HADESRPG: (1 - 0814) V.Adm. Sullivan, Captain Dahr, Commander Solice, Lt. Samuels, Lt.Cmdr. Zerin

[Todd Holladay]

Mission: Sequester
Day: 1
Stardate: 2446.09.03

(Starbase Freedom - Level 2 - Conference Room - V.Adm. T’Larah Sullivan,
Captain Casian Dahr, Commander Quinna Solice, Lt. Hank Samuels, Lt.
Commander Zerin - 0814)

“I had no lasting relationships from the Academy, except from those I
served with on the Illuminar.” Solice stated.

To T’Larah, the Commander seemed honest. Quinna asked further, “Is there an
issue with our graduating class?”

“No, Commander,” the Admiral answered. “No issues with the class. I’m
trying to establish a baseline for bias. Of which I’ve determined there is
no more than would be expected. I want your responses and opinions to be as
neutral as possible.”

“Of course, Sir.”  Quinna affirmed

“I don’t see why you expect anything less,” Dahr assured her.

“Now that’s out of the way I will begin,” T’Larah stated. She pulled up a
picture of a Regula class research station with a purplish nebula in three
fourths of the background, labelled Outpost Forty Seven. “On Stardate
‘Zero-Seven-point-two-eight at approximately twenty three hundred hours
local time Research Outpost Forty Seven in the Beta Quadrant began
transmitting a distress call. The Hades was pulled out of Space Dock early
to respond. Forty Seven was tasked with research that was too sensitive to
sustain inside or around warp bubbles. The station had no warp core. She
was sustained by six very large deuterium fusion reactors and a smattering
of back up reactors.”

Zerin stood up to get a closer look at the image. It was odd that there was
only a two dimensional picture of the station rather holographic so that he
could get a good look at all the angles. He imagined the difficulties of
towing such a large station to such a remote area.  The only word he could
get out was, “Intriging.”

“On approach, the Hades received the log buoy, which contained the
following final log.” The station still photograph was replaced with a
video file. The face of a tanned human with short cut hair, two solid pips
and one hollow on his collar. His eyes had a hollowness and posture looked
like he hadn’t slept for at least a day if not longer. A short rough
stubble had grown on his face.
His voice nearly cracked when he began to speak.

[ “Station Log, Stardate, Two-four-four-six-oh-seven-two-eight-point
nine-three Chief Engineer Gutierrez, Acting Station Commander recording. To
put it mildly, we’re in a bad way. Yesterday at approximately 0800 hours an
imbalance was noted in reactor three’s deuterium fuel tank. Shut down and
purge was ordered on the tank and reactor as per standard protocol, only to
have that reactor and tank explode unexpectedly. Station Commander Syssiab
Th'avhanas was killed with the explosion of reactor two. Every conceivable
means to remedy the problem have failed after multiple attempts. Sealing
the tanks off from the station and leaving them alone seem to be the only
course of action as they have not exploded yet. Auxiliary power has been
rendered fifty percent inoperative; the remaining working generators have
been shunted to structural integrity, leaving the station on backup
batteries, which will fail in two hours. Structural integrity is at seventy
five percent and holding, after the Auxiliary power gives we’re down to the
strength of duranium and our prayers. I will order the remaining forty
percent of the crew to emergency shelters. Even if the station's structural
integrity gives way, the emergency shelters are built to survive anything
short of re-entry or weapons fire. I will order regular reports from the
intact shelters, and after this log, I will send out the log buoy with an
automated distress signal. I can’t bear asking for help and potentially
getting no response for the fourteen days our shelters should last. End
Recording.” ]

Zerin looked at Hank Samuels and whistled. Hank nodded at the Vulcan’s
sentiment. “That didn’t sound good.”

Thinking of what she had just watched, many questions went through Quinna’s
brain.  Did Hades check out these shelters?  What did this have to do with
the members of the Hades she went through the academy with?  Quinna did the
math in her head, noting it was 35 days ago.  Though she was eager to know
these answers, she just made notes on her traditional PADD and waited for
more.

Dahr joined Zerin at the image and traced the outline of the station,
pausing at where he imagined the deuterium fusion generators would be. He
shook his head.

“They were lucky to have fourteen days,” he said. “I imagine the bigger
problem was ensuring there wasn’t a cascade failure between the other
generators. What was the time differential between receiving the signal
from the buoy and the arrival of the Hades on scene?”

“Would you like to see the overall mission timeline?” T’Larah asked.

“Only if it would help me understand what happened and what you need from
us, Admiral,” Dahr replied.

“To answer your question, the buoy was encountered twenty-three and fifty
hours on stardate ‘zero-seven-point-three zero, brought aboard and
analyzed. Shortly thereafter, arriving at the station, approximately zero
seven thirty five the next day. So, less than eight hours. She was
travelling at high warp.”

“So, if I understand this correctly,” Dahr had clarified it in his head,
“there should still have been a thirteen-day window before the station’s
power supply ran out?  Plenty of time for a rescue operation.”

