Future Fates

Posted on 20 Sep 2014 @ 7:15pm by Lieutenant Asahi Kita & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Commander Scarlet Blake & Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant Min Zhao & Commander Norvi Stace & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton & Lieutenant Commander Amynta Markos & Commander Luke Wyatt

5,549 words; about a 28 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 1, Conference Room
Timeline: MD 09 :: 1530 Hrs

[ON]

This wouldn't have been Asahi's first time trying to appeal to multiple Command mindsets. Granted, the last time he had been thrown in front of what he called the 'Disapproving Looks Committee,' it was because of some extremely uncanny string of events that eventually led to the one Ensign in Engineering taking up an extremely temporary 'Chief' mantle. It went without saying that Asahi didn't do well in front of the brass, regardless of how much he respected them.

But, he had no other choice. With matters being pressed literally into bulkheads, he had to act on this tribble matter, and he had to act now. Hopefully there wouldn't be too much 'disapproving' going on between the three he had requested to meet with, though he found himself wondering if he should have added Lirha into the mix or not.

He rounded the corner into the meeting room, hoping and praying that today was a 'good day,' despite the sea of multi-colored chaos, which seemed to nearly follow him around now that they all knew he had multiple solutions and one of them was to 'kill them all.' Court marital hanging over his head or not, he wasn't going to discount any solution if it meant the safety of the ship.

After shooing the tribbles off and making sure the door shut properly behind him, he turned, brushing his uniform off and finding himself a seat. He had to make mental preparations before they arrived, lest there was indeed much too much disapproving of the frazzled-looking engineer. He wasn't sure he could take that right now.

Luke entered the room looking fresh and clean, any sign of the away mission mostly gone except for the look in his eyes and the shadowy bags underneath them. The tell tale signs of sleeplessness. Greeting those who had already arrived with a nod and a half crooked smile he sat himself on one of the unoccupied seats. He didn't attempt any conversation with the other officers his mind was still processing the last couple of days, the mine, the harsh knock of reality with Blake and of course his daughter Abbey.

Dea entered the briefing moving slowly and still not feeling great. It didn't take her long to find a seat. On top of that Dea was still trying to sort through everything that had happened physically and mentally.

Amynta Markos walked in, her head held high. She was back in the skirt uniform, back with her hair up and nails done. If she didn't stick to it, then...well. It said it all. It really said it all. She had to keep going as she always had. She sat down, tilting her head as she watched the others.

Scarlet wasn't far behind as she moved in, easing herself down into her seat with a frown. Her head was throbbing, so much so that her long, dark hair wasn't pinned back neatly as usual, she'd had to make do with tying it loosely back with a slack ribbon. She'd had all of this nonsense up to her back teeth, and she wasn't going to put up with it anymore.

Stace was next to walk in, a little unsure on her feet. Her bones now truly healed and the scar all but gone, Stace couldn't quite shake the insecurity of her vulnerability. Twenty-fourth century tech aside, the knitting together of bones and skin didn't entrust faith back into ones own limits. She awkwardly took her seat and awaited the start.

Allyndra scratched at her bandaged hand absently as she walked. The fingers were already starting their process of regeneration. She walked slowly and saw a couple of the others enter before her. The medical crew had done very well and she had helped were she could but many hours of work and checking on everything had left her dead tired. All she wanted to do really was get a nice big flagon of blood wine, down it and pass out for a long time. She entered and took a seat.

Min was the last to arrive. Having literally just been discharged from sickbay a few hours earlier, she'd had enough time to go back to quarters and clean up, changing into something a bit more befitting a starfleet officer. Lian Meru was tucked away in a small baby sling after having a quick feed and change.

Finding a seat amongst the others, she waited for the briefing. Why she was here so soon after bringing Lian into the world, she wasn't sure, but her people were on the frontlines of this crisis so she wanted to be here. It also gave her a chance to get an idea of what had happened on the surface as Jared hadn't said much about it to her.

Jacob walked in and almost tripped over a poor little Tribble. He picked up the little creature, pet it and put it on his shoulder. It purred sweetly and that made him smile even more than he had been smiling as of late. He almost glowed with happiness and joy... almost as if he might be in love or something!

