USS-Daystrom Alpha mission

[shran]

*door chime sound*
"Enter". said the captain.
Dr. Sarin Taal entered the captain's ready room.
"you wanted to see me, dr. Taal?"
"Yes indeed, captain."
"this is not about my health, I hope?"
"No it isn't, your health is fine, although a bit more excercise would be nice. You spend an awful amount of time behind a desk."
"Then what is it, Sarin?"
"I have been looking after the boy, 1-3-4-Alpha."
"How is he?"
"Well, his average body temperature is 5 Kelvin, and although I have to cut away some ice shards forming over its containment field, everything seems to be fine. I have a request about his situation. May I induce a coma onto his situation, letting him dream, but remaining unconcious? It would help giving me more insight into him. You see, neurons aren't very active at 5 kelvin."
"What wil he dream about? Would it be like a normal dream?"
"Well, the coma isn't exactly like normal sleeping processes. I assume, from earlier occasions and studies, his brain would be active, but that would be quite much everything. He might get time to process his problems residing inside him, he might have to fight them, then again, he can also just dream for a very long time, or just remain in a coma. The human mind is a place we still not know, in spite of almost 500 years of studying it."
"Would the prolonged dreaming have any health risks?"
"Well, sleep is actually quite beneficial to the body, although coma is a different thing. He gets virtually no physical excercise. He has already been frozen once, but he was not in for a long time, but frozen almost instantly. The main problem would be latting him 'thaw' in the right way, and to keep his body into shape while in coma."
"Do you already have the fitting solutions?"
"Well, that would be either altering the containment area, or preparing a section of the holodeck."
"What would you recommend?"
"Altering sickbay by leaving parts of the gravity plating off line would be the easiest way, but with the newly arrived group of slaves we rescued, I think we had at best move him to the holodeck, where we can replicate sickbay by recreating itout of photons and forcefields. And it would give us some extra capacity we might need sooner or later."
"it would be a good idea indeed, but we have an entire ship running doctor, can't we modify the holodeck so the boy gets lesser space, because he doesn't need very much? I mean, a monitoring station for the boy and a fitting containment field would be sufficient, right?"
"You are correct, captain. let's see what else is inside the head of this boy than neurons and solid frozen cells."
"You are given permission to reconstruct a section of sickbay on holodeck 1, in total covering 9 virtual square meters. That would be enough, I presume?"
"Yes, captain, I think I can manage, and it wil be sufficient for the boy, the containment field, a monitoring station and me. Of course we keep that program running permanently."
"Indeed, and I will make sure the fitting amount of power is derived from the power grid of theship to let it run at optimal speed and performance."
"Thank you, Andrew Fletcher."
"You're welcome, Sarin Taal."
The Chief Medical Officer left the room to head for sickbay, to check on the rescued slaves.

[Monroe]

The unauthorized shuttle launch was just as Munro had expected. Talora had been a confidant and ally of Blackstar and had disappeared shortly after the funeral and her ship was missing. It wouldn't take a genius to put together that she went to retrieve Blackstar's body. But why?

Sitting at his desk in his quarters finally out of his suit he loved so much and able to sit and relax in a comfortable environment he looked through the specially modified datascreen in front of him.

Blackstar had mentioned, in her starfleet bio, that she had died once before... Munro stroked the side of his body's shell before. Perhaps Rochey and him would have a chance to seek revenge once this mission was over afterall.

[Minnsky]

