RPG: Mission: Prelude Day: 7 Stardate: 2444.05.09 (Shuttlepod Alpha-97 - Departing Earth Orbit - Admiral Remae Ktell - 15:03) A week had gone by, and a lot had happened during that time. The President's order had been accepted by Starfleet Command and getting what she wanted, and she had wasted no time. However, as is usual in politics, not the way she had wanted. It hadn't bothered Remae, he was free of the political bubble and was in space again. He was heading for his new assignment. Admiral Bell had departed, of course. She had commandeered the first ship she could lay her hands on and flew off into space. It could be several months before he saw his wife again. She knew, as he did, the focus had to be on the here and now for both of them. The shuttlepod cleared Earth orbit, made a flyby of SpaceDock before heading into space at full impulse. (Shuttlepod Alpha-97 - Admiral Remae Ktell - 15:40) At the helm, an Ensign whose name Remae didn't get or ask for. It wasn't every day he was flown around by an Ensign, but protocol was protocol. If the Ensign at the controls was feeling any nervousness about flying around one of the top brass, she wasn't showing any signs of it. The pod was decelerating towards its destination. "We're closing on the Starbase, Admiral. As you can see, its in a close orbit of Mars, ahead you can see the bulk of the shipyards, the launch bays of various fighter squadrons, and below us, the facilities on the surface including medical, scientific and security training areas.", said the Ensign who seemed to be enjoying the idea of giving the tour, perhaps it was more interesting than their usual duties. ~An Ensign. another Ensign?~ Ever since taking this assignment, the Admiral had run into a remarkable amount of them around had raised some eyebrows but Admiral Remae considered the fact that, for all purposes, he was the only command-level officer on site. Over in the distance, Remae could see a large ship docked at the nearest shipyard, and he directed the Ensign to take him over towards it. It was clear that most of the other docks were occupied in part with ships that were either simple frames, damaged in some fashion or in other need of care. "Ensign, turn on the floodlights and let's take a look.", he said. Darkness all around indicated that most if not all of the entire facility was offline. The shipyards were mostly dark, and when the lights lit up the ship, it was clear, this wasn't a new ship, and it had been stationary for a long time. "Isn't that an Odyssey Class Ensign?", he asked, as the floodlights illuminated small parts of the giant ship in front of them. The Ensign nodded, and Remae was taken aback when he saw her size, although he couldn't make out the name, the ship was about a kilometre long but looked space-worthy. "One of the biggest.", said the Ensign, who took the initiative and headed towards to the small starbase and back in orbit of Mars once they had completed a quick survey. The pod was taking him a tour of the orbital facilities and Ktell wasn't happy by what he saw. As far as he could tell, nothing was happening, no ships, no construction, on the starbase itself, the signs of life was minimal, and on the surface, inside the Starfleet Facilities. "Ensign, this place is supposed to be buzzing with activity, ships under construction, an Operations Centre coordinating this sector of space and, several scientific, research, engineering projects should be underway, medical and counselling services and at the least, where are the pilots and the fighters of our defence forces?", he said blaming the entire situation on the pilot of the small control craft. Unsurprisingly, the Ensign didn't hold the command-level access to the files, but it wasn't going to take a mastermind to understand what had happened, the Admiral already knew the answer, and the question was rhetorical although, in her defence, the Ensign shrugged her shoulders. "I see.", what else could he say? (Mars Surface - Landing Platform Alpha - Admiral Remae Ktell - 16:15) On the surface, the Admiral was touring the ground facilities. They had landed on one of the two landing platforms, and it was a simple matter to take the small walkway that led inside the complex. Mars has been terraformed, back in 2155, and it allowed free movement around the planet. It was easy to walk around without the need for environmental suits although gravity was a little lighter, it was very similar to Earth, there were all the comforts of home. In the facilities operated by Starfleet, the surface served areas of research, security, medical, training areas and the list went on. The civilians were going on about their normal lives, but here, it was deserted. It was like a part of the planet was a ghost town. "Admiral!", said the Ensign manning the front doors, jumping to attention. Looking at his attire, he was Starfleet Security. However, it seemed he had been sleeping on the job, either no one told him company was coming or, he didn't care. "Open up for me, Ensign.", ordered Remae, before adding, "Anyone inside?" The Ensign seemed to smile slightly, "Sorry, Admiral, its been a while since anyone paid attention to us.", he said, opening the doors for the senior officer. (Starfleet Martian Ground Facilities - Main Foyer - Admiral Remae Ktell - 16:25) ~Does nothing have names around here?