In Pursuit (Part 2 of 3)

Posted on 07 Jul 2012 @ 9:41am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Commander Chauncey Remington III (KIA) & Lieutenant JG Kestra Orexil & Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D. & Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Coleman & Lieutenant Theron Rhodes & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Commander Andreus Kohl & Commander Scarlet Blake & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Lieutenant Lilou Zaren & Chief Petty Officer Lucalin Mrina Ph.D. & Ensign Im'er Mor'an & Lawrence Gibbs & Anthony Hardaway Ph.D. & Justice Abernathy Ph.D. (MIA) & Eric Anderson & Emma Kennedy (MIA) & Rachel Hardaway Ph.D.

4,357 words; about a 22 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Bridge, Various
Timeline: MD 07 - 2035 hrs

Previously...

With green eyes locked on the intelligence chief as she spoke, Lirha furrowed her brow at what she perceived as a rather condescending reply from Coleman. Lirha was well aware of the contents of the classified intelligence briefing and had already considered that option. In fact, she was not very pleased that Evelyn had just disclosed the contents of the briefing to the rest of the bridge crew. Of course, Lirha had done something similar in the past during the initial mission briefing shortly after they departed Earth, but that was her prerogative as ship's captain, and it only involved the ship's senior officers. Perhaps she had set a bad example by doing that. But regardless, she had a strange feeling... as if there seemed to be other forces at work. She couldn't put her finger on it, but judging from the unexpected and mysterious computer core problems, as well as Ensign Cho's seemingly-nervous and guilty mannerisms when confronted, Lirha's suspicions were on high alert.

Kiri had been scanning, noting and scanning again the ships in front of them and the space at large for more signals. The young woman was doing her job as best she could, yet a primal defense mechanism made all the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Maybe it was the fact that something strange had been brought up regarding a ship she knew something about, more likely though she didn't know it was the eyes that were drilling a hole in her. With a gulp she kept working, doing her best to keep their eyes wide open.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

The captain turned her head towards the master systems display which was currently being manned by the young Trill warrant officer, Lilou. "What's the status of our engines?" she asked, hopeful that the previous malfunction they had encountered had been fully fixed. "Did the repair teams find any additional damage?" When they first docked, Lirha had instructed Quinn to send out a small EVA team to inspect the damaged nacelle, and she hoped that they had not found any additional damage.

Lilou barely looked up from the console as she replied, "We're running strong since the last repairs. Impulse engines are ready for full firing." She was a little nervous about shuttling them ahead at full impulse or pushing warp speed with the jury-rigging they'd done with the nacelle on their way out, but if the Chief thought they could handle it, she had to trust his judgement. He'd never given her any reason to doubt him. "We are green for go and standing by for your orders, Captain."

"Good." the captain replied somewhat quietly but with a crisp voice. At least with all engine systems functioning at full capacity, they might be able to achieve a good burst velocity and put some distance between themselves and any pursuers. She took her seat in the center chair, noticing that it was already warm, and adjusted herself slightly. Her fingers quickly tapped on her armchair console and she displayed a detailed map of the surrounding area. With an additional tap, she linked the image overlay to the main viewscreen, and the map suddenly was displayed for all bridge officers to see. It took her several short moments to look over the sector map, but she eventually came to a decision. "I want to go here." she said, pointing at the northern-most nebula which was located deeper inside Federation territory. "The Z'Tarnis Nebula."

"My thoughts exactly... I've already made preparations... all we need to do is start our run... and hope the shields hold."

John nodded in agreement, heading back to his chair as XO and settling back in, logging into the panel beside him with his access codes and waiting for the next order.

The captain watched silently for a moment as John took a seat at his station and began to manipulate the LCARS software with his fingers. She was curious as to what exact preparations he and the crew had made in her absence. Not that she didn't trust him... far from it. In fact, he was a very dependable officer. But as CO and ship's captain, it was her duty to be as knowledgeable about the situation as possible, especially given the dangerous and volatile scenario they currently found themselves in. "Have you found a way to delay the Klingons?" she asked her XO in a somewhat softer-than-expected voice, hoping he would elaborate on the specifics for her. "Even at maximum warp, we are one of the slower ships in the fleet..." she added, her voice trailing off.

