Blood and Iron

[Rayne]

<<USS Malinche- B>>
<Sickbay, 1555 Hours, Day 2>

When she woke, Sara just about screamed her head off. Fortunatly she managed to stifle the scream before it got loose. Still that damned dream she had been having lately didn't do her much good, making her wonder why she even thought she was going to get any sleep. Her being in the sickbay didn't help either but it was better then trying to sleep on the ground. What she really needed right now was someone to talk with, and definatly not one of those nurses who seemed too busy to notice her right now.

"Well I wonder if anyone up in command notices that Im back onboard yet. They probly think Im still missing on Direidi, after all I haven't actually reported in to anyone, not that I actually needed to with Mr. Grayson off on shoreleave somewhere probly getting to the bottom of some conspiracy theory of his. Hell even that seems much more fun then hanging around in this place."

Sara sighed knowing that there wasn't anything she could really do about it, it wasn't like she could just up and walk out of the sickbay without being noticed. After all thats exactly what would get her a nice hypospray to the neck, something she wasn't to fond of having even if she was trained in resisting those kinds of detainment methods.

"Ah what the hell he seems like a nice person worthy of my bothering him, I doubt there could be anything important enough to stop him from taking notice to a little message. Besides someone in command should know Im back now anyhow." She grinned with a bit of a mischievous look on her face. "Yeah lets bother the XO and cause problems from sickbay!? Well maybe not cause problems but bothering the XO couldn't hurt could it? Its not like the Intel department got the reputation for being full of nutcases for nothing. Hell Im one of them and I know im not close to being sane."

With that thought Sara grabbed the PaDD she had gotten from Fairbairn and started tracking down the location of the XO whom was just about to recive a hello message. Once his location was determined she started hacking though the ship's systems covering her progress as she did till a link to a computer terminal near him was established. Hopefully the beeping would grab his attention, though she was probly going to cause problems in security not that it was going to be traced to her location. Sara was too smart for that, she had the connection span through the entire ship and even over to the Phoenix Dawn's computer over in the starbase shuttledock and back through the entire ship till it reached the XO.

"Damn I wish I could see the look on whoever is watching the systems panel right now." She smiled mischievously, and even chuckled to herself knowing she could just say what she had done had been a system security test. One which she had even gone through the trouble to make appear on an notice from the intel department to security. After all she didn't have her position on the ship for nothing, though the more she thought about it the more she thought she should have stayed asleep. "Well too late now." Sara though shrugging.

OFF: Tags Hunt (Well you did say anyone, I just hope a crasy infiltration specialist from the Intel department will do. If you would like to we can make this a JP. ^_^)

[Hunt]

<<USS Malinche- B>>
<Hunt?s Office, 1600 Hours, Day 2>

Mason went to his office much later after resting in his cabin. The rest seemed to do him some good having felt better to continue on the day. As the lights came on he saw the terminal on his desk arise from the surface sounding an alarm.

?What the?? paused Mason slowly but walking over to the console. The screen had been flashing some sort symbol even he couldn?t make out. ?Computer, this Mason Hunt decode message and display on screen.? Ordered Mason. The computer took a few moments to decode leaving Mason to grab himself a bit to eat.

?Message decoded now coming on screen.? Replied the computer. Mason nearly choked on his sandwich running back over not wanting to miss the beginning of the message. He was puzzled as to why someone on the Malinche would send him a message in such a manner but intrigued at the same time.

The origin of the message was very difficult to determine, Hunt tried for minutes on end to find it when he stumbled on a part of the decoding sequence. ?Sickbay.? He said to himself quietly. The message was short and only instructed him to come down to sickbay.

?Computer, seal this message and place it in my personal files under security lock. Screen off.? Ordered Mason getting up and heading into a lift. ?Sickbay.? He replied as the lift came to life. Moments later he walked into a dark but secluded sickbay with only a few bodies lying out on biobeds with nurses attending to them. One in particular was lying down on the center biobed.

Hunt walked over and lowered his head to see whom it was.


OFF: Tag Rayne

[Rayne]

ON:

<<USS Malinche-B>>
<Sickbay, 1600 Hours, Day 2>

Sara figured it was only going to be a few minutes till the XO arrived, though chances were there was a security detail along with him. Still if that were the case she did plan for it. She figured security was already getting over the shock from what she did, and with a PaDD even since she did put that notice somewhere they would see it in thier department schedule for today. Even though it was somewhat dark in the sickbay she was still able to see the nurses moving about, only a few minutes ago the lighting had dropped down prompting one of the nurses to make a report about it to engineering.

