Re-establishing contact

Posted on Friday 21 May 2021 @ 11:41 by Captain Melody Jones & Commander Save'ena (Sav) Tillatix & Lieutenant Marbim Rejal & Lieutenant Nir’anyar & Major David Scarlet & Gunnery Sergeant Alexander Beck

Mission: A Cry from the Darkness
Location: Administrators office, Colony Ceti Beta 4
Timeline: MD 7 0900
3400 words - 6.8 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Melody and the extraction team entered the colony office. Melody was keen to find out what had been happening down here and back on the ship. She had sent word for the XO to meet them here. When Melody entered, instead of finding the colony administrator, they found his assistant in an apparent state of shock.

Quickly she turned to Anya "See if you can do anything for him." She came over to him, trying to keep her voice low so as not to startle him "What happened here?"

Medical tricorder in hand and the scanner wand already whirring to life, Anya moved up behind the gentleman and started running the device over him and as suspected, it was shock, from what, possibly the attack on the colony but that started several hours ago so the shock should have been less severe at this point... something else then! She quickly placed the wand back into its holster and in turn the tricorder. A quick rummage in her medical kit and she had found the mild sedative, enough to calm him down but not enough to knock him unconscious, she applied the hypospray to his arm and with a hiss the liquid permeated his epidermis and started to migrate around his body.

Sutter who was quivering still from the shock of seeing Ransa die, he blinked when the chemicals raced through his system and bringing him back into focus. "It-it was horrible, she killed him and filmed it for his family. And laughed! What makes someone like that? She wasn't happy because he called the Federation!"

Melody's face darkened, fearing she already knew the answer. "When you say 'she' you mean Fox don't you?" She held her hand up "About this high, brown hair and heavily pregnant?"

"Yes, that's her! I didn't know her name just that.. she shot him, don't know why." Sutter started to sob. "He was a good man!"

Melody let out a sigh. "It's ok, try to calm down. We're going to find her. She's got to be around here somewhere."

When she saw Rejal, Melody's spirits were lifted. "Number one! It's good to see you. I know I wasn't planning on joining you on the surface, but it appears that Miss Fox had other ideas. That is the Amelia Fox from the mirror universe. She appears to be the mastermind behind the disease and the attack on both the colony and the Merlin."

Miles's face went through several emotions ending in one that would make most people run. In a very cold voice Miles asked, "Who is this Mirror Universe Fox and why isn't she dead? Mirror Universe Cardassians are shot on sight when they are found out, they wreak havoc which cannot be allowed. Now are you and the baby ok, and do Draxx and Sansa know you are safe? I can't find Mathias, and I'm not sure what happened to all the marines."

There is a static sound from the com badges then the group will hear, "Hello, away team this is Lieutenant McPhee, can you hear me? Please answer. Do you have Captain Jones? Is she alright? If you are wondering where I am at, I am on the Merlin. As you can tell, engineering has gotten communications up and running."

With an even darker look, Miles taps his combadge, "Lieutenant, you and I will be having a conversation once I get back aboard. Yes we have the Captain. All this was orchestrated by a mirror universe culprit. Starting scanning for ships in the area, and ones that have just left. Maybe we can find her, or figure out where she went. I want medical teams and security officers trained in forensics on the ground now. We need to fix the mess this person left before we leave the system. I'll be right back." Tapping his badge to end his conversation, Miles looked at Anya, "Is there anything you need from the ship since we aren't running from phaser fire and its safer to beam it down?"

"We still need an answer in regards to a cure... I am hoping that the computer systems we saw in the cave may offer some guidance there so I will need a few system engineers to go through those data banks with a fine tooth comb... Replacement medical units and equipment... Essentially everything we had when we first established the triage centre".
Her strength and confidence while speaking to both Captain Jones and now Commander Rejal caught her a little by surprise, where had it come from. As if a weight of worry had been lifted she was communicating like an equal and not a subordinate. Interesting how situations can change one's outlook.