It was an unfortunate weakness of Galileo; the lack of top speed. During the original Nova Class development project, Starfleet Corps of Engineers eventually had to replace the initial warp core with a smaller, less powerful version in order to stabilize the small science ship's power matrix. The result left the Nova Class slightly underpowered and with a top speed of only about warp 8, however the ship's systems and performance were much more stable and many of the overload malfunctions which plagued the prototype, USS Nova, had been fixed. And of course, since planetary science was the ship class' focus, and not combat, Starfleet had deemed the loss of performance 'acceptable'.

"The Chief has had a word with the gods of warp propulsion, hopefully we might be able to get a little extra speed out of the engines... that and with the auxiliary power dumped into the shields, we should have enough time to get into the nebula before the Klingons do any serious damage... trust me."

John smiled towards the visibly nervous CO. He knew full well that she was more of a talker than a fighter, but now they were in his world, and it was time for him to at least try and shine.

Lirha swallowed a nervous lump in her throat, knowing that by giving the order to depart, she was most likely about to lead Galileo into her first combat scenario. She silently took a deep breath and prayed that she would not lose any of the men, women, and now children under her command. Looking into John's brown eyes, she gave him a nod of approval, a silent gesture which affirmed her faith in him. "Very well." she said, then tapped a sequence of commands on her chair's arm console, opening the intra-ship comm channel. She cleared her throat briefly before addressing her crew. "All hands, this is the captain." she began, her voice echoing loudly throughout the ship on all decks. "Ready battle stations and prepare to engage Klingon forces. We'll be jumping to warp momentarily, most likely with hostiles in pursuit. Secure the ship and standby for further orders." she said, then closed the channel with a tap of her finger.


Sickbay

Looking around her, Pola took in the words of the Captain and looked at each of the people stationed around her. Giving them each their own moment to take in what was being said, she then stepped forward, looking at them one after the other. "Ok guys. You all know what you need to do, what jobs you will be carrying out should we be needed. I need each team to ensure that they have a medikit with them, if you are leaving here. Anyone who's staying here, I need you to ensure you have a tricorder and you each have your own dermal regenerator and osteo generator to hand as a majority of what we will see is burns and breaks. I don't want the teams moving until it's evident there is going to be people needed to be treated. The safest place for us is together right now. Any questions?"

Nurse Andreus Kohl crossed his left arm over his chest and squeezed his right elbow. From where he was standing with the junior officers, he looked right at Pola. "If we were to be boarded by Klingons," Kohl said, his voice icy, "should we anticipate defending our patients?"

Looking at Carlisle, Pola then looked back at Andrues, "I assume that security will be distributing weapons. It would be preferable that they assign a security officer to sickbay but in the event this doesn't happen, I have weapons training as a senior officer. Is there anyone else?" Pola was actually surprised that at this stage no officer had yet arrived. Using the PADD in her hand, she sent a message to security for an update.

"I'm, ah, not uncomfortable with a phaser myself," Kohl admitted. He looked over at the others and Carlisle expectantly, as if it were a shameful secret and he didn't want to be the only one. "It's why I asked..."

Looking at Kohl, Pola smiled sympathetically, "I don't think anyone in the medical profession likes to hold a phaser but please remember, our duty is to protect our patients and as starfleet officers also our colleagues. If your called upon to need to use a phaser, you must remember this."

"I feel comfortable with a phaser in my hand," Scarlet replied lightly, but honestly, looking to them. They wouldn't all necessarily know she had been a marine officer, and so had to be just as ready to jump in the thick of it with a rifle as look after the mental health of the personnel. "If it comes to that, I can lend a hand, no problem. But I suspect Security will have it under control. They usually do."


Engineering

With the Captain's announcement, the frantic pace in Engineering seemed to increase from Ens. Rhodes' point of view. The security officer continued to stand to the side, out of the way, on the main level of Engineering. He nervously picked up his side arm and checked its readiness and put it back.