He had figured wells had come into some issues that didn't merit shut down but needed his ok before the final step could take place. The idea that it was almost done and he was stuck in the quarters was driving him crazy. Metler had finally taken to looking up things on the computer terminal just to keep his mind off Wells. He had lots of news to catch up on. Admiral changes, ship advances, ship commissioning. It all fascinated him and he was soon fully involved in the new information. The Door chimed a few times and then opened emitting Grr'lek. The officer stood for a few minutes looking at the civilian reading.
"Mr. Minnsky," after no response he tried again unsuccessfully. Moving closer he leaned over and spoke louder. "Mr, Minnsky." Minnsky seamed to note some one talking to him but stayed locked onto the screen. Grr'lek reached out and touched him. Metler looked over, eyes widened for just a second.
"How long have you been there?"
"A few minutes ."
"Oh" There was a long pause, Metler blacked out his screen. "What can I do for you."
"The information you gave us, we have had problems reading it."
"Try running it threw a holomatrix first. The particle mass is used in the coding." Metler turned to the computer counsel. "here I can show you." He brought up some formulas.
"I will pass it on. Now about your ship."
Metler interrupted, "Can I see it?"
A disgrunteled look flashed across the officers face, "Not unless you plan on shutting it down. It has taken over the shuttle bay and we need our bays for our shuttles." He crossed his arms. "it would be nice to know why its acting like it is."
Metler looked at him showing worry. "Its not done yet?"
"No?"
"That's not good," Metler stood, "It should have returned to its normal state by now, all it was changing was the power flow. Basic flow to make it more efficient."
Grr'lek looked at him dubiously. "And you need to make it a reactor to do that?"
"Yes." The answer was not satisfactory so Metler tried again, "I was trying to do them all at once. I tried them one at a time and it didn't work out." The answer seamed to work and Grr'lek nodded.
He said "So there is and issue with it then, one that you can fix I hope?"
"Yes, I need to be there though."
"This way." Grr'lek led the way to the shuttle bay. Both door guards fell in behind them. "I spoke to your companion, he had some strange ideas about what is happing to your ship." There was a pause for response but none was given, "he says it's changing its structure."
Metler looked at him in shock. "That's impossible. You cant just change the hole molecular structure of a ship." He looked away in disgust. "How the hell would you do that?"
"I don't know, but he also seams to think that it has the ability to instantly traverse space."
Metler looked at him, "No," It was a lie, one that was seeable.
Grr'lek nodded, "Why do you have to lie to us?" They entered the bay and shielded their eyes while they adjusted. Wells was bright; its hull was radiant with energy burning inside. As they made their way to his hull they started to perspire.
Melter responded to the question, "Because all I see is war, its all I have ever seen in Starfleet, one war here another here. We should be about peace."
"We are."
Metler looked at him. "Are you, I served on a medical ship, I saw our victims their rotting flesh on the corridors of our ships. Our own men dieing in front of me as I tried to make the weapons work so we could do it all again." They reached Wells and were now drenched in sweat. "I need to get to a compartment it has the shut down chips, I would step back there will be a bit of a vacuum." Grr'lek nodded a no and Metler shrugged. Reaching out he gingerly opened a panel on the side of the ship burning off his fingerprints in the process. Before him lay many chips all lit up. He read them quickly; Well had indeed run into an issue, the particle density was to high, it need a new place to put the extra. He glanced back warily at the officer beside him, "here goes." Reaching out he removed one chip and then pushed a button.
He had lied there was no vacuum. In side the energy burst out, ripping the fabric of the ship to shreds. A force that should never be felt on a ship threw the people through the air ten feet before they skidded to a stop on the floor. There was a resounding crack as one to the security guards broke a leg, then the sound of energy lashing out. Grr'lek landed on his back his hand pressed his com badge, "emergence shuttle bay." He was cut off as the temperature rose burning his supporting hand. With a yelp he pulled it from the deck. Then it all ended. The temperature dropped instantly causing condensation on the deck. The noise disappeared leaving them all deaf. In place of Wells stood a new ship. It had the basic lines of a class 7 but the nessels were gone, replaced by runners that ran the whole length of the ship. In places there were round openings, blue light spilled out of them. In place of the back hull bubbles there were massive ovals, green light peaked out through small pinholes. Another oval was found on the space in between the navigation windows. The most proment change however was the color, gunmetal. Grr'lek looked at Metler. The man was smiling, looking at his ship fully mesmerized.

[Mikey]

Grr'lek looked about as collected as anyone could who had witnessed what had just happened on the flight deck. Licking his burned paw for a moment, he turned toward Minnsky. "You will have some explanations to make," he said simply. "If the process that just took place is in any way harmful, you will have a legal defense to make."

Before Minnsky could protest, Mikey's haggard voice broke in over Grr'lek's comm badge. "Ensign? Report."

Grr'lek replied, "There has been a broad spectrum discharge associated with a subatomic-level change in the structure and composition of Mr. Minnsky's craft." Eying Minnsky oddly, he continued, "It's definitely not a typical shuttle, Commander."

************

In Minnsky's quarters, Mikey paced like a caged animal. Both Mich and Minnsky sat around the table; Mich with a look of vague apprehension at the authority which the Andorian represented, Minnsky with a distant expression as he continued to ponder the success of his work.

"Alright, I'll take the basics... for now," said Mikey, wincing as he turned to Minnsky. Sleeplessness and the rigors of the last few days had finally started to tell on the Andorian, and his rib and kidney injuries had become sore. "I understand that you believe you had to leave Starfleet - even the Federation - to continue your work. That belief, combined with you neurological condition, led you to continue to hide the nature of your work when you were brought on board. You see, I can be reasonable." Mikey sighed, then continued with a bit more steel in his voice, "I CANNOT condone, however, any lie - even one of omission - which puts any member of my crew in jeopardy. So now, it is time for us to discuss that work which was so precious to you." Mikey rose, and began to pace again. He was tired, and the stiffness form his injuries made him irritable. "What happened in that shuttle bay? Can we expect more things to continue to occur? What exactly are you attempting to create?"

