Season 11: Episode 2 - Diplomatic Disaster

[Tekin Nevir]

[Shuttlecraft:  Theseus]

Sukal had already taken the secondary station once boarding the shuttle.  The seat next to Lieutenant Jiseth he had left open for their companion from the Science department.  Jiseth was clearly quite knowledgable about how to prep the shuttle for their flight, and Lieutenant Nevir seemed to very sure about their objective.

The Operations Chief saw no reason to interfere with their thoughts, but hearing Jiseth mention their relative freedom for the length of their assignment actually made him smile.  Such things often came to his mind when coming aboard a shuttle for a mission.  One never knew just how long such things were to take unless a time constraint was placed on them.

"I suspect we could last for some time out here, Lieutenant," Sukal said with a barely concealed smile.  "After all, as you said, we have rations for days, but I somehow doubt that our new Captain will simply let us go touring for a week."  For a moment, he sounded Vulcan serious, but the smile returned and with it a bit of a chuckle.

Sukal nodded to the Science Officer's comments about the chosen area, and began attuning the sensors from the aft station he had taken.

"I will have these sensor calibrated for your scans soon, Lieutenant Nevir," Sukal said confidently....once more the very professional officer, and no trace of the laughter or smile around.

[Shuttle Theseus]

"Excellent, thanks." Nevir replied, finishing what he needed to do and then sitting back.  There wasn't much to do now until they reached their location, which wouldn't take more than 20 minutes.  He thought he show a small surge on his panel, but that was it.

=^=Ferris to all shuttles. Status report, please.=^=

[Shuttle Theseus]

The hardest part currently was yet to come. Landing presented its own challenges in and of itself, but the initial deceleration from orbital velocity was top on her list. Normally a shuttle could simply raise shields and let them take the brunt of the force of reentry. Normally... Starfleet had its own set of rules for first contact situations and minimal interference was required. Which meant she could not dive down like a fiery comet with a pair of sonic booms to herald her arrival even though it was really the only one fitting for her.

"Alright then. I'll find a spot for us to set down and we'll take the buggy. Mr. Sukal, would you assist me in removing that ridiculous gun from the back of it? After we land of course."

The anti-grav system could keep them at their altitude with ease, but the impulse engines had to be set to full reverse. In doing so, the Discovery appeared to zoom away on their monitors. Jiseth leaned forward and looked past Tekin in order to see the diminishing size of the ship in the viewport. A moment later her boss called and she cleared her throat.

Theseus to Discovery. Beginning minimum wake descent. All systems green. Maybe we'll come back with tans. Theseus out.

The three were woefully unaware of what was happening on the ship, so Nevir was just under the impression that the Captain wanted to know if they left yet.

As the two other officers started to handle the buggy, Nevir kept watch on the systems.  It wasn't until they started through the upper atmosphere that the Bajoran noticed something wrong.

"Discovery activated an alert status. I'll try to see what's going on up there-" he started, before the lights dimmed and the engine sounded like it was shutting down.  Nevir sat back up immediately, looking back at the two for a moment.  "That wasn't my doing... we're losing power!"

The shuttle was suddenly offline... only just gliding inside the atmosphere.

[Zero Alpha]

=/\=Vaughan to Lieutenant Alpha. Do you require assistance?

Kyle had reached his destination and it seemed as if Medical had been called as well, as per protocol. He walked up just in time to her the Doctor's words.

"Do we know anything else yet?" Kyle directed to Pardek as he approached.

He knelt down beside Zero and looked at the body of Lieutenant Hobbs.

"Any records of markings like that before, Doctor?" he asked still staring. He knew it wasn't polite but he had never seen markings like them before and was curious.

[Deck 6, Sec. 5]

There was precious little Zero could do to further investigate the death while the corpse was lying in the middle of a corridor, so she packed up her medkit and got back to her feet, tapping her commbadge.

=^= "Negative, Lieutenant.  However, I will require the surgical bay prepared for an extensive post mortem, if you would be willing to commence such preparations as are needed.  The subject will be transported to sickbay momentarily." =^=

Turning her attention to the captain, whom she had ignored until now, she shook her head.  "Not that I am capable of recalling without minor research," she replied.  "They are rather distinctive and therefore should not require extensive investigation, but I will perform a full autopsy in order to confirm the cause of death."

