S6 - E3 - Tripwire

[Ian Galloway]

[Cetacean labs]

Maddy wasn't sure what Miriam the dolphin was talking about, but she was definitely interested in swimming with the dolphins! She was really good at it too, even, as she had learned to swim in the lake when she was really little. "Ooh! I can! I can!" she said, already jumping ahead of the other kids and leaving the teacher behind.  Looking at Mo,  she grinned. " Can you swim, Mo?"

[Cetacean Labs - Deck 8 - USS Challenger]

Two other heads poked out of the water and all three listened to Maddy. After chittering between themselves for a bit, Ruth asked.

"It is good you can swim little swimmer, but are you good at maths? Being a Navigator for humans is very hard, they can't see in three dimensions like a dolphin and don't have sonar, I honestly don't see how most of you can get around without walking into walls all the time."

"Ruth, be nice." Sarah chided. "Humans are limited, but they manage. Now the question is, who thinks they are brave enough to swim through the stars?"

At this point Miriam spoke and addressed the teacher.

"I know it seems like this is just a pool, but this is our home, we cannot have all of you in the water at one time. We will accept three, that way each of us can look after the little swimmer that joins us."

[Novi]

He'd been fortunate at the time that the administering nurse hadn't been Chloe, who'd been recovering from her injury, and instead was a new nurse that hadn't been on the ship long enough to have been warned away by his ex.  As it so happened, the young nurse, finding Lahr charming, 'looked the other way' and 'forgot' to record the drugs usage and explained his presence in Sickbay as him 'checking on his blood sugar levels'.  This happened not just once, but several times.  Until just last week, when Chloe returned to work after her recovery, and Lahr had no choice but to ask for an anti-intoxicant shot from her.

Today's required dose would be his 3rd since then and unfortunately he knew Chloe was working today.  At this point, Lahr was certain she would turn him away, and let his Chief deal with his drinking habit.  Lahr's antenna hung low as he slowly made his way to Sickbay.  With any luck, Chloe will be busy with Tora by the time he arrives, and he'll get the other other nurse.

"Roohz! What was her name again?!"

[Lieutenant JG Novi - Main Sickbay - USS Challenger]

Novi was taking a seat looking over some reports and scheduled appointments for today. She was working as the head Nurse for the day and so had to make sure to remind everyone of their appointments and make sure that everything in sick bay was running smoothly(primarily making sure everything was properly in inventory). She heard the door open but initially didn't react as she knew Lt. Davies and another nurse were just a few feet away to take care of whoever entered. A couple voices were heard and she overheard a fight in the mess hall.

Looking up at that news she saw Ensign Talos being treated by the other nurses for what looked like a bad head injury. She recognized the Cardassian as one of the first of her species to join Starfleet, and was also in her graduating class although they've only made passing comments to each other. She sighed and hoped that things didn't get too out of hand. She had to admit with her brief time on the Challenger that many people were very forward with their actions and it made her a little nervous at times.

A few minutes after that she heard the door open again and saw CPO ch'Verret enter the room. She looked over and saw Chloe still busy and thought she could take this one while she handled the previous patient. Putting on a small smile she gets up from the front desk. Quickly straightening her uniform she walked up to the Andorian. "Hello Chief, what can I do for you today?" From the court-martialing incident when she was briefly the senior officer of the entire ship she only really knew him from his bio and medical reports plus the occasional times they've run into each other but he seemed like a harmless enough individual, if a bit headstrong at times.

[Alexander Wu]

[Bridge]
Ardy could smell the bitter Raktaijino blend Alex had in his mug before she noticed him come up. Klingon coffee blends always seemed to have a sharp aroma that was  heavily pronounced when brewed.

"Heya handsome." she said, noticing the tired look on his face. Another busy day making sure things didn't inexplicably break around them at any given notice. She did give a wry grin at the mention of her breaking the ship. " Oh, you know, the usual, Barrel rolls, MVA separation, the works. Might even have ejected the warp core."

She laughed at her own joke in comparison to the mundane issue she'd been dealing with for the past few hours. "It's really the secondary navigation computers. I'm receiving some off readings on it, in comparison to the system scans. I think it was only partially fixed when we had to leave the base and nobody really got around to it."

[USS Challenger - Bridge]

Hey yourself, Alex couldn't help but smile as he felt Ardyn's warmth spread through his mind. "Well, just give me a few minutes warning before you set off the auto-destruct, I've got a few things on the list to do first." Scanning the secondary navigation terminal's relays, he quickly narrowed down the issue, something that was recently becoming all too common. "Those bloody Landsers..." Alex muttered, pulling out a half dozen isolinear chips. For a reason they still couldn't explain, the temporal pulse which 'tripped' every chip on Challenger had also caused lasting damage to a minority of them, with batches slowly failing over the past few weeks. The only commonality thus far was their age, with older chips seemingly more susceptible to corruption or short-circuits. Challenger wasn't exactly the newest ship in the fleet, which meant many of the damaged modules were in areas least accessible and thus not previously modernized. The faults weren't enough to stop them in their tracks, but were still annoyingly noticeable, especially next to a skippy little corvette like Horizon.

"If we hadn't wasted all that time on 185 with the investigation, alot of this could've been done then." Alex complained, re-scanning the open circuitry to ensure he didn't miss anything. The maintenance techs had spent their entire trip to Solaere troubleshooting why many of Challenger's upgrades installed on the Starbase weren't interacting with or enhancing their systems as designed. More often than not, it came down to a faulty isolinear chip, the tiniest wrench in the workings which required laborious and exhaustive attention to diagnose.  He was more than willing to bet that Sunik's point zero five whatever difference in performance would be found in one out of hundreds of isolinear chips installed within the starboard power distribution system.

"I'll have a technician reprogram some new chips and reinstall them. You'll just have to rely on the primary system till then. Maybe astrometrics can help with correlating our position and course if you'd like a backup." Alex got back on his feet, brushing some specks of dust off his pants. "Captain, between the unexpected maintenance and what we left on Solaere, we've already hit our annual allotment limit on some critical components. The next supply requisition will need your signature and notarized justification. I was going to bring it up in the next briefing, but if you wouldn't mind signing it early, I can send it off to Starbase 153 before we arrive. Hopefully the supplies will be ready and waiting when we dock to save some time."

Oh, and did you ask him yet? Alex glanced over to Ardyn, a quizzed expression crossing his face as he picked his coffee mug up.

[Kyan Mackenzie]

[Lt. Commander Kyan Mackenzie | Sickbay, USS Challenger]

Kyan was almost halfway to sickbay when he remembered that his main reason for going there in the first place was to say hello to Jalen, which was moot because the old El-Aurian was gone. He'd actually stopped and waivered on going at all when that realization struck because... who wanted to go to sickbay anyway? Someone would probably find cause to hit him with a hypospray or do a scan to see if his brain had finished healing from the stupid Landsers or one of the myriad other reasons the blue-shirted devils always seemed to come up with to either stab him, scan him, or make him hop on one foot and bark like a Cappellan swamp seal.

They always had some test to run.

In the end he decided to go anyway, even if the prospect of a jumja sucker was close to nil now that Challenger didn't have a practicing pediatrician anymore. He did need to check on Tora after all, and get her story on what had gone down in the mess hall. And there was the new Trill doctor to meet, which he hadn't had the chance to do as yet.

When the doors whisked open to Rashar's Den of Devious Doctor Types, Kyan saw the new doctor talking to Chief Lahr, and Tora being seen to by one of the enlisted medics. He decided to see her first, and also Lahr since he was at the mess hall when the fight happened.

"Merry Met again Chief." the Onlie spooked up as he made his way over. "Sure an it was a fine hold ye put on Mister Rala in the mess hall so it was." Then to Novi, "...An Merry Met tae yerself too Doctor. I'm Kyan Mackenzie, Welcome ta the ship! D'ya think he'll live or will he hafta be after gettin someone else ta un-bugger the power relays an DJ all the parties?"

[Ardyn Jaeger]

[USS Challenger - Bridge]

Hey yourself, Alex couldn't help but smile as he felt Ardyn's warmth spread through his mind. "Well, just give me a few minutes warning before you set off the auto-destruct, I've got a few things on the list to do first." Scanning the secondary navigation terminal's relays, he quickly narrowed down the issue, something that was recently becoming all too common. "Those bloody Landsers..." Alex muttered, pulling out a half dozen isolinear chips. For a reason they still couldn't explain, the temporal pulse which 'tripped' every chip on Challenger had also caused lasting damage to a minority of them, with batches slowly failing over the past few weeks. The only commonality thus far was their age, with older chips seemingly more susceptible to corruption or short-circuits. Challenger wasn't exactly the newest ship in the fleet, which meant many of the damaged modules were in areas least accessible and thus not previously modernized. The faults weren't enough to stop them in their tracks, but were still annoyingly noticeable, especially next to a skippy little corvette like Horizon.

"If we hadn't wasted all that time on 185 with the investigation, alot of this could've been done then." Alex complained, re-scanning the open circuitry to ensure he didn't miss anything. The maintenance techs had spent their entire trip to Solaere troubleshooting why many of Challenger's upgrades installed on the Starbase weren't interacting with or enhancing their systems as designed. More often than not, it came down to a faulty isolinear chip, the tiniest wrench in the workings which required laborious and exhaustive attention to diagnose.  He was more than willing to bet that Sunik's point zero five whatever difference in performance would be found in one out of hundreds of isolinear chips installed within the starboard power distribution system.

"I'll have a technician reprogram some new chips and reinstall them. You'll just have to rely on the primary system till then. Maybe astrometrics can help with correlating our position and course if you'd like a backup." Alex got back on his feet, brushing some specks of dust off his pants. "Captain, between the unexpected maintenance and what we left on Solaere, we've already hit our annual allotment limit on some critical components. The next supply requisition will need your signature and notarized justification. I was going to bring it up in the next briefing, but if you wouldn't mind signing it early, I can send it off to Starbase 153 before we arrive. Hopefully the supplies will be ready and waiting when we dock to save some time."

Oh, and did you ask him yet? Alex glanced over to Ardyn, a quizzed expression crossing his face as he picked his coffee mug up.

[Bridge]

" You said that right. If it's not one thing it's another, unfortunately," she said, with a shrug as Alex worked on the console. Those chips had proven to be more than trouble since they got hit by the Landsers. "I'll send over  a request to them to see if they could do the calculations. I'd rather the ship be ready in case we encounter pirates or any other anomalies." she shrugged. One of the dull, but necessary things of flying the ship.

At Alex's mental mention of asking him, it took her a moment to figure out what he was talking about, when it hit her; She hadn't gotten around to asking the Captain to see if he'd be open to officiating the big day. Oh #*@&, I hadn't yet. We probably should get to that sooner rather than later. Think now's a good a time as any?

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

[Lieutenant JG Novi - Main Sickbay - USS Challenger]

Novi was taking a seat looking over some reports and scheduled appointments for today. She was working as the head Nurse for the day and so had to make sure to remind everyone of their appointments and make sure that everything in sick bay was running smoothly(primarily making sure everything was properly in inventory). She heard the door open but initially didn't react as she knew Lt. Davies and another nurse were just a few feet away to take care of whoever entered. A couple voices were heard and she overheard a fight in the mess hall.

Looking up at that news she saw Ensign Talos being treated by the other nurses for what looked like a bad head injury. She recognized the Cardassian as one of the first of her species to join Starfleet, and was also in her graduating class although they've only made passing comments to each other. She sighed and hoped that things didn't get too out of hand. She had to admit with her brief time on the Challenger that many people were very forward with their actions and it made her a little nervous at times.

A few minutes after that she heard the door open again and saw CPO ch'Verret enter the room. She looked over and saw Chloe still busy and thought she could take this one while she handled the previous patient. Putting on a small smile she gets up from the front desk. Quickly straightening her uniform she walked up to the Andorian. "Hello Chief, what can I do for you today?" From the court-martialing incident when she was briefly the senior officer of the entire ship she only really knew him from his bio and medical reports plus the occasional times they've run into each other but he seemed like a harmless enough individual, if a bit headstrong at times.

Lahr was relieved when he entered Sickbay that it was a doctor that rose to greet him and not Chloe; though he could see Chloe and another doctor attending the science officer, Tora.  The hungover Andorian tried to smile charmingly to the Trill medic and nodded towards one of the medical treatment bays at the other end of Sickbay, where hopefully Chloe couldn't overhear him.  "Mind if we talk privately?"
.

[Lt. Commander Kyan Mackenzie | Sickbay, USS Challenger]

"Merry Met again Chief." the Onlie spooked up as he made his way over. "Sure an it was a fine hold ye put on Mister Rala in the mess hall so it was." Then to Novi, "...An Merry Met tae yerself too Doctor. I'm Kyan Mackenzie, Welcome ta the ship! D'ya think he'll live or will he hafta be after gettin someone else ta un-bugger the power relays an DJ all the parties?"

Before the pair could go far, the doors to sickbay opened up again and this time it was the Only Commander.  Roohz! Lahr feigned a smile to the First Officer at the Onlie's greeting.  While rumor had it that the Only was a bit of rebel himself, it was also rumor that Kyan didn't drink, so Lahr doubted there would be much understanding of his particular problem.

At the Commander's questioning of his health, the engineering waved off the concern.  "No worries there, sir - at this point, I can almost do both in my sleep." he bragged. A bit of his earlier inebriation showing in his boastful mentality.

Lahr tried to redirect the Commander's attention to the injured Cardassian.  "It's Ensign Zalos, I'm most worried about it.  I heard a definite crunch when Rala's fist impacted her face.  She might have a broken nose. She was the first of us who tried to break up the fight.  I'm sure she'd appreciate a hello from you, Commander."

As he said this Lahr tried to sidle his way further from where Chloe was tending to Tora.

[Ian Galloway]

[USS Challenger - Bridge]

Hey yourself, Alex couldn't help but smile as he felt Ardyn's warmth spread through his mind. "Well, just give me a few minutes warning before you set off the auto-destruct, I've got a few things on the list to do first." Scanning the secondary navigation terminal's relays, he quickly narrowed down the issue, something that was recently becoming all too common. "Those bloody Landsers..." Alex muttered, pulling out a half dozen isolinear chips. For a reason they still couldn't explain, the temporal pulse which 'tripped' every chip on Challenger had also caused lasting damage to a minority of them, with batches slowly failing over the past few weeks. The only commonality thus far was their age, with older chips seemingly more susceptible to corruption or short-circuits. Challenger wasn't exactly the newest ship in the fleet, which meant many of the damaged modules were in areas least accessible and thus not previously modernized. The faults weren't enough to stop them in their tracks, but were still annoyingly noticeable, especially next to a skippy little corvette like Horizon.

"If we hadn't wasted all that time on 185 with the investigation, alot of this could've been done then." Alex complained, re-scanning the open circuitry to ensure he didn't miss anything. The maintenance techs had spent their entire trip to Solaere troubleshooting why many of Challenger's upgrades installed on the Starbase weren't interacting with or enhancing their systems as designed. More often than not, it came down to a faulty isolinear chip, the tiniest wrench in the workings which required laborious and exhaustive attention to diagnose.  He was more than willing to bet that Sunik's point zero five whatever difference in performance would be found in one out of hundreds of isolinear chips installed within the starboard power distribution system.

