A vain arrival at Vein II?

Posted on Sunday July 24th, 2022 @ 8:24pm by Lieutenant Finchley Kerr & Lieutenant Commander Niali Deval Dr & Lieutenant Steven Edgeware & Lieutenant JG Talerian Maxx & Lieutenant JG Luna Winters

Mission: New Worlds
Location: USS Oberon/planet Vein II
Timeline: Current.

Mission continuation.....

[ON}

==Intel Office==

Jason had been unaware of the commotion aboard the ship. He was pouring a coffee when he heard the hiss of the "Can I help you?"

Before he was able to turn around he felt a dull thud against his skull.

A few minutes later Jason rolled over, a nurse was scanning him with a tricorder. "What the hell?"

The nurse spoke, "Crewman Watkins got a little carried away, he thought you were an intruder."

"huh?" Jason sat there flabbergasted "what happened?"

-------Sickbay-------

Jo walked in after her duty shift, she had been seeing the doctor for her radiation treatments for several weeks now.

"Hi Doc, got a moment to see your favorite patient?" Jo asked.

“ Hello, Jo. You are looking a lot better today. How are things going?” Steven asked.

"So far so good I am gaining weight and strength and my hair is growing back," Jo replied.

Steven smiled.

“ Now that is just the tonic I needed to hear. We’ll keep up with the treatments for another week. Then we will start to reduce your medication. If all continues I don’t see no reason for you to be fully off them by the end of the month.” He replied

"Thanks, Doctor, that is great news," Jo said hugging him.

Sometimes in life when something good happened. Something bad usually followed. Not every time just occasionally. Today was one of those times.

Niali was beamed onto a biobed in sickbay, she was unconscious her jaw broken, a punctured lung with a pneumothorax, and her left femur was broken. There was not an inch of her that was not bruised and, it seemed she hung onto life. ”DOCTOR EDGEWARE WE NEED YOU’ shouted a nurse.

“ Yes, what’s…. What happened? I was having a counseling session with her not long ago! GET HER PREPPED FOR SURGERY NOW!!!!!!” He shouted.

The surgery took a while as the damage to Niali’s body was very severe. But Steven had lost too many crewmates in the past months. Now he was drawing a line in the sand. No one was going to die! Not on his watch!! She would be weak for a while but Niali would live.

“ Best to let her awake in her own time,” Steven said wiping his forehead.

Nurse Alara Kitan was one of the nurses prepping the patients for the doctor. She was adjusting to the way things were done since it was a much faster pace than at the academy. Life on a Starship was a good experience for her. She was gaining more confidence and was eager to learn as much as she could.

Steven needed a coffee.

“ Nurse Kitan. Keep an eye on Niali’s readings her blood pressure should start to rise. Also, keep an eye on her brain oxidation levels. Would you care for a drink? I am going for some coffee?” Steven asked

Nurse Kitan replied, "No thank you, Doctor. I just had a coffee. Too much will make me jittery right now. I will let you know if anything changes with the patient. Nurse Kitan then began setting up her Data PADD to keep a log of Niali's progress. She wanted to have a comparison for the doctor if he wanted to see her progress. She learned this from her parents who were field doctors and was hoping she would not mess up.

-----------------[Brig, USS Oberon]------------------

Tor sat silent and still his face giving nothing away. He wondered if Niali was dead by now, then, in the same thought wondered about Arle. Of course, he would comfort her at the loss of her only just found sister and then, once the ruling party was overthrown he would take his rightful place with the soldiers of slavery. He was surprised that no one had been to question him yet, but, at the same time, he realized that it must mean no one had discovered the program designed to bring Oberon’s shields down at the right moment. It would only be a small party that would be needed to capture the bridge and release him. He stood and walked to the forcefield. “I demand to see someone in charge, why am I in here?”

Ensign Tati the Duty Officer in the brig walked over to Tor. “You can see me, I am in charge here.” He said sarcastically which Tor remembered as a human trait.

“There is no reason I should be here, Ensign is it. I want to see my wife.”

Ensign Tati walked away, “someone will be down to see you Sir as soon as somebody in charge is available to see you.” He smiled and walked away.

Tor moved to the bench at the rear of the cell pod. Making sure no one was near he pressed down and released his right thumbnail. A small light under the nail bed flashed once and he smiled. That was the sign his Charter was waiting for. They would be able to bring a small section of Oberon’s shields down and they would beam aboard a small team of super soldiers who would take over the ship and use it to subdue the government of Vein ll.

