New Orders (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on 16 Dec 2018 @ 6:41pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Luke Wyatt & Commander Marisa Wyatt & Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant & Lieutenant JG Tris Shizn & Ensign Mimi & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kala Gorvel
Edited on on 07 Jan 2019 @ 1:49pm

4,151 words; about a 21 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 7, Astrometrics Lab
Timeline: MD -61, 1532 hrs

[ON]

Despite having been the furthest away Luke was first to walk into the empty lab, he looked around a second time just to be sure. "Must be still wiping the dust from their eyes,” he said excited to see Marisa even if in a work capacity.

Allyndra arrived still in a medical smock. She had been finishing the last of the check ins when the call had come in. It why she was not quite as prompt but she noted only Luke having beat her to the lab. "Good day commander," she said in greeting, "interesting place for a meeting."

The chief nodded "Yes, I can only assume there's something for us to see hear" Luke stepped further into the room as more people began to arrive.

Blake was at Luke's side having travelled with him from the bridge. She nodded to Allyndra in acknowledgement, but in truth, she was already deep in thought over the little they had to go on. And the stark reality of what it could mean for those colonists.

Marisa walked in and smiled at the others, pleased to see that Luke was there as well. "Sorry I'm a bit late, I was going over the data." She pulled up the Latari system and projected it as a 3D map in the center of the room for a visual reference. The two colonies were clearly marked, as was the location of the last reported position of the search-and-rescue ship. She wasn't sure what the meeting would entail, but figured visuals would help, especially as they were meeting in Astrometrics.

Lt. Shizn entered Astrometrics. It had been a curious instruction, but he was there never-the-less. “All right? What’s this all about?”

Allyndra nodded back to Blake. When she saw Tris enter she gave a little smile and asked as he came close. "Not sure, but how is the sky sailor doing?"

Tris thought that was an odd question, but then realized the hint. Shizn smiled and replied, “Doing well Commander. Thanks for asking.”

Gorvel was next to walk into the lab. She was still rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she looked around to see everyone, “Apologies for running a little late, I'm pretty rubbish when it comes to getting out of bed,” she yawned.

Mimi was the next to arrive, the call had annoyed her as she was right in the middle of a meal, she'd managed to wolf it down before heading to the turbolift but was starting to regret it as her stomach grumbled.

Despite being one of the final members of the senior staff to enter the Astrometrics lab, Counselor ir-Llantrisant did not apologize. He had been in session with a patient when the call came. Since that call hadn’t been accompanied with the rattling of torpedo fire, nor a red alert, Lake had wrapped up the conversation as succinctly as he could. He had ended his counselling session with haste, but made certain his patient had an action plan in mind to carry her through to their next session. Although Lake stepped fully through the threshold, he held back. He favoured the side of the catwalk that was closest to the door. The holographic screens and acoustics of Astrometrics would allow him to see and hear the briefing from anywhere in the compartment.

The captain was the last to enter the holographic observatory after coming directly from the bridge. She hadn't had a chance to return Snuffles back to her quarters which meant he was permanently in tow with her for the time being. They both observed the assembled officers and NCOs while walking/trotting down the suspended ramp to the middle of the laboratory, and the Orion took notice of the various facial expressions and body language each person exhibited.

"Welcome. It seems we have new orders for urgent tasking," Lirha began. She looked up at the large projection of the Latari system already present then took her station at the primary console. From there, she zoomed out the view from system, to sector, then to quadrant-view, and input several commands into the computer. The projection now displayed their convoy's original course marked by a light purple trail and overlayed it with the new course the captain had entered in bright blue.

"Starfleet Command has lost contact with two of our frontier colonies in the Latari system here along the Tholian border," she explained, gesturing with her emerald green hand towards a relatively unexplored area of space deep in the Alpha quadrant towards the galactic perimeter. "The search-and-rescue vessel that was dispatched has not been heard from in over a week, so our new task is to proceed there at once to investigate and offer any assistance if necessary."

Tris had no problem with the ship’s of the convoy handling this side mission, but his face seems to sneer up as if a very bad taste was in his mouth. His antenna curled down toward his own scalp. The Andorian then cringed slightly disgusted with the possibilities of dealing with the Tholians. He had nothing good to say about them.

As if Allyndra had read his thoughts but it did not take much to see the posture and the fact that they were near Tholian space to ask, "Are we suspecting the Tholians to be involved?"

'Tholians' Mimi thought, she'd never met one in person only via pictures and footage in the database, but had heard bad things about them. "Can I ask why we have been given this assignment? the Kali or Solaris would be a better choice for a possible search and rescue."

Shizn spoke up without thinking, “We are separating from the convoy? I just thought we would all stay together.” Tris lowered his head and took a half step backward, embarrassed by his own outburst.