After a few moments John swung into the room, fresh from his disagreement with the Commodore and brandishing the tribble he had been assigned to guard, care for, protect, and generally allow to make a fool of him. With a PADD in one hand and the fluffball in the other he settled down at the table.

"Let's get a move on people - and nobody mention the tribble...I'm on..special assignment from the Commodore."

Luke, now more at ease than he was when he first entered the room shot the Captain an evil grin "Erm sir, the Tribble?" He pointed towards the ball of fluff which he had placed on the table before hand. Luke was always one to try his luck and he couldn't resist the urge to mention it after he had told them not to. Just like a big red button with the sign do not touch Luke ofcourse always pressed it.

Dea noticed the Tribble but didn't say anything. The creature were creating a big mess all over the ship. Flight Control was no exception there.

Asahi refused to admit to even noticing the tribble, instead eying the spot on the wall near the tribble and trying his best not to burst into laughter about the whole thing. It was unfortunate, but he didn't want to end up with his own little toupee.

"Report to Engineering for plasma conduit scrubbing duty Mr Wyatt." John replied with a hint of annoyance in his voice as he made a note on a PADD to follow up on his order.

Lirha was the last to arrive at the scheduled late-afternoon briefing and she stepped into the small conference room with a suppressed yawn. She hadn't slept well during the night no thanks to the constant purring and cooing of tribbles which had now thoroughly invaded her and her fiance's quarters, and she wasn't sure how many more sleepless nights she could manage. Glancing around at all the senior officers assembled, many of which didn't appear to be in the best shape either, she hoped this meeting would serve as both an after-action report from the mine investigation as well as provide some solutions to their impending tribble doom. She took a seat next to Holliday at the head of the table, pleased to see he still had his tribble which she'd charged him with caring for earlier in the day.

"So what's been going on up here while we were gone?" Scarlet looked around the table, sitting forward to rest clasped hands on the surface. "Tribbles have finally managed to find their way into my office, so I'm guessing the infestation has got worse rather than better...?"

Allyndra observed the Commodore. She seemed to be more of what Allyndra expected her to be than what had transpired in sickbay. Well, she decided that was another topic and not for here.

She spoke up, "Well we have made some breakthroughs on several fronts. The first of which working Doctor Voutilainen, we have come up with a substance that interfers....well actually stops tribbles from making more of themselves. It is stable for quite a bit and promising for long term as well. I believe it can be easily deployed through the air handling without effect to the crew. Second and you will have to answer this one Commodore, is a manipulation of the Orion pheromone system to attract tribbles."

"Our shuttle bay is currently fouled as the Tribble present a FOD hazard. Flight Control is working on containing them but that doesn't last long. Since we can't kill them decompressing the bay isn't an option," Dea replied, "The only other options are containing them in a shuttle and launching the shuttle but then we'd lose an aux craft or beaming them down to the planet. So nothing we have is truly a viable option at this point."

Luke looked up from his PaDD he had written done most key bullet points "Security are to trying to come up with contingency plans however are falling short however one did come across my desk" He said seeing if anyone wanted to hear it.

Asahi glanced about at the others as they spoke, raising a brow. "We've got containment to the tribbles themselves at about 40% capacity between the methods Lieutenant Commander Mialin described, isolated storerooms in the Science Department, one of the Holodecks, and the extremely helpful use of the transporter's pattern buffers. The pattern buffers were a solid recommendation from Oren Idris, but with the tribbles reproducing at such a swift rate, we have yet to be able to cram them all in there. Engineering-and Ops..." He paused, nodding toward Min. "Have both been frantically keeping vital systems online, but it won't be all that long before the ship won't be able to support every lifeform in it, tribble, crewman, or otherwise."

"Intelligence...are considering rat poison," Amynta said lightly before shaking her head. "Unfortunately, we are rather useless against tribbles. We were looking down the route of finding out where they originated and lynching the people responsible, but considering I am a bit short staffed I've decided against it..." there wasn't really a hint of humor in that statement. At all.

