Mission 23: Would Angels Fear ?

[Andae Blakus]

Blakus had decided that if the Raven was going to transport Carl to Cordovin IV, then he'd do his part as chief engineer to come up with some excuses for slowing the ship down. A misalignment in an antimatter injector could often occur at the most 'inconvenient' time.

"That should do nicely," he said, tweaking the inlet manifold from the injector's control interface.

~ Particle misalignment at 0.78 percent ~ the male computer voice intoned quietly.

Tinsley stood behind him, looking worried, "I wouldn't go any further, sir. It could be dangerous."

"I know that," Blakus snapped, scrutinising the display, "It could also result in fluctuating power levels around the ship." Of course, the warp core wasn't just the furnace behind the Raven's locomotion, it was also its primary source of energy.

"In its current state," he announced, lifting a finger above his head to silence his subordinate,
"Only the maximum warp speed the Raven is capable of will be affected. The slower we travel back to Cordovin, the more time we have to prove the Commodore's innocence."

He dragged himself out of the tight space, Tinsley following him back into the main part of engineering. "What if we run into trouble? Have you told Commander Watson?"

Blakus shrugged, "It can be restored at any time should we need it, and I was just about to.
There's no rush... We're still in port."

Lieutenant Cristina Taylor stepped out from behind the warp core into his path. "Well observed," she said, grinning in her cheeky manner that evoked a few memories. She held a PADD out to him.

Blakus looked irked at his old acquaintance, "What's this about?"

"Specialist Ballard has finished extracting the core unit from the drive device," Taylor said as Andae skimmed the PADD, "She's discovered when and likely where it was installed, and what its function was." Andae looked at Cristina questioningly. "She's waiting in your office, Commander."


It had emerged during their study that not all of the device dated from a hundred thousand years ago. There had been some modifications, likely done by Kamat and his sect, but they didn't know for what purpose.

"It's a locking device, pure and simple," she said, "It must've been installed on Cordovin after the drive's discovery by the archaeological teams." The officer rounded his desk, looking across at him with an assured eye.

"Some sort of securing bolt?" he asked.

Ballard nodded. "It prevented the inadvertant activation of the device, and looked as if it had a male-female connector that physically locked it into wherever they were holding it."

Blakus cast his eyes down to his desk, disappointed, "So that's it?"

Ballard seemed tentative, walking around his office again, "Well, we've picked it apart, and it looks as if the internal circuitry is a lot more complex than it should be given its assumed function. So there was definitely something else that it did, but we have little idea what. If the device was intact I might be able to speculate, but obviously it isn't.

"There's also a separate locator unit on the drive, that would've still been transmitting up to the point it was destroyed. But the most crucial thing we've learnt is exactly when it was installed and likely exactly where."

Blakus looked up, "How?" he asked.

"We know what materials it was made from. It may come as shock, but the metals used were subject to a particular refinement process that is only done for Starfleet equipment. The raw materials would've come into the Cordovin's possession during the trade that took place at the time of their entry into the Federation.

"Furthermore, Starfleet demands that strict records be kept for where all of its resources go. There's an entry for the exact quantity of new materials in the drive device, sent to a governmental building in the Cordovin capital at virtually the same time Commodore Torek began his search for the blue stone."

"That's some excellent detective work, Specialist," he smiled, regarding his hands pensively, "It might turn out to be unimportant, but I'd quite like to visit this building when, or if, we get to Cordovin IV."

TBC - <Tag All>

[Alex Watson]

Alex was sat in his office, reading and re-reading, watching and re-watching the Cordovin evidence to see if he could find something, anything…after a few days of this behaviour now, he was starting to lose hope. He had been sure that he could find some sort of anomaly, but there was nothing. The forgery was incredible. His communicator pipped, and he activated it.

“Watson.”

“Incoming message from Admiral Tetsutaro, sir.”

“Patch him through.” Alex sat upright in his chair, deactivating his communicator and calling up the comm-screen on his desk. When the admiral’s face resolved itself on the screen, Alex saluted.

“At ease, commander,” the Admiral said gently. Alex relaxed a little bit.

“Yes sir.”

“I have your orders here, commander. You are to transport Commodore Torek to Cordovin Prime to face trial. We have given the Cordovin assurances that this will take no more than a week, which should be just within your capabilities at full warp. A nice easy mission as your first command.”

Alex fought to stop his face contorting with anger as he said “Yes, sir, understood.”

“Don’t let us down, commander,” the Admiral replied, and as he closed the link, Alex could have sworn he saw Tetsurato give him the tiniest of winks. He took a few deep breaths, then opened up a channel to the rest of the ship.

“This is Commander Watson. All senior staff to be present in the Ready Room two hours before departure tomorrow.”

He closed the link, fearing that he might betray some hint of anxiety if he spoke any longer. The time had come more quickly than he had thought it would. He would busy himself overnight with the final stages of his plan.

<Tag all who want to wrap up their business before we get underway>

---

There wasn’t a smile to be seen at the Ready Room table as Alex entered. Walking grimly to the head of the table, he sat down and faced them all, including the JAG officer Captain Barton. He took a deep breath. What he was about to say had the potential to land him in jail…or worse. He had been informed by Calli that the Captain was on their side, he believed the allegations were false, but Alex had no idea how far that would carry his idea.

“As I see it, we have three realistic options here, none of them desirable.” He paused for effect, and noticed a few heads nodding around the table. “The first has already been mooted. We all resign our commissions in protest.”

“I predict no greater than a zero point zero zero three percent chance that that course of action will have any positive benefits to our situation,” Marionette opined. There were some glances aimed at Watson from around the table, none of them could have been said to be flattering.

“The second is the simplest course of action. We do nothing. We follow the orders we have been given and we delived Commodore Torek to Cordovin Prime as agreed.”

“Again, undesirable. As I have already stated, Commodore Torek’s chance of survival is no greater than –”

“Thank you, Ensign,” Alex interrupted. “The third choice presents the most danger, to us all: we act.”

“What are you suggesting, Commander?” Captain Barton asked quizzically. Alex’s heart did a leap in his throat.

“Commander Blakus,” Alex said, “At Maximum Warp it should take us a week to reach Cordovin Prime, correct?” Blakus nodded solemnly. “How long would it take us to get there if, say, our engines suffered a failure that cut our maximum speed to, say, Warp 2.5?”

“More than a month,” Blakus said. Alex had trouble reading his tone, “But if that were to happen they would send out a search and rescue and find us within a few days. That stall wouldn’t work.”

“Maybe not on its own, but what if the malfunction also caused a shipwide communications blackout? I’m talking pulse beacons, distress signals, anything that they could use to locate us. How long, roughly, would it take to find a ship in space that was emitting no tracking signals?”

Andae shrugged. “Ships have gone missing before and never turned up. It would be like looking for a fly in a dark room with no torch, wearing earmuffs. But a lot of that stuff is hardwired in, disabling it would be-”

“I have every faith in your skills, Commander.”

“Once again, Commander Watson, I must ask what it is that you are suggesting,” Commander Barton asked, calmly, as if he expected a reasoned answer rather than an excuse. This comforted Alex slightly.

“I’m suggesting that once we’re a day out of Stardock, we send a garbled distress signal back to Starfleet. Include enough information to let them know that our tracking systems are offline and that our warp drive is failing. That will buy us a month.”

“A month to do what, Commander Watson?” Captain Barton asked again.

