USS Spectre Compile - April 1st-30th 2008 by Alan Reading ========================================================================= Mission: When Poachers Come to Call Day: 17 Stardate: 2408.02.01 (USS Spectre - Away Team Staging – TAC/ASC Charles “Chuck” Donaldson – 15:17) (USS Spectre - Marine Messhall - Lance Corporal Jose Rameriz - 16:00) (USS Spectre - Main Engineering - CEO, Lieutenant H'Chir - 16:20) (USS Spectre - Bridge - FO Commander Michael Ian O'Connor - 16:24) (USS Spectre - Sickbay - Nurse T'Pia Pelletier - 16:25) (USS Spectre - Main Engineering - CEO, Lieutenant H'Chir - 16:26) (USS Spectre - Main Engineering - Ensign Bys'At - 16:26) (USS Spectre - Jeffrey's Tube Cross-Section (deck 5) - Ensign Paul Morphy - 16:26) (USS Spectre - Sickbay - Nurse Douwsy - 16:26) (USS Spectre - Main Engineering - CEO, Lieutenant H'Chir - 16:27) (USS Spectre - Transporter Room 2 - FO Commander O'Connor, Lieutenant (jg) Sella, Ensign (jg) Morrissey - 16:30) (USS Spectre - Transporter Room 2 – Nurse T’Pia Pelletier – 16:32) (Ushar Prime - Reception Hall – TAC/ASC Charles “Chuck” Donaldson - 16:34) (USS Spectre - Sickbay - Nurse Douwsy - 16:34) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Public Shopping Complex - SFI Agent - Lt.Cmdr Brian Rogers - 16:35) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, Reception Hall - Captain T'Vhor - 16:36) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, Reception Hall - TAC/ASC Charles "Chuck" Donaldson - 16:36) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, Public Shopping Complex - Bartender Leena - 16:36) (USS Spectre - Transporter Room 2 – Counselor Lieutenant (jg) Sella – 16:36) (USS Spectre - Transporter Room 2 – Nurse T’Pia Pelletier – 16:36) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, Public Shopping Complex - ATAC/ASC- Ensign Goldsteen - 16:40) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, Public Shopping Complex - Bartender Leena - 16:42) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Public Shopping Complex - ATAC/ASC Ensign Goldsteen - 16:45) (USS Spectre – Transporter Room 3 – Ensign Bys’At - 16:45) (USS Spectre – Transporter Room 3 – Ensign Paul Morphy - 16:45) (Ushar Prime - Learning Center - Ensign Jynea Kreung - 16:45) (Ushar Prime - Ten'tanis University - Counselor, Lieutenant (jg) Sella - 16:45) (Ushar Prime - Ten'tanis University – Nurse T’Pia Pelletier – 16:45) (USS Spectre - Transporter Room 3 - CEO, Lieutenant H'Chir - 16:46) (Ushar Prime - Entertainment & Recreational Zone - Captain T'Vhor - 16:48) (Ushar Prime - Entertainment & Recreational Zone - TAC/ASC Charles "Chuck" Donaldson - 16:48) (USS Spectre – Main engineering - Nurse Douwsy - 16:49) (USS Spectre – Main engineering - Weapon Systems Specialist, Warrant Officer Jerral Revan - 16:49) (Ushar Prime - Went'uli - FO Commander Michael Ian O'Connor and Ensign (jg) Emma Morrissey - 16:50) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Rising Dawn Medical Facility – CMO Williams - 16:50) (USS Spectre – Main engineering – Nurse Douwsy - 16:53) (USS Spectre – Main engineering – Weapon systems specialist, Warrant Officer Jerral Revan - 16:54) (Ushar Prime - Learning Centre - SO Ensign Nathanial Yates - 16:55) (Ushar Prime - Learning Centre - Ensign Jynea Kreung - 16:57) (Ushar Prime - Learning Centre - SO Ensign Nathanial Yates - 16:58) (USS Spectre – Bridge – CONN – Pilot Officer Smith - 16:58) (USS Spectre – Main engineering – Nurse Douwsy - 17:02) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Rising Dawn Medical Facility – Dr Mun’Char's research lab - CMO Williams - 17:03) (USS Spectre – Main engineering – Weapons System Specialist, Warrant Officer Jerral Revan - 17:04) (Unknown Vessel - Cockpit - "Venom Nine" - 17:05) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Public Shopping Complex - SFI Agent - Lt. Cmdr Brian Rogers - 17:08) (Ushar Prime - Learning Centre - Ensign Jynea Kreung – 17:10) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, North Access - USO Min'Kat - 17:11) (Ushar Prime - Library Resources - Captain T'Vhor - 17:14) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, North Access - ATAC/ASC Ensign Goldsteen - 17:17) (Ushar Prime – Zamzurrin Semi-Prefecture, Tertiaty Block – TAC/ASC Charles “Chuck” Donaldson - 17:17) (USS Spectre - Security Station Foxtrot – Security officer Smith - 17:17) (Ushar Prime – Zamzurrin Semi-Prefecture, Tertiaty Block – TAC/ASC Charles “Chuck” Donaldson - 17:17) (Ushar Prime – Primary Weather Control, first level – Ensign Bys’At – 17:30) (Ushar Prime – Primary Weather Control, second level – Ensign Paul Morphy – 17:30) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Rising Dawn Medical Facility - CMO Williams - 17:30) (USS Spectre - Ten Forward - Lance Corporal Yzak Moriuchi - 17:30) (Ushar Prime - Primary Weather Control - CEO, Lieutenant H'Chir - 17:31) (Ushar Prime - Primary Weather Control, second level - Ensign Paul Morphy - 17:32) (Ushar Prime - Captial City Rising Dawn Medical Facility - SFI Agent - Lt. Cmdr Brian Rogers - 17:35) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Rising Dawn Medical Facility – CMO Williams - 17:42) (Ushar Prime – City Outskirts, "Old Town" Amusement Park – Ensign Jynea Kreung – 17:45) (Ushar Prime - Went'uli - FO Commander Michael Ian O'Connor and Ensign (jg) Emma Morrissey - 17:50) (Ushar Prime – Capital City, Rising Dawn Medical Facility - Captain T'Vhor - 17:50) (Ushar Prime – City Outskirts, "Old Town" Amusement Park – SO, Ensign Nathanial Yates – 17:50) (Ushar Prime - City Outskirts, "Old Town" Amusement Park - Ensign Jynea Kreung - 17:52) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Rising Dawn Medical Facility – CMO Williams - 17:53) (Ushar Prime - City Outskirts, "Old Town" Amusement Park - SO, Ensign Nathanial Yates - 17:55) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, Rising Dawn Medical Facility - SFI Agent, Lt. Cmdr Brian Rogers - 17:55) (Shuttle Craft Poltergeist - Approaching the USS Spectre - Counsellor, Ensign Pan Dore' - 17:55) (USS Spectre - Bridge – Lieutenant (jg) George La Flaga - 17:55) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, Rising Dawn Medical Facility - Captain T'Vhor - 17:56) (USS Spectre - Bridge - TAC/SC Lt Yelena Vasilyovna - 17:57) (USS Spectre - Bridge – SFI Lieutenant George La Flaga - 17:57) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Rising Dawn Medical Facility - SFI Agent Lt. Cmdr Brian Rogers - 17:57) (USS Spectre - Transporter Room - Engineer's Mate, CPO M'Rurrh - 17:57) (USS Spectre - Transporter Room - Counsellor, Ensign Pan Dore' - 17:59) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, Rising Dawn Medical Facility – CMO Williams - 17:59) (USS Spectre - Transporter Room - Engineer's Mate, CPO M'Rurrh - 18:00) (USS Spectre - Bridge – Pilot Officer Smith – 18:00) (Ushar Prime - RD Medical Facility – TAC/ASC Charles “Chuck” Donaldson - 18:00) (USS Spectre - Transporter Room - Counselor, Ensign Pan Dore' - 18:02) (Ushar Prime - RD Medical Facility – ATAC/ASC Ensign Alex Goldsteen - 18:03) (Ushar Prime - RD Medical Facility – Captain T'Vhor - 18:04) (Ushar Prime - RD Medical Facility – TAC/ASC Charles “Chuck” Donaldson – 18:05) (USS Spectre - Bridge - Lieutenant (jg) George La Flaga - 18:05) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, Rising Dawn Medical Facility - SFI Agent Lt. Cmdr Brian Rogers - 18:08) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, Rising Dawn Medical Facility - Captain T'Vhor - 18:09) (Ushar Prime – RD Medical Facility – TAC/ASC Charles “Chuck” Donaldson - 18:09) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, Rising Dawn Medical Facility - SFI Agent Lt. Cmdr Brian Rogers - 18:10) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, Rising Dawn Medical Facility - Captain T'Vhor - 18:10) (USS Spectre - Counseling Suite - Counselor, Ensign Pan Dore' - 18:10) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, Rising Dawn Medical Facility - CMO Williams - 18:11) (Ushar Prime - Went'uli - FO Commander Michael Ian O'Connor - 18:12) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, Rising Dawn Medical Facility - CMO Williams - 18:15) (USS Spectre - Transporter Room - Counselor, Ensign Pan Dore' - 18:16) (USS Spectre - Transporter Room - Engineer's Mate, CPO M'Rurrh - 18:17) (USS Spectre - Transporter room one - CMO Williams - 18:18) (Ushar Prime - Went'uli, the city streets - Counselor, Ensign Pan Dore' - 18:18) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Rising Dawn Medical Facility - SFI Agent Lt. Cmdr Brian Rogers - 18:19) (Ushar Prime - Went'uli - FO Commander O'Connor and SciO Ensign Morrissey - 18:20) (Ushar Prime - Went'uli - Counselor. Ensign Pan Dore' - 18:20) (Ushari Prime - Went'uli - FO Commander Michael Ian O'Connor - 18:23) (USS Spectre - Security Console - ATAC/ASC Ensign Goldsteen - 18:30) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Public Shopping Complex - ATAC/ASC ensign Goldsteen - 19:00) ========================================================================= Mission: A Little Piece of Hell Stardate: 2408.05.12 (USS Steel Talons – Admiral’s Quarter, Admiral’s Office – Admiral Robert LoDona – 04:50) ========================================================================= Mission: When Poachers Come to Call Day: 17 Stardate: 2408.02.01 (USS Spectre - Away Team Staging – TAC/ASC Charles “Chuck” Donaldson – 15:17) "Sir, I shall make a special note in the logs noting your time of arrival to the meeting" replied Ensign Goldsteen. Chuck was taken aback with shock. It was the first words from the officer Chuck had ever heard resemble humor. He looked at Goldsteen, then over to Yates, then back to Goldsteen. “Thank … you, Mr. Goldsteen.” Chuck swallowed hard, “That’s the first time I’ve heard you make a joke. Do I owe Counselor Sella a debt of gratitude?” (reply Goldsteen) (reply Goldsteen, Yates, any) (posted by Anton) (USS Spectre - Marine Messhall - Lance Corporal Jose Rameriz - 16:00) Rameriz was bored. Here they were at a perfectly nice Federation world with perfectly nice bars and even some non-furry women and they were locked up on ship like the Captain didn't trust them with allies. Weren't they due a little leave and excitement? No, they were kept on the ship doing drills, pacing the same paths they'd paced a thousand times before and cleaning their fingernails with their boot knives. Bored didn't even begin to cover the state of mind Rameriz was in. "Promotions are in." Reported the on-duty Sergeant. Rameriz didn't move from where he was building a castle out of bottle caps. "Hey Rameriz, that means you too!" "Beh." He muttered and swept his hand through the two foot high, six foot wide construction. Bottle caps clattered to the floor and skittered every which way. "Didn'ts you hear? I'm in trouble man! I don't gets promotions!" "You're on the best ship in the fleet and you've kept your nose clean. That's about all it takes when they're rather short on living marines." The sergeant came over, looking at the bottle caps everywhere. "Now clean up your mess Corporal and get out of here. You're driving me nuts." "Corporal? Woohoo! I ain'ts never been a corporal before!" He jumped up and gave the man a big kiss on each cheek. "Blargh!" He shoved the crazy Spaniard away. "I thought you were a Sergeant at one point in your career!" "Oh yeah, I was.. But they jumped me ups two grades.. when dey figureds it out at a review board, dey tossed me back down two grades and busted me a rank for the whole cream in the shower thing." Rameriz was happily tossing bottle caps into the recyc's mouth with casual ease. The Sergeant closed one eye in a wince and regretted asking even as he did, "Cream in the shower?" "Oh yeahs.. See, Private Lickman, he's was HAIRY man. Sooo hairy.. and he always insisteds on doin' PT without a tunic. Who wants to look at that shedding bear skin? Nots me, nots you, nots no one with eyes in their head! So, I brokes into the overhead for the showers and rigged his to spray downs a depilatory with tha water." Rameriz shrugged, tossing a few more bottle caps into recyc. "Seemed like a goods idea.. untils da officer showers were in for rehaul and da Colonel used *our* shower." Rameriz shook his head sadly, "An' he had NO sense of humours, man!" The Sergeant could only imagine the lack of humour in a colonel at finding himself hairless. "Yeah, okay, when you're done cleaning this up, get out. Go find something to blow up in the holodeck or something." Blow stuff up! Now that was an order Rameriz could happily follow "Aye Aye!" he said happily, bouncing on the balls of his feet. He grabbed the remaining bottle caps in scoops and shoved them into recyc. And it being an order, he didn't have to pay for the holodeck time out of *his* paltry energy credit stock. Why did sangria have to taste so good and cost so much to ship? (Reply any/all) (Posted by Lorna) (USS Spectre - Main Engineering - CEO, Lieutenant H'Chir - 16:20) H'Chir was sat on the floor of the engineering deck, his back resting against the barrier between the crew and workstations and the warp core itself. A quiet murmur buzzed in the background, individual conversations disguised by the gentle hum of the core of a starship 'at ease'. Around him, various engineering personnel stepped over or around his legs as they went about their business. H'Chir blocked them out; they'd call for him if they needed him. In his hand he held a PADD hooked up to a looped feed from the sensors. An abstract representation of the Ferengi ship hung in the centre of the display; it didn't exactly conform for the physical or visible arrangements of the ship, but to someone in the know the Ferengi vessel was as clear as if he were looking out a view-port. On the display, one area fizzed with a faint green signature momentarily and returned to normal. The screen jumped momentarily as it returned to the beginning of the time-frame and restarted. Several seconds later the green fuzz reappeared... and was gone. H'Chir grunted. The cargo holds the away team had encountered were now empty. The Ferengi had done exactly what they said they were here to do; beamed down their cargo, presumably at a profit... =/\= Ensign Bys'At, assemble an engineering team... =/\= (Reply any, none) (Posted by Michael Drake) (USS Spectre - Bridge - FO Commander Michael Ian O'Connor - 16:24) "Sir, we have an incoming transmission from the Captain," the Op officer on duty said looking over his shoulder. "Put him through," Michael said, looking forward to hearing the news from the surface. =/\=Commander O'Conner, you may begin beaming down small parties of crew at will, bearing standard Federation protocol in mind of course. In addition, we will be needing a dedicated Engineering team to inspect the remaining Federation equipment on the surface=/\=, said the Captain. "Of Course sir, I'll have teams beaming down shortly to cities besides the capital and I'll send an engineering team down as well," Michael said as he tapped out a few commands on his armrest. "Sir, any progress with the Government?" =/\=Everything is as we expected, the Ushari are reluctant at this point to engage in any discussion that takes them away from their current arrangement. Also, there is no direct evidence immediately available at this moment in time that would lead us to feel that they should=/\=, said the Captain. "I'll have tactical and ops keep an eye on the comings and goings in the local area." Michael said. =/\=I agree, we should maintain a close watch on any new arrivals entering Ushari space, we will continue to see what we can ascertain on the ground in regards the background of any backer providing assistance here. T'Vhor out=/\= When the line was cut, Michael opened a line of his own. "Lieutenant Sella, Ensigns Taya, Pelletier, and Morrissey, report to Transporter room 2 in fifteen minutes for away team duty. Ensign Bys'At, assemble an engineering team, the Government and the Captain would like a team to inspect the weather control systems to ensure they're still up to standards. When you're ready, contact The Ushari Weather Control Administration for the coordinates of your first beam down. O'Connor Out." (Reply Sella, Taya, Pelletier, Morrissey, H'Chir, Bys'At) (Posted by Patrick D.) (USS Spectre - Sickbay - Nurse T'Pia Pelletier - 16:25) T'Pia had been trying to cover Dr. Williams shift during the away mission when her commbadge chirped. =/\=Lieutenant Sella, Ensigns Taya, Pelletier, and Morrissey, report to Transporter room 2 in fifteen minutes for away team duty. Ensign Bys'At, assemble an engineering team, the Government and the Captain would like an team to inspect the weather control systems to ensure they're still up to standards. When you're ready, contact The Ushari Weather Control Administration for the coordinates of your first beam down. O'Connor Out.=/\= "Nurse Dowsy, I'll be beaming to the surface of the planet. You'll have to find someone else to cover Sickbay but it shouldn't be too difficult. If you have any problems contact me." Said Pelletier nodding to the Nurse. (reply Dowsy) (reply Dowsy, any) (posted by Anton) (USS Spectre - Main Engineering - CEO, Lieutenant H'Chir - 16:26) =/\= Ensign Bys'At, assemble an engineering team, the Government and the Captain would like an team to inspect the weather control systems to ensure they're still up to standards. When you're ready, contact The Ushari Weather Control Administration for the coordinates of your first beam down. O'Connor Out. =/\= H'Chir felt several pairs of eyes on him as the comm-channel closed. Several expectant glances in his direction, ready to see how he'd react to Ensign Bys'At being contacted in his place. With a rueful grin H'Chir barked, "Well, Ensign, you heard the man. Choose your team and let's go!" (Reply Bys'At, any) (Posted by Michael Drake) (USS Spectre - Main Engineering - Ensign Bys'At - 16:26) =/\= Ensign Bys'At, assemble an engineering team, the Government and the Captain would like a team to inspect the weather control systems to ensure they're still up to standards. When you're ready, contact The Ushari Weather Control Administration for the coordinates of your first beam down. O'Connor Out. =/\= Bys'At held a puzzled look on his face. He blinked several times and eyed H'Chir from head to foot (or rather from head to crossed legs on the floor ... a strange but typical position for the Chief). With a rueful grin H'Chir barked, "Well, Ensign, you heard the man. Choose your team and let's go!" "Right on it, Sir." Responded Bys'At ~Command has finally recognized my brilliance. Granted, the circumstances are rather unusual but ... he was Bys'At. Incontrovertible logic.~ Bys'At tapped his commbadge. "Bys'At to Ensigns Morphy and Halloran, meet me in twenty minutes in transporter room three." "Are you ready to go, Sir?" asked Bys'At turning to be abreast of H'Chir. (reply H'Chir, Morphy, any) (posted by Anton) (USS Spectre - Jeffrey's Tube Cross-Section (deck 5) - Ensign Paul Morphy - 16:26) Paul was crawling through the Jeffrey's Tube and was about to reach a ladder extension when his commbadge chirped. =/\=Bys'At to Ensigns Morphy and Bristed, meet me in twenty minutes in transporter room three.=/\= came the voice over the badge. Paul laid his head facedown on the floor of the tube. ~I guess that's what I get for being friends with him.~ Paul thought a moment more, ~Wow, that's the first time I ever thought of him as a friend. Oh, well, at least he's not quite like Gorlan.~ It took an act of extreme self will for Paul to lift himself up and continue crawling through the tube. He'd make it to the transporter room on time ... unless he was unavoidably delayed. (reply any) (posted by Anton) (USS Spectre - Sickbay - Nurse Douwsy - 16:26) Douwsy paused and looked up as the comm system activated. =/\=Lieutenant Sella, Ensigns Taya, Pelletier, and Morrissey, report to Transporter room 2 in fifteen minutes for away team duty. Ensign Bys'At, assemble an engineering team, the Government and the Captain would like an team to inspect the weather control systems to ensure they're still up to standards. When you're ready, contact The Ushari Weather Control Administration for the coordinates of your first beam down. O'Connor Out.=/\= ~That’s nice. A little trip planet side. Wonder what the shopping is like~ "Nurse Dowsy, I'll be beaming to the surface of the planet. You'll have to find someone else to cover Sickbay but it shouldn't be too difficult. If you have any problems contact me." “Not a problem go and enjoy yourself.” Douwsy grinned to herself as she watched Palleter leave sickbay. She shook her head as she headed off to find Heyes. (reply any) (posted by Robbie (USS Spectre - Main Engineering - CEO, Lieutenant H'Chir - 16:27) "Right on it, sir." There was a pause during which H'Chir could only guess what the Ensign was thinking. He seemed to come to some conclusion, stating, "Bys'At to Ensigns Morphy and Halloran, meet me in twenty minutes in transporter room three." H'Chir struggled to keep from nodding his approval at the choice of landing party. "Are you ready to go, sir?" H'Chir already had his toolkit and tricorder packed and ready to go. "Lead on." He waited for the Ensign's back to be turned and heading out the door before smiling and adding, "Sir." (Reply any) (Posted by Michael Drake) (USS Spectre - Transporter Room 2 - FO Commander O'Connor, Lieutenant (jg) Sella, Ensign (jg) Morrissey - 16:30) Michael waited until his away team was gathered, and looked around. "All right folks, We're going to be heading down to the planet to mix and mingle. Your only specific duties are to keep your eyes and ears open. Think of it as structured shore leave. Take in a show, grab dinner, explore the markets or museums. We're looking for a barometer of the civilian population's attitude towards us and their own government. Just don't start interviewing people, if you get into a conversation about it fine, but lets not look like we're interrogating people. Check in with the ship every hour, so we know you didn't accidentally fall down a shaft or something. I'm not going to require you to head down in teams, this is a Federation World after all, however if you do head out alone, check in every half hour instead and keep to more public places." Michael said. "Feel free to pick your city or town, every place is open except for the Capital city as the captain and his team are already there. Other than that, you can leave at your leisure." Michael then caught Morrissey's eye and motioned her off to the side. Sella patted the thigh pouch where she kept her collapsible cane for away missions such as this, to make sure it was secure then turned to face the other two women. "I think the First Officer and Ensign Morrissey are going to be one group. As there's three of us, I'd be willing to head off on my own if you think three would be too many?" Sella asked. (Reply Taya, Pelletier with room for more) Eventually, when everyone was ready they moved on to the transporters in their groups and beamed down to the surface. (Reply Taya, Pelletier). (Posted by Patrick D.) (USS Spectre - Transporter Room 2 – Nurse T’Pia Pelletier – 16:32) Sella patted the thigh pouch where she kept her collapsible cane for away missions such as this, to make sure it was secure then turned to face the other two women. "I think the First Officer and Ensign Morrissey are going to be one group. As there's three of us, I'd be willing to head off on my own if you think three would be too many?" Sella asked. “I have no preference. Although I am curious what Ensign Taya has to say about a company of three.” Replied T’Pia coldly glancing at Taya. (reply Taya) (posted by Anton) (Ushar Prime - Reception Hall – TAC/ASC Charles “Chuck” Donaldson - 16:34) “… T'Vhor out", said the Captain before returning his attention to Chuck. "Have the rest of the away team members report in at forty minute intervals", said the Captain, "it appears that we have a dinner engagement in three and one half hours, let us use our time now to see if we can find anything pertinent from the local resources that might be available to off worlders such as ourselves", he added with a raise of an eyebrow. “Yes, Sir.” Said Chuck excitedly … not that he was at all interested in ‘clubbing’ in the bowels of a mole planet. NRPG: time of transmission = 16:35 … this is all after Jynea’s opinions … I wanted to post more on it but This should catch everybody up and give all something to post about it. RPG: “All Away Team Personal, The Captain has recommended that you freely explore Ushar Prime provided you report in at forty minute intervals.” Said Chuck tapping his commbadge and unusually emphasizing ‘recommended’ to illustrate the order without giving too much to any Ushari within earshot of any of the commbadge reports. “Will that work for you, Captain?” Chuck asked. (reply T’Vhor, all away team members) (reply T’Vhor, all away team members, all) (posted by Anton) (USS Spectre - Sickbay - Nurse Douwsy - 16:34) Douwsy found Heyes checking some equipment. “Heyes, I’m going to do some of the routine emergency medi kit checks. Nurse Pelletier has gone planet side so you will be in charge for the time being.” She gave Heyes a smile. “Don’t worry. Nurse Marshall will be coming in shortly and if you have any problems just call me and activate the EMH if its nasty enough.” (reply Heyes) Douwsy nodded. She then headed for the door and scooped up her PADD as she left sickbay. (reply Heyes, any) (posted by