"I've managed to keep the blighters out of my own office, as it happens," Stace then said, nodding as she spoke. "It's provided the department with a clear space to work but it's still not ideal. They've managed to completely overrun one of the labs, chewing through some of the diagnostic circuitry." She looked over to Asahi. "Something that we'll need your help with when this is over but I can imagine that you'll already have a long list."

Asahi mentally took note of the mention, filing it away with all the other notes about departments that would have needed fixing the moment the tribbles were off the ship. "Oh, Engineering will be all over it."

"Operations is doing the best we can to support the other departments in their containment efforts. Despite an impressive effort on everyone's parts, last report from my Senior Chief, we are anticipating that key systems will be compromised to the point we'll loose control of the ship within 48-72 hours, possibly sooner." Min paused. "I can't stress how important it is the ship is rid of these creatures even if they means we have to resort to extermination. Our only other option then becomes evacuation and we're still faced with a ship that will eventually self-destruct. Either way the tribbles die."

Once they'd all given their summary on the frustrating situation, Scarlet looked back to Luke who had mentioned having an idea pass over his desk. "What was your thought?" she asked, motioning to him lightly.

He cleared his thought before speaking, catching the gazes of all those at the table he spoke "Down in the mines, the way those entity's reacted to the tribble it was... well life saving I cant help but think would it be inhumane to beam the tribbles down into the mines? The tribble didn't explode and the entity's seemed fascinated by it so that they left us alone." He folded his arms and placed them on the table "I suggest beaming the tribbles down into the underground civilization."

Stace sucked in air through her teeth, and pursed her lips in a displeased manner. "I understand the 'killing two birds with one stone' expression," Stace started with, a little apprehensive how to proceed with her objection, "but these are living beings we are talking about. They have no say in this one way or another. And that concerns me. We'll be changing their evolutionary progression if we allow them to coexist with these non-corporeal beings."

Lirha listened intently to the discussion but felt a bit lost considering she hadn't been down in the mine to see what the rest of the assembled officers had. She'd read as many after-action reports as possible, but she still had many questions about what exactly the away teams had discovered.

"What exactly happened down in the mine?" she asked, hoping for some clarification. "What did you discover? I noticed several reports mentioned an obelisk...and a collection of non-corporeal entities? What did they want with the tribble?"

Luke was first to answer hoping to push home the idea "We were in a bad shape and surrounded if it wasn't for the tribble we would likely all be mindless zombies. They were fascinated by it so much they broke of their attack" He paused. "They merged with the tribble and after a short transfer of the entity into the body it continued to pur, it didn't look painful and were hardly helping them evolve they already posses vast amounts of knowledge as we all saw. The tribble problem is effecting ships systems and operation we need to act other wise simply keeping them out of our offices will not do. How long until they get into the major systems like the warp core or the nacelles and a then a warp core breach?" Luke sat back into his seat.

Scarlet considered it before leaning forward to try and help fill in the gaps for anyone who hadn't been there, nodding to Luke's description. "My team arrived and found some rather chilling logs. We were confronted by Tratar and his team. They were under attack, and then we were under attack. It was like..." she lifted her hands, her fingertips moving as if trying to feel for the right words. "Red energy....that crawled inside of Tratar's men, and burned them from the inside out, and took control of the shell that was left," her voice was quiet and her features drawn into a frown at the disconcerting memory.

Shaking her head gently, Scarlet licked her dry lips before continuing with a soft sigh. "All we could do is hide. Weapons wouldn't even work on them. The Captain's team managed to find us, and we decided we all had to get out with an enemy we were helpless against on our heels. But they managed to cut us off again," she motioned to Luke, to tie into what he'd been saying. "We fought hard, and somewhere in the madness, the energy merged with a tribble, only it didn't die like the Cardassians. It seemed unharmed. But before we could even consider that any further, a cave in caused us to plummet into a hidden cavern....and that's when it all went really crazy."

"Attempts at communication were made." Asahi piped in, clearly missing details on the matter. He glanced up, smiling apologetically. "Ah, sorry, didn't mean to interrupt. Two more days, by the way." He nodded towards Luke. "That's how much longer Engineering can fend off the tribbles from the warp core and life support power, and that's including our use of the bar's external battery nodes."

