S3:E3 (MINISODE) Revelations - Part 2: Into the Rabbit Hole

[Ruth Sigurdsdottir]

[Conference Room 1, Deck 14 - Innominatum Outpost]

James was taken aback by the tone in which the captain spoke, after disastrous first introduction James half expected Captain Sigurdsdottir to bark at him.
"Hello Captain i'm Ensign James Walding, its a pleasure to be assigned under your command sir." James said, standing up to address the captain and the newly entered CMO and CSO. He took care this time to make a good impression, presenting his hand for a handshake and overall trying to make less of a fool of himself than he had before. "I'm sorry if I'm not supposed to be here captain, I have to admit I am not entirely sure you meant to invite me to this important meeting... thingy." He felt the facade of fake confidence slip away."I dont know if it standard procedure to have ensigns in on the important... stuff, first assignment and...all...that." he said, trailing off towards the end.

[Conference Room - Deck 14 - Innominatum Base]

"Relax, James, please!" Ruth said dropping to his first name to try to calm to poor Ensign and taking his hand between both of hers, grasping it firmly, but gently and kindly, then releasing it with a smile.  "For the record, and it's not a complaint just a preference, I prefer Ma'am, and yes, you jolly well should be here!  Lt. Taray should be along soon too so you can meet her, that's your department head if you didn't have a chance to read the welcome file!" she said with a wink.

"Anyone well versed in Tactical is going to be needed, as what we're going to be doing here is essentially a game plan.  While we're waiting for the stragglers perhaps..." she looked around the room for a likely candidate.

"Lek, Lahr, would you be so good as to fill James in on our erstwhile adversary Mr. Leyton?  Just a few brief things so the poor guy knows what he's let himself in for!" she asked with her head on one side big wide pleading eyes joking with them.  "You guys tell it straight and you've had more run ins with Leyton than I have. Tempest, Maggie... you might want to listen in."

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

PO2 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[Innominatum Outpost - Deck 14 - Conference Room 1]

[Conference Room 1 - Deck 14 - Innominatum Outpost]

Lek drew imaginary symbols on the table as Lahr spoke, nodding absently as he tried to collect his thoughts.

"I've considered trying a more active form... of a courtship, but truth be told, she scares me a little bit." he waved at his face with a half smile. "She might not have done this, but she could, several times over and while I enjoy oomox as much as any Ferengi male, I would rather not end up in sickbay in the process.

"Talking to her would be a great idea, if I could end up in the same place at the same time. Something she's gone out of her way to make sure never happens. As to what could be bothering her, I don't actually know her that well. We've.... er.... well never mind what we have done, what we haven't done is talk much, so I don't know why she's avoiding me. This is why I chose engineering. Engines are easy, feemales are difficult."

Lek sighed and looked dejected, clearly torn as to how to proceed with his more off than on relationship with Helga.

Lahr was honestly a bit surprised at Lek opening up to him as much as he was.  It felt kinda  good to be that trusted.  And the Andorian could understand the Ferengi's ... apprehension.  Lahr had pushed Helga a bit too much this afternoon and was having to face the consequences of that.

"Yeah I can appreciate that sentiment.  She is rather scary.  But dude, she's sensitive too and letting her slip through your fingers because of something that with a little bit of forethought can be prevented...   I don't know, man.... but yeah I think you two definitely need to talk.  So if it's just a matter of getting the two of you together in a place she can't leave... consider it done.  I'll message you when I have it set up."

At that point, others began arriving.  Lahr looked over to see an unfamiliar face in a gold uniform.

[Conference Room 1 - Deck 14]

Deciding he should take some initiative before the captain arrived, James stood up, and awkwardly waved to the room. "Its a pleasure to be assigned to be a member of the...crew, if you need anything ummmm... tactical I'm your guy!" He stood there, akwardly waiting for a response, the realisation slowly dawning on him that that was possibly the worst introduction he had ever done to anyone, ever, possibly in all realities were he is present. He sat back down, avoiding eye contact with the others in the room.

Lahr raised a hand and waved back to the obviously green officer.  "Welcome to the crew.  I take it you are joining us on Challenger and aren't going to be just staying on the Innominatum?  I'm Lahr - a former tactical guy... I do comms and transporters now.  This is Lek - he's the Chief Engineer."  Lahr offered  their introductions so the poor fellow didn't feel too out of place. "Does the tactical guy have a name?"

About that time the Captain and XO arrived with yet another couple unfamiliar faces.

[Base Commander's Office > Conference Room 1, Deck 14 - Innominatum Outpost]

"Morning guys... I'd like to try to get through this as quickly as possible so we can thrash things out to make sure you can still have as much down time as possible on base at the same time as getting things sorted to nobble Leyton once and for all.  Grab something from the replicator those who haven't and want something.  As always so long as you're taking notice and being quiet feel free to get up and make yourself a drink whenever.  Who's up for some brainstorming?!  First things first though, we have some new faces."  The Captain turned and briefly introduced the new CMO and CSO.

"Lt. Tempest, our new CSO and Dr. Maggie... it is ok that they call you Maggie?"  the CMO gave a bright smile and a nod.  "... Dr. Maggie York our new CMO.  Some of you may not have noticed but Dr. Vaughan and her daughter Alys left the station a couple of days ago.  Lizzie has had a long overdue promotion and taken up a position as Head of Paediatric Trauma at Starfleet Medical on Earth.  I have contact details if anyone needs them.  And I believe we have an Ensign Walding here??? Make yourself known James... don't be shy! I don't bite... may sling axes occasionally but not generally at my own crew!"

News of Dr. Vaughan's transfer was shocking but Lahr found himself wishing the Doc well. She deserved the promotion.  He'd have to grab a drink later and toast to her success.

[Conference Room 1, Deck 14 - Innominatum Outpost]

James was taken aback by the tone in which the captain spoke, after disastrous first introduction James half expected Captain Sigurdsdottir to bark at him.
"Hello Captain i'm Ensign James Walding, its a pleasure to be assigned under your command sir." James said, standing up to address the captain and the newly entered CMO and CSO. He took care this time to make a good impression, presenting his hand for a handshake and overall trying to make less of a fool of himself than he had before. "I'm sorry if I'm not supposed to be here captain, I have to admit I am not entirely sure you meant to invite me to this important meeting... thingy." He felt the facade of fake confidence slip away."I dont know if it standard procedure to have ensigns in on the important... stuff, first assignment and...all...that." he said, trailing off towards the end.

