The Wolf In The Fold

Posted on 18 Dec 2012 @ 6:25pm by Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Coleman & Chief Warrant Officer 4 Cyrus Kiwosk

8,154 words; about a 41 minute read

Mission: Episode 02 - Resupply
Location: USS Galileo: Support Deck, Briefing Room 2
Timeline: MD14 1300 Hours

ON:

Liyar took the time between the visit to Ni Dhuinn and creating the message to solidify the information he was basing his conclusions off of. This included several more energy and quantum scan readings, and crew lifesign readings. These scans included the warp field generator, which was reading something not necessarily high, but enough to be nearly absurdly ridiculous. Combined with whatever was going on, he knew it could easily affect anybody within reasonable radius. (He knew, of course, that 'whatever' was an obvious uncontrolled variable.) By now, the data Liyar held in his hands didn't just conform to a speculation, it outright confirmed it.

The symptoms he was feeling and observing were gradually becoming worse, likely accumulating over the time of exposure or the course of events, he didn't know. It was coming to a crux. By now, almost all of the people within his originally defined parameters were likely experiencing it. He could feel the slow, heavy drudge of everybody going about their business, half incapacitated. Fortunately they were planetside shore leave or Liyar knew things would be going downhill much faster. Ship operations themselves were suffering as a result anyway.

Yet, for some reason, it still was only affecting the crew of the previous mission. Liyar knew that mission was classified, and so didn't pry unnecessarily, but he would have to inform those who he felt would be capable of acknowledging and potentially fixing it. The chief medical officer and apparently the sickbay she ran was out. The captain and first officer were also out, because they fit the parameters. Still unfamiliar with the remaining chain of command, Liyar reasoned it would be best to go through Support operations. Coleman was one of the ones on his list, his superior officer and the second officer.

After drafting the message, Liyar sent it through coded frequencies using the old V'Shar encryption keys he'd been issued years ago to make certain no one but those he was sending it to could access the information en route. If everybody else was going to act the same way Ni Dhuinn did, it wouldn't do any good for them to know.

EMERGENCY. PRIORITY. To participants within: [CWO] Kiwosk, [LTjg] Panne, [LTjg] Stone, [LT] Coleman. Report to briefing room: Two. Deck: Support. Included message: Last mission has severely and negatively compromised shipwide crew component. Medical and command levels compromised.

Cyrus received the message with curiosity. He technically had no jurisdiction in any field, why would anyone be calling for him. He flexed his damaged hand slightly and rolled his shoulder. I keep this up and I'll never get any better he thought absently.

=^= This is Kiwosk, I'll be down momentarily. =^= Cyrus realized that he didn't have any security outfits to put on. Sighing he reached in a pulled out the Green topped marine souvenir he had kept. He put it on slowly, trying not to overuse his damaged hand. As he continued to make his way through the various corridors he noticed a large amount of the crew seemed to be tired. At first, Cyrus had thought it was a simple Shore Leave gone crazy, but he wasn't so sure now.

Jeremy glanced at the PADD after it chirped. He was busy obtaining the information for a report that was constantly delayed by distractions. He originally meant to throw it to his task list to read later until he say the 'priority' nature of it. Reading it he began to grow concerned. Any discussion regarding a compromise of command staff was of great concern, especially to Security...but the combination of personnel on the list of recipients concerned him more. Kiwoski, Liyar? Two people Jeremy judged to be malcontents.

He signaled his intent to arrive, a short, clipped message as he found his way to his office to replicate a new PADD. One that Coleman had suggested could transcribe conversations. Sedition was a very serious charge and one that he would most definitely need to support. He couldn't be sure that Kiwoski didn't use his knowledge of the ship's security systems to create a false signal telling him that all security measures were in place. He also opened his personal locker in the office and issued himself a phaser for the meeting, making sure that he still had his personal phaser and slim blades hidden on him.

They may think, based on his history, that he might be a sympathetic ear for their plans to mutiny, but he would attend this meeting only as a means to collect evidence, if that was indeed their plan. If they decided he could not be trusted with their plans, he may well become their first target for elimination.

He arrived a few minutes later and took up a position in the back of the room, standing in a relaxed yet ready position. His practiced eye scanned those coming in for weapons, both open and concealed. The presence of any, other than authorized by himself or higher level command staff was a sure indication of seditious thoughts.

Maenad walked into the briefing room carrying an air of impatient frustration. She was in the middle of running a set of holo-simulations in stellar cartography - mostly calibrations and bug-fixes since she had replaced the burnt-out emitters and reset the system and database with the most current information. It was a tedious job, and she had finally started half-enjoying it when Liyar's ridiculous message had summoned her. She had the authority to decline, and she had considered it, but in the end decided to humour the Vulcan. After all, even though she thought whatever he said was insane, it piqued her her interest.