"I'll have a technician reprogram some new chips and reinstall them. You'll just have to rely on the primary system till then. Maybe astrometrics can help with correlating our position and course if you'd like a backup." Alex got back on his feet, brushing some specks of dust off his pants. "Captain, between the unexpected maintenance and what we left on Solaere, we've already hit our annual allotment limit on some critical components. The next supply requisition will need your signature and notarized justification. I was going to bring it up in the next briefing, but if you wouldn't mind signing it early, I can send it off to Starbase 153 before we arrive. Hopefully the supplies will be ready and waiting when we dock to save some time."

Oh, and did you ask him yet? Alex glanced over to Ardyn, a quizzed expression crossing his face as he picked his coffee mug up.

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian sighed at Wu's request, not that it was unreasonable or unwarranted, it was just a reminder of how rushed their departure from Starbase 185 had been. Between the temporal pulse and the half finished upgrades done by the yard, the Challenger was not in top condition. Something the new Vulcan Chief Engineer had made abundantly clear to him on many occasions.

"Maker I miss Dashlish right now. Crusty as a shipwrecks hull she was, but she kenned when ta fudge and when ta make do."

He thought. To Alex he said.

"Certainly Lieutenant. You need it, you get it. If'n some pillock in Starfleet logistics says so much as boo, I'll be ta slappin' his arse around his ears."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[Cetacean Lab - Deck 8 - USS Challenger]

It took a few minutes for CPO Andrew McNeil who was assigned to the lab to replicate smaller wet suits for Mo, Maddy, and an Andorian boy named Okal Th'rhyllahr. It took several more minutes to get the children into the unfamiliar suits and, after a bit of hesitation, into the water.

The dolphins patiently guided the 'little swimmers' as they got the feel for the water and to gauge not only how well they swam, but if they 'took to the water'. Being suitable to connect to the dolphin's neural link to the ship took much more than being a strong swimmer. For the dolphins, it was seeing if the person had a connection to the water that they were looking for that would tell them if their charge was truly of the sea or not.

Thus as they swam with the children, they quizzed them, and darted around them to see how well they tracked things moving in 3D. They also discretely scanning them with their sonar to decide if any would be allowed to join them in their link.

"The Lobling is a curious one and is as good with maths as he claimed." Sarah said as the three dolphins spoke together with their vocorders off, which sounded like chirps, clicks, and squeals.

"The human has the gift, her mind touched mine, she is of the sea."
Miriam said of Maddy.

"The blue boy is a strong swimmer and is passionate, but shows an aggressiveness that is ill suited for the link." Ruth added.

"Then it is decided?" Sarah asked and the others nodded in agreement.

"We have come to a decision, the little swimmers known as Mo and Maddy will join us in the link."

Miriam announced.

"Cee. Pee. Oh. Mack Kneel, will fit them with the neural headset. Be prepared for the adventure of life time little swimmers."

[Alexander Wu]

[Bridge]

" You said that right. If it's not one thing it's another, unfortunately," she said, with a shrug as Alex worked on the console. Those chips had proven to be more than trouble since they got hit by the Landsers. "I'll send over  a request to them to see if they could do the calculations. I'd rather the ship be ready in case we encounter pirates or any other anomalies." she shrugged. One of the dull, but necessary things of flying the ship.

At Alex's mental mention of asking him, it took her a moment to figure out what he was talking about, when it hit her; She hadn't gotten around to asking the Captain to see if he'd be open to officiating the big day. Oh #*@&, I hadn't yet. We probably should get to that sooner rather than later. Think now's a good a time as any?

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian sighed at Wu's request, not that it was unreasonable or unwarranted, it was just a reminder of how rushed their departure from Starbase 185 had been. Between the temporal pulse and the half finished upgrades done by the yard, the Challenger was not in top condition. Something the new Vulcan Chief Engineer had made abundantly clear to him on many occasions.

"Maker I miss Dashlish right now. Crusty as a shipwrecks hull she was, but she kenned when ta fudge and when ta make do."

He thought. To Alex he said.

"Certainly Lieutenant. You need it, you get it. If'n some pillock in Starfleet logistics says so much as boo, I'll be ta slappin' his arse around his ears."

[USS Challenger - Bridge]

"Much appreciated, skipper, I'll send the requisitions through Commander Mackenzie." Alex gave Ardyn a sidelong glance, and then a quick look around the bridge to see who else was present. They still didn't know too many people well onboard, at least any more than working relationships, and some of those they had befriended, like Neva, had been transferred out. Even after a month, Alex still wasn't overly familiar with some of the senior crew, Galloway included. Musing whether it'd be better to wait until after they went off duty, Alex decided the worst he could say was no. And chances were he'd have a harder time saying no to Ardy. "Well, so long as you're in a giving mood, Captain, Ardyn and I would like to ask you for a favour."