[Blackstar the Chakat]

"This is Lt. Commander M'Real requesting clearance to land in the Daystrom's main shuttle bay."

"This is Daystrom flight control. Negative clearance sir. There's a situation going on down there right now."

M'Real growled, "where's the operations officer? He should keep the main bay ready at all times!"

"Sorry sir. He's the one dealing with the situation, personally."

"Fine. Give me clearance the second the bay is clear. M'Real out." She closed the comm channel. "I'm going to have to talk to the ship's ops officer about efficiancy. If this were some sort of evacuation emergency or I had to land immidiatly because an EPS conduit exploded I'd be dead by now." She began pacing in the runabout's small cabin, growling at being forced to wait.

[Minnsky]

They sat in silence for some time, the Andorian becoming more and more impatient. Finally Metler turned to Mich. "I'm stuck aren't I." The realization depressed him. "After two years of hiding, running, calculating. I'm stuck." Mich nodded, not yet able to comfortably talk.
"Yes your stuck, so talk." It was the officer. Standing at the tables edge, arms holding it down.
"From the start, Wells or, as it was then Gallyoff, was technically destroyed three years ago on Guligin fore. The Carpathia was assigned to help repair a teraform station. Some officers went out to check a power converter and lost control of the shuttle. None of them made it. I asked for the shuttle. Captian Pulaskee gave it to me. When I finally got it working again I registered it with CSSM as a science ship. What happened in your shuttle bay." Metler paused glancing away. He was tempted to lie, but the Andorians glare convinced him other wise. "Your engineer would probably understand it better. Your ship was never in danger, and I told your man to step back, they would have been fine." He was stalling and mikey showed his aggravation.
Mich reached over and put his hand on Metlers shoulder. Then rasped, "We never meant to hurt any one."
Minnsky nodded. "I know that, but once they see this, do you know what they do?" he looked at the mikey with new fervor. "Have you ever heard of Section 31?"
"Who hasn't, are you one of them?" The accusation was clear, if he was there would be trouble.
"No, but I killed one once, first life I ever took wore a Starfleet uniform. I shot him point blank with a phaser set on stun. He died right there. That man had killed my friend, then killed five people in a shuttle. The war between two peoples would have been stopped had the mission been completed, but his actions stopped that. In the end the war opened doors for Starfleet to get spies deeper in to the Romulan empire. Wells is not a time ship, but it has the possibility. Men like Vemon would use it start wars." Metler shifted his stance, "In your shuttle bay, Wells particles were assigned to a signature that is in a parallel universe. It works by linking the molecules in a quantum state to were molecules are in a parallel universe. When the ship is destroyed the gravimetric connection with this universe is hampered just enough that the parallel one prevails allowing the ship to snap to the new quardinates. Its," he sighed, "complex."
Mikey stood still, If he had not seen the shuttle with his own eyes the man in front of him would have sounded insane. "You said it wasn't a danger. The shuttle bay is filling with fog from the evaporating moisture. That in it self is a danger."
Metler furrowed his brow, "Main ship systems allow for seventeen liters of fluid. The science for the parallel link would make it impossible to cause harm. I make a hole to the universe, if there is an issue then the ship would fall thru it. That's why she's named Wells. It makes a well thru the quantum barriers. If you suspend the ship in that well you can move thru time and space without time, or space.
"Instant travel, maybe even time travel. It would change freight routes forever. It could change every thing." Mich whispered.
Metler glared at him, "The past is not meant to be tampered with. The past is who we are, change that and we become nothing." His tone exposed the frequent use of that sentence. He looked at Mikey with a hopeful look, "You see why? Can you see why I would hide it, even my companions want to change the past, and instant travel, fleets would be every were, war would be rampant. I saw hole worlds torn apart by there suns, one ship to help them. Its meant to save them, not kill them. Image, hundreds of ships arriving to save the world." He got distant. "to save a crew in space."
Mikey leaned forward, "What's next?" Metler didn't respond, his mind elsewhere.
Mich spoke up, "The next phase will be basic system tests, then launch test. Launch is one month after the change."

[Mikey]

Mikey's comm badge beeped, breaking the tension as he silently pondered what to say to Minnsky. "Commander W'trisk? There is a Lt. Commander M'real on independent assignment from Starfleet waiting to embark her runabout. She wanted to speak with you about not having the main bay clear."