Tapping his combadge again Miles added to his list, "Mathias, Anya needs medical units and more equipment, equivalent to what we had on the ground and in the medical facility before all the fun started. Get some medical folks prepared, but have them in environmental suits. Anya needs all this stat so she can get this disease or whatever it is under control before we ship our people back to the Merlin."

=^="All right will send down help."=^= Mathias sounding rather gruff, or for that matter, sounding a bit offish.

Melody frowned. Where was Caroline? Why was Mathias back on the ship? Those were questions that would have to wait for the time being. "Lieutenant McPhee, can you transport down additional medical supplies and some additional security for said supplies. Commander Rejal and I will be returning to the ship as soon as the doctor has formulated a treatment. Then we'll have a full debriefing. Also, don't let any ships leave the planet, we don't need this disease spreading any further. Jones out."

She then turned to Scarlet "Retrieve those computer systems from the caves and I want these Mercenaries rounded up and detained. Take them alive if possible but you are authorised to use any means necessary if they leave you with no other options, understood?"

"Understood." Scarlet snapped to attention. Leaving the mercs sealed in the cave should have given them something to think about and possibly taken the fight out of them entirely. "With contact to the ship I'll order down a full contingent." All pretenses of this being simply a humanitarian mission were over. They'd been set up and he wasn't happy about it. At all.

"Doctor, how long to find a cure for this disease?"

"That depends on the data from the cavern... If all works in our favour and with a good wind, maybe a few hours depending on the complexity of the virus and how it seems to attach itself to the DNA strands of its host".
Anya knew it was all a little vague but until they had concrete data to work with that was the nature of medical science. "I'm sorry i can't be more specific Captain... I will keep you posted!"

Melody nodded, the turned to Rejal "Walk with me Commander."

Miles looked to his Captain, "Yes mam, one more thing." Miles turned to Sutter, "I'm sorry you've had to live with all of this, however, you said that this mirror universe leader recorded the death of Ransa, we need a copy of that recording as it might hold some clues or information that will help us track her down." Miles then looked to Melody, "Here, hold my arm Captain, I don't need Sansa or Draxx hunting me down if anything were to happen today."

Melody led the way into a smaller side room so they could talk in private. "I understand your feelings Commander but the Federation does not enforce the death penalty, and even if we did, we would not execute someone without good cause or fair trial. Now, that being said these people have attacked a Federation Starship, poisoned an entire planet so clearly, they cannot go unpunished. Unfortunately, this is not the first time that I have crossed paths with this woman. Some time ago, she assumed the identity of her counterpart in this universe, my friend who is the Xo on the Andromeda. She was then thought to have been killed when the shuttle she stole exploded. Clearly, she escaped. We must apprehend her. You're to remain in command of the away mission and when we get back to the ship, we need to have a talk with Mathias."

Miles looked sheepish for a moment. "I'm sorry Melody. It is for this reason alone that the Cardassian government has a zero-tolerance policy on mirror universe visitors, they cause too much damage. That said, you are right, we need to apprehend this MU Fox before she does anything else. What I don't understand is why I was never briefed on her. Like the Puppet Master, if we don't catch her, she'll be back again I am sorry to say. Now, we need to get you to the Merlin, any objections?"

Melody sighed, but a lost smile played on her lips. “Don't worry commander, I'm pregnant, not made of glass. We need to let the good doctor come up with a cure for this disease before we consider anyone returning to the ship. I'm not entirely happy that Lieutenant McPhee returned to the ship but I'm sure he has a good reason. This location is as secure as anywhere. Let's see what kind of resistance the Marines encounter. We got caught with our pants down the first time. We won't be making the same mistake again. What happened down here?”

Miles looked up for a moment, then started, "We beamed down and no one met us. We started towards what we thought was the Administration building, but it turned out to be their medical facility. We met with their doctor who was clueless as to what this bug was and where it came from. Ransa took us to Admin and then we bunked down for the night. That's when the chaos started. I ended up with Anya," now he looked at Melody, "that lady is fiesty, but she knows her job, she should be commended for keeping a level head and treating wounded while under fire. If we go on any more away missions, I request her to accompany me as a medical professional. Now, Anya and I ran into Mathias and his sister. The four of us evaded being captured, but Mathias was wounded, pretty bad. Anya was able to treat him enough until she got him back aboard the Merlin. As we left the building we were in, Mathias must have gone back into it, or into another as we lost sight of him. The rest of us made it to join the Marines who were mopping up the area. I understand we captured a Klingon. I'd like to talk to him if I can. If he's a hired gun, then he must have dishonored his family as no one on the Council would allow what just occurred. Now, what happened to you. Last I saw, you were on the bridge, not down here in a cave, did I hear that right, being guarded by an Orion female?"

"Well, she stopped by my cell for some smalltalk." Melody said with a wry smile. "Looks like you've been in the trenches down here. Unfortunately, it's not been much better upon the ship. They managed to infiltrate our main computer with a virus that knocked out weapons, shields, propulsions, and communications then we were boarded by several heavily armed groups. There were firer fights on several decks but we managed to repel them, not before one of them decided to kidnap me and beam me down here. I assumed Caroline took command as she was also on the bridge but now with Mathias reporting in, I'm not sure whats happened to Caroline. Hopefully, all will be revealed when we beam back. After the Doctor has found a cure for this mess."

Melody stifled a large yawn. "If you don't mind commander, I've been kept up all night in a cold and damp cave. I could do with a nap. Let me know as soon as the Doctor has anything."

Miles nodded, "Yes Ma'am. I'm going to post a couple of marines around where you're napping, I don't need anyone else trying to steal you again. If anything major comes up I'll come wake you up." Once Melody had decided where she is going to rest, Miles grabbed the nearest two marines, "Guard the Captain. Anything happens to her and they'll be hell to pay understood!" After both snap to attention, Miles headed back to the medical center, where he looked for Anya.

Once he found her, "Anya, I've contacted the Merlin, Doctor Khyl will be sending us everything you asked for. I wanted to say I'm impressed Doctor, not many medical staff would have run around under fire to provide medical care."

"We Benzites are made a sterner stuff Commander...either that or not very bright" she chuckled, or what passed as a chuckle given the gill like flap above her top lip and the tendrils protruding from it. "Thank you for the update as well. I will stand ready."

Pearl after having deposited her burden of Mirae the Orion Merc in the holding area, waved over Beck, "Gunny, we've got more people in the caves where they held the Captain, and they're going to be needing more marines to come down to bring them in. Plus from what I've been hearing they're going to be wanting another prisoner brought to Commander Rejal for questioning. Let's get with Scarlet and find out what he's needing?"

Beck nodded. "Copy that. " he said. He unslung his rifle and motioned for Pearl to lead the way.

Several other marines arrived as well, following after Pearl and Gunny and they wound up presenting themselves to Scarlet. "Sir we're ready to go in with you and..."

Just then, more marines beamed down wearing EVA suits where Scarlet, Gunny, and Pearl were at. "Ready on your command sir.!"


USS Merlin Flight Control

Sav wiped her brow, then returned to modifying a Class 6 probe with Class 5 stealth. Somebody had wiped out the Merlin's probes of the three Class 5 and three Class 6 right after the Merlin had went down from the Virus attack. Her team had to wait for main power to come back before they could start replicating more, and they had to be smart about it as replicator material for probes, shuttles, and fighters came from the same source.

Fortunately, after the briefing early morning (MD6), she had sent out the two Talon craft to setup onto a moon as well as a Lagrange point outbound from the planet. They were in passive mode, monitoring and gathering data, crew's of 4 running 2 person 12 hour shifts, with a 2 hour break here and there whenever both teams were awake to help spell mission fatigue. They were in no communications until the Merlin was fully back into play, which was being slow due to the virus really wreaking havoc on the systems.

