USS Malinche NCC-38997-A

OFF: Okay, I'm gonna try to reply to all the tags I got, so this is a backpost...we'll see how it goes.. Also, some of this may seem to be in an odd order, but check the times of the posts... At 1410, Thundera's talking to Kersare...at 1415, Hunt/Abubakar/Navdante arrive, and at 1420, Darkhelm reports Barrett's death.

ON:
<<Celtron V, 1412, Day 1>>

"From closer examination, it appears not to be advanced technology. The interior is made up of various gears and mechanisms requiring oil for lubrication and sustainment. However, it has been mixed with something more advanced because of the outter metallic casing. I am unaware of what kind of metal or where it came from," Cheetara explained.

Isabel paused to consider the new information before responding, "Beam up what's left of the reaver and have Lieutenant Barrett look at it, then I want you to go investigate what happened to the runabouts and find Ensign Harrison."

"Of course Captain. We'll get right on it. Cheetara out."

<<USS Malinche, Transporter Room 1, 1414, Day 1>>

Ensign Chris Fields'(NPC) hands ran quickly over the transporter console. He'd just received word that the remains of some 'reaver' were to be beamed up to the ship. Personally, he was a little annoyed that he couldn't beam them directly to engineering so that Jason could look at them there with some of the other engineering officers. For some ridiculous reason, it was necessary to transport them here, then take them to engineering.

Deciding not to waste any more time, he punched in the final sequence, "Energizing now," he reported to Cheetara over his comm badge.

A few moments later, he saw the transporter beam glimmering on the middle of the transporter pad. Indeed there were some rema... All of a sudden, wild fluctuations showed up on the transporter control monitors. 'Oh shit,' he thought to himself.

Tapping frantically at the console in front of him, he tried to stabalize the transporter, but to no avail. Chris' eyes went wide as the damaged reaver suddenly blew up in a roaring fireball that soon extinguished.

At that moment, Mikaela (NPC) came quickly into the room, "What happened here?"

"I was just transporting up these pieces from a reaver and it blew up. At first it almost seemed to be scanning our transporter, then it just exploded," Chris explained.

"Run diagnostics on the transporter immediately. The Captain will want us to be sure it wasn't something on our end that caused this," Mikaela told him. "And don't worry, I'll tell her," she added after seeing Chris' worried expression.

<<Celtron V, 1415, Day 1>>

Isabel turned back to her ever-shrinking group - now all that were left were herself and Soren. Cheetara and Dan were heading to check out the runabout crashes, and Mason, Jaran and... As Isabel saw the shuttle land on the surface, she walked over. Five officers stepped out and headed in the direction of Soren and Isabel.

?Ah Captain there you are, landing party delta ready. What populated areas are we being assigned to. Those in the shuttle are most eager to stretch their legs.? Said Mason helping two security officers carry out equipment.

"Glad to see you Commander. Soren and I were going to scout the area for any locals or more reavers. You're welcome to join us," Isabel replied.

Ryan (NPC) stepped forward, "Are you sure this area is clear?"

Isabel smiled, "Ensign Morris, I assure you it's not. We were attacked not too long ago a short distance away. In anycase, the point here is to find the reavers, or any Celtronians who have been attacked by them, so we're trying to find areas that aren't clear, so to speak."

"Of course Captain," he replied, nodding.

Before Isabel could say any more, she was interrupted by her comm badge.

"Breland to Kersare."

"Kersare here, go ahead," Isabel said. She was rather curious as to what could be going on, though it most likely wasn't good if she was being contacted.

"Captain, we were unable to beam up the remains of the reaver. The transportor logs show some unstable behavior...and actually the signal seemed to almost be scanning our transporter before it went completely unstable and exploded," Mikaela reported.

This was not good. "You've ruled out a transporter malfuntion?"

"Working on that now, Captain. I'm personally going to go over the logs as well. However, I'd suggest that next time you find one, you should bring it up via shuttle instead. At least until we get this sorted out," she suggested.

Isabel sighed, "Very well, thank you Ms. Breland. Keep me updated on your findings, Kersare out."

The others had stood in silence, listening to the latest information. Isabel looked from one to the next, "Well, it seems we're back to where we started from. We'll need to find another reaver, and Mr. Abubakar, it looks like you'll need to take it back to the ship whenever we find one."

Jaran nodded, though didn't seem very pleased with the idea of being a taxi. "Of course, Captain."

"Alright, let's get started taking a look around," Isabel said. "I would like to find another of those reavers that we can actually take a look at before nightfall."

"Which way are we starting off in?" T'serra looked at the terrain around her; forest all around, except for the medium sized clearing in which the shuttle had landed.

Suddenly, Isabel's comm badge chirped, "Darkhelm to Kersare."

"Go ahead," Isabel replied.

"We have a KIA, Lt. Jason Barrett."

Dead...One of her senior officers.. Isabel was shocked, but tried to remain calm. She knew he'd disappeared, but now all of a sudden he was dead. The surprise on the faces of the others was evident as she looked at each of them. They exchanged nervous glances.

After taking a few moments for it to sink in, Isabel responded, "Doctor, what happened?"

"Mr. Barrett and Mr. Grayson were attacked while escaping from Barrett's captors. We tried to save him, but the damage was too extensive," Amanda said.

Isabel's eyes closed briefly before she could speak, "And what about Grayson?"

"He'll be fine, he's being treated," the doctor informed her.

"Alright, keep me informed if anything else happens... We've not located Ensign Harrison yet, so you may have another patient coming. Thundera and Brewer are looking for her now, the rest of us are looking for more reavers." To Isabel's knowledge, there'd been more of her Senior Staff in sickbay during this mission than any other time...not an overly comforting thought.

"Understood. Darkhelm out."

"What do we do now?" Anthony (NPC) looked around at the subdued group of officers.

Soren spoke up, "We keep going. We need to find another reaver to study...It may lead us to who's controlling them, and where exactly they're from."