"Our entire task group has received this order," Saalm clarified while turning to look at the Andorian and Nekomi. "We will transit together. Until we arrive at Regula One, we depend on the Lagrange for resupply. It will take us approximately two months to arrive at the system, even at high cruise warp. And assuming our mission is successful, another three months back to Regula One. Perhaps longer." She remained silent for a moment to allow the new timeline to sink in, then addressed the more pressing question which had been asked.

"As for the Tholians," she then continued, "Starfleet is...uncertain. No distress call was received so we have limited information. But both colonies continue to miss all scheduled check-in windows on long-range comms. That means the last time the Federation was in contact with them was over three months ago." She let out a heavy internal breath to convey her own uncertainty. "Whatever their situation, we must assume the worst. Starfleet's dealings with the Tholians have been limited and, historically, disastrous. They are a xenophobic species uninterested in diplomacy and their technology is superior to that of every known Alpha and Beta quadrant empire. Every starship we've dispatched to establish relations has either been destroyed or crippled. And yet, the Latari system is at least ten light years from the Tholian border -- a relatively safe distance that Starfleet considers non-threatening."

Tris’ expression changed to one of doubt, thinking That’s what ‘they’ thought.

"I know we're meant to strictly be a science ship." Luke started sighing heavily as he began addressing everyone, his voice full of conviction. "And we don't want to hurry so quickly into a fight, but preparations should be made both ship and fleet wide for the high likelihood of arriving into an hostile territory.

The Andorian perked up a little, but didn’t say anything, but thought, Well, I’m glad we did those training exercises over the last couple months.

“I am sure in two months the combined efforts of the fleets scientists with our ship taking the lead can develop a method of bettering the Tholians, while medical prepare for a possible mass casualty situation." Luke looked to both Marisa and Allyndra for confirmation. "I will contact the fleets security heads and draft a plan for the chance of a hostile engagement both when we arrive and whilst we’re in the area of operations and have it on your desk within the month." The last part was for Scarlet and Lirha in which he looked between the pair to make sure they understood and opened himself up for questions. The time he gave himself was long but much needed for this scale of planning.

Blake held Luke's eyes in a moment of silence. Her features were still, but her mind was moving quickly, turning over what they knew so far alongside the Security Chief's plan. "I'd agree for the need to be prepared. We have Tholian battle simulations in the database we can dust off. But..." she shook her head with a frown, glancing around with a sense of something not feeling quite right. "...The Tholians so seldom leave their own territory. And what threat or incentive would colonists be to lure them out?"

Luke nodded knowingly before replying. "They're an aggressive race, perhaps one of the colonies had done something to upset them." He said pausing to allow himself a moment to think. "But even if they didn't an enemy without clear motive is more dangerous than one with, simply because we can't predict what they are doing or what they want. With that said, I hope it is not the Tholians."

Marisa would definitely spend time studying the Tholians, but she wasn't so sure they'd find a way to defeat them. The Tholian's reputation was well-deserved. But with two months, she hoped sure to come up with something to at least help.

"Let us hope we do not encounter Tholians," Allyndra added. "They are aggressive and difficult to kill. How close is the Latari system to Tholian space? The Tholians have been known to encompass others systems basically as a buffer to their home world. If they consider this system as an expansion of their buffer we may have a difficult time convincing them otherwise."

Lirha scratched her chin in silence for a long moment while she contemplated a variety of possible scenarios. The more she thought about the doctor's theory and the security chief's attention to detail, the more her Intelligence training kicked in and her mind turned skeptical. "Perhaps. But Starfleet has no intelligence to support any theories of hostilities at this time." Turning back to the console, she input her security authorization codes into the terminal then opened the large data package of intel that'd been sent to them from Command.

"No distress calls received, no emergency beacon transmissions," she started to read, "no starship buildups detected on either short- or long-range senors. No spacial anomalies or strange EM readings of any kind. It is...very strange. The Tholians are the simple explanation, but with insufficient data, we would be short-sighted to assume they are certainly connected." In her ten-year career, she'd never seen such a scenario where an entire colonized system suddenly vanished from sensors and comms. "Maybe there is something else we are missing. Marisa, do you have our planetary science data from Starfleet?"

"I do," Marisa replied. She went over to the 3D display of the Latari system. "As you can see, it's a trinary star system." She touched the holographic image of one of the suns and used several hand signals to zoom in on it, showing the five planets in the system. Beside the system, a list of scientific data on the sun and the planets scrolled down from the ceiling.

"This one," Sandoval zoomed in on the third planet. "Is one of two Federation colonies." A list of planetary data, including colonized areas and inhabitants scrolled along the side. She increased the image of the planet so the land and water masses were clearly visible.

Then she switched back to the system and selected the second sun and its six planets. "The third planet is also an M-class." She zoomed in on it so that the others in the room could see the planet and the data. "Both colonies have standard resources. Until now, there have been no problems with either colony and no reports of anything out of the ordinary and no indication of native humanoid habitation in the system to date."