Her eyes caught sight of Alex, who had followed her from sickbay, and made a mental note to book him in for the reconstructive surgery as soon as she could get a slot.  He may not think that it was necessary, but given the state of it, physical therapy was not going to do the trick.  Luckily for him, it wasn't on the priority list at that point in time so, instead of bugging him about it, (that would come later), she turned her attention to Commander Pardek.

"If you have no further use for the body, I will have it transported to sickbay and commence the autopsy."

[Lizzie Vaughan]

[Deck 6, Sec. 5]

There was precious little Zero could do to further investigate the death while the corpse was lying in the middle of a corridor, so she packed up her medkit and got back to her feet, tapping her commbadge.

=^= "Negative, Lieutenant.  However, I will require the surgical bay prepared for an extensive post mortem, if you would be willing to commence such preparations as are needed.  The subject will be transported to sickbay momentarily." =^=

Turning her attention to the captain, whom she had ignored until now, she shook her head.  "Not that I am capable of recalling without minor research," she replied.  "They are rather distinctive and therefore should not require extensive investigation, but I will perform a full autopsy in order to confirm the cause of death."

Her eyes caught sight of Alex, who had followed her from sickbay, and made a mental note to book him in for the reconstructive surgery as soon as she could get a slot.  He may not think that it was necessary, but given the state of it, physical therapy was not going to do the trick.  Luckily for him, it wasn't on the priority list at that point in time so, instead of bugging him about it, (that would come later), she turned her attention to Commander Pardek.

"If you have no further use for the body, I will have it transported to sickbay and commence the autopsy."

Sickbay

Lizzie listened to the response and gave a half smile.

=/\=Understood Lieutenant. I will prepare the surgical suite for the Autopsy. Please notify me before transport. Vaughan out.

Lizzie turned to the two duty nurses and medical technician who were watching her very closely.

"Mary." She said to the senior of the two nurses. "And T'Lan." She addressed the Vulcan Medical Technician. Please accompany me to the surgical suite. We have a full Autopsy to prepare for. Alice." She addressed the other Nurse. "Please call Dr th'Zhela to cover here."

All three nodded and Lizzie turned and headed into the surgical suite and began preparations for a full autopsy. As she went about the business of preparing the equipment she thought back to the autopsy suite at Cambridge and the Latin inscription on the wall. 'HIC LOCUS EST UBI MORS GAUDET SUCCURERE VITAE'. Never a truer phrase in the world of autopsies, she thought to herself as she busily prepared for the deceased.

[Jiseth]

"Discovery activated an alert status. I'll try to see what's going on up there-" he started, before the lights dimmed and the engine sounded like it was shutting down.  Nevir sat back up immediately, looking back at the two for a moment.  "That wasn't my doing... we're losing power!"

The shuttle was suddenly offline... only just gliding inside the atmosphere.

[Shuttle Theseus]

"We're what!"

Jiseth tried to shout through her helmet before everything went dark. The hum of the engines, even the warp core, were gone and the steady floor began to vibrate from the shifting air currents outside as they descended. A loud but low-pitched whistling accompanied the shaking. There were many things to trouble shoot, though none of them were as dire as the issue of gravity.

Reaching to the far left of her console, she pulled at a small lever on the bulkhead. From it extended the manual controls, but while she could regain control of the attitude, that did not change the fact it was a dire emergency. Speaking of, she was currently flying a brick with modest wings at best. It was becoming more like the Romulan was directing which way they were falling than flying as the low-level clouds started to grow in the main viewport.

Oh come on, I just meet my kid and now I'm gonna die in another bloody shuttle accident!

"I can set her down in the shallow part on the far end of that lake up ahead. Not perfect, but my maneuvering options are nil at the moment. Any other suggestions?"

[Kyle Briggs]

"Captain Briggs had come up by then as well. "Sir, I would suggest locking down the ambassadors' quarters and sensitive areas until we have a better idea of what caused this."