She saw that she was the last to arrive, which was both an omen and a blessing. Maenad sighed and took a seat at the side of the conference table facing the window. That way she could daze outside if she got bored, and she was counting on it. "Hello," she said airily as she crossed her legs and sat back in the swivelling chair.

Liyar gave her an impatient blink of his own, declining to answer her greeting. He was standing near the side, in front of the window. He watched while everyone piled in and waited until they had before he spoke again. His gaze simply traveled to look at the gathered data he'd collected for ease of viewing onto the overlaid screen above the table. It had crew life-signs, biometric scans, warp signature, quantum energy and activated psionic energy readings. They were all in extremely high levels, with several bars in red and orange.

He entered the office, noticing Lieutenant Panne and Liyar along with Coleman and Stone. "Am I late? Sorry for the tardiness, I'm currently...'jobless'." He gestured to the marine uniform. "It's a long story..." He sat down and frowned. "What's going on?"

"As you can see." Liyar once more looked up at the readings, and then addressed the gathered room of people. "I suggest if you all find fault with these readings, that you find someone sufficiently competent to confirm them."

And no, that wasn't at all bitterness at Pola's outright refusal to look at the data, or anything... Nope. Liyar inhaled, his jaw tense with the outright migraine pounding in his skull, which was not only abnormal but excessively grating, and his pain control systems weren't touching it. He was Vulcan, so he grit and bore it as best he could and gestured toward the readings again as he got their attention.

"However, I assure you all, they are what they are. Lifesigns are erratic, quantum energy signatures are in extreme ranges, as are the signatures involved in our warp particle density. Additional temporal and psionic scans reveal further extensive deviations. The crew symptoms appear to have manifested only within those who participated in this ship's previous mission. They continue to increase in severity." He looked toward Coleman when he spoke next.

"It is likely that Lieutenant Coleman may know a variable of that mission that we do not. A reason why this may be so. It is classified, and not within our purview."

Evelyn leaned back in her chair listening to Liyar's report. "There is a variable, however I'm unsure if I have the clearance to share. Have you contacted the Captain and informed her of this?"

"I could not find justification to report to Captain Saalm nor Commander Holliday, as they were also aboard during the last mission and I have observed the effects of this phenomenon in them both. The last person I spoke to, Dr. Ni Dhuinn, was hysterical and paranoid," Liyar explained. He spoke not necessarily quickly, but enough to give the saliant facts and their causes without needing to repeat himself over and over again.

"The psionic feedback I have received from nearly everyone else is similarly critical." Understatement.

"My purpose for assembling this meeting has been to inform you all of these effects and their extent so that a reasonable course of action can be undertaken. You have all been chosen as you are the only ones aboard who have not been exposed to these effects, aside from some few new low-level enlisted personnel. Should you be sufficiently apprised, I will leave jurisdiction to you."

And that's really what it came down to. Of course Liyar really didn't have any authority, except to what? Call meetings? Which was fine, so he'd call this meeting. Tell them. Try and get them to listen, and let them handle it. He wasn't a Starfleet officer, or a scientist, or an engineer, or any other thing. He wasn't a doctor, as Dr. Ni Dhuinn had pointed out rather loudly. He just needed to get them to realize what was going on.

"You know, now that you mentioned it, I have noticed a change in the crew." Evelyn spoke as she leaned forward and looked around at the table. "alright, this information doesn't leave this room." Her eyes then went to the Lt. Stone, "and I'm sorry to say that includes your data PADD." she gestured.

Jeremy blinked. "Lieutenant, as we've previously discussed, my PADD is a medical assistance device." He hated lying, it was dishonest. But unfortunately, time spent in his profession sometimes required it for the betterment. He would deal with the moral implications of the lie later. What Liyar had said so far did not convince him. Where was the doctor with this information? He admitted he was keeping information from the command staff. Was he hoping to convince others to mutiny with him and Kiwoski? "And you have, yourself, examined it Lieutenant and found its capabilities lacking."

"Fine I'll keep it vague." Eve didn't want to argue. She sat up straight in her chair, "The mission was merely delivering supplies to a distant outpost. We were ordered to evacuate a team of scientists who were developing a new propulsion system. The Galileo installed the prototype and used it. That was how we escaped the Klingons." Evelyn revealed, "I think what the crew is suffering from is a form of space sickness however on a different level."

"What is the justification for this belief?" Jeremy asked, deciding to get it out straight away. If they planned sedition or mutiny, he wouldn't let Liyar or Kiwoski enough time to turn others. "Lieutenant Liyar, your record does not reflect an expertise in medical training so I am not sure we can find your results accurate as you say, nor, to the best of my knowledge, is anyone else here present a telepath so you presume we'll just have to take your word regarding this so-called 'psionic' component?" He briefly glanced around the room, wondering. "And you freely admit you're keeping this information from Commander Holliday and Captain Saalm based only on your 'lack of justification'."

