<<Slight Back Post>>
<<USS Malinche, Sickbay, 1535, Day 3>>
ON:
With a large stack of PADDs stacked precariously in her arms, Nora finally made her way into Sickbay. Against all odds she had made the admittedly brief journey from Counseling without managing to drop a single one, and now she only had a short way to go before she could release her awkward armful. Asking an idle nurse where she could find Dr. Cullen, she murmured her thanks and carefully approached his office, hoping to find him unoccupied for the moment.
She had yet to meet the Malinche's new CMO, and while she was happy to finally introduce herself, she couldn't help but feel a small pang at the thought that she'd no longer see Oliver rushing around Sickbay in that charmingly unorthodox way of his. She certainly missed him, but if some of the glowing reports she'd heard of Dr. Cullen proved to be true, Nora had no doubt that the new doctor was an excellent addition to their little medical community aboard the Malinche. Standing just outside the door to his office, she poked her head inside and lightly called, "Dr. Cullen?"
A head popped up from behind the desk, eyes narrowed. "What? Oh!" Cullen said with a smile, leaping to his feet and extending a hand to the young woman to help her to a chair. He tossed a discarded lab coat to the floor from its place on the chair. The office was somewhat messy and disorganized with PADDs scattered across the desk. "You must be our Counselor," he said pleasantly. "Please have a seat."
"I am indeed," Nora smiled, releasing her load of PADDs with a relieved sigh onto a clear space on the desk. "Nora Zeral," she added by way of an introduction, settling herself comfortably in the chair. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Dr. Cullen. I had planned on introducing myself sooner, but... Well, let's just say that Counseling's been a bit busy lately."
"Of course of course my dear, no need to explain. As you can see, things are a little... uhh... hectic around here as well," he said with a smile, though it was a forced one to be sure. Cullen could feel a restlessness in him, his demons screaming in his mind again, and the doctor felt a momentary panic that the young woman might notice his slip. He tried to focus on small talk to calm his mind. "So what brought you to the Malinche?
"A desperate desire for reassignment," Nora grinned somewhat cheekily. "I had the opportunity to participate in some research involving an unusual group of telepaths on a planet called New Athena. It was interesting work, but I discovered that I belong on a ship rather than on solid ground, strangely enough." Tilting her head quizzical, she was vaguely aware that the man before her seemed a trifle unsettled. Then again, everyone was feeling unsettled at the moment. Overlooking her impression for the moment, she reciprocated, "And you, Doctor? What tempted you to join the Malinche?"
He opened his mouth to say "punishment", but quickly caught himself. How would she understand? No one knew what he went through on a daily basis, the torture he put himself through to pay for his crimes. He simply smiled. "The desire for adventure and the thrill of duty!" he said, quoting the Starfleet recruitment poster in a mock dramatic voice, then dissolving into chuckles afterward.
She laughed with him for a moment, soon sobering to regard him a little more closely and as surrepticiously as possible. Was she missing something? She was almost certain now that something was bothering him. Feeling somewhat worried but hesitant to force her role as a counselor on him so soon after meeting him, Nora decided to get to the point of her visit first, though her concern for him remained in the back of her mind.
"You're probably wondering why I'm really here," she smiled grimly, taking up one of her PADDs at random and offering it to him. "We've had a number of crew members come to Counseling complaining of headaches, dizziness, some waking dreams and hallucinations...the list goes on. Frankly, Dr. Cullen, I'm at a loss. To put it bluntly, something's definitely amiss aboard the Malinche."
Cullen nodded, eyeing the woman evenly. "I've heard similar reports myself, but I've been able to find no verifiable medical reason for the hallucinations," he began, but his voice trailed off as the young woman's face... changed before his very eyes. Her face shifted into one he recognized, a young Ensign who had been in sickbay when... when... oh god... Her face was contorted in pain, blood running from an angry gash on her temple. She opened her mouth to speak, and her voice was harsh, accusing. "Why Doctor? Why did you let us die?"
Cullen blinked several times, and suddenly saw that he was one again staring at Nora's face, her expression a mixture of confusion and concern. Tim took a steadying breath and smiled wanly. "I do believe my dear I've just had one of our mystery hallucinations." The doctor spoke calmly, but his heart was pounding, and he felt cold. If only he could have a drink, all would be well, or at least, bearable. That small voice clawed at the edge of his consciousness, tempting him to get rid of this person and go to his quarters.
Nora's rapid blinking mirrored Cullen's, her concern immediately growing by leaps and bounds. The way he had stared at her, the feeling of pure dread that had washed over her as his eyes seemed to grow distant... It was, quite frankly, vaguely terrifying for the Betazoid. Even now she could sense his inner turmoil despite his calm appearance. Without thinking she rose from her chair to lean across his desk, placing her palm flat against his forehead. Frowning, she held her other hand against her own forehead, primitively comparing their temperatures the same way her mother had done when she was a child.
"You're very warm," she murmured, easing back into her chair and experiencing momentary embarassment for her reaction to his apparent hallucination. Feeling his temperature wasn't really going to help with any hallucinations he was experiencing. "Are you all right now? Is there something I can do for you?"
Tim smiled at the simple medical procedure, appreciating it despite its lack of real usefulness. "I think... I will be fine, my dear," he said, still quite calm, and now his heart began to slowly resume its regular rhythm. "That was most... unpleasant. I think this would be a good time to run some tests. I haven't had the chance to scan someone in the midst of one of these 'episodes' yet." He sprang to his feet, now almost back to his normal frenetic self. "Moira!" Cullen bellowed to his Nurse as he made his way to the main sickbay area. Looking to Nora, he spoke softly. "My dear, I could use your help here to explain as my judgment is a touch off at the moment." As the doctor spoke, Moira Sagawa entered in a rush and watched Tim lie down on the biobed.
"Of course," Nora agreed, following him closely to the biobed and standing beside Nurse Sagawa. She made short work of her explanation, quickly telling the nurse what she had told Cullen in his office just before his hallucination. "The good doctor's been experiencing hallucinations as well, I'm afraid," she finished, glancing down at him worriedly. "I'm not certain to what extent, but he hallucinated before my eyes just a moment ago. I wish I could use my senses to be of more help. They've been in veritable shreds with all that's been happening," the Betazoid sighed, wrapping her arms around her waist and stepping aside to let Moira continue her examination.
Sagawa smiled at Zeral. "You're doing fine," she said and then turned back to Cullen to lightly swat the fidgeting doctor on the arm. "Stay still! You'll throw off the readings," she scolded, though her eyes held a worried smile.
Tim grunted and fell still. "I can tell you what it will show. Absolutely nothing," he grumbled.
Moira looked up at the readings and confirmed that nothing unusual was showing. "All your vitals appear normal, except... what's that?" she said suddenly and got out a tricorder.
"What's what?" Cullen demanded. "Dammit Moira, don't keep me in suspense. I still sign your paycheques!" he declared.
Moira smirked at him. "In that case Doctor, I'm due for a raise." She went back to the tricorder. "It looks like your beta-hydroximine levels are elevated, but there's nothing that would cause..." she began but trailed off and fixed Cullen with an unusual look. There was only one thing that could elevate beta-hydroximine levels to that degree -- large amounts of alcohol.
"Beta-hydroximine?" he said warily, taking the tricorder from her. "Bleeding thing must be out of adjustment," he muttered.
"Yes that must be it," Sagawa said, but her tone indicated anything but. If they had been alone, the conversation would have taken a very different direction.
"How are you feeling now?" Nora asked Cullen, stepping around the biobed across from Nurse Sagawa. "Your color looks a little better. You're not as pale as you were a few moments ago."
Cullen smiled wanly and sat up in the bed, ignoring the long-suffering look from his Head Nurse. "Indeed my dear I do feel a little better, thank you." He did in fact feel better, though the afterimage was still haunting his thoughts. Just as well they thought he was hallucinating. Better that explanation than the truth, he decided. "Well, at least we have some real data now to work with," he said carefully, filling the suddenly tense silence. He became peripherally aware of Sagawa watching him with something just beyond concern. "Shall I have the data forwarded to your office?" he asked Zeral.
"Yes, please do," Nora said, exhaling slowly, relieved that Dr. Cullen was somewhat well again, at least for the moment. "Feel free to look over those PADDs I brought into your office as well, if and when you feel up to it. I'll just collect them later. Hopefully the next time we meet, the circumstances will be better," she added with a small smile, feeling utterly weary and undoubtedly perplexed by the strange turn of events unfolding around the ship.
Tim nodded as he hopped off the bed, avoiding meeting Sagawa's eyes just now. "Thank you my dear I will. For the moment, I think I'm going to be a good little patientand go to my quarters for some much needed rest. Nurse," he said with a nod, and made his way out of the Sickbay, with more haste than was probably necessary.
OFF:
A post by:
Lieuteantn JG Nora Zeral
Chief Counselor
USS Malinche
Dr. Timothy Cullen
Chief Medical Officer
USS Malinche
Mission 12: When In Rome
Moderators: Tournneau, Korath, Kersare
Re: Mission 12: When In Rome
<Stellar Cartography, 0810, MD04>
Stellar cartography on the Malinche was certainly smaller than that of a Galaxy class but it had a similar layout, a walkway lead to a central area with various terminals around the edges of it. The rest of the room was taken up by an almost 360 degree holographic display and when activated the walkway vanished and it became fully 360 degree.
Even on a ship built for tactical assignments federation engineers had done a fantastic job on the room and it would serve the team well for the purpose of analysing the situation; allowing them to view maps as well as project data on to the walls.
Jack/Yana was the first of his group to enter the room with Steele and Schulz immediately after and was quite surprised to see Peters and another Engineer already in the room working at a console.
“You run up here Lieutenant?” Yana said, hoping to match Jack's cheek.
Alex/Caleb gave a brief smile to Yana when the others weren't looking. This should work out well...
At least they were both around and could hopefully help solve this while keeping the others from finding out their plan.
Will entered the room at a brisk pace, having just come from the bridge. The anomaly unfolding before them had put any and all thoughts of computer logs, program coding, and system malfunctions out of his mind. Subspace anomalies were extremely unpredictable, which had led to the banning of all subspace weapons by the Second Khitomer Accords. There was no need to create such unstable events.
"Looks like the work never ends, eh Lieutenant," Will asked, nodding toward the chief engineer.
“One of these days I am going to find Murphy… and when I do I am going to kill him in a very slow and painful way,” Peters replied, deadpan. “Just once on this ship I’d like to have a quiet mission.”
Aaron entered the lab on the heels of the other bridge officers. As a scientist he was trained to come up with and analyze many possible variables before deciding on a solution. In most cases that was what he would do but here he didn't feel they had the time. Granted there were a lot of variables to deal with in regards to just the pulse wave torpedo but at least they were known and it was the most common solution to the problem.
Why the two engineers were in the lab Aaron didn't know and at this point he didn't care. Most likely the solution, regardless of what they decided, would require engineering assistance so they might as well be kept in the loop from the beginning. "Anyone have any ideas on how to dissipate this thing without destroying surrounding space." Aaron asked in an attempt to remain open minded.
Yana turned to the science officer, “Can you bring up what scans you have Lieutenant?”
"Not a problem, I've already relayed the information down here. I just have to feed it into the projectors." Aaron entered the commands and real time data on the anomaly was soon displayed in the lab. It was just as daunting to look at there as it was on the view screen. In some ways more because there was a small graphic representing the Malinche in relation to the rupture.
Yana waited for Steele to turn to the console and walked to the console Alex was working at and took up position next to him, speaking very quietly while doing his best to look busy at the console, “Status report?”
"Our....information...is intact and running smoothly. Obviously we didn't anticipate this though. We may want to abort the navigational and sensor 'fixes' until we're away from that rupture. I doubt being sucked in will help our cause. We can put them back online once we're clear," Alex said.
Peters considered the sensor data displayed. He thought about all the options they had on this ship to seal up a rupture like that, or to at least disrupt its pull on the ship. There weren’t many, and at least a couple had a good chance of backfiring and possibly strengthening the anomaly.
Yana turned as the star map activated around the room and the subspace rupture came in to view as the computer zoomed in, he glanced at Alex to see if the sight of the rupture resulted in any reaction like he had had.
As he saw the rupture, Alex simply shook his head. What were the odds? Die, come back to...well, borrow a ship, then that ship is in danger of being sucked into an anomaly. Alysen would be amused at the irony. He wondered where she was.
A small LCARs box appeared next to the rupture containing the most pertinent sensor data. “Sooooo” Yana began, “suggestions? Preferably before we get torn apart?”
"We should keep sensors online if at all possible. If for no other reason, every bit of data collected on the rupture helps better our understanding. But I have other reasons besides scientific curiosity; without real time data from the sensors we run a greater risk of severely damaging surrounding space. The rupture measures 340 meters across, or just over twice the width of this ship. Particle density measures at 112 teracochranes. However that could change or it could remain steady; that's what makes subspace anomalies so dangerous one is never really sure what will happen. If it remains close to these dimensions long enough to program a torpedo and launch it, we should be good. However if it changes we'll have to adjust accordingly," Aaron said.
“There are a few options… that anomaly is probably dragging us in because of our warp field,” Peters said as he typed in a few calculations on the console he’d commandeered. “We can try any number of ways to get it to let go of us, from collapsing our warp field entirely to somehow inverting the ship’s warp field… or we could feed it one of our warp cores and hope that seals it up at least long enough for us to get away.”
“Problem is subspace is an odd thing,” Jack added, “we could either seal the rupture using a warpcore or we could end up causing an explosion that tears through subspace and makes all warp travel impossible...course since we’d most likely be dead that wouldn’t be an issue...”
It was Steele who spoke next, once again outlining the tactic used by the Vulcans all those years ago.
Yana listened to the ideas and tried to think, combining his own knowledge with that held in Jack’s swiss-cheesed mind, “Pulse wave torpedoes aren’t carried on starships anymore, do you think we can maybe cobble one together from other parts?”
“It’s possible… but we’d need to salvage some of the parts from the warp drive unit of one of our shuttle craft. Some of the components just can’t be replicated. It’d probably take us a couple of hours,” Peters replied. “We might be pushing our engines to keep out of the anomaly that long.”
"Do we even have that long to assemble it? Won't we be sucked in in a matter of hours?" Alex didn't like the idea of putting together a torpedo only to not finish in time.
“Unless anyone has any better suggestions,” Yana said looking around to see there were none, “then we’re better to go with the tried and tested method... Steele, work with Peters to get a list of parts and schematics, the rest of us will just have to do what we can to stop that thing from sucking us in”
He watched as everyone acknowledged what had to be done.
“Right then, we haven’t go long left, let’s get to work...”
---------------------------------------
A JP featuring;
Captain Isabel Kersare
Commanding Officer
(As Alex)
Lt. jg. Aaron Steele
Chief Science Officer
Lieutenant Todd Peters
Chief Engineering Officer
Lt. JG William "Will" Schulz
Chief Operations Officer
and
Me
Stellar cartography on the Malinche was certainly smaller than that of a Galaxy class but it had a similar layout, a walkway lead to a central area with various terminals around the edges of it. The rest of the room was taken up by an almost 360 degree holographic display and when activated the walkway vanished and it became fully 360 degree.
Even on a ship built for tactical assignments federation engineers had done a fantastic job on the room and it would serve the team well for the purpose of analysing the situation; allowing them to view maps as well as project data on to the walls.
Jack/Yana was the first of his group to enter the room with Steele and Schulz immediately after and was quite surprised to see Peters and another Engineer already in the room working at a console.
“You run up here Lieutenant?” Yana said, hoping to match Jack's cheek.
Alex/Caleb gave a brief smile to Yana when the others weren't looking. This should work out well...
At least they were both around and could hopefully help solve this while keeping the others from finding out their plan.
Will entered the room at a brisk pace, having just come from the bridge. The anomaly unfolding before them had put any and all thoughts of computer logs, program coding, and system malfunctions out of his mind. Subspace anomalies were extremely unpredictable, which had led to the banning of all subspace weapons by the Second Khitomer Accords. There was no need to create such unstable events.
"Looks like the work never ends, eh Lieutenant," Will asked, nodding toward the chief engineer.
“One of these days I am going to find Murphy… and when I do I am going to kill him in a very slow and painful way,” Peters replied, deadpan. “Just once on this ship I’d like to have a quiet mission.”
Aaron entered the lab on the heels of the other bridge officers. As a scientist he was trained to come up with and analyze many possible variables before deciding on a solution. In most cases that was what he would do but here he didn't feel they had the time. Granted there were a lot of variables to deal with in regards to just the pulse wave torpedo but at least they were known and it was the most common solution to the problem.