Robbie) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Public Shopping Complex - SFI Agent - Lt.Cmdr Brian Rogers - 16:35) "What are you doing here?" The Ushari woman at the bar asked. "I work in the dilithium trade," Brian said with a convincing smile. The woman had a facial reaction. Rogers couldn't tell if she believed him or not. "What's with the Starfleet uniform then?" she asked, her tone growing more distant. Rogers shrugged. "I didn't say my trading was... legal," he said, mocking the roguish air of criminals and terrorists that he had monitored numerous times while with Intelligence. The molish woman made sort of a shivering reaction. Brian decided she was intrigued by his comment, though she could be disguised. "Don't you have a ship?" she asked. "Well, there's the ship I'm posted on," Brian said, tracing a small circle on the bar with his finger, "Then there are the ships that I run on the side," he hinted. "Ahhh, a... smuggler," she said, her eyes darting back and forth. "Is business good?" she said, sounding more and more interested. "I'm afraid, not," Rogers said, sounding disappointed. "Have you heard about the Deputy Warden on Rura Penthe?" he asked. The woman shook her head. "He was my inside man on the dilithium out of that hell hole. The Klingons found out and his head ended up on a pike." The Ushari woman's eyes light up. "Really!" The Lt. Commander nodded. "Quite. Now, I need to start getting some rock out of Ushar Prime. You don't happen to work in dilithium, do you?" Rogers asked, trying to sound interested. "I might," she suggested. "I might be an administrative assistant for the mining office of a local Dilithium mine if you can... borrow me some money," she said with an evil grin. They both knew the true meaning of borrow. "How much?" The molish looking Ushari looked into Rogers' eyes. She seemed to enjoy trying to think up a price. "Two...." she paused dramatically. "Strips, of gold-pressed latinum," she said with a smile. "Fine," Brian said, sounding dissatisfied. "I won't pay in uniform, and not in public," he said. "By the way, what's the deal with the Federation?" he asked. "What?" she said, sounding alarmed. "They're not selling Dilithium to the Federation anymore. Why?" Rogers said, his tone dropping the smuggler atmosphere. The woman shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Why do you want to know?" she asked. "Because, I want to know who's going to be trying to shoot down my ships," Brian lied. The woman seemed put off. "I'll look into it for you," she said. Her smile returned and she pulled a small golden box from her handbag. "Care for some Hupyrian beetle snuff?" she asked. Rogers turned up his nose, "Never liked the stuff." The Ushari woman's smile disappeared again, and she stood up from the bar. "I'll go find out your answers. Meet me outside in 30 minutes," she said, before promptly leaving. Brian glanced over to see how Goldsteen was doing at the bar, then sat by himself, carefully pondering what he had gotten himself into. (reply none, yet) (Posted by Kevin Schram) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, Reception Hall - Captain T'Vhor - 16:36) “Will that work for you, Captain?”, asked the Lieutenant. The Captain paused just briefly, glancing towards the Ushari security as he did so, then he turned to face Donaldson once more. "This works perfectly for me Lieutenant", said the Captain, "In the interim, I feel that given Ensign Kreungs observations earlier, we should now avail ourselves of any attempt we come across to garner the Ushari's failing confidence in the federation", he added. (Reply Donaldson) "As Ensign Kreung has noted, it is quite obvious that they wish to feel important, other than their being seen as a Dilithium repository that is. Given this chance to explore, we may find existing situations that may be beneficial to both us and the Ushari", said the Captain. (Reply Donaldson, Any) "Lieutenant Commander Rogers, the Doctor and Ensign Goldsteen have all headed East to the social and Medical areas of the Capital, it would be logical that we 'explore' in an entirely seperate area in order to maximise our chances of success", said the Captain. (Reply Donaldson, Kreung, Any) (Posted by Alan) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, Public Shopping Complex - Bartender Leena - 16:36) "Uh oh, what do we have here then?", said the somewhat overly cheerful but curiously Human barkeep. A Human living and working on Ushar Prime was certainly not a common sight, and one could be forgiven for asking, whatever next? This particular Human had just spent the last ten minutes chatting to Bi'Lar, one of the Ushari climate control technicians that regularly graced the establishment after finishing their respective work shifts on the surface. Bi'Lar had simply huffed his disapproval as he turned his attention in the direction Leena had motioned, his eyes narrowed just slightly as he watched them casing the bar as though looking for something amiss. As far as he were concerned they were always like that, skulking about like Ferengi intent on securing the most profitable deals and Bi'Lar held a particular dislike for 'Starfleet' officers. "They'll start asking questions, mark my words. Damned fleeters", said Bi'Lar, "they always do", he added as he sullenly turned his attention back to his now empty glass. Leena shook her head as he looked dolefully right into the bottom of it, then she took the liberty to fill it from the bottle that stood nearby, much to the Ushari's obvious pleasure. "So long as they can pay, then their welcome", said the Bartender as she watched the two starfleet officers part and then head off in different directions. One of them appeared to be heading in her direction, or at least towards the bar anyway. Leena smiled upon his approach noting as she did so that this ones rank was lower than the others, the pins affixed to his collar denoted that much and Leena, being not unknowledgable in Federation regalia recognised him thus as an Ensign. His colleague, now apparently chatting up a nearby Ushari female was a Lieutenant Commander. "What do you recommend?", said the fleeter leaning one arm onto her bar and then glancing briefly about the room as though trying to look calm and relaxed, which probably meant that he wasn't. "Well Ensign, for starters I'd recommend a drink", said Leena with a mischievious smile, "I do a curious one known throughout the TD system as a Tamarillian screw", she added with an almost Vulcan raise of an eyebrow. "I'll take that then", said the Starfleet officer, without even bothering to ask what it would be containing. For all he knew it could have been made from the churned innards of one of Ushars indiginous vermin lifeforms, as it was however it was not! Leena cast a wink towards the now curious Bi'Lar who shook his head as though sure the fleeter wouldn't be able to palate what she'd suggested, then he watched as she proceded to mix the order with well practiced ease. It took Leena roughly a minute and a half to mix the four required ingredients in the order needed, a few seconds to provide the acknowledged nod in response to the Ensigns remark of things being slow, another half to allow the contents of the drink to react and then settle and just a few more seconds to place it all before the Federation officer, who nodded and then cautiously picked it up to survey the contents through the glass before placing it back upon the bar. "So what brings the Federation to Ushar Prime?", asked the Bartender in an almost nonchallant manner, "no, don't tell me..... your running short on stones", she added as she leant onto her side of the bar with just a sideways glance towards Bi'Lar who was now apparently talking to his own drink. (Reply Goldsteen) (Posted by Alan) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, Reception Hall - TAC/ASC Charles "Chuck" Donaldson - 16:36) NRPG: I guess we're adding the 'capital city' in the tagline to differentiate those who beam down in other cities on Ushar Prime? RPG: "This works perfectly for me Lieutenant", said the Captain, "In the interim, I feel that given Ensign Kreungs observations earlier, we should now avail ourselves of any attempt we come across to garner the Ushari's failing confidence in the federation", he added. "I'm just the Assistant Security Chief, Captain. I don't get subtlety." Said Chuck grinning from ear to ear. "As Ensign Kreung has noted, it is quite obvious that they wish to feel important, other than their being seen as a Dilithium repository that is. Given this chance to explore, we may find existing situations that may be beneficial to both us and the Ushari", said the Captain. The Captain seemed to be trying hard to ignore Chuck's humor. Chuck changed his tone the second time, "What do you suggest we do, sir?" "Lieutenant Commander Rogers, the Doctor and Ensign Goldsteen have all headed East to the social and Medical areas of the Capital, it would be logical that we 'explore' in an entirely separate area in order to maximize our chances of success", said the Captain. Chuck flipped open a tricorder and took some readings. "Everyone seems fine ... it looks like we should go, " Chuck paused and then pointed at a nearby door, "that way." (Reply T'Vhor, Kreung, Any) (Posted by Anton) (USS Spectre - Transporter Room 2 – Counselor Lieutenant (jg) Sella – 16:36) After arranging the group, Sella broached the subject of location. "I'm actually interested in visiting one of their universities. If that's ok with others." Sella said. (Reply Pelletier, Taya? and assuming yes, we can always jump to someplace else later) (USS Spectre - Transporter Room 2 – Nurse T’Pia Pelletier – 16:36) After arranging the group, Sella broached the subject of location. "I'm actually interested in visiting one of their universities. If that's ok with others." Sella said. “I’m fine with it.” Said T’Pia shortly. (reply Taya IYW) “Which university are we going to see? I can pull up information from the Federation database on it.” Quipped T’Pia. (reply Sella, Taya, any) (posted by Anton) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Public Shopping Complex - ATAC/ASC- Ensign Goldsteen - 16:40) "So what brings the Federation to Ushar Prime?", asked the Bartender in an almost nonchallant manner, "no, don't tell me..... your running short on stones", she added as she leant onto her side of the bar with just a sideways glance towards Bi'Lar who was now apparently talking to his own drink. "Well" Alex answered with a straight face "stones happen to be a rare and precious commodity these days. We have to get them from wherever we can." Then with a grin he picked up his glass and swirled its contents. "I have to admit, from your friend's reaction I am wondering how well my digestive system will respond to your drink." (reply bartender) Alex gave her a dubious glance before carefully sipping the drink. ~I swear if this poisons me I am going to be so annoyed.~ "Its good" he said in surprise, "very good. Where in the universe did you learn the recipe for that?" (reply Bartender) "Really," Alex responded with raised eyebrows, "How did you get from there to here?" ~Give me an angle to work with here, I do not want to spend two hours dancing around trying to get something out of you~ (reply Bartender) (posted by Dan Black) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Public Shopping Complex - Bartender Leena - 16:42) The Fleeter had answered the question in a predicable manner, so they had to get their Dilithium wherever they could these days uh? The last thing she'd heard through her little part of the grapevine was that a better deal had simply been had, and that the Federation was now stumped for a reliable supply of rock. Rura Penthe was always an option of course, if you could manage to sidestep whatever dodgy deal was going down at the moment of your arrival that is, and then, assuming you even made it off the ice world with all four limbs still in the general vicinity of your body. Whatever the case, it seemed that Dilithium was trading at a high these days, which made Ushar a busy place to say the very least. The young Ensign then picked up his glass and studied it before addressing Leena once more. "I have to admit, from your friend's reaction I am wondering how well my digestive system will respond to your drink", he said. "Bi'Lar is an ass, he feels that you would not enjoy the combination of bitter and sweet in the same medium, Human's rarely do", said Leena, "but your a big strong lad, I'm quite sure that your digestion system will cope admirably", she added as she watched the Ensign pause and then take a furtive sip of the cool green liquid. "It's good", said the Fleeter, "very good. Where in the universe did you learn the recipe for that?" Leena closed one eye and then screwed up her mouth in contemplation. "Someplace south of the Tendaris Cluster", said Leena with a reminiscing gaze upwards, "I believe it was in a rather seedy little bar on Gamma Ceti 4....if my memory serves me correctly that is", she added. "Imparted to me by a Denobulan trader, who in turn was told the recipe by a..... I forget, but anyway", said Leena. "Really, how did you get from there to here?", asked the Starfleet Officer, clearly doing exactly what Bi'Lar had said he would do now, which was to start asking more searching questions! Leena pushed herself up into an upright position and eyed the Fleeter curiously, before then going off into a sort of pretend imitation of an android information bank. "Translation matrix initiated, multi-lingual parsing and structural analysis online, statement equates to..... 'What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this'", she stated with a smile and then a cursory wink. (Reply Goldsteen, IYW) The Ensign seemed puzzled but took another sip of the drink anyway. "How do you think I got here", she asked rhetorically, "on a ship which was heading from one place to another, I tended bar in one place until the clientelle, the credits or the place itself dried up, then I moved on, eventually ending up on Ushar in the same mother f..... well, you know", said Leena as another customer duly arrived for her particular brand of service. "Excuse me", said Leena, "this one definately IS in danger of drying up, if you get my meaning", she added before moving off towards the new arrival and leaving the Ensign briefly to his drink. (Reply Goldsteen, IYW) Three minutes later and she was back to notice that the Fleeter's glass was now almost empty. "Seems your digestive system is working just fine to me", said Leena, "another?" NRPG: Assuming a yes here. RPG: (Reply Goldsteen) A second drink then arrived just short of the time the first one had took to arrive beforehand. "I'm curious...", said Leena leaning once again onto the bar. "Your friend, the Lieutenant Commander, she isn't the best person that he should be making deals with", said Leena with a sideways motion of her head in the relevant direction. (Reply Goldsteen) Leena huffed and shook her head. "Darling, I know a deal when I see one, I've seen so many being struck I can smell them with my eyes closed", said Leena, "don't try and tell me that isn't a deal going down", she added. (Reply Goldsteen) "Really, I would watch your friend if I were you, that's all I'm saying. Looks the sort to get himself into trouble without even trying if my opinion is of any worth at all", said Leena. (Reply Goldsteen, Any) (Posted by Alan) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Public Shopping Complex - ATAC/ASC Ensign Goldsteen - 16:45) "Translation matrix initiated, multi-lingual parsing and structural analysis online, statement equates to..... 'What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this'", she stated with a smile and then a cursory wink. "Well I just go where my ship takes me," Alex responded while attempting to make sense out of the bartender's response. "How do you think I got here", she asked rhetorically, "on a ship which was heading from one place to another, I tended bar in one place until the clientelle, the credits or the place itself dried up, then I moved on, eventually ending up on Ushar in the same mother f..... well, you know", said Leena as another customer duly arrived for her particular brand of service. "Excuse me", said Leena, "this one definately IS in danger of drying up, if you get my meaning", she added before moving off towards the new arrival and leaving the Ensign briefly to his drink. Alex busied himself drinking the admittedly tasty drink while he attempted to figure out a more subtle angle, since his first attempt was clearly seen through. Three minutes later and she was back to notice that the Fleeter's glass was now almost empty. "Seems your digestive system is working just fine to me", said Leena, "another?" "Please," Alex responded trying to buy more time with which to think up an angle. ~I shouldn't be having this much trouble getting information out of her...but then again using my standard method would require her to be under arrest and interrogated. I must remember to practice getting information from casual encounters.~ A second drink then arrived just short of the time the first one had took to arrive beforehand. "I'm curious...", said Leena leaning once again onto the bar. "Your friend, the Lieutenant Commander, she isn't the best person that he should be making deals with", said Leena with a sideways motion of her head in the relevant direction. Alex began to frown, but quickly hid it under a grin. "I really doubt the lieutenant Commander is the type to make deals, he's a very law-abiding officer." Leena huffed and shook her head. "Darling, I know a deal when I see one, I've seen so many being struck I can smell them with my eyes closed", said Leena, "don't try and tell me that isn't a deal going down", she added. Alex took a quick gulp of his drink to ponder the Bartender's words. "I doubt it is anything" he muttered. "Really, I would watch your friend if I were you, that's all I'm saying. Looks the sort to get himself into trouble without even trying if my opinion is of any worth at all", said Leena. "I'll keep that in mind, and don't knock your opinion, it seems to be as sound as any." Alex watched Rogers leave, but he was given no signal to follow him. He shrugged and was about to go back to his drink when he heard the sound of phasers being fired. With a curse he quickly ran out the door hoping that Rogers hadn't done anything stupid. To his horror he found Rogers lying on the ground, and Alex was not sure whether or not he was dead. He hurried over to check his vitals and was relieved to find that Rogers was simply unconscious. "What happened?" He demanded of the Ushari patrolmen that were hurrying towards him. (reply Ushari police) Nervously Alex tapped his combadge knowing that he had to report the situation. "Ensign Alex to Captain T'Vhor" (reply T'Vhor) "Captain we have a problem, Lieutenant Commander Rogers got into some sort of violent confrontation and he was knocked unconscious by a phaser. The Ushari police who saw the fight aren't sure who started it, and so they want to take Rogers in for questioning." (reply T'Vhor) (posted by Dan Black) (USS Spectre – Transporter Room 3 – Ensign Bys’At - 16:45) The away team had been assembled. Bys’At was trying desperately to figure out what he could do to encourage the group. Paul was fidgeting with anticipation, Jacqueline was furiously attacking yet another cup of coffee, and H’Chir … he was always blue. “Well, we’re all here and we have our equipment prepared. I think it’s time to step on the platform and drop down to the surface.” Bys’At tried to stifle his usual desires but he just couldn’t, “I’m very excited!!” Bys’At leapt up onto the platform and took the forward position. “Let’s get going!” he proclaimed. (reply, Bristed, Morphy, H’Chir, any) (posted by Anton) (USS Spectre – Transporter Room 3 – Ensign Paul Morphy - 16:45) ~I’m here … don’t get too giddy over it, Bys’At.~ Paul had acquired a heavy uniform jacket on his way to the transporter room and had his hands buried deep inside the thick pockets with his elbows bent. “I’m very excited!!” Bys’At exclaimed leaping up onto the transporter platform, “Let’s get going!” Paul just shrugged and made his way leisurely onto the platform. ~Whose idea was it to put Mr. Happy in charge?~ “Are you just auditing on this away mission, Sir?” Paul asked looking at H’Chir. (reply H’Chir) (posted by Anton) (Ushar Prime - Learning Center - Ensign Jynea Kreung - 16:45) She'd wanted to see the children in school, to hear what they learned and see how they interacted. She'd been curious as the make-up of the population. While she realized most of the residents seemed to be Ushari, there weren't a lot of other races represented that she'd seen so far. A few humans, no Ferengi. She wasn't very good at this cloak and dagger stuff, so she was perfectly happy to be introduced to "Administrator Davees" and taken off to the school grounds. Her shadow with a phasor followed suit. Jynea turned her communicator on so everything could be recorded. She wanted to know what was being said out of her ear shot. The children were out of class, but playing on the grounds. A mixture of organized sports and kids being kids. The age range seemed to be from what would be six in a human to pubescent. This appeared to be what would be an elementary school on Earth. "She has green skin!" one Ushari blurted out, then covered her mouth with an embarrassed gesture. Her friends were shushing her. "I do." Jynea said with a friendly smile. "I'm an Orion. I grew up on Terra though." "Are you a plant?" One of the girl's friends asked with open curiousity. He hadn't been one of the shushers. Jynea sat down on the dirt, not much caring about the state of her uniform. Captain T'Vhor would probably twitch when she came back covered in mud and dirt. Oh well, could take the farm girl off the planet, but couldn't take the farm girl out of .. how did that saying go? She looked at the children around her. It was a crowd that was slowly growing. "No, I'm a mammal like you. Though, I will admit, I do like sunshine!" This caused a bit of flutter and conversation. The Ushari didn't seem to think sunshine was necessary when there was perfectly good artificial full-spectrum light while some of the other humanoids admitted they missed sun and storm. Jynea spent several enjoyable minutes answering questions about Orions. "Why does the Federation hate us?" Asked one sullen boy. The shock rippled through the crowd and the teacher looked horrified. Jynea gestured she didn't mind the question. Jynea looked up at him, considering him seriously. "The Federation doesn't hate you, why do you think it does?" Parents opinions easily reflected through children without the censorship the parents would offer would certainly make the diplomatic team happy to hear. "Well, it doesn't CARE about us then! It only sends you to talk to us when we stop serving you!" He accused, standing in a defensive posture, for all he looked at her aggressively, challenging her to defend the acts of the Federation. How to explain the situation to a pre-pubescent boy when she didn't really understand it herself? "The Federation is so very big, its hard for the leaders to recognize every individual world all the time." He was looking more closed with that, she tried a different tact, "The leader of your school - he knows most of your names, he knows most of your faces, but he doesn't talk with you unless you have a problem or are brought to his attention right?" That brought nods and curiosity at where she was going with this. The boy didn't look very open to the explanation. "That's kind of like the Federation. They *care* but there's only so many representatives and ships to take care of an area that's so very big and filled with so very many people. So, we only show up when there's something that needs fixing. But, if no one tells us there's a problem, we can't come try to fix it. We didn't know that there was problems here until the Dilithium stopped being traded with us, so we came to find out why and to see if we can fix problems if they exist." "You just want the Dilithium!" The boy insisted, looking ready to stop listening the little he was and leave. "It's true, we do want trade with Ushar. But, it's not just the Dilithium. We enjoy the silks from the Mesi province, we appreciate the music of your troamas, we like the fruits of your yrls trees." The children, and their teacher, seemed surprised that this space traveller knew of these things from their worlds. "And each of our worlds has something they're proud of. Earth is very proud of its grains and gadgets and likes sharing them." She spotted a girl who had a 'sparkler,' what was a hair tie on earth, was worn like a Yuletide bow on the Ushari. A small holographic device that was decorative and changed colours in reflection of its owner and the environment so it always complimented. "Your Sparkler came from Earth. I have one just like it." Well, it was in a jewellery box in her bedroom on Earth, it had been out of fashion for some years on Earth.. but memes always took time to spread. The girl touched the ornament and gave a shy duck of her head, and facial expression that Jynea read as shy friendliness. "We don't like losing friends, and that's what the Federation is. A network of friends who help and support each other. And, I guess, we haven't been very good friends lately, but we're trying to fix that." The children, and their supervisors seemed to digest this. A young boy pipped up, tired of the political discussion he didn't really understand. "Do you play Bzzik ball?" Jynea blinked, "No, but I would be happy to learn!" She rolled to her feet with ease. She could only wonder how long she'd be allowed to play before she'd be dragged back to the drudgeries of work! (Reply any) (Posted by Lorna) (Ushar Prime - Ten'tanis University - Counselor, Lieutenant (jg) Sella - 16:45) Sella pulled her cane out of thigh pocket and quickly snapped it out to it's full length. She was already sure there were too many people here for her to navigate without it, at least not easily. "You'd best lead the way, I'd likely lead us straight into a midterm exam," Sella said with a smile turning her head towards T'Pia. (Reply Pelletier) (Posted by Patrick D.) (Ushar Prime - Ten'tanis University – Nurse T’Pia Pelletier – 16:45) After the small party had completed transporting down to the surface T’Pia scanned the area. Ushari citizens were scurrying as best their mole-like bodies could carry them around the university campus "You'd best lead the way, I'd likely lead us straight into a midterm exam," Sella said with a smile turning her head towards T'Pia. Keeping a somber mind T’Pia placed a hand on Sella’s shoulder and motioned for Taya to follow. “Where at the university is the most logical to visit first?” T’Pia asked her companions. (reply Sella, Any) (posted by Anton) (USS Spectre - Transporter Room 3 - CEO, Lieutenant H'Chir - 16:46) The frantic energy around Ensign Bys'At was showing no sign of dissipating as the away team finished their preparations for their trip to Ushar Prime. He'd fidgeted and fussed over each member of the team, agonized over which equipment they should bring, and now that they were finally ascending onto the transporter platform he fairly glowed in anticipation. "I'm very excited!" he stated, by way of both explanation and understatement. H'Chir made sure he could not be seen and rolled his eyes. "Are you just auditing on this away mission, Sir?" The Andorian couldn't tell if the remark was meant to show insolence, intimidation or pure curiosity - but in the end it didn't matter which. "I'm just along for the ride. Time to see how the engineering staff handle themselves outside the comfort of the jeffries tubes." And because he wasn't sure his reply had been understood he added, "*All* the engineering staff," throwing in one of his sterner looks for good measure. Addressing Bys'At he added, "Ready when you are, Sir." (Reply None) (Posted by Michael Drake) (Ushar Prime - Weather Control Station - CEO, Lieutenant H'Chir - 16:48) As the away team twinkled into being, they took stock of their arrival outside the planet's main weather control station. Unfortunately here, as in so many other places on Ushar, 'outside' was a relative term and still tended to mean underground. "Am I the only one who thinks it's a bit odd to control the weather from underground?" The group surveyed the small ante-chamber and the rather obvious doorway that presumably led to their goal. The cavern was different to underground terrains on many worlds in that it wasn't designed to mimic the surface. H'Chir assumed that being a species who evolved below ground, the Ushari would probably spend effort in making the surface mimic their more natural environment. ~The idea's the same as most everywhere else, it's just the result that's a bit... backwards.