Unforseen Complcations

Posted on Friday 17 July 2020 @ 20:11 by Captain Melody Jones & Commander Save'ena (Sav) Tillatix & Commander Caroline Miller & Major Richard "Wolf" Johnson, Psy.D. & Lieutenant Marbim Rejal & Lieutenant Commander Hayley Godding

Mission: A Whale of a problem (We're going to need a bigger boat)
Location: Main Bridge
Timeline: MD1 0900
2126 words - 4.3 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Melody walked onto the bridge from the ready room. It was a new day and she had slept really well. The previous mission had ended and they had said goodbye to their new friends (and old) on the Andromeda and the Europa and were back on course to Sector 715 to resume patrol. She smiled warmly at Rejal as she sat down in her seat. "Good morning Number One. Everything Status Quo?"

With a straight face, Miles looks up, "Well a Borg cube stopped by to say good morning, outside of that everything is in the green."

At Mile's words, Sav's tail stopped for a moment, and then resumed its gently movements in accordance to the, right now, happy state of the Mephetian. She still had pleasant thoughts about the communication call with her Sister, and Miles now had a chance to see the normal coloration state of her race, as Sav was the 'not normal'. She decided to chance it and add to what Mile's had spoke out, "Don't forget they told us 'Resistance if Futile' before asking for directions to Neverland, Second to the right and straight on til morning."

Melody managed a small chuckle "I think we've had our fill of Borg. I don't know about anyone else but I could go quite happy the rest of my life not seeing another cube." She straightened her uniform with sharp downward tug "It would be nice to make first contact with a race that didn't want to assimilate us on sight for once."

Grinning Miles looks at the viewscreen, "I wonder if there's a race that might force us to eat chocolate ... that'd be a nice culture I think."

Sav chortled at that comment and then added, "And Strawberries... chocolate and strawberries... I think I know what is for dessert tonight."

Checking his station, Miles gets in the last word, "Maybe we'll have an ice cream social with the next alien race, that would sure throw the rest of the Captaincy off their game..." Hearing a beeping noise, Miles leans out, and looks over at the sensor area, "Hey what's that beeping down there?"

Hayley had been listening to the exchange from the tactical station with some degree of amusement. At the first officer's query, she brought up the sensor data that was being highlighted by the long range sensor feed. "We have an unidentified object closing on our position, bearing seven seven eight mark four. The object... whatever it is, it's absolutely massive. Sensors indicate that it's over seventy-four kilometers in length with a mass of five hundred thousand tonnes."

Sav immediately dropped her banter and focused on her flying of the Merlin. She was ready to respond to any needs of the Captain and the Merlin.

That grabbed Melody's attention "On Screen!"

The image on the viewscreen changed to an ominous black cylinder with a lone antenna, almost like an eye protruding from the bottom near the front.

"My God!" Melody exclaimed softly, the slightly louder "Is that what I think it is?" Remembering a class from the academy on Earth history.

"It looks like .... a really old probe. I think I remember seeing during a history class at the academy," Caroline stated, leaning forward.

Sav's muzzle crinkled as she thought about her Academy years, and she whispered out, "Whales?"

Melody stood and came to stand beside Sav and explained "Humpback whales. Massive mammals that live in the oceans of Earth. They are about 16 meters in length and can weigh up to 50 tons. In the late 23rd Century, the species was extinct and a Probe, like this one, was apparently sent to see what happened to them. Its transmission was so powerful it disabled all spaceships and starbases it encountered and almost vaporized Earth's oceans. The planet was only saved by Captain Kirk and crew who traveled back in time and returned with two humpback whales from the past. The probe then left. A ship was despatched to investigate but it was never heard from again."

Miles spoke out, "Why is it Earth that is always having probes sent to it? I guess I was asleep that day, why did the probe come in the first place, and what's so special about these aquatic mammals? This wasn't covered in any of my Cardassian training..."

"We're not entirely certain. We know that these whales are highly intelligent and existed on Earth over ten million years earlier than mankind, however, they were extensively hunted and killed by Man and the species went extinct in the late twenty-first century." Melody paused and added "Not exactly our finest hour. It was surmised that an alien race sent the probe to determine why they lost contact."

Hayley noted a change on her readout and spoke up. "Captain, there is a faint transmission being detected. It's not very powerful but it is a Starfleet frequency, a very old one, but it is legitimate."

Melody frowned "On a Starfleet frequency? That doesn't make sense."

"It's a set of co-ordinates being repeated over and over again, no voice or image transmission, just these spacial co-ordinates. According to our starcharts, the location is about twenty light-years from our current position and seems to follow the trajectory of the probe's origin." Melody replied.

The young ensign piped up again "Captain, we are picking up a transmission but it's not very powerful and it's on a Starfleet frequency. It's a set of co-ordinates repeated over and over again. The location is about twenty light-years from our current location and it seems to correspond to the trajectory of the probe."

Sav churred gently, "First time was for whales, why not second time for the other keepers of Terra?"

Melody turned to Rajel "I think it's worth trying to locate who sent these probes and why. We also might find out what happened to the original ship that was sent to investigate. What do you think number One?"

"I think we have an opportunity to gain some answers from a, what is it now, 100-year-old mystery, let's go for it."

