Distress Call

Posted on Wed Apr 19th, 2023 @ 6:26pm by Lieutenant Commander Diane Doctrine & Captain Xavier Carey & Commander Antonia 'Tony" Stoffels & Lieutenant Commander Aalis Rinne & Lieutenant Etan tar-Lexros

Mission: Starship Side Quest
Location: Bridge, USS Resolution
Timeline: current

Tony was sipping her tea when the ensign at comms addressed her.

"Ma'am, I have a distress call coming in. Very vague."

Tony was on her feet instantly and walked over to the comms station. "Who is it from, ensign?"

The young ensign tried to get a better lock on the signal that was coming in. "It's from Lieutenant Jansen, ma'am." She looked at the first officer. "Very faint but I am sure it is her. She must be in trouble."

Outwardly Tony stayed very calm. "Try to get a lock on it, ensign, don't lose it." Then she made made some calls of her own to call the senior staff that she needed to the captain's ready room. As it was the middle of the night she would be getting several people out of bed.

Robert had gotten a call to report to the Bridge he threw on a shirt silk pajama pants and slippers kissing Kiera on the cheek before heading to the turbolift. When he got to the bridge he was sleepy and tried rubbing it out of his eyes. "Okay who broke what now?"

"Join me in the ready room." Tony said. "Ensign redirect everyone that comes in to the ready room."

The ensign nodded. "Yes ma'am."

She gestured for Carver to follow her.

Robert wanted to go back to bed but seemed something was amiss he decided to wait to find out what the fuss was about. "Sure, make me the strongest coffee you got, Commander."

"I am not your servant, lieutenant." She said a little sharper than she had meant to. "Sorry."

Robert stood straight puffing his chest out clearly feeling slightly challenged he wanted to snap back but thought against it. "Alight, no problem I will get it myself." He replied calmly as possible before slightly brushing past Tony to the replicator feeling disrespected.

"I'm sorry, Robert." She said. "I am on edge."

Robert fixed himself a coffee just the way he liked it. "Yeah? That still doesn't excuse you from having to get me up in the middle of the night and piss on me like that." He didn't look at Tony as he walked past her to a empty chair.

"I am your friend, Tony, I am on your side doing what I can to help you end this attack on you and your loved ones."

"Lieutenant if I get you up in the middle of the night you can be very sure it is an emergency and not something personal." Half true. "How soon can you have the engines back up and running?"

Robert sat down taking a drink as he did so. "Well, there is still quite few things left to do..." He stopped himself from going down the list. "Final stages of the refit should be done in the next hour but hope our helm can handle the new LCARS and analog station."

Xavier walked in. "Your first shift back and your already waking me up Commander." He replied with groggy eyes. While brushing his beard.

Robert sat up heading to the replicator. "Coffee, Captain?" He asked.

"I would rather something with strong alcohol... but coffee is the next best thing." He agreed as he sat down. "So what do we have?"

"it's Sky, sir." Tony said. "Her distress beacon has gone off. And we can't get any contact with them. Ren neither."

Getting his attention fully, "Are we sure its genuine?" He asked

Etan didn't know exactly what was happening tonight on his rounds, but the fact that he was pointed from the Bridge straight to the Ready Room with an alert status concerned him. Whatever was going on, it was big, and it was a problem. He picked up a PADD resting on the Ops II station at the back of the bridge. After authorizing with his thumbprint, the small tablet started running down the Ops report feed to him. Then he saw the problem - there was a distress beacon signal received which was referenced to Lieutenant Jansen. He checked the transmitted data for any reason to doubt, but found only more proof that it was real. That was concerning. He stayed quiet in the Ready Room for a few moments while he confirmed what he was seeing and waited for the others, but now looked up. "I'm sorry for interrupting, but the signal has been authenticated by the ship's computer. If this is not Lieutenant Jansen, it's somebody who has her distress beacon and commbadge. I can work with the available Science staff to try and get additional resolution from the ship, or we can deploy a probe." He looked around at the others - this was a crisis, yes, but one he could face with confidence. After all, until someone told him otherwise, his role here was pretty rote for Ops. Just confirm the signal, pinpoint her location, and try to beam her back to the ship. It was if any of that happened to fail miserably that he would go to pieces. He did stop for a breath and thought out loud for a moment. "I think a probe might be quicker. But it's more noticeable too. And, um, the nature of her distress isn't on my data feed."