Liyar had his eyes closed, and was apparently ignoring everyone in the room while they had it out.

"Lieutenant Stone!" Eve raised her voice, "this is not an interrogation and no need to question Liyar." She eyed the security chief, she even met him before however she knows past events and his by the book reasoning lead to several unnecessary incidents which she hopes to avoid. "Starfleet Handbook, Chapter 183, Section 23, sub section G, paragraph 2, clearly states what is taking place here." Eve replied, not knowing the exact wording but leaving it to him to look it up. "This happened in the past. Read the medical reports of the officers that were part of the Transwarp project in the 23rd Century. Out of 100 trials only 3 were successful and of those three, RT officers involved I believe developed ailments."

In a time when a sufficiency of Senior staff may find themselves in a situation that could considered detrimental to Starfleet operations, and wherein the command staff can be proven by to a reasonable certainty to be affected and/or compromised by the detrimental events, the senior staff shall face the need to take upon themselves a full investigation into the matter to determine the need for further action, up to and including removal of the compromised members of the command staff and assuming command and control of the Starfleet operation Jeremy rolled off the top of his head without flicking to his PADD, and while managing to look determined and rebuked at the same time. "Lieutenant," he said as he shifted to a subservient posture. "I accept the authority for this meeting under the quoted regulation, however that does not mean that the information thus far presented is accurate. Past examples do not necessarily preclude present circumstances. I wish to have the accuracy of present information. I hope, Lieutenant, you would agree this conversation presents a clear and present danger to the ship and crew, a clear security matter," here he flicked the briefest of glances to Kiwoski and his proud wearing of the Marine uniform. "I did not mean to 'interrogate' but understand."

Cyrus Pointedly ignored him.

"This is more of a health risk than..." Eve thought it over, and slammed her hand down on the table. "Damn it, I meant Chapter 193!" Eve groaned, "I forgot they update the damn thing..." she muttered to herself, "Propulsion Related Medical Emergency. In the subsection, it deals with if the command staff has been having behavioral differences resulting from the use of a non-warp FTL propulsion system, non affected personal should amass to assest and correct the situation." Eve cited, knowing she butchered the exact language of the subsection. "Stone I'm sure you have the exact wording but this falls under Medical-Science issues. It's not a security issue yet. I don't think it would be wise for us to leave Vega Colony until this matter is settled. Lieutenant Panne, do you have any detail you'd like to add?"

Maenad was still reclined in her chair with her legs crossed, back further from the table than the others so she could swirl her foot without hitting it. When Coleman asked her what she was thinking, she decided to let it all out in one lone disapproving flow of words. "I agree with Mister Stone one hundred percent," she said simply, glancing at the security chief who'd been attacked for wanting more answers. She then locked her eyes on the Vulcan. "I am suspicious of why Commander Holliday, at the very least, hasn't been invited. I haven't noticed anything of consequence in my department; a few days ago Kiri became very ill, but I would hardly start jumping to conclusions as broad as these. There is not a single medical officer present, as Mister Stone has pointed out. My understanding of psionics is almost nothing, but I am inclined to believe that being an empath feels emotions, not physical medical characteristics - if Mister Liyar, you can tell what's wrong with people just by standing in the same room as them, then we might as well get rid of our medical tricorders," she sighed. She hadn't meant to say that, but she was angry. "From what I am seeing and hearing right now, it seems like you, Mister Liyar, think that there is a common illness that's adversely effecting the crew. I think it is imperative, then, that we get Doctor Ni Dhuinn or the captain, or even just the first officer down here. But, you're saying that they have been effected too. I don't think that that should prevent them from knowing what you think is going on. It's not like they're being inhabited by an alien presence, you that they're just sick in some way," Maenad breathed pressed her lips. She was going to say more but decided that was enough, she flicked her wrist and sat back again, sharing another glance with Stone. He might have been somewhat of a nut himself, but at least she was on the right side of what felt right, she thought.

"It is not a 'common illness'." Liyar clenched his fists. "And what you are seeing clearly elucidates this. You are a science officer, Lieutenant Panne. You are a security officer, Lieutenant Stone. You are an intelligence officer, Lieutenant Coleman. You all comprehend how to read these signals." He gestured at the information scans. "I am not here to argue with you. It appears, that from what Coleman is suggesting, there is in fact a precedent for this situation to begin with. Whether or not you choose to accept the reality of the situation is your decision, but it is what it is. If you look, you will notice the same thing I am noticing. I am not an empath," Liyar corrected, jaw set. "I am a telempath. I again, suggest, that you look at the readings. There is simply no acceptable margin for them. I do not preclude the possibility of discussing this with the command staff," Liyar finally said. "I had assumed that would be the course of action. None of us are medical personnel and none of us have the authority to truly assist. Nevertheless, as the only remaining staff on board who are not affected, I chose to separate you from the affected component and inform you, as a logical precaution. Dr. Ni Dhuinn was the first individual I informed. She was, as I have mentioned, incapable of listening to reason, and outright refused to assist us in any way, insisting that to do so would be an affront to her job and reputation. She was paranoid, delusional and suffering from hallucinations. Rather than risk further isolating us by exposing us to further paranoia and delusion, I chose to inform you all simultaneously, separately. Do what you will with the information at hand, which is easily accessible right above your shoulder and clearly indicates an exceptionally serious concern." By this point, Liyar sounded positively angry, a thin underthread under his voice that while not overt, wasn't undetectable. Which was unusual, even for him. His eyebrows were drawn together.

