A Surprising Arrival

Posted on Mon Jul 31st, 2023 @ 8:17pm by Commander Elias Maxwell & Ensign Bart Ramsey & Lieutenant Commander Nyx Valentine & Lieutenant Absinthe Harper & Lieutenant Rose Kersey & Lieutenant Ashev & Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Jasmine Evalli

Mission: Mission 4: The Line of Duty
Location: USS Endurance | Starbase 48

ON

The Stardock-class that was Starbase 48 shone and blinked on the Viewscreen. Thousands of windows giving an air of activity. The area of space surrounding the structure was oddly packed with ships, and yet there was a lack of activity, despite the congestion.

"I've submitted a request for parking instructions." Ensign Ramsey announced from Ops. He was getting a crash course in most departments, with the Captain off ship. "Given this many ships outside, no way there's a berth on the interior."

"USS Endurance. You are cleared for docking. Prepare to slave your navigation to our Traffic Control." The voice was much gruffer than any traffic control officer.

Rose was surprised by just how gruff a tone of voice it was, she had to wonder who was manning traffic control for the Starbase.

From the center chair, where the Captain usually would sit, Nyx gaped with her jaw literally wide open. She waved her hand over the left hand console and a bright new holographic interface sprung up in front of her, receiving the request to hand over control to the computers of the Starbase. She shook her head, even though it was voice only, then snorted with sort of a laugh, “Starbase Traffic Control, I don’t think so. If you could just give us a berthing location, we can get there ourselves, thank you very much.”

"That wasn't a request, Endurance. You are ordered to relinquish Navigation to our control, immediately." A moment's pause. "Endurance. We have a situation, and cannot have a starship straying from an exact flight path. Maybe you have seen the volume of traffic."

“It’s a madhouse in there,” Ashev observed from the XO chair, offered as a guest seat in the absence of an XO. “Normally I can’t sense people from that far away but the chaos, the disarray…it’s a lot. What do you think, Counselor?”

Rose nodded. “I agree, there’s a whole lot of emotions pouring out. I don’t know what’s going on over there, but I’m not looking forward to getting inside with that level of disarray.”

"We see, Traffic Control." Nyx didn't want to admit that truth, but she also really really didn't want to let anyone into her ship's systems. She reached up to stroke Gigi's head, resting on her clavicle, even as she cast her thoughts about for a reason to not hand over control to someone else, but there really wasn't much she could think about. She scrunched her nose in disgust, then leaned back in the chair, "I've got a very good pilot, Traffic Control, he hasn't hit anything in space as of yet." She gave a low chuckle, but finally gave in and gave a wave towards her helm officer, "We're preparing to turn over navigation to you, Traffic Control, please don't scratch the paint."

The great bay doors opened at their approach. The interior of the Starbase's docking structure was as busy as expected. Ships were docked, small pods darted about. It was a hive of activity. Apart from one area. The ship seemed to be headed for a berth, with absolutely no traffic around it. Save for a cluster of pods, who's sole purpose had the appearance of keeping anyone else away.

The main Viewscreen showed only the interior bulkheads, the pattern of lit windows. It all slowly came to a stop, as the Starbase Traffic Control brought the ship to a full hault at whatever berth had been set aside, seemingly for this purpose.

Once the faint rumble of the docking arm announced a secure mooring, every screen, work station, and monitor on the bridge blinked, and a rotating seal of Starfleet Security appeared.

"What the hell?" Nyx said aloud, followed by a low whistle and a gesture with one hand that caused the drakeling around her neck to slither down into her lap where she curled up. She tapped a few buttons that did nothing, then punched in an override that again produced nothing. She wriggled her fingers as she considered how she could get back into her ship's computer systems.

“What’s happening?” Ashev asked, sensing the tension and anxiety but not seeing the screens.

"USS Endurance. This is Starbase Security. By order of Admiral Thornton, your ship is hereby impounded and the crew in lockdown. You are ordered to maintain only a skeleton duty shift, and all crew when not on duty are to remain in their quarters. Who currently is the senior most ranking officer onboard?" The question came as a surprise to the Ensign. Until then, it had sounded like an automated message. There was, in fact, a living person that sounded like a robot.

Nyx scowled at the voice and couldn't keep the anger out of her own, "That would be me, Lieutenant Commander Nyx Valentine." She stood up, ignoring the indignant growl of the drakeling as she got dumped off her perch, but immediately began swarming up the chair to regain some elevation, "I'll give the order, but I need to know what's going on and why."

"Not over a comm channel." The voice was almost amiable now the ship was under control. Almost. "Commander, a member of the Admiral's staff will come aboard to brief you. Your Deck 8 Airlock is secured with the access arm. Please meet them there."

"I'll be there to meet them. Endurance out." Nyx gestured for the comm to be turned off and spun on her heel to face the Captain's chair, where Gigi perched on the arm. It wouldn't be good for the drakeling to accompany her to meet the Admiral's staffer, not as angry as she was about Endurance being taken over. "Lieutenant Ashev, watch over Gigi for me? I'll be back for her shortly."