"Well that was quicker then I had figured on, must have decided not to bring a security detail along." Sara thought as she watched the XO arrive just outside sickbay. When the room darkened her implants switched on a thermal overlay allowing her to see through the less dense doors of the sickbay and anything giving off a strong heat signature.

"Afternoon Commander, you can't begin to imagine how boring this place is. I would have been on shoreleave but it seems I'll have to wait for a few tests to be done before they will let me go." Sara said with a smile as the XO headed towards her place in the Sickbay.

OFF: Tags Hunt

[Hunt]

<<USS Malinche-B>>
<Sickbay, 1600 Hours, Day 2>

The XO first stopped and became stunned by the quickness of his presence being detected. He had forgotten that Rayne had special implants that would allow her see far better than the average human or humanoid. ?Hello, Ensign I am glad to hear that you should be up and about soon.? Replied Hunt moving in closer and grabbing a chair from the glass window.

?I must admit to having been a bit surprised by your message. In fact it took over five minutes just to decode it thankfully my terminal did not blow up in the process. So tell me what can I do for you?? asked Mason smiling down at her.

Waiting for her to answer, the lights just over her head flickered on. Mason flinched for a few moments only because he considered himself to be a night person. Nurses walked in carrying replicated food and drink to the patients around sickbay including Rayne and the staff within. One of them brought over a turkey sandwich with salad over to Mason but he politely declined and thanked her.

?I never could eat sickbay food, granted it comes from the same place as our own replicators but from what I heard the food is supposed to be constructed with less of the necessary factors like sugar, salt.? Said Mason laughing.

The quietness in sickbay continued since it was only mid day and most of the crew were on lunch or off duty and not needing medical attention. ?Do you know if you will be placed on full duty or light, Rayne?? asked Mason.

OFF: Tag Rayne

[Saunders]

<<USS Malinche-B>>
<Holodeck 2, 2100 Hours, Day 2>

The room was smoky and dimly lit. A rickety bar stood at the rear of the bar various drinks lined up on it. It was Mississippi, 1931 and people like Thea Saunders-O?Dell would most certainly not have been welcome in this establishment back then but the days of terms such as ?nigger? and ?wog? were very much gone, and of course this was only a holodeck recreation. Sitting at the rickety baby grand piano, Thea started to play and began to sing.

?Summertime, and the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high
Oh! Your Daddy's rich and your Ma is good lookin'
So, hush little baby, don't you cry . . .?

The holographic barmen walked over to the piano and placed a glass of scotch atop of it. Another thing that wouldn?t have happened in Mississippi in 1931 or at least it wouldn?t outside of a gold old fashioned speak easy. Nodding at the barman she continued to sing.

?One of these mornin's you're gonna rise up singin'
Then you'll spread your wings, and you'll take to the sky
But 'till that mornin' there's a nothin' can harm you,
with Daddy and Mammy standin' by . . .?

Thea noticed a young man walk out from the shadows. She stopped playing and stood from her piano. ?Please, please don?t stop on my account. You sound amazing, it was almost like being in the prescence of Ella Fitzgerald.? The young man stated with a smile.

?Flattery ain?t gonna get you anywhere with a married woman mister.? Thea replied with a cheeky smile.

?You wound me madam, can?t a man comment on a woman?s gorgeous voice without being accused of wanting something more?? He asked.

Thea walked over to a table and sat. ?It has been my experience that attractive young gentlemen only give a compliment to a woman when they want something in??

The air was broken by the sound of a comm badge chirp.

?Doctor Saunders please report to deck seven with a med kit Ensign O?Rielly would appear to have passed out.?

Letting out a small sigh Thea stood up once more. ?Computer end programme.? Within the blink of an eye the bar, the piano, even her young male companion all vanished. ?No rest for the wicked.?

[Quarterstaff]

<<USS Malinche, Corridors, Day 2, 1250>>

Benson rounded the corner and tried to decide on where to next. He had gotten the Chief Medical Officer's opinion and chalked him up as an ambiguous witness at best. He knew as Chief of Security it was his job to do a few minor interviews of witnesses to the events before passing along good witness candidates to the prosecution. He held the PADD and marked Doctor Fairbairn off as ambiguous.

