>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Mission: You Can't Go Home Again Day: 6 Stardate: 2444.06.06 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< (USS Mystique, Corridor 34 - SecTac, Ens(jg) Carson Peters - 0018) (USS Mystique, Deck 8 - SecTac, Ens(jg) Carson Peters - 0024) (USS Mystique, Deck 8. Primary Computer Core - SecTac, Ens(jg) Carson Peters - 0027) (Mars Base, Runabout Delilah Transporter Station - SecTac, Ens(jg) Carson Peters - 0038) (Mars Facilities – Yacht Crash Site – aACEO – Ensign JG Keira Merek – 0537) (Mars Facilities – Yacht Crash Site – aFSXO – Ensign JG Trip Williams – 0540) (Mars Facilities – Yacht Crash Site – aACEO – Ensign JG Keira Merek – 0542) (Mars Facilities – Yacht Crash Site – aFSXO Ensign JG Trip Williams – 0545) (Outside Admiral's office - Ens(jg) Erin Cortes - 0856) (Mars Facility – Admiral’s Office - CO Admiral Remae Ktell – 0859) (Mars Facility – Admiral’s Office - Ensign Jg Erin Cortes – 0901) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - Ensign Jg Erin Cortes– 0913) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - CO Admiral Remae Ktell – 0915) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - Ensign Jg Billy Alexander– 0915) (Mars Facility – Admiral’s Office - Ensign JG Scott Matrix – 0916) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - Ensign Jg Erin Cortes – 0917) (Mars Facility – Museum facility - Sec/Tac Ensign (jg) Garek Darpeg – 0920) (Mars Facility – Sickbay - Ensign Jg Erin Cortes – 0933) (Mars Facility – Sickbay – aACMO Ens(jg) Ailynn Bracken – 0934) (Mars Facility – Sickbay - Ensign Jg Erin Cortes – 0938) (Mars Facility – Sickbay – aACMO Ens(jg) Ailynn Bracken – 0939) (Mars Facility – Operations Center - Conference Room - E/SYO Ensign Boone Foster – 0954) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - Conference Room - aASEC, Ens(jg) Carson Peters – 1007) (Mars Facility – Operations Center – Conference Room – aACEO – Ensign JG Keira Merek – 1009) (Mars Facility – Operations Center - Conference Room - E/SYO Ensign Boone Foster – 1010) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - Conference Room - aACSO (R)- Ensign Sekal – 1023) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - Conference Room - Science Officer Ensign Jaton Alyl – 1025) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - Conference Room - aACSO Ensign Sienna Williams-Verin – 1029) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - Conference Room - Ensign JG Erin Cortes – 1030) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - Conference Room - Ensign JG Jaelle Foxglove – 1033) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - Conference Room - aACMO Ailynn Bracken – 1035) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - Conference Room - aFSXO Ensign JG Trip Williams– 1040) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - Conference Room - Ensign JG Ravok Shara– 1041) (Mountains East of Mars Base - Undisclosed Location -- Intelligence Officer Ensign(jg) Jaelle Foxglove - 1127) (Mars Facility- Counseling Center- Pilot Ensign jg Ravok / Counselor Ensign jg Erin Julia Cortes- 1226) (Mars Facilities - 1st fighter wing - Hangar 5 - ENS jg Ravok- 1304) (Mars Facilities - Counseling Center - ENS jg Counselor Ariel Trei - 14.00) (Mars Facilities – Science Annex –aACSO(s) Ensign Sienna Williams-Verin & Ensign Sekal – 1400) (Mars Facilities - Counseling Center - ENS jg Ravok- 14.01) (Mars Facilities - Counseling Center - ENS jg Counselor Ariel Trei - 14.05) (Mars Facilities - Counseling Center - Ensign jg Ravok - 14.06) (Mars Facilities- Counseling Center - ENS jg Counselor Ariel Trei - 14.07) (Mars Facilities - Counseling Center - Ensign jg Ravok - 14.07) (Mars Facilities- Counseling Center - Ensign jg Ravok- 14.09) (Mountains East of Mars Base - Undisclosed Location -- Intelligence Officer Ensign(jg) Jaelle Foxglove - 1431) (Mars Facility – Security Complex - aASEC, Ens(jg) Carson Peters & MAJCOM (Sector 001), Lieutenant Colonel James Tillwell - 1730) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< (USS Mystique, Corridor 34 - SecTac, Ens(jg) Carson Peters - 0018) =^= No. Two are three cooridors down, one blew a hole in the deck and went down. The last one is trying to reach the bridge. Luma is scared. That one is a telepath, the Carson and she is trying to take over Luma. =^= "While surrounding the intruders and facing them down with weapons would be suitably heroic we have come across one already with a willingness to commit suicide and if these are agents of the same organization might I suggest anesthezine gas instead? If they can be rendered unconcious we would have a chance of forestalling any attempts to kill themselves before they could be thoroughly questioned." Sekal said. Carson liked the idea, but he immediately saw a flaw in the Vulcans plan. Last time he was here, he'd taken the time to look through the Mystiques defence systems. There were no gases onboard the ship, somebody had removed them. As if she had read his mind, Luma responded =^=The sleep gases were removed by the intelligence peoples when they broke Luma's drives.=^= "I'm assuming there's a reason you can't get a transporter lock onto the intruders Luma?" Carson asked quietly. He kept his eyes down the corridor and could feel Taya at his back looking the other direction. The small grouping of them should be sufficient as long as they worked together, him, Taya, Sekal and the two Security Officers they had with them. =^=The clothing they wear makes it so that Luma can not get a clear transporter lock on them. These small ones know far too much about Luma...The Sekal should stop touching the skin and raise his defenses. Luma can disable the telepath by destroying her mind.=^= "No Luma that is not allowed. Transport me to the primary computer core on deck eight and I will take care of the telepath. You can also transport the others where needed to intercept the rest of her group." responded Sekal. "Not solo," he said as he looked at the Vulcan. There was no way the only member of the team which wasnt a member of Security was going off by himself on a death mission. "If we can get close enough tag them with a transporter transponder. We should be able to use them to beam them directly into the cells down on Mars." Carson said as he looked around the team to make sure everyone understood. "No unnecessary risks." he added, "to the Bridge then, Mr Sekal?" he made a motion to the Vulcan. "It is a common misconception. While the bridge is the command center the computer core is the nerve center and the place she can access Luma. She will go there." Sekal said as he readied his weapon. Carson understood the reasoning, "Ok, the computer core then. Taya stick with Hammons & Jared, tag the two locals and then track down the missing third member of the team. Stay in contact." He turned back to Sekal just as the Vulcan called for Luma to energize. Carson watched as the Vulcan dematerialised in front of them. He sighed, "Luma transport me to Ensign Sekal" (Reply Luma) "Damn," he said and turned back to the other three. "I guess I'm heading to the computer core on foot. I hope I get there before he get's himself killed." and with that he broke out into a sprint down the corridor leaving Taya, Hammons & Jared behind to take on and track the remaining three. (USS Mystique, Deck 8 - SecTac, Ens(jg) Carson Peters - 0024) Carson had made it most of the way to Deck 8 without letting up. Thought as fit as he was he needed to make sure he was ready to go into combat once he got there. He hoped Sekal had a trap in mind for the telepath or that the telepath wasn't much of a fighter. He neared the Primary Computer Core when he heard a scream and then a curse before silence, hefting his weapon into a ready position he cleared the hallway and then proceeded to the doorway. As he looked in he could see Sekal standing over a woman dressed all in black. "Security the telepath is neutralized." Carson was close enough to hear Sekals message, though he assumed the man was communicating with the other part of the team. "Good to know," he said as stepped into the room. He took a deep breath, "Well done." he continued as he stepped around the womans body. "That was a damn foolish move you pulled." he said in an attempt to admonish the Vulcan. He couldn't put too much effort into it though, he was silently impressed that Sekal had engineered all this in such a short space of time. (Reply Sekal iyw) =^=Jared to Ensign Peters, two of the intruders taken care of, Sir. They're being transported now.=^= Carson tapped his badge, "Well done, where is Ensign Taya?" he asked without much hope. He knew before asking the question she'd probably gone off solo to hunt the third intruder and before the Petty Officer could respond her voice came over the comm. unit. =^=Taya to Carson, I've eliminated the threat on the bridge. I'm going to beam down with him to the Delilah to turn him over to security. I'll be right back.=^= "No need Taya, all intruders have been neutralised. We'll meet you down there." Carson said and he tapped his badge, "Luma can you confirm that there are no more intruders?" he asked as he shouldered the phaser rifle, knelt down and tagged the woman on the floor with a transporter tag. (Reply Luma) "Super." Carson said sarcastically, "Luma I'm going to be assigning a contingent of Security Officers to the Mystique for the time being. They'll be joining you shortly." he internally cringed at having to spend the next hour rescheduling the department. They were already woefully undermanned as it was. "Carson to Delilah transport station, 3 to beam down. Beam the tag's occupant directly to cell 4 and ask the officer in charge to apply a psionic inhibitor to the prisoner." (USS Mystique, Deck 8. Primary Computer Core - SecTac, Ens(jg) Carson Peters - 0027) Sekal's right hand swept over the unconcious form. "She was no threat due to the deception I used." An eyebrow lifted. "A deception that would not have been possible had I brought along an unshielded mind. She would have been warned and the trap spoiled." "Still, you had no idea how capable she would be. There was always the possibility she could have overpowered you without a phaser." Carson said, still gathering his breath from the sprint. "Perhaps your concern stems from the fact that scientists are not known for effective self defense." Sekal shook his head. "I assure you I am well able to take care of myself. I was able to anticipate and avoid every blow until she made a mistake and left herself exposed. I only allowed the fight to go on as long as it did to avoid the possibility of killing her." "It's less that your a Scientist and more that when you're a part of a Security Operation, I expect you to sede to our expertise. It worked out this time, but you may not be as lucky going forward. We're not hero's Sekal, we work in teams so we can keep an eye out for each other. It's a dangerous business." Sekal shrugged. "If you have doubts the perhaps we can spar or train together. The workout would be welcome." Carson straightened himself out, "I'll take you up on that, I could use a sparring partner." he then continued to tag the telepath and make arrangements for leaving the Mystique. (Reply None) (Posted by Jono Bradley) (Mars Base, Runabout Delilah Transporter Station - SecTac, Ens(jg) Carson Peters - 0038) They had beamed down to the station and Carson had sent Sekal on his way, thanking him for his assistance but still firmly showing his disagreement with the way he had ran off by himself. He and Taya had debriefed the two petty officers on what had happened whilst they weren't there and then they sent them on their way. They had just gotten word from the teams lead by Chief Tamblyn on Jupiter station that there had in fact been a few members of the team also there. The battle had been more bloody on the station, but thankfully none of his teams were badly injured. Carson tapped his comm. badge, "Ensign Peters to Admiral Ktell. Sir, the incursion of the Mystique has been succesfully repelled. We have several prisoners under guard and a Security team stationed on both Jupiter Base and the Mystique for the time being, no major casualties on our side, Sir." (Reply Ktell, Taya) (Posted by Jono Bradley) Mars Facilities – Yacht Crash Site – aACEO – Ensign JG Keira Merek – 0537) With a loud yawn Trip walked up to Ensign Merek. "Good morning." She nodded to the guards indicating that he was fine to approach. She’d have to tell them she appreciated their discretion in not phaser-first-ask questions later, and she wondered if Trip had noticed the guards in his half asleep state. “Good morning.” She echoed the greeting. Scanning continued uninterrupted. "How bout the next time one of our craft blows up, we uh, do the investigation a little bit later in the day." Trip said with a chuckle. He then handed the Ensign an aluminum cylinder. He was holding one in his other hand. "Thought you might like something warm and with caffeine. Had the replicator make it. All of my female classmates in high school loved this stuff. I guess for some reason I do too. I guess that makes basic. You'd think the craze would have died out in the 21st century, but apparently pumpkin spice lattes have withstood the test of time." The scanning stopped. She then grabbed the cylinder. “Many cultures have harvest rituals that have endured well after the advent of space travel and replicators.” She admitted. “Though this is out of season, the gesture is apricated.” "So, any clues from the wreckage, my money is still on old, but while my dad is a brilliant engineer, I only got through my engineering classes thanks to tutoring, so your guess is worth 50 of mine." He said. ~Flattery?~ “I already know what destroyed your vessel.” She said opening the cylinder as she walked over to the tail gate with the other cylinders, “Catastrophic unregulated mixing of deuterium and anti-matter and the resulting release of pure energy.” She said. Pouring the harvest flavored mixture into her cup she had used before. She enjoyed the aroma before taking a sip. (Reply Trip) “Well, you can go if you want, I’m staying to try and figure out what caused the release of the antimatter.” She said taking another sip. “The first explosion was on the port-aft-ventral quarter, you were just in combat several hours previous. Did your vessel take a hit to that section?” (Reply Trip) “There was no weapons fire? That leaves two possibilities, either a cascade failure which would indicate one of the engineers not performing a series of maintenance duties, or sabotage. If I find no evidence of the latter, I will find out who did the former.” She took swig this time, giving him the opportunity to absorb the gravity of what she was saying. (Reply Trip) “What do you remember of the flight home? Any alerts on your panel? There was a large mass of calcium phosphate in the back section indicating a body, but it wasn’t one of us. Did you bring back a prisoner?” (Reply Trip) (Posted by Todd) (Mars Facilities – Yacht Crash Site – aFSXO – Ensign JG Trip Williams – 0540) “I already know what destroyed your vessel.” She said opening the cylinder as she walked over to the tail gate with the other cylinders, “Catastrophic unregulated mixing of deuterium and anti-matter and the resulting release of pure energy.” She said. "Well I guess you don't really need me." Trip said with a chuckle. “Well, you can go if you want, I’m staying to try and figure out what caused the release of the antimatter.” She said taking another sip. “The first explosion was on the port-aft-ventral quarter, you were just in combat several hours previous. Did your vessel take a hit to that section?” "We were mostly in the rear as a command ship. We didn't take any fire or damage, well until the ship exploded." “There was no weapons fire? That leaves two possibilities, either a cascade failure which would indicate one of the engineers not performing a series of maintenance duties, or sabotage. If I find no evidence of the latter, I will find out who did the former.” "Well I would prefer neither as an option, but I guess if that isn't an option, I'm hoping just negligence. No offense." “What do you remember of the flight home? Any alerts on your panel? There was a large mass of calcium phosphate in the back section indicating a body, but it wasn’t one of us. Did you bring back a prisoner?” "Yes, and no. There was a deceased body. There was a tussle with a Romulan pilot, he stabbed Ravok, we used the Romulan for a blood transfusion. The transfusion wasn't completed on the Raptor, so we finished it on the God of War. After I had the body placed in the back so we could give it a proper burial when we returned home. I assumed the body was burned up in the explosion." (Reply Merek) "Not to mention what skeletons that skeevy Ferengi Rook that we got the craft from might have forgotten back there." (Reply Merek) "But I don't know, just because I had a corpse doesn't meant that what you found is that corpse." (Reply Merel) "Is there anything else you need from me on this?" (reply Merek) (reply Merek) (posted by Will) (Mars Facilities – Yacht Crash Site – aACEO – Ensign JG Keira Merek – 0542) "Yes, and no. There was a deceased body. There was a tussle with a Romulan pilot, he stabbed Ravok, we used the Romulan for a blood transfusion. The transfusion wasn't completed on the Raptor, so we finished it on the God of War. After I had the body placed in the back so we could give it a proper burial when we returned home. I assumed the body was burned up in the explosion." “I’m not exactly sure what happens to bone in that hot of a fire. Law of Conservation of Matter and Energy says: You can’t destroy it, it only changes forms. The Calcium is there.” She stated. "Not to mention what skeletons that skeevy Ferengi Rook that we got the craft from might have forgotten back there." He retorted. “I hadn’t thought about that.” She admitted. ~If that is a possibility, I’ll have to involve security, and possibly medical.