Season 11: Episode 2 - Diplomatic Disaster

[James A. Hawke]

[Bridge]

As James finished his introduction to the bridge he proceeded to his station.  As soon as he came to the station he looked at the console and it appeared that all systems where nominal.

Lt. Commander Eli Ferris ordered ops to do a sensor sweep.   Lt(jg) Ceria Arevalo was in the ops conducting the sensor sweep.  After a couple of minutes she informed James that there was a problem.  James looked and it console and started checking the calibration of the sensors.

The results were unexpected.   There was nothing wrong with the sensors per se.  By what happened with the internal data was different.  It would now have showed up in their internal engineering scans because there was no problem.  However, the data from the specific point was encrypted and deleted.  Whomever, did this they knew  what they were doing.

"Lieutenant  Arevalo and Lt. Commander Ferris, there is nothing wrong with the scanners, the problem is in the data of the scans, it was encrypted and later deleted by a hidden subroutine.  We can fix the problem relatively easy by deleting the sub routine, but the data that was taken would be a little harder to retrieve"  James informed.

James took the opportunity to inform his superior.  Lt. Hawke to Lt. Lichter, I found something interesting, apparently someone, reconfigured the data by the scanners to automatically encrypt and delete.  This code was recently activated and there was no way to find this sub routine unless we were looking line by line. Whomever did this probably either had access to our systems or high technical knowledge of the ship

Within a minute James heard a response Lt. Lichter to Lt. Hawke, there was a small accident in main engineering and I have to report to sickbay.  The Captain requested a meeting with Senior Staff in the briefing room, you will attend said meeting and report your findings, Lichter out

James looked at the console and then looked down to the floor.  He did not have an opportunity to meet most of the senior staff.  It looks like he is going to meet most of them in one fell swoop.
Lt. Hawke to Ensign Kaz, I discovered a small anomaly in the coding of the internal sensors scan.  It is currently encrypted and deleting before it can be analyzed.  Do you mind checking the codes and deleting that subroutine?   Also try to see if there are any hints how this codes were inserted .   Thanks. Hawke out

After he was finished he headed towards the briefing room.

[Conference Room]

James entered the Conference room and observed both the Captain and Lt. Vaughan.  As he entered he felt that he was intruding in their conversation.  He stood at the entrance and said "Ahem...."  He waited for either of them to make eye contact "Lieutenant J.G. Hawke reporting for Lieutenant Litchter , there was a small accident in Engineering and he needed to report to sickbay, he sent me to relay my findings"

I hope he doesn't kick me out James thought

Knowing full well that he was not part of the Senior Staff James took the seat farthest away from the Captain.

[Kyle Briggs]

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.

"Thank you, Doctor." Kyle said in agreement. His head had really started pounding these last few moment and he'd take any help he could get.

Just as she finished, the doors parted to present another crew member.

[Conference Room]

James entered the Conference room and observed both the Captain and Lt. Vaughan.  As he entered he felt that he was intruding in their conversation.  He stood at the entrance and said "Ahem...."  He waited for either of them to make eye contact "Lieutenant J.G. Hawke reporting for Lieutenant Litchter , there was a small accident in Engineering and he needed to report to sickbay, he sent me to relay my findings"

I hope he doesn't kick me out James thought

Knowing full well that he was not part of the Senior Staff James took the seat farthest away from the Captain.

"Very well, Lieutenant. Have a seat while we await the others." Kyle replied.

[Lizzie Vaughan]

Conference Room
"Thank you, Doctor." Kyle said in agreement. His head had really started pounding these last few moment and he'd take any help he could get.

Just as she finished, the doors parted to present another crew member.

"Very well, Lieutenant. Have a seat while we await the others." Kyle replied.

Conference room

Lizzie smiled and quickly administered the hypospray.

"There you go Captain. That will hold you over until we can look at you properly." She replied, placing the hypospray back in the pouch before taking her seat.

[Conference Room]

James entered the Conference room and observed both the Captain and Lt. Vaughan.  As he entered he felt that he was intruding in their conversation.  He stood at the entrance and said "Ahem...."  He waited for either of them to make eye contact "Lieutenant J.G. Hawke reporting for Lieutenant Litchter , there was a small accident in Engineering and he needed to report to sickbay, he sent me to relay my findings"

I hope he doesn't kick me out James thought

Knowing full well that he was not part of the Senior Staff James took the seat farthest away from the Captain.

