Elena de Luca
Starfleet Intelligence
Registered: Dec 14, 2009 0:38:17 GMT
Posts: 265
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Post by Elena de Luca on Mar 5, 2016 10:43:09 GMT
::: Five years earlier ::: A vessel of unknown origin drifted into the path of a long-range ore carrier on the outer reaches of the Quadrant. It was taken under tow and Starfleet Command were sent to investigate. What little information Research and Development could gleam was that the vessel had moments before discovery, undergone a transport similar to what the Federation were using to move individuals relatively short distances. If their suspicions were correct, the vessel had materialized after being transported intact over a remarkable distance. Initially, the findings were dismissed, given the most advanced culture could not move a vessel short distances, let alone between Star Systems, yet evidence showed that the vessel, now devoid of any physical signs of life, had originated in the Scutum-Centaurus Arm ... Two hundred and seventy thousand Light Years distant !
** No record exists of what occurred, but both the ore carrier and the unknown vessel disappeared without trace **
~~~ Today ~~~
Missing People ... One here, one there, different worlds, nothing to connect those who disappeared. Or was there ? First the disappearances went unnoticed as there was no similarities between those who had disappeared over the last two years, yet someone had finally chosen to report a missing person ... Starfleet Security had carried out the initial investigation and at first could only put it down to individuals without family ties going out to pursue their own goals, but when the shear scale of the disappearances became obvious, it was finally conceded that something was happening beyond the Federations' control. People had apparently left their employment, or went away on holiday to find they were offered better options, so why would anyone notice their sudden absence ?, but then the wrong person vanished without trace ... Fleet Admiral Dorothy Carter, Head of a project deemed ultra-secret, Starfleet Command only knew it by it's designation ... 'Transitec' ... Her Daughter, Amelia, a twenty six year old lecturer had decided to take a sabbatical from her duties at Starfleet Command. She vanished without trace a month into that leave. Admiral Carter went to Starfleet Intelligence immediately. Her research, her devotion to her profession, all came second to finding her Daughter !
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David Tan
Starfleet Intelligence
Suum Cuique ...
Registered: Dec 11, 2006 10:56:04 GMT
Posts: 790
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Post by David Tan on Mar 6, 2016 0:41:09 GMT
He was sat in O'Tooles on Star Base Forty Seven when the Lieutenant found him ... He was to board the USS Phoenix leaving in one hour ... The next day he was entering Starfleet Command headquarters in San Francisco, Earth:
On the seventh floor he was met by an Adjutant and asked to accompany her. He'd been on the seventh floor before, it was solely occupied by Starfleet Intelligence. Expecting to be shown into Admiral Tetsutaro's office, he was somewhat surprised when they passed through a set of unremarkable doors. Beyond lay a corridor, he commented on unmarked doors on either side by the Adjutant simply said they were vacant offices, he didn't believe her, but didn't comment further as they approached a set of doors at the far end. Opening automatically on sensing their presence, he was decidedly surprised at the interior of the room, which at first glance appeared to be at least twice the size of the building housing it. The place reminded him of one of those old Command Centers, a large circular desk, capable of seating at least thirty, the walls festooned with monitors, all showing one star field or another. He stepped down into the 'well' and walked towards the center of the room ... The Adjutant, a second ago beside him, seemed to have vanished into the shadows.
"Take a seat Commander." David peered into the darkness but couldn't identify the speaker, but as he sat himself down the lighting increased slightly and he could see the director of Intelligence opposite. The Adjutant had returned and placed several PADD's before him then sat a few seats away. She began to change the screens surrounding them to display the appropriate information as Tetsutaro continued, "The files before you pertain to the disappearances of almost seventy people, that we know of ... They are all between the ages of twenty one and thirty, no two live near to each other, so it isn't a local issue, in fact the disappearances are from numerous Federation Worlds, but all those 'missing' are Human."
"With respect Admiral. We don't normally do missing persons." Tan commented as he flicked through the myriad of information before him, suddenly recognizing a name.
"Indeed ...... But as you can see, someone of shall we say, importance, has now disappeared."
"Again Admiral. We don't do missi ......"
"We do now Commander !" Sato shot back too quickly, and apologized immediately for his abruptness before continuing once again, "We are only now discovering the magnitude of the disappearances David. Previously, it seemed those 'taken' were on long-term holiday, or had decided to try their luck elsewhere, or were simply vacationing, but last week, Tuesday to be precise, Fleet Admiral Dorothy Carter was expecting to speak with her Daughter, who had taken a sabbatical from her position at the Academy. It was not unusual for Amelia to miss an arranged communication between them, but she always ensured her Mother knew she was fine and made contact within the following twenty four hours ... This time, she didn't."
".... and you think her disappearance could be connected to the others ?"
"Indeed." Sato said, getting out of his seat and walking around the circular table, "There are inconsistencies that at this point, we cannot explain, and the more Security delved into recordings of other occurrences, a pattern began to emerge: In all cases, the 'victim' entered a room or passed through a corridor, or in one instance walked around a corner, only to vanish from sight."
"They were beamed out then ?"
"No, or at least, not by any technology we currently possess." Tetsutaro said, eyeing Tan.
"What about the Admiral's Daughter, same situation ?"
"She was attending, for some reason beyond my aged comprehension, something called the 'Festival of Harmoniousness' on Averalan III in the Tunisal System. She apparently offered to go for refreshments, but according to all surveillance of the complex, she never passed through the door between the gardens and the main building where one of the many bars were situated. You can see there ...." he said, activating one of the PADD's to show the woman approaching the open double doors, she can be seen stepping into the building, but never stepped onto the tiled floor of the interior, "She clearly disappeared while stepping through the door."
"As far as I am aware, no-one has the technology to set up a site to site transport in a doorway Admiral." David said, replaying the footage again and again, hoping to see something, but he was disappointed, "Had it been just the Admiral's Daughter, I would have said 'Ransom' demand, but seventy plus ! .... admiral Carter has been somewhat 'quiet' the last few years, rumor has it she decided to undertake a long-term research project ..... Could it be connected ?"
"What would account for the others though ?" Sato asked. David had to admit, it was unreasonable to think they would take almost eighty people as a prelude to acquiring their primary target, so kidnapping for ransom, was out.
"I need to speak with the Admiral before I start to ma ......." David began, but Tetsutaru interrupted him:
"That will not be possible David. The Admiral had had to return to her research, and will not be able to be interv ......"
"Then with all due respect Admiral, I don't see how I can proceed." Tan said.
"The Admiral has returned to ..... Is unavailable." Sato insisted, but Tan wasn't giving up. In his opinion, which he freely voiced, if your Daughter is missing, you 'DO' want to speak to the people who might be able to find her, simple as that !. David shrugged, hoping the Director would see what he was getting at, and he did, "She is currently doing research at the Deep Range Facility in the Procyon-B System in Canis Minoris."
"Wasn't the Deep Range Faci ....."
"Yes. Totally destroyed five years ago, and due to irradiation the System has since been quarantined." Tetsutaro said, knowing Tan got his unspoken meaning.
"I'll need to speak with her, face to face."
"I agree, but you must tread carefully David, 'VERY' carefully. The research Admiral Carter is heading is above even my clearance. I will arrange a vessel for your use and will inform Fleet Admiral Carter that you will be 'visiting' to interview her regarding her Daughters' disappearance. Please take note David, my influence only goes so far, so to be informed I cannot access certain information, whether pertaining to the investigation or not, offends my sense of, duty. i shall give you all you require, but that help is finite, do we understand each other Commander ?"
David understood completely !
"I'll need help."
"Elena is currently available, but I would like someone else to assist. Return to your quarters and I will contact you when you can journey to the facility at Procyon." David left Starfleet Headquarters and made his way to his home across the Bay. Settled, he began reading the information on the missing persons, all the while wondering what Carter was up to in a long abandoned facility. At this point he had no idea of the missing oar carrier, or the vessel it had found five years earlier ..........
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Elena de Luca
Starfleet Intelligence
Registered: Dec 14, 2009 0:38:17 GMT
Posts: 265
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Post by Elena de Luca on Mar 9, 2016 21:31:50 GMT
Elena couldn't actually remember the last time she was on Star Base Assailant ....
She had been brought here to meet with two more Intelligence Operatives, David Tan, who she had worked with before and subsequently trusted, and Iorte Clancy, his real name was pretty much a mouthful so he had adopted Clancy as his given name, apparently to help those he worked alongside of. From the reports she had accessed, he was a good Operative, he knew how to do his job, which was all-important in her eyes, and while he could tend to be a little 'impulsive' he never placed the people he worked with in the line of danger, intentionally or otherwise, if it could be avoided.
She dropped the PADD on the seat beside her and looked out through the panoramic Observation Lounge windows. Tan had arrived moments ago, he had been brought here by a Ferengi Trader passing through the System after a stop-off at Earth. Once he had spoken to Fleet Admiral Lin regarding their presence, he would join her. The USS Renaissance was due within the hour and would deposit Iorte. Once together they could decide on a plan of action, though she already knew where they were heading next. She picked up the PADD once again and re-read the report regarding Amilia Carter's abduction.
Something in the back of her mind kept dragging her back to the resort on Averalan III where she had disappeared, but that wasn't the only thing on her mind: Fleet Admiral Carter was way up there too !
"Penny for them ?" She looked up to see David, a glass of brandy in each hand as he moved around the table and sat opposite her, "Have you 'ANY' idea what I had to go through to ply this out of the Steward's private stock !" he said.
"You should have dropped Carl's name, that usually opens the spirits locker." she said, accepting the offered glass.
"I did." Tan replied, taking an appreciative drink then turning serious, "You've looked through the information, what little we have ?"
"Yes ..... How come no-one managed to pick up on these disappearances before now. It's almost as if whoever is taking them targeted loners, people who wouldn't immediately be missed, who knows how many have really been taken, though we have to ask the obvious question here: What are they being taken for !"
"Have you worked with Clancy before ?" David asked, changing tack.
"No, he's got a good, and bad, reputation ....." she said, accessing the relevant information, "He's young, but has progressed, and has undertaken assignments both individually and as a team leader. As Sato's Deputy I signed off on a couple of his less 'hectic' early assignments. He did what was asked, but left an impression, something we try to avoid ... Sato assigned him to this, so he obviously has faith in the guy, remember what was he like with us in the early days ?, and we're practically Family !" she handed the PADD over for him to read, grinning before downing the expensive cognac and getting up to head to the bar.
"I think our first port of call needs to be Admiral Carter, and a look at this 'so-called' abandoned Facility of hers." Elena said as she placed a second glass in front of David, "I'm thinking, in no particular order of preference at this point by the way, that either the good Fleet Admiral knows more than she's telling, possibly coercion who can say, or, the abductors made one hell of mistake by snatching the Daughter of one of the highest ranking Starfleet Flag Officers, or, they needed her for some reason !"
"Let's enjoy our drinks Elena. Clancy will be here in an hour or so, we'll brainstorm then." David said, dropping the PADD onto the table between them. He couldn't help going over her possible scenario's in the back of his mind though ..........
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Iorte Clancy
Starfleet Intelligence
Registered: Mar 9, 2016 17:58:55 GMT
Posts: 248
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Post by Iorte Clancy on Mar 10, 2016 22:54:20 GMT
Seventy disappearances in two months, the words kept going through his head, were the only thing he could retain at the front of his mind as he left the mess on the Renaissance. Other strands of thought formed fragmented sentences such as, Titan northern hemisphere climatics are -100, 21 to 30 people in lonely corridors, vanished, there one second gone the next, and no transporter was responsible. Vega colony transport passenger lists, images retained in his corroded partitions - what had the Admiral said at HQ?
"You're following a long line of distinguished officers in wearing that uniform, Clancy, many of them I consider close family. Don't let me come to believe I was wrong in handing you this assignment."
"Of course, Admiral Tetsutaro," he'd said evenly. "Will that be all?"
"It will be, yes. Oh, send my aide in will you, Clancy?"
He'd exited, glanced at the small figure of the Director's aide waiting by the door, rolled his eyebrows in response to her sheepish grin - as it seemed she was about to enter the Admiral's office regardless - and fled down the corridor, to the departure bay where his shuttle waited, hovering over the golden light-basked Presidio of the San Francisco afternoon.
Oh no, you're not on my tail this time - you assassins behind blinds in the parched yellow rooms of my apartment in Sausalito. Vigilantes assimilated into the ranks of 'lawful' and law-enforcing Hybrudeans from the 28th century - from before he was born! the young upstarts would learn something of him yet - pursuing him along the avenues of this past. Catch me if you can, I'm well in with this agency now, we're anonymous as Hybrudeans modified as humans are among true human populations.
USS Renaissance disengaged from warp and streaked across the vacuum - blurred starfield as the ship's velocity rapidly decreased becoming the fixed transcendent points of light against the infinite velvet darkness, jewel-studded. Starbase Assailant filled the viewscreen - the image of it patched through to Clancy's quarters on the vessel - and Renaissance was urged onwards to a port on its far side.
Averalan III, the planet of the disappearance of Carter's daughter - first point of call? Most probably. Research station around Procyon; abandoned, though if one had access to certain circles one knew what that really meant... Carter's project; nebulous, likely related to the disappearances: a 'destroyed' research base where an Admiral of high stature in Starfleet had been spending her spare time, and the vanishing of the Admiral's daughter. Whatever had taken Miss Carter et al - either with or without their permission - had, it could probably be surmised, at least a passing interest in what Admiral Carter was doing at Procyon.
He walked up to the bar; anything to blend in, if only he wasn't obliged to purchase hydroxyl containing fluid. He spotted his... charges from across the establishment. Waving back at them vaguely, he approached the table and lowered his satchel to his side, withdrawing in the same motion a PADD and placing it in front of him, "I believe I know you," he turned to the person he thought was she who'd rescued him from the splinter sect of the Eucharist-revivalists on Uemar VIII, "No, case of mistaken identity, my apologies." He looked across the table, "And you must be David Tan, our mutual friend the Director mentioned you."
Several non-courvoisiers later, "Between ages 21 and 30, roughly seventy disappearances, no pattern except all took place in corridors, doors et cetera... What if the pattern isn't so simple as geographical location, family, holidays and others times that they're captured. What if this pattern is something not conceivable by mathematics, surveillance and intelligence reports on locations of disappearance... If it's something not immediately within our grasp. These disappearances are wholly mysterious and beyond Federation science; what's not to say that someone has been taking them away, using advanced tech we haven't dreamt of? And if they're so advanced, might we be able to say that whatever pattern develops isn't something we'd be readily able to identify?" He clasped his hands about his PADD, "Right, so the resort on Averalan III first?"
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David Tan
Starfleet Intelligence
Suum Cuique ...