-----------------[Bridge, USS Oberon]------------------

"We've arrived at planet Vein II Captain" Ensign Patterson at the CON reported to his XO

"Very good" Finchley replied "Standard orbit Mr. Patterson...no, wait...elliptical orbit, we need to know about this planet and that'll give astrometrics a chance of studying this one in more detail."

"Aye Sir, elliptical orbit" CON replied.

"All systems functioning normally Sir, We have assumed a standard orbit. We are being scanned by the planet. Sensors indicate multiple artificial satellites, some for communications others are weapons platforms. We have not been hailed," Ensign Grant reported.

Finchley looked over at the Operations Officer and said "It's an elliptical orbit Ensign. Scan the weapon platforms, and give me as much information on them as you can. Also, piggyback onto the communication satellites, let me know what they're talking about, and listen out specifically for any military information."

"Aye Sir," Jo replied. "Sir, their system is heavily encrypted for military operations. They are using a trinary fractal encryption protocol. The computer is having difficulty with the algorithm. I am able to access their civilian programming and communications satellite now. The encryption is much simpler to translate. Our presence has been noted as is our attempts to access the Military platforms. They have increased their Threatcom level accordingly. Sir, I suggest we stop scanning, they can sense our attempts to penetrate their security. That could be perceived as a hostile act." Jo politely suggested.

Finchley looked at the Assistant Chief of Operations "Why didn't you use a passive scan on them, and just report what you found to me as I asked you to? A passive scan wouldn't have raised any suspicions on the planet, whereas using fractal encryption is a deep scan, so of course, it's going to raise suspicions!"

"Sir, I did use the passive scan, They are using a trinary fractal encryption protocol and a sophisticated sensor detection grid. They must be a very paranoid culture. Jo replied.

Finchley ran his hand over his hair in slight frustration, they didn't need this right now. Turning back to Ensign Grant he said "Right, shut off those scans now, if they contact us asking why we deep scanned their platforms we'll just have to say that it's a standard procedure in a First Contact situation....which is actually true."

Jo deactivated the scan. "Aye Sir, scans are terminated," Jo replied.

He tapped his COMM badge "Kerr to Maxx, scan the planet for any signs of recent weapon energy spikes, we need to know what we're heading into. It's been all too quiet since we've come into this Sector, something doesn't feel right, we should have heard from the First Minister by now, perhaps things have been getting out of hand for him. As soon as you have anything let me know."

Maxx replied, "Understood." He tapped a few buttons pads on his Data PADD and linked it to his console. Maxx drank his coffee as his eyes reviewed the data on the screen. Maxx Set up his Data PADD to show 3D holographic images of data and images of his scans to see more details. Since he had engineering knowledge from a past life with his Symbiont he was able to advance his search scans more efficiently. As he ran the scans through his eyes caught something odd and paused to check it out a gain. He then noticed something odd in the ship's navigation since it moved oddly. He then hailed engineering and sent a captured image of the glitch he discovered by accident as he said, "Hey guys I found a glitch in navigation and sent you an image. You might want to check it out before getting too close to our destination. The last thing we need is to crash on a planet."

"Lieutenant Junior Grade Dykes here Sir, thank you, we'll check it out now" the reply came back.

Finchley tapped his badge again and said "Commander Kerr to Ambassador Trellis, report to the bridge immediately please."

"Trellis here Commander, I'll be there momentarily" the reply came back

He tapped his badge a third time and said "Kerr to Lieutenant Elliot, report to the bridge immediately."

Jason sat up, "Acknowledged" as he stood and launched the ice pack the nurse had given him into a waste basket as he exited the intel office he had to stop to steady himself on the bulkhead again.

He tapped his badge one last time "Kerr to Ensign Winters, post a Security guard to all four transporter rooms, all eight cargo transporters, and two to all sensitive areas of the ship. Once that's done, have them report to you every fifteen minutes. There's no immediate threat, but we need to make sure we're secure, Kerr out."

=/\=Understod=/\= was the only reply she gave. She quickly set to work assuming the new patrols and security precautions. She gave instructions for all groups to report every 15 minutes. If there was no report they would now who did not report and where to begin a search if something were to go amiss.

Tor remained silent in the brig refusing all food and drink. He knew that this would soon be the time the desperate group would be preparing themselves for their invasion of the Oberon. The command he had hidden under the false one that he hoped would be found would soon send its signal that would take the transporter command from the Oberon to himself. He would have to leave the brig of course but he would have to take the guise of someone else, he smiled.