“A month to track down El-Kamat, whatever weapon he’s hunting for, and any evidence he has that could exonerate the Commodore. He and the Commodore both received a vision from the device. I have looked over your study of the Cordovin technology found in the Gandai device, Commander Blakus, and my best guess would be that it is, as you thought, some sort of interface mechanism. It might have been designed to let El-Kamat use the device. We don’t know, and we might never. What we do know, however, is where he’ll be. Torek can lead us there.”

There was total, and complete silence from around the table for a good ten seconds, before Marionette opened her mouth and said, “What you are suggesting is technically Mutiny. If we were discovered before we completed our objectives, we would all lose our commissions, our freedom, and likely our lives.”

Alex exhaled deeply, and shook his head. “No, that will not be the case. If this thing goes sideways and we’re caught, I’ll take the hit. I’ll confess that I’m a traitor to Starfleet and the Federation, that I am in league with El-Kamat and that I framed Commodore Torek to steal the Raven for my own ends, before manipulating you with a story of salvation to get your agreement. The flak will fall on me, and on no one else.”

“You can’t be serious!” shouted Calli, “They’ll execute you for that! They won’t even have any evidence to support it!”

“Yes, they will. I will forge some evidence to back up my confession. It’ll be a witch hunt, and they won’t be looking too closely, and none of you,” he looked around the table gravely at this point, “will leap to my defence. If I die, and it means that you all get another shot at bringing down El-Kamat and this weapon he is looking for, then I’ll consider my death a small price to pay. We know the scale of what this thing could do in the wrong hands.”

Alex paused for effect again, taking another few deep breaths to steady himself before looking up at the table again.

“Do we agree?”

<Tag All>

[Marionette]

Marionette spoke first "I agree, also, if it should come to it, there could be a .... theft of some of my memory engrams...." In front of her was a trio of PADD's, detailing even more ways and methods to accomplish predicted intentions. She slid it to the center of the table, in much the same manner one would up a bet in poker.

If one didn't know better, there was almost a devious twinkle in her eye as a small smile ghosted across her face....

<tag all? / Alex ?>

[Calli Valente]

The meeting began with the Acting Captain outlining what was to happen, and his 'thoughts' on how the Raven could help their Commanding Officer, But at one point during the briefing, Calli thought she needed to interupt, and did so ...

"You can’t be serious !" she almost shouted, exasperation in every syllable, "They’ll execute you for that. They won’t even have any evidence to support it !"

"Yes they will ... I will forge evi ......" Alex began, but Calli had stopped listening. What Watson was suggesting was nothing more than a loyal Exec' would do. She knew that, and admired the man more for it. But the younger, less experienced Officer had obviously overlooked several vital components to his little plan, "...... my death a small price to pay. We know the scale of what this thing could do in the wrong hands." he finished.

She sat in silence as the Navigation Officer put up an idea, but she felt she needed to inject a little 'reality' into the meeting before people, experienced Officers, decided on a course of action that was doomed to failure ... She stood up slowly. Instantly getting every ones attention.

"First ... Let me appologize for my seemingly unprofessional outburst. This situation is getting to all of us I think ... OK, well ... While we can all commend Com, Captain Watson for his willingness to throw himself on the proverbial sword, we need to face facts. Options one and two are a no-go, for obvious reasons. Also, in it's present form, I have to suggest that your 'take-over' simply wouldn't work, given the access and co-operation needed from Senior Staff ... Also, there's Captain Barton's obvious objections." she said, glancing at the JAG Officer for a few seconds, "Plus the fact that, well, I'm not convinced that we could pull off the cascade system failures you are talking about ... I'm sure you are all fully aware of the ship we're on ... Not forgetting the somewhat extensive overhaul the Raven has just undergone ? ... We're likely looking at odds in the region of eight or maybe ten figures 'against' all the systems going down straight out of space-dock, without us simply hanging in space like so much dead wood." she looked at Marionette almost daring the android to correct her, but the JAG Officer got in first.

"So ...... If ...... And I 'DO' mean 'IF' I was to go along with your plans, and not simply contact Command re the pending mutiny. What would 'you' suggest ?" Barton said.

Calli was good at reading people, it had saved her life on numerous occasions. Not to mention allowing her to invoke her 'Shoot first' axiom on occasion. She could safely bet her shirt on the fact the JAG Officer was with them, even if he wasn't saying as much.

"Well ... It's highly likely we'll come across a trade vessel, or something similar by the time we're two, maybe three days out ... We send a garbled communication that we're having trouble, maybe the warp core, but are handling it and don't need assistance, should they offer. We'll be running at maybe warp two point something, like you suggested Captain, and the other ship will be able to report that to Star fleet ... Once clear of the ship, we disable our transponder, and high warp it out of the region and go after El-Kamat ... One point I think I shoud stress ... I think it would be best not to include the Commodore in any of these discussions, because you all know full well he would not allow it. So best he finds out 'after' the fact in my opinion, thus at the very least keeping a mutany charge off his record. Loyalty and faithfullness are strong persuaders ...... Oh, by the way. If this little venture of ours goes belly up, then I have a feeling that we'll all need to get accustomed to a permanent vacation on Rura Penthe." she said, resisting the urge to shrug as she took her seat ..........

[Andae Blakus]

Blakus noticed Marionette's sparkling eyes as she slid the PADDs to the table's centre. Returning her look with the contrasting dark mystery of his own, he took one of the PADDs and cursorily glanced through it, weighing it up as if it was part of some business deal.

He smiled and pursed his lips, "You think by removing some of your engrams Starfleet won't be able to trawl your mind for incriminating evidence. Are you sure you'd be happy forgetting everything, even if it was just temporary?"

The engineer scrolled down the page of one of the PADDs, seeing how the navigation officer had also planned for diversions in the ship's course - either designed to add time to their journey to Cordovin, or shake off any search and rescue vessels that might come looking should they select the third option.

"Good ideas," he began, "I'm sure my engineers could -" <Tag Marionette for any of above?>

Calli had stood up, and all the officers slowly turned their attention to her. Blakus fell silent as the mission advisor voiced her concerns about the Acting CO's plan. Andae was about to interject with something, but Barton beat him there with a challenge. Calli then gave a modified version of the plan, which possibly had a better chance of deceiving Command.

Andae nodded, "I think that's a good idea. Having a merchant vessel as a third party introduces some doubt as to our true whereabouts. If we were to report an engine failure a day out of Starbase, having met no one, then for the purpose of search and rescue we'd have little excuse for not being exactly where Command would predict us to be, which would be at a point extrapolated from our outbound trajectory at the 'supposed' time of failure. An independent trade vessel is not as trustworthy as a Federation starship. It's more likely that Command would believe the trade vessel's crew were mistaken about our last known location, or were lying about it, than for them to believe we had fled the scene."

Captain Barton was shifting uncomfortably in his seat, but Blakus could see the resolve in his eyes. It was good to have the JAG officer with them, even if it was slightly unnerving. "Regarding Commodore Torek, my understanding is that he will be kept in the brig..." Barton ventured.

"I think under the circumstances he should simply be confined to quarters, at worst," Blakus said quickly.

"We may be flying in the face of authority, but we should at least keep to our principles." The JAG officer raised his voice, "The Commodore is accused of murder. No matter how absurd that accusation might be, he cannot be allowed free rein of the ship."

Blakus scowled and lurched forward in his chair, "You'd love nothing better than to see him put away, wouldn't you? To further your career..."

"Enough!"

<Tag All>

---

Department of Environmental Affairs, Huasala, Cordovin IV...

Special ops officer Pammik trudged through the rubble towards the small gathering of figures near the broken archway on the other side. The whole area had been cordoned off by the authorities, nearly a month ago now; the only people authorised to enter the site were governmental officers and forensic scientists, and in the case of the latter their necessary work had been done long ago.