[Ian Galloway]

[USS Challenger - Bridge]

"Much appreciated, skipper, I'll send the requisitions through Commander Mackenzie." Alex gave Ardyn a sidelong glance, and then a quick look around the bridge to see who else was present. They still didn't know too many people well onboard, at least any more than working relationships, and some of those they had befriended, like Neva, had been transferred out. Even after a month, Alex still wasn't overly familiar with some of the senior crew, Galloway included. Musing whether it'd be better to wait until after they went off duty, Alex decided the worst he could say was no. And chances were he'd have a harder time saying no to Ardy. "Well, so long as you're in a giving mood, Captain, Ardyn and I would like to ask you for a favour."

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian canted his head is surprise as he hadn't known the two all that long. Both seemed to be solid officers and it was Wu and Randall that had saved the ship by coming up with the means to protect them from the impact of the Landser temporal pulse. He figured, the entire crew owed them at least one favor.

"How may I be of service Lieutenant?"

[Novi]

Lahr was relieved when he entered Sickbay that it was a doctor that rose to greet him and not Chloe; though he could see Chloe and another doctor attending the science officer, Tora.  The hungover Andorian tried to smile charmingly to the Trill medic and nodded towards one of the medical treatment bays at the other end of Sickbay, where hopefully Chloe couldn't overhear him.  "Mind if we talk privately?".

[Lieutenant JG Novi - Sickbay - USS Challenger]

Novi looked behind her to the bays a little confused but understanding it was probably something personal she nodded her head, "Oh of course. Let me just-" she was then interrupted a moment later by the arrival of Commander Mackenzie.

[Lt. Commander Kyan Mackenzie | Sickbay, USS Challenger]

When the doors whisked open to Rashar's Den of Devious Doctor Types, Kyan saw the new doctor talking to Chief Lahr, and Tora being seen to by one of the enlisted medics. He decided to see her first, and also Lahr since he was at the mess hall when the fight happened.

"Merry Met again Chief." the Onlie spooked up as he made his way over. "Sure an it was a fine hold ye put on Mister Rala in the mess hall so it was." Then to Novi, "...An Merry Met tae yerself too Doctor. I'm Kyan Mackenzie, Welcome ta the ship! D'ya think he'll live or will he hafta be after gettin someone else ta un-bugger the power relays an DJ all the parties?"

Novi briefly stood more formally at the arrival of the first officer. At first she found the Onlie a little difficult to understand. Even with universal translators his Standard was a little difficult to understand for her. Plus, as she wasn't a pediatrician it was difficult as a Doctor to judge the Commanders health in his reports. Yet seeing the casual nature of this visit she relaxed a little and gave a small chuckle.

"haha... he will live of course Commander. Taking a look it appears everything is where it should be." she said with an awkward grin. She wasn't the best at these kinds of talks. Especially with a superior officer but she wanted to try and fit in. But also as she took a look at Shran it did something was up with him. Maybe that was why he wanted to speak privately? She probably should wait to comment on it either way.

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

CPO ShranLahr ch'Verret
[USS Challenger - Deck 7 - Sickbay]

[Lieutenant JG Novi - Sickbay - USS Challenger]

Novi looked behind her to the bays a little confused but understanding it was probably something personal she nodded her head, "Oh of course. Let me just-" she was then interrupted a moment later by the arrival of Commander Mackenzie.

Novi briefly stood more formally at the arrival of the first officer. At first she found the Onlie a little difficult to understand. Even with universal translators his Standard was a little difficult to understand for her. Plus, as she wasn't a pediatrician it was difficult as a Doctor to judge the Commanders health in his reports. Yet seeing the casual nature of this visit she relaxed a little and gave a small chuckle.

"haha... he will live of course Commander. Taking a look it appears everything is where it should be." she said with an awkward grin. She wasn't the best at these kinds of talks. Especially with a superior officer but she wanted to try and fit in. But also as she took a look at Shran it did something was up with him. Maybe that was why he wanted to speak privately? She probably should wait to comment on it either way.

Lahr gave a wan smile to the Trill medic, knowing that compared to how he used to look, he was still off-color with hints purple shadows under his eyes.  He was glad he had the excuse of his recently discovered hypoglycemia to blame for what he knew was just a bad hangover.

The Andorian looked back to the Commander.  "Excuse me, sir, but I need to talk to the doc privately before I start my shift... if I can steal a moment of her time?"

Once alone in a private treatment bay, Lahr looked to the Trill and quietly broached his request. "So... me and the guys from Beta shift got together last night to watch the Stanley Cup playoffs.  Our team won and, and well, I celebrated a bit too much.  I need an anti-intoxicant shot before I show up for work in a half-hour."

Truth was Lahr had been drinking alone quarters while his cabinmate was on shift, but the doctor didn't need to know that. 

[Jettis Jyur]

[Ensign Tora Zalos|Mess Hall|USS Challenger]

"Barely. Crewman Rala decided to take a swing at me when I tried to stop him from beating the snot out of Jeyshon over there." Tora pointed backwards at the poor Tamarian - the poor guy didn't ask for any of this, really, and here he was caught right in the middle. She felt sorry for him, really. When all this was over he was chief among the first few she wanted to bring out to a nice meal and possibly a massage on the holodeck - as an apology of sorts, in his case. "I'll be sure to turn up on duty as soon as possible, promise! Lots to do!" Which would be within the hour or something, she was sure of that, provided the doctors didn't find anything serious floating around her brain fluids or something.