Isabel nodded, "Exactly. And we'll start in the most logical place."

The others watched her for a moment before Mason said, "The direction they came from when you were first attacked."

"As machines, they probably would use the shortest path to any enemies, so starting in the direction they were seen coming from would be a good idea," T'serra added.

Ensign Stone looked over at her, "But they might not do that...Just because they're machines doesn't mean that they can't do something illogical. Or they could be a form of AI that learns as it goes."

"I hope not...that would rather complicate things," Ryan replied.

Soren nodded, "Though they're already fairly complicated as it stands."

Isabel decided to stop the discussion there, "We won't know til we find one and get a good look. I'd like to solve this mystery as soon as possible."

"Then let's get going already," Jaran stated. "Which way did they come from?"

Soren pointed off the to the southwest part of the forest, and the group started off.

OFF: Tag Crew! FYI, Lylyl, Langly, and Harrison are working on something.... So Thundera/Brewer, you may want to talk with them, or just take a look at the first crash site.. Those on the ship - I'll be PMing you.

Also, I'd like to welcome Chief Petty Officer Brice Thomas as our Chief of the Boat! Some of you may remember him - he used to play Doctor Brad Walker on the Mali.

Couple quick notes...1. I'm going to work on updating Kersare's bio - if any of you would like to update your bios (since your characters would age, have experienced more, and heck, maybe you just want more details), go ahead and do so, then e-mail it to me. 2. I'll also be adding more NPCs to the Manifest, so check the Mali site. 3. We now have an IRC Chatroom interface on the Mali site, so check that out too.

<<Celtron V, 1422, Day 1>>

"Sure we would love to rag around for the tour," replied Mason strapping on his sidearm.

Isabel let Soren lead the way. Patches of sunlight showed through in areas of the forest where the treetops didn't quite touch, though there wasn't much underbrush in this area. "How were things on the ship when you left?"

"At last report Lylyl was doing fine and as you already know we have lost Barrett."

Isabel nodded, "Hopefully Ensign Harrison isn't added to that list. With any luck, Lieutenant Thundera and Mr. Brewer will find her in one piece." She looked over at Anthony(NPC), "Anything yet?"

Anthony looked at his tricorder, shaking his head, "No, not yet Captain. Then again, we don't know if the reavers will show up."

"People will though," Soren added from off to Isabel's left. "If there are any in this area."

Jaran added, "Someone had to have been in the area at some point - they reported the reavers being here."

"We should continue forward but maintain tri-corder security link even if these people are friendly. This is a fairly large area someone must have seen something," Mason said.

"We have to find the 'someone' first," Isabel noted. Thus far they hadn't heard or seen anything, other than the normal forest sounds.

Mason turned to Isabel, "Captain, has there been any word from the other parties on the reavers?"

Isabel looked over at Mason and shook her head, "No, not as of yet. The only other people down here are Thundera, Brewer, and Harrison. Harrison's missing, Thundera and Brewer are looking for her, and nobody's reported anything yet. We were attacked by one earlier, but as you heard, it was destroyed in the transport process."

The surrounding life forms sounded like those of earth; Mason didn't really care for the outdoors but this planet didn't seemd to bother him all that much. He was curious about Harrison's gone missing so he turned to ask, "Where was her last known location?"

"I'm not sure. She and Lieutenant JG Lylyl-Llytherraias were going to make a run over the area to see what they could find from the air. I'm hoping Thundera and Brewer can find her," Isabel replied.

Hunt nodded as they approched a small group of people carrying water buckets and food. A young child fell seeing the starfleet officers approach; Mason veered over to Kersare, "Captain, orders?"

"Let's go talk to them; find out if they've seen anything," Isabel said. Honestly, she rather doubted it. If they'd seen something, Isabel rather doubted they'd be simply walking through the forest. Never hurt to check though. Isabel walked over to the group of two men, two women, and a young boy, "Greetings, I'm Captain Kersare of the USS Malinche."

The two men nodded suspiciously then the taller of the two spoke, "What are you doing here in the forest?"

Soren stepped forward, waiting to see Isabel nod, and then spoke, "We're investigating reports of some flying metal objects, which have been named 'reavers'. The reports say that they were in this area."

"Flying metal objects?" The Celtronian looked over at the other members of his group questioningly.

Hunt noticed something around the neck of the young child, he walked over to the boy, "May I see this?"

The child being a bit relucatant lifted the neckace off and handed it to him. "Captain, could this be a part of a reaver?"

Isabel took the piece of metal from Mason and turned it over in her hands, "It's possible. Mr. Soren?"

Soren looked closely at the metal, then ran some scans on his tricorder. "It seems to be, Captain. It is difficult to tell without something to compare it to, and we'd get better readings on the equipment from the ship."

"Didn't the last one blow up though?" T'serra added from near the back of the group.

Ryan(NPC) nodded, "While using the transporter, yes."

"I suppose you want me to run it up to the ship," Jaran stated exasperatedly.

Isabel shook her head, "No, not yet. No sense in going up now - we should wait til we've found a whole one for sure." She turned to the young boy, "Would you mind if I held on to this for now? I promise to give it back to you."

The boy narrowed his eyes and looked at the Captain, "How do I know you will? You don' know where I live."

T'serra walked over now, "Well, what's your name?"

"Torlan(NPC)."

"Nice to meet you Torlan, I'm T'serra. Which city do you live in?"

"The biggest one!" He grinned at her.

Isabel smiled at Torlan, "I promise you we'll find your house and bring it back, do you think you could show us where you found the piece of metal?"

"Sure," he said, his eyes lighting up. "C'mon!"

The officers looked at each other, then started following after the boy, the adult Celtronians walking alongside them. The boy seemed to be headed farther into the forest. It would be interesting to see where he would lead them...

OFF: Tag others in the away team!

