USS-Daystrom Alpha mission

[Teaos]

~~~USS-Daystrom Conference room~~~

All of the senior staff and several other crew members were seated around the long table. Being but a few hours away from there starting location the Captain had called a staff meeting to inform everyone of the current status.

"A Tholian cruiser has agreed to meet with us to chare any information they may have on the area and give us permission to cross into their space hopefully. From that point on we shall work in a system by system pattern scanning for the lost vessels of sign on what has happened to them" The captain stood from his chair and walked over to the wall display which had a map of the sector showing on it.

"As you can see we will be working in the buffer zone between the boarder between the Tholians and ourselves and hopefully in Tholian territory" He said point out there area. "The Sydney will be working the area between stations T-2 to T-7 were several of the ships have gone missing also"

Sitting back down in his chair he looked around at his officers "During the search for the missing ships Commander Rochey will be our primary source of information on the Tholians we may encounter. Commander Teaos will be responsible for the long range scans and the sensor probes we will be launching. Lieutenants Mikey and Jon will jointly be in charge of launching our shuttle fleet for short range scanning missions. Deepcrush will continue to get our fighting units up to spec. I believe several small faults have already shown themselves which should keep Lieutenant Seafort busy for awhile"

"Now that everyone has their primary roles for now I believe Helmsmen Blackstar has a Project he err it has just started" he signaled to Blackstar to take the floor.

"Yes Captain thank you. I have been planning and designing a custom built scout ship for myself for quite some time now. I have the basic designs but would also appreciate any help anyone would be willing to give. Due to the size the features of the ship we will be building it from the ground up and should hopefully have it done with in the month" Shi while swishing her tail backwards in forward.

"Right, well is that everything?" The captain asked looking around the table.

Seeing no one had any major points he dismissed the meeting.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Thorin]

Lieutenant Hewer waited for everyone to leave the room, and the captain noticed this.

"Is there something else, Lieutenant?"

"I didn't think it was worth bringing it up at the briefing, I'm not quite sure what to make of it. Shield emitter seven was showing a zero point zero two percent fluctuation, which is well within Starfleet safety parameters. I decided to go and take a look with Lieutenant Seafort and Chief Nelson. There were no outside signs of it, but there was a fifty percent reduction in transfer effeciency between the generator and the emitter. Lieutenant Seafort replaced the link immediately, and I took it up to the Science labs for analysis. I've had my systems engineers look it at - the link is doing its job just fine; it's being reprogrammed to reduce effeciency. A reduction like this has had two effects; our ventral shields are weakened by thirty eight percent..."

"And?"

"And the generator link could potentially overload, causing a feedback loop to the generator. We would loose all ventral shields, and get a large explosion just two decks away from the warp core."

"How could such a small fluctuation do this?"

"That's the problem, I've never heard of anything like it. I wouldn't have even known to go look at it if I hadn't been specifically analysing each emitter."

"Sabotage?"

"I couldn't say. The link's internal workings is similar to those used on the Intrepid Class ships, it's not impossible that someone simply installed the wrong one. But I checked all systems, everything was scoured!"

"Mr Hewer, do not worry, it's understandable that everyone makes a mistake or misses something. Keep the link in case we need it. Is there anything else?"

Jon was annoyed with himself for missing something, but refrained from making any give away.

"No sir."

Captain Fletcher made a nodding gesture, giving his leave for Jon to leave. He had forgot about the meeting regarding the shuttle at 1930 hours, as he was too busy trying to get some answers. He didn't miss things, he simply didn't. "Forget it," he said to himself. And that's just what he did.

"Seafort to Hewer," said Seafort across his communicator.

"Go ahead," replied Hewer.

"Please meet me on deck 10, section 2, bring a type 8 phase discriminator, there's a problem in the dorsal phaser relay."

"Aye sir."

Jon made his way there, and entered the jefferies tube. Seafort nodded in acknowledgement and Jon passed him the phase discriminator. He tapped a few buttons on the discriminator and put it next to the relay. His tricorder began beeping, and Seafort smiled.

"Sorted, just a small inbalance in the EPS-phaser relay conversion rate. What'd the captain say?"

