RP Log: Another Spooky Visit
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| 2022-08-07 09:25 | |
A tri-tone piping sound plays at a quiet volume as the transporter resolves. The Vulcan captain waits for her old commanding officer, curious to see him after so many years. The foremost portion of her mind is taken up with whatever she has for him.
"It's going to take some getting used to that you're a captain now, T'Shaav," Kemper says as he steps down off the transporter pad. "I wish this little reunion were under happier circumstances." He frowns slightly as he considers what brought him out here and why he's sticking around.
"It is agreeable to see you again, sir," the Vulcan replies. She recalls herself reporting in to his ship for the first time as a newly-minted Lieutenant. "If you will follow me, sir, we have new information that ... may or may not belong in a report to command." But she thinks he will be the judge of it.
LePage quietly stands by and waits for the pair to move out.
"This should be good," Kemper mutters under his breath. "Must be something indeed you've learned if you're thinking there's some discretion that needs to be applied here." He gestures toward the door and moves to follow T'Shaav. "Lead the way, Captain."
- Main Conference Room <USS Buran NX-96400
- The Conference Room appears to have been prepared for a special visitor, even if hastily. A tray of refreshments is situated on a side table that has setup along one side of the room. A golden-clad Lieutenant sits somewhere roughly at the center of one side of the table.
LePage makes a beeline for his usual seat, standing up behind it as he waits.
T'Shaav enters the room at her usual decisive clip. "Admiral, if you would like a seat," she offers, gesturing to her own usual place and the refreshments. "My officers, Lieutenant LePage, chief engineer, Lieutenant Tarun, Operations." Giving the admiral a chance to at least get the bearing of the room, she cuts to the chase. "Admiral, we have reason to believe that Mr. Coil is located on, or was originally taken to, Orias Three. I have returned from an interview with a local inhabitant who participated, if unwittingly, in the abduction."
Tarun stands abruptly as T'Shaav and her entourage enter.
"Gentlemen," Kemper says, nodding toward LePage and Tarun in greeting. He waves a hand dismissively. "Please, please, sit." He glances toward the refreshment tray and moves toward it to pour a glass of water. He sips at the glass while he considers T'Shaav's commentary as he moves toward a chair and sits, himself. "Interesting," he says. "What did this local have to say?" he asks.
LePage takes a seat and sets his elbows on the table, steepling his fingers. "Well sir, the gist of it was that the farmer was trying to make ends meet after his crops went up. Some cardassian couple apparently, a wife and husband, came up and beseeched his help to tell them when Commander Coil was back. This couple, according to him, had mentioned that they had a son who was gonna be in grave danger because they had crop failure too. So they offered him some money to let them know when Coil was back on planet. Well he did so and somebody took Coil, Kaleans we think. When we asked him about the abduction, he claimed he had no idea they were gonna take the Commander"
"Indeed, the farmer, Luro Jenun," T'Shaav says, "was originally approached by myself and Mr. LePage, in company of the magistrate and one other person of his choosing, as a witness. We believed he had seen something, but knew no more than that. Luro communicated the lieutenant commander's presence face to face with the abductors, two Kaleans and two Cardassians, and was paid. This came to light when he made reference to a stipend for his crops, a stipend no one else received. But once he realized that he had betrayed himself, his confession was willingly offered and he answered all questions." If there's sympathy in T'Shaav, it's hiding. Right now, she's thinking about Coil and getting him back alive. "The suspect is being held by the local magistrate, particularly if fleet intelligence chooses to speak with him."
Tarun resumes sitting as instructed and listens to the events LePage and T'Shaav recount.
"That tracks broadly with what my networks have been able to uncover," Kemper replies, nodding a couple of times as both officers speak. "We know he was kidnapped by the Kaleans, but we're trying to chase down why." A beat. "We also know the Kaleans have offered Kellen up to the highest bidder, and we do know that the Cardassians are interested."