Rebels, Pammik thought, as she watched the grey figures in their long overalls on the otherside - getting closer and closer. My fellow rebels now, perhaps.

Of course, terminology was an issue here. Those branded as rebels by the administration actually saw themselves as the true loyalists - it was the administration (or at least its guiding force) that was rebelling against the Cordovin people. It was a point of view that Pammik was slowly coming around to.

[Marionette]

<Err.... make up something that sounds viable, and pretend Marionette explained it from top to bottom ? >

"....And also, based on the information i acquired from the Commodore's personal files, there is a 16.2 percent chance that he actually did do what he is accused of."

The others just sat there, mouths gawped open as Marionette explained it all. Looking around at them, she then asked, with a child-like innocence '.... Would you like me to explain it again?'

After a second time of explaining it, A to Z, and even more of a headache, Calli interrupted and asked a question. A very good question. 'Why would you come up with this, never mind share it with us ?'

Without missing a beat, Marionette answered 'I am a part of your crew now. By joining Starfleet, i freely obligate myself to whatever is needed to be done to accomplish our shared goals, and at times, risk myself, or save you from harm, to accomplish these goals and tasks. As our commander, this also applies to Commodore Torek.'

The speech was neither emotionally patriotic, nor detectably condescending. In fact, it was spoken so flat and matter-of-factually, that you could probably use it as a micron leveler bar.

Wow.... For someone who had no emotions, that was a pretty impressive (and accurate?) spiel on the Nature of Loyalty.

The present tense reference to Torek in command might have been missed.... Then again, maybe not.

[Aeryn Tavik]

"Enough!"

The silence that followed was deafening. It seemed that no one, at least right now, dared speak a word. Such an outburst coming the JAG officer, and Commander Blakus, only made matters worse. She agreed that Commodore Torek deserved every respect and courtesy, but she also agreed that him even having a fleeting thought that they were doing something other than what they were supposed to do would force him to find a way to turn the ship towards Cordovin Prime so as to not endanger any of the crew. Aeryn knew that for a fact.

She broke the silence. "Calli brings up a good point. Commodore Torek will not allow us to just breach protocol and not take him to Cordovin Prime. He will not have it in any way." She adjusted herself in the chair. "Don't get me wrong, I'm entirely down for taking a detour, but we aren't going to get any information out of the Commodore unless one if us can be ridiculously persuasive. We'll have to find another way."

"What do you have in mind?" Alex asked.

Aeryn shrugged. "Making the ship look like its going bad is really the easy part. What we need to figure out is what we are going to do next. We are all assuming that Commodore Torek is going to willingly give us what we need to know. I think we all agree that the Commodore would never put his own life in front of his ship, crew, or family. This ship and everyone on it are apart of one of those. We have to be prepared to find another way."

[Carl Torek]

Carl had been in the Ambassadorial quarters close to the Command Center for a full day now, and even though it had been made clear that he wasn't under arrest, it was obvious that he was expected to remain where he was ... The door opened and an adjutant entered. He informed Torek that he was required in the Admiral's office. So Carl followed the man. ...

When he entered, Tetsutaro was sat behind his desk. Captain Barton was stood to one side.

"Carl, there is no easy way to tell you this, but we are sending you to Cordovin ..... You have been, and always will be a Son to me, but ..." Sato said, visibly upset, "You know the stakes, and we simply can not be seen to be preventing the course of justice."

"I fully understand Admiral." Carl said, seeing the old mans grief at what he was doing, "Will I be allowed to see the Children before I board the Cordovin ship, I will need to make arrangements ?"

"That will not be necessary Carl. I have been 'persuaded' to allow the Raven to take you to Cordovin ... You will be able to spend the time with those girls. Rest assured I am not letting this situation drop Carl. We are in negotiations to hold this farce of a trial on a neutral world. we are investigating every micro-second of that 'evidence' and will continue to do so ... The Raven will leave tomorrow morning, and will take six days to reach Cordovin. I have Elder Gastain's word that you will be treated with all the respect your rank, and 'innocence' demands. They will make no efforts to intervene in the transport."

"Thank you Admiral." Carl replied as the elderly man came around the table and placed his hands on his shoulders in an unmistakable gesture of worry and concern.

"I have decided to allow Commander Watson to retain temporary Command during the journey. Calli of course will be remaining aboard, and I am sure your Second Officer will be there to offer help should it be needed ......"

Carl followed the Captain out of Tatsutaro's office. He couldn't help notice that everyone seemed to be suddenly very busy, but one young Lieutenant spoke.