"Is there room in the aft bay?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then WHY by the Great Hearth isn't she embarking there?!"

"Sorry, sir. I'll get to it at once."

"And tell this... whoever she is, that unless she's my replacement, I'll run the operations on this ship as I see fit." Mikey sighed and began pacing again, massaging the bases of his antenna stalks. "I understand your desire for... privacy, Mr. Minnsky, and obviously Section 31 has given you every reason to mistrust Starfleet. But striking out on your own with something like this, jumping from one tramp freighter to another, in relatively lawless areas... I can tell that you're sincere about not wanting this to fall into the wrong hands, but that's just what you've been risking. Nobody may be waiting to take you - and the Wells - into custody, but someone could very easily just take it by force.

"You helped us out a great deal on the away mission, Mr. Minnsky. And you are a Federation citizen, and as such deserving of our protection. My stance will be that as you are not a member of, or working for, Starfleet, your research will be your own and not to be interfered with or co-opted by the crew of this vessel. I'm trusting your word when you say that the Wells poses no danger."

Mikey's badge beeped again. "Lt. Commander M'Real is aboard. She is apparently to have access to the senior staff."

"On my way," replied Mikey with a baleful look. As he went to exit the quarters, he turned back towards Minnsky and said with a wry grin, "I guess you'd better make sure that we can use our bay again, too."

[Blackstar the Chakat]

"It's about time," said M'Real. "The ops officer should have kept the main bay operational. What if there was an emergency?" The 5' 5", black furred Caitian walked briskly down the hall with her tail whipping behind her. To anyone that knew Caitians quickly learned that when the tail whipped around quickly like that, that they were angry.

M'Real walked onto the bridge and to the captain's Ready Room. "Lt. Commander M'Real reporting sir. Here are my orders sir," she handed him the PADD.

"I see," he said, "that you have full access to my staff for this investigation. I didn't realize that the deaths on my crew were so bad that Starfleet intelligence has to interfere."

M'Real shrugged, "perhaps it's a combination of your ineffectiveness and the loss of crewman. On your crew's last away mission, one of your crewman was killed by friendly fire, and another was killed later on after fixing one of the many mistakes made on that mission. I believe Starfeet is also concerned about the fact that two of your senior staff are non-federation citizens and act cavalier about the deaths of their fellow crewman."

"They're officers, and good men. You should not have been brought in."

M'Real interrupted, "no offence captain, but I am following orders. Just as you should do. And off the record, I find it disturbing that the Tholian and Breen officers on this vessel have formed such a strong relationship, that may be responsible for the death of at least one and maybe two of your crew."

"Off the recorded? That sound very racist to me. They are officers and so are you."

M'Real snorted, "on duty, I'll treat them like the officers they are. Off duty, I will say what I want about them, except for anything classified or protected under whatever regulations Starfleet has concerning personal information."

"Fine," said an irritated Captain, "So, how does this 'special operations command' protocol listed here affect my chain of command?"

"Officially, I answer to you and my superiors at Starfleet intelligence. When it comes to giving orders, Commander Andyeskovene Rocheineskina outranks me unless I am giving orders from you or Starfleet intelligence. I also have access to the senior staff. The exact protocol is complicated but essentially I am under your command, not Rocheineskina's, and I am allowed to interview him and the staff as needed. We can deal with any probems that come up as they arise. However, since I doubt I will do much ordering around, other then to report for the interviews, during this investigation, any conflict should be minimal."

The Captain frowned, not liking the new potential problems that could come from this, but since she said few orders taken or given would be coflicting in any way he had hope that there would be no problem. "Commander Rocheineskina accepts Commander Rochey, if you find his name too long to say. I guess I'll inform the senior staff of your addition to the crew at the next staff meeting. Is there anyone you were planning on interviewing first?"

"I have great interest in talking to your operations officer. Since he was involved in the away mission, and I have a bone to pick with him on another matter, he should be first," replied M'Real.