Why the two engineers were in the lab Aaron didn't know and at this point he didn't care. Most likely the solution, regardless of what they decided, would require engineering assistance so they might as well be kept in the loop from the beginning. "Anyone have any ideas on how to dissipate this thing without destroying surrounding space." Aaron asked in an attempt to remain open minded.
Yana turned to the science officer, “Can you bring up what scans you have Lieutenant?”
"Not a problem, I've already relayed the information down here. I just have to feed it into the projectors." Aaron entered the commands and real time data on the anomaly was soon displayed in the lab. It was just as daunting to look at there as it was on the view screen. In some ways more because there was a small graphic representing the Malinche in relation to the rupture.
Yana waited for Steele to turn to the console and walked to the console Alex was working at and took up position next to him, speaking very quietly while doing his best to look busy at the console, “Status report?”
"Our....information...is intact and running smoothly. Obviously we didn't anticipate this though. We may want to abort the navigational and sensor 'fixes' until we're away from that rupture. I doubt being sucked in will help our cause. We can put them back online once we're clear," Alex said.
Peters considered the sensor data displayed. He thought about all the options they had on this ship to seal up a rupture like that, or to at least disrupt its pull on the ship. There weren’t many, and at least a couple had a good chance of backfiring and possibly strengthening the anomaly.
Yana turned as the star map activated around the room and the subspace rupture came in to view as the computer zoomed in, he glanced at Alex to see if the sight of the rupture resulted in any reaction like he had had.
As he saw the rupture, Alex simply shook his head. What were the odds? Die, come back to...well, borrow a ship, then that ship is in danger of being sucked into an anomaly. Alysen would be amused at the irony. He wondered where she was.
A small LCARs box appeared next to the rupture containing the most pertinent sensor data. “Sooooo” Yana began, “suggestions? Preferably before we get torn apart?”
"We should keep sensors online if at all possible. If for no other reason, every bit of data collected on the rupture helps better our understanding. But I have other reasons besides scientific curiosity; without real time data from the sensors we run a greater risk of severely damaging surrounding space. The rupture measures 340 meters across, or just over twice the width of this ship. Particle density measures at 112 teracochranes. However that could change or it could remain steady; that's what makes subspace anomalies so dangerous one is never really sure what will happen. If it remains close to these dimensions long enough to program a torpedo and launch it, we should be good. However if it changes we'll have to adjust accordingly," Aaron said.
“There are a few options… that anomaly is probably dragging us in because of our warp field,” Peters said as he typed in a few calculations on the console he’d commandeered. “We can try any number of ways to get it to let go of us, from collapsing our warp field entirely to somehow inverting the ship’s warp field… or we could feed it one of our warp cores and hope that seals it up at least long enough for us to get away.”
“Problem is subspace is an odd thing,” Jack added, “we could either seal the rupture using a warpcore or we could end up causing an explosion that tears through subspace and makes all warp travel impossible...course since we’d most likely be dead that wouldn’t be an issue...”
It was Steele who spoke next, once again outlining the tactic used by the Vulcans all those years ago.
Yana listened to the ideas and tried to think, combining his own knowledge with that held in Jack’s swiss-cheesed mind, “Pulse wave torpedoes aren’t carried on starships anymore, do you think we can maybe cobble one together from other parts?”
“It’s possible… but we’d need to salvage some of the parts from the warp drive unit of one of our shuttle craft. Some of the components just can’t be replicated. It’d probably take us a couple of hours,” Peters replied. “We might be pushing our engines to keep out of the anomaly that long.”
"Do we even have that long to assemble it? Won't we be sucked in in a matter of hours?" Alex didn't like the idea of putting together a torpedo only to not finish in time.
“Unless anyone has any better suggestions,” Yana said looking around to see there were none, “then we’re better to go with the tried and tested method... Steele, work with Peters to get a list of parts and schematics, the rest of us will just have to do what we can to stop that thing from sucking us in”
He watched as everyone acknowledged what had to be done.
“Right then, we haven’t go long left, let’s get to work...”
---------------------------------------
A JP featuring;
Captain Isabel Kersare
Commanding Officer
(As Alex)
Lt. jg. Aaron Steele
Chief Science Officer
Lieutenant Todd Peters
Chief Engineering Officer
Lt. JG William "Will" Schulz
Chief Operations Officer
and
Me
Lieutenant Jonathan "Jack" Hawkins
Acting Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38897-B
Re: Mission 12: When In Rome
<<USS Malinche>>
<Bridge, 0815, MD04>
Jason hated waiting...even more so when it was because he was waiting for something very bad to happen. He looked over at Captain Kersare, who appeared as calm as ever in their present situation. Of course, knowing the history of the Malinche, he only figured that they probably had gotten out of tougher scrapes then this before. He was about to ask for a status report when the Malinche bucked as if a giant foot had kicked her on her ventral side.
"What the hell was that?" Jason snapped.
No doubt he was about to get an answer before the whole ship shuddered again, this time harder then before. he gripped the sides of his chair as another wave hit them again.
"Report," Captain Kersare ordered, she too was grabbing her command chair to avoid being thrown from it.
The Malinche reeled again, this time much harder then the previous two. The whole ship lurched horribly from side to side, sparks exploded from the operations station, tossing the ensign that had been sitting there to the deck. Jason made a dive for it as the ship continued to roll and lurch all around them.
"Helm, get us steady!" Kersare shouted.
Jason grabbed the back of the operations chair and threw himself into it, ignoring the shuddering and jarring that continued to work its way through the Malinche. His hands flew over the controls, working as fast as he could to stop the ship from shaking apart. Almost as soon as the shuddering had started it stopped. Jason sighed heavily, turning around to Kersare and answering the question before she even asked it.
"The pull from that its getting worse, I think we were caught in some sort of subspace riptide. I managed to stabilize us for now by rotating the shield frequencies."
"Good work Mr. Barrett."
"One problem though."
"Whats that?"
"According to our latest readings those riptides are going keep getting stronger...and that last bunch dragged us closer to that thing. Even with the engines pulling full reverse we only have about another hour left, maybe an hour and half if we push it."
"Not the news I was hoping for," Kersare frowned. "Better inform Peters and his team."
"Barrett to cartography, I hope that all you survived down there. Whatever ideas you are working on you better put them into high gear according to the last sensor scan we only have two and half hours left before we get pulled into that thing."
OFF: Tag people!
<Bridge, 0815, MD04>
Jason hated waiting...even more so when it was because he was waiting for something very bad to happen. He looked over at Captain Kersare, who appeared as calm as ever in their present situation. Of course, knowing the history of the Malinche, he only figured that they probably had gotten out of tougher scrapes then this before. He was about to ask for a status report when the Malinche bucked as if a giant foot had kicked her on her ventral side.
"What the hell was that?" Jason snapped.
No doubt he was about to get an answer before the whole ship shuddered again, this time harder then before. he gripped the sides of his chair as another wave hit them again.
"Report," Captain Kersare ordered, she too was grabbing her command chair to avoid being thrown from it.
The Malinche reeled again, this time much harder then the previous two. The whole ship lurched horribly from side to side, sparks exploded from the operations station, tossing the ensign that had been sitting there to the deck. Jason made a dive for it as the ship continued to roll and lurch all around them.
"Helm, get us steady!" Kersare shouted.
Jason grabbed the back of the operations chair and threw himself into it, ignoring the shuddering and jarring that continued to work its way through the Malinche. His hands flew over the controls, working as fast as he could to stop the ship from shaking apart. Almost as soon as the shuddering had started it stopped. Jason sighed heavily, turning around to Kersare and answering the question before she even asked it.
"The pull from that its getting worse, I think we were caught in some sort of subspace riptide. I managed to stabilize us for now by rotating the shield frequencies."
"Good work Mr. Barrett."
"One problem though."
"Whats that?"
"According to our latest readings those riptides are going keep getting stronger...and that last bunch dragged us closer to that thing. Even with the engines pulling full reverse we only have about another hour left, maybe an hour and half if we push it."
"Not the news I was hoping for," Kersare frowned. "Better inform Peters and his team."
"Barrett to cartography, I hope that all you survived down there. Whatever ideas you are working on you better put them into high gear according to the last sensor scan we only have two and half hours left before we get pulled into that thing."
OFF: Tag people!
Lieutenant Commander Jason Barrett
Executive Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38997-A
Re: Mission 12: When In Rome
OFF: This is a backpost
ON:
<<Ready Room, 1844, Day 3>>
Not long ago Britney (NPC) had stopped by Isabel's Ready Room to drop off a PADD regarding a crew transfer that had apparently been missed. Of course, with all the problems they'd been having, it wasn't much of a surprise. Still, she felt bad having not met up with a new crewmember. Hopefully either Jack or Mark had had the opportunity to speak with her.
Isabel tapped her commbadge, "Kersare to Ensign Rho; please report to my Ready Room at your earliest convenience. Kersare out."
<Deck 4, Alexis’ Quarters>
In the back of her mind, Ensign Rho was going through what she still had to do. Reporting to the Counselor for an initial psych eval and to Sickbay for a new arrival check-up was on the list. Chatting with the Counselor wasn’t something she was looking forward to, so it went under her medical check-up. She continued with her unpacking.
Alexis really didn’t have that much to put in place; a small statue here and there, a painting or two, and few odd and ends. She had managed to keep her harp concealed while it was brought onboard. She unpacked it and set it in her room. She was near the end of setting up her quarters when Captain Kersare called.
"Kersare to Ensign Rho; please report to my Ready Room at your earliest convenience. Kersare out."
Alexis took one last look around her quarters and decided it was good enough for now. She then turned and looked at herself in the mirror. Her uniform was wrinkled from unpacking and moving shipping containers. She needed to look her best for her first meeting with the Captain. So she put on a clean, crisp uniform and headed out the door.
<Ready Room, 1901>
Hearing the doorchime, Isabel looked up from the screen in front of her, "Come in."
Alexis walked in, straight, tall and head held high. Upon entering, she immediately clasped her hands behind her back and stood stock still. She was unsure how by-the-book or casual Captain Kersare was. So she didn’t want to take any chances with this first impression.
Isabel stood to greet the young woman and extended her hand, "Ensign Alexis Rho, I presume? I'm Captain Isabel Kersare, Commanding Officer of the Malinche. Please, have a seat."
Alexis relaxed and moved towards the desk. She shook her new CO’s hand, “Yes, Ma’am, I’m Ensign Rho. Thank you for the opportunity to serve aboard the Malinche.” Alexis took her seat in the chair to the Captain’s right. Out of the two, its back was turned closer to the wall.
"You're quite welcome; I'm glad to have you here. Normally I would have tried to meet with you sooner, but somehow your transfer orders were misplaced and I only recently found out about them," Isabel apologized. She didn't like feeling unprepared or unorganized, and certainly didn't like forgetting about someone.
“Running a starship has you doing countless jobs I’m sure. It’s understandable.” After all, Alexis was one of the last crewmembers to come aboard.
"Have you gotten settled in yet?" Isabel usually got more to the point faster, but with everything going on it was nice to start off with some easier laid-back questions. Her mind needed the slight break.
“For the most part, Ma’am. I have everything unpacked, but still have yet to peruse the ship.” Alexis paused for a second, searching for some topic of casual conversation. “As much as I liked the three days of free time, it’s good to be back on a ship heading out. Speaking of the Malinche, I noticed the Bridge isn’t the typical Prometheus Class module. Had the original gotten too ‘spartan’ for you?”
Isabel nodded, "I wasn't too fond of it from the start, but thought I'd give it a try. It just didn't seem to flow very well though, so at 386, I had it modified."
“Personally, the original reminds me too much of Intel training dorms…very basic accommodations and very uncomfortable seating. I like the looks of the replacement module.” Alexis smiled, trying to be friendly yet respectful at the same time.
"Good. I'd hoped the crew would appreciate the change. I think it feels a little more...homey," Isabel replied. It was probably time to get back to business, so she continued, "I realize you've not been on duty, but do you have an idea of what's been going on since we entered the Expanse?"
“Somewhat, ma’am. I’ve noticed some of the ship’s systems seem to have a mind of their own. Also, I’ve read a few of the recent crew reports. Then there’s the scuttlebutt I’ve picked up about ghosts, gremlins, and such,” answered Alexis. She shifted her position from casual to more business. “I’ve never been one to believe in ghosts and gremlins, ma’am. If there’s anything I’ve missed….” Alexis left the statement open-ended to allow Captain Kersare to fill in any gaps.
"Honestly we're not entirely sure what's going on at this point. We restarted the computer core and should be ready to leave early tomorrow morning," Isabel replied.
“If there’s any way I can help, give the order.”
Isabel nodded, "Actually, there is. I'm guessing you've not met your fellow Intelligence Officers yet... Lieutenant JG Hawkins is our Chief Intelligence Officer, however, the Chief Security/Tactical Officer suffered some injuries and Mr. Hawkins is filling in for him. Lieutenant Grayson has therefore become Chief Intelligence Officer in his absense. From what I understand, you were previously aboard the USS Infinity, correct? Is there anything pertinent about your service there you feel I should know that perhaps isn't mentioned in your service record?"
“That’s right, Ma’am, I haven’t met them yet. However I’m looking forward to the opportunity.” Alexis had glanced over their dossiers the night before she left the station, memorizing major facts. For example, ships served on; time in service…that sort of thing.
Pertinent information not included in my service record, she thought. What’s she after? Alexis pondered her prior service aboard the Infinity for a bit. She always suspected that her posting there had been a place holder until SI could find a suitable place within the Fleet to put her. After all, the Infinity only had two years of active service left. And a Psionics Specialist really wasn’t needed. All she did was research and…oh, yeah. There was something she should know up front rather than found out later.
“As I was seemingly unnecessary, I practiced some of the training I received on Tellar concerning intelligence gathering, putting together Intel reports and dossiers. However, it was only in my spare time and had no direct bearing on ship operations or crew interaction. All the reports were turned over to the Chief Intelligence Officer and then to Captain Van Pelt who was somewhat gracious to know a little bit more about his enlisted crew. Afterwards, he deleted the information and burned the hard copies since it wasn’t official. Guess that’s why I’m still an Ensign.”
Taking in what Alexis told her, Isabel considered her newest crewmember. "I could really use someone as an Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer and I think you would be best suited for the job, if you're willing."
“Then I hope I can live up to your expectations, Captain. I am ready and willing to fill that position.”
Isabel smiled and opened her desk drawer, pulling out a small wooden box, offering it to Alexis. "I'm sure you will. Here's something to go along with your new position."
Alexis took the wooden box from Isabel. Can’t be, she thought. She opened it and sure enough, there was small, black, shiny, new pip…Lieutenant Junior Grade. Alexis was grateful. She stood and extended her hand to Captain Kersare. “Thank you, Ma’am. I’ll do my best, and more if needed; not only in filling this position, but also in executing the duties and responsibilities of a Lt. JG.”
Also standing, Isabel shook Alexis' hand, "You're welcome. I'm sure you will; I look forward to seeing what you'll contribute to the Malinche."
Alexis put the pip on her collar. A sense of fulfillment welled up inside. Finally, she thought.
"Is there anything you need or questions you have?" Isabel wanted to make sure everything was taken care of before her new Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer left her office.
"None that I can think of, Ma'am," said Alexis. Captain Kersare dismissed Alexis. Lt. JG Rho left the Ready Room a slight bit more proud than when she entered.
A JP featuring
Captain Isabel Kersare
Commanding Officer
And
ON:
<<Ready Room, 1844, Day 3>>
Not long ago Britney (NPC) had stopped by Isabel's Ready Room to drop off a PADD regarding a crew transfer that had apparently been missed. Of course, with all the problems they'd been having, it wasn't much of a surprise. Still, she felt bad having not met up with a new crewmember. Hopefully either Jack or Mark had had the opportunity to speak with her.
Isabel tapped her commbadge, "Kersare to Ensign Rho; please report to my Ready Room at your earliest convenience. Kersare out."
<Deck 4, Alexis’ Quarters>
In the back of her mind, Ensign Rho was going through what she still had to do. Reporting to the Counselor for an initial psych eval and to Sickbay for a new arrival check-up was on the list. Chatting with the Counselor wasn’t something she was looking forward to, so it went under her medical check-up. She continued with her unpacking.
