After Action Report (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 10 Jul 2014 @ 2:23pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Commander Scarlet Blake & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant Min Zhao & Lieutenant Asahi Kita & Commander Norvi Stace & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton & Lieutenant Commander Amynta Markos & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Commander Luke Wyatt

2,339 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 1, Conference Room
Timeline: MD 05 - 1430 hrs

[ON]

Allyndra had gotten the call to the debriefing. She was tired and hungry and in need of sleep but it was not to be forthcoming. She had avoided going to her quarters for the allure of the bed and replicator were too tempting and thus she had gotten to the room on Deck one as one of the first. A delicate hand stifling a yawn periodically.

Unlike the doctor, Asahi only desired to rid himself of the vast swarths of tribbles that he had found himself encountering all morning. The debriefing call itself was met with a grumpy 'alright fine,' followed by the engineer 'gently' shoving tribbles into one corner of his office and telling them to 'stay put,' which included leaving his puppy at the door, in case any of them decided to take a walk.

Asahi stopped at the door of the conference room, brushing stray tribble fuzz off of his uniform, before walking in and plopping himself down in one of the nearby seats.

Dea's day was not going well. She'd been woken by an urgent call before the start of her shift about a tribble problem in the shuttle bay. Entering the conference room she took a seat.

Stace, sallow-faced and sombre, entered the briefing room with Pendleton. As she entered, the conversation strayed off into silence as she nodded to the assembled. "I had no choice. I had to think about the rest of the team."

Jacob walked in, lost in thought as usual, trying his best to have answers to the questions he knew would be coming, and not really having any good ones.

John entered carrying a PADD, he knew that he would have to file a report back to Starfleet about what had happened, and exactly how it had been allowed to happen in the first place. Aside from writing his own name and ID number, not a single word had yet taken it's place on the screen.

Following the Captain in, Blake's expression was cool and grim. The time in the mine had been disturbing to say the least. And worst of all, there had been casualties as a result. She took her chair silently, sliding a PADD onto the tabletop as she let out a long, tense breath.

Min was among the last to arrive and quietly took a seat. No one from operations was specifically involved in the away mission but as Ops was supporting the away teams, it made sense for her to be present, at least so she knew ahead of time what the teams would need for support. There was also a personal stake in the mission as her fiance was on the last away mission.

Luke walked slowly along the corridor towards the conference room with everything that has happened lately he was distracted and unsure of himself. Carrying along the corridor he saw the back of Min enter the room. Picking up his pace and increasing his stride he finally found himself though the door and sitting down noticing that his slow walk had placed him amongst the last to arrive.

Quinn entered the room, donning a freshly replicated uniform. He looked for a seat and took it while cupping his insulated mug of what he calls, engineer's coffee

Amynta let out a breath as she looked at the people who had come back from the mine. She took a seat, crossing her legs before taking in the mood of the people.

Usually punctual by nature, this time Lirha was the last one to arrive in Galileo's cramped conference room, and a light sheen of sweat on her brow coupled with some stray, frizzy dark hair strands made her look somewhat flustered. In truth, she had had a hell of a day so far, and the issue regarding her sister's lost tribble had provided the majority of the stress she was currently dealing with. And now, to make matters worse, she had recently received word that the away teams had returned from the surface of Lyshan III, and one of Galileo's security officers had apparently been killed in action. The Orion commodore wanted answers, and she wanted them now.

"Report," she curtly said as the door swished closed behind her. Not bothering to sit down, she came to a halt near the head of the table next to Captain Holliday with her hands on her hips while her agitated green eyes scanned the assembled senior officers.

Allyndra waited to see what Blake would say. She was after all the Team Leader for the one she had been on and also she did not want to say she had gone traipsing after shadows.

John hadn't even been given the chance to open his mouth before the Commodore had taken over the briefing - naturally as the ranking officer, John had no way of silencing her or indeed wrestling back control, but this was still her mission.

"We can confirm that there are, indeed, very strange occurrences down in the mine," Scarlet replied with a frown, her words clipped with the frustration of all that had happened. "My team were directly effected by hearing voices of people who were once known to us. This was not imagined. It happened, and to a number of us. We split into two groups, my team experienced 'ghosts' on the tricorder.....readings of...something...somethings that seemed to move within the rock and then came closer and closer, until they were on top of us, but there was nothing. Beta team discovered a Cardassian female who was....she was half caught in the rock, as if she had half materialised in it. She was alive when they reached her, but it proved fatal," she cleared her throat, shaking her head lightly. "They then found it very hard to navigate back to the rendezvous point due to shifting landscape." She looked around the room, shaking her head. "I also regret to report that we found the body of Crewman George Ruktah. Even though it seems impossible that he should even have been in our area."

"Yes," Stace cut in after Blake had finished, a meek lilt to her voice, "he was one of mine. Crewman George Ruktah." She bowed her head a little in thought of him and with the shame of losing one of her own. "He was one of my security detail, but when the Alpha and Beta groups reconvened in the network of tunnels, he disappeared."