"Nothing really, I suppose someone just installed the wrong link."

They crawled out of the jefferies tube. "Well Lieutenant, I'm off duty now. Fancy a drink in the mess hall?"

"Yes sir!" said Hewer, just then realising his shift had ended about three hours ago, and relieved that the first full day onboard the Daystrom had come and gone. They'd be at the Tholian border and meeting with their ship in just seven hours. He'd have a drink then get some sleep while he can.

[Mikey]

Finally calling it a night after discussing the scout ship dsign with Blackstar - it wasn't a meeting, because Jon hadn't shown - Mikey decided to finally get the education about talking to the Chakat which he had intended. He couldn't get a read on the big quadruped; he/she seemed to enjoy Mikey's company, but that could simply be due to Andorians' own intricate marriage/procreation practices, and resulting tolerance of such.

Entering the turbolift, Mikey instructed it to take him to senior officers' quarters, then tapped his comm badge. "Ensign McKenzie? Mikey, from ops. If you are available, and Seafort doesn't mind, I'd like to have your input on a project we're working on. If you can, meet me tomorrow at 1930 in the aft shuttlebay."

Arriving at the 'diplomat's' quarters, Mikey paused a second. That 'Cardinal' was a strange duck for a human. He seemed to be a man of passions - almost as much as an Andorian - but who forced himself to keep them under wraps. Not quite like one of those daisy-eating Vulcans...

Beeping at the door, Mikey found himself waiting more than few seconds before hearing an almost-too-cheery, "Enter!" from Cardinal.

The diplomat was standing behind his desk, in the process of slamming down his console screen. He smiled extremely broadly, and said, "Mikey! What can I do for you?"

Mikey's antennae rotated; the human's heart was going a mile a minute. "Er, I wanted to give you this by way of introduction" - Mikey produced a tall, narrow bottle of Andorian ale - "and maybe ask to trade it for a favor. I've been working with the Chakat helm officer, and I would feel more comfortable if you could school me in proper forms of address."

"Well," laughed Cardinal, a model of amiability, "you don't have to bribe me for that! How about over breakfast - say 0700 at the officers' mess?"

"Thank you. I look forward to it..." Mikey sensed that this conversation was now over, whether he wanted or not. Nodding, he backed himself out of the room.

"Mikey?" his comm badge buzzed with the gravelly voice of Ensign Grr'lek, currently at the bridge ops station. The Caitian explained, "Sorry to bother you, sir, but I'm getting... something... on the new subspace vector sweeps you had installed. I didn't want to send it to science until you had seen it, sir."

"On my way," replied Mikey, "and let science know that we might need some sensor analysis..."

[Teaos]

Commander Teaos and Ensign Sternson made their way to the Bridge, technically Teaos was supposed to be their anyway but he had asked one of the Opps crewmen to keep an eye on his station. Not like anything was likely to happen for the moment.

Stepping into the turbo lift the Ensign asked for the bridge.

"So what are these readings that they want us to have a look at?" Teaos asked as the flashing light speed by signaling there accent.

"I'm not to sure, something about the subspace sensors, the opps officer just asked for us to look at something for them, Lieutenant Mikey is already on his way" Sternson said as the turbo lift doors opened to let in two engineering crewmen who signaled they were heading to deck two engineering.

"Subspace sensors? That sounds like something the science department should deal with" Teaos said as he looked over at the ensign.

"Yes they are commander but the Lieutenant apparently has been doing some modifications and sweeps with them" She said as the doors opened to the bridge, Lieutenant Mikey was already there standing by the on duty opps officer next to the Science display panel.

"Hello Lieutenant, I hear you have found something with my sensors" Teaos said putting an emphasis on their rank difference and that this was his station. He might not be one for protocol most of the time but that didn't mean he took to kindly with people messing about with his department with out informing him.

[Granitehewer]

''Cardinal'' deftly swept along the corridors, towards the andorians' vacant quarters, moving more akin in its subtley and guile to a shadowy serpent than a man; a product of years of intensive study at prodigious, yet highly classified special operations schools.
Within the blinking of an eye, ''Cardinal'', entered the quarters, his dextrous hands overcoming any obstacle to his entry and any indicator to his presence, upon the andorians' clan kumari-bureau, he placed an encrypted electronic codex; which read; 'In the name of the merciful and beneficient ancestors of your clan W'trisk , and of that sacred vow, orally transmitted through the last two generations, confined only to the male members of your lineage, the hydra is free, seek out the piper to tame it,unto its casket'