"Good luck Commodore ... We all know these charges are ridiculous."

~~~~~~~~~~

Dropping through the floors in the private turbo-lift, Carl suddenly began to realize that this could be the end. He knew that Cordovin justice tended to be swift, and brutal, if a person was found guilty, which they invariably did ! ... Neither man spoke until they had stepped onto the Raven and entered the turbo-lift.

"Deck eight." Carl ordered.

"No ..... You need to go to the Bridge first and speak to your Senior Staff." Barton said, before redirecting the 'lift ... As they stepped out, the duty Bridge Officer jumped out of the Command seat, "Relax Lieutenant, where are the Command Staff ?" Barton asked quickly.

"Observation Lounge, erm, Captain."

Barton nodded and the two men left the Bridge Officer in stunned silence ... As they entered the Observation Lounge the room went quiet. Carl looked at each of his Officers in turn before speaking.

"I hope I'm not intruding Captain." he said to Alex, who managed, along with everyone else, to get to his feet slightly red-faced, "I believe you have the dubious honor of escorting me to Cordovin. I'll make sure I stay out of your way and off the Bridge, oh, I promise not to incite a mutiny en-route either." Carl grinned, hoping his comments would lighten the obvious tension he'd caused by suddenly appearing.

"You of course have the run of the ship Commodore." Alex said, getting a nod of approval from Calli.

"I'll leave you to your meeting." Carl replied, "I'm going to see my children. I'll of course be available should anyone have any questions ... Thank you everyone."

The room came to attention as Torek and the JAG Officer left the room.

"Sir we nee ....." Barton began, but Carl cut him off.

"I'm going to see my Children 'Captain' ... If you check with the duty Officer I am sure he can assign you quarters for the duration of the trip."

He didn't wait for a reply, but turned and entered the turbo-lift.

"Deck eight." he said, closing his eyes as the 'lift began it's decent ..........

[Calli Valente]

After Commodore Torek's unexpected appearance in the briefing, everyone was of the same mind, finish the talking and prepare the Raven for departure ....

Zero seven forty five hours (next morning) ...

Calli was stood next to the Command area. She would have been at 'Ops' but the Captain had appointed Commander Wedlerson as Acting Operations Chief. That was good, because it showed the young man was thinking about the ship as well as the upcoming issues with Commodore Torek.

"Dock Master reports we are free to depart Sir." Wedlerson said.

Alex looked at Calli, the tiniest hint of doubt in his eyes.

"They're ready and willing." Calli whispered.

"Take a seat Commander." Watson said, and waited while Calli took the Exec's seat, "OK, well given my Second Officer is in Engineering, I think you can take us out ... Besides, it will give you some practice." Alex finished,gratified that she too was feeling a few nerves at thing point. Calli nodded and faced the front.

"Helm ... Confirm our readiness for departure. Release all umbilical connections and have the walk-ways retracted ..." she waited patiently for the new Navigation Officer, who finally nodded completion, "One third impulse ... Take us out of space-dock."

The massive silver white hull, almost six hundred and fifty meters in length began a leisurely backward motion. Then, clear of the dock rotated through one hundred fifty degrees ... Several people stopped what they were doing as the Galaxy Class vessel began to move toward the doors to open space. On screen the doors looked almost too narrow for the four hundred and fifty meter saucer section, but eventually they were in open space ...

"Free to navigate Captain." Calli said, surprisingly elated at her efforts. 'Doesn't exactly beat killing for a living, but close' she thought, almost laughing at the private joke.

The Raven left the blue white jewel behind at a sedate rate, obviously in no hurry. Command was about to contact her when Admiral Tetsutaro put a hand on the mans shoulder ..

"Let her go in her own time Lieutenant. A distant relative of mine once said ... 'A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step' ... I think we must allow our new Captain to take that first step when he is ready." Admiral Tatsutaro said, nodding to himself as he went back to his office.

Sato went to a private room off his main office. There, a shrine to Koshintô. Subtle, unassuming, sat in the far corner. He bowed deeply in reverence, then took out two incense sticks ... Placing them before the shrine, he lit them and said a silent prayer for the man he called his Son, and his long life ..........




< tag: Alex / All >

[Marionette]

Marionette performed the maneuver with exacting efficiency as the Galaxy class ship glided out of the ships berth and into space. Setting the commanded course and speed into the computer, she calculated the warp trajectories for Cordova prime, as officially scheduled, simulated various warp-field interactions typical of Galaxy-class starships, and drew up the most current sector maps to anticipate stellar interactions, other vessel flight-paths, and orbit forecasts.

According to the above information, they would come relatively closest to the merchant supply freighter The Darren Russo (about 2 weeks out, and capable of only warp 5), arrive at Cordova Prime when the capital city would be in the night of the planet, at approximately 2:43 AM local time, with a 67.8 percent chance of moderate to heavy rain.

In her head, however, she charted out musical composition ideas based on random-generated number sequences, and just for 'amusement' (if she does have such a capacity?), tried to calculate Pi to its absolute last decimal place, which was mathematically impossible, as Pi is an irrational number, and thus goes on for infinity.

Her face blanked (well, even more blank, if anyone would notice at all) for abit, while waiting for the order to go to low warp.

[Andae Blakus]

The Raven accelerated smoothly up fractions of impulse until it was barrelling away along a dark stream from Starbase 47 at quarter lightspeed. The core waited patiently at the heart of engineering, ready to feed its plasma to the warp coils once Ensign Marionette input the command at the helm.

"Commander Blakus," an alert beeped at the console Andae was using. "We have a flow problem in conduit 54-epsilon-theta." The officer's announcement was replaced by a grainy voice that came through painfully, reporting the situation and drawing the attention of those around the CEO.

The Chief sighed. "I've got this... It sounds important and if it's to do with the misalignment, it's my fault." He patted Milyanov on the shoulder and shoved a PADD into his hand, then hurried out of engineering.

He headed through the ship to the maintenance junction in question, squeezing himself into the confining Jeffries' Tube. A grey-overalled technician was waiting up ahead; Andae could see immediately that the man was in pain. He was gripping his arm, the cloth pulled back to reveal a mark of ruined skin.

"Crewman. Are you alright? That's a bad burn."

The man spoke through gritted teeth, but his eyes showed his surprise at the sudden appearance of the CEO. "Fine, sir... It's the conduit that I'm worried about." Blakus waited. "It burned out as I was passing on the way to check a flow regulator in the next section... Pure coincidence. Plasma sprayed out at the compromised points and I happened to be in the way."

"Unfortunate," Andae said, nodding in understanding, but realising this wasn't really worth his time. "Get yourself to sickbay. I'll call a repair team."

As the maintenance engineer left, Blakus took a closer look at the remains of the conduit. It'd ruptured and blackened an area around the upper section of the Jeffries' Tube; microfractures dotted along a metre's length of the tunnel politely acknowledged their own existence with a dull hiss. He examined some of the fracture points with a magnifying device, one of many tools he had on his person. He'd taken to carrying them in a large jacket that he'd started wearing by popular consensus of his staff.