Registered: Dec 11, 2006 10:56:04 GMT
Posts: 790
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Post by David Tan on Mar 13, 2016 20:58:01 GMT
Iorte Clancy had joined them thirty minutes ago. He was younger than them, but only by a couple of years from his files. They listened to him enthusiastically giving his opinion on the numerous disappearances, happy to let Tan or de Luca interject with comments of their own. Technically, Elena would be lead Investigator given her experience and covert rank, which wasn't common knowledge, but when working in teams the group tended to run by Chinese Parliament' rules, whereby everyone around the table was equal and allowed to speak freely regardless of 'rank' or position: "..... These disappearances are wholly mysterious and beyond Federation science. So what's not to say that someone has been taking them away, using advanced tech we haven't dreamt of, and if they're so advanced, might we be able to say that whatever pattern develops isn't something we'd be readily able to identify ?" He clasped his hands about his PADD, "Right, so the resort on Averalan III first ?" "But why there, is it simply because we now have an issue that indirectly involves a Flag Officer ?" Elena asked. "Not just that fact no, but that was the last location we know of where someone disappeared." Iorte replied confidently as Tan accessed information on one of the PADD's before passing it over: "There's a list of the seventeen planets, in six different Star Systems, that abductions were confirmed. There's no way of knowing if Averalan was the last, but it is, the last confirmed. I'd say we make our way there." ...... Averalan III - Tunisal System :: The planet rivaled Risa for it's lavishness and openness towards a wide variety of 'pastimes' ..... They had decided to arrive incognito, feeling their chances of asking questions could possibly be hampered by the Ruling Council, who cherished their positions, not to mention the obvious financial benefits from the ever-growing tourists trade to the planet and it's primary Moon. It was not normal procedure for something of this magnitude, but Starfleet Intelligence tended to get what they required, despite upsetting various officials along the way. People visiting here relied on 'Anonymity' to enjoy their freedom, so having to be questioned would certainly not go down well, and would likely impact negatively on Avaralan III. On arrival they sought out the offices of one Galar Kree, he was Head of Tourism, and importantly, the Event Organizer for the annual 'Festival of Harmoniousness' ... "Before we go in, I think we should split up." David said, eyeing the large building opposite, "If we go in there as a group, they may well clam up rather than try to help." he said. "Is it just me, or is the woman in the blue dress watching us ?" Elena commented. The other two casually moved their positions until they too could see the young woman apparently watching them closely. "She's been behind us since we left the Spaceport." Iorte said, pointing at one of the picturesque structures and completely ignoring the unknown woman, Elena followed his line of sight, nodding and taking out a micro-cam to save an image of the admittedly exceptional building. 'and you didn't feel her presence required mentioning' she had asked quietly, her back to the woman, "Stand there ...." Iorte said, maneuvering Elena into a position in front of the structure before taking the camera and kneeling to get the size aspect correct. David whispered that he would be right back ... He walked towards the woman, who at first glanced behind her as if looking for an escape route, but she remained in place as David approached: "Hi ... we've just arrived, any suggestions on where to go first ?" "You're not here for the sights." the woman said quietly, eyes darting over his shoulders as if expecting someone to appear unannounced. "What makes you thi ......" "You are, or were, Starfleet. you're name is, David, David Tan ? ...... You won't remember me, I was just a kid when we erm, met. I was with one of the Families the USS Olympia transported from the Gall Research Base after the earthquakes made the Moon unstable. We were taken to Star Base Forty Seven. I'd twisted my ankle and you played the knight in shining armour, so to speak, you carried me for almost a mile before we could beam out." David looked at the woman closely, unable to recognize her, but the Olympia 'had' been to the Gall Moon following seismic disruption, and he 'had' carried a girl. "My name is Mia ... Mia Turner, my Father, Professor Colm Turner, was one of the people that didn't surv ....." she fell silent as his expression changed, "You remember." she stated. "Yes ..... I do now." he said looking at her again and realizing that the child he had carried out of the Facility had obviously grown up, "But what makes you thi ....." "You are not here on holiday. Are you here to find Amelia ?" Tan ensured his expression remained neutral as he looked at her, then made a decision. He motioned for the others to join them. Once Elena and Iorte were there Mia told them they could all go to a Cafe across the square where they could talk freely. ~~~~~David made the introductions then asked Mia to tell them everything she knew ..... "So you are what, Security, Intelligence, no .... More likely people sent by Amelia's Mother. I want to know if I'm going to talk to you." Elena held up her micro-cam and took an image of Mia before accessing the hidden database. A moment later she nodded almost imperceptibly confirming that their 'guest' was who she claimed to be. "We are here to investigate the disappearance of Admiral Carter's Daughter, yes." Elena confirmed, "What can you tell us ?" "I'd look at that slime-ball Kree. He's weird, he wanted to know 'WAY' too much information. Insisting on full scans of all those attending the Festival on Prime. He's got to have something to do with it, but I've been following him since Amelia vanished, and apart from his visiting some less than 'savory' establishments, he's not given me a clue as to where she could be, but he's involved, I KNOW IT !. I can tell you one thing for certain though, going in there ..." she motioned toward the building opposite with utter disdain, "As the proverbial 'concerned relative or friend' is going to get you nowhere, fast. !" "Was Amelia with you when she ....." Elena asked. "As close as I am to you. Or more precisely, I was dancing, she was sat at the bar in what is called the Serene Bar, I looked around thinking she had gone to the bathroom. That was the last I saw of her." "I'm assuming the place had surveilla ...." Tan began, but stopped when Mia laughed. "No. for obvious reasons. Look, she was at at the bar one minute, then she wasn't, and Kree knows something, I'm positive !" "OK, I think our being here unofficially isn't going to work." Elena decided, "Iorta, you and I will go to the offices. I'm giving you the lead here. You will 'INSIST' on speaking with this Galar Kree. 'DO NOT' take 'NO' for an answer, make a complete nuisance of yourself OK. Drop every name you need to but get a face to face with Kree. I'll back you but if need be, take over, but I think an Intelligence Officer openly threatening an Official will rattle some cages, if not Kree's then someones ... David will take Mia and retrace their steps prior to the disappearance. Agreed ?" she finished, looking from Iorte to David, both nodding agreement. "Let's book passage to the Primary Moon." David said, taking Mia's arm ..........
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Iorte Clancy
Starfleet Intelligence
Registered: Mar 9, 2016 17:58:55 GMT
Posts: 248
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Post by Iorte Clancy on Mar 16, 2016 17:00:56 GMT
Iorte walked across the square with Elena towards the offices, the building up and to his right still attracting his attention: a skeleton of a building that was nevertheless complete; something about the design aesthetic showed that the architects had clearly decided that less, was more - much like, Iorte noticed, the people around them as regarded their attire...
He took the small object out of his pocket and started putting it on his finger, wincing; it was a tight fit. They were approaching the doors. "Iorte. What are you doing?" Elena said, having them stop.
"Something I borrowed at the spaceport," he held up the angular grey ring now about his ring finger for her to inspect, "This is the matrimonial ring of Patrick Lact the assistant festival organiser's husband. And I also have this," he lifted the identity card belonging to the same husband out of his carry-case.
"And he let you... borrow these things?"
"In the technical sense," he nodded, "I was a pickpocket on Gamma Geminorum. It's about the time Starfleet Intel started taking notice of me. And before you say what good is a ring going to do as soon as she sees I'm not her Patrick... well, I'll improvise, but the ring as you can see doubles as a security pass. See this circuitry? It may open a few doors, excuse the pun, if Plan A goes wrong." She cocked her head and they both stepped sideways through the outer doors.
He bashed a fist on the desk, the receptionist recoiling, "I demand to see Mrs Lact! No isn't an answer. I'm a business associate of her husband," Elena rolled her eyes, remaining in the background as Iorte continued, "You wouldn't want Lact to have to tell Kree that he's missed out on yet another act for his festival, would you?"
"You're a promoter?"
"Band manager," he corrected her, "Have me escorted up if you like, but I'm going to see the assistant organiser, or Kree if he's available."
Eventually she had a call put through to Kree's office and pointed them towards the lifts, "Floor seven. Wait, someone will need to escort you to give you access." Iorte waited patiently, hands in pockets so as to conceal the ring he was hoping to use to get into some more restricted areas later on... They rode the lift up, deposited at the seventh floor to be greeted by assistant festival organiser Mrs Lact.
"You're the band manager. What act? We've had several pull out already..."
"The band's Tributaries of Love Flow Into One Noumenal River. Top of the bill, remember?" Clancy said.
"Oh yes..." Lact, looking down at her notes. Iorte shrugged at de Luca; he'd done his research. Lact sighed, shaking her hair loose - was Kree proving to be a temperamental employer? she seemed far overstressed - "Well, come on then, I'll show you through to his office." Iorte watched Mrs Lact, whose husband's ring he wore, open the door to Kree's office with her own ring. They pushed the door open tentatively, then soon realising something was amiss leapt in to find the window fully open, air battering the inside of the office and blinds swinging - signs of recent egress. He rushed to the window and looked down, saw a greenhouse-type structure with what must've been a soft perspex roof - it was still vibrating.
"Mr Kree! No, Galar!" Lact was screaming in terror. Clancy turned round, leaving the set of offices and starting to climb the stairwell, thinking it would bring him out on a level opposite the high levels of the building he'd taken the picture of, with Elena in front, earlier. de Luca sighed and followed in his wake, both arriving at the top of the stairs confronted with a door and with Iorte fiddling with the borrowed security pass ring.
He dived through to the next room and with a glance at the spectacular building through the windows to the right, went to the other side of the deserted office floor and looked down and across to the greenhouse - afforded a better angle this time... Binocs out - there was no doubt, the binocs' sight focussing on the greenhouse roof: there was blood where Kree must've impacted; no sign of any body; Kree had made it. He knelt down and put the binocs back in his carry-case, letting out an unsteady breath, "We've got to get a sample of that blood."
"If he had something to do with the disappearances, or this disappearance at least, then he could have something to do with the ship from outside our galaxy that Carter had stripped down?" de Luca looked at him doubtfully, "You're saying he isn't... what he appears to be."
"I'm sorry. I'm not interested in conjecture. I just collect blood," he tilted his head, "Sometimes."
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David Tan
Starfleet Intelligence
Suum Cuique ...
Registered: Dec 11, 2006 10:56:04 GMT
Posts: 790
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Post by David Tan on Mar 20, 2016 0:51:00 GMT
As Elena and Iorte stood up they agreed to meet up in two hours at the hotel they were booked into ... David finished his drink, conscious of the fact that Mia hadn't taken her eyes off him since sitting down. He turned to face her and smiled: "OK, so where were you both when Amelia disappeared, can you remember exactly ?" "We had gone to Prime for the Festival, we were in a group of maybe thirty that took the shuttle from here to the Moon .... Everything was as you would expect, people were here to enjoy themselves after all." she finished her drink and they both stood, leaving the cafe and heading back into the center of the resort to book passage for four. David had noticed a man sat a few tables away, seemingly waiting for someone as his eye constantly darted between his wrist chronometer and the door, then back again in quick succession. He'd almost dismissed the man as someone who had been 'stood up' and thought better luck next time friend, but as Mia continued to recall what had happened he noticed the man had left the cafe too, and was now meandering along the opposite side of the street, "We wondered why several of us were separated from the main group but were told that we'd been selected to enter the main marquee where the guest artist was playing. Obviously excited, we didn't give the others a second thought." she said, realizing how upsetting having to recall this was to her. "So you went straight to the marquee ?" Tan prompted, keeping the unknown man in his peripheral vision as best he could. "No, no, we were given passes, a dermal implant that would decay within forty eight hours. We were free to go where we liked as long as we used the passes in the allotted time. We found our room then headed to the beach." "Can you skip to the part where you realized Amelia had gone." he coaxed. "It was that night. We'd gone back to the rooms to change before going to eat, someone told us we would need to use our passes the next morning as the group were leaving the festival early .... We ate, had more than a few too many drinks, and headed for the dance floor." she said, almost apologetically, "We were with two boys from, erm, Mars Colony I think, they were Human anyways, they offered to get us into the marquee that night so we wouldn't have to wait, but we'd have to go in pairs, they managed to persuade Amelia, so I had no option but to go along." She stopped talking as they negotiated the traffic on main street to cross to the other side. He could see the follower hesitate, not knowing whether to keep going and risk passing them, or to slow, allowing them to remain ahead of him, by the time he had decided it was too late, Mia and David were only meters ahead but with their backs to the man. "Here's the booking office." she said suddenly. "OK, let's book the tickets." David said, taking Mia's arm and entering the white-walled building. There was a queue and the dropped in behind the last in line, he risked looking around to see if they had been followed, and sure enough the stranger was entering the building, he obviously held back a few moments before entering, "I'm going to visit the little boys room, you'll be OK right ?" "Little boys room ? ... Oh, never heard it called that before, yes, I'll be fine." David grinned and stepped out of the line, then made his way over to the bathrooms. It was a risk ... If the man was after Mia, he had just given the stranger a gifted opportunity to take her, but if he was more interested in Tan, then they would be having a conversation very shortly ! "They are in the booking office."
"Can you extract ?"
"No .. I cannot .. Have you identified the newcomers ?"
"Searching records .. Nothing as yet .. You will not allow them to board the shuttle to Prime .. Failure will be most .. Problematic." David had turned as he approached the bathrooms, mainly to check that Mia was still OK, but he'd noticed the follower too. he was stood against the wall just inside the door, and was obviously holding a conversation with someone. had it supposed to be covert, or undetectable, he was sadly lacking in finesse or expertise. Confident that the follower wouldn't attempt to take Mia from the building, he stepped into the bathroom and took out his Comm badge: =^= Tan to de Luca .. Clancy =^= =^= de Luca =^= =^= We're at the booking office .. We are being followed by the winner of the most inept follower award .. He's in communication with someone else =^= =^= Are you both safe ? =^= =^= Yes .. I get the distinct feeling that if a balloon should pop near him he'd jump right out of his skin .. .. .. We need to find out who he in contact with .. Any luck with Kree ? =^= =^= We're getting there .. Comm silence =^= Elena replied, letting David know that someone was approaching them so she had to go. He put the 'badge back in his pocket and at the same time retrieved a small patch. turning the one centimeter diameter fabric in his hand he left the bathroom. Follower was still at the door, Mia was next in line to be served, he stepped up beside her and smiled. "Good timing." he said. With tickets for the festival purchased, they left the booking office, but as they reached the doorway he stepped back to allow a group of young women in, he accidentally stepped back into the follower and turned to apologize. Then to a chorus of 'thank you kind Sir' from the obviously over-intoxicated women, he left with Mia. "Let's go get something to eat." David said, glancing across the street to see the follower emerge from the booking office, "All this queuing-up has made me hungry." ..........
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Iorte Clancy
Starfleet Intelligence
Registered: Mar 9, 2016 17:58:55 GMT
Posts: 248
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Post by Iorte Clancy on Mar 23, 2016 18:50:45 GMT
Elbowing his way through the crowds Clancy approached a tall humanoid man with his back turned to him, surrounded by a throng of reporters thrusting recording apparatus into his face, with other passengers for the just-departing liner for the primary moon streaming past Clancy in the opposite direction.
The blur of colour was given a jolt as Clancy grasped the humanoid by the collar and started pulling him through the masses of festival-goers, hearing the blurts of helplessness of the man, "Wha -? Unhand me, you, what's your name, you'll pay dearly for this mistreatme -"
He levered the humanoid up over his shoulders and onto the bench before him, de Luca coming up alongside. "Galar Kree. I see you're nursing an injury there," he addressed the humanoid, "It wouldn't have anything to do with falling from a window and hitting a greenhouse roof would it?" The man looked confused. "We cross-referenced your DNA, courtesy of the blood on the roof, with the Averalan databanks and found an exact match, so there's no use denying it."
"I didn't speak to him!" Kree pushed himself back against the bench, perhaps thinking he wouldn't have to face what was happening if the gaps between the wood would swallow him up. He took out of a jacket pocket some object, "He gave me this, I swear I don't know what it is. He only asked that I keep it safe. Now I was returning to my office when you pounced on me!" He concentrated his anger, "You have no right to seize me like this! I demand -"
Iorte took the proffered object from Kree who soon was wishing he hadn't offered it. Frowning, Iorte passed it to de Luca who seemed equally mystified; he took a tricorder from his carry case surreptitiously, had it start an analysis of the thing's overall makeup, again - as they'd find out later - returning no results. Glancing at Elena he pointed out the deserted cafe across the way.
"We're Starfleet Intelligence," he said once they'd taken a table. "We'd like to know who it was that gave you this thing."
