Dinglehoppers

Posted on Wednesday November 18th, 2020 @ 6:41am by Lieutenant Junior Grade Lee-ee-ek Bluefern - Ek & Lieutenant JG L'sa Blue Fern - Ek

Mission: The Forgotten Outpost
Location: Starbase Promenade

Daniels was busy unpacking. Calysto Trading and Salvage's trade hub had clearance to open it's doors, but the other subsidiaries didn't. That meant that while Lorissa did repairs, and evaluated supplies for the Codfather, and Sipik busied himself with tactical analysis of the sector, and tried to estimate where the biggest scores for salvaging would be, Daniels, himself, was forced to do manual labor.

It was only fair. He was the grunt, as far as the rest of the crew of his ship thought. The remainder of the Calysto Trading Conglomerates staff hadn't arrived, so that meant no shop keepers, no unpackers, no nothing.

Just him, and a particularly generic looking store front.

Filled with boxes.

It was just as well. Heavy lifting meant his brain didn't have to think about Lyra, or the fact that Narissa and Angi were at least a week away from getting clearance to even be in this sector, let alone residents of this base.

This particular box was filled with unusual components from what his trained eye presumed was Orion, based on the fact that it was labelled in Orion "Trader's script"(A polite way to describe the language only their pirates used).

Power regulators. A welding torch. A data pad that Daniels had ensured Lorissa wiped cleaner than clean.

This was his business. Salvage. Refurbish. Resell. There was no piracy involved. The Codfather was barely combat capable. It was a tow-boat with a good sized cargo hold. He set the box aside in the "merchandise" pile, and pondered precisely who the HELL had accused him of actual instead of theatrical piracy. The base security officer's response was above and beyond what he was accustomed to, and he had met Krang before.

A tiny whistle behind him drew his attention.

"Hello, sailor." The harmonious voice of a very familiar face said, as Maddison waved a hand. "What's a girl gotta do to get a drink around here?"

"Wait for the liquor license of the restaurant to come through." Daniels chuckled. This was exactly what he needed. "How's it going, Maddy?"

Maddison shook her head. "Maddison. Not Maddy. We've discussed this. I only tolerate one nickname as my name. Considering you're the one who gave it to me, I should think you'd show it more respect."

"Well, he's certainly not a Tom Hanks." A voice Daniels couldn't immediately identify said.

Daniels looked around, curious.

Maddison held up her hand, and a very small cyan person landed on her palm after the aquatic field pulled back. "I believe you remember-"

"Heyyyy! Tink!" Daniels grinned. "You're both here. That's great."

"And you." The tiny woman crossed her arms. "You didn't do the thing."

Daniels took a sigh. "I wish, I wish, with all my heart. I wish that I could fly." He said, dramatically.

"TOO BAD!" L'sa shouted at him.

The trio took a moment to chuckle at the in jokes that had become commonplace between them.

"Anything interesting in this week?" Maddison asked.

"Weapons? No. I can't legally sell weapons until I get the licensing. Drive tech?" Daniels held up a hand, and dug through the boxes. "Yeah. We found this strange blueprint for a drive system that doesn't make any sense in the wreckage of an Orion trading vessel."

Maddison took it, and L'sa took a seat on her shoulder so they could both take a look.

L'sa tilted her head, then looked back at Daniels. "This isn't a drive system."

"This can't be a drive system." Maddison corrected. "I can see how a particularly clueless person thinks this might be a drive system, but it would cause a feedback reaction into whatever power source you were using that would cause a cascading failure throughout the ship before exploding."

"That probably explains how the Orion ship exploded." L'sa added. "Let me guess. you found the ship mostly intact, as though the explosion was low energy, but somehow tunneling throughout the ship."

Daniels nodded. "Entire cabins in one piece. We actually found a prisoner alive in one of them. Turned them over to Starfleet Security. Still not sure how."