"Normally, I would agree Number One. But I'd hate to interrupt those negotiations without something definitive. I'll bump up the alert status and confine all non essential personnel to quarters and put out more guards. Once we've learned something from the autopsy, we'll go from there. Accompany Doctor Zero back to Sickbay and keep me informed. I'll be on the Bridge." Kyle answered.

[Gavin Van Gelder]

[Astrometrics]

Anastasia blushed prettily. "Mr. Gelder you are too kind but I never said I vanted to ask zhem permission." Her blush vanished as she gave Gavin a wicked grin. "I simply said I vanted to visit zhe aliens. I don't need zhe Bayorans for zhat. Von day," she trailed off whistfully. Snapping out of her daydream, she gently moved Gavin's drumming fingers slightly farther away from her active workstation. "I never asked, vhat do you specialize in?"

[Astrometrics]

Gavin glanced down as Anastasia moved his hand away from her console.  He assumed she'd saved everything, so what was the big deal?  Anyway.  "Uh, general Science Officer," he answered, leaning back in the chair.  "Though I specialized in xenobiology in the Academy.  Hell," he shrugged, "I've taught xenobio.  In fact, that's what I was doing before being sent back here shipboard...teaching intro courses at SFA's satellite campus on Beta Aquilae II."  He looked back down at the work, the gears of his mind already turning as he glanced back up at the young woman, cocking an eyebrow.  Gavin allowed that she was rather breathtaking, even though he didn't have much interest in females at all anymore.  "You say your old CO signed off on this?  Well...we can deduce that our current one would, too.  And you know what they say about forgiveness and permission.  Can I help you with this?  Like...uh, in our off hours, I guess."

[Sukal]

[Theseus]

Sukal had just finished modifying the sensors for the required scans when it seemed like everything happened nearly all at once.  Of course, he knew it really didn't but it still had the same feel as two major things happened.  The first was an alert from the DISCOVERY as given by Lieutenant Nevir.  This alone had been a problem, but before he could look into the alert; a new problem had arrived rather swiftly.  Power went out all over the shuttle...almost instantly.  His board was completely dark, and Sukal attempted to ascertain the problem they were faced with.  Not even the emergency diagnostics were working for him to seek out the problem.  Frowning, he snatched his tricorder nearby, and secured himself better in his seat.  If they were coming in for a crash...then he needed to be strapped in completely.  A moment later, he began scanning the shuttle starting with his dead console.

"The tricorder is not giving me enough information as to why we have lost power, Lieutenant Jiseth.  I can only note there was a massive power disturbance sent through the entire shuttle's systems...wiping out everything," Sukal told the Romulan woman.

"Sukal to DISCOVERY, we have lost all power and are descending rapidly.  DISCOVERY...please respond," but for a reason he could not understand immediately...his combadge was inert...not even making the sound normally associated with being tapped.  He tapped it again, but had no indication it was even active.  He turned to the Chief Science Officer, "It would appear I have no way of contacting the ship," he informed both his companions.  "Perhaps one of your communicators are working."

[Kyle Briggs]

The lift doors parted and Kyle walked out onto the Bridge and headed straight for the Security console. "Bump us up to Security Alert Level Three." he ordered. At this level, pairs of armed Security Officers would patrol every corridor on every deck. Two Security Officers would be stationed on the bridge, and the Chief of Security would routinely run checks of the corridors via audio-visual and/or infrared sensor monitors. Phasers are locked on heavy stun.

As he made his way to the center seat, he slapped at his comm badge.

=^=Briggs to all Senior Staff. We'll be having a meeting in the Conference Room in ten minutes. No exceptions. Briggs out.=^=

[Tekin Nevir]

[Shuttle Theseus]

"We're what!"

Jiseth tried to shout through her helmet before everything went dark. The hum of the engines, even the warp core, were gone and the steady floor began to vibrate from the shifting air currents outside as they descended. A loud but low-pitched whistling accompanied the shaking. There were many things to trouble shoot, though none of them were as dire as the issue of gravity.