"And we are interested in the disappearance of a certain Amelia Carter, a visitor of this world a few weeks ago," de Luca said.
Kree sighed, his means of contacting the authorities already taken from him. "I don't know anything about any disappearance. Why on Averalan would you think I'd have anything to do with that kind of - ... Ah, so you want to know who gave me it?"
"Yes."
"I can't tell you." Clancy leant across the table and smacked the man across the head, who started sulking. Clancy looked down, mouthing sorry and genuine about it. "He didn't let anything on about his name, where he came from... et cetera! He only said 'Keep this, if you do your job and it's safe when I come back to collect, then there's a substantial reward for you'. Enough, I'd imagined, to pay for the festival's debts that persist and mount up several months after. Oh, they do get carried away...!" he wailed and collapsed to the table, propped up by a waiter who tried to put down refreshments for the three of them but who was waved away by de Luca.
"When is he coming back?"
"Before the next strike." Clancy looked up at the man. "Oh no! I mean, I mean before the festival staff take action and demand pay rises... They're a pain in the neck, too..." Kree was spluttering, in despair and on the verge of tears, "Ok, he said just before the next disappearance occurs. They've got awfully good at predicting when and where, those folks, back at Section 99..."
"This man is from Section... 99?" Clancy asked, exchanging bemused glances with Elena.
"No, I don't think so," Kree answered, "The people he's with and I don't know who they are, are a separate organisation used by 99 in the field."
Clancy withdrew the device given to him by Kree, turning it over in his hands - graphite grey, pearl and cerulean, shaped kind of like a computer mouse - why they're called that he didn't know - from the 20th, 21st centuries; in terms of its constituents it was nothing like he'd ever seen before, and his stored information on all the quadrant's factions' technologies found no match with it either. "You understand, Mr Kree, we cannot allow you to keep this? And we don't care that you'll be done out of a profit, this... if what else you've told us about disappearances, about... Section 99, is true... could be extremely important for the security of the Federation. You'll speak of this to no one. Oh, and do you happen to know when the next disappearance is?"
"There's no way out of this for me I presume?" Kree asked, Iorte and Elena shaking their heads. "From what he said, two days from now. And he's back tomorrow, my offices at 1100. Thanks, Starfleet! You've done me out of a deal."
"My pleasure," he left the cafe with de Luca having let Kree know that any communication he put through to the authorities would be met with silence, that Starfleet Intel would have jurisdiction in such matters. "What's Section 99?" he murmured to de Luca as they walked across the main plaza, emptying now. They commed Tan to let him know what'd happened.
He had the feeling if they did find out that 'Section 99' wasn't Starfleet-affiliated, and if so then very distantly, possibly extra-legally, then it was a definite connection to the 'mouse'-type thingy. Section 99 was operating covertly and by many channels in the same way that Intel would: placing a completely alien device into the hands of an innocent if irksome festival organiser/businessman on a sort of Risa-surrogate popular with the ashram revivalists. Whatever things 99 may be pushing around here, it was being kept extremely secret, though its irrefutable link with the disappearances... Of which another one was due here on Averalan III in two days! A disappearance destined to occur unless, perhaps, they could intercept the 99-man-come-to-collect tomorrow and take away the strange device for themselves...
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David Tan
Starfleet Intelligence
Suum Cuique ...
Registered: Dec 11, 2006 10:56:04 GMT
Posts: 790
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Post by David Tan on Mar 25, 2016 22:52:53 GMT
They had been back at their hotel for over an hour .... Having eaten, they were discussing their options, or lack thereof: "I think we need to snatch the agent, for want of a better description, before he can pick out his next abductee. It's our only viable option from where I stand ...." Elena was saying, ".... and given we have zero information on who that may be it's going to be a little difficult to prevent if he manages get what he came for." "This 'Section 99' is worrying me." Andae said, turning the small object over in his hand as if hoping for inspiration on it's function, "Ultra covert maybe ?" "No ..." Elena answered instantly, "If there was anything operating outside the Intelligence Community, we would know it existed." she was about to continue when their concealed sub-space communicator chirped to life :: David took the device into one of the bedrooms and waited. =^= Sato to Intel-zero-four =^=
=^= Commander Tan Sir =^=
=^= Update on information regarding the original find of the Alien vessel .. It is now confirmed that an unknown form of 'long-range' beam technology was used to send the vessel to our quadrant .. It is highly possible that the signal may have originated in the Scutum-Centaurus Arm .. The missing Civilians must take secondary consideration to finding any and 'ALL' information regarding this technology .. Tetsutaro out =^= The Comm snapped off, leaving David looking at the now inert device. He stood and reentered the Living area, updating the group on the current update. Mia was stunned. "Surely they are mistaken !" Mia said into the silence, "We need to find Amelia, we need to find the others that have gone missing, and we need to stop them taking more people !" Elena walked over and sat beside the young woman. "You said the signal could have originated in the Scutum-Centaurus Arm, right ?" Blakus said, shaking his head in disbelief, "That is approximately Two hundred and seventy thousand 'Light YEARS' away, give or take a few billion kilometers. We can just about manage to transport sixty thousand kilometers !" Elena had stood and was going through all the scan information on the recent disappearances. In each case, those who investigated all said they came away with a coppery taste in their mouths. It might mean nothing, or it could be a vital link, there was no way of knowing at this stage ... They needed to find the agent who would be arriving the next day, and would be selecting his next victim ... but unless they could secure Kree's cooperation, and be allowed to attend the meeting where he was supposed to hand over the 'mouse' as they were now calling it, there was little to no chance of apprehending the man without bloodshed, it also opened up other possible difficulties, what if the man wasn't alone, what if he was being watched by his own people, what if he simply transported back to wherever he came from before they could snatch him ..... The scenario's were varied as they were countless ! "We know for certain that the 'Agent' will be meeting with Kree in the morning. Is there any way we could get access to a transporter, beam them both away to a secure location ?" Elena mused. "What do we 'CARE' about this agent person ? ...." Mia shouted, "We have to find Amelia and the others." "We will." David said, as calmly as he could, hoping in turn to calm the woman down, he turned to Blakus, "I'm not that well up on my transporter technology, so help me out here, We can transport roughly sixty thousand kilometers because that is as narrow as we can get the annular confinement beam before we begin to see degradation in the matter being transported, right ?" "Essentially, that's about right." Andae confirmed as Tan continued: "So for someone to transport anything organic over the distances we're talking, wou ....." "Would need a confinement beam much narrower than we could even hope to achieve." Mia interrupted, explaining she was in research and development, though saying no more than she deemed necessary before continuing, "The simplistic way to look at it would be that when 'we' transport someone, we effectively strip the subject to component atoms, reconstituting at the other end. The confinement beam needs to be narrower the larger the distance, which is why we tend to restrict transports to a few thousand kilometers." "So for the distance we're talking ?" Tan asked the woman. "The beam would need to be, I don't know, somewhere in the region of maybe ten ten-billionth's of a meter in diameter." she said with a shrug. David looked at Blakus, who wasn't disagreeing with her math, "Using our current technology, and all saying we could even form a beam that narrow, it would take approximately four hundred thousand years to transport a mouse across the Galaxy, and there would be no way of guaranteeing it would actually 'be' a mouse when it arrived." "They are taking people, so they can do it." Tan said, stating the blindingly obvious, "According to records, each person to disappear was alone at the time, either in another room, or out of sight of others, so from here on in we stay in pairs. I don't care what you are doing, you do not leave the sight of the person with you." "Hmm, double dating." Mia said, her tone ensuring everyone in the room knew her feelings on the plan thus far ..........
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Iorte Clancy
Starfleet Intelligence
Registered: Mar 9, 2016 17:58:55 GMT
Posts: 248
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Post by Iorte Clancy on Apr 4, 2016 16:02:04 GMT
Clancy returned to his quarters, sitting at the desk that had on it the mouse-type object. He watched it coldly, expecting it at any moment to burst to life, start flashing or transforming, anything that would confirm it to be that particular something created by a culture far removed from their own, likely originating in the Scutum-Centaurus Arm.
"Iorte? Where are you? Tan said no one stays alone."
He tapped his commbadge, about to reply when the Averalanian information screen next to the desk started beeping; he was receiving a communique, as it turned out from the festival administration headquarters...
"Kree. I thought I'd be hearing from you again soon," he said to the face on the screen, "Are you ready to cooperate?"
Galar Kree didn't answer him, instead pushing something - hidden beneath his hand - forward on his own desk until Iorte heard a click - evidently Kree had slotted whatever he was holding into the terminal. Information started appearing on the graphic display next to the visual feed with the festival organiser on it; they were transporter coordinates. Kree looked at him, "In ten seconds that information will be wiped from your console's system by the planet's automated unauthorised data transfer detection network."
Iorte hurried to write everything down then called in the other three, Kree having signed off before he'd been able to ask about the planned or predicted disappearance the day after tomorrow. He just had time to watch the sunset complete itself, the last crescent segment of the star disappearing and leaving the paradisiacal town permeated with an orange-brown glow, and a musky scent was blown in from the nearby fountains. He turned to the new arrivals, "I've just got off the line with Kree. He's sent a message..." he passed Tan the padd, who read over it with the others, eyes varied in their widening in astonishment.
"He's condemned? What does he mean?" Mia asked.
"He seems to think that the agent's going to kill him when they meet at 1100 tomorrow. He wants us to take his place."
"So he, or she, can kill us in Kree's stead?"
"Hopefully not," Clancy sat down, "Only one of us will be in the room. Oh, apparently the agent isn't the perpetrator of disappearances, but someone who investigates them, or rather predicts them. Section 99 has made a project out of predicting when and where the disappearances are going to occur - they always have one of their agents, recruited most often from third parties, show up shortly before the vanishings, to confirm whether it happens or not... The mouse, Kree believes, may be the device that carries out the transport, but of its own accord, rather than any input from a user, though that doesn't tally with the agent coming to collect the device. If they wanted to prevent the coming teleportation, wouldn't they take the mouse as far away as possible?"
The next day...
It'd been agreed that Clancy would meet with the agent, posing as Kree's assistant, while Tan, de Luca and the helpful Mia waited in the wings - to be precise in the room next to Kree's office - should anything go awry. And that's a very likely possibility, Iorte thought darkly. He walked around Kree's desk, looking up at the chronometer: 1056... He exhaled unevenly, looking out the window down at the greenhouse the roof of which Kree had bounced off and cut himself the day before... Maybe a similar avenue of escape for Iorte should this go disastrously wrong.
A chirp came from the door, footsteps just audible outside; he turned around (he was unarmed as per the instructions of Kree, who'd had it demanded of him by the agent) and gathered his composure, "Enter."
A very old man stepped into the room - from Iorte's guess, he was at least 90. He wore black fatigues that looked very much like Intel special ops uniform, a narrow grey face, thin wisps of hair; a bony knuckled hand shook Iorte's. "Take a seat?" he asked, feeling veritably discomfited though hiding it professionally.
"What?" the man croaked, his voice broken but nevertheless authoritative. He walked with a slight hunch, now shifting around the room and examining the pictures on the walls... "You have the artefact?" he asked absently.
Iorte pushed forward the mouse on the desk, risking it to close his hand around it when it seemed the old man was going to make a grab for it. Iorte said, "Just tell me. If you want to stop the disappearances, why have you left this dangerous object here with my boss Kree for so long?"
At this point - seeing the old man's reaction to his question - he was pressing furiously the button under Kree's desk, which would give the signal to the next room that its occupants (Tan, de Luca, Mia) should come running as fast as possible.
"You fool," the man said, "I was going to let you, your boss, whoever, off. But now you will die." With lightning speed that belied his age he withdrew a Starfleet issue phaser and pointed it at Iorte. "I assume you know of our operation, if Kree's told you... No? He doesn't know? Damn fools all of you. The artefact doesn't cause the disappearances! It's the only way we can possibly prevent them."
"But it is the alien technology?" Clancy asked, eyes transfixed on the barrel of the phaser two metres from his face.
"Of course. It comes from the ship that was disassembled at Procyon by your Admiral Carter. There's a separate tech, responsible for the disappearances, that also lay within the ship; the artefact in your hand was designed as a failsafe unit, or so my employers suspect, that counteracts the 'disappearance' tech Carter had stripped from the alien ship."
Alien ship... At this point Tan and de Luca burst into the room, diving for the agent before he could blow Iorte's head off - just before they reached the Section 99 employee however, the man seemed to start phasing out of ordinary space, becoming semi-transparent and grainy - like a bad reproduction of a holoprogram... He seemed on the verge of vanishing - with Tan and de Luca closing in...
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David Tan
Starfleet Intelligence
Suum Cuique ...
Registered: Dec 11, 2006 10:56:04 GMT
Posts: 790
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Post by David Tan on Apr 10, 2016 0:43:49 GMT
OOC :: Apologies for the extreme length of this post, but I just needed to get everything in my head down on here (still haven't btw) ...IC ::Sat in the adjoining room, David, Elena and Mia, listened intently to the conversation being relayed ..... ".... I assume you know of our operation, if Kree's told you ... No ? ... He doesn't know ? ... Damn fools all of you. The artifact doesn't cause the disappearances. It's the only way we can possibly prevent them."
"But it is the alien technology ?" they heard Clancy insist.