Lahr gave James a head nod, having gotten the introduction he'd asked for.

[Conference Room - Deck 14 - Innominatum Base]

"Relax, James, please!" Ruth said dropping to his first name to try to calm to poor Ensign and taking his hand between both of hers, grasping it firmly, but gently and kindly, then releasing it with a smile.  "For the record, and it's not a complaint just a preference, I prefer Ma'am, and yes, you jolly well should be here!  Lt. Taray should be along soon too so you can meet her, that's your department head if you didn't have a chance to read the welcome file!" she said with a wink.

"Anyone well versed in Tactical is going to be needed, as what we're going to be doing here is essentially a game plan.  While we're waiting for the stragglers perhaps..." she looked around the room for a likely candidate.

"Lek, Lahr, would you be so good as to fill James in on our erstwhile adversary Mr. Leyton?  Just a few brief things so the poor guy knows what he's let himself in for!" she asked with her head on one side big wide pleading eyes joking with them.  "You guys tell it straight and you've had more run ins with Leyton than I have. Tempest, Maggie... you might want to listen in."

Lahr for a moment didn't know what to say as the Captain called on him and Lek to brief the new staff on Leyton.  The Andorian looked to the Chief to see if the Engineer would like to field this one but then figured it was more an Ops duty.  Crud.

"Well, Leyton - is the same Admiral who 25 years ago attempted a coup d'état against the Federation president at the time because he thought his policies were too weak and not aggressive enough to defend against the Dominion threat.  Well, this time Leyton has declared war on the Federation."  Lahr began reviewing a bit of older history.

"Challenger discovered last fall that one the reasons he has drawn so many to his cause is because he's brainwashing them. Our own Captain at the time, now Admiral Torngate, was one of his victims.  He managed to break the brainwashing and he escape bringing with him much of the intel that we have been using to fight against Leyton.  Since then we've had several battle encounters with him or his fleet." Lahr paused.. this next part was hard for him.  It had changed things for him significantly.

"We've retaken Innominatum Outpost from his control at the beginning of the year - at great cost in lives and ships - yet just recently we discovered Leyton himself was hiding on Innominatum and he managed to steal the USS Redav to escape.  Challenger gave chase and managed to track down the abandoned Redav, but Leyton escaped. That was just last week.". Lahr stated in wrap up.

He looked to Lek... to see if the Chief had anything to add.

[James Walding]

"Well, Leyton - is the same Admiral who 25 years ago attempted a coup d'état against the Federation president at the time because he thought his policies were too weak and not aggressive enough to defend against the Dominion threat.  Well, this time Leyton has declared war on the Federation."  Lahr began reviewing a bit of older history.

"Challenger discovered last fall that one the reasons he has drawn so many to his cause is because he's brainwashing them. Our own Captain at the time, now Admiral Torngate, was one of his victims.  He managed to break the brainwashing and he escape bringing with him much of the intel that we have been using to fight against Leyton.  Since then we've had several battle encounters with him or his fleet." Lahr paused.. this next part was hard for him.  It had changed things for him significantly.

"We've retaken Innominatum Outpost from his control at the beginning of the year - at great cost in lives and ships - yet just recently we discovered Leyton himself was hiding on Innominatum and he managed to steal the USS Redav to escape.  Challenger gave chase and managed to track down the abandoned Redav, but Leyton escaped. That was just last week.". Lahr stated in wrap up.

[Innominatum Outpost - Deck 14 - Conference Room 1]

James stood there, silent for a moment, as he took in what Lahr has just told him. "If a cadet told me all this..." he thought, "I wouldn't belive a word of it." However he could tell by the look in the Andorians eyes that he was telling the truth.

"Ex vice admiral Leyton.... sounds like all them Federation vs Federation battle sims wont have been useless after all."He said, as the realisation that his first assignment would not be cushy one washed over him. "We studied him and the failed coup at the academy, and as much as I enjoyed learning about it, I didn't think I would be learning more about him later in such a....direct...capacity."

"Have we got any help? The Romulans? The Klingons?"

[Djann Tempest]

[Conference Room 1 - Deck 14 - Innominatum Outpost]

Tempest had been sitting back and listening intently, hands intertwined. Leyton he thought with disgust. The universe would be a better place if he had met his end years ago but now he was our problem.

[Innominatum Outpost - Deck 14 - Conference Room 1]

James stood there, silent for a moment, as he took in what Lahr has just told him. "If a cadet told me all this..." he thought, "I wouldn't belive a word of it." However he could tell by the look in the Andorians eyes that he was telling the truth.

"Ex vice admiral Leyton.... sounds like all them Federation vs Federation battle sims wont have been useless after all."He said, as the realisation that his first assignment would not be cushy one washed over him. "We studied him and the failed coup at the academy, and as much as I enjoyed learning about it, I didn't think I would be learning more about him later in such a....direct...capacity."

"Have we got any help? The Romulans? The Klingons?"

"I doubt we'll be getting any help from the Romulans Mr. Walding. They have withdrawn their already few delegates from Daystrom right before I left. If they're recalling their top minds, something must big must be taking priority".

Picking up a padd he looked back through the notes the computer provided on some of the information presented. What was missing was methodology. Neurology wasn't a big area of expertise but the marriage of tech research and medical research capable of this scale of brainwashing meant scientists.

"A few questions if I may" Djann addressed to the room. "Have we recovered any tech and do we have any biometric scans on anyone in his brainwashed state? I can perhaps explore some avenues by attempting to determine who helped develop this tech and in turn perhaps find a way to combat it on a wider scale".

[James Walding]

I doubt we'll be getting any help from the Romulans Mr. Walding. They have withdrawn their already few delegates from Daystrom right before I left. If they're recalling their top minds, something must big must be taking priority".

[Innominatum Outpost - Deck 14 - Conference Room 1]

"So no chance of a cloaking device." James whispered under his breath.

[Ruth Sigurdsdottir]

PO2 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[Innominatum Outpost - Deck 14 - Conference Room 1]
Lahr for a moment didn't know what to say as the Captain called on him and Lek to brief the new staff on Leyton.  The Andorian looked to the Chief to see if the Engineer would like to field this one but then figured it was more an Ops duty.  Crud.