Lizzie looked up and saw James Hawke.

'He must be here in lieu of the Chief Engineer.' She thought to herself.

"Mister Hawke." She addressed him and nodded in greeting.

[Gavin Van Gelder]

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.

[Astrometrics]

"You have all that set up in your quarters?" Gavin asked, cocking his eyebrow questioningly.  He gave a quick little smile, shaking his head and laughing.  He slid out of the chair, standing as he ran his fingers through his somewhat-unruly mop of auburn hair.  "Right, I know...forgiveness and permission," he said, tapping his lower lip in thought as a playfully-evil look came into his sea-green eyes.  "I think you are a dangerous one, Anastasia Zhestaova.  I like it."

Gavin turned as if to go, spinning on his heel all of a sudden as another idea came to him.  "I have quite a bit of experience in xenobio and medical arts, but I know someone who knows even more than me.  Have you met Zero yet?  Zero Alpha?  She's my friend."

[Lennox Ainsley]

Conference Room
"Thank you, Doctor." Kyle said in agreement. His head had really started pounding these last few moment and he'd take any help he could get.

Just as she finished, the doors parted to present another crew member.

"Very well, Lieutenant. Have a seat while we await the others." Kyle replied.

Lennox was still trying to find his feet around a proper ship, finding everything a challenge, though it was not a challenge that he would necessarily shy away from. He was wandering the corridors, just going through standard procedure and making sure that nothing seemed to be running amok on the ship.

The Scotsman scratched at his head as his eyes caught sight of the commanding officer of the USS Discovery, Kyle Briggs. The one face that he truly recognised. He was still trying to get to know many of his crew mates as possible. He walked over, simply standing at the door as they slid open.

His jaw went taught with slight anxiety, his back straightening in response.

"Lennox Ainsley," He said. Lennox glanced around the room, turning to face Kyle Briggs, his shoulders back. "Apologies for the intrusion, Cap'n. I didn't realise ye 'ad a meetin', I'll...go."

[Kyle Briggs]

"Lennox Ainsley," He said. Lennox glanced around the room, turning to face Kyle Briggs, his shoulders back. "Apologies for the intrusion, Cap'n. I didn't realise ye 'ad a meetin', I'll...go."

"It's alright, Crewman. We have a few minutes before everyone else arrives. What can I do you for you?" Kyle asked.

[Sukal]

[Thesesus]

"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?"

Sukal was slow to recover from the crash.  Thus far in his career; he had yet to suffer such a crash...at least not for a very long time...not since he was a lot younger and had lost both his parents.  He shook his head to clear it, but it didn't help much.  His head was pounding, and instinctively Sukal reached up towards the wound around the left side of his temple.  It came away with a smear of green blood....not a great deal, but certainly not welcome in any case.  His eyes narrowed as he concentrated past the vicious headache...blinking away spots before him in his vision before standing up.

The activity behind him from one of his companions brought him to turn his attention to the rear of the crashed shuttle.  There he found Lieutenant Jiseth taking care of the vehicle they had brought with them, and making sure they all knew to gather supplies as well as put on the suits.  Sukal frowned though at the mention of one of them being in command.  Jiseth clearly didn't want it since it was she who suggested they talk it over...being himself and Lieutenant Tekin Nevir....both being Department Heads.  Normally, Sukal would have suggested himself for command, but this was technically a Science operation...even if it had crashed.

"Lieutenant Nevir, I believe this is your mission.  I will do whatever I can to aid the team, but as this began as an exploration of a scientific nature...it would be logical for it to be you," Sukal stated to his counterpart.

He stumbled for a moment as he made his way to the where the suits were contained, and handed one to Tekin while taking another for himself and laying the other out for Jiseth.  His head was throbbing madly, and a moment of dizziness washed over him causing new spots before his eyes.  Again, the Vulcan/Betazoid's eyes narrowed in concentration as he steadied himself and began putting the suit on.

[Alexander Wu]

[Conference Room]

Alex had left Zero once they arrived in sickbay and confirmed that the body of their unfortunate crewmate had been transported and secured properly. He reckoned Safefta would be chomping at the bit to find out what had happened, so disregarding his own desire to begin investigating the suspicious death, Alex headed up back to the deck as summoned.

