought as she looked around the group, her blue eyes a shade deeper. "No offence, but you guys look wrecked."

Amynta looked over at Siren and shrugged. "I am just a bit headachy," she admitted and looked at Lirha. "Maybe it is sharing a shuttle with our CO...made me all on edge," she added with a hint of humor."

Siren looked to Lirha with worry at how awkward she seemed. It wasn't like the usually lithe and elegant woman. "What about you?"

"I feel alright. A bit strange and a little sore." the captain answered after a moment of sipping the tea which Aria had brought her. She was unsure how to diagnose herself or the rest of her team, but for now it seemed as though there were only one or two minor symptoms present between everyone - none of which were any immediate cause for alarm.

Amynta nodded, watching the other woman. "Could be the air in here. Maybe the environmental controls are messing with our O2 supply?" she suggested. A rise in CO2 could account for the strangeness.

Lirha had not thought of that scenario, and mentally kicked herself in the process of realizing her mistake. "Possibly." she replied as her green eyes drifted towards a nearby LCARS console. "Computer, run a level four diagnostic on our environmental controls." she called out.

A familiar chirp of acknowledgement sounded from the runabout's computer mainframe and the familiar soft yet somewhat monotone voice complied with the request. "Processing..." came the reply.

About thirty seconds passed after which the short diagnostic was finally finished. "Diagnostic complete. Environmental controls are functioning properly. Warning: memory bank corrupted." said the computer.

Aria's head jerked up at the last bit and she frowned. "Now that isn't a good thing," she said, looking at Lirha. "Can we check what parts of the memory bank is corrupted?"

Siren moved quickly to get a console, firing her up to start accessing the data. She frowned, shaking her head firmly as she went through the time they'd been on the shuttle. "Up until a few minutes ago, a whole hour is missing from the memory bank," she said with clipped tones, looking back to the others with a frown.

"Interesting..." came Lirha's reply with a bit of concern. It wasn't unusual for the occasional computer malfunction to occur, but the redundancy programs present in the LCARS system were often sufficient enough to provide accurate backups of all data. "Can we retrieve the missing data from the memory core backup files?" she proposed to the group.

Amynta nodded, moving to sit down. "I can try," she said and started accessing, frowning. She kept silent as she worked, her eyes taking the information in, her fingers moving swiftly. She stopped and turned around, with annoyance. "It looks like the computer malfunctioned. I have our readings in the backup. And everything is fine. In fact, we all appear to be out cold judging by the breathing patterns..."

Despite the information which was being presented, the captain's intuition was telling her something was a bit off. It was completely plausible that she had dozed off at the helm and in a strange position which was now causing her pain in her neck...but it was highly unlikely. Nevertheless, she couldn't fathom any other logical explanation for what had happened, and their brief investigation had produced no disturbing evidence - aside from an apparent computer system malfunction.

Siren's eyes were on Lirha. Her reaction. She didn't look happy with the explanation. And that made her not happy with it either, because Lirha was an experienced player. She folded her arms and looked around the others with a slight frown.

Amynta looked at them all and finally sighed. "Yeah. I get the bad feeling too," she said and looked around, knowing they were all thinking it. Lirha's displeasure. Siren's reaction. "But according to the readings, our Starfleet logs, everything here is good."

Lirha let out a huff and folded her arms across her chest. Her green eyes began to scan the room, darting between various LCARS consoles, cabinets, and crew members as if she could somehow find something (anything) that seemed out of place. She had no idea what she was looking for, and eventually sighed and started to rub the back of her neck again. It wouldn't be long before they arrived at SB-185...perhaps she could get some more answers after they docked. "Very well." she finally said with reluctance. "I will have the base's Operations personnel look into the issue once we arrive. Dismissed."

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

WO Evan Kell
Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo
NPC'd by Liyar

CN Siren Hex
Intelligence
USS Galileo

Lt. JG Aria Rice
Assistant Chief of Security
USS Galileo

LTJG Amynta Markos
Asst. Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

RSS Feed