"Looks like some sort of sealing agent's been applied..." he said to himself, frowning slightly and looking briefly down the tube where the maintenance engineer had gone.

He pocketed his magnification device and took out an x-ray scanner, deigning to explore behind the sealant to ascertain if the rupture was the result of a surge. To his surprise, there were hard, and rather clean burn marks beneath the agent. The CEO blinked, thrown for a moment. He'd have to take some samples to discover exactly how this burn-out had occurred, but the type of fractures were not, from his experience, those caused by shoots of suddenly liberated plasma.

With a calm air, he extracted some particles from the microfracture points. Then stowing his tools and the samples, he clambered his way out of the Jeffries' Tube.

---

In Huasala, Cordovin Prime..

As she came within ten metres of the group they suddenly spread forwards, partially surrounding her. To be here, she knew they must've had government-level clearance at some point... She didn't recognise any of their faces. One was making quick moves towards her, raising a weapon he'd had concealed.

"No, that's quite alright, Laro. I'm sure we can trust the good lady without having to search her. Privacy is so important... Let's not violate that basic right." The man whom had spoken was standing to her left, a wide smile on his face. From his confident, if slightly annoying voice, she guessed he was the man she'd spoken to over the communications net earlier.

"If you say so, sir," the one called Laro stepped back respectfully, the projectile weapon disappearing back into the folds of his grey overcloak. He grimaced but stood at ease.

Pammik looked to the left at who she guessed was the leader, and regarded him expectantly across the rubble.

The man nodded, "In spite of what I just said, Officer Pammik, as things currently are you cannot be trusted."

"Not with anything sensitive at least," Laro said.

The confident man nodded. "That's right. You want to join us... You want to help us. But why?"

Pammik got the impression that she was being tested. As if they were waiting for her to say one thing that would fully absolve her of all suspicion and doubt. "What's your plan?" she asked him. "If it's to keep hiding like this, you'll get nowhere. You can't just wait for this to blow over and then feed yourselves back into effective government. Jorvin controls the bureaucracy; the corruption runs to the top except for possibly the Chief Councillor. The whole system will work against you."

The man looked around at his fellows, sighing as if suddenly relieved, before turning back to her, "We know."

Pammik relaxed, looking around at the site of the destroyed departmental building. She threw her arms in the air. "So what happened here, exactly? I mean what really happened? There's clearly a reason why you chose this for our meeting."

"Indeed. The Federation captain has been framed, Officer Pammik."

"I know that," she responded softly. She checked to make sure her own concealed weapon was within easy reach, should she need it. "It's a ploy of Jorvin's, and perhaps some others on the Ruling Council. Most of the administration suspects a hoax anyway... it's so hard for them to believe that the Starfleet officer would do this given his situation at the time."

"And this is the epicentre of the crime... The place where they claim the assassination to have been carried out. But we know different, right Officer?" The man was annoying her, smiling significantly at his comrades and making dramatic motions with his hands, seeming on the verge of breaking into a waltz about the ruined building.

She shook her head in disbelief, "I just can't believe they'd go to the extent of destroying one of their own buildings, killing governmental staff, just for the purpose of framing that human."

The man turned on her sharply, a glint in his eye of something indescribable. She gazed at him coldly, trying to gauge his thoughts.

OOC: Sorry for no tags... Seems I'm kind of doing my own thing here, again!   

[Deleted]

Harry stood in front of his console, something that wasn't typically commonplace, especially since his station typically had a built in chair. Considering what they would now have to do, Harry began making preparations to have some sort of power loss. Until another opportunity presented itself, this was his way of showing support to Commodore Torek. At this point, the best way to start would be to over compensate in the power distribution network. With so much power redistribution, it would be difficult to do much of anything, which until they made their final decision on what to do, that could prove useful. However, in his process he noticed a power misalignment that was not due to his actions. While this could prove useful to the situation, Harry wanted to be sure what actually was going on.

"Wedlerson to Engineering, I'm picking up a power surge. What's going on?"

=/\=Commander Blakus is investigating it sir.=/\=

"Understood. Wedlerson out."

Harry closed the comm and looked back at his console. It was nearing the end of his shift, which was rather useful. He could check on engineering and on something else that was bothering him. At the end, he relinquished his console to the relief officer.
--------------------------------------------------

Taking a brief break by halting the turbolift to think, Harry considered how he was actually going to go about this. Engineering was his first priority now, but he made sure e would leave enough time to do what he needed to do. Resuming the lift, he exited at the lift and entered engineering. He ran into Commander Blakus and asked, "What's up? I heard you were checking out that power surge. What's going on?"

Blakus frowned. "I'm not sure yet. There are some things that I want to look at."

"I've nothing to do right now. Need a hand?" Harry asked.

"Sure." Blakus motioned for some experiment equipment. "Set up the analysis, please."

"Yes sir," Harry replied, more out of formality.

(Andae, take this where you want, Harry is at your Disposal)

[Alex Watson]

As the Starship accelerated away from Starbase 47, Alex sat in the Captain's chair on the bridge, silently watching the flight crew. They had done a good job, and he didn't doubt that they were just as uncomfortable in taking Carl to his death as the command staff were. He thought that they would probably have no objections to their plan to save Carl, but you could never be sure. All it would take was one jobsworth, and the whole mission could be sunk. As he was contemplating this happy thought, the comm pipped.

"Watson."

"Blakus here, we've got a problem."

Alex frowned. It was too early for Andae to be putting their plan into effect, which suggested that whatever it was was a genuine fault.

"Nature of the problem?" He asked Andae.

"Plasma pipes," came the response, followed by a burst of static which Alex could only assume was caused by said plasma.

"I'll be there in a minute, Commander. Watson out. Commander Valenti, you have the bridge. Damn those lax Starbase engineers!"

He stood up and walked to the turbolift, asked the computer to locate Commander Blakus and descended to the appropriate level. Commander Blakus was standing in the corridor.

"Trouble?" Alex asked, his face serious. Andae nodded grimly.

"A burst plasma pipe less than a day out of Stardock? That's fishy enough on its own, but I had a look at it. I don't know what to say, Commander, it looks like deliberate Sabotage."

"But...that would have had to have been carried out while wer were in dock."

"Yes, it would. Did the Cordovin ever set foot on the Raven itself?"

"Not to my knowledge. That would mean...it was a member of Starfleet. A disturbing idea."

"I'll do a complete scan of the system, it's possible that this isn't the only sabotage. The idea is that we're going to be FAKING a power loss, not actually having one, after all."