[Minnsky]

Minnsky sat absorbing all that had just happened. Then got to work.
"We need to check the internals, make sure the holo-matirx is aligned right and,"
Mich cut him off, "When was the last time you ate?"
Metler paused for a second, "Right, food then."
They exited the room and Metler was pleasantly surprised to find only one guard. After conveying their destination they followed the man. Minnsky continued,
"and check the power emitters. All systems will have to be powered down as to not accidentally cause any issues with sensors."
"Commander, stop working, you need rest."
"I need rest! You're the one sick. Why are you out and about any way?"
"The doctor says that I'm not contagious."
"Good, that's good." They entered a lift, "deck 10." He said it with out thinking and the security officer glanced at him. "I've been there before." He glanced around a bit then continued on, "we need to check the ships systems and make "
Mich eyed him but it was to no avail. Meter had gone into a zone and wasn't to be broken from it until they were seated. Even then, as they sat, Metler was oblivious to the world around him. A waiter came to the table.
"I will have supplement twenty nine, the commander here will have any Romulan plate." Mich said with out hesitation. He had done this many a time before, "for drinks if I could have supplement one hundred and he black tea strong cold." The waiter left and soon returned with their food. Metler was part way through talking about the density issues when Mich slowly put some food in front of his mouth. There was a second pause and then Minnsky came too.
"How long was I out?"
"A while."
"Right, thanks. Oh good choice on food." They started to eat and Mich spoke
"This doesn't taste right, im used to the food on Wells."
"Yes, well, you get used to it. Wells new core will provide us with the energy needed for this type of material. Though, we will need more fuel, I cant get that here."
"Well, well. If it isn't the only person I know to walk out on a full Starfleet contract."
Metlers eyes widened at the voice and he turned to get a look. A feline figure walked over, and planted her self at the table. "They didn't have clue what to do."
"What are you doing here?" Metler responded surprised.
"I should ask you that, last we knew you were on a shuttle heading for deep space."
"And if I hadn't found the tracker you would have known I hitched some rides."
"You know each other?" Mich interjected trying to clear his convution.
Metler spoke not letting his eyes off M'Real "She was the intelligence officer assigned to my background check during the engineer corps application."
"A clean slate you had too," she nodded over to Mich, "he your lover?"
"No, I don't swing that way."
"If I recall you don't swing much. New guinea pig then?"
Minnsky smiled, "Your tactics to get information wont work on me. But nice try."
"You know me, always curios."
Mikey came into the room and M'Real smiled, "That's my investigation. But I'll be back."

[Mikey]

Mikey sat down at an isolated table in the lounge and ordered a large dish of redbat. He was looking forward to enjoying it alone when a Caitian in command red sat down opposite him uninvited. Correctly guessing that he knew anyone on the staff of lieutenant commander rank or higher, he said flatly, "Lt. Commander M'real, I presume?"

"Very astute," she replied. "I suppose you know why I'm here, as well?"

"To attack my procedural protocols, and then to annoy me while I'm trying to eat? That's just a guess, of course."

"Very witty. In fact, I'm not here for you, specifically, at all. But now that you mention it, I am a bit disturbed by the amount of time I had to wait to embark. Why wasn't the main shuttlebay available?"

"Ah. It's to be criticize first, figure out what in the three hells you're talking about later, is it?" Mikey replied, leaning back and crossing his arms in front of him. "Just so you know, this ship is called an Akira-class, and doesn't have a 'main' shuttlebay - it has two equally functional bays, with auxiliary landing and deck storage for each." He knew he didn't need to be quite so sarcastic and off-putting; but he was exhausted, he was in pain, and he was being deprived of the solitude he wanted at the moment. "The problem you experienced was not one of operational procedure - it was one of an individual error in judgement, and one which I will address."

"Thank you for explaining the situation," said M'real simply. Just as Mikey thought that her company might not be as excruciating as he expected, she continued, "Now, on to the real purpose of my visit. What can you tell me about the deaths of your first two chiefs of security?"

"Honestly, I can't tell you anything more than what's in the offical records. I wasn't immediately involved with either, nor was I a witness to either. I killed MetalHead's attacker, but that's as close as I got."

"Yes, I think I noticed something about that. Curious how you could dispatch a Jem'Hadar elder when an augmented ex-Borg drone could not."

"It's not curious at all. He was an augmented human - I am an all-natural Andorian."

M'real widened her eyes a bit, but saw no hubris in W'trisk's expression. As far as he was concerned, he wasn't boasting - he was simply stating a fact. "Very well. Let's discuss what happened on the recent away mission."

"Let's not." As M'real sat bolt upright, taken aback, Mikey continued, "At least, not right now. I haven't had any sleep since the night before leaving on that mission, and some... friends... are now gone because of it."

"And are they gone because of Commander Rochey's command decisions?" M'real asked eagerly, pouncing on the opportunity. "Or perhaps because of your own actions?"

"MY actions were never anything but to follow orders, using my own discretion within the bounds set by the nature of those orders, my position, and my rank. Commander Rochey's command decisions were just that - decisions based on his position in command of the mission. I never had reason to question his dedication to the goals of the mission or his fitness to command; I would have disobeyed him at the least and attempted to have him step down, or be removed, at the most if I did have such doubts. Nothing has changed." As the waiter arrived with a heaping dish of Andorian redbat which caused M'real to flinch and wrinkle her sensitive nose, Mikey continued, "You can contact me later to make an appointment for any further questions you might have. For know, I still intend to eat in peace."