~ That said, there was nothing backwards in the environment the Ushari had crafted for themselves. Low-level lighting in deference to what H'Chir assumed were either very sensitive or near useless eyes, and the gentle reminders of sophisticated technology lurking just outside of the average person's awareness all served to remind H'Chir that however different they may be, the Ushari are most definitely an advanced race flush with the wealth of their homeworld. (Reply Bys'At, Morphy, any) (Posted by Michael Drake) (Ushar Prime - Entertainment & Recreational Zone - Captain T'Vhor - 16:48) The door that Lieutenant Donaldson had conveniently pointed out, had led to one of the transportation shuttles that regularly ferried the population from one place to another. Ensign's Kreung and Yates had taken one of them to the Northern sector whilst the Captain and the Lieutenant had headed South. For the last ten minutes though, both the Captain and the Security Officer had interacted very little, their journey consisting of mostly observations made via the transparent panels that graced the sides of the magnetically orientated shuttle system. Upon disembark however, they found themselves in a busy urban area that seemed to be built to entertain both the locals and those that were not native to Ushar Prime itself. Predictably, Donaldson was already engaged in the process of accessing his tricorder the moment he had stepped off the platform, so the Captain duly awaited his report. (Reply Donaldson) The Captain nodded accordingly, then together they walked in the direction that most of the people seemed to be heading. The tricorder information via it's active linking with the Ushari commuter database had given them a few pointers to begin with, now all they had to do was find the relevant information. "If we could find a place where news is distributed, we may be able to access archived records and thus get a broader picture of how the Ushari themselves see recent events in regards our dealings with them", said the Captain. (Reply Donaldson, IYW) "This will also allow us to build a more complete picture of recent events and the involvement of others in regards the Dilithium mining operations", said the Captain. (Reply Donaldson) The Captain nodded again at the Security Officers observation. There were now two options open to them, library archives were a logical assumption of course and the aforementioned news system another. They could now either split up and research individually or work as one unit. As far as the CO was concerned, it would be logical that they would make better progress individually. And so it was suggested. "Would you prefer to seek out the library or the news distribution network Lieutenant?", asked the Captain. (Reply Donaldson) (Posted by Alan) (Ushar Prime - Entertainment & Recreational Zone - TAC/ASC Charles "Chuck" Donaldson - 16:48) Chuck had kept his tricorder linked to the Ushari Commuter Database. “Captain, we’re somewhere in the entertainment district. The Ushari have an extensive selection of entertainments here. I can’t help but notice the extensive selection of dabo houses.” Reported Chuck. "If we could find a place where news is distributed, we may be able to access archived records and thus get a broader picture of how the Ushari themselves see recent events in regards our dealings with them", said the Captain. “That’s a good idea, I’ve been looking for a news feed or anything remotely similar from the commuter database. It’s been fruitless so we’ll definitely have to find another source of information.” Said Chuck "This will also allow us to build a more complete picture of recent events and the involvement of others in regards the Dilithium mining operations", said the Captain. “There doesn’t appear to be a news feed in the commuter database but there has to be a feed somewhere on this planet. After all, having a developed system of news and information is a semi-prerequisite to becoming a federation planet.” Said Chuck. He shrugged his shoulders as the Captain nodded in approval. "Would you prefer to seek out the library or the news distribution network, Lieutenant?", asked the Captain. “I’ll track down the news distribution network if it kills me, Sir.” Said Chuck smiling. (reply T’Vhor) (posted by Anton) (USS Spectre – Main engineering - Nurse Douwsy - 16:49) Douwsy entered main engineering, her PADD had told her that some of the emergency medical kits were due for their routine check. Although this was a boring task, she did not mind as it got her out of sickbay and around the ship. She looked around the quiet engineering. She had expected the usual hustle and bustle of engineers but it seamed quite quiet. ~Better inform the senior bod that I’m here~ She did not have to inform the person in charge that she was doing the checks but it was the polite thing to do. “Hallo is any one here?” She began to look around engineering to find someone who was in charge. (reply any in main engineering) (reply any in main engineering, any) (posted by Robbie) (USS Spectre – Main engineering - Weapon Systems Specialist, Warrant Officer Jerral Revan - 16:49) "No Damn it, you hook the primary phase coupling up to the wave guides like that and you'll create a variance feed back that will cause uneven wear," Jerral said with a voice a Drill instructor would be proud of. "What do they teach you at the training Depot these days?" "Sir, that's how they taught us to do it." The Crewman said. Jerral just rolled his eyes, missing his old team from the Boudicca already, he hated breaking in a new repair and maintenance crew. "You ever stop to think that if your teachers, and I use that term lightly, were as good as they think they are, that they'd be out here doing the job instead of sitting in a nice cushy chair telling other people how to do it? Look, the instruction manual isn't worth the PADD it's written on. Sure, that method works if you're firing the phasers in nice controlled settings where you won't have a single power spike, or, heaven forbid, a return fire. In the field, you have limited supplies and even more limited time in which to replace worn or broken parts. This caused many of us, real engineers that is, to actually come up with ways to make sure we don't have to crawl around the phaser array in the middle of a fire fight. You, go get a phase regulator, and then install that between the two components, and then hook the regulator into the main control systems. On top of protecting the wave guides from shifting phase during a power spike, it will give Tactical a little extra control over the phase allignment, and a tighter beam if they want it." Jerral said with a tone of disgust. "Hello is any one here?" Came a voice from the main work area. "Install those components right, and I'll show you how to actually fit them into the array when I come back." Jerral said, then turned and left the work room to see who was distracting him. Walking out he found an Orion in medical blue with Chief's tags on her collar. "What Can I do for you, Chief?" He asked, just happy to see someone with a degree of common sense, it meant that what ever was the matter was at least worth his time. (Reply Douwsy) (Posted by Patrick D.) (Ushar Prime - Went'uli - FO Commander Michael Ian O'Connor and Ensign (jg) Emma Morrissey - 16:50) Michael pulled his heavier uniform jacket looking around the town square. The town had been built a long while before the Federation had approached them, and as such was built in a cavern under ground. Well lit by various means, the cavern still remained colder than outside, and required a slightly warmer outfit than the ship side standard. Emma had been smarter and had just worn hers down. "Told you it would be cold down here...sir," Emma said, blushing at her near slip. "Ok, new rule, if it's just the two of us, you can call me Michael, and I'll call you Emma." Michael said. "Then how do I know the difference between Commander O'Connor and Michael O'Connor?" She asked putting her fists on her hips and looking up at him, her head quirked to one side. "Trust me you'll know, but for now, our job is to relax and mingle, and if we can, have a little fun." Michael said with a smile. "If I start calling you ensign, that's a good clue to start calling me Sir, until then you Emma, me Michael." "All Right, then I'll lead, you'll get lost." Emma said and started walking west out of the square. "I don't get lost," Michael protested. ~~Much~~ "Sure thing, and tell me that PADD you have in your pocket doesn't have that mapping program you wrote up your Junior year after you got us all lost in Boston." Emma said as they walked. Quickly changing the subject, Michael shortened his stride to match Emma's shorter one, and continued. "So, if you're leading, then where are we going?" "The market, should be off in this direction," Emma said. "And you know this how?" Michael asked sticking hands in his pocket. "One, the Industrial district is back behind us; two, it's usually on the edge between the commercial districts and the residential districts; and three... there are people carrying bags of produce and such all coming from the direction we're heading. I swear if it doesn't have a circuit or a sub-space generator, you just don't see it do you?" Emma asked with mock indignation. "Oh, I don't know, there are a few other things interest me," He said, glancing over at Emma, and making sure she saw him, causing her to blush again. "You're even more of a ham than I remember," Emma said brushing a lock of her long brown hair back over her ear. "Had to develop a pretty decent sense of humor during the war, it was either that or just shut down." Michael said with a shrug. Emma caught his hand as she noticed him almost perceptibly sink into himself. "Was it that bad?" She asked, the joking having gone out of her voice, replaced with concern. Michael stopped and pulled them out of the path of the people around them. Wanting to end the topic of conversation then and there, but not knowing how with Emma standing there holding his hand. "Yea, it was hard. When I joined Star Fleet, I never expected a war to break out. I mean, I still believe I was on the right side, but it was still hard. I saw a lot of things that no amount of time in the academy could prepare me for. I lost people under my command in the final push for Earth. Humor was the only way a lot of us on the front lines could deal with the violence." Michael said looking at Emma. "Things went differently on Earth. The Violence was more low key, but it was constant," Emma said giving Michael's hand a squeeze. "Most of us learned to deal with it, but we never really had to deal with the fighting, or the sheer terror." "The worst was never knowing when the next attack was going to happen. You couldn't relax, couldn't let your guard down even if it was quiet, you just sat there and stewed, waiting for the other shoe to drop." Michael said, then straightened up. "Still enough about the past, time to move forward." He started to move back into the crowd but was abruptly stopped by the last source he expected. Emma planted her hand on Michael's chest and exerted a force he didn't think the petite brunette was capable of. "You are not avoiding this subject," She said, her brown eyes flashing. "I'm fine, Emma, lets go find some place to eat," Michael said, "I'm hungry." "That's a load of BS and you know it," Emma said seriously, "I know you, Michael. I know when you're hurt, and I know when you're lying, because, frankly, you're not good at it. Food's a good idea, and maybe now isn't the time to go into war stories. But trust me on this, we will talk about it later. I love you, as a friend or something more, I don't know, but I care about you and you need to work through this, not ignore it." Emma smiled at Michael, "For now, though, if you're hungry, we'd best get you some food. Wouldn't want you to starve." Without waiting for his response she looped her arm through his and pulled him further down the street towards the smells of cooking food. Michael just hid a smile followed. ~~I love you too~~ (Reply None) (Posted by Patrick D.) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Rising Dawn Medical Facility – CMO Williams - 16:50) Andrew waited until Hun’Coo had left the operating theatre before he began his search. The operating theatre was immaculately clean and tidy. To tidy as some one had recently been through the place and bleached it. He began a quick but intense search of the operating theatre trying to find anything that had been missed. He eventually found what he was looking for. Behind one of the large cabinet that ringed the room was a small fragment of metal which had a strange mark on one side. He picked it up and looked at it closer he realised that the mark was the first part of a serial number. ~So this is a broken bit of medical equipment. I need to get it back the Spectre to make sure exactly what is comes from~ He slipped the fragment into his pocket as he got up. He turned as the heard the doors open. In stead of Hun’Coo standing there, there was an elderly woman glaring at him. “Who are you and what are you doing in my theatre.” Andrew paused for a moment but before he could speak Hun’Coo came into the room. “Ah Dr Mun’Char this is Dr Williams from the Federation envoy. He is interested in our facility and our nanobote program. Would you mind showing him the research labs I have work that needs my attention. Good day to you Dr Williams.” With that Andrew saw Hun’Coo turn and quickly left the room. He saw Mun’Char glare at his disappearing back. She then turned and gave him a hard stare. “Well Dr Williams you must be important. Not everyone gets to see the research labs.” She headed for the door and Andrew moved quickly to catch up. (reply any) (posted by Robbie) (USS Spectre – Main engineering – Nurse Douwsy - 16:53) Douwsy saw a Warrant officer walk out of a side room and in to the main area of engineering. "What Can I do for you, Chief?" “Sorry to bothers you Warrant Officer. I’m Nurse Douwsy. I’m here to some routine checks on the emergency medical kits. I did not mean to disturb you from what you are doing?” (reply Revan) She nodded as she walked over to him. “Heard anything on the scuttle bucket about what we are doing here Jerral?" (reply Revan) (reply Revan, any) (posted by Robbie) (USS Spectre – Main engineering – Weapon systems specialist, Warrant Officer Jerral Revan - 16:54) "What Can I do for you, Chief?" Jerral asked. "Sorry to bother you Warrant Officer. I'm Nurse Douwsy. I'm here to do some routine checks on the emergency medical kits. I did not mean to disturb you from what you are doing?" "No problem, I've got two space cases reassembling a phaser manifold at the moment, with any luck the brain cell they share between them will fire and they'll get it done before next Fed Day." Jerral said. "And call me Jerral, They forced the Warrant on me during the war and won't take it back." She nodded as she walked over to him. "Heard anything on the scuttle bucket about what we are doing here Jerral?" "I've only been here a couple of hours, transferred over from the Boudicca. However from what the shiny button brigade has been muttering, apparently the Ushari Government has been supplying the Cardassians with Dilithium in return for weapons and support in case the local Federations worlds start a rebellion." Jerral said with a shrug as the two started walking towards the first med kit. "But hey, what do officers know." NRPG: Hey, no one said scuttlebutt is accurate or even close to the truth. RPG: Jerral leaned back against a console, "Any word from the upper decks?" Just then a pop and a yelp issued from the work room Jerral had been in previous. "Probably should have mentioned using a laser setter on the phaser manifold tends to cause a charge to buildup in the phase coupling. Oh well, they've got to learn some how. You were saying?" (Reply Douwsy) (Posted by Patrick D.) (Ushar Prime - Learning Centre - SO Ensign Nathanial Yates - 16:55) Yates was somewhat at a loss now, thumbing idly at his belted phasor now whilst at the same time knowing of course, that there was nothing here that could actually be considered a threat. Someone HAD once told him that danger often came in small packages but he doubted that this particular scenario quite fitted that particular warning. For the moment, he simply stood by trying not to look too conspicuous whilst the Morale Officer engaged the tiny's. Ha! tiny's, that was a laugh, everyone was tiny to the giant that was Ensign Nathanial Yates and it was beginning to become a bugbear. Not once had he ever visited a planet where it was HE that felt small to anyone. Ensign Kreung however seemed to be in her element right now. The children, who actually did look a little more mole-like than their older variants, were highly inquisitive and certainly not backwards in coming forwards if their pointed remarks were anything to go by. It all kinda reminded him of his own time growing up on Planitia and the way he always stood out like a large sore thumb even at that age. Some of the children did seem curious about him though but for now anyway, all of their concentration was directed at the Morale Officer. Obviously 'green' was far more interesting than 'tall' on this particular ball of rock and mud, not that Yates was phased by that of course but watching her interacting with them made him wonder if she perhaps had children of her own someplace. "Do you play Bzzik Ball?", one of them had suddenly enquired. Kreung had answered that she did not but that she would be interested in learning, the mention of a ball however had just piqued Yates's interest and he instinctively moved closer towards the group. "Can I play?", he enquired, "I too would be interested in learning how", he added, pausing now as everyone turned their attention towards him, Kreung included. "If that would be OK I mean...." (Reply Kreung, Any) (Posted by Alan) (Ushar Prime - Learning Centre - Ensign Jynea Kreung - 16:57) "Can I play?", Yates enquired, "I too would be interested in learning how", he added, pausing now as everyone turned their attention towards him. "If that would be OK I mean...." The kids stared up at him with wide eyes, so tall! They, like Jynea had just written him off as weaponed escort and given him no second glance or thought. "DIBS!" cried one of the younger boys instantly. "What?!" "No fair!" A verbal scuffle broke out over whether that was right of first choice or not. Jynea looked amused as she uncurled from where she was sitting and stood. "I think I'm going to agree.. if there's any running in this game, I think I'm going to be sorely outclassed." She compared her legs to his. Her hip was halfway up his thigh at best. (Reply Yates) "Okay!" said one of the older girls, "We get Lady Kreung, you have Mister.. er.." She looked up at Yates expectantly. (Reply Yates) "Right." She nodded. "Girls against boys!" She took Jynea's arm and led her and Nathanial towards a field that looked strangely like a baseball diamond with pillars instead of bases. Jynea could only hope Yates was as confused as her. "Okay, so, there's kickers and fielders." The girl started, holding up a white ball about a foot in diameter. The kickers job is to hit the polls in order. One, two, three. You get a point for one, two for two and three for three. Every ball that's caught is a minus point and you lose your kick. If you hit the wrong pole you *lose* that many points. Once all kickers have kicked, the other team kicks. There's four fielders on the team at a go, they can sub in and out as needed. Okay?" Jynea thought this a mad mix of what she knew of kickball, baseball and cricket. Too bad she was only good at one of the three. "Sounds good to me." Jynea said with a smile, "Who starts in the field?" "THEY do." The girl said decisively. "Ladies are always first." "Can't argue with that logic." Jynea murmured, amused. She looked over her team of nine girls and at the team Yates had of seven boys. No one seemed to care that the numbers weren't even. Wondering how they would know who won exactly and who didn't, Jynea took her place at the end of the line to see how it was done. (Reply Yates/Any) (Posted by Lorna) (Ushar Prime - Learning Centre - SO Ensign Nathanial Yates - 16:58) ~Dibs?