Reaching to the far left of her console, she pulled at a small lever on the bulkhead. From it extended the manual controls, but while she could regain control of the attitude, that did not change the fact it was a dire emergency. Speaking of, she was currently flying a brick with modest wings at best. It was becoming more like the Romulan was directing which way they were falling than flying as the low-level clouds started to grow in the main viewport.

Oh come on, I just meet my kid and now I'm gonna die in another bloody shuttle accident!

"I can set her down in the shallow part on the far end of that lake up ahead. Not perfect, but my maneuvering options are nil at the moment. Any other suggestions?"

[Theseus]

Sukal had just finished modifying the sensors for the required scans when it seemed like everything happened nearly all at once.  Of course, he knew it really didn't but it still had the same feel as two major things happened.  The first was an alert from the DISCOVERY as given by Lieutenant Nevir.  This alone had been a problem, but before he could look into the alert; a new problem had arrived rather swiftly.  Power went out all over the shuttle...almost instantly.  His board was completely dark, and Sukal attempted to ascertain the problem they were faced with.  Not even the emergency diagnostics were working for him to seek out the problem.  Frowning, he snatched his tricorder nearby, and secured himself better in his seat.  If they were coming in for a crash...then he needed to be strapped in completely.  A moment later, he began scanning the shuttle starting with his dead console.

"The tricorder is not giving me enough information as to why we have lost power, Lieutenant Jiseth.  I can only note there was a massive power disturbance sent through the entire shuttle's systems...wiping out everything," Sukal told the Romulan woman.

"Sukal to DISCOVERY, we have lost all power and are descending rapidly.  DISCOVERY...please respond," but for a reason he could not understand immediately...his combadge was inert...not even making the sound normally associated with being tapped.  He tapped it again, but had no indication it was even active.  He turned to the Chief Science Officer, "It would appear I have no way of contacting the ship," he informed both his companions.  "Perhaps one of your communicators are working."

[Shuttle Theseus]

The craft began to shake as the inertial dampeners faded, and the news incoming wasn't good.  They had precious time to either slow or stablize.  And right now the last thing he needed was to worry about the comms.  This situation sounded similar, and Nevir jumped up, ripping off a panel on the side.

"I might be able to give you some time.. or at least slow our descent.  Aim for the vents on the far side, and try not to send us into the volcano." he said, ripping and moving chips to release emergency controls.  As they entered the lowest layer of the atmosphere, he finally found an emergency release for the injectors.  Nevir looked up toward the helm, watching where the vents were.  The shuttle lurched as the updraft from the vents keep it going longer.  The shaking started to subside as it lost velocity.

"Pull the nose up now.. and hold onto something!" he said, pulling the release.  Under the shuttle a small cloud of ionized gas came out, and ignited with the heat from the vents.  The shuttled lurched again, but slowed enough for a relatively safe crash landing, letting it scraps for about a half kilometer before stopping.  Nevir braced himself, and only get bumped.

Finally ground side, Nevir stood up and tapped his badge.

"Theseus to Bridge..... Theseus to Captain Briggs.... Theseus to Endeavor..."=/\=

There was no answer... it just wasn't getting through.

"Well, this trip just took a crappy turn.  Status?"

[Lizzie Vaughan]

The lift doors parted and Kyle walked out onto the Bridge and headed straight for the Security console. "Bump us up to Security Alert Level Three." he ordered. At this level, pairs of armed Security Officers would patrol every corridor on every deck. Two Security Officers would be stationed on the bridge, and the Chief of Security would routinely run checks of the corridors via audio-visual and/or infrared sensor monitors. Phasers are locked on heavy stun.

As he made his way to the center seat, he slapped at his comm badge.

=^=Briggs to all Senior Staff. We'll be having a meeting in the Conference Room in ten minutes. No exceptions. Briggs out.=^=

Surgical Suite

Lizzie had just finished her preparations when the call came in. She tapped her com-badge.

=/\=Vaughan to Briggs. On my way. Out=/\=

She turned to Mary.

"Please remain here until I return. When the body arrives, please place it in a stasis field and ensure no-one touches it. If there are no security personnel with it, request that two to be stationed outside. I will be conducting the autopsy myself so should Dr Alpha wish to begin, please inform her that she must wait for me."