Walking into the conference room, he took a seat next to the Captain, nodding at Vaughan and Hawke before turning to purview the fresh face standing before Briggs. Fresh blood, he thought to himself with slight bemusement while tapping his commbadge. "Wu to Ensigns Van Gelder and Benjamin, your department heads are both on an away mission, please report to the conference room for a briefing with the senior staff."=/\=

[Tekin Nevir]

[Thesesus]

Sukal was slow to recover from the crash.  Thus far in his career; he had yet to suffer such a crash...at least not for a very long time...not since he was a lot younger and had lost both his parents.  He shook his head to clear it, but it didn't help much.  His head was pounding, and instinctively Sukal reached up towards the wound around the left side of his temple.  It came away with a smear of green blood....not a great deal, but certainly not welcome in any case.  His eyes narrowed as he concentrated past the vicious headache...blinking away spots before him in his vision before standing up.

The activity behind him from one of his companions brought him to turn his attention to the rear of the crashed shuttle.  There he found Lieutenant Jiseth taking care of the vehicle they had brought with them, and making sure they all knew to gather supplies as well as put on the suits.  Sukal frowned though at the mention of one of them being in command.  Jiseth clearly didn't want it since it was she who suggested they talk it over...being himself and Lieutenant Tekin Nevir....both being Department Heads.  Normally, Sukal would have suggested himself for command, but this was technically a Science operation...even if it had crashed.

"Lieutenant Nevir, I believe this is your mission.  I will do whatever I can to aid the team, but as this began as an exploration of a scientific nature...it would be logical for it to be you," Sukal stated to his counterpart.

He stumbled for a moment as he made his way to the where the suits were contained, and handed one to Tekin while taking another for himself and laying the other out for Jiseth.  His head was throbbing madly, and a moment of dizziness washed over him causing new spots before his eyes.  Again, the Vulcan/Betazoid's eyes narrowed in concentration as he steadied himself and began putting the suit on.

"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?"

Nevir sighed, stretching himself out to crack the kinks brought in but the sudden impact.  Sukal had a point.  Jiseth wanted to set this up, but not only was he a more senior officer, outside of the ship he was considered more in his element than the Ops Chief.

"I don't expect to get into a war down here, we could probably dismount it and just leave it.  Or store it in the compartment out of the way.  We need to get rations and survival gear ready." he said, pulling out a tricorder and scanning the area.

"We're short.... I should have guessed we wouldn't make it all the way to our initial landing site.  We should be lucky Jiseth was able to keep us airborne as long as she did.  But we have some bad news... worse than the fact that we're in a seismically unstable area." he said, closing the tricorder.

"The volcano is disrupting our sensors, communication won't be possible with our current equipment.  And on top of that, the large storm we were hoping to avoid is expected to make landfall here within a day.  Top priority is shelter.  The shuttle is not a safe location.  Sukal, see if you can activate the distress beacon on the shuttle... it probably won't do much good, but if the signal can slip through the volcanic disturbance, it may help us.  Jiseth, I'll help you load the buggy.  We leave as soon as the beacon is taken care of.

[Leela Kaz]

[Bridge]

Leela sat at the operations station at the front of the bridge. With the chief on an away mission Commander Wu decided it was time for her to leave the engine room and gain some cross-functional training. 430 years old and they have me cross training. She thought to herself. She had never been one to enjoy being on the bridge. It had a sense of formality that she had come to dread.

She watched the readouts and remembered that they had a shuttle out there.  It was customary to receive periodic updates and she realized the line had been silent for sometime. "Better check it out." She muttered. With a single button she opened the lines of communication.

"USS Discovery to the Thesesus, please provide status update."=/\=

She waited for a moment but got no reply. Leela re-established a comm signal and tried again.

"USS Discovery to the Thesesus, please provide status update."=/\=

She failed, again, to receive a response. She knew the command staff were otherwise occupied but she decided it was worth notifying them. She tapped her communicator.