~ "Is there anything else you need from me on this?" he asked. “I suppose not.” She said. “Thanks for the coffee. I will keep you informed. Maybe you can get a nap in before the Admiral’s meeting?” (Reply Trip) (Posted by Todd) (Mars Facilities – Yacht Crash Site – aFSXO Ensign JG Trip Williams – 0545) Trip smiled at Ensign Merek and began to laugh. "Doubtful, I've got some work I need to do before hand." Trip didn't quite know how to explain it, though he knew eventually the rumors would start and get out eventually, but he didn't know the Engineer enough to feel comfortable sharing the fact that he can't take a nap was due to his own poor bedroom choices. "But I have the afternoon free and a day off tomorrow, so I should be able to catch up nicely." (Reply Merek) "Hey listen, before I go, I wanted to give you something on a project I might need a little help on it." Trip reached into his satchel with his off hand and handed a PADD to Ensign Merek. "It's the design schematics for a new Starship class my dad was working on before the shut Utopia Planitia down. The NX-1672, she was supposed to be the first of the Exeter class starships. Instead she's just sitting there, doing nothing. She was started post Andorian departure so everything is mostly new, just not finished. They got 75% of her done before the project was scrapped." (Reply Merek) "Anyways, I'm not really an engineer, I know my way around somethings, but not enough to basically finish a Starship. I know that a lot of resources are being put into fixing the Republic, but if you have any spare hands or parts, this might be something to look into." (Reply Merek) (reply Merek) (posted by Will Banowsky) (Reply Trip) (Posted by Todd) (Mars Facility – Admiral’s Office – aACMO Ens(jg) Ailynn Bracken – 0750) “Any further?”, ask Remae and he waited for a moment. Ailynn nodded, “Two things Admiral. I would have told you this sooner, but…events conspired against me, not least a 5 hour brain surgery. I have no idea why the Trill ambassador is here, but I have information for you.” Ailynn knew that she had her faults, many of them. However, she knew that her intellect wasn’t one of them, she was thinking quickly on her feet now, several disparate things slotted onto place in her mind, and she tilted her head, smiling, and inhaling though her nose, half an idea forming in her mind. In passing, Ailynn wondered if the Admiral knew about her families past with SpecOps and Intel. (Reply Remae) She turned her full attention to Remae. “The Trill Ambassador is one of my mum’s closest friends; I’m not sure if you know, but she was Chief Counsellor back on the Hades, and I know that she has the deepest fondest memories from those days.” She regarded him, mindful the rank difference between them. She’d grown up with Admirals, there had been many constantly visit her mum at home. Her paternal grandmother had been Fleet First Officer. Admiral Emmi Greene.” “I seem to remember that the Hades is parked in spacedock, I wonder if were possible to take the Ambassador to see her old ship?.” (reply Remae) (Posted by Mark) (Outside Admiral's office - Ens(jg) Erin Cortes - 0856) Standing outside the door, Erin took a deep breath. ~okay, big moment. Just pray he...~ Stopping her train of thought, she smoothed down her uniform and raised her hand to press the console and announce her presence but she stopped, hand hovering slightly. Thinking back to earlier and Billy's words to her, a soft smile crept onto her face. Realising it, she shook herself, fixed a calm look on her face and pressed the console. (Reply Remae) (Mars Facility – Admiral’s Office - CO Admiral Remae Ktell – 0859) The door open as Remae was about to head for the new Operations Center, revealing a new Ensign. The Admiral now had a firm idea of what a new reporting Ensign looked like, PADD in hand and a nervous look on their face. “Not a word, come with me.”, he said the Ensign with PADD in hand… together, they left the office, heading towards somewhere new. (Mars Facility – Admiral’s Office - Ensign Jg Erin Cortes – 0901) “Not a word, come with me.”, the admiral said as Erin opened her mouth to introduce herself. As he walked off, she blinked and then hurried after him. (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - Ensign Jg Erin Cortes– 0913) As she stood waiting for the admiral to return, Erin glanced around what served as ops. As she watched the various people going about their business, a grin grew on her face. ~So that's where the flash works.~ Dragging her mind back to the present, the doors to the conference room opened and the imposing Admiral walked out. “We have a senior officer conference at 10am, Ensign, so your timing couldn’t be better.”, he said as he walked into his office. Erin followed, determined not to say anything. ~Senior officers? How did that happen? I mean I'm not …..~ “Ensign Erin Julia Cortes, Counsellor. Welcome, Ensign. I look forward to serving with you. After the meeting, please find Ensign Ailynn Bracken. The Acting ACMO.”, he said, handing her the padd back. She nodded and replied, "Yes sir. I look forward to working with you. My parents always spike highly of you." “Technically, you fall under the auspicious of the Medical Department but as we both know, I was a former Counsellor myself, you have more free reign than the normal medical officer. We also have several other Counsellors, which is very useful as we have tens of thousands of people here, right now on Mars.” Erin listened, not wanting to interrupt, ~sounds good. But how many people did he say? Sweet lord.~ “Ensign, please attend our conference at 10, unless you have any questions?” "No, sir. Just eager to get to work." (Reply Admiral) She nodded her thanks and turned to walk towards the door, heading deliberately past Billy. Tapping him on the shoulder, "Hey flash. You got here quick." She said with a smirk. (Reply Alexander) (Reply Admiral, Alexander, Any) (Posted by jaclyn) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - CO Admiral Remae Ktell – 0915) Remae had just taken himself on a tour of the operations centre, old, non-functioning and he had ended up at the doors of the conference room. He had left his new Ensign at the door and she was temporarily forgotten, as he returned to her side a few moments later. “We have a senior officer conference at 10am, Ensign, so your timing couldn’t be better.”, he said walking back towards the office attached to the conference room. It appeared he had another office here but like everything else, it hadn’t been used in years. “Ensign Erin Julia Cortes, Counsellor. Welcome, Ensign. I look forward to serving with you. After the meeting, please find Ensign Ailynn Bracken. The Acting ACMO.”, he said returning the PADD to her. “Technically, you fall under the auspicious of the Medical Department but as we both know, I was a former Counsellor myself, you have more free reign than the normal medical officer. We also have several other Counsellors, which is very useful as we have tens of thousands of people here, right now on Mars.”, he said, finishing up his quick welcome. “Ensign, please attend our conference at 10, unless you have any questions?”, he said and he waited for anything further before dismissing her to her own duties. (Reply from Cortes, Any) (Posted by Anthony Keen) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - Ensign Jg Billy Alexander– 0915) Billy turned as he felt something on his shoulder. It was Erin. "Hey flash. You got here quick." She said with a smirk. "Well, I mean, it was pretty simple to get here, you know. Especially because I have a bit of an easier time getting cleared than you." (Reply Erin) "You know, I have less security restrictions, because I'm not an explosive device. Get it, because you're Time Bomb Cortez." Billy began laughing. He found himself hilarious, but he wasn't sure that Erin would be quite as amused. "I bet the security officer heard you ticking and was all like, we need a full body scan stat." Billy stopped laughing and smiled. (Reply Erin) (Mars Facility – Admiral’s Office - Ensign JG Scott Matrix – 0916) Scott had taken the opportunity to tour as much of the facility he could before reporting to the admiral. He didn’t see nearly as much as he’d hoped. Still, he’d get to see just about everything in short order. The entire base was abuzz of activity, almost chaotic. Fleet vessiles being constructed, repaired or departing for who knows where. Utopia Planitia was where it all happened…an engineers dream. Some great ships were constructed here over the history of the Federation. ~This looks like the place.~ through Scott. He entered with PADD in hand, looking for the highest ranking officer he could. ~Ah~ “Good morning Admiral. Ensign Scott Matrix reporting as ordered.” He started. (Reply Ktell) “Yes sir.” Replied Scott. Matrix handed his PADD to the admiral expecting him to take it. Scott looked around the room trying get his bearings. Scott had never been on the Mars facility, it was huge by any standard. (Reply Ktell) (Posted by Steve Smith) (reply Erin Cortez) (posted by Will) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - Ensign Jg Erin Cortes – 0917) "Well, I mean, it was pretty simple to get here, you know. Especially because I have a bit of an easier time getting cleared than you." "It did seem to take a little while longer to get through but....." "You know, I have less security restrictions, because I'm not an explosive device. Get it, because you're Time Bomb Cortez." As he began laughing, a realisation hit her. "You.... that was you." "I bet the security officer heard you ticking and was all like, we need a full body scan stat." Raising an eyebrow, Erin glared at him and whispered, "Oh, so that's how it's gonna be is it? You better bring your A-Game, Flash." (Reply Billy) Leaning back up, she turned to walk away from him, then glanced back, "Because I swear to you, I will get my revenge. I don't know how, I don't know when but... I will. " She winked at him and walked off, smiling to herself. (Reply Billy) (Posted by Jackie) (Mars Facility – Museum facility - Sec/Tac Ensign (jg) Garek Darpeg – 0920) Darpeg was rummaging through the remains of the old Museum facility, trying to find some Andorian weapon technology that had been overlooked. He noticed an odd looking mission patch on a dusty spacecraft. As he got closer, he saw that it was the Aries III unmanned lander. The test vehicle for the Ares IV manned mission under Lieutenant John Kelly. The patch looked similar to the Star Fleet patch, but it said UNITED STATES SPACE FORCE. That was the agency that eventually merged with the European Space Agency to form the United Earth Space Probe Agency, that later became Star Fleet.. He decided to go on and keep looking, and soon he found something. An early photon torpedo with an Andorian Selak guidance system and Zerech detonator. He scanned it and saw that they were still functional. He then heard a voice behind them, "Looks like you found something." (Reply Any) (Posted by Gary Dupree) (Mars Facility – Sickbay - Ensign Jg Erin Cortes – 0933) Walking into the rather large medical facility that stood on Mars, Erin’s eyes widened. ~Holy crap, this place is huge. I am so gonna get lost in here.~ Spotting a nurse off to one side, Erin walked over to her, “Excuse me, I’m looking for Ensign Ailynn Bracken?” Looking up at her, the nurse smiled and replied, “She’s over there. Just got in?” Erin nodded. “Thanks.” Walking over to where the tall woman who was pointed out to her stood, she stopped just infront of her and took a breath, “Ensign Cortes, Ma’am. Reporting in.” (Reply Bracken, any) (Posted by Jackie) (Mars Facility – Sickbay – aACMO Ens(jg) Ailynn Bracken – 0934) “…and discharge those two to day patients. Give them Physio and Occupational Health Appointments.” Ailynn watched as the duty matron nodded primly at her. In truth, she hadn’t made her mind up about her yet, Ailynn rather suspected that she was still being tested, she knew that the Matron considered her far too young for the responsibility she held, and had voiced that opinion, an opinion that Ailynn herself had very very quickly stripped her of. Since then it had been rather quiet on that front, it was almost as if a list was being made of her every move and decision. She almost missed the bickering to be honest. Pulling herself back from the woolgathering, Ailynn was suddenly aware of a slightly awestruck looking Ensign a few feet away from her. “Ensign Cortes, Ma’am. Reporting in.” Ailynn smiled warmly, “Ailynn please. You call me Ma’am, I start looking for my mother right? Ailynn…Lynn…I don’t mind.” She shrugged, and paused slightly, “Think of it this way…when I’m formal with you either I’m serioiusly stressed about something, or we have an issue.” Once more she smiled, hopefully putting the woman at ease. “I saw your name on the lists earlier – we’ll grab a coffee on the way to the senior staff meeting, we can walk and talk.” (Reply Cortes) Ailynn laughed. “Took me by surprise too to be honest, but here’s the thing. What we’re doing here, I’m not sure has ever been done, we get to build an entire facility, ground up, in our own vision. The beauty part is, that there’s no hang overs, no old ideas, we can be everything we dream.” She motioned to a replicator, “Please help yourself. Coffee, personal recipe 8.” (Reply Cortes.) (Posted by Mark) (Mars Facility – Sickbay - Ensign Jg Erin Cortes – 0938) The woman infront of her smiled warmly, “Ailynn please. You call me Ma’am, I start looking for my mother right? Ailynn…Lynn…I don’t mind. Think of it this way…when I’m formal with you either I’m seriously stressed about something, or we have an issue.” Smiling back, Erin felt her nerves dissipating. “I saw your name on the lists earlier – we’ll grab a coffee on the way to the senior staff meeting, we can walk and talk.” “I like the sound of that.” As they walked together, Erin glanced around her, “This place is huge.” Ailynn laughed. “Took me by surprise too to be honest, but here’s the thing. What we’re doing here, I’m not sure has ever been done, we get to build an entire facility, ground up, in our own vision. The beauty part is, that there’s no hang overs, no old ideas, we can be everything we dream.” ~Sounds like this could be the right place for me. A fresh start with nothing and no-one to hold me back~ “Please help yourself. Coffee, personal recipe 8.” Nodding, Erin turned to the replicator, “Coffee, black, two sugars.” As the drink appeared, she grabbed it and looked at Ailynn, “Ma’am…. Sorry, force of habit. Ailynn, you’re serious about rebuilding this place as ours in our own vision?” Reply Bracken “It’s just, i tend to not go for the traditional, sit on a couch and tell me your problems style of counselling.” Reply Bracken As they started to walk, Erin continued, “It’s just, that never worked for me. I want to create a place where people feel comfortable. Like a home from home almost.” Pausing, she smiled, “That’s what worked for me and that’s what i have seen work. I prefer to speak to people in their own setting if possible. Particularly with children. But i have used holodecks before. Particularly useful for those with anger problems. Let them work out their issues on beams of light rather than on a real person.” Reply Bracken (Reply Bracken, any) (Posted by Jackie) (Mars Facility – Sickbay – aACMO Ens(jg) Ailynn Bracken – 0939) “Ma’am…. Sorry, force of habit. Ailynn, you’re serious about rebuilding this place as ours in our own vision?” Ailynn tool a sip of her coffee, and nodded. “Erin, look around you, what we have is functional at best, a lot of the tech is many years out of date, and we have how many floors above and below us to expand into and use. We’ve only been here a week ourselves.” “It’s just, i tend to not go for the traditional, sit on a couch and tell me your problems style of counselling.” “Not everyone does admittedly, everyone has their own methods.” Ailynn answered, as they turned away from the replicator and began a slow walk through the Hospital toward the Observation Lounge As they started to walk, Erin continued, “It’s just, that never worked for me. I want to create a place where people feel comfortable. Like a home from home almost.” Pausing, she smiled, “That’s what worked for me and that’s what i have seen work. I prefer to speak to people in their own setting if possible. Particularly with children. But i have used holodecks before. Particularly useful for those with anger problems. Let them work out their issues on