"Very well. Until then, Mr. W'trisk," said the Caitian as she rose and departed.

After she was out of earshot, Mikey said, "Computer? Compose a private message for Commander Rochey as follows: 'Commander - be prepared for the Caitian Starfleet investigator. She's sharp, and she wants a trophy to take from her hunt. I put off my own questioning, but already had to defend you. I'm sure she'll be looking for you soon.' End message."

[Blackstar the Chakat]

M'real was sweating, and exhausted from fighting her opponent. "He was very defensive of his commander, or at least his orders. Almost Jem'Hadar-like with his devotion to his command structure. I haven't had a chance to meet Rochey yet. Somehow I'm betting he'll be more abrasive and defensive then Mikey." Despite talking, her opponent was able to block each of her attacks, but she was knocked on her back. She preformed a kippup and used her momentum to make a leap and preform a spin and kick her opponent in the back of hir head.

She landed on her opponent's lower back, but was interrupted by Mikey asking, "What the DREK is going on here? Blackstar?"

"Uh...no?" the holographic Blackstar said.

M'real exchanged glances with the hologram, "um...I disliked hir so much that I had to get one last kick in? I programmed hir with all the knowledge I had on hir, from before the away mission. Shi's a formidable opponent in hand to hand combat, and since I haven't found an opponent of equal skill yet, well I decided to make one." She crossed her fingers, hoping it would be a believable story. "Why are you down here? I thought I still had fifteen minutes left."

"Well, the beta shift ops officer detected an anomaly in the communications relay subroutine, and since I was still up I tracked it down to here," explained Mikey.

M'real's mind raced at warp 10 before she came up with an explanation. "Good, I placed that problem in there. To see how efficient your staff really is. I didn't expect you to find it so quick. I'd prefer you not to tell anyone. Not disobey an order to tell someone about it, but not volunteering it, if you know what I mean. The method I used, isn't against regulations or anything it's just frowned upon."

"I can't say I approve of your methods but I guess I understand," said Mikey. "You and Blackstar were friends? Doesn't that mean you shouldn't be involved because of a possible personal vendetta."

M'real gave a grin, "There are some things that prevent that from applying. Besides, I actually requested not to be assigned to this case, however Admiral Norington, the boss of the head of my division, personally requested that I be assigned."

"Hey, could you get off my back?" asked the holo-Blackstar.

"Oh, sorry." M'Real did a back flip and landed on her feet. "We're probably done for tonight."

The hologram nodded and turned away. Shi turned hir head and said, "please take better care of M'Real then you did me. She might be older then me, but she ain't all grown up yet." Then the hologram disappeared.

'As if you were', thought Mikey. "What is that supposed to mean?" asked Mikey.

M'Real shook her head and frowned, "It's nothing. Shi is just a bit protective of me that's all."

"And you programmed that in?" asked Mikey.

M'Real nodded, "ya, to make hir as realistic as possible. Well I'm heading to bed. Good Night Mr. W'trisk."

[Minnsky]

They both watched her go, Metlers eyes lingering a bit longer then Michs.
"She did an investigation on you?" Mich asked taking a bite of food.
Metler kept his eyes on the duo across the room.
"Yes, the Engineering core is highly protected. Any one going in for a meeting has to be checked out. She did me."
"What did she mean by they didn't know what to do?"
Metler went back to his food, "The meeting went well, I showed them some basic ideas, I had all the information my self so that none of it could be taken. I never told them about how far I was on Wells. When I got done my presentation there was an argument between the officers. Some said that the device would fail and would be a waist of time, like the transwarp core, others said it was a great as the genesis device." Metler watched M'Real go and took a bite of food. he glanced back at Mikey and saw him hit his communicator. "We have to get him something, I think I can replicate a good ale, I will have to try." He went back to his food deep in thought about the ale. Mich looked at him a long time before Metler remembered he had been talking about something else. "Right, the core, as I sat there watching them I realized that I had made a mistake, Starfleet couldn't protect my engine. They had let the genesis device get out. So I picked up my things and walked. When I tried to get help from my mother they threatened to pull out of the Utopia Project." He finished his plate.
"So they didn't turn you down, you.."
"I turned them down. I guess they made it look the other way to protect me." Some one came and took the plates. "We have work to do." They stood and waited for the guard to come over.
"How much of a threat is she?" Mich asked.
"Depends, why is she here? If she is here to do something else then we should be fine till she is done, but when she is done then she will start looking around. Starfleet will want this ship."
They exited the room, Minnsky and Mich in the lead much to the guards' disapproval. Metler fell silent has he got things in order in his mind, then stopped suddenly. "Mental disorder?"
Mich who was used to the occasional abrupt stop stopped and looked at him inquisitively.
"He said I had a disorder I was hiding. Am I hiding a disorder?"
The guard almost slammed into the two but came up a few inches short.
"Not that I know of." Mich responded.
"You did my boarding scan, you didn't see anything?"
"Nothing commander."
"How would you hide something like that?"
"I don't know."
"Some nurse you are."
"I wore a few hats on the Olivia Xene."
"Right." He started to move off again when a passing Cardasian caught his eye. With out thinking he said hello in its native tongue.