"I'd appreciate that, commander. Let me know if you find anything else."

"Will do," Andae replied, nodding to Alex as they both went their seperate ways.

<Tag Andae>

Alex sat back down in the centre seat on the bridge. Calli looked at him.

"Trouble?" she asked.

"Couldn't say. Nothing for immediate concern, yet. Blakus is working a diagnostic. I just hope that it's an isolated incident."

<Tag Calli, all>

[Calli Valente]

Calli was sat to the left of the Captain, they were discussing the situation with Commodore Torek, and the ramifications of him actually being 'delivered' as Elder Gastain had referred to his being held to account, when the Comm chimed ... Alex replied.

"Commander Valenti, you have the Bridge." Watson said, vacating the command seat and heading for the turbo-lift, a definite frown forming on his brow.

Calli had refrained from sitting in the Exec's position while the Captain was on the Bridge, but she moved instantly, as was required, to the center seat as the Captain left. She was pondering what could be going on when the Comm chimed once again.

=^= Watson to Valenti =^=

=^= Valenti =^= Calli replied.

=^= Reduce speed to warp one .. Commander Blakus needs to run some tests =^=

=^= Warp one aye Captain =^= Calli replied, nodding to Marionette who immediately actioned the order.

It was too soon. Alex had voiced as much when the call came from Blakus ... 'So what was going on ?' she thought as the turbo-lift doors opened. Major Tavik stepped onto the Bridge and came to stand in front of her. She motioned to the seat beside her and waited for the Marine to sit. It was obvious she had something on her mind.

"We've slowed ... We're not far enough away fro ......"

Calli lifted her hand almost imperceptibly, to stop the Marine speaking. She was acutely aware that several of the Bridge Officer's had turned at the comment. She looked at Wedlerson and raised her eyebrows.

"Watch your panel Mister Wedlerson ... Helm ... Scan for vessels in our vicinity."

"Yes Sir." Marionette replied, running the scan, "Nothing in our quadrant at this time."

"Look ..." Calli said quietly, leaning in toward the Marine, "I have no idea what's happening in Engineering. Maybe it is a genuine fault, but there's the possibility it's something else, that's way the Captain has gone down there to see for himself. We know our so called 'plan' will not work unless we're a minimum of three days out from Star base forty seven, so frankly .... You're guess is as good as mine."

Aeryn got up.

"Keep me informed."

Calli smiled and nodded as the Marine left the Bridge .... She started to run through the possibilities for their current, suspicious, problem, and hoped it was simply a glitch caused by some newbie tech' on the base, and not something more ominous. Because even given the obvious evidence against the Commodore, it was a given that everyone, aside from the Cordovin of course, thought it was the proverbial crock of you-know-what ! .... So .... Having the Raven meet with some sort of 'unfortunate' malfunction causing the ship to be destroyed, and that couldn't be traced back to the Cordovin of course, would be a definite bonus. Not to mention conclude the issue cementing Torek's guilt as a murderer, and no doubt having the Federation in the Cordovin's debt for some time to come !

Even if the ship survived then one thing was certain ... Should the Raven be incapable of delivering Torek without being destroyed, then Command would simply send out a ship to take him off their hands. Then whatever plans they had formulated were moot, and Torek was a dead man ! ..........

[Andae Blakus]

"Very well, Wedlerson, you may remove the probes." Blakus's spidery fingers flew over the console and exited his customised diagnostic program, while he held his head very still as he peered into the enclosing viewfinder.

Wedlerson extracted the slight, threadlike devices from the analysis chamber. The silver tools had been positioned directly over the samples Blakus had taken from the ruptured power transfer conduit; those samples glittered subtly like freshly-mined diamonds, reflecting the omnipresent light of engineering.

"Anything?" the Acting COO said offhand.

Blakus's face was expressionless as he studied the display, the light playing off his face in anaemic fashion. It was a difficult question to respond to. Not because he didn't know the answer, but because it made him feel ill having to voice it.

"Yes, I think so." He peered into the finder, captivated and muttering near-inaudibly. "As I suspected earlier... Sabotage, almost certainly."

"What?!" Milyanov blurted out somewhat predictably from a few metres away. Wedlerson looked perplexed.

Again the samples from the microfracture points glittered, almost obliging, as if willingly flagging their own significance to the gathered crew. The Chief stopped his train of thoughts, clearing his mind of the blur of sickening ideas that were occurring to him. To think about it logically: it couldn't have happened before they'd left Starbase. In the power transfer from 'Base to ship the conduit would have ruptured instantly if it'd been compromised, as the plasma flowed in from SB47 and cycled intravenously through the ship at a high-rate typical for pre-launch tests... surely?

"Who... When?" Milyanov continued.

Andae ignored his assistant. "Commander Wedlerson, you better get back to the bridge and inform the senior staff. I'm sure security and the SMO will want to know about this as well."

"Computer, scan the ship for intruders," Wedlerson ordered, directing his eyes to the ceiling.

After five seconds the computer responsed negative. "Don't worry, Commander, I'm going to set up a detailed deck-by-deck sensor sweep. I'll coordinate with you from down here. If there's anyone hiding themselves somehow..."

The horror-thought was that there was a Cordovin aboard, of course. But if there was not, then either a member of the crew wasn't who they appeared to be or had a different allegiance, or the sabotage had taken place while still at Starbase. If a Starfleeter was responsible, then there was an obvious first port of call. "Wedlerson, if you see Major Tavik or the CTSO, then I suggest having them question this technician." Blakus passed Harry a PADD he'd prepared earlier. "He was at the rupture-point when I first got there; you'll probably find him in sickbay."

<Tag Wedlerson & Aeryn, All>

As for 'why', well that was a little clearer, but also terrifying. Blakus knew they were all thinking it, "If this is Cordovin work, then they have to know that Commander Watson has no intention of guiding us to Cordovin IV. Why else would they try destroying the ship before it's reached its destination?"

"Change of plans," Milyanov suggested. "Maybe they no longer see a lawful execution of Commodore Torek as the most efficient means of removing him."

Blakus shifted uncomfortably; he didn't like his assistant talking so frankly about Carl's predicament. At this point there were too many unknowns to start postulating like that. "I admit I don't like this alternative. But I think for now we have to go from the idea that the saboteur is fully aware we are about to defy Command."

Which of course made it increasingly likely that this was Starfleet work. 

Just at that moment the lights flickered, only briefly, but enough to cause concern before they returned to full illumination. Andae felt his brain cracking along the seams, sinking into a grey mire of apocalyptic dreams as a communication came into engineering. A crackly voice reported, "Sir, we've got another one..."

<Tag All> OOC: If I'm at all overstepping the mark in anything I'm doing... please do let me know

[Carl Torek]

OOC: Not overstepping any marks Andy, just adding a new twist, as usual mate ... Steve

ooo000ooo

[/color][/center]

IC:

Carl had remained in his quarters with the children while the Raven began her departure from Star base forty seven. Apart from when he first arrived on the ship, he couldn't remember another time when he hadn't been on the Bridge as they left 'base and jumped to warp ...

