The Captain Beckons
Posted on Tue Oct 18th, 2016 @ 9:30pm by Captain Liarra Von & Commander Titus Livius Drusus PhD & Lieutenant Commander Le Austin & Commander Talia Varen & Commander Soleck
Mission:
Shadows and Whispers
Location: Infirmary
Word had reached the command staff that Captain Von was back on station, and almost as quickly, a summons from her to meet her in the infirmary followed. The entire crew had become more and more nervous after learning that the CO was missing, but those that had known her the longest were the most nervous ones out there.
Austin was the first through the doors, the Vulcan XO close on his heels.
"Good to see you back, Captain," Austin said as he approached her biobed, visually trying to assess how bad off she was.
"Indeed it is," Soleck responded, ever so evenly.
Drusus had entered just behind Austin and Soleck, relieved that the captain had been found and was relatively alright; at least well enough to be issuing summonses again. He stood in quiet agreement with his fellow officers, his hands clasped firmly behind his back.
"It's good to be back," Von replied from the infirmary bed. She had changed out of her duty uniform on the way back to the station, and now was wearing hospital patient fatigues. Doctor Varen stood by her side, tending to her injuries. "How bad does it look, Doctor?"
"It's not ideal, but considering the circumstances I am pleased that your immune system has done as well as it has battling both the fracture and the infection. The splint performed admirably in preventing more damage to the limb. However, since you've started to heal without setting the bone properly, it's going to require rebreaking in a few places to ensure optimal bone health.". Her voice was quiet, but easy enough to hear over the hum of the scanner.
"It could be a lot worse, I suppose," Von replied. "I was pretty convinced for a while down there that losing the leg was the least of my worries. My injuries seemed to just be my leg, other than maybe some other scrapes and bruises. I assume the symbiont is fine?"
A slow nod answered the captain's question as Talia's dark eyes scanned the readouts. "It is in good condition but is showing signs of stress. A few days of rest and proper diet and your cortisol and catecholamine levels will return to normal. I'll be keeping an eye on it."
"Believe me, after a couple of weeks sleeping in a cave, I'm looking forward to some rest." After some conversation with her doctor, Liarra was ready to get down to business. She gestured towards her other officers. "If you don't mind, Doctor, can you give us some privacy. I need to speak with these gentlemen in private."
"Of course sir, but please make it brief. Your body needs some time to rest and recover." Talia stepped into her office from the main sickbay, intending to make a note in the chart about the captain's injuries.
Once the doctor was out of earshot, Von turned to her other officers. "Alright, we need to talk. I figured here was as good a place as any, and I'm not sure if I can trust my office yet. I think our shuttle was sabotaged. Someone didn't want either me, or Colonel S'er'in'e, to get to that conference."
A brief flash of shock shot through Drusus as he listened to the captain's concern and, in particular, the way she was keeping it quiet. She was clearly convinced. He looked sidelong at his fellow officers before asking the question he was sure they all had in their minds. "What makes you think it wasn't an accident?"
"I'm not positive that it wasn't accident, but I have a strong suspicion. When we first started losing power, sensors detected a fire in the engine compartment. I left the Colonel at the helm and went to investigate. The fire was already raging at that point, far too large for me to take care of with the fire suppression system. The automatic systems must have failed to engage, or were rigged so that they couldn't. But I also smelt the faint scent of an incendiary. Of what kind, I don't know. It may have been my imagination, but it felt like the fire was deliberate. We decompressed the rear of the shuttle to put out the fire, so we may have lost our evidence. But I hope that there may still be something we can learn from the shuttle. There were mercenaries of some sort there tracking us, possibly there to make sure the job was done. Colonel S'er'in'e eventually killed one of them, but by then we had been on the move for so long, we were far from the crash site. So we weren't able to investigate any further, but we did bring the shuttle back to the station."
Austin turned slightly away, "Austin to Miller," He said tapping his comm badge.
"Miller, sir. What's up?"
"Is the shuttle wreckage settled in yet?" He asked.
"Yessir, we just finished securing it in bay 24. I was about to have Winchester and McTaggart go over there and look it over to see--" Miller was cut off.
"No. Lock it down. No one goes near the shuttle that isn't me, period. And I'm not giving anyone permission to go see it that isn't me, so if anyone said I did, tell me," Austin said, flatly.
"Uhm... Yessir," Miller replied sounding thoroughly confused.
"Pull the service records for it from one month before the Captain left, and the entry logs into the hangar it was in for the same time period," Austin said. "And... and pull me the door records from the hangar too." He said.
"You... mean the ones that record the open and closed status of the door," Miller asked back, sounding even more confused. "That... literally just tell you if the door was open or not?"
"Yeah, that one," Austin confirmed.
"... Sir... is something going on?" Miller asked.
"Don't know. I'll let you know as soon as I do, okay?" Austin replied.
"Yessir, I'll get on it right now. Miller out," The man said, the comm snapping shut.
"Miller is good people," Austin said, turning back to the gathered crowed. "I've worked with him for a long time now, I can trust him," He explained. "I'll go over the ship myself, Cap. If there's anything there, I'll find it. If there's any missing maintenance records, I'll find it. If there's some way I can figure out what really happened... I'll find it." He assured her, with a confident nod.
Soleck nodded to the Chief and turned his attention back to Liarra, "It is most unfortunately for this to happen. Combined with our recent infection of bugs on the Montreal, the murder on the promenade, and a few other ... odd, and seemingly isolated events... we could be dealing with a much larger threat."
He arched an eyebrow as he regarded the other officers around him, "This could be an attempt to sabotage our station and ensure that we are all off our guard for a larger more focused assault of some kind," He pondered darkly.
"That's my concern as well," Von replied, keeping her voice low. "We may not be able to figure out what they may be trying to do, but we may at least get an idea who is responsible. Check out the wreckage and see what you can find. There was a lot of fire in the engine compartment, so evidence may have been compromised. Try to keep your investigation small, limited to no more than a few people that you can trust."
"If possible, I'll just do it by myself, ma'am," Austin replied. "It's just one shuttle, I can go over it with a fine tooth comb in an afternoon," He explained.
Von turned to Byrne, Drusus, and Soleck. "Has anything happened here at the station that I should be concerned about?"
"It has been somewhat eventful, Captain," Soleck replied. "Between listening devices on the Montreal, a stabbing in the lower decks, and an on-going murder investigation that happened during the sojourner assault, we've got a lot happening at once," The Vulcan explained.
"Yeah, plus I've got a lot of reports from my crew of generally odd happenings in the computer systems. Nothing major, just... more than you'd expect for normal bugs and oddities... it could be nothing, Cap, but it could be something."
Von nodded along, not at all thrilled about what she was hearing. "It may be nothing, but we should check it out anyway. But let's be discrete. If we need to, let's consider getting some outside help. Austin, before you take a look at the shuttle, I want you to check my office and quarters for bugs. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but until we know what's going on, I don't want to take any chances."
"Yes ma'am. I'll take care of it myself," He said with a nod. He was getting that feeling in the pit of his stomach that told him everything was about to go to hell. He always hated that feeling.
"Alright, let's get to work. I'm still going to be out of commission for a few more days, but keep me posted on what you find."
Captain Liarra Von
Commanding Officer
Commander Soleck [P: Le]
Executive Officer
Commander Titus Drusus
Chief Science Officer
Lt. Commander Talia Varen
Chief Medical Officer
Lt. Commander Le Austin
Chief of Operations