Stace paused and then sighed. "We also split into two groups like Commander Blake." She shook her head in disbelief. "But no one reported hearing voices or anything of that sort. Our equipment all failed however. Phasers and tricorders. With that happening, I was worried about comms." Now jumping back to the issue of the missing crewman, she continued, looking to Commander Blake as she spoke, almost defending her stance. "Ruktah was with us at first, but then I tripped - the shock of picking up what appeared to be an eye from the ground - and then the true horror of the mine system was discovered. Mangled and disembowled bodies. Limbs and torsos of Cardassian origin. Strewn on the floor about us. Ruktah was there just before that happened but in the confusion who knows where he went... where he was taken to."

Allyndra listened intently to the reports of the second team and she could already feel the tickle of thought. She noticed that Blake had not mentioned her following off with an apparition of which only she could see. However, there was one thing that needed to be added though it did not really help the mystery but was interesting to her.

"If I may Commodore," and she turned her head and made eye contact with Holiday, "Captain, not all of us heard voices. Several members did that I was around but I never did. I thought I saw something but none of the others did. I did physiological readings and nothing that would indicate any sort of psychic link or contact could I detect. However, I must conclude that since some of the team experienced things that I did not and vice versa that perhaps something in the physiological differences between us might explain that. Finally, I have no reason to suspect that it has much to do with the phenomena, the mines have a lattice work of minerals that are quite spectacular in what would be called the ultraviolet range. I would almost swear that I saw them brighten and dull but no recordings seemed to indicate that anything changed at all so I have just chalked it up to my imagination. Now I have not examine the Cardassian woman's remains but Rutka died from massive blood loss due to his major abdominal organs being violently removed as though shot or a bad transporter accident." Allyndra gave her fill in update. One little tribble under the chair in front of her wiggled away from her. It seemed they did not like to be around her nor anywhere close.

Jacob stepped up, "Unfortunately Commodore, the mysteries of the odd occurrences continues without the yielding of many secrets. We encounter more questions than answers..." He thought for a moment, "The only thing I can truly add here is that the mines are filled with some of the largest and clearest formations of quartz crystal I have ever seen or have heard about documented... and if my suspicions are correct... could be a big part of solving this frustrating puzzle."

Lirha opened her mouth to begin to speak, but eventually closed it when nothing came out. She was still attempting to process the different reports Blake, Stace, Warraquim and Pendleton had just given her, and she couldn't make heads or tails of what any of these different occurrences actually meant. The chief research officer was indeed correct; there now seemed to be more questions and few answers, which was extremely frustrating.

"So...are you saying we are no further along in our investigation? Except that we have now lost one of our crew?" she asked to no one in particular. "Does anyone have any sort of tangible hypothesis or ideas of what could be happening down in the mines?"

"If we'd have had more time," Stace replied, looking to the commodore, "then we might have been able to gather more information and at least attempt a theory. But with the equipment failing, the loss of a crewmember and the disconcerting sound my entire team heard, we just couldn't risk it." She looked to the commodore's blank face and, turning to Captain Holiday, elaborated. "Where as we didn't hear voices, both teams of mine heard a bone shaking rumble. Similar to a seismic shift beneath the surface. But we didn't get chance to investigate further."

"We need something a little more concrete - Lieutenant Stace, I want your team to go over every single iota of data that was gathered by both team's tricorders and all the orbital scans taken by the Galileo - I want a full report by the end of the day."

Stace smiled a small, unenthusiastic smile as she nodded to him. "Lieutenant Kohl and our team down in the labs are already collating the data as we speak, Captain," she replied, flicking her eyes to him and the commodore. "I'll have it all for you as soon as I can."

John hated that he was having to go on guesswork and supposition. Lirha was right - all they knew right now was that something was happening on the surface of the planet, and it was something lethal. Apart from that, he had no explanation for why one of his crewmen were dead and why miners were disappearing.

"In the meantime nobody is to proceed into the mines without my express authorisation - Mr Wyatt please liaise with security on the surface to lock down the mines - we can't afford any more deaths until we know exactly what is going on."

It took a few extra seconds than usual for the order he had been given to register "Ok" He said before looking up. "I mean yes, I'll overlook the security myself and make sure everyone is aware that the mines unless given the correct authorisation is given go into the mines. Does that mean the workers to?" He returned hoping no one caught his moment of hesitation.

"This is primarily a Cardassian facility so please make sure you follow their procedures - however I would advise that they minimise their staff movements where possible" John replied, knowing that the Cardassians would likely be lodging a complaint if his actions reduced their output too significantly.

Sighing John looked down at his foot and the sensation of a tribble that had recently rolled against his leg. With yet another exasperated sigh he picked up the ball of fluff from the floor and dropped it on the table in front of him.

"And is anyone anywhere close to finding out where the hell these things are coming from? This morning there was one in my sonic shower and another behind the replicator panel in my Ready Room!"

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CDRE Lirha Saalm
Mission Advisor
USS Galileo

LTCMDR Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer/Second Officer
USS Galileo

Senior Chief Petty Officer Luke Wyatt
Acting Chief of Secuity
USS Galileo

CMDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo

Command Master Chief Markum Quinn
Chief of the Boat
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Norvi Stace
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

CAPT Jonathan Holliday
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Asahi Kita
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

LCDR Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

LT Min Zhao
Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo

LT Jacob Pendleton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

LT Amynta Markos
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

RSS Feed