"Operations to Commander Wu. Please be advised that we are currently unable to establish communications with the Thesesus."=/\=

[Jiseth]

"Lieutenant Nevir, I believe this is your mission.  I will do whatever I can to aid the team, but as this began as an exploration of a scientific nature...it would be logical for it to be you," Sukal stated to his counterpart.

He stumbled for a moment as he made his way to the where the suits were contained, and handed one to Tekin while taking another for himself and laying the other out for Jiseth.  His head was throbbing madly, and a moment of dizziness washed over him causing new spots before his eyes.  Again, the Vulcan/Betazoid's eyes narrowed in concentration as he steadied himself and began putting the suit on.

"We're short.... I should have guessed we wouldn't make it all the way to our initial landing site.  We should be lucky Jiseth was able to keep us airborne as long as she did.  But we have some bad news... worse than the fact that we're in a seismically unstable area." he said, closing the tricorder.

"The volcano is disrupting our sensors, communication won't be possible with our current equipment.  And on top of that, the large storm we were hoping to avoid is expected to make landfall here within a day.  Top priority is shelter.  The shuttle is not a safe location.  Sukal, see if you can activate the distress beacon on the shuttle... it probably won't do much good, but if the signal can slip through the volcanic disturbance, it may help us.  Jiseth, I'll help you load the buggy.  We leave as soon as the beacon is taken care of.

Moving to the back of the buggy, Jiseth extended rear cannon from its stored position. There were two clamps on either side of its actuator that she reached for and unlocked. Bless the Federation for their obsession with modular designs. The weapon itself was heavier than expected. She had to climb up the rear bumper and lift with her rather enhance legs before gingerly stepping down with a thud followed by another.

The vehicle looked a touch front heavy without the weight in the back, but that would soon be filled with all the things they would need to survive. As for the gun, the Romulan hefted it into the rear bay of the shuttle and unceremoniously dropped it into the storage locker where the suits had been kept. She knew time was growing short and found herself between a rock and a hard place when it came to recommending a route they take.

High ground would keep them above flooding, but in danger of landslides. Higher altitudes meant better chance of catching a signal from the Discovery, but also greater winds and colder temperatures. The volcano erupts and they get corned by lava: they die. The buggy gets tipped over by wind or water: they die. Their CO2 filters fail: they die. The heaters in their shelter fail: they die slower. So many options that do not involve living, which she hated. Her training only made her more apt to not succumb to the odds, or lack thereof, when it came to pondering their survival.

She took a large container bag normally used for rock collection and simply used her whole other arm to rake in the ration packs. Three meals a day for three people meant they could live of these for 45 Sols. Ration them to a meal twice a day and they would have enough food to last a little over 9 weeks which was more than enough time for either the statistical likelihood of rescue or rocks to fall from the sky and kill all three of them. With this in mind she tossed the bag into the rear of the buggy and pushed it into a corner.

"We have plenty of food, but hydration is going to be an issue. The air too dry in this area to capture enough moisture to sustain three people. There's enough bottled liquid for about a week tops. Collecting rain water from that storm might actually keep us going."

Loading a second bag with all the aforementioned bottled nourishment, she placed this one on the opposite corner in the rear behind the forward passenger seat. Stepping around to the driver's side, Jiseth looked over the display panel.

"Just over half way charged... Any ideas as what killed power to the Theseus?"

[Alexander Wu]

[Conference Room]

"Alright, let's get started." Alex motioned for the crewman standing by Captain Briggs to take a seat. "Welcome onboard, crewman, and have a seat. Your department head, Commander Pardek, is busy with an investigation, if you wouldn't mind being the representative for Security." While he was addressing the newest member of their crew, Lieutenant Arevalo snuck in, Alex giving him a slight frown for the tardiness. "Doctor Vaughan, I'm also going to have you take notes for the science department."

"This is what we know so far." Alex used a small controller on the table surface, bringing up the deceased Lieutenant's file. "Approximately 30 minutes ago, the body of Lieutenant Timothy Hobbs was found on Deck 6, Section 5, outside the Primary Computer Core Control Room. On the hands and forehead of Mr.Hobbs were visible purple rings, but no other signs or obvious indications related to the cause of death. Doctor Vaughan, your priority is to autopsy the body. We need to know what we're dealing with here. If Lieutenant Hobb died from some sort of infection or illness that could be contagious, we need to quarantine ourselves immediately. Coordinate with Science, I believe Ensign Van Gelder is next in line."