~ The lack of real names concerned Remae, nothing seemed to have been named. Plaques that should an honour to significant people of the Federation were either missing or removed. Everyone knew that the shipyards overhead were known collectively as called Utopia Planitia but that name seems to have been erased, lost to history. He would have to think of something that encompassed all the facilities he was seeing. Someone built it. why didn't they keep the name for it? The entrance to all surface facilities was a large, open area that showed signage and directions to the various departments. One way, led to Medical, the other, to Security, another to Research and it went on and on. The buildings were interconnected, and turbolifts tubes that went vertically and horizontally were everywhere. It was like a starship layout but lack of power at the moment prevented travel to distance floors but there was enough time to explore the medical, security, scientific facilities. Remae mooched around for a while, his feet taking him to the closer areas. but the Ensign outside was right, it had been a long time since anything had happened around here. (Martian Starbase - Main Operations - Admiral Remae Ktell - 18:00) The shuttlepod had taken him to the base in orbit and the Ensign had taken herself off shift. the base was empty of people and power. It was very similar to the surface. Walking through the deserted starbase, Remae noted that so much of it was unused. His first order of business was to find out what happened, the desertion of Mars and its facilities was not public knowledge, it wasn't even something that was spoken of. He never realised this had got to this point. Arriving at OPS where at least some power was being maintained, he started to access the files and logs but was interrupted by the sound of a familiar transporter beam, another Admiral materialised into the operations centre. Commander in Chief (Starfleet) Admiral Donovan Cayne stood in front of him, a full fleet Admiral and Ktell's boss, resplendent in his Admirals uniform with the powerful set of pips on his collar. ~ Now, where did he come from? ~ "Well, it looks like found somewhere that suits you, finally Remae.", he said walking around the Operations Centre and the Bajoran looked at him, starting to compose himself before replying, "It's much Admiral, but its home!", he said with as much sarcasm as he could muster. Not impressed, the military man stopped and looked back towards the Admiral before continuing, "Sorry for the mess, the Andorians had cleaned out their technology before they left earlier in the year. The Admiral didn't appear to be sorry, about anything, ever. A little confusion must have passed over his face, and the Admiral continued explaining, "As per our treaty, when Andoria left the Federation, we agreed they could access any technology they had a hand in developing. When they left, it was a condition of the new relationship we forged. It's taken a long time but they finally finished the process.", he stopped, ran his fingers across a console before turning back. "We've managed to replace much of what they took but their expertise in weapons was one of the drivers of why we wanted nothing more to do with them.", he said and he inferred the side of the fence he was on, here was someone who believed in the reduction of the military aspects of Starfleet. He was seemingly done with explaining anything further. "We'll be keeping an eye on you.", he said and beamed out without further comment. Remae was more confused, the Admiral dropped in, told him a few vital bits of information and then departed? There were no operational ships in the area that he knew about. however, he did get the lead he was looking for. (Martian Starbase - Main Operations - Admiral Remae Ktell - 19:30) He had spent time walking around the Operations Centre, some of the pieces of information were coming together and he managed to at least restore some power to the systems of the old starbase. "Computer, open a channel to the office of the President.", he said, sitting down at once of the consoles. President Stiave Atremi appeared on the large, central viewscreen. Not as large as a starship viewscreen but the screen was large enough for all to see. =^= Ah, Ktell, how goes it up there? =^= "Great. Just great.", he said, now with his feet up on a console, arms crossed, he waited for a moment. "I was paid a visit by the boss, Admiral Cayne, he seems he's going to allow this endeavour. What have you heard?", he asked. =^= We've heard the same, the CINC has arranged your new crew. you should start receiving them soon, ah, there's probably something you should know. Cayne has sent you a full set of officers but, they are all. Ensigns. =^= His feet slid off the console. "Ensigns? So, no experienced officers at all?", he spluttered slightly. =^= I didn't say that Remae, it seems Admiral Cayne cannot spare any of his senior officers so the call has gone out. You can expect their arrival over the next several days. =^= ~ No Chiefs? No First Officer? ~ Remae was a little disappointed, he had imagined he wasn't going to do any of the work himself, he was going to have an army of officers to carry out his bidding. He stood up and took his jacket off. =^= For something this size, there will be hundreds if not thousands of people starting to arrive there. It's going to need amazing coordination to pull this off, you sure you want to go ahead? =^= "Fine.", he said, his jacket hitting the chair. He picked up some of a scrap of broken metal off the floor, and thew it into a corner before looking at the viewscreen directly. "It's a real mess up here, much of what had value has been taken and not replaced. It's going to be a challenge. Let's go.", he said with determination and the viewscreen winked off just as the biggest smile crossed the face of the President. RPG: Day: 8 Stardate: 2444.05.10 (Martian Starbase, Quarters, Admiral Remae Ktell - 0700) It had been a long night but the Admiral got some sleep after he found some quarters that weren't disgusting. He was eating a quick breakfast. Most of the morning had been spent reading the logs of what had happened here and he didn't like what he had read. "Computer, that ship in the first shipyard, the Oddessy Class. Identify.", he said to the computer terminal which was closest. Specifications came out on the screen. she was old and had been put out to pasture. It seemed no one knew what do with her, so she was parked, mostly operational but in bad shape and in need of repairs. "Name?", he asked as he bit into some more toast. << USS Republic, NCC-98003 >> Finally, something had a name. "Computer, transfer my command codes and flag to the USS Republic. This is my ship now.", he said and the computer beeped a few times, checking his biometric information as it complied. << Acknowledged, USS Republic, now under the command of Admiral Remae Ktell >> (Reply from None) (Posted by Anthony Keen) -- Reboot-rpg mailing list Reboot-rpg@startrekfreedom.com http://startrekfreedom.com/mailman/listinfo/reboot-rpg_startrekfreedom.com