JP brought to you by:

Commander Mason Hunt
Executive Officer
USS Malinche
NCC-38897-B

and

<<USS Malinche>>
<Bridge, 1430, Day 1>

"Not so fast," Amanda responded. "What is that they launched?"

"Scanning now, the magnetic inteference is pretty strong," Joey (NPC) reported.

"Keep at it."

Joey worked his station smoothly and calmly, looking over his varioud displays. A few seconds later he looked up from hid operations station, putting an image in the screen.

"It appears to be a shuttle of some sort," Joey responded.

"It doesn't have a known energy signature."

Amanda turned to see their COB, Brice Thomas. He was sitting at the secondary tactical station, looking over the sensor systems. Brice was 6'0 tall with flaming red hair and deep blue eyes. He had an atheletic build to him.

"Thats not good," Mark responded.

"I know that," Amanda snapped.

"I'm detecting some sort of energy build up..."

"Sheilds up!" Amanda snapped.

But it came a split second to late. The Malinche reared as if kicked on her ventrel side by some sort of large space going horse. Explosions and sparks ripped through the bridge. Amanda and Mark found themselves slamming into the railing the seperated the upper command deck from the lower command deck.

"What the hell was that!" Mark snapped.

"Helm, steady us...Joey, what the hell happened."

"Looks like some sort of phased plasma pulse...very powerful," Joey reported.

"Sir, something was transported when our shields were down. They're metallic and moving toward engineering, the bridge, and sickbay."

"Great," Amanda snapped. "Grayson, Thomas, take security teams and find out what they are and stop them. Helm new orbit, take us to the southern pole and find out what the hell hit us."

OFF: Tag All!

ON

Two was trying to steer the shuttle clear of all of the fireworks she had managed to find. This was Lyn's ship, and she wanted to return it to her in one piece. Hopefully, nothing would be too badly damaged. If it was damaged, then Two would end up being the one to work on it.

What she didn't see was one of the phasers heading her way. Well, not until it was too late. She was heading to the ground. She somehow managed to land the runabout right side up without too much damage. Lyn was going to kill her. It had been too long. She was going to have to redo the training to get her pilot's license back.

She climbed out of the runabout as fast as she could. Somehow, she hoped that the poor runabout would not be taken apart for parts. That would really piss off Lyn, she guessed using her knowledge of what makes others mad and applying it to Lyn.

She had to get away. Get away from those who are chasing her. She had to zig this and zag that to keep from getting hit by weaker phaser fire. Since they didn't know she was a former member of the Borg, they would miscalculate the amount of phaser that would send her reeling to the ground, unconscious.

She was running really hard when she turned her head to see how close they were to her. She tripped over a piece of another downed fighter, she would discover later. She went head over foot over head several times until she literally hit the main body of another fighter. Two was under the assumption that only the Mali had been called out here.

With her head split out and blood oozing out of the oversized cut, she tried to stand up. She was dazed and saw spots before her eyes. She wondered if she had a concussion but that would take a trip to Sickbay to discover, that is if she was able to make it back to the Mali from this lonely desloate place.

OFF

<<USS Malinche>>
<Corridor, 1433, Day 1>

Following Grayson out of the room, Brice and a small amount of security team memebers started to make thier way towards sickbay. Grayson seemed all business to Brice; not even commenting when Brice joined him in the turbolift. Brice knew a great deal about Grayson's Federation personnel file and knew that he was a very good intelligence analyst. Though there was something in his eyes, something smoldering that told that something was not all right with the intellgience man.

"I suggest we take engineering first, sickbay and the other decks may be able to wait until later...or at least until Darkhelm finds out."

"Good plan," Grayson snapped. "Though it might work better if we do split up, I'm well aware of your commando past."

Brice nodded, not that it surprised him. Grayson was very through in his assestment. They had already grabbed weapons when they stepped out of the turbolifts. The tricorders were already going wild, finding the metallic signatures on the deck.

"Maybe you're plan is better," Brice nodded. "I'll clear out sickbay and you can have engineering."

"Sounds good to mean, good luck."

OFF: Tag All!

<<USS Malinche>>
<Bridge, 1435, Day 1>

"Commander, I think I have found a way to cut through the interference," Joey said, turning to face Darkhelm.

"Patch me through to the captain."

"You're on," Joey responded.

"Captain, do you read me?"

"Just barely, what's going on?

"We've been fired on by something from the surface, some sort of phased plasma pulse...and we've been boarded by those reavers."

"Damage report?"

"Nothing to major," Joey chimed in.

"I have Thomas and Grayson hunting down the two that our internel sensors detected, they appear to be heading toward engineering and sickbay."

"I want those things in custody Commander and find out who is firing on my ship. Keep me appraised of the situation. Kersare out."

"Understood," Amanda said, to herself more then anyone else. "Whats the status of our security teams?"

"Officer Thomas's team is closing on sickbay, Grayson and his team are almost in engineering."

"And those things?"

"Still moving toward sickbay and engineering," Joey responded.

OFF: Tag all!

<<USS Malinche>>
<Corridor, 1435, Day 1>

The beeping tricorder indicated that Brice and his team were approaching the intruder. They came around the corner and then had to duck away as the metallic object opened fire with some sort of disruptor array. Yellow bolts of energy exploded into the walls around the hallway, taking out large chunks and creating a thick blanket of smoke.

Brice and the two security officers with him opened fire; sending a barrage of phased energy into the area where they had seen the intruder. His comlink chirped and he quickly slapped his badge, wondering who wanted to interupt him at this particular moment.

"What!"

"Is that phaser fire?" Darkhelm asked.

"Little busy right now sir, I'll give you a call back later!"

Brice closed the channel as the object intensified its fire again, taking more chunks out of the wall and surrounding areas. He fired off another round and then followed his officers down around a bend in the hallway.

"I think its safe to say that we've managed to distract him from sickbay, although I don't know f I want that attention...."