This reiteration of an oath,held sacred, and its implications, were simple, a inviable favour needed to be repaid, for the honour of clan W'trisk, there was danger involved and that the diplomat, needed assistance at any cost, for to renege upon the oath, was a sin far worse than dishonour or death.
With that, 'Alexis' with a wry smile, at the thought of the andorian, realising that the universe, had just gotten smaller, also dropped a note:
'Dear Mikey, your friend Alexis cordially informs you, to address the Chakat, using non-neutral gender terms, to refer to yourself in relation to your esteemed parentage, to readily apply and recieve hugs but also to know the limits of appropriate behaviour and not to misinterpret Chakats' cordiality for anything sordid'
With that ''Cardinal'' slithered out of the quarters' and ''Alexis'' stuttering and clumsily trundled through the corridor, back into his quarters and makeshift office.
Anyone stumbling upon the diplomat,would be hit by a wave of tedium, at this vanilla penpusher...

[Mikey]

Mikey stood at attention, somewhat surprised by the rank-pulling shown by this otherwise lackadaisical-seeming officer. "Begging the Commander's pardon, sir," replied Mikey, "but I did attempt to contact you, if you remember, at approximately 1300 hours the day before our departure to discuss the matter, sir. I merely delayed transferring the new functions to the science station while awaiting your preference of interface displays, sir. Grr'lek, go with Ensign Sternson and shift all sensor functionality to science."

Teaos cocked an eye at the ops officer. "Yes, anyway..."

"The matter is this, sir. What I added was a function to detect subspace vectors and delta-v; we used on my last boat, and I thought you could make use of it here. What we found just now, sir, seems to be a subspace object, matching our velocity but changing relative position randomly, but..."

"But WHAT, Lieutenant?"

"I did not approach Commander Rochey or Captain Fletcher, sir, because according to all standard scans of the area where the body in question appears, there is NOTHING THERE, sir. I have already dispatched the pertinent sensor logs to Lt. Seafort to determine if a hardware error is to blame, and if not... if not I thought your analysis should come into play before a report is issued, sir."

Somewhat mollified by the Andorian's deference, Teaos said, "Rightly done, Lieutenant. Sternson - transfer all this to the lab. I can work more easily there. Thank you, Lieutenant."

"Aye, sir," said Mikey, and then to the brown-furred Caitian, "Good pick-up, Grr'lek. Knock off when you're done with the interface transfer - have Smith pick up the remainder of your shift."

Striding back to his quarters, Mikey intended to improvise a little on his flabbjellah, maybe a blues in a minor key, to calm down before bed - he was due to meet Alexis at 0700. When he entered his quarters, however, all intentions and appointments fled from his mind. Looking at the ciphered and closed electronic book, he finally broke the code with a simple voice authorization. He read it; then read it again, recognizing an incantation his great-grandfather had only heard of...

Reading the note on the PADD which dropped from the codex, Mikey gaped. "How in the three frozen hells could he have known about the oath? And what in the name of The Great Hearth could he want from ME?"

[Thorin]

Captain's Log, Stardate 57881.1

"We have arrived at the designated co-ordinates on Tholian border, and are awaiting the arrivial of our escort. Our first day on the Daystrom has not been uneventful, with various anomolies taking a prominant stance around the ship; mainly hardware faults, admittedly. It was not unexpected after such a major refit, and I have absolute trust that my new crew have the ability to deal with the situation. The operations and science departments have already started long range scans for any clues as to the disappearances of the ships, however from this distance, it is unlikely to wield any results. For that, we need access to Tholian space.

End Log."

Jon had woken up a half hour earlier, and was sat at his tactical station on the bridge, consistently scanning the vicinity for any tactical threat. Every now and again he'd get a reading on Lieutenant Mikey's modified subspace sensors, but he couldn't make heads nor tails of it, and he was told to ignore them until the diagnostics on the previously acquired logs were complete. Ensign Smith had been commandeered by Commander Teaos and Lieutenant Mikey, he thought to himself, however as Jon didn't urgently need him at the moment, he laughed it off.

"Captain, I am picking up a Tholian cruiser on an intercept course at high warp, it will arrive in two hours," said Lieutenant Mikey as he maintained a constant sensor lock on the vessel. He had spent hours wondering over what he saw in his quarters, but thought it best to leave it until later.

