You Can't Judge A Planet By Its Dilithium

[Thundera]

ON: <<Hotel Direidi>>
< Conference Room, 1720, Day 3>

Cheetara sat there listening to everything that had been going on, and about all the scans. She was peticularly curious about the 'fluctuations' that were going on everywhere. As the Chief sat down, Cheetara stood up slowly, as if 'scared' to reveal what had happened to her only days before.

Isabel looked over to see Cheetara standing. "Yes Lieutenant? You have something to add?"

Cheetara looked around the room slowly as she answered. "I'm not really sure how to say this. It's probably something that I should have mentioned a few days ago when it happened, but I didn't want to worry anyone."

Quirking an eyebrow, Isabel said, "Go on."

"Well, it happened when we all got to our rooms. I was just putting a few things up and chekcing out the room for any security flaws in them. There were a few things that I began to investigate as I walked around. The next thing I remember, I'm waking up from laying across the bed. And not laying the normal way. About 4 hours had passed, and I had no recollection of what had happened." she explained

Isabel considered this a moment. She wasn't overly thrilled to know something like this had happened to one of her officers. "Do you have any ideas as to what happened?"

"I haven't been able to find an exact explanation yet. That's another reason that I haven't said anything before. But there's more to this." Cheetara replied and paused. "You see, even though I don't have a recollection of the actual events that happened, something else has been going on with me as well since then. Something most people would call 'crazy'."

"And that is?"

Cheetara knew that she had to finish saying what she began. She know wished she hadn't said anything from the expressions she saw around the room. But she swallowed her pride and continued. "Well Captain, I've been getting random spontaneous images in my mind. I have no idea as to from where or why. I'm not sure if they would be considered 'visions' or even 'premanitions'. As if I'm receiving random images from people. As if my human heritage is starting to expand."

This was getting stranger by the minute, though still fascinating. "Can you make any of them out?"

"That's the problem. It varies. And I'm not even sure if it's present, past, or future images. So I don't really know what is real, what WAS real, or what WILL BE real."

"Do you have any theories as to what could be causing this, Lieutenant?"

"I have come up with one possible cause after listening to everything that has been said. But it may be far fetched", Cheetara replied.

Possibilities were better than nothing...and Isabel preferred to have something, "What is it?"

"Well it appears that everyone has been getting strange fluctuations readings in the atmosphere, as well as what happens with the symbiote when Barrett gets near an EM field. Not to mention me passing out and now having some kind of images in my head. In addition to that, you then have the scans with 'inert organic' life on the building. What if it was actually all connected?"

'Hmm, interesting theory, Lieutenant. You think it's also causing these images you're seeing then?"

"I'm not really sure what to think about these images really. I do think that it's possible that they are being caused by these random fluctuations. Just as it messes up with the tricorder readings. I think that just maybe, when these fluctuations hit into my borg circuitry, it's causing my brain to have more electrical impulses inabling my Betazoid abilities to further inhance beyond where they should be. Thus giving me these so called 'visions'." she answered.

"Thank you for the information Lieutenant." Isabel nodded, then looked around the room at her crew, "Anyone have any other thoughts on this, or would Mr. Hunt or Ms. Sovereign like to share what they found?"

Cheetara sat down quietly to listen to anyone else that could possibly give more reasons to support her theory.


OFF: A JP By

Captain Isabel Kersare
Commanding Officer
USS Malinche NCC 38897-B

and

[Sovereign]

ON:<< Hotel Direidi, Conference Room, 1725, Day 3>>

At the call of the captain, Yrel spoke up while remaining seated.

"As Soren's already confirmed, the search in the basement resulted in nothing beyond energy fluctuations which were too evasive to work the tricorders into scanning more. But, it's not isolated to the basement, either. Very weak, highly erractic readings can be detected from all most anywhere when you know what you're looking for," she paused. "It certainly seems that it may be related to Thundera's experiences, given the EM basis of the readings and her borg-laced skeleton. My concern though, I've already brought up with you captain, is that there may be health risks associated with these EM readings, which the doctor might want to look into."

She stopped again to shift a little more comfortably in her chair. Getting used to all the attention by everyone in the lounge was not going to be easy. Afterall, she had only been a science officer on both her previous missions, not even assistant cheif at that. She shrugged it off though, as her duty requested of her. Small personal issues were not to be dealt with now.

"As for setting up something to get a read on these fluctuations in basement. That's actually easy enough. If I have permission, I could go up to the Malinche and get an enchancer. If the ship doesn't have one, which may be possible - no offense, captain - making one wouldn't be too hard. I could synthesis one from scratch in a couple hours, or in an hour with help from ops or engineering."