Dea heard Luke's choice of words and the whole thing made her feel guilty. Still shuddering at the thought of what had transpired in that cave Mialin spoke, "It wasn't a pleasant experience and I know it wasn't painless." Honestly the whole experience was still a jumbled pile of chaos for Dea. "The only thing that I clearly get right now is that they don't like whats happening to them."

Aside from Galileo's first officer who had elaborated a bit for Lirha, the commodore was still a bit confused by the vague identifications and terminology being thrown around. "Who is 'they' and what are they? And what do you mean by 'attempts at communication'?" she asked, looking around the room for anyone who could provide her with details.

For a moment Dea's attention shifted between those that had been on the away team. "There's a lot of chaotic thoughts right now, so I hope someone can fill in the blanks." Mialin paused having a very hard time putting any of what happened into words but she attempted to anyway, "One of their tentacle's easily penetrated my EVA helmet. We were surrounded. They went further with a command for one of us to touch the obelisk..." Its all Dea could manage and it was very clear the whole experience didn't sit well with her.

Allyndra spoke up again. "It would appear that the planet is inhabited by a sentient life form...well a sort of energy life form. It appears that at one time if I can make sense of what was communicated in a sort of telepathic way though not exactly telepathic. Here is my summation: 1. A sentient species non-corporal; 2. We have a sort of first contact situation on a non-Federation planet; 3. Others can indicate but my feeling is they regret their evolutionary path. I hope that helps Commodore."

Jacob added as he petted his Tribble again, "I complete agree with Commander Warraquim on her assessment of the situation."

Scarlet licked her lips and took her breath to try and get her thoughts together and connect the dots a little more. "In the cavern, we were.....surrounded. By red energy streaks, that's all I can describe them as. But they weren't attacking at that time, it was more like they were...watching, waiting. They made contact with 'Commander Mialin," she motioned to her, linking in to what she had described. "They...instructed, for lack of a better word, that someone should touch one of the obelisks down there."

With that, Scarlet motioned to Kita, acknowledging his volunteering for the task. "And that's when it hit us. This....wave of energy, strong enough to knock us back and injure us. Then this...story began. It was like..." she searched for the words with a frown, rubbing the back of her head. "Like a stream of holographic film running right in front of us, telling us how they had been a people who lived under the surface a long time ago, and slowly, with increasing technology, they lost more and more of their connection and need of the body until they became totally non-corporal beings. It seems they've lived down there for years and years in peace, until the mining began, breaking down the uridium, damaging their dwellings."

The Orion listened intently to the additional information now being presented. It was fascinating to her, the notion of a planetary dwelling non-corporeal species. The only other type of non-corporeal entities she'd ever personally encountered had been the Calamarain, and that experience had been brief at best. But here, there was the potential presence of an entire civilization of these beings. The mention of first contact was also of great importance to Lirha and after hearing Blake explain the details of holographic film, she slowly started to put the pieces together.

"These beings are the ones responsible for the disturbance in the mines?" she asked to clarify what she was thinking. "Can we...communicate with them?"

"Perhaps," Allyndra replied to the Commodore's question. "They seem as indicated gave a sort of communication, a series of pictures and such. I am not sure about talking back yet." Allyndra hated sounding so Vulcan but she shrugged and added, "Insufficient data at this point in my opinion."

"Either way we need to get these things off the ship before we lose it completely. If direct...elimination..methods are out of the question then it is most likely the most humanitarian option."

John replied looking first at the creature he had been assigned by the Commodore, and then to the Commodore herself with one last pleading look in his eyes to be allowed to beam the fluffballs into space.

Lirha had to agree with the captain on that particular subject. As much as she hated to admit it, the infestation was getting worse and worse by the hour, and their time to find a solution was close to expiring. And as had previously just been pointed out to her, the casualties of the debacle would not only be Galileo's crew, but also the tribbles themselves. Taking a deep breath to allow her mind to work, she began to wonder more about the events in the cave and how they directly related to their current plight aboard the ship. "Can you tell me more about this tribble down in the mine? You mentioned the attacks stopped when it was discovered... What did the entities want with it?" she proceeded to ask to no one in particular.