[Reliant121]

"Tor Nem," Came a male voice. Darel recognised a favoured Cardassian greeting, even though it was a very long time since he had spoken his race's language. He turned to look at his communicator. It surprised him. Two human males, one looking straight at him.
"Tor Nem. Gar Doran Cardassian?" Darel replied.
"Ne Pardiin."
"Interesting. Very Interesting. It surprises me that you know Cardassian." Silence. "No matter. Salutations to you and your friend. Please excuse me but I must get some food. Good day" Darel said, smiling broadly.
He walked over to the Replicators and accessed the Database.
"lets see....what do we have avaliable....lets try....Human database....Regional food....Chinese sounds interesting.....Chicken in Satay sauce...that sounds good....Computer, 'Chicken In Satay sauce'."
"Specify temperature and size."
"Hot, Large."
"Specify drink.
"hmmmm....Iced Tea."
"Specify temperature."
"Oh for godssake, cold! That is the point of ICED tea!!"
Both items materialized on the pad in front of him. He took both and made his way to the back of the room, sitting in at an empty table. He placed all items of cutlery and food in perfect order in front of him and began by consuming a chicken slice.
"Not bad...better when fresh." He withdrew a PADD and looked over the modifications he had made to the helm interface. Blackstar had left a rather uncomfortable seat to deal with. He didn't hold it against her, considering her death and the circumstances that had befallen her. Well...She was supposed to be dead. He sincerely doubted she would have given in to death that easy and there had been indications of someone fitting Blackstars...attitude rising in the civilian sectors.
He settled in to his meal, looking over the hall at the people in the mess hall. One of his favourite past times. Watching people and their attitudes, their routines, their actions could tell you alot about a person...Information that could indeed prove useful

[Sionnach Glic]

For a day or so after Lieutenant Blackstar's apparant death, the ship was a safer place for people who had bad news to report. The reason for this was that the Commander was quite happy with how things had turned out. Lieutenant Blackstar was gone for good, they had mostly achieved their objectives on the mission, and he had gotten off of any possible culpability for the deaths of Lt Blackstar and the unfortunate ensign who had been killed during the mission. The only thing he seemed to have been anoyed about was the loss of his gun on the planet's surface.
A day or so later, everything went back to normal when the ship recieved word that Lt Commander M'Real was arriving to investigate the senior staff of the USS Daystrom. Rochey, in particular, was not pleased with this turn of events, and had become even more unforgiving when it came to dealing out punishments.

"Commander?" Asked the unfortunate ensign who had drawn the short straw and had some bad news to deliver.

"What is it, Ensign?"

"Sir, my superiors thought I should inform you that we detected an anomaly in the comms system."

"What sort of anomaly?" Asked Rochey.

"Well, we're not quite sure, but we think that someone was communicating with someone else off ship."

"Any idea where the transmission was being sent?"

"None, Sir. Whoever it was knew how to stop us finding that out. We barely caught the anomaly at all." The ensign replied, holding out a PADD with the information on it.

"When was this?" Rochey asked, taking the device and glancing over it.

"Last night, Sir." The ensign answered, and then immediately realised he'd phrased that in a very bad way.

"Last night? And it took you this long to decide to inform someone of this?"

"Eh, no Sir. Commander W'trisk was told about it. He went to investigate, and said there was nothing to worry about, but didn't elaborate on what exactly the problem had been."

"Right, I'll speak to W'trisk about this. In the meantime, I want all communications to be monitored closer. I want to know where every communication is being sent to, I want to know who sent them, I want to know when they were sent and I want to know who authorised them to be sent. Also, talk to Lieutenant Munro about enhancing the security systems on the comms, security is his department, and the last thing we need is someone being able to erase all traces of what they were doing. Understood?"

"Aye, Sir."