"Of course. It comes from the ship that was disassembled at Procyon by your Admiral Carter. There's a separate tech, responsible for the disappearances, that also lay within the ship; the artefact in your hand was designed as a failsafe unit, or so my employers suspect, that counteracts the 'disappearance' tech Carter had stripped from the alien ship." They heard what sounded like a chair being scraped across the floor. "It's not going well, is it." Mia commented, the sarcasm obvious. "Well, it was you who agreed to allow her to tag along." Elena said, seeing Tan's exasperated expression. He was about to comment when the tricorder on the desk began to emit an insistent beeping tone. They were on their feet instantly, phasers drawn as they rushed through the adjoining door in time to see the guards vanishing from sight. Clancy pointed at the Agent who was already within the confinement beam of the Alien transporter. Without hesitation, Elena dropped her phaser and ran headlong at the Agent ! "NOOO !" Mia shouted as de Luca launched herself ..... For a fraction of a second she thought she was going to simply pass through the beam to land heavily, but she somehow managed to grasp the Agent before de-materialization was fully in progress. He screamed as he was propelled out of the beam to slam into the wall opposite, the woman landing on top of him in a heap. Tan lifted her to her feet and put the business end of his phaser in the Agents face: "Drop the device, NOW !" The Agent looked at the mouse-type device before reluctantly allowing it to fall to the carpeted floor. Mia retrieved it and threw it to Clancy ... Pulling the Agent to his feet Tan pushed him into a chair and began asking questions, but the man simply stared at the location of his only, and now lost, way out. As Elena secured the man, David moved over to where Clancy was re-examining the device. Apart from the vague references by the Agent, they were still no wiser as to the actual 'function' of the thing, but it was clearly important to the Agent, or more likely those who he served. Whispering out of earshot, they came to a decision and turned to the Agent: "You have two options here ....." David informed the man, who seemed not to be listening, though the sting from the unexpected back-hand from Clancy made him take more notice, David continued, "We need to speak with whoever you are working for, and we need to do so right now. We know you have a means to contact them, we want some information on who they are and why they are abducting people from this resort. You can sit it silence if you so choose, but my friend here is a lot less patient than I am, and he's likely to take steps to force the information out of you before too long, and given the fact that your guards escaped but you remained here only serves to curtail our time together .... You are not willing to answer our questions I take it ?" the Agent shook his head turning right into a blow that shattered several of his teeth. The second and third blows compounded the damage and Elena had to restrain Mia from interfering. David retrieved his phaser from the desk and knelt before the bloodied man: "You're people will be back for you, so last chance." with no reply he raised the weapon until it was centimeters from the mans face and began to depress the activation stud: "WAIT !" the Agent screamed. "Who do you find people who can be abducted for ?" Tan asked, the weapon rock steady. "I .... I am but a mediocre participant in this enterprise. I have never encountered those who take the, people." "Then how do you contact them ?" Tan asked. "I, I can summon their representative, as he describes himself, a member of a faction known only by the name 'Section 99' ... He is the only one in direct contact with the Alicor." "Alicor ?" Elena repeated, more question than comment. "The race from, I don't know, somewhere in the spiral arm I think." he said. "Send for their representative, now." Tan ordered. The Agent asked for one hand to be released and to be allowed access to a small communication device in his desk draw. Clancy found the device and approached the Agent. David rested the phaser against the mans temple as Clancy handed him the communicator, "Try anything and I fire !" The Agent spoke into the device and handed it back, after informing the the representative that he must see him immediately ... Less than fifteen minutes later, the door opened ....... "Kree !" Tan said as the Festival Organizer entered the room. "DON'T ...." Elena said, her phaser aimed squarely into the mans face as he began to back through the door, "Come in and close the door behind you !" "You're responsible for the disappearances ?" Tan asked as Kree moved into the room before selecting a seat and confidently dropping into it. "You know you will never leave this room alive." he said, smiling at each of those present in turn, "You have unwittingly stumbled upon a very lucrative endeavor on my behalf, and alas I cannot allow you to cut short my dealings with my, associates prematurely, so .... I believe we have nothing further to say to each other." "Pretty damned confident for someone looking down the wrong end of several weapons." Elena said, but before he could reply Mia threw herself at him, punching and slapping furiously all the while screaming about her friend. Kree covered his face as best he could under the relentless onslaught from the woman before him, but eventually he asked her to cease her attack. "Wait. OK. I will answer your questions, it makes little or no difference now as they are already aware of my capture." "Who .... 'WHO' is aware, and just how can they be ?" Iorte asked, eyeing the room as if there could be some hidden monitoring devices he had been unaware of. "The 'device' you are so preciously guarding, and the vessel Admiral Carter was so callously dismantling, both originate in the Scutum-Centaurus Arm of our Galaxy, in the Riicot System to be precise." "That's ridiculous." Mia said, "The Scutum-Centaurus Arm is over two hundred and seventy 'thousand' light-years away ... Even at trans-warp six it would take something in the region of two and a half 'YEARS' to make the trip, and communication over such distance is impossible. so come up with something else, and quickly." "I said nothing about them being confined to our technological level young lady. in fact, they are so far ahead as to place you in your Earths Prehistoric Age, or thereabouts." Kree said, a self-satisfied grim forming. "Putting aside the distances involved, why are they taking Humans, what do they want with them ?" Elena asked. "I see no reason not to answer your questions, at least for the time we have remaining ...." Kree said, "The Alicor are a dying race .... Long ago, almost fifteen centuries approximately, it was realized that the genetic manipulation had gone beyond what could be imagined. The Alicor lost the ability to reproduce, but more than that, it was discovered that memory loss was escalating exponentially throughout the race. Something had to be done, so way found to preserve our race ! ... Many races were 'tested' for their compatibility and level of development of the brain functionality. Humans, while not an exact match, were by far the closest, and the most viable to guarantee the continued existence of the Alicor. It was fortunate for us that you only make use of ten percent of your brains capacity, which allowed us to 'occupy' the remainder, or at least a substantial part thereof. You could be so much more if only you could access the ....." "So they began simply plucking Human's away for experimentation, and you aid them !" Mia interrupted him, "Where is my friend, where is Amelia ?" "You said the Alicor realized their need over fifteen centuries ago." Elena said, a shiver running down her spine as she continued, "So how long have they been taking people ?" "I would have thought that obvious." Kree answered. "How many ?" David asked. "Approximately, Seven million Humans thus far." "How come you know so much about these Alicor ? ... According to your Agent here you are a member of a group know only as Section 99, whoever the hell they are." Iorte asked. "I am indeed, and have been for some considerable time, but worry not, Section 99 is beyond your reach." Kree said, rising to his feet, three phasers tracking his every movement, "As for my position with the Alicor. I am much more that their representative. I myself am Alicoran ........ I, or rather, Galav Kree, who's body this once was, was one of the first to be taken by the Alicor in this century. It was found that our 'merging' for want of a better explanation, was the most successful thus far, and after a period of orientation, I was sent back to oversee the continued harvesting. I returned one hundred and seventy three years ago, and have moved from System to System so as not to raise suspicion as to my apparent agelessness, a welcome by-product of the merging procedure apparently as the Human body seems to benefit from the Alicoran meta-physiology. While my name is untranslatable in any of your known languages, you may address me as 'Yyall' or by the name you know this person to be if it is easier for you to process." He sat down, looking from one to the next as if being interviewed by a panel of prospective employers ..........
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Iorte Clancy
Starfleet Intelligence
Registered: Mar 9, 2016 17:58:55 GMT
Posts: 248
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Post by Iorte Clancy on Apr 22, 2016 19:13:18 GMT
Iorte kept his phaser fixed on Kree's chest, "You can be killed I presume?" he asked after perhaps half a minute of silence. Kree's eyes widened perhaps infinitesimally, before the confidence along with the smug smile returned. It was an unknown whether Kree, while apparently inhabited by or 'merged' with this Alicoran, still existed as an independent entity, or indeed in a sort-of Trill-like symbiosis with the Alicoran mind.
"Yes I can be killed, though the five of you would be dead an instant later," Yyall answered, unperturbed by the phaser now pushed against his thorax, while his agent friend and Mia both looked on in horror at Yyall, from different standpoints obviously. "My mental processes allow me to consciously direct a force barrier... that might be the best term for it, to my epidermis. Your phaser beam's energy, while extinguishing my life, would also be perfectly reflected and diffused omnidirectionally throughout the room, killing you all."
"Wait, that's impossible," the agent blinked furiously, "I mean -"
"Leave it," Iorte said tiredly, forcing the phaser further into the ribcage, feeling its structure over the end of the weapon, "Presumably you can't bring these people back that your species has stolen from us?"
What'd happened to the Alicor if this Yyall could be trusted was tragic, yes, but what practices had led them to that disastrous endpoint, where none of them could reproduce nor retain for long any of their memories? Surely nothing ethical, or if so then bending significantly the rules of such genetic engineering.
"What was the point of the ship if you've been taking humans for 1500 years with apparently no problems?"
"Exactly that, Clancy, there have been problems. The quantum entanglement technology that had up to seven years ago been taking humans from Earth - and around your domain as you expanded your territory into space - was no longer locking onto its targets with the same accuracy, often taking sections of bodies or small fragments, such as a hair follicle, an arm, or part of a head and torso... and the destinations of the transported humans were becoming less easy to predict also - we were past the point of knowing exactly where they'd pop back out of the quantum field and into the Riikon system at our harvesting centre, and instead found ourselves having increasingly to work out where they'd landed on the system's chief planet, or where in space around the system, or if we were lucky on the other planet in the system, one of your L-classes I believe...
"Anyway, we sent that now dissembled ship to act as a relay, to refocus the quantum-level entangled particles between source and destination and project them, constituting the human, exactly into our harvesting centre." He shrugged, "It went wrong. The ship didn't activate properly once in your space... ran into a freighter, and was captured by Starfleet. Now it's gone." He sighed, "And the inaccuracy in our capturing of humans, while momentarily abated thanks to our vessel's very presence, or recent presence, will soon restart. You should allow us to use such a vessel and not dismantle it, it's the only way humans are guaranteed to survive the trip to the Scutum-Centaurus Arm."
"You could just stop?" Mia said obstinately.
They would never do that, Iorte thought. This species was clearly hungry for power, well, mental power perhaps. While their initial crisis of a lack of children and memory engrams had presumably been abated, they would continue to take humans, their nearest neurological match. For in a way he supposed, it was the only way they could grow.
"You want us to send you back, with a new mission perhaps?" Iorte asked.
"Betray the Alicor, my people, you mean," Kree smirked.
"The Alicor are Yyall's people. I'm speaking to Kree, if he's in there. If he cares, if he's not actually fully combined with the Yyall consciousness... What does Kree want?!"
"The same as himself. We're one being, Clancy. I will however, consider your request... I know what it entails. This body and my mind is not incorruptible, if we were to use such a narrow-minded terminology. It's worked for the humans, it works for the Alicor, it can work for the humans again." Then, grabbing the elderly agent by the shoulder, the Alicoran suddenly lit up in silver, swirling translucent surfaces along the lines of his body close or on his skin.
Was that the force barrier he'd talked about? Iorte thought. The two people started to dissolve as Tan and Clancy redirected their phasers from Kree to the agent, knowing their own peril if they were to try shooting at the Alicoran now; they fired, striking the agent in the front and back who was thus pinned to his seat as if suffering a seizure (and was removed from the dematerialisation process) while Kree with a downcast expression completed his disappearing act, phasing out into something like old-fashioned television static before vanishing completely.
"When will he be back!" Clancy roared at the agent, pulling his head up off the desk. The groggy agent dribbled a reply and sank back to the desk, suffering from the multiple phaser impacts. "That's the second time he, or someone else the first time? tried to grab you, you must've known something of what was going to happen, where exactly you were going to go, what you'd be told to do."
The questioning could proceed no further as all three agents began receiving a message from Intelligence. Promptly exiting the room after shooting the agent unconscious and asking Mia to wait in the ante-room as before, they entered another room, larger and seemingly set up for a conference that looked out over the resort via four large octangular windows. They took the message at a Averalanian information console, encrypting the transmission against the Averalan firewalls and other software that might detect an unauthorised transmission.
"Ah, I'm glad to see the three of you safe and well, and alive," Tetsutaro said over the visual comm, after rotating in his chair to face them, "There's been a disappearance at the abandoned shipyard at Procyon. The victim is a senior administrator, a civilian to whom Admiral Carter's team reports for logistical purposes. We understand that she was recommending to pull the plug on the research of the dismantled alien ship there. As soon as her report indicating as such arrived, urgent messages were received from Procyon stating that she had disappeared. I'd like you to look into it. Have you anything to report."
Shortly after the three of them had given Tetsutaro the information the room was flooded with brightly coloured Averalanians and offworld visitors, at their head - now taking seats at the head of the conference table - three drab-dressed officials who soon called the meeting to order as several of the extravagantly dressed presumed festival goers/promoters sat or gathered round the table, squeezing against and around Iorte, Tan and de Luca which would make escape somewhat difficult. The meeting got underway; apparently it was an organising committee for the festival on the Prime world, with representatives of the lead acts and businesses that would be running events there in attendance.
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David Tan
Starfleet Intelligence
Suum Cuique ...
Registered: Dec 11, 2006 10:56:04 GMT
Posts: 790
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Post by David Tan on Apr 24, 2016 22:22:52 GMT
Clancy beat him to it as he grabbed Kree by the lapels and shook him violently, asking hen the Agent would return.
"When will he be back, they have tried to grab you twice now, so when will they make their next attempt ?"
"I am confident that the Agent will not be returning to this planet, or the festival moon in our foreseeable futures, so your questions are, what is the word ? ..... Moot."
They had silently decided to put pressure on the Festival Organizer to the point that he would divulge something relevant, but their Comms simultaneously began to chirp to life. Leaving Kree with Mia, who was now holding a phaser with instructions to fire if the man blinked, they went through to the other room:
=^= Ah .. I'm glad to see the three of you safe and well and alive =^= Admiral Tetsutaro said over the visual comm, after rotating in his chair to face them, =^= Aas .. There has been a disappearance at the abandoned shipyard at Procyon .. The victim is a senior administrator .. A civilian to whom Admiral Carter's team reports for logistical purposes .. We understand that she was recommending to pull the proverbial plug on the research of the dismantled alien ship there .. As soon as her report indicating as such arrived on the appropriate desk urgent messages were received from Procyon stating that she had disappeared .. .. .. I would like you to look into it .. Have you anything to report ? =^=
They gave the Head of Intelligence everything the had thus far. David saying he may need to speak to his Boss again soon. Tetsutaro wasn't best pleased with the information or the situation in general, but there was nothing else to be gained from further speculation.
=^= You have a course of action I presume ? =^=
=^= Working on it Admiral =^= Elena said, eyeing the door to the other room as several people began filing into the room unexpectedly. She closed out the Communication and watched as the newcomers took their seats. An agenda for the meeting about to happen came up on the numerous screens around the room. Dan pointed to the door and the others meandered their way in that direction, stopping here and there to comment on whatever was asked of them. Finally they got back to the anteroom where Mia was leaning over the worse-for-ware Organizer .....
"Problems ?" Elena asked, grinning.
"Nothing a smack around the head couldn't solve." Mia answered.
"What makes you think that the Agent won't return here ?" David asked, ignoring the bleeding from the cut above the mans left eye.
"It was agreed." was all Kree would say on the matter, glancing at Mia then relaxing when he could see she was no longer concentrating her attentions in his direction, "As requested, you should allow us to take the less fortunate among you, the benefits to both races are obvious, in my humble opinion." David motioned for the others to join him out of ear-shot of their prisoner:
"We're leaving." he said.
"..... and your justification for that decision ?" Elena asked.
"The Agent isn't coming back, Kree has absolutely no reason to lie about that, in fact he looks more concerned about it than we do actually. So we need to look for other leads .... If we remain here what can we achieve ?, we have no way of preventing any further abductions, no way of detaining the Agent even if he does grace us with his presence, no, Kree seemed more than certain that whatever 'deal' they had made provision for the Agents' continued liberty. I suggest we head for the Deep Range facility at Procyon-B ....."
"They took one person from there David." Elena commented, obviously unconvinced as Tan used the desktop terminal, after several moments he turned to the others ....
"As of one minute ago, Averalan III is under quarantine. Access to the Festival Moon is rescinded and all off-world travel has been suspended ... Outgoing civilian transports will be allowed to continue to their destinations, while any and all incoming will be turned away. Three Federation vessels are en-route, and will be here within twelve hours to enforce the restrictions. The Defiant Class El Alamein is in the Sector and will be in orbit in two hours, it will transport us to the Procyon-B System and from there we'll make use of one of her shuttles to approach the Research Facility." he looked at the others then at Mia and Kree, "Mia, I think it best you remain here, I'll make arrangeme ....."
"Not a chance !" she interrupted, "If there is 'ANY' chance we can find Ami, our people, then i want to be there."
"Sorry, but you're a civilian Mia, not Starfleet, I can't take respons ....."
"I'm coming with !" David looked at Elena and Iorte, both tried hard to keep their expressions as neutral as possible and their thoughts on the matter, non-verbal.
~~~~~~~~~~
Two hours later the five of them transported off the surface and up to the USS El Alamein. The Captain had been given instructions prior to orbit, and while less than happy, fifteen years in the center seat had taught him to follow orders. he stood in the transporter room and welcomed his 'guests' ... Introductions made, David requested Kree be secured in the ships Brig until further notice. the Captain nodded to the two less than inconspicuous Security Officers, who took hold of the man and, under verbal protest, escorted him from the room.
"As you can appreciate, space is at a premium. I've allocated you adjoining quarter for the duration of your stay, nothing fancy." Captain Fran komin informed them.
"Thank you Captain, I'm assure you we'll be out of your hair with all due haste." Elena replied.
"Alas not. I have been ordered to remain at your 'disposal' until such time that I am, no longer required." she informed them, obviously less than pleased, "Ensign M'oir will show you to you quarters." she said, then turned and left.
"How long to the Facility ?" Iorte asked the Ensign.