"Lieutenant Hawke." Alex looked up the table towards the officer sitting furthest from him. "When we tried to access the interior sensors and vidfeeds, all we received were error notices and corrupted files. Considering the cause of Hobb's death is still unknown, I find it highly suspicious that this would be a coincidence. I want you working to try and recover the missing recordings, they're beyond valuable in assisting our investigation. Mr...Ainsley, is it? At this stage, the log errors could have been the result of criminal action, I want you to work with Mr.Hawke. If the files are recovered, advise me immediately."

Alex paused, pondering those seated around the table. Half of them have little to no experience. Lesson learnt, don't let department heads go on joyrides. "Let's get to the bottom of this, and fast. The ambassadors and their conf-" An incoming message interrupted the rest of his blurb.

"Operations to Commander Wu. Please be advised that we are currently unable to establish communications with the Thesesus."=/\=

Closing his eyes momentarily, Alex had to force away the wave of annoyance. Jiseth better not have turned off their comms, or there'll be hell to pay. Knowing the Romulan pilot, she was probably flying verticals around ash plumes. "This is Wu, acknowledged. Contact the Science department and ask them to re-calibrate their sensors to search for Thesesus, we need to recall them as soon as possible. I'll be on the bridge momentarily. Wu, out."=/\=

"Are there any questions, concerns, suggestions?" Alex asked, turning his attention back to the gathered officers.

[Hrafn Falleg]

Sickbay

Hrafn sat patiently waiting for the medic to scan her, all she could think about was two things, partially because of memory of the last time she'd seen the procedure which had rendered her kneecap likely fractured.

It had been on the Chin'Toka and she had been pregnant with the twins, just barely but still, and madly in love with their father, who had been posted to the Fleetwood.

She sighed remembering how it was all very... perfect...back then.  Funny how things changed.  She'd moved around, Nevir had been unfaithful with...

Hrafn shook her head not wanting to remember what she had seen, and then Nerys uttering her first words which were 'Dada!'

The redheaded Science officer picked at a bit of lint on her tunic and wondered if she could or would ever be able to trust anyone again and, could she, for the sake of her children's relationship with their father, put the past behind her and move on.

He'd conveniently disappeared when she'd filed the divorce papers, as far as she was concerned, they were divorced, nothing would change that.  But she knew enough separated and divorced couples, especially on Earth who managed some form of respect enough for each other and love for their children to put differences aside, get on with their own lives but allow the 'absent' parent to see and have a relationship with their offspring.

It was early days yet.  She'd heard that he was back and serving on the USS Discovery.  She'd have to get Lizzie to have a word with him. Sound him out.

Thinking of this she pulled out her personal PADD and composed a note.

TO: Dr. Elizabeth Vaughan, CMO, USS Discovery
FROM: Lt. Hrafn Falleg, CSO, USS Phoenix

Hi Lizzie,

I thought I'd better appraise you of things that have transpired since my last correspondence.

I'm now, for now, CSO of the USS Phoenix and have the twins and Evie here with me.  Captain T'Korris was nice enough not to ask too many questions and she has her children here too.

Right I won't mess you around, you're to sharp for that.  You'll have seen that I've dropped the -Tekin part from my name.  I've also heard that he's now serving on the Discovery with you. So I thought I'd better tell you.

I divorced the worthless ... I won't write it but you can imagine some of the choice things that I could call him and that's just in Universal Language.  Even if I did it in Klingon you wouldn't need the Universal Translators to figure that it wasn't complimentary, and seeing as Xenolinguistics is my speciality...

He cheated on me Lizzie.  And not just with anyone, with Lt. Dyson... the female human one obviously... he may be a lot of things but while I don't have a problem with either interspecies relationships or same gender relationships, Nevir is straight and rather reserved in a lot of respects!  He didn't question the divorce papers either.  I went straight to Capt. McConnell requested immediate transfer as far away as possible and took the twins and Evie with me and ended up here on the Phoenix.

I don't think I can trust him or any man for a long time, I mean in relationships anyhow, I trust my colleagues but that's in a work based capacity.

Try not to lay into him too much.  I thought I had to tell you though, because Nerys uttered her first word this morning and it cut me to the quick, because her first word was 'DADA!' screamed at the top of her lungs.