Quinn shook his head and passed a look towards Willis, then the rest of the staff. "Let's move it people!" shouted Quinn to gain everyone's attention. "Batten down the hatches, activate Warp Core shield, secure nacelle control rooms and grab a phaser! Get your asses to battle stations and man your post until the Skipper gives the all clear."

Willis tossed over a phaser to Quinn, which the Chief grabbed and secured it to his belt then picked up his PADD and started going over his emergency checklist. Then an idea struck him. =^=Quinn to Bridge, I have an idea that may confuse the Klingons long enough for us to get the hell away and into the nebula. =^=

Hearing the battle-hardened voice of the chief over the comm yet again, John was glad to hear that yet more ideas were flooding into the Galileo's Bridge. When staring battle in the face, there was nothing wrong with an extra idea. Taking the initiative, the XO spoke up

=^=Go ahead Chief - what you got for me? =^=

Quinn looked down at his PADD, =^=How about we do a couple micro burst of high Warp, just to throw them off, then after the second, we launch a couple probes in different directions at the same time we go to Warp. The probes could confuse the Klingons long enough that we may only have to deal with a couple, instead of an armada. It would take only a few minutes to program them to put out our transponder code.=^=

=^=Make it so Chief - might be useful if we need to make a run out of the nebula later on...always good to have a trick up our sleeves =^=

Lilou had already been on high alert, watching the monitors and scans and system checks with a canny eye from the bridge console. She wanted to be down there with them, getting her hands dirty and keeping things running, but someone had to be on the Bridge.

Ens. Rhodes watched as the weapons were passed around. He had reservations about this action. He thought that Lt. Orexil might as well. He instructed his security personnel to move outside the Warp Core Shield area.

Gibbs stood off to the side, with his PADD. He was out of the way, looking as unkempt as always. He made note of Rhodes' double check, as well as Quinn's seeming efficiency. It looked good.


Corridors

Anthony rounded a corner, pushing past a scurrying ensign, and stepped on the turbolift. Despite his orders for Aria to escort him, he seemed always to be ahead of her hurrying along, still intent on going to the bridge. His eyes fixed on the security officer and he considered letting the doors close without her. What did he need a bumbling Starfleet ensign tailing him for? She was saved from his escape when he stopped to listening as the captain's voice sounded.

"Hey!" Aria ran to catch up, taking a breath as she listened. She swore and touched his arm. "There, happy with that? Can we now just go back and make sure your little science project is safe?"

When it was over, the scientist's eyes darkened. "Klingons," Anthony hissed, making the word a curse.

"Yes, I believe that was what was said," she said and folded her arms. "Come on, let's head back to the cargo bay. No need for you to see the Captain now."

"Don't patronize me," he said, turning his gold gaze on her, "I will not leave this system until the transfer is complete and no doubt your precious captain does not understand the importance of my work if she expects to run away." With that he crossed his arms and stared straight ahead, giving the girl no more thought. "Bridge." The turbolift sped off at his word.

Aria looked at him for a moment, anger rising in her. She moved to block the exit. "Computer, stop," she said, taking a deeper breath. "Your work is important. I get that. But here is something you need to understand... we are on red alert for a good reason. And we are doing everything to keep you and the project safe. But you need remember that it isn't just your work on the line. It is our lives too. So accept it, back down and trust the Captain to do what she can to help."

A smile crept across Doctor Hardaway's features, a condescending smile. "I wouldn't expect you to understand. I will satisfy my own concerns about the safety of my project with the captain. This crew is not qualified to make decisions about Project Sienna." He was beginning to think he should ahve lost the girl in teh corridors before boarding a lift. "A red alert is only more reason for me to by with the captain to advise her. Computer, resume."

Aria watched him for a long moment, so tempted just to slap his arm or something. Instead she pulled away and looked at the door. "Yes, because distracting the Commanding Officer during a Red Alert is just the best plan ever. Not at all a waste of time and utterly stupid, nope..."

"I'm glad you agree," Anthony said, his dismissive tone indicating how little he cared for what she thought of his plan.

Aria shot him a look and shook her head, taking a breath. "Well, we will see what happens when she rips you a new one."