"Bidder?" LePage asks. "From Luro's account, it sounded like the Cardassians had talked to him directly... did I mishear that?" LePage asks of T'ShaavShe considers. "He mentioned both Kaleans and Cardassians, and I took it to mean the two Kaleans and two Cardassians were together in their approach." A beat. "Logically, we can discount the motive of a sick child given to the suspect. In fact, the commander may never have been taken to Orias Three, or may not still be there now. But the location must be investigated. I do not know with certainty whether that planet is in Cardassian or unclaimed space," she notes. "Still, Admiral, I considered it appropriate to give you this information verbally and take your guidance on drafting a report to Command."
Tarun continues listening silently.
"It would seem the Kaleans were trying to sell the Commander to interested parties, Lieutenant," Kemper says, turning his attention to LePage directly for a moment. "In other words, the Kaleans kidnapped Kellen and are offering him up for the largest ransom they can get." A beat. "And the Cardassian military seems to have expressed quite an interest in him." His gaze shifts back to T'Shaav. "Orias III is practically dead center of Cardassian space, alas." He lifts his brow and leans back in his chair, drumming his fingers on the arm of the chair. "What about what you've learned is something you're concerned about reporting openly to Starfleet Command?" he asks.
"According to my executive officer, sir, you told him that you would remain in case we learned anything we may or may not want a permanent record of," T'Shaav says. "I do not know, under the circumstances, what might qualify in that category, though it is unfortunate we have not provided you much new information." A beat. "In any case, I would like to ask whether you might have a ... discrete asset we could use to journey to Orias Three and see whether Mr. Coil is there, or whether this should be pursued through other means." She nods to LePage. "The colonies matter, yes. But retrieving Mr. Coil matters more at the moment, if for no other reason than that the Cardassian reputation for extracting information is earned, not exaggerated."
"Ah, yes," Kemper replies, nodding. "There are certain aspects of Coil -- the symbiont's -- past hosts whose history might best be left to ... history ... and not recorded for posterity." He sips from the glass of water.
"Initially, I think Commander Worthington and I had a thought that might be the cause of Coil's abduction, but I'm not so sure, anymore." He drums his fingers against the arm of his chair again. "I'm not so sure the pocket universe phenomenon that damaged the Buran and destroyed the Versailles is necessarily a natural phenomenon, and Kellen had spent quite a bit of time looking into it."
"I'm trying to decipher his notes and run them against the Versailles Blackbox. The line where it leaves my understanding of how subspace interacts with my engines and enters the realm of theoretical physics and temporal physics is a hard one to cross..." LePage sighs. "Right now, We're parsing the Versailles Blackbox for gravimetric distortions which is about the most I understood of Commander Coil's line of thinking"
"I understand," T'Shaav says. "When the phenomena occurred, Lieutenant Commander Coil's first hypothesis was of a pocket universe displaced in time and that we were experiencing effect before cause." A beat. "When Commander Svetzvani revealed that she was seeking a Sorion scientist who never made it to his home world after an altercation with Cardassian scientists, and that his expertise lay in remote energy sources, I began to consider the possibility of someone weaponizing this scientist's work in some way. But," she is almost, almost embarrassed to say this, "I did not have data, resources, or logic sufficient to assert the notion. Still, it is a possibility, to wit, that the commander has been abducted to further a weaponization project involving higher order subspace physics in this way."
"The gravimetric distortions I detected when the Versailles was destroyed did not seem to be natural to me," Tarun muses, finally speaking up. "They were a bit too ordered to my eye, but, I am neither a theoretical physicist nor a practitioner of temporal physics." He smirks and adds, apparently unembarrassed to say it. "Both of those things give me a headache."
"I've had to spend more than my fair share of thinking about theoretical physics and temporal physics, and they hurt my head, too, Lieutenant," the Admiral says toward Tarun. "I'm not convinced the Cardassians have created some new weapon or if their cloaking technology is fatally flawed. We've been monitoring chatter consistent with unusual gravimetric phenomena and isolated, but otherwise unexplainable electrical pocket storms in and around Cardassian space. We're trying to get some live sensor data," Kemper explains. "As for a discreet ride to Orias -- let me see what we have available." He lifts his brow, "I'll also see if we have any intel coming from there that might tell us whether or not it makes sense to visit."
LePage nods and doesn't have any further questions or comments at the moment.
"Understood," T'Shaav says to Kemper. "Gentlemen," she says to her own crew. "In the meantime, we will continue with any remaining disbursement of fertilizer to the planet. