S3:E7 Predator and Prey

[Don Damien Addams]

[Sciences]

The computer bleeped.  "Access denied.  Limited to Captain, First Officer and Heads of Department."

Ensign Winsdor walked past as the computer spoke. "If the Captain has given you a task and the Computer is denying you access the best bet is to ping her and ask her to give you an access override.  She's had a lot on recently it's probably just an oversight.  Aren't you going onto the base?  I'm off to pick up some chocolate, the replicated stuff just doesn't taste right.  If you're determined to stay here, anything I can fetch you?" Alexandria asked with a pleasant smile.

[USS Challenger science station]

The hybrid Betazoid turned to the Captain. "I just got a wild idea. Its indeed a long shot. With Vulans and Betazoids on the ship. Is it possible with that Betazoids put their heads together with Vulcans on the side with the front scanners to find the hostages? Far fetched one but I figure why not suggest it," he try to sound confident with his idea. It was better then nothing.

[Zavrol Gohun]

Gohun mentally started to prepare himself to go rescue some hostages. To be honest the whole hostage thing was rather cliché with him. The truth is that the people had values and thus with the value that they had was a certain assurance of security. Now the hostages probably did not find any of this as a comfort. Gohun stopped by the armory and took out the gear that was requisitioned for this mission for him. It was a phaser rifle and a small hand held phaser with a tricorder.
As he walked into the shuttle bat he saw Dr. Maggie and reported in.

[Don Damien Addams]

[USS Challenger]

From the Science station, Jasper was adjusting the readings of the scanners on the Gamma Radiation. "Gamma Radiation at this moment stands at 16.0934 from us. The two clouds that seem to be together has a heavy of Gamma Radiation and the metals as Iron," he reported. "possible another idea for us, Captain...send a probe to be a magnet to make a path for us?"

"We can charge them up with a magnetic field. Blast it to the direction, and then metals would be attracted to it. Small chance it would slow down from the pull of the metals. We can possible power up extra boost in the engines of the probe," he added.

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

PO1 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[USS Challenger - Conference Room]

[Conference Room - Earlier]

"For that we're going to have to wait for our rendezvous with Captain Hecate, Mr. Lek.  That and our Science scans, but we'll let you know as soon as we can.  What's the plan if it is a huge asteroid, what are our options?" the Captain said, concerned.

Pointing at Lahr almost mockingly it would seem to some but it was in a joking way to Will "See... that's why I say that Lahr should be Assistant Chief of Ops.  While he was good in Sec/Tac and I'm sure Mr. Briggs could make use of his skills in a Tactical Assault from the Bridge or in a tricky situation and he would acquit himself with honours, he really excels in Ops.  He may even rival you, dear!" Ruth teased.

"Great work Lahr, and I'm kicking myself.  Of course.  Ghengis Khan was a MONGOL... that's Earthen history, I should've known that.  Oh you are good!  You know I sometimes think of you as the joker in my pack but there are card games where the joker can stand to be any card and in this case it's the Ace in the deck!  I don't suppose you could get into the records of crew rotation for Poseidon, or log ins for that computer?  I'm curious cuz if Cadet Richardson logged off say at a time that would be indicative of a shift end, but then this computer was accessed say 10 mins later... someone else using his log in?  Either way we have the info.  Forward whatever information we have on the ships over to Mssrs. Briggs, Dradis and Litt so they can start prepping against the enemy ships."

Lahr stared at the Captain's finger pointed his way and felt himself flush a mauve in embarrassment at the Captain's boisterous praise of him.  He had just been doing his job.   But he did appreciate her recognition and her confidence in his abilities.

He had thought he'd never go on another away mission without a complete mental breakdown...  yet he'd managed.  He didn't enjoy it... but he'd gotten the job done... which is what counted.

The Captain's question about accessing the crew rotation records and Lahr shook his head.  "Sorry ma'am, I'm not connected to the Poseidon's computer.   What I've accessed here is an archived stores record from long prior to the Poseidon's disappearance.   I could see what their roster was like the last time they archived but it's not likely to be anywhere the same currently."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[USS Challenger-A - Deck One- Bridge - Nearing Zhargosia]

[Bridge]

"About 30 mins to Zhargosia Mr. Litt?" the Captain said smiling but with a note of enquiry in her voice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Also on the Bridge a little later]

[As Ensign Winsdor and CSO Lt. Cmdr. Evie Wardropper]

"Ma'am..." Alex said with a note of enquiry towards the CSO.

"Yes, Ensign?" the CSO answered walking towards the Science station.

"Telemetry coming through from our probe, it appears that there is some interference from nucleonic radiation, and large clouds of what appears to be dust, large component of... iron that's I-R-O-N Ma'am not the other kind." Alex said making sure that she ennunciatied and spelled 'iron' out to avoid mix up with 'ion'.

"Commander Waring, nucleonic radiation, in sufficient levels to interfere with transporters I think, want to check?!" the CSO reported.

"Mr Meltem, would you check the composition of those ferrous clouds please anything that could harm this ship or crew and also anything we could use to say, hide in or indeed the enemy could hide in.  Mr. Litt I think we're just about at Zhargosia come into synchronous orbit around the planet.  We'll wait until we have Captain Hecate contact us rather than blow her cover." the Captain ordered.

Lahr was at Ops waiting for the call to come in.

[Olivia Briggs]

[Conference Room > Turbolift > Cargo Bay]
[As CMO Dr. Maggie York]

"To the Cargo Bay it is then!" Maggie said with a brief smile. "Oh I wish I were back on Innominatum, but I wouldn't desert Ruth or the crew in this hour of need. But... Well you're married.  You know when you've had a hard day and you just want a cuddle, and only one from Kyle will do?  That."

She took a couple of deep breaths and sniffed back a tear.  "We have a job to do.  I wonder if those other two Security have shown up.  I remember Cadet Gohun was supposed to be coming down, I wonder if he got pulled off somewhere for other duties?"

[Conference Room >>> Cargo Bay]

Liv smiled as Maggie agreed about their next destination before sharing with her about how she was currently feeling. Of course the Assistant CMO understood completely and she was right there wasn't anything as comforting than a hug from the man you loved, as well as how lucky she had been in them both being assigned to the same ship.

" I know you wouldn't Maggie and I understand completely, I know what its like to be away from the man you love and how nice it is to have that type of hug, that they can only give" she replied reassuringly.

She hated seeing anyone upset so gave Maggie a reassuring squeeze as she then spoke about them having a job to do and wondering if the other two security had shown up. At the mention of Gohun, Liv hadn't seen him but hopefully that would change once they go to the Cargo Bay.

" We do and lets hope so, then again we'll soon find out and if not, it might be worth mentioning to Kyle".

Liv then entered the lift and once Maggie was inside, called for their destination and stood back as the lift came to life and took them down through the ship.

[Ruth Sigurdsdottir]

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

"Aye Ma'am."

Lek replied absently as he took in the additional information that make their task even more complex. Excessive iron deposits and gamma radiation, transporters were now completely off the table. That left nice slow and fragile shuttles for Leyton's butchers to pick off at will.

"There has to be a way." He thought furiously to come up with a viable option and an idea did pop into his head, but he dismissed it as ridiculous. "No, that's insane, Doctor York will have me committed."

He paced absently at the rear of the bridge as he worked through the details.

"Leyton has to be able to move prisoners into this facility and he's well aware transporters aren't an option. That means shuttles or docking, either way, there must be a bay or an airlock. That means we have a door!"

Lek kept his plan to himself for the moment, he wanted to hear what this Romulan had to say first.

PO1 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[USS Challenger - Conference Room]

Lahr stared at the Captain's finger pointed his way and felt himself flush a mauve in embarrassment at the Captain's boisterous praise of him.  He had just been doing his job.   But he did appreciate her recognition and her confidence in his abilities.

He had thought he'd never go on another away mission without a complete mental breakdown...  yet he'd managed.  He didn't enjoy it... but he'd gotten the job done... which is what counted.

The Captain's question about accessing the crew rotation records and Lahr shook his head.  "Sorry ma'am, I'm not connected to the Poseidon's computer.   What I've accessed here is an archived stores record from long prior to the Poseidon's disappearance.   I could see what their roster was like the last time they archived but it's not likely to be anywhere the same currently."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[USS Challenger-A - Deck One- Bridge - Nearing Zhargosia]

Lahr was at Ops waiting for the call to come in.