Alexis really didn’t have that much to put in place; a small statue here and there, a painting or two, and few odd and ends. She had managed to keep her harp concealed while it was brought onboard. She unpacked it and set it in her room. She was near the end of setting up her quarters when Captain Kersare called.
"Kersare to Ensign Rho; please report to my Ready Room at your earliest convenience. Kersare out."
Alexis took one last look around her quarters and decided it was good enough for now. She then turned and looked at herself in the mirror. Her uniform was wrinkled from unpacking and moving shipping containers. She needed to look her best for her first meeting with the Captain. So she put on a clean, crisp uniform and headed out the door.
<Ready Room, 1901>
Hearing the doorchime, Isabel looked up from the screen in front of her, "Come in."
Alexis walked in, straight, tall and head held high. Upon entering, she immediately clasped her hands behind her back and stood stock still. She was unsure how by-the-book or casual Captain Kersare was. So she didn’t want to take any chances with this first impression.
Isabel stood to greet the young woman and extended her hand, "Ensign Alexis Rho, I presume? I'm Captain Isabel Kersare, Commanding Officer of the Malinche. Please, have a seat."
Alexis relaxed and moved towards the desk. She shook her new CO’s hand, “Yes, Ma’am, I’m Ensign Rho. Thank you for the opportunity to serve aboard the Malinche.” Alexis took her seat in the chair to the Captain’s right. Out of the two, its back was turned closer to the wall.
"You're quite welcome; I'm glad to have you here. Normally I would have tried to meet with you sooner, but somehow your transfer orders were misplaced and I only recently found out about them," Isabel apologized. She didn't like feeling unprepared or unorganized, and certainly didn't like forgetting about someone.
“Running a starship has you doing countless jobs I’m sure. It’s understandable.” After all, Alexis was one of the last crewmembers to come aboard.
"Have you gotten settled in yet?" Isabel usually got more to the point faster, but with everything going on it was nice to start off with some easier laid-back questions. Her mind needed the slight break.
“For the most part, Ma’am. I have everything unpacked, but still have yet to peruse the ship.” Alexis paused for a second, searching for some topic of casual conversation. “As much as I liked the three days of free time, it’s good to be back on a ship heading out. Speaking of the Malinche, I noticed the Bridge isn’t the typical Prometheus Class module. Had the original gotten too ‘spartan’ for you?”
Isabel nodded, "I wasn't too fond of it from the start, but thought I'd give it a try. It just didn't seem to flow very well though, so at 386, I had it modified."
“Personally, the original reminds me too much of Intel training dorms…very basic accommodations and very uncomfortable seating. I like the looks of the replacement module.” Alexis smiled, trying to be friendly yet respectful at the same time.
"Good. I'd hoped the crew would appreciate the change. I think it feels a little more...homey," Isabel replied. It was probably time to get back to business, so she continued, "I realize you've not been on duty, but do you have an idea of what's been going on since we entered the Expanse?"
“Somewhat, ma’am. I’ve noticed some of the ship’s systems seem to have a mind of their own. Also, I’ve read a few of the recent crew reports. Then there’s the scuttlebutt I’ve picked up about ghosts, gremlins, and such,” answered Alexis. She shifted her position from casual to more business. “I’ve never been one to believe in ghosts and gremlins, ma’am. If there’s anything I’ve missed….” Alexis left the statement open-ended to allow Captain Kersare to fill in any gaps.
"Honestly we're not entirely sure what's going on at this point. We restarted the computer core and should be ready to leave early tomorrow morning," Isabel replied.
“If there’s any way I can help, give the order.”
Isabel nodded, "Actually, there is. I'm guessing you've not met your fellow Intelligence Officers yet... Lieutenant JG Hawkins is our Chief Intelligence Officer, however, the Chief Security/Tactical Officer suffered some injuries and Mr. Hawkins is filling in for him. Lieutenant Grayson has therefore become Chief Intelligence Officer in his absense. From what I understand, you were previously aboard the USS Infinity, correct? Is there anything pertinent about your service there you feel I should know that perhaps isn't mentioned in your service record?"
“That’s right, Ma’am, I haven’t met them yet. However I’m looking forward to the opportunity.” Alexis had glanced over their dossiers the night before she left the station, memorizing major facts. For example, ships served on; time in service…that sort of thing.
Pertinent information not included in my service record, she thought. What’s she after? Alexis pondered her prior service aboard the Infinity for a bit. She always suspected that her posting there had been a place holder until SI could find a suitable place within the Fleet to put her. After all, the Infinity only had two years of active service left. And a Psionics Specialist really wasn’t needed. All she did was research and…oh, yeah. There was something she should know up front rather than found out later.
“As I was seemingly unnecessary, I practiced some of the training I received on Tellar concerning intelligence gathering, putting together Intel reports and dossiers. However, it was only in my spare time and had no direct bearing on ship operations or crew interaction. All the reports were turned over to the Chief Intelligence Officer and then to Captain Van Pelt who was somewhat gracious to know a little bit more about his enlisted crew. Afterwards, he deleted the information and burned the hard copies since it wasn’t official. Guess that’s why I’m still an Ensign.”
Taking in what Alexis told her, Isabel considered her newest crewmember. "I could really use someone as an Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer and I think you would be best suited for the job, if you're willing."
“Then I hope I can live up to your expectations, Captain. I am ready and willing to fill that position.”
Isabel smiled and opened her desk drawer, pulling out a small wooden box, offering it to Alexis. "I'm sure you will. Here's something to go along with your new position."
Alexis took the wooden box from Isabel. Can’t be, she thought. She opened it and sure enough, there was small, black, shiny, new pip…Lieutenant Junior Grade. Alexis was grateful. She stood and extended her hand to Captain Kersare. “Thank you, Ma’am. I’ll do my best, and more if needed; not only in filling this position, but also in executing the duties and responsibilities of a Lt. JG.”
Also standing, Isabel shook Alexis' hand, "You're welcome. I'm sure you will; I look forward to seeing what you'll contribute to the Malinche."
Alexis put the pip on her collar. A sense of fulfillment welled up inside. Finally, she thought.
"Is there anything you need or questions you have?" Isabel wanted to make sure everything was taken care of before her new Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer left her office.
"None that I can think of, Ma'am," said Alexis. Captain Kersare dismissed Alexis. Lt. JG Rho left the Ready Room a slight bit more proud than when she entered.
A JP featuring
Captain Isabel Kersare
Commanding Officer
And
Lieutenant JG Alexis Rho
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38997-A
"My mind is the only sanctuary that has not been stolen from me. People have tried to breach it before, but I've learned to defend it vigorously, for I am only safe with my innermost thoughts."
Re: Mission 12: When In Rome
ON:
<<USS Malinche, Bridge, 0752, Day 4>>
Alone in the turbolift on her way to the Bridge, Nora tensed as the ship went to Red Alert. The day was already off to a wonderful start, she mused sourly, pinching the bridge of her nose in an effort to fight the pounding headache that had been with her for well over twelve hours now. The lift sailed to a stop and the doors hissed quietly open, allowing Nora to step onto the Bridge.
Her fraying senses hummed discordantly with the unease that seemed to encompass the area, and she briefly wondered if she should postpone speaking with the Captain as she was clearly preoccupied. Pushing that thought aside, she crossed to Kersare with as much of a smile as she could muster. Isabel needed to know about the strange goings-on on her ship. "Do you have a moment, Captain? I have some...news that I think you should be aware of."
Isabel raised an eyebrow. What else could possibly be going on? Weren't enough things going wrong already? She wouldn't be hearing back from the team in the immediate future, so it was probably best to find out what else was going on now. "Yes, Counselor, let's go into my Ready Room," Isabel replied.
As they neared the door, Isabel stepped through and moved to the side to allow Nora to enter. As she did, Isabel motioned towards the seating area. "Have a seat."
"Thank you, Captain." Nora took her seat, exhaling slowly and interlocking her fingers together in her lap. Under normal circumstances she enjoyed engaging in friendly small talk whenever sitting down with someone, but under the current circumstances--and considering how utterly weary she was feeling at the moment--Nora went straight to the point.
"I'm sorry if this is a bad time, but I feel it's very important that you're aware of what Counseling has been experiencing. Yesterday it was brought to my attention by another Counselor that several crew members have been having strange symptoms. Headaches, dizziness, things like that, initially. Unfortunately, it now appears that the symptoms are progressing to hallucinations and waking dreams. Or, more accurately, waking nightmares."
At Nora's words, Isabel frowned. "What kind of waking nightmares and hallucinations?"
"I'm not completely certain," Nora admitted. "The few crew members I've spoken with have been less than eager to tell me exactly what it is they're seeing. From what I can gather, they usually involve some sort of traumatic event that has occurred in the past, such as the death of a friend or a colleague. It's like they're being revisited by these events in their daily lives, but I can't imagine what would be causing that."
Isabel frowned, "How many people have reported this? Any ideas as to what may be causing it?"
"I've spoken individually with three crew members, and my counselors have seen another six or seven. Not everyone is experiencing hallucinations, per se, but I'm sure the headaches and dizziness are also related." Taking a deep breath and running a hand through her hair, Nora added, "I saw Dr. Cullen yesterday to let him know what was going on, and to see if he had any ideas as to what could be causing it. Unfortunately, he's been experiencing hallucinations too."
That was not good news. Isabel waited to hear what else Nora had to say.
Nora looked at Isabel earnestly, sitting up straighter in her chair. "I have no proof for you, Captain, but I think that everything might be somehow connected--the problems with the ship, these hallucinations, not to mention the presence I'm sure I felt earlier on the Bridge. I wish I could give you more solid answers, but so far I'm completely baffled."
"As am I... How bad is Dr. Cullen? Does he need to be relieved of duty? Or do the others?" She didn't like the idea of her Chief Medical Officer being removed from duty, but it could be necessary.
"He seems to be a man of sound mind, hallucinations aside," Nora declared with a smile. "I trust for the time being he's all right, but you may want to ask him yourself. I haven't had a chance to speak with him since yesterday afternoon."
Isabel nodded, "What about the others who were showing symptoms?"
"I convinced one crew member to rest in her quarters until she's feeling better. Headaches and a general sense of unease were getting the best of her. As for the others, my counselors and I are going to be monitoring them, and Sickbay is now aware of the problem. To be perfectly honest, I'm more worried that there are likely more crew members experiencing these hallucinations who aren't coming forward. It's hard to get a good picture of what's going on when you don't know the real extent of the problem," Nora sighed, sinking back into her chair. "And worse than that," she continued, "all these symptoms seem to be progressing. I don't know if hallucinations are the very worst we can expect from all of this."
Sitting back in her seat, Isabel had to agree - it was very difficult to know what was going on without the whole picture. The problem was figuring out how to get the whole picture. The idea of things getting worse than "just" hallucinations didn't sit well with Isabel either. "Any ideas what it could possibly progress to? I know it's not easy to predict, but if you had to take a guess?"
"The hallucinations could easily become more intense, to begin with. Those that I've spoken with so far have at least been aware that they are hallucinating. It's possible that they could reach a point where they're unable to truly differentiate between their waking life and these hallucinations. Then they'd be a danger not only to themselves, but to anyone around them as well." It was a bleak possibility, but unfortunately one that Nora couldn't completely disregard.
Isabel nodded quietly, that was just what they didn't need. "Recommendations?"
Nora had to think a moment on that, steepling her fingers beneath her chin and frowning slightly as she did so. "There's not much that we can do for now, I'm afraid. I'd say keep an eye out for any strange behavior to start with. Keep your ears open as well, especially if anyone has any complaints about crew members acting oddly. If you do hear of anything, please let me know. Until then, I'll work with Medical and see if we can at least find a reason for why this is happening." She smiled weakly, dropping her hands back into her lap before adding, "I don't suppose you have any recommendations for me in return?"
Pausing a moment to think, Isabel replied, "Stay calm. If you show that you're confident and calm, it will help keep everyone else calm. Right now there's nothing we can do to stop this, so there's no sense in panicking. Between yourself and Doctor Cullen, I'm sure we'll find out what's going on and stop it. Either that, or it might be something related to the Expanse that will clear up once we're out of it."
"Of course," Nora agreed. "Wouldn't that be a relief," she added, "if it all goes away once we're on our way." She paused, her smile wavering. "If I could at least have full reign of my senses back..." She let her words drift off, silencing herself with a brief shake of her head. "No, nevermind about that. I was trained as a psychiatrist, and with or without my telepathy, a psychiatrist I remain." Her smile returned, broadening as she rose from her chair. Despite the current circumstances, she felt much better now that Isabel was at aware of her concerns.
"Is there anything I can do that would help you?" Isabel asked Nora.
"Just let me know if anything else unusual happens. There's no doubt in my mind that most of the anomalies we've encountered are somehow connected. The more clues that we have, the closer we'll be to solving this."
"Absolutely," Isabel replied. "Don't hesitate to ask if you need anything else." Considering her next words, she asked, "I don't suppose you've seen Derek? In all the chaos I've not had a chance to check in on him lately...."
Nora shook her head. "I haven't had a chance, yet. I'm sorry, Isabel." And she truly was. Just days before she had been so concerned for Captain Kersare and her husband, and she'd promised to do all that she could to help. She had been caught up in the recent turn of events as well, but now she was determined to turn her attention back to Derek. "I'll see him today," she promised, gently squeezing Kersare's arm. "I'm sure that he and I could both do with a friendly chat."
Isabel shook her head, "No need to apologize; we've all been busy. I do appreciate you going to see him though. I think he'll appreciate it..." Too much was happening too quickly - it was difficult to process it all. In a way it was nice as it was a distraction - something to take her mind off the situation with Derek.
"I'll let you know how it goes," Nora promised with a reassuring smile.
OFF
This JP brought to you by:
Captain Isabel Kersare
Commanding Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38897-B
and
<<USS Malinche, Bridge, 0752, Day 4>>
Alone in the turbolift on her way to the Bridge, Nora tensed as the ship went to Red Alert. The day was already off to a wonderful start, she mused sourly, pinching the bridge of her nose in an effort to fight the pounding headache that had been with her for well over twelve hours now. The lift sailed to a stop and the doors hissed quietly open, allowing Nora to step onto the Bridge.
Her fraying senses hummed discordantly with the unease that seemed to encompass the area, and she briefly wondered if she should postpone speaking with the Captain as she was clearly preoccupied. Pushing that thought aside, she crossed to Kersare with as much of a smile as she could muster. Isabel needed to know about the strange goings-on on her ship. "Do you have a moment, Captain? I have some...news that I think you should be aware of."
Isabel raised an eyebrow. What else could possibly be going on? Weren't enough things going wrong already? She wouldn't be hearing back from the team in the immediate future, so it was probably best to find out what else was going on now. "Yes, Counselor, let's go into my Ready Room," Isabel replied.
As they neared the door, Isabel stepped through and moved to the side to allow Nora to enter. As she did, Isabel motioned towards the seating area. "Have a seat."
"Thank you, Captain." Nora took her seat, exhaling slowly and interlocking her fingers together in her lap. Under normal circumstances she enjoyed engaging in friendly small talk whenever sitting down with someone, but under the current circumstances--and considering how utterly weary she was feeling at the moment--Nora went straight to the point.
"I'm sorry if this is a bad time, but I feel it's very important that you're aware of what Counseling has been experiencing. Yesterday it was brought to my attention by another Counselor that several crew members have been having strange symptoms. Headaches, dizziness, things like that, initially. Unfortunately, it now appears that the symptoms are progressing to hallucinations and waking dreams. Or, more accurately, waking nightmares."
At Nora's words, Isabel frowned. "What kind of waking nightmares and hallucinations?"
"I'm not completely certain," Nora admitted. "The few crew members I've spoken with have been less than eager to tell me exactly what it is they're seeing. From what I can gather, they usually involve some sort of traumatic event that has occurred in the past, such as the death of a friend or a colleague. It's like they're being revisited by these events in their daily lives, but I can't imagine what would be causing that."
Isabel frowned, "How many people have reported this? Any ideas as to what may be causing it?"
"I've spoken individually with three crew members, and my counselors have seen another six or seven. Not everyone is experiencing hallucinations, per se, but I'm sure the headaches and dizziness are also related." Taking a deep breath and running a hand through her hair, Nora added, "I saw Dr. Cullen yesterday to let him know what was going on, and to see if he had any ideas as to what could be causing it. Unfortunately, he's been experiencing hallucinations too."
That was not good news. Isabel waited to hear what else Nora had to say.