[Peters]

<Direidi Sewer System, Unknown location, 1815>

"I'm telling you, we're going in circles... We've passed that same bit of graffiti three times," Peters said, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. "And it's getting WAY too hot down here."

He was at least finally dried off from his plunge into the water an hour ago. Unfortunately, they still had no idea where they were or if they were still being pursued. Still, they hadn't been caught yet, so some things were still going their way.

Mark grunted. He had lost his directions half an hour ago but, to avoid Peters' annoying behavior he had kept that information to himself. After all, who could understand that sewers layout? It looked like a maze instead place where people flushed dejects.

"Maybe if you stopped complaining and actually suggest something useful we could be out here", replied Grayson, looking around the tunnel. Yeah, that was the third time they were passing there. "Look, Peters, we lost the pursuit and in the process of doing that, we got lost too. So, shut the hell up , let's find a sewer hatch and get hell out of here". Mark wasn't exactly hiding his foul mood.

Peters grunted and peered upward. "I think I see one... about 5 meters ahead." He pointed to where he was looking and looked towards Grayson.

"Well, what are you waiting for? An invitation? Pop the damn thing and take a look outside", replied Mark, reaching to the tunnel hatch. He looked back and saw Peters standing there, looking miserable. "Ok, ok... I'll open it", said Grayson climb the stairs leading to the hatch. With little effort he pulled the hatch away.

He took a look outside and his shoulders slumped. "You got to be kidding", mumbled him.

Peters looked up sharply. "What?!" Now he wished he had gone up to open the cover himself. "What do you see? Not more cops, I hope."

"Not exactly", replied Mark. "It seems, uh, that we're back where we started", said him with disheartened voice.

"We're WHAT?" Peters gaped. "Of all the... We've been wandering for an hour and we've gone in a circle..."

"I know!", snapped Grayson. "I know that", said him more softly. "We have a choice now. Either we keep running around the sewers or we take a chance and make a run for it in the open. We should stay down here".

"Alright, we stay down here," Peters conceded, "But this time I lead."

Mark climbed down and shrugged. "Sure, take the lead, Peters. If you can take us out of here, I'm more than happy to give you the lead". Inside, he doubted Peters could do any better than him. But, why not give the other man a chance to embarrass himself? Surely, Mark had had enough of it.

Peters grunted and started off, rounding the first corner he saw to the left, and marching into the semi-darkness. He wished they'd thought to bring lights with them, but who would have thought they'd end up in the sewer. He looked over his shoulder to see Grayson a couple meters behind him. "Doing alright back there?"

"I'm lost in alien sewer, running from alien officials, after escaping a jail... And you asks me if I'm alright? That's rich", replied Mark, ironically. "Do you have an idea which direction we're taking or you're just going to start walking randomly through the tunnels ?", asked him.

"I'm going straight ahead. As long as the tunnel continues going straight, we can't go in circles." Peters chuckled. "Join Starfleet and see the Universe, they said. I sure don't remember any mention of hikes through sewers or falls down garbage chutes in the recruiting brochures."

"The brochures didn't mention that waving your hand you would convince aliens to let us go away either, Peters. And, yet, that happened", quipped Grayson.

"Hey, I'm not the one who knocked over a bucket and got us caught the second time in as many hours," Peters shot back.

Mark didn't reply. He was too busy listening to something. "Shh! Someone's coming", he said, pointing behind them.

"Wonder if they're after us or just in the wrong place at the wrong time?" Peters mumbled, half to himself.

"I don't know, but let's not wait to find out. Move it!", said Mark, walking faster.

"I'm moving, I'm moving! Who knew that a spook could be so pushy." Peters looked back over his shoulder and gaped as he saw two cops come around the bend back where they had turned just minutes before. "Shit! Time to test our running legs again."

Mark didn't waste time replying. His legs pumping, he ran the faster he could. "I don't mind getting out of here and taking our chances in the open, Peters", said him, between breaths.

"Well," Peters huffed, "Now that they know where we are, even a Vulcan would have to call that logical." He spotted another cross tube ahead and skidded around the corner, then grabbed onto a nearby ladder and scrambled up, tossing the manhole cover aside as he went through.

"Looks clear up here so far, Grayson, come on up," he said down into the open hole.

Grayson climbed the ladder and looked around. "I know this place. We're about five hundred meters east of the hotel! Come on, we may have a chance at last!", exclaimed him, already accelerating his speed. In the back of his mind, he considered that returning to crime scene wasn't the smartest thing to do, he also was sure that if they found the rest of the crew, the Direidi would give up the "hide and seek" game.