"Well, Leyton - is the same Admiral who 25 years ago attempted a coup d'état against the Federation president at the time because he thought his policies were too weak and not aggressive enough to defend against the Dominion threat.  Well, this time Leyton has declared war on the Federation."  Lahr began reviewing a bit of older history.

"Challenger discovered last fall that one the reasons he has drawn so many to his cause is because he's brainwashing them. Our own Captain at the time, now Admiral Torngate, was one of his victims.  He managed to break the brainwashing and he escape bringing with him much of the intel that we have been using to fight against Leyton.  Since then we've had several battle encounters with him or his fleet." Lahr paused.. this next part was hard for him.  It had changed things for him significantly.

"We've retaken Innominatum Outpost from his control at the beginning of the year - at great cost in lives and ships - yet just recently we discovered Leyton himself was hiding on Innominatum and he managed to steal the USS Redav to escape.  Challenger gave chase and managed to track down the abandoned Redav, but Leyton escaped. That was just last week.". Lahr stated in wrap up.

He looked to Lek... to see if the Chief had anything to add.

[Conference Room - Deck 14]

"Thank you Lahr I think that about covers it, most other things will be brought out in this meeting and you'll learn over the next few weeks as you're part of this 'Strategic Task Force' we'll come up with a codename for it soon I'm sure, forward your suggestions in due course." Ruth said with a grateful nod at Lahr.

[Innominatum Outpost - Deck 14 - Conference Room 1]

James stood there, silent for a moment, as he took in what Lahr has just told him. "If a cadet told me all this..." he thought, "I wouldn't believe a word of it." However he could tell by the look in the Andorians eyes that he was telling the truth.

"Ex vice admiral Leyton.... sounds like all them Federation vs Federation battle sims wont have been useless after all."He said, as the realisation that his first assignment would not be cushy one washed over him. "We studied him and the failed coup at the academy, and as much as I enjoyed learning about it, I didn't think I would be learning more about him later in such a....direct...capacity."

"Have we got any help? The Romulans? The Klingons?"

[Conference Room 1 - Deck 14 - Innominatum Outpost]

Tempest had been sitting back and listening intently, hands intertwined. Leyton he thought with disgust. The universe would be a better place if he had met his end years ago but now he was our problem.

"I doubt we'll be getting any help from the Romulans Mr. Walding. They have withdrawn their already few delegates from Daystrom right before I left. If they're recalling their top minds, something must big must be taking priority".

Picking up a padd he looked back through the notes the computer provided on some of the information presented. What was missing was methodology. Neurology wasn't a big area of expertise but the marriage of tech research and medical research capable of this scale of brainwashing meant scientists.

"A few questions if I may" Djann addressed to the room. "Have we recovered any tech and do we have any biometric scans on anyone in his brainwashed state? I can perhaps explore some avenues by attempting to determine who helped develop this tech and in turn perhaps find a way to combat it on a wider scale".

[Innominatum Outpost - Deck 14 - Conference Room 1]

"So no chance of a cloaking device." James whispered under his breath.

The Captain answered James first as both Lt. Taray and CPO Maghouin with PO Wilson from Outpost Security walked in.

"No Mr. Walding, in fact with facts that will come out during this meeting, I think you'll find that Mr. Tempest is more than right about the Romulans and could be that some of them are working with or for him unfortunately.  I'm not sure in what capacity but that will come out in time too I'm sure. Other help... we may have Ambassador Aedile come to our assistance... there is a big local delegates conference on base next month, that sort of thing can be discussed then." She paused and passed the PADD that Sukal had fetched her up to Lek.

"Not all bad tho.  Lt. Lek that should give you something to smile about.  Maggie, can you take a look at PO ch'Verret's antennae, one seems to be a bit...wonky. Forgive me Lahr but I'm no doc but I can see one of your antennae isn't right, I'm sure Maggie can listen and sort you out at the same time." she smiled.

"Sure if Mr ch'Verret wants or we can just schedule an appointment as per what we were discussing earlier Captain, but with our poor Andorian friend here being one of the first so he gets his antennae seen to?!" Maggie offered, conscious that some people didn't like medical examinations in front of people.

"Whichever works, I just don't like my crew being injured.  And Mr. Tempest your questions.  As far as I know we haven't got any actual tech but I know Dr. Vaughan got blueprints which are as good as anything and did significant research, successfully reversing the brainwashing effects on Admiral Torngate.  She did assure me that she's left all that information in a file accessible by me and the CMO, but obviously she said for use by whomever needs it. "  being a Scientist herself, Ruth was already going down the same lines as he.

"I'm pretty certain that the 'something big' involving the Romulans is in part what CPO Maghouin has been investigating with an informant of ours, you may give your report in a moment please Lena, and what Capt. Waring of the USS Shran has been having difficulties with.  As some of you may know Captain Waring is my fiance and as such we chat regularly.  Obviously there are limits to what he can tell me regarding his orders but he does have a bit of a downer on the Romulans lately and coupled with the fact that he knows that he can give me what information he is allowed to and I'll join the dots... yeah well!"

The Captain shrugged.

"This meeting, between Lahr's run down for those of you who have not yet had the dubious pleasure of Leyton's acquaintanceship, basically what I need you to do is this."

She pulled out pointer laser and turned on a holo emitter map in the centre of the table.

"This room is going to be locked, I'm having pass keys made for each of you but they will reside in the Outpost Security office and need to be signed in and out via fingerprint.  CPO Maghouin..."

Lena raised a hand acknowledging who she was "Please, if this is going the way I think it is, best get used to calling me Lena!"

"Cool, right Lena... you'll be in charge of that.  What goes on in this room, stays in this room other than any experiments that need performing, medical stuff, and actual physical repairs and modifications to the ship and base."

A deep sigh and a swig of coffee.

"Lena perhaps you can give your report, then I'll have Mr. Lek report on the state of the Challenger and Lt. Taray, Mr. Sukal... I think perhaps Mr. Sukal might be best for that since the departure of Mr. Nari for pastures new, on the Tactical side of things... might want to set your PADDs to record there's gonna be a lot of data incoming." Ruth said ruefully.  "Buuuuut... this meeting out of the way and I think you'll be glad of your new working rotas! I'll go into that after Lena's spoken." she smiled brightly.