As as usual Lynn had her mind on something else rather than walking. She flicked a finger over the spine of the book that she had been holding, it was her newest treasure. "There hasn't been any real reason for me to be in sick bay for a while now..." she mumbled, glancing down at te cover of her novel for a second.

" I could always go fo a quick check of the facilities and then sit in the lounge, maybe start a few chapters." The idea was pleasant enough, and was certainly going to get her mind off of the heavy thoughts that had recently set in. The red head stood still in mid-step and rested a shoulder against the wall. It would take her a moment to decide.

James saw her and smirked. "Preoccupied?" He asked her, smirking a bit at the red headed medical officer.

Raising an eyebrow and looking up, Lynn let it register who exactly was talking to her. " Me? No.. Why do you ask?" she replied, closing the book and pressing it close to her side. Lynn braced herself for a stern lecture on why she should be some where else and not dallying in the corridors. Honestly sometimes she forgot she had finally escaped those horrid professors at the medical academy.

He smiled and walked a bit closer to her. "Well... how long have you been with the ship?" He asked her with a soft smile. He wondered if perhaps she would be able to give more insight into Jaran than Fairbairn had.

Her posture relaxed, and her nose scrunched up a little as she paused then replied " Not Very long, I was transferred here a few days before we headed back to star base with the recovered crew members."

"Oh... hmmmm so I suppose you weren't around for the Jaran incident." James said with a disappointed tone.

"Jaran?" she echoed. "The monkey creature?" Lynn shook her head, upset that she obviously couldn't help him. "No, I was barely aware of what was going on when he ran off..all I know now is he's been caught." she paused again. "I'm sorry Lt."

"Damn... Well... I suppose my search will need to turn elsewhere. It seems everyone that is on the ship now was just transferred in except for Captain Kersare and Lieutenant Grayson and Grayson is gone." He muttered.

" Now thats funny...Does this crew often have a habit of going missing?" she frowned and switched her book from one hand to another. Lynn looked at james expectantly, hoping his answer was 'no'.

"No... it's just that it seems every time I ask someone, they've only just transferred in and don't know much about what happened with Jaran." He said with a heavy sigh. A smile slowly made it's way back across her features.

"Kinda' like it's a conspiracy huh?"

"It better not be... or else this is a far bigger problem than just some whackjob officer leading a mutiny." He said.

Tilting her head Lynn shrugged, the one stubborn strand of hair that had been buggin her moving to the side. " So, Is there just not enough information to accuse this Jaran character? Or what else is the problem?" She figured sooner or later, it would be important to actually know what's going on aboard the Malinche.

"There's enough... it's just that we need more witnesses to get a solid conviction." James explained.

Lynn crinkled her nose up, making a look of dislike. "Ah...the legal stuff."
If there one thing that the woman didn't like it was the channels and steps that the judicial system always seemed to have in place. " Good luck then"

"Thanks... I'm going to need it. Enjoy the book." James said with a nod as he trotted off down the corridor.

She half waved then let her hand drop when he had her back turned and sighed. "Ohh boy.... He's in for one hell of a head ache..."

Taking another look down at her hand, Lynn smirked and spoke to the novel in hand. "Now to take care of you!" She happily walked down another corridor and back to the ship.

<end>

JP brought to you by:

Lt. James Benson

and

[Rayne]

ON:

<<USS Malinche-B>>
<Sickbay, 1605 Hours, Day 2>

"Well what can I say, there is alot you can get done with one of these." Sara said pointing towards the PaDD nearby. "As to answer your question, I was simply curious if someone in command knew I was back yet. After all I was reported missing durring the last mission the Mali was on. Next time I visit that place Im going to have to remember to thank them." She smiled atleast until the lights flicked on above her then, she muttered something under her breath about wanting the nurses to warn her when they do that.

"I don't blame you." Sara said setting the food and drink off to the side. "I've had field rations that taste better then some of the stuff they give patients here." She made sure that the nurses didn't hear what she said since she was suppost to be leaving the sickbay once those tests were run and she didn't need one of them to find a way to keep her there longer.