Peters sprinted off after Grayson, huffing and puffing. He'd done far too much running today for the shape he was currently in. When they got back to the ship, he'd have to see about starting a personal training regimen.

Focusing solely on running after Grayson, Peters didn't see that he'd stopped until he plowed into the other man from behind. "What?" he started to ask, then looked up. "Oh. More cops. They must have a Legion of those guys..."

OFF:

Another fine JP brought to you by:

Lieutenant, JG Mark Grayson
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Malinche

&

[Darkhelm]

<<Hotel Direidi>>
<Conference Room, 1725, Day 3>

Amanda stood up next. She knew the crew were all concerned about the EM readings but the truth of the matter was that unless there was a special case, like that of Barrett or Thundera, no one was in any danger.

"As far as health issues are concerned, we don't need to be. The EM readings aren't going to cause us any harm, we would have to show about a 1,000% increase in order for our own biological systems to be affected."

She could tell that some memebers of the crew were relieved. As for Thundera was concerned she brought up vaulable points.

"I agree with Thundera that the EM flucations might be interferring with her on circuitry, although I can't be sure how much until we get her back to the Malinche."

"But you are reasonably confident we're safe?" Kersare asked.

"I'll stake my license on it," Amanda nodded. "As for Thundera it could also be true that some of her Borg implants could be sort of short circuiting, allowing her more Betaziod talents to come out...there is also a chance that those images she could be seeing are from the collective, the same sort of thing that Seven of Nine went through."

OFF: Tag!

[Thundera]

<<Hotel Direidi>>
<Conference Room, 1729, Day 3>

Cheetara turned toward Amanda and quickly responded. "Actually Doctor, these images have nothing to do with The Collective. I've been through that before. These images are actually more like what Diana Troy went through when she was getting the visions of a murder on the USS Enterprise. However, these aren't actually murder images."

She paused as she turned to the captain. "Captain, I have an idea that stems from Lieutenant Sovereign's idea. I think that if we use some of the borg technology from my shuttle in conjunction with the enhancer, it will give us more definition as to what these fluctuations are. I could make the modifications just as my nanode sub processors did to myself to allow me to revive and function. Then maybe with that and these visions that I've been getting, we'll be able to find those that are missing."

OFF: Tag!

[Hunt]

<<Hotel Direidi>>
<Conference Room, 1733, Day 3>

He watched on as each of the senior staff got up and contributed to the discussion. The only thing Hunt and Party found was a padd containing a note from the skipper saying he and his senior staff were going to head off much later on that day to investigate some odd readings they had taken before. Mason was hoping to offer much more tapping his finger against the wall wishing that Rayne would show up.

"We found a padd containing an entry by the Sirion CO stating that his team found some unusual EM readings just before entering the hotel and that they were going to investigate. The entry was vague to say the least. With all of these readings we have all detected I have sent Rayne to see what she can dig up in the hotel's computer systems. It could be just me but I think they could be hiding something."

While Thundera was off gathering her equipment from the shuttle, it ocurried to the first officer that these EM readings must have a source. There was nothing at least to federation known sciences that showed an EM reading wiether it be pulse related or not to function without a nearby power source.

While the room was quiet, it dawned on him on what Darkhelm had mentioned before about the EM flucations not harming anyone in the room with the exception of Barrett.

"Maybe these EM flucations were designed to act a map so to speak. (Pausing as Everyone Turned Their Attention To Him) Perhaps the Sirion CO managed to find a way to leave behind a message something only we (Starfleet) officers would recognize. They probably ran into the same conclusions as we have so far but were too late to do something to shut them down."

He sat down taking a sip of water before continuing.

"Let's suppose that somehow or another these EM flucations were caused by something the Sirion had with them. Granted most likely the brought down the same materials as we did but perhaps during their inital scans they brought down something extra. The question here is what?"

<Tag Senior Staff>

"Captain, I know so far all we have is a bunch of here say and vague leads but I believe you're right about the Direidi being involved, and perhaps some of this was caused by the survey team's equipment too, maybe something specialized for a science team."

OFF: Tag Barrett

[Thundera]

<<Hotel Direidi>>
<Conference Room, 1736, Day 3>

Cheetara listened as Commander Hunt spoke about his theories about what was going on. When he finished she began to think of puzzle pieces.

"Commander, do you think that these 'visions' are actually thoughts and sightings of what the Sirion crew may have seen or tried to send before whatever happened? Do you think that it may be possible that those are the 'visions' that I am seeing?"

(tag Hunt)

"I do think that it's kind of strange that the EM Fields shut me down for a bit until my back up nanodes came online to neutralize it. Not to mention the "visions" that I have been getting since then. I'm thinking that it may be possible that I could pinpoint the location of that crew with the clues from my visions."