Nora looked at Isabel earnestly, sitting up straighter in her chair. "I have no proof for you, Captain, but I think that everything might be somehow connected--the problems with the ship, these hallucinations, not to mention the presence I'm sure I felt earlier on the Bridge. I wish I could give you more solid answers, but so far I'm completely baffled."
"As am I... How bad is Dr. Cullen? Does he need to be relieved of duty? Or do the others?" She didn't like the idea of her Chief Medical Officer being removed from duty, but it could be necessary.
"He seems to be a man of sound mind, hallucinations aside," Nora declared with a smile. "I trust for the time being he's all right, but you may want to ask him yourself. I haven't had a chance to speak with him since yesterday afternoon."
Isabel nodded, "What about the others who were showing symptoms?"
"I convinced one crew member to rest in her quarters until she's feeling better. Headaches and a general sense of unease were getting the best of her. As for the others, my counselors and I are going to be monitoring them, and Sickbay is now aware of the problem. To be perfectly honest, I'm more worried that there are likely more crew members experiencing these hallucinations who aren't coming forward. It's hard to get a good picture of what's going on when you don't know the real extent of the problem," Nora sighed, sinking back into her chair. "And worse than that," she continued, "all these symptoms seem to be progressing. I don't know if hallucinations are the very worst we can expect from all of this."
Sitting back in her seat, Isabel had to agree - it was very difficult to know what was going on without the whole picture. The problem was figuring out how to get the whole picture. The idea of things getting worse than "just" hallucinations didn't sit well with Isabel either. "Any ideas what it could possibly progress to? I know it's not easy to predict, but if you had to take a guess?"
"The hallucinations could easily become more intense, to begin with. Those that I've spoken with so far have at least been aware that they are hallucinating. It's possible that they could reach a point where they're unable to truly differentiate between their waking life and these hallucinations. Then they'd be a danger not only to themselves, but to anyone around them as well." It was a bleak possibility, but unfortunately one that Nora couldn't completely disregard.
Isabel nodded quietly, that was just what they didn't need. "Recommendations?"
Nora had to think a moment on that, steepling her fingers beneath her chin and frowning slightly as she did so. "There's not much that we can do for now, I'm afraid. I'd say keep an eye out for any strange behavior to start with. Keep your ears open as well, especially if anyone has any complaints about crew members acting oddly. If you do hear of anything, please let me know. Until then, I'll work with Medical and see if we can at least find a reason for why this is happening." She smiled weakly, dropping her hands back into her lap before adding, "I don't suppose you have any recommendations for me in return?"
Pausing a moment to think, Isabel replied, "Stay calm. If you show that you're confident and calm, it will help keep everyone else calm. Right now there's nothing we can do to stop this, so there's no sense in panicking. Between yourself and Doctor Cullen, I'm sure we'll find out what's going on and stop it. Either that, or it might be something related to the Expanse that will clear up once we're out of it."
"Of course," Nora agreed. "Wouldn't that be a relief," she added, "if it all goes away once we're on our way." She paused, her smile wavering. "If I could at least have full reign of my senses back..." She let her words drift off, silencing herself with a brief shake of her head. "No, nevermind about that. I was trained as a psychiatrist, and with or without my telepathy, a psychiatrist I remain." Her smile returned, broadening as she rose from her chair. Despite the current circumstances, she felt much better now that Isabel was at aware of her concerns.
"Is there anything I can do that would help you?" Isabel asked Nora.
"Just let me know if anything else unusual happens. There's no doubt in my mind that most of the anomalies we've encountered are somehow connected. The more clues that we have, the closer we'll be to solving this."
"Absolutely," Isabel replied. "Don't hesitate to ask if you need anything else." Considering her next words, she asked, "I don't suppose you've seen Derek? In all the chaos I've not had a chance to check in on him lately...."
Nora shook her head. "I haven't had a chance, yet. I'm sorry, Isabel." And she truly was. Just days before she had been so concerned for Captain Kersare and her husband, and she'd promised to do all that she could to help. She had been caught up in the recent turn of events as well, but now she was determined to turn her attention back to Derek. "I'll see him today," she promised, gently squeezing Kersare's arm. "I'm sure that he and I could both do with a friendly chat."
Isabel shook her head, "No need to apologize; we've all been busy. I do appreciate you going to see him though. I think he'll appreciate it..." Too much was happening too quickly - it was difficult to process it all. In a way it was nice as it was a distraction - something to take her mind off the situation with Derek.
"I'll let you know how it goes," Nora promised with a reassuring smile.
OFF
This JP brought to you by:
Captain Isabel Kersare
Commanding Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38897-B
and
Commander Nora Zeral
Executive Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38997-A
-
Peters
- Senior Staff
- Posts: 202
- Joined: Mon Mar 20, 2006 2:17 pm
- Location: Space, the final frontier...
- Contact:
Re: Mission 12: When In Rome
ON: <USS Malinche, Stellar Cartography, Day 4, 0820>
The meeting of the minds had just broken up with an agreement that they should try to build a pulse-wave torpedo before the last-ditch option of feeding the rift one of the Malinche's warp cores. Peters was putting together a list of parts he'd need to modify one of the photon torpedoes, as well was the tools he'd need. If he got everything together first, he'd probably be able to assemble the torpedo within an hour... but getting all the parts would likely take the better part of an hour on its own.
Just as Peters finished that thought, the ship shook hard, sending him flailing for a handhold to keep his balance with. He managed to grab onto a nearby support strut in time for the second jolt. The third jolt threatened to send Peters flying across the room, despite a two-handed grip on the strut. Finally the ship stopped shaking and Peters tentatively started back to the console he'd been at.
As he was about to call the bridge, Peters heard the overhead comm crackle to life. "Barrett to cartography, I hope that all you survived down there. Whatever ideas you are working on you better put them into high gear according to the last sensor scan we only have an hour and half left before we get pulled into that thing."
"Shit!" Peters swore loudly, not caring that three other department heads and several junior officers were in the room. "I'm going to kill Murphy with my own two hands... as soon as we break free of that rift..
Peters swore a few more times as he quickly downloaded his parts list into a few pads and highlighted different items on each one. He handed one to Corrin, kept another for himself, and handed the third to Schulz. "Corrin, I need you to go to the shuttlebay and get the parts highlighted in blue from the Argo. The parts highlighted in yellow come from the Type 9 replacement stores. Schulz, if you don't mind, I need you to meet me in the forward torpedo bay in five minutes with the tools highlighted on your PADD. I have a few tools and parts to get from Main Engineering. We've got an hour to do a two hour job if we want to have time to actually use the damn torpedo when we're done building it."
As soon as both of the other officers had acknowledged his requests, Peters ran out of the Stellar Cartography lab at a full sprint. Before he was halfway down the corridor he tapped his commbadge. "Peters to C'Eltor, I need you to get a few things out of stores for me as fast as you possibly can. We've got a big, and time constrained, project ahead of us this morning."
Sliding into the turbolift, Peters tapped in an override code and ordered it to Engineering at top speed. He'd be damned if he was going to let his ship get sucked into a subspace rift, even if he did have half the time he needed to get that torpedo built.
OFF: <Tag Kersare, Schulz>
The meeting of the minds had just broken up with an agreement that they should try to build a pulse-wave torpedo before the last-ditch option of feeding the rift one of the Malinche's warp cores. Peters was putting together a list of parts he'd need to modify one of the photon torpedoes, as well was the tools he'd need. If he got everything together first, he'd probably be able to assemble the torpedo within an hour... but getting all the parts would likely take the better part of an hour on its own.
Just as Peters finished that thought, the ship shook hard, sending him flailing for a handhold to keep his balance with. He managed to grab onto a nearby support strut in time for the second jolt. The third jolt threatened to send Peters flying across the room, despite a two-handed grip on the strut. Finally the ship stopped shaking and Peters tentatively started back to the console he'd been at.
As he was about to call the bridge, Peters heard the overhead comm crackle to life. "Barrett to cartography, I hope that all you survived down there. Whatever ideas you are working on you better put them into high gear according to the last sensor scan we only have an hour and half left before we get pulled into that thing."
"Shit!" Peters swore loudly, not caring that three other department heads and several junior officers were in the room. "I'm going to kill Murphy with my own two hands... as soon as we break free of that rift..
Peters swore a few more times as he quickly downloaded his parts list into a few pads and highlighted different items on each one. He handed one to Corrin, kept another for himself, and handed the third to Schulz. "Corrin, I need you to go to the shuttlebay and get the parts highlighted in blue from the Argo. The parts highlighted in yellow come from the Type 9 replacement stores. Schulz, if you don't mind, I need you to meet me in the forward torpedo bay in five minutes with the tools highlighted on your PADD. I have a few tools and parts to get from Main Engineering. We've got an hour to do a two hour job if we want to have time to actually use the damn torpedo when we're done building it."
As soon as both of the other officers had acknowledged his requests, Peters ran out of the Stellar Cartography lab at a full sprint. Before he was halfway down the corridor he tapped his commbadge. "Peters to C'Eltor, I need you to get a few things out of stores for me as fast as you possibly can. We've got a big, and time constrained, project ahead of us this morning."
Sliding into the turbolift, Peters tapped in an override code and ordered it to Engineering at top speed. He'd be damned if he was going to let his ship get sucked into a subspace rift, even if he did have half the time he needed to get that torpedo built.
OFF: <Tag Kersare, Schulz>
Tony
AKA
Lieutenant Commander Todd Peters
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38997-A
Re: Mission 12: When In Rome
ON: <<Stellar Cartography, USS Malinche, MD04, 0820>>
Will looked around at the assembled team. It seemed the decision had been made. He knew that Lt. Peters wasn’t keen on losing one of the vessel’s three warp cores, and neither was he, but it was one sure-fire way to ensure the rift was sealed. At this point, however, it was only the back-up plan. The first attempt would be to make a pulse-wave torpedo. Hopefully, it would be completed with enough time to test and still be able to fall back to plan B if necessary.
Suddenly, the Malinche shook violently, forcing Will to grip the sides of the console he was working at. A second shudder swept through the ship, followed quickly by a third which sprawled Will over his console. Once the shaking stopped, Will managed to get back to his feet quickly and brush himself off, little worse for the wear.
=/\= Barrett to cartography, I hope that all you survived down there. Whatever ideas you are working on you better put them into high gear according to the last sensor scan we only have an hour and half left before we get pulled into that thing. =/\=
Will heard Peters swear before cursing Murphy and all his laws. He couldn’t blame the man, after what they’d been through so far on this mission. Moments later, he heard Peters addressing him.
“…Schulz, if you don't mind, I need you to meet me in the forward torpedo bay in five minutes with the tools highlighted on your PADD,” he heard Peters say, “I have a few tools and parts to get from Main Engineering. We've got an hour to do a two hour job if we want to have time to actually use the torpedo when we're done building it."
With that, the chief engineer disappeared out into the corridor. Will looked down at his PADD briefly before promptly following suit.
<<En Route to Forward Torpedo Bay, USS Malinche, MD04, 0825>>
It hadn’t taken long to gather the necessary tools for the job at hand, despite never having attempted such a thing before. Will was already on his way to the forward torpedo bay at a brisk pace. Time was precious and the clock was ticking.
“Lieutenant,” Will heard Summers (NPC) call as he rounded a bend in the corridor. The operations officer fell into step next to him as they continued toward the torpedo bay. “I found the tools you were asking for,” Summers said, handing over the two devices.
“Thank you, lieutenant,” Will replied, slipping the tools into his case, “Now get to the bridge…we need somebody up there with experience.”
“Will do,” Summers answered, “Good luck.” He disappeared into the nearest lift access point and Will continued toward his destination. Moments later, he rounded the final bend and approached the access doors to the bay. They hissed open at his approach and, without slowing, Will entered the room and immediately began searching for Lt. Peters.
OFF
Lt. JG Joey Summers (NPC)
Operations Officer
USS Malinche
Played by
Will looked around at the assembled team. It seemed the decision had been made. He knew that Lt. Peters wasn’t keen on losing one of the vessel’s three warp cores, and neither was he, but it was one sure-fire way to ensure the rift was sealed. At this point, however, it was only the back-up plan. The first attempt would be to make a pulse-wave torpedo. Hopefully, it would be completed with enough time to test and still be able to fall back to plan B if necessary.
Suddenly, the Malinche shook violently, forcing Will to grip the sides of the console he was working at. A second shudder swept through the ship, followed quickly by a third which sprawled Will over his console. Once the shaking stopped, Will managed to get back to his feet quickly and brush himself off, little worse for the wear.
=/\= Barrett to cartography, I hope that all you survived down there. Whatever ideas you are working on you better put them into high gear according to the last sensor scan we only have an hour and half left before we get pulled into that thing. =/\=
Will heard Peters swear before cursing Murphy and all his laws. He couldn’t blame the man, after what they’d been through so far on this mission. Moments later, he heard Peters addressing him.
“…Schulz, if you don't mind, I need you to meet me in the forward torpedo bay in five minutes with the tools highlighted on your PADD,” he heard Peters say, “I have a few tools and parts to get from Main Engineering. We've got an hour to do a two hour job if we want to have time to actually use the torpedo when we're done building it."
With that, the chief engineer disappeared out into the corridor. Will looked down at his PADD briefly before promptly following suit.
<<En Route to Forward Torpedo Bay, USS Malinche, MD04, 0825>>
It hadn’t taken long to gather the necessary tools for the job at hand, despite never having attempted such a thing before. Will was already on his way to the forward torpedo bay at a brisk pace. Time was precious and the clock was ticking.
“Lieutenant,” Will heard Summers (NPC) call as he rounded a bend in the corridor. The operations officer fell into step next to him as they continued toward the torpedo bay. “I found the tools you were asking for,” Summers said, handing over the two devices.
“Thank you, lieutenant,” Will replied, slipping the tools into his case, “Now get to the bridge…we need somebody up there with experience.”
“Will do,” Summers answered, “Good luck.” He disappeared into the nearest lift access point and Will continued toward his destination. Moments later, he rounded the final bend and approached the access doors to the bay. They hissed open at his approach and, without slowing, Will entered the room and immediately began searching for Lt. Peters.
OFF
Lt. JG Joey Summers (NPC)
Operations Officer
USS Malinche
Played by
Lt. JG Aaron Masterson
Chief Security/Tactical Officer & 2XO
USS Malinche NCC-38997-A
Re: Mission 12: When In Rome
<Bridge, 0830, MD04>
The ship had shaken a few more times by the time Yana had arrived back on the bridge, one vibration even causing him to stumble through the open turbo lift door on to the bridge, steadying himself against a bulkhead.
Barrett and Kersare both turned to him when he entered the bridge expecting a report.
“Peters and Shultz are working on scraping together the parts they nee-“ the ship shook once again, it was like a wave, he could feel the turbulence affect the stern of the ship and work its way along to the bow.
Jack had never been on a ship at sea, but Yana had and as he stood gripping a console he found himself thinking about that fishing trip, about how they had been hit by a large wave that almost sent him overboard. This was a much more violent feeling obviously, but it was strangely reminiscent and was actually making him feel somewhat ill.
The shaking subsided and Jack continued, “...the parts they need. Steele is still down in stellar cartography trying to work on the yield and where exactly is the best place to fire the torpedo and I’m going to make sure the firing mechanism is calibrated and I’m going to get the tube prepared.”
The both nodded that they understood and he returned to his console just as another wave hit, this time very violently, everyone grabbed onto whatever they could but one ensign was in the middle of the floor when it hit, the force sending him stumbling over and causing him to smash hard into a console. Kersare immediately got up and checked on him, blood clearly visible from a head wound where he collided, the call went out for a med team to come to the bridge immediately as Yana tried to focus.
With one hand holding tight to his console he got to work trying to formulate a shooting solution with the information that Steele had just transmitted to him, he paused from this and tapped his combadge.
“Hawkins to Jolir” he awaited an acknowledgement and then continued, “Can you head to the rear torpedo tubes and begin getting them ready to launch a pulse wave torpedo, contact Lieutenant Peters for the schematics.” He once again waiting for acknowledgement and then tapped his combadge to close the channel.
The medical team had arrived on the bridge and were tending to the downed crewman when the next wave hit abruptly, causing them all to be bowled off their knees and catching Yana off his guard knocking him to the ground.
The ship had shaken a few more times by the time Yana had arrived back on the bridge, one vibration even causing him to stumble through the open turbo lift door on to the bridge, steadying himself against a bulkhead.
Barrett and Kersare both turned to him when he entered the bridge expecting a report.
“Peters and Shultz are working on scraping together the parts they nee-“ the ship shook once again, it was like a wave, he could feel the turbulence affect the stern of the ship and work its way along to the bow.