"Good. Dismissed." With that, the ensign hurried off. Rochey looked around the bridge for a moment, and located Mikey, observing something on one of the consoles. "Commander W'trisk?" He called.

"Sir?" Replied Mikey.

"May I have a word with you?"

"Yes, Sir?" Asked Mikey, walking over to the Commander.

"I've heard you investigated a problem with the comms last night. Correct?"

"Yes, Sir. There was an anomaly in the communications relay subroutine, and since I was still up I tracked it down. Lieutenant Commander M'Real said she placed it there to see how the crew would respond."

"She placed the problem there?" Asked Rochey.

"Yes, Sir." Replied Mikey. The Commander thought about this for a moment. Ever since W'trisk had sent him a brief warning about M'Real, he'd been doing his best to avoid her. That wasn't particularly difficult to achieve, he was the second in command of the Daystrom[/]i, and he was easily able to have an important meeting come up whenever M'Real had tried to schedule a meeting with him. However, perhaps it was time for them to have a little chat.

"Very well. Good work on tracking it down so quickly, but I'd prefer if you'd inform me the next time someone decides to play around with security."

"Yes Sir." Mikey nodded.

"Good. Now, if you'll excuse me." Rochey nodded, and headed over to an unused terminal on the other side of the bridge.

When he got there, he instructed the computer to send a request for a meeting with M'Real in her quarters at 2210. He then sent another request to Lieutenant Munro for a meeting at 2215. This way, he could interrogate M'Real about her messing with the ship's systems, and leave for an "urgent and sadly unavoidable meeting about the ship's security" should M'Real attempt to bring the conversation around to the away mission or Blackstar. He'd be the one asking the questions, today. And he might even come away with a good reason to have M'Real booted off the ship. The Captain wouldn't be too happy about people messing with the ship's systems, and he might just be able to phrase his report on the incident in such a way to get this investigator in some serious trouble.

[Blackstar the Chakat]

M'Real was sleeping when she heard a ring at her door. "Computer time."

"It is 2210 hours."

"What the frig? Who's at the door?"

"Commander Andyeskovene Rocheineskina."

M'Real growled while putting on a robe as she slept in the nude except for a necklace with an egyptian like amulet on it. "Come in." The commander walked in. "I hope you have a darn good reason for interrupting my beauty sleep. Something you should consider by the way."

"That is no way to talk to a superior officer," said Rochey, "I did send a message to set up a meeting at 2210. And you are out of uniform."

"I must have missed the memo. And I'm off duty. I can strut around naked in here and there's nothing you can legally do about it. How about we talk about this tomorrow at 0800 hours. When I can properly interview you."

"I'm not here about the interview, I'm here about you messing with the communications systems," said Rochey.

"A minor test," said M'Real, "to test operation's efficiency. Nothing to worry about. I'm sure you can understand my concern after what happened in the main shuttlebay."

"Who were you communicating with?"

M'Real laughed, "It was a test. I wasn't communicating with anyone. It was a minor adjustment to the communications subroutine. Now I want to see you after tommorow's staff meeting no excuses. I'll be making it clear that we agreed on this tonight, and that nothing short of an attack will get you out of it. Even if I have to make the captain order you to come."

"You are only a Lt. Commander," pointed out Rochey.

"With the authority of Starfleet intelligence behind her. One call to Admiral Norington is all it takes to get you in my office."

"And why would this admiral listen to you?"

"She personally assigned me to this mission. Of coarse we can avoid all that if you simply show up as ordered. But if I had something to hide I wouldn't want to be interviewed either."

"I'm not hiding anything," claimed Rochey.

"Good," said M'Real, "then we shouldn't have a problem."

"There's still the matter of threatening security. I've already contacted security to monitor all ship communications," said Rochey.

M'Real sighed, "I'm not in the mood for hypocrites. I'm in Starfleet intelligence. It's my job to be able to fool my enemies. How can I do that if I can't fool my friends? Do you really think that I can't send a message that this ship wouldn't detect? Although you do have a history of underestimating people."

Rochey glared, "what are you talking about?"

"You've made your own private transmissions with a Tholian ship. As far as underestimating, I think Blackstar would be a perfect example."

"The only thing I underestimated was hir ability to defy the chain of command. Now if you excuse me I have a meeting with Lt. Monroe."

"That's okay, I understand how Tholians like to toy with their prey, but don't like to toyed with," said M'Real. "Don't forget, tommorrow after the staff meeting. No excuses.

She locked her quarter's doors after Rochey left. After making sure she wasn't being monitored she talked into the amulet. "Record and add to message. You were right, he does underestimate people and avoids confrontation. I'll update you when I get a chance. Save messege."