OFF: (tag Hunt/Senior Staff)

[Barrett]

<<Hotel Direidi>>
<Conference Room, 1736, Day 3>

"We're all dealing with lots of hersay here," Jason spoke up.

"Wait a minute," Amanda said, snapping her fingers. "Was anyone on the survey team a telepath?"

"I don't know, why?" Kersare asked.

Jason had to admit tha the was curious too as to where the good doctor was going with her current line if thinking.

"Maybe they had a telapath with them...even one with limited abilities, possibly a Vulcan, could be sending these visions..."

"But mine all involved an exploision...the war that I have been seeing," Jaosn said, leaning forward. "So far I don't so much see anything like that going on around here."

"Not necessarily," Amanda added in. "We don't know a lot about the symbiote, its possible that the EM bursts are stimulating it."

"Alright, lets assume they have a telepath, how could that tie in with the EM readings?" Mason asked.

"During my time with the Marines we had one guy that was a telepath, part betaziod or something...I don't really remeber. He got caught once and used part of his tricorder to send a low level pulse through is skin, stimulating random bursts of...well visions that ended up being beamed into the brain of our Vulcan commander...."

"And you think someone on the Sirion's crew is doing the same thing?" Jason asked.

"Sure, it wouldn't take much would it?" Amanda asked, looking at Jason.

"Not much at all, a tricorder might be just the ticket...either that or any number of equipment the crew might have brought down with them."

"So, if thats the case how do we pinpoint it?" Kersare asked.

"If thats whats happening there should be a faint nuerogenic signature in the general area."

"Is there anyway to detect that?" Mason asked.

"Could be, but we would have to be close to th source. I could tune a medical tricorder but I would need some parts from the Malinche...after that it would simply be a matter of getting where we think the general area is."

OFF:

A JP By:

Lt. Commander Amanda Darkhelm
Chief Medical Officer
USS Malinche
&

[Rayne]

<<Hotel Direidi>>
<Room 52, 1736 HRS, Day 3>

Sara sat quietly watching the progress of her hacking program as it gathered all relevant information and filed it away within a increasingly growing database. Every now and then something that fit exactly with the specified parameters would show up on a seperate screen giving her a chance to look it over before she put it onto a PADD. It was then when Sara almost missed it as the filename flickered on the screen for mere seconds before it went into the collected database. The file was labled as police report with the current date. It didn't spark her curiousity so she left it alone. Another filename flashed on the screen labled as surrvailance videos with the same date as the last file but the time was what interested her the most. So it seemed to her,these videos were taken around the sametime Grayson disappeared. This sparked her curiousity and she opened the file looking through the video till she came upon something that almost made her laugh.

Sara saw Peters talking to what appeared to be a security guard, and Peters appeared to be going on about Grayson being the President of the United Federation of Planets. She finally laughed when the security guard stammered as the two brushed past him down the hall. Fast-forwarding the video recording she watched Peters and Grayson get chased by several hotel security guards before they finally jumped down a garbage shoot. It didn't take much for her to realise that the police report might explain why Grayson was missing and if not then she guessed he was out there trying to figure out the samething she was. Sara took a moment to open the file with the police report and sure enough two men that fit Peter's and Grayson's appearance showed up on it as being arrested and then later having escaped.

"Well this has been very interesting and here I thought I was going to be the one having all the fun." she thought with a laugh before heading towards the door. There was a small flicker across the door that she would otherwise have not noticed if it had not been for the ocular implants in her eyes. "The Hell?!" she exclaimed questioningly before she took a closer look at the door. "Damnit why didn't I realise this before...The whole damn place is one huge holodeck simulation or atleast this part of the building is anyways." with that in mind Sara left her "room" in a hurry heading towards the conference room that the away team was suppost to be meeting in.

<En route to conference room, 1745 HRS, Day 3

Sara ran down several hallways dodging a klingon who appeared to be chasing after a bird of somekind uttering curse words at it. "Well I hope your having fun..." Sara said to herself as she sprinted down the hallway before finally coming to the place where the conference room was suppost to be only to see a blank wall there where the conference room had been when they first arrived. She stood there for several minutes before her eye caught sight of a flicker along the wall. "Blasted Direidi, I should have known they would pull this trick." she said before punching at the holograph hoping to weaken the forcefeild around it enough to let her pass though it. Almost tripping as the forcefeild gave way she walked though and into the conference room startling everyone inside as she apparently walked right through the wall like a ghost.

[Abubakar]

OFF: NPC Post.

ON: U.S.S Malinche 1444 Day 3.