It had not helped that the intruders got into the Flight deck and blasted the launch systems for the fighters, taking them out of play until that damage could be fixed. Fortunately for the Merlin, with three fight decks, only two were damaged, so one shuttle bay with runabouts and shuttles was still into play, except for the virus causing a lockdown of the egress doors. That egress had been fixed just 12 hours after, and fortunately, that was bay with the Talons. You never have your ECM/ECCM ships in the same hanger with the fighters, never, and she was glad their current CAG had agreed with her.

She heard a crackle over the coms. Sav smiled/grimaced at finally having coms back up. She tapped her com-badge and stated, =^= Bridge, Flight Deck, Commander Tillatix. You have shuttle bay 3 at your disposal. Power being metered for replication and Transporters, so I would suggest Shuttles for between planet excursions, just be careful, there is another small ship with stealth that has taken out our probes after we were knocked out.=^=

Bridge

=^=Commander Tillatix, there is enough power to utilize the transporters.=^= Mathias responded, =^=Therefore that is what will be happening. And if you are curious, I have been made defacto Second Officer. If there is someone or something out there that is after any other ships then it needs to be dealt with, therefore, the transporters will be the most safest and quickest way
to get people to the planet to help out. Also Commander Rejal is alive and well. "=^=

Flight Deck

=^= Lt. McPhee, thank you for the update on Second Officer Status and Commander Rejal, and I am glad they have found the cure for the virus for wider spread transporter use. On the other ship or ships, our Talons are in operation at Strategic Points. They should report in once the Merlin is fully back to full service to provide support. Again, thank you. Flight Control out. =^=

Bridge

Mathias sent a message directly through the PADD to Sav You would have loved to see Miles in action, he was right there and very helpful, helped me out. And I could tell he was thinking about you. Normally it wasn't protocol to send a personal message but, Mathias felt she needed a bit of a morale boost.

in less than a millisecond, an answer returned, Thank you for the update. Yes, you're right, I would have loved to have seen that. I... just hope his thinking of me didn't hinder his duties. I will suitably reward him upon his return. Thank you for the message, very much.

Then Mathais called Sickbay, "Doctor Khyl please get as many medical personnel you can muster, to get down to the planet, everyone must wear EVA suits. Also, the Captain has been rescued."

Kyhl wiped the sweat and blood from her brow before responding. "Understood sir, can't say we can spare many. We're still swamped with our wounded and some are still in critical condition."

In fact, Mathias made this announcement as a ship wide announcement. "The Captain has been rescued and is well. That is all."

He then tapped on the comm badge =^=Lieutenant Carter, this is second officer Lieutenant McPhee, I have been informed that there is something out there that has taken out our probes, please get out there and find that ship that has done this.=^=



Flight Control

Sav let escape a sigh of relief for the news of Melody's rescue. She almost fell over from the tension leaving her body almost all at once from the news of Melody and Miles. She wasn't sure why Mathias was second officer, but Caroline must have had a reason and was busy somewhere, maybe even on the planet helping to secure Melody's release/rescue. Else-when within her mind, she plotted and schemed about what she would reward Miles with upon his return to the Merlin, when he got away from duty. She was sure she could help him forget about 'duty' and think about 'pleasure' for a while.

After taking some swigs of her cold coffee, she returned to her task with the Class 6 probe while asking a nearby Ensign about shuttle bays One and Two for their repair status and return to operation. She wanted them ready for their fighters for sweeping the area for any ship or ships found out by the Talons on their sensor sweep mission.

OFF:

OCC: Jones. Hi all. Could we have final tags and sign off on this by Saturday 22nd May 2021. Thanks

○●● Lieutenant Commander Marbim Rejal
Executive Officer
USS Merlin


●● Lieutenant Mathias McPhee
Chief Operations Officer
USS Merlin


●●●● Captain Melody Jones
Commanding Officer
USS Merlin


●● Lieutenant Nir’anyar
Chief Medical Officer
USS Merlin


●●● Save'ena Tillatix
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Merlin


((>>> Gunnery Sergeant Alexander Beckt
Marine Sniper
USS Merlin