"Well Im not sure how it is with the other departments but." Sara lowered her voice to a whisper. "Full duty for me it really more like light duty for the other departments." Sara said smiling. There isn't really anything for me to do until Mr. Grayson decides to give me something to work on. Until then I'll just have to keep security from getting too comfortable. Im willing to bet they are still trying to figure out what happened. Though I did leave a notice in the security department's schedule for today. Still I am sure I'll get a visit from the security cheif once he figures out Im to blame for the scare I probly gave that crewman up in ops." Sara grinned mischievously.

"Still your probly wondering if I had an ulterior motive for bringing you here. Which I'd have to say I did." She reached over to the PaDD next to her and brought up the classified specs on the Pheonix Dawn then handed the PaDD to Hunt. "Once Im free from here how would you like to take a look at that ship?" Sara said whispering. "Its the Pheonix Dawn. A very unique Delta Flyer and since I was going to get it brought aboard the Mali, I figured the best way to hide it would be to not make it a secret. After all thats how I got it aboard the last time, though I did have Mr. Grayson to thank for that." She was still whispering.

"Anyhow what I need is for someone to help me bring it aboard, I'd do it myself but there is something in the shuttlebay right now that put me here in sickbay and I don't really feel like going through that again. So Im offering you a once in a lifetime chance to pilot the most highly modified Delta Flyer this side of the neutral zone. Which now brings up two questions. Why you? And Would you mind doing that for me?" Sara smiled up at the XO knowing no one anywhere close to being sane could pass up an offer like that. "Oh feel free to mention something about it to the captain, since its going to need to be cleared with her first Im sure. But before you ask, yes the shuttlecraft is mine." She finished there figuring that Hunt would need time to decide what to do and say now. After all this kind of thing didn't happen quite often.

OFF: Tags Hunt (Just say you won't scratch the paint. ^_^)

[Akios]

<<Deck 9, Shuttlebay, 1400 MD 2>>

The cabins for junior officers aboard the Malinche had obviously been inspired by those of the Defiant class. They weren't quite as small, fortunately, or the tall Aurelian would have been in a bad way. But bunk beds and no replicator had him wondering if there was anything he could get away with changing.

Akios had arisen early and found his way to the mess hall, had breakfast, and met a few of his fellow officers before heading for the ship's shuttle bay...

Which was a huge mess, although a lot of repair work had already been done and was being done.

After asking around, he found Ens. C'eltor on the control deck, and after making introductions, he asked, "What happened here? Impulse engine go supercritical?"

"Not exactly," C'eltor said, and motioned for him to follow her as she headed down to the main deck. "Let's just say we had the doors open at the wrong time. We'll be needing to pull most of the remaining wall sections to get at the circuitry behind them, and to do that we need to dump the debris and shuffle some shuttles out of the way. Are you any good at piloting a workbee with manipulator arms?"

The question caught Akios a bit by surprise. "Yes, ma'am," he said, "but if I'm to move anything beyond the bay force field, I prefer to wear an EVA suit in the bee. I have one in my quarters.

The el-aurian stopped to look at him for a few seconds. "Most people prefer to avoid EVA suits, and that seem especially unusual coming from an Aurelian... Okay, but be back in ten minutes."

Once Akios had retrieved and donned the suit, C'eltor took him to the bee. "Tractor that debris," she indicated a pile of twisted metal, "over to the base's waste dump, then go the the engineering depot on this deck," she showed him the location on a PADD showing the starbase's directory, "they'll have a cargo unit ready. Bring it back here, and I'll give you further instructions then."

Akios hurried to follow her orders. The debris had been stacked on a cargo sled, so the tractor beam had no trouble picking it up all at once. Once he was out of the shuttle bay and beyond Malinche's artifical gravity, though, the metal pieces wanted to drift off the sled. He had to keep the workbee accelerating to keep it in place, and then use constant deceleration to hold it as he approached the dump. Once he got there, though, all he had to do was bring the workbee to a stop, and let the remaining momentum take the debris into the dump, while he kept the cargo sled tractored.

At the depot, it was easier to pick up the cargo unit with the workbee's arms than to go through the process of setting the cargo sled down, putting the unit on it, and then tractoring them both. The trip back to Malinche was uneventful, and as he was setting down the cargo unit and sled, his communicator beeped.

"Akios here."

"C'eltor, Akios. Are familiar with a game human children play called 'musical chairs'?"