~~~~~~~~~~

He was playing a twentieth century game Vanessa had replicated. Or rather, he was somehow being ganged-up on by the girls and was being beat hands down. The chime on his apartment got their attention and Bethan went to the door.

"Good morning young lady ..." Captain Barton said, "Could you tell your Father that I would like a word with him please."

"Come in Captain." Torek said, getting up off the floor, "I need to speak to the Captain girls, so I think we'll call this one a draw OK. Take the game into your bedroom please." he said, managing to get away as Vanessa explained the 'draw' their Father was referring to.

"You cheated." Bethan said, feigning annoyance at his cheek.

~~~~~~~~~~

For the last hour, Robert and Carl had been discussing the upcoming situation when Torek noticed the drop in speed ... It was subtle, but he knew the ship, and he knew they had dropped to minimum warp quickly. He stood and walked over to the desk then tapped the Comm ...

=^= Torek to Bridge =^=

=^= Bridge .. Commander Valenti .. What can I do for you Commodore ? =^=

=^= We've just slowed to warp one .. Is there something wrong ? =^=

=^= We've found ...... We have suffered a minor malfunction .. A ruptured plasma conduit adjacent to Engineering .. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about Sir =^=

Carl listened to the tone of the Commanders' voice ... While he prided himself on being perceptive, he also knew that Calli could persuade you the sky was blue when it was quite obviously orange, so he couldn't tell if she were being totally truthful or not.

=^= Is there anything I can help with ? =^= he asked after a moment.

=^= No Sir I'm sure Commander Blakus has it under control .. Likely to be one of those dock engineers forgot to secure a panel or something .. I could inform the Captain you were inquiring and ask him to contact you himself once he's back on the Bridge =^=

Calli knew there was no point in hiding the fact that the Captain had gone down to Engineering, or he would have answered the Comm himself she decided.

=^= The Captain has gone down to Engineering ? =^= Carl said, confirming her reasoning.

=^= Yes Sir .. =^=

=^= OK Commander .. Please keep me informed .. Torek out =^=

He closed the Comm and could imagine Calli breathing a sigh of relief that he didn't start interrogating her. He knew full well that despite being relieved of duty, no-one would question him going down to Engineering and looking for himself. But he knew he needed to let Alex handle whatever situation was presenting itself. He was sure Watson would ask Andae, or Calli, for advice should he need to, and if as the saying goes, push comes to shove, then he knew where Torek's quarters were ... He turned to Barton.

"Captain, I need you to do me a favor ..... I'm going in there to teach my children how to play 'snakes and ladders' ..." he said, hearing giggling snorts of amusement from the bedroom, "I'd like you to keep a wary eye on what it happening. We don't want anything getting in the way of my arrival at the gallows, do we." he finished in a whisper. a wry grin forming.

"No ... We don't Commodore." Barton replied, trying hard to keep a neutral expression on his face, and hoping Torek didn't suspect anything, "I'll leave you to your erm, game, Commodore." he said, leaving the apartment.

Carl stood near the door for a long moment, worry on his face, then fixing a smile he turned to the bedroom.

"Set em up girl's .. I'm going to win again." ..........

[Marionette]

The events being played out made Marionette stop both counting Pi in her head, and stop composing music ideas.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Change of plans," Milyanov suggested. "Maybe they no longer see a lawful execution of Commodore Torek as the most efficient means of removing him."

Marionette spoke up "I do not think the Cordovins would invest themselves in such an elaborate framing of Torek, only to abandon it at their earliest convenience, in favor of more direct methods of removal. However, we do need more facts to formulate a better solution than just handing the Commodore over, or allowing ourselves to explode."

Blakus shifted uncomfortably; he didn't like his assistant talking so frankly about Carl's predicament. At this point there were too many unknowns to start postulating like that. "I admit I don't like this alternative. But I think for now we have to go from the idea that the saboteur is fully aware we are about to defy Command."

Which of course made it increasingly likely that this was Starfleet work.....

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Back at her helm console, Marionette went back to business as usual, except for the fact that the warp field seemed more unstable than usual. Every few minutes, there was an audible punctuated beeping that suggested imminent warp-field dropout, only for Marionette to fight it back into some semblance of stability for that much longer.

By the 4th episode of beeping, Marionette spoke up "Sir, i am encountering unusual difficulty in maintaining our warp field. We may have to briefly drop out of warp..... Orders ?"

[Andae Blakus]

"We have further ruptures in sections 24 through 39, deck 32 and below. Maintenance teams are on their way."

"Tell them to exercise extreme caution," Blakus warned, a harsh look in his eyes. He was frowning deeply, disbelieving of this near-catastrophe. Part of him wanted to believe this was his fault, for tampering with the MI/AMI system, but actually that was nonsense. He'd reset the nozzles' configurations to default, ensuring that all regulators around the ship were handling manageable and constant levels of plasma flux.

The time for the destabilisation of the flow system he'd programmed hadn't come, and it wouldn't 'til Acting Captain Watson gave the order. Someone had done it for him it seemed...

Milyanov had gone to warn the maintenance teams as ordered, so Andae turned to Taylor, his second assistant chief and former shipmate on the Victory. "Head up to the bridge and man the engineering console. It'll be easier for us to liaise with Watson and Valenti with you up there." Taylor was very dependable, professionally if not personally. "Report in when you reach the station."

"Aye." She took off through the door. Andae watched her go and turned back to the warp core; the smile of satisfaction disappeared from his face as he saw the slowing frequency of  the lights along the magnetic constrictors. A depressed droning noise was rising out of the murky sound of chaos in the engine room. It hit Andae in nauseating waves.

"Oh no..." he groaned.

Lieutenant Tinsley was stood close to the warp core, peering up its length where it passed into the shadowy recesses of the ceiling. He spared Andae a glance before he confirmed the Chief's fears, "We're about to drop to sublight. Warp field is destabilising."

"Bridge, this is Blakus, the warp field is -"

"We know, Commander. Ensign Marionette is trying to keep us in the bubble."

"That could be dangerous, sir, I recommend we drop to impulse immediately. Trying to maintain a field in these conditions could prove catastrophic for the USS Raven, not to mention the local spacetime metric..."

"We can't delay, Commander," the voice came back after a pause.

The warp core's droning dropped towards tickover, obviously playing havoc with the functionality of the coils as it faded like the tumult of the sea heard from afar, as the tide receded and left nothing but the debris pushed landwards. The myriad beachcombers would come, the mad fervour in their eyes, to amble the gritty shoreline, prehensile fingers grasping at their hapless spoil.

"We have no choice," Blakus finished, subdued and gazing down at the master console that flashed red in warning.

Perhaps it was time to put their plan into action early. It had been forced upon them, by some unknown assailant, who had perhaps also directly tampered with the warp core. But what was his or her true purpose?

<Tag All>

[Aeryn Tavik]

The deck by deck search of the Raven had been put under Aeryn's charge while much of the ship was trying to figure out what was actually happening and what they would need to do to get the ship back under their complete control. She utilized both the marine detachment and the security department to complete the search, separating them into teams of four and sending several teams to each deck. This mysterious assailant needed to be found. Aeryn had personally gone down to sickbay to interrogate this technician that Wedlerson had reported about, but upon her arrival, she found that he wasn't there. She conferred with the Chief Engineer, but he confirmed that the technician was ordered to report to sickbay. Seeing that this was a dead end, she went back to the bridge, ordering the team to continue searching.

As she stepped of the turbolift onto the bridge, Aeryn immediately noticed a somber emotional presence on the bridge. The ship had dropped out of warp by this point and most of the senior staff was on the bridge trying to figure out the next step. Aeryn walked up to Acting Captain Watson to report.

"We're mostly through the deck by deck search, but we've so far come up with nothing. Whatever technician Blakus sent to Sickbay never made it there."

Watson frowned. "Where are we at now?"

"At this point, all we can do is run the search again, search every nook and cranny again, hoping that we just missed some little hidey hole. Otherwise, this assailant is somehow able to fool sensors and the good old fashioned eye ball. I'll order the search restarted."

Watson nodded. Aeryn walked up to the security console to make the necessary orders in place. She opted for a different search tactic this time, prepping for an close-in search pattern where all the teams would start at the the farthest extremities of the ship and converge together, effectively cutting off all means of escape. The teams started to check in to report ready. She gave the order.

"And off we are again. If we find nothing this time, then either this guy is not here, or we have a much bigger problem than we are really aware of. What's the plan?" she asked the others.

(TAG ALL)

[Alex Watson]

Alex stood on the bridge, watching the Marine walk away from him. He'd ordered the ship to drop from warp about ten minutes ago while they still had the chance to do it safely. Andae and his crew were running as full an analysis of the entire ship as they could, and the Science division, under Ms Gerson, were feverishly analysing the data collected about the sabotage. Navigation was still operational, thankfully.

He rubbed a hand over his eyes, fighting off the headache that was threatening to manifest itself, and praying inwardly that this was all just a bad dream, and that he'd wake up tomorrow in his bunk and they'd all be ready to put their plan into action. His comm pipped, and he answered.

"Bridge, Watson."

"Captain this is Blakus. We've got about three more serious faults detected, that makes five all together so far. One in the Warp Core, one in the impulse drives, one in the navigation systems, one in the security systems, and one in the main computer bank. I don't know for sure but it looks like they're linked up to the main reactor on a countdown. Every second this ship is moving the clock is ticking. The whole damn ship's wired up like a bomb!"

"Damnit. Thank you, Blakus. Watson out." He tapped the badge again to close the link. In the circumstances, he only had one choice. He felt vaguely nauseous, but contained himself, still not quite able to believe what was about to come out of his mouth. He opened shipwide communication.

"Helm, full stop. Engineering, power down everything except life support, and I mean everything we don't absolutely need."

There was a stunned, ringing silence on the bridge, but Alex wasn't finished. He closed the shipwide link and turned to the communications station.

"Set up a twenty four hour delay on our distress beacon. If we can't fix whatever our problems are in that time, we won't have a choice. Life support will start to fail without main power, and I'm not having us all choke to death in space." The chief nodded uncomfortably.

"Also, send a message to command staff that I want a meeting in the ready room in one hour. That should give them time to shut everything down." The chief nodded again.

<Tag All>

[Marionette]

"Helm, full stop......"

Marionette's gloved hands danced across the console, interfacing with the LCARS computer to carry out her orders. "Aye Sir, Full Stop."

".... Life support will start to fail without main power, and I'm not having us all choke to death in space." Marionette, since she did not breathe, was likewise unable to choke.

~~~~~~~~~

In the ready room, Marionette broke the stunned silence that had migrated in from the bridge. "Actually Sir, i do not breathe, and would - " Marionette was instantly on the receiving end of several glares, of the Shut. Up. NOW. variety. She stopped talking.

It was then that she saw it, glancing at Commander Vallenti. A very small and very brief flash of a dot, on the wall behind her. Marionette visibly lofted a brow and tilted her head abit, her eyeline looking past the commander.

Commander Valenti looked behind her, but saw only the wall, and then proceeded to brush a hand over her head "Is my hair sticking up again?"

Most humanoids would have missed it, but Marionette had bionic ocular implants for eyes, and had picked up a slight electromagnetic pulse coming from it. "What is that?" the gynoid asked, pointing to a very very small needle-like item, which was cleverly embedded in between the seams of the wall paneling.

[Calli Valente]

In the absence of Commander Blakus, Calli was sat in the Executive Officers' seat on the Captains right. She listened to the conversation between Watson and Blakus, and could see the acting CO was looking a little un-nerved at what he was hearing. Moreso because it was going against all the plans the Senior Staff had formulated. She gave him a reassuring look and it seemed to work as he opened the ship-wide Comm to make an announcement, before turning to the Comms Chief ...

" ...... Life support will start to fail without main power, and I'm not having us all choke to death in space." The chief nodded uncomfortably, "Also. Send a message to all Command Staff that I want a meeting in the ready room in one hour. That should give them time to shut everything down."

Calli watched Alex take a deep breath as he finished speaking.

"I think I had better go and speak to the Commodore. He was obviously curious at our reducing speed, he'll want an explanation of our situation." Calli said, getting up.

"Commander. I think we should ask the, Captain, to join us in the ready room." Alex said, "Regardless of his current situation, the Raven is still his ship."

