Information Dump

Posted on Friday 14 September 2018 @ 19:19 by Commander Cale Llewellyn DSci & 1st Lieutenant John Kayhill

Mission: The New Collective
Location: TIC
1129 words - 2.3 OF Standard Post Measure

John walked into the TIC, escorted by a Bajoran corpsman. He had been let out of sickbay under the rule that he would return after a very short meeting with the Chief of Strategic Operations. Although his cuts and bruises had been fixed with a dermal regenerator, his left arm was in a sling as it would be a while before he could get a prosthetic.

Stopping a crewman, he said, "I'm looking for Commander Llewellyn."

The crewman indicated an office and John nodded in thanks and head for the office and knocked on the edge of the open door.

"Commander Llewellyn?" he asked.

"Yes, can I help you, Lieutenant?" he turned and asked the newcomer.

"I'm Lieutenant John Kayhill", John said sticking out his hand. "This fine lady, in case you haven't met hr, is Corpsman Aniese. She is here to make sure that I leave after fifteen minutes, doctor's orders."

Llewellyn was annoyed by the intruder but decided that the man had a reason for being here and thus had a reason for interrupting him. "A pleasure to meet you, Corpsman Aniese," he said. "Now what can I do for you, Lieutenant?" Cale said again.

"Ten minutes sir", the corpsman said.

"I could have sworn the doctor said fifteen", John said.

The corpsman tapped the padd with sickbay's directive for his brief release.

"Ok, ten", John replied. "Anyways, the Captain said he wanted me to come speak with you."

"Yes he did. What can you tell me what you know about our new Borg threat? Oh and how is that arm?"

"Arm is fine sir", John answered. "I seemed to have left my hand in my other pockets. As far as the Borg, seeming as I only have about 9 minutes left, I'll be succinct. I am pretty certain that our Borg friends have gone from being interested in assimilating our races to wanting to kill us. They do it under the guise of wanting to dispense justice on the various races of the Federation for our crimes against them. And what makes it scary is that I don't believe it is a rogue node. I think this is an over-riding attitude in the collective, to the point of becoming a command."

"Most interesting. I was trying to extrapolate the Borg's course heading when they warped out but they seem to be able to disperse their warp trail before they left. Which seems to suggest they don't want us following them for some reason or another. Captain Barstow wants a briefing in an hour so I've been trying to come up with ways to track them; all for bust I'm afraid," Llewellyn hung his head in shame. "Do you have any Marine tricks up your other sleeve, Lieutenant," Cale said with a small smile trying to defuse the tense situation.

"Well, the Borg fled when the Agamemnon arrived", John said with a nod. "So, either their ship took a fair amount of damage or me and my team took out a significant amount of their crew. I lost count, probably about twenty-thirty of them. For a small scout of that size, that's usually around 20-30 percent of its crew. So, I would say we need to be looking at the next closest population center as I think they might regroup with a larger ship or the closest hiding spot as they could potentially just hide and regenerate. What is our current location? Are we still near the colony?"

"We are still in orbit of the planet, yes, Lieutenant. Aha, I like your thinking," Cale looked at the lieutenant with brimming respect and tapped his combadge, "Ensign Cormier, scan for Borg signatures and report your findings to me immediately. Well, Lieutenant, I'd say your time is up and you've proven to be even more helpful than I thought. The captain did say he wanted to speak to you so I'd go find him and do so ASAP. Oh and Lieutenant, if there's anything else you can remember, please let me know, won't you?"

"More helpful than you thought?", John replied, with a smirk. "You must have set the bar pretty low if that bit of information was more helpful than you thought."

He then grew quiet and looked deep in thought and walked over to the holographic star map of the area. A 'Hmm' escaped him.

"Computer, show me planets, Starfleet facilities, and documented Federation ship travel lanes within two days at warp 9 from here."

The computer beeped in compliance and the starmap changed some. He looked at it closer.

"10 to 1 they are heading to the Mergali system", John said. "It is a Starfleet experimental research and testing system. A small orbiting base,base, planet side facility, and usually there is a starship there, but it is only a Wallace class. I bet with the Borg alert, their ship has changed its patrol area to be able to respond to a few of the colonies nearby, especially Tara Nicro, which is the largest one in the area, until reinforcements arrive. Either we protect the colonists or we protect the research centers."

"Lieutenant, the bar is always set high when I'm in the room. I meant 'for a Marine'. It's common knowledge that as the former XO and CSciO of this ship, that I don't think much of Marines and also that I don't think Marines have no place on Starfleet ships or installations. So that being said, you have come to the end of your time here. Go and find the captain and meet with him.

"It's also known that our warp drive is down in any event. So, we are at a standstill for the time being. And so I'm mistaken, we're unable to protect anyone and with the Agamemnon protecting us, they too are unable to protect anyone else. Unless, Captain Barstow orders them away. But then again, that decision lays with him."

Kayhill listened to the Commander, cocked his head briefly, and then said, "Aye, to the Captain it is."

He started to walk out of the TIC and then stuck his head back in-side and quipped, "One last thing sir, remember, it wasn't Starfleet security who kept the colonists alive long enough for you to pick them up."

With that, he smiled, gave a salute with two fingers, and ducked out quickly enough so the Commander didn't have time to reply. Shaking his head, he thought ,'So glad I am not stationed on this ship.'

'Thank God, he's not stationed here but if Barstow has anything to say about it I'm sure he will be before too long,' Cale said to himself.

---

Lieutenant Commander Cale Llewellyn, DSci
Strategic Operations Second Officer
USS Merlin

&

1st Lieutenant John Kayhill
Marine Battalion CO
USS Merlin