Brice and his men dove into a nearby alcove as the machine came around the corner again, peppering the area with disruptor fire.

OFF

<<USS Malinche>>
<Hidden Cave, 1435, Day 1>

Sam was doubled over on the floor in a kneeling position, Her hands were firmly secured behind her back. Blood ran from her nose and pooled on the cold, hard stone floor. Still crouching from being kicked in the stomoch.

"Sam Langley, Free News Corps, ID SGL98Alpha32" She managed while straightening up.

A hard kick took Sam in the side, an angry voice growling, "I'm tired of your lies, Starfleet Dog. I hope you enjoy the fact that one of your fighters crashed, and from what I heard, everyone aboard it perished. It brings warmth to my heart to know dogs like you suffered."

"Now, tell me what I want to know, little Starfleet Whore," He kicked her in the side again.

Sam bit down against the pain. She knelt back up. "I have told," she wheezed, "Im A Reporter. Im here on Vacation."

The bound prisoner was then brutally yanked upright, a hand yanking her up by her hair. Her nude frame was pushed against a stone table. The man climbed up over her, and began to undo his fly, grinning evilly down at her, "You can stop this anytime, Starfleet whore. Just tell us why you're here, spying on our people?"

Sam Brought her leg up firmly connecting it with the mans groin. She frantically tryed to undo the bonds holding back her hands. Standing she turned to face her interogator. "If you want a piece of me you really could just play nice."

He groaned a moment, then backhanded Sam brutally, her nose spraying even more blood than before, "Bitch, I'll kill you for that! But not until after I have my fun with you. Or... you could tell me what I want to know, and we'll let you go."

Sam backed away, her bonds were looser now. "I've told you everything I can."

A snort was all he said, and he stepped towards her again, looking all the warier for her attempts at a deceitful attack like before. He again pressed her down onto the table top, "Well, little dog, it looks like you can have some more incentive to tell me the truth."

Sam was suddenly shocked by a burning pain lower down in her body, and he groaned happily.

Sam Looked up at the sneering man. She turned her nose up at his breath. "I have something to tell you..."

The man's motions stopped, but he remained violating her, "What's that, little whore? What do you need to tell me?"

"Your men are poorly trained." She brought her hands round and grabbed his shirt, pulling him towards her, at the same time she brought her head up which connected with his nose, As he stumbled backwards she pulled his knife from its sheath.

The man stumbled back, holding his now-bleeding nose, "You....BITCH!"

He reached for his knife, which was no longer there, and was shocked to find it missing, as he stood there looking dumbfounded.

Sam's voice went low. "I'm sure Kalia wouldn't like you treating me like this, does she not say that all should be treated equal?" She walked silently over to the door while the mans sight was still impaired.

?Does it look like I care about what some outlander Starfleet Dog thinks about Kalia?"

The man looked around, and several figures moved out of the shadows, and began to surround the wounded Sam Langely.

Sam spoke quickly. "I am sorry for what I am about to do, But I am The Rightous, and these Men have stepped off of the Path Of The Righteous. They MUST repent for their sins." Sam looked around at the men who were obviously a little god-fearing. Keeping the knife out of sight she readied herself for the attack.

Sam was not prepared for the sudden strike from behind, a rather painful rock hitting her at the base of the skull, driving the woman to her knees.

Sam's vision swam momentarily, then something inside her came to life, Something that hadnt been there for years. She smiled, and jumping to her feet she stabbed the man that had struck her in the neck. She then punched the next man over his heart, the ribs fracturing.

As one, the swarm of men charged forward, driving the woman to the ground in a pile of people. The blade dropped from her hand, and she couldn't move her arm or hand to recover it.

Finally, she was pulled from the pile of men, by her hair, "Oh, hold on little tramp. We've got another of your Fleet buddies on their way over to have fun with you."

Sam merely smiled. "Does this mean you will be putting me away while you have your fun with them?"

"What, little whore? What are you babbling about now?" the man slapped her, then shoved her towards the other men, "Put her in the cell. She'll learn when she gets really hungry and thirsty. And maybe she can watch us have fun with the other one."

Sam could only but smile as she was marched away to the cell.

The three men who escorted her, one by each arm and another holding her head from behind, led her into the lone cell. Inside, they threw her to the ground and kicked her several more times, before exiting the cell, closing the gate door, and locking it. "Whore!" one of them yelled at her from the other side of the old-fashioned bars.

"You Will repent for what you have done today," she spat out "and I Will get that bastard before this day is out."

The men sneered at her, "Riiight.... Kalia doesn't like Starfleet outlanders like you interfering in her people's lives. Foul little wretch, you'll get yours soon enough, as payment for your blaspheming ways.?

OOC: A JP with

Warrant Officer Samantha Langley
Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Malinche
NCC-38897-B

and NPC's played by:

<<USS Malinche>>
<Corridor, 1435, Day 1>

They were running out of options. With the reaver, as they were being called, bearing downon them, things were getting slightly sticky. Another barrage of disruptor fire came around the corner, this time ripping apart the flat black display panel that lined the wall.

"Things aren't going exactly as I had planned," Brice muttered to himself. "Alright, you two are going to draw its fire...preferrably away from me."

"And what are you going to do sir?"

"See how well it responds to a photon gernade."

"Won't that take out a large section of this corridor?"

"We've got empty quarters on either side, don't worry I thought this plan out...well sort of."

The security officers nodded; leaning out and laying down an impressive spray of cover fire. Brice grabbed the gernade from his belt and then tapped his combadge.

"Bridge, I need you to reinforce all SIF fields on deck 7 and then create an emergency force field in the junction of corridors A and B on my mark."

Disruptor fire began to spray toward them agian, digging holes in the carpeted deck. Brice tossed the gernade and then ordered the force field up. Seconds later there was a bright white flash followed closely by the sound of shattering metal, electronics, and sealents giving way.