“COMMUNICATION TO THE SHIP IN ORBIT. This is the First Minister's Office, Security Minister Valev. How can we help you?” The voice was quiet and respectful but there was also a sense of menace.

Finchley nodded to the Communications officer to open a channel at their end so he could reply.

"This is Lieutenant Commander Finchley Kerr, Executive Officer of the United Federation of Planets vessel the USS Oberon" he began "Our Commanding Officer has a meeting with the First Minister of your planet" he ended.

“Lieutenant Commander Kerr on behalf of First Minister Ara, I would like to welcome your diplomatic mission to the Akaru homeworld Vein ll"

"Thank you Security Minister Valev, we're very happy to be here" Finchley replied, "I regret to inform you that our Captain is a little indisposed at the moment, however, if you'll permit us, our Chief Diplomatic Officer, Lieutenant Chase and our Assistant Chief Operations Officer, Ensign Grant, will beam down at your earliest convenience to hand over our diplomatic seal and have some preliminary discussion with you regarding a formal meeting."

Security Minister Valev looked off screen as though waiting for confirmation then spoke. “First Minister Ara sends her best wishes to your Captain and bids your team welcome. We would prefer to handle the beam down ourselves and would politely request remote connection to your transporters when your team is ready of course?”

Finchley smiled as nicely as he could as he began his reply "Unfortunately Security Minister, with this being a First Contact situation, remote access to our systems cannot be granted till we're certain that both systems are compatible. The safety of our crew is my first priority, you can hopefully understand that. However, if you'd be so kind as to provide coordinates for us, our Officers can beam down and once diplomatic formalities have been completed, I'm sure our Engineers and yours can work together to see if our systems can work together."

There seemed to be a small commotion at the other end and the Security Minister stepped aside to be replaced by a tall female. She half bowed to Finchley. “Lieutenant Commander please forgive Minister Valev, we are experiencing some problems with insurgents currently and he is being over careful to think they may be on board your vessel. By all means, we are sending you the coordinates to the Great Hall, I am afraid we must insist on on no weapons.” She nodded aside to her Aide who supplied the requested coordinates. We await your team.”

First Minister Ara disliked Minister Valev feeling he was too militaristic. Vein ll was desperate to join the Federation but the problem, wrought by their own hand was growing, and more and more of the population were turning against the current administration because of the treatment of its gene-enhanced soldiers. She sighed and smoothed her robes wishing she was with her family at their summer residence.

------------------Sickbay--------------------

Steven had been walking back from the Mess hall. When an emergency call came through. Telling him to get to sickbay at once. When he arrived Edgeware was shocked to find the Captain laid out on a biobed. With a nasty deep gash on his forehead.

“ My goodness what happened to him? Does Commander Kerr know?” He asked

Heads were shaken. Steven tapped his comm badge.

“ Edgeware to Commander Kerr. Sir we need you in sickbay. It’s urgent.” Steven said.

Finchley tapped his COMM badge "On my way Doctor, Kerr out."

Finchley quickly arrived in Sickbay and hurried over to the CMO "What's the urgency Doctor?"

“ I didn’t want to broadcast this over the comm. I am afraid the Captain has been involved in a bad accident. A really bad fall by the looks of things. There was some damage to the brain. It’s fixable don’t worry. But it’s resulted in a coma. Commander Trensu will be out for a good while.” Steven warned

This couldn't have come at a worse time with their arrival at Vein II. As concerning as this was, Finchley had to be practical and he had to be responsible as there was no way he could allow his personal feelings get in the way of the mission.

"Dr Edgeware, I know you will ensure the Captain has the best of care in this situation so I'm entrusting his well being and recovery to you and your medical team" Finchley replied "Right now though, I'll need to take Commander Tensu's place on way Team One and meet with First Minister Ara."

He turned to look at both Steven and Niali "We have two Away Teams going out right now, and this means I need both of you to Interview Tor and find out what his plans are, and also find out what Arle's involvement is in this situation. With me being down on Vein II, Lieutenant Korial, you'll be acting Captain till I return. Please announce it to the crew."

With that, he tried not to let the concern show on his face at what had happened to the Captain and what it's consequences were for the forthcoming negotiations with the Akaru. Turning, he left Sickbay, making his way towards transporter room one.