Cyrus leaned forward. "If Lieutenant Liyar says there is something wrong, then something is wrong." Deciding to stand by his friend. "I've spent some time with the Doctor as well, and if she seems to literally dragging her feet the more sleep she gets. It seems everyone on that last mission are suffering from unusual tiredness of some sort." He felt incredibly conscious of his dark green. "Are you all telling me that you haven't seen it too?" He asked.

"I am to believe that it is out of character for the crew to be petulant, engage in childish gossip and to be disclusive to new staff?" Jeremy asked without realizing it as he worked on his PADD. He pulled out the second one and was using it as well. "Perhaps, Mr. Kiwoski, you forget my limited interaction with the crew before two days ago does not preclude me to have a 'baseline' for what is normal and abnormal behavior." The video log sped by at incredible speed which Jeremy seemed to focus almost to the exclusion of all else. Except for a brief glance at the fast scroll of information on the other PADD.

"I'm sorry Stone, but maybe if you looked somewhere other than your PADD you would have seen that literally everyone that was on that mission, baring...us has been feeling something that has happened. If there are concerns about the well being of the crew shouldn't Security be doing something, like...investigating before it could potentially get out of hand." Cyrus glared before turning back to the rest of the team.

Once both were finished, Jeremy sighed and looked around the room. He grabbed the newly replicated PADD and threw it into the reclamator before hitting the recycle function. "Lieutenant," Jeremy said, glancing at Coleman before he called up the functions on his PADD that allowed him to take over the screens Liyar used to display his data, "I think it is time to be less 'vague'." He glanced at Liyar, still not wholly convinced this wasn't a plot, but his information was beginning to look more and more likely.

Cyrus leaned back and sighed. He would leave the science-ey stuff to the science, but he wanted to help as much as he could, given the limited ability put in placed by his once Chief of Security.

Maenad scratched her temple, watching Kiwosk's rotten attitude that she remembered from the Academy play out. She barely shook her head with a distant smirk. Stone had, once again, said what was on her mind. When he got up and started configuring the display that Liyar had set up, she spun her chair to watch with an indifference that seemed a brand of her own.

"I am attempting to be as clear as possible," Liyar said, taking a breath. "There is something wrong with this crew. They are experiencing an unacceptable degree of medical instability. You are telling me that the baseline level for this crew involves delusions, hallucinations, paranoia, epistaxis, nausea, vomiting, confusion, lethargy, akathisia, migraines, ataxia, dysphasia, and excessive mood swings? You are telling me that you believe this degree of warp fluctuation is natural for a vessel of this size? You are all telling me, in no uncertain terms, there is absolutely nothing troubling about this?" he asked, flatly, staring ahead at the monitor. "You do not need to be a doctor to be capable of noticing people that are suffering from harm. Everyone in the V'Shar is cross trained to analyze shipboard functions. If you find my analysis flawed, then I suggest you find someone competent enough to confirm it. We cannot leave Vega IX otherwise. Then it will be an issue of security."

"It already is a security issue," Jeremy said before turning on Kiwoski. "Chief Warrant Officer Kiwoski, you will comport yourself with a respectful attitude toward officers at all occasions or I will have you thrown in the brig and will do everything in my power to see that you are court marshaled. If you think I will allow your negative attitude toward an officer go unchallenged, think again. Remember your place, Marine. Am I clear?"

"For the sake of the rest of the crew Lieutenant, I won't continue with my next thought." He stifled a smirk. "My apologies Lieutenant Liyar for interrupting you."

"Lieutenant Panne," Jeremy said, softening his tone now that he hoped that issue was settled with Kiwoski. As the evidence mounted with Liyar's allegations, they would need what help they could get, and Liyar, of course as a diplomat, just assumed everyone else should automatically agree with him. "I share your concerns regarding the incident and I have no problem arresting every person in this room that I believe to engage in mutiny or sedition against members of the ship's command structure, however Lieutenant Coleman has reminded us that we not only have an obligation under regulations but a duty to act in the best interest of the crew and ship in case there is an actual threat. Lieutenant Liyar thinks we should go into a general court marshal with only 'we followed the advice of a diplomat' as our only defense."