Jack had never been on a ship at sea, but Yana had and as he stood gripping a console he found himself thinking about that fishing trip, about how they had been hit by a large wave that almost sent him overboard. This was a much more violent feeling obviously, but it was strangely reminiscent and was actually making him feel somewhat ill.
The shaking subsided and Jack continued, “...the parts they need. Steele is still down in stellar cartography trying to work on the yield and where exactly is the best place to fire the torpedo and I’m going to make sure the firing mechanism is calibrated and I’m going to get the tube prepared.”
The both nodded that they understood and he returned to his console just as another wave hit, this time very violently, everyone grabbed onto whatever they could but one ensign was in the middle of the floor when it hit, the force sending him stumbling over and causing him to smash hard into a console. Kersare immediately got up and checked on him, blood clearly visible from a head wound where he collided, the call went out for a med team to come to the bridge immediately as Yana tried to focus.
With one hand holding tight to his console he got to work trying to formulate a shooting solution with the information that Steele had just transmitted to him, he paused from this and tapped his combadge.
“Hawkins to Jolir” he awaited an acknowledgement and then continued, “Can you head to the rear torpedo tubes and begin getting them ready to launch a pulse wave torpedo, contact Lieutenant Peters for the schematics.” He once again waiting for acknowledgement and then tapped his combadge to close the channel.
The medical team had arrived on the bridge and were tending to the downed crewman when the next wave hit abruptly, causing them all to be bowled off their knees and catching Yana off his guard knocking him to the ground.
Lieutenant Jonathan "Jack" Hawkins
Acting Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38897-B
Re: Mission 12: When In Rome
[Sickbay - 8.35 - Day 4]
Em wondered what was keeping the captain, but knew that sometimes it required a wait when going to any CO. She thought it was getting too quiet in sickbay, and hoped it would stay that way for the time being.
She was disappointed, but thankfully the nurse handled it without involving her this time. She looked over the gathered material she had and tried thinking of a connection. She was startled out of her thoughts by the captain's voice.
"Ms. Anderson?" Isabel asked, moving towards a young woman in teal.
Em hadn't expected to see her CO standing before her. She stood at attention. "Yes, ma'am."
"I received your message... When did those cases of amnesia come in?" Isabel moved off to the side to stay out of the way of the other nurses and medical officers. She was certainly concerned about her Chief Medical Officer, but she had to deal with one thing at a time.
"The first came in twenty five minutes ago. The second one came in five minutes ago and just left," she answered after checking one of the padds in her hands. She thought of something. "Ma'am, have you been feeling like you should remember something?" She asked hoping the captain didn't have this too.
Isabel paused at the young woman's question, "No, at least not anymore than usual." Being detail-oriented did have its drawbacks - she worried she'd forget something. But it wasn't like what Emily was asking about.
"Any more than usual?" Em said curious by this. She wondered what the CO was talking about Em didn't think she looked old.
"Being an Engineer, and now a Commanding Officer, I usually have quite a bit on my mind. It's difficult to not worry that you aren't forgetting something when there's a lot to keep track of," Isabel explained. It seemed odd to Isabel that two cases would come in, especially that closely. Then again, that was likely why Emily had contacted her. How serious are these cases of amnesia?"
"I am not completely sure. I've run tests but amnesia is a tricky thing. Their memories could return and everything will be okay. It could never return. From what I heard the second one was minor. Whatever is causing this though could make it permanent and be more serious," she said hoping for the best even though she was preparing for the worst.
Isabel nodded, "Keep an eye on it and let me know if you see any more cases or if there's a change in the ones you've already seen." And now for her other concern...."When was the last time you saw Doctor Cullen?"
"Yes ma'am, I will. Last time I saw him would have been yesterday at the end of his shift. The exact time I'm unsure of. I hadn't checked the time then. He was leaving for supper he said and then he never returned. I wasn't sure if that was procedure since I haven't worked with him before this assignment," she said hoping the man was okay. She hated it when people turned up missing.
Isabel frowned, "Have you tried contacting him?"
"Yes ma'am, not only have we called him over the comm system, someone was sent to where the computer said he was. When the nurse got to his quarters, the only things there were commbadges and empty uniforms along with his other things. I sent a report to the security department about two hours ago about his disappearance and have heard nothing back," she responded knowing there were measures to take and that this was out of her hands.
"That is rather odd. I'll touch base with Lieutenant JG Hawkins to see what Security has found, if anything. Nobody else is missing are they?" Isabel asked, growing more concerned. As if things weren't bad enough, she had officers with amnesia and now one missing.
"From medical, no. I can't say for sure about the other departments," she answered keeping it to the point.
Nodding slowly, Isabel asked, "Was Doctor Cullen showing any signs of amnesia to your recollection? Perhaps that's why he hasn't shown up..."
"I hadn't seen anything showing up yesterday. It's possible he could have had amnesia just setting in. These are the first cases. If they have it it's possible it might show in other departments around the ship. I won't know how to cure this until we can find out what is causing amnesia," she said feeling helpless.
"I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of it. I'm not sure if you've met our Chief Counselor yet, but if not, you might want to speak with her. She's had several odd cases recently - I believe she was going to speak with Doctor Cullen about them last night, but since he's gone, it might be beneficial for you to be briefed as well," Isabel said.
"I'll contact her immediately," she responded not indicating if she had met the counselor. Something told her she still had a lot of crew to meet. She was glad the captain wasn't asking.
"I plan to also continue to run through tests on the information I have. I will want names from her for those who complained of this if any. There may be some out there that we don't know of, and should be on the look out for. I have no idea if these are the first cases or just the first cases reported," she said quickly knowing the captain's time was something she shouldn't waste.
Isabel nodded, "I'll leave you to your work, Ms. Anderson. If anything else comes up, please let me know. I'll be sure to let you know if I find out anything regarding Doctor Cullen."
"Thank you captain. As soon as anything is figured out I will let you know," she said hoping it would be soon that they could cure the amnesia.
Giving the young medical officer a smile, Isabel turned and left Sickbay. Time to contact Jack and stop by the Torpedo Bay.
Em sighed and looked over a few things making sure she had everything she needed. She saw the captain leave then walked over to the nearest nurse.
"I'm leaving sickbay. Something I must attend to personally. If there is an emergency or if someone comes in complaining about amnesia call me back," she said before leaving sickbay.
--------
Captain Isabel Kersare
Commanding Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38897-B
and
Em wondered what was keeping the captain, but knew that sometimes it required a wait when going to any CO. She thought it was getting too quiet in sickbay, and hoped it would stay that way for the time being.
She was disappointed, but thankfully the nurse handled it without involving her this time. She looked over the gathered material she had and tried thinking of a connection. She was startled out of her thoughts by the captain's voice.
"Ms. Anderson?" Isabel asked, moving towards a young woman in teal.
Em hadn't expected to see her CO standing before her. She stood at attention. "Yes, ma'am."
"I received your message... When did those cases of amnesia come in?" Isabel moved off to the side to stay out of the way of the other nurses and medical officers. She was certainly concerned about her Chief Medical Officer, but she had to deal with one thing at a time.
"The first came in twenty five minutes ago. The second one came in five minutes ago and just left," she answered after checking one of the padds in her hands. She thought of something. "Ma'am, have you been feeling like you should remember something?" She asked hoping the captain didn't have this too.
Isabel paused at the young woman's question, "No, at least not anymore than usual." Being detail-oriented did have its drawbacks - she worried she'd forget something. But it wasn't like what Emily was asking about.
"Any more than usual?" Em said curious by this. She wondered what the CO was talking about Em didn't think she looked old.
"Being an Engineer, and now a Commanding Officer, I usually have quite a bit on my mind. It's difficult to not worry that you aren't forgetting something when there's a lot to keep track of," Isabel explained. It seemed odd to Isabel that two cases would come in, especially that closely. Then again, that was likely why Emily had contacted her. How serious are these cases of amnesia?"
"I am not completely sure. I've run tests but amnesia is a tricky thing. Their memories could return and everything will be okay. It could never return. From what I heard the second one was minor. Whatever is causing this though could make it permanent and be more serious," she said hoping for the best even though she was preparing for the worst.
Isabel nodded, "Keep an eye on it and let me know if you see any more cases or if there's a change in the ones you've already seen." And now for her other concern...."When was the last time you saw Doctor Cullen?"
"Yes ma'am, I will. Last time I saw him would have been yesterday at the end of his shift. The exact time I'm unsure of. I hadn't checked the time then. He was leaving for supper he said and then he never returned. I wasn't sure if that was procedure since I haven't worked with him before this assignment," she said hoping the man was okay. She hated it when people turned up missing.
Isabel frowned, "Have you tried contacting him?"
"Yes ma'am, not only have we called him over the comm system, someone was sent to where the computer said he was. When the nurse got to his quarters, the only things there were commbadges and empty uniforms along with his other things. I sent a report to the security department about two hours ago about his disappearance and have heard nothing back," she responded knowing there were measures to take and that this was out of her hands.
"That is rather odd. I'll touch base with Lieutenant JG Hawkins to see what Security has found, if anything. Nobody else is missing are they?" Isabel asked, growing more concerned. As if things weren't bad enough, she had officers with amnesia and now one missing.
"From medical, no. I can't say for sure about the other departments," she answered keeping it to the point.
Nodding slowly, Isabel asked, "Was Doctor Cullen showing any signs of amnesia to your recollection? Perhaps that's why he hasn't shown up..."
"I hadn't seen anything showing up yesterday. It's possible he could have had amnesia just setting in. These are the first cases. If they have it it's possible it might show in other departments around the ship. I won't know how to cure this until we can find out what is causing amnesia," she said feeling helpless.
"I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of it. I'm not sure if you've met our Chief Counselor yet, but if not, you might want to speak with her. She's had several odd cases recently - I believe she was going to speak with Doctor Cullen about them last night, but since he's gone, it might be beneficial for you to be briefed as well," Isabel said.
"I'll contact her immediately," she responded not indicating if she had met the counselor. Something told her she still had a lot of crew to meet. She was glad the captain wasn't asking.
"I plan to also continue to run through tests on the information I have. I will want names from her for those who complained of this if any. There may be some out there that we don't know of, and should be on the look out for. I have no idea if these are the first cases or just the first cases reported," she said quickly knowing the captain's time was something she shouldn't waste.
Isabel nodded, "I'll leave you to your work, Ms. Anderson. If anything else comes up, please let me know. I'll be sure to let you know if I find out anything regarding Doctor Cullen."
"Thank you captain. As soon as anything is figured out I will let you know," she said hoping it would be soon that they could cure the amnesia.
Giving the young medical officer a smile, Isabel turned and left Sickbay. Time to contact Jack and stop by the Torpedo Bay.
Em sighed and looked over a few things making sure she had everything she needed. She saw the captain leave then walked over to the nearest nurse.
"I'm leaving sickbay. Something I must attend to personally. If there is an emergency or if someone comes in complaining about amnesia call me back," she said before leaving sickbay.
--------
Captain Isabel Kersare
Commanding Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38897-B
and
Ensign Emily Anderson
Medical Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38897-B
-
Peters
- Senior Staff
- Posts: 202
- Joined: Mon Mar 20, 2006 2:17 pm
- Location: Space, the final frontier...
- Contact:
Re: Mission 12: When In Rome
ON: <<Forward Torpedo Bay, 0850, Day 4>>
After stopping in Sickbay, Isabel headed over to where Peters' team was assembling. She wasn't sure what she could do or if she'd be in the way, but she had, after all, started off as an Engineer. It was difficult to simply sit around and wait.
Seeing Todd, she walked over to him, "Update, Lieutenant?"
Peters couldn't help stiffening just a little when the Captain put in an appearance. "I'm working on a few minor refinements that will lessen the risk of making the anomaly worse when we fire off this torpedo, Captain. As soon as Lieutenant Schulz gets back I'll be able to start assembly on the torpedo."
Isabel nodded, "How long do you think the refinements and assembly will take?"
"As long as we don't screw anything up, about thirt minutes," Peters replied. "I'm going to try and get it done a bit faster, but I don't want to rush it to the point of risking an error."
"Yes, I'd rather there not be an error... Unfortunately we have less time than we originally thought - I'm guessing you felt the ship rock a little while ago - however, if your estimate is correct, we should just make it," Isabel replied.
"Yeah, that's why I'm willing to push this as much as I am, Captain." Peters shook his head. He didn't like working under this kind of pressure... especially since he already had been for the past day. "In a pinch we could toss a warp core into that thing and hope for the best, but I don't much like trusting fate... or losing a warp core we might need."
She nodded solemnly, "I absolutely agree. That will be a last resort. Is there anything I could help with?"
Peters grinned. So the Captain wanted to get hands-on for this problem. He couldn't blame her. "How are you at tuning antimatter inducers?"
"A bit rusty, I'll admit, but I've done my fair share," she replied. It'd been several years, really, but it would come back to her. Besides, she did her best to keep herself current on new techniques and technologies.
"We have a Type-9 Shuttle inducer that's a few points off peak efficiency. If you could fix that for me it would save us some time in the assembly." Peters motioned towards a small, boxy construction a couple of meters away and held up a small spanner.
She nodded, taking the offered spanner and moving over to the shuttle inducer. Kneeling down, Isabel looked at the inducer with trained eyes, then started the spanner's scan cycle to find the anomalies.
Peters tapped one last equation into his PADD, cocked his head to one side as he looked at the result, then shrugged. "I think that's about as good as we're going to get." Looking around, he frowned. "Corrin, where'd we put the Theta-Matrix compositor?"
'Caleb' turned around when he heard the Chief Engineer's voice, "Is that it on the rack to your right, sir?"
Peters looked and shook his head ruefully. "Yeah, that's it. Thanks. How are you coming on removing the warhead mounting from that torpedo?"
"Just about have it, sir," he replied. He wasn't a big fan of the work he'd been given, but at least he was able to really interact with an object. With one final twist, 'Caleb' removed the mounting, "There we go."
Peters moved over to the torpedo casing and took a look. Nodding thoughtfully, he did some rough measurements with his hands. "It'll be a tight fit, but there's room for everything now."
Scan finished, Isabel started putting minor adjustments in to correct the anomalies. She ran another test cycle - efficiency was up. "I have it up to 98.5%, Lieutenant. I may be able to get it up to 99.3% though."
"That would be good, Captain, but only if you can do it in the next five minutes. If not, we'll have to make do with 98.5." Peters looked at the chronometer on the nearest panel and figured Schulz should be arriving any moment. The sooner the better, since they were pretty much ready to begin assembling the torpedo.
She nodded, tweaking just slightly and running a full test scan. After a few rounds, she stood, satisfied, "99.24% now."
Peters nodded. "Good enough. I'll need to connect that with the compositor and a nullifier core, then mount the whole assembly in the torpedo with a few other components. Schulz is bringing the tools we need to connect the nullifier core, though."
"When will he be arriving? Was he gathering supplies as well?" Isabel moved back over to Todd and handed him the spanner.
"Yes, he was here briefly earlier and I had to send him hunting for a plasma welder to mount this equipment securely in the torpedo casing... he should be here any minute now," Peters replied as he took the spanner. At that the door to the torpedo bay hissed open and Schulz ran in. "Impeccable timing, he has."
OFF: Tag Schulz
This has been a JP with
Captain Isabel Kersare
Commanding Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38897-B
After stopping in Sickbay, Isabel headed over to where Peters' team was assembling. She wasn't sure what she could do or if she'd be in the way, but she had, after all, started off as an Engineer. It was difficult to simply sit around and wait.
Seeing Todd, she walked over to him, "Update, Lieutenant?"
Peters couldn't help stiffening just a little when the Captain put in an appearance. "I'm working on a few minor refinements that will lessen the risk of making the anomaly worse when we fire off this torpedo, Captain. As soon as Lieutenant Schulz gets back I'll be able to start assembly on the torpedo."
Isabel nodded, "How long do you think the refinements and assembly will take?"
"As long as we don't screw anything up, about thirt minutes," Peters replied. "I'm going to try and get it done a bit faster, but I don't want to rush it to the point of risking an error."
"Yes, I'd rather there not be an error... Unfortunately we have less time than we originally thought - I'm guessing you felt the ship rock a little while ago - however, if your estimate is correct, we should just make it," Isabel replied.
"Yeah, that's why I'm willing to push this as much as I am, Captain." Peters shook his head. He didn't like working under this kind of pressure... especially since he already had been for the past day. "In a pinch we could toss a warp core into that thing and hope for the best, but I don't much like trusting fate... or losing a warp core we might need."