beams of light rather than on a real person.” Ailynn nodded. “I agree, I’d suggest you take your time and look around upstairs the counselling suites are up there. I’ve had a glance around, but not properly in the last day or two I’m afraid. See what facilities you have. Go with what you feel right of course, but make sure you have an Office, a room for you. A lot of patients expect to see a certain thing when they arrive. Once you’ve met them and discovered their needs, then move on to more specialised treatment rooms.” (reply Cortes) “I’ll be introducing you to the other counsellors at the meeting, Ensigns Trei and Ravenstone. Ensign Solice serves as a Counselling capacity when not stationed on base.” (Reply Cortes) (Posted by Mark) (Mars Facility – Operations Center - Conference Room - E/SYO Ensign Boone Foster – 0954) Boone listened to the response from the medical officer. "It is taken, by you just now friend." Boone sat in the seat he had motioned to. "Thanks ya sir." "...and my name is Dr. Dural Methor, you may call me Dr. Dural or just Dural if you prefer." "Boone Foster," Boone extended his hand for a hand shake. "The title is medical. Doctor of Public Health. We haven't met as I only just arrived yesterday. I've been meaning to get out and socialize, but I spent much of yesterday speaking with the Admiral, then the CMO. I spent the better part of the rest of the day after work arguing with Engineering about the specifications of my quarters and inquiring why the thermostat doesn't go above 30°Celsius." Looking at Foster's uniform, "I take it you are in Engineering?" The doctor started to babble a little. A half-smile appeared on Boone's face. "Yes, I am in Engineering. Sorry to hear about your thermostat. This old place has many hidden pitfalls. I'll see what I can do about your room climate." Dural smiled, "and where do you hail from?" He asked. "A place called Earth Prime," an image of the planet popped into Boone's brain. "I've never heard of that place, you'll have to tell me of your home in great detail at some point. I don't think we'll have time before the briefing." He admitted. In fact, as the doctor was finishing his sentence the Admiral began speaking. Boone straightened himself in the chair, and looked toward his new boss. (reply none, Dural iyw) (posted by Calvin Capps) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - Conference Room - aASEC, Ens(jg) Carson Peters – 1007) The group has become silent as the Admiral began to talk and welcome all the new(er) officers around the table. He made sure to note each of their names as they were introduced, so he wasn't caught cold at a later date not knowing who was who. He smiled as the Admiral made Ensign Williams-Verin a codepartment lead of the Sciences. Admittedly it was a large department and they probably needed more than one to help focus the research and development. “Next, to the topic of Security and Tactical." The Admiral said as he looked over the assembled officers. Carson sat up a little straighter and began readying the padd he has with him incase the Admiral asked for any information. "Ensign Peters, I am making you the new acting Assistant Security Officer (aASEC), and you’ll oversee your department, but I also recognise that Security and Tactical are quite different things, separate and very involved. I am recommending that you assign an officer from your department to the role of Tactical and that person will have a special focus on Tactical Operations, the Tactical Officer is a role you can assign when you are ready and later on, that role will become an acting Assistant position (aATAC).” ~What?~ Dumbfounded and a little proud, he simply nodded to the Admiral, "Thank-you, Sir." and allowed the moment to passby. This was big and he spent a good few moments trapped in his own head. ~This doesn't really change anything~ he thought to himself. He still needed to work side-by-side with all the other Security and Tactical officers, it just meant that if things went wrong it was his head it'd fall on. By the time Carson managed to refocus himself to the meeting, the Admiral was commending Ensign Williams for his successful leadership in the attack on the pirates. Carson politely clapped along with the rest of the room and then Admiral Remae asked for a brief but informative description of what was happening within each department. The room was silent but for a moment before he decided to be the first to speak up, "Admiral as you know, but some here may not. We had an attack on Luma & the Mystique late last night. Thankfully noone was injured and we have several prisoners under guard which will be questioned later on today in regards to their incursion and other investigations that are currently ongoing. Outside of that, I'd like to thank everyone here for helping to make the base lockdown as simple a process as it has been and another thank-you to the Engineers which have helped get the Security Ops centre fully functional. You've made my life significantly easier." Carson nodded to Merek across the table. (Reply any other Security, all other departments) (Posted by Jono Bradley) (Mars Facility – Operations Center – Conference Room – aACEO – Ensign JG Keira Merek – 1009) Keira looked up from her PADD once the Admiral began speaking. She must have been fairly deep in concentrating on her work because there were quite a few more people in the room that were not here when she had entered it. ~Father would not have been pleased I let all these people escape my attention.~ The admiral then formally introduced the interim department heads to the group when his announcement came around to her name Keira half smiled and raised her hand up slightly so that everyone could see who she was, then immediately regretted it as most of the eyes turned on her even briefly. Her cheeks flushed a light green from embarrassment and she slinked back slouching slightly and half hid her face with her inside arm. ~Dork.~ She chastised herself silently. Security department spoke up first and went before engineering. Security talked about an attack last night. ~I slept through that? I must have been more fatigued than I thought. Maybe I…. we all need a break.~ Once the brief was finished she pulled up her notes for the briefing on her PADD, while she was gathering herself Foster spoke up for his project before she could speak for the entirety of the department. "Well, I've been workin' on the transporters. We're still below halfway of full operation, but we've increased about 7% since 2 days ago. Mostly, we've worked on the more quick fixes. Soon, we'll be workin' on the more severe transporter problems. It'll take some time before we're up to 100%." Boone looked around the room, his posture adjustment seemed to punctuate the end of his briefing. “Thank you, Mister Foster.” She said and deleted her third bullet point on the state of the transporters. “Let me know if you need more personnel to help you speed things up.” “Ensign Merek, Engineering. “ She started, then collected herself. She moved the hair that was partially covering her face on the right back behind her pointed ear. “ Repairs to the facility as a whole are proceeding ahead of schedule. We are at about the sixty to sixty-five percent range on the whole. There are some sections that are ahead of others, with some of our initial engineers being transferred or in leadership schooling it will take some time to resume our initial speed of repairs, as our fully qualified replacements assume those roles. We are currently operating at a surplus of power. Surface main power is online, as are several secondary and a few tertiary generators, we will need that excess power in the coming weeks and months. Surplus is currently tasked with charging back up batteries in the event of failure we will have auxiliary power. Main computer is untangled and working as well as we can make it, with out replacing it. Sensors are up and running we can track anything that our western hemisphere is pointing at because the western long range sensors is all that’s functioning right now. Industrial replicators are running but not optimally. We are back ordered on some parts to get that functioning more efficiently. With the loss of PO Castile I’ve sub-contracted the Mars mining and processing to a civilian contractor. With their assistance we can smelt raw materials and produce simple things like support beams, superstructure, hull and deck plating, this will cost less power than a replicator and save some of the back log we’ve created at the replicators with all the upgrades and repairs. Docks are at about twenty to thirty percent we have partial shore power and environmental systems are at work cleaning up the atmosphere. Any viable ships have shore power, so they can conserve their fuel while they are being worked on. Small craft like work bees are thankfully meant for long term storage and ninety percent are still functioning. Lastly I am drawing up plans for a satellite defense grid to take some of the burden off of our fighters, what I’m thinking of will have phaser arrays for capital ships and a point defense system for torpedoes and an additional fighter screen to prevent them from attacking the planet.” She finished and unceremoniously sat down. Sciences spoke, and spoke at length on the psionic essence inhabiting the main computer on the Mystique. It reminded Merek of the briefings she had until recently enjoyed at the Academy. She wondered if any of the cadets had actually died from some of those gods-awful presentations. ~Death by mission brief, what a horrible way to go.~ Admittedly this brief was at least novel, the closest she had been briefed to “consciousness living in a computer” was the chapter they had on Dr. Ira Graves’ work on transferring the sum of one’s knowledge into a computer. She listened to the other briefings as they came in. (Reply any) (Posted by Todd) (Mars Facility – Operations Center - Conference Room - E/SYO Ensign Boone Foster – 1010) After the Admiral's announcements and his information about Trill Ktell asked for input from everyone. After Ensign Peters spoke Boone saw fit that his small report would fit in quickly before the more extensive reports. "Well, I've been workin' on the transporters. We're still below halfway of full operation, but we've increased about 7% since 2 days ago. Mostly, we've worked on the more quick fixes. Soon, we'll be workin' on the more severe transporter problems. It'll take some time before we're up to 100%." Boone looked around the room, and adjusted in his seat to let the others know that was all he had to report. (reply any) (posted by Calvin Capps) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - Conference Room - aACSO (R)- Ensign Sekal – 1023) Sekal had set up a comm link to the Mystique so that Luma could overhear the proceedings from the terminal at his seat. He had chosen this location for that purpose, having been notified by the Admiral before the meeting that she would be included. In a more overreaching arc however she had already expressed an interest in becoming a part of Starfleet's general population on Mars and cooperating with Admiral Remae. As mind bondmate (temporary) his job was not only to be her point of contact as long as that continued but also her advocate when separated from her. He had learned this and much more during the mind meld and having accepted the interim position he took it as seriously as any of his other duties. A number of new officers were introduced, a medal awarded and promotions announced during the buildup of the meeting which he assumed centered on the Trill Ambassador who was present but had so far remained silent. The reshuffling of the science department was logical and he inclined his head respectfully to Ensign Verin for her advancement. The two would have to work closely together to insure the entire department ran smoothly. “Let’s go around the room, each department can report on what’s happening. Keep it brief please, we have a lot to go through.” If the Admiral expected a brief report from the science department he was doomed to be disappointed. "The science department is ready to move forward on the research front..." Sekal began, "... however the most pressing item of business to be noted is that of the Mystique and Luma'Lenai." Sekal initiated the computer terminal before him, it would have a dual purpose now and not only as communications device. "Computer access Mystique First officer and Captain's logs. Stardate twenty four, twelve, ten, zero four." =^=Access granted. =^= "Display derelict ship and crystal from those logs on the main wall monitor." The large monitor on the long side wall illuminated and the golden teardrop shaped crystal appeared on the left of the screen, the ship encountered by the Mystique on the right. He waited long enough for those on the opposite side of the table to reposition themselves before standing to his feet. "We had been operating on the assumption that the crystal was a container for Luma's life force..." he began, ".... however during the mind meld I learned it was in fact her true form in which her consciousness was housed. Captain Winters had it moved from the derelict ship and installed on the Mystique. More on that in a moment." He turned to look at Ktell. "Luma's kind predate all but the the earliest known life forms. While they did not have bipedal forms they were able to move themselves using their minds to the point a few were able to leave their planet and reach space using only thought for motive force. Their home planet was destroyed when their sun entered its red giant phase and engulfed it. Luma spent eons wandering the 'Star Song' as she calls it in deep space." He turned back to the monitor. "Luma was found by space farers on this generation ship shown who called themselves the Illuminar, bringers of light. They named Luma after themselves and integrated her on their ship. She became the ship in essence and served them." "The Illuminar were a race of telepaths and one was chosen as her bondmate until death. Tragedy however struck its inhabitants and with the loss of their genetic materials stored aboard due to radiation they declined until the last one perished long before finding a world suitable for colonization. Without them to maintain it much of the ship's systems broke down leaving her adrift." His eyes traveled around the room taking in many faces. "Integration into the Mystique attracted what Luma believes to be the only other surving member of her race, with its death she is the last of her kind. Also the crystal that was her form was destroyed but her life force took up residence in the bio neural gel packs of the primary computer. This simplifies moving her as she can be integrated into any system so structured." ~And now for the coup de grace.