>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Mission: You Can't Go Home Again Day: 2 Stardate: 2444.06.02 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< (Earth, East Texas - Williams-Verin Family Ranch-Captain Duke Williams and Captain Sophie Verin-Williams - 07:18) (Mars Base – Intelligence Offices – SECTAC, Ens(jg) Carson Peters and INT Ens(jg) Jaelle Foxglove – 1351) (Mars Facility – Red Sands Tavern – OPS/SEC- CPO Charles Tamblyn – 1907) (Mars Facility – Red Sands Tavern – SO- Ensign Sekal – 1910) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< (Earth, East Texas - Williams-Verin Family Ranch-Captain Duke Williams and Captain Sophie Verin-Williams - 07:18)-Martian time Sophie was out on the ranch that she owned with her husband. Their large house was currently hosting four orphans from the incident that she could not find suitable families for. Duke was out with her, in their barn, helping her to comb the horses that they owned. Sophie was brushing the fine white arabian that Duke had bred for his daughter, Sienna. The beautiful mare was named Snowflake, which for the fourteen year old Sienna was a fine name. Duke was tending to Trip’s stallion, Rigoberto. The ranch sat on property in the eastern part of the American state of Texas. It had been in Duke's family for generations. It had been passed from his great great grandfather to his great grandfather to his grandmother who then gave it to his father. Vice Admiral James Williams Sr. then divided the property into seven parcels, one for him and one for each of his six kids, James Jr. also known as Duke, Katherine, Rebecca, the twins Michael and Gabriel, and the youngest Claire. He wanted them to be close and have a home together no matter where the fleet might take them. Duke loved coming here as a kid, he enjoyed the quiet. But he missed San Francisco. When the twins were growing up they lived in a nice cul-de-sac with other fleet personnel. He loved seeing his kids grow up there, playing with the neighborhood kids. Especially that Bracken girl. His unofficial third daughter. They would summer at the ranch, but Duke used the twins education as an excuse to not permanently move from the city. But when they went to the academy and Duke had stopped teaching, well he ran out of excuses for Sophie. So they moved permanently to the ranch, living next door to his retired parents. He missed the house in San Francisco but thankfully work brought him there frequently. “:I miss them Duke. I miss them so much. I love the children we have opened our house to, but Duke, they are our blood.” “Blood doesn’t matter so much Soph.” He reminded her, encouraging her to continue brushing the mare, knowing that the repetitive motions would calm her anxiety. “What’s really going on Soph?” He eyed his Imzadi of close to 25 years. They had raised 3 children together and fostered others as needed over the years. Sophie loved being a Mother and it was a shame that the twin’s birth had damaged her to the point that she could not give them more children. If she had her way he would likely have had a dozen children running around their ranch. One of the four fosters ran into the barn, a bajoran boy of about five years named Styl who was being chased by the seven year old half vulcan/human T’Lyr. Sophie was still trying to get in touch with bajoran space for Styl. T’Lyr had lost all her kin in the Incident and Sophie and Duke were in the process of formally adopting her. It needed to be formally signed off by the Vulcan Embassy, which thankfully there was still one on Earth. “Miss Sophie, there is a call from work in the house. Can we take one of the ponies out for a ride?” Sophie smiled at Duke as she turned towards the house, leaving her Imzadi to answer the children. They knew that they couldn’t take a pony out without one of the adults. The children were just too knew to the idea of riding, but it was an excellent therapy for them. “Thank you T’Lyr. I’ll go take it…” Sophie had reached the barn door when something hit her, hard. She collapsed to her knees, holding her head. “SY!” She screamed, the pain terrible. Styl hid behind Duke’s knees, and T’Lyr cowered. These were traumatized children who had lost everything and they were not used to the gentle, loving, motherly Sophie screaming in pain. Something bad was happening. “Sienna’s gone. I can’t sense her at all. I could sense both of them… I need a comm. I need to know they’re all right. Who is in charge on Mars, do you know him at all. I need…” Duke stopped Sophie’s wild rambling, holding her against him, trying to calm his inconsolable mate. "Honey," he said wrapping his arm around