[ USS Challenger - Mess Hall ]

Jettis' brows shot up, following Tora's point over towards Jeyshon. A full on fight in the mess hall? He hadn't heard of such an incident in a long time. "Of course. I trust you're in good hands to accompany you down," he said. Seeing them off before he split off, heading back to his office to eat before anything else could go wrong.

[Ian Galloway]

[USS Challenger - Romulan Space]

As the Challenger and her Romulan escort cruised along at a steady warp eight, the crews of both ships went about their assigned tasks and enjoyed what off duty time they managed to wrangle out of their day. Despite the less than optimal condition the Starfleet ship departed from Starbase 185 in, both ships were on track to reach their destination in the predicted eight days.

If there was anything untoward occurring aboard the Romulan ship, it was unknown, but the thefts on Challenger had made an impact. Not over the value of the items taken, but more the fact that they were occurring at all. That a member of Starfleet could act in such a way called the trust in which every member of the crew relied on into question. Especially when trust was a pivotal part of relying on people on which your life depended.

What made the situation so hard to understand was how whoever the thief was choosing his targets and how they were remaining undetected in the face of so many sophisticated sensors. Thus while the ship sailed on blissfully unaware, all was not well on the Challenger.

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

CPO ShranLahr ch'Verret
[USS Challenger - Deck 12 - Upper Engineering Support Area - Beta shift (1600hrs)] (Day 4)

After the events of the mess hall brawl, despite having gotten his anti-intoxicant shot, word of Lahr's visit to Sickbay (and the reason for it) had made it back to the Engineering Chief; and as expected the privilege of working in Main Engineering was pulled.  Lahr found himself working double shifts afterwards (Beta & Gamma).  The first at a monitoring station in the Upper Engineering Support Area, and the second overtime shift to assist with the replacement of the isolinear chips.

The Andorian figured Vulcan logic suggested that it was harder to find time to drink socially during the early morning. Too bad for his Vulcan Chief that Lahr wasn't drinking to be social.  He was drinking to cope - so time of day didn't matter.  Or so he thought...

Really what was happening was that Lahr, instead of pacing himself with his drinking and drinking several (six or more) Andorian ales over an extended period of time, because of the early morning hour and his overall exhaustion, he subconsciously felt like he needed to 'catch up' to where he'd typically be, so drank the ales faster... which caused the buzz to hit sooner and more potently.  The result was he was drinking fewer and passing out sooner which gave him more time to rest and recover before his shift the next afternoon.

The downside to this was that on those days when he woke at 1400hr after 5 hours sleep... he didn't know what to do with himself until his shift start.  He was smart enough not to try drinking at that time of day - the alcohol was only to get him through sleep dreamlessly.  With most of his social circle on Alpha shift there wasn't anyone to hang with, so Lahr spent his time with Hyperion.

At work, things were tense.  The double shifts were putting many in a poor mood.  Lahr's role once again was the tertiary EPS flow monitoring station. A redundant backup system, so other than a bit of preventative maintenance there wasn't much to actually do.  As he arrived at his work station, it seemed like today was going to be another quiet day.

Lahr sat down and signed into his console.  The readouts displayed across his screen.  All were within appropriate measures.  The Andorian leaned back in his chair to get comfortable.

After a moment, something felt off.  He sat upright, looking over the station. Something was missing.  It took a second to realize what it was.  His name plate - which used attached to  his station with 'Fun-Tak' but had to be taken down when the new Chief took over citing that its placement was not regulation.  Since then the name plate had sat precariously atop the console, held in place by the miraculous blue substance.  It was missing.

Lahr looked under his console, under his chair, and under the nearby stations intermittently between doing his monitoring task.  After 15 minutes of thorough searching, a suspicion came to mind.

"Yo, Ensign Tal!" Lahr called to the supervising officer of the Support Area, and waved him over.

"Did the Chief do an inspection today and remove my brass name plate?" the Andorian asked the Bajoran engineer with a frown.

Mushar shook his head, though he glanced to a PADD he held in his hand. "Not to my knowledge and there's nothing in the records about an inspection. Seems the ship's thief struck again."

[Zhukdrashar Mrekrerhas]

[USS Challenger - Bridge]

"G'morning, Zhuk." Alex greeted the Caitian commander as they switched places in the turbolift, feeling a fair bit friendlier and awake after his first few sips of the strong Klingon brew. "Morning, Captain." After exchanging pleasantries with a few of the other bridge officers while making his way forward, Alex placed his mug on the helm console before kneeling behind it to remove a maintenance panel. "So what did you do again to break this, Ardy?"

[Lieutenant Commander Zhukdra'shar Mrekrerhas | Deck One --> Deck Nine | Bridge --> Chief Tactical Officer's Office | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A]

Zhukdra'shar was pleased to be greeted by Lieutenant Wu on his way into the turbolift, and so, he proceeded to nod towards him respectfully, "Greetings, Lieutenant," He stated, before entering the turbolift alongside Chief Petty Officer Blackfeather, "Deck Nine, if you would be so kind..."