~ Yates furrowed his brow, was that a yes or a no? Whatever it was the kids were now squabbling and it was all apparently because of him. He stepped one step backwards in response to that, then he turned towards Jynea who looked no wiser apart from the fact that she seemed to be sizing him up now. Then the proverbial penny seemingly dropped. "I think I'm going to agree.. if there's any running in this game, I think I'm going to be sorely outclassed", said the Morale Officer with a smile. "Well, that depends on whether the rules of the game involve running at all, for all we know it could involve ducking, diving and slipping inbetween other players legs with the ball", said Yates, "in which case, it would be I that would be sorely outclassed", he added. "We get Lady Kreung", cried one of the girls, "...you have Mister.. er..?", she added inquisitively. "My names Yates, but you can call me Nathanial, or Nat, it's entirely up to you", answered the Security Officer entering into the spirit of it now. Whatever the rules actually were though, the children seemed content now to arrange the game to their requirements, which in this instance was girls against boys. They then went on to explain the rules, which basically amounted to, 'kick the ball at the poles' in order to score maximum points. Yates looked at the poles ahead of him, then he glanced to the boys that had now congregated around him on the playing field. Kreung was leaning forwards, muttering something or other to her obviously unevenly balanced team of girls, Yates then looked again at the poles and the markers as the boys explained again what he had to do. "Just kick the ball at the poles when it's your turn, all of them in succession", said one of the boys. Yates scratched his head. The rules of physics just weren't adding up here, If he was going to hit any of those somewhat spindly poles by kicking the ball at them, with his legs he'd probably just send the ball way beyond the outer markers of the playing field and out of all of their reach, thus ruining their game. If on the other hand he managed to hit the poles, then there was a good chance he'd reduce them to splintered wood. And ruin the game that way! Obviously caution would be required here and since the girls were apparently going to be playing first, he was content in the knowledge that at least he could just watch and learn. The first girl then moved into position to commence the game. (Reply Kreung, Any) (Posted by Alan) (USS Spectre – Bridge – CONN – Pilot Officer Smith - 16:58) Jennifer was bored out of her tiny mind. She watched the view screen and saw the planet spinning slowly. She then looked back at the console and saw their projected course. ~Ow I hate being in orbit. All I can do is orbiting maneuvers~ She had plotted break away vectors, emergency maneuvers and also planetary landings all to try and keep the boredom away. Her console flashed at her. ~Ow look it's that not exciting. It’s an orbital burn coming up~ She turned off the autopilot and watched as the distances spooled down. “And the monkey pushes the button.” She said under her breath. She activated maneuvering thruster clusters two, five and ten. She felt the ship turn onto its new course. She gave a slight grin as she remembered her fighter jocks calling anything bigger then a shuttle a BUFM A big ugly flying moose due to the size and lack of mobility everything else had compared to a fighter. ~I really hope we get to break orbit soon~ She looked at the computer and waited for another orbiting maneuver. (reply any) (posted by Robbie) (USS Spectre – Main engineering – Nurse Douwsy - 17:02) "Any word from the upper decks?" Douwsy frowned as pop and a yelp issued from the work room Jerral had been in previous. She looked at Jerral who looked back at her. "Probably should have mentioned using a laser setter on the phaser manifold tends to cause a charge to buildup in the phase coupling. Oh well, they've got to learn some how. You were saying?" A ghost of a smile crossed Douwsy’s face. “That’s a bit mean that you did not mention that.” She shook her head slightly. “As you know the upper decks like to have their secrets. I’ve heard talk about a suspected Cardassian invasion and that they are taking the dilithium to power their warships.” Douwsy shrugged slightly. “But as you know Jerral the scuttle bucket goes from the sublime to the ridicules.” (reply Revan) (reply Revan, any) (Posted by Robbie) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Rising Dawn Medical Facility – Dr Mun’Char's research lab - CMO Williams - 17:03) Andrew looked at the console in front of him. He shook his head as he read what Mun’Char’s data showed. He shook his head in amazement and looked at Mun’Char. “This is amazing. How do you get the nanites to reconstruct the damaged area. From what I’ve just read you can use this procedure on any species.” He turned and looked at Mun’Char. “How.” A slight smile flickered across Mun’Char’s face. “We have a basic work up of most species in the four quadrants on file. It is just a matter of finding the right species template. Using that data and the medical scans of the patient is matched together. The computer then tells the nanites the differences and what needs to be repaired.” Andrew nodded and looked back to the console. “What is it Mr Guntcha?” Andrew looked up and saw a young Ushari male. “Um Dr Mun’Char. I have a message for Dr Williams. One of your party has been brought into the emergency ward.” Andrew stood up. “I’m sorry Dr Mun’Char I have to go.” She nodded as Andrew hurried out of the room and followed Mr Guntcha along the corridor. ~I so hope no one has died~ (reply any) (posted by Robbie) (USS Spectre – Main engineering – Weapons System Specialist, Warrant Officer Jerral Revan - 17:04) "That's a bit mean that you did not mention that." She shook her head slightly. "As you know the upper decks like to have their secrets. I've heard talk about a suspected Cardassian invasion and that they are taking the dilithium to power their warships." Douwsy shrugged slightly. "But as you know Jerral the scuttle bucket goes from the sublime to the ridiculous." "True, but at least it entertaining. I'd much rather have horribly inaccurate rumors, than an actual invasion or fight. A fight means work, and it means I have to trust those chuckle heads in there to help me fix this ship when the Officer's inevitably break it." Jerral said. (Reply Douwsy) "Well, they've got to be good for something, and if they want the responsibility they can have it, I'd much rather spend the rest of my working career in a jefferies tube." Jerral said with an indifferent shrug. (Reply Douwsy) (Posted by Patrick D.) (Unknown Vessel - Cockpit - "Venom Nine" - 17:05) Stealth, like every other commodity trading throughout the four known quadrants of space, was not exactly at a premium these days. It was generally not something that could be bought on a whim by anyone with enough tradeable credit units to hand at a given time. That wasn't to say of course that it could not be had, for indeed it could be at the right price and in the right location. Even stealth though had it's degrees of effectiveness, and as such predictably vast differences in regards it's asking price. Both Romulan and Klingon bog standard cloaks could of course be sourced and supplied by anyone worth their salt as a trader, what had just entered the Theta Draconis system at high warp however, was not exactly what could be termed 'Bog Standard' by anyones level of understanding. Nor was it readily available...at any price! It went without saying that the ship itself could neither be seen, nor detected by the conventional sensors of Federation Starships or listening posts as it passed the moon of Orrelius, and then swooped on in towards the outer markers of the Ushari system itself. Indeed, had this particular vessel been equipped with anything less than what it had been, Starbase 621, or at the very least Subspace relay AR-558 would have detected something amiss, even if it had logged it only as a spurious anomoly. As it was however, it's passing went completely unnoticed by all. It even eluded the nearby Tzenkethi Coalition with it's enhanced sensor bouys detecting nothing whatsoever, either directly or in it's wake. Arriving in the vicinity of 51-Pegasi, the small blade-like vessel dropped it's cloak and then continued on in towards the moon of Pyrethia 5, where it duly came to a halt and established geosynchronous orbit of said moon. The pilot then began transmitting the coded signal that would begin negotiations with it's counterpart in the proceedings that were about to take place. For a moment the stage remained silent, only one of the protagonists currently taking centre stage as he waited patiently. Far below him, a violent electrical storm raged on the moon, which sent patterns of greenish hued light dancing upon the polished black hull of the vessel itself. Then came the response.... There had been little more than a beep upon the console in front of him before the viewscreen changed from the starfield and moonfall, into that of the Ferengi now gracing it's entirety, thus indicating the arrival of the second of the protagonists to the arena. This of course was the aforementioned 'Good Profit', it's master seated somewhat arrogantly in the command chair whilst the being known only as 'Venom Nine', initiated discussion in a metallic, and decidedly unearthly monotone voice. "Have you transferred the cargo and collected the relevant data?", said the man, if indeed he was a man. "Of course I have", said Daimon Blek waving a small black data block almost arrogantly into the air as he spoke. "Those fools fell for it hook, line and sinker and after causing me and my crew much hardship in the process, I even went on to.......", he added, just as Venom interrupted the spiel he knew would be following if he allowed him to continue with his disquisition. "Silence, transfer the data to me now", came the strange metallic retort, "I have no need to know what the Federation vessel has, or has not done during these proceedings, our agent has kept us well informed", it added as the orator began entering data upon one of the consoles before him, whilst the Ferengi ranted on about his incurred costs and then 'finally' got round to the crux of the matter. "Four hundred and fifty bars of gold pressed latinum before transfer", said Blek, "that is the amount we agreed upon" Venom paused, his hand resting over one of the buttons on the console, then he looked towards the Ferengi who suddenly looked as though he had been caught in the stare of a cold blooded assassin, which in actual fact, he had! "The deal was four hundred, no more, no less", said the black clad figure as he calmly resumed input at the console he had previously been working at. Blek's lobes twitched uncomfortably. "Four hundred and forty", he blared. "Four hundred", repeated Venom, this time without even turning his attention from the console upon which he continued to work. "Four hundred and twenty five", said Blek, this time pushing his luck somewhat. Venom turned his attention from the console and glared at the obstinate Ferengi with a stare that positively froze his blood, then he pressed the button that finalised the input routine he had been busy with before raising his hand deftly into the air, an act that was to confuse the Ferengi no end. In an instance though, the data block in the Ferengi's hand was in the process of dis-assembling and then re-assembling within Venom's own upheld hand, thus turning the Ferengi's previous confusion into total anger at having apparently just been robbed of his bargaining point. "FOOL!, you are but a common thief, a conman, a charlatan!!", cried Blek, "give me back my data block....or give me my latinum!" "Patience little man", said Venom, "what will you do, blow my ship from the sky?", he added, instantly bringing the Ferengi to the sudden realisation that his moderately armed freighter was of course, grosly mismatched against the much smaller, though more powerful vessel. "You...you agreed!, my latinum, give me my latinum!", cried Blek whilst those immediately behind him on the bridge went into a veritable dance at the realisation that they might not be getting paid after all, and worse that they might now be blown from the sky themselves. It was a pointless exercise of course, the Order was not above such practice of cold blooded acts of treachery but on this occasion, it was not to be so. Already, the latinum was materialising upon the decking of the Ferengi bridge, all four hundred bars of it as agreed, not Bleks re-negotiated four fifty, forty, twenty five or whatever.... So, with the Ferengi finally appeased now, the small ship turned about and then left orbit of the moon without so much as a by your leave. Already though, it's unusual occupant was signalling again to the agent stationed covertly aboard the Spectre as the sleek craft sped off and shimmered from view upon engagement of it's unique, and priceless cloak. (Reply None) (Posted by Alan) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Public Shopping Complex - SFI Agent - Lt. Cmdr Brian Rogers - 17:08) Rogers casually stepped out of the bar, and glanced back and forth, looking for the Ushari woman. He missed her at first glance, but she was standing near the corner of the building, next to a tall hooded figured. Brian tried to appear calm, and started strutting towards the pair. He was mentally on Red Alert. Thankfully, he still wore a hand phaser on his waist, and one of those discreet diplomatic phasers up his sleeve, but hopefully, things wouldn't come to those. Rogers skimmed the hooded figured as he approached, from the tall stance and broad shoulders, Brian assumed it was male, though species was impossible to determine, the face was completely hidden by the shadows. "You didn't say you'd bring friends," Rogers said, sounding upset. "Do you have my two strips?" the woman asked. Brian tried to look more and more angry. "I want some assurances first," he said, demandingly. "First, I want to know who is getting the dilithium from Ushari Prime," he leered. "There are rumors of a Starfleet trade delegation arriving here, Lt. Commander. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?" the tall figure said in a low, husky voice. Brian couldn't figure his species, there was no accent of any sort. "The only delegation you need to worry about is me, and my ships, buddy," Brian said, taking a step towards the hooded figure. "Who do you think you are, anyway," he said, reaching for the hood, without warning, a blunt object made contact with the back of Brian's skull, sending him sprawling to the Ushari street. "Ouch, son of a bi-..." Rogers started, reaching for his phaser at his waist, and rolling over, he saw the Ushari woman standing over him with some sort of club, while the hooded figure was standing over him. A black gloved hand was protruding from the robe holding a disruptor. "Watch your hand, smuggler," the hooded figure warned. Brian moved his hand away from his phaser, and held his hands up weekly, while his head was still pounding. "Empty your pockets," the greedy woman ordered. Brian slowly reached inside his pockets, and whilst his hands were inside, he slowly slipped the egg phaser out of his sleeve, and into his hand, and activated it. Using his touch only, he set it to a 'Heavy Stun' setting. "I didn't bring my latinum with me, I'm sure you can see why," Rogers indicated the current situation. The woman and the hood exchanged confused looks. The hooded man slightly lowered his disruptor. At that instant, Rogers drew the egg phaser, firing at the hood. The man took the shot in the stomach, and fell backwards. Rogers turned his attention to the woman, and fired at her while she turned to dive for the fallen disruptor. Brian's aim was shaken by another phaser blast miss his head by a few inches. He turned, to see two uniformed Ushari patrolmen running towards him, with their phasers out. ~Oh shoot,~ Brian said, already pondering the diplomatic consequences of this. Meanwhile, the Ushari woman already had her hands on the disruptor, and, fired at Rogers. Thankfully, her aim was worse than the patrolmen's, and the disruptor blast sailed wildly over Rogers' head. Brian took sights at the woman again, but this time, before he could fire a second shot, the woman was hit by a wave of phaser fire from the patrolmen, and crumbled to the ground. Seeing his opportunity, Rogers raced to his feet and darted towards the hooded figure. He scrambled for the hood, hoping to determine the species of the figure. Pushing the hood down, he saw a Cardassian face, just before he was hit by a phaser blast from the Ushari Patrolmen, knocking him sideways, off the Cardassian, and the phaser effects knocking him out. (reply Ushari Police, Hospital, any) (Posted by Kevin Schram) (Ushar Prime - Learning Centre - Ensign Jynea Kreung – 17:10) The game had ended when a parent had shown up to collect a child. Jynea wasn't quite sure which team was winning or losing since both teams seemed enthused and happy. Some of the boys had clapped Yates on the shoulder and said "Next time we play Sirdrri, Nay-Yates!" She wasn't quite sure if the abbreviation was a misunderstanding of human naming conventions or if it was a nickname. Either way, she made a note of it to tease him with later. The two had decided to move on when the announcement of the incident with the Starfleet intelligence officer came across their comms. Jynea rolled her eyes, "If there's a badger den to poke with a stick, Commander Rogers seems to find it." She said with an amused headshake. She had no doubt the man was absolutely fine and would land on his feet. Well, right up until T'Vhor caught up to him and gave him the chilly-polite 'would you like to attempt and justify what the hell you were thinking?' lecture. Jynea waited to see if Yates or herself would be recalled, but it seemed the command team had it well in hand. So, she pulled the GPS/Map unit out of one of her belt pouches and unfolded it to look at what was offered. "Shall we check out 'old town'?" She'd asked Yates. She supposed, technically, she was his superior in rank, but really, she wasn't exactly the command type. (Reply Yates) (Posted by Lorna) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, North Access - USO Min'Kat - 17:11) Min'Kat activated his communicator the moment the shots had been heard, by that time however both he and his associate had turned about from their prescribed patrol route and were now running towards the location of the unusual phasor retort. It was quite clear that this was not an Ushar weapon being fired, it's signature was more pronounced so logic had already dictated that this was probably trouble involving the newly arrived Federation Officers. "I have shots fired North district, Dar'Pal Arcade... responding", said the Ushari Security Officer as he rounded a corner to come face to face with the situation in question. Min'Kat had certainly not been wrong in his logical deduction. One of the Starfleet Officers now lay upon the floor struggling with two unknown assailants, one of which, a cloaked figure had fallen backwards having just been fired upon by the Fleeter. It seemed though that he had only been stunned for he was already struggling to his feet again as the Ushar themselves responded accordingly. "Put your weapon's down, hands in the air!", cried Min'Kat as both he and his partner aimed their own weapons at the three combatants, who continued on nonetheless. Obviously what was at stake here was worth risking their lives for. By this time, the female had made a grab for a dropped disruptor type weapon and had quickly fired at the Fleeter who in turn returned fire at her. Understandably, this has resulted in incoming fire from the two Ushari, a number of hits making direct contact with the Fleeter to drop him into near unconsciousness as he struggled towards the now prostrate, robed figure lying nearby to pull aggresively at his hood. Min'Kat fired again and the entire incident was brought to a close as the Officer fell into a crumpled heap upon the floor, just as a second Starfleet Officer appeared on scene and immediately began requesting information. "What happened?", he enquired as the two Ushari Securitymen re-holstered their weapons and approached tentatively. Min'Kat looked down at the three assailants where they lay whilst the other Officer approached concerned. "We were rather hoping you could tell us", said Min'Kat, "we heard shots being fired, we arrived on the scene to find all of them in a firefight. It appears that your friend may have been trying to defend himself against the other two", he added, whilst the Starfleet Officer knelt next to his compatriot and quickly tapped at his combadge to request assistance and report the incident to his superiors. (Reply Any, None) (Posted by Alan) (Ushar Prime - Library Resources - Captain T'Vhor - 17:14) The Captain was busy with the Library files he had discovered when his communicator chirped into life. =/\=Ensign Goldsteen to Captain T'Vhor=/\= "Go ahead Ensign", said the Captain as he continued switching through pages and pages of old resource material that was pertinent to Ushari's Dilithium trading rules. =/\=Captain we have a problem, Lieutenant Commander Rogers got into some sort of violent confrontation and he was knocked unconscious by a phaser. The Ushari police who saw the fight aren't sure who started it, and so they want to take Rogers in for questioning=/\= The moment the Sec Officer had even mentioned the name Rogers, the Captain knew of course that it would involve a commotion of some sort, it didn't take a Betazoid mind to pre-empt that one, unpredictable was the Lieutenant Commanders middle name after all. ~Not good~ The news though had caused the Captain to instantly stop what he had been doing, the display screen of the monitor he had been viewing closing down accordingly as he deactivated it and then turned about, whilst addressing the issue as he walked in a predictably calm tone of voice. "Understood Ensign, I want you to escort the Lieutenant Commander to wherever it is he is taken, be it the Ushari Security centre or their medical facility for medical attention", said the Captain. (Reply Goldsteen) "And Ensign, if he becomes conscious, inform him not to say anything until I get there. Is that clear?", said T'Vhor. (Reply Goldsteen) The Captain then opened a channel to the Doctor, only to find that his communicator was not upon his person. Instead, he had been answered by a medical assistant who had identified himself only as 'Guntcha' who had then gone on to explain that the Doctor had been requested to leave his communicator outside of the particular area he had been visiting for security reasons. It seemed a little odd, but understandable. The Captain then requested that Doctor Williams be informed immediately that they had a casualty and that he should attend to it as a matter of urgency. The Captain then relayed the specific details to the assistant before heading out the door with the intentions of returning to the transport shuttles. (Reply None, Any) (Posted by Alan) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, North Access - ATAC/ASC Ensign Goldsteen - 17:17) =/\="Understood Ensign, I want you to escort the Lieutenant Commander to wherever it is he is taken, be it the Ushari Security centre or their medical facility for medical attention", said the Captain.=/\= Alex pursed his lips unhappily before responding. "Understood Captain," he replied, though he truly wanted to go back and attempt to get something useful out of the bartender. She had become something like a difficult puzzle to Alex, and he wanted the opportunity to solve it. =/\="And Ensign, if he becomes conscious, inform him not to say anything until I get there. Is that clear?=/\=", said T'Vhor. "Of course sir," Alex answered, though he did not see how Rogers could make the situation any worse. "So where are we headed," he asked the Ushari patrolmen with a smile, "and who's carrying Rogers? I would, but I have a bad back." (reply Ushari Patrolmen) (posted by Dan Black) (Ushar Prime – Zamzurrin Semi-Prefecture, Tertiary Block – TAC/ASC Charles “Chuck” Donaldson - 17:17) To call the tertiary block ‘low rent’ is probably accurate … but there’s no better place to obtain information. It’s so steeped in Ushari culture that you have to scrape off your shoes before you leave. Several priority calls had come across Chuck’s commbadge and the chatter was a welcome change from the monotonous information download. There was so much information that Chuck had resorted to simply sending it up to the Spectre. Fortunately Security Officer Smith was kind enough to be organizing the information on that end. “According to the chatter on my end it looks like we’ll have to depend on your efforts for information on the Ushari, Jo. As the head Security officer for the away mission I need to report to the Captain and find out what Rogers has been doing. Do you think you can handle it, Officer?” asked Chuck (reply Jo Smith) (posted by Anton) (USS Spectre - Security Station Foxtrot – Security officer Smith - 17:17) =^=According to the chatter on my end it looks like we’ll have to depend on your efforts for information on the Ushari, Jo. As the head Security officer for the away mission I need to report to the Captain and find out what Rogers has been doing. Do you think you can handle it, Officer?=^= Jo had been looking at the information that Donaldson had been sending to the spectre. “I can handle it Lieutenant Donaldson. Is there anything that you want me specifically to look out for?” (reply Donaldson) Jo nodded to herself. “I’ll see what I can find out.” Jo heard the comm channel close as she turned to her console and began to sift through the information with purpose. (reply Donaldson, any) (posted by Robbie) (Ushar Prime – Zamzurrin Semi-Prefecture, Tertiary Block – TAC/ASC Charles “Chuck” Donaldson - 17:17) =/\=I can handle it, Lieutenant Donaldson. Is there anything that you want me specifically to look out for?=/\= “That’s just it, Smith. We don’t have a direction for our search. I’d hazard a guess that there may be more interesting information in the arrival and departure terminal logs, but that’s just as much a shot in the dark as anything else. Let me know if you find anything. Donaldson out.” Said Chuck tapping his commbadge. =/\=I’ll see what I can find out. =/\= (reply none, any) (posted by Anton) (Ushar Prime – Primary Weather Control, first level – Ensign Bys’At – 17:30) Bys’At was enjoying his coffee. Ensign Halloran was kind enough to offer to replicate some variant for him. The name had escaped Bys’At’s notice but it was delicious!! “Okay, okay, okay … everyone report … please, just, if you feel like it … mellow.” Said Bys’At after tapping his commbadge. (reply H’Chir, Morphy, any) (posted by Anton) (Ushar Prime – Primary Weather Control, second level – Ensign Paul Morphy – 17:30) =/\= Okay, okay, okay … everyone report … please, just, if you feel like it … mellow.