her in a calming fashion. "It's ok. It's ok. They have each other. If there is a problem Trip will call. The scamp thinks he's a rebel, but he's the most responsible of our kids." Sophie nodded, not able to speak. "If there is a problem he will call. Besides they're with Ailynn. She's a good doctor. She's already saved Trip's life once. They're not alone." Duke helped his wife back to her feet. She nodded again, calming quite a bit. "This is the farthest we've been apart from them. My love, when Sky left, remember you couldn't feel her after a certain distance too." Skyler was Sophie's daughter from a previous marriage. She was half Vulcan and half betazoid. Duke had come into her life when she was around 10. Even though she was not his biological daughter, he loves her like she was. Adopting her was one of the happiest days of his life. “Yes, but Sky never had a burst of pain and then just..disappeared… like this. It isn’t the same. That pain was..terrible. And I could sense Sky up to almost Vulcan and I KNOW she’s alive. I KNOW Trip is alive. I don’t have that sense with Sienna right now. She’s … gone. I need to know she’s alive, Duke. You call or I call, but one of us had better do it soon. “We did the best we could raising them, we gave them everything we could. Yes there were bumps in the road, and they went through phases. Trip with his semi-professional cage fights and Sienna and her partying and broken curfews. But we did our best. We have always been there for our children, we will be there for them, but sweetheart, it's time to let our little birdies fly.” Sophie glared. Glared. “They can fly all they want. As soon as I know my little girl is still alive.” Duke understood that his wife was frustrated. She had a luxury that he never had. She could felel them, he never could. He had to trust they were ok, trust his gut, everyday, because he never had that same assurance she did. But he just felt it in his bones, they would be fine. The conversation continued for a few more minutes, Sophie worried sick, and Duke who was also worried trying to impress upon his wife that they needed to trust in their kids training. That still didn’t mean he didn’t want to find out. But if they called in everytime Sophie felt the kids in trouble, they’d never have the chance to grow and figure it out. More than anything he just hated seeing his wife in distress. When they were finished with their conversation and Sophie was feeling better about the twins, Duke grabbed his wife into a playful embrace, twirled her around, dipped her and then gave her a giant kiss as the two children, Styl and T’Lyr let out a huge, “EWWWWW” Sophie laughed a little, tears still in her eyes but calmer. “I was gonna tell you this over a fancy dinner tonight, but I might as well tell you know to lift your spirits. You’re gonna need to head to San Francisco tomorrow.” Soph frowned at her husband. He had been keeping secrets. “You know how I just got back this morning from my meeting with the Academy CO about coming back as an adjunct professor of engineering? And of course giving my monthly update to the Corp of Engineers brass? Well I met with Will about, well.” Duke then pointed to the two fosters who had begun playing tag around the barn. Will referred to Rear Admiral Will Alexander. He was part of the JAG team at Starfleet HQ. Will Alexander had been a member of the Spectre crew long before Sophie and Duke ever arrived. He was a former second officer of the Spectre under then Captain Remae Ktell, the current head of Mars Base. He had spent time as first officer of the Dennison, captain of the Mithrandir, head JAG officer at Starbase Geneva, and 52nd fleet liaison to the Academy and Head of Personnel for the 52nd fleet, before making it back to earth and working as Judge at Starfleet HQ. He also happened to be married to Duke’s sister Becky. “So they heard back from the Bajoran government last week, and the Vulcan Embassy. Not to mention, they couldn’t locate any next of kin for Declan and Rylee.” Declan and Rylee were siblings, both 10 and 9, whose whole family had been in San Francisco while they were off on a field trip touring Starfleet Academy with their school. Duke had actually been their tour guide when the incident happened. The losses felt that day were staggering, almost everyone who worked at the main Starfleet facilities in San Francisco lost someone dear, including his son Trip who lost his nearest, dearest, and most intimate friend. Sophie just listened, hope rising in her chest. She was still worried about her daughter. “Anyways, neither the Bajoran government or Vulcan government have any objections, and