[Ruth Sigurdsdottir]

[Conference Room - Deck 14]
"Lena perhaps you can give your report, then I'll have Mr. Lek report on the state of the Challenger and Lt. Taray, Mr. Sukal... I think perhaps Mr. Sukal might be best for that since the departure of Mr. Nari for pastures new, on the Tactical side of things... might want to set your PADDs to record there's gonna be a lot of data incoming." Ruth said ruefully.  "Buuuuut... this meeting out of the way and I think you'll be glad of your new working rotas! I'll go into that after Lena's spoken." she smiled brightly.

[Conference Room - Deck 14]
[As CPO 'Lena' Maghouin - Chief of Security, Innominatum Outpost]

Lena stood and leaned both hands on the table in front of her.

"Mind if I turn this off for now?" she said gesturing at the map.  She received a nod from the Captain who blipped it off.

"Right, most of you know, newer faces won't, but there's been a drug ring operating on Innominatum, we were sort of interested in it but with all the stuff going on, it seemed to be mostly recreational, or so we thought, until recently so.. we kept an eye on it but we had much bigger fish to fry." Lena began.

She licked her lips to stop them being so dry and then continued.  "That's until recently when unfortunately there's been 2 deaths - you had one on the Challenger..."

"Yes Ensign Davidson." Ruth confirmed.

"...and we had a gentleman who worked here, planning to get married but well... he died.  Now, he'd been being supplied by 2 young girls.  Very nice girls since I've got to know them, called Veronique and Pema.  The first drugs they had were just that... recreational drugs.  And from what we learned in interview they knew nothing about them save what they'd read on the Pharma Cert procured for them by my informant known as The Traveller."

The Security Chief paused.  "Between his testimony, and my own experience I'm pretty sure what the girls were saying was true.  You ever seen a scared rabbit, or a deer in headlights... that was these girls in interview, they were... pardon my language here, shit scared of being incarcerated or worse being terminated by their superiors.  Which brings me onto the next part.  The superiors swapped the drugs.  Previously the drugs - I still have several of the old batch if you need them for analysis, locked in the safe in my office... they and the new ones, carefully marked.  The first are just the drug, the new are ten times the strength and have been laced with some micro organism.  Base Science department will send over the files to Mr. Tempest.  But they say that there is no reason for these micro organisms to be there if they just want the mind control, lowering inhibitions.  The drug itself would do that.  So I'm thinking that the drug people have their own agenda and are piggybacking on Leyton..."

She stopped abruptly.  "I'm saying Leyton.  Years of experience and information is pointing at Leyton here.  He's brainwashing the masses, so lowering inhibitions so that you are brainwashed more easily by giving people a pleasure enhancing inhibition lowering drug... well seems logical.  The micro organisms tho.. no, not needed and Leyton doesn't expend energy unnecessarily."

She stood bolt upright taking the kink out of her back and walked slowly behind the seats.  "When we searched the room the girls had, they've been moved and have political asylum here, part of a plea bargain on La.. The Travellers part and my own guarantee to them... we found several interesting things.  First a bag belonging to Ensign Davidson, we got fingerprints off them and Lt. Taray had forwarded me the holo picture of the missing bag provided by your Security department and Mr. Toro, which was full bar a few packets already sold, of the 2nd version of the drugs, so we are assuming that they came in via the Challenger..."

"Actually they did,.." Taray interjected. "But not the way you might think.  They came in on the Redav, in soil under strobolin plants that were needed for the Medical department.  They by-passed base security and customs checks because they were going from one Federation vessel to another and just got beamed across.  It was only when Davidson was repotting the Strobolin plants that they were discovered.  He scooped them into his bag intending I presume to hand them in as there's no previous indication of drug use... but he dashed off to get what shore leave he could and by the time that he got to the bar he was turning around due to chasing after Leyton."

"Indeed... the girls 'found' the bag in the bar... on further pressing they appropriated the bag when they realised what was in it since they had been waiting for a shipment having spoken to Lilith who was their immediate supervisor.  She was a Cardassian.  The mentioned tho that when they tried to report that there had been a death, Lilith wasn't able to come to the video chat and another woman that identified herself as Hecate, a half Romulan/Klingon woman came to the screen and said that Lilith wouldn't be talking to them anymore.  There's been no further connection as yet but we have their console tapped and they're aware of this so if communication is made we'll know about it." Lena finished.

"The other 'interesting things' were just lists of people they'd sold to.  I think Leyton's plan backfired on him cuz there's only 4 Starfleet personnel listed in that book, and all for the lower dosage drugs. That's the drug side of things... Security and how Leyton skulked around for a month before we noticed him... well that was before I got here and we're working on that at the moment, but we're going to be overhauling all Security measures.  We got some more cadets and Ensigns in on the last transport ship so we'll be able to do proper patrols, customs etc from now on."

[James Walding]

"The other 'interesting things' were just lists of people they'd sold to.  I think Leyton's plan backfired on him cuz there's only 4 Starfleet personnel listed in that book, and all for the lower dosage drugs. That's the drug side of things... Security and how Leyton skulked around for a month before we noticed him... well that was before I got here and we're working on that at the moment, but we're going to be overhauling all Security measures.  We got some more cadets and Ensigns in on the last transport ship so we'll be able to do proper patrols, customs etc from now on."

[Conference Room - Deck 14]

"If I can help in anyway chief I'm more than happy to. While I know nothing on space station security, I am versed in general security and am more than happy to learn"

[Sukal]

Conference Room

Sukal listened as several of the members of the meeting gave an update of all past activities on former Vice-Admiral Leyton.  He did not bother to interrupt their thoughts or briefing considering it was well given to the new personnel present at the table.  His PADD with the inventory was turned over to Lek, and he hoped the Ferengi would be quite pleased with the new supplies.  Certainly none of it was to frown at considering the resources it would give the Chief Engineer.  Lena's report on things going on concerning the investigation of the plants and so forth made the First Officer aware of just how much had been going on during their absence away from the base.  It seemed to Sukal that Lena had things well in hand at the moment, and that was not without hope.  He was curious as to why one contact was no longer available, and how Hecate was going to end up changing things with her being the new contact.  Sukal did not like changes in such operations, because unknown factors tended to mess with the intelligence they were getting.  How would Hecate react to certain things?  How was she directly tied into the current problems?  How much did she know of what they had discovered?  Did she work directly for Leyton, or was she just another link?