The doctor whistled and held his arm out, permitting Gigi to hop from Nyx to him. He gave a nod as the drakeling settled across the back of his neck.

“Commander” Rose looked towards Nyx. “Permission to accompany you?”

Nyx pondered for no more than a pair of heartbeats at the thought of bringing her along, then nodded. At the least, she’d have a witness to whatever happened. Maybe things would go smoother with someone else there as well, couldn’t hurt, that’s for sure. “Right, you’re with me, Lieutenant Kelsey.”

Rose nodded. “Thank you Captain” She stood up from her seat and joined Nyx.

Absinthe narrowed her eyes. She didn't like this one little bit. Something was very wrong and it was not sitting very well at all.


==========


It was about twenty minutes before the Turbolift doors opened again. Nyx, Rose,and three unknown Officers stepped out. The senior-most of them, and full Commander in red. As the group crossed the Bridge to the Observation Lounge, the unknown commander shot a galnxe at the Viewscreen, a wave of irritation and exasperation coming from the man. "Counsellor, I'd appreciate you being in this briefing as well." With that, Nyx, Rose, and the new officer disappeared into the Observation Lounge, the two security officers taking station outside the room, guarding the door.

Nyx waved at the rest of the bridge personnel, “As you were, just passing through.” A pause and then a whistle meant for the drakeling, which launched from Ashev’s handy perch and she made her landing on Nyx’s arm, rapidly winding her way up to her shoulder. One more glance over her shoulder and Nyx was into the conference room herself.

Rose followed on behind Nyx as they entered the conference room, she was just as interested to find out what this was all about.

Absinthe leaned back against the wall, glaring at the two security guards flanking the doorway. She folded her arms across her chest, watching and waiting.


[ Several Minutes later, Rose comes out first ]


Nyx finally exited the conference room, leading Commander Maxwell as if she had everything under complete control. "Commander, if you'd do the honors, sir?" She gestured to one of the consoles so that he could release the computer lock.

Maxwell stepped to the nearest terminal and punched in a key code. That brought up a message screen which read 'Awaiting Command'. "Override lockdown, Sigma-12 Clearance. Authentication Maxwell-Gamma-Three-Nine-Theta."

As the screens blinked back to their normal operations, Nyx reached up and stroked Gigi's head before making a gesture to her to the point where the drakeling draped herself around the neck of the officer. For her part, Nyx stepped up to the now cleared console and hit the sequence that opened up the comm for a ship-wide announcement, "Endurance, I have just been informed that we are a ship in crisis. Our Captain, Temperance Harding, has been arrested and charged with murder. A security investigation is underway and we have been asked to assist in the efforts to determine what happened and why. As such, I urge you all to cooperate with Commander Maxwell as he and his team, along with myself and other members of the crew, dig in to prove what I'm sure is Captain Harding's innocence. While we are confined to the ship, we are not confined to our work areas and quarters alone, so let's take this time to make sure everything on board is in tip-top shape. Any questions, please don't hesitate to ask your chain of command and we'll handle them as we can." She looked to Elias, "Anything from you, Commander?"

With a nod, the Commander took a breath before speaking, watching the Bridge crew, but addressing the whole ship. "My name is Commander Elias Maxwell. I have known your captain for a number of years now, and do.not believe that she is capable of this. To that end, I will be working alongside Commander Valentine -" again, with the correct pronunciation "-to prove Harding'd innocence. I know you're all confused, and probably scared. We all are. Focus on your duties, focus on each other. You have faced many impossible challenges, and come out the other side. Face this now, and together, we can get Harding back."

Ashev hadn’t known the Captain for long, but knew her enough to agree that murder was not in her character. He’d heard of Starfleet Captains that were capable of it (a fellow chief medical officer shared stories of her previous assignment), but if he had a sense that Harding was one of them, he’d never have joined the crew.

For now, he’d keep doing his duties and make himself available for Commander Maxwell and any other investigators. He stayed silent, but gave Nyx a nod.

Jasmine had been on the bridge at the secondary engineering console and watched as everything played out, "Yes, sir, we in engineering are at your service, sir." She said in a semi-squeaky voice.

"Who did she allegedly murder?" Absinthe demanded. "I want to see her, now. Then I want to see the reports on the incident." She pushed herself away from the bulkhead and took two steps forward, already mentally planning what would need to be done.

"Slow down, Lieutenant." Maxwell held a hand out to the two security people had brought with him, who had stepped forward. "The deceased in question is Captain Calliope Holbrook, the Admiral's Chief of Staff. The Command crew is getting full access to a copy of the case file. As for seeing Harding..." He looked from Nyx, to Rose, and then to Absinthe. "You all wanna see her. I get that, I do. No way in Grethor is anyone going to authorise the whole Bridge crew crashing the Brig. Give me some time, I can talk the Admiral around, but I need time to work on that. While I'm working on getting 'some' of you access to see her, I'd recommend figuring out what station security missed."

Nyx looked over the bridge crew and put on a smile she really didn't feel at the moment, but they needed to see her confident and in control of things, at the very least herself, "All right ladies and gentlemen, as soon as we identify what needs doing, we'll delegate aspects of the investigation to you all."

OFF