Lieutenant Sovak, one of the few female Vulcans aboard, sat down comfortably in Captain Kersare's chair on the Malinche's bright bridge.

Whilst as a Vulcan, she niether liked nor disliked intense work, but even so it was definately a welcome change to be on a quieter assignment, even more welcome to be the commanding lieutenant of the ship whilst the Senior Staff were planetside.

"Ensign Sychorski" Sovak said, gaining the attention of the Ensign at the helm. "Conduct another scan for any vessels in the area, modulate your frequency on a..."

The Malinche shook violently, more to port than starboard, unexpectedly. The bright lights dimmed rapidly to be replaced by combat blues, the red alert klaxon blared over the inter-ship speakers and several conduits ruptured in the ceiling. At the same time, through the gathering haze, Sovak was aware that most of the consoles were flickering.

"Evasive maneuvers! Report!" She yelled over the confused chatter,

From the helm, Josh yelled back; "Warp drive is offline! Impulse engines at 70%!, Captain there's a ship or something headed towards the planet!"

"Get us as close as you can!" Sovak called back, "Were we hit?"

Ensign Tamlin at communicatiions wheeled round in his chair, "Internal comm system offline sir!"

From the Tactical console, Ensign Stone replied; "I don't think so Captain, but there does indeed appear to be a small craft of some kind headed towards the away team location. I believe the ship emitted some kind of very-high level ionic pulse that has interfered with our systems. Definately hostile sir."

Sovak gripped the arms of the chair with both hands as the Malinche shuddered under the pressure of the nose-dive to catch the fleeing ship whilst fighting its own electircal systems overloads. "Weapons lock, fire at will" Sovak ordered, she couldn't risk the away team. "Malinche to Captain Kersare!" she shouted whilst pressing the flickering comms button on the display.

"All communications are offline!" Tamlin reported, trying franticly to find a way into the system to re-route the overloaded ODN lines.

"I can't get a lock sir," Stone reported, "that ship, whatever it is... our sensors seem to refract off of the hull, we can sort of see it but yet we can't...sir" he finished, sounding decidedly confused.

"Captain the ship has stopped at a hover just above the hotel" Josh reported.

Sovak inwardly, very inwardly, cursed. "Maintin geo-stationary orbit above the hotel, continual scan for any artilleral fire...explosions, fires, you understand what I am asking Ensign? she looked right at Tamlin, who nodded meekly and turned back around.

"Find out what that was" she ordered, to no one in particular.

"Damage report" Ensign Ryan Morris said as he walked onto the bridge from the turbolift door, which was half closed revealing a sporadic display of sparking equipment in the turbolift.

Ensign C'eltor, having crossed to the Science station since the Engineering station had completely overloaded, answered the call. "Electrical damge only, complete power loss to some sections, the warp nacelles have activated their safety shut down to prevent an overload, they can be back online in two hours, as for the rest - extensive damage to the ODN, we're looking at maybe four, five hours work Captain - but nothing lasting.

Sovak nodded, "Make Tactical systems and communications your priority. Can we open the shuttlebay doors?"

"Negative Captain, the control mechanism has literally melted away, whatever that ship was it got way too close to the door, possible 30 minutes to fit another one."

"Your're not planning on going down there?" Tamlin asked, horrified and standing up - a direct challenge to Sovak.

"Man your station Ensign, I am keeping my options open. In addition to artilleral activities, I want to know if there is any EM disturbance in their location, have you still got any indication of that ship on sensors Engisn Stone?"

Tamlin took his seat, and Morris took his hand off his phaser. "Negative Captain" Stone replied, "it appeared to slow into a stop, as soon as it did we lost it. "

"It would be logical to assume, that it employs some kind of stealth technology, and that it is still above the hotel complex..." Sovak paused to consider, "all things are not logical here today, Engisn C'eltor...conduct an intensive scan of the entire planet, correlate all data we have and look for whatever matches the information you uncover. Deputise for repairs, I would like you and I to work on the scan."

"Yes ma'am" C'eltor replied above the noise of a bridge now busy at work. Since internal communications were down, she know it would only be a matter of time before shift supervisors came to the bridge personally to deliver casualty reports if any, and to ensure the bridge was still there.

OFF: AN NPC Plot post by:

[Sovereign]

<<Hotel Direidi>>
<Conference Room, 1741, Day 3>

Confusion wasn't quite the word for it. No. It was more disoriented. Some much had been getting said in the meeting that Yrel almost wondered how things had gotten like this. So much hearsay, speculation, conspiracy theories and the lot that Yrel was not far from gettign overrun with not knowing what was going on, what approach was going to be undertaken and when.