~ "The Illuminar are mentioned in Betazoid legends and from my contact with Luma I am convinced that Betazed was colonized by one of their generation ships. I believe the term is 'poetic justice' that Captain Winters, a possible descendant of the Illuminar was the one who found Luma and brought her back from isolation." There was a low murmer from one corner. "Luma has expressed a desire to become one of us and to serve in whatever capacity the Admiral requires. I currently hold the temporary position of mind bondmate, as soon as one more suitable is found I will step aside." He turned his head and nodded to Ktell then turned off the monitor as he resumed his seat. (Reply: Any) (Posted by Charles Gatling) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - Conference Room - Science Officer Ensign Jaton Alyl – 1025) Jaton listened to the meeting beginning and then listened to Sekal give his report on Luma. Even though he was still stewing a bit over the fact that he was the only member of the science department to be passed over for an assistant's position, he still figured that if it were advancement he was after he'd better make sure people knew that he was up for it. As such, he spoke up as Sekal finished. "If this theory of her origins are correct, it would explain why Luma seeks attention and the companionship of others. From what we have gleaned the Illuminar were likely just as warm and open as their Betazoid descendants. This is part of the reason we had thought about integrating her into the base here on Mars, assuming all involved consent. And if that's the case, we may want to start introducing her to more of the base staff." (reply any) (posted by Spencer) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - Conference Room - aACSO Ensign Sienna Williams-Verin – 1029) Sy had been absolutely shocked when the Admiral decided to honor her. She swallowed hard and nodded when he promoted her. It was going to be a lot of work. She listened to Sekal talk, and was pleased that Luma was here as well. She was surprised when Sekal said that the Betazoids and the people that Luma had bonded with were one in the same. It made sense for Sienna to talk after him. "I am Ensign Sienna Williams-Verin, life sciences and botany. There is a lot that I could say, and draw the meeting out but I will keep it short. I have the requirements for Luma's bondmate here on a padd, but the primary requirement seems to be a betazoid with a strong telepathic ability. Secondly, the main environmental systems have been refitted and re-calibrated and are now running appropriately. That is mostly due to the engineering staff, they had the know-how, and I had a little skill with algae. The park in the science annex is open - the pond is stocked with a variety of fish as well. It's an excellent place for a picnic. The arboretum, however, is a research area and as such I would appreciate it if people did not go in without permission. There were a number of dangerous plantlife there that have been eradicated." Sy glanced at her own padd for notes, "Ah, yes, the last and biggest thing. As many of you have noted the scientists here before us just let their research specimins out when they left. And in the intervening time, they have bred. If you find the animals, insects or birds in your branch, please do not kill them - call us. We are trying to corral them. For instance, the squirrels like to chew on the bio-neural packs which is not good for anybody. Especially be concerned with an arachnid - I will send a memo out later- but it is extremely poisonous, rare and irreplaceable. Do not kill it, just trap it. If you can without hurting yourself. If you do get bit, please get to sickbay." She nodded and took her seat again, a cheery smile on the young half betazoid's face. Only her twin and her girlfriend could tell how very nervous she was, and the latter when Sy put her hand on Lynn's thigh and Lynn could feel the trembling. It was her first briefing and she thought she had done rather well. (reply any) (posted by Mel) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - Conference Room - Ensign JG Erin Cortes – 1030) Listening to all the departmental reports, Erin couldn't help but wonder how she would fit in to this mission. Sure, as a counsellor, she knew that there would always be people needing her help but this felt important and she wanted to prove herself. To prove she wasn't the woman that certain people seem to think she still was. Keeping herself quiet, she glanced around the room at the various people sat around the table and allowed herself a moment to take each one of them in. Each one had their own set of skills to bring to this party. Now, it was down to her to figure out what she could do. (Reply None) (Posted by Jackie) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - Conference Room - Ensign JG Jaelle Foxglove – 1033) I wasn't that Jaelle disliked long days but the day prior had left her drained and today seemed to be of little difference. In fact it seemed every day had been a long one. She spent the morning moving her effects to the intelligence base and making a list of things that needed to be acquired before bringing the base back to 100%. She glanced over the room as the Admiral spoke first promoting a few of the ensign's to positions of authority. Jaelle nodded knowing that establishing a working command structure with a well defined chain of command would be essential for the mars base moving foward. Other officers of the fighter wing were honored for a recent pirate attack. Jaelle found the operation a sticking point with her. Intelligence was informed only as a after thought on a mission they should of been informed on. On the same note it seemed intelligence wasn't getting the same sensitive information brief that other department heads were. It was something Jaelle planned on bringing to the Adrmial's attention. The rest of the officers already have made it clear that had little care for the Intelligence branch that was among them. At times it seemed they rather cuddle a being not of there own, who had no attachment to the Federation rather than threat there own officers officers with a modicum of decency. Ensigns Peter's coming to her office to accuse her of wrong doing was already a perfect example of how the Intelligence officers were taking heat across the base. Pulling them back to the confines of the intelligence base only seemed logical at this point. She listened as each section gave in depth reports of the readiness of there departments before the Trill ambassador who was no longer a part of the Federation and an alien entity who was for better way of putting it holding a Federation ship and now a Federation officer hostage, while openly treating other Federation personnel. Allowing a mental sigh as she nodded her head. 'There goes op/sec.' (Nrpg: operational security for those not military) Rpg: Finally the reports came to her. She looked over the gathered looking for how to say what words screamed in her head. Taking a deep breath she steadied herself. "Intelligence is mission ready." She spoke in even tones than sat back down. If the Adrmial wanted more he would have to wait till after the meeting, and not before people who did not have the Federation's best intrest at heart. She paid attention, took notes, as the meeting continued on. (Reply any) (Posted by Matthew Locke) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - Conference Room - aACMO Ailynn Bracken – 1035) Ailynn had listened intently at the Science report, and the subsequent conversations. There were numerous details that Ailynn had made a mental note of, realising that it was her turn to address everyone she shifted in her seat, turning her attention to each of them as she spoke. “Firstly, I feel it my duty to appraise you of Ensign Petrova’s condition. She sustained considerable, life-threatening injury, necessitating emergency brain surgery. You’ll all be please to hear that following a successful procedure, and subsequent transfer to Medical HQ, she will now begin the long path of convalescence, and long rehabilitation and recovery. Long story short, she’s in a stable and improving condition, but it will be a long time before she can even think of returning to unit.” (reply any) “Beyond that, departmental readiness is hovering in the low 70 percents. Sadly, as we have more people posted to the base, even though they’re all pulling double times, more on that in a moment, more people mean a higher demand on our services. At this point however, I want to issue a very very public thank you to the Engineering team, who have busted their arses getting every snag list up to scratch.” (Reply any) “Now. Here’s the thing. I know we’re all keen, but I want to ask that we keep double shifting to a minimum, we have enough bodies now to implement proper rotations, the more bodies we have coming to Medical as a result of overwork, stress, who knows what, it draws from our resources that we need elsewhere. We’re now at a point where the base hospital is running well, we have a decent level of tech, and can now start innovating new tech, and new procedures. Any questions anyone?” (Reply any) (Posted by Mark) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - Conference Room - aFSXO Ensign JG Trip Williams– 1040) After Ailynn finished speaking, Trip stood up. He had been going back in forth in his head on what he should say. He also felt an little embarrassed with his shiny new ribbon. He had led the combat, but he never fired or was fired upon, but he had seen action, so he guessed that technically counts. He was going to ensure that all of those who were on the mission received the same award. It seemed only fair. Still, he was a bit uncomfortable with the public granting of the award, given that it wouldn't be long before the rumors of his punishment and romantic life would wake its way to the Sands and around the base. "As you know yesterday the pilots returned from seeing action in the Kuiper belt. We are still trying to figure out who was bankrolling the pirates, but all intel gathered has been turned over to the Admiral. Most the craft made it back, though we did lose one fighter, with a few others being badly damaged. Thankfully though we had no loss of life. Though Ensign Ravok and Ensign Petrova did sustain life threatening injuries. Ensign Ravok is up and well and thanks to the fine work of Dr. Bracken and her team she is now on the road to recovery." Trip paused and took a breath, "All in the squadron performed admirably and to the best of their abilities. It is always a blessing when even with injuries, everyone makes it home alive. Maintenance will need to be performed on the fighters, and those who flew the mission are to have a full 24 hour period off duty before I will allow them back in the air, having exceed 30 hours of flight time on our last mission. But other than that, all are doing well, and I'm very pleased with their performance. We took 15 fighters on the mission, so we have 21 that are in peak, well as peak as they can be condition in case we need to scramble again. Not the most detailed little report, but we're doing our best to keep the Martian skies safe." Trip then sat down as the meeting continued. (reply any) (posted by Will) (Mars Facility – Operations Centre - Conference Room - Ensign JG Ravok Shara– 1041) Ravok sat there and listened to the acting department heads speak . Impressed with everyone of them. Even though it seemed as though they were struggling in some areas , They were thriving in others. He watched Trip stand with his shinny new ribbon. Trip looked uncomfortable, but he knew Trip could handle it. While listening to Trip speak Ravok could help but think about Ensign Petrova and the effect this has had on him. After trip finished speaking Ravok looked at him with a smile and nodded his head ,as if he were thanking him. Ravok glanced around the room trying not to look at Ensign Merek or her hair tucked behind her perfectly pointed ear. But he couldn't help it he looked rather quickly and smiled acting like it was nothing. ~ I really need to thank her , but first I must speak with Ensign Peters ~ ( reply any) ( posted by Davis) (Mountains East of Mars Base - Undisclosed Location -- Intelligence Officer Ensign(jg) Jaelle Foxglove - 1127) It took a moment of figure out how to drop to the main deck. She was right she was short on rope and was suspended a good twenty feet in the air or at least that's what she suspected. Glancing around the atrium she looked for a method to fall the remaining distance and not injure herself. Holding tight to her rigging she slipped out of her harness hanged on the rope that it was made of. Hanging such as that lowered herself allowing to harness to stretch and bring her closer to the ground. She hung there for a brief moment and took a breath before swinging slightly and letting go of her harness dropping the rest of the way to the floor below. As Jaelle landed she tucked her feet in and allowed inertia to pull her body into a roll. Eventually coming to stop near the middle of the main entry room. Once returning to her feet she dusted herself of and checked her gear. It was as she remembered it from a life that seemed so long ago. The main atrium was vast and flanked with stairs that lead to the second level. There one could find offices and the main command deck, an open platform that overlooked the atrium and the main entry way similar to a bridge on a starship the entire facility could be controlled from that station if needed. Behind the command deck was another flight of stairs and a turbo lift that lead to directors office. It was there Jaelle hoped to learn the secrets of the base. But first she had to bring the bases main systems back online. But first, she glanced at the main entryway for the base there was no telling how long it would take to initialize main power or to bring main systems back online. Making sure she had a means to leave the base was her main priority. Heading toward the main entryway was no big struggle and she reached the door with no incident. Quickly she checked the doors control padd. It was as she figured the power was dead. Turning she accessed the door control panel and linked her tricorder to it and ran a diagnostic program. She sat and waited for the program to run its course. Taking a moment to grab a drink of water from backpack that carried a hydration reservoir in it, and have a bite to eat. Her tricorder beeped shortly after. Picking up the device she looked over the readings. It seemed the door was completely without power and the manual override were disengaged but the security locks were not engaged which ment if she restored power the doors should function. Jaelle's next stop was the command deck. She looked over the console before her. Only one showed any sign of life. Making her way to the lone light she accessed the computer. If flashed its power fluctuating. Pulling a small emergency power battery from her pack she started the process of tiring into the console. The flashing lights stabilize to a solid glow but only for a few minutes, ten at most before the emergency battery gave out. Deft hands moved over the console before her, bringing up the main power feed. The base relied upon four type none warp cores to generate the needed power to operate. Two of those cores were completely destroyed and in a critical state that could not be reactivated, and needed to be replaced. The third could be salvaged but needed a complete overhaul. The last was functional its systems needed to be recycled and reinitalized before the system could be brought online. Pulling up the bases power stores showed all the main batteries were dead and needed to be recharged. Only one of the secondary batteries had a small sliver of life to it. Working against the clock, Jaelle backlogged though the bases power systems closing in on the bases tertiary power generators a series of solar collectors that were hidden all along the mountain ridge. There was a loud deep thud as the closest collector door opened and the system came online. Jaelle watched as the power levels increased slowly giving birth to emergency lighting and more of the consoles coming to life as the main computer systems attempted to reboot, but failed to fully reinitalize. Returning to the power distribution system she brought up the secondary power supply a geothermal power system that one initialized could supply enough power to the base to bring the computer core, and the one working warp core back online. Again she accessed the systems subroutines and logged into the geothermal generator. It seemed the entire base hissed as moaned as the system came to life power systems increased as the bases automated systems activated. Consoles returned to normal operations now the command deck. Jaelle relaxed with the secondary and tertiary power systems engaged the bases power was stable and now she could focus on bringing main power back online. Accessing the intelligence bases main power system she isolated the start up protocol for the one working warp core. There was an audible hum as the matter/antimatter reaction resumed in the warp core as the stations power levels returned to normal, back up batteries started charging, and the main computer core reinitalized. Lines of computer code flashed across the console as main operation protocols took effect and the base came back to life. (Reply none) (Posted by Matthew Locke) ( Mars Facility- Counseling Center- Pilot Ensign jg Ravok / Counselor Ensign jg Erin Julia Cortes- 1226) Ravok entered the counseling center. He needed to make some future appointments with Counselor Trei. To view her schedule and see what worked with his. He stepped up to the receptionist desk. He wasn't in uniform but plain clothing, black pants , black boots and blue t-shirt . He was wearing black hoodie half way zippered up. His commbadge was pinned to his hoodie. " Hello " he said with a smile and a nod of his head." I am Ensign Ravok Shara, I wanted to schedule some appointments with Counselor Trei. if you wouldn't mind ". The receptionist looked at him and smiled. " Absolutely, just let me see what she has available, hmmm does this schedule for you?" A holographic schedule appeared in front of Ravok. He looked over it. " Two appointments a week. That works with me, could you please send a copy of this schedule to Ensign Trip Williams and Ensign Carson Peters? They are both my most direct commanding officers." He asked her . " Most certainly sir I will do that right away. We all owe Ensign Williams our gratitude for stopping those space pirates. Without him those pirates would have possibly made it here " the receptionist said as she typed away the schedule. Ravok raised an eyebrow . " Oh yeah he flew up there and showed those guys" he said in a slightly sarcastic tone. ~ History remembers not only the victorious but the commanders as well~ he thought to himself. Walking out of her office, Erin looked down at the padd in her hands. Handing it to the receptionist outside her office, she smiled at her, "Thanks Sadie. Can you schedule another appointment for next week?" "Of course, ma'am." Sadie replied, "How many times, please just Erin. I don't like formality." The young woman nodded and took the padd from her. Turning to head back into her office, the sound of another conversation hit her ears and a voice. A voice that brought back memories, a voice that made her smile widely, ~it can't be.