When Brice and his team look up they find the reaver laying in several pieces across the corridor, which has been blow apart exposing the rooms behind and the floor for a good 2 meters all around the reaver.

"Cheif Thomas to Commander Darkhelm."

"Go ahead cheif, what the hell was that anyway?"

"We took out the reaver but we need a damage control team down here ASAP, we're going to swing by sickbay and then see if Grayson needs anymore help."

OFF:

<<USS Malinche>>
<Bridge, 1438, Day 1>

"One down, one to go," Amanda said, as she paced back adn forth around the command area of the Malinche. Though she was fairly certain that Kersare would be none ot happy about the damage that cheif Thomas had caused, at least there wasn't a reaver running around on the ship.

"Still no contact with Grayson and his team, we still have the reaver moving toward engineering."

"What about what hit us, can you target that?"

"Still working on it sir."

"Work faster."

"Commander?"

Amanda turned around to face the young officer that was not sitting at the science station.

"Ensign?"

"I'm detecting a massive subspace field forming in sickbay sir....its increasing at an alarming rate..."

"He's right," Joey (NPC) said. "I'm also reading a massive amount of chroniton particles."

"Evacuate that deck and do it now! Commander Darkhelm to Mr. Thomas."

"Go ahead."

"There's something going on in sickbay, we need to be oft that deck now, get down there and move those poeple out."

"Understood."

"Its still increasing."

OFF:

<<Celtron V, 1521, Day 1>>

Isabel and six of her crew were still following the young Celtronian boy, Torlan(NPC), through the woods. Since their initial encounter, they'd learned the
names of the other four Celtronians - Sira(NPC), Mikna(NPC), Dostar(NPC), and Yoral(NPC) - all So'Kra. Unfortunately, they hadn't seen anything out of the
ordinary, with the exception of the piece of metal Torlan found.

The metal was a dull, dark green color. It wasn't very large; it fit in the palm of Isabel's hand. Slightly curved, most likely due to it being from the outer part of a reaver, the edges were somewhat jagged since it had somehow been broken or blasted off of one of the devices.

Torlan was starting to slow down, and Isabel did the same so she could stay slightly behind him, looking behind her to motion to the others to do the same. It would be easier for the boy to remember where he'd found it if he didn't have anyone in the way.

Isabel's grey-green eyes searched the area slowly. They were still in a forest, though the terrain was more rocky. Many large rocks and boulders were littered over the area, sometimes grouped together. Several were on a nearby hillside. From the looks of it, it would appear that they'd ended up in the southern hemisphere - To'Ma territory. Somehow, Isabel wasn't surprised.

Stopping, Torlan turned around and looked at Isabel, "I found it over by those rocks." He nodded over to a small pile of rocks to his left.

"Let's have a look. Ensign Morris(NPC), Ensign Stone(NPC), if you would please," Isabel nodded to the security officers.

The two officers headed over to where the boy had pointed. After looking around for a few a minutes, and scanning the area, they headed back to the group.

Ryan reported, "A few smaller pieces of the metal are there, but nothing else. No sign of the device the pieces came from."

Isabel was disappointed, but tried not to let it show too much - this was still a bigger lead than they'd had before. "Let's take a look around and scan the area for any anomalies."

Chief Soren responded: "Right, Captain" and smiled that wide Denobulan smile. He raised the tricorder that had served him so well at Utopia Planitia and began an organized scan of the area. His face changed from interest to concern as a reading came in. He looked again.

?"Captain." the warrant officer called. "We have a proton surge, ma'am, very irregular. Source is at 227 mark 44." He pointed as he turned to face the right
direction..

Isabel looked over at Soren, "A proton surge? What could be causing that?" She looked in the direction her boatswain was pointing - a rocky hill about fifty meters away. "Let's investigate, keep your guard up everyone," she motioned for the Celtronians to stay back a little ways, then moved forward with the away team.

Abubakar's attention was finally grabbed, he was finding it rather dull following some boy around a forest. 'Waste of damn time' he thought. This boy could easily just be playing piss games with all of them. However, when a proton surge was detected, he made to the front of the group, in front of the Captain. Etiquette would have told him to stay behind the Captain, but as everyone had come to know and better damn well love, he was not a man for etiquette. He instead preferred to protect the Captain
from potential danger, annoying as she was, like some wide-eyed kid going exploring. He unclipped his phaser and held it at mid-torso level, facing forward. "What is it?" he asked one of the Security goons with a tricorder.

T'serra spoke up though she was a little quieter then normal, "Captain I can't sense anything out here its like something is blocking my empathic ablities, I don't know if I can be of any help if we meet anyone out here." T'serra said looking like part of her went missing and wasn't likely to return soon. Still T'serra wasn't as worried as she
should be though she certainly kept her guard up more vigilantly then she would have otherwise. It was as though part of her deep down inside was afaid of something though what it was she didn't know, more then a looming sense of something not right about all of this.

Mason detected the proton surge of his tri-corder as well but his reading were somewhat sparatic. There was another surge was growing in size and a bit farther ahead of the team's current position.

"Captain, this is strange. I'm picking up another surge but this one is growing and more intense than this one. Flux varaiations are increasing as we get closer."

The trail was to the newly found surge was long and tiresome for the group, as they drew in closer Hunt's tri-corder readings changed which made him frown.

"The reading I picked up earlier was not a surge at all in fact it's a?.," Mason started.

Isabel looked over at Mason, "What is it?"

"This shouldn't be, the geological survey indicated no land formations of any kind. But I am picking up a large cave just a few more meters in this direction."

"Well, there were reports of rocky terrain and forests," Isabel added.

Natural walkways of stone and brick appeared leading off from the grass they had been walking on for nearly hours. Hunt took front point and scanned the entrance.

"Captain, massive signatures inside. I am unable to tell you if they are energy or biological."

Soren snapped his tricorder in the same direction and touched a control. The boatswain, many years an engineer, nodded to himself as he spoke up:

"Sir, that's because you have both, I think. If you adjust your L-band, you'll be able to differentiate between bio and pure energy."