Not that any of the ideas were bad. No. Far from that. They all had a balancing of logic and reason that gave no idea more warrent than the other. There was a lot to consider, after all. Visions, EM fluxs, and forcefields...oh my! This was no walk in the park. There were so many variables to consider, so many things that seemed, on the surface, in contradiction to each other. And they, a dynamic mix of crew members ahd to figure things out. Or at the very least, an approach to figure things out.

The comments from Barrett and Darkhelm repeated in Yrel's mind a couple times as soon as they had been said. A message from the Sirion crew. Interesting. It had possiblities. But there's a problem.

"Doesn't that theory on a stimulated Betazed/Vulcan "pulse" require the assumption that the personnel coming to their aid would have someone receptable to it?" she said, and almost immediately cursed herself for sounding so Vulcan-ish. "What about the EM fluxs? Maybe they're the message, caused by equipement in the hands of the Sirion crew and some help by Betaziod/Vulcan crewmembers. That would explain why the readings are here of all places. Obviously the hotel would be the first and foremost place that a investigating force would check and could discover the readings, or message."

Yrel was about to get a response when Ensign Rayne burst into the Conference Room.

[Rhone]

<< En route to the Dereidi world. Day 3, 1730 >>

On:

The trip didn't take as long as Rhone had expected. He was anxious, as was every new cadet, to get to his first assignment. There was nothing special about it, except that its registry was NCC-38897-B, USS Malinche. Rumors tended to circulate the campus about various ships throughout Starfleet, and sometimes cadets were labeled based on certain ship assignments. And there were rumors about the Malinche. Most people were allowed leave to see their families and friends, but Rhone had been given an assignment shortly before departing for his present assignment. It was then that he had discovered an interesting fact about his parents. Funny how closely we're all connected, he thought to himself.

He felt ahead of the game, so to say. He had completed more in four years of academy work, despite heading down a rocky road in the beginning, than most starfleet officers completed in their entire first term. He felt powerful, but modest.

It had been some time since a word had been exchanged between the shuttle pilot and himself. Rhone didn't need a pilot, his minor at the Academy was Navigation, and he wished the Commandant would have loaned him a shuttle to fly himself. He started to wonder if he should say something to the pilot who introduced himself as Ensign Leffingwell. I bet his classmates made fun of him, Seryn thought to himself.

"How are things looking," Rhone inquired.

"Oh, almost forgot I had a passenger," Leffingwell said. "Lookin' good, I suppose, nothing abnormal. You'll love the Captain, she's a real sweetheart. A hardass at times, but sweet most of the time."

Rhone smiled and said, "I've heard only rumors about her, but the general concensus is that she has a point to prove."

Catching onto Rhone's hint, Leffingwell thought aloud, "I don't think she's proving anything, really. She just does what she does really well."

Rhone stifled a smirk.

Leffingwell looked at him with a raised eyebrow, again, more perceptive than most of his rank. "Well, who you goin' to trust, a proud member of her crew or rumors from people at the Academy who never met her?"

Rhone noticed his slight accent more than his defending his commanding officer. With a shrug he apologized and brought up his own status displays in an effort to bring himself to Leffingwell's 'level'. He wasn't a bad pilot himself and even received honors for his piloting skills at the Academy. He knew not to overstep his bounds, though.

"Familiar with a cockpit, I see," Leffingwell probed.

"I was certain that everyone in Starfleet was," Seryn said with a touch of modesty. He was damned good, and, to some degree, regretted not making it his major. At the time, he didn't see how there was much of a difference. His intention was to keep his assignment availability open so that he could always apply for whatever he wanted. But, he learned the hard way that not every ship in Starfleet has a Communications Officer. So, the Malinche wasn't exactly his first choice. But with the Malinche's multi-vector assault mode capability, at
a minimum, three comm officers were needed.

"So," Leffingwell sifted through Rhone's thoughts, "here are your options. I can take you to the ship or I can drop you off at the Captain's location on the surface. Your choice."

Rhone thought about it for a moment then decided that reporting his mission to the Captain would be best. It was a courtesy taught by the Criminal Justice Instructors at the Academy. 'Let the dogs on watch know you're in their neighborhood.' He hated referring to the Academy for everything, but it really was all he had.

"I need to report to the Captain," Rhone concluded, aloud.

The pilot nodded, obtained clearance to land from the planetside space authority and began his descent.

[Kersare]

<<Hotel Direidi, Conference Room, 1740, Day 3>>

Isabel listened patiently as her crew expressed their ideas. One would say something, then before she could even respond, someone else would have an idea. In her mind, she tried to mentally separate the ideas so she could address them.

