A whale of a tail

Posted on Saturday 14 November 2020 @ 16:34 by Captain Hans Andersson & Captain Melody Jones & Lieutenant Marbim Rejal

Mission: A Whale of a problem (We're going to need a bigger boat)
Location: Bridge / Captain's ready room
Timeline: MD 6 1800 1830
2132 words - 4.3 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

When the runabout had landed, Melody and the rest of the away team were checked out by sickbay before she and Captain Andersson went up to the bridge.

Stepping off the turbolift, Melody and Hans approached the first officer. "Number One, this is the captain of the USS Darwin, Captain Andersson.

Andersson extended his hand "Pleasure to meet you."

Looking Melody up and down Miles grins, "I guess I don't need to remind you next time about Captain's staying aboard ship?" Turning to Anderson Miles reaches out and shakes hands, "Commander Marbim Rejal sir, my friends call me Miles. Welcome aboard the Merlin. I'm glad to meet you. How is your crew holding up, we have medical teams and counsellors at their disposal..."

"I think everyone is glad to be back in the real world" Andersson replied. On the trip up to the bridge, Melody and briefed him on a Cardassian as her first officer. Hell... If the Federation could make peace with Klingons he was willing to accept anything at this moment in time.


Melody gestured to the ready room. "Join us please Number one so we can catch up on what's been happening.

Nodding Miles moves into the room and heads for the replicator, "Can anyone use a drink, we have an expanded database from many worlds..."

"Some tea for me please," Andersson replied. "I'm looking forward to crawling into a real bed. I must say this ship of yours is a technological marvel. Food replicators, holodecks. I'm still taking it all in.

"Melody nodded "We won't keep you long Captain," Melody said as she got a cup of coffee for herself and sat down behind her desk. "So Number One, It appears our old friend The Puppet Master has been up to his old tricks. It appears it infiltrated the alien planet and inserted itself into their plane of existence. They call it the Etheria. The away team spent quite a bit of time there. Once the puppet master was removed it seems these alines are willing to peaceful co-existence with us and to that end have agreed to an exchange of ambassadors. Some of our people are staying on the planet and..." she hesitated before continuing "One of them has joined with one of our crew in order to experience our reality.

Turning with a cup of tea in one hand, and a raktajino in the other, Melody can see the flash of rage that comes and vanishes on Miles' face. "We really need to do something about that. Having that thing lose in the galaxy will only spell disaster down the line." Handing Anderson a cup of earl grey tea with honey and milk, Miles takes his seat. "Nine hours you were gone. In nine hours you successfully completed a First Contact mission, that must be one for the record books."

Melody took a long drink of her coffee. "You may one to sit down for this Number one... It's going to take some explaining. Captain Andersson bear with me."

Anderson got comfortable. he knew some of the particulars that he was now realising the first officer did not.

Melody took a deep breath. "So... it turns out the Megapteraians exist as physical entities but dwell at the bottom of the ocean. The Etheria is where their consciousness interacts with each other. The Crew of the Darwin have been in this Etheria since they were taken by the Megapteraians. They wanted to learn more about us as the only knowledge they had of us was from their communication with the Humpback whales on Earth which stopped, hence why they sent the probe. They don't use technology like ours, the Probe, and the island down there was more grown than constructed. The probe's mission was to find the Humpback whales, they did not realize what the probe would do to accomplish its mission and how it damaged Earth. Now at some point, a probe crashed on the planet, undetected containing the Puppet Master artificial intelligence. It managed to infiltrate the Etheria and posed as one of the Megapteraians, convincing them that all humans were evil and needed to be punished. When we arrived on the surface, we were cacoon on the island and our minds brought into the Etheria where we met the leader of their council, Owan.
Owan explained that what we were seeing was merely our perception of what was happening. At first, the council did not trust us and wanted to punish the away team for the crimes of humanity against the Humpback whales.
I persuaded Owan to" She paused as this was one of the things Rajel was likely to take exception to "spare the rest of the away team and punish me only on behalf of the away team and for the human race. Now while this was going on the rest of the away team met a resistance leader by the name of Tann who opposed the council's decision to punish the humans and wanted to have peaceful relations with us."
She took another breath, another bombshell coming up she thought. "Tann apparently had got Sansa to stow away on the runabout going down to the planet to warn us about Owan and the council's intentions. They brought her into the Etheira to show the council that we were indeed peaceful and worth of relations with.
Meanwhile, I was brought before the council as some of them were having doubts about the punishment and I met Harn, which was really the puppet master in disguise. He was heavily influencing the Council to ignore our plea and punish us.
With Tann's help, Lieutenant Godding managed to leave the Etheria and interfere with the Puppet Masters probe, thereby revealing his true nature to the Megapteraians and he promptly blew himself up to avoid capture in a very grand gesture. With the Puppet Master defeated, the Megapteraians agreed to peaceful relations. They agreed to release us and the Darwin crew and have some of our ambassadors enter the Etheria and learn more about them while.." Another pause and the final bombshell. "One of their own, a Megapteraian named Fay is now inside Sansa, sharing her body to experience our reality. I believe that covers everything." Melody finally said and took another drink of coffee.