Then Chief Soren looked up at the senior officers. "But it makes little difference, sir. Anyone who plays with something as fundimentally unstable as high-energy protons has to be assumed hostile. I would recommend our security team be prepared for armed response."

Abubakar still had his phaser pointed vaguely forward, he confirmed his grip on the weapon as the Chief spoke. In a casual movement, he moved his left arm, which had his activated wrist beacon strapped to it, he moved his arm up and wiped at some of the sweat that had acumulated on his face. As the fingers of the light felt their way over the rocks and cracks, he illuminated the immediate interior of the cave. He stopped, stood perfectly still, he had definately seen a humanoid shadow. He cast the
light back into the cave, it was gone. One more sweep of the light and it was back again, it moved off slowly.

"Captain!" he called as he pelted towards the cave opening. He held his beacon at his feet so that he could keep his footing in check and so as not to alert whoever was up ahead to his presence if they didn't know already. There were sounds of feet shuffling ahead, muffled noises that sounded like voices bounced along the narrow cave corridor, a left turn and the noises got louder, another left and down some artifical slope and they got louder still. Reaching a T-juntion, he swept his light down both the left and right corridors, starting to the left, the noises faded, so he began sprinting down the right corridor. A left, a right, another right, two more lefts, 'or is it three?' he wondered.

He found himself in the middle of a long, dark corridor, he could see nothing but what the beacon illuminated for him. He had to admit, he was getting increasingly frightened. There was shuffling down the passageway, it was getting closer, Abubakar quickly shut the light off and pressed his body as far against the wall as he could. Closer, and closer it got. There was definately somebody in there with him. Closer and closer, louder and louder became the terrifying shuffles. In a few tense, frightening moments, they came close enough to be right in front of him. When the
phantom feet shuffled, he could feel the ancient sand on the floor being kicked up and landing on his boots and going into them down the sides of his feet.

There was a grunting kind of noise as the shuffling stopped just past him, a few seconds of holding his breath and the shuffling continued, getting thankfuly quiter as whatever it was moved away. "Shit" he whispered, still in complete darkness.

Watching Jaran disappear into the cave, Isabel was less than impressed with his oing off without the rest of them. It was too late to do anything about it though, and he had activated his wrist beacon. "Alright, I want phasers to stun for now. Let's do a little recon - try not to make contact with anyone in there. Ensign Stone, you take point, Ensign Morris, bring up the rear. Keep your eyes open everyone."

The officers rearranged themselves slightly, slowly entering the darkened cave. What would await them?

OFF: More of the JP to follow once it's been written - Keep up the good work everyone. I moved the time ahead here to account for the time the Away team had been following the Celtronian boy, fyi.

JP brought to you by:

Commander Mason Hunt
Executive Officer

and

Lieutenant Abubakar Jaran
Chief Flight Control Officer

and

Chief Warrant Officer Second Class Soren
Boatswain

and

Ensign T'serra Navdante
Chief Counselor

and

ON:<<Celton V>>
<Planet Surface, Day 1, 1420>

After receiving her orders from the Captain, Cheetara immediately had the Reaver pieces beamed aboard the Malinche and began searching for the other missing in action with Brewer alongside her. They began walking not really picking up any readings on the tricorders. Finally it seemed that they were picking up something.

"Did you see that?" Brewer asked.

"Yes. I'm just wondering what it could have been. It looked like a massive energy surge, but there still are no life signs."

"You don't think that maybe they crashed and the runabout exploded?"

"I seriously doubt that. If the runabout had exploded, there would have been more of an energy surge with alot more power readings. It looks more like as if there is weapons fire going on somewhere in that area over there." she responded.

Cheetara began walking in the direction from which the surge came from with Brewer in tow. After walking for what seemed like hours, they finally stumbled across the runabout.

"There it is" Brewer pointed out.

"Yes, I see. Keep watch as I take a look inside." she ordered"

Slowly Cheetara went up to the hatch while scanning the area for lifesigns. She entered and began scanning the interior. There were no signs of life in there. She did notice quite a few exploded panels. She began tapping a few buttons trying to see if she could get a log reading of what happened, but nothing would come up. Then she went back out to where Brewer was.

"So what did you find out here Brewer?" Cheetara asked.

"Well from the looks of the outside of this runabout, it appears as though it was shot down", he said as he began to walk and point out spots. "There seems to be many multiple spots around the outter hull that looks as though they are weapons fire burns. It's possible that during entry, the shield fluctuations allowed for the weapons to penetrate. However, there are no hull fractures."

"Alright, I get it. But now where could everyone have gone?" She asked to herself as she started looking at the ground to see if she could find any tracks.

"Lieutenant, take a look at this" Brewer yelled from the opposite side of the runabout.

Cheetara walked over with her curiousity from his anxiety. "What is it Brewer?"

"What do you make of this?" he asked while pointing to the ground

Cheetara looked for a minute. It seemed to be the tracks that she was looking for. But for some reason, they didn't look right. She looked around noticing a totally different set of tracks. A set that looked as if made from a starfleet uniform boot. She used the tricorder to analyze it. After a moment, it was confirmed that the one set of tracks was indeed made by a starfleet officer.

"Well that set is from a starfleet officer." Cheetara paused for a moment looking back down at the tricorder. "This set however I'm not sure. But it seems that they come from over there, and then head over in that direction."

"Well how about we split up so we can each follow a set of tracks?" Brewer asked.

"Negative. That wouldn't be very smart to split up and be on our own. We will stay together and follow those sets of tracks to see where they lead. It's obvious that aren't heading back from where they came." Cheetara answered and then tapped her badge to contact the Captain.

"Cheetara to Kersare. We've found the runabout. It's been damaged. We are about to follow a few sets of footprints and find out where they lead. Cheetara out."