"I was unaware that you had developed telepathy, Lieutenant." Liyar arched an eyebrow. "Nowhere in this meeting have I mentioned court marshal."

"I'm referring to mine, for engaging in what could be considered mutiny, Lieutenant Liyar," you arrogant, egotistical bastard! he added, hoping the Vulcan picked up on it. "I will also point out, Lieutenant, that the numbers of those you think may be able to do something regarding this are not so high that you can afford to veil your sarcasm in Vulcan stoicism, so I suggest insults, direct, veiled or passive-aggressive are not helpful."

"Both of my parents were married at the time of my conception," Liyar offered out loud, tilting his head. "As Lieutenant Coleman has already pointed out, this is in no way a mutinous action. There is no intent here to undermine the command team, only to confirm information. If you desire to confront the captain and the commander as I have already said," he bit out impatiently, "That is your prerogative. As I stated: examine the evidence."

"Pardon me if I don't trust legal advice from a diplomat," Jeremy said before letting out a breath. This is unproductive, he told himself. Get to the point.

Jeremy glanced briefly at Lt. Coleman, hating that he seemed to be disappointing her. He had hoped to have at least one member of the command staff be an advocate and confidante for him. "However, Liyar is correct." He pointed to the screens which began showing lists of crew members on separate lists...many highlighted in red. "These are the crew that have reported to sickbay with various, common ailments such as migraines, nosebleeds. Those in yellow are crew who report more than one such symptom and those in red are those reporting three or more. Considering this as a Venn diagram," he hit a control on his PADD which did just that, "And you'll see that since the ship has docked at Vega colony, forty-four percent of the crew are reporting two symptoms or more, and twenty seven percent are reporting more than three symptoms."

He switched to a different screen where he pulled up copies of the video feed. "Dr. Ni Dhiunn's behavior also seems odd." He played her argument with Liyar, "Here she is justified in her argument with Lieutenant Liyar and this is not evidence for or against, except she does seem to be more irritable than this conversation warrants. But here," he skipped the time index to after Liyar leaves and her collapse into emotionality against the biobed. "This would seem to me to indicate an abnormal response to an argument she was justifiably correct in having with Liyar."

Liyar had his eyes closed again.

Jeremy looked at the warp graphics and his face screwed up in puzzlement. He didn't recall much of his first year warp theory class and he suspected that much of the warp signature could be caused by many other factors. But adding them in and Coleman's testimony that there was an experimental drive used as a means of escape? "Lieutenant Panne, you are better at these things than I, what is your assessment?"

Maenad sighed, staring at the screen. Her hands gripped the arms of her chair and her face had formed an irreverent frown. Warp theory was not her specialty, but now was hardly the time to complain about it. "Well," she began, "The data on the screen is unbelievable. Put simply, in order to travel at warp, a ship must form a static warp shell around itself. A bubble. The bubble, with the ship inside it, travels through subspace. From what I'm seeing, it would seem that there was no travelling involved, but a snap from one part of space to another. Or, that there was an artificial bend in the space-time continuum." Maenad looked outside for a second, trying to find an analogy. "Similar to a wormhole, which connects two parts of space by, essentially, folding them together. This technology simply doesn't exist. And the amount of power such a technology would demand is unfathomable for a Nova class starship. And, the creation of such a device and its effects on life are totally unknown. I would imagine that the side-effects from such a device would be caused by inadequate protection from its power-source, and that people might experience symptoms similar to radiation exposure. I'm only speculating, of course. The properties of the space inside an artificially-generated wormhole, without knowing how or through what it formed... I cannot say how passing through that space could effect people on the ship." Maenad clenched her jaw, looking rather upset. "But since such a technology does not exist, I find this very questionable. Where did you get this data?"

Eve glared at Jeremy, "Yes, where did you get that data?" Evelyn asked, standing up from her seat.

"It does not exist," Liyar said almost under his breath, a small frown on his face. He turned then and looked at Coleman. "It does not exist, and yet, you were testing a new system of propulsion. One that could inevitably cause effects such as these to occur as a result of the temporal shift necessary to complete the jump from point A to point B," he added, his eyes crossed slightly in that way some people got when putting two and two together, ignoring the outside world, pulling the facts together in his head with a small shake of it. "The information is there. I simply scanned the warp core using a specialized tricorder designed to pick up on warp fluctuation." He reached into his pocket and pulled out an easily identifiable V'Shar grade tricorder. "I can feel the fluctuations," he added. "I can feel it -" he broke off and shook his head again, as if trying to ward something away. "In any case, it prompted concern." He was staring at Coleman the entire time. She knew.