"Sort of, ma'am."

"Well, we're going to play musical shuttlecraft. I'm going to have you tractor the shuttles to get them out of the way. We'll check them over while they're out, but the repairs to the individual bays should be done before the shuttles are ready to go back in, so you'll then tractor the next shuttle into the repaired bay, and so on.

"Yes, ma'am," Akios said. Well, it was simpler than moving each shuttle under its own power, especially if they needed to be checked for damage.

In the meantime a group of station engineers had opened the cargo unit, which appeared to contain portable lighting. They set up the lights and at the same time powered down a section of the bay, switching on the lights to illuminate the darkened section.

Under C'eltor's direction, Akios pulled the first shuttlecraft from its slot and set it on the main deck, where another group started going over it.

He continued to rearrange shuttles for most of the morning, stopping occasionally to haul away more debris, or to use the workbee's mainpulator arms to assist in removing damaged wall sections. It wasn't until after lunch that he was able to park the workbee, stow his EVA suit, and join the team that was working on system repairs under the shuttle bay's main deck.

[Hunt]

<<USS Malinche-B>>
<Sickbay, 1605 Hours, Day 2>

Hunt was intrigued by the offer, he had not been out at least in a small craft flying threw the stars in quite sometime. He looked down and glanced over the padd she had given him. The XO needed to sit down because he was in fact amazed at the specs of the ?phoenix dawn?. He thought about it for a moment and turned back to her.

?We can have the shuttle in the bay moved to the adjacent shuttle bay only if the Captain approves. I don?t think she will have a problem with a test flight most likely when you are able and up and about. If you don?t mind I would like to study these specs a bit further.? Asked Mason.

He waited for her response taking a cup of coffee from the replicator. For reason he was feeling a bit wore down although he couldn?t explain it. However the prospect of joy riding in the dawn did appeal to him.

?Besides I know you want to be able to take her out what creator wouldn?t be. Right now we could use a new craft something that would give the range of our missions more of an edge so to speak. I am sure that most of the crew especially the engineering crews would love to take a once over on the dawn.? Said Mason adjusting his seat.

OFF: Tag Rayne

[Benson]

ON:
<<USS Malinche, 1248hours, MD02>>

A dismayed sigh lay on the lips of the ships Doctor as he passed down the corridors on deck 7. He felt overworked, stressed and generally run down by the recent run of events aboard the Malinche regarding Jaran and of course the starbase patient, Sarah Treala. But on top of things the incident involving Ensign Rayne concerned him deeply. There was a probability that some kind of weapon had been used or perhaps even an important piece of evidence regarding the incident in the shuttle bay over previous days. Either way he wanted it investigated in case a repeat incident took place. His thoughts strayed and then immediately halted as he spotted Lieutenant Benson walking the other way. He stepped in to catch him. "Jim...can I have a quick word?"

"What's the matter Doc?" He asked, frowning a bit as he looked at the rather disturbed looking physician.

Cam rubbed the back of his neck to relieve a little tension. "I'm having one hell of a day, that's for a start. Sickbay's always busy." He relaxed a little and handed James the PaDD with Rayne's prognosis on it. "I've got a patient in my unit care at the moment, an intelligence officer who blanked out in the shuttle bay. There've been maintenance crews down there all day but I was wondering if you
could take a look for something a little...out of place."

James frowned and looked at the PADD, looking over the information.

"You're suspecting foul play?" He asked.

"Somewhat." The doctor stating flatly, gesturing for the security chief to walk with him so they could stop blocking the corridors. "Everything seems a little unusual to me, the whole thing. Granted there are physical reasons that could explain the issue but the shuttlebay has taken some pounding. Anything could have happened."

"Well Doctor what am I looking for? What sort of injuries has she sustained?" James asked, still reading the PADD.

Cam bit his lip, stepping round a science officer who walked by. He couldn't very well explain the implants that Rayne contained in her body, that was part of the patient-doctor confidence. "She was dazed, inexplicably to the extent where her neurolgoical state failed. As if she was struck unconscious by something - but she's in good health."

"Doctor... if she suffered blunt force trauma to the head, you're really asking me to look for a needle in a haystack. There are hundreds of things on a ship this large that could have caused that in the shuttlebay alone." James furrowed his brow.

"There's the beauty part - no impact." The doctor said flatly.