~ Turning back, a grin flew across her face as she saw the Romulan talking to one of the other staff. "Hey, Ravok!" She called. He turned his head and looked in her direction and smiled . He quickly turned back to the receptionist he was talking to and tapped his hand quickly on her desk " Thank you " he said as he walked over to Erin. Holding his side slightly. " Erin, I saw you earlier in the meeting. I was hoping I'd run into you " he said to her as he gave her a hug . " How have you been ?" He asked her "Eh, can't complain. What's wrong?" Ravok looked down at his side ,cradling it with his hand. " Just a little war wound" he said to her with a smirk "Hey, you know me. What did the fly boy romulan do?" She asked. " Well I got stabbed by another Romulan after he tried killing me and my flight officer. But don't worry He's dead now" he responded. Smiling at him, she shook her head. "Listen, if you have a few minutes, want to come into my office? My replicate makes a good cup of Java? We can catch up." " Yeah, I have sometime. I'm off duty " Ravok said as he started walking with Ensign Cortes to her office. Walking in, she gestured to him to take a seat. Sitting on her sofa, she poured a cup of coffee for them both and leant back. "So, it's been a while. How are you, really? Ravok followed her in and sat down " Already trying to start a counseling session are we ? " he said with a laugh as he grabbed his cup of coffee. "Never. First, conflict of interest. Second, it's you. I couldn't. So, I just got here. Tell all." " Well besides my father getting killed a few days ago , our mission, getting stabbed and almost bleeding to death, the Ship exploding mere seconds before we beamed off , and Ensign Petrova almost dying. I'd say I'm doing pretty good to be sitting here talking with a friend enjoying a cup of coffee" he replied as he sipped the coffee. He wasn't particularly fond of coffee but never refused a drink from a friend . Her eyes widened, "Wait…. What? Oh Ravok…. " She sat next to him, "I am so sorry. " He sat his coffee down on the table in front of them. " Yeah I can't go too much into the details as it pertains to the mission. His freighter was attacked by some pirates and he died in the attack. They may of been the same pirates we engaged in the mission we just got back from. My step mother informed me of the attack shortly after an encounter one of our former pilots Ensign Petrova had with them. I helped her as she was a drift in space. Shortly after we returned my mother contacted me to inform me of his passing . That's kind of why I am here. My commanding officer Ensign Trip Williams wanted to make sure I wasn't emotionally compromised. So I had to get evaluated before the mission. I met with counselor Trei before the mission , she deemed me good to go but I came back here today to make follow up appointments." He said to Erin . "Probably a good idea. I mean, you do get emotional." She replied with a little wink. Ravok laughed. " This feels a little bit like a counseling session to me . " he said jokingly. "But you understand me more than anyone here . I get emotional yes but I have always handled them pretty well I don't let them control me . We both have had our share of emotional times…." (Flashback to the academy) Sitting in the bar at the academy, Erin looked down at the padd in front of her. Not saying anything, she shut off the display and rubbed her forehead. It being late at night, there was nobody else around. Finishing her drink, she reached behind the bar for the bottle of whisky, out it on the bar in front of her and glanced down at the padd. Feeling a rage building within her, she poured another shot, looked at the padd again, picked it up and hurled it across the room, "Son of a……" Her PADD flew across the room and hit the wall by the door missing Cadet Ravok Shara by mere centimeters. " What the hell!" he exclaimed. He bent down and picked it up. He looked across the empty bar and saw his friend Cadet Erin Julia Cortes. It was her Padd , he walked it back over to her. " Yours I presume?," he asked noticing she seemed tense. " Are you ok ?" Cadet Ravok asked as he sat down next to her . Looking at him, she sighed. "Long story." Taking the padd from him, she put it on the other side of her, moved a glass towards him, "Can't sleep?" Ravok reached for the empty glass and grabbed the whiskey and poured himself a drink " Well I can go three days without sleep. And since I have a super high metabolism, I can drink for along time. Try me, you're a great listener but sometimes we need to get things off our chest. So with that said I am all ears...No pun intended. " he stated with a smile and downed his whiskey. "My family is irish and chilean. Bring It on." She smiled. Sighing, she poured herself a drink and downed it in one. "You really don't want to know. Trust me." " I probably don't, but I wouldn't have offered if I wasn't willing to listen to a friend. So talk ,we graduate in a few months, no telling if we will have many more chances to talk. Plus we have this entire bottle of whiskey to finish and the least you can do is explain why I almost got hit by the Time Bombs PADD " He responded with a chuckle as he scooted closer to the bar and poured another glass. Looking at him, Erin opened her mouth to retort, then stopped. "Great, so that name got round fast.," Erin exclaimed. " I think it's a compliment to your strength" He said to her with a smirk Pouring herself a drink, she looked at her friend and sighed. "You know me, Ravok. Probably better than many here. There's things about me you don't know. Things in my past…." Ravok looked at her with concern. "Just, promise me something." She said . He took a deep breath. " I promise , but what am I promising?" He asked nervously. "Don't worry. I just… I trust you. So, all I am gonna say is that I don't want this to change anything. " He raised his eyebrow. " It won't change anything , unless you killed someone." He replied jokingly to break the tension. "That I did not although I wish I had. " she sighed and handed him the padd, "hijo de puta hecho libertad condicional." She stated as she poured herself another shot and kept her gaze away from her friend. Ravok didn't speak Spanish and Erin barely spoke it around him so this made him increasingly nervous . Still holding his drink in his left hand he grabbed the padd with his right hand and looked at it . He felt his heart began to race. His nervous feeling turned into hurt, the hurt turned into rage. Suddenly his glass of whiskey exploded in his hand. He crushed the glass cup in his hand as a reaction to his anger. He looked at Erin his skin turning greener and greener. " What the hell Erin!!!" He looked at his hand . It was bleeding a little . He grabbed a towel to wipe it off . She lifted her gaze and looked at him, then dropped her gaze, "Yeah…. I don't know how but he did. He's out there and I'm sat here, Drinking Because Every time I close my eyes…." Ravok spoke frantically and started swearing in Romulan. Using a few words Erin for sure hadn't learned during her time at the academy " This animal. This monster. How come you never told me ?" He angrily asked her . "Truthfully, I was ashamed. I let that happen. I should have seen it…. Should have gotten out sooner… " She trembled as she spoke, "I didn't want you to think of me any less. " Ravok cut her off from speaking. " Don't you ever think that. I am your friend, I would never think of any less of you for anything. You got that? I mean come on this is some crazy stuff. How could they let him out. Look at what he did to you" He took a moment and calmed himself " I'm so sorry" "Ravok, i … I should be the one apologising. I should have trusted you. This is something that…. Well, I think there's only you and Lieutenant Bollington that know. " Putting her hand on his arm, she sighed "Lathuel, I'm sorry I should have told you." She knew that using this private name would mean more to him. "Just know I never meant any disrespect. As you gave me the right, as your friend, to use that name, this …. Telling you this is my way of showing you the respect you gave me No-one knows. I don't want people looking at me as a victim. I'm not. I will not be that person." " You're right. You are one of the strongest people I know. Well besides my mother. Your past made you strong. There is a Romulan proverb that states...The weak who refuse to grow in strength will cease to exist. These images are horrifying. I thought my ex was horrible. " he said as he rolled his eyes. Furrowing her brow, Erin looked at him, "You wanna talk about it? Feels like a night of confession, honesty and a good amount of alcohol." Ravok looked at the towel around his hand it was green with his blood. " Well my ex I told you her name was Lauren. I told you we broke up last year but I never told you why. Well it all happened when I went to meet her family… NRPG : Flashback inside a flashback The small shuttle Craft landed in the front yard. Ravok got out and opened and walked over to Lauren side and opened the door for her . "Nice house " He said to Lauren as he looked at her families home. Lauren smiled . As he helped her out the craft. The house was a single family home with dull yellow siding and a dark wooden wrap around porch with matching shutters on the windows. Lush green grass surrounded the home. Ravok and Lauren headed down the pathway to the house. " Oh honey you're home" Mrs. Larson said as she came out the door . Mr Larson held the door to the house open . Lauren's mother kissed her on the cheek and hugged her " Hi mom" lauren said . " Come in come in "her father stated with a smile. Ravok smile and nodded his head at both of them " Hello I'm Ravok, nice to meet you " he said as he smiled at Mrs. Larson and extended his hand towards Mr. Larson . Lauren's father smiled and instead of shaking his hand raised it in the air and made the vulcan hand gesture and in vulcan said " Tonk'peh heh na'shaya" ((Hello and Welcome)) Ravok looked at him strangely. He knew it was Vulcan but wasn't to sure as to why he would be speaking Vulcan. " You have a lovely home " Ravok quickly asserted as he tried to shift the awkwardness. They entered the living room " Have a seat guys " Mr Larson said. " I prepared a special dish for you Ravok, Gespar. I know its Vulcan tradition for the guest to serve it . But I couldn't stick to tradition." Mrs Larson said with a smile " She just has to have her hand in every meal in this home . She's an amazing cook." Lauren's dad chuckled . " Honey help me in the kitchen " Mrs larson said to her husband as she tapped him on the arm. " Be right back kids" Mr Larson said as the two of them walked into the kitchen. Ravok's fake smile went away and he turned to Lauren " Ok why did your father greet me in Vulcan and why did your mother make a Vulcan dish ?" Lauren placed her hands on Ravoks hands " Look I told them you were Vulcan because if they knew you were Romulan my dad would blow his top off. Just go along with it " Ravok stood up " WHAT? No way, I'm not lying to your parents Lauren. You know me I don't lie. " Just then her father and mother returned to the room with a platter loaded with fresh Gespar. " What's the problem ?" Her father asked sternly noticing the tears in Lauren's eyes. "Look Sir, Ma'am. I'm not Vulcan, I'm Romulan. " Ravok firmly responded . Lauren's father reached inside a table drawer and quickly pulled out a phaser and aimed it Ravok . "LAUREN!!! is this true ???" Her father yelled . Lauren with tears in her eyes stood up " Yes but I love him. He's not like the ones that killed Grandpa " " Sir let me explain I…" Ravok was interrupted mid sentence by her father. " No you let me explain you bastard. Your kind killed my father and my uncle. Your kind is worldless trash. Sucking the very life out of the Federation. Get out of my home before I kill you " he said to Ravok Ravok raised his hands " Fine, that's fine " he said as he backed away towards the door and left the house making his way to his shuttle craft parked out front. Lauren came running out of the house " Lathuel ,Lathuel, Wait !!" She pleaded with him. " You're not going back to that academy. Having those green blooded monsters trying to steal my daughter " her father yelled raising his fist in anger Ravok turned and looked at Lauren. " I can not believe you. This is it, we are done. You don't know me at all. You lied to them , you lied to me. You wanted me to lie." He turned to enter the shuttle " Oh and one more thing , if you EVER call me Lathuel again . I will show you the green blooded monster I can be " he yelled at Lauren . " Wait " she cried . He glared at her as he entered the craft "You're dead to me " he said as he closed the door and powered the engines and flew off... Ravok looked at Erin . " So that's the full story. Now you know why Lauren and I broke up. Because I am Romulan… but I wasn't Romulan enough to deceive her parents" Not knowing quite what to say, Erin looked her friend in the eyes and shook her head, “If i can be blunt, she was an utter Feanna.” She winked, “But, seriously… her parents did that…..i am so sorry that you had to go through that Lathuel. And here we are, supposed to be an enlightened species and… well, they were racist. You would think, with our history, we would have learnt by now that that sort of thought process doesn’t work. Earth’s history is resplendent with examples of how that doesn’t work.” Feeling that fire beginning to burn in her, Erin took a deep breath, closed her eyes for a second and then opened them. “I mean, look at it this way. Her loss.” " Yeah I suppose" he said as he grabbed another glass and poured another drink of whiskey “You’re funny, passionate and intelligent. What woman wouldn’t want to be with you. You’ll find the one for you. Me, different story. Who wants a second hand reject with neuroses and baggage six miles high.” " As long as you think of yourself as a second hand reject, that's the vibe people will get. Plus that's his baggage not yours." Ravok said in a soft tone. A smile came to his face and he stood up. " I come here often this time of night when this place is empty and to be honest I wasn't expecting you to be here but since you are. I guess I have no other option than to have an audience " he said to her as he walked towards the piano against the wall. Smiling at him, she followed him to the piano. " you gonna serenade me now?" She said with a wink Ravok sat down at the piano "Oh no no I'm not serenading you.If I was going to, you wouldn't have to question if I was" he said with a playful smile "Now don't judge me too harshly, I have a cut on my hand " he said with a slight laughter. "Sorry about that. " He started playing heart and soul on the piano just goofing off for a moment. " Maybe something a little more somber ?" He said as he started playing the first few bars of moonlight Sonota… " Or we can go darker " he said as he started playing some bars from Gymnopedie no.1 Smiling, watching him, she felt her anger dissipating. " Or we can have some fun" He started playing and singing Great balls of fire by Jerry Lee lewis As the bars of the music started, Erin froze. That music, she began trembling. Taking several deep breaths, she put her hands piano and closed her eyes, trying to focus herself. His hands froze above the keys . As he looked at her " Are you alright? What's wrong ? " he asked very concerned. "I'm fine… that music… just took me back for a second. I'm sorry." She went back to the bar and poured herself a drink. ~fantastic. Now that's one way to make a friend. Hurl a padd and him and have flashbacks ~ He walked back over to the bar and grabbed his glass and downed it. " Its fine, music does that to people. Or my playing isn't as good as it should be. I only started playing after me and lauren split up. Perhaps music wasn't the best thing I was just trying to our minds off of the current situation. " "It's not you. It's me. You play well. At least better than I can sing." " Maybe I'm being a little bit insensitive at the moment. You have a lot on your mind. That much is clear. You have gone through terrible things" he said as he sighed " You're worried about him , aren't you ?" He asked hesitantly "Would you believe me if I said no?" "You know what? Yes I would you don't seem like a liar " "Not a liar. I'm not worried per se. Just nervous. But I don't want to think about this. Lathuel, you are a good friend to me." She smiled and put a hand on his arm. "I have a question, I have taken physiology courses but, how sensitive is your hearing?" " Umm it's uh...well " he said as he slapped the bar with a smile " A dog whistle can give me a splitting headache" he said as he laughed "So, bad singing? Big no no then?" She smiled " Oh no I'm fine with singing, my step mother sings Klingon opera in the shower all the time and she sounds like a ferengi screaming because someone asked for a discount " He replied with a laugh. "Wow…. Klingon opera…. Don't think I'm that bad. " she laughed. " Well I haven't heard you and it's just us" He said as he reached behind the bar and grabbed another bottle. This bottle was a little harder to reach and tucked away. "Here it is, Mitch always a few on hand " Ravok pulled out a rather eloquent looking glass bottle filled with a blue liquid. He sat the bar in front of them. He smiled at her like a child finding candy in their pocket. " Told you I come here a lot " Smiling and laughing, she looked at her