Archa IV: 2291

Posted on Thu Jun 30th, 2011 @ 8:42am by Captain Alexander Gunning & Commander Dietrich Reinhart & Captain Liarra Von & Lieutenant Commander Melissa Daniels M.D. & Lieutenant Commander Nilani Prax & Lieutenant JG Kili Dell

Mission: In Defiance Of Orders
Location: En-Route to Archa IV

[ON]

The Jackal's crew was in disarray. None of them were historians on the area they were in, none of them had been on the station long enough to really perfect any off-the-cuff idea of the sector's historical events or significance. With the library computer down, they were flying blind with regard to knowledge.

Gunning supposed that was probably the best way to do it. If they didn't know anything, they couldn't get reprimanded for their actions when they returned to their own time. A laughable notion, to be sure. Temporal Investigations were going to hand his head back to him on a platter regardless.

Still wading through the ship's records of the Temporal Prime Directive, Shinji realized that he had spoken more in the past hour or so than he had in the past week, or month. Such was the price for being an officer in Starfleet, especially an Intelligence Officer. He was bound to protect those of whom served with him, regardless if they were above or below him in the chain of command. Exactly what he protected them from was highly controversial at best; for now, Shinji saddled himself with the belief that he was protecting them from their own idiocy, although that was still his own junior officer opinion about the matter.

Prax, truth be told, didn't feel all that comfortable about their current situation either. Not only had they dropped in on history, but they were now flying, side-by-side with one of the Federation's historic ships to the future home of Starbase 332 to ask the locals for some help... the whole way that they were going about this felt wrong to her; they could seriously screw up the timeline doing what they were doing. Regardless, she had confidence in Alex; though he'd only had one lifetime, he had certainly worked up enough experience in it to qualify him to make these decisions. Even so, she'd spent most of her time since returning to the Jackal attempting to restore functionality to the ship's library computer, which would - if returned to operational status - negate the need for any more interaction with individuals in this timeline.

Gunning's hand lay across the arm of the command chair. He assumed that the crew had their questions about his motives by now but there wasn't much that he could do about it. They were locked into his decision and his course of action now. He hoped to hell that he wasn't wrong.

Liarra continued to monitor the scanners. Lt. Prax and the engineering team were busy trying to get the computer library back online. There wasn't much for her to do, other than monitor. She didn't really like the plan, but she knew that there wasn't much else they could do. Liarra and Alex went way back, and she knew that he was not giving any orders lightly. Still, there was something unsettling. There wasn't much on sensors coming from the Archa system. For a civilization as advanced as they are, she expected there to be a lot more traffic in and out of the system.

Dell really didn't have much to do. She had been chatting with the chief of security on the Excelsior on and off during the past hour, trading tips and tricks, though mostly trying to gain some more input about her duties from a more experienced officer rather than disclosing information herself. The older human man had been surprised when she contacted him first and introduced herself, shocked at both her age and the fact that she was female. She couldn't really blame him. Her assignment had been quite unexpected, even for her. "And then you simply use the lock to dislocate the limb, leaving your opponent in crippling pain," the human continued explaining a tricky grapple hold that could be used to subdue a stronger opponent.

Gunning's consoles on either side of his command chair began to display readings. There was something in orbit over Archa IV, the scanners were telling them that much but they were too far out to tell exactly what it was.

The ships made their way across open space and slowed to high impulse when they reached the edge of the system. All of a sudden, their progress was impeded by the appearance of a small scout vessel in their path. The crew of the Excelsior thought the whole thing quite normal. The crew of the Jackal, on the other hand, recognised the markings all too easily.

Alex stood and moved toward the front of the bridge as though he thought that the few steps between his chair and Reinhart's would allow the markings to alter sufficiently and become something entirely less menacing.

He spoke quietly: "Lieutenant Matsumoto, this isn't exactly how I wanted you to go about this but... meet the Ritorian Confederacy."

"At last," Nilani muttered, having only barely glanced out at the Ritorian ship as she continued to work on the computer, knowing that she was close. Her little cheer of success was quiet enough to be missed by most of the bridge crew, but she immediately began searching the now-operational library database for mentions of the Ritorians in this time period.

"What are the Ritorians doing out this far?" He asked, not really expecting or wanting an answer. It was obvious by now that they were conversing with the larger vessel, rather than the Jackal which was to be expected in this kind of situation.

"The Ritorians occupied the Archanis Sector during this time period," Prax said, speaking up to be heard by the entire bridge crew as she skimmed the data on the computer. "After the Excelsior's initial survey of the system, the Ritorians occupied Archa using an orbital station which somehow influenced the brainwaves of the native population." She paused in shock as she read on. "Alex... We've just dropped into the middle of the Archan's Ritorian Occupation period."

[To Be Continued...]

[OFF]