"Then what am I looking for?" James asked with a frown.

"A weapon, a sign of intrusion, anything that could have been left behind that could incapacitate someone. I don't know, Jim, but it worries me. There's nobody else on the schedule down there what with shoreleave and I need to guarantee safety."

"Doctor... I'd like to help, but I need more information. for all I know, I'm looking for anything from an engineering tool to a section of bulkhead to some sort of portable tractor beam." The Texan stated.

Cameron stopped short and turned to face his colleague. "What I'm going to tell you violates a confidence here, it's important it stays between us."

"Doctor, if there is some foul play here, then in order to catch who did this, I need this information. NOT violating it could constitute an act of obstruction of justice." He said with a nod.

The doctor let out a heavy sigh, then glanced up. "Sara Rayne's a modified official. It's my suspiscion that she was part of the Mark 1 project that Intel ran a year or two ago so these things are to be kept quiet." He paused for a brief second. "Her implants have been affected by some kind of energy pulse and this caused the physical problem. But nothing functioning on the ship could have caused that. I hit her with electromagnetic fields, gamma pulses even a dose of plasma and they didn't malfunction. It must be something I don't understand."

"Like something that the Federation doesn't normally employ in its day to day practices. Now we're getting somewhere doctor." James nodded.

"Well that's what worries me. What the hell in the shuttlebay can directly affect her electro-kinetics that wouldn't be elsewhere on the ship? It doesn't entirely fit together. And if there is something down there causing the problem, even if it's technical, then it's going to affect our systems..." The doctor added.

"Unless it was specifically designed to affect her." James said.

"Also a possibility. Could someone from the crash perhaps be hiding in there?"

"Very possible." James said with a nod.

"Well I thought I'd leave it with you, even if you could just send a team down there to take a look, you're the guys who can get maintenance access." Cam pointed out.

"I'll see what I can do doctor." The Chief of Security assured him.

"Appreciate it, James, really I do. It takes a load of my mind." The doctor said with a smile. "I'll get your report later." And with that he turned and continued on his way towards the lounge. Another break would clear his head.

OFF:

A JP By:

Doctor (Lt.) Cameron Fairbairn
Chief Medical Officer
USS Malinche
NCC-38897-B

&

[Rayne]

ON:

<<USS Malinche-B>>
<Sickbay, 1615 Hours, Day 2>

"Well I don't see how it would hurt if you studied them further. Infact if you were able to get into a holodeck you could run this. " Sara reached around to the back of her head and untied the leather cord which looked to be from a necklace but when she handed it to Hunt, there was a isolinear chip where a pendant would have been. "Nothing better then getting a close up view. Just make sure you run program Rayne-1 Dawn, the other program is a weapons trainer." She said smiling.

"True I would like to be able to bring the Dawn aboard myself but I'm afraid that if I did I'd end up back in here again or passed out in a turbolift." She wasn't smiling now, and it didn't take much to figure out why. She knew something wasn't right about what happened to her only a few hours ago, someone had to have known that her implants were effected by phased zepolaron particles. Definatly not something that was produced by standard Federation technology it was a weapon, a weapon which had been used on her back before she recived the implants. It shorted out the electronic devices she had hidden in her uniform and completely disabled the personal holo-masker she carried with her. "Damnit! I thought I killed him and destroyed that blasted proto-type of his. He had to have been working for them all along and when I was sent to take care of him it was just them getting rid of a loose end." This thought turned Sara's frown into a real sour look and one could almost swear the green of her eyes was faintly glowing if they looked at them long enough. She was really pissed now.

"Commander if you wouldn't mind having a engineering team scan the ship for residual phased zepolaron particles, it might help me figure out where I was when I was possibly hit with a beam of them. As for who set off the device that emitted them, he or she is probly not aboard now.She went on to quietly mutter something about Section 31 and a few other things. Things never seemed to ever straighten out. They are just as bad as roaches and won't quit. Sara fully intended to deal with them, but right now she had other issuses to take care of.

"Before I forget it might be a good idea to check the route from the shuttlebay to the turbolift nearby for damaged conduits giving off EM pulses with a resonating fequency of twenty-six to the fifteenth power or anything giving off emissions of that kind. Either someone caused this problem or there is a damaged conduit long there somewhere. Though I am personally inclined to think someone did this." Sara still had the sour look on her face.