She nodded solemnly, "I absolutely agree. That will be a last resort. Is there anything I could help with?"
Peters grinned. So the Captain wanted to get hands-on for this problem. He couldn't blame her. "How are you at tuning antimatter inducers?"
"A bit rusty, I'll admit, but I've done my fair share," she replied. It'd been several years, really, but it would come back to her. Besides, she did her best to keep herself current on new techniques and technologies.
"We have a Type-9 Shuttle inducer that's a few points off peak efficiency. If you could fix that for me it would save us some time in the assembly." Peters motioned towards a small, boxy construction a couple of meters away and held up a small spanner.
She nodded, taking the offered spanner and moving over to the shuttle inducer. Kneeling down, Isabel looked at the inducer with trained eyes, then started the spanner's scan cycle to find the anomalies.
Peters tapped one last equation into his PADD, cocked his head to one side as he looked at the result, then shrugged. "I think that's about as good as we're going to get." Looking around, he frowned. "Corrin, where'd we put the Theta-Matrix compositor?"
'Caleb' turned around when he heard the Chief Engineer's voice, "Is that it on the rack to your right, sir?"
Peters looked and shook his head ruefully. "Yeah, that's it. Thanks. How are you coming on removing the warhead mounting from that torpedo?"
"Just about have it, sir," he replied. He wasn't a big fan of the work he'd been given, but at least he was able to really interact with an object. With one final twist, 'Caleb' removed the mounting, "There we go."
Peters moved over to the torpedo casing and took a look. Nodding thoughtfully, he did some rough measurements with his hands. "It'll be a tight fit, but there's room for everything now."
Scan finished, Isabel started putting minor adjustments in to correct the anomalies. She ran another test cycle - efficiency was up. "I have it up to 98.5%, Lieutenant. I may be able to get it up to 99.3% though."
"That would be good, Captain, but only if you can do it in the next five minutes. If not, we'll have to make do with 98.5." Peters looked at the chronometer on the nearest panel and figured Schulz should be arriving any moment. The sooner the better, since they were pretty much ready to begin assembling the torpedo.
She nodded, tweaking just slightly and running a full test scan. After a few rounds, she stood, satisfied, "99.24% now."
Peters nodded. "Good enough. I'll need to connect that with the compositor and a nullifier core, then mount the whole assembly in the torpedo with a few other components. Schulz is bringing the tools we need to connect the nullifier core, though."
"When will he be arriving? Was he gathering supplies as well?" Isabel moved back over to Todd and handed him the spanner.
"Yes, he was here briefly earlier and I had to send him hunting for a plasma welder to mount this equipment securely in the torpedo casing... he should be here any minute now," Peters replied as he took the spanner. At that the door to the torpedo bay hissed open and Schulz ran in. "Impeccable timing, he has."
OFF: Tag Schulz
This has been a JP with
Captain Isabel Kersare
Commanding Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38897-B
Tony
AKA
Lieutenant Commander Todd Peters
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38997-A
Re: Mission 12: When In Rome
ON:
<<Bridge, 0830-50, Day 4>>
Kaylee had left Sickbay after being examined by Anderson, and was making her towards the Bridge, her head was still a turmoil of confusion. Part of her felt like she had been going insane, with her amnesia. It had made her feel inconfident about her recall and memory, and worse still, her ability to fly. Luckily, Anderson seemed to think that she was cleared for duty, so the Bridge was Kaylee's next port of call.
Just at that moment, the whole ship surged and shook around her. The gravity emitters were lax is responding, because Kaylee lurched forward, hitting the deck hard on her knees. As Kaylee winced at her slightly bruised kneecaps, she looked about her. She had completely forgotten that the ship was at Red Alert status.
Kaylee cursed aloud to herself. “If you keep ya head in the clouds Lauren, how are you gunna break orbit?” she shook her head.
She leapt to her feet and ran the rest of the way to the nearest turbolift.
Ten minutes later she was on the Bridge, stumbling out of the turbolift as the last of the tremors subsided. By this time, Kersare as below decks in the forward Torpedo Tubes
While she had transferred to Deck One, Kaylee had had the computer update her personal PADD with the navigational and flight Data, to ascertain the Malinche’s shaking, so she was up to speed to the subspace rupture. “They ain’t never fun things,” she mused to herself.
She knew that the clock was ticking, they only had an hour and a half to escape the rupture. Time was precious.
Kaylee quickly crossed the Bridge over to her station at the Conn. As she approached it, she took an indulgent second to run a finger along the ridge of the seat, admiring it. This was the first Conn station she had sat in for nearly a year, since she had returned to Earth to attend postgraduate studies at the Academy. She couldn’t believe that she had come so far from the USS Canberra. Now, she was standing on one of the most advanced ships in the Fleet, as one of its Flight Officers.
The second was over.
Kaylee relived the current Conn officer, she slid into the chair, and logged on with her authorisation code.
The screen bleeped, text scrolled on the small screen: Welcome, Ensign Kaylee.
She had come a long way indeed. Time to act.
Kaylee turned her head over her shoulder, towards Barrett, who was currently in command. She gave a curt salute: “Ensign Kaylee reporting for duty, Commander. Orders, sir?”
OFF
TAG: Barrett
<<Bridge, 0830-50, Day 4>>
Kaylee had left Sickbay after being examined by Anderson, and was making her towards the Bridge, her head was still a turmoil of confusion. Part of her felt like she had been going insane, with her amnesia. It had made her feel inconfident about her recall and memory, and worse still, her ability to fly. Luckily, Anderson seemed to think that she was cleared for duty, so the Bridge was Kaylee's next port of call.
Just at that moment, the whole ship surged and shook around her. The gravity emitters were lax is responding, because Kaylee lurched forward, hitting the deck hard on her knees. As Kaylee winced at her slightly bruised kneecaps, she looked about her. She had completely forgotten that the ship was at Red Alert status.
Kaylee cursed aloud to herself. “If you keep ya head in the clouds Lauren, how are you gunna break orbit?” she shook her head.
She leapt to her feet and ran the rest of the way to the nearest turbolift.
Ten minutes later she was on the Bridge, stumbling out of the turbolift as the last of the tremors subsided. By this time, Kersare as below decks in the forward Torpedo Tubes
While she had transferred to Deck One, Kaylee had had the computer update her personal PADD with the navigational and flight Data, to ascertain the Malinche’s shaking, so she was up to speed to the subspace rupture. “They ain’t never fun things,” she mused to herself.
She knew that the clock was ticking, they only had an hour and a half to escape the rupture. Time was precious.
Kaylee quickly crossed the Bridge over to her station at the Conn. As she approached it, she took an indulgent second to run a finger along the ridge of the seat, admiring it. This was the first Conn station she had sat in for nearly a year, since she had returned to Earth to attend postgraduate studies at the Academy. She couldn’t believe that she had come so far from the USS Canberra. Now, she was standing on one of the most advanced ships in the Fleet, as one of its Flight Officers.
The second was over.
Kaylee relived the current Conn officer, she slid into the chair, and logged on with her authorisation code.
The screen bleeped, text scrolled on the small screen: Welcome, Ensign Kaylee.
She had come a long way indeed. Time to act.
Kaylee turned her head over her shoulder, towards Barrett, who was currently in command. She gave a curt salute: “Ensign Kaylee reporting for duty, Commander. Orders, sir?”
OFF
TAG: Barrett
Ensign Lauren Kaylee
Flight Control Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38897-B
Re: Mission 12: When In Rome
<USS Malinche, Intelligence Office, 0856, Day 4>
After her meeting with Captain Kersare yesterday evening, Alexis was put on official duty. She had been in the Intel Office all morning sorting Intel reports on Ivor Prime. She had never been there and only heard a few things about the planet. She wanted to learn as much as she could so as not to be taken by surprise. And the best way to do that was through Starfleet Intelligence reports. One thing she wanted to today, if she had time was meet with the Counselor. She still had to get that psych eval out of the way…and she wasn’t looking forward to it.
Ensign Derrin (NPC) walked up and handed Rho a PADD. “Here’s that cargo manifest of medical supplies you asked for, Ma’am. Jornic (NPC) says there’s nothing that indicates suspicion. There are a few drugs in there for specific diseases native to Ivor Prime, but nothing else. Hope that helps.”
“Thank you,” said Alexis. “If I need anything else, I’ll give you a call.”
“Okay.” Ensign Derrin went back to his research.
Alexis studied Jornic’s analysis for a few minutes. There was no way it could have anything to do with what had been happening recently. She put the files back and tried to think of a way she could help. She had very little engineering knowledge…so she scrapped the repair idea. Most of her past experience had been dealing with people. Granted it was mostly interrogations and the other jobs that fell to a Psionics Specialist, but she had dealt with people. Then it hit her, she still hadn't had her initial psych eval since coming onboard. I'll do that afterwards. It's got to be done sometime, she thought.
In the meantime, she had some more reports to file and paperwork to take care of. The Intel Office had several things lying around. There had been lots of requests for old ship logs and Intel reports. Part of her job as Lt. Grayson’s assistant was to take pressure off of him. One of those ways was to take care of the small stuff of day-to-day operations, thus freeing him up.
About fifteen minutes later, Alexis finished up what she was doing. It was time. Might as well get it out of the way, she thought. Who knows, maybe Lt. Zeral isn’t like all the other psychiatrists I’ve been exposed to in Starfleet.
She tapped her combadge, “Lt. Rho to Lt. Zeral.”
Alone in her office, Nora carefully set down her recently acquired cup of coffee, grateful for the interruption. Coffee was not something she willingly enjoyed and she certainly had no qualms over waiting to drink the bitter liquid. "Zeral here. Go ahead, Lieutenant."
“If I’m not mistaken, I need to have my initial psych eval done. After four days onboard, I guess my time is up. I’ve got some time right now if you do?”
Smiling to herself, Zeral quickly double checked her schedule for the day. "I think now is a perfect time. Go ahead and join me in my office when you're ready."
“Thanks, Rho out.” Alexis took one last quick look around the office and left.
Determinedly ignoring the steaming cup of coffee for the time being, Nora hastily tidied her desk up, doing the best she could to organize an ever-growing stack of PADDs. After her discussion with Isabel over some of the strange goings on around the ship, the idea of conducting a simple psych exam was oddly refreshing. Perhaps resuming part of her normal routine would help clear her mind of its more troubling thoughts.
Alexis headed for the nearest turbolift and stepped inside. It was a quick ride to Deck 6 and a decent walk to Lt. Zeral’s office, for which she was glad. It gave her a few minutes to decide whether to ask the nagging question in the back of her mind. The question about “ghosts” and “gremlins.” She had heard some of the junior officers talking about it and told the Captain that she didn’t believe in such things. However, something had generated those ideas and she was curious about that something.
As she rounded the corner, Alexis came to the Counselor’s door. She rang the chime and waited.
Nora met her at the door, welcoming her in with her customary smile. "You must be Lt. Rho. Please make yourself comfortable, Lieutenant," she invited her and went to her desk to grab the necessary PADD. Taking her seat in her favorite chair, she sighed softly. "I'm sorry if my office is a bit cluttered. Counseling's been busy as of late and house cleaning has fallen to the bottom of my list."
Alexis smiled. “I understand things have been a bit hectic since the last mission.” She took a seat…back to the wall. “Two questions, number one, where do you want me to begin? And number two, what in the world had generated this whole ghost and gremlin thing I’ve heard about?”
Nora couldn't help but laugh at her refreshingly frank questions, setting down her PADD on the glass table beside her chair. "Those are both excellent questions. But let me start with one of my own. May I call you Alexis, or would you prefer Lt. Rho?"
Alexis was never one to beat around the bush. It was one of her oddities that set her apart from some of the others. She smiled and said, “Alexis is fine.”
"You can feel free to call me anything you like, if you were wondering," she added with a grin. "Nora, Counselor, Dr. Zeral...I answer to them all. Now then, about your first question; we can go about this two different ways. The first option is, I can read from a list of standard questions that address areas of your health physically, mentally and emotionally, and you answer them as honestly as you can. Or, my preferred and typically unorthodox option is that we forego the list of questions and address anything that's been bothering you or anything that I feel needs to be talked over."
“Okay, Nora, you’re the Counselor. We’ll go with option two. Right now, nothing particular is bothering me. I’m just here to get this initial exam out of the way.” She settled herself a little more, trying to appear comfortable. She never really looked forward to these sessions. Her mind was the only sanctuary she had left. She didn’t prefer others, telepathic or not, trying to gain access. The only place she felt safe was with her innermost thoughts. “Is there anything you’d like to talk about?” Alexis had to laugh at that. “That didn’t quite come out right, did it? Oh, well, small talk was never my favorite place to start. Get in, get the information, and get out…that’s me.”
"You must be well-suited as an intelligence officer, then," Nora smiled, very much aware of Alexis' reluctance. "Would you say that you enjoy your work, then?" she inquired politely, picking up her PADD once again.
“Oh, yes. Before being transferred to the Malinche and promoted, I was Psionics Specialist. I usually got the interrogations…when they came. There weren’t many chances to infiltrate, interrogate, or use my natural abilities. I’m looking forward to seeing how I can be of service on the Malinche. But, yes, I thoroughly enjoy my job. Sifting through montages of forgotten memories is second nature to Ullians. ”
"You know, I've only met one other Ullian before," Nora commented, hoping that it didn't make Alexis uncomfortable to engage in some small talk of her own. "We were very close for a time. Maybe this is something you'd understand, but I found it rather refreshing to spend my time with someone I couldn't read so easily, telepathically or otherwise." The memory was a pleasant one, and her smile turned somewhat vague at the recollection. Forcing herself to focus on the present, she made a small note on the PADD before turning her attention back to Alexis. "I'm glad to hear that you find your work so satisfying. I hope that means that you've been happy on the Malinche so far."
“I have been very happy so far. I’m still in the process of getting to know everybody.” Alexis grinned at Nora’s comment of only meeting one other Ullian before. Her people did have their reclusive tendencies at times. Archivist ways, she thought. “I do understand what you’re talking about, at least the not-being-able-to-read-people-part. I don’t frequent the holodeck much at all, but when I do, it’s for some form of combat training. If I practice with another crewmember, I tend to use my abilities to gain the upper hand. It’s different with holograms…no mind to read. And the ‘quiet’ is nice on occasion. If you know what I mean.” She paused for a second.
"I do know what you mean," Nora agreed. "It's somewhat different for Betazoids. We have a code that keeps us from reading the actual thoughts of unwilling minds, which is essentially every non-telepathic being, but sensing emotion or even intent is another matter entirely." For the most part, her senses really were second nature to her. But had she spent more of her childhood among fellow Betazoids, she likely would have been totally at ease with all aspects of her telepathy.
"There is one more question I'd like to ask you, and I'm sorry if it seems strange, but bear with me for a moment. Have you been experiencing any strange symptoms lately? Headaches, dizziness, hallucinations? Anything of that sort?"
“Well, now that you mention it. A few days ago, I had these weird headaches. They were only for a few seconds…really, they never lasted for more than a minute. After the first one, I became more alert, mentally. I immediately set up massive mental defenses to protect myself. Natural reflex I guess. I kept my mind open and was searching for something that might explain it. You know, like on a Red Alert when you’re keeping you eyes open for an intruder. That was the feeling I was getting…like my brain or mind was being intruded upon. It only happened one more time, and then it stopped.”
Nora felt her mouth go dry as Alexis finished speaking. Slowly setting down her PADD, she leaned forward in her chair and studied Alexis for a moment. What she was describing sounded awfully familiar to the Betazoid and it didn't help her ever growing sense of unease. Despite her alarm, however, it was at the very least somewhat comforting to be able to speak with another telepath about the strange occurrences. "Alexis, did you feel that you made some sort of contact with whatever this intrusion was? Did it seem sentient to you at all?"
Apparently there was something else going on that Alexis wasn’t aware of yet. The slight pause in the conversation and Nora’s reaction caused Alexis to go into a heightened mental alertness. “Well, not the second time. I was better prepared and on the defensive. When it happened, I tried to search out the origin…no luck. But the first time…yeah…sentient. I didn’t really make contact with it. I just tried to force it out as fast as possible. I don’t let anyone into my mind, especially forcefully. Too many problems with that among the Ullians in the past. Anyway, the little contact I did have with it seemed sentient, like a free-floating soul or mind."
