Investigaing further

Posted on Friday 6 November 2020 @ 15:31 by Lieutenant Breana Rathburn & Captain Melody Jones

Mission: A Whale of a problem (We're going to need a bigger boat)
Location: Eng. Office
Timeline: MD 6 2000
951 words - 1.9 OF Standard Post Measure

As the other's had left to for the Bridge, Rathburn headed to her office. Of course, first thing she did was flip the computer so she could keep an eye on the slow retreat of the glob that was covering her ship. Grabbing another mug of java, she took a sip before starting the slow pace within her office as she pondered things. Something still wasn't setting right with her and she couldn't figure out what that was.

What was it about the Ensign that had her on edge. how is it he said some magic word and suddenly... it was like a switch had been flipped and the glob had retreated. Why had he not mentioned it earlier? How had it known? What had he not told them? So many questions raced though her head as she took it all in with a sigh. What did they really know about the Ensign? She didn't like unanswered questions and this mess left her gritchy for answers.

"Ensign Killian to Engineering please" Breana said with a tap to her badge before she moved to her computer to see what she could learn from his jacket. Maybe she was reading more into things, maybe there was something more at play here. But, she wasn't going to wait, she wanted some kind of answers sooner rather than later.

Killian had just finished ferrying some of the Darwin crew up from the planet and has been laughing and joking with them. Turn's out Starfleet crew from over 100 years ago were pretty cool. He had been amazed to hear what had happened to them down on the planet, and what had happened to the Captain and the Captain's daughter. 'I suppose that's why she sits in the big chair. Managing to make peace with an alien race' he thought to himself. 'Still, I don't know if I would be happy having an alien inside my daughter's head.'

He heard the summons over the comm system by the Chief Engineer and he raised an eyebrow. "I wonder what she wants? He immediately headed down to engineering, no wanting to keep her waiting.

He entered and came straight up to her. "Ensign Killian reporting. What can I do for you lieutenant?"

Breana looked at Killian a moment before motioning to the chair. "You can sit if you want and do you want something to drink?." After all, she didn't want the Ensign to feel like she was attacking him or anything. "I just have a few questions for you. Somethings not sitting right with me and I don't like being left hanging. So figured I would talk to you."

Lifting her mug for a drink before she continued. "What made you think music, and why did you wait so long to bring it up while we were brainstorming ideas? And what an odd coincidence that no sooner did you bring it up, that the glob started backing off. Any idea's on that one?" Of course as she said all that she could almost picture her brother shaking his head at her crazy conspiracy idea's.

"After being out on the hull and seeing this stuff in action Lieutenant, I was very doubtful that playing this thing some tunes would have any effect," he answered in his usual witty tone. "It broke my favourite chisel like it was made of glass, ate up phaser fire like it was candy and almost tossed me off into space." He leant in closer and whispered, not wanting everyone to hear. "Apparently, it was the Captain who did it. Made it stop that is."

Ok, so the guy took a lucky guess when he mentioned it? But still, how did it explain the strange coincidence? As she started to say something, to question that a bit more, Bree paused as she heard that last part. "Wait, the Captain? She wasn't even on the ship at the time, how would she have done it?"

"Well..." He leaned in closer and lowered his voice. "I've just brought up a load of people from the planet. They were the crew of the USS Darwin. The original crew! They've been trapped in this sort of mental landscape for the past 100 years. The alines surrounded them in these cacoons. Their ship too. These aliens can make that stone stuff grow anywhere and they can control it, they were surrounding our ship with it."

Breana listened quietly as she worked to decipher everything the Ensign was saying. "But what does the Captain have to do with anything?"

"I was getting to that part." He replied. "The away team were also in this mental landscape and the Captain managed to negotiate a peace treaty with these aliens, which freed the Darwin crew, their ship and ours. I tell you, my hat goes off to her." He added with a look of respect. "I was thinking earlier, she must really trust these aliens, to let them do that to her daughter."

"To let...." Bree dropped it with a shake of her head. Clearly this was going to be one interesting debriefing and hopefully one that will be able to answer the rest of her questions. Sighing softly, she gave a little nod of her head. "Thank you for answering my questions." She said with a warm smile.

"Not a problem Lieutenant." Killian answered with a smile. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"No, that is all. You're free to go Ensign, and thank you for your information." Rathburn replied as she lifted her mug for another drink and pondered what she'd just been told. Research and another talk seemed to be in her near future it seemed.

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