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

"I don't think you'll have long to wait before you can go plot away Chief, If I'm not very much mistaken that is probably the Tal'Bath now..." the Captain said hearing the ping from the Ops console.  "I'll take it on screen, Mr ch'Verret.  I like to see people's faces when I talk to them. You can read a lot from that which might be the exact opposite to what their mouth is saying!"

She waited until she saw the face of Captain Hecate on the viewscreen and smiled at her fellow Captain.

"Captain Hecate, welcome back.  Did you find anything useful?!" Ruth asked with a smile.

[As NPC Hecate seen on viewscreen]

"Useful, yes... pleasing... hmmm."  Hecate said pulling a 'Please don't shoot the messenger!' kind of face.

"First up, I'd say that the nebula is about 10AU or 1,496.000.000.000km by about 10AU by maybe 15AU deep... at the largest points. We only found one way in unless you want to cut through the clouds of metallic dust.  That according to my Scientists is mostly Ferrous in nature."  Hecate began.

"That concurs with telemetry we have from a probe we sent out."  Ruth held up a hand.  "Not that we didn't trust you, I hadn't asked you for Scientific stuff so we couldn't guarantee that you'd bring any info on that... but useful to know that both of us are on the same page!"

"Indeed and I quite agree, better to have confirmation, it validates my information too. Anyhow... there is a large asteroid in the middle of that roughly the size of the Earth's moon... how to describe.  There's two arches that intersect... the asteroid which is maybe 3,500km ish across, we flew under it.  Over the top or underneath or... the way that Leyton wants most people to get to it is the only ways in.  Top and bottom would involve punching through the asteroid clouds.  The clear way in is currently guarded by the Falcon and the [/i]Gol[/i] and to make matters worse, the Poseidon is between us and the entrance.  If you want my advice you won't go in by the front door.  I'd sneak round and try to break in via the bottom if you can find a way to get through there.  We detected some Gamma radiation too, not enough to harm humans too much but I'd advise to be ready for gamma radiation treatment just in case if they've been exposed to it for any length of time, but it's enough to cause problems."  Hecate reported.

"Interesting.  The Science pans out, as does the info about the ships."  the red-haired Captain took a breath and then shrugged.

"We got a message, we know it came from the Poseidon.  From an engineering console, and on a log in that was registered to Cadet Richardson..."

Hecate cut off Ruth with a grin cutting across her features.

"Oh I don't think it was Richardson.  I've met him when Carstairs sent him over to help with some engineering issue on the Tal'Bath, insipid, spotty late teenager... human.  But..." Hecate looked like she was about to give Ruth 10 years worth of birthday and christmas presents in one big parcel.

"...I happen to know someone on that ship that might actually have a reason to send you messages to help you." she said, now grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

"Do tell, I think if that grin of yours gets any wider you might burst with anticipation my friend!" Ruth answered with a chuckle, wondering if her hunch was going to come good.

"Admiral Alexander D'Arth is a guest on that ship, and last I knew, Leyton had kidnapped his family." Hecate answered.

"BINGO! FULL HOUSE!!" Ruth said with a small punch to the air.  "Right Captain Hecate give us an hour or so to decide our plan of action and we'll liaise with you in a while to discuss your role in this operation." Ruth said with a grin.

"May I ask why the exclamation? Did you have one of your hunches?!" Hecate asked.

"Well yes and no, part of the message was in French, he's the only person of French heritage that I know might have a vested interest in helping us.  But... I didn't know where he was.  We erm... that is to say my talented crew when we first came across your vessel was just around the time we blew up his ship the USS Redav... we found the signatures of 3 federation vessels and you were careless enough to drop your shields for a split second so we got yours on record too!  Yes..." the Captain blushed sheepishly, "...my crew are actually that good... but anyhow, we got 3 ships, with a potential 4th, the Poseidon, the Gol, the Falcon and the Kumari-E being the 'potential' one."

Hecate held up a hand laughing.  "OK can I borrow your blue-skinned wunderkind?!" she said with a laugh.  "Kudos Mr. ch'Verret! Well done.  But yes I see your dilemma, 3 ships, and mine, and he could have been on any one of them. I get it.  Well i have some good news for you, the Kumari-E unless she's going to break something like Warp 14 won't be joining us for this tango... she's currently down in The Barrens down by the Talarian Republic so that's one Akira Class out of the way.  One down one to go but if Alex can help with that he will, the others are an Ambassador and a Miranda if that's any help.  Anyhow I'll leave you to your planning but I'll leave this channel open my end if you have any queries as to how we can help. Sending over video telemetry that we took when scouting around, hope it helps"

"Thank you Hecate, you've been most helpful. And no, you're not getting our Andorian, he's kind of our secret weapon... one of them!Ruth chuckled.  "I'll take this off screen for the moment, but I'll check in with you later." the Challenger's CO smiled gratefully.

[USS Challenger science station]

The hybrid Betazoid turned to the Captain. "I just got a wild idea. Its indeed a long shot. With Vulans and Betazoids on the ship. Is it possible with that Betazoids put their heads together with Vulcans on the side with the front scanners to find the hostages? Far fetched one but I figure why not suggest it," he try to sound confident with his idea. It was better then nothing.

[USS Challenger]

From the Science station, Jasper was adjusting the readings of the scanners on the Gamma Radiation. "Gamma Radiation at this moment stands at 16.0934 from us. The two clouds that seem to be together has a heavy of Gamma Radiation and the metals as Iron," he reported. "possible another idea for us, Captain...send a probe to be a magnet to make a path for us?"

"We can charge them up with a magnetic field. Blast it to the direction, and then metals would be attracted to it. Small chance it would slow down from the pull of the metals. We can possible power up extra boost in the engines of the probe," he added.

The Captain, being a Scientist had had Jasper's words playing in the back of her mind.

"Mr. Meltem, while we've heard from Captain Hecate, both your ideas have merit.  But I hope you don't mind if we tweak them a little."

Ruth beckoned to Lek, Kyle and Will to come closer to stand with her by the Science Station.

"The idea about the Vulcans and the Betazoids, I like it... we can perhaps try to reach out to some of the cadets - Mr ch'Verret please assemble a list of those with abilities from the list of hostages we have, to give them the heads up once we are closer in.  It's possible then that if they can get the message around those that are receptive, we might have help from within, not guaranteed but a few that might have martial arts skills might be able to disarm any guards there may be. So that's potentially an idea.  Your idea about the reversal of the brain washing device, could that be used telepathically?" she asked, an idea forming.  "If so then we might be able to reverse the effects and have them all on our side before we go in."

Pressing a few buttons on the second science console she brought up a diagram of the Crimson Nebula.  "From what Hecate was saying the asteroid chunk is roughly here..." she gestured with a finger where the clouds intersected.  "Now, I'm wondering if we come in from the bottom there, and Hecate cloaked from the top, and then punch through with this magnetic probe idea we could clear a path for our shuttlecraft, I don't think taking our respective ships in closer than we need is a good idea, of course that's all assuming we get past the 3 wise monkeys of Leyton's gophers who are here...  Mr. Litt, can you look at the telemetry from the video feed that Captain Hecate sent over regarding the safety of where we could come up from the bottom or if you think coming in from the top or side or whatever is better for us. Ideas people?  I'm open to just about anything but that's my 3 pennorth!"

[Ruth Sigurdsdottir]

[Conference Room >>> Cargo Bay]

Liv smiled as Maggie agreed about their next destination before sharing with her about how she was currently feeling. Of course the Assistant CMO understood completely and she was right there wasn't anything as comforting than a hug from the man you loved, as well as how lucky she had been in them both being assigned to the same ship.

" I know you wouldn't Maggie and I understand completely, I know what its like to be away from the man you love and how nice it is to have that type of hug, that they can only give" she replied reassuringly.

She hated seeing anyone upset so gave Maggie a reassuring squeeze as she then spoke about them having a job to do and wondering if the other two security had shown up. At the mention of Gohun, Liv hadn't seen him but hopefully that would change once they go to the Cargo Bay.

" We do and lets hope so, then again we'll soon find out and if not, it might be worth mentioning to Kyle".

Liv then entered the lift and once Maggie was inside, called for their destination and stood back as the lift came to life and took them down through the ship.

Gohun mentally started to prepare himself to go rescue some hostages. To be honest the whole hostage thing was rather cliché with him. The truth is that the people had values and thus with the value that they had was a certain assurance of security. Now the hostages probably did not find any of this as a comfort. Gohun stopped by the armory and took out the gear that was requisitioned for this mission for him. It was a phaser rifle and a small hand held phaser with a tricorder.
As he walked into the shuttle bat he saw Dr. Maggie and reported in.

[Cargo Bay - USS Challenger]
[As CMO Dr. Maggie York]

Maggie sighed as she saw the Security crewman walking towards herself and Liv.  Touching Liv's foot with her own she signaled a message of mild exasperation to her co-worker.

"Well Crewman, better late than never. Do I put my hands up now or later?"  the doctor asked with surprise at the sight of the phaser rifle.  "You are not here to operate as Security, but as assistance to the Medical department to prepare the cargo bay as a evacuation centre and triage station.  There's a locker over there, make the rifle secure then go and join Crewmen Tragnar and Thompson at the replicator and placing out the bedrolls and rations."

Maggie waited until the crewman moved off and then turned to Liv.  "Not sure where he got the idea he needed a phaser rifle?!  The tricorder and type 2 I believe is pretty much standard issue not that I've ever worked in Security, that's your hubby's department.  Might be worth flagging this to Kyle?!" she said quietly.

Captain to Medical, please be prepared for potential Gamma radiation poisoning, significant enough amounts to be problematic to our sensors and transporters, we are going to have to likely go in by shuttle so some of our crew as well as the hostages may be affected.  Just a heads up.  Sigurdsdottir out. 

"Great, just what we needed!" she added with a grimace to Liv.

[William Waring]

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

"I don't think you'll have long to wait before you can go plot away Chief, If I'm not very much mistaken that is probably the Tal'Bath now..." the Captain said hearing the ping from the Ops console.  "I'll take it on screen, Mr ch'Verret.  I like to see people's faces when I talk to them. You can read a lot from that which might be the exact opposite to what their mouth is saying!"

She waited until she saw the face of Captain Hecate on the viewscreen and smiled at her fellow Captain.

"Captain Hecate, welcome back.  Did you find anything useful?!" Ruth asked with a smile.

[As NPC Hecate seen on viewscreen]

"Useful, yes... pleasing... hmmm."  Hecate said pulling a 'Please don't shoot the messenger!' kind of face.

"First up, I'd say that the nebula is about 20km by about 25km by maybe 30km deep... at the largest points. We only found one way in unless you want to cut through the clouds of metallic dust.  That according to my Scientists is mostly Ferrous in nature."  Hecate began.

"That concurs with telemetry we have from a probe we sent out."  Ruth held up a hand.  "Not that we didn't trust you, I hadn't asked you for Scientific stuff so we couldn't guarantee that you'd bring any info on that... but useful to know that both of us are on the same page!"

"Indeed and I quite agree, better to have confirmation, it validates my information too. Anyhow... there is a large asteroid in the middle of that ... how to describe.  There's two arches that intersect... the asteroid which is maybe 3km across, we flew under it.  Over the top or underneath or... the way that Leyton wants most people to get to it is the only ways in.  Top and bottom would involve punching through the asteroid clouds.  The clear way in is currently guarded by the Falcon and the [/i]Gol[/i] and to make matters worse, the Poseidon is between us and the entrance.  If you want my advice you won't go in by the front door.  I'd sneak round and try to break in via the bottom if you can find a way to get through there.  We detected some Gamma radiation too, not enough to harm humans too much but I'd advise to be ready for gamma radiation treatment just in case if they've been exposed to it for any length of time, but it's enough to cause problems."  Hecate reported.

"Interesting.  The Science pans out, as does the info about the ships."  the red-haired Captain took a breath and then shrugged.

"We got a message, we know it came from the Poseidon.  From an engineering console, and on a log in that was registered to Cadet Richardson..."

Hecate cut off Ruth with a grin cutting across her features.

"Oh I don't think it was Richardson.  I've met him when Carstairs sent him over to help with some engineering issue on the Tal'Bath, insipid, spotty late teenager... human.  But..." Hecate looked like she was about to give Ruth 10 years worth of birthday and christmas presents in one big parcel.

"...I happen to know someone on that ship that might actually have a reason to send you messages to help you." she said, now grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

"Do tell, I think if that grin of yours gets any wider you might burst with anticipation my friend!" Ruth answered with a chuckle, wondering if her hunch was going to come good.

"Admiral Alexander D'Arth is a guest on that ship, and last I knew, Leyton had kidnapped his family." Hecate answered.

"BINGO! FULL HOUSE!!" Ruth said with a small punch to the air.  "Right Captain Hecate give us an hour or so to decide our plan of action and we'll liaise with you in a while to discuss your role in this operation." Ruth said with a grin.

"May I ask why the exclamation? Did you have one of your hunches?!" Hecate asked.

"Well yes and no, part of the message was in French, he's the only person of French heritage that I know might have a vested interest in helping us.  But... I didn't know where he was.  We erm... that is to say my talented crew when we first came across your vessel was just around the time we blew up his ship the USS Redav... we found the signatures of 3 federation vessels and you were careless enough to drop your shields for a split second so we got yours on record too!  Yes..." the Captain blushed sheepishly, "...my crew are actually that good... but anyhow, we got 3 ships, with a potential 4th, the Poseidon, the Gol, the Falcon and the Kumari-E being the 'potential' one."

Hecate held up a hand laughing.  "OK can I borrow your blue-skinned wunderkind?!" she said with a laugh.  "Kudos Mr. ch'Verret! Well done.  But yes I see your dilemma, 3 ships, and mine, and he could have been on any one of them. I get it.  Well i have some good news for you, the Kumari-E unless she's going to break something like Warp 14 won't be joining us for this tango... she's currently down in The Barrens down by the Talarian Republic so that's one Akira Class out of the way.  One down one to go but if Alex can help with that he will, the others are an Ambassador and a Miranda if that's any help.  Anyhow I'll leave you to your planning but I'll leave this channel open my end if you have any queries as to how we can help. Sending over video telemetry that we took when scouting around, hope it helps"

"Thank you Hecate, you've been most helpful. And no, you're not getting our Andorian, he's kind of our secret weapon... one of them!Ruth chuckled.  "I'll take this off screen for the moment, but I'll check in with you later." the Challenger's CO smiled gratefully.

The Captain, being a Scientist had had Jasper's words playing in the back of her mind.

"Mr. Meltem, while we've heard from Captain Hecate, both your ideas have merit.  But I hope you don't mind if we tweak them a little."

Ruth beckoned to Lek, Kyle and Will to come closer to stand with her by the Science Station.

"The idea about the Vulcans and the Betazoids, I like it... we can perhaps try to reach out to some of the cadets - Mr ch'Verret please assemble a list of those with abilities from the list of hostages we have, to give them the heads up once we are closer in.  It's possible then that if they can get the message around those that are receptive, we might have help from within, not guaranteed but a few that might have martial arts skills might be able to disarm any guards there may be. So that's potentially an idea.  Your idea about the reversal of the brain washing device, could that be used telepathically?" she asked, an idea forming.  "If so then we might be able to reverse the effects and have them all on our side before we go in."

Pressing a few buttons on the second science console she brought up a diagram of the Crimson Nebula.  "From what Hecate was saying the asteroid chunk is roughly here..." she gestured with a finger where the clouds intersected.  "Now, I'm wondering if we come in from the bottom there, and Hecate cloaked from the top, and then punch through with this magnetic probe idea we could clear a path for our shuttlecraft, I don't think taking our respective ships in closer than we need is a good idea, of course that's all assuming we get past the 3 wise monkeys of Leyton's gophers who are here...  Mr. Litt, can you look at the telemetry from the video feed that Captain Hecate sent over regarding the safety of where we could come up from the bottom or if you think coming in from the top or side or whatever is better for us. Ideas people?  I'm open to just about anything but that's my 3 pennorth!"

[Bridge]

Will moved closer to the Science Station as beckoned by Ruth and gave his input on the situation "Its an idea but I am an Operations Manager not a Doctor. If we could achieve it, it would prove to be a good asset to have swing our way. But as I said, I am not a doctor, I wouldn't know an oboe from an elbow. What I do know is, we have to get anything that may give us an edge. That said, you have a lot of variables in play. One misstep and... well, you know the risks."

It was at this point it really set in just how much catch up he would have to play to be on the level of this crew. Perhaps he was just complacent on the Shran and this new posting gave him the shock he needed. Or perhaps it was the added bonus of having his performance under scrutiny of his fiancée. He could decide either way...

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

PO1 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[USS Challenger-A - Deck One - Bridge - Ops station]

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

"I don't think you'll have long to wait before you can go plot away Chief, If I'm not very much mistaken that is probably the Tal'Bath now..." the Captain said hearing the ping from the Ops console.  "I'll take it on screen, Mr ch'Verret.  I like to see people's faces when I talk to them. You can read a lot from that which might be the exact opposite to what their mouth is saying!"

Lahr glanced to alert message that had sounded.  Sure enough it was the Tal'Bath hailing them - just like the Captain called it. He grinned.  "Yes, ma'am! Comm on screen." he announced dutifully after routing the message to the 'big screen'.   Like the Captain, he too liked to see peoples faces.

"Admiral Alexander D'Arth is a guest on that ship, and last I knew, Leyton had kidnapped his family." Hecate answered.

"BINGO! FULL HOUSE!!" Ruth said with a small punch to the air.  "Right Captain Hecate give us an hour or so to decide our plan of action and we'll liaise with you in a while to discuss your role in this operation." Ruth said with a grin.

"May I ask why the exclamation? Did you have one of your hunches?!" Hecate asked.

"Well yes and no, part of the message was in French, he's the only person of French heritage that I know might have a vested interest in helping us.  But... I didn't know where he was.  We erm... that is to say my talented crew when we first came across your vessel was just around the time we blew up his ship the USS Redav... we found the signatures of 3 federation vessels and you were careless enough to drop your shields for a split second so we got yours on record too!  Yes..." the Captain blushed sheepishly, "...my crew are actually that good... but anyhow, we got 3 ships, with a potential 4th, the Poseidon, the Gol, the Falcon and the Kumari-E being the 'potential' one."

At the Captain's cry of 'Bingo!' and 'Full House!' - terms that Lahr recognized as exclaims of having won at gambling or such - glanced back over his shoulder towards the Command seats and saw the tailend of the Captain's victorious punch.  He wasn't sure why news of Admiral D'arth being on the Poseidon was considered good, and it took Hecate asking a similar thing to get his answer.  The Captain believed the the Admiral was the one helping them... it made sense...  kinda.  Lahr still had his doubts.

Hecate held up a hand laughing.  "OK can I borrow your blue-skinned wunderkind?!" she said with a laugh.  "Kudos Mr. ch'Verret! Well done. But yes I see your dilemma, 3 ships, and mine, and he could have been on any one of them. I get it.  Well i have some good news for you, the Kumari-E unless she's going to break something like Warp 14 won't be joining us for this tango... she's currently down in The Barrens down by the Talarian Republic so that's one Akira Class out of the way.  One down one to go but if Alex can help with that he will, the others are an Ambassador and a Miranda if that's any help.  Anyhow I'll leave you to your planning but I'll leave this channel open my end if you have any queries as to how we can help. Sending over video telemetry that we took when scouting around, hope it helps"

"Thank you Hecate, you've been most helpful. And no, you're not getting our Andorian, he's kind of our secret weapon... one of them!Ruth chuckled.  "I'll take this off screen for the moment, but I'll check in with you later." the Challenger's CO smiled gratefully.

Lahr's antenna perked and then started to writhe in confusion and uncertainty, as Hecate first referred to him as a 'wunderkind' and asked to borrow him. Completely missing the humor of the request. Roohz, no!  He'd heard rumors about how much backstabbing and treachery there was aboard Romulan vessels.  He turned his seat towards Captain Siggurdsdottir, while the Romulan Captain went on to point out the Kumari-E was deployed elsewhere for Leyton.

Lahr looked to the Captain pleadingly, shaking his head, not caring if Hecate could see him doing so on her own screen.  But he needn't have worried, the Captain without really paying him any much mind, already announced to Hecate that 'she couldn't have him' and that he was a 'secret weapon'.   Lahr grinned and waited until the screen was dark before offering up a quick.  "Thank you, ma'am.  I am happy to be your secret weapon... or even just one of them."

With that said he set to work at picking up the telemetry the Tal'Bath sent and forwarding it on to Tactical, Helm and Science.

The Captain, being a Scientist had had Jasper's words playing in the back of her mind.

"Mr. Meltem, while we've heard from Captain Hecate, both your ideas have merit.  But I hope you don't mind if we tweak them a little."

Ruth beckoned to Lek, Kyle and Will to come closer to stand with her by the Science Station.]

Lahr hadn't been invited to the Science station with the others but they were just clustered a few feet away.  It was fairly evident that he was listening in, as his antenna were swiveled in that direction.

"The idea about the Vulcans and the Betazoids, I like it... we can perhaps try to reach out to some of the cadets - Mr ch'Verret please assemble a list of those with abilities from the list of hostages we have, to give them the heads up once we are closer in.  It's possible then that if they can get the message around those that are receptive, we might have help from within, not guaranteed but a few that might have martial arts skills might be able to disarm any guards there may be. So that's potentially an idea.  Your idea about the reversal of the brain washing device, could that be used telepathically?" she asked, an idea forming.  "If so then we might be able to reverse the effects and have them all on our side before we go in."

Pressing a few buttons on the second science console she brought up a diagram of the Crimson Nebula.  "From what Hecate was saying the asteroid chunk is roughly here..." she gestured with a finger where the clouds intersected.  "Now, I'm wondering if we come in from the bottom there, and Hecate cloaked from the top, and then punch through with this magnetic probe idea we could clear a path for our shuttlecraft, I don't think taking our respective ships in closer than we need is a good idea, of course that's all assuming we get past the 3 wise monkeys of Leyton's gophers who are here...  Mr. Litt, can you look at the telemetry from the video feed that Captain Hecate sent over regarding the safety of where we could come up from the bottom or if you think coming in from the top or side or whatever is better for us. Ideas people?  I'm open to just about anything but that's my 3 pennorth!"

The fact that the Captain called on him to gather the list of names meant that she was aware that he'd been listening in.   Crud.   "Yes, ma'am.  I'm on it!"

Lahr copied the list of names and cross-reference the names with standard Starfleet crew registrations and then filtered for those species with known telepathic abilities - such as Vulcans, Betazoids, Deltans and Haliians.  Of the original 500+ names on the list, Lahr ended up with barely two dozen. Most of those were Vulcan who were mainly touch telepaths.  Of the 10 remaining, 5 were Betazoid, 2 were Deltan and 3 were Haliians (who were also mostly close contact or individual to individual telepath).

This info he forwarded on to the Captain and First Officer.  Figuring they would need a similar list of  Challenger crew that could send the message, Lahr ran a similar check of the crew, cross referencing for those species that had telepathic talent. 

[Olivia Briggs]

[Cargo Bay - USS Challenger]
[As CMO Dr. Maggie York]

Maggie sighed as she saw the Security crewman walking towards herself and Liv.  Touching Liv's foot with her own she signaled a message of mild exasperation to her co-worker.

"Well Crewman, better late than never. Do I put my hands up now or later?"  the doctor asked with surprise at the sight of the phaser rifle.  "You are not here to operate as Security, but as assistance to the Medical department to prepare the cargo bay as a evacuation centre and triage station.  There's a locker over there, make the rifle secure then go and join Crewmen Tragnar and Thompson at the replicator and placing out the bedrolls and rations."

Maggie waited until the crewman moved off and then turned to Liv.  "Not sure where he got the idea he needed a phaser rifle?!  The tricorder and type 2 I believe is pretty much standard issue not that I've ever worked in Security, that's your hubby's department.  Might be worth flagging this to Kyle?!" she said quietly.

"Great, just what we needed!" she added with a grimace to Liv.

[Cargo Bay - Challenger]

It didn't just take Maggie tapping on her foot to understand the slight annoyance, that the CMO was currently experiencing thanks to the Gohun, finally showing up where he was supposed too. Nor did it go unnoticed with the fact that he was carrying a phaser rifle, which left her wondering what he was thinking of when he received the call to assist.

Not blaming for Maggie for what she said to him, before she became more serious and explained why he was here and what he had to do, as the last thing they wanted was for him to get trigger happy and cause more problems, when they didn't need them. So when Maggie then turned to her, after he had left and understood her concerns. Thinking that it was definitely something for her to bring up with her husband as the Crewman should know better.

" I agree, its a little bizarre why he would bring a phaser rifle down here and I'll definitely mention it to Kyle" she replied, before the call came through from the Captain regarding, the radiation and the extra precautions that they would now have to take.

" Definitely not what we need, on top of everything else, but lets make sure, we're prepared for it, when we check on everything else".

[Lek]

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

"I don't think you'll have long to wait before you can go plot away Chief, If I'm not very much mistaken that is probably the Tal'Bath now..." the Captain said hearing the ping from the Ops console.  "I'll take it on screen, Mr ch'Verret.  I like to see people's faces when I talk to them. You can read a lot from that which might be the exact opposite to what their mouth is saying!"

She waited until she saw the face of Captain Hecate on the viewscreen and smiled at her fellow Captain.

"Captain Hecate, welcome back.  Did you find anything useful?!" Ruth asked with a smile.

[As NPC Hecate seen on viewscreen]

"Useful, yes... pleasing... hmmm."  Hecate said pulling a 'Please don't shoot the messenger!' kind of face.

"First up, I'd say that the nebula is about 20km by about 25km by maybe 30km deep... at the largest points. We only found one way in unless you want to cut through the clouds of metallic dust.  That according to my Scientists is mostly Ferrous in nature."  Hecate began.

"That concurs with telemetry we have from a probe we sent out."  Ruth held up a hand.  "Not that we didn't trust you, I hadn't asked you for Scientific stuff so we couldn't guarantee that you'd bring any info on that... but useful to know that both of us are on the same page!"

"Indeed and I quite agree, better to have confirmation, it validates my information too. Anyhow... there is a large asteroid in the middle of that ... how to describe.  There's two arches that intersect... the asteroid which is maybe 3km across, we flew under it.  Over the top or underneath or... the way that Leyton wants most people to get to it is the only ways in.  Top and bottom would involve punching through the asteroid clouds.  The clear way in is currently guarded by the Falcon and the Gol and to make matters worse, the Poseidon is between us and the entrance.  If you want my advice you won't go in by the front door.  I'd sneak round and try to break in via the bottom if you can find a way to get through there.  We detected some Gamma radiation too, not enough to harm humans too much but I'd advise to be ready for gamma radiation treatment just in case if they've been exposed to it for any length of time, but it's enough to cause problems."  Hecate reported.

"Interesting.  The Science pans out, as does the info about the ships."  the red-haired Captain took a breath and then shrugged.

"We got a message, we know it came from the Poseidon.  From an engineering console, and on a log in that was registered to Cadet Richardson..."

Hecate cut off Ruth with a grin cutting across her features.

"Oh I don't think it was Richardson.  I've met him when Carstairs sent him over to help with some engineering issue on the Tal'Bath, insipid, spotty late teenager... human.  But..." Hecate looked like she was about to give Ruth 10 years worth of birthday and christmas presents in one big parcel.

"...I happen to know someone on that ship that might actually have a reason to send you messages to help you." she said, now grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

"Do tell, I think if that grin of yours gets any wider you might burst with anticipation my friend!" Ruth answered with a chuckle, wondering if her hunch was going to come good.

"Admiral Alexander D'Arth is a guest on that ship, and last I knew, Leyton had kidnapped his family." Hecate answered.

"BINGO! FULL HOUSE!!" Ruth said with a small punch to the air.  "Right Captain Hecate give us an hour or so to decide our plan of action and we'll liaise with you in a while to discuss your role in this operation." Ruth said with a grin.

"May I ask why the exclamation? Did you have one of your hunches?!" Hecate asked.

"Well yes and no, part of the message was in French, he's the only person of French heritage that I know might have a vested interest in helping us.  But... I didn't know where he was.  We erm... that is to say my talented crew when we first came across your vessel was just around the time we blew up his ship the USS Redav... we found the signatures of 3 federation vessels and you were careless enough to drop your shields for a split second so we got yours on record too!  Yes..." the Captain blushed sheepishly, "...my crew are actually that good... but anyhow, we got 3 ships, with a potential 4th, the Poseidon, the Gol, the Falcon and the Kumari-E being the 'potential' one."

Hecate held up a hand laughing.  "OK can I borrow your blue-skinned wunderkind?!" she said with a laugh.  "Kudos Mr. ch'Verret! Well done.  But yes I see your dilemma, 3 ships, and mine, and he could have been on any one of them. I get it.  Well i have some good news for you, the Kumari-E unless she's going to break something like Warp 14 won't be joining us for this tango... she's currently down in The Barrens down by the Talarian Republic so that's one Akira Class out of the way.  One down one to go but if Alex can help with that he will, the others are an Ambassador and a Miranda if that's any help.  Anyhow I'll leave you to your planning but I'll leave this channel open my end if you have any queries as to how we can help. Sending over video telemetry that we took when scouting around, hope it helps"

"Thank you Hecate, you've been most helpful. And no, you're not getting our Andorian, he's kind of our secret weapon... one of them!Ruth chuckled.  "I'll take this off screen for the moment, but I'll check in with you later." the Challenger's CO smiled gratefully.

The Captain, being a Scientist had had Jasper's words playing in the back of her mind.

"Mr. Meltem, while we've heard from Captain Hecate, both your ideas have merit.  But I hope you don't mind if we tweak them a little."

Ruth beckoned to Lek, Kyle and Will to come closer to stand with her by the Science Station.

"The idea about the Vulcans and the Betazoids, I like it... we can perhaps try to reach out to some of the cadets - Mr ch'Verret please assemble a list of those with abilities from the list of hostages we have, to give them the heads up once we are closer in.  It's possible then that if they can get the message around those that are receptive, we might have help from within, not guaranteed but a few that might have martial arts skills might be able to disarm any guards there may be. So that's potentially an idea.  Your idea about the reversal of the brain washing device, could that be used telepathically?" she asked, an idea forming.  "If so then we might be able to reverse the effects and have them all on our side before we go in."

Pressing a few buttons on the second science console she brought up a diagram of the Crimson Nebula.  "From what Hecate was saying the asteroid chunk is roughly here..." she gestured with a finger where the clouds intersected.  "Now, I'm wondering if we come in from the bottom there, and Hecate cloaked from the top, and then punch through with this magnetic probe idea we could clear a path for our shuttlecraft, I don't think taking our respective ships in closer than we need is a good idea, of course that's all assuming we get past the 3 wise monkeys of Leyton's gophers who are here...  Mr. Litt, can you look at the telemetry from the video feed that Captain Hecate sent over regarding the safety of where we could come up from the bottom or if you think coming in from the top or side or whatever is better for us. Ideas people?  I'm open to just about anything but that's my 3 pennorth!"

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Lek listened to Hecate's report and winced when she mentioned the size of the asteroid. Not a huge one, but it was still six times that of Challenger and thus it would be impossible to stretch the shields that far. That left his rather insane idea still on the table, but the presence of three guard ships still made his plan dangerous.

"Ma'am, we could use a probe configured to mimic the Challenger to make a slow approach through the obvious gap, that should draw off the guard ships long enough for us to punch through the iron particulates and radiation ourselves. We could then dock with the station, send over as many security as we can spare to storm the prison. While they are doing that, we detach from the asteroid to deal with the guard ships. When the security team is ready, we dock again, hustle everyone aboard and make our escape. That way, we avoid needing to use transporters or shuttles."

[Ruth Sigurdsdottir]

[Bridge]

Will moved closer to the Science Station as beckoned by Ruth and gave his input on the situation "Its an idea but I am an Operations Manager not a Doctor. If we could achieve it, it would prove to be a good asset to have swing our way. But as I said, I am not a doctor, I wouldn't know an oboe from an elbow. What I do know is, we have to get anything that may give us an edge. That said, you have a lot of variables in play. One misstep and... well, you know the risks."

It was at this point it really set in just how much catch up he would have to play to be on the level of this crew. Perhaps he was just complacent on the Shran and this new posting gave him the shock he needed. Or perhaps it was the added bonus of having his performance under scrutiny of his fiancée. He could decide either way...

[Bridge = USS Challenger]

"Plate-spinning Mr. Waring.  I quite agree... everything has to be right, or they all fall." the Captain nodded.  He wasn't saying much and she wondered if her having her 'Captain' head on was getting to him.  Well, he'd just have to get used to it.  She'd give him a massage later to make up for it.

Ruth gave him a small smile and said.  "Would the best coffee maker in the universe sort out a round of coffees or other beverages.  I think I'll allow anyone here to have one after the news we've just had."

PO1 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[USS Challenger-A - Deck One - Bridge - Ops station]

Lahr glanced to alert message that had sounded.  Sure enough it was the Tal'Bath hailing them - just like the Captain called it. He grinned.  "Yes, ma'am! Comm on screen." he announced dutifully after routing the message to the 'big screen'.   Like the Captain, he too liked to see peoples faces.

At the Captain's cry of 'Bingo!' and 'Full House!' - terms that Lahr recognized as exclaims of having won at gambling or such - glanced back over his shoulder towards the Command seats and saw the tailend of the Captain's victorious punch.  He wasn't sure why news of Admiral D'arth being on the Poseidon was considered good, and it took Hecate asking a similar thing to get his answer.  The Captain believed the the Admiral was the one helping them... it made sense...  kinda.  Lahr still had his doubts.

Lahr's antenna perked and then started to writhe in confusion and uncertainty, as Hecate first referred to him as a 'wunderkind' and asked to borrow him. Completely missing the humor of the request. Roohz, no!  He'd heard rumors about how much backstabbing and treachery there was aboard Romulan vessels.  He turned his seat towards Captain Siggurdsdottir, while the Romulan Captain went on to point out the Kumari-E was deployed elsewhere for Leyton.

Lahr looked to the Captain pleadingly, shaking his head, not caring if Hecate could see him doing so on her own screen.  But he needn't have worried, the Captain without really paying him any much mind, already announced to Hecate that 'she couldn't have him' and that he was a 'secret weapon'.   Lahr grinned and waited until the screen was dark before offering up a quick.  "Thank you, ma'am.  I am happy to be your secret weapon... or even just one of them."

With that said he set to work at picking up the telemetry the Tal'Bath sent and forwarding it on to Tactical, Helm and Science.

Lahr hadn't been invited to the Science station with the others but they were just clustered a few feet away.  It was fairly evident that he was listening in, as his antenna were swiveled in that direction.

The fact that the Captain called on him to gather the list of names meant that she was aware that he'd been listening in.   Crud.   "Yes, ma'am.  I'm on it!"

Lahr copied the list of names and cross-reference the names with standard Starfleet crew registrations and then filtered for those species with known telepathic abilities - such as Vulcans, Betazoids, Deltans and Haliians.  Of the original 500+ names on the list, Lahr ended up with barely two dozen. Most of those were Vulcan who were mainly touch telepaths.  Of the 10 remaining, 5 were Betazoid, 2 were Deltan and 3 were Haliians (who were also mostly close contact or individual to individual telepath).

This info he forwarded on to the Captain and First Officer.  Figuring they would need a similar list of  Challenger crew that could send the message, Lahr ran a similar check of the crew, cross referencing for those species that had telepathic talent.

"Heh..." chuckled Ruth, "...no sorry Lahr, you're part of my crew, stuck with me.  The only way you'd ever be under the jurisdiction of anyone else is if we were on a joint mission and you were seconded to another ship temporarily I'd want you back, in one piece and Gods help them if anything happened to you.  Or... if with your brilliance.. stop blushing, that brain of yours works in 90 directions at once and often 3 steps ahead of me, you're promoted and transferred, again Gods forbid.
I miss my 'Battle Butler', I'd miss my 'Best Blue Guy' even more, so... stay safe please! We need ya."  breaking into a grin she said to break the tension, "Who else do I get to put on a kick ass party for the wedding?!"

She grinned and continued. "As for secret weapons - yes, at least one in my arsenal.  We've outwitted Leyton and other adversaries not just by the mettle of our physical arsenal, but our brains and while you lot have some pretty wacky ideas at times... they're often so 'out of the box' that they work, they haven't been thought of before.  Which is why I love Mr. Meltem's magnetized probe idea."

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Lek listened to Hecate's report and winced when she mentioned the size of the asteroid. Not a huge one, but it was still six times that of Challenger and thus it would be impossible to stretch the shields that far. That left his rather insane idea still on the table, but the presence of three guard ships still made his plan dangerous.

"Ma'am, we could use a probe configured to mimic the Challenger to make a slow approach through the obvious gap, that should draw off the guard ships long enough for us to punch through the iron particulates and radiation ourselves. We could then dock with the station, send over as many security as we can spare to storm the prison. While they are doing that, we detach from the asteroid to deal with the guard ships. When the security team is ready, we dock again, hustle everyone aboard and make our escape. That way, we avoid needing to use transporters or shuttles."

"One problem there Mr. Lek, it's not a station as such as a lump of rock.  If Mr. Litt can lock us into orbit with the asteroid we might be able to use the transporters over short distance? Or least the shuttles won't have such a terrible distance to try and dodge any enemy ships.  However, I like the dummy idea with the probe going in by the front gate so to speak, I don't know how much of an advantage that might give us as they'll likely soon discover that it isn't real and then the sharks will be after us again.  Work it out helm, Tactical, Engineering, Science and Ops...Also Mr. Waring, prepare an away team to infiltrate the asteroid by way of an evacuation team, once we've sorted out a definite plan of action.  Call on whatever resources you need, I'll give access codes if you require any.  Report back to me when you have a plan of action and advise me of how you feel it's best to proceed.  We are merely in orbit of Zhargosia at the moment, I'm sure we can spare you to have a pow wow in the conference room."

Turning to the helm she gave Litt a warm smile.  "Mr. Litt, you'll be taking the real Challenger into the nebula so I'd like you to work with the others on planning our approach.  Mr. Briggs, let me know how you think we should approach the fact that we have an Akira, an Ambassador and a Miranda Class out there looking for us.  And don't forget we have the asset of the Tal'Bath and her cloaking device too. Forty-five mins to an hour, if we have that gamma radiation I don't want to risk having them in there longer than necessary, nor do I want them coming upon us just on patrols."

The Captain turned back to Lahr and thanked him for the list of names.  "Call these people on the list for our manifest and have them meet with Lt. Commander Wardropper and Drs York and Briggs in the Cargo Bay, I'm afraid Medical and Science going to have to work double time.  The doctors are already down there so two birds one stone seeing if we can sort out the mind thing and get that as an asset, Mr. Meltem is needed to explain his idea of the magnetised probe further.  Oh and gentlemen, please note the errata to the sizing of the nebula, previous telemetry report had a typo... asteroid is significantly larger than we thought. "

"Waring, where's that coffee?!" Ruth asked feeling suddenly twice her age and her mind going in many directions.

[Ruth Sigurdsdottir]

[Cargo Bay - Challenger]

It didn't just take Maggie tapping on her foot to understand the slight annoyance, that the CMO was currently experiencing thanks to the Gohun, finally showing up where he was supposed too. Nor did it go unnoticed with the fact that he was carrying a phaser rifle, which left her wondering what he was thinking of when he received the call to assist.

Not blaming for Maggie for what she said to him, before she became more serious and explained why he was here and what he had to do, as the last thing they wanted was for him to get trigger happy and cause more problems, when they didn't need them. So when Maggie then turned to her, after he had left and understood her concerns. Thinking that it was definitely something for her to bring up with her husband as the Crewman should know better.

" I agree, its a little bizarre why he would bring a phaser rifle down here and I'll definitely mention it to Kyle" she replied, before the call came through from the Captain regarding, the radiation and the extra precautions that they would now have to take.

" Definitely not what we need, on top of everything else, but lets make sure, we're prepared for it, when we check on everything else".

[Cargo Bay]
[As CMO Dr. Maggie Smith and CSO Lt. Cmdr. Evie Wardropper, NPCs]

Evie had nodded to the Captain, given Jasper's shoulder a quick squeeze of encouragement and whispered in his ear. "Brilliant idea on the magnetism... best of British!" before trotting up to the turbolift and ordering it to the Cargo Bay.