"It would appear," Stace replied, shifting her weight in her chair as she began, "that we're not entirely sure. And until we open up another dialogue with the entities, we don't have all that much to go on." She leant forward a little, offering her own insight into joined species. "But what if something in the tribbles' make-up or benign existence has reminded these entities about what it's like to exist? In corporeal form. Not in the way that a curmudgeon, aggressive Cardassian would allow them to. Or even human. But something innocent and simple." She patted her belly and raised an eyebrow. "Joining two sentient beings together in harmony is difficult and rapped with issues. But with the tribble being docile and simple, perhaps the entities can harvest the best of both worlds; intelligent, ethereal existence but with tactile form."

Pushing a green hand through her dark hair to tuck a stray lock back behind her ear, Lirha pondered the options available to them as thoroughly as possible yet still with a sense of urgency. "Well...if your theory is correct, we certainly have enough tribbles on board Galileo to appease these beings," she replied to Stace. "As Mister Wyatt mentioned earlier, it would also solve both of our current problems, it seems. I suppose the matter at hand now becomes how to communicate with this non-corporeal race to verify our assumptions. Any thoughts?" Lirha opened up the floor to any ideas. "Or should we simply take the empirical route, beam down a container of tribbles, and verify the results that way?"

"We....do have another consideration though," Scarlet pointed out softly, looking around the large table. "The Cardassians are still watching us like hawks, they don't trust our intervention. They might not take kindly to us beaming down a load of tribbles into their mining facility. They might even see it as an act of sabotage. Now, Tratar was with us down there, he saw it all. If we can win him over with this idea, he can go back and report to his people for us...and hopefully persuade them not to blow us out of the water."

Stace sucked in another breath and hesitantly paused before continuing. "I know that we're stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea here, but we can't just abandon the fact that these are sentient beings. They have no choice or control over what we throw them into. We'll essentially be deciding the fate of these creatures without considering the consequence to their own existence."

Norvi had brought up a very valid issue, one which no doubt contained a great deal of moral and ethical dilemmas. It was hard for Lirha to weigh the different options because there weren't very many of them at this junction. In her mind, it was either beam the tribbles to the Cardassian vessel and potentially start a war; beam the tribbles down to the planet to possibly appease the entities inhabiting the mine; or beam the tribbles into space and kill them to save Galileo. Out of the three options, the second one seemed to be the lesser of the three evils and the one with the most potential for success. Blake had also brought up a good point regarding the Cardassians and their ownership of the mining colony, and fortunately the commodore had some news to report on that front.

"I have actually already spoken with Gul Verrok recently, after your away team returned to the ship," Lirha replied to Blake. "First Glinn Tratar returned back to Aldara and reported his experience in the mine as well as the loss of his men. In light of the recent revelations, the Gul and I have come to a mutual arrangement that all mining operations be ceased until we have addressed the issue at hand. Which now means dealing with the being living in the mines."

Lirha then looked back over at Stace and gave her a weak smile. "I know you have your reservations about delivering the tribbles to the entities, but I do not think we have any other choice. We cannot contain their breeding on board Galileo and it is only a matter days until we will be forced to abandon ship. If the entities in the mine have shown an interest in the tribbles, I think it could be the most humane and productive solution to our two problems," she explained.

"Perhaps," Allyndra added. "However, if it that is the course of action, then I think before this mine gets overrun as well, that our newly refined drug be given to the tribbles as well. It greatly slows their natural tendency to reproduce." She knew that she should not say more but she could not stop her own observation. "I can not help but think these entities chose their own path and now regret it. All civilizations have their moments of crises and personally I think it best they find their own solutions unless they ask for the help if any are there to give that help." Allyndra could not be helped but be coloured by her own people's history.