"A free-floating soul or mind," Nora echoed, nodding slowly. "Now there's a thought. A somewhat terrifying thought, but a very interesting one all the same." Alexis had certainly given her a good deal to think about. Her thoughts now spinning off down paths that she was eager to follow, she tapped her finger thoughtfully against her chin.
“If it happens again, please let me know immediately. I’d suggest that you don’t try to reach out to it, although I’d be lying to you if I said I didn’t try to do exactly that when I had a similar experience. Until we know exactly what we’re dealing with, or at least have a good plan of attack before willingly communicating with whatever the presence may be, I believe it would be wise to remain extremely cautious, even defensive, if needs be.” Sighing deeply, she added with a rueful smile, “The Four Deities willing, we’ll be out of this rift soon. Maybe then things will finally return to normal.”
OFF:
JP brought to you by:
Lieutenant JG Alexis Rho
Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer
and
After her meeting with Captain Kersare yesterday evening, Alexis was put on official duty. She had been in the Intel Office all morning sorting Intel reports on Ivor Prime. She had never been there and only heard a few things about the planet. She wanted to learn as much as she could so as not to be taken by surprise. And the best way to do that was through Starfleet Intelligence reports. One thing she wanted to today, if she had time was meet with the Counselor. She still had to get that psych eval out of the way…and she wasn’t looking forward to it.
Ensign Derrin (NPC) walked up and handed Rho a PADD. “Here’s that cargo manifest of medical supplies you asked for, Ma’am. Jornic (NPC) says there’s nothing that indicates suspicion. There are a few drugs in there for specific diseases native to Ivor Prime, but nothing else. Hope that helps.”
“Thank you,” said Alexis. “If I need anything else, I’ll give you a call.”
“Okay.” Ensign Derrin went back to his research.
Alexis studied Jornic’s analysis for a few minutes. There was no way it could have anything to do with what had been happening recently. She put the files back and tried to think of a way she could help. She had very little engineering knowledge…so she scrapped the repair idea. Most of her past experience had been dealing with people. Granted it was mostly interrogations and the other jobs that fell to a Psionics Specialist, but she had dealt with people. Then it hit her, she still hadn't had her initial psych eval since coming onboard. I'll do that afterwards. It's got to be done sometime, she thought.
In the meantime, she had some more reports to file and paperwork to take care of. The Intel Office had several things lying around. There had been lots of requests for old ship logs and Intel reports. Part of her job as Lt. Grayson’s assistant was to take pressure off of him. One of those ways was to take care of the small stuff of day-to-day operations, thus freeing him up.
About fifteen minutes later, Alexis finished up what she was doing. It was time. Might as well get it out of the way, she thought. Who knows, maybe Lt. Zeral isn’t like all the other psychiatrists I’ve been exposed to in Starfleet.
She tapped her combadge, “Lt. Rho to Lt. Zeral.”
Alone in her office, Nora carefully set down her recently acquired cup of coffee, grateful for the interruption. Coffee was not something she willingly enjoyed and she certainly had no qualms over waiting to drink the bitter liquid. "Zeral here. Go ahead, Lieutenant."
“If I’m not mistaken, I need to have my initial psych eval done. After four days onboard, I guess my time is up. I’ve got some time right now if you do?”
Smiling to herself, Zeral quickly double checked her schedule for the day. "I think now is a perfect time. Go ahead and join me in my office when you're ready."
“Thanks, Rho out.” Alexis took one last quick look around the office and left.
Determinedly ignoring the steaming cup of coffee for the time being, Nora hastily tidied her desk up, doing the best she could to organize an ever-growing stack of PADDs. After her discussion with Isabel over some of the strange goings on around the ship, the idea of conducting a simple psych exam was oddly refreshing. Perhaps resuming part of her normal routine would help clear her mind of its more troubling thoughts.
Alexis headed for the nearest turbolift and stepped inside. It was a quick ride to Deck 6 and a decent walk to Lt. Zeral’s office, for which she was glad. It gave her a few minutes to decide whether to ask the nagging question in the back of her mind. The question about “ghosts” and “gremlins.” She had heard some of the junior officers talking about it and told the Captain that she didn’t believe in such things. However, something had generated those ideas and she was curious about that something.
As she rounded the corner, Alexis came to the Counselor’s door. She rang the chime and waited.
Nora met her at the door, welcoming her in with her customary smile. "You must be Lt. Rho. Please make yourself comfortable, Lieutenant," she invited her and went to her desk to grab the necessary PADD. Taking her seat in her favorite chair, she sighed softly. "I'm sorry if my office is a bit cluttered. Counseling's been busy as of late and house cleaning has fallen to the bottom of my list."
Alexis smiled. “I understand things have been a bit hectic since the last mission.” She took a seat…back to the wall. “Two questions, number one, where do you want me to begin? And number two, what in the world had generated this whole ghost and gremlin thing I’ve heard about?”
Nora couldn't help but laugh at her refreshingly frank questions, setting down her PADD on the glass table beside her chair. "Those are both excellent questions. But let me start with one of my own. May I call you Alexis, or would you prefer Lt. Rho?"
Alexis was never one to beat around the bush. It was one of her oddities that set her apart from some of the others. She smiled and said, “Alexis is fine.”
"You can feel free to call me anything you like, if you were wondering," she added with a grin. "Nora, Counselor, Dr. Zeral...I answer to them all. Now then, about your first question; we can go about this two different ways. The first option is, I can read from a list of standard questions that address areas of your health physically, mentally and emotionally, and you answer them as honestly as you can. Or, my preferred and typically unorthodox option is that we forego the list of questions and address anything that's been bothering you or anything that I feel needs to be talked over."
“Okay, Nora, you’re the Counselor. We’ll go with option two. Right now, nothing particular is bothering me. I’m just here to get this initial exam out of the way.” She settled herself a little more, trying to appear comfortable. She never really looked forward to these sessions. Her mind was the only sanctuary she had left. She didn’t prefer others, telepathic or not, trying to gain access. The only place she felt safe was with her innermost thoughts. “Is there anything you’d like to talk about?” Alexis had to laugh at that. “That didn’t quite come out right, did it? Oh, well, small talk was never my favorite place to start. Get in, get the information, and get out…that’s me.”
"You must be well-suited as an intelligence officer, then," Nora smiled, very much aware of Alexis' reluctance. "Would you say that you enjoy your work, then?" she inquired politely, picking up her PADD once again.
“Oh, yes. Before being transferred to the Malinche and promoted, I was Psionics Specialist. I usually got the interrogations…when they came. There weren’t many chances to infiltrate, interrogate, or use my natural abilities. I’m looking forward to seeing how I can be of service on the Malinche. But, yes, I thoroughly enjoy my job. Sifting through montages of forgotten memories is second nature to Ullians. ”
"You know, I've only met one other Ullian before," Nora commented, hoping that it didn't make Alexis uncomfortable to engage in some small talk of her own. "We were very close for a time. Maybe this is something you'd understand, but I found it rather refreshing to spend my time with someone I couldn't read so easily, telepathically or otherwise." The memory was a pleasant one, and her smile turned somewhat vague at the recollection. Forcing herself to focus on the present, she made a small note on the PADD before turning her attention back to Alexis. "I'm glad to hear that you find your work so satisfying. I hope that means that you've been happy on the Malinche so far."
“I have been very happy so far. I’m still in the process of getting to know everybody.” Alexis grinned at Nora’s comment of only meeting one other Ullian before. Her people did have their reclusive tendencies at times. Archivist ways, she thought. “I do understand what you’re talking about, at least the not-being-able-to-read-people-part. I don’t frequent the holodeck much at all, but when I do, it’s for some form of combat training. If I practice with another crewmember, I tend to use my abilities to gain the upper hand. It’s different with holograms…no mind to read. And the ‘quiet’ is nice on occasion. If you know what I mean.” She paused for a second.
"I do know what you mean," Nora agreed. "It's somewhat different for Betazoids. We have a code that keeps us from reading the actual thoughts of unwilling minds, which is essentially every non-telepathic being, but sensing emotion or even intent is another matter entirely." For the most part, her senses really were second nature to her. But had she spent more of her childhood among fellow Betazoids, she likely would have been totally at ease with all aspects of her telepathy.
"There is one more question I'd like to ask you, and I'm sorry if it seems strange, but bear with me for a moment. Have you been experiencing any strange symptoms lately? Headaches, dizziness, hallucinations? Anything of that sort?"
“Well, now that you mention it. A few days ago, I had these weird headaches. They were only for a few seconds…really, they never lasted for more than a minute. After the first one, I became more alert, mentally. I immediately set up massive mental defenses to protect myself. Natural reflex I guess. I kept my mind open and was searching for something that might explain it. You know, like on a Red Alert when you’re keeping you eyes open for an intruder. That was the feeling I was getting…like my brain or mind was being intruded upon. It only happened one more time, and then it stopped.”
Nora felt her mouth go dry as Alexis finished speaking. Slowly setting down her PADD, she leaned forward in her chair and studied Alexis for a moment. What she was describing sounded awfully familiar to the Betazoid and it didn't help her ever growing sense of unease. Despite her alarm, however, it was at the very least somewhat comforting to be able to speak with another telepath about the strange occurrences. "Alexis, did you feel that you made some sort of contact with whatever this intrusion was? Did it seem sentient to you at all?"
Apparently there was something else going on that Alexis wasn’t aware of yet. The slight pause in the conversation and Nora’s reaction caused Alexis to go into a heightened mental alertness. “Well, not the second time. I was better prepared and on the defensive. When it happened, I tried to search out the origin…no luck. But the first time…yeah…sentient. I didn’t really make contact with it. I just tried to force it out as fast as possible. I don’t let anyone into my mind, especially forcefully. Too many problems with that among the Ullians in the past. Anyway, the little contact I did have with it seemed sentient, like a free-floating soul or mind."
"A free-floating soul or mind," Nora echoed, nodding slowly. "Now there's a thought. A somewhat terrifying thought, but a very interesting one all the same." Alexis had certainly given her a good deal to think about. Her thoughts now spinning off down paths that she was eager to follow, she tapped her finger thoughtfully against her chin.
“If it happens again, please let me know immediately. I’d suggest that you don’t try to reach out to it, although I’d be lying to you if I said I didn’t try to do exactly that when I had a similar experience. Until we know exactly what we’re dealing with, or at least have a good plan of attack before willingly communicating with whatever the presence may be, I believe it would be wise to remain extremely cautious, even defensive, if needs be.” Sighing deeply, she added with a rueful smile, “The Four Deities willing, we’ll be out of this rift soon. Maybe then things will finally return to normal.”
OFF:
JP brought to you by:
Lieutenant JG Alexis Rho
Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer
and
Commander Nora Zeral
Executive Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38997-A
Re: Mission 12: When In Rome
<<USS Malinche, Corridor, 0926, Day 4>>
Em sighed and walked up to the door of the counselor's office. She shook her head hoping that no more cases would be found. She knew she had to try this though. She rang the chime then waited patiently for an answer. ~I didn't even check. I hope the counselor is here.~
Once again lost in a stack of PADDs, Nora turned to face the door slowly. Having begun an exhaustive--and thus far totally out of control--search on how hallucinations might be connected with any paranormal activity, she had been so absorbed in her reading that she wasn't entirely sure if she had heard the doorchime or not. "Come in," she called somewhat uncertainly, rising from her chair.
[Counselor's Office]
Em walked in noticing the woman behind the desk. She smiled trying to appear friendly.
"Hello counselor. I don't believe we've been introduced yet. I'm Emily Anderson," she said wondering if she should get down to business.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Emily," Nora smiled, genuinely relieved that her mind hadn't been playing tricks on her. Coming round the desk to shake hands, she asked her guiltily, "We didn't have an appointment scheduled, did we? I've had my mind on other things today and I wouldn't be all that surprised if I'd somehow forgotten..."
"Right, I'm not here for an evaluation. I had two cases of amnesia come into sickbay within twenty minutes of each other. The captain suggested talking to you to see if there might be any other cases like this," she said knowing that time probably wasn't on their side for this.
"Amnesia," Nora sighed, folding her arms with a thoughtful nod. "That's a development I'd hoped to avoid. Please, have a seat," she invited, moving back to her desk to collect a couple of PADDs.
Emily sat down knowing this wasn't going to be good. She hoped it wouldn't get too much worse though.
Handing them to Emily, Nora took a seat in her favorite chair. "Here are the evaluations done on two crewmembers who came to Counseling with similar complaints. We haven't had any reports of amnesia yet, but we have had patients with headaches, dizzy spells and even hallucinations."
"This isn't good. That could be more symptoms of the same thing or something else completely. Did you ask them why they didn't come to sickbay?" She asked sighing. She didn't like this at all.
"Most of them were less than eager to treat it as a certifiable medical condition. Afraid of needles, so to speak," was Nora's honest reply. "Counseling only became aware of this phenomenon yesterday morning. The patients who have come to us with hallucinations have been chalking it up to psychological stress, seeing as the most common hallucinations involve painful past memories. My counselors and I have been recommending that they seek medical treatment if their symptoms persist or get worse, and we are monitoring them to the best of our capabilities." Idly twirling a strand of hair around her finger in a moment of contemplation, Nora paused before continuing, "Have you spoken with Dr. Cullen about this? I had a chance to speak briefly to him yesterday, but I'm afraid he was a bit...under the weather."
"I haven't spoken yet to the good doctor. No one can seem to find him. Security is aware of this as well as the captain," she said kinda quietly. She felt helpless in this.
"Dr. Cullen's missing?" Nora asked quietly, more to herself than to Emily. Very much disturbed by this development, she sank into a momentary silence, her mind struggling to somehow connect the dots between all of the strange occurrences that kept coming to her attention.
"Counselor, you probably know more about amnesia than I. What is a possible way to cause it in a being? Is there a way to cure it that I might not know of?" She asked having never really dealt with this before. From what she knew there was nothing that could be done without knowing the cause.
"Generally speaking, amnesia is usually caused by a physical condition, such as brain injury or disease, or by a psychological condition, usually one that stems from a traumatic or emotional event. In short, any number of things can cause amnesia. As far as treatment goes, it usually involves some sort of therapy with a counselor such as myself, or, in more severe cases, special medication or even forms of hypnosis. However, there is some good news; if the amnesia is mild enough, it doesn't always require extensive treatment."
Exhaling slowly, Nora rubbed her temples, wishing she could banish her current headache. "I'm afraid that we've got a real problem here, Emily. I suspect, although I have no tangible evidence, that the root of our problem lies in the realm of the paranormal. Not necessarily ghosts, of course, but something strange is happening. I'm beginning to think that it can't be a coincidence that all of these symptoms and ship malfunctions seemed to have started once we entered the rift."
"Wait a minute, ship malfunctions because of the rift? Could the... no that's ridiculous. Surely the rift couldn't cause people to forget things. Are you okay?" She asked concerned.
"Not the rift itself, but perhaps something inside of the rift could. A source that we've yet to comprehend." Nora knew that she was beginning to sound a little strange, but with some of her experiences as a counselor and her abilities as a telepath, she was of a mind that nothing was really impossible. She lowered her hands to her lap, smiling weakly at Emily. "I'm fine, thank you. Just a headache. I've been doing a good deal of research between seeing patients and it's rather exhausting," she admitted.
"I bet it is. Perhaps you should come to sickbay. I could give you something for your headache and we could talk more," she suggested. She also knew this would take her away from her office and a larger headache.
It really wasn't a bad idea, Nora realized. Her research so far hadn't been totally unsuccessful, and a little break from the clutter of her office might help clear her mind. “Why don’t I join you there in a few minutes? I need to speak with Captain Kersare about something first, but afterwards I can meet you there.”
"Okay that suits. I will meet you down there unless you want me to come to with you to the captain about this as well. There must be some way to prove such a thing. Maybe science could help," she suggested. Suddenly her commbadge went off and she sighed.
"Go ahead nurse," she said. The nurse told her of a hurt kid who needed her attention.
"On my way. Guess you'll have to go to the captain alone for now. Kid takes precedence on my time. I will meet you up there when I can," she said and left quickly.
OFF
JP brought to you by:
Ensign Emily Anderson
Medical Officer
and
Em sighed and walked up to the door of the counselor's office. She shook her head hoping that no more cases would be found. She knew she had to try this though. She rang the chime then waited patiently for an answer. ~I didn't even check. I hope the counselor is here.~
Once again lost in a stack of PADDs, Nora turned to face the door slowly. Having begun an exhaustive--and thus far totally out of control--search on how hallucinations might be connected with any paranormal activity, she had been so absorbed in her reading that she wasn't entirely sure if she had heard the doorchime or not. "Come in," she called somewhat uncertainly, rising from her chair.