Cargo Bay

Standing at the console, Eric listened to the message from the ship's Captain and found himself speechless. So many questions were running through his head but his biggest concern was the project, the ramifications if the Klingon's got their hands on Sienna were unthinkable. Turning to Justice and Lucalin, he pushed his hand through his head, "Can anything more be done to ensure Sienna is fully secured? If the Klingons board us they cannot get their hands on her."

Lucalin subconsciously touched the feeding tube running into the port at the back of his neck as he listened to the announcement. He wished now more than ever that he knew more about this ship than he did. Something, anything, to help protect both the individuals in the cargo bay and the research they had worked on. Humans could procreate, but research could take thousands of years to duplicate if the wrong pieces were lost. "We must keep them from having access to the cargo bay. I will do my best. If you and your colleague are able to identify what of the data has been lost, you should begin trying to recall it and set it down. You may remember more than you think." He closed his eyes, fingers brushing over his PADD and the LCARS screen. "There are oxygen tanks in the far right corner. Those, we should have access to. If intruders are able to pass through the door, I should be able to concoct a gas out of the supplies available to incapacitate them. Organic chemistry is a large part of what I do."

"And what exactly is it that you do?" Justice asked, eyeing the alien's ridged ears suspiciously. "There are parts of our equipment that could be damaged severely by interaction with some unknown toxic gas."

"I'm a bioengineer," Lucalin answered. "I assume that the crates were sealed for transport, which would make any change in the air quality around them ineffectual to the components inside. Regarding your concern with an unknown gas, I can promise it would not be an unknown element. From the available components in here, I can mix a fairly strong airborne sedative. I'd be happy to explain the process if you find it necessary."

Looking around her, Emma fought back the tears. The Klingons? Why were they after her? Was it Sienna? Looking around more frantically, she tried to see Justice through the people milling around, what if they died and they never got to be together after finally loosing each other?

Justice ground his teeth together and looked away. Hardaway was gone and he'd be damned if he was going to lose everything that he had worked for. Months of planning. He could only hope that wily ridged-forehead alien would get her comeuppance in the midst of the coming assault. "I'd like to know," he said, raising his voice, "why Starfleet has seen fit to settle us with an incompetent alien instead of someone who might actually be able to protect us and our project." He stepped up onto a low cargo box to continue his announcement. "Our data is at risk, years of work potentially lost. It is up to us to see to it that our time at 152 has not been for naught. Go through the data samples, reassess and input what you can of what is missing." His eyes landed on Emma. I'm doing this for you, he thought. For us. For our future and our happiness. Don't be scared. Everything will be all right. But she couldn't hear his thoughts. He opened his mouth to say something to ease her mind, cleared his throat, and turned to Anderson. "How do we know the data was missing before he attached this... creature's... apparatus into the LCARS?" he asked lightly, and then stepped down. "I think the alien needs to be held for questioning. Protecting this bay is up to us now."

Choking back tears as she saw Justice look over her, Emma ran off to a corner. She was of no use here and Dr. Hardaway had disappeared. She was better just just getting out of everyone's way, especially when she wasn't wanted.

Looking hard at Justice, Eric tried to figure out what the hell was going on here. "Justice what the hell are you doing?!? The data upload was interrupted from the Starbase's side. Trying to create an atmosphere of people being angry and scared is not going to help. We need everyone's help to secure the cargobay, including the crew of this ship and thus Lucalin." Even though he'd never indicated it, he had heard the scientist introduce himself earlier. Inching closer to the scientist's side, he tried to ensure he wasn't in any danger from the other scientists.

"What is necessary," Justice replied, quietly and regally. "We are alone in here and defenseless. I don't need to create an atmosphere, Anderson. We are all angry and scared. We've been torn from the base, where we were safe and protected for years. And within hours of boarding this vessel, we're under attack. It doesn't seem like a coincidence to me. Truthfully, we have no idea what they're planning on doing with us, where they were planning on taking us at all. All we have is their word that they were going to relocate the project. Either way, it doesn't matter now. This ship has no hope of fighting the Klingons." He crossed his wrists behind his back, "How do you know, for certain, that the data was destroyed from the Starbase? Why would they have done that?"