"Agreed." Calli said, leaving the Bridge.

~~~~~~~~~~

Bethan stood as the chime sounded.

"NO cheating !" she said, a wicked grin on her face to match her sisters' "Hello Calli, come in, we're showing Daddy how to play Monopoly, and we need someone to watch him ... He's playing dumb so we'll let him win." she finished in a whisper, almost dragging Calli in by the hand.

"Well, if you girls will let me take your Father into the other room, I'll be sure to make sure there's no more cheating when he comes out OK ..."

Carl got up, sneakily trying to place a hotel without the girls noticing, but he was caught and was treated to chants of 'cheater cheater' from the giggling girls as he went to the other room feigning embarrassment.

"We're dead in space ... Care to explain !" he said without preamble once out of earshot ... Calli reviewed the situation to him in full, ending with the request he attend the meeting ...

~~~~~~~~~~

As they entered the ready room, Carl made sure to sit at the opposite end of the long curved table to his normal position. Everyone nodded, going through the usual pleasantries by asking how he and the children were, then Alex began the briefing ...

As the Captain spoke Carl noticed the Android looking directly, no, almost directly at Commander Valenti. The Commander turned to look behind her and he followed suit.

"Is my hair sticking up again ?" Calli asked, frowning.

The micro-electronics in his prosthetic eye made subtle changes to the visual wavelength Carl viewed, and toward the red shift of the spectrum, at almost one point seven three µm he could see what the Android was looking at.

"What is that !" Marionette asked the group.

It was obvious that no-one else in the room could see the device.

"Captain, may I ?" he asked, then receiving a nod, he stood and approached the invisible dot. checked his bearings in the room, then continued to speak, "Computer, access visual record of current meeting ....."

"Accessed."

"Magnify bulkhead sections two one beta and two two beta ... Upper twenty percent of panels only by a factor of thirty, and show on view-screen."

"Requested section accessed." the computer obliged.

Everyone looked behind the Captain as a twenty times view of the spacing between the two panels appeared on the screen, and there, in plain view ..........

[Marionette]

Everyone looked behind the Captain as a twenty times view of the spacing between the two panels appeared on the screen, and there, in plain view .......... was a very small sphere of black material, no doubt a combination audio/video micro-dot.

Marionette, having seen it, walked around the table and over to the wall, and stood before the padded panels. "If I may, Commodore ...." She reached up, and plucked the AV microdot from its hiding place like a ripe cherry. The AV dot trailed behind a braided strand of wires, and Marionette kept gently pulling..... and pulling..... and pulling..... and pulling.

The whole array of the device peeled away from in between the panels, like a snake clinging to a tree. Fully extracted, it literally reached from floor to ceiling, and at most, was half the thickness of a PADD.

The AV microdot was connected to an interlinked series of memory chip modules, buffer and enhancement circuits, and last but not least, a series of wire splicer clips that interfaced with some loosened wires that lead into panel 21 beta, and from there, further into the rest of the ship.

Examining each piece as she disconnects the components from each other, Marionette finds no identifying symbols or markings as to its origins. "Such a device is fairly easy to manufacture for most warp-capable species, and with as decorative as the Galaxy-class starship is, also very easy to hide, both to sensors, which would be unable to distinguish it from wall wiring just inside the panels, and to the naked eye of most humanoids - except for some species who have infrared vision, or those with ocular implants, such as myself.

Marionette happened to be very lucky to see it power surge to pass on its information to the ships wiring; If she had been looking anywhere else, she would have missed it, and whomever was using such a device, could no doubt keep using it to the crew's continued disadvantage.

At the very least, they now had evidence that something was horribly afoot......

[Carl Torek]

Rather than feeling uncomfortable entering the observation lounge, Carl was grateful that he had been included in the briefing. Once the micro-device had been spotted by the Helm Officer, and Torek had made it more easily visible, the conversation continued as Marionette came to stand next to him.

"If I may Commodore ..."

Carl stood to one side, then decided to take his seat as the android dismantled the device and extracted it from concealment. She explained that it could have been manufactured by almost any of the warp-capable worlds. While Carl fully agreed, he was also thinking along other lines.

"It's obvious that this device was fitted while at Star base forty seven, or after we departed ..." he said, letting the comment sink in, "Being as I'm, erm, out of the loop, so to speak. I have not seen certain documentation regarding the ship's upgrades etcetera ... Have we had any new crew assigned, it may well be this saboteur is hiding in plain sight, or is already heading away from us at high warp knowing he can safely do so ?"

He hoped the 'suggestion' wasn't taken as his interference, but rather as a helping idea. Given the nods from everyone around the table he felt he'd done the right thing. But he didn't want to impose on Alex's Command, so he stood ...

"I think it may be an idea to update Captain Barton on our situation." he said, looking at Alex, who gave a confirming nod, "If you will excuse me."

"Yes ... I'd forgotten about out J.A.G Officer ..." Calli said, frowning slightly before continuing, "Could we maybe not go into 'too much' detail regarding findings, and possible suspects ... While I don't want to point fingers, Captain Barton 'is' one of those 'unknowns' on the Raven ... Could be my suspicious mind, but hell, it's in my nature to suspect any and all, options." she finished, making sure not to look at anyone in particular after the comment.

"I agree Commander. I'm hardly keen on going to my death, so maybe I'm on that 'list' of yours."

"Yes ...... You are." Calli said, matter-of-factly.

Carl nodded, appreciating the Commanders forthrightness, then left the meeting, happy that he would be kept informed of any situation that could cause harm to the Raven's crew, her civilian compliment, or the ship itself. Once in the corridor he tapped the Computer access panel.

"Computer .. What is the current location of Captain Barton ?"

"Captain Barton is currently in Ten-Forward."

Carl removed his hand from the panel, effectively closing the interface, then headed for the Raven's recreation lounge ..........

[Deleted]

With the new developments in this situation, one of the first things Harry did was to order a search of the entire ship....again. This time, however, it was a search of the bulkheads, the walls, and any place one of these AV microdots might be hiding. After a short time, three others had been found, one each in main engineering, in sickbay, and in the mess hall. It was surprising that anyone could get close enough to implant these in their places without being seen. They would have to have an extensive knowledge of the Raven's specs. That almost scared Harry, especially given their situation. Anyone who had that kind of access would have to be out for serious danger for everyone on the ship, most importantly Commodore Torek. Harry reported the locations of the three microdots to Commander Watson and informed him that the search and investigation were still underway.

"They have these little toys in all of the main areas. I have a serious feeling that there is more going on here than a bit of simple sabotage," Harry said.

"What are you suggesting, Commander?" asked the Acting Captain.

"I believe we are being watched. Isn't it odd that our plan was enacted even before we started it, and that only the methods it was enacted by are different than those of our plan?"

Alex frowned, considering the possibility. "Let's not jump to conclusions just yet, Commander. First we need to figure out how much they know."

"How much do they need to know? They have "eyes" in all the major areas of the ship. That's all they would need."

"Be that as it may, we cannot afford to simply assume the worst. Let's look at all the options and then figure it out from there."

"Yes sir." Harry turned back around and looked at his console, a little peeved at the thought that logic wasn't enough. Oh to have a Vulcan around...

--------------------------------

A short while later, after the initial search was finished, the located microdots remained to be the only ones found in place. At least whoever was watching them was somewhat blinded now. Next, all that was left was to locate this saboteur, if he was even still onboard. Harry didn't know much about profiling, but he was certain that whoever was doing this work would have to be prepared to be on the Raven for the duration of this escapade. Until now, the thought really hadn't even crossed Harry's mind, but given recent discoveries made possible by the Android helmswoman, anything was possible, and at least for the time being, Commodore Torek would need protection.

TAG ALL (Maybe the baddies would like to do something a little..."louder"...next?)