friend, "Is that what I think it is?" " Oh yeah it's the good stuff, Romulan ale. What is it you humans say? Liquid courage, well let's just say this will give you the courage of 1000 blood thirsty Klingon warriors who are set out to reclaim their honor" He said to her smiling ear to ear as he grabbed two shot glasses and poured one for each of them. He raised his shot in the air towards her. " Cheers" Raising her glass, she responded, "le cairde, sean agus nua " she drained the drink in one and shook as the alcohol hit her. "Wow, that's some good stuff. I said, to friends old and new. Irish comes out of me when I drink." "Iudaiht daehlen elhs'hswiehv aellei millais… To friends old and new " He said to her in Romulan She put her glass down on the bar and smiled, "So, you sure you wanna hear me break some glasses?" " Go for it" he replied as he turned his back towards the bar and poured himself some more ale. Taking a deep breath, Erin closed her eyes, "Computer, play Cortes Gamma 5 please." As the music began, she trembled slightly, kept her eyes closed and began to sing. (https://youtu.be/mWIaP0NnEOQ -link to what she is singing) Chills rushed over his body~ This is probably what Vorta Vor sounds like~Ravok thought to himself As the music finished, she opened her eyes and looked at her friend, "I know…. You don't have to say it….." He clapped his hands. " There are no words. That was amazing. Felt like I was taking a bath in the melody " He replied. Blushing, She Shook her head, "Now you are just being kind… he.. he always told me I had a voice that would curdle milk." He looked at her with a serious face . " Milk eventually goes bad one way or the other. What does he know? And I'm not being kind I told you I don't lie " ~he really means that…~ Smiling at him, "you are the first person that I have ever…. When you get beaten down so bad, you finally start believing the lies. Coming from you, I know I can trust it." " If you are going to allow him to shape who you are, become stronger than you have ever been. As long as you keep thinking less of yourself you are allowing him to win everytime. I know I'm looking at a strong woman and a good friend." "If I ever, ever do that again, it's gonna be for someone pretty special, that means something to me. Like you." He smiled " Well he's out there, whoever he is , wherever he is. You might meet him on some far off world, a starship. Who knows but that voice is meant for him. Thanks for sharing that with me " "Ravok, who knew you had the heart of a poet?" She poured them both a drink and raised her glass, "To finding your voice." He raised his glass " To finding your voice " Ravok repeated NRPG: end of flashback RPG: Smiling at her old friend, she raised an eyebrow at him, "You're different. " " It's the stab wound . Doesn't match my hair." He said as he ran his fingers through his messy and spikey hair and laughing " I'm just playing . How so ?" He questioned her "You seem brighter somehow. " " You seem happy and confident. You haven't changed at all. The only difference now is that you seemed to have figured it out for yourself. The real you that I always knew was there . Under the pain buried under the past. " ~I suppose he's right. I do feel freer~ "Hey, no changing the subject, who is she?" " What? There is no She….or a He for that matter. Well ...it's nothing at all" he responded "I know you. Spill it right now or I go and find your friend, Trip is it and ask him." He leaned back and rubbed his hands on his face then quickly sat straight up " Ok look, it's not that big of a deal. It's just a pretty girl from the academy that is now assigned here as an officer. I mean there are a lot of pretty girls from the academy assigned here ,but this one I guess takes the cake. There is nothing going on at all I just gotta go track her down in a little bit and thank her for coming to visit me in the medical unit last night " He said to her Leaning forward, erin grinned, "So she came to visit you in the medical unit last night? "A laugh escaped her, "Oh lathuel, seriously? You like her, she likes you. Just… find her, okay? One of us should get some happiness." " No she doesn't like me. She just came to visit me and Ensign Petrova to thank us and show her respects. It's really not that big of a deal" he said smiling. Sitting back in her chair, erin smiled, He looked at her with a puzzled look and pointed his finger " What or who are you smiling about ? " he questioned her "No, there's no-one…" ~well not exactly … but I doubt that it's ever gonna happen~ Ravok laughed " Whatever you say " Blushing, Erin shook her head and laughed. "Don't you even start with teasing. You're forgetting I know you or do I need to go find your pilot buddies and tell them all the tales from the academy?" " Ok ok I'll stop." Laughing, felt good to her to be laughing again. Since that night in the academy bar, she had missed her friend and, despite the surroundings, was happy to have at least one person she could talk to. "Okay, okay, tell you what. Let's make a deal. If you get your groove on with the pretty ensign, you tell me." " Groove? What are….Oh that. No I'm not trying to do that. First of all I'm a respectful guy. Secondly, if did get any groove on I most certainly would respect my groove partner and not make it a public thing. " he said as he smiled. " Well I have to get going . I will catch up with you later on Erin " he said as he stood up " Thank you for the coffee " "Anytime." (Reply none) (Posted by Jackie and Rob Davis) (Mars Facilities - 1st fighter wing - Hangar 5 - ENS jg Ravok- 1304) Ravok made his way in the Hangar bay. He noticed that some of wreckage from the God of War and some of the other ships have been placed here. Several security personnel were around the hangar one of them approached him. " Excuse me, state your business " Ravok stopped " I am Ensign Ravok Shara , Commander of the M03 Warbirds." The security officer checked Ravok's credentials " Says here your off duty and on mandatory bereavement until tomorrow at 0700 . This is a scene of an investigation. You do not have authorization to be here " " Yes, that is correct. I came here to speak with Ensign Merek is she avaliable? " Ravok questioned. The security officer nodded his head " I will get her but please wait here Sir " The security officer walked over to Ensign Merek " Excuse me ma'am . Ensign Ravok Shara is here to see you " (Reply Keira Merek) (Mars Facilities - Counseling Center - ENS jg Counselor Ariel Trei - 14.00) She walked into the center and checked the virtual schedule for the day. She saw that Ravok will come in for a session any minute. She told the receptionist to send Ravok in when he checks in. She walked into her office with Lady by little river band. (Reply Ravok) (Posted by Edward) (Mars Facilities – Science Annex –aACSO(s) Ensign Sienna Williams-Verin & Ensign Sekal – 1400) Sienna had been called to one of the security offices to capture a rather lovely grey and white cat who was terrorizing the security officer by stalking his feet and pouncing from the tops of file cabinets onto his head. He had threatened to kill the damned thing, so Sy had decided to go capture her and find her a good home. Well any home was better than what the security officer had threatened to do to her. So Sy had gently coaxed the lovely short haired grey and white cat into a carrier, then let her out in her own office, running a tricorder over her, “Well aren’t you a lovely thing.” Sy spoke with a smile, then had an idea, “Well, you are healthy and in good condition, but the security office is not safe for you to be in. I have an idea though..” She moved over to the replicator, replicating a pretty blue collar and a tag that says ‘owner of Ensign Sekal’ and attached them to the collar. Slipping into his office after making sure that he was out, Sy let the cat out after putting out food, water and a pan for facilities. She thought the prissy kitty would get along just fine with the Vulcan. He needed a hobby after all. And if he didn’t like the pretty girl, well there was an entire park for her to roam. Sekal was returning from a visit to medical having been diagnosed with dehydration and a slight nutritional imbalance. The dehydration was easily rectified but he would either have to switch back to common Vulcan foods or begin taking supplements. The decision had been simple, while he could try a new dish every so often in the interest of sampling 'local' cuisine he would return primarily to his native foods. As he stepped inside the door and moved to the desk he saw a flash of movement. He turned his head and noted a small mammal which had hopped onto one of the chairs currently set against the wall on his right. ~How did that get in here?~ His eyes narrowed as he took two steps then crouched to get a better look at it. It was of two shades with white legs and underbelly. The white extended up the lower half of its neck and up its face. Its tail, back, the upper half of its neck and top of its head including its pointed ears were a dark grey. There was a dark discoloration or 'dimple' on its left nostril. The white legs were slightly longer than normal for its species which he assumed was that of a terran feline. Overall the term Felis Catus otherwise known as a house cat. Its eyes were green as he could tell when it momentarily ceased grooming one of its front paws and looked levelly at him. A blue collar was about its neck with a round pendant dangling from it. The animal allowed him to grasp and turn the device which he assumed contained the name of its owner, perhaps the sensors on the door had been activated and allowed it entrance. An eyebrow rose at the legend it contained. "Humor no doubt." The concept of a Vulcan being owned by a small feline was of course ludicrous. He was aware that Ensign Verin kept a cat and she was working with a number of departments collecting animals, it was a simple assumption that she had instigated the affair. Looking around the office he noted bowls containing nutrition and water set out on the floor along with a pan of a grainy substance. The Vulcan released the tag and stood to his feet then looked down at the cat which had followed his movements with apparent interest. After the initial novelty was over however it licked the inside of one foreleg a number of times then began scrubbing itself behind one pointed ear. "Cleanliness does not appear to be a shortcoming," he noted then changing his mind he left the cat to her bathing ritual and exited his office. Sy took herself towards the life sciences area, to see if some of those crates from earth had the cages and enclosures that she had requisitioned. Sienna accepted a padd from one of the techs and frowned at it, "How can it be this awful?" Sy murmured as she paged through the information "Sometimes like now I find myself wishing that it was possible to go back in time and beat the idiots who let most of these science specimens out. We are going to need a terrarium sooner, so begin to have a lab cleared, cleaned, installed with humidity and temperature controls, Ms. Thibodaux. Where one very poisonous to humanoids rare arachnid has been located there will be more and over the last 10 years they are all but extinct because of the medicinal value." Sy closed her eyes to savour the promotion, again. To hear the Admiral say she was good enough to help lead the science department was a wonderful feeling. She knew her fellow leader would seek her out, but she hoped the two would be a good match. "Explain please Ensign Verin," Sekal spoke as he came up behind her. Sy smiled at him, “Ensign Sekal.” She nodded towards Chief Thibodaux, “Chief Thibodeaux and I are discussing the need for a terrarium due to the very poisonous arachnids that are showing up around base, I don’t want to kill them as they are extinct on their home planet, and am pretty sure we have the only ones currently alive in the universe. They are quite useful, medically speaking. In small doses they venom can be quite beneficial for cardiovascular conditions.’ Sy cheerfully misunderstood the vulcan. She genuinely enjoyed tweaking his nose. His expression didn't change. "I was speaking about the cat you left in my office of course. It appears to be quiet, well behaved and clean certainly but I admit to being curious about your reasoning and the purpose of the message on its collar." He folded his arms as he waited for her reply. Sy’s grin turned mischievous, “She needs a home, and she was hunting in the security offices. They threatened to kill her and give her to the cardassian for dinner. I knew that you wouldn’t hurt her and she felt like she should go to you. I’m sure there are other cats on the station. She hasn’t been neutered, either, and that should happen soon. She’s about a year old and absolutely a sweetheart.” Sy was ignoring the last part of what he had said, “If you don’t want her, I’m sure that she would enjoy the park, but it would be safer for her to stay with you.” Sy was laughing at Sekal internally. Sekal shook his head. "I did not say she was not welcome ." He suspected he was being manipulated of course. "I have room enough for one stray animal but it will have to be neutered as you say. Since it was instigated by you I expect you will see to the matter?" Sy nodded, “I will figure it out. I expect that we need to get a veterinarian here, there are a lot of animals. Do you know what you will call her? Do you need advice on how to deal with her?” Sy got a look of horror on her face, “You won’t eat her will you? Please don’t hurt her. She’s a sweet girl.” "Eat her? If you did not appear so obviously in fear for her safety I would suspect you of trying to insult me." He shook his head slightly. "Vulcans do not eat meat Ensign Verin. As for advice… should I encounter difficulties I will of course contact you immediately." The other question was more problematic. "I will consider the subject of a name since you appear to believe it necessary. It was my understanding that such things were listed on the tag to their collar rather than a stamp of ownership regarding its guardian" Sy looked amused again, “It is very important that you decide on a name. She has likely never had one before. I suggest you hold her in your lap and listen to what your heart says. Cats choose their owners though, not the other way around. That is what was meant by the tag on her collar.” "Hold her… in my lap? He held her gaze. "Is this a necessary part of a bonding ritual? And hearts to my knowledge lack a voice." Sy nodded, “Cats are very particular. And it’s a metaphor, it means listen to the stillness and see what she tells you. She will let you know her name. “ Sy smiled. He gave her a confused look. "Are you you inferring that terran felines are telepathic? This is something I was unaware of." “Not really. It’s… you’ll see. It’s difficult to explain. Just let it happen.” Sy patted his shoulder companionably. An eyebrow rose at the strange gesture. "I understand emotional beings feel the need for touch however Vulcans consider it to be taboo except for certain sanctioned activities. Perhaps you were unaware of this." “I was told it was skin to skin that was taboo, not touch in general.” She spoke quickly, “I am sorry to have offended you.” He shook his head. "To take offence requires an emotional component. I was merely informing you of Vulcan mores Ensign. While I would normally say nothing in that instance to a non telepath the fact that you are a telepath requires a greater degree of caution." “One day, I would like to experience the vulcan mindmeld. I’m very curious, and it’s something I have always been curious about. Can you tell me if you sense anything when I touched your clothing?” He shook his head. "No I did not. My mental shields are quite strong and would need to be lowered for such a contact." “No harm, no foul. I should get back to work though. No rest for the weary.” In point of fact, she should be resting. Everyone should be after the meeting. "One moment if you would Ensign Verin," he said before she walked off. "As you are not a touch telepath but are interested in a Vulcan mind meld it would perhaps be best to explain to you why we have such rules in place to govern the use of our abilities." She smiled. “Shall we go to your office and you can explain them? I’m very curious. I suppose that is why I’m a scientist, so that I can look for answers to my curiosity.” "Of course. I am sure you understand I am not offering to meld with your mind. Just giving you information." As they walked to his office he considered the subject of a name for the feline. It appeared that the thought process that went into it could be varied and difficult. Upon re entering the office he noted that the cat had curled into a ball on one of the chairs with its eyes closed and appeared to be napping. Sy crossed and sat beside the feline, who hopped into her lap, snuggling in. “Aren’t you a lovely thing. Such a good girl.” Sy scritched the cat under her chin, “Yes, you are, such a lovely girl.” Sekal sat behind his desk and watched her entertaining herself with the cat. It was a curious sight. “You were saying Ensign?” Sy settled down to listen, petting his new cat. He nodded sharply. "I'm sure you have heard that before