"Alright, hold up for a minute everyone," Isabel started, standing and holding up her hand. "I'm hearing lots of interesting ideas, and I want to address all of them. At this point, it looks like we'll need about three teams. Lieutenant Sovereign and--"

At that moment, the doorchime to the Conference Room sounded. Well, it could be Sara, Todd, or Mark...at least that's what Isabel was hoping. "Come in."

Rhone walked in not knowing what to expect and found a room populated with obviously tired and exhausted Starfleet officers, and a few who didn't appear to be. He set his two bags of equipment down and came to attention after the door closed, "Captain Kersare, Ensign Seryn Rhone, reporting as ordered."

After regarding the young man carefully a moment, she nodded, "Something tells me I know the answer to this, but what brings you here, Ensign?" Isabel waited for a response.

He was anxious to get the details out but 'confidential' danced across his field of vision. "I understand you're all very busy, but, I needed to speak to you in private..."

Just once, it would be nice to have a little bit of notice before getting a new crewmember. Still, new crew was new crew. "Welcome aboard, Ensign Rhone. Do you know anything about our mission here on Direidi?"

"I know only about a missing crew, but what I'm interested in is of a..." he gritted his teeth to get his point across, "under-the-table nature." he smiled, then remembered he hadn't introduced himself to the other officers in the room he guessed were crewmembers.

Isabel quirked an eyebrow. This was just not destined to be an ordinary day. Former crewmembers returning with experimental technology, two new crewmembers - one of which had some additional information, two other crewmembers disappearing... Isabel turned to the rest of her crew, "Continue discussions for a moment while I speak with Ensign Rhone. Mr. Rhone," she gestured to one of the corners of the room.

He picked up his bags and followed his new Captain to the corner she mentioned, eager to spill the beans on yet another secret he was forced to keep.

"Now, Ensign, it isn't customary for a new crewmember to show up in the middle of a mission meeting and mention 'under-the-table' things. Please explain what you know, or are looking for," Isabel said.

He almost couldn't hold it in any longer. "Captain," he said, his voice a whisper, "a very valuable ship has gone missing and its believed that one of your crew or former crew are in possession of it." He made motions with his hands, as if to convey his thoughts to the Captain. "I know its hard to hide something as big as what we're looking for, but there is some serious repercussions involved for the crewmember or members who stole this ship." He adjusted the weight on his feet. "I've only been given a few details, but, truthfully, I don't even know what I'm looking for. Not much help, I know, but if we don't find this missing ship soon Fleet Intel is going to assume its to be used against the Federation."

Missing ship? Other than the Sirion? The Aerohawk that Jaran had certainly wasn't large and was presumably destroyed. Isabel contemplated the situation for a few moments before responding, "Slow down Ensign. First things first, who exactly thinks someone from the Malinche have possession of this supposed ship?"

Seryn wished he'd brought a piano with him. "Starfleet Command is the suspicious party, Ma'am."

"Also, whose orders are you operating under? And exactly how big is this ship, supposedly?" Isabel continued her questions. This was just what she needed, an additional mystery to solve. She was rather certain none of her crew had a stolen ship - as Seryn had pointed out, a ship is rather difficult to hide.

"Remember Section 31? Well, its not Section 31, but it is a civilian detachment from Starfleet Intel that operates under its own parameters. Intel doesn't interfere with their work as long as they don't interfere with Intel's work. I'm now allowed to speak the name, Captain." He could feel is nervousness creeping up on him, which he didn't deal with very well. "All I was told was that a ship not listed in the Starfleet registry, but owned by Starfleet, was last seen in this sector. No name, no description, nothing other than the absence of markings was among the information I was allowed to read. I've guessed it won't look like any starfleet design or it just won't be marked." The nervous edge was about to slit his throat, as it always was, just before he banished it. It seemed his family was his greatest strength. "Captain, I know this isn't very much to go on and I've been briefed by the runabout pilot about your current mission, but all I'm asking is that you keep this just off to the side." He could sense his CO's annoyance, to say the least. "We may never find it, but we have to try."


Isabel nodded solemnly, this was all she needed - as if the missing Sirion and survey team weren't enough. "Very well. Do you have any of the information with you?"

"Oh, no, Captain," Rhone replied, shaking his head. "I didn't want to risk losing the info or someone else getting a hold of it. I said this was definitely under the table and it definitely is. We could consider including your Intel guys but there was a reason the assignment was given to me and not just passed to you or your intel first."

"Why don't you join the discussions? Since you've been briefed as to the mission, the rest of what we've found should explain our current status. I was actually about to give out assignments when you came in," Isabel explained.