After Lena's report was given; it was his turn to give a tactical evaluation of the CHALLENGER.  This was due to his friend, Mondo, having been transferred elsewhere.  The Captain's Battle Butler - as she often called Mondo - was gone, but she was not without her resources still.

"Our recent engagement with the captured REDAV and BISMARK did not go according to plan.  The idea of coming up with an innovative plan to surprise Leyton and d'Arth rather backfired on us.  Were it not for Lieutenant Lek's supreme ability to increase our shields; I do not think we would be here having this conversation.  The slipstream idea worked smoothly in so much as it allowed us to suddenly catch up to Leyton.  Dropping the static warp bubble on his ship further worked as planned, and completely disabled their starship.  It was the sudden arrival of the BISMARK which really hurt us.  There had been no signs of any enemy ships nearby, but we can now understand they came from kind of wormhole which allowed them to materialize before our eyes without warning.  This, more than anything else really hurt our ability to capture Leyton.  That said, I will be looking into ways to continue updating our defenses which will hopefully balance the terms of the next engagement.  When I was assigned to the USS GETTYSBURG under then Captain T'Ra Jones; I had been working on several ideas to boost our abilities against the Borg and other adversaries.  With my return to Starfleet; I intend to go back over those files and see if any can be used to help us in the near future," Sukal began as his eyes took in the entire personnel seated at the table.

When he continued, it was with his assessment of Leyton's tactics, "Thus far, Leyton has been beating us thanks to his extensive knowledge of Starfleet procedures and tactics.  It is true that his ability to brainwash our personnel has severely hampered our ability to properly deal with him.  However, that dangerous part aside; Leyton works against us with our own knowledge of tactics superbly.  This, then, is the key to beating him once and for all.  We must continue to be innovative in our tactics and approach to solutions if we are to end this destructive conflict.  Treachery from him will only go so far.  He knows the Starfleet playbooks by heart.  In fact, I am sure he even wrote a couple of chapters in his time as an Admiral.  We cannot continue to challenge him on those terms.  So, I will also be going over various tactics we can use that are not common.  I believe this should be applied further to our security teams as far as investigations and patrols.  I am fairly certain all of us on one level or another are tired of this man causing such harm to the Federation we serve.  It is time to rewrite the playbooks, and finally put an end to his reign of terror and treachery."

"Another of Leyton's tricks is to apparently lure Federation starships with phony distress calls.  I, for one, find such a tactic quite annoying, but it has clearly been responsible for the capture of at least three starships.  I can almost guarantee there are more who have fallen to this particular ruse.  Thus, I have an idea which I hope to implement once discussed with certain team members.  It involves a very old cavalry tactic of a mobile lightning strike unit.  This unit would be responsible for monitoring a sector complete with the ability to use slipstream drive more effectively.  The next time a distress call goes out - one of our ships will go as per our standard procedures, but the lightning ship will remain in standby.  The moment...the very moment we discover the rescue ship is in trouble through whatever means necessary; this lightning cruiser will activate its slipstream drive, and charge in unexpectedly.  We might even be able to have more than a single ship ready to converge on the Rebel the next time such treachery is used.  In doing so, we can catch the enemy flat, and make sure they don't pull that trick again," the First Officer added with slightly narrowed eyes.  "As I said, whatever innovative ways we can come up with to hurt Leyton and his Rebels - we should work on discovering."

[Ruth Sigurdsdottir]

[Conference Room - Deck 14]

"If I can help in anyway chief I'm more than happy to. While I know nothing on space station security, I am versed in general security and am more than happy to learn"

[Conference Room - Deck 14]
[As CPO Lena Maghouin, Lt. Taray, Capt Ruth Sigurdsdottir]

Lena smiled at the new Security Ensign.  "Well, anyone eager to learn is always ok in my books. However, it's Lt. Taray here..." she gestured at the Benzite female behind whom she had just stopped. "...who will have more jurisdiction over you, she's your department head."

"Lena, I think if I read between the lines with what the Captain was saying we're going to be 2 days on 2 days off so maybe pooling our resources and each of us getting to know the others team members might be an idea.  Captain?" Taray replied.

Ruth nodded.  "I'm hoping by the time we are setting out after Leyton we know each other's departments well too, not just our own and our counterparts on the base, there will need to be a fair amount of inter-departmental trust and information exchanging."

Conference Room
"Our recent engagement with the captured REDAV and BISMARK did not go according to plan.  The idea of coming up with an innovative plan to surprise Leyton and d'Arth rather backfired on us.  Were it not for Lieutenant Lek's supreme ability to increase our shields; I do not think we would be here having this conversation.  The slipstream idea worked smoothly in so much as it allowed us to suddenly catch up to Leyton.  Dropping the static warp bubble on his ship further worked as planned, and completely disabled their starship.  It was the sudden arrival of the BISMARK which really hurt us.  There had been no signs of any enemy ships nearby, but we can now understand they came from kind of wormhole which allowed them to materialize before our eyes without warning.  This, more than anything else really hurt our ability to capture Leyton.  That said, I will be looking into ways to continue updating our defenses which will hopefully balance the terms of the next engagement.  When I was assigned to the USS GETTYSBURG under then Captain T'Ra Jones; I had been working on several ideas to boost our abilities against the Borg and other adversaries.  With my return to Starfleet; I intend to go back over those files and see if any can be used to help us in the near future," Sukal began as his eyes took in the entire personnel seated at the table.

When he continued, it was with his assessment of Leyton's tactics, "Thus far, Leyton has been beating us thanks to his extensive knowledge of Starfleet procedures and tactics.  It is true that his ability to brainwash our personnel has severely hampered our ability to properly deal with him.  However, that dangerous part aside; Leyton works against us with our own knowledge of tactics superbly.  This, then, is the key to beating him once and for all.  We must continue to be innovative in our tactics and approach to solutions if we are to end this destructive conflict.  Treachery from him will only go so far.  He knows the Starfleet playbooks by heart.  In fact, I am sure he even wrote a couple of chapters in his time as an Admiral.  We cannot continue to challenge him on those terms.  So, I will also be going over various tactics we can use that are not common.  I believe this should be applied further to our security teams as far as investigations and patrols.  I am fairly certain all of us on one level or another are tired of this man causing such harm to the Federation we serve.  It is time to rewrite the playbooks, and finally put an end to his reign of terror and treachery."