"Commander Teaos to the bridge," said Captain Fletcher into the intercom. The Commander was in the science department, continuing diagnostics on the sensor logs. He had, at least, worked out one thing; Mikey's modified sensors worked perfectly, but having never worked with such a calibration, he had little more success making sense of them than Hewer.

"Captain, it is standard procedure for this type of cruiser to approach any alien vessel with weapons and shields online. They will not fire, but it may be a good idea to return the gesture," said Commander Rochey to the captain.

"Agreed," replied the Captain, "Yellow alert. Raise shields and ready phasers Lieutenant. Leave the torpedos and make no weapons lock."

Jon nodded his head and did as ordered. Commander Teaos exited the turbolift and stepped onto the bridge.

[Blackstar the Chakat]

Blackstar was busy pacing back and forth in hir quarters trying to decide how shi should explain to the captain to never refer to hir as an it without risking a court marshal. Blackstar tried writing it out on a PADD but shi had a hard time phrasing it. Shi decided to talk to him face to face in the morning, and hopefuly he wouldn't trigger any of the pranks shi had set up for him, without thinking. Or making sure shi could stop them. Not being able to sleep shi decided to get something done.

Blackstar pulled out a device that many would look like a standard tricorder with a dirty yellow paint job and activated it. "Sally, please pull up the plans for the Betas on my viewscreen."

"Working. So did you have a nice day? Meet anyone new? Any potential mates?" A torpedo shaped device appeared on the screen.

"You're awefully nosey for an AI. And I did Meet a handsom Andorian called Mikey who is helping me build a new scout shuttle. And don't you dare ask about his genitals."

"That's Okay, I already hacked his medical files. He has my okay."

"Sally! I told you no hacking without permission. Now lets see what we can find on Tholian Web emitters."

---

It wasn't until Sally reminded hir of the time that Blackstar stopped working on the Betas and got ready for hir shift. When Blackstar reached the bridge shi was only half surprised when the captain asked hir into his ready room. "now I'm not sure why you're mad but rigging my sonic shower to make my hair stand on end is not how a Starfleet officer handles it. Nor do they put a whoopie cushion on the Captains chair or put a vibrater on my doorstep."

"I'll take credit for the first two, but the last one sounds like someone's interested in you. And I'm mad because you called me an it in front of the senior staff. That suggests genderless, and possible feral-ness. My species might resemble animals, but we're physically superior to animals and humans and I'm proud of that, and what I've managed to accomplish."

TBC...

[Blackstar the Chakat]

The captain leaned back and said, "i didn't realize it was that important to you. Now I'm going to let you off with double-shifts the rest of the week, since I can't prove anything, as long as you make a full report to security about what you did to bypass them. And Next time talk to me about this type of stuff. Now whe're both due on the bridge. Dismissed."

Blackstar was relived that the captain didn't come down too hard. Shi grabbed a coffee from the replicater and was about halfway though it when shi realized it was prune juice. Shi smiled and laughed, "i suppose turnabout is fair play. Nice to know the captain can take a joke."

Hir ears perked up as the yellow alert sounded. Shi dashed to hir position at the helm ready for anything.

[Teaos]

Commander Teaos and three of his science staff were going over the sensor readings from the sub space sweeps. He had sent Ensign Sternson to man the consol on the bridge to report on any addition readings and do the usually duty now that they were in Yellow alert and about to encounter and Tholian vessel and hopefully pass into Tholian space. Two more of his staff were checking the sensors themselves. With readings this unusual he didn't put it pass that bloody Andorian to up screwed up his sensors Subspace sensors were not toys to be played with at will. So far everything seemed in order but he had ordered a complete diagnostic which would take several more hours to fill.

With such limited facilities and staff he was using every one of his staff to go over the recordings. They were a nice break from the usual mapping and scanning he did but he preferred to work at his own pace.

As far as they could tell so far there was defiantly something there. Ever time the anomaly showed up on his sensors it was of the same makeup. Unless it was a sensor malfunction which despite what he had though seemed unlikely there was something out there that was following the ship or being dragged behind it. His initial thought had been some sort of subspace anomaly which had been caught up in the warp slipstream but that seemed unlikely as it kept disappearing.

The voice of the on duty operations officer rang out through the ship "All Senior staff report to the Bridge"