"Yes Doctor." Mary replied, looking rather pale.

Lizzie then turned to T'Lan

"Can you remain here as well please." She requested.

"As you wish Doctor." The Vulcan replied with his usual stoic calm.

"Thank you. I'll be back after the meeting." Lizzie nodded at them both door heading out of the surgical suite and down the corridor to the turbolift and taking it to the Bridge.

Bridge

Lizzie stepped out of the turbolift and looked around. She saw Captain Briggs in the centre seat and figured that she wasn't late. So she went over to the chair to the left of the Captain, normally reserved for Medical or Diplomatic Personnel, and sat down.

"Are you alright Captain?" She asked softly.

[Jiseth]

Finally ground side, Nevir stood up and tapped his badge.

"Theseus to Bridge..... Theseus to Captain Briggs.... Theseus to Endeavor..."=/\=

There was no answer... it just wasn't getting through.

"Well, this trip just took a crappy turn.  Status?"

"This is fine."

She lied. Leaving the cockpit, she moved to the rear of the craft and pulled the manual release to lower the boarding ramp. That much at least worked as light poured in from the outside. There was a hastiness in her efforts, one by one freeing each wheel of the buggy. At this moment she needed the catharsis to keep from feeling so damn helpless. Stepping to the front of the vehicle and pushing it slowly backward, the buggy's austere comforts were now their lifeline.

"Get a suit on and helmet, both of you. One good gas cloud coming down the volcano and we all suffocate. Grab the rations, med kits, shelter canvas, whatever we can stuff into that thing or strap to the side. I'll let you two discuss who should take command since we're all the same rank. Just tell me where to drive."

Fortunately, her search and rescue training would pay off today. Unfortunately, it meant they would have to wait for the buggy to charge up. Starfleet did at least go well out of their way to consider all the things that would be required to sustain a crew when stranded. After strapping on a atmospheric filter box to her chest and connecting the hose to her helmet, Jiseth began moving in and out of the shuttle to retrieve and set up the four solar arrays that would recharge the buggy.

The second part of her task was taking the spare fuel cells for it and securing them to the side of the vehicle. There were small clips that extended out for her to place them on their side along it, but each was quite heavy even for her Romulan strength. It would be far worse if she were alone in this as three heads were better than one, but three stomachs certainly were not. Hopefully, they would find some native plant that had fruit which was edible.

As the console in the buggy lit up, Jiseth felt a bit relieved. Once these ones charged, she could do the same to the others as they went along, though for maximum range their speed would be at most 30 kilometers per hour. Slow, but at least purposeful. The sooner they got away from the volcano the better.

"What should we do about the rear gun? It's just excess weight at the moment since we can charge a hand phaser from the buggy console if we need something to clear an obstacle. Can I ditch it?"

[Kyle Briggs]

Surgical Suite

Lizzie had just finished her preparations when the call came in. She tapped her com-badge.

=/\=Vaughan to Briggs. On my way. Out=/\=

She turned to Mary.

"Please remain here until I return. When the body arrives, please place it in a stasis field and ensure no-one touches it. If there are no security personnel with it, request that two to be stationed outside. I will be conducting the autopsy myself so should Dr Alpha wish to begin, please inform her that she must wait for me."

"Yes Doctor." Mary replied, looking rather pale.

Lizzie then turned to T'Lan

"Can you remain here as well please." She requested.

"As you wish Doctor." The Vulcan replied with his usual stoic calm.

"Thank you. I'll be back after the meeting." Lizzie nodded at them both door heading out of the surgical suite and down the corridor to the turbolift and taking it to the Bridge.

Bridge

Lizzie stepped out of the turbolift and looked around. She saw Captain Briggs in the centre seat and figured that she wasn't late. So she went over to the chair to the left of the Captain, normally reserved for Medical or Diplomatic Personnel, and sat down.

"Are you alright Captain?" She asked softly.