=/\= ~Oh, god, he’s finally cracked. H’Chir’s going to can him! Why am I upset by that?!?~ Paul’s thoughts were in turmoil. He lay on his back underneath a control console making sure the readings were accurate and trying not to create a hurricane or stimulate a flood. “Should I … answer him, Sir?” asked Paul peaking out from under the console at his Andorian superior. (reply H’Chir) (posted by Anton) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Rising Dawn Medical Facility - CMO Williams - 17:30) Andrew quickly entered the ward. He smiled slightly to himself as he looked around room. It did not matter what they looked like, hospital wards always had the same lay out. He saw a group of Ushari’s around a bed in the far corner. He hurried over to see Rogers lying on the bed. ~What the hell happened to him~ “Who are you? You can’t just walk in here.” Andrew looked over at a large Ushari male. “My name is Dr Williams and you have a member of my team.” He pointed to Rogers. “What happened to him?” “Your officer was waving a weapon around shooting at our citizens. He was stunned by a security officer.” Andrew nodded as he took the information in. “Can I see him?” He noticed for the first time that there were two armed guards standing near Rogers. He stepped over to Rogers and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Hallo Mr Rogers. It looks like you have been having some fun while you have been looking around.” (reply Rogers) (reply Rogers, any) (posted by Robbie) (USS Spectre - Ten Forward - Lance Corporal Yzak Moriuchi - 17:30) NRPG: I debated on the Japanese name convention ! my Anglo-Saxon heritage won out. BTW, picture Mr. Miyagi from Karate Kid without the Okinawan tradition. I didn't know the ranks so I took a shot in the dark. I'm leaving room here for others to post. FYI, the hermit pervert is a Japanese establishment. ;) RPG: Yzak sat amidst a group of his confederate Marines. They were all chattering like old women while he sat silent. "Have any of you seen the holo-program that Corporal Houseman won off of the Engineer?" asked a PFC glancing at the other marines. (reply any IYW) "It's supposed to have Vasilyovna, Bristed, and Kreung in it. I haven't seen it yet but it's supposed to be hilarious." Said the PFC. (reply any IYW) "Who does the program belong to?" asked Yzak breaking his former silence. "Security Lieutenant Donaldson." Responded the PFC with a puzzled face. "Yes, but I also have a copy. Hahaha!" Said Yzak in his Japanese accented English. He produced a clear disk from his waist pocket as he laughed with a lecherous grin. (reply any marines, any) (posted by Anton) (Ushar Prime - Primary Weather Control - CEO, Lieutenant H'Chir - 17:31) H'Chir was sat on the floor once more, his back resting against a crate of some mechanical part of other. His tri-corder had told him the box was sturdy and harmless and therefore of no interest. He'd spend the last twenty minutes watching a pair of legs belonging to one member of the engineering crew - he forgot which one - sticking out from under a console and wriggling occasionally as their owner grappled with one part of the planet's weather control system or another. =/\= Okay, okay, okay . everyone report . please, just, if you feel like it . mellow.=/\= H'Chir rolled his eyes and tapped his tri-corder, continuing to program in his latest notes regarding the mission. He'd got the controls configured to his own personal preferences and barely needed to look at what he was doing - fortunate really as there was an unusual mark on the sole of the shoe attached to one of the legs and he was half contemplating what could cause such a mark and half mesmeris... "Should I . answer him, Sir?" asked the legs. "Like, whoa, duuuude! Take a chill pill!" Inwardly H'Chir added, ~I'm going to crucify him!~ (Reply Morphy, any) (Posted by Michael Drake) (Ushar Prime - Primary Weather Control, second level - Ensign Paul Morphy - 17:32) "Like, whoa, duuuude! Take a chill pill!" said H'Chir. Paul laughed. "Suitably chilled, Sir." Said Paul shrugging. His shoulders scrunched against the floor. Paul slid back under the console and flipping open his tricorder and scanned the console. ~Hmm, a slight rise in gamma radiation in Sector four. It could be a cracked Bercys Seal.~ tapping a few commands into his tricorder Paul reported the slight seal breach. H'Chir's tricorder began to beep due to the incoming report. Paul smiled knowing it was his report and he could have just said something to the Chief. (reply H'Chir, any) (posted by Anton) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Rising Dawn Medical Facility - SFI Agent - Lt. Cmdr Brian Rogers - 17:35) Rogers had come around only a few moments earlier. The Ushari guarding him had said nothing, and he was only looked at briefly by some sort of Ushari nurse. He had sat alone, slowly recovering from the effects of the stunning when he saw Dr. Williams enter. “Who are you? You can’t just walk in here," said one of the Ushari who seemed to be in charge of guarding him. “My name is Dr Williams and you have a member of my officers. What happened to him?” Andrew asked. “Your officer was waving a weapon around shooting at our citizens. He was stunned by a security officer.” “Can I see him?” Dr. Williams asked, and the man allowed it. Andrew walked over and patted Brian on the shoulder. “Hallo Mr Rogers. It looks like you have been having some fun while you have been looking around," The doctor said. "Quite," Brian said, "I've got a hell of a headache, but I feel mostly fine," he said. (reply Williams) "Is Captain T'Vhor on his way? I've got some information for him, not to mention I might need some... legal assistance, in this matter," he said, indicating the two Ushari guards. (reply Williams, any) (Posted by Kevin Schram) (Ushar Prime - Primary Weather Control, first level - Ensign Bys'At - 17:40) Bys'At hadn't heard from any of the other Engineers on the away team. He wiggled his nose briskly from left to right. ~No news is good news.~ he thought. His attempt at maintaining a 'minimal control' on the away team had not been as successful as he had hoped but he was enjoying his coffee while the gears in his mind turned over and over. One sip ~What can I do?~ Two sips. ~Tighten the reigns?~ Three sips. ~Be assertive?~ Four sips. "Brain blast!" Bys'At yelled. Tapping his commbadge. "Bys'At to Lieutenant H'Chir." He blurted. (reply H'Chir) "Sir, in a few minutes I'll be sending a detailed report on the Weather Control to the Spectre. I need you to compile the report from the second level to couple with my own," Bys'At paused. ~stay strong, stay strong, stay strong.~ ". . . if you have a spare moment." He said as his hand fell from his commbadge forlornly. He could only come to one conclusion . . . a Vulcan/Romulan hybrid is just not cut out for command duties. (reply H'Chir) (posted by Anton) (Ushar Prime - Captial City Rising Dawn Medical Facility – CMO Williams - 17:42) "Quite," Brian said, "I've got a hell of a headache, but I feel mostly fine," Andrew nodded. “I’m not surprised.” "Is Captain T'Vhor on his way? I've got some information for him, not to mention I might need some... legal assistance, in this matter," “I don’t know about the captain but I would expect so. I’ll see what I can do about your headache.” He looked past the two Ushari guards and saw some who looked like a nurse. “Excuse me is it possible for my colleague to have some pain killers?” The nurse walked over and looked through Rogers’s chart. “I will have to get it prescribed by his duty doctor.” “Thank you.” He watched the nurse walk off towards a door at the far end of the room. He knew that he could do nothing else until the nurse came back. Although he had his emergency pack on him the medication that he carried was far to strong for what Rogers needed. “We should get something for your headache soon.” (reply Rogers IYW) (reply Rogers IYW, any) (Posted by Robbie) (Ushar Prime – City Outskirts, "Old Town" Amusement Park – Ensign Jynea Kreung – 17:45) After agreement, the two had headed off on the kinetic scooters they'd been loaned. When Jynea spotted a roadside hutch that seemed to be offering local fair, she'd pulled off the small track to investigate the delicious smells her stomach wanted to know more about. She joined the line-up to see Ushari, and others, produce their own bowls to have food dolloped in. You could buy a bowl, but that seemed a bit wasteful to Jynea since there didn't seem to be recycling facilities at the stand. "Old Town" apparently meant things were done in the ways before space travel. Well, when in Rome. She looked around and pulled out her tricorder to help her in her search. She wasn't much use with them, but it would take a real dope to not be able to find the simplest of things with the scanning device. Walking over to the brush, she pulled out the thick, flat grassoids she'd been sort of looking for. She tucked the tricorder back into a belt pouch, pulled out the handy dandy medical radiator to cleanse the foliage and weaved a quick, water tight, bowl. (Comment Yates, if any) Jynea smiled as she handed one to Nathanial, in case he wanted an early dinner. "I took every survival course the academy offered. Commander Trillek said I'd have been a great marine if I could shoot straight." She said with self-abusing humour. About the only marine things she could do were garrotte someone and survive if dumped in the middle of the wilderness on a strange planet. (Reply Yates, if you wish) Bowls in hand, they went back to the line, stood their turns and got dinner which consisted of some sort of vegatables in a tan broth. Still, it smelled good and apparently one just held the bowl to one's mouth and did a mixture of lapping, sipping and tipping to get inside one. Table manners, were apparently not an issue.. and not just because there were no tables. The majority just found a comfortable piece of grass to plonk down on and eat. Some got up again when they were done, some seemed to be perfectly happy to take naps. "I wonder how they got all this greenery in here." Jynea wondered aloud. It wasn't as if grasses were native to caverns on any world she'd been in. In fact, if she didn't look up, this tranquil spot could almost make her believe she was on the surface. They must be near ground level, she guessed, by atmosphere and temperature. (Reply Yates) (Posted by Lorna) (Ushar Prime - Went'uli - FO Commander Michael Ian O'Connor and Ensign (jg) Emma Morrissey - 17:50) "So you're still not drinking?" Emma asked as they walked out of the restaurant. "Nope, I said I wasn't going to touch the stuff again, and I meant it." Michael said fingering the scar on his jaw, a reminder of what happened the last time he lost control of himself after a long night of drinking. "Well, good for you," Emma said with a smile. "I remember that fight, the other guy was an idiot, for sure, but you may have over reacted just a tad." "Yea, just a little," Michael said, and they walked down the street, quieter than it had been an hour or so ago. They were coming to one of the cavern's huge perimeter walls, when the sounds of music became apparent in the distance. "Where's the music coming from, it sounds like a choir or something?" Emma asked. Michael looked around as they moved towards where they thought the sound was coming from. They rounded a corned as the reached the Cavern wall, and found themselves face to face with a large stone door. It was the size you would normally see on a cathedral on Earth or Betazed, and was sitting slightly ajar. Drifting through the door was a captivating sound. It was a choir singing, but the music had a quality to it that was hard to place. "Should we go in?" Michael asked, not sure whether he would be disturbing a religious ceremony, or some other function he might not be welcome at. "Well the door is open, there are very few cultures where that isn't an open invitation." Emma said and pulled Michael towards the door. Inside Michael had to stop from exclaiming in awe of the space. It was as if someone had quite literally carved a cathedral into the rock. However it was more than that, the floors were covered in what looked like marble and granite both in deep greens and blues, set in patterns that lead towards the center of the oddly shaped room. The area had oddly angled corners and alcoves, that neither Michael nor Emma could see a reason for. The room, if it could be called that, was a single open area, nearly three stories, lit with candles shrouded with what looked like faceted crystal shades, which through off light in all directions. There were no places to sit and the only furniture on the floor was a platform at the far end of the room, upon which ten Ushari stood, in a circle, their backs towards the center, singing something in their language. The one thing they noticed, if they noticed nothing else, was that upon stepping no more than five feet into the room, was that the volume of the music shifted from barely audible to what sounded like a 70 person choir in a massive concert hall. "I know what this is," Emma whispered, afraid her voice would carry, but relieved that it seemed the sound seemed to die no more than three feet in front of her. "It's a massive, natural sound amplifier." "That and more," a voice said from behind them. Turning around they saw a tall slender Ushari, wearing what they could only guess were clerical vestments of some form. "Welcome to the City Temple. The Blessings of the Divine be upon you." "We're sorry, we didn't mean to intrude, we were just curious," Michael said. "Nonsense, this is just choir rehearsal, and even if it was a service, all are welcome. The Echo choirs interest a lot of people of many faiths." The Cleric said. "Echo Choir?" Emma asked, beating Michael to it. "Look for yourself," The Man said gesturing back towards the choir. Looking back, Michael noticed that they had stopped singing, but the music was only slowly dying down, layer by layer. It was only then, as the complexity of the music fell away, that Michael realized that they were listening to the echo's of the choir's previous phrases, the choir was actually harmonizing with it's own echoes. "Engineers or scientists, I can never keep the uniform colors straight." The cleric asked with a smile. "One of each actually," Emma answered with a smile as she brought her attention back to the Ushari. "Commander Michael O'Connor, First officer of the USS Spectre, and engineer of a kind, and this is Ensign Emma Morrissey, Science officer." Michael said with a smile. "Pleased to meet you both, my name is Ter'ent, I'm the Cleric of this temple. I'd be happy to talk more about the choir and the temple, if you'd like. I know it usually catches the interest of both music and science lovers. Especially off worlders who have never seen one before." "That would be wonderful, is there somewhere we could talk where we wouldn't be disturbing the choir?" Michael asked with a smile. "Oh, we could talk here if we really wanted, we're in a dead spot, sound generated here gets trapped and deadened. However, I can't say we'd be comfortable, the next piece they're practicing can get quite loud, follow me, we'll move to my office, we can sit there and talk easier," The Cleric said and then turned and headed towards the wall. Pushing on the wall, there was a quiet pop as a section of the wall moved. A door swung outward, built of solid rock, it must have been balanced perfectly on it's hinges, as the Cleric pulled at the edge of the three foot thick slab of rock, moving it was barely any force. The walked quietly down a more conventional looking hall, and entered a comfortable looking office. A seating area off to one side of a well constructed and sturdy desk. Lit more conventionally than the Temple proper, Michael and Emma took a seat. Ter'ent poured three glasses of what looked like a syrupy looking beverage and set them down on a coffee table in front of Emma and Michael. Smiling, Ter'ent took a seat in a chair across from the two officers. "Don't worry, it has no alcohol, and isn't as sweet as most people assume it is. It's a popular beverage from one of the surface settlements. So, what can I tell you about the temple?" "I guess the best place to start is at the beginning," Michael said. "And that is one of the more interesting stories. This Temple was actually constructed bout 800 years ago by one of the most famous architectural partnerships on Ushari Prime. Wen'ten'shay, designed a dozen temples on this continent, this is actually one of his biggest. Shan'ta'ray and her team did the actual building. She nearly reinvented the techniques necessary for building such spaces. The stories say they actually met at university, but didn't start working together until years later when they were hired independently to help construct the Ten'Su suburb. They both found they had a love of music, but not a single drop of talent what so ever. While they were excavating the Eastern tunnels in Ten'Su, they found a suitable site for an Echo Temple, and offered to build one for the community and church. It was a small complex, only two echo's worth, but soon enough they were in demand as their craftsmanship was beyond compare. They partnered up and were soon one of the most requested temple builders on the continent. This Temple was their second to last, and by far their largest, although it was said they spent the rest of their lives looking for a site they could manage a 12 echo temple." "When you say a temple is two echoes or three echoes, what do you mean by that?" Emma asked. "Well first there are only even numbers, but what the echo number refers to is both the number of echoes that can be sustained at any given point in a piece, and tangentially it refers to the length of time it takes an echo to reflect around the space and return to the choir platform. This means an eight echo temple such as ours, can sustain about 8 echoes or phrases, with the start of the ninth phrase coinciding with the death of the first." "How is it possible to keep an echo going for that long?" Michael asked. "Ah, and this is why there are so few large temples such as ours. The temples are cut out of the rock only where a sufficiently large deposit of denicite can be found." Ter'ent said with a grin. Emma smiled, but Michael couldn't say he'd heard of denicite. "Someone care to explain to the Computer guy what Denicite is?" "It's a sonically reactive crystal, reflecting sound waves without loss in volume or signal clarity. I've never heard of large enough quantities for a use like this though," Emma said. "This system as well as the others in this section of space all have large and varied mineral deposits. Ushar prime and it's moons, have large quantities of galcite, denicite, argonite, pycite, and other mineral and crystal seams you wouldn't find on one of the more rim world worlds. Denicite's still not huge here, but this continent has the largest deposits, and even they tend not to be solid seams but distributed evenly through the surrounding rock. Most of the temples on the other two continents are no bigger than a four echo chamber. All of the rock that is pulled out of these temples was ground up and used for the grout in the floors and any seams. Larger pieces of Denicite were sometimes carved into figurines or if the person was rich, fixed into show pieces." "That's quite frankly amazing," Michael said leaning back in his chair. Smiling and standing up, the cleric rummaged through his desk and emerged with a small blue faceted crystal and tossed to to Michael. "That's a copy of this choirs latest performance. I don't know if your ships have optical crystal readers, but you should be able to cobble together something," He said with a grin. "Thank you very much," Michael said sincerely. "Glad to be of service," The Cleric said as Emma and Michael stood as well. "And to answer the question you've left unasked this entire time. No, we don't hold much animosity towards Starfleet. We're self sufficient except for the weather systems, but most understand war. We live within spitting distance of the Cardassians. The Federation may not be our favorite people in the world, but we don't actively dislike them, we just don't think about them much here. We mine galcite and tericite in this city, most of which we trade on the open market with private firms. Our lives, on a day to day scale consist of work and family, life among the stars is not something we deal with in anything other than day dreams, and essays for school." "How did you know that's why we were here?" Michael asked with a grin. "Why else would the first officer beam down to a small town that mines minerals not necessary to Star Fleet, and do so in uniform?" "Vacation?" Emma added. "Then you'd be in civilian clothes, we do get some Benzites here on shore leave, and they rarely wear their uniforms. No, the uniforms mean your on duty, and want to be noticed to some degree, and the fact that your here and not in the Capital means you want the everyday Ushari's reaction to your presence." Ter'ent said. "But like I said, you won't find many here that like or dislike you based on your uniform. Although you may find a child or two who dreams of being a captain someday." Michael just smiled and thanked the Cleric once again for his time and the drinks and exited back towards the Temple proper. They emerged to find the choir practicing again. This time a haunting melody, pitched in a minor key flooded the room. Michael didn't understand the words, but the sentiment was easy enough. It was an odd feeling to be completely surrounded by music, it was hard not to be swept away by the voices and the emotion of the song. After a few minutes of listening Emma grabbed his arm and pulled him out, back onto the streets of the city. (Reply None needed) (Posted by Patrick D.) (Ushar Prime – Captial City, Rising Dawn Medical Facility - Captain T'Vhor - 17:50) Regardless of the urgency of the situation involving the Lieutenant Commander, the Captain had returned to the medical facility via the route he had previously engaged upon, namely the highly efficient shuttle network. To some that might have seemed strange, site to site would have been an option of course and as such, far quicker. What had to be remembered though was that they were currently at an indeterminate depth beneath the surface and as such, a transport signal may well have suffered degradation due to the varying density of the rock above them. Arriving at the Rising Dawn facility however, the Captain was quickly ushered through and into the area that now contained the object of his rather rapid departure from library resources. Lieutenant Commander Brian Rogers lay upon the equivalent of a starship biobed, the ships Doctor was at his side apparently trying to make sense of the glyphed indicators on the panel above. It seemed that it did not take much time to grasp the basic information and anyway, Williams had resorted to his own tools to back up what he was seeing and correlate the displayed data to some semblance of Federation protocol. "Doctor?", said the Captain enquiringly. (Reply Williams, Any) The Captain listened intently to the Doctors expert analysis whilst keeping his attention upon the languishing Rogers where he lay. There were many questions in his head now though, what the hell had happened here for example and what had the ex first officer of the Spectre done to provoke such a response as someone trying to kill him? There were probably some within the four quadrants that would have baulked at such a question, kill Rogers!! Surely not!! The Captain remained typically stoic, clearly his Vulcan side in dominance now. Rogers was obviously in no danger at this point in time, a fact which beggared belief considering that he could quite easily have been dead right now! "I see", said T'Vhor in response to the Doctors prognosis, before turning thence towards the Ushari personnel nearby, both medical and otherwise, "I would like a moment or two in private with my officers if I may", he asked. The guards seemed reluctant to leave the room of course, but on assurance that the Captain himself would be held responsible for the Lieutenant Commanders actions, they acceeded and reluctantly left the room. The Captain then turned his attention to the man on the bed. "Well Mr Rogers, let's hear it"..... (Reply Rogers, Williams, Any) (Posted by Alan) (Ushar Prime – City Outskirts, "Old Town" Amusement Park – SO, Ensign Nathanial Yates – 17:50) Yates was surprised at the Morale Officers ingenuity, it seemed that she had more hidden depths than even he imagined. "You know, you never cease to amaze me Jynea, good with kids, good improvisational skills, good at handling a kinetic scooter even..... you'd make some guy a fine wife someday", said Nathanial as he took the offered makeshift bowl and followed her back towards the line of waiting people. (Reply Kreung, IYW) "I feel like the kid in that story from hundreds of years ago, my great grandfather actually had a paper version of it, lemme see.... now what was it called again?", said Yates, his brow furrowing slightly as he fought to remember. (Reply Kreung) "That's right Jynea", exclaimed Yates, "for an Orion your pretty knowlegable about the literary greats of old Earth", he added. The fact that the book itself bore the name of the central character was kinda funny, in