neither does Starfleet. Will gave us the green light and drew up the paperwork. I signed, he just needs you to go in tomorrow and sign. Once the ‘ink’ dries so to speak.” Duke then leaned in and whispered. “Our family will officially grow by four.” Duke then gave his wife a giant twirling hug. “He wanted to come and have a ceremony here, but he and Becky aren’t going to make it to the ranch until at least next week, and I didn’t want to wait. I wanted you to have this gift as soon as possible. We can’t tell the twins and Sky yet, not until everything gets filed, but dearest, I know I could only give you two, but, somethings are stronger than blood, and here is the large family we always wanted.” Sophie smiled. She was feeling much better. But she still needed to find out about her daughter. She would wait until tomorrow but if she had not heard anything, Remae would be getting a subspace message. She didn’t think he had any children, but she was going to check in if she had not heard anything by then. Or if that sense of her daughter had not returned. It could be something medically. Sy had medical issues. And Linnie was well versed in them all. Linnie was the best possible person medically to be near Sienna. Duke looked at his wife, sensing she was still worried “And don’t worry, if by tomorrow we still have no word about Sienna, I’ll beam you over to Mars with a cowboy hat and a phaser rifle,” (Reply none) (posted by Will and Mel) (Mars Base – Intelligence Offices – SECTAC, Ens(jg) Carson Peters and INT Ens(jg) Jaelle Foxglove – 1351) Carson stared at her whilst his cadence built throughout his accusation. Jaelle took a deep breath and steadied her nerves before replying. "First, no such operation as happened since I took over intelligence on mars. If this was an operation that was started before the fall of the Federation then it is out of my pervue. SFI has not told me what they were working on before they were hit equally had by the Federation downfall." Carson sat further back into his chair, he would have interrupted at this point, but it seemed like the Intelligence officer was building a head of steam. He'd probably need to calm the situation down, he didn't want to fall out with her, just set some operational boundaries. "Second, "Jaelle took a breath before continuing. "I would suggest learning the truth about the situation before you come into my or anyone's office to accuse them of any behavior that you feel is unwarranted." "Third," Jaelle continued with out pause. "By the sensitive nature of the work that I must do there will be times that secrecy will out weigh security. I or any under my command will not put this base under any danger and will my duty to make sure all proper procedure are followed. That being said we will be engaged in expanding and experimenting in ways to advance or presence and militaristic position. If you don't like how I handle things here either file a formal complaint or get out of my way." She set back as to offer by the tone of her body that if the security personnel had any questions that needed to be addressed. "I don't doubt that there will by necessity need to be some secrecy. But as it is my department that is in charge of the operational security of the base, I'd ask that anything that compromises that security is at the very least brought to our attention." She nodded is wasn't an unreasonable request and when she worked in security she would what the same respect. "I don't see where that would be an issue as long as you keep me informed on things of a intelligence nature." "As for my Luma. My apologies if you did indeed, know nothing of the operation. My assumption was that before coming to Mars, you would have been briefed on all current Intelligence activities in the sector. Especially as this one is at your base of operations. At the very least this conversation serves as a warning that you might want to find out about the operation before the Admiral calls you in and asks you to explain it." Carson said, the apology was genuine, but so was the cutting tone at the last part. If it was true that they had been told nothing, either the senior ups had forgotten about Luma and her importance or decided to keep it secret in the hopes they could use her in the future without the bases knowledge. "Has I was lead to believe Federation intelligence was in just as big a shamble as everything else. This get lost, I wasn't briefed on anything SFI had in the work, more to point I was told to reestablish the Federation intelligence network, and that's what I am trying to do." she said. Carson allowed a small smile to appear on his face, "The entire place