Robert returned with a tray of coffee for everyone setting it on the Captains desk before taking a seat. He took a moment rub a itch on his left arm as if he petting his tattoo of his horse Slim. Taking a coffee he took a sip. "We need to break in the new warp core slowly I can only get you warp four for now."

"What are the options?" Xavier replied. "Send out more shuttles... "

Robert took another sip fixing his left slipper on his foot. "Shuttles are not as fast either the runabouts alone can do warp four without modification. Last I checked we don't even have the parts need to do it so we can get one to go warp eight."

"There is a ship graveyard not too far, do you think we can pick for parts?"

Robert sat up a little and took a PADD from the desk entering the graveyard information on it. "Says we need clearance from starfleet command other than that it's off limits." He told him.

"I can get you that." Tony said. "High level access is not a problem." She looked at Ethan. "How long would it take to get to them? It was a distress call which means they need help yesterday."

The doors swished open and 'Commander Doctrine briskly walked in, "Sorry I'm late, we just got back." She plopped herself into the first available empty chair. "What have I missed?"

"We just got a distress call in from Lt Jansen." Tony said flatly. "And we have no further contact with them. We are now debating how fast we can get there to see what is going on."

Robert lifted his index finger. "Actually, I like to know why she is not even on the ship and out there sending a distress signal, if I could." He had no idea what was going on and why Sky was galavanting around maybe her and her other lovers got into a fight.

Diane’s eyes narrowed. “Is ‘Commander Wagnor with her?” She asked. “If he is, there’s a small possibility I might be able to shed some light on this.”

"Yes he is. And that would be very helpful." Tony said. "Even I don't know the details of the mission." She looked at the captain.

Diane looked at Captain Carey also wondering if he had something to say before she continued.

"Given his past history, it could be a number of things that I can think of." Xavier replied. "Although I cannot determine which."

“It’s not much,” Diane began, “It seems someone has been going after his comrades from his Angosian military days. He may be on this same list. Someone he used to serve with has contacted me with some information about a facility on the border of Federation territory practically in Angosia’s backyard. By treaty, there should be nothing there. I have a feeling the two are connected in some way but don’t have the data to support that fully yet. Did Soran file a flight plan? do we at least know where he went?”

Tony swore heavily, she had switched to Dutch so no one could at least understand. ~the sneaky bastard had told her nothing about all this.~ "Captain?" she said out loud. Equally angry as she was sure the captain knew a lot more.

Etan stood somewhat awkwardly, looking around. It seemed like the situation was more confusing than he could have expected. His voice was quiet, if a bit awkward. "Um, I can confirm that we don't currently have a runabout uprate kit aboard, I'm sorry. We might be able to kickstart our new engine if we adjust the intermix formula. Type 9 probes are warp-capable, too; we might be able to send one ahead of us."

Robert looked at Etan. "Screwing with the Intermix formula is not wise on a new engine it rupture the coolant pumps." He said sternly. "On the old engine it work no problem but this is a brand new one and needs time to lube up you might say."

"We need to get a team up there as soon as possible. We are at a starbase, maybe we borrow another ship?" Tony said. "Speed is of the essence hear."

"We can contact Commodore Thoma. See what he can assist with."

"I can get a list together for a runabout and we can give the head of graveyard a call maybe he can play ball." Robert added.

Aalis had walked in right behind the Chief Intelligence Officer and just nodded her presence from the wall that she leaned on. She was in observation mode and had been since she arrived. She looked between the officers on the bridge, and then she ran the numbers in her head. "We should borrow something from the base to get us to where we need to go. If speed is of the essence, I can guarantee that we will be able to get something going faster than trying to salvage something from the graveyard," she said channeling her husband. "I volunteer. If this is something from his past days coming back, then we'll need a strike team to exfil them meaning we need to bring intelligence and marines into this. While Security can do the good fight, this isn't that situation. I'd recommend at least two marines, one to two intelligence, someone who's medic certified, two security, and maybe someone who's engineering certified as we don't know what we are walking into."