Informing his crew to continue working with out him the Commander made his way to the bridge.

Stepping off the Turbo lift he made his way to the science station having a brief whispered conversation with Sternson before dismissing her to take his place back at the lab. Long range sensors showed the Tholian cruiser to be only thirty minutes away.

Captain Fletcher turned to Mikey who had taken his post at Opps "Can we get them on screen yet Lieutenant?"

"Any moment now Captain"

"Good, lets just hope they grant us access to their space" He said as the view screen changed from the usual image of stars to that of the sleek red Tholian Cruiser.

[Granitehewer]

''Alexis'' poured onto the bridge, clutching a mass of padds, like a man who'd never had the use of his own hands before, and obviously spent too long, orally dictating notes to staff or machines........
Although to his credit, 'Alexis' was wearing the awkward, rigidly starched, formal diplomacy-wear, usually reserved for meeting dignitaries of the highest calibre or bloodline, also noted by Fletcher, to a wry grin, was that most of the padds, were infact inactive, and appeared to be hastily replicated shells that perfectly mimiced the appearance of a padd....
Clearly the excessive dress and scholarly column of padds, would impress the Tholian Heavy Cruiser commander, appealling to the Tholians' academic intrigue; and to the societally repressed, but still simmering below the husk of apathy...vainity.
'Bring me, my latte!' 'Alexis' boomed, then softened, 'then we can play, discussing treaty, talk about crabgrass, whatever it takes'

[Mikey]

"Mr. Harrison," said Mikey after the diplomat had received his beverage, his tone all friendliness, "since you have expressed such an interest in Andorian history, perhaps you could join me in the holodeck about 15 minutes after the contact mission is complete... I have something to show you."

His smile disappearing, Mikey returned his attention to his station. "Captain, I have the Starfleet Intel report up now. Would you like it in your ready room?" he asked, eyeing the Tholian first officer.

"No, no, let's hear it," said the captain. "Perhaps Commander Rochey will be able to fill in the blanks..."

"Aye, sir. Tholian web capability, augmented by a multi-vector capability with each segment and auxiliary craft serving as relays. Two isokinetic cannons, high yield but believed relatively ineffective against shields; four disruptor emitters of medium yield. Hull of an unusual crystalline substance, expected to be fairly resistant to impact. Power systems and additional weaponry unclear; further intel or scans may be indicated." With this last, Mikey glanced pointedly at Rochey, then Teaos.

When Captain Fletcher turned his attention back to the viewscreen, Mikey turned to the chief engineer at the wall console behind him. "Lieutenant Seafort, were you able to make anything out of the sensor logs I sent? I'd bet my left grell'nor that there was no malfunction, but I'd like proof." Turning back to the first officer's position, he said, "Commander?"

"You're intelligence seems adequate," grated the Tholian. As far as additional weapons, I'm afraid I can't say."

Fletcher turned to look at Rochey and appeared to be trying to select one from a dozen replies, but at that moment a quiet alarm beeped on Mikey's console. "Captain, we are being hailed. Onscreen?"

[Teaos]

The view screen flickered to an image if the crystalline upper body of a Tholian flanked by two other standing at rigid attention. The entire bridge was bathed in a soft red haze which made it difficult to see any details beyond the Tholian Captain.

"I am Captain Kraytar of the Tholian assembly's battle Cruiser Drekma" The grating voice of the Tholians rang out through the Bridge.

Captain Fletcher was standing at attention flanked on his right by Commander Rochey and on his left by Ambassador Harrison "I am Captain Fletcher of the Federation starship Daystrom, we are here as agreed to request permission to pass into your space to look for our missing vessels. I believe the relevant details were in the transmission we sent"

"We received your transmission. You have been granted limited access to our space to conduct your search, you are to stay with in a hundred and fifty light-year distance of the boarder, any breach of this limit will be dealt with with extreme prejudice" Kraytar said before immediately closing down transmission.

"The Tholian vessel is departing at high warp captain" Hewer said from his station. He had been standing ready to fire ever since the Tholian vessel came in range. He was not comfortable doing negations with shields up and weapons armed.

"I'm not picking up any other vessels on long range scans captain" Teaos said from his station were he continued to scroll through the scans of the area.

"Anything else on scans?" asked as he sat back down indicating everyone should stand down from the yellow alert.

"Nothing relevant, sir" Teaos said as he once again picked up a bleep on the scanners.