that it should have been an easy thing to remember even for a lughead like Yates. (Reply Kreung, IYW) "I wonder if they'll let us have more when we're done?", said Yates with an amused smile, Kreung simply shrugged and glanced about the place, seemingly keen now as to the rootstock of the place. "I wonder how they got all this greenery in here", she asked, to nobody in particular of course. The question had merely been a thought, verbalised. Yates however, not known for being a particular fount of knowledge was just a security officer so a suitable answer would more than likely not be arriving any time soon. "Beats me", he said looking about as he sipped the last of the broth from the makeshift bowl and then leant back onto one arm upon the grass that had raised the question. "I'm kinda worried about our friend Rogers", said Yates thoughtfully, seemingly going off at a tangent now. (Reply Kreung) "Well, he served on the Spectre as FO as we all know, it was common knowledge that he was a bit of a joker but somehow.....", said Yates, attempting now to formulate the correct words in his head, "I dunno, he seems different, I'm not sure whether anyone can trust him, SFI and all", he added looking towards Jynea now for her input on the matter. (Reply Kreung) "I guess so", said Yates, "the Spectre does seem to be coming in for more than it's fair share of attention from the spooks lately, first there was that situation with Doc Williams, now we have a former Spectre stalwart poking around and getting himself shot in the process", he added with a dismissive shake of his head. "I just don't know what to make of the guy, even Vasilyovna's keen Russian radar like sensibility is pinging like crazy about him. (Reply Kreung) "Oh, please forgive me, I forgot you arrived after the Williams incident", said Yates, "basically the Doc was accused of collaborating with the enemy, something to do with his sister.... anyway, that's when we received the then, odious Agent Smith amongst our ranks", he added. (Reply Kreung) "That's the one, definately one to have avoided at the time, but since transferring to Security, she seems to have come into her own", said Yates, "she's OK once you get to know her and push aside all that SFI BS" (Reply Kreung, IYW) The Security Officer simply nodded his assent. "Which brings me back to Mr Rogers", said Yates. (Reply Kreung, Any) (Posted by Alan) (Ushar Prime - City Outskirts, "Old Town" Amusement Park - Ensign Jynea Kreung - 17:52) "You know, you never cease to amaze me Jynea, good with kids, good improvisational skills, good at handling a kinetic scooter even..... you'd make some guy a fine wife someday", said Nathanial as he took the offered makeshift bowl and followed her back towards the line of waiting people. Jynea laughed, "I would like to have a family and find a nice spot on a planet somewhere. I think all counsellors are natural born actors though. Comes from first year and learning to sleep with your eyes open in 'The History of Kinetics.' How that's relevant.." she rolled her eyes and put her attention back to her bowl. (Reply Yates) "I feel like the kid in that story from hundreds of years ago, my great grandfather actually had a paper version of it, lemme see.... now what was it called again?", said Yates, his brow furrowing slightly as he fought to remember. "Oliver?" Jynea asked. There was a plethora of books that could be covered under the 'kid living rough' category. Hopefully this didn't all remind him of Lord of the Flies! "That's right Jynea", exclaimed Yates, "for an Orion your pretty knowlegable about the literary greats of old Earth", he added. Jynea grinned again, "I grew up on Earth. Well, somewhat. Can't you tell by my glorious American Mid-west accent?" she teased. (Reply Yates) "I'm kinda worried about our friend Rogers", said Yates thoughtfully. ~He's our friend now?~ Jynea thought waspishly. "He has a hard head," she offered, with that 'tell me more' counselling tone. "Well, he served on the Spectre as FO as we all know, it was common knowledge that he was a bit of a joker but somehow.....", said Yates, attempting now to formulate the correct words in his head, "I dunno, he seems different, I'm not sure whether anyone can trust him, SFI and all", he added looking towards Jynea now for her input on the matter. "SFI does have a habit of yanking the wings off butterflies." She muttered, "the control freaks. I have to wonder which side of the war runs SFI." She then rolled her eyes, "Not that we're not one big happy family now, of course." "I guess so", said Yates, "the Spectre does seem to be coming in for more than it's fair share of attention from the spooks lately, first there was that situation with Doc Williams, now we have a former Spectre stalwart poking around and getting himself shot in the process", he added with a dismissive shake of his head. "I just don't know what to make of the guy, even Vasilyovna's keen Russian radar like sensibility is pinging like crazy about him." "What happened to Andrew?" She asked, puzzled. She hadn't heard he'd had problems with SFI. "Oh, please forgive me, I forgot you arrived after the Williams incident", said Yates, "basically the Doc was accused of collaborating with the enemy, something to do with his sister.... anyway, that's when we received the then, odious Agent Smith amongst our ranks", he added. Jynea screwed up one eye and an expression of disgusted disbelief. "The only collaboration Andrew would do would be to save lives and heal.. and if the idiot SFI can't spot that.. Smith's the one who transferred over as a security officer?" She hadn't seen much of the woman, but Jynea didn't have a lot to do with the officers of the ship in general. "That's the one, definately one to have avoided at the time, but since transferring to Security, she seems to have come into her own", said Yates, "she's OK once you get to know her and push aside all that SFI BS" Jynea laughed, "Well, yes, pushing aside the SFI BS is probably what you have to do with most of them." She was surprised to be handed a wooden mug with a fizzy white drink inside by one of the employees of the food stop. A medical scan and a quick sip later and she decided it probably wouldn't kill her, but it certainly wasn't as good as the stew had been! The Security Officer simply nodded his assent. "Which brings me back to Mr Rogers", said Yates. "Mmm. Yes." Jynea put the mug down beside her empty bowl and hugged her legs, chin on knees as she thought over the situation. "I think.." She started, chewing on her lip, "And this is guess work and gut thought, that our ex-first officer, bombed out of SFI and is now trying to regain his sense of self and the balance between the job he wants to do and the job he's been given. And until he manages that, he'll be pushing boundaries and driving Captain T'Vhor and the rest of us to drink." She had a mental flash of the Captain downing his sorrows in Saurian brandy in a seedy dive. It amused her twice over at the complete unlikeliest of it. (Reply Yates) "And the true advantage of being the lowly ensign is.. it's not our problem." She said with a grin, unfolding. Good thing she'd remembered to turn off her communicator when they'd left the learning center! Not that she didn't think her Captain and his senior staff didn't realize how completely unambitious their morale officer was, but no need to rub anyone's face in it. "So what about you, Mr Yates? Plans on retirement, family, kids, personal ship, or what?" One nice thing as the days rolled past from the daily worry of death and war was the slow flowering realization that there would be a tomorrow, and plenty there after to plan for. (Reply Yates, any) (Posted by Lorna) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Rising Dawn Medical Facility – CMO Williams - 17:53) Andrew saw the Captain enter the room and he stepped over to him. "Doctor?", “He is okay from what I can tell. A few bumps and bruises from where he fell when he was hit by the security officers phaser. It appears that someone was trying to kill him but he got shot by security by mistake.” "I see", He saw the Captain look at the security officers. "I would like a moment or two in private with my officers if I may", Andrew watched the security officers reluctantly leave them with Rogers. "Well, Mr. Rogers, let's hear it..." T'Vhor said. Andrew waited to hear what Rogers was going to say. "Captain, I was merely in disagreement with some tavern dwellers about parrises squares. They said that the Vulcan Team of '32 was the best ever, while I persisted that the Risan Team of '66 was much better,particularly in defense," ~Yeh mate and I’m a founders granny~ "I am assuming that you are ready for your 'encore' now Mr Rogers", "Fine, Captain. When Dr. Williams suggested to our guide that we find our own way around the hospital, Ensign Goldsteen and I found ourselves outside, and we found a bar establishment......", "I posed as a Dilithium smuggler, and started asked a few questions about who was getting most of the rock off the planet", "She said she would ask some questions, and come back..... She came back with a Cardassian. They got a little pushy, and some shooting started. They almost vaporized me a few times with a disruptor, but luckily the trusty badge of the Ushari Metro Peace Force was there to enact justice and save me". Andrew rolled his eyes. ~Better try and get him out of here before something else happens~ “I’ll just be a moment.” He then turned leaving his Captain to hear the rest of Rogers story as he went to find the nurse and a Doctor. (reply any) (posted by Robbie) (Ushar Prime - City Outskirts, "Old Town" Amusement Park - SO, Ensign Nathanial Yates - 17:55) "I grew up on Earth. Well, somewhat. Can't you tell by my glorious American Mid-west accent?", said Jynea. Yates smiled and quirked his head to the left slightly. "I wouldn't be able to tell an American mid west accent from a Canadian one Jynea, I grew up on Mars, my playground was the foothills of Olympus and the solar basins of the nothern territories", said Yates with a shrug, "probably why I grew so much", he added, the logic of the statement falling over of course on the fact that none of his friends grew to such lofty heights along with him. "I'm kinda worried about our friend Rogers", said Yates thoughtfully. "He has a hard head", said Jynea, looking towards the Security Officer now with a 'tell me more' type expression upon her face. "Well, he served on the Spectre as FO as we all know, it was common knowledge that he was a bit of a joker but somehow.....", said Yates, attempting now to formulate the correct words in his head, "I dunno, he seems different, I'm not sure whether anyone can trust him, SFI and all", he added looking towards Jynea now for her input on the matter. "SFI does have a habit of yanking the wings off butterflies", said Jynea, "the control freaks. I have to wonder which side of the war runs SFI.....Not that we're not one big happy family now, of course" "I guess so", said Yates, "the Spectre does seem to be coming in for more than it's fair share of attention from the spooks lately, first there was that situation with Doc Williams, now we have a former Spectre stalwart poking around and getting himself shot in the process", he added with a dismissive shake of his head. "I just don't know what to make of the guy, even Vasilyovna's keen Russian radar like sensibility is pinging like crazy about him." "What happened to Andrew?" asked Jynea as Nathanial began reeling off the particularly nauseous episodes involving Agent Smith being stationed on board the Spectre so as to investigate, discredit and undermine the good Doctor. "The only collaboration Andrew would do would be to save lives and heal.. and if the idiot SFI can't spot that.. Smith's the one who transferred over as a security officer?", enquired Jynea. "That's the one, definately one to have avoided at the time, but since transferring to Security, she seems to have come into her own", said Yates, "she's OK once you get to know her and push aside all that SFI BS". "Well, yes, pushing aside the SFI BS is probably what you have to do with most of them", said Jynea as she accepted a mug from a waitress of some kind and then began furtively scanning it with her tricorder, just to be sure it was all safe of course. The Security Officer simply nodded his assent. "Which brings me back to Mr Rogers", said Yates. "Mmm. Yes", said Jynea as she took a sip of her drink and then put down her mug before rolling herself into a kind of hunched up seating position to contemplate the matter further. "I think.....And this is guess work and gut thought, that our ex-first officer, bombed out of SFI and is now trying to regain his sense of self and the balance between the job he wants to do and the job he's been given. And until he manages that, he'll be pushing boundaries and driving Captain T'Vhor and the rest of us to drink", said Jynea thoughtfully. Yates huffed aloud. "I can think of some on board that dont need driving towards that particular little sideline interest", said Yates, thinking back now to the crate of Wine that the Marines had recently imbibed after mounting their covert, impromptu raid upon Councillor Taxia's office. "Whatever his game is though, the Captain's too smart to fall for his particular brand of SFI BS", he added. "Vulcans and all...." Jynea nodded and took a deep breath. "And the true advantage of being the lowly ensign is.. it's not our problem", she said unfurling her legs now and then reclining into a more relaxed, lying position upon the grass. "So what about you, Mr Yates? Plans on retirement, family, kids, personal ship, or what?", asked the Morale Officer. Yates, by now had mirrored her position upon the grass, albeit propped onto the opposite side to hers so as to face her. For a brief moment he contemplated her query, thinking back to his past as he did so with just a flash of pain registering upon his normally rather impassive, angular face. "I rather thought I'd settle down on a nice quiet planet someday, build a log cabin, take a wife and have some little ones.... you know", said Yates, "put all of this behind me once and for all", he said just as the previous memory that had induced that small flicker of pain returned once again to bother him. "There was someone once, but....", he added trailing off now as the memory began to take precedence in his thoughts. (Reply Kreung) "I prefer not to think about it too much, it wasn't a good time for me", said Yates, "probably not the right time and all", he added as he began surrepticiously scanning the blades of grass that covered the floor. "Maybe we should think about checking in", said Yates, distracting both himself and Jynea now. "For all we know the Lieutenant Commander may have started an interplanetry incident of some kind", he added as he stood up and then brushed the residual grass from his uniform. (Reply Kreung) (Posted by Alan) (Ushar Prime - Captial City, Rising Dawn Medical Facility - SFI Agent, Lt. Cmdr Brian Rogers - 17:55) Rogers watched as T'Vhor entered the room. Part of him expected the captain to be angry, but, Rogers quickly remembered the good Captain was Vulcan. T'Vhor had his usual absence of emotion as he looked over the medical readouts, and chatted briefly with Dr. Williams before dispatching the guards and walking near Brian's bed. "Well, Mr. Rogers, let's hear it..." T'Vhor said in his usual monotone. Brian almost sensed some sarcasm in the Vulcan, though he wouldn't dare to insult him by bringing it up. "Captain, I was merely in disagreement with some tavern dwellers about parrises squares. They said that the Vulcan Team of '32 was the best ever, while I persisted that the Risan Team of '66 was much better, particularly in defense," Rogers said with a wide grin. (reply T'Vhor) "Fine, Captain. When Dr. Williams suggested to tour guide that we find our own way around the hospital, Ensign Goldsteen and I found ourselves outside, and we found a bar establishment. I posed as a Dilithium smuggler, and started asked a few questions about who was getting most of the rock off the planet," Brian started. (reply T'Vhor, iyw) "She said she would ask some questions, and come back," Rogers paused for dramatic effect, "She came back with a Cardassian. They got a little pushy, and some shooting started. They almost vaporized me a few times with a disruptor, but luckily the trusty badge of the Ushari Metro Peace Force was there to intact justice and save me," Rogers joked, looking at Dr. Williams to see Andrew's reaction. (reply T'Vhor, Williams, iyw) "You know, Captain, if those patrolmen hadn't been there, I could of gotten the Cardassian to some secure location and got information out of him by peeling his scales off. If I had some cobalt diselenide, then I'd really be in business," Rogers said, very plainally, has if he was discussing the weather. (reply T'Vhor) "Captain, the Cardassians aren't apart of the Federation. Whatever reservations you may have had about my ethics against Federation citizens don't apply to them," Rogers stated. (reply T'Vhor) "I know you'll never admit it to Commander O'Connor, sir," Rogers said, leaning closer to T'Vhor, "But, we know the real reason you wanted me on the ground with this mission. What else is an intelligence officer good for?" (reply T'Vhor) "You should have left me on the ship, Captain. I'm still not housebroken from my tenure in Field Operations," Brian said with a smile. (reply T'Vhor, Williams, any) (Posted by Kevin Schram) (Shuttle Craft Poltergeist - Approaching the USS Spectre - Counsellor, Ensign Pan Dore' - 17:55) The trip from Star Fleet Academy to the Spectre's current location seemed to fly by to Dore'. He had spent the majority of the time in meditation to the Prophets and the remainder of his time reading up on the ship, her crew, and current mission. A great deal for a newly promoted Ensign to digest. The worst part of the entire trip was the cramped quarters. At least the pilot had been respectful of Pan's want of privacy for meditation and study, that or she just wasn't a people person. Either way it worked out to Dore's advantage. "We've arrived at the USS Spectre's location Ensign." the pilot spoke, for the first or second time to Dore' in the entire trip. "Thank you Chief." Dore' responded and began to gather his belongings. "This is the Shuttle Craft Poltergeist calling the USS Spectre." the Chief said into the COMM. (Reply Spectre) "Request permission to beam over a new crewmember Spectre." the Chief asked. (Reply Spectre) "Thank you Spectre." The Chief replied. "You heard him Ensign. Get yourself on the transporter padd. Dore's stood up, straightened his uniform and made sure he had both his new pip and commbadge on correctly. Standing up he threw his duffel bag over his shoulder and moved to the transporter padd. "I'm ready." he said. "Energizing..." the Chief replied. And one moment Pan Dore' was on the Shuttle Craft Poltergeist the next moment he was in a transporter room of the USS Spectre. (Reply Any) (Posted by Matthew) (USS Spectre - Bridge – Lieutenant (jg) George La Flaga - 17:55) The primary reason why George had found his way to the bridge was courtesy of Brian Rogers. For starters, he didn’t show up to take his post, he instead headed off on the away mission. The Captain was to thank for the delay in ‘changing of the guard’ but Rogers would still get an earful when he got shipside. Although he was technically handling the secondary OPS position he actually was eavesdropping on the goings on down on the surface. A duty Officer was handling the arrival of a new Officer but other than that things had been quiet. George was yearning for an enemy vessel to decloak to port but it hadn’t come yet. He began humming a silly little tune from the federation subspace radio transmissions, “Subspace” by Sprak and the Console Tones ~beep boop beep, Subspace, boop boop beep …~ “Hmm emm ummm, subhmm, hmm hmm emm” he whispered. Lieutenant Vasilyovna gave him an eye. “hehe, sorry, Sir … I tend to hum sometimes.” He whispered. (reply Vasilyovna) (posted by Anton) (Ushar Prime - Captial City, Rising Dawn Medical Facility - Captain T'Vhor - 17:56) To be perfectly truthful, the Captain had got what he had expected from the SFI agent lying upon the medical bed. His 'explanation' regarding gaming teams had been a predictable sidestep and the Captain had not moved a single facial muscle in response to it. Not even the raise of an eyebrow! "I am assuming that you are ready for your 'encore' now Mr Rogers", said the Captain hinting now as to the fact that he was ready for the REAL reason that the man had managed to get himself shot. "Fine, Captain. When Dr. Williams suggested to our guide that we find our own way around the hospital, Ensign Goldsteen and I found ourselves outside, and we found a bar establishment......", he began. It was almost as bad as his first explanation and the Captain had actually found himself wondering if there would be a 'two men walk into a bar' joke to follow. As it was though, it wasn't to be, and the Lieutenant Commander continued on.... "I posed as a Dilithium smuggler, and started asked a few questions about who was getting most of the rock off the planet", he added looking to the CO now as though expecting some input from that statement, then hearing none forthcoming, he continued on. "She said she would ask some questions, and come back..... She came back with a Cardassian. They got a little pushy, and some shooting started. They almost vaporized me a few times with a disruptor, but luckily the trusty badge of the Ushari Metro Peace Force was there to enact justice and save me". This time, the Captain did raise an eyebrow, it was almost as though he were thinking something along the lines of 'lucky for us', but of course that would have been illogical, would'nt it? "You know, Captain, if those patrolmen hadn't been there.....", said Rogers, going on now as to how he would have started removing scales so as to have something more concrete in nature to hand to his CO. Already though, the mention of the Cardassian's involvement had lodged itself deep within the Vulcan hybrids thoughts, for this might prove a step at least in the right direction after all. Common etiquette regarding innocence until proof and such however was still the done thing, as far as Starfleet were concerned anyway. "The fact that a Cardassian was involved in attacking you Lieutenant Commander is still not proof that he is guilty of anything other than perhaps, defending himself", said the Captain. "Federation protocol demands proof that an attack was unprovoked and also unjustified", he added. "Dare I say a direct involvement in what may, or may not be happening regarding Ushar's Dilithium trading situation", said the Captain. "Captain, the Cardassians aren't a part of the Federation. Whatever reservations you may have had about my ethics against Federation citizens don't apply to them", said Rogers bluntly. The Captain nodded, deep down he knew of course that the Lieutenant Commander was probably correct and yet, as a Starfleet Captain he still had to uphold the laws that Starfleet had layed down. Why, the Captain himself probably had more reason than most to hate the Cardassians anyway, and given a similar set of circumstances he may have even took the scales himself! "I know you'll never admit it to Commander O'Connor, sir....but, we know the real reason you wanted me on the ground with this mission. What else is an intelligence officer good for?", said Rogers. The Captain took a deep breath, then he answered. "Acting intelligently I would assume", he said, "getting involved in a scuffle and ending up nursing Ushari weapons burns however, is not what I would consider intelligent", he added. "You should have left me on the ship, Captain. I'm still not housebroken from my tenure in Field Operations," Brian said with a smile. The Captain nodded. "Perhaps, but I still think that you are of more use here than in orbit", said the Captain. "Once you are fit to return to duty, I want you to follow this up. However, I want no rash action on your part, you will abide by Starfleet protocol and will not risk further hostility by pretending to be what you are not, or fabricating stories designed to seek out pertinent information", he added. (Reply Rogers, IYW) "In short Lieutenant Commander, be mindful of your actions, you ARE a Starfleet Officer. Next time, you may not be so lucky as to be laying here upon a medical recovery bed", said the Captain. (Reply Rogers) The Captain then turned to Doctor Williams. "When will the Lieutenant Commander be fit to return to duty Doctor?", he asked. (Reply Williams, Rogers, Any) (Posted by Alan) (USS Spectre - Bridge - TAC/SC Lt Yelena Vasilyovna - 17:57) The moment the man had entered onto the bridge, the Russian had clocked him. La Flaga was already known to her as SFI of course, he had been poking his nose into everything that had happened on board ever since they had departed McKinley. Why though, nobody knew. Vasilyovna had seen him taking lunch with Rogers a few days prior to their arrival into Theta Draconis space and even then, there had been an awkward silence upon her taking her seat nearby to them. SFI.... Who really needed them? Settling back into her seat at Tactical One, she observed him for a while as he took up his position at Ops Two, then as he busied himself at his console, she returned