The doors closed, and they began their descent. Turning to Blackfeather, he spoke up, "It is quite vexing for me to learn that a member of our distinguished crew fancies themself as a kleptomaniac, hm?"

Blackfeather nodded, before adding, "Yes... though in all honesty, Sir, I do not think that the thief is a crewmember. Call it a hunch, but it seems odd that someone would be displaying such an attitude now, and not have a record."

Blackfeather's words made Zhuk hum as he thought about the possibilities. Perhaps, he would need to confront this situation differently, after all. He valued Blackfeather's counsel, though he decided to attempt a more direct approach to solving this issue as soon as they arrived to his new office.

A few minutes later...

[Lieutenant Commander Zhukdra'shar Mrekrerhas | Deck Nine | Chief Tactical Officer's Office | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A]

Even though the Lieutenant Commander had been given an office for himself after his promotion, he seldom used it. Now, it seemed like the correct time, and so he took a seat behind his desk and began to review the security footage of the last few days, assisted by Blackfeather. Slowly, but steadily, he realized that what Blackfeather had previously explained was true. There was no evidence of the thief or thieves in the recordings, and examining the sensors had also given him no results.

His ears fell flat on his head, and he passed a hand through the short, orange hair of his head. His fellow officer had no success either. Damnation.

This would be a harder ordeal than he previously thought.

Changing his methods was in order. So, he ordered a group of Security officers to try and search for DNA samples or fingerprints on the crewmember's rooms that had been affected, while he finished reviewing the data. Unfortunately, no one was able to find any evidence. When the last report came in, Zhuk was still swamped with videos to observe.

The end of his shift came, yet he politely asked Blackfeather to take his break while he continued. Even though the Senior Chief Petty Officer expressed his concern, Zhuk reassured him he would not linger too long on this effort. He lied. Whether Ryan knew or not, he did not insist, and took off, wishing farewell to the Caitian.

Hours passed, and he reviewed the footage again and again. Slowly, he felt more and more frustration dwelling inside of him, arming itself into a bomb that contained tiredness and sleepiness alongside it. Until finally, he exploded, smashing his fists on the console and clawing it as he dragged his hands down. The material, fortunately, was strong enough to resist his strength, and so, he was only left with a bad sensation on his body, yet no physical evidence of his frustration. He attempted to think on what he was missing, but to no avail and ended up falling asleep on his chair, unable to solve the mystery thus far.

[Ensign Tora Zalos|Mess Hall|USS Challenger]

"Barely. Crewman Rala decided to take a swing at me when I tried to stop him from beating the snot out of Jeyshon over there." Tora pointed backwards at the poor Tamarian - the poor guy didn't ask for any of this, really, and here he was caught right in the middle. She felt sorry for him, really. When all this was over he was chief among the first few she wanted to bring out to a nice meal and possibly a massage on the holodeck - as an apology of sorts, in his case. "I'll be sure to turn up on duty as soon as possible, promise! Lots to do!" Which would be within the hour or something, she was sure of that, provided the doctors didn't find anything serious floating around her brain fluids or something.

Lahr was relieved when he entered Sickbay that it was a doctor that rose to greet him and not Chloe; though he could see Chloe and another doctor attending the science officer, Tora.  The hungover Andorian tried to smile charmingly to the Trill medic and nodded towards one of the medical treatment bays at the other end of Sickbay, where hopefully Chloe couldn't overhear him.  "Mind if we talk privately?"
.
Before the pair could go far, the doors to sickbay opened up again and this time it was the Only Commander.  Roohz! Lahr feigned a smile to the First Officer at the Onlie's greeting.  While rumor had it that the Only was a bit of rebel himself, it was also rumor that Kyan didn't drink, so Lahr doubted there would be much understanding of his particular problem.

At the Commander's questioning of his health, the engineering waved off the concern.  "No worries there, sir - at this point, I can almost do both in my sleep." he bragged. A bit of his earlier inebriation showing in his boastful mentality.

Lahr tried to redirect the Commander's attention to the injured Cardassian.  "It's Ensign Zalos, I'm most worried about it.  I heard a definite crunch when Rala's fist impacted her face.  She might have a broken nose. She was the first of us who tried to break up the fight.  I'm sure she'd appreciate a hello from you, Commander."

As he said this Lahr tried to sidle his way further from where Chloe was tending to Tora.

[Crewman Zala | Deck Four --> Deck Seven | Mess Hall --> Sickbay | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A]

Zala smiled at the offer of food that a thankful Tora insisted upon. She was not truly going to decline an invitation like that, considering how eager she was to meet new people aboard the ship. Her thoughts were swiftly broken, however, by the sheer weight of the Cardassian as she lifted her up. The Ferengi had indeed underestimated how heavy she was, though she tried to pass it off to avoid making her feel any worse. That broken nose looked nasty,

"A-Ah, yes, of course. Let us go to Sickbay!"

And with no further delay, she made her way to Deck Seven. On the way out, a Science officer asked Tora if she was alright, and so, she decided to stop her walk so that she could communicate what had happened. It made her feel upset that all of this mess had been caused by someone acting rashly, and hearing the explanation again, this time in a much more educated manner, made her blood boil. If only for a few seconds. She supposed that Security would be able to sort this situation effectively, yet, she at least expected for the Bajoran to be given some proper punishment. She would abhor if this happened again.