"Maximum warp, sixteen hours twenty one minutes, give or take, Sir." the man said with un-nerving accuracy ..........
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Iorte Clancy
Starfleet Intelligence
Registered: Mar 9, 2016 17:58:55 GMT
Posts: 248
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Post by Iorte Clancy on Apr 25, 2016 22:26:43 GMT
"You take that route often do you, Ensign?" Iorte asked dryly as the man led him down the corridor towards his appointed quarters, Tan and de Luca some metres behind. "Got it down to the very minute?"
The Ensign paused in front of Clancy's quarters, eyeing him, on the verge of insubordination perhaps, but then how was the Ensign to know as Clancy carried no rank pips?
"I'm very good at my job, sir. I'm the assistant helm officer. I calculate how long a route I've never travelled will take before I set off," and showed Iorte in, the exiled Hybrudean depositing his small amount of luggage on the single bed. The assistant helm officer who, Iorte supposed, was subordinate to a chief helm officer of quite exceptional ability, for why else was M'oir relegated to the virtual equivalent of hotel clerk for the new prestigious guests?
Clancy opened up his bag and took out the small Napoleonic era picture, ornately framed, of the Emperor himself and Clancy alongside him, serving as one of his generals in the period when Monsieur Bonaparte had pushed his way into central Europe, forcing the surrender of Austria after Ulm; he placed it on the grey side desk; also taking out a number of keepsakes from his time in the early 19th century... helping defend Ulm alongside Karl Mack from Napoleon's incoming forces in an alternate timeline of his - passed to him upon recoalescence - which was allowed to take place from time to time - in the 29th century... it'd been the last time he'd been allowed back there before being consigned to the 24th century forever.
His human-metaphorical blood ran cold when he thought of his people up there in the 29th century, playing around with local spacetime and flipping themselves happily from one century to another, riding on the novel 'Wave' and projecting themselves up to the peak some two centuries forward, then plunging to the trough and the 27th century, and back up again - oh, such fun; he was glad he could never return there.
They'd shut him out, after it'd emerged he'd been tampering significantly with the timeline of Earth before the humans were due to leave their terrestrial confines, the consequences of which he supposed did not bear thinking about. He was human now for all intents and purposes, the neurally encoded information having been slowly lost and the restructured architecture of his mind now corroded, normal human-like neural patterns allowed to seep through the holes bounded by rust, webs of categories awaiting knowledge on the receipt of which those categories would have to radically transform themselves to allow him to find new ways of thinking... His Hybrudean mind was no longer at his command; Starfleet Intelligence was his means of acting out his age-old vigilante dreams now.
Mack sat alongside Napoleon on his bedside table and Iorte curled up, exhausted after the absurd action in the lead-up to the Festival of Harmoniousness. He would hit the holodeck's gym program later; six hours of sleep, four in the gym, then six in preparation for arrival at Procyon-B.
* * * * *
2.5 hours into his sleep Iorte was awoken by a chirp at his quarters' door. "Oh, for chr- ..." He continued grumbling as he shoved back the covers, quickly donned something respectable before heading to the entrance and opening it himself (no 'come in!' for this fellow, no...), "Oh, Ensign M'oir, pleasure as always..." he said half-asleep.
The Ensign smiled and handed him a PADD, "Something we've just received from Procyon, sir. I've distributed duplicate PADDs to your fellow intelligence officers. Top secret, I gather."
"Yes, Ensign," Clancy turned and tossed the PADD at the room's small desk with its terminal.
"Ah, interesting, interesting. You know, sir, I've been looking to get into intelligence myself. Perhaps you might recommend me to one of your superior officers, put in a word here and there you know. As we all know, it's not what you know, it's who you know, and..." his face was falling.
Clancy looked up awkwardly from his terminal, slumped in it still delirious with sleep, his dark look having silenced the El Alamein officer, "As you insist on being our clerk I assume that what you actually want is some form of 'tip', is that not correct, Ensign?" He turned to the PADD, plugging it into the terminal, now waving M'oir away as he was about to respond again, "Thank you, M'oir... You're, uh, dismissed."
Clancy read the PADD's contents, eyes shifting studiously down the screen... It was from the Procyon-B centre:
A report from Carter's chief aide said that the dismantled ship at the research post was reactivating itself, not as a coherent whole but as several pieces which apparently were the dark ship's internal systems, intact and as if they'd never been pulled apart. Each was suspended above the metal, skeletally-ribbed enclosure that the vessel had originally been held in. Those individual systems were now active, impervious to scanners, and the research centre/shipyard staff were, for want of a better phrase, freaking out. Clancy tapped the desk absently, thinking why this might possibly be, if there was indeed an explanation within their grasp.
He clapped his hands, giving his head a significant jolt into full wakefulness. Of course! The logistics supervisor who'd recommended discontinuing the dismantling of the ship had been snatched by the Alicor; from which, he thought, they may be able to infer that the Alicor had wanted the dismantling to continue (why else get rid of the one person wanting to end the project?)... but to what end?
Clancy had the answer: so that the Alicor would allow the research team to be able to reach this stage where the ship would begin to fully reassemble itself and in separate parts. What then, did the Alicor's ship intend now?
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David Tan
Starfleet Intelligence
Suum Cuique ...
Registered: Dec 11, 2006 10:56:04 GMT
Posts: 790
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Post by David Tan on Apr 26, 2016 20:32:23 GMT
"Penny for them ?" Iorte looked up to see Elena and David in the doorway. He slumped back in his chair as they entered and sat on the bed, both carrying identical PADD's to the one he had received moments earlier. "I believe the Alicor are attempting to reconfigure their disassembled vessel." ...... the dismantled ship at the research post was reactivating itself, not as a coherent whole but as several pieces which apparently were the dark ship's internal systems, intact and as if they'd never been pulled apart. Each was suspended above the metal, skeletal-ribbed enclosure that the vessel had originally been held in. Those individual systems were now active, impervious to scanners ...... "Yeh, we thought along those lines too ....." Elena replied, reading the message again before continuing, "..... But to what end ?" ... surely they don't think we would allow them to reestablish their harvesting activities." "Without the Agent, and the obvious lack of cooperation we're getting from Kree or Yyall, or whatever he wants to be called, we can only speculate at this point." David said, "But I'd be inclined to erect the strongest force-fields around those constitute sections as they are capable of, hell, there's no need to make it easy for them in my opinion." Iorte turned to his desk terminal and contacted the Facility, passing on their only recommendation before closing the Comm. "Might just be my inherent lack of trust of those not me, but has anyone else wondered about our ever-helpful M'oir ?" Elena asked, glancing at the door half expecting the man to be skulking just out of view. "He's young, keen, almost 'too' eager to please." David said, accessing the El Alamein crew manifest before bringing up the mans record, "Nothing out of the ordinary ... Though he's remained at Ensign Rank for an unduly long time. maybe he's not the promotion type who knows. It says here that he as above average 'I.Q' and possesses an eidetic memory, that could account for his uncanny accuracy regarding our time of arrival." "Makes you wonder just how good the Chief Helm Officer is if his Deputy is so exceptional." Clancy commented, taking the offered PADD to read the report for himself. "Maybe the ship is packed with proverbial geniuses." Elena said, half laughing. "According to this, none of the crew have received, or have in fact been put forward for consideration for promotion in the last eighteen months." Clancy continued. "Really ?" Elena said, shocked, as she watched David. He was prowling around the small room eyeing the bulkheads intently, "..... Again ..... Really ?" she said, making Tan turn to face her. "Sorry ..... Call it paranoia." he said, dropping onto the bed once again, "Computer .. Establish a Level Eight force-field around this room. display status of force-field to this rooms' terminal. notify of any attempt to penetrate 'field .. Authorization: Tan-Alpha-Gamma-Two-Two-upsilon." 'Force-field initiated' she ship confirmed as a red pencil-line square appeared on the terminal, the word 'active' blinking as they continued their discussion .......... ETA Deep Range Facility : Three hour nineteen minutes ::Having slept, the four were in the Mess having something to eat. Mia, not having been privy to the long conversation from the previous evening was asking questions, alas, her impatiences was beginning to attract the attention of others of the El Alamein's crew. She asked, a little 'too' loudly if they could be dealing with 'Section 99' ... Elena asked her quietly to tone down her impulsiveness and be patient, they would update her in due course. David had noticed that several of the Officers and crew currently dining had glanced in their direction, quickly returning attention to their meals when Tan had looked up. Could be nothing, idle curiosity, especially if they had supposedly never heard of such an agency, but two of them took a fraction longer than the others to resume eating, both held Tan's stare for one second longer than they should have and alarm bells began ringing in his head. Smiling then nodding to the two he returned to his own fare. "Have there been any further updates from the Facility ?" Mia asked tentatively. "Nothing yet, but that could be a good thing." Elena said, picking up a slice of toast, "At least it's still there." she said with a wry grin before biting into her breakfast ..........
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Iorte Clancy
Starfleet Intelligence
Registered: Mar 9, 2016 17:58:55 GMT
Posts: 248
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Post by Iorte Clancy on May 1, 2016 2:44:09 GMT
Clancy bit into the fried egg held in his hands, Mia sighing in disgust. He put its stringy remnants down and raised an eyebrow, he'd seen the prolonged looks of the two El Alamein officers. Evidently they'd seen to it that their ship be assigned this mission to collect the Intelligence team on Averalan III... regardless of how many of them there were and whether or not they controlled the vessel, he supposed they were going to try to prevent them from carrying out their objectives at Procyon.
Their quarters definitely weren't bugged, Clancy had checked that this morning, and the forcefields according to the local sensors hadn't been disrupted during their sleeps - no one had tried to gain entry. However there was definitely the air of something, well not all that pleasant to the place, even accounting for general ship-bound atmospheres of claustrophobia and so on.
Wise enough not to discuss particulars of their mission in this august company, employees of Section 99 or not, Clancy kept his talk strictly trivial while entertaining ideas in his head, things the four of them generally agreed upon later: no promotion recommendations didn't mean no promotions - if this was Section 99, everything would doubtlessly be done behind the scenes; two, the eagerness of one or more members of the crew to please could simply be an act... perhaps even an act with fortuitous outcomes if, for example, Clancy had recommended M'oir to someone high up in Intelligence, someone that M'oir and Section 99 wouldn't have known about...
Paranoia was infectious, so he dropped the subject and returned to his coffee. Theorised plots against the Federation by either their own agencies or outside force's were all well and good, but it didn't - at this stage at least - get them any closer to working out how to stop Kree and the Alicor from snatching people to the Scutum-Centaurus Arm, supposedly with decreasing and fatal levels of accuracy.
They needed someone aboard they could trust, or to be simply left by the ship at the facility (making sure that it fled Procyon immediately) so they could carry out investigations unhindered; unless something lurked behind the next corner, a vanishing person and her Alicoran interlocutor seeing to the operation, before the four of them reached the dissembled ship in its 'ribcage' with the floating constituents pulsing with renewed energy.
Nearly three hours later they were arriving at the Procyon-B system, now closing in on the research station - very dark on the viewscreen, spindly and looking partially dissembled itself... The intent was of course to make it appear abandoned, ever since it had been the interior had been renovated but the dilapidated look to its outer surfaces had been maintained; inside something alien and unknown lurked. Captain Komin gave her orders and the El Alamein put itself on a trajectory that would settle it into an easy high orbit about a gas giant, from there they would be beamed onto the facility.
Earlier Clancy had accosted Ensign M'oir in the corridor, asking him quite forthrightly what level of security access some, or all, the El Alamein crew possessed.
"You'll recommend me to your superiors?" the Ensign asked brightly.
Clancy frowned, "Well, I might, I read your file as you requested and you're certainly a promising officer... I'll ask them if they need anyone in the records department. Everyone starts somewhere," he excused himself, seeing M'oir's crestfallen look, "In fact in that position you'll be able to sit in on meetings of the highest levels of the brass. It would depend on whether your security clearance already matches that of the Admirals... Like I asked?"
M'oir could say nothing, only awkwardly thanked the Intel officer - it seeming very forced - and stumbled off down the corridor. If Iorte could let M'oir into Intelligence, egging him on with these actually quite accurate promises about getting to meet Tetsutaro et al, perhaps Iorte could pin down exactly what Section 99 wanted in their wishing to infiltrate SF Intel (if M'oir was indeed involved with them). Get him to Tetsutaro's table, taking minutes, then pounce on him and demand of him everything he knew about Section 99.
One of those who'd taken notice of Mia's mention of Section 99 back in the mess hall was now on the bridge, manning the Ops console to port, "Seventy three lifesigns on the station," he confirmed, "As expected in correlation with the last disappearance, Captain."
Clancy glanced at Tan and de Luca; what, so all the crew know about the vanishings? "Hail Admiral Carter. Inform her that her visitors have arrived," Clancy said.
The Ops officer looked around, dark stare fluctuating between his Captain and Iorte, "Who do I take orders from here, sir?"
"You take orders from the mission commanders, Lieutenant Broski," Fran Komin replied, "Here on in this is their mission."
"And what about the civilian, preening there next to the three of them?" Broski asked, surprising Iorte who soon realised what was going on - Broski was acting too, making it seem he (and the other conspirators) were only disaffected members of the El Alamein crew who hadn't been considered for promotion in 18 months. Some of them were playing the 'eager to please officer', while others were playing at being way past that point, the officer who no longer saw any hope for advancement and was on the verge of mutiny. Yes, it was perfect, Iorte thought beaming.
"Lieutenant! You are out of line." The Captain was on her feet, "Any more insubordination and you're restricted to quarters!"
Hmm, a bit too perfect. Carter was hailed and the four of them - Mia again having convinced them to allow her accompaniment- were sent to a transporter room to make ready for departure.
They materialised in flickering darkness, the shadows seeming to jump out possessing a light of their own, something more luminous than the dark shapes bearing the brunt of the weak ceiling illumination that cast those bright shadows. "Check that the El Alamein is away first."
Iorte nodded and withdrew the long range sensor apparatus that he now attached to his tricorder, reading the data on the screen - it showed the El Alamein as leaving the orbit of the gas giant, leaving the system in fact but how far out?
"Now, let's find this Alicor ship." Why weren't they beamed into Carter's own installation, her transporter room? Was this a deliberate move by the El Alamein, deliver them closer to the Alicor ship, down on these disused levels... perhaps give them direct access to the vessel bypassing the Starfleet Admiral that perhaps Komin and her crew weren't subordinate to? Were Komin, Broski, M'oir actually trying to help them, show them what was actually transpiring out here free from 'mainstream' Starfleet interference (Admiral Carter's)? If Section 99, some elements of it - the non-Kree elements, which meant the rest of them - were wanting to counter the Alicor, seeing in the Scutum-Centaurus Arm inhabitants what SF Intel saw...
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Elena de Luca
Starfleet Intelligence
Registered: Dec 14, 2009 0:38:17 GMT
Posts: 265
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Post by Elena de Luca on May 11, 2016 23:01:54 GMT
Elena had watched the scene being played out with interest, wondering which of the El Alamein Officers would realize they were over-acting first, alas, she was disappointed, it seemed they all wanted to out-do each other in the ham-acting stakes ... Finally, they were ushered from the Bridge and to the transporter room, and from there .......
Deep Range Facility ::
Eyes quickly adjusting to the semi-darkness, they spread out so as not to present such a large target to any 'unwanted' attention. Mia began to speak but Elena motioned for her to remain silent.
"Check that the El Alamein is away first." David ordered. Elena tapped her Comm badge and spoke to Captain Komin, who confirmed that the El Alamein was now moving to the outer edge of the System and would await contact from the Intel Team as arranged. While they would keep a watching eye on the Facility, the ship would not be monitoring directly:
"Now ... Let's find this Alicor ship." David said, eyeing their surroundings without much enthusiasm, "Any first thoughts on why we were dropped here ?"