Kohlinar ours was a savage and warlike race that seemed determined to annihilate itself. Imagine a race of telepaths then who by their warlike tendencies used their abilities forcefully upon their enemies. With Vulcans that talent is through touch though we can project for a short distance. It is however extremely draining." He put his elbows on the desk and steepled his fingers. "The use of our telepathic abilities then had to be controlled. Just as Surak turned us from savagery to logic the intimacy of touch had to be regulated as well. A mind meld for example is an extremely intimate thing for us since taking on the thoughts and attributes of another mind leaves us open to a host of emotions both positive and negative. A loss of control and logic is a profound thing for us." Sy nodded, “That makes sense. I doubt my curiosity will ever be fulfilled. But thank you for explaining it to me. I appreciate it.” A soft sigh, “Oh well.” She shrugged, enjoying the contact with the cat, petting it "There are of course exceptions." He noted. "Luma'Lenai for example. I had to make a decision that could have affected the entirety of StarFleet's relationship with her. The benefit of learning what I did about her history was what made the decision palatable." At the mention of Luma, Sy seemed to be a bit unhappy, “I don’t know why she said I was not strong enough to serve as a bondmate for her. I’m a stronger telepath as a halfie than Counselor Trei is as a full Betazoid.” Sy frowned, “Or you, but I got the impression that with you it was that she trusted you, not so much that she thought you were strong enough to be what she needed long term. Did you know that she was angry with your father? Or that she wanted to serve with him?” "Luma is an emotional being and that always has an effect on the decisions of those who allow their emotions to rule them…", he noted, "I am not certain of all of her reasons for how she chooses a mind bondmate not do I claim to be stronger than another telepath. I merely accepted the position she offered. As for my father." He nodded. "Luma harbored a deep seated angst for anyone who was involved in causing her isolation. It was logical to assume that my father could be a target for it and I understood the risk I took when accepting her offer." “What can you tell me about her people? You said that it sounded like they were Betazoids that she originally bonded with?” Sy tried not to snark at his comment about emotional beings. "He leaned back in his chair. "The memories of her mind bondmates had images that Luma saw through their eyes and the similarities to Betazoids are too strong to discount. There was no evidence found by the Mystique on the ship as they committed their dead to space and Luma herself is the repository of their knowledge." “What similarities? Please enlighten me” "He shrugged." It should be obvious. Their height, body build and their pupils were as dark as a resident of Betazed. But I also can recall snatches of their conversation and while I do not speak Betazoid I interrogated the computer for Betazoid syntax and the similarities are too striking even owing to changes in the dialect over thousands of years."" Sy tilted her head and spoke in the beautiful, liquid Betazoid language. His universal translator told him that it was a poem, an old one in a much older dialect than what is currently spoken. “I know there was a theory that one race seeded the galaxy, but I don’t think anyone ever thought that Betazed was one of those.” She watched him, slightly unhappy. “What else did you learn from Luma? And I was wondering…” Sy seemed shy, “Were you interested in the music I played the other night? Do you play an instrument by chance?” "There are a number of things I picked up from Luma that I have been unable to decipher as of yet." He admitted. "Her memories span millennia and much of what flowed through my mind during the meld was lost. It was too much for my mind to contain at the time. Should I meld with her again I believe I will be able to put more of the pieces together." He placed his palms flat on the desk. "I found your music… stimulating. You play very well. I myself never took the time to learn an instrument. If I have opportunity in the future I might perhaps do so." Sy smiled at the comment he chose, “Thank you. I wasn’t sure if Vulcans appreciated music, or if .. Do you have any discs of traditional Vulcan music I might borrow?” "Yes, we use the music for meditation but there is no need to borrow a chip. I downloaded some into the data banks and there was more there besides." Sy nodded again. He would learn or not, but she had tried. "I look forward to whatever you decide to name her. Be sure to play with her a bit each day and I will see about finding someone with some veterinary skills. There should be a wide variety of toys in the replicator, or I can make you a care package?" The cat hopped off Sy's lap, stalked across the desk and stuck her gorgeous face into Sekal's using a demanding chirping sound. He looked down at the cat who was obviously demanding his attention and tentatively reached out and scratched her behind the ears. The feline began emitting a low rumbling sound. He looked at Sienna with an arched eyebrow as the animal pushed her head into his fingers. "Toys?" Sy nodded and moved over to the replicator, "Computer, please access file Verincat6 and replicate wand2, plushy6 and 9 and a package of jerky snacks." Several toys appeared and Sy handed them to Sekal. The two plushies were stuffed with catnip, one was a bird, the other a mouse. The wand toy had feathers attached to it. "Cats need to play. Or they will make their own toys, usually with whatever you do not want them to play with. So yes." A chirp on her wrist chronometer, "I have an appointment, Ensign, if you need me please feel free to contact me?" Sy was much more herself now, cheerful and kind, no longer snarky. At least not as snarky. Sekal looked at the items she had laid on his desktop as the animal immediately pounced on the tiny bird and turned on her back with it firmly clenched in her teeth and began raking at it with all four claws. The cat was sure to make his life, "Interesting." "Thank you Ensign Verin. I will avail myself of your services." He had work to do as soon as the cat vacated the desk so he could raise the terminal but for the moment he would let her tire herself out. Sy left, cheerfully whistling as she did so. She looked forward to the trial of Ensign Sekal and his new pet. It was a great match. She needed to find the breeding colony though and put a stop to it. (reply none) (posted by Mel & Charles Gatling) (Mars Facilities - Counseling Center - ENS jg Ravok- 14.01) He entered the counseling center for the second time that day. He walked up to the receptionist " Hi , I am here for my appointment with Counselor Trei" Ravok said. " Go right on in Sir" she replied Ravok entered Counselor Trei's office and made himself comfortable by taking a seat and relaxing "Hello counselor, Let's get this started " he stated with a smile Reply ( reply Trei) ( posted by Davis) (Mars Facilities - Counseling Center - ENS jg Counselor Ariel Trei - 14.05) "Let's get started indeed. I am going to show you a series of images. Your reaction to the images will shape the way I treat your problem." She pressed a few buttons on the desk computer and the first holographic projections began to run. The first was an image of a fighter jet. The next image was a fighter jet crashed on o planet. She paused the program to get his reactions. (Reply Ravok) (Posted by Edward) (Mars Facilities - Counseling Center - Ensign jg Ravok - 14.06) Counselor Trei pressed a few buttons on the desk computer and the first holographic projections began to run. The first was an image of a fighter jet. The next image was a fighter jet crashed on a planet. She paused the program to get his reactions. Ravok took a deep breath " Well that is a terran fighter jet the F/A 18b, one of the variants of F18 fighter . It's the seat version of F/A 18A . Adding the second seat required a 6 percent reduction in fuel and slight reconfiguation of the onboard avionic systems. Top speed roughly mach 1.8 as of the early 21st century. The image makes me feel nostalgic in an envious type of way. By that I mean I wish I could of flown one maybe the one occupant variant." He said with a smile . He then started to examine the second image He said and started to exam the second image " Ok, the second image is a crashed F-22 Raptor , a fifth generation single occupant stealth fighter. At one time they had issues during testing with their forward titanium boom. But I am getting off track here . This image makes me worry about the pilot involved in this crash. I hope they ejected before the crash. Sorry if I am being too analytical of the provided images." He said as he smiled ( reply Trei) ( posted by Davis ) (Mars Facilities- Counseling Center - ENS jg Counselor Ariel Trei - 14.07) She made some notes on the computer of his reactions. She was glad he felt something for the crashed jet pilot. The next 2 images will tell her more. She pressed the resume button. The next image was a family. A mom, Dad, and a little boy. The 4th image was the same family but the Dad was missing from the picture. She paused the program to record his reactions. (Reply Ravok) (Posted by Edward) (Mars Facilities - Counseling Center - Ensign jg Ravok - 14.07) Counselor Trei pressed a few buttons on the desk computer and the first holographic projections began to run. The first was an image of a fighter jet. The next image was a fighter jet crashed on a planet. She paused the program to get his reactions. Ravok took a deep breath " Well that is a terran fighter jet the F/A 18b, one of the variants of the F18 fighter . It's the two seat version of F/A 18A . Adding the second seat required a 6 percent reduction in fuel and slight reconfiguation of the onboard avionic systems. Top speed roughly mach 1.8 as of the early 21st century. The image makes me feel nostalgic in an envious type of way. By that I mean I wish I could of flown one maybe the one occupant variant." He said with a smile . He then started to examine the second image " Ok, the second image is also a terran vessel a crashed F-22 Raptor , a fifth generation single occupant stealth fighter. At one time they had issues during testing with their forward titanium boom. But I am getting off track here . This image makes me worry about the pilot involved in this crash. I hope they ejected before the crash. Sorry if I am being too analytical of the provided images." He said as he smiled ( reply Trei) ( posted by Davis ) (Mars Facilities- Counseling Center - Ensign jg Ravok- 14.09) She made some notes on the computer of his reactions. She was glad he felt something for the crashed jet pilot. The next 2 images will tell her more. She pressed the resume button. The next image was a family. A mom, Dad, and a little boy. The 4th image was the same family but the Dad was missing from the picture. She paused the program to record his reactions. Ravok leaned forward in his chair and rubbed his chin . " Ok this a human family. They look happy as most families do when they gather for a photo. " he replied to counselor Trei . He looked at the second Image where the father was missing. Their faces seemed a little less happy but happy non the less. " This one ....I noticed in the first image the father was wearing a jacket with a starfleet academy patch on the left arm. Its a jacket commonly handed out to the groundskeepers at the academy . The mountain range in the back ground leads me to believe both photos were taken in an area on earth called Colorado. The father is most likely at work, but if you are trying to dive into my feelings on a father being absent I am more than willing to discuss those with you" He said with a pause. " Counselor I am going to be blunt with you,and please dont take any offense . All these images aren't going to start a meaningful dialogue. Have you ever counseled a Romulan? Our physiology isn't basic. Its complex , it's a menagerie of intricate nueral weavings. If you want to ask me a question, please ask. I prefer the direct approach. The family missing a father who was present in happy moment but gone in the next makes me sad . The loss of life , any life makes my heart ache in a way you couldn't imagine . I am very....compassionate. I have always cared about others more than I care about myself. When I think about my father I dont truly think about my loss . I think about the pain and fear he felt in his final moments and I wonder if he died quick . I wonder if in his final breath he knew how much I loved him." Ravok said as he looked the councilor in the eye ( reply Trei) ( posted by Davis) (Mountains East of Mars Base - Undisclosed Location -- Intelligence Officer Ensign(jg) Jaelle Foxglove - 1431) She sighed finally something was going her way and the intelligence section could actually gain some traction. When the consoles flashed red and suddenly Jaelle was no longer alone six people all wearing black heavy body armor, three with heavy phaser rifles, two welding long shining blades, the final appeared next to Jaelle. All were female and all had long black hair, for Jaelle it was like looking into a mirror of long ago. "Authorization or be destroyed." The one next to her spoke. Jaelle replied. "Code name, Belladonna Lily. Authorization Serria 31 Romeo India Oscar, Alpha 1." The form eyed her, tilting her head as she menacing paced around her "Genetic sampling required." The being commanded. Jaelle nodded, an understanding of what was before her. Placing her hand on a bio sensor the computer processed her genetic make up. A light flashed green. "Identified Belladonna Lily, checking system command for senior intelligence officer on base." Came the brief response form the being before her. Jaelle had heard of these beings before. Well not that they were actual being but programs generated by the central computer to defend itself. Tactical Defense Holograms was what they called and sense they had no real body fighting them was relatively pointless, not when so outnumbered. She only hoped her S31 clearance would allow her access to the main computer especially sense she was one of the ranking intelligence officers on the base. "No, other ranking intelligence officers present. Command of the Mars Intelligence Center falls to Belladonna Lily..." the hologram responded. "Ensign Jaelle Foxglove..." Jaelle responded with more bite than intended. "I do not want to be referred to as Belladonna Lily any more." "Understood." The hologram answered before fading into nothingness. She nodded defense holograms were not programmed to be chatty but rather to the point. She sighed glad she now had access to the Intelligence computer matrix, that was quickly coming back online. "Computer I want a complete list of all tangible assets, and a full tactical map on this base transfer to my PADD and personal encryption only." The computer beeped its approval and started the transfer. Jaelle smiled seeing just a small faction on what this base had to offer. It seemed the lower experimental floors were destroyed beyond hope of recovery but what she gained was worth its weight in gold. Later the doors to the base opened for the first time in over twenty years. As Jaelle exited the base and activated the security protocols she was bound to return soon. But she had to report her findings to the Adrmial. She left the base feeling accomplished for the day, the following days would mean a lot of long days but they would be worth it if they could capitalize on this addition to the Mars base. (Reply none) (Posted by Matthew Locke.) (Mars Facility – Security Complex - aASEC, Ens(jg) Carson Peters & MAJCOM (Sector 001), Lieutenant Colonel James Tillwell - 1730) It had been a busy couple of days for the Security & Tactical department, of which Carson was now in charge. He hadn’t really realised the enormity of the role the Admiral had given him until he got back to his desk in the complex after the meeting and began seeing the decisions that would continue to come across his desk. They had two manhunts currently underway, the first for the person or people selling the bases information and sending encrypted messages off base and the second for the black-ops style agent who had alluded Chief Tamblyns team on the Jupiter base during the attack on the Mystique. In addition to that they had 4 prisoners from that very encounter- one of which was a highly accomplished telepath, the incapacitated Breen which had been captured during the raid and gave them the information on the leaker before attempting to take her own life and an injured black-ops agent- both of which were under armed guard in the sickbay. On top of that, they now had the Mystique and Jupiter station that required a Security presence as well as keeping the main base in a lockdown procedure. There simply wasn’t enough personnel to go around. In light of this, he was drafting a personnel requisition order to be sent to the Admiral in the hopes he would find a way to procure a few hundred more Security personnel. His hopes were not high but he had to try, especially after he’d portioned off some personnel to work directly within the Tactical subsection of the department. Lieutenant Colonel James Tillwell was in a foul mood as he strode into the Security offices and the fast military shuttle he had taken from Earth to the base had nothing to do with it. He was in his early forties, fit, with dark hair that hadn't yet begun to thin and he was here at the behest of Brigadier General Liam McKinley of the Terran planetary defense forces who had oversight of Chief of Security Operations for Sector 001. In his capacity he vetted all security reports for the General and his workload had been relatively light before Mars Base had been reopened but for the past week he had been taking his work home with him and reading late into the night. His purpose here was two fold, it involved taking into custody prisoners of the Federation currently on this base... and having a one way discussion with the senior officer in the security department about a string of foul ups, goofs, releases of classified information and a security gaffe that had sent seismic tremors above his pay grade. The general had been livid with Tillwell since Mars Base was within his jurisdiction and it was all about to roll downhill. "Where is your department head? He growled at one petty officer who happened into his path. Before the man could open his mouth James Tillwell had already snapped, "Take me there!" Jared Boyles saluted the rank insignia, the two security body guards for Tillwell who were Lieutenants and the glaring eyes that were boring into his skull. "Yes sir!" Tillwell and his retinue stalked off after Jared, in their wake one wide-eyed Petty Officer tapped his comm badge. "Chief Peters this is a heads-up sir. Company is coming and it's big, bad and mean sir." After comm'ing Carson PO Hammons shook his head sadly on behalf of his superior officer. Carson immediately began closing down the investigation notes from the terminal he was on, he tapped his comm badge to reply to Hammons, “Understood, thanks. Peters out.” he said as he moved around the desk. ~Who would this be?