to the task she had been engaged in before George's arrival, namely running both long range and short range scans of the area and looking out for active returns. The newly arrived ship had now established orbit after transmitting it's clearance codes and verifying it's business to Ushari orbital control, passive scans had revealed the ship to be yet another trader, this time registered to the Dopterians. It was all pretty uninteresting. And then La Flaga began humming.... Vasilyovna turned about from her console, a quizical expression now etched upon her face. La Flaga gave a little laugh in response, then he followed on with... "Sorry, Sir … I tend to hum sometimes" "Hum?", enquired Yelena smelling the air now, "are you saying that you smell?", she added. (Reply La Flaga) "I see", said Yelena just as another blip appeared on her scan, and then suddenly disappeared. "Well it's annoying, and not the done thing on the bridge of a starship", she added as she returned quickly to the anomalous blip. ~Now that is odd~ The Security Chief then decided to run a few more tests on the spurious return. (Reply La Flaga, Any) (Posted by Alan) (USS Spectre - Bridge – SFI Lieutenant George La Flaga - 17:57) "Hum?", enquired Yelena smelling the air now, "are you saying that you smell?" George sniffed the air before he realized that the Russian was being … well … Russian. “Oh, no Sir … I was referring to my … musical talents.” Said George not really sure how to explain it. "I see", said Yelena, "Well it's annoying, and not the done thing on the bridge of a starship" Vasilyovna seemed absorbed by her console suddenly and George didn’t want to interfere. He remained silent. Suddenly, his wrist began to vibrate. His receiver was alarming, an urgent SFI communique was coming in directly to his wrist computer Without ceremony George stood at his station waiting for the transmission. The pins attached to the wrist device began ‘poking’ his wrist in brail. [Due to Rogers arrival you are now permanently relieved. You have been reassigned to the OPS department aboard the Spectre. Signed, Mr. Azure.] read the message being transmitted via brail reader to his wrist. He could hardly contain his disappointment. He had hoped to escape the little vessel and remain in SFI. Now apparently he was not only getting assigned to the Spectre but he was being stripped of his SFI duties. OPS!?! Now he’d be shuffling even more papers than before … goodbye H Squadron … he’d probably never fly a fighter again! (reply any) (posted by Anton) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Rising Dawn Medical Facility - SFI Agent Lt. Cmdr Brian Rogers - 17:57) "Perhaps, but I still think that you are of more use here than in orbit", said the Captain. "Once you are fit to return to duty, I want you to follow this up. However, I want no rash action on your part, you will abide by Starfleet protocol and will not risk further hostility by pretending to be what you are not, or fabricating stories designed to seek out pertinent i information", he added. "Oh Captain, I would never do anything like that," Rogers said mockingly. "In short Lieutenant Commander, be mindful of your actions, you ARE a Starfleet Officer. Next time, you may not be so lucky as to be laying here upon a medical recovery bed", said the Captain. Rogers nodded, and became suddenly solemn. "Of course, Captain. I understand," Brian said. "When will the Lieutenant Commander be fit to return to duty Doctor?" The captain asked Andrew. Sometime during the conversation, Donaldson and Goldsteen showed themselves in and Rogers pondered how much of the conversation they had heard. He wouldn't of liked admitting his illegal activities to the rank-and-file members of the crew (T'Vhor and Williams were both members of the command staff), but if the cat was out of the bag, then there was no point worrying about it. Goldsteen and Donaldson chatted about the next steps with the Captain while Rogers leaned forward and swung his feet over the edge of the bed. "I need a sidearm. They took my phasers," Rogers admitted. (reply any in room, any in general) (Posted by Kevin Schram) (USS Spectre - Transporter Room - Engineer's Mate, CPO M'Rurrh - 17:57) The computerised blip had been fed through to the Transporter Room moments before, informing the duty officer of both the target for transport and the authorisation to do so; and now the officer stood before her. He looked around uncertainly. ~A new addition,~ she surmised. "Welcome aboard," she purred, offering first a salute and then a handshake. (Reply Dore' iyw, any) (Posted by Michael Drake) (USS Spectre - Transporter Room - Counsellor, Ensign Pan Dore' - 17:59) The computerized blip had been fed through to the Transporter Room moments before, informing the duty officer of both the target for transport and the authorization to do so; and now the officer stood before her. He looked around uncertainly. "Welcome aboard," she purred, offering first a salute and then a handshake. Dore' returned the salute and then reached out his hand to shake the hand of a female Catian. The first of this species Pan had ever met. "Thank you. The name is Pan Dore' and it is a pleasure to meet you." the Bajoran-Vulcan said with a smile. (Reply M'Rurrh) "Ships a beauty from the outside. I'm sure she is equally fascinating on the inside. Have you served on the Spectre long?" Dore' asked curiously. (Reply M'Rurrh) Stepping down from the transporter pad finally with his duffel slung over his shoulder, Dore' started for the door. "As much as I have enjoyed our brief conversation and would prefer it to continue, I am also the 'low man on the totem pole' as my classmates at the Academy would say. I don't want to get chewed out on my very first day. I should report in. Could you be so kind as to point me in the direction of the Captain, First Officer, or Chief Counselor?" (Reply M'Rurrh) (Posted by Matthew) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, Rising Dawn Medical Facility – CMO Williams - 17:59) Andrew eventually found the doctor on call after talking to the nurse he had seen earlier. He entered a small office with a window looking over a quad. “Hallo, I’m Doctor Williams I am here to find out when I can take over the care of my patient.” The duty doctor glared at him. “Get him out of my hospital and let me have the bed for a real patient.” He pushed a PADD across to Andrew who picked it up and placed his signature on it. He then put it back on the table. “Thank you very much.” He then turned and walked out of the office. Andrew walked back into the room and moved over to the Captain and Rogers. "When will the Lieutenant Commander be fit to return to duty Doctor?", “I spoke to the duty doctor who has said that Mr Rogers is clear to go.” ~which should be soon or they might find a way to section him~ (reply T’Vhor, Rogers) (Reply T’Vhor, Rogers, Any) (Posted by Robbie) (USS Spectre - Transporter Room - Engineer's Mate, CPO M'Rurrh - 18:00) "Thank you." Reaching out to take her hand, the newcomer added, "The name is Pan Dore' and it is a pleasure to meet you." ~Mmmm... All that and a smile too!~ M'Rurrh returned the smile, taking pleasure in the momentary slip in his appearance when her fangs appeared from behind her top lip. "The pleasure is mine. Welcome to the Spectre." "Ships a beauty from the outside. I'm sure she is equally fascinating on the inside. Have you served on the Spectre long?" "Too long," she replied, with a wink. "As much as I have enjoyed our brief conversation and would prefer it to continue, I am also the 'low man on the totem pole' as my classmates at the Academy would say. I don't want to get chewed out on my very first day. I should report in. Could you be so kind as to point me in the direction of the Captain, First Officer, or Chief Counselor?" "I believe either the Captain or the First Officer has already beamed down to the planet below, but there's gotta be someone in charge on the bridge." Touching the wall console she instructed the computer to locate the Captain. (NRPG: Dammit! What's the mark for computer-speech?) [Captain T'Vhor is not on board.] A quick second tap and she followed up with, "Computer, locate First Officer Michael O'Connor." [First Officer O'Connor is not on board.] Trying to ignore the Ensign's eyes boring into the back of her skull, she thumped the console a third time and added, "Computer, locate the ship's Counsellor." [Counsellor Sella is not on board.] Her throat tight in frustration, she muttered under her breath, "Computer, you're ruining my first impression!" adding aloud, "Computer, is anyone on board the Spectre?" [Affirmative.] "Oh good." She offered an embarrassed conciliatory smile and said to the newcomer, "I suggest you head to the Counsellor's Office, deck 10. Someone there will know what's going on as noone seems to have told me or the computer!" (Reply Dore' iyw) (Posted by Michael Drake) (USS Spectre - Bridge – Pilot Officer Smith – 18:00) ~Red alert, rise shields, power up weapons. Quick evasive maneuvers delta five, they are coming in for a pass. They have weapons lock. Increase to maximum impulse~ Jennifer looked at the empty view screen in front of her and sighed silently. She had been silently praying that the cargo ship in orbit with them would make a provocative move but nothing happened. It just stayed in its slow orbit. She heard a soft humming on the edge of her hearing. She slowly turned and looked around the bridge. She saw an officer standing by the second ops. She saw Lieutenant Vasilyovna give him a stare. ~Ow better not get in her bad books~ She turned back and buried herself in her console she had another orbital burn to perform in a few moments. (reply any) (posted by Robbie) (Ushar Prime - RD Medical Facility – TAC/ASC Charles “Chuck” Donaldson - 18:00) NRPG: this is somewhat after Rogers ‘explanation’. RPG: Chuck had apparently made it at the tail end of the ‘party’. It kinda figured that Chuck would actually not screw up his duties and end up out of the loop. The Captain, Goldsteen, Rogers, and Dr. Williams were all together and naturally Rogers was spinning webs. “I don’t suppose anyone would like to fill in the away team security lead?” Chuck asked shrugging his shoulders and grinning from ear to ear. (reply any, all) (posted by Anton) (USS Spectre - Transporter Room - Counselor, Ensign Pan Dore' - 18:02) Her throat tight in frustration, she muttered under her breath, "Computer, you're ruining my first impression!" adding aloud, "Computer, is anyone on board the Spectre?" [Affirmative.] "Oh good." She offered an embarrassed conciliatory smile and said to the newcomer, "I suggest you head to the Counsellor's Officer, deck 10. Someone there will know what's going on as no one seems to have told me or the computer!" Dore' remained standing before the Chief Petty Officer during her entire 'conversation', if one could call it that, with the computer. He kept his lips pressed tightly together and just took in the Feline Female's antics trying not to burst out into laughter. Little did she realize her first impression was anything but ruined. Dore' started out the door. "Thanks for the suggestion Chief." he said and then stopped himself in the doorway. "And by the way, thank you for a very unique and memorable first impression. Something tells me we'll be seeing a lot of each other." Pan smiled and then walked out of the transporter room. He was ten feet down the corridor when it hit him. He'd introduced himself as the new COUNSELOR on board and just attempted to flirt with another crew member by telling them he was sure they'd be seeing a lot of each other! ~She must think I think she's nuts!~ Pan scolded himself as he continued walking down the hallway to the nearest turbo lift. ~Stupid, stupid, stupid Pan!~ (Reply M'Rurrh, iyw) (Posted by Matthew) (Ushar Prime - RD Medical Facility – ATAC/ASC Ensign Alex Goldsteen - 18:03) “I don’t suppose anyone would like to fill in the away team security lead?” Chuck asked shrugging his shoulders and grinning from ear to ear. "Rogers tried to gain information by partaking in an illegal deal," Alex answered choosing to give the summerized version, "but it went bad and in the ensuing chaos the Ushari police shot him. We did however find out that a cardassian is indeed on the planet." (reply Donaldson iyw) "Sir," Alex said turning to T'Vhor, "if you have no objection I would like to return to the bar that we were at before the incident and see if any rumors have begun to circulate. It seems that the bartender is in a position to hear of underworld activity, and she might know where the cardassian went. (reply T'Vhor) (assuming a yes here) "Thank you sir," Alex responded, "but I would like to return to the ship first. I think I remember her face well enough to replicate it, and I'd like to run it through the federation database and see if she has a criminal record or something of the sort that I could use as leverage." (reply T'Vhor) (posted by Dan Black) (Ushar Prime - RD Medical Facility – Captain T'Vhor - 18:04) The sudden arrival of Ensign Goldsteen and Lieutenant Donaldson through the door of the medical ward, almost completed their little party. Right now, all but Yates and Kreung were congregated in one place once more, and the tension regarding the attempted murder of the SFI officer was predictably foremost in each of their minds now. Rogers however, seemed just a tad overly keen now to get back to his little fact finding mission, albeit with the Captains recommendations still fresh in his mind. The truth of the matter was that irrespective of what had just happened to him, the Lieutenant Commander was a highly capable officer, perhaps marred by a little over confidence in the risk field yes, but then perhaps that had been cultivated somewhat whilst serving with SFI in the field. Starfleet intelligence had a knack for such things after all. Evidently though, there were some aboard the Spectre that regarded the SFI man as troublesome, a buffoon perhaps due to some of his more well known antics. Either way though it went without saying that nobody got to the rank of Lieutenant Commander by being an incapable officer, so that much in itself spoke volumes about the man now laying upon the medical bed before them. Rogers aside, Ensign Goldsteen also seemed keen to get back to what he had been following up himself, before Rogers had got himself shot, and he quickly voiced this to the CO. "Sir", he asked enquiringly, "if you have no objection I would like to return to the bar that we were at before the incident and see if any rumors have begun to circulate. It seems that the bartender is in a position to hear of underworld activity, and she might know where the Cardassian went. The Captain pondered for just a few seconds, then he responded with a nod. "Agreed, However, from here on, no one is to be alone whilst investigating anything other than what could be feasably ascertained in a public environment", said the Captain. Goldsteen simply nodded his agreeance and then added that he wished to return to the ship beforehand in order to search the ships database for further information regarding the barkeep. Again, the request was duly granted. (Reply Any) (Posted by Alan) (Ushar Prime - RD Medical Facility – TAC/ASC Charles “Chuck” Donaldson – 18:05) "Rogers tried to gain information by partaking in an illegal deal," Alex answered choosing to give the summerized version, "but it went bad and in the ensuing chaos the Ushari police shot him. We did however find out that a Cardassian is indeed on the planet." “That’s …” Chuck paused to stifle any hint of laughter, “an excellent summation, Ensign. Much appreciated.” Chuck remained quiet while Goldsteen made recommendations to the Captain for further action. Chuck was a bit proud of Goldsteen … his recommendation was exactly what Chuck would have said. Right about that time Rogers swung his feet out of his bed … "I need a sidearm. They took my phasers," Rogers admitted. ~That may not be the best idea.~ Chuck thought. (reply T'Vhor, Rogers, Goldsteen, Williams, any) (posted by Anton) (USS Spectre - Bridge - Lieutenant (jg) George La Flaga - 18:05) George had been monitoring the data stream coming in from the surface. Lieutenant Donaldson had routed the feed through Security Officer Smith and before it was stored in the primary ship system the information went to the bridge and Vasilyovna and La Flaga could compare it to the constant scans of the planet's surface. Any inconsistency would be immediately investigated. Vasilyovna was busy with her scans of the foreign vessel when George's Commbadge chimed. =/\=OPS Chief to Lieutenant La Flaga.=/\= came a voice over his commbadge. "La Flaga here." Said George tapping his commbadge. =/\=I've just received a priority message from Starfleet. I'd like to see you in my office. Now.=/\= "Yes, sir, I'll be there momentarily." Responded George. George motioned to a nearby duty officer to take his station. The young Andorian did as La Flaga asked. "Thank you, Ensign" George said quickly, heading out the door. George glanced at Vasilyovna as he passed but decided he'd just anger her more by mentioning his former humming. (reply none, any) (posted by Anton) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Rising Dawn Medical Facility - SFI Agent Lt. Cmdr Brian Rogers - 18:08) "Agreed, However, from here on, no one is to be alone whilst investigating anything other than what could be feasibly ascertained in a public environment", said the Captain. Rogers moaned and stood up, off the biobed. "Oh, Captain. Surely you don't mean that," Rogers said. (reply T'Vhor) "Very well," Rogers said. "I still need my sidearm. Those Ushari must of taken them," Brian said. (reply T'Vhor, any in room, any in general) (Posted by Kevin Schram) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, Rising Dawn Medical Facility - Captain T'Vhor - 18:09) "Oh, Captain. Surely you don't mean that", said Rogers, knowing as he spoke of course that the Captain surely did, which was now plainly indicative by the raise of an eyebrow in typical Vulcan disquiet. "Surely I do Lieutenant Commander, in respect of what has just happened to you, would it not be illogical to suggest any other course of action?", said the Captain. "Very well, I still need my sidearm. Those Ushari must of taken them", said Rogers with a huff of disapproval. "I will see that it is returned to you", said the Captain turning thenceforth towards both Donaldson and Goldsteen who were by now comparing notes on their security status. "Lieutenant Donaldson, I will be speaking with the Ushari Prime minister shortly in respect of this matter", said the Captain, "I will be requesting his assistance and also the arrangement of access to both the Cardassian and his female companion. If it is granted, I want you to begin their interrogation or at least be present at it if direct access is for any reason refused", he added. (Reply Donaldson, Goldsteen) (Posted by Alan) (Ushar Prime – RD Medical Facility – TAC/ASC Charles “Chuck” Donaldson - 18:09) "Lieutenant Donaldson, I will be speaking with the Ushari Prime minister shortly in respect of this matter", said the Captain, "I will be requesting his assistance and also the arrangement of access to both the Cardassian and his female companion. If it is granted, I want you to begin their interrogation or at least be present at it if direct access is for any reason refused", he added. “Yes, Sir … I’ll see to it personally.” Said Chuck. In a twisted way he did enjoy interrogation … albeit probably less than Goldsteen. (reply T’Vhor IYW, Goldsteen IYW, any) "I'd be very surprised if he granted it, Captain," Rogers said, straightening his tunic. "If he says no, we should find ways to talk to them anyway," Rogers said. (reply T'Vhor) "Well, he did turn his back on the Federation anyway. Extradition would take too long anyhow," Rogers lamented. (reply T'Vhor) "I guess I'll head to the dilithium mines, Captain. See if I can find anything useful," Rogers suggested. “Do we know where the two are being held?” Chuck asked looking at Brian and then at the Captain. (reply Rogers, T’Vhor, any) (reply T’Vhor, Goldsteen, Rogers, Williams, any) (posted by Anton) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, Rising Dawn Medical Facility - SFI Agent Lt. Cmdr Brian Rogers - 18:10) "I'd be very surprised if he granted it, Captain," Rogers said, straighting his tunic. "If he says no, we should find ways to talk to them anyway," Rogers said. (reply T'Vhor) "Well, he did turn his back on the Federation anyway. Extradition would take too long anyhow," Rogers lamented. (reply T'Vhor) "I guess I'll head to the dilithium mines, Captain. See if I can find anything useful," Rogers suggested. (Reply T'Vhor, any in room, any in general) (Posted by Kevin Schram) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, Rising Dawn Medical Facility - Captain T'Vhor - 18:10) The Intelligence officer seemed unconvinced. He had shook his head and verbalised that notion quite effectively, but had then added that they should find a way to talk to the two prisoners anyway, regardless of whether permission was gained or not. This was the SFI aspect of the Lieutenant Commander of course, go in, get what you want and to hell with the consequences. It might work for SFI but it would not work here and the Captain knew it full well. "We will abide by whatever they give us, may I remind you Lieutenant Commander that we are their guests here, I do not intend to sour relations between us any more than what they have already been soured", said the Captain. "And besides, what would you have me do, over rule the Prime minister and take steps to extradite the Cardassian and make him talk?", he added. "Well, he did turn his back on the Federation anyway. Extradition would take too long anyhow", said Rogers. The Captain took a deep breath and looked towards the Ushari security officers, who had once again returned but were busy at the other side of the room and still out of earshot. "It is quite simply not an option at this time, we will proceed as arranged", said the Captain, just as the Doctor approached and removed an object from his pocket. "Captain. When I was looking around the operating theatre, I found a shard of metal which looked like it came from a medical instrument. I do not think that it is from this medical centre. I would like to return to the Spectre and run some tests on it?", said the Doctor with a hint of concern. Again the Captain looked to the Ushari, noting as he did so that they still seemed to be busy enough to not have noticed the object in question. "Do so immediately, have Ensign Taya perform full spectragraphic analysis upon the shard and any other tests she may feel necessary", said the Captain. (Reply Williams) The Doctor then returned the shard to his pocket and moved off. (Reply Williams, Any) (Posted by Alan) (USS Spectre - Counseling Suite - Counselor, Ensign Pan Dore' - 18:10) After learning that the Captain, First Officer, and Chief Counselor were all planet side, Dore' went as quickly as he could to the next deck and entered an empty Counseling Suite. There he stowed away his belongings and using his COMM badge, he contacted the First Officer. "Ensign Pan Dore' to Commander O'Connor" Dore's stated formally after tapping his COMM Badge. (Reply O'Connor) "Sir... I have just transferred to the USS Spectre as a new Counselor. With the majority of the senior staff planet side I... felt the need... to report my presence to either you, the Captain, or Chief Counselor. I hope this is not an inconvenient time Commander..." the Bajoran/Vulcan stammered slightly but kept his cool even though his inner emotions were ready to explode. (Reply O'Connor) "Yes sir." Pan said. "I'll acquire a sidearm and beam down to your location directly." (Reply O'Connor) "Aye Sir." Pan replied and the communication link was closed. Moving quickly to his duffel bag, Dore' pulled out the padd that help his transfer orders and placed it in his pocket. Next he made his way to the ship's armory where he signed out one type one phaser that was small enough for him to conceal in the cuff of his tunic sleeve. He then returned to the transporter room where M'Rurrh was on duty. Explaining his orders the newest Counselor on the Spectre stepped on to the transporter pad and vanished. (Reply O'Conner) (Posted by Matthew) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, Rising Dawn Medical Facility - CMO Williams - 18:11) Andrew waited until T'Vhor and Rogers finished their conversation. He stepped forward. "Captain. When I was looking around the operating theatre I found a shard of metal which looked like it came from a medical instrument. I do not think that it is from this medical centre. I would like to return to the Spectre and run some tests on it?" (reply T'Vhor) (reply T'Vhor, any) (posted by Robbie) (Ushar Prime - Went'uli - FO Commander Michael Ian O'Connor - 18:12) Michael walked down the street, with Emma, towards some shops, looking for some unique items that a mining culture would produce. The chirping of his comm badge didn't startle him so much as the new voice on the other end did. =/\=Ensign Pan Dore' to Commander O'Connor=/\= Dore's stated formally after tapping his COMM Badge. ~~That's a new name, I haven't seen that one on the duty logs before.