"Another of Leyton's tricks is to apparently lure Federation starships with phony distress calls.  I, for one, find such a tactic quite annoying, but it has clearly been responsible for the capture of at least three starships.  I can almost guarantee there are more who have fallen to this particular ruse.  Thus, I have an idea which I hope to implement once discussed with certain team members.  It involves a very old cavalry tactic of a mobile lightning strike unit.  This unit would be responsible for monitoring a sector complete with the ability to use slipstream drive more effectively.  The next time a distress call goes out - one of our ships will go as per our standard procedures, but the lightning ship will remain in standby.  The moment...the very moment we discover the rescue ship is in trouble through whatever means necessary; this lightning cruiser will activate its slipstream drive, and charge in unexpectedly.  We might even be able to have more than a single ship ready to converge on the Rebel the next time such treachery is used.  In doing so, we can catch the enemy flat, and make sure they don't pull that trick again," the First Officer added with slightly narrowed eyes.  "As I said, whatever innovative ways we can come up with to hurt Leyton and his Rebels - we should work on discovering."

"Actually, something you said in that report Number One made me think.  It might be advantageous to have a list of secondary skills that people have even down to say an interest in reading historical accounts of battles.  The tactics of old Roman soldiers might seem outdated but... would Leyton necessarily think that we would have such an asset or resource?" the Captain said walking around.

"Basically Ladies and Gentlemen,.." she said flicking on the map again.  "Using different colours, you're all adults I'll let you sort it out between you, but by doing the tasks ahead I mean to narrow down the area his base could be and beard the lion in his den so to speak. So..we need to do the following..."

She pulled up another file and projected it at the white wall opposite the head of the table so that all could look down towards it.

It read:

• Repair Challenger - including fitting her with any upgrades deemed necessary to plating, shields etc.
• The same to Innominatum protection as above
• Base Security to implement full customs and crack down on crime.
• Full Medical overhaul of all staff Challenger and Innominatum, Crew brought to full fitness by end of delegate visit.
• Plot a possible location for Leyton's HQ by triangulation on known disappearances of ships, known areas of operations, and also the locations of growing live strobolin, and the main ingredients of the drugs. Plus any other data we may have.
• Develop a smoother method of worm hole transition or find another way through to where we found Redav.
• Make full list of possibly involved ships and crews from the 'missing' list
• Overhaul all systems, Innominatum and Challenger
• Think outside the box
• Investigate Dr. Vaughan's records regarding the brainwashing device
• Question the 4 Cadets that arrived with the Redav for any information
• Create rota so that all senior staff are rota'd to be on duty every 2 days so there is always a DH or senior officer in each department and one of the Command Staff on duty.  Staff only to be called in on days off if we have to go to Yellow Alert

"I confess it's a lot to do inside 6 weeks but if we work together and delegate non-critical tasks to junior staff then we'll get this done." she said confidently.  "I'm available for helping in most departments other than Medical and Engineering unless it's frog marching people to Sickbay or handing tools to people I'm afraid but I want full reports weekly.  I may be Captain here but I'm not standing on ceremony, if you need me to discuss something with, my door, as always is open, I'm also more than willing to roll up my sleeves and muck in. Any other suggestions are welcome.  I suggest today we're all on duty to get a rota thrashed out, after that.... lottery" she winked. "So... Who's with me?"

[Lek]

PO2 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[Innominatum Outpost - Deck 14 - Conference Room 1]

Lahr was honestly a bit surprised at Lek opening up to him as much as he was.  It felt kinda  good to be that trusted.  And the Andorian could understand the Ferengi's ... apprehension.  Lahr had pushed Helga a bit too much this afternoon and was having to face the consequences of that.

"Yeah I can appreciate that sentiment.  She is rather scary.  But dude, she's sensitive too and letting her slip through your fingers because of something that with a little bit of forethought can be prevented...   I don't know, man.... but yeah I think you two definitely need to talk.  So if it's just a matter of getting the two of you together in a place she can't leave... consider it done.  I'll message you when I have it set up."

[Conference Room - Innominatum Outpost]

Lek gave Lahr a baleful look as he replied with suspicion.

"Leaving things to you is what got me into this predicament in the first place, so you'll have to excuse me if I remain skeptical, but I can promise you this, if this goes as bad as it could, if I survive whatever she does to me, I promise I will do it to you."

When the meeting started, he didn't add anything to the conversation, but smiled as he read the PADD he'd been given.

"It looks like you have been able to skillfully negotiate the Great Material Continuum Sir. These items will be extremely useful, especially the industrial replicator."

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

PO2 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[Innominatum Outpost - Deck 14 - Conference Room]

[Conference Room - Innominatum Outpost]

Lek gave Lahr a baleful look as he replied with suspicion.

"Leaving things to you is what got me into this predicament in the first place, so you'll have to excuse me if I remain skeptical, but I can promise you this, if this goes as bad as it could, if I survive whatever she does to me, I promise I will do it to you."

Lahr didn't have the opportunity to give Lek an actual response back, as the Captain and others arrived then but the Andorian nodded his head in understanding.   Maybe he should have set the Ferengi up with someone more pliable? But the pairing had seemed so perfect to Lahr... no, this would work! Lek just needed to grow a pair and show Helga he was someone she could take home to meet Daddy.

[Conference Room - Deck 14]

"Thank you Lahr I think that about covers it, most other things will be brought out in this meeting and you'll learn over the next few weeks as you're part of this 'Strategic Task Force' we'll come up with a codename for it soon I'm sure, forward your suggestions in due course." Ruth said with a grateful nod at Lahr.
.
.
"Not all bad tho.  Lt. Lek that should give you something to smile about.  Maggie, can you take a look at PO ch'Verret's antennae, one seems to be a bit...wonky. Forgive me Lahr but I'm no doc but I can see one of your antennae isn't right, I'm sure Maggie can listen and sort you out at the same time." she smiled.

"Sure if Mr ch'Verret wants or we can just schedule an appointment as per what we were discussing earlier Captain, but with our poor Andorian friend here being one of the first so he gets his antennae seen to?!" Maggie offered, conscious that some people didn't like medical examinations in front of people.

"Whichever works, I just don't like my crew being injured."

Lahr bobbed his head at the Captain's appreciation of his overview.  However doing so jarred his antenna and he must have winced somewhat because next thing he knew the Captain was suggesting the new doctor take a look at his antenna. - here and now!