"I'm inclined to disagree with both of you" Luke shook his head he looked to Norvi first "The beings are clearly capable of doing what they must and if anything we are simply de-evolving them and its not as if they would disagree with the offer, they stopped trying to kill us if you've forgotten, for the tribble" He next turned to Allyndra "No matter where we put them the will grow and overrun whatever planet, ship or solar system for all we know and guess for. Your drug slows them down doesn't stop them we could still administer that drug and put them in the mine we had to fall 30 meter's before hitting the bottom of that underground city I doubt the mines would be at risk and we could reseal that section of the mine" He then looked around the group pleadingly. "Its often said the needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few but in this case it is not so. The needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many in this case we are the few" He waved his arm across the table "And the tribbles are the many.

"I will say it how it is right now from my point of view, the tribbles are an invading force upon the Galileo even if it was brought on upon by ourself and therefore must act defensibly but while we wait and argue and develop new drugs they grow in number and soon it wont matter sometimes you have to bite the bullet and do what it is to be done we have three option really We loose the Galileo, We kill the Tribbles as humanly as possible or put them into the underground city and seal that mine section." Luke hadn't realised he had now sat forward, catching a reflection in the window he saw how dramatic and angry his face looked. Sitting back he folded his arms.

Scarlet watched Luke in silence for a long moment before nodding. "I agree," she said quietly. "We also don't know if the addition of a drug to the tribbles might interfere with the interaction between them and the red energy beings. And frankly? We're running out of time. Whatever it was we were shown from the obelisk, it was pretty clear towards the end. They want the tribbles to experience physical life again...the tribbles are non-intelligent lifeforms and they're not harmed by the interaction, however this ship is being harmed by their presence. They....suggested that if they had tribbles and the mining of uridium stopped, they'd keep to themselves and remain in peace. The doctor suggested that civilisations should find their own solutions to their problems unless they ask....but they have asked. They asked us for tribbles and for the mining to stop, it was very clear at the end of their...communication. And we can give them that help."

Jacob thought long and hard throughout the entire exchanges. "Ethics tells us what we must do regarding the Tribbles. I know it is difficult to try and decide the fate of a creature that is, of itself harmless. I would not want to see harm come to these creatures, but I know that the Galileo cannot support their breeding habits either... so unfortunately if I have to choose between these creatures and my friends and fellow crew members, I will choose the latter without too much reservation."

Luke nodded to what Jacob had said, "I say we settle it and put it down to a vote, If we had the time then I would happily talk this through the night but we don't have the time. The vote to be allowing the tribbles to be beamed down to the underground city and then the mine section being sealed in afterwards." He looked to Lirha and Holliday "Are you content with this?" He asked respecting rank.

Being the most outspokenly opposed to the only viable option open to the crew, Stace interjected before the brass had time to reply; saving Wyatt the fall-out for his suggestion. In truth, there were captains and admirals who appreciated a consensus and the support of their crew before making the decision themselves, but with Stace's previous host not being one of those types of captains, she argued against it.

"As a crew and a ship, we don't have a choice. Vote or not, we need to dispose, however humanely, of this infestation. And if the entities want them and the tribbles seem content, for lack of a better word, with being possessed by them, then we have little room to chose. Ultimately, the commodore is correct. It's the lesser of three evils."

"I was only suggesting it out of respect for those who have expressed concern over the matter but it's Captain Holliday who has the final say in the matter." Luke turned to where the Captain was sitting, tribble too.

"A vote?!?!" John yelled, stamping his fist down on the table to gather the attention of those around him. The Captain was amazed that people were considering the situation to be one that was up for discussion.

"These things need to get the hell off my ship - if I can't put them out an airlock then transporting them to the planet is the next best alternative. The decision is made."

Scarlet let out a gentle breath. In a strange way, she had found Holliday's reaction refreshing and calming. "Well, I think you have your orders," she said softly, sitting back. "Gather as many tribbles as you can ready for transportation to the surface. Dismissed."

Luke was first of his seat, he was more than happy to oblige to the captains order since he was the one to suggest the idea yet when he suggested the vote out of fairness he was ridiculed and felt angry but bit his tongue.

[OFF]

--

CDRE Lirha Saalm
Mission Advisor
USS Galileo

CAPT John Holliday
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

CMDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo

LCDR Allyndra Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

LCDR Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

LT Min Zhao
Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo

LT Jacob Pendleton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

LT Asahi Kita
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

LT Amynta Markos
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Luke Wyatt
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

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