Thin Ice

Posted on 05 Sep 2023 @ 8:18pm by Commander Morgan Tarin & Yukime Frost

2,086 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 18 - Cold Station 31
Location: Regula I - Level 16, Administration Module
Timeline: MD 16, 1001 hrs

[ON]

'Time is always the enemy of efficiency'. Those were the words Tarin recalled being spoken to her by one of her previous commanding officers several years ago. Philosophy aside, it meant that in practice, a competent officer was always on the move and was rarely afforded the luxury of downtime compared to their subordinates. After all, the commanding officer had a ship to run and that was their primary duty which superseded all other responsibilities.

Morgan had mastered this art form throughout the last several years. Perhaps a little too much. She was a woman always on the move and always in search of the next task to complete. The concept of rest and relaxation was often foreign to her, and now that Galileo had just returned to Regula I, the last thing on her agenda was wasting valuable hours in a warm sonic shower. Instead, after departing the Nova-class and dropping her small bag of pertinent belongings in her designated office module, she sought out the station's commander for an important debrief.

The tall New York City-born woman quickly walked through Level 16's main corridor spar until she arrived at the small administration office. This was Yukime Frost's office, or 'Silk', as the silver-haired woman often preferred to be called. Tarin reached out and pressed the chime, indicating her desire for an audience.

The door slid open to reveal a youngish male at a desk. "Ah Commander Tarin," he pointed toward another door, "go right on in. Ms. Frost has been expecting you."

A curt nod from the commander expressed her simple acknowledgement. She walked at a slower pace now, turning to the private office chamber then stepped through the next small door as it swished open without the need for a courtesy chime. She quickly recognized the slim platinum blond woman who was in charge of the entirety Regula I's operations. "Administrator Frost," Tarin formally acknowledged her civilian counterpart.

"Commander Tarin." Silk stood. "Welcome back, though from the reports I've gotten it seems your "shake down" voyage was more of a toe to toe fight." She gave a nod toward the replicator sitting on a table. "Help yourself if you wish, now what can I help you with?"

Morgan silently declined the offer and instead took a seat in front of the other woman's desk. "The reports are accurate enough," she confirmed, clasping her hands lightly in her lap. "We were lucky Praxis arrived when it did. We owe them a debt which we're now repaying. Thank you for hosting them for a few days. I'm hoping the upcoming devastation will be minimal," she dryly joked.

"Indeed, it makes me suspicious why they were there. Yes, says tracking the Ferengi. I still wonder. Well, fine, and I was already approached to resupply the ship with weaponry. I'm not happy with that, but given the circumstances, in the interest of peace, that sort of thing. So what can I do for you, Commander Tarin? Very few grace my office for a social visit."

The red-collared woman almost coughed when she processed what Frost just revealed to her. "What? Resupply Praxis with weapons??" She was borderline incredulous. "You agreed to this? Who made that request?!" Morgan's eyes were now wide and full of concern.

"One Lieutenant Aria Rice, from my understanding, was assigned to the Klingon ship by you. She said that the Praxis had expended quite a bit in defending the Galileo" Silk narrowed her eyes. "There are locks on the weaponry that cannot be removed except under very particular circumstances until the Klingons are safely away from the station. Bringing the Praxis here put me in a difficult situation. As I told her, let's hope a step toward us not shooting at each other eventually."

Morgan leaned back into her chair then tilted her head back while pushing her long fingers in between her hair. Rice. She took a deep and frustrated breath before speaking again. "Yes, I assigned Lieutenant Rice to Praxis as a temporary exchange officer following a ruinous diplomatic dinner that same evening. Don't ask, please."

The acting captain glanced around the administrator's small office then returned to her thoughts. "What sort of weaponry did you agree to give them? Phaser coils? Photon torpedoes? Quantum torpedoes?" She sincerely hoped not.

"Yes to the latter two. All I needed was to have a supposedly-friendly Klingon ship that you requested to dock here after a firefight rescuing a Federation vessel and then basically tell them we don't trust you, take a hike. As I said, locks are in place. So you don't ask further, I won't ask about what went wrong at the dinner. Sounds as if we are both treading thin ice here."

"'Thin ice'?" repeated the commander who narrowed her eyes. Anger started to simmer within her belly. "You just handed the Klingon Empire potent proprietary Starfleet ordinance thinking whatever fail-safes you've installed will stop them from reverse-engineering it??" Tarin spread her arms wide. "You're a civilian administrator, Frost; you're not authorized to make such a decision!"

"Proprietary? Do you realize how long they have been around? Simple plasma head in a quantum and matter/anti-matter in a regular torpedo. The Klingons have had the technology for years." She pointed to Tarin. "Before this, I was in intel. Way higher than your clearance. None of it is proprietary and hasn't been for a long time. I'm the administrator of this base, so given quite a latitude. Fine, if you want to complain, go ahead." Silk put her finger down. "Now then, back to my original question. What can I do for you other than talk about Klingons?"

Tarin scoffed at the civilian woman. "Don't lecture me about fleet weaponry. I was on the front lines of the border immediately following the war while you were sitting in your office on Firebird performing SIGINT." She frowned then sighed, shaking her head. "What's done is done, I suppose. But I'll have to report this to Command. I'll leave your name out of it." It was a mild peace gesture in exchange for Frost's accommodation of the Klingon warship on their front door.