She switched to the third system and its five planets. "None of these are habitable." She made several more hand gestures and the view changed to show the system again, listing each star with the planets and their planetary classifications and compositions. "The other planets vary between classes D, J, K, and L."

Marisa turned to Capain Saalm. "Is there anything you wish to add?"

Lirha watched her CSO skillfully manipulate the planetarium-like projections and brief them on a large quantity of data as if she were a natural. Then she remembered Marisa was half-Vulcan, which was essentially the same thing. "No," she replied, still looking up to the rotating holographic planets. "It is as you said, this system is unremarkable. Both colonies are less than twenty years old and are still in a period of subsistence agriculture. The only technology they retained is from their original colony vessels which were dismantled to provide infrastructure. They have long-range comms devices, some small arms and industrial replicators, but not much more.

"If not for these two Class M worlds, there is nothing of interest here. No deuterium or dilithium deposits on any of the planets and moons, and no place the Tholians would want to colonize." She turned to the winged Akkadian standing close to her. "Their biology doesn't let them survive long on worlds they consider 'cold', does it?"

"For long term captain, no. They are capable of handling what we would call M Class conditions for a period of time. It is pretty much speculated that given what is known about Tholians that their biology is based upon a different biochemistry." She smiled slightly, "instead of water their bodies utilize sulfuric acid. It seems odd but it works quite well in high temperatures. Tholians also mostly sense by differences in heat as well. A head or something at least that holds the sensing organs, two main body segments, two arms and six equally spaced legs all in a silica carapace. Non organization and or multiple redundancies allow an individual to function with otherwise massive damage. There are a couple of worlds here that would work for them. However, as I mentioned, they tend not to colonize so much as to expand a buffer. Hopefully tough, we are not dealing with Tholians in this situation."

The Orion captain tapped at her console to access the medical database files they'd received from Starfleet Command. Then she input a command to display a large holographic projection of a typical Tholian for all to see. It's crystalline body shape was bright orange in color and was indeed composed of multiple appendages with small digits, just as the doctor had explained.

“Every Starfleet Cadet can tell you a Tholian is predisposed towards xenophobia, but we can’t be sure of why that is,” said Lake ir-Llantrisant. The Chief Counselor had waited his turn --waited for an appropriate pause in the simmering boil of ideas and reactions-- before he offered his perspective. There was a meandering tone to his explanation. Clearly, he hadn't prepared a tight summary of Tholian psychology in advance. Despite his ramblings, he spoke with a firm authority, especially when his telling landed on a recollection of a concept that excited him. He said, “If the Tholian species were a Human being, we might label this response as an anxiety disorder. Perhaps a deeply ingrained race memory triggering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. There are theories that the Tholian species experienced a traumatic attack, or a genocide, in their distant past, but we don’t know enough about their history to fill in the blanks in our knowledge.

“A historic invasion may also explain the territorial nature of Tholians,” Lake continued. He leaned to one side, resting an elbow on the railing that protruded from the doorway. “Romulan science theorizes the Tholians take their view towards territory out of a need for control, or an inflated sense of perceived ownership. The Tholian interpretation of ownership hasn’t always aligned with Starfleet’s interpretation of interstellar law. Some Romulan psychologists have proposed that Tholians define territory, and borders, and ownership through a system of morality, rather than cartography. There have been papers written on how the Tholians may be preventively defensive of their borders; they anticipate intrusion and they act out to prevent it. The ten lightyear buffer between the Latari system and the Tholian border may have seemed like a reasonable buffer to Starfleet, but to the Tholians, that may feel like it’s right in their backyard.

“Tholian punctuality has also been observed through most diplomatic relations with the Tholians,” Lake said, straightening up his posture again. “By parsing their choice of words, the expectations they set on starships and diplomats, Starfleet Research suggests Tholians experience time monochromatically. There’s a thought that they conceive of time as a series of expectations and accomplishments. It’s a selfish view of time, favouring the observer. It suggests the Tholians value action above relationships, as well as a general lack of empathetic capacity.”

Tris gritted his teeth against the prospect of ‘Tholian action’. He thought, I’d like to give them some action to shut them up for good. The Andorian had a very bad taste now in his mouth and really wanted to spit, which would be a serious violation to decorum in this situation. Tris swallowed and tried to refocus on the situation.

Marisa found Lake's summation fascinating. She added a comment to her PADD to look at logs and records to see if anything might have triggered the Tholians need to be left alone.

"An excellent summation based upon what little is known and what little contact there has been with the species. Who knows, alien biochemistry leads to very alien thinking." Allyndra gave a small shrug but nodded at the same time indicating her agreement with Lake's assessment. She caught Tris' look but she would wait until after the meeting to find out what exactly seemed to be getting to the Andorian about possible Tholian involvement. He was a friend in her book, maybe she could be a sounding board.

