Mission Log - Ops Command part 1

Posted on Mon Feb 14th, 2022 @ 5:48pm by Rear Admiral Lucas Thorton & Captain Jayam "Jay" Vidod & Lieutenant Jaime Mallory & Lieutenant Jovan Abrenica & Senior Captain Sharrina Blackstone & Commander Arlaena Torr & Lieutenant Commander T'Prei Xan & Lieutenant Brian McShane

Mission: To Tread Cautiously
Location: Magellan Station Command Hub
Timeline: 2388/09/01 0925.2 (Mon. Sept. 01 2388 9:25am)

T'Prei had been staring at the same readings for the past half hour. Why? Because that was all that her command console was showing her. Granted, it was not her command, but she was the officer currently commanding the Hub, so that made it hers for this moment.

~I know you're bored, T'Prei,~ Xan commented, with wry amusement in her mind, ~but you still don't have to engage in circular logic.~

She knew the symbiont was teasing her, but Xan was right. She'd started to let her mind ramble, something she rarely did. She decided to give Xan a bit of her own medicine, though. ~Well, if you were better company, I wouldn't need to.~

Xan's response was the mental equivalent of a stuck-out tongue.

T'Prei chuckled, unintentionally aloud. Sometimes her mental dialogue escaped into the 'real' world, like now, and she was not aware that it had until someone responded to it. This was no different. Not realizing that the chuckle had been out loud, she turned her gaze to those around her.

It was Jaime Mallory's first day in her position as a Mission Ops officer and so far it had been keeping her casually busy. Of course, with the understanding, there would be days much busier. But when the shift first started, she had found herself momentarily distracted a few times by one of the Ops Centre's security officers, Brian McShane. The man was ruggedly handsome, with a gorgeous backside, and her eyes would follow each time he walked away. If not for her ability to compartmentalize when needing to, she was feeling certain she would be doomed there.

She had heard T'Prei chuckle, suddenly out of nowhere, and glancing over to her, smiled, thinking she had a good idea on why when their eyes met. Although only one-quarter Trill and unjoined, Jaime had grown up with enough joined Trill, along with her gifts, to know when one was around.

T'Prei caught the look the young officer gave her and smiled back. "I did that out loud, didn't I?" she asked softly, knowing by the look on Jaime's face that she had but deciding to start a conversation using that as an ice-breaker for the younger woman. After all, Jaime was new on the Ops Center, so T'Prei wanted her to feel comfortable with those above her, or at least T'Prei herself.

Jaime nodded with another smile while leaning back in her seat. "You did," she answered, thinking her new superior seemed pretty cool. She liked her. "I was thinking about having a cup of coffee. Would you like me to get you one too?"

T'Prei was caught between embarrassed and relieved. She chuckled. "Sorry, sometimes my internal dialogue becomes external. And yes, a cup of coffee sounds very good. Thank you."

"You're welcome." Jaime pleasantly replied, pushing herself out of her seat. She started making a near beeline towards the back of the hub where a small beverage replicator was and, of course, Brian's behind caught her eye again. Inwardly, she sighed, and then something else dawned on her, causing her to swing back around. "Sir, would you like cream or sugar?"

T'Prei turned her head slightly to look at Jaime. "That depends. If it is that bitter Earth coffee, yes. If it is the Betazoid variant, then no." She smiled, an odd thing for a Vulcan but not for a Trill. "Thank you for asking."

"You're very welcome," Jaime nodded, and then added, "Two Betazoid coffees," as she continued on her way.

Lt. Brian McShane was bent over a console to check another readout, all routine. It made for a boring shift but as a security officer, it's not like he wanted an exciting shift. Good excitement could always be had off duty if one was restless. He leaned on the console opening a channel to quietly talk to a security officer in another area, comparing notes.

T'Prei noted the Security officer doing his job quietly and nodded approvingly to herself, eyes sliding over the room to take in the rest of its inhabitants. She also noted the young Engineering Officer quietly attending his station and smiled.

The young engineering officer, Lieutenant Jovan Abrenica, had been engrossed in scheduling a couple of maintenance jobs at his station. Finished, he maneuvered his hoverchair slightly back to adjust its angle to another console to get the latest reports from the ships docked at the orbital station being repaired.

Jaime urgently returned with the coffees, handed T'Prei hers, and was about to retake her seat, placing her cup down while re-adjusting her earpiece, when something went off on the Ops Centre lead's console.

T'Prei opened her mouth to thank Jaime for the coffee but was interrupted by her console. Rude device! She heard Xan chuckle in her mind at that thought but ignored that for the moment as she set down her own cup and looked at the console.

T'Prei opened the channel between the Command Centre and the Orbital Station. "Command Center."

In her earpiece, she heard the voice of the officer of the day on the Operations Center of the station. "Command Center, we detected an energy beam coming from the planet. It didn't hit anyone up here, but we wondered if you detected it."

T'Prei frowned. "Did you trace its origin point and trajectory?"

The officer paused, then he gave her the data. Her frown deepened. "Thank you, Orbital." Cutting the channel, she opened a new one, this one to Admiral Thorton. "Command Center to Admiral Thorton. We have a situation that you might want to know about."

"Captain Blackstone and I are on our way," came back a firm reply through her comm.

What they'd been able to hear had the attention of some of the others in the room, that something was definitely going on.

T'Prei nodded even though he would not see it. "Acknowledged." She then closed the channel and looked at the room at large. They were all staring at her as if waiting for her to say something. "I need a review of scan readings for the last few minutes at the coordinates I am providing," she told Jaime at Mission Operations as she sent the planetary coordinates that Orbital had given her. "We are looking for unusual energy readings."