"Two options ....." Elena said, moving to the nearest panel and failing to find any manual controls, spoke to the room itself, "Computer .. Increase illumination to seventy five percent."
"You were saying ?" Iorte said, in their much brighter surroundings.
"Either Komin and her little band of cronies up there are intent on delaying us as much as possible, or she genuinely feels that we could find the Alicor Vessel better without the interference of the Admiral and her staff."
"Are there any signs we've been discovered down here, presuming we 'are' down here, and not in some abandoned section of the Facility ? ... It just occurred to me that if Komin was trying in some way to help, then she may have put us down between the Administration Section, and the Research Section where whatever is left of that ship is being held." David commented.
"I've known the Admiral most of my life." Mia, her frustration finally winning the internal battle between remaining silent and letting these people get on with the task at hand, and the genuine desire to see her closest friend again, interrupted the Officers, "There's no way she would do anything that could hurt Amelia, so why the hell are you treating her like some kind of ENEMY !"
"The readings show that at least some of the larger sections of the Alicor Vessel are approximately six hundred meters away, on a heading of two five five, and almost two hundred meters below our present position." Clancy informed them.
"Then we go that way." Elena decided ..... Leaving the room they headed down a long wide, and conspicuously deserted, pedestrian thoroughfare, almost like one of the Promenades on a Star-Base, yet totally devoid of shops, cafe's in fact anything but blank, unassuming doors. Finally, and still surprisingly unchallenged, they reached a set of massive doors in their path. Elena approached them cautiously and checked the panel to the left:
"Retinal scanner." she said.
"Iorte ...." David said, motioning towards the device. Seconds later the doors parted two meters and came to a very silent halt.
"That was a little 'too' quick for my liking." the Engineer commented.
"Who's scan did you use ?" Elena asked.
"I didn't. I accessed the panel, but before I could do anything the doors slid aside." he said, shrugging, "Possible they were set to allow anyone working on the ship entry I suppose."
"This is all too bloody convenient." Tan said as he stepped through the gap in the doors to be faced with a sloping passageway ... It took them a further thirty minutes before they approached an identical set of doors. This time Iorte simply walked up to the panel and activated it, the doors obligingly separated by the same two meters. The room beyond was in complete darkness, but everyone could 'feel' the power that was within, David looked back the way they had come then stared into the gloom beyond the newly opened doors, "Admiral Carter 'MUST' know we are here by now, why is she leaving us to our own devices ?"
"I'm not .... Commander !" .... They spun in unison to see the lone figure of the elderly Admiral, silhouetted against the vast carcass of the Alicor Vessel. She wasn't alone ... Two men, both armed and eyeing the 'intruders' wearily, were stood a few paces back and to either side of the woman. Before anyone could stop her, Mia ran forward, throwing her arms around the woman whom she had known practically all her life, and while Admiral Carter reciprocated, Elena realized that her eyes told a completely different story, one they may not want to hear, "It was necessary to meet in this way. There are people only too willing to disagree, and almost openly challenge my, shall we say, 'Leadership' of this Facility given current, circumstances."
"Circumstances ?" Elena repeated, causing the Admiral to turn to her.
"I am aware of your credentials, Ms de Luca, but even so I am not used to having my every word questioned." Carter said, disentangling herself from Mia but not having the 'guards' lower their phasers, at least, not for the moment.
"You haven't asked ....." David said, eyebrows raised as he looked at the Admiral.
"Commander ?"
"You're Daughter. You haven't asked if we have any information regarding her whereabouts. I'm curious as to why."
"Do you 'have' any such information ?" the woman asked, like a Headmistress about to scold a child for asking a blatantly stupid question in class, "I thought not. In fact, I know where my Daughter is, and that is in the Riicot System, the home region of the race known as the Alicor, thus my efforts with this Vessel .... Commander. Is she still my Daughter, I cannot say, though if memory serves, 'THAT' is what you were brought here to determine, is it, not ?"
"No, it isn't." Elena interrupted, "Our assignment is to find out 'who' is taking our people and put a stop to that activity. Getting your daughter, along with as many of the countless others that have been taken would be a bonus, but alas, not a priority, Ma'am ... Ideally, we would like to accomplish this with as little fuss and effort as possible, but we all know that isn't how the Universe works, don't we."
"Why didn't we know that Captain Komin had been instructed to transport us to our beam down location on your orders ?" David asked, but the Admiral was beginning to loose her patience, she flung her arms behind her, signifying the vast hanger and the myriad of parts, some a large as a house, some as small as a button, within the hanger.
"Find information to stop this. Find it quickly." she said, and with that she strode from the hanger leaving the Intelligence Officers stunned, and Mia shocked and confused ..........
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Iorte Clancy
Starfleet Intelligence
Registered: Mar 9, 2016 17:58:55 GMT
Posts: 248
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Post by Iorte Clancy on May 14, 2016 14:57:50 GMT
Iorte had been ready to accept that they'd just left a ship full of Section 99 but now he had to rein in his suspicions to possibly just one or two, definitely the appalling actor Lieutenant Broski - who'd been one of those who'd held Tan's stare in the mess hall at Mia's mention of his probable employer - Broski may have been acting for the Admiral, though the mess scene indicated he lay with this shadowy maybe-Federation agency.
Well, where to start, he thought, settling down at a console positioned in front of the window that looked out on the cage that kept the components of the Alicor ship. They had been severed of their leads when they'd left the El Alamein and Galar Kree in its brig - he supposed it wouldn't be too much of a problem to have the El Alamein called and Kree beamed over here, but there were questions about the safety of being in the man/Alicoran's vicinity at any one time given how he had a knack for making people disappear.
Having also lost the elderly agent on Averalan III they had only the bits and pieces of partially reassembled vessel before them to go on. He accessed the console, studying characteristics of the hull sections. They were as reported in the file initially given to him, advanced technology beyond but - it was suspected - not too far beyond the Federation's grasp (for instance he could distinguish a shield generator from a replicator). Replicator? The ship had been manned then, not fully automated to act as a relay as Kree or Yyall had claimed.
Of particular interest though was a form of 'digital signature' one applied to each of the components, certainly not Alicoran given the form of the lettering found along other fragments of the hull and internal systems. "Look at this," he called the nearest of their group over, "A name keeps coming up, applied to all the components, that of Victor Litmus, and it's definitely human."
Having checked the personnel roster of people assigned to the research project and finding no one by that name, Clancy soon discovered that a Victor Litmus had been present on the ore freighter that'd encountered the Alicor ship on its arrival in the Alpha Quadrant five years ago.
"So someone on that freighter managed to 'acquire' the Alicor ship before Starfleet arrived and took it under tow?"
"That's what it looks like."
"No it looks ridiculous, Clancy."
"Well, it might be the Alicor's work after all I suppose... Litmus, who according to this is now living on Betazed, could be an agent of theirs similar to Kree."
It was possible, a rapid escape by Litmus under the guise of a human after somehow claiming a form of ownership of the Alicor ship, which had perhaps allowed for the ship's reconstitution now that, after all, a (disguised) Alicor signature was given to it, activating its systems once the right time came. So what made this the right time? What event had been about to unfold? Or what had been prevented...? Kree's capture? The ship reactivating in response to the kidnapping of one of its people's agents?
"Did you say Victor Litmus?" a lieutenant spoke from behind them, adding "Excuse me," as they turned to him, "Lieutenant Sam Tarrisk. I'm an aide to Admiral Carter. We know Victor Litmus, a petty thief in possession of a Ferengi D'Kora class, he stopped several Federation runabouts operating under Admiral Carter's authority during a supply run from Starbase 23 - Admiral Carter's last posting - to Betazed. He pretended to be a Ferengi whose people had claimed the territory and was imposing duties on ships passing along that lane... The runabouts had to pay up in gold pressed latinum before they found out about Litmus from communications with Carter."
Mia spoke, "And finding this... Litmus might get us closer to getting Amelia back?" She was still obstinate but there were suggestions of hope in her tone. Recovering Amelia Carter... that depended, Iorte thought, if they were correct in thinking Litmus was an Alicoran in unlikely disguise, and if he was still even alive on Betazed - his record said nothing about his current status, only that he'd arrived on the planet four years ago and had checked in and out of the spaceport every year for a few months at a time.
Apparently he was a man of impeccable taste, his stock understandably having risen since his little faux border tax operations; exacting heavy fines, he was able to afford some of the more upmarket locations of Betazed in the supposedly moneyless Federation. Betazed currency would still function as normal, as long as it remained terrestrial Iorte supposed, then again perhaps Litmus's high-living wasn't of the ordinary sort but came from dealings in the underground market where latinum and fake Ferengi would be abound. Oscoid with slices of sadi, for afters espra cheese and a special north continent gateaux topped with uttaberries and finished off with jakarine... uttaberry pudding, and cavat muffins... Litmus certainly knows how to live, if live he still does.
"There's no way we can possibly leave now, can we?" he asked Tan, "The ship could ramp up its reactivation, fully reconstitute itself, and I doubt the Admiral would let us leave even if we wanted to."
They looked at Mia, who seemed helpless to offer them anything of the effect that, by going after Litmus they could recover Amelia or anyone else. "Well," Iorte cleared his throat, "You're not bound by the Admiral's rules, Mia. Perhaps," keeping his voice down, "You leave the station, head for Betazed, find Litmus and ascertain whether he's an Alicor or not... us remaining find a way to shut this thing down," gesturing to the ship.
"Section 99 might be of help."
"Yes and no," Iorte replied, sighing and sitting back, "Whoever's running that agency will no doubt be keeping close tabs on what unfolds here, maybe they'll even be able to tell us something of the workings of that ship if they're so concerned about the Alicor; on the other hand, that they're not after all in control of the El Alamein might make Kree's extraction from there to here less likely, assuming that the S99 aboard it were wanting to help us."
"Well let's get Kree down here, pump him for information on the ship and this... Litmus."
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David Tan
Starfleet Intelligence
Suum Cuique ...
Registered: Dec 11, 2006 10:56:04 GMT
Posts: 790
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Post by David Tan on May 15, 2016 0:29:27 GMT
"Well," Iorte looked at Mia and cleared his throat, "You're not bound by the Admiral's rules .... Perhaps ...." keeping his voice down, "You leave the station, head for Betazed, find Litmus and ascertain whether he's an Alicor or not ... With us remaining to find a way to shut this thing down," he finished, gesturing to the ship. "..... And just how do I do that precisely ?" Mia said, almost laughing out loud at the shear ridiculousness of the suggestion, "I am not 'Intelligence' or even a member of Starfleet for that matter." "That is your advantage." David said, realizing Iorte had hit on the only viable option if they wanted to speak to this Litmus, "You could demand to be taken off here and transported to Betazed. I seriously doubt Kree or the Admiral will drop everything to accommodate you're request, but given you are a friend of the Admiral's daughter, I'm sure passage can be arranged. Once on Betazed, you search out this Litmus and ask some questions." he continued to talk as he worked at one of the terminals. "But, what questions. I wound have no idea where to start." Mia said, suddenly realizing that these people were serious ! "I'm increasing your Security Clearance Level ....." Tan said. "I have a Clearance Level ?" she said, shocked. "Everyone has one, it's just usually set at minimum for your everyday civilian. With this you'll be able to access information others couldn't. it will also get you through doors normally barred to the general public." "No ... NO ! ... I can't do this. You're turning me into a bloody 'SPY' !" she said, extremely worried at the sudden turn of events. "We're not Mia." David said calmly, "All I'm doing is giving you a couple of advantages, just in case you need them. If you don't then no problem. Once this is over and done with you'll go back to being Mia, member of the public." he finished, a grin forming, happy to see Mia was seemingly settling down after her initial concerns. "It still doesn't explain ...... Oh forget it." she said, knowing a loosing battle when she was on the wrong end of one, she slumped into a chair, pointedly ignoring the others. "That's all we had to do to shut her up." Clancy said laughing at the scowl he received. David accessed the Comm system and contacted the Admiral's Office. He nodded to Mia, who reluctantly moved to the screen: "Mia my child. I was informed you had traveled with the people investigating Amelia's, disappearance. How are you holding up ?"
"Hello Admiral ... Yes, I stupidly thought I could help, but I'm in the way and practically useless here. I need to ask a favor ...."
"I'm sending one of my Staff to collect you. You can stay at my home." Admiral Carter said, obviously concerned.
"Thank you Admiral, but I was hoping you would be able to arrange transport, to Batazed ... I have a friend there, Marie, the three of us were at school together ......"
"Marie, yes, I remember her, vaguely, OK, I'll have something organized. You can stay with me tonight, we'll catch-up ... I'll have you on Betazed the day after tomorrow. See you soon my child." the Admiral said warmly. The Comm closed. "Iorte will compile a set of questions. You can revise them and modify as you feel necessary, as long as we get 'something' from the man." Tan said without preamble, Clancy added something: "Feel free to throw the fact you 'might' be connected to people he'd much rather not be looking into him, or his Family. It helps at times." he finished with a shrug as a young woman approached the group. "Lieutenant Nan Yar. I was sent to escort Ms Turner to the Admiral's private quarters." "If you could wait in the other room Lieutenant, we need to say our goodbyes ?" Clancy said, motioning to the door, once alone he turned to Mia and handed her a isolinear-chip, "This contains all the information we have on Litmus and the questions we need answering. If you think of any others then feel free. This can be read by any screen or Tricorder." he placed it in the appropriate slot at the side of the desk-top screen and hit several keys, "Input a code for access." he said, moving aside to allow Mia to sit at the desk. Once done he retrieved the 'chip and handed it to her. ~~~~~~~~~~After saying goodbye to Mia they realized the late hour and decided to get some rest before a fresh start in the morning ..... Admiral Carter's Aide, the young Lieutenant, contacted them to confirm Mia was aboard a transport heading for Betazed. Thanking her they gathered their equipment and headed into the hanger. The sight that greeted them was not what they had expected ! ..... Sections of the Alicor had, by means unknown, re-positioned themselves, not dramatically, but enough to be visible. Smaller sections, or consoles, had now moved together, while larger sections of the hull and the Alicor version of warp nacelles, had seemingly moved in readiness to accept their parent segments. The most astonishing thing was the 'floating' sections .... These, normally connected to either the hull or internal levels of the massive vessel, varying in size from centimeters to dozens of meters, were hanging in position, some almost a hundred meters off the floor of the hanger. What was obviously their version of a drive system was glowing between Persian blue and Sapphire blue, illuminating the cavernous space around in a gently pulsating light. "OK .... Not usually the one for wanting to state the blindingly obvious here, as you know." Elena said, eyeing the suspended sections, "But, if this thing is gradually re-assembling itself, can't we simply 'remove' some vital part or other, and ensure it can't come back. That should put the proverbial damper on it's antics, right ?" "What would you suggest, and how do we go about it ?" David asked. Elena looked at the myriad of floating and static components before settling on one area in particular: "Well, I'm not well up on Star-ship construction." she said, the sarcasm obvious, "But that thing up there looks suspiciously like our M/ARA's does it not ? ... Matter Antimatter Reaction Assembly, for the non-technical. I've no idea what that sixty meter assembly attached to it is, but I'd hazard a guess it's what got that ship over two hundred and seventy 'thousand' light years." "How do we know it won't simply replicate any missing components ?" Tan asked. But Elena shrugged, as obviously she had no way of knowing what removing a piece of the original would do. She walked up to a section of outer hull and tentatively placed her hand on the 'floating' item. With almost no effort she was able to move the section, weighing several metric tonnes, with ease. When she let go it lazily drifted back into position. David picked out a small section, barely a meter across, and pulled it down to the floor. Placing a foot on the section he looked at the others. Seconds passed with nothing, then he suddenly felt heat building up under the foot holding the section in place. Within a minute it was unbearable, and he was forced to lift his foot. The piece of equipment drifted back into it's former position, apparently ignoring David completely. "You could try dragging a bit into the other room ...." Elena commented ..........