"That was the data readout," Lucalin answered quietly. "I don't know how much more detailed we can get about the situation beyond the report in the LCARS without contacting the starbase and having someone run a local scan of the system there..." He moved his head slightly from side to side, listening as the rumbles of the other scientists reverberated off the crates and walls.

Stepping closer to Lucalin's side, Eric wasn't comfortable where this was going. He may have a dislike for starfleet himself but that didn't mean he wanted to see them being unfairly accused of something which may not have been their fault. "Look guys, this red alert has us all on edge. Justice your right, we need to go through the data and piece it all together. You were on the scientists who worked most closely with Anderson on this. Can we concentrate on that and our security right now? Lucalin knows this ship better than any of us right now, we need his help to secure this area."

"He knows nothing," Justice said, shaking his head. "The fellow only came on board when we did, this afternoon. Didn't you see him clicking and chirping around the mess hall on the starbase the past two days? God only knows what he was doing that for, signaling his cohorts perhaps. Organizing some kind of sabotage with foreign signals." An eruption of murmurs fueled Justice's newfound confidence. "I am focusing on our security, Anderson. We don't even know what he is. Where he came from. I've certainly never seen a race like his before, have you?" He turned out to look at the others, "Have any of you?" The murmurs graduated to outright mutterings and grumbles, fear transitioning to anger on many faces. "Fredrickson, Williams, take our distinguished officer aside and see what you can figure out from his PADD. We need information. I will lockdown the doors. Everyone else, begin analyzing the data and figure out just what they're trying to hide from us."

"I'm Bireikar," Lucalin said, his head swiveling as he tried to keep track of the whereabouts of the others. "I'm... I have five fingers." He held up his hand to show them. He didn't have many other ways of assessing how different he was from them. He had much harder time assessing skin pigments than light sources for color and the sense he had of what others of different species looked like was a fairly fuzzy sketch in his brain that was made up more of smell than anything else. Most of the individuals in here smelled like humans. Although at the moment, he found himself concentrating on the two heading towards him who he could only assume were 'Fredrickson' and 'Williams'. Odd names, he thought to himself, backing up slightly. There was no sense in the movement, when he considered it, but it was a natural reaction to being approached by strangers who probably did not have positive intentions. He certainly wasn't going to attempt anything. He was outnumbered and everyone seemed to be taking this 'about to die' situation quite drastically. For Lucalin, who had spent a rather large percentage of his time about to die, the situation wasn't one to get overly concerned over. Either they would die, or they would survive. He didn't have much control over it, either way, so he could only do what he did in the meantime. "You're welcome to the PADD. You don't have to take me anywhere. Here." He offered his specially adapted PADD with its raised patterns and blinking colored lights.

Taking the PADD from Lucalin'a hand, Eric moved in front of him to prevent his colleagues grabbing him, "Justice. Enough! This is crazy. So what if he's a foreign alien. The technology we are working on right now is unknown to even us, does that mean we are suspicious of it? We are scientists for crying out loud, this isn't a witch hunt." Keeping the PADD in his own hand, he stared down Williams and Fredrickson.

As Eric moved in front of him, Lucalin trilled in an attempt to keep track of where everyone was. Why would anyone hunt witches? he wondered. And was there such a thing as a local alien? Thinking pedantically helped to slow the too rapid beating of his heart.

As Eric picked up the unease the Lucalin behind him, he reached back and gently laid his hand on the alien's arm to try show him some support. Suddenly, the floor beneath them rocked, sending everyone falling to the floor.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

All Player Characters
All Positions
USS Galileo

Rachel Hardaway, Ph.D.
Lead Scientist
Project Sienna
NPC'd by Tarishiana Barel

Anthony Hardaway, Ph.D.
Lead Scientist
Project Sienna
NPC'd by Chauncey Remington III

Justice Abernathy Ph.D.
Scientist
Project Sienna
NPC'd by Lilou Peers

Eric Anderson
Scientist
Project Sienna
NPC'd by Pola Ni Dhuinn

Emma Kennedy
Dr. Hardaway's Secretary
Project Sienna
NPC'd by Pola Ni Dhuinn

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