Captain Andersson's jaw was on the floor, and he had experienced most of it.

Melody now braced herself for her XO's response.

While Melody was recounting her and the away missions' perils, the colour of his face was slowly draining away. Once she finishes he plays with his raktajino then clears his throat and looks at her. "I'd love to yell, rant, and rave, and quote innumerable regulations, however, I'll let your husband do that. What worries me now is Fay and Sansa. Do we have any clue of what is really happening between them, and whether Fay will leave when asked. Second, and perhaps foremost, The Puppet Master. Is there anything left of his probe that we can use to track him, or figure out where he was after our last encounter? I think we need to discuss his existence with Starfleet and get a task force hell-bent on hunting him down before he tries to eliminate the human race some other way. Thirdly, next time you decide to take the punishment for the human race, ask yourself one simple question, "Who's going to watch over Sansa if I'm not around."

"Those are some good questions Number one," Melody replied. "Firstly in regards to Fay, we found out you can talk directly to Sansa if you want and Sansa can hear and see everything that is going on. We spoke to her after Fay had joined with her on the planet. Fay has also said she would be unable to stay in Sansa if she was unwilling to have her in there. Sansa is also aware of Fay's thoughts and said she could feel no deception.
As to the Puppet master's probe. Lieutenant Godding was able to make some scans of the probe but it seems the Puppet Master was quite efficient in blowing it up. She stayed on the surface to prepare the diplomatic officers that were sent down. She'll be returning shortly. There was nothing left but a smoking hole in the island. I've sent a full report to Starfleet command and I'm waiting for a response. I felt it necessary to take the punishment on behalf of the away team as I knew the crew would be able to work together and get me out of it."

That went better than I expected, she thought to herself.

Muttering under his breath in Cardassian, he looks up at the ceiling. "If it was a probe, can we track where it came from, or if it was communicating with something in orbit? If he just vanished, then I'm worried he is a Q-like being. If not, then he had to be close enough to project his image to the Etheria." Looking back at Melody, "I want to know why this being is hell-bent to destroy us. I'd like to spend some time going back over all the recorded conversations we've had with it, and see if I can glean anything we can use. We've seen him control Borg cubes, and now insert himself into an alien-created world, we need to find some countermeasure against him."

Looking over to Captain Andersson, Miles smiles, "Need something stronger Captain, I can lay my hands on something with a bit more kick than that tea..."

Andersson shook his head. "No thank you Commander, In fact, if you don't mind Commander, Captain I'm going to call it a night."

"Of course Captain. Good night."

Miles stands, "Good night Sir."

Andersson stood and exited the ready room.

Once Andersson exits, Miles begins heading for the replicator...

Melody turned back to Rajel. "As far as the Puppet master is concerned it seems to have declared war on all biological lifeforms, on us in particular. When Lieutenant Godding returns, see if she managed to get any information from the scans of the probe. Where it came from? Was it transmitting anything? Anyway, that's what happened to the away team. What was happing up here?"

Stopping dead in his tracks, he turned, "Well, as soon as we lost communications with the away team, something began draining our power. Rathburn couldn't do anything to stop it. I had the marines begin helping all non-essential personnel to the centre of the ship. I activated Morgan, and she gave me a couple of ideas, such as sending a team out to investigate the stuff that had begun to grow on the hull. One of the science team members lost a chisel, and then we realized that the goo absorbed phaser fire. So we brought them back in. I was sure Starfleet was going to find us floating in space, encased in a crystalline substance, all of us mummified. As it was, someone suggested we use music to counteract the goo. I don't know if it worked or not, as that is the point in your story when the Megapteraians released you and the rest of the team. Once that happened, the goo dissipated. The crew responded to the threat rather well. I just wish I hadn't felt like I was floundering. So many things went wrong all at once, definitely not a contingent they covered at the Academy. perhaps we should mention that to someone."

“Sounds like a regular Kobashi Maru. The Megapteraians can control the basic elements on the planet with their minds. They must have created the cocoon around the Merlin as they did around the Darwin. To be honest their only information on humanity came from their communication with the Humpback whales and I can’t imagine they painted a very good picture of us so. Then the Puppet Master managed to poison their minds more with its lies so I suppose I’m glad we were able to expose it when we did and make first contact the right way. Anyway, I think I’m going to be calling it a night myself soon. As you say I’ve got to have ‘that’ talk with Draxx about Sansa which I’m not looking forward to. I’ll see you in the Morning Commander.”

His colour changed a bit as Melody mentioned the Kobiashi Maru, then it returned to normal. "I know Sansa has been exploring that music, maybe it would be possible to search other known reaches of space for sounds or music that matches the same wavelengths. Maybe there are more whales, or, Megapteraians out there that haven't been encountered yet. Anyway, that's all above my paygrade. I'll see you in the morning Captain."

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