seems to be falling down around us. I do find it curious though that SFI would have left Luma alone on the Mystique after making such efforts to keep her secret for so many years." "Plans change." Was her simple answer her own painful memories of my she left the Federation began to surface. Luma wasn't the only one hurt by Federation intelligence. Carson stood and as he did said, "Well I won't take any more of your time up, thank-you for addressing my concerns. Hopefully we can work well together going forward. If you have anything you require from Security, feel free to reach out." She simply nodded as she rose to follow the security out back into the main area of the intelligence suite. As he was about to leave he turned back and offered, "I don't know how attached you are to these offices, but if you wanted something less... Devoid of life, we have a floor free in the Security complex. If you wanted to claim it, it's yours to use." "Thank you," She answered and smiled. "But I think our new offices lie elsewhere." Her voice trailed off. Her mind filled to the brim recalling past secret protocols, experiments, and project codenames. Soon one Coded project came to her mind. Cherubim... she wondered if it could be. Carson nodded, he assumed the answer would be a no. No doubt a floor within the security complex wouldn't be secure and secret enough for them. "Well, I hope you find them soon." he said as he looked around the entranceway again. "Again, thanks for your time. If you need me, I'm sure you know where to find me." he smiled, nodded and then left to go about the rest of the days business. (Reply None) (Posted by Matthew Locke & Jono Bradley) (Mars Facility – Red Sands Tavern – OPS/SEC- CPO Charles Tamblyn – 1907) Charles never really liked the look and feel of a Starfleet uniform. He much preferred the style clothes he wore as a civilian. Carpenter-styled jeans, t-shirt, and a jacket. He was having a difficult time getting used to being back on active duty status. He was missing his wife, adult kids, and his home. Not to mention he missed the paycheck for catching some of the dregs of the Federation and the quadrant in general. He noticed one of the new ensigns enter the establishment, a Vulcan. Why not, he wasn’t the only ensign to seek out some form of recreation in the tavern. In fact, the ensign up on the stage was sounding pretty good. Tamblyn was just glad that music Verin played didn’t sound like she was strangling a cat. Charles was used to approaching a variety of beings in a bar. It usually was followed up by a short and intense firefight, which usually ended in the mark being injured and cuffed. He was pretty sure that sort of thing was not going to happen in this particular establishment; at least he hoped not. Charles drank his sweet tea with spiced rum as he watched Sekal, he thought the Vulcan’s name was, make himself comfortable in one of its low chairs while sipping his beverage and listened to Verin’s second selection. The chief petty officer always thought that it was good for morale that folks support and encourage one another. So he walked over to the table that Sekal sat at and asked, “Mind if I join you?” (Reply Sekal) (Reply Sekal) (Posted by Charles R.) (Mars Facility – Red Sands Tavern – SO- Ensign Sekal – 1910) Sekal was taking another drink from his mug and Ms. Williams-Verin was in the middle of a song when he caught movement from the corner of his eye and turned his head to see a middle aged male of intermediate height and wearing civilian clothes coming up to his table with a drink in one hand. The man's blue eyes framed by blonde hair were centered on him so the Vulcan set his own mug on the table and waited for him to arrive. “Mind if I join you?” Sekal rose in greeting. "Your arrival is welcome, please have a seat." As the two were making themselves comfortable the Vulcan was considering the visitor, he appeared 'hard bitten' which Sekal understood denoted a hard life, he deduced this from his battered features. The human however showed no signs of inebriation or malice and he had seen a brief glimpse of him on the base before tonight though he was unfamiliar with his name. "I have seen you previously but we have not been introduced." (Reply: Tamblyn) "Welcome chief Tamblyn, I confess that this is my initial foray into this tavern, I was attracted by the music coming from my fellow officer." (Reply: Tamblyn) "Since you are non commissioned I assume you were engaged in other endeavors before being sent here, would it be rude to ask what you do for a living outside of Starfleet and how you ended up here?" (Reply: Tamblyn) (Posted by Charles Gatling)