"And I am certain he or she used phased zepolaron particles. As for the engineering crews I don't want any of them except maybe the Cheif Engineer anywhere near the Dawn, its going to be bad enough with Mr. Grayson trying to open her up to take a look around when he gets back here from where ever he went off to. Speaking of which I probly should have a sign posted next to it with big words saying, NO TOUCHY OR ELSE." Sara was very serious about the no touching part still she figured it was going to grab a laugh or two. After all it almost made her crack up laughing when she thought of it but she was too angery to laugh right now.

OFF: Tag Hunt

[Barrett]

[[RMS Verona]]
[Breifing Room, 1345, Day 2]

Jason cracked his neck, wishing that he could have spent more time in the sonic showers once they had gotten back onboard. But that wasn't the case, once the Marans had the craft secured in thier shuttlebay, Jason and his party were wisked away to the breifing room to talk to Nassar (NPC).

At the moment though, he was more concerned with Adam (NPC). He hadn't said two words to Jason since he they had come back onboard. Jason knew that they needed to talk, that something was deeply troubling him. Although at the moment, he had other problems to attend too.

"Glad to see that the rumors of your death are highly exagerated," Nassar smiled, as Amanda (NPC) took her seat.

"Generally, they are."

Jason sat down as well as did Mark.

"So, Mr. Grayson, care to tell me what happened down there?"

Mark leaned back on his chair. "Oh, the usual... We encountered a large number of Remans trying to transport the object off world. For our luck, the thing can't be transported and they didn't know how to make it work. Also, from the brief moment I had to inspect , it looks damaged."

"We interrogate the subject Tann and obtained the location of the object. We attacked the position with two main objectves: Retrieval of the object and the rescue of Lt. Commander Darkhelm. I also had the opportunity to copy the entire Reman database down there. I didn't have much time to take deep look, but as far I can gather, the Remans had a similiar contact with the same kind of object before, which explains why they were interested in taking this one."

Mark looked at Darkhelm. "I was hoping you could fill some of the blanks on this story, Amanda."

"Certainly, at least I'd be willing to try. Tann provided us with the coordinates of where this thing came down, the Maran sensors lost it after it entered the upper atmosphere."

"So, you went looking for it?" Jason asked.

Amanda nodded. "I took a small team down to the plane in order to try and track it down, for the past two years there have been reports of unidentified ships scouting the Maran system, this was the first positive lead they have ever had."

"We decided to send Darkhelm in, when we didn't hear from her for a while we knew something was up."

"These other scout craft, have you been able to get anything off of them?" Jason asked.

"No," Nassar responded. "In part both our goverments believe that they represent a threat to the Federation, thats why we recruited both Amanda and Mark.

"Tne whole idea of creating this Maran/Federation agency was exactly that", said Mark. "We needed information and we needed to share it. Not only that; we needed to integrate the best of worlds to get more information and prepare for the worse."

"So, Amanda, did you have the chance to inspect the scout ship before you were captured? There was a body inside or it was an automatic ship?"

"No bodies that I saw, at least none inside the ship. Though it certainly looked like it was met to be flown by someone. The layout appeared pretty standard yet didn't conform to anything in the database."

"Certainly doesn't look like anything I have ever seen," Jason threw in. "From what little chance I got to examine it, the technology didn't look all that familiar either."

"Which is precisely why we'll be sending all the technical data that we gather back to you and Mark on the Malinche," Nassar responded. "You two are our resident experts in these fields."

"I wouldn't call myself in expert," Jason put in. "But I'd lying if I didn't say I was curious as to see what this craft had to offer and I'd love a chance to figure out who built it."

"We have a more urgent question, though", said Mark. "Where's the pilot? If he didn't die in the crash, he must be around and if he hasn't been noticed yet means he was able to diguise himself and infiltrate. Nassar, you'll need start sweeping the nearby cities for suspects. Start with the most recents arrivals..."

"I've already started on that Mark, besides if they are as good at inflitrating as we think they are...he could be long gone by now."

"I'm going to see what DNA I can recover from inside the ship," Amanda said. "That might lead us to something."

"A good idea," Nassar nodded. "In the mean time I suggest that you and your friends return to the Malinche."

"We could still be of help here," Mark protested.