Striding over to where Maggie and Liv stood, she gave a grin and let out a mock cackle.  "When shall we three meet again?... Just kidding.  The 3 wise teal-wearing heads of scientific subjects or something!".  Evie chuckled.

"I'm assuming everything about radiation and such has been passed onto you?  Well, NOW we're gonna have an influx of a few people in the crew that are ... I'll refer to them loosely and hope they forgive me, as 'mind users.  Vulcans, Deltans and the like.  They want to see if we can manage to a) contact any of similar persons on the hostages side of things, and if they are receptive and/or b) we can reverse the effects of the device through mind use - Mr. Meltem has done some theorising there and will send the info down, we can get a message to the hostages that we are attempting a rescue without letting on to Leyton's lot, and potentially we could have help say, 3 cadets jumping onto a guard to stop them firing a phaser at one of our crew.  It's not much but anything might give us the edge."

The CMO shrugged and rolled her sleeves up.  "But in the meantime could you do with a hand? Looks like your young lady from Security managed to persuade Mr. Lek to let loose with the industrial replicators so you have a fine pile of things being sorted.  How about I take that gentleman..." she pointed over to Crewman Gohun.  "I believe he came aboard the same time as I so we might have something in common to talk about while we're working... and we can get the bed rolls laid out as we're not gonna have time once they're here and we can't 'conveyor belt' them as we don't know what state they might be in.  Well I mean for rationing and setting them up with stuff.  Obviously those walking you'll be having in I presume on a triage system?"

Maggie smiled at the older woman and puffed out a tutting breath.  "When it rains it pours eh Liv.  Right we'll be ready for them, thanks Commander, we're grateful for another pair of competent hands.  Liv, do you want to be doing the triage station with me, I think our Science Chief here has things in hand with getting the bedding and all sorted. Oh what a day.  Chloe?! When the people are here for the device help come down please set them over in that corner will you."

Evie, wondering how her arthritis was going to stand up to all the walking about and already having done more than 3 times her normal daily steps according to the program on her PADD to keep her active and moving, her bones were starting to ache but she wasn't going to let the side down.   She nodded to the two doctors "We'll manage this together!" she said with a small grimace of pain, and walked over to Gohun with a slight limp, her hip starting to show her age.

"Mr. Gohun I believe.  Let's start getting these bedrolls and rations out, can you find out the dimensions of this cargo bay and we can then calculate how much space to leave between each bed roll."

[Lek]

[Bridge = USS Challenger]

"Plate-spinning Mr. Waring.  I quite agree... everything has to be right, or they all fall." the Captain nodded.  He wasn't saying much and she wondered if her having her 'Captain' head on was getting to him.  Well, he'd just have to get used to it.  She'd give him a massage later to make up for it.

Ruth gave him a small smile and said.  "Would the best coffee maker in the universe sort out a round of coffees or other beverages.  I think I'll allow anyone here to have one after the news we've just had."

"Heh..." chuckled Ruth, "...no sorry Lahr, you're part of my crew, stuck with me.  The only way you'd ever be under the jurisdiction of anyone else is if we were on a joint mission and you were seconded to another ship temporarily I'd want you back, in one piece and Gods help them if anything happened to you.  Or... if with your brilliance.. stop blushing, that brain of yours works in 90 directions at once and often 3 steps ahead of me, you're promoted and transferred, again Gods forbid.
I miss my 'Battle Butler', I'd miss my 'Best Blue Guy' even more, so... stay safe please! We need ya."  breaking into a grin she said to break the tension, "Who else do I get to put on a kick ass party for the wedding?!"

She grinned and continued. "As for secret weapons - yes, at least one in my arsenal.  We've outwitted Leyton and other adversaries not just by the mettle of our physical arsenal, but our brains and while you lot have some pretty wacky ideas at times... they're often so 'out of the box' that they work, they haven't been thought of before.  Which is why I love Mr. Meltem's magnetized probe idea."

"One problem there Mr. Lek, it's not a station as such as a lump of rock.  If Mr. Litt can lock us into orbit with the asteroid we might be able to use the transporters over short distance? Or least the shuttles won't have such a terrible distance to try and dodge any enemy ships.  However, I like the dummy idea with the probe going in by the front gate so to speak, I don't know how much of an advantage that might give us as they'll likely soon discover that it isn't real and then the sharks will be after us again.  Work it out helm, Tactical, Engineering, Science and Ops...Also Mr. Waring, prepare an away team to infiltrate the asteroid by way of an evacuation team, once we've sorted out a definite plan of action.  Call on whatever resources you need, I'll give access codes if you require any.  Report back to me when you have a plan of action and advise me of how you feel it's best to proceed.  We are merely in orbit of Zhargosia at the moment, I'm sure we can spare you to have a pow wow in the conference room."

Turning to the helm she gave Litt a warm smile.  "Mr. Litt, you'll be taking the real Challenger into the nebula so I'd like you to work with the others on planning our approach.  Mr. Briggs, let me know how you think we should approach the fact that we have an Akira, an Ambassador and a Miranda Class out there looking for us.  And don't forget we have the asset of the Tal'Bath and her cloaking device too. Forty-five mins to an hour, if we have that gamma radiation I don't want to risk having them in there longer than necessary, nor do I want them coming upon us just on patrols."

The Captain turned back to Lahr and thanked him for the list of names.  "Call these people on the list for our manifest and have them meet with Lt. Commander Wardropper and Drs York and Briggs in the Cargo Bay, I'm afraid Medical and Science going to have to work double time.  The doctors are already down there so two birds one stone seeing if we can sort out the mind thing and get that as an asset, Mr. Meltem is needed to explain his idea of the magnetised probe further.  Oh and gentlemen, please note the errata to the sizing of the nebula, previous telemetry report had a typo... asteroid is significantly larger than we thought. "

"Waring, where's that coffee?!" Ruth asked feeling suddenly twice her age and her mind going in many directions.

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Lek waited until the captain was finished speaking to clarify what he was trying to say.

"Indeed it is not a station, but what I am proposing is to essentially butt up against the asteroid and use forcefields to maintain a seal for our people to storm the facility and for everyone to escape when they've freed the hostages."

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

PO1 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[USS Challenger-A - Deck One - Bridge]

[Bridge = USS Challenger]
"Heh..." chuckled Ruth, "...no sorry Lahr, you're part of my crew, stuck with me.  The only way you'd ever be under the jurisdiction of anyone else is if we were on a joint mission and you were seconded to another ship temporarily I'd want you back, in one piece and Gods help them if anything happened to you.  Or... if with your brilliance.. stop blushing, that brain of yours works in 90 directions at once and often 3 steps ahead of me, you're promoted and transferred, again Gods forbid.
I miss my 'Battle Butler', I'd miss my 'Best Blue Guy' even more, so... stay safe please! We need ya."  breaking into a grin she said to break the tension, "Who else do I get to put on a kick ass party for the wedding?!"

She grinned and continued. "As for secret weapons - yes, at least one in my arsenal.  We've outwitted Leyton and other adversaries not just by the mettle of our physical arsenal, but our brains and while you lot have some pretty wacky ideas at times... they're often so 'out of the box' that they work, they haven't been thought of before.  Which is why I love Mr. Meltem's magnetized probe idea."

Despite the Captain's order to stop blushing, the Andorian couldn't.  Under Admiral Torngate's command, he'd been no more than part of the background of the ship, but Captain Siggurdsdottir seemed to go out of her way make him feel appreciated.  He wondered if it was just something she did with all Bridge crew or if it really was just him... well, him and Mondo.

"One problem there Mr. Lek, it's not a station as such as a lump of rock.  If Mr. Litt can lock us into orbit with the asteroid we might be able to use the transporters over short distance? Or least the shuttles won't have such a terrible distance to try and dodge any enemy ships.  However, I like the dummy idea with the probe going in by the front gate so to speak, I don't know how much of an advantage that might give us as they'll likely soon discover that it isn't real and then the sharks will be after us again.  Work it out helm, Tactical, Engineering, Science and Ops...Also Mr. Waring, prepare an away team to infiltrate the asteroid by way of an evacuation team, once we've sorted out a definite plan of action.  Call on whatever resources you need, I'll give access codes if you require any.  Report back to me when you have a plan of action and advise me of how you feel it's best to proceed.  We are merely in orbit of Zhargosia at the moment, I'm sure we can spare you to have a pow wow in the conference room."