[Counselor's Office]
Em walked in noticing the woman behind the desk. She smiled trying to appear friendly.
"Hello counselor. I don't believe we've been introduced yet. I'm Emily Anderson," she said wondering if she should get down to business.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Emily," Nora smiled, genuinely relieved that her mind hadn't been playing tricks on her. Coming round the desk to shake hands, she asked her guiltily, "We didn't have an appointment scheduled, did we? I've had my mind on other things today and I wouldn't be all that surprised if I'd somehow forgotten..."
"Right, I'm not here for an evaluation. I had two cases of amnesia come into sickbay within twenty minutes of each other. The captain suggested talking to you to see if there might be any other cases like this," she said knowing that time probably wasn't on their side for this.
"Amnesia," Nora sighed, folding her arms with a thoughtful nod. "That's a development I'd hoped to avoid. Please, have a seat," she invited, moving back to her desk to collect a couple of PADDs.
Emily sat down knowing this wasn't going to be good. She hoped it wouldn't get too much worse though.
Handing them to Emily, Nora took a seat in her favorite chair. "Here are the evaluations done on two crewmembers who came to Counseling with similar complaints. We haven't had any reports of amnesia yet, but we have had patients with headaches, dizzy spells and even hallucinations."
"This isn't good. That could be more symptoms of the same thing or something else completely. Did you ask them why they didn't come to sickbay?" She asked sighing. She didn't like this at all.
"Most of them were less than eager to treat it as a certifiable medical condition. Afraid of needles, so to speak," was Nora's honest reply. "Counseling only became aware of this phenomenon yesterday morning. The patients who have come to us with hallucinations have been chalking it up to psychological stress, seeing as the most common hallucinations involve painful past memories. My counselors and I have been recommending that they seek medical treatment if their symptoms persist or get worse, and we are monitoring them to the best of our capabilities." Idly twirling a strand of hair around her finger in a moment of contemplation, Nora paused before continuing, "Have you spoken with Dr. Cullen about this? I had a chance to speak briefly to him yesterday, but I'm afraid he was a bit...under the weather."
"I haven't spoken yet to the good doctor. No one can seem to find him. Security is aware of this as well as the captain," she said kinda quietly. She felt helpless in this.
"Dr. Cullen's missing?" Nora asked quietly, more to herself than to Emily. Very much disturbed by this development, she sank into a momentary silence, her mind struggling to somehow connect the dots between all of the strange occurrences that kept coming to her attention.
"Counselor, you probably know more about amnesia than I. What is a possible way to cause it in a being? Is there a way to cure it that I might not know of?" She asked having never really dealt with this before. From what she knew there was nothing that could be done without knowing the cause.
"Generally speaking, amnesia is usually caused by a physical condition, such as brain injury or disease, or by a psychological condition, usually one that stems from a traumatic or emotional event. In short, any number of things can cause amnesia. As far as treatment goes, it usually involves some sort of therapy with a counselor such as myself, or, in more severe cases, special medication or even forms of hypnosis. However, there is some good news; if the amnesia is mild enough, it doesn't always require extensive treatment."
Exhaling slowly, Nora rubbed her temples, wishing she could banish her current headache. "I'm afraid that we've got a real problem here, Emily. I suspect, although I have no tangible evidence, that the root of our problem lies in the realm of the paranormal. Not necessarily ghosts, of course, but something strange is happening. I'm beginning to think that it can't be a coincidence that all of these symptoms and ship malfunctions seemed to have started once we entered the rift."
"Wait a minute, ship malfunctions because of the rift? Could the... no that's ridiculous. Surely the rift couldn't cause people to forget things. Are you okay?" She asked concerned.
"Not the rift itself, but perhaps something inside of the rift could. A source that we've yet to comprehend." Nora knew that she was beginning to sound a little strange, but with some of her experiences as a counselor and her abilities as a telepath, she was of a mind that nothing was really impossible. She lowered her hands to her lap, smiling weakly at Emily. "I'm fine, thank you. Just a headache. I've been doing a good deal of research between seeing patients and it's rather exhausting," she admitted.
"I bet it is. Perhaps you should come to sickbay. I could give you something for your headache and we could talk more," she suggested. She also knew this would take her away from her office and a larger headache.
It really wasn't a bad idea, Nora realized. Her research so far hadn't been totally unsuccessful, and a little break from the clutter of her office might help clear her mind. “Why don’t I join you there in a few minutes? I need to speak with Captain Kersare about something first, but afterwards I can meet you there.”
"Okay that suits. I will meet you down there unless you want me to come to with you to the captain about this as well. There must be some way to prove such a thing. Maybe science could help," she suggested. Suddenly her commbadge went off and she sighed.
"Go ahead nurse," she said. The nurse told her of a hurt kid who needed her attention.
"On my way. Guess you'll have to go to the captain alone for now. Kid takes precedence on my time. I will meet you up there when I can," she said and left quickly.
OFF
JP brought to you by:
Ensign Emily Anderson
Medical Officer
and
Commander Nora Zeral
Executive Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38997-A
Re: Mission 12: When In Rome
<Armoury, 0912, MD04>
With his part of the preparations complete Yana had found himself being sent down to gather together a security team. He had still been at his station on the bridge when the Captain walked over to him and asked Jack to walk into her ready room, once there she informed him that the ships Chief Medical Officer had vanished and had not been seen since the previous night.
He relayed this to the team he had gathered in the Armoury, it was larger than the security office and lent itself better to briefings. “We’ve tried tracing him through the comm system,” Yana continued, “But all we found was a combadge. And interference from the rupture is interfering with our scans on the ship”
As far as Yana knew the doctor wasn’t part of their immediate plans and wasn’t working on something, and while he was curious, he was in no rush to do anything that might uncover their nature. To that end he had gathered a smallish team, knowing he could argue that there was a need to maintain a guard around sensitive areas given the nature of what was going on.
“We’re going to split into five teams of two, I’ve sent you assignments and allocated search areas to your PADDs.” Yana paused while the ten members of the search team checked their PADDs.
“Check all public area, access points, maintenance tunnels and check crew quarters as you go round.”
The team all nodded their understanding, and he concluded his briefing, “A member of this crew is missing and it’s up to us to find him...” More nodding, “Dismissed!”
With his part of the preparations complete Yana had found himself being sent down to gather together a security team. He had still been at his station on the bridge when the Captain walked over to him and asked Jack to walk into her ready room, once there she informed him that the ships Chief Medical Officer had vanished and had not been seen since the previous night.
He relayed this to the team he had gathered in the Armoury, it was larger than the security office and lent itself better to briefings. “We’ve tried tracing him through the comm system,” Yana continued, “But all we found was a combadge. And interference from the rupture is interfering with our scans on the ship”
As far as Yana knew the doctor wasn’t part of their immediate plans and wasn’t working on something, and while he was curious, he was in no rush to do anything that might uncover their nature. To that end he had gathered a smallish team, knowing he could argue that there was a need to maintain a guard around sensitive areas given the nature of what was going on.
“We’re going to split into five teams of two, I’ve sent you assignments and allocated search areas to your PADDs.” Yana paused while the ten members of the search team checked their PADDs.
“Check all public area, access points, maintenance tunnels and check crew quarters as you go round.”
The team all nodded their understanding, and he concluded his briefing, “A member of this crew is missing and it’s up to us to find him...” More nodding, “Dismissed!”
Lieutenant Jonathan "Jack" Hawkins
Acting Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38897-B
Re: Mission 12: When In Rome
<<Ready Room, 0922, Day 4>>
Having told Jack about the Chief Medical Officer, Isabel settled back into her chair. Aaron had sent the latest data regarding the anomaly and she wanted a chance to review it before they put their measures in place. Hopefully Todd and Will had things nearly ready.
Isabel was about to start reading the report when her doorchime rang. Most of the crew had assignments they were working on, so either someone had extra time on their hands or there was a development. If it were the latter, she sincerely hoped it was good news, not bad. "Enter."
Hearing the Captain's voice, Britney (PNPC) walked through the Ready Room doors. She was a bit nervous, truth be told. Likely the concerns she had were nothing - especially compared to their current situation.
Seeing her yeoman and noting the unease about the young woman, Isabel raised an eyebrow and motioned towards a chair across from her, "Good morning Britney, have a seat."
Britney nodded and sat down across from Isabel. "I'm sorry to disturb you, Captain. I know there are a lot of pressing items you're looking into."
"At the moment, there's not much I can do about those. Besides, I would make the time; what's troubling you," Isabel asked, slowly leaning back in her chair, trying to appear more casual to put her yeoman at ease.
Hesitating slightly at first, Britney spoke, "Well...it's probably nothing and I suppose I should have just went to Dr. Zeral with it...."
Isabel sat quietly, waiting for Britney to continue. Another case of amnesia perhaps? Or headaches?
"...But...well...It's Caleb (NPC). He just doesn't seem to be himself most of the time. We were supposed to have dinner together last night, but he never showed up, which just isn't like him. I saw him in the corridor a couple hours after we were to meet and he completely ignored me. He did respond when I greeted him this morning, but when I asked about last night, he mumbled something about how he was sorry," Britney continued. She frowned and fought to keep her emotions in check.
Keeping her eye on Britney, Isabel considered what she was being told. Really it wasn't that out of the ordinary - perhaps he was distracted with work or just changed his mind about the Direidian. Something about Britney's demeanor gave her pause though. "What else can you tell me? What's different about him, and why do you think it's just some of the time?"
Britney shrugged, "It's little things, really, that add up. Or rather, don't add up. Yesterday I saw him in the Mess Hall...he always orders the same thing for breakfast - always - but yesterday he ordered something completely different. Every once in a while he has a slight variation, but what he ordered was nowhere in the same realm. He ordered things he didn't even like!" Blushing slightly, she continued, "When he saw me in one of the outfits he bought me, he didn't say anything. Usually he compliments me or at least makes a witty remark."
Isabel nodded slightly, "How long has this been happening? Since you started noticing this, has he acted like himself at all?"
"I don't know exactly when it started, but it was definitely after we entered the Taevon Expanse, Captain. Sometime after the asteroid field is when I first noticed it, really. At first he acted like hiimself most of the time, though he didn't seem to feel very well. Lately he's not been acting like himself at all though," Britney replied, biting her lower lip.
"When he didn't feel well, did he mention anything specific that was troubling him?" Nobody else had mentioned something like this before, but Isabel was curious as to whether there was a connection between this and some of the other things happening on the ship.
Britney paused, trying to remember what Caleb had told her, "He had a headache that lasted for awhile, but seemed to eventually go away. Or he didn't mention it again, at least. And he did mention something else in passing, now that I think about it...at one point he returned to Engineering, but didn't remember leaving. But I do know they've been rather busy, so that might explain it."
"Yes, it could," Isabel said. If she was being honest though, she didn't think so. "Have you noticed anyone else acting strangely?"
"Not really, no. But I'm still getting acquainted with most of the crew, ma'am. Someone that knows them better could probably give you a better idea," Britney answered. She was getting to know the crew better, but she didn't have the in-depth knowledge to know if their behavior was out of the norm. At least not for most of them.
"Alright. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Britney. If you notice anything else strange, please let me know," Isabel said, standing. Her eyes moved to meet Britney's, "Try not to worry. Some odd things have been happening on the ship - I think they may be connected with the Expanse.... I'll see what I can find out, but for now give Caleb the benefit of the doubt."
Britney nodded, "Thank you Captain." She turned to leave, but as she reached the door, Britney looked back at Isabel, "Oh, I stopped by to check on Derek briefly - he was regenerating, but seemed okay."
Isabel offered her a smile, "Thank you for letting me know. I'll see you later, Britney." She watched the Direidian walk out of her Ready Room, then sat back down. It certainly wasn't good news, but if it was related to some of the other things that were happening, they might have just received another piece of the puzzle.
As she was about to tap her comm badge, the door chime rang again.... Sighing, she said, "Come in."
OFF: Tag Zeral for JP
Having told Jack about the Chief Medical Officer, Isabel settled back into her chair. Aaron had sent the latest data regarding the anomaly and she wanted a chance to review it before they put their measures in place. Hopefully Todd and Will had things nearly ready.
Isabel was about to start reading the report when her doorchime rang. Most of the crew had assignments they were working on, so either someone had extra time on their hands or there was a development. If it were the latter, she sincerely hoped it was good news, not bad. "Enter."
Hearing the Captain's voice, Britney (PNPC) walked through the Ready Room doors. She was a bit nervous, truth be told. Likely the concerns she had were nothing - especially compared to their current situation.
Seeing her yeoman and noting the unease about the young woman, Isabel raised an eyebrow and motioned towards a chair across from her, "Good morning Britney, have a seat."
Britney nodded and sat down across from Isabel. "I'm sorry to disturb you, Captain. I know there are a lot of pressing items you're looking into."
"At the moment, there's not much I can do about those. Besides, I would make the time; what's troubling you," Isabel asked, slowly leaning back in her chair, trying to appear more casual to put her yeoman at ease.
Hesitating slightly at first, Britney spoke, "Well...it's probably nothing and I suppose I should have just went to Dr. Zeral with it...."
Isabel sat quietly, waiting for Britney to continue. Another case of amnesia perhaps? Or headaches?
"...But...well...It's Caleb (NPC). He just doesn't seem to be himself most of the time. We were supposed to have dinner together last night, but he never showed up, which just isn't like him. I saw him in the corridor a couple hours after we were to meet and he completely ignored me. He did respond when I greeted him this morning, but when I asked about last night, he mumbled something about how he was sorry," Britney continued. She frowned and fought to keep her emotions in check.
Keeping her eye on Britney, Isabel considered what she was being told. Really it wasn't that out of the ordinary - perhaps he was distracted with work or just changed his mind about the Direidian. Something about Britney's demeanor gave her pause though. "What else can you tell me? What's different about him, and why do you think it's just some of the time?"
Britney shrugged, "It's little things, really, that add up. Or rather, don't add up. Yesterday I saw him in the Mess Hall...he always orders the same thing for breakfast - always - but yesterday he ordered something completely different. Every once in a while he has a slight variation, but what he ordered was nowhere in the same realm. He ordered things he didn't even like!" Blushing slightly, she continued, "When he saw me in one of the outfits he bought me, he didn't say anything. Usually he compliments me or at least makes a witty remark."
Isabel nodded slightly, "How long has this been happening? Since you started noticing this, has he acted like himself at all?"
"I don't know exactly when it started, but it was definitely after we entered the Taevon Expanse, Captain. Sometime after the asteroid field is when I first noticed it, really. At first he acted like hiimself most of the time, though he didn't seem to feel very well. Lately he's not been acting like himself at all though," Britney replied, biting her lower lip.
"When he didn't feel well, did he mention anything specific that was troubling him?" Nobody else had mentioned something like this before, but Isabel was curious as to whether there was a connection between this and some of the other things happening on the ship.
Britney paused, trying to remember what Caleb had told her, "He had a headache that lasted for awhile, but seemed to eventually go away. Or he didn't mention it again, at least. And he did mention something else in passing, now that I think about it...at one point he returned to Engineering, but didn't remember leaving. But I do know they've been rather busy, so that might explain it."
"Yes, it could," Isabel said. If she was being honest though, she didn't think so. "Have you noticed anyone else acting strangely?"
"Not really, no. But I'm still getting acquainted with most of the crew, ma'am. Someone that knows them better could probably give you a better idea," Britney answered. She was getting to know the crew better, but she didn't have the in-depth knowledge to know if their behavior was out of the norm. At least not for most of them.
"Alright. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Britney. If you notice anything else strange, please let me know," Isabel said, standing. Her eyes moved to meet Britney's, "Try not to worry. Some odd things have been happening on the ship - I think they may be connected with the Expanse.... I'll see what I can find out, but for now give Caleb the benefit of the doubt."
Britney nodded, "Thank you Captain." She turned to leave, but as she reached the door, Britney looked back at Isabel, "Oh, I stopped by to check on Derek briefly - he was regenerating, but seemed okay."
Isabel offered her a smile, "Thank you for letting me know. I'll see you later, Britney." She watched the Direidian walk out of her Ready Room, then sat back down. It certainly wasn't good news, but if it was related to some of the other things that were happening, they might have just received another piece of the puzzle.
As she was about to tap her comm badge, the door chime rang again.... Sighing, she said, "Come in."
OFF: Tag Zeral for JP
Captain Isabel Kersare
Commanding Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38997-A