Rhone nodded and retrieved some equipment from one of the bags he had set down by the door and began putting odd pieces together, just in case. Seryn inwardly thanked the pilot for letting him key his comm badge to the Malinche's frequency, and tapped it. He understood he was going to be working with another comm officer and wanted to get a feel for him, under the guise of a ship's status report he could pass on to the Captain.

"Ensign Rhone, to the Malinche."

=^= Nothing. =^=

He knew he had keyed his badge right, it was one of the funamentals of being a comm officer. Seryn tried three more times before looking to the Captain with a typical confused look.

Isabel heard what Yrel added to the meeting and had just looked over at Seryn, to see what he was having difficulties with, when Sara walked through the wall into the conference room. Confused, Isabel turned to Sara, "Ensign Rayne? What is going on?"

OFF: Tag to Rayne for a JP

This JP brought to you by:

Ensign Seryn Rhone
Assistant Chief Communications Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38897-B

and

[Rayne]

<<Hotel Direidi, Conference Room, 1805, Day 3>>

Isabel heard what Yrel added to the meeting and had just looked over at Seryn, to see what he was having difficulties with, when Sara walked through the wall into the conference room. Confused, Isabel turned to Sara, "Ensign Rayne? What is going on?"

Sara turned to face the captain before speaking, seemingly having a hint of annoyance in her voice for reasons which were soon to become apparent. "From what I have discovered or so it would seem to me, the Direidi are up to their usual tricks. This whole hotel is a holographic creation. Don't ask me how they managed to hide that from a scan. Furthermore I found out that Lt. Grayson and the chief engineer were arrested by the "Police" and later escaped."

Isabel quirked an eyebrow. And things continued to get more interesting.... "Are you sure the whole Hotel is a holographic creation? At least this main part was actually built. Perhaps a few walls are holographic?" Really she wanted to know more about Todd and Mark, but she decided to start with the seemingly easier question.

"From what I can actually see most of this hotel is a almost perfect holographic creation, if had not been for a small visual error that flickered across my door as I left my room I would still be fooled. Though it is quite possible this part of the hotel is real." Sara sighed wondering if her mentioning the visual error would bring up questions about how she saw it, still she couldn't think of a better way to discribe what she had seen and later pushed her way through.

"Well, it could be that at least part of the new portion is holographic...or maybe just a few rooms or walls were added in that manner," Isabel suggested. "In anycase, what happened with Lieutenants Peters and Grayson?"

"Well I am not so sure I can say it," Sara paused trying her best to not crack up laughing. "But the PADD I brought with me has several surveillance recordings on it along with data requested by Commander Hunt. Those recordings should explain better as to what happened to them then I could at the moment." Sara handed the PADD over to Isabel then looked around the room.

Curious, Isabel took the PADD from Sara. "Very well, thank you Ensign. Do you happen to know their current whereabouts, at least?"

"As of right now the last place I know them to be was the "local jail" but as I said they managed to escape from there. It is quite possible they might be trying to return to us but where they are at this moment your guess is as good as mine. If you would like I can go and search for them, then lead them back here."

Isabel considered the options. If Todd and Mark had truly been arrested, then escaped, she had a feeling the Direidi police would catch them again - if only due to the fact that they knew their own city and its 'quirks'. At the same time, she couldn't just ignore it.

"For now, Ensign, please have a seat," Isabel requested. "Ensign Rhone has just joined us as Assistant Chief Communications Officer, Lieutenant Abubakar Jaran rejoined us as Chief Flight Control Officer, and Lieutenant Yrel Sovereign has joined as Chief Science Officer. We were finishing our discussion on the findings so we can make a proper decision about our next step," she explained.

After seeing Sara take a seat, Isabel walked over to Mason and offered the PADD to him, "I believe Ensign Rayne acquired some of this information for you. Care to take a look and inform us?"

OFF: Tag Hunt, crew

JP brought to you by:

Captain Isabel Kersare
Commanding Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38897-B

and

[Soren]

The clues were flying in all directions, and Chief Soren had about had it. The news that the hotel was overwhelmingly a hologram was a blow. The fact that he missed it was an even greater blow. Perhaps he would be better off back on board the Malinche taking inventory. How, how, how could the structure be hologrammatic and miss it in scanning. He felt incompetent.

Instead, he answered Yrel's question. "No, ma'am. It is well documented that that Vulcans can reach unreceptive...even unaware minds. It is even more the case of full Betazoid telepaths. They can pop into and out of alien minds without trying hard under most circumstances."

Looking over at the captain, he said: "You'd best fire me, Captain. If the day has come that someone can pass a holo off as reality to me, I've outlived my usefulness."