"The feedback through the ship's power systems wasn't just feedback. This device is a weapon. It's designed to ignite electro-plasma flows." Maddison explained. "Not unlike how we use torpedoes to ignite explosive areas of enemy ships, actually. The idea is, you break down the ship's energy shielding, and then you hit them with a blast from this thing, and it takes out the ship in easily recoverable parts for pillaging and studying. It's a pirate weapon. You should probably turn it over to security."

"Why would a pirate not know this was a pirate weapon?" L'sa asked.

"If you believe the current scuttlebutt, I'm a pirate, and I didn't know." Daniels shrugged. "And this isn't Orion Trader's script."

"They stole this from another pirate? Why didn't the pirate just use the weapon on them?" L'sa asked, confused.

"Because they couldn't." Maddison laughed. "It's a poor design. It's actually not a functional device."

"Why not?" L'sa frowned, and squinted at the blueprint.

"It's not shielded, is it?" Daniels asked.

"You can't shield it." Maddison corrected. "You have to power it, somehow. Even if you plugged this thing into your ship correctly, the very first time you powered it up, you'd blow yourself halfway to the Great Mother. It would make an absolute inking mess."

"So... they could have bought this thing." Daniels hazarded a guess. "Didn't read the plans right, and tried installing it as a drive?"

"The idea of a pirate crew being screwed over by an unscrupulous merchant whom they likely threatened for this device to the point of their own destruction is..." Maddison offered a smile. "Quite a pleasant thought. Someone out there is doing us a favor, trying to kill off pirate crews."

"Suits me just fine. Last time we dealt with pirates, they tried to eat Lorissa." Daniels scrunched up his face. "And Starfleet is spread kinda thin out this way."

"Why would they try to eat a crystalline spider?" L'sa scrunched up her face. "That does not sound appetizing."

"Listen, you eat a quarter of a mint leaf and you're full." Maddison retorted. "That being said, even as the biggest carnivore present, I have to admit that in a push-comes-to-shove situation, I'd rather eat you than the spider made out of quartz."

"I didn't say they succeeded." Daniels looked fake offended. "I'm not food, Maddison."

There was a soft chime through her suit which was her species' laughter. Maddison shook her head. "I know that."

Daniels chuckled, and took a breath. "So. Big station assignment for you two?"

"Big is one bee of a word for it." L'sa agreed. "It's fine for Maddison. She gets to walk almost an entire meter in one step. I'm still waiting for my hover-car to get fixed. That means a lot of very exhausting flying."

"I'd say I know a gal who could fix it up for you, but she's sort of unconscious in sickbay at the moment." Daniel winced. "Still. Lorissa could probably hotwire something together in a pinch."

"No." L'sa shook her head. "I don't like the web designs of her work. Natural instincts."

"Like me and cats." Maddison added. "Some things are hard to get past. Arachnids are the primary predators on her planet."

"Ah. Right." Daniels laughed. "Sorry, little one."

"She's the little one!" L'sa crossed her arms.

Maddison let out a soft chime again.

Daniels shook his head. "I said little one, not The Littlest One. Don't you go sassing me, little lady."

Maddison looked back at the schematics and frowned. "Hey, do we know of any major empire that doesn't use electro-plasma flow?"

"Klingons?" Daniels said, thoughtfully. "Well. Some of their very old ships, anyway. Romulans use some bizarre power flow systems for their-"

The silence fell between the three of them, and Daniels' eyes went wide.

"Singularity drives." Daniels finished in a quiet tone. "We have absolutely not a single countermeasure for this."

"And a major opponent who has somehow learned enough about our starships to figure out how to weaponize our energy systems." Maddison added.

"This script isn't Romulan." Daniels pointed out.

"It was obtained by pirates." L'sa countered. "It's not uncommon for pirates to mask where their merchandise came fromm by using alternative languages, or coding systems.