Jaime nodded in understanding, which included why she'd be the one to do this. There were no science officers in the Hub at the moment, and she was one of two officers in touch with all the away teams to accommodate them. Also, she was often a go-between for operations and science, and an assistant for operations and security, during alert situations, such as the one they were in now.

"On it," she responded, beginning the task when she got a call in from one of the science away teams. A quick moment later she turned towards T'Prei, "Commander, this just came in from Lieutenant Commander Iyvanna," and flipped the message on audio for all those around her to hear.

"Incident at dig site. Bringing someone back to Medical. Full report to follow."

Meanwhile, Jaime had begun the method of triangulation to narrow things down. "Commander, that dig site's location is only 50 kilometers down mountain range from the possible point of origin of that energy beam." She sent a visual up to a large data screen above her.

T'Prei frowned. That was a pretty sketchy report, and it told them exactly nothing. She suspected that the brevity of it likely had something to do with Commander Iyvanna's being former Borg. Efficiency was one of their key features. "Can you please elaborate, Commander?" she requested of the lady on the comm.

Kiyrra's voice came back over the speakers with no hesitation. "At Dr. Kingston's dig site, we experienced what may have been an earthquake. I am currently ferrying Sophia to Medical. There did not appear to be any other serious injuries, but the site was very much disrupted." Reports were tricky ground for Kiyrra. She had to give enough information for the other officers to know what happened without deluging them with too much minutia. Sometimes she was successful, but other times not so much. She waited now to see if the Command Hub needed any further information.

"Thank you, Commander. I will call you back if we need anything further from you," T'Prei said.

Kiyrra acknowledged, and the comm went dead. T'Prei looked over at Jaime, a frown sliding over her features. "Then there is a distinct possibility that the two could be related," she muttered more to herself than to anyone else. "Was there anyone else in that general area?"

At that moment, Arlaena Torr brushed into the room, tail coiled tightly around her waist. Granted, her having it there, in general, was normal. What was not normal was the tightness with which it was coiled. "I don't know if it's related, but flight control did lose track of one of our shuttles around the same time. We are currently running long-range scans for it, but so far have had no luck."

Meanwhile, Lucas and Sharrina had exited the short corridor where their offices were. They continued out onto the platform that overlooked the pit where the others were working. Lucas placed his hands on a rail, asking Arlaena. "Who was on that shuttle, Commander?"

Arlaena looked up at the admiral and the captain beside him. While she knew neither of them would like this, she also did not shy away. "That would be Captain Brady Dering and Commander Jacob Bannerman, Sir," she answered.

"They were scheduled to leave the planet." Jay had arrived and was standing just inside the lower part of the hub. "They never left the planet's stratosphere."

Lucas took in the information, his eyes moving from one to the other as they spoke, and then nodded. He had no idea who Bannerman was, but he knew Brady Dering and knew that he was leaving. Although there were still areas of the planet that were hard to get readings on and they could be fine, Lucas found himself uneasy. This didn't feel right.

He turned his attention to T'Prei. "Lieutenant Commander Xan, fill us in on the rest."

T'Prei Xan turned her attention from her control board to the admiral, swiveling in her chair as well to be fully facing him. "According to Commander Iyvanna, there was a potential earthquake at Doctor Kingston's dig site, which as you can see on that map," she indicated the map Jaime had put up, "is close to the projected origin point of our next bit. Orbital reported a beam of energy coming from the planet and narrowly missing them." She paused for a second to allow them to digest this first. Then she concluded with, "All of these events appear to have been concurrent or nearly so. We have not yet had time to properly correlate them, however."

Sharrina frowned silently. She did not know either of the two men on the shuttle, but that didn't matter to her either as they were Starfleet officers. An earthquake, a beam, and their disappearance all happening at nearly the same time was... troubling. She flicked her gaze to Lucas, assessing his reaction as well as she could.

At the mention of the energy beam, Lucas' concerned expression had deepened into a scowl. After taking a moment to look over the map, his eyes had gone briefly to Sharinna's. He then ordered, "Lieutenant McShane, place both the planet and orbital station on security alert. Jay, shut down all traffic outside the colony. No ship is to leave Orbital or enter the system. Place your SAR Team on alert."

"Yes, Sir," Jay replied, joining Arlaena at the flight control duty station.

As things had gone down while the Officer of the Deck was talking to the reporting officer, Lt. McShane had sent out an internal departmental stand-by message. Basically, it told security 'Something weird just happened, maybe bad weird. Heads up while we gather data.' It was vague but it's not like anyone would panic. They'd just make sure they were ready to go, just in case. So when the order came he nodded, "Aye Sir." and sent the official word so security, already half expecting something responded quickly to the Alert Message.

Meanwhile, Lucas' eyes had returned to Sharrina's, "When was the last time you went on a field trip?"

Sharrina smiled slightly; she couldn't completely hide the fact that she liked the idea of being in the field. Neither was she taking this lightly though. "Too long, I think," she answered. "Orders?"

Before responding, Lucas studied her, understanding all too well. "Locate the source of the energy beam."


To be continued...



Rear Admiral Lucas Thorton
Commanding Officer
Magellan Station, Serene Colony

Senior Captain Sharrina Blackstone
Station/Colony Executive Officer
Magellan Station, Serene Colony

Lieutenant Commander T'Prei Xan
Ops Centre Operations Officer
Magellan Station, Serene Colony

Lieutenant Jaime Mallory
Mission Ops officer
Magellan Station, Serene Colony

Lieutenant Jovan Abrenica
Ops Centre Eng. Officer
Magellan Station, Serene Colony

Lieutenant Brian McShane
Ops Centre Security Officer
Magellan Station, Serene Colony

Commander Arlaena Torr
Assistant Chief of Flight Operations
Magellan Station, Serene Colony

Captain Jayam Vidod
Chief of Flight Operations
Magellan Station, Serene Colony