"Wait," Diane interjected, "We need a ship?" She thought a moment and added, "We need a real ship, not just a runabout. I think I might know someone that can help. You remember Captain Olivaw that helped out with the evacuation? His ship may be available. Should I contact him?"

Robert had to agree with the Lt. Commander honestly he didn't think of it till now maybe he just liked the idea of tinkering with a runabout too much. "You know...I have agree with her come to think of it probably be easier. Who knows what sort of people we be dealing with or worse what kind of security measures they got in place with the graveyard."

Diane stood and went to the console in the wall. After typing in some commands a familiar face appeared, "Diane. This call is a surprise."

"Dany, how far from Starbase Pegasus are you now?" Diane asked with some urgency in her tone.

Captain Olivaw glanced elsewhere for a moment and then looked back into the screen, "We're about ninety minutes out now, we're actually heading that way. We had to extract some marines from a sticky situation and we're dropping them off there."

"Great. Call me as soon as you're here," Diane told him, "We need a ride."

One of Daneel's eyebrows lifted, "A ride?"

"I'll explain when you're here. Doctrine out." With that, the connection was cut. Diane turned and looked to those assembled in the conference room, "We have a ride now. What else do we need?"

"A plan... and an idea where they are preferably." Xavier replied as he looked over. "I know someone who has worked with the Angosians, prior, also a former team leader of Commander Sorans spec ops. He suggested the Commander for the resolution..."

"We need to take fire power as Lieutenant Rinne suggested. We need to get them back before..." Tony shook her head. "we need to get them back. Sir, I would like your permission to lead the team." She said to Xavier.

Robert kept silent taking a sip watching things unfold from his seat he was shocked nobody really noticed he was still in his pajamas.

Diane spoke up, “I can vouch for Captain Olivaw’s ship having the firepower and defenses we’ll likely need should this turn sideways. He’s our best bet for getting where we need to go. Oh,” she remember the message she’d received from Soran’s apparent associate, “I’ve received a message from a former associate of ‘Commander Wagnor’s. He sent me some information I have not yet translated from Angosian. I suspect that will help us.”

"Former associate... would that be Kepek?"

"Kepek was mentioned, but he's not the one that contacted me," Diane answered.

He paused. "Commander Doctrine, with you knowing more about this thing, than what we can possibly at this time. Your familiarity with the Captain. You gather your team... anyone you want, you got. Once we get the Resolution up and running we will rendez-vous with you as fast as we can." He paused. He could go himself, but his duty was to the ship and the crew, with Sky in danger, his urgency was valid however. "Conflict of interest does prohibit myself and Commander Stoffels from departing, our priorities currently are with the ship. Our emotional mindset can hinder any rescue should one be attempted."

"Understood Sir," Diane took in a deep breath and exhaled. She knew how difficult it was for Xavier to sit this out. She steeled herself for an argument with Tony. She was known to be a woman of action, not idly sitting around. "All right then, I'll put together an away team."

Tony ground her teeth. She wanted to lash out at someone somehow. How could Xavier do this! How was she expected to sit here and do nothing. Not even able to move until the engines were fixed. But... Xavier was in the same situation and he was staying and not making a scene, she was better than this. She had to prove that her former antics had been the poison talking and were not her. So after a minute of inner struggle she nodded. "I agree with the captain. He and I can't go. But commander, bring them back." Her eyes pleaded with Diane.

“That’s our intention,” Diane replied firmly and sympathetically.

"Commander," Xavier replied turning to Stoffels. "This may be unorthodox, I know I haven't been the best teacher when it has come to Bridge duty. However, With us currently in a waiting game. Until engineering, can get us going again. Im taking a step back, giving you your own taste of true command duty. I will be your right hand... and assist you when needed. Lets make this little time we have worth it. Plus its how I got command experience, being MIA, and nowhere to go for so long... I had my former Captain do the same for me."

Tony blinked then blinked again. With what had gone on between them recently she had not expected this. It was an olive branch showing that Xavier still trusted and respected her. "Thank you sir, that means a lot."