Jeremy stiffened as Coleman stood. "Sir?" he asked, not daring to look around or away. "I'm the security chief. I have access to all the ship's systems and databases. Some of this information was...misplaced...but, my programs compiled the data and reformed it. There is nothing confidential about who has gone to sickbay and what their chief complaint is upon checking in though."

Maenad could feel the stirrings of an abhorrent rage in her stomach. "Am I to understand that Starfleet authorised such a device?" She looked first at Liyar, who had first made the accusation, and then to Lieutenant Coleman who appeared to have given away any doubt that Liyar and Stone were both correct. "Was this crew used as a bunch of laboratory rats?" she shrieked, uncrossing her legs and flattening her feet against the floor.

"What?" Jeremy asked, turning to face Maenad. They were just talking about some medical effects which were compromising decision making abilities of the crew. "Starfleet wouldn't do that. Starfleet doesn't use people like laboratory rats," he said, though he seemed more confused and unsure of himself as he spoke. Something...he was sure of...his eyes fell on the diplomat and he turned to face Lt. Coleman. "Sir?" he asked, sounding on the verge of being frightened and even he didn't know why. "Starfleet doesn't do that right? You need to tell them, Starfleet does not experiment on its own people!"

TCyrus sighed. "Yes they would. Yes they do..." Kiwosk thought back to his own rushed recovery and Classified mission details. The mission never happened due to the high casualty rate.... it didn't happen "And with a top of the line Science ship, it would be the perfect testing ground for a new Warp alternative..." He clasped his hands.

Evelyn took a step closer to Jeremy, looking directly into his eyes. "That data is classified by Starfleet Intelligence, which I should know since the data is in my personal data file!" Eve wanted to grab his PADD and smash it to the ground, but then Maenad spoke. "Ugh! For a scientist you surely love to jump to conclusions really fast!" Eve snapped at Maenad. "No, the Galileo crew was not a bunch of lab rats. The Captain and Commander Holliday ordered the device to be used in order to escape the Klingons." Evelyn looked around the table. "Project Sienna, a new faster-than-light propulsion system. We were ordered to relocate the Project back to Earth, however the Klingons decided to engage us. We used Sienna to escape."

Jeremy was shocked. She had yelled at him. She advanced on him. She was upset because he saw what color she wanted to paint her office. Sienna, burnt umber, terra cotta. He didn't care one way or another what earth tone colors she preferred to sit in all day. "Intelligence has no right, no right to classify how goes to medical for a nosebleed!" he nearly shouted back at her but forced himself to stop because, and here he became defeated, even though she fooled him once, and she was like the others, she was still a superior officer. "No right at all. Where's the harm to the Federation in that?" he muttered as he moved to the corner, near the door. Though he made sure to loosen the draw of his phaser, just in case.

Maenad wasn't sure whether Coleman had complimented or insulted her, but she sunk back in her chair a bit at that. She was only going by the data presented on the screen, data that all of them could see. She didn't know what to think anymore; she had tuned out for a moment, looking at the table. How Starfleet could authorise a device, and how it could have been used so hastily...? Her eyes were wide as she considered the implications. She thought of Kiri and became suddenly very frightened and very concerned. "Without knowing what kind of psychological and physiological effects this damned thing could have caused, it never should have been used!" she nearly shouted, not at Coleman directly, but at the idea that she had submitted. Regardless of what Coleman thought, testing the device to escape the Klingons, which rose another entirely different set of questions altogether, was more important than protecting the safety of all those on the ship. If they wanted the device, it should have been destroyed or another option should have been found.

Cyrus stood up quickly readying himself to jump between the two arguing. "Let's try to calm everyone, arguing over Intelligence and Starfleet semantics isn't going to help us help these people." He offered diplomatically. "Obviously they thought Sienna was their only option to escape the Klingons, and we can't change that, but we need to figure out what we can do to help the people being affected by the fallout." There was no need to point fingers, for all they knew.

Liyar outright sighed, and then came around to his final point. "I believe that the crew on board this vessel who were exposed to the device are now suffering from unintended side effects," he pronounced in a much quieter voice than usual. "Lieutenant Coleman as an El-Aurian possesses the ability to perceive psionic projection. If you are willing," he said to her again, "I would be capable of showing you the extent of these side effects." He paused, then, for a moment. He wasn't exactly willing to reveal this just yet, because he didn't understand it. That he wasn't experiencing psionic perception in the normal way of his species, that he could not explain why; but he didn't want to hold up the meeting or unsettle her to engage in an intensive meld as would normally be required. In the interest of expediency and logic, he finished, "I believe I would be able to do this without a mind meld. I will lower my shielding and share with you the culmination of what is happening. The psionic scans above illuminate it in greater detail," he granted, "But if you are still skeptical, I will show you the final piece of information that leads me to this conclusion."