Maddison held up the blueprint. "Under article-"

"95 dash 6, subsection alpha, paragraph 9 of the United Federation of Planets defense act, you are hereby confiscating this artifact, as it pertains to the continued security and safety of the United Federation of Planets, and all beings dwelling within. I have no right to ask for recompense, nor do I retain any ownership of the item in question, and will not be offered the opportunity to challenge this seizure in court. I have been informed of, and understand my rights as a private citizen and understand that so long as I comply with the seizing authority on this matter, no criminal charges will be pressed against me." Daniels dug through the box. "Here you are. Coordinates of the wreckage site, and all pertaining scans to the explosion."

L'sa frowned. "There's something wrong."

"Wrong?" Daniels looked to the smaller woman.

"We use an ablative plating that's used to dampen energy attacks on the ship." L'sa pointed out.

Maddison and Daniels exchanged a glance.

"Well, that plating is specifically designed to dissipate dangerous radiation and energy without allowing it to actually harm the ship. Wouldn't that-" L'sa asked.

"On Starfleet ships, sure. Civilian ones?" Daniels tilted his head. "I'm not tech wizardly enough. I know my weapons. Not unlike your wife. This feels like a Lyra question."

"Strictly speaking, if the ship was undamaged, yes. It would." Maddison paused. "However, direct hits on sections of the hull that do not have this protection, such as the communications disk, exposed portions of the engine or weapons ports would be disastrous. The entire reason we don't rely solely on the ablative plating to protect our ship is because it would effectively create a faraday cage if it encompassed out entire vessel. We couldn't communicate in, nor out."

"That's a problem." L'sa winced. "Especially considering how big a target Starfleet nacelles and communications dishes are."

"And the fact that they're hardwired into our power-grids." Daniels nodded. "Sorry to get you on the clock so soon."

Maddison shrugged. "A warrior's duty does not go down with the sun. One must always be prepared to act."

L'sa gave her a grumpy look.

Daniels winced. "I know that look. Narissa gives me that look when I promise her something and a salvage or tow run comes up."

Maddison gave a slight wince in return. "I'm certain I will regret this in the future."

"Sorry, Tink. Didn't mean to mess up your alone time." Daniels said, digging through some of the boxes. "But I've got some sugar cane here, if that-"

"YES, PLEASE!" L'sa exclaimed.

Daniels chuckled, and handed Maddison the sugar packet. "Cane sugar. Grown on Alvar three."

L'sa looked appropriately placated, once Maddison had sprinkled some on her palm for the tiny woman.

"Hey, easy!" Daniels scolded. "You're going to get high if you go at it that hard."

"It's not like I have anything else to do, this evening." L'sa retorted in a cross tone.

Daniels and Maddison exchanged a wince again, as Maddison poured some more sugar onto her palm.

"Sorry." Daniels mouthed at her.

Maddison didn't reply. She just shook her head.

"You should get that to security as fast as you can." Daniels reminded her. "That needs to be sent to Fleet HQ, ASAP."

"I am going as fast as the situation permits." Maddison retorted.

L'sa looked up at Daniels with a big smile, before landing on his shoulder. "Don't hang around on my account."

Maddison handed Daniels the sugar packet back. "Now it is I, who am sorry."

"I'm married to a Cardassian. You honestly think I won't be fine?" Daniels gave her a surprised look. "I work for Jane Atwood."

"That's a fair point." Maddison admitted, before leaving with the blueprint.

"Do you have any toys in there?" L'sa asked, looking at the boxes.

"I actually haven't finished inventorying these, yet." Daniels gave the small woman a bemused look. "But as you have nothing better to do, perhaps you could help me identify some of the weird things we need to have an Engineering team examine."

"What's in it for me?" L'sa gave him a side glance.

"I've got authentic earth honey."

"How much?"

"An entire litre."

"Deal."

---
Civilian Captain Daniel Daniels
Bad guy, but not bad guy

And introducing

Lee-ee-ek/"Maddison" Bluefern-Ek
Security and Tactical Officer

and

L'sa Bluefern-Ek
Linguist