Other than that we continue in good health, hope you're enjoying yourself over on the Discovery.

Hrafn

[Lennox Ainsley]

"It's alright, Crewman. We have a few minutes before everyone else arrives. What can I do you for you?" Kyle asked.

"Jus' though' I should introduce myself, cap'n." Lennox replied. "And, I 'eard that sh...an incident 'ad been reported."

[Conference Room]

"Alright, let's get started." Alex motioned for the crewman standing by Captain Briggs to take a seat. "Welcome onboard, crewman, and have a seat. Your department head, Commander Pardek, is busy with an investigation, if you wouldn't mind being the representative for Security." While he was addressing the newest member of their crew, Lieutenant Arevalo snuck in, Alex giving him a slight frown for the tardiness. "Doctor Vaughan, I'm also going to have you take notes for the science department."

"This is what we know so far." Alex used a small controller on the table surface, bringing up the deceased Lieutenant's file. "Approximately 30 minutes ago, the body of Lieutenant Timothy Hobbs was found on Deck 6, Section 5, outside the Primary Computer Core Control Room. On the hands and forehead of Mr.Hobbs were visible purple rings, but no other signs or obvious indications related to the cause of death. Doctor Vaughan, your priority is to autopsy the body. We need to know what we're dealing with here. If Lieutenant Hobb died from some sort of infection or illness that could be contagious, we need to quarantine ourselves immediately. Coordinate with Science, I believe Ensign Van Gelder is next in line."

"Lieutenant Hawke." Alex looked up the table towards the officer sitting furthest from him. "When we tried to access the interior sensors and vidfeeds, all we received were error notices and corrupted files. Considering the cause of Hobb's death is still unknown, I find it highly suspicious that this would be a coincidence. I want you working to try and recover the missing recordings, they're beyond valuable in assisting our investigation. Mr...Ainsley, is it? At this stage, the log errors could have been the result of criminal action, I want you to work with Mr.Hawke. If the files are recovered, advise me immediately."

Alex paused, pondering those seated around the table. Half of them have little to no experience. Lesson learnt, don't let department heads go on joyrides. "Let's get to the bottom of this, and fast. The ambassadors and their conf-" An incoming message interrupted the rest of his blurb.

Closing his eyes momentarily, Alex had to force away the wave of annoyance. Jiseth better not have turned off their comms, or there'll be hell to pay. Knowing the Romulan pilot, she was probably flying verticals around ash plumes. "This is Wu, acknowledged. Contact the Science department and ask them to re-calibrate their sensors to search for Thesesus, we need to recall them as soon as possible. I'll be on the bridge momentarily. Wu, out."=/\=

"Are there any questions, concerns, suggestions?" Alex asked, turning his attention back to the gathered officers.

Lennox took a seat as he was instructed to, his brain switching from simple idle chatter back to the days to when he had served. His back straightened, his shoulder blades pressed against the chair as he scanned the room. "Yes, sir." The Scotsman replied to the fact that he was now the representative of the security branch.

He looked over to Hawke, nodding as he took new information in like a sponge. Lennox had much to learn, being thrown in the deep end for the investigation, nothing was better than to have a mental challenge. "Will do. No o'her questions fer now, sir."

[Lizzie Vaughan]

[Conference Room]

"Alright, let's get started." Alex motioned for the crewman standing by Captain Briggs to take a seat. "Welcome onboard, crewman, and have a seat. Your department head, Commander Pardek, is busy with an investigation, if you wouldn't mind being the representative for Security." While he was addressing the newest member of their crew, Lieutenant Arevalo snuck in, Alex giving him a slight frown for the tardiness. "Doctor Vaughan, I'm also going to have you take notes for the science department."

"This is what we know so far." Alex used a small controller on the table surface, bringing up the deceased Lieutenant's file. "Approximately 30 minutes ago, the body of Lieutenant Timothy Hobbs was found on Deck 6, Section 5, outside the Primary Computer Core Control Room. On the hands and forehead of Mr.Hobbs were visible purple rings, but no other signs or obvious indications related to the cause of death. Doctor Vaughan, your priority is to autopsy the body. We need to know what we're dealing with here. If Lieutenant Hobb died from some sort of infection or illness that could be contagious, we need to quarantine ourselves immediately. Coordinate with Science, I believe Ensign Van Gelder is next in line."