"I already believe you, Liyar." Eve stated, sighing, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Maenad, you weren't there." She began as she looked up and stared the the scientist. "We lost damn fine officers. Hell most of you are replacing fallen comrades. The bridge was so damaged, the Vega Engineers thought it would be just better replacing the bridge module than repairing the old one. This ship was crippled, taking refuge into a nebula with the Klingon launching spacial charges. It was either use the device or die. I believe the Captain made the right course of action, however used it slightly longer than I had recommended." She sighed, "The crew seems to be suffering from multidimensional disorientation. Same thing the team on the Transwarp project suffered. Besides this technology isn't exactly new anyway."

"Multideminsional- what? " Cyrus asked. "Care to talk for the simple people?"

Maenad looked at the confused Cyrus. "It's like... transporter shock, sort of," she said. "But, instead of quickly getting over it, the effects of shifting through space and time can have lasting physical and psychological effects without proper protection. Things like nausea, dizziness, heightened blood pressure, thinned blood, a weakened immune system, bleeding, hallucinations, all these things," she explained.

"Were the scientists permanently affected?" Liyar asked, leaning against the wall and resting a hand against his temple. "Is there a way to return the crew to nominal status?"

"All they needed was some rest." she shrugged, "but this is far more complex than that experiment with many more variables." She sighed turning to look at the diagram. "I'm sure there is records out there of those who used this propulsion system in the past."

"Twenty seven direct case studies regarding the effect of Transwarp on sentient beings with one hundred thirty eight affiliated studies, twenty percent of which are merely metadata compilations and of very little value," Jeremy muttered. THAT was probably going to wind up being considered classified data as well. "If one recognizes the 'slipstream' project as part of the case studies, then it is fort-two, one hundred seventy three and twenty-five percent, respectively."

"Indeed. As I mentioned, informing the captain and the commander is a logical option. But we cannot determine at this point if they will be in a receptive condition. I have observed the effects in both of them. Captain Saalm was beginning to suffer neurological effects approximately eight days ago. Can these transwarp records you refer to be made available to us?" Liyar prompted Coleman.

"The records do not belong to Starfleet," Eve replied, "Nor has the Federation even encountered a race with this kind of propulsion system."

"But you have." It wasn't even disguised as a question. He was thinking on his feet, which explained the next stream of conscious postulation. "What about the transwarp hub?" he finally inquired. "The USS Voyager came back to the Alpha Quadrant by way of a Borg modulated transwarp hub network. They were capable of doing this without suffering additional effects. Are the records of their debriefing scans still in the Starfleet database? We could run an analysis and determine what a 'nominal' transwarp pass looks like compared to what our crew is now suffering. We may be able to eliminate extraneous data. If we could do this, we could potentially find a weakness point and utilize this in potentially finding a way to reverse it."

"Well that doesn't sound easier than actually doing it. What exactly is needed to find this weakness?" Kiwosk asked. It was an obvious question with a not so obvious answer, but he asked it anyway. "I'm willing to help in any way I can so long as I can be granted the temporary clearance to do it." He said it simply, and honestly. "If not I'll be about as useful as I have been in contributing to this entire discussion."

"No," Maenad interrupted. "No, transwarp is different," she said to the table. "Transwarp works off of general warp principles that we have now, and there are no side-effects to the crew because they are still protected by the ship's warp shell," she pointed at the data on the screen. "This technology actually bends space. It does not require the warp drive and, effectively, the ship does not move. Space, the ship's destination, is brought to the ship rather than the ship to its destination." She scowled, "Unless there have been other live experiments on Starfleet officers that I haven't been informed of."

Liyar nodded, gesturing in concession with a few fingers which were placed near his chin in contemplation. Coleman's terminology had confused him, but Maenad's reminder was rather stark. There wasn't any confusion there. "What about Starfleet's department of temporal investigations? Surely there must be a precedent for this." He was racking his own brain for any information on the Vulcan equivalent. While his position in the V'Shar was rather low, Severen's was not. Miran province's archives were vast, and his brain was working through them all while he tried to come up with another theory to shoot out. Because at this point, they needed one. "What appears to have occurred is essentially a glitch in the quantum signature of the crew involved," he said, shaking his head again. "When they left, their quantum energy was reorganized in the continuum of space and time. Not only was the location brought to the vessel, but when this crew merged with that location, they were... recreated. The crew facing the Klingons had a much different signature than the crew we are now looking at. It is similar to the fluctuations we detect in transporter use, but these are harmful. When the crew returned, they were re-formed to this specific point in space-time," he said, knowing Maenad would be following along. "As you say," he offered to Coleman. "A multidimensional effect. It may be minor, or it may be a completely unique pattern of development. We would have to access baseline scans, but I do not know if Starfleet officers receive a baseline quantum scan." He sounded uncertain there.