Cheetara and Brewer began following the strange footprints.

OFF: Tag All

<<USS Malinche>>
<Sickbay, 1445, Day 1>

Brice and his team rushed into sickbay, taking note of the cracking energy field that was apparently building in the corner...the morgue area where Barrett's body had been laid. The sickbay staff was busy rushing those that were there, inlcuding a very groggy, Lylyl out of the area. Brice and his team made sure everyone else was out...and then it hit...

There was a blinding flash of light and a massive rippling wave of blue energy flowed outwards, like water spilling out of the dead officer's body. It knocked them all off thier feet and then caused several stations to explode in a shower of sparks and smoke.

<Bridge>

The explosion only shuddered them slightly, but they still felt it. Amanda quickly rushed to the operations station, manned by Joey (NPC).

"What the hell was that?"

"That subspace field we were detecting in sickbay just exploded; looks like it shorted out all the commmunciations relays...we have no idea whats going on down there."

"Dammnit, Joey you have the bridge. I'm going down to take a look, there maybe wounded down there."

<Sickbay>

Brice slowly got back to his feet, his head feeling like he had just gone one to many rounds with a Klingon. Looking around he could see the emergency lights had kicked on, lighting the area in a errie green and red glow. Several of the sickbay staff lay on the ground, although it looked like Lylyl, the wounded officer, had made it out before the blast.

"Well that was interesting," Brice said, getting to his feet.

The doors opened and Darkhelm came running into the room, looking around to see the apparent damage done.

"What happened?" She asked.

"This may sound odd but it looked like the body sorta of exploded."

"Great," Amanda sighed.

Together they worked thier way forward, heading over to the area that was keeping Barrett's body. Amanda and Brice half expected it to be blown all over the inside of the room...but it wasn't. He was still perfectly intact...

"Doc!" Brice snapped.

Amanda snapped around, her eyes falling on Jason's chest...

Jason's moving chest.

Amanda was a blur of emotion, diving forward and reaching to feel a pulse.

He had one.

The wound on his abdomen was gone.

<Surface, 1522>

"Commander Darkhelm to Captain Kersare."

"Go ahead."

"Both reavers have been captured, albiet some slight damage...something else has happened sir."

"Good work Commander; I take it that something else isn't good news?"

"Barrett's alive."

Stunned silence followed what seemed like an enterity before Kersare spoke again.

"Come again?"

"Barrett's alive, he hasn't regained concisouness yet but he is alive and in perfectly health condition....and before you ask me to explain it I have a theroy that I have been working on. When you return I think its about time we let the senior staff in on Barrett's condition."

OFF: Enjoy!

<<USS Malinche>>
<Sickbay, 1530, Day 1>

"How does one come back from the dead doc?" Brice asked.

"I have no clue; well I take that back I do have some clue but its not something that can be discussed at this moment."

"And why is that?"

"Sensitive information cheif," Amanda responded, looking at the monitor which showed Jason's vital signs. Thus far he was fine...although she didn't know why he wasn't awake yet. That was something that was weighing rather heavily on her mind.

Actually that he was alive was weighing heavily on her mind as well. He was dead; Amanda had seen him die with her own eyes. How was it possible that he was alive again? Too many questions and not enough answers...

"Bridge to Commander Darkhelm."

"Go ahead."

"You may want to get up here, we're detecting something strange on the planet again."

"Alright, on my way."

OFF: Tag All!

OFF: Part 2 of the JP... I'm gonna throw in a reaction to Barrett being alive in the beginning, since that was added...

<<Celtron V, 1545, Day 1>>

Isabel was still a little thrown off from hearing about Jason's miraculous recovery. She wasn't sure how it happened, though Amanda would fill her in later. Everyone seemed to be a little relieved with the good news as well, though uneasy about their current whereabouts - entering the cave...

While T'serra and the rest of the party entered the cave she took her phaser and realised that she had brought the one she had been working on along with her instead of a regular phaser, still she had done several tests in one of the holodecks and had one of the engineering officers look it over so she wasn't really worried about it and besides it might just be useful though she wasn't quite ready to mention it yet, still
unsure what the captain would think about it blue beam and all.

She sighed slightly and set the weapon to maxium stun level and placed it back into the quick draw holster she had made for it. T'serra knew there was something inside the cave watching them from within the shadows yet its intent wasn't clear, but she also knew that it might not be good.

Silently she started to move to the side of Captain Kersare but before she could whatever it had been watching them disappeared. "Captain something was watching us a few seconds ago but I couldn't tell what it was or what it's intent was other then it's watching us." T'serra started to wonder if entering the cave was a bad idea but she kept that to herself.

Isabel wasn't thrilled with the idea of something watching them, though for all she knew, it could simply be some sort of native animal. "Let's keep moving everyone. Quiet as possible and be alert. And keep a fix on Lieutenant Abubakar's position."

The team moved into the dark cave slowly. It had a slightly musty smell, as if it had been closed up for many years. There seemed to be three different branches initially, Anthony (NPC) led them to the leftmost one. The cave was fairly dry, just a slight dampness. The corridors were wide enough that three of them could have stood side by side, though the away team were moving with two side by side.

The path seemed to be angling slightly downward, though it was still fairly light. Seemingly there was some artificial light source, unless there were fissures leading to the surface which allowed light in. This particular branch now seemed to branch off in two directions. "Recommendations as to which route to take?"


When the question of "Recommendations as to which route to take?" the first officer was just as stumped. Everyone with serious looks on their faces, Mason had to break the silence.

"Inni, mini miny moe?."

Kersare started first with a brief snicker tapping Mason on his shoulder as the others laughed having a bit of relief. Hunt looked around and could not find anything to help in picking which path to take.

"Captain, recommend we split up. If we all go into one and we find it to be a dead end or even discover its merely a path with old and broken bones or even if its trapped at least the other team might have better luck."

