Post of the Mission - Season 15: Episode 3 - Restless Spirit

[Rayek trLhoell]

My apologies everyone, I thought I had done this a month ago but apparently not.  So here it is... the nominations for Post of the Mission for Season 15: Episode 3 - Restless Spirits were:

Post #38 - by Sydney Reid

[USS Discovery-B | Deck 13 | Personal Quarters > Cryptology Lab] (Current Mission Time)

Laying flat on her back with her eyes staring at the blank ceiling above, Sydney's eyes faintly glowed gold as her hand waved in front of her, scrolling the information being projected into her view from her personal PADD. After being relieved of duty and unceremoniously dismissed from Engineering by Chief Lek, she'd returned to her quarters to continue her personal research on both the new Comms System Upgrades and continue to theorize how they were related to the Discovery's MVA programming given the similarities she'd previously detected in both. She'd hoped to discuss it with Commander Lek, but after the incident, which included the Chief unsurprisingly restricting some of her access to him, she'd decided to just wait it out for the Assistant Chief. Sooner or later she'd catch him in the Mess or some other public space.

As she felt the ship make a sudden, unexpected change in heading, forcing her to pause her scrolling, the chime of her commbadge caused her to sigh as her research time was being further interrupted. Dropping her hands to her sides, and then reaching up to tap the communicator, Sydney answered, Ensign Reid. What is it?

The call had come from the Petty Officer on duty in the Cryptology Lab. "Sir, one of the alerts you set after the upgrades is flashing."

Sydney's eyes flashed wide as she immediately knew what that meant, even if the Petty Officer didn't.  The excitement was clear in her voice as she answered back in almost a blur of words, "I'll be right there. Launching herself off of the minimalist bed, the Ensign didn't concern herself with glancing in a mirror or hiding her excitement in the least as she nearly clipped her quarters' door before hitting the corridor not far from the what was effectively her lab.

With a blip and a woosh, the doors to the Cryptology lab opened just in time to allow Sydney to swoop in, surely surprising the Petty Officer who turned with a look of shock on his face as he looked up from the primary lab seat. "Woah! How'd you get here so fast, Sir?"

Motioning frantically with both hands, the Ensign just kept repeating, "Move. Move. Move. Move," until the man had finally gotten himself moving upwards and out of her way. The act of taking over the seat was so swift, Sydney barely caught the look the Petty Officer gave her as she slid into the seat, still warm from the previous occupant, and started to enter commands into the console, having logged him out and herself in so swiftly that it was as if it were automatic.

Sydney paid no mind to the man who remained motionless standing behind her, looking at the back of her head in stunned silence before finally finding his voice, "Umm, Sir? What was"¦ What was up with your eyes?"

Still tapping and swiping away, the officer simply answered, "Huh?" which prompted the enlisted man to repeat his question. As her hands stopped to hover over the console, Sydney turned to look up at the man, appraising him for a moment before fully processing the question. "Oh!" she exclaimed before swiping her thumbs over her fingertips and explaining, "Just my ocular implants. Nothing to worry about," as the implants deactivated, returning her eyes to their boring, brown color.

The two were left staring at each other for an awkward, drawn-out moment. It finally dawned on the Ensign that the Petty Officer assigned to basically monitor the system during her off-shifts was waiting on directions on what he should do now that she'd arrived. Shaking her head back and forth quickly, as if trying to shake out the cobwebs, Sydney grinned up at the man, "Oh. Sorry. Umm"¦ You're"¦you're relieved, Petty Officer. I'll take over from here." In her opinion, that should have been enough, but the man's lack of movement and continued staring led her to believe otherwise. "Go to"¦dinner"¦or lunch"¦or whatever it is you normally do when you are done with your shift. If anyone asks, I gave you permission to be off-duty."

Being fairly certain she'd fulfilled all of her requirements to have the Petty Officer be on his way, Sydney started to rotate the chair back towards the console when she realized the man was still hesitating. Stopping midway, she didn't look back at him as she finally answered his initial question, "I got here so fast because I live only three doors down. Don't know who was handing out quarters assignments, but they obviously had efficiency in mind when it came to me and this lab."

There was a slow, "...Oh. Okay, Sir. See you tomorrow, then?" he asked, sounding somewhere between still confused and yet quite hopeful he was understanding his commissioned officer's command.