Sav touched her panel and the coordinates were input into the helm station. She called out, "Coordinates at the ready, Sir."

Word had gotten to the Marine Commander about what had been discovered. Wolf decided to come up and see what was going on first hand and had stepped off at the tail end of the conversation. He raised an eye brow as he stepped up into the Bridge auxiliary two station at the aft of the Bridge and pulled up the sensor data and visual. interesting, he thought to himself before he looked up at the viewscreen through the holographic display.

Melody smiled "Thank you Commander. Alter our course and take us to warp 7 please."

Sav responded, "Aye Aye, Sir." She allowed the entered course to become the true one. As the ship shifted towards that course, the ship entered warp and began climbing towards Warp 7.

Melody turned and started to head back to her chair when she spotted the new arrival on the bridge. "Good morning Major. It seems something else has arisen to postpone our regular patrol." She gestured to the viewscreen "Another face from the past.."

Wolf just nodded, "we don't need to capture a bird of prey, slingshot around the sun and find two whales named George and Gracie, do we?" he asked with a smirk as he typed a command on his board to put the Marines in a standby status should they be called on.

At the sound of Wolf's voice, Sav's body language showed astonished as she momentarily froze, but that lasted only briefly as she continued to pilot the ship. In her mind was, 'Wolf is here? WOLF IS HERE? I want.. to catch up with him later.. I hope he hasn't changed that much.. unlike the others..'

Melody chuckled "You make it sound so easy Major. I'm not sure I like the idea of getting involved in time travel. The last thing we need is a visit from temporal investigations. Let's hope it down come to that, Eh?"

Sav called out from the helm, "Warp 7, Sir." She did not expect acknowledgement as this was a status update to Melody's earlier order.

Melody sat in her seat and turned to Godding. "Lieutenant. Please send a message to Starfleet, priority one. Tell them what we've encountered and that we're altering course to investigate. Tell them I'll keep them informed and will be in touch when we have more information They also might want to dispatch a ship to keep an eye on the probe."

"Aye Captain," Hayley replied. Amusingly, she'd already anticipated this likely instruction from Melody and had prepared a burst communication that contained all their sensor data as well as their intentions. She added in the additional instruction to request a ship to shadow the probe, making sure that the Captain didn't intend to leave someone in a shuttle to follow it. The image in her mind brought back an amusing scene from a terrible old Earth movie she'd watched with Sansa called 'Hot Shots' where the Admiral's hat had blown off and he ordered that a man go out in a rowboat to rescue it. "Starfleet confirm receipt of message Captain."

"Thank you, Lieutenant." Melody had a thought. "I think we should leave a probe of our own to keep an eye on this thing till another ship gets here. Please ready a Class one probe, full sensor array and subspace communications package. Let's see if it can find out any more information while we're en route."

"Yes Captain." Hayley replied and arranged for the preparation of the probe. To add the additional packages to the probe would require a couple of technicians to go down there and physically ram the things into the device, but that should only take a few moments. Indeed, within a minute of the request, the computer reported that the necessary probe was ready for deployment from torpedo room eleven. There probably had been a probe equipped in that configuration laying around and the duty specialist had just arranged for it to be placed in the launcher. Activating the launch sequence, Hayley confirmed it was clear of the tube. "Probe away, receiving telemetry ten by ten, Captain." She announced.

"Very good." Melody acknowledged before standing and look at Rajel. "Number One you have the bridge. Maintain course and speed. Let me know if anything changes. I'm going to see if I can dig up any more information in the records about the original probe and how it compares to our friend out there. I'll be in my ready room."

"Yes mam. Sensors, as we're moving through these regions, check if there are any anomalies or stellar events that we may want to come back and explore once we track down the source of the probe's origin."

Caroline turned to the XO after the Captain had left. “So Cardassians are not big on probes?”

Sav barely maintained her composure as a snorted giggle tried to escape at the entrende in Caroline's question to Miles. A 'hrmm' still managed to escape her from her personal musings, though.

“No Sav,” she said hearing the snort. “I’m curious. Culturally how do the Cardassians keep pace with science breakthroughs if you're not fond of probes? If you do mind me asking sir?” She directed at Rejal. “I just thought that sending a probe was the go to move to ensure safety when investigating.”

Covering a snort of his own as a cough, Miles blushes slightly. "To tell you the truth Counselor, most of our information was taken from illegal ships entering Cardassian space. When we joined the Dominion, well we salvaged what data we could that we didn't have already. Unfortunately, that is part of my culture's downfall, we've been on an aggressive stance for centuries so we don't do exploring like the Federation or other races. We've also paid for information on our enemies from time to time, at least that's what my Grandparents told me when I was young. Of course, there are also double agents working for the Black Order who send information home, from time to time..." Sliding his eyes over to Caroline he shoots her an evil grin.

Sav caught the wicked humor by Miles, but kept to herself. She just knew that Caroline had picked it up, and would have a witty reply. Sav herself was still learning, and knew she was behind the curve for knowing and learning about insight banter. She would enjoy, and learn, from others as they wickedly bantered back and forth.

Caroline slid back comfortably in her chair. “Oh sir. There are double agents everywhere.” She smiled innocently at him.

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