"Lieutenant Hawke." Alex looked up the table towards the officer sitting furthest from him. "When we tried to access the interior sensors and vidfeeds, all we received were error notices and corrupted files. Considering the cause of Hobb's death is still unknown, I find it highly suspicious that this would be a coincidence. I want you working to try and recover the missing recordings, they're beyond valuable in assisting our investigation. Mr...Ainsley, is it? At this stage, the log errors could have been the result of criminal action, I want you to work with Mr.Hawke. If the files are recovered, advise me immediately."

Alex paused, pondering those seated around the table. Half of them have little to no experience. Lesson learnt, don't let department heads go on joyrides. "Let's get to the bottom of this, and fast. The ambassadors and their conf-" An incoming message interrupted the rest of his blurb.

Closing his eyes momentarily, Alex had to force away the wave of annoyance. Jiseth better not have turned off their comms, or there'll be hell to pay. Knowing the Romulan pilot, she was probably flying verticals around ash plumes. "This is Wu, acknowledged. Contact the Science department and ask them to re-calibrate their sensors to search for Thesesus, we need to recall them as soon as possible. I'll be on the bridge momentarily. Wu, out."=/\=

"Are there any questions, concerns, suggestions?" Alex asked, turning his attention back to the gathered officers.

Conference Room

Lizzie looked up at Commander Wu then at the Captain. Having an unexplained death on-board, especially when they had a ship full of diplomats, was never a good sign. She needed to get to work and perform the autopsy.

"Nothing Sir, now if you'll excuse me I have an autopsy to perform." She nodded at both the senior officers before getting up and exiting the Conference Room. As soon as she was out the door she tapped her Com-badge.

=/\=Vaughan to Van Gelder. Please meet me in the Surgical Suite. I will explain when you arrive.

She made her way to the turbolift and headed down to where the body was waiting for her.

Surgical Suite

Lizzie entered and immediately saw Lieutenant Alpha performing what could only be described as a visual analysis of the body. She immediately went over to her and held out her hand.

"Did you not get my instructions Lieutenant? Or did you just choose to ignore them? Either way, you will hand me that PAD!" She spoke sharply. As if there was one thing that really made her angry was disobeying an order. While she waited for a reply, she herd a soft ping from her PADD.

TO: Dr. Elizabeth Vaughan, CMO, USS Discovery
FROM: Lt. Hrafn Falleg, CSO, USS Phoenix

Hi Lizzie,

I thought I'd better appraise you of things that have transpired since my last correspondence.

I'm now, for now, CSO of the USS Phoenix and have the twins and Evie here with me.  Captain T'Korris was nice enough not to ask too many questions and she has her children here too.

Right I won't mess you around, you're to sharp for that.  You'll have seen that I've dropped the -Tekin part from my name.  I've also heard that he's now serving on the Discovery with you. So I thought I'd better tell you.

I divorced the worthless ... I won't write it but you can imagine some of the choice things that I could call him and that's just in Universal Language.  Even if I did it in Klingon you wouldn't need the Universal Translators to figure that it wasn't complimentary, and seeing as Xenolinguistics is my speciality...

He cheated on me Lizzie.  And not just with anyone, with Lt. Dyson... the female human one obviously... he may be a lot of things but while I don't have a problem with either interspecies relationships or same gender relationships, Nevir is straight and rather reserved in a lot of respects!  He didn't question the divorce papers either.  I went straight to Capt. McConnell requested immediate transfer as far away as possible and took the twins and Evie with me and ended up here on the Phoenix.

I don't think I can trust him or any man for a long time, I mean in relationships anyhow, I trust my colleagues but that's in a work based capacity.

Try not to lay into him too much.  I thought I had to tell you though, because Nerys uttered her first word this morning and it cut me to the quick, because her first word was 'DADA!' screamed at the top of her lungs.

Other than that we continue in good health, hope you're enjoying yourself over on the Discovery.

Hrafn

Lizzie read it through quickly and gasped. She decided it would need a proper replay later. She looked at back up at Alpha.

"Well Lieutenant?" She said in an ice cold, hard tone.