Thankfully the new doctor was a bit more reasonable and recognized that the last thing Lahr wanted was to have his antenna be worked on while the meeting continued.

"I'm fine for now Ma'am.  I was planning to go to Sickbay later."  Actually he hadn't - he had attempted to field dress it himself which is why it looked 'wonky'.  He just didn't want to have to explain how he damaged the sensitive organ.  Most Andorian's are quite careful of their antenna.

The meeting continued and Lahr did his best to understand everything that was going on.  But damn it was convoluted and messy.  He bet Chief tr'Lhoell would have loved to be here for the investigation, not to mention taking out Leyton... maybe get some payback on the Empire that must have kicked him out.

[Conference Room - Deck 14]
Capt Ruth Sigurdsdottir

"Basically Ladies and Gentlemen,.." she said flicking on the map again.  "Using different colours, you're all adults I'll let you sort it out between you, but by doing the tasks ahead I mean to narrow down the area his base could be and beard the lion in his den so to speak. So..we need to do the following..."

She pulled up another file and projected it at the white wall opposite the head of the table so that all could look down towards it.

It read:

• Repair Challenger - including fitting her with any upgrades deemed necessary to plating, shields etc.
• The same to Innominatum protection as above
• Base Security to implement full customs and crack down on crime.
• Full Medical overhaul of all staff Challenger and Innominatum, Crew brought to full fitness by end of delegate visit.
• Plot a possible location for Leyton's HQ by triangulation on known disappearances of ships, known areas of operations, and also the locations of growing live strobolin, and the main ingredients of the drugs. Plus any other data we may have.
• Develop a smoother method of worm hole transition or find another way through to where we found Redav.
• Make full list of possibly involved ships and crews from the 'missing' list
• Overhaul all systems, Innominatum and Challenger
• Think outside the box
• Investigate Dr. Vaughan's records regarding the brainwashing device
• Question the 4 Cadets that arrived with the Redav for any information
• Create rota so that all senior staff are rota'd to be on duty every 2 days so there is always a DH or senior officer in each department and one of the Command Staff on duty.  Staff only to be called in on days off if we have to go to Yellow Alert

"I confess it's a lot to do inside 6 weeks but if we work together and delegate non-critical tasks to junior staff then we'll get this done." she said confidently.  "I'm available for helping in most departments other than Medical and Engineering unless it's frog marching people to Sickbay or handing tools to people I'm afraid but I want full reports weekly.  I may be Captain here but I'm not standing on ceremony, if you need me to discuss something with, my door, as always is open, I'm also more than willing to roll up my sleeves and muck in. Any other suggestions are welcome.  I suggest today we're all on duty to get a rota thrashed out, after that.... lottery" she winked. "So... Who's with me?"

"I'll set to work on numbers 5 and 7 right away, Ma'am.  Any help from science  or Tactical would be appreciated."

[Ruth Sigurdsdottir]

PO2 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[Innominatum Outpost - Deck 14 - Conference Room]

Lahr didn't have the opportunity to give Lek an actual response back, as the Captain and others arrived then but the Andorian nodded his head in understanding.   Maybe he should have set the Ferengi up with someone more pliable? But the pairing had seemed so perfect to Lahr... no, this would work! Lek just needed to grow a pair and show Helga he was someone she could take home to meet Daddy.

Lahr bobbed his head at the Captain's appreciation of his overview.  However doing so jarred his antenna and he must have winced somewhat because next thing he knew the Captain was suggesting the new doctor take a look at his antenna. - here and now!

Thankfully the new doctor was a bit more reasonable and recognized that the last thing Lahr wanted was to have his antenna be worked on while the meeting continued.

"I'm fine for now Ma'am.  I was planning to go to Sickbay later."  Actually he hadn't - he had attempted to field dress it himself which is why it looked 'wonky'.  He just didn't want to have to explain how he damaged the sensitive organ.  Most Andorian's are quite careful of their antenna.

The meeting continued and Lahr did his best to understand everything that was going on.  But damn it was convoluted and messy.  He bet Chief tr'Lhoell would have loved to be here for the investigation, not to mention taking out Leyton... maybe get some payback on the Empire that must have kicked him out.
"I'll set to work on numbers 5 and 7 right away, Ma'am.  Any help from science  or Tactical would be appreciated."

[Innominatum Outpost - Deck 14 - Conference Room]

[Dr. York, Lt. Taray, CPO Maghouin, Ruth]

Maggie gave Lahr a wink.  "I dated an Andorian for a while Mr. ch'Verret.  I find them to be fascinating people, but I still have gaps in my knowledge... wanna help a girl out when you have some time?!" she said smiling over at the Ops officer kindly.  "Captain wants everyone to have a full check over, iron out any kinks... or in your case 'wonky antennae'!, and generally get us back to full fitness as a crew.  Most efficient way to do that is physicals.  Soooo... since it looks like you're gonna be busy for a while... swing by Sickbay when you're done and I'll sort you out, sooner you're done, sooner all you need is the RnR Rx!" she said spelling out the letters.

"I'll trust... well probably Ops in the form of Mr. Sukal since you're gonna be busy with other things, to work up an appropriate rota. To get your leave sorted.  With your permission Ma'am..." she said turning to the Captain "I'll go set up in Medical, can you make it a stipulation that medicals can happen even on leave days although they can stipulate a time.  Otherwise we might not get through everyone."

Ruth nodded.  "I think that's sensible, there's only so many hours in one day, roughly 1000 in 6 weeks, there's a fair few more than 1000 people between the outpost and the Challenger. Our shop alone has about 960 at full capacity.. we aren't at full capacity, maybe 500 souls at the moment, but then there's probably around the same number of people on the Outpost working for the Fleet, and civilians coming in with random medical needs.  I suggest you separate the physicals from genpop medical needs, since you're gonna be processing them and out as quickly as possible and I want everything done, scans, bloods you name it these have to be lean, mean, Leyton catching machines by the time we're out again!"

"You got it Boss!" Maggie said and turned "See you later, Lahr!" she waved. "Oh, the brainwashing device thingy... I think at some point any interested persons need to have a conflab about that one, set it up and I'll be there."

"Lena.." Taray began.

"Yup?"  Lena Maghouin smiled and sat in the vacant chair next to Taray.