Bridge

Kyle turned to face the Doctor and attempted a smile but his damn headache had returned and he told her so. "Been getting them off and on ever since they hit us with what ever it was on that last mission. Sometimes, it's worse then others." He stood and straightened his uniform. "I'll come and see you after we resolve our current situation. Come on." he said as he headed for the Conference Room.

Conference Room

He entered the room a few seconds later and began what had become a habit of his when ever a meeting was called. He approached the replicator and ordered cold water and glasses for the staff. He had been part of meetings that went on forever and people got thirsty. Once it was all set, he took his seat and waited on the others to arrive.

[Anastasia Zhestakova]

[Astrometrics]

Gavin glanced down as Anastasia moved his hand away from her console.  He assumed she'd saved everything, so what was the big deal?  Anyway.  "Uh, general Science Officer," he answered, leaning back in the chair.  "Though I specialized in xenobiology in the Academy.  Hell," he shrugged, "I've taught xenobio.  In fact, that's what I was doing before being sent back here shipboard...teaching intro courses at SFA's satellite campus on Beta Aquilae II."  He looked back down at the work, the gears of his mind already turning as he glanced back up at the young woman, cocking an eyebrow.  Gavin allowed that she was rather breathtaking, even though he didn't have much interest in females at all anymore.  "You say your old CO signed off on this?  Well...we can deduce that our current one would, too.  And you know what they say about forgiveness and permission.  Can I help you with this?  Like...uh, in our off hours, I guess."

Anastasia bit her lip and looked up as if thinking over his offer as if she didn't already know the answer. As soon as Gavin had mentioned studying xenobiology she was overcome with joy. After studying the trivial amount of information the Federation possessed on the wormhole entities she had wondered if the creation of the Bajoran wormhole was closer to a biological process rather than an artificial one. Still, she didn't want Gavin thinking she needed him. Never above using her looks to get her way, the one thing Anastasia never did was give the impression of needing someone.

"Vell... I do not zhink it vould hurt to have anozher pair of eyes to look over my vork...," she said, trailing off for a moment. Snapping her fingers and stomping her foot. "Very vell. You can come to my kvarters after beta shifts. I zhe console in zhere set up like a lab console viz access to all zhe necessary files. She said this all very matter-of-factly rather than asking Gavin.

[Lizzie Vaughan]

Bridge

Kyle turned to face the Doctor and attempted a smile but his damn headache had returned and he told her so. "Been getting them off and on ever since they hit us with what ever it was on that last mission. Sometimes, it's worse then others." He stood and straightened his uniform. "I'll come and see you after we resolve our current situation. Come on." he said as he headed for the Conference Room.

Conference Room

He entered the room a few seconds later and began what had become a habit of his when ever a meeting was called. He approached the replicator and ordered cold water and glasses for the staff. He had been part of meetings that went on forever and people got thirsty. Once it was all set, he took his seat and waited on the others to arrive.

Bridge

Lizzie smiled at the Captain's retreating figure as he entered the conference. She figured he would make it to Sickbay anyway. Especially with a mysterious death on their hands. She waited a few minutes, so the Captain could get ready then she got up herself and walked over to the Conference room door.

Conference Room

Lizzie entered the conference room and seeing she was the first there, apart from the Captain, she went over to one of the seats next to him. She took a hypospray from a pouch at her waist.

"I have an analgesic here. It's not strong enough to make you sleepy, or even dull your senses. But it will take the edge off your headache and help you think clearly. May I?" She asked as she sat down.

[Zero Alpha]

[Sickbay]

Once the security officers had declared that they were finished with the body, Zero contacted the transporter room to arrange for a site-to-site transport to the surgical bay.  It had already been set up for an autopsy, as per her instructions, but the young woman was not pleased to be prevented from starting by one of the nurses, who insisted that the body be placed in stasis and the return of the Chief Medical Officer waited for before beginning with the investigation as to what had killed the lieutenant.

Muttering under her breath in irritation, Zero picked up a PADD, starting to write down her notes as to what she had seen on the scene, as well as starting to observe what she could of the body itself.  The nurses couldn't stop her making a start on that part of the autopsy, since it only required looking and not actually making any incisions or changes to the corpse.