TBD

Posted on Monday 19 March 2018 @ 08:18 by Captain John "Apollo" Barstow, M.D. & Lieutenant Commander Kevin, Lord Kilbane of Sanquhar

Mission: Lost Souls
Location: Approach to USS Merlin
Timeline: Current.
1043 words - 2.1 OF Standard Post Measure

The call has come to Kevin through Starfleet channels that a specialist survey team were required for 'delicate operation'.

Now, during his career, he'd come across that phrase many times, and basically, it meant one of two things. One, those calling it in had no idea how to deal with it and wanted someone to take the lead so that plausible deniability was on the table if it went pear shaped, or two, it was an embarrassing situation that needed to be hushed up....and quickly, so who better than a Security detail!

This time, reason one was the culprit. From what little information he was given, Kevin knew a Starfleet vessel that had been reported as MIA had mysteriously turned up.....but nobody could explain why?

Hi team was to rendezvous with a Captain Barstow to receive further orders. The carrier they were in had already been in contact with the Captains long range shuttle and were now docking with it.

Minutes later, Kevin was shown where Captain Barstow was and he approached the officer. Coming to a halt and standing the regulation three steps back, he came to attention, saluted, held out the PADD he had in his hand and said "Captain Barstow, I'm Lieutenant Commander Kilbane, I have orders to rendezvous with you and receive further instructions Sir"

John had just returned from his mission when he’d been told the Merlin had disappeared. The Captain had spent months trying to track the ship with little success until a few days before when he came across a report the Merlin had been found submerged in the ocean of an uninhabited planet. Barstow had not made it to inspect the ship yet, deciding to get assistance from Starfleet.

John returned the salute before taking the mans PADD, “Commander, welcome to the mystery cruise,” he replied and motion to the other man to relax, “before I start how much do you know already?” He asked.

"Thank you Sir" Kevin replied "all I was told was that the USS Merlin had been missing for some time and now it's suddenly and inexplicably turned up and we're tasked with finding out where it's been, why it went missing and how it's come to be where it now is."

Apollo nodded and sat in a nearby chair with a sigh, “well, from what I read Merlin was investigating a planet. They were sending an away team and that was the last report, six months ago,” the Captain exploded, “now it has reappeared on an oceanic worl without its crew.”

Kevin nodded his head and replied "Has a preliminary survey been made as to whether the ship has remained air tight or has been flooded Sir, or will that be another of our tasks to find out?"

“That is something we’ll need to find out,” Barstow replied, “I ordered no one was to board her until we arrived.”

"Can I ask who else is on the recovery team Sir?" Kevin asked.

“The USS Grissom is on site,” John replied and leaned his arms on his knees, “they are keeping the planet secure and scanning the sector for any irregularities,” he added and pulled a PADD off a nearby console, “so far nothing, it’s beyong strange.”

"Ok" Kevin replied "and in regards to individual personnel, do we have any idea who will be joining us" and he gestured between them both "on actually going on board the Merlin itself?"

“At first just the two of us,” Barstow replied, “after that, the rest of your team as well as the replacements rotating in for crew that were transferred out before Merlin disappeared.”

"If I may Sir, I'd like to make a recommendation of one other to come in with us" Kevin said "Shr'Nesh Karadis is a mission specialist, adaptive to this kind of situation as she has Security training, computer skills and a little engineering knowledge."

Apollo thought for a second before nodding, “alright, but I want to be there when she accessed the computer core,” the Commander replied then took a breath, “my six year old daughter was aboard.....” he explained and trailed off.

"Absolutely Sir, we won't make a move without your say so" Kevin answered "and I had no idea about your daughter being on board Commander, I hope we can find her safe and well" he finished.

"I'd like to keep that between us, I am here for my crew as much as my daughter, but, I wanted to let you know it's a little more personal too," Barstow explained before standing up, "we should get under way, unless you have any questions," the senior officer asked.

"It's a big ship Sir, and as much as we may find answers in the computer as to what happened to the ship, we'll still have to manually check it...how will we manage with just a small insertion recovery team?" Kevin asked.

"All we're after to start is just any data we can get from the computer, after that we'll send for bigger teams of security and engineers," John replied, "I want to keep what we find between us three for now, until we know what happened, so the information doesn't get spread over the quadrant," he added, his time on assignment undercover still making him overly cautious.

"I understand Sir" Kevin replied "will we be sending a code blue report on anything we find in the core to Starfleet Central, or will we using covert communications?"

"Covert for now," John replied, "at least until we pull her up. I'm worried about what put her down there, but, I'm also worried about a salvage crew claiming her before we can go down," he explained, "I know I might seem paranoid," the senior officer added as he thought about what he'd laid out and chuckled.

"Not at all Sir" Kevin replied "Shall we get ourselves ready and go in?"

The CO nodded, "aye, I'll bring us into orbit, you contact Grissom and them know we're here and to have the crew who were rotating in to be on standby in about two hours. That'll give us enough time to access what we need to."

"Aye Sir" Kevin replied, moving over to the communications console....


TBC