Silk relaxed and sat back. "So, what brings you to my office? I hope no more unusual requests."

"Well, originally the Klingons," Tarin stated with open hands to emphasize the obvious. "But since we've discussed their arrival already, I also want to speak to you about Galileo's cold station investigation. To get a different perspective from someone with no knowledge of what we recovered."

"Computer, raise office shields, please."

Shields in place

"A little extra something I requested. There are a lot of bits of research going on, on this station. I always figured there might be a time when certain things should be privy. Go ahead Commander Tarin, what have you?"

The audible shimmer of a force field being erected around the chamber was an interesting new addition. "Nice touch," complimented the commander. "What if I told you the Federation might be experimenting with...dangerous technology?" Tarin used the hypothetical to gauge Frost's initial reaction before offering up any details she didn't need to.

Silk simply chuckled while shaking her platinum blonde head. "And tell me, when has the Federation not been experimenting with things that are dangerous or what many might consider unethical? Rhetorical question, Commander Tarin. What is it this time?"

The Starfleet woman raised her eyebrows. "Dangerous, yes; all new research and development carries that inherent hazard. Unethical? Not since the Dominion War and the morphogenic virus created by the rogue agency Section 31." Starfleet, and by extension the United Federation of Planets, was not a government which sanctioned or advocated for such research. Tarin was a firm proponent of the Federation and a career Starfleet officer who took slight offense at the civilian's flippant remark.

Glancing out through one of the office's large windows to catch a glimpse of the purple-hued planet named Remidia, Tarin exhaled through her nose then spoke her mind. "It's not the risk involved which concerns me...or the secrecy. Not even the ethics. It's about Federation scientists conducting experiments with something they knew they were not qualified to handle and jeopardizing countless lives in the process. Science must have limits," her sharp hazel eyes trained back on Frost, "don't you agree?"

Silk sighed. "Yes. I have found that there is a lack of just because you can do something, should you. However, once the genie is out of the bottle, it is difficult to put it back in. So these scientists didn't stop to think if, but only pushed on." She picked up a PaDD briefly. "A couple of the survivors you brought back. So, what is your thinking commander?"

"I can't tell you what we discovered there. Even I don't truly know. But my away teams..." she paused to shake her head and privately reflect upon the horrors some of them recalled. Her thoughts drifted to Darius and Ullswater who had been mentally broken by whatever existed within that asteroid. "I think our scientists discovered something we were never meant to. Something unnatural which has no place in our relative existence."

Silk frowned and leaned forward once more. "Is there anything there that could be a threat to this station? Anything unnatural that might have been brought back?"

Tilting her head lightly to the side before shrugging, Tarin answered, "Not that I'm aware of. But the conundrum now becomes, how can we find and identify something perilous without even knowing what to look for in the first place? Something possibly outside the realm of known science?"

"That is not exactly helpful." Silk tapped a finger. "What findings can you share, if any? Anything physical or psionic that you are aware of?"

"Many of the research logs and experimentation data from the facility's computer core were damaged by the time our teams arrived. We extracted as much as we could and I've uploaded all of it into Galileo's computer with redundant encryption protocols. No one's taking a look without Commander Blake and I's joint authorization," Tarin semi-answered before glancing back out through the window to stare at Remidia's puffy white atmospheric clouds. It truly was a beautiful planet to observe. "From my away teams' reports, it seems they encountered some sort of...extra-dimensional plane of existence."

"I see. Well, hopefully, nothing has lingered with them. I will conduct a psionic sweep later of the station, though I doubt much will turn up. Now you say there are two scientists that you rescued? Did you want me to keep them confined to this base, then?"

Tarin shook her head with a hint of uncertainty. "I haven't decided yet. For now, they'll remain on Galileo confined to quarters. I'd rather any potential damage they might cause be isolated to a starship and not our primary research base in this sector. Eventually, though, they'll need to be transferred here for holding until the next transport to Earth arrives." Under normal circumstances, the acting captain would have been all-too-willing to unload her troublesome passengers to another location. But the thought of housing them anywhere near sophisticated laboratories and equipment with which they could potentially re-create their cold station experiments made her feel uneasy.

"I trust your decision, commander. Is there anything else that I could help with?"

"No. Nothing further," answered Morgan who slowly rose from her chair and rubbed away some tightness in her shoulder. "Galileo needs a few days to conduct repairs and resupply, followed by a systems test. I haven't received new orders from Command yet but that could change soon. I'll keep you appraised of our timeline."

Silk picked up another PaDD. "Here, you have priority authorization for anything you need to repair your ship." She handed the PaDD over while intoning. "Computer drop office shields."

Shields deactivated

"Thank you, Silk," Tarin replied while accepting the slim silver administrative device. This was one of a handful of times she had used the woman's preferred nickname and she now said it to show her gratitude toward the administrator and Regula I's presence in the furthest reaches of Starfleet's frontier. "Enjoy the rest of your day."

[OFF]

--

Yukime "Silk" Frost
Administrator
Regula I
[PNPC Warraquim]

CMDR Morgan Tarin
Acting Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Saalm]

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