~ he thought to himself as he stood waiting for his visitor. There were a few possibilities that sprang to his mind as he waited, it could be someone from Earth here to either help or hinder with the interrogation of the prisoners- no doubt HQ would be interested in it. Or perhaps this person coming in, is in charge of the people who attacked Luma on the Mystique, a rogue element of Starfleet and they’re here to take their men back. Carson approached his door and as it opened and he went to step out of the office, he saw Jared Boyles marching towards him with a Lieutenant Colonel member of Starfleet. The man was flanked by two guards who also outranked himself ~Oh gods~ Carson thought to himself as the four men arrived at his door. His training kicked in and he stood to attention and saluted the senior officer, “Sir.” he said. Tillwell nodded absently. "Ensign." He then glared at PO Jared Boyles. "Did I not say your commanding officer?" Jared pointed at Carson with an apologetic look. "Chief Carson Peters sir." James Tillwell gave a start then turned back to Carson. His eyes lit on the empty pip and he seemed to deflate a little. ~An ensign, a baby faced, wet behind the ears Ensign.~ He turned and reached for the PADD one of his retinue was carrying then pulled up the Chief's bio. ~ I shouldn't have skimmed the brief.~ Sure enough there it was. "You are dismissed." He addressed Jared who glanced at Carson empathetically for an instant before 'burning out'. "You two wait outside." His retinue stationed themselves on either side of the door. "Ensign Peters let's have ourselves a powwow." "Of course, Sir." he stood aside and allowed the man to enter his office. Now he was stood up close with the Lt. Colonel, the man's face began to reappear in Carsons memory as he searched for the officers name. ~Tillwell… MAJCOM… Crap.~ he thought to himself as he followed the man in. Tillwell swept into the office, selected the most comfortable chair in the room not behind the desk and slid it across the floor until it was opposite Carson's then dropped into it while still idly holding the PADD. He gazed at a corner of the ceiling for a moment before meeting Carson's eyes solidly. "This is your lucky day Ensign Peters. I came here with the intention of giving someone the dressing down of a lifetime, something they would never forget." His eyes hardened again. "But you won't get away unscathed. You've inherited one hell of a mess son and you're going to tell me how you're going to fix it and I'd better like what you say." He settled back into the chair without his eyes losing their intensity. "Then we'll get into the other reason I'm here." Carson listened intently whilst keeping his gaze fixed on the senior officer. He found that not dropping your gaze in the presence of the seniors the best way of dealing with them and letting them know he wouldn't be someone to walk all over. Afterall he'd spoke many truths to power in the wake of the terrorist attack down on Earth, he secretly thought that was why he'd been moved to Mars. To shut him up. ~Other reason?~ was the last thought he had before launching in. It was clear Tillwell was done talking until he'd heard from Carson. "A mess it is, Sir. However it's now my mess to deal with, any Security failures you may lay at my door. I'm only just getting my feet on the ground, but I do believe we have done many things right in the past few days." Carson took a breath and then continued, "The base has been under lock down since I came onto the base 6 days ago, even with the department as undermanned as it currently is. A large portion of my staff are dealing with customs and entryway security, leaving very little to deal with investigations and personal security." Tillwell's eyes blazed a bit and he leaned forward. "You've got spunk son, I'll give you that. So let's talk about some of the issues that get dropped at your door today." He held up the PADD. "One of the science officers on this base using coded messages without prior authorization on two separate occasions with a half dozen codes in the database under his personal seal." He slapped the PADD on the desk. "Number two, other coded signals to unknown parties over the course of several days from unauthorized and unknown sources on this base." He laid his hands palm down on the desktop and leaned forward until his elbows joined them. "Three, pirates in this system attacking Federation shipping while in possession of classified information concerning shipping schedules and cargo manifests." His voice rose in volume while it deepened. "Can you see where I'm going with this? What is being done about the flow of classified materials leaving this base?" As Tillwell began listing off all the things that had been going wrong over the past few days, the first point about the Science Officer was something that had completely slipped by him in amongst all the other craziness. He made a mental note to look into it once Tillwell and he had concluded the meeting, ~I can’t let him know we weren’t aware of it.~ He felt like he now understood some of the reason the Lieutenant Colonel and head of Major Operations for Sector 001 had taken the effort to come and see him. From his point of view, it did look like a complete set of mess up, after screw up after colossal balls up. “If you’ll allow me, Sir. When we first landed on base, myself and the fellow Security Officers , we made a decision after the first two days to review unauthorised transmissions on a daily basis and chase them up with department heads. The reason the decision was taken is because the first two days we were here, almost every free member of the department was following up on unauthorised messages from thousands of new members of the excitable Mars crew. Most of which are in their first posting and spent the first few days getting in contact with family back home and not following the correct procedures.” Carson took a breath and then continued, “It was our… my view at the time, that we could go in and reeducate the departments once everything was settled down. However things seem to have gotten progressively worse and nothing settled down. In hindsight, it was probably the wrong decision.” "You're damn straight!" Tillwell almost snarled before throttling his temper. He was dealing with an inexperienced hand on a cluster of a posting that had very little direction from the home office in its Initial phase and an understaffed department. A statement had to be made however without breaking the kid's spirit so that he could learn from his mistakes and avoid them in the future. To that end while he wasn't going to give him the full whipping, Carson wasn't going to get off with a few measly love taps either. “The investigation into the leaking of official information from the base has already begun, I’m sorry that it wasn’t included in my reports. But I felt that if someone was able to hijack the systems so proficiently, they may already be monitoring information back and forth from Earth. I didn’t want to tip them off in any way.” Tillwell snapped. "How many men do you have on your investigative team and what is its composition?" Since he didn't have a copy of the report he would get it verbally. Carson paused before giving the man the information he required, he wanted to keep the investigation as close to his chest as possible, "Myself and the other senior officers as well as Chief Tamblyn working with an Intelligence agent, Ensign Rozen on decrypting several of the communications" "So a half dozen at most then. On a posting this size you need twenty at minimum." Tillwell turned that over in his head. ~Undermanned and stretched thin indeed.~ "That was a gutsy move bringing Intelligence into the mix. Unorthodox but I like it. I'm going to be expecting regular reports even if you have to send them by carrier pigeon in a space suit." He leaned back into the chair but his expression grew more dangerous. "Next item. There is a quarantined ship in space dock that has been receiving regular visitations from this base and command is in a high lather about it. Were you aware of the quarantine Ensign Peters?" "I'm aware of the ship but not the quarantine." Carson replied matter-of-factly. He'd seen no notice of quarantine when they first entered the ship and neither had any of the other officers that were with him. "Let me brief you then." His voice had grown softer but even more chilling. "The USS Mystique according to documents from twenty four, fifteen, eleven, zero nine was infected by an alien entity which was determined to be uncooperative and dangerous. The ship was mothballed later here at UP and its drives disconnected so it could not leave." "Operational plans were to dismantle the ship but the ball was dropped when the base and its associated facilities were abandoned. On top of the breaking of quarantine the attention of subversive elements was apparently drawn to it by the leak or leaks we have just discussed." He folded his arms across his chest and gave Carson a long and disconcerting stare. "So enlighten me Ensign, explain to me why every person that has stepped aboard that ship should not immediately be arrested." "I cannot give you an explanation, if the ship is indeed quarantined it seems the paperwork got lost somewhere. I was on the first team which ventured onto the ship and there was no notice of quarantine." Carson said. There was no point hiding anything from Tillwell. Tillwell scowled. ~They couldn't even get those details right then. This has been a total cluster **** of epic proportions from the get go. Who the hell oversaw that initiative anyway?~ He was going to have to do some digging. Whoever had been in charge of enforcing Starfleet's directive on the quarantine was either a complete incompetent or something else had been at work behind the scenes. His gut feeling was that he was looking at a smoke screen designed to hide some other activity. If that feeling was correct then getting to the bottom of it was going to become a pet project of his. The dressing down he had gotten from McKinley made this matter personal. "In addition to that, this morning I attended a briefing with the Admiral who has made the decision to get the USS Mystique up and running for an upcoming mission to the Trill homeworld." Carson paused to take in Tillwells reaction, there was a good chance he wasn't aware of the Admirals intention and he wanted to see if it showed. "The entity- Luma, you talk of, which was the reason the ship was mothballed as so far been fully cooperative. Though I understand and share the concerns of those that have dealt with her in the past. She has far too much control over the ship for anyone working on it to be fully safe." James Tillwell sat up ramrod straight in the chair. "The Admiral did what you say?" That command call by the head of the project on Mars had just muddied the water. This project he knew had been sanctioned by the highest level of UFP leadership and the Admiral given a great degree of latitude. In essence he had just voided the quarantine. This also cast an interesting new light on what was going on above his pay grade. ~A coverup? Power play maybe?~ Either way this was guaranteed to shake some things loose, maybe even give him enough room to dig up some good info for his new pet project. But back to the matter at hand, the Ensign was giving him a look that screamed he was weighing his reaction. Good interrogation instincts in this one though a little obvious, give him time and seasoning and Ensign Peters might make him proud. "Honesty is refreshing Ensign. The matter of Luma'Lenai has just been taken out of my hands. This is a subject that may have to be revisited at a later time but it's over for now. I note your caution however and will make sure it is included in my report to the General." "The final matter if I read you right is something you are not going to like. I haven't met a good investigator yet who liked losing a valuable source of information." ~And if you don't kick up a fuss you obviously don't have the mettle I think you do.~ Tillwell rose from the chair. "Command wants your prisoners on Earth where they can be interrogated exhaustively. Now they didn't order me here for a prisoner pickup, it was my decision to come here for a face-to-face and this was a good excuse." He indicated the PADD. "The orders are there and they're complete. Look at 'em, rant and recycle the PADD if you want but it's not going to change the fact that they are getting stowed on my shuttle and leaving with me." It was Carson’s turn to be angry, he knew he couldn’t explode in front of Tillwell, he wondered if that’s what he expected him to do. He probably knew of his background on Earth, chasing up on the terrorist attack and not letting it go, ~he’s trying to push my buttons intentionally~ he thought as he took the padd off Tillwell and scanned the orders. He tossed the padd onto the desk, it hit with a clang, it wasn’t an aggressive toss, but neither was the padd putt lightly down. “When do you leave?” he asked bluntly, wondering whether there would be enough time to try and get some information out of the prisoners from last night. "In three hours, that should be plenty of time to load 'em aboard." Tillwell crossed his arms at his chest and watched Carson with a keen eye. ~Angry but he can control it.~ Carson sighed as he actively suppressed the need to stand up and argue with the man. He could see it would do no good, they had finally gotten to the reason he’d actually come to the base. Command wanted these prisoners out of the bases hands, didn’t want Carson and his team asking too many questions. This stank of a cover-up and there was nothing he could do about it. He continued to look around the room as if waiting for inspiration to appear in one of the corners. When it didn’t he settled for looking at Tillwell, “I’d like it noted on file that I vehemently disagree with the order. We haven’t had time to fully sit down and interrogate the prisoners we caught on the Mystique. Give me one day with them, half a day even.” For the first time today the faintest ghost of a smile softened the MAJCOM's features. "I'm not an unreasonable man son. I can foresee some maintenance issues on the shuttle in the immediate future. Have them aboard by this time tomorrow while I get them 'fixed'." With a nod James Tillwell turned and strode toward the door. He stopped and turned as it opened. "Ask the Admiral to forward a copy of the personnel requisition to me and I'll see that it gets expedited." Tillwell left the room and Carson watched as his guards formed back up at his rear as he began marching out of the department, the sliding doors closed behind him and Carson was stood alone in his office once again. It took a moment for the MAJCOMs final words to sink in, but once they did Carson became a flurry of action. He tapped his comm badge, "Ensign Taya and Darpeg. We have a limited time to get the answers we need- Earth have sent the big boys to take control of our prisoners. Take one each and see if you can squeeze anything out of them. The sooner the better, they leave base this time tomorrow." (Reply Taya, Darpeg) (Posted by Charles Gatling & Jono Bradley)