Isabel shook her head slightly, "I'd rather not Commander. We've already been eparated from Lieutenant Abubakar and there's no telling what we'll find."

"We should activate our security transponders, Captain just in case."

"Agreed, that way in case any of get separated from the group we'll be able to find each other," Isabel replied.

The division of the two paths reminded Mason of the corn fields in his late uncle's yard in Iowa. When he was a child he would go there and get lost a plenty and his uncle would have to send search parties just to find him.

"Captain, my tri-corder is picking some kind of energy imbalance down the left path. Strange it has no signature at all. Its more reminiscent to a g-type neutron wake. However the reading strong. I think we should take this one."

Isabel nodded at Mason, then turned to her other officers, "Anyone else have any input before taking the left branch?"

"Captain I didn't have a chance to say before but I sensed a level of tension coming from Lieutenant Abubakar after he entered the cave, it's as though something frightened him. There might be something in the cave that he noticed before, though it might have been the same thing I had noticed earlier."

T'serra took a tri-corder from her belt along with another device and plugged the other into the tri-corder instantly a small grid appeared on the device's screen showing green dots as a member of the away team moved, T'serra knew that if a red dot appeared that would mean something else was moving in the cave. For awhile T'serra held it thinking back to her first away mission and the prototype she had build of the motion tracker, that had been a strange time but she had made a friend back
then one whom she felt she could trust. Finally snapping out of the reminision T'serra looked over to Captain Kersare and with a small smile she tapped her shoulder. "Here
Captain take my tri-corder it should help keep track of everyone the green dots are us, red is something else moving."

T'serra smiled and handed over the tri-corder before placing what appeared to be a tiny monitor infront of her right eye, which was apparently linked to the motiontracker. "Perhaps if everyone stays together." T'serra thought "We might be able to get out of here quicker. And all the better" she said quietly to herself, wishing that she was up on the ship with her box of chocolates and a good book instread of inside a dark musty old cave that gave her the creeps like every other cave she ared to enter. But at least she wasn't alone which made things easier for her but T'serra would be just glad once they were done in there and out.

"What do you think of that motiontracker Captain? Useful huh?" T'serra said soft enough so only someone close by could hear her. T'serra shivered a bit with the sudden dampness that seemed to form in the left branch of the cave. "Do any of you notice the increased dampness coming from that direction? I wonder what could be causing it. Maybe there is a underground river or spring that way." T'serra said still shivering. What she needed was something to take her mind off of the cave for awhile
but nothing seemed to draw her atention at the moment other then the dampness.

"Hot chocolate for everyone once we get out of this cave and back to the Malinche." T'serra said finally mustering a will to continue to the end. Still something nagged at her deep within almost a premonition of things to come.

Although he wasn't one of those species that could block out telepathic thoughts, Mason was trying hard not to show his discomfort for the cave. As they progressed even further discoveries of little mud holes with water in them sprang up just about every meter.

"I'm going to have to order new boots when we get back and have my tailor up the heel," he said laughing following Kersare.

The footsteps of all the team were loud and wet, Kersare stopped and noticed Mason wasn't walking along.

"That proton wake is getting wider and more stronger as we approach," Mason observed, looking at his tricorder.

Isabel nodded, "Probably means we're getting closer to some of our answers."

Suddenly Mason started to feel dizzy and fell to the ground, Navdante rushed over to him running her tri-corder over him.

T'serra had quickly took the spare tri-corder from one of her other belt pouches when she saw Mason fall, which for some odd reason she thought would happen to someone at some point in the cave but whatever had caused him to fall, she couldn't tell with the interferance from the proton surges. Could it be the proton surge itself? she thought.. Unsure though with the medical training she did have would say that there was the possiblity.

"I don't know what could have caused you to fall commander, might be something to do with the environment down here," she said with a small shrug moving to help the commander stand.

"It was like a wave of disorientation." He said trying to get up with Navdante helping him.

"I wonder if the proton surge could be the cause of the disorientation. Is there a high enough level of protons in here to cause disorientation?" T'serra said helping Mason stand. "Maybe we shouldn't stay down here more then we need to," T'serra said fighting off a shiver of coldness before she took a piece of chocolate from out of a belt pouch. She broke a piece off and handed it to Mason with her usual friendly smile, before beaking more pieces off to hand out to everyone.

So far T'serra was able to get her mind off of the cave somewhat but it still nagged at her. T'serra took a bite from the piece of chocolate she kept for herself and looked around as they started to move on.

Naturally Mason took out his tri-corder and started to scan the roof of the cave. She had not picked up anything.

"Maybe its just the coldness that's getting to me." he said.

Moments later they arrived at an opening no wider than that of a door leading into an officer's quarters.

Isabel looked around at her team. Anthony was next to the doorway, ready to go in. Putting up her hand to stop him, she turned to Soren, "Anything special to note before we go in?"

The warrant officer had a thoughtful expression. Then he holstered his tricorder and pulled his phaser. Chief Soren picked his words carefully.

"We continue to get biological and technological readings on our tricorder sensors. The proton surge suggests a technology that we might be unfamiliar with, and a biology that does not react to highly charged subatomic particles the way ours does. It's practically a first contact situation. "

The boatswain took a breath. "But free protons still suggests weapons development, and a techology I don't recognize makes me very nervous. Any strange
equipment... I respectfully suggest that you let me examine it first. Any strange beings...well, that's officer country. Ready when you are, Captain...if the Commander feels ready."

Isabel saw Mason nod his head, then looked over at Soren nodding, "Agreed. I'd rather try to avoid contact with other beings...Especially if they're the hostile ones. I'd like to concentrate on some recon - let's find out what we're dealing with first. Go ahead Ensign Stone, lead the way."

OFF: More of the JP to follow....

This part of the JP brought to you by:

Commander Mason Hunt
Executive Officer

and

Ensign T'serra Navdante
Chief Counselor

and

Chief Warrant Officer Second Class Soren
Boatswain

and