Turning the rest of the way to reengage with the console, Sydney just let out a speedy, "YeahYeahYeahYeahYeah. See you tomorrow. Now, GOooo." When the door whooshed closed and blipped again to confirm it had engaged the security locks, the woman let out a heavy breath of relief at finally being left alone to delve into the data she'd been waiting to look at since the latest upgrades to the Comms system had been integrated. Interlacing her fingers and cracking her knuckles, Sydney was beyond excited as she quickly filled every screen in the tiny lab with all of the various diagnostic data that came with the Discovery finally coming within range of one of the newer Starfleet vessels that had come pre-installed with the newest hardware upgrades to fully optimize the latest system update.

Looking up at the readouts, Sydney's mouth fell slightly agape before letting out a puzzled, "Huh?" at what she was reading. "The USS Titan? That's one of those 'Retro-Fits' they've been talking about," she said to herself. Normally she could claim she was talking out loud to STEVE, but the ship's 'pet' was surely off following around someone else who had made the mistake of feeding him their jello. The Ops Ensign knew the correct term was 'Neo-Constitution', but loathed the odd way that Starfleet wished to act like they hadn't just replicated the excellent designs of the past to make the senior Flag Officers not feel so ancient.

Regardless of the name of the class, Sydney had strapped herself into her chair - figuratively of course - to excitedly study every bit of data being processed as part of this new system. She wanted to figure out how it worked, and the only way to do that was to see it in action, literally.

Post #151 by Lorut Vila

USS Jupiter
Corridors-Bridge

Vila moved with the rest, but at a slightly quick pace. It was a bit creepy, even though the woman was mostly skeptical of things like ghosts, temporal beings, and things like that. Hell, she counted the current Kai as among her most mortal enemies, so it really shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. Still, the presence of "goosebumps" on her arms was notable.

She could see...things. People. Maybe they were people? If they were people, they were weird. Maybe humans. She never really understood humans. They were...quaint. Oh, sure, she loved her husband, but...still. He wasn't exactly the model of advanced races. She raised her phaser. "Do you...never mind." She trailed off. She was already disliked, better not make it worse by people thinking she was alsolosing her ever-loving mind.

Something-or someone-touched her, and reflexively, she fired off a shot. It ricocheted off the wall. Damn it. She shrugged when they looked at her. "Someone was handsy. They needed to know it's not ok," she said, coolly. Finally, FINALLY, they arrived at the Bridge. She was able to focus then.

Vila nodded in agreement; she wasn't about to go out like that, either. "Commander Garrison, I can take the far consoles," she said, indicating with the hand not clutching her phasers to a bank of computers against the far wall, where the Helmspeople and navigators usually sat. "If Reid wants to cover the Command consoles. Then I can double back to Science and Astrometrics," she said. She waited the Scientist's approval, trying to not tap her foot impatiently. It wasn't so much out of annoyance, just...she needed to be DOING things.

Finally, she was allowed to get started, and as she approached the consoles, she thought about the best way to approach it. Head on, as usual. She took a seat, and worked quickly, tapping away. It took every ounce of her skills, and the last iotas of her patience, but she was finally able to get some life. "Computers are running on a very small amount of life, ma'am. Whatever signals we picked up drained the life out of the support systems. Any word from Engineering about how long it may be?" She asked, hopefully. "I'll do what I can."

"Do we have Comms up yet, Reid?" She asked. "I need to get this to the Discovery before we lose everything." She said, plainly. Her tone was even-this was the only time she was decent-working.

Post #272 - by Lek

[Engineering --> Brig - USS Jupiter]

Once Lek was comfortable that the two ships were stable at warp, he turned to face M'Nia.

"Ensign, you are in charge here until I get back. Keep us at warp 5. I'll have us accelerate to 7 when I get back. I will be down in the brig, if anything goes sideways, sing out."

He then made his way for the turbolift, tapping his combadge while en route.

"Lek to Bridge, it is my intention to resolve the Vila issue. If I can, she will be returned to you shortly. If I can't come up with an answer, you are Starfleet, you will figure out an answer. Lek out."

Lek arrived in the brig and was glad for two things, the force field and that looks could not kill. Figuring the direct approach was the only viable option given how angry Vila was, he spoke without preamble.

"Honestly, I have no idea how we got to this point. Ever since you blew into Engineering on Discovery you have wanted to fight. Given I didn't even know who you were, your actions were more baffling than anything. Then we ended up on Jupiter and it seemed like you decided to escalate things from insubordination straight to mutiny. Given the only thing that has changed since we first met is I happen to know your name now. I'm still baffled by your behavior. Thing is, I'm not going to ask you to like me, as I do not require your approval. All I am asking is that, as an ensign, I have the authority to tell you what to do. If you can follow my orders and keep a civil tongue while you do, we're good. What you say about me outside of my hearing, but do remember the lobes, I don't care. Have we got a deal or do you get to spend the rest of the trip here?"