“All things being equal, Captain, I would agree,” T’Larah stated.
“According to sensor scans conducted by the shuttles involved in the rescue
mission, much of the power was gone by the time the Hades arrived.”

“So what went wrong?” Zerin interjected. “Clearly, the station was
destroyed before that time frame was up.”

“Correct, and your earlier hypothesis was correct. There was a cascade
failure. Much of the station had been vaporized during the fusion reactor
explosions. As were some of the backup food and water rations.” Sullivan
explained. “Once the EPS grid lacked the power to support onboard systems,
replicators failed.”

Zerin nodded, “And soon after that, life support would give out. Hours
might seem like days under those conditions.”

“According to the Hades CMO, Doctor Dural, the majority of casualties
brought over sustained various levels of malnutrition, dehydration, and
radiation sickness,” the Admiral explained. “Some, of course, worse than
others.”

“I recall,” Dahr said. “His medical staff did a great job with them, and if
memory serves, they rescued nearly all the survivors. So what’s the point
of this, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“The point, right,” T’Larah brought up a piece of the Hades log. “The
station was coming apart at the seams, but Hades’ own weapons barrage
destroyed her.”

“I am assuming it was to avoid a cascade effect in the debris.  Easier to
collect the pieces and the data.”  Quinna said, “And keep the salvage
hunters away.”

“That could be the reason,” the Vulcan woman admitted. “..but why were
chunks of the logs around 1400 deleted?”

“I once heard that nothing is truly deleted.  Could Engineering try to
recapture the missing logs?”  Quinna asked.

“You make it sound like they were intentionally deleted,” Dahr added. “Are
we sure there was not a technical issue due to their proximity of the
nebula and radiation?”

“That’s something I certainly intend to ask, when I question the Hades
crew.” There was finality to the Admiral’s words, not a threat, a
determined course of action. “This is a copy. So I wouldn’t be able to
restore any original data from the copy, Commander.  I'd have to go to the
source.”

“Captain Dahr, do you have any officers or technicians that would be rated
to retrieve deleted data? Determine if it was a radiation or
electromagnetic spike? Computers are not my forte.”

Dahr raised an eyebrow as he thought. “To be honest, Zerin here is the best
engineer I’ve seen. He’s kept this place together through trials and
tribulations.”

The Vulcan smiles, “At least for the most part. But what you need is the
someone verse in quantum computing.  That would be our new friend, Ensign
Adams.  She’s kind of attached herself to the team integrating the
station’s systems with the AI and has made some marked improvements with
the AI interface.”

Dahr chuckled, “Yes, I believe I’ve experienced some of those
‘improvements’, when the computer addressed me as… honey… I believe it was.”

Zerin nearly spat out the drink of water he’d just taken. “I’ll have a word
with her to tone it down a bit.”

“Or at least make it less familiar,” Dahr suggested. “Commander, I want you
and Ms. Adams to attach yourselves to the Vice Admiral and help her with
whatever she needs.”

“You got it Captain,” Zerin nodded.

“Thank you Commander Zerin, and Ensign Adams, you’ll meet me at the
transporter tomorrow at Oh-Eight-hundred hours, we’ll be beaming over to
the Hades.” Sullivan said.

Zerin nodded but filtered out the sarcastic comment he might have given
Casian. The damn uniform was starting to fit him again.

“And the crew of the Hades?” Dahr asked.

“They were due to leave, I’m revoking their exit privileges. I’ll have the
written order on your desk tonight. Their auxiliary craft are still being
worked on?”

“I have people working on the shuttles right now,” Zerin said. “We’re
supposed to look at the fighter craft next.”

“Then those stay too.” T’Larah stated. “The fighters and shuttles will stay
right where they are.” As some of T’Larah’s human friends would say she’s
playing hardball.

Dahr nodded to his chief engineer, “Let’s see if we can’t drag our heels a
bit there.”

Zerin chuckled, “You know me. The master time waster.”

Then Dahr looked at Sullivan and said, “Is there anything else you need
from Freedom?”

“I don’t believe so, Captain.” T’Larah said. “I’ll meet your officers Zerin
and Adams in the transporter room at Zero-eight-hundred, and if it needs to
be said, this is not a matter for casual discussion. Clear?”

“Of course,” the captain answered.

“Thank you for your time, I’ll see myself out.” T’Larah said. She scooped
up her PADD and left.

Casian looked at his staff with a questioning eyebrow and a shrug.

(Reply none)
(Posted by Todd, Al, Kris)

-- 
Todd Holladay
SGT, IA ANG (Ret)

" It's made of our shit, you know. That's the base material that we use in
our replicators. We deconstruct it to the atomic level and then reform the
atoms. [takes a bite] It's pretty good for shit. And we don't have to
commit atrocities for it." - Admiral Charles Vance

<http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail>
Virus-free.www.avg.com
<http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail>
<#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://startrekfreedom.com/pipermail/hades-rpg_startrekfreedom.com/attachments/20250825/ae7321e0/attachment-0001.htm>