Lirha was impressed with Lake's briefing and expressed her appreciation. "Thank you, counselor. My own people's dealings with them are very limited and haven't fared any better. If not for the Tholian silk trade, Orions wouldn't have any contact with their species. It is the extent of their interactions with us. Now, do any of you have any further questions? Scarlet will be handing out assignments by 0800 tomorrow with further details."

Now that he'd had time to digest upon everything the senior staff had shared, Lake asked, "What else do we know about this frontier colony in the Latari system?" --He squinted momentarily as he considered his question, and he shrugged quickly to communicate his understanding that perhaps no one would have an answer to his question. How could any of them know the unknowable?-- "If the Tholians aren't involved, what else don't we know? In their colonization efforts, are there any references to geological mysteries, new enemies made en route, or sensor-blind nebulas?" That last one was added somewhat dryly. In his understanding from the logs, Galileo had never escaped a nebula unscathed.

"There's nothing of note," Marisa said. She pulled up the two colony manifests and colony data, listing them in the 3D map. "We know of no one they ran into or could have upset. As the captain said, they've kept to themselves and focused on building their colonies. And 5000 colonists are no real threat."

Allyndra doubted it, but she thought she best ask the question even if it sounded a bit as the humans said, 'off the wall'. "Could something natural have occurred? Two of these stars do circle somewhat close to each other, a flare or other similar phenomenon could force the population to hide, disrupt communications or move or some combination of the above. Sensors would not have picked things up this far out it would seem to me."

The captain looked to her senior doctor. "All previous reports from the administrators did not document any abnormal events, but I will review the colonies' logs this evening. The star system was already surveyed and deemed stable by our scientists, otherwise colonization wouldn't have been permitted." Lirha's light green eyes shifted to Marisa once again. "I fear we simply have insufficient data, and we won't be in probe range for another four weeks."

Another four weeks? Shizn questioned the situation. As a Helmsman, he and others had been training with the different officers for tactical situations on the holodeck over the last many weeks. Shizn wondered if they should re-evaluate those training exercises and add in the battle tactics previously used by the Tholians. He seriously considered this idea and knew he should run it by the senior Tactical officer and possibly the XO.

Four weeks would give Marisa and her department time to do more in-depth research on the sector, and to prepare their probes and scans for when they arrived at their destination. "Unfortunately, as has been expressed already we have insufficient information to make any educated guesses at this time." She couldn't help smiling. "With all we have to do, no one should have reason to complain about being bored for the next four weeks."

Blake nodded to Marisa's words, sharing the sentiment, even as the smile caught her a little off guard as always. She knew it shouldn't by now, but it always felt unexpected to see someone with Vulcan features smile. "While it's prudent to be prepared for particular hostilities, it's important not to draw conclusions with what little we know. If assumptions become fact in some minds, then it might close off the open mindedness we need to figure out just what's going on here," she added firmly, but her tone of voice remained calm.

There was still a big question mark over the talk of Tholian involvement in Scarlet's mind. From the little they knew of them, she just couldn't make it add up that the xenophobic and territorial race would go so far out of their way to bother a relatively distant and basic colony. Especially as no signs of distress had so far been logged. She couldn't help but think that something far from such a simple explanation was on the horizon. And she couldn't decide if that was a good or bad thing.

Luke had followed the conversation carefully as it drifted towards a less hostile approach and hoped when they arrived it was due to a malfunctioning transmitter or anything other than the Tholians. He doubted the fleet was ready for any large scale conflict so early on in its voyage, he doubted he was ready either.

The Orion captain looked to those assembled one last time after the questions and comments had quieted down. "Scarlet, you're in charge of department assignments. The rest of you, review all of our science and intelligence packages this evening and begin preparations. I will keep you all briefed as we receive more information. That is all," she concluded with a curt nod of dismissal.

Nodding at the Captain's dismissal he stood and smiled towards the other heads of departments. He for one was glad that Scarlet was in overall charge of the assignments, it left him with the freedom of dealing with the other ships' security chiefs and meant time they could spend together. He caught himself then with that thought and felt guilty as the cords to his heart pulled towards Marisa. "Captain," Luke said finally leaving the room.

Mimi followed the pack out of the lab and quickly headed towards a turbolift anxious to get to her quarters before the rumbling in her stomach turned into an explosion.

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

Lt Cmdr Luke Wyatt
Security Chief
USS Galileo-A

Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Second and Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A

CDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo-A

Lieutenant Marisa Sandoval
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Tris Shizn
Conn Officer
USS Galileo-A

CPO Kala Gorvel
Engineering
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Wyatt]

Ensign Mimi
Asst Chief Ops
USS Galileo-A

Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo-A

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