Nodding with Liyar, Maenad agreed. "I don't know," she replied to him. "Nor can I say how to fix such a problem. There is no precedent, that I know of. Without knowing how the device worked, I cannot say how we could undo what has been done."

"Of course they do," Jeremy said from the corner. He had already compiled the data and sent it to the screens. "Get a quantum baseline scan that is. Why do you think you need a new physical for every new ship you go to? Medical creates a baseline for the transporter to compare the scans against. That's how they can filter out particulates and microorganisms or know that your uniform isn't really your kidney. Everyone aboard ship who was party of that mission should have that scan in their medical database." Jeremy indicated the information on the screen which were quantum scans.

Even sat down in her chair, "I haven't personally encountered them, however the Mak'Ti'Gragorians used a propulsion system almost identical to Sienna, with minor differences... which I thought we were able to compensate for but perhaps we missed something. I'm going to have to review Nico's notes, he spent a few decades with them."

"Is it possible that they will return to a nominal state on their own?" Liyar asked Coleman. "As you indicated, the scientists involved in the original tests were fully functional after a period of rest." He frowned for a moment, and then decided to just go with the most obvious solution he could think of. "What about your transporter technology? Could we restore the crew's initial quantum signature to the one kept in the pattern buffer?" On a Vulcan ship, he knew they tended to store patterns of all use into the coded matrix of the system. He wasn't sure how Starfleet operated in that regard.

Maenad perked up in her chair. "Yes," she replied. "Yes, that could work," she said quickly, almost enthusiastically. "If their trace patterns are still in the buffer, we could compare their clean patterns with their current ones. We could then just overwrite their current patterns with their old ones. We could need the doctor's cooperation, however," she added, turning to Coleman. "How far back do we store crew transport patterns?" she asked her.

"No," Jeremy said, "The transporter buffers are overwritten with each new transport. You would have to use the Pulaski Theorem, which means replacing the transporter pattern in the buffers with their unaltered scans. Which means we need someone who understands the transporters. Any chance your transporter chief is new?"

"Not everyone used the transporter on the Galileo though. Kiri is an example of an officer who used docking ports and shuttles to move on and off the ship." Eve explained, "Wouldn't it be simpler to flood the ship with fermions?"

Liyar pressed his lips together a little while he thought. Well, that was a wrench. He shook his head at Coleman. "A fermion flood would be capable of registering past and previous quantum states, but it would not be able to isolate the correct versions," he explained. "We would still need each individual crewmember's quantum pattern to run against. As Lieutenant Stone has explained, baseline quantum patterns are part of every standard physical, regardless of transporter usage. Overlying the transporter pattern of the crewmembers now with their previous nominal quantum scan should provide an accurate enough discrepancy to compare," he said, looking between the three of them curiously.

Maenad narrowed her eyes slowly as the Vulcan demonstrated his scientific knowledge. She was admittedly impressed, if not feeling slightly inadequate. She was indeed far from her field of expertise, but to show weakness with such strong personalities in the room could undermine her legitimacy. "Yes," she nodded. "I think this could work."

"Well, Kiwoski," Jeremy said, his tone flat and even, "Looks like we might have use for you after all, lifting heavy transporter modules with the transporter chief. I'll work on extracting all the baseline patterns, I suggest Lieutenant Coleman and Liyar approach Commander Holliday and Captain Saalm. Lieutenant Panne, start a list of crew most affected and those who aren't? We'll need them to help with crowd control and logistics."

Eve stood up, "I'll inform the Captain and the First Officer. Liyar, I want you to work with Panne so we get the list completed sooner."

Maenad crossed her arms when Stone decided to tell them all what to do, as if she reported to him. When Coleman told Liyar to work with her, considering she was the superior officer in the room, Maenad nodded. "Yes, sir," she said.

Liyar had his hands folded together, and he stood from the wall at the switch in plans. "Affirmative, Lieutenant."

Jeremy grabbed his PADD and began capturing the quantum baseline scans from crew physicals, cutting out anything from before the beginning of the last mission. This would, hopefully, allow him to quickly cut out those that didn't need this 'treatment'. "Stone to Security," he said, tapping his commbadge, "The ramp and shuttle bays are about to be shutdown. Remove anybody from them as they will be placed under a security seal within the next..." he frowned, how long will it take to get things set up? "Next fifteen minutes. By order of Lt. Stone. Anybody has a problem with it can take it up with the Captain through the complaint process."

Stone left the room, wanting to leave before Coleman yelled at him about how she classified nosebleeds and what color to paint her office.

[OFF]

Lieutenant (JG) Maenad Panne
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Liyar
Diplomatic Officer, VDF/SDD
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Evelyn Coleman
Chief Intelligence Officer/ 2XO
USS Galileo

LTjg Jeremy Stone
Chief Security/Tactical officer
USS Galileo

Chief Warrant Officer Cyrus Kiwosk
Former Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

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