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Iorte Clancy
Starfleet Intelligence
Registered: Mar 9, 2016 17:58:55 GMT
Posts: 248
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Post by Iorte Clancy on May 17, 2016 20:52:46 GMT
Kree materialised in the main transporter room of the research station, shown quickly to the facility's own brig with two El Alamein officers helping the undermanned facility staff escort him on his way. The Alicoran sat down in his cell and sighed; he'd supposed he would be helping out the Starfleet Intel officers in their inquiries, answer some of their questions or mislead them anyhow... Get them onto thinking about the Alicor as some benevolent organisation doing their best to provide new lives for unfortunate people in the Federation and elsewhere, showing them - as the Alicor had shown Kree - what else was possible, what other avenues in the depths of the mind could be explored.
With his mental powers, utilising over 90% of his neural cortex, he could break through the forcefields they'd erected before him here and on the El Alamein behind the nearby planet - his reason for not doing so was, rather than leading them into a false sense of security, that he could use the cell's interior as a point from which he could communicate with his people 270,000 lightyears away - for when in the vicinity of other beings there was too much neural interference, from their admittedly underdeveloped brains, to send a message that far and maintain coherence. Here, isolated from the limited beings around him, he could beam whatever thoughts he liked.
Twice on the El Alamein Kree had been approached in his cell by a Lieutenant Broski, and both times he'd got the distinct impression that Broski was employed by the same people he'd been temporarily employed by.
Broski knew nothing, didn't know of the unique nature of Kree/Yyall's mind, his non-human mental integration, and yet he and others - some of them perhaps also on the El Alamein - were of Section 99, and through others of that agency Broski may learn Kree's true identity - for the extralegal Federation agency - originally an offshoot of the then nascent Section 31 - had known that it was an Alicoran who was among their ranks and would confront his race at every opportunity.
"Ah, good to see you again," he smiled at the man being shown into the cell next to his, who returned the smile slightly awkwardly.
* * * * *
Clancy sat with his head in his hands, perched on a chair over a low coffee table in his quarters... Seventeen hours and they hadn't found a way to prevent the ship from putting itself back together again - and when that process was complete who knew what would take place... would it start snatching up every member of the research station, sweep over Federation space displacing hundreds of thousands of lightyears every soul it came across on all 150+ planets?
They'd tried the next room tactic. The test article in question had clunked against the door a few times, or indiscriminately against the wall, against de Luca who'd happened to be standing in the way - no harm done - then after about an hour, no heat build-up to speak of, it'd crackled with arcing electricity, flashing mauve and purple and then shot at something like 50 metres per second through the wall out into the hangar leaving a burning molten red annulus the atmosphere blowing out of which was quickly halted by the raising of a forcefield. The test article had assumed a leisurely pace floating back into the inner workings of the engine assembly (whose components were edging slowly closer to each other, about to interlock in perhaps the next 72 hours.
"Let's not try that again..."
He thought of what else they might be able to try... running a hand over the PADD, well... He exited his quarters with PADD in hand, heading down to the hangar to find Tan present along with a couple of the Admiral's aides - always looking over our shoulders... he shook his head.
"Tan," he nodded, "Where's de Luca?" He pulled up a chair.
Tan seemed shaken from a reverie, or extreme tiredness, "Oh, asleep I think."
"Uh huh, well how about we try this." He placed the PADD before Tan who surveyed it quickly, "Yes, beam half the pieces out to maximum transporter range - we can use the El Alamein as a relay if we so wish, push the alien parts even farther out. My secondary thought was, what if," he pointed at a schematic of the star system, "We position the El Alamein between here and Procyon-B. Beam the segments to the ship in batches, Komin then transports them onwards into the star. What do you think, could Alicoran technology survive the processes of nuclear fusion?"
It seemed as good a plan as any, though given what'd happened with the 'other room tactic' perhaps this technology ought to be shown a bit more respect. "It's risky," Clancy admitted, "They might come charging out of the star and obliterate the research base for all we know."
Tan was about to reply when an alarm went off, sounding similar to a red alert claxon. "What's that?" he murmured, standing.
Heading to the operations centre - with Admiral Carter's office distant on the other side of the large room - they learned that an intruder had been detected around the habitation levels. Residential, permanently assigned (for the duration of the project at least) research staff's quarters. Another alarm went off, "A second intruder, sir," an enlisted scientist said, "Same area."
"Biosignatures?" Clancy asked impatiently.
"Human, by the looks of it. We have a security team headed down there now. Oh," he directed their sight to the science console, "I thought I might mention it, it might be wholly incidental, some anomaly or sensor glitch, but there's some unusual neural activity in these two lifesigns. The distribution of heat in their body is concentrated unusually heavily in the cortex region which, in another species, the Organians for example, I would identify with usage of higher-level brain functions, advanced functions at that."
Clancy and Tan looked at each other, "How fast is that ship coming together now?" Iorte asked, before looking at the scientist, "Your security teams might be in trouble, Petty Officer."
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David Tan
Starfleet Intelligence
Suum Cuique ...
Registered: Dec 11, 2006 10:56:04 GMT
Posts: 790
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Post by David Tan on May 22, 2016 14:09:37 GMT
They were discussing options when the alarm sounded ..... Both were informed that two intruders were now inside the facility, and were heading in their direction.
"How fast is that ship coming together now ?" Iorte asked, before looking back at the scientist, "Your security teams might be in trouble, Petty Officer."
David turned to face the massive vessel, which only now was actually resembling a ship of some description, albeit one that had seemingly come completely apart and was now attempting to reconstruct itself. From what he could tell by the speed, or obvious lack thereof, despite each piece appearing to be moving quicker due to their close proximity, it was still going to take hours before it was whole again,and that's when they would be in trouble, a 'lot' of trouble he thought. he pondered vaguely if in the final seconds it would snap together, come to life, and lurch out of the hanger in seconds .... Elena came running into the hanger, taking a second to appreciate how far along the ship was, before turning to the others:
"I've been bungled in here by a bunch of Security, they seem to think we have company."
"Two intruders, and by the looks of the readings they belong to this thing." Tan said, pointing over his shoulder to indicate the ship, he turned to one of the Security personnel assigned to watch them, "Not that they may be needed, I'm hoping we can seal the hanger doors 'before' they reach us, but to be on the safe side, is there any chance you can arrange for a few more of your people to be in here Lieutenant ?"
"I'll see to it Sir." the man said, speaking into his lapel mic.
They could all now hear a 'humming' coming from the segments, some only centimetres apart. What they decided was the Alicor equivalent of their warp nacelles, were now hanging as if held by an invisible force as the 'pylons' moved beneath and began to reattach themselves. The forward section, almost spherical, was close to completion, and all sections in between were following suit. David was looking at the forward sphere and realized that it was glowing, giving off a mild blue light, which began to spread down the length of the vessel.
"We need to make a decision on what to do." he said, eyeing the newly arrived Security teams, who took up position either side of the doors, "We seal them and we're in here,with that ... If it decides to leave than we'll be going out with it. there's no EVA suits that I can find, so we may be in trouble. I think we have little option here, we can fight off the intruders, who have obviously come for the ship, but I feel the Alicor will just send more if the ship doesn't get off the ground with them aboard ... Or ... we can go with your idea to ship one piece out of here." David finished, after explaining Clancy's idea to Elena.
"I'll contact Captain Komin, you pick out a couple of viable items, ideally something vital to the workings of that thing." Iorte said, snapping open his communicator ... David and Elena moved under the behemoth and looked at what they could get at. Elena pointed out what could be their matter-antimatter reaction matrix. It was much too large for them to manhandle though.
"Those 'could' be the phase inducers, if they even use them. " Elena said, pointing to the six smaller pieces arranged around a central segment, "Or those, could be, 'YES' they could be the phase inducers."
"Then it's them !" David said, going off to garb an antigrav platform and guiding it under the aforementioned pieces they intended to pilfer. Rising, they took hold of two of the phase induces each before lowering to the ground. Iorte was waiting with a crate. Lowering all four inside, they closed the lid as the pieces were already trying to return to their former location. he took a portable welder and sealed the lock and around the join, effectively sealing the pieces inside, he was about to tap his Comm badge once again when Elena voiced a concern:
"Hold on ... If this is in the El Alamein's cargo hold and those pieces decide they have gone far enough ......." Everyone knew what she was getting at: If those pieces did what the first one did, then they could quite possibly pass through Komin's ship like a hot knife through butter !
"OK, we beam this up there and she runs ... 'FAST' ... First sign that the pieces are getting 'restless' she beams the whole package into the Sun." Tan said defiantly. Iorte explained the situation to Captain Komin, who suddenly seemed less eager to assist, but agreed nevertheless, seconds later the crate vanished from sight, just in time, as the two intruders appeared in the doorway ..........
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Iorte Clancy
Starfleet Intelligence
Registered: Mar 9, 2016 17:58:55 GMT
Posts: 248
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Post by Iorte Clancy on May 27, 2016 7:44:28 GMT
Kree stood glaring at the security teams, lifting his arm and with a twist of his fingers propelling the men into the walls to the left and right as he entered the operations centre - with a crackle of breaking bones they slumped to the floor, semi-conscious or much worse. Clothed in white along with his colleague - who'd been incarcerated along with him in the facility's brig - Kree and the other approached the three intelligence officers who'd accosted him so unfortunately on Averalan III.
"Lady, gentlemen," he said, now enclosing himself in a skin-tight forcefield capable of repelling a phaser beam on the weapon's highest setting.
"You were in the brig, Kree," Iorte observed, sure that Kree/Yyall must've found some way of projecting himself through the forcefield and out of his cell.
"Indeed. But how to reconcile that knowledge we were already on the base with our apparent recent intrusion into it?" the Alicoran replied, "Well, I and my colleague here displaced ourselves in space from the cell to the habitation decks, in such a way that we left the station and then emerged back into it - hence the intruder alerts rather than a message from your brig officer. And soon we made our way up to this wonderful nerve centre..."
Clancy could tell that Kree knew of the plan to put six of the phase inducers into the sun; he doubted he'd let on whether it would be successful or not. "The ship's new functionality is what alerted you, implanted in you the need to come here now?" Iorte asked.
"More than that, Mr Lact; its coming together alerted and began the process of summoning all the active Alicor in what you call the Scutum-Centaurus Arm, to convene and discuss this issue and how many of us to send here... We two, being the first interlocutors against your nefarious plan to upset the balance of galactic power. More of our people will arrive to take control of the ship and resume its previous mission."
"Take me as a hostage," Iorte said, stunning the other occupants of the room, except for Tan and de Luca who maintained a passive silence, aware that their Intel colleague must have something in mind. With this stand-off and the impossibility deriving from it of being able to gain a positive outcome, Iorte saw the only way to defuse the tense situation as being to allow himself to be taken prisoner, and thus allow Tan and de Luca to make necessary communications with Captain Komin, and whoever else might be best placed to handle the situation, without Kree and his friend noticing.
"Very well, you're a sucker for punishment, sir," Kree/Yyall beckoned him forward; instantly Iorte felt the icy biting grip - why was his skin so cold? - of Kree's hand as the Alicoran twisted him around and bound his hands behind his back. "I haven't forgotten the human idioms, sir, Galar Kree lives as I do, lives together with himself as one with what was formerly Yyall. You would take away from us stock of the totality, that of the neural data we control in this galaxy?"
* * *
The El Alamein was swinging into place, now relative-stationary in the vacuum, eclipsing the light of Procyon-B and leaving a Defiant class-shaped silhouette in dorsal profile against the white dwarf. The objects had already been beamed into their cargo hold - this was the designated relay point, from which the phase inducers would be beamed into the star.
Komin received the communication from Tan - Clancy, as explained, being currently unavailable... - the objects were to be deposited in the star as planned. Already they were kicking up fuss in the cargo bay, heating the room uniformly to near the melting point of duranium-tritanium (that being the material of the outer hull there was substantial cause for concern). Looking through the surveillance devices in the bay while they'd lasted, the El Alamein officers (Broski - Section 99 agent, amongst them) had seen the room glowing red, the phase inducers on the floor luminescent amorphous shapes of white heat, spinning off knots and bows akin to stellar matter shorn from a star-forming cloud of yellow and tangerine into the surrounding places.
"Gamma radiation off the chart," Broski read off, "Not even duranium is going to protect us from that much longer... Umm, intensity... 1043 Wm-3."
Another crewman's eyes widened - although now having cast off their acting personae it was still amusing to see (from Broski's point of view, who was still 'acting' in a sense, being undercover for Section 99 on this ship and all) the same cringeworthy inflections and all-round wooden performances of the El Alamein crew; something habitual.
"That power output's getting towards the order of gamma ray bursts, from active galaxies and the like," the crewman said. "If we're beaming those into the star, I'd say there's a fair chance something disastrous could happen to the chemical composition, the internal structure of the thing. The whole star could break down, spin off its matter, anything... With that much energy suddenly put in, it might even be reconfigured to be some sort of accidental (or not accidental?) gamma burst emitter, a new type of stellar phenomena neither star nor active galaxy; more active sta- "
"Are you saying whoever's using that partially assembled ship out there at the facility," Broski did his best acting performance, "Could be using those inducers to create something capable of emitting gamma ray bursts?"
Komin was consulted, =/\=Give it a try anyway; from what our Intel friends tell us the pieces may well shoot out of the star back to the research station anyway.=/\=
=/\=Uh, Captain, wouldn't that be a little... dangerous?=/\= the crewman asked.
Section 99 Broski smiled and answered the Captain, =/\=Understood, sir. Ready to execute beam out of phase inducers on your order. Even if they do head back to their fellow ship constituents I'm sure the research facility will be just fine.=/\=
=/\=Beam them, Lieutenant.=/\=
=/\=Yes, sir.=/\= He turned to the transporter panel and input the commands - looking through the surveillance device, he saw thankfully that the inducers were dematerialising, now en route to the star where their energetic gamma ray activity would doubtless play havoc with the star's inner workings, transforming it perhaps...
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David Tan
Starfleet Intelligence
Suum Cuique ...
Registered: Dec 11, 2006 10:56:04 GMT
Posts: 790
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Post by David Tan on May 28, 2016 23:35:10 GMT
It hadn't come as too big a shock that one of the 'intruders' was in fact Kree ....
They had listened to his grand speech regarding the Alicor and their intention to continue harvesting. With Kree instructing his companion, who David had inwardly identified as the man from the freighter who had discovered the Alicor vessel, one Victor Litmus, to dispose of the Federation Officers, Clancy had stepped forward, offering himself as hostage in order to save Tan and de Luca. Neither Officer had commented on his request, realizing he must have something in mind. The three stepped back outside the massive hanger and the doors closed. A red light over the doors signified it had been sealed from outside, which in a sense helped more than hindered.
Their original plan was to send the inducers to the El Alamein, while they would remain to cause as much difficulty to the self-reconstructing vessel as they could. But with Kree and his sidekick taking Iorte, their plans needed to change. Having contacted Captain Komin, they requested to be brought aboard with the six inducers ......
USS El Alamein ::
Heading directly to the Bridge, David and Elena entered as the ship on her final approach to the Star.
"Are you saying whoever's using that partially assembled ship out there at the facility ?" Broski did his best acting performance, "Could be using those inducers to create something capable of emitting gamma ray bursts ?" Komin was consulted.