Taray pulled out a PADD.  "I'm thinking we need a list of all Security personnel...Outpost and ship, and one of all the key.. literally and figuratively... personnel to give key codes too." she looked up at the Captain.  "No need for us to check a key fob in and out we can just issue a once per day key code to all key personnel, it will be sent to their commbadges and the door scan will pick up on the code and let them in.  It's not totally failsafe as anyone might get hold of the commbadges but less likely that they'd be lost or whatever. Only if you were an android could we programme it into your system." she said with a significant look at Sukal.  She like the First Officer had her doubts about the cadets that came with Admiral d'Arth and suspected they weren't just the species they portrayed.

"Well, yes... Mr. Sukal you have a copy of the manifest?  Between the three of us we can work out a rota of all departments setting parameters so that like if you are on duty then Ruth isn't and perhaps Lahr isn't but depends... argh... we need your logic Sir!" she grinned. "What I mean to say is that you're Chief of Ops, it's logical that you and Lahr wouldn't necessarily be on duty together, but if you have your First Officer hat on so to speak you wouldn't be on when Ruth is on."

"I've got a better idea, I'm appointing you as temporary Second Officer Lena.  Since you're the one left in charge when we're off base and will quite likely be named as Base Commander when we are summoned elsewhere in the galaxy once we've nobbled Leyton."  Ruth chuckled as the poor Outpost Security Chief showed signs of apoplexy.

"I... ah... that is to say... um... Thank you Ma'am!" Lena finally got out.

"Well it means 3 in Command, 3 in Security, 2 in Ops unless there's someone in Operations that Sukal wants to bring onto our team, Maggie is sorting out the Medical team as that will be all hands on deck, Lek I need you to appoint 2 Engineers to the team, Science we have Mr. Tempest, Ensign Farrah, Myself and Mr. Sukal... I know there is some overlap but that's the way it goes.  Mr. Litt and Chief Dradis for flight... I need them to overhaul the navigation systems of all craft.  Challenger should be ok since we've just done it... mentioning which where are they?"

Ruth turned to Sukal "What should we work on first?"

[Djann Tempest]

[Innominatum Outpost - Deck 14 - Conference Room]

This was quite the quagmire Djann had been dropped into but he had a feeling this was why he was assigned here. His previous experience with drug running and his battles with the Starfleet cabal on the Shran seemed to fit.  The problem was there was so much they didn't know. Luckily it sounded like their former officer Dr Vaughn had done most of the hard work on analysis.

"Captain as soon as I can get access to what research has been done, I'll set my AI to looking for common markers to determine manufacturing origin. These micro-organisms are another matter all together..." he trailed off in thought.

They were absolutely right that a man like Leyton wouldn't extemporaneously add something to this cocktail without a cause. Perhaps finding some genetic cousins of what they are would point him in a new direction. His brain was spinning up like a Romulan Singularity drive as so many problems to solve arrived in his mind but it was invigorating. Being a researcher had it's merits but it lacked a certain...danger.

"Dr. York" he addressed to the officer's call for assistance; "I'll introduce you to Dolores, my AI assistant. I believe the triangulation task would be uniquely suited to her algorithms. Before I launch myself into these tasks I have one further question..."

He looked around the room a little sheepishly...

"Where's my lab?"

[Ruth Sigurdsdottir]

[Innominatum Outpost - Deck 14 - Conference Room]

This was quite the quagmire Djann had been dropped into but he had a feeling this was why he was assigned here. His previous experience with drug running and his battles with the Starfleet cabal on the Shran seemed to fit.  The problem was there was so much they didn't know. Luckily it sounded like their former officer Dr Vaughn had done most of the hard work on analysis.

"Captain as soon as I can get access to what research has been done, I'll set my AI to looking for common markers to determine manufacturing origin. These micro-organisms are another matter all together..." he trailed off in thought.

They were absolutely right that a man like Leyton wouldn't extemporaneously add something to this cocktail without a cause. Perhaps finding some genetic cousins of what they are would point him in a new direction. His brain was spinning up like a Romulan Singularity drive as so many problems to solve arrived in his mind but it was invigorating. Being a researcher had it's merits but it lacked a certain...danger.

"Dr. York" he addressed to the officer's call for assistance; "I'll introduce you to Dolores, my AI assistant. I believe the triangulation task would be uniquely suited to her algorithms. Before I launch myself into these tasks I have one further question..."

He looked around the room a little sheepishly...

"Where's my lab?"

[Innominatum Outpost - Deck 14 - Conference Room]

"A damn good question, Mr. Tempest!" Ruth said with a grin broadening after hearing his co-operation with Maggie.

"See there's Science on base, and there's your actual office, labs etc on the Challenger.  On the Challenger Deck 7, and some labs on Deck 8.  You share Deck 7 with some of Medical.  On Innominatum... erm Lena... Sciences on base?" Ruth queried.

"Decks 200-210, CSO office was on Deck 205 corridor C last I checked but not been down there in a while they've mostly come to me!" Lena said with a grin.  "And I get it, you've not had a chance what with going out and trying to not get killed you've not really got your bearings on base yet!"

"Could say that!" Ruth chuckled.  "There's your answer, up to you where you set up for this, both Science Departments have been analysing the drugs and both have cross-ref'd their findings so they'll be up to snuff in both areas.  I'll pop down soon to see how you're doing once you decide where you're setting up.  Depending on where you're going perhaps either PO Wilson could take you to the labs here,..."

Wilson looked up at his name having mostly zoned out waiting for CPO Maghouin to tell him to do something, and gave an incredulous look of '..and you expect me to know where they are?..' quickly rearranging his face to the normal 'I am a robot security man, I do not smile, I do not show emotion...' look that was his normal 'resting security grunt' demeanour, and gave a short nod.  All he had to do was step into a Turbolift and say 'Sciences' how hard would that be? If there was a choice well he'd chance it!

"Or... I know you don't know Challenger yet Mr. Walding but perhaps you and Mr. Tempest could find your way around to Deck 7 over on the ship.  Remember those that want to break off and go do things elsewhere to upload your findings to the Central Data Bank LCARs here there's a link up now on your PADDs for this purpose.  It is encrypted and you can only access with biometrics.  Thus if you are getting subordinates to do work please get them to send reports to you, and you upload rather than the other way on." Ruth said.  "I don't want the possibility of any of this leaking to Leyton."