~~~Briefing room~~~

"We have been granted access into Tholian space up to a hundred and fifty light-years into Tholian space, while not ideal it is about as good as we could have hoped for" Fletcher said from his seat at the head of the table.

"I think it would be best if the get this done as soon as possible, I have no intention of over staying our welcome here. The Daystrom will be conducting long range scans along this course" He said indicating a line that ran parallel to the boarder. We will be launching our shuttle fleet to conduct scans of the local planetary systems to search for signs of our missing craft"

"Lieutenant Deepcrush I want you to take oversee the shuttle fleet during its search, we'll be launching four of our fighters to do short range patrols on the area for protection. Due to their limited range they will only be able to do fourteen hour patrols before returning to ship to relaunch" Deepcrush nodded making a note on his PADD.

"Commander Teaos your to oversee the long range scans and launch any sensor probes you feel are necessary. Lieutenant Mikey can assist in the sensor sweeps to free up some of your time. Seafort I think you'll have your hands full keeping out shuttle fleet moving. I want them out of here as soon as possible and for our fighters to rotated out"

"The rest of you have your assigned duties. Dismissed"

[Granitehewer]

'Alexis' looked fairly ruffled; and 'Cardinal' knew that the Tholian Commander and Vessel, were not those designated to meet with the Daystrom at these coordinates, and for the tholians to be mildly unpunctual was a sin unto itself, nevermind spontaneously rotating vessels and officers, without first a full beauocratic wedge of administrative paperwork being submitted to the Daystrom......
''Forgive me, Commander Teaos, but Mikey and i have a prior yet brief appointment to fulfill, one of a personal-cultural nature, i would request his company, and your leave, for the briefest of conversations''

[Mikey]

Having briefly stopped in his quarters for a change of clothes and some odds and ends, Mikey had the holodeck already running. Harrison stepped in to a confusion of smoke, sparks, and black-clad Andorians - some hard at work, some dead with greivous injuries. It was the heavily-damaged bridge of an ancient Kumari-class Andorian cruiser.

"Computer, freeze program." Mikey remained moving forward amid the other now-frozen Andorians, dressed likewise in balck leather, complete with baldric. "Welcome, Mr. Harrison," he smiled, "to my recreation of the Battle of Weytahn, in which my great-great-grandfather established the standing of clan Trisk. You see, as far as anyone will know, we ARE discussing Andorian history. Regarding my people's lore, did you know that the Lernaean oath, if issued under questionable cause, may be challenged by the ushaan? Or that, while we may look slender and fragile to some, our dense structure and semi-chitinous skin make us considerably stronger and tougher than humans? Add to that the fact that we train from childhood in lethal combat styles..."

"Phenomenal," replied Harrison sarcastically. "I imagine you're wondering -"

Mikey's smile took on a predatory cast. "Here's a tidbit," he interrupted. "Before we helped establish the Federation, Andorian weapons such as this" - Mikey brandished the Andorian Imperial Guard pistol which had hung at his hip - "possessed no 'stun' setting at all."

"What is the point of all this?" asked Harrison with some bravado, although Mikey could detect the human's temperature rise and heart rate increase.

Mikey's smile disappeared as he drew close to Harrison, his sidearm still unholstered. "Just this: you are no simple diplomat. I want to know who you are; and while you have no claim over me - at least none that I couldn't void by legally killing you in the ushaan - you have, er, intrigued me. What would you ask of me? And if is detrimental to this ship, this crew, or the Federation, why shouldn't I kill you anyway?

Mikey tapped his comm badge. "Lt. Deepcrush," he said, "I'm afraid my appointment has ran over slightly. I will join you in the forward shuttlebay to brief my flight crews and assign escort chiefs in one hour."

"There, now," said Mikey to Harrison, still carelessly waving the pistol, "we have some time to talk."[/i]