Fortunately, the trip to Sickbay was rather uneventful otherwise, and she was able to help Tora into a bed for her to be assisted. Her superior, Kyan, walked in after a doctor and Head Nurse Chloe began to treat Zalos dutifully, so she decided to follow him over to a handsome blue Andorian. Even with her magnificent ears, she was too far away to make up any of the conversation, though she supposed he was not feeling alright if he was here. Zala was curious to ask him more about it, and to see if he was well, but her shyness was far stronger, and decided to stay with Tora instead.

[Cetacean Labs - Deck 8 - USS Challenger]

Two other heads poked out of the water and all three listened to Maddy. After chittering between themselves for a bit, Ruth asked.

"It is good you can swim little swimmer, but are you good at maths? Being a Navigator for humans is very hard, they can't see in three dimensions like a dolphin and don't have sonar, I honestly don't see how most of you can get around without walking into walls all the time."

"Ruth, be nice." Sarah chided. "Humans are limited, but they manage. Now the question is, who thinks they are brave enough to swim through the stars?"

At this point Miriam spoke and addressed the teacher.

"I know it seems like this is just a pool, but this is our home, we cannot have all of you in the water at one time. We will accept three, that way each of us can look after the little swimmer that joins us."

[Little Mo | Deck Eight | Cetacean Lab | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A]

Mo couldn't help but grasp at his chest as he felt the strange sensation suddenly reaching his body, wondering why he felt this way. It did not hurt, but he couldn't say he liked it. He glanced around, in confusion, looking over at Mirriam, Maddy, and finally his teacher, until it finally stopped. The little Ferengi looked shaken by the experience overall, though the offer of joining the cetaceans perked him up significantly, making him momentarily forget the strange sensation in lieu of something fun to do,

"Eeeeh?! Can I teacher, pthlease?! Can I?!"

He pleaded, looking at her with large, excited eyes that resembled a Terran puppy in adorableness.

"Oh, yeah! I know how to swim!" Mo reassured Maddy, a big smile on his face as he turned to look at her. It made him feel even more excited to have his friend along for the experience. Swimming with the doll-pheens sounded fun, after all!

He became slightly worried when they mentioned that they needed to do maths and swim, however. He had never done both things at the same time. But she trusted that Maddy and him were smart enough to figure it out,

"Y-Yeah! Maddie can do it! She is super, duper smart!"

He vouched for his human friend, hoping that she would be allowed in without issue. He liked the words he had used, 'super' and 'duper'. They were fun hooman words that other classmates had taught him. And he hoped the 'dol-pheens' would like them too.

[Cetacean Lab - Deck 8 - USS Challenger]

It took a few minutes for CPO Andrew McNeil who was assigned to the lab to replicate smaller wet suits for Mo, Maddy, and an Andorian boy named Okal Th'rhyllahr. It took several more minutes to get the children into the unfamiliar suits and, after a bit of hesitation, into the water.

The dolphins patiently guided the 'little swimmers' as they got the feel for the water and to gauge not only how well they swam, but if they 'took to the water'. Being suitable to connect to the dolphin's neural link to the ship took much more than being a strong swimmer. For the dolphins, it was seeing if the person had a connection to the water that they were looking for that would tell them if their charge was truly of the sea or not.

Thus as they swam with the children, they quizzed them, and darted around them to see how well they tracked things moving in 3D. They also discretely scanning them with their sonar to decide if any would be allowed to join them in their link.

"The Lobling is a curious one and is as good with maths as he claimed." Sarah said as the three dolphins spoke together with their vocorders off, which sounded like chirps, clicks, and squeals.

"The human has the gift, her mind touched mine, she is of the sea."
Miriam said of Maddy.

"The blue boy is a strong swimmer and is passionate, but shows an aggressiveness that is ill suited for the link." Ruth added.

"Then it is decided?" Sarah asked and the others nodded in agreement.

"We have come to a decision, the little swimmers known as Mo and Maddy will join us in the link."

Miriam announced.

"Cee. Pee. Oh. Mack Kneel, will fit them with the neural headset. Be prepared for the adventure of life time little swimmers."

Mo let out a squeak of happiness when he was given the wet suit, and dressed himself on it as quickly as he could. After figuring out how to place it on, of course. When he reached the water's edge, though, he felt some hesitation building up in his body. The water was deep, and he was not that used to it. Still, he took a deep breath and jumped in nonetheless. Fortunately, Sarah, one of the cetaceans, moved in closer to assist him with the swimming, and soon enough, he felt comfortable enough to swim alongside her.

His fear quickly turned into curiosity as he was questioned, his mind quick and happy to answer any queries. Even those related to math problems. It turned out, that making calculations in the water wasn't so difficult for him! After a while, though, the doll-pheens seemed to have a little reunion of their own, before they announced that Maddy and Mo would join them. He celebrated by splashing on the water, smiling at Maddy, before realizing that the Andorian boy would not be joining them.

Mo felt sad for him, but he found no words to say when he left. He just hoped he wasn't too hurt about it...