~~ Michael thought before tapping his comm badge. "What can I do for you Ensign?" Michael asked, moving of the side of the wide pedestrian way =/\=Sir... I have just transferred to the USS Spectre as a new Counselor. With the majority of the senior staff planet side I... felt the need... to report my presence to either you, the Captain, or Chief Counselor. I hope this is not an inconvenient time Commander...=/\= The man said with a hint of nervousness in his voice. ~~Can you blame him, he's reporting into his First officer long distance. "Tell you what ensign, get yourself a phaser and beam down to my location. Might as well get your feet wet right away." Michael said with a grin. =/\=Yes sir.=/\= Pan said. =/\=I'll acquire a sidearm and beam down to your location directly.=/\= "Very good, see you planet side shortly." Michael said. =/\=Aye Sir.=/\= Pan replied. Micheal looked at Emma and shrugged and then continued down the street. (Reply None) (Posted by Patrick D.) (Ushar Prime - Capital City, Rising Dawn Medical Facility - CMO Williams - 18:15) "Do so immediately, have Ensign Taya perform full spectragraphic analysis upon the shard and any other tests she may feel necessary", said the Captain. Andrew nodded. "Yes Captain." He replaced the shard back into his pocket and moved a fair way away. He tapped his comm badge. "Dr Williams to transporter room one. one to beam up." He felt the transporter beam grip him as his world faded from view. (Reply None) (Posted by Robbie) (USS Spectre - Transporter Room - Counselor, Ensign Pan Dore' - 18:16) Sprinting back into the Transporter Room he'd left only minutes before, Dore' bound up onto the transporter pad and looked at M'Rurrh. By this point Dore' had allowed the excitement he was feeling over take him. "Long time no see... miss me?" he asked M`Rurrh with child like excitement. (Reply M`Rurrh) "Commander O'Connor requested I beam down to the surface. If you could place me some where close to where he is I would appreciate it." The Counselor explained regaining control of his emotions again. (Reply M'Rurrh) The transporter cycle started and then Pan remember what he had said to M`Rurrh the last time he was in the transporter room and how it must have come off. "WAIT!" the Ensign cried out. (Reply M'Rurrh) "I just wanted to apologize for what I'd said when I left last time. I mean I barely know you and it must have come off a little weird and then me being a Counselor I didn't want you to think that I thought that you were, well you know cause that's the furthest thing from my mind and I'd have no way of making that type of clinical assumption based off of the little bit of conversation we had and the eccentric behavior that I observed well not eccentric as much as possibly very normal to your species or to the situation and all I am doing is digging a deeper hole rather then making things any better... aren't I?" Pan finally ended his attempt to repair a situation that may never had been in need of repair. (Reply M'Rurrh) Pan smirked and took a deep calming breath. "Could I possibly buy you a drink in Ten Forward after I got back?" he asked. It was a little forward, but it made him feel more confident and less jittery. Although something told him he would be fighting off the 'jitters' for a while. He knew he'd felt like this before he just couldn't put a finger on the event. (Reply M`Rurrh) (Posted by Matthew) (USS Spectre - Transporter Room - Engineer's Mate, CPO M'Rurrh - 18:17) She'd finished her routine check of the transporter's local subsystems a few minutes ago and, having no pressing duties, she'd elected to follow up on an earlier curiosity: "Computer, list all Starfleet personnel currently assigned to the USS Spectre who are not currently aboard the ship." [Captain T'Vhor... First Officer O'Connor... Chief Medical Officer Williams... Tactical Officer Donaldson... Chief Engineer H'Chir...] ~Maybe it would be quicker to list those of us left on board! Could I be the only one?~ [...Lieutenant Commander Rogers...] ~What? He's back??~ "Long time no see... miss me?" The doors whooshed closed behind the Ensign M'Rurrh had beamed aboard just a few hours ago. [...Ensign Goldsteen...] "Computer, end list." She suddenly felt rather silly, but attempted to cover it by asking, "What brings you back down here? Business or pleasure?" "Commander O'Connor requested I beam down to the surface. If you could place me somewhere close to where he is I would appreciate it." "No problem," she smiled. ~About two feet above O'Connor's head should do!~ He took up position on the transporter platform and she set the co-ordinates - at ground level - and waved her hand over the control to activate the transport sequence. "WAIT!" Hurriedly she cancelled the command. "I just wanted to apologise for what I'd said when I left last time. I mean I barely know you and it must have come off a little weird and then me being a Counsellor I didn't want you to think that I thought that you were, well you know, cause that's the furthest thing from my mind and I'd have no way of making that type of clinical assumption based off of the little bit of conversation we had and the eccentric behavior that I observed well not eccentric as much as possibly very normal to your species or to the situation and all I am doing is digging a deeper hole rather then making things any better... aren't I?" Deciding that straight-forward honesty would be the best policy given the mounting confusion in the room, she simply said "Yes," and smirked when she saw his reaction. "Could I possibly buy you a drink in Ten Forward after I got back?" "Mmmmm... Better. Now hurry up, the sooner we get you down there, the sooner you can come back up and buy me that drink." (Reply Dore' iyw) (Posted by Michael Drake) (USS Spectre - Transporter room one - CMO Williams - 18:18) After Andrew had materialised on the transport pad he stepped off and nodded to the transport chief. He tapped his comm badge again. "Dr Williams to Miss Taya would you please meet me in sickbay at your earliest convenience." (reply Taya) With that Andrew left the transport room and headed for sickbay. (reply Taya, any) (posted by Robbie) (Ushar Prime - Went'uli, the city streets - Counselor, Ensign Pan Dore' - 18:18) The transporter cycle ended and Dore' found himself standing on the city streets of an alien world. He was fascinated, and nervous until he spotted the familiar site of Starfleet Uniforms, two of them, one with Commander pips on them. When the two individuals finally reach him, Pan introduced himself. "Ensign Pan Dore' reporting as ordered, sir." the Vulcan/Bajoran stated while at attention. (Reply O'Connor, Any) (Posted by Matthew) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Rising Dawn Medical Facility - SFI Agent Lt. Cmdr Brian Rogers - 18:19) Brian watched Doc Williams beam back to the ship, then turned to the Captain. "Captain," Rogers said, "Should I investigate the mining center then?" Rogers asked. (reply T'Vhor) "Where will you be then, sir?" Brian asked. (reply T'Vhor, any in room, any at all) (Posted by Kevin Schram) (Ushar Prime - Went'uli - FO Commander O'Connor and SciO Ensign Morrissey - 18:20) Emma stopped in her tracks as they were moving between a pottery shop and a grocer. "Someone's beaming down. I'd recognize that bass hum anywhere." Looking around they caught the last of the transporter glow and headed towards it's newly deposited officer. The man turned looking for Michael and Emma and found them. When Michael finally made it to the man, he snapped to attention. "Ensign Pan Dore' reporting as ordered, sir." the Vulcan/Bajoran stated while at attention. Michael smiled at the man. "At ease ensign. As you've figured out, I'm Commander O'Connor," Michael said then gestured at Emma, "and this is one of our Science officers Emma Morrissey. I'd Welcome you aboard, but that will have to wait until we're actually aboard." Michael said, they were obviously attracting attention, but no one was paying them much mind besides to wonder at why there were now three officers standing in the middle of the market district. (Reply Pan or Dore or what ever...I can never remember the whole Bajoran thing). "Technically we're on a day leave, unofficially we're here to see what the folks think about us. See how they react to Star fleet and the uniform." Michael said, then explained the situation in a quite voice. Explaining about the Dilithium shipments to the Ferengi, and the suspicion of the Cardassian's involvement, and all the rumors and the like. "So, any ideas?" Michael asked. (Reply Dore) (Posted by Patrick D.) (Ushar Prime - Went'uli - Counselor. Ensign Pan Dore' - 18:20) "Ensign Pan Dore' reporting as ordered, sir." the Vulcan/Bajoran stated while at attention. Michael smiled at the man. "At ease ensign. As you've figured out, I'm Commander O'Connor," Michael said then gestured at Emma, "and this is one of our Science officers Emma Morrissey. I'd Welcome you aboard, but that will have to wait until we're actually aboard." Michael said, they were obviously attracting attention, but no one was paying them much mind besides to wonder at why there were now three officers standing in the middle of the market district. "Thank you Commander." Pan said as he relaxed his stance. " It's a pleasure to meet both yourself and Ensign Morrissey. May I ask... why exactly are we here. The mission reports I was supplied with were veryunclear." The Counselor explained his question. "Technically we're on a day leave, unofficially we're here to see what the folks think about us. See how they react to Star fleet and theuniform." Michael said, then explained the situation in a quite voice. Explaining about the Dilithium shipments to the Ferengi, and the suspicion of the Cardassian's involvement, and all the rumors and the like. "So, any ideas?" Michael asked. "Technically, Commander, my recommendations would be to make our presence known to the youth and elderly of the community and observe their reactions. Parents often talk under the assumption that there are no other ears around to hear what is being said. Children and teens take what they hear and interpret it the only way they know how to. If parents or adults are speaking of 'us' in negative terms the majority of the children and teens will shy away from us, we will even perhaps become a target of pranks or minor attacks. Teens trying to protect their families if what they are hearing deems us as a threat. If we are being spoken of in positive ways thenit is more likley that both children and teens will approach us in a very inquisitive manner. Feeling free to talk or ask questions of us even questions they have over heard older family members wonder about but felt it to out of place to ask. The Elderly as a group normally feel that they have lived long enough to say what ever they please when ever they please. They tend to not hide their thoughts and feelings." Dore' explained. He then lowered his voice to continue. "It is also these two groups that are most likely to witness events and be fearful to speak out against them either for fear of being harmed or not knowing who to trust. If we are trusted these groups may be influenced in positive ways to speak with us. It would be a help to them and us." (Reply O'Connor or Morrissey) "While the officials of the government may paint a very positive picture at this point we have to remember that part of their job is to keep their people safe. We're here. They may have felt they had no choice but to allow us to come. And the better the picture they can paint the faster they get us off of their world." (Reply O'Connor or Morrissey) "I'd suggest making sure we are seen in the lower and middle class section as well. If we are only visible to the upper class and controlling parties then we come across as elitists. That's the last thing the Federation needs is to be looked upon as an entity that looks down on others." Pan described. "From a tactical stand point, if there is something under handed going on here or we are disliked it would be... logical for Away Teams to remain of a reasonable number of people. If we get to far separated from each other then it becomes far to easy to pick us off one by one." Pan finished his analysis and recommendations. (Reply O'Connor, Morrissey, Any) (Posted by Matthew) (Ushari Prime - Went'uli - FO Commander Michael Ian O'Connor - 18:23) Michael listened as Pan made his recommendations, all of which made perfect sense, and none of which Michael had thought of. "It is also these two groups that are most likely to witness events and be fearful to speak out against them either for fear of being harmed or not knowing who to trust. If we are trusted these groups may be influenced in positive ways to speak with us. It would be a help to them and us." "Sounds reasonable, but that's why you're the counselor. Probably explains why Counselor Sella wanted to head to one of the universities. Please continue," Michael said. "While the officials of the government may paint a very positive picture at this point we have to remember that part of their job is to keep their people safe. We're here. They may have felt they had no choice but to allow us to come. And the better the picture they can paint the faster they get us off of their world." "Politicians will be politicians," Emma muttered under her breath. "That they will. All right then Counselor, what do you think our next move should be?" Michael asked. "I'd suggest making sure we are seen in the lower and middle class section as well. If we are only visible to the upper class and controlling parties then we come across as elitists. That's the last thing the Federation needs is to be looked upon as an entity that looks down on others." Pan described. "From a tactical stand point, if there is something under handed going on here or we are disliked it would be... logical for Away Teams to remain of a reasonable number of people. If we get to far separated from each other then it becomes far to easy to pick us off one by one." Pan finished his analysis and recommendations. "Well, sounds good to me, I'm just a chip jockey who somehow managed to get promoted. Well, Counselor, all of your recommendations make sense, and more over they're doable, so I say lets start in the lower class area of town, a park or someplace our target groups would likely be if we can, and work our way back towards city center. And as our counselor pointed out, lets try and not get separated if we can manage it." Michael said then turned to Emma, "Your the one with the map, so lead on." "I swear, you'd get lost in a paper bag," Emma said with a good natured smile then headed off in her chosen direction, Michael and Pan in tow. (Reply Pan, feel free to jump to the new area and plow into things Matt) (Posted by Patrick D.) (USS Spectre - Security Console - ATAC/ASC Ensign Goldsteen - 18:30) "Come on you stupid thing," Alex snarled as the computer continued its search with excruciating slowness. He had inputed the woman's features into the computer and now he was waiting for it to come up with a match through the federation database. There was a chance that the search would not reveal anything, but Alex was willing to bet that the bartender had a record of some search. "Bingo" he whispered as a match was finally found. He quickly studied the screen picking up the key points. Her name was Leena Loren, she had a criminal record of small time robbery in her teenage yeas before dropping of the radar. Alex frowned since the information was not exactly useful. Annoyed, he clicked on a link to her brother, and his eyebrows shot up. Her brother had apparently accumulated a heavy debt to every loan shark in two galaxies. He was assumed to be in hiding but it was rather apparent that he had a limited number of planets to go to. Alex quickly tapped his combadge, "Ensign Goldsteen to Lieutenant Rogers, I have what I needed. Have you been cleared for duty, and if so would you be able to come with me back to the bar? I have what I need to question the bartender, but I need help keeping her focused." (reply Rogers) (OOC: I am going to assume a yes here, if not I'll repost) "Very well, I shall meet you there" (reply Rogers iyw) (posted by Dan Black) (Ushar Prime - Capital City Public Shopping Complex - ATAC/ASC ensign Goldsteen - 19:00) "Alright sir, I managed to sketch out a plan" Alex said to Rogers as he scanned the room. "I think I can get whatever information she has out of her, but not if she is able to escape to make someone else's drink. I admit I am working of interrogation technique here, but I believe the strategy to keep her focused on what I want her to focus on applies here. We are lucky since there is only one patron in the bar, but I need you to keep him away. If we are unlucky, he's actually the owner who will take it amiss if he sees the bartender get upset. " (reply Rogers) With that Alex walked over to Leena, "want can you tell me about the Cardassian and the deal that went down." he asked abruptly. (reply Leena) "Let me be blunt," he said a threatening edge in his tone. "My gut tells me that we are on a clock, so I frankly don't have time to weasel the information out of you. So allow me to make it clear that I know everything about you Leena,"he drew out her name, "and your brother John. If you don't tell me everything I want to know I am going to inform every one he owes money to where he is, and I'll make sure that you don't manage to warn him. And if I find out that you lied to me or held anything back, I'll do the same thing. Now what do you know?" (reply Leena) (posted by Dan Black) ========================================================================= Mission: A Little Piece of Hell Stardate: 2408.05.12 (USS Steel Talons – Admiral’s Quarter, Admiral’s Office – Admiral Robert LoDona – 04:50) =^=Admiral, the Percocet has come within beaming range. Captain Lee is requesting permission to come aboard.=^= Robert didn’t have to look up from his PADD, “Permission granted Captain, escort him to my office immediately.” =^=Aye Sir.=^= the Bajoran captain said curtly before cutting communications. Robert read another couple of lines on his status report, then laid it down gently and sat back in his chair while absently rubbing his Borg implants. A few months ago, no ship came within hailing range of the Talons without layers of security. A few months ago, ‘Captain’ Lee had been a Rear-Admiral and in charge of LoDona’s Strategic Operations. The board that had sat over Lee’s courts-martial hadn’t been particularly kind, they’d broke him of his rank and put several notes in his file regarding his activities while in charge of the Strategic Assets of the 52nd. The immunity that extended to LoDona had only partially covered Lee… It probably could have protected him entirely, but Richard had said very little in his own defense. Robert figured that Lee had –wanted- to be busted down. Richard had been… different… since his capture and torture just prior to the end of the war. He’d only barely took up his duties again before the final push into the Federation. In fact, then-admiral Sevant of the Boudicca had done almost all of the strategic and Tactical planning for the final battle. A fact which hadn’t escaped Starfleet Command, a fact which would come into play later no doubt. He looked around his ‘office’, as he was like to do in the quiet times of the day, and marveled that he was alone. For almost two years, this room had been filled to capacity. There had been holo-tables, charts, communications stations. This had been the center of his War, and he had never been alone. Now, it was exactly what it appeared to be, a large mostly-empty space. The 52nd was peaceful these days, so LoDona supposed it was fitting. After several minutes, the doors opened and an exceptionally tall officer stepped into the doors. Robert found himself grinning as he stood and offered his hand, “Captain Lee, it’s been to long.” Richard took the hand with a nod and took a seat. Robert had long-since banished any formality between them, they’d worked shoulder-to-shoulder for so long, that the formalities got in the way. Rich might be a Captain again, but he was still in charge of LoDona’s Stratops department, if only unofficially. Officially he was part of the Admiral’s staff. However, the position of Strategic Operations Officer was (and would be) curiously empty while Lee was aroun. It had taken a lot of favors and string-pulling to ensure it after the Court-martial, LoDona’s name was now knee-deep in hock for it, but it was worth every favor. “Admiral,” he said as he got comfortable in the chair. His face was grave, a look that Robert had long since learned to recognize. He’d seen it on the face of dozens of officers during the war, and it always preceded bad news. And Lee didn’t disappoint. “I’ve got two reports for you, you won’t like either one.” The Admiral sat back down again. “Go ahead.” Rich pulled two PADDS out of an inner uniform pocket of his and placed them on the table. “Here’s your newest list of Officers recalled to give testimony in the continuing witch-hunts.” He said, with distaste. LoDona couldn’t blame him. The President, in his speech on the Academy Grounds, had counseled peace and re-integration. Starfleet seemed to have other ideas, there were a number of officers from the combined ‘rebel’ fleet that had been prosecuted and court marshaled. Of course, there were a number of officers from Doenitz’s cadre who had been tried as well. It was a witch hunt in all but name, and it didn’t bode well for the future. Robert looked over the list and shook his head, “Very well, I’ll have them detached and transferred on a temporary basis.” He said that with exhaustion, he’d had to do it to often lately. And some of those Officers he’d sent off had not returned. “And there is one more little… problem.” He said. He tapped a finger on the second PADD, “I have already dispatched three ships, but I have a feeling I’ll need to reshuffle the fleet. I just got these updated reports.” LoDona frowned as he picked up the second PADD. Within thirty seconds he was on his feet, still reading, and walking over to the small holo-table that his office still sported. On it was the sphere-of-influence for the 52nd Fleet, the frontier they were exploring. The frontier that had once hidden them from the Federation’s wrath. The Admiral’s face was grave as he put the PADD down on the table’s edge and tapped the sets of coordinates into it. Several red spots appeared on the slowly-rotating 3-D hologram of space. They were all clustered together, on the edge of ‘explored’ space. “What ships have you dispatched?” LoDona asked as he looked back down at the PADD. “The Heracles, Witch hammer and Warshrike.” ~All defiant class ships, very good.~ Robert thought as he brought up some of the sub-files and loaded them into the holo-table. The map was quickly replaced by several images. Some were camera stills, some were sensor records, others were poor quality recordings from sub-standard sensor recording systems. He selected image 10-b and enlarged it to the full supported size the table could support, then stepped back and absently rubbed at the implants on his hand. “How old are your reports?” “Two days. We haven’t had anything closer since.” Robert took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “We didn’t need this, they could have waited… or perhaps have come earlier when we had the bulk of our tactical strength in this area” he said quietly. LoDona could almost see the shrug that the larger man gave. “We all have our little pieces of hell waiting for us Admiral. Some of his missed our train in the war, fate is kindly giving us another opportunity.” ~How very cynical.~ Robert thought. “Have you informed Starfleet Command yet?” he asked, rather then say anything. “Yes Sir, they’ve ordered you to proceed with the utmost caution- hence why I’m telling you in person rather by communiqué. They are preparing mass-orders, in preparation for what our forward scouts report.” He paused, “They have also dispatched half a dozen heavy battleships to supplement our striking power while the rest of our support is mobilized, just in case this turns out to be more then a minor problem.” He paused again, as if in indecision. “The complete list of ships is on that PADD, you won’t like it.” Robert looked down and scrolled until he found the latest dispatches from Starfleet Command. Rich was right, Robert didn’t like that list in the least bit. “We’ll have to deal with this carefully,” he finally said. “Yes sir.” “Prepare orders for the fleet, I want them ready to cut and the 52nd ready to mobilize with 5 minutes warning.” LoDona said as he focused on the image on the holo-table again. He thought back to the map, and the ship-codes that were listed in the area. “Send orders to the Crazy-Horse, Boudicca, Dennison and Monticello to keep their eyes out for anything unusual, send them a package of information on what to look for.” He looked down at the PADD Again, “And start pairing off this list of incoming ships with some of the more… level headed… of our Commanders.” “Yes Sir, I already have a preliminary list.” Robert turned to face Lee. “There’s one more thing.” He said quietly as he tapped the PADD on his palm. “I’m changing your standing orders, I have need of you elsewhere right now.” .. behind him, a blurry image of a Borg Cube hovered in empty air over the table. (reply: none, yet) (posted by Trout) ========================================================================