Turning to the helm she gave Litt a warm smile.  "Mr. Litt, you'll be taking the real Challenger into the nebula so I'd like you to work with the others on planning our approach.  Mr. Briggs, let me know how you think we should approach the fact that we have an Akira, an Ambassador and a Miranda Class out there looking for us.  And don't forget we have the asset of the Tal'Bath and her cloaking device too. Forty-five mins to an hour, if we have that gamma radiation I don't want to risk having them in there longer than necessary, nor do I want them coming upon us just on patrols."

The Captain turned back to Lahr and thanked him for the list of names.  "Call these people on the list for our manifest and have them meet with Lt. Commander Wardropper and Drs York and Briggs in the Cargo Bay, I'm afraid Medical and Science going to have to work double time.  The doctors are already down there so two birds one stone seeing if we can sort out the mind thing and get that as an asset, Mr. Meltem is needed to explain his idea of the magnetised probe further.  Oh and gentlemen, please note the errata to the sizing of the nebula, previous telemetry report had a typo... asteroid is significantly larger than we thought. "

"Waring, where's that coffee?!" Ruth asked feeling suddenly twice her age and her mind going in many directions.

Plans were made, and Lahr hoped for his security mates that the evacuees could just be snagged by transporters. Storming a secret facility INSIDE an asteroid sounded risky.  Kinda like retaking a outpost from Leyton.

Lahr wasn't sure if he understood the plan with the telepaths but when the Captain ordered him to contact the Challenger telepaths, the Andorian got down to it. "Yes, ma'am."

Soon a complement of 12 telepaths were contacted and re-assigned from their current tasks to meeting with Doctors Warhopper, York and Briggs down in the Cargo Bay.  This included, Petty Officer Reyes as 1/4 Vulcan and Ensign Meltem as part Betazoid.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NPC Crewman Helga Tragnar and

NPC (Lt jg) Nurse Chloe Davis
[USS Challenger-A - Cargo Bay]

Gohun mentally started to prepare himself to go rescue some hostages. To be honest the whole hostage thing was rather cliché with him. The truth is that the people had values and thus with the value that they had was a certain assurance of security. Now the hostages probably did not find any of this as a comfort. Gohun stopped by the armory and took out the gear that was requisitioned for this mission for him. It was a phaser rifle and a small hand held phaser with a tricorder.
As he walked into the shuttle bat he saw Dr. Maggie and reported in.

[Cargo Bay - USS Challenger]
[As CMO Dr. Maggie York]

Maggie sighed as she saw the Security crewman walking towards herself and Liv.  Touching Liv's foot with her own she signaled a message of mild exasperation to her co-worker.

"Well Crewman, better late than never. Do I put my hands up now or later?"  the doctor asked with surprise at the sight of the phaser rifle.  "You are not here to operate as Security, but as assistance to the Medical department to prepare the cargo bay as a evacuation centre and triage station.  There's a locker over there, make the rifle secure then go and join Crewmen Tragnar and Thompson at the replicator and placing out the bedrolls and rations."

Maggie waited until the crewman moved off and then turned to Liv.  "Not sure where he got the idea he needed a phaser rifle?!  The tricorder and type 2 I believe is pretty much standard issue not that I've ever worked in Security, that's your hubby's department.  Might be worth flagging this to Kyle?!" she said quietly.

"Great, just what we needed!" she added with a grimace to Liv.

[Cargo Bay]
[As CMO Dr. Maggie Smith and CSO Lt. Cmdr. Evie Wardropper, NPCs]

Evie had nodded to the Captain, given Jasper's shoulder a quick squeeze of encouragement and whispered in his ear. "Brilliant idea on the magnetism... best of British!" before trotting up to the turbolift and ordering it to the Cargo Bay.

Striding over to where Maggie and Liv stood, she gave a grin and let out a mock cackle.  "When shall we three meet again?... Just kidding.  The 3 wise teal-wearing heads of scientific subjects or something!".  Evie chuckled.

"I'm assuming everything about radiation and such has been passed onto you?  Well, NOW we're gonna have an influx of a few people in the crew that are ... I'll refer to them loosely and hope they forgive me, as 'mind users.  Vulcans, Deltans and the like.  They want to see if we can manage to a) contact any of similar persons on the hostages side of things, and if they are receptive and/or b) we can reverse the effects of the device through mind use - Mr. Meltem has done some theorising there and will send the info down, we can get a message to the hostages that we are attempting a rescue without letting on to Leyton's lot, and potentially we could have help say, 3 cadets jumping onto a guard to stop them firing a phaser at one of our crew.  It's not much but anything might give us the edge."

The CMO shrugged and rolled her sleeves up.  "But in the meantime could you do with a hand? Looks like your young lady from Security managed to persuade Mr. Lek to let loose with the industrial replicators so you have a fine pile of things being sorted.  How about I take that gentleman..." she pointed over to Crewman Gohun.  "I believe he came aboard the same time as I so we might have something in common to talk about while we're working... and we can get the bed rolls laid out as we're not gonna have time once they're here and we can't 'conveyor belt' them as we don't know what state they might be in.  Well I mean for rationing and setting them up with stuff.  Obviously those walking you'll be having in I presume on a triage system?"

Maggie smiled at the older woman and puffed out a tutting breath.  "When it rains it pours eh Liv.  Right we'll be ready for them, thanks Commander, we're grateful for another pair of competent hands.  Liv, do you want to be doing the triage station with me, I think our Science Chief here has things in hand with getting the bedding and all sorted. Oh what a day.  Chloe?! When the people are here for the device help come down please set them over in that corner will you."

Evie, wondering how her arthritis was going to stand up to all the walking about and already having done more than 3 times her normal daily steps according to the program on her PADD to keep her active and moving, her bones were starting to ache but she wasn't going to let the side down.   She nodded to the two doctors "We'll manage this together!" she said with a small grimace of pain, and walked over to Gohun with a slight limp, her hip starting to show her age.

"Mr. Gohun I believe.  Let's start getting these bedrolls and rations out, can you find out the dimensions of this cargo bay and we can then calculate how much space to leave between each bed roll."

Chloe, who had been following quietly behind Dr. York, taking notes on what the plans were and overseeing the progress of the security, glanced up as the CMO addressed her. "Yes, Doctor. I'll see to it when they arrive."

Helga was working with Crewman Thompson, alongside T'Ket and Blackfeather, setting up rows and rows of bedrolls, when she spotted Gohun's arrival.  Her brow furrowed a bit at the presence of the phaser rifle.  Dr. York however directed the crewman to put it away.  Which was fine enough, but  when it seemed like the CSO was going to spend her time instructing the crewman, Helga frowned, it was time to get involved.   Informing her partner that she was going to get Gohun caught up on the plan, she left Thompson to finish the row they'd been working on and headed over to intercept Gohun and the CSO.

"Ma'am, I can get Crewman Gohun caught up.  We've got this."  she assured the woman.  There was no need for an officer to hand-hold a crewman.  That was actually the job of a Petty officer.  Not that Blackfeather was paying close enough attention to intervene.  So it fell to Helga.

Turning to Gohun, Helga gave the young crewman a toothy grin.  "Hey Gohun. Glad you're here, we could use the extra hands.  We are setting out bedrolls for the evacuees.   Got 120 done so far.  We only need about 400 more set up."  Helga didn't make any snide comments about his weapon or lateness.  That could wait until the job was done, if the situation was appropriate. Until then the Klingon hybrid would keep an eye on Gohun to be sure he was being productive.

"Follow me.  We have the industrial replicators making the bedrolls over here."  Helga led him over to the large replicator unit.  "Would you prefer making the rolls or laying them out?"

It was about this time that others began to trickle in.  Vulcans mainly.  One of Medical's own Petty Officers, CPO T'ealc, approached the doctors.

"Dr. York, Dr. Briggs  - we were contacted by Petty Officer ch'Verret and told to assemble here in the Cargo Bay to assist in some plan using our telepathy.  Can you explain this to us?"