=^= Give it a try anyway .. From what our Intel friends tell us the pieces may well shoot out of the star back to the research station anyway =^=
=^= Uh .. Captain .. Wouldn't that be a little .. .. dangerous ? =^= the crewman asked. Section 99 Broski smiled and answered the Captain
=^= Understood Sir .. Ready to execute beam out of phase inducers on your order .. Even if they do head back to their fellow ship constituents I'm sure the research facility will be just fine =^=
=^= Beam them Lieutenant =^=
=^= Yes Sir .. Items away .. .. .. =^=
They watched the view-screen intently, and while unable to physically 'see' the area the inducers were transported to, they knew it was in the area shown on-screen. Minutes passed with zero reaction, Elena was about to comment that they had worried themselves for nothing when the Tactical Officer informed them the a quadrant of the star was showing internal anomalous readings ..... Ultraviolet and X-ray electromagnetic radiation was building rapidly. They were going to be caught in the Mother of solar flares if they didn't move, and quickly !
"Helm, come abou ....." Komin began when the ship shuddered, "What the hell was that, the flare ?"
"No Ma'am, impact on the Port shields, something small and travelling very fast, the shield almost buckled under the strain."
"It had to be one of the inducers !" David commented, "At the speed it was travelling, he did a quick mental calculation, and our sensors are showing a small object, weighing approximately ten kilograms, travelling at approximately ten thousand meters per second, it's got to be pushing what, close to half a trillion joules of energy. We're lucky it only glanced off the outer edge of the shields, because a direct hit would have been like being run over by a Galaxy Class. We need to get the hell away from the direct route back to Procyon, and now. If we take one full on we'll be gone before we knew we were hit !"
"Move us one hundred thousand kilometres off the direct line Mister Broski ... Keep a close eye on that star, if it starts to spew flares then don't want on me, warp out of here and circle back, understood ?"
"Yes Sir." ....
As if on cue, the second injector burst forth from the star. This time though, the El Alamein knew what to look for, and with the ship using computer enhancement they watched as the ten kilogram injector arrowed back to it's owner. It was hard to believe that such a small object could destroy a Starship, but it could do just that, all too easily. One of the Bridge Officer asked if it were possible to fire on the injector as it passed, but was informed that even with their enormous computing prowess, locking onto and 'hitting' a target no bigger than a PADD, travelling at ten thousand meters per second, was practically impossible, but it gave David an idea:
"Torpedoes !" he said suddenly, causing everyone to turn to face him, "We pass through the path of the injectors and drop a series of torpedoes. Set for proximity detonation."
"The things are moving too fast. by the time it detonates the injector will be out of range." Bronski stated.
"So we make a second pass ....." Tan said, trying to remember his Academy days and those intently boring classes of theoretical physics and what not, "We drop a series of 'mines' then come about and drop a second group ine hundred thousand kilometres behind. If we can set them to detonate simultaneously, we should, fingers crossed, be blowing the second set as the injector enters the field, right ?" he asked, suddenly unsure of his theory.
"We could have saved ourselves the trouble and just used phasers to disintegrate the damn things in the first place." Elena commented under her breath.
"Captain ! .... X-ray and gamma-ray build-up within the star is reaching critical. A solar flare of magnitude six is imminent." Bronski informed them.
"Divert 'ALL' but essential power to the Aft shields, evacuate all peripheral sections of the ship, move everyone towards the core. Lieutenant Bronski, turn us away from the star, present of aft profile. Do it now please."
"Captain ... What about my idea re dropping mines ?"
"It will have to wait." Komin said, "I can't risk us being damaged, or worse."
"Captain, if those injectors get back to that Alicor vessel,hundreds of thousands, maybe even more, will vanish to serve as their hosts !" David said, but Fran Komin returned her gaze to the view-screen, essentially ending the conversation. Elena walked over to the Captain and spoke quietly for a few seconds.
"...... and he holds this authority ?" Komin asked, eyes flicking to Tan for a split second before returning to Elena, who nodded. Komin stood from the center seat:
"Estimated time to solar flare ?"
"Ninety seconds. It will reach us two minutes later Captain." the Science Officer confirmed."
"Tactical .... Ready a full spread of photon torpedoes, 'Commander' Tan will supply specifics. Helm, restore power to drive systems and be ready to traverse the flight path of those injectors." she turned to Tan, "You know of course that if we're in the way when the next one bursts out of that star we'll be dead before I can say 'told you so' ?"
"We only need to destroy one Captain. I don't doubt for a second that the Alicor will be able to supply a replacement, but it will hold them up." he replied as Komin approached him, taking his arm and leading him to a relatively quiet part of the Bridge before she spoke in a hushed tone, almost con-spiritually:
"That young lady ... I have no idea regarding her actual rank, or yours for that matter. But she says that both she, and you, have the authority to compel me to move into the path of one of those injectors if you deemed it necessary."
"I'm a Commander Captain." David said, trying to defuse the tension.
"No you're not, and we both know it ... All I ask is that if you deem it a requirement to sacrifice the El Alamein, then you allow me to remove my crew prior."
"If our guess regarding the torpedoes works, we'll all be going home non the worse for ware." Tan said, a wry grin on his face. Komin seemed to accept his statements, and returned to her seat. Dan though, wondered if he would actually give the order if necessary ..........
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Iorte Clancy
Starfleet Intelligence
Registered: Mar 9, 2016 17:58:55 GMT
Posts: 248
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Post by Iorte Clancy on Jun 2, 2016 18:40:53 GMT
The three of them walked into the quickly assembling Alicor ship, still missing its five essential components that would make the engine work and propel them and the vessel hundreds of thousands of lightyears into the heart of the Scutum-Centaurus Arm. Clancy was led through dim corridors, some of them still without atmosphere and requiring the equipping of small breather apparatus located in lockers every 20 metres - the ship was usually automated thus was generally without atmosphere, hence the large number of breather lockers.
One section of the vessel was still sliding into place with the one in which they'd stood a moment ago, thus in a particular corridor they'd had to jump a 2 metre gap (any thought of escape at this point was quashed in Clancy when he saw the distance he'd fall if he chose that particular route...)
Iorte was led to the bridge, sat down in a chair towards what he assumed was the aft side (there was no visible viewscreen), while Kree concerned himself around an anonymous console and the other man, who Iorte thought he vaguely recognised, started pottering about in an ante-room back to the Intel agent's right. He pulled against the bonds on his wrists and ankles, testing their strength - no chance that way, there wasn't even any give in them.
"It seems your friends have found a way to counteract the return of the inducers to the ship," Kree beamed from the console, "Clever of you to surrender yourself to us to give them the opportunity to escape. Unfortunately it's too late for them to change the now irreversible process in the Procyon star. It will remain, yes, but now every 15 years it will emit fierce gamma ray bursts directed at Federation core worlds. I have no qualms in telling you this, Clancy, as any effort you make to alter the star's new composition and operation will meet with failure. The Alicor will thus force your people from their worlds, whereupon they'll be made easy pickings for our automated ships in teleporting them to our homeworld."
Litmus, as Kree soon identified the man as, returned from his pottering to stand before Clancy, and now spoke to Kree, "Three phase inducers should be sufficient to power the quantum displacement drive, yes, Yyall?"
"Indeed," Kree/Yyall grinned, "The three that the Starfleet crew may be able to halt in their passage are to be missed, for sure, but nothing will be able to stop us once we recover two more of them."
The man who used to pose as a Ferengi and exact tolls on ships passing to Betazed punched Clancy in the face, now gripping him by his hair, the Intel agent's mouth bloodied, "What's in that mind of yours, eh, Mr Lact?!" Litmus screamed, "Neural, cognitive processes able to grasp the particularities of several spacetimes at once and transit between them at will? What allows you to do this?"
"Oh, you had to bring that up..."
Litmus hit him again, Kree not apparently ready to halt his colleague's aggressive line but not looking pleased - ironic, Clancy thought, both he and Tan had taken this measure (good cop, bad cop) with Kree's elderly associate while back on Averalan III, "If our inducers aren't returned, Clancy, if your colleagues succeed in eliminating them, we'll want what's in that head of yours."
"I've been banished," he replied tiredly, "I can't get anywhere past... ahem, a particular point in time, thus I cannot return from there to just any set of coordinates in space. I'm stuck where I am, right here, right now." In the case of the 'right now', that was purely a personal choice... "My mind will be of no use to you. As I refuse to allow it use of me..."
"He lies! I -"
"He doesn't," Kree interrupted, "I've seen his profile. He's been stranded here in this same body, this same time for over twenty years. He wouldn't return even if he wanted to." Clancy glanced up, finding improbable affinity with the Alicoran and the truth of recognition in his eyes.
"We can only hope for the return of our two phase inducers," Kree said.
"Let me out of these restraints... Perhaps I can help you." If Kree accepted that Iorte had found some vindication for his actions against his own people, he might get a chance to attempt destruction of the ship before the inducers returned, but the Alicorans only laughed.
El Alamein...
"Torpedoes in place," tactical reported, nodding to Komin who in turn nodded to Tan and de Luca.
Broski had expected the inducers to return from the star, but he hadn't expected them to also start massive fluctuations in the star's EM field, not to mention gamma ray burst, or the hints thereof, activity... One thing Section 99 didn't want was the irrevocable transformation of a near-Earth star's chemical composition, internal structure and so on, wishing as they did to contribute to the stability of the United Federation of Planets (while at the same time not being averse to causing the UFP displeasure from time to time, such as destroying a research station...)
The overriding concern for Section 99 was of course the Alicor, and in particular the infiltrator Galar Kree who was the object of a mission of vengeance for the agency. Thus the desire of 99 to destroy the Alicor ship with the lightning speed return of the phase inducers. That however would appear to be going wrong: one, they hadn't received news from the facility that the Alicor ship had been destroyed by the returning fragments, and, primarily two, agent Broski had two SF Intel agents on the bridge trying to prevent all of the remaining inducers from returning there... In a sense he supposed it would help the cause, blocking the inducers' return transit to their waiting vessel, but he wasn't going to give these Intel types a sniff even if it would be for the betterment of 99's cause...
"Sir, I'm losing helm control," he said, acting again (how useful that recently acquired skill was proving to be!) as he programmed weak viruses into the helm computer, having it disable or severely hamper manual and computer-guided input to the thrusters, RCS units and impulse... "We're moving to close to one of the torpedoes... Its proximity sensors will be triggered in less than thirty seconds!"
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David Tan
Starfleet Intelligence
Suum Cuique ...
Registered: Dec 11, 2006 10:56:04 GMT
Posts: 790
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Post by David Tan on Jun 5, 2016 1:11:14 GMT
Making a lazy turn to port, the El Alamein began her run through the projected path of the returning inducers ....
"I'm still picking up increasing radiation on the shields Captain." Lieutenant Broski said.
"Monitor it Lieutenant." Komin ordered, glancing at Tan for a second, her concern obvious.
The El Almein moved into the path and turned to head back towards Proxima. Seconds later they released a series of twelve photon torpedoes. Having disabled the targeting scanners, the torpedoes moved to passive before activating their proximity sensor array. The ship turned and closed on the torpedoes, double-checking they were on a direct line between the Sun and the inducers' intended destination. It was while they were scanning Broski suddenly informed them of a problem:
"Sir, I'm losing helm control ...." he said, acting again possibly, as he programmed weak viruses into the helm computer, having it disable or severely hamper manual and computer-guided input to the thrusters, RCS units and impulse, "We are moving too close to one of the torpedoes ... Its proximity sensors will be triggered in less than thirty seconds !"
"Captain, I'm picking up a massive increase in x-ray emissions from the Star. It's about to eject another inducer." the Tactical Officer informed her. Komin almost jumped out of her seat and spun on Tan, but instantly realized that any recriminations needed to be left until later, if indeed there 'was' any later. She turned to Komin and instructed him to use manoeuvring thrusters, but he had apparently disabled those too.
"Do you have chemical thruster packs installed ?" Tan asked.
"What ?, no."
"Access the torpedoes. Deactivate them now." Komin ordered.
"We can't connect Captain. The torpedoes are denying our access codes."
"What's our heading in relation to the nearest torpedo ?" David asked urgently, frustration growing as the El Alamein Officers looked at their Captain rather than answer his question, "HEADING .... NOW !" he shouted.
"We were beginning to turn away, we're drifting into the path of the closest torpedo, but we are turned away six point three degrees and increasing the angle by zero point five degrees every sixty seconds." he ran to the Tactical station and all-but pushed the Officer aside. He entered numerous commands in quick succession.
"Evacuate the shuttle-bay." he ordered.
"What are you doing Commander !" Komin demanded.
"Increasing the pressure from one atmosphere to fifty six. You have ten seconds to ensure the 'bay is empty." Tan said, seeing Elena move between him and the recently displaced Tactical Officer. He didn't wait for Komin to confirm the shuttle-bay was empty before hitting the activation tab on the panel. The Defiant Class El Alamein shook violently as the shuttle-bay door exploded outwards, blasted away by the massively increased pressure within. The resulting outpouring of air acted like an enormous three second thruster, pushing the three hundred and fifty five thousand tonnes of vessel in the opposite direction ... It wasn't fast by any means, but the increased pressure did adjust the heading of the crippled vessel enough to move her slowly away from the deadly torpedoes .....
"Captain. Picking up an object heading towards us. It will reach us in fifteen seconds."
"Transfer 'ALL' power to the starboard shields." Komin ordered, "If by any chance it is unlucky enough to be caught, we'll be hit hard !" she tapped a Comm link on the panel before her and spoke quickly:
=^= All hands .. Brace for impact .. Brace for impa .. .. .. =^=
The ship was thrown end over end as the two closet photon torpedoes detonated at almost point blank range against their shields. The bridge fell into complete darkness as power throughout the ship failed. Artificial gravity fluctuated, causing people to drift off the deck before being dragged back down unceremoniously. emergency lighting flickered into being and everyone clambered to their feet. Broski was laying semi-conscious on his panel before raising his head, blood ran from a gash ion his forehead, dripping remorselessly. Elena ripped the man's sleeve from his tunic and quickly tied it around his head, hopefully stemming the blood loss long enough for someone better trained to deal with his injury. Others were hurt, but seemed to be coping on their own ....
As the minutes passed, power began to be restored. first to vital systems, then in order of priority. Tan allowed the Tactical Officer to return to his station to scan the area of the blast.
"The last two torpedoes detonated."
"And the inducer ?"
"Impossible to say, but I don't see any trajectory information post explosion, so my guess is we got it."
David turned to Captain Komin:
"That power failure wasn't an accident Captain."
"Why would you say that ?" Komin asked warily.
"Just a hunch." Tan replied shrugging before he went to Elena and spoke quietly as the El Alamein crew fought to regain complete control of their ship. He turned to the Captain once more, "Captain, we need place a further set of torpedoes in the path of those inducers, then we must to return to the Procyon Facility. If we have stopped one of the injectors we need to work on the premise that they used redundancies in their design. Destroying one might not be enough."
"We did your bidding 'Commander' and it almost destroyed 'US' so pardon me if I chose what my ship and crew do next !"
"Please do as he says, Captain ..." Elena asked, a little too menacingly, "We're not here to usurp your authority here Captain. We need your help, and we need it now. If you are unable, or unwilling, then I will have no qualms about relieving you of your command and ordering it done myself. But either way, we're going to re-seed the torpedoes, and return to the Facility."
"How long before we can do as, requested ?" she asked without breaking eye contact with Elena.
"Thirty minutes to having warp back on-line Captain." the Engineer informed her.
"You have fifteen Commander." she said, finally breaking the stare and heading for her ready room ..........
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