"I'm sure you could but the bottom line is, the longer you are all gone the more questions will be asked. We'd like to keep this little operation of ours a secret," Nassar said, looking at both Jason and Adam. "I trust I dont' need to tell you two that everything that took place here is classified."

Jason shook his head, Adam doing the same.

"Good."

OFF: a JP by

Lt. Mark Grayson
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Malinche
&

[Sovereign]

<<Conference Lounge, 1733 hours, Day 2>>

The view of the starbase from the conference lounge sucked. Yrel much rather stare out at stars wizzing by at warp speed that the bulky inerds of a busy starbase as the Malinche was continuing its repairs.

Not to be ungratefull, she liked the shoreleave...really like it after that meeting with the CMO. A dashing man that had no fear to the carelessness of herself. Though she could she the slight timidness when she was settled in his lap. He had something going on there, and it was only after reflection that she had even really took notice to it. A curiosity, for sure. Something that, depending on the results what would no doubt be a tough-on-the-heart court martial, she'd have to explore.

'Now don't we look foolish, huh' her mind laughed. 'Settling into bed with a sleezebag and here's mister perfect? Good call...'

Yrel sighed, trying to force back the memories of that long and demeaning night with that man. No matter how much pleasure she took on the surface, there was nothing in that act that pleased the soul. The part that needed pleasing the most. A child was half the cure, a lover was the other half. She could die happy with those two nearby to her heart.

Sigh. So much for spending shoreleave as she needed to spend it. Who knew how much longer they'd have before things became a mess again, and she was here dwelling over future prospects? What a waste. She need to go somewhere for a massage or spa treatment. Something to shut off her mind with.

Back to the starbase it was...

[Hawkins]

<<ACIO Office, 1400, MD02>>

Jack had been sat in his, now clean, office for an hour, he had never really been one for a desk job but with Grayson still off on shoreleave somewhere it became his responsibility to read through the immense amount of reports that came from Starfleet Intelligence on a daily basis.

Grain shortages on a Cardassian colony, civil unrest on a Romulan moon, a power struggle within the Orion syndicate and a plethora of similar information that wasn?t desperately that important. ?Slow news day?? Jack said to the empty room as he dropped the PADD onto the desk and using his good arm picked up the next.

=Λ= You should have killed him when you had the chance Jack?.. =Λ= Jack stared at the display on this PADD, someone had obviously heard about the Jaran incident, someone who wasn?t happy about it. He turned to the computer terminal on the desk and set about tracing the transmission that had delivered the PADD; he had learned a few tricks for tracing transmission in his last post and had to use all the tricks he knew.

Eventually a map showing the local area showed up and a line tracing the transmission appeared it began zigzagging across the map, from relay post to colony to ship to Starbase, whoever had sent the transmission was good, Jack had to admit that.

His mind cast back to the message he received the day before, at that point he had thought the message came from Foster, but this message cast doubt on that, Foster had always called him John, not Jack? He was snapped out of this train of thought when the console beeped indicating it had finished the trace, the map had zoomed in and was highlighting the point of origin, Starbase 259?

[Hunt]

<<USS Malinche-B>>
<Sickbay, 1615 Hours, Day 2>

Hunt took the chip from her hand and looked at for only a moment. Watching her lay there and her request to bring the dawn aboard was becoming more intense. He knew he had to run it by the Captain because she did not like surprises especially aboard her own ship. ?I will do what I can with bringing the ship aboard. I?m sure the Captain will not mind.? Said Mason.

When she mentioned the mere name of section 31 it put Mason in a state of shock as he raised one eye brow to it. ?Section 31.? He asked. Mason went over to an empty terminal to check the corridors as Rayne had suggested. At first he couldn?t find anything but didn?t fell the need to take any chances. =/\= Hunt to security I want a security team to the following areas (Punching in commands to the console sending along the frequency he was given) each team is to conduct intensive sweeps for zepolaran particles and submit reports to myself and the Captain. Hunt out=/\=

He left Rayne behind being attended by nurses and one doctor, he never was afraid to talk to the Captain about anything however this time it entailed two things that brought both mystery and questions. Mason exited the lift and took the center chair putting a report together and looking at the specs for the dawn.

Every aspect to the new ship intrigued him and became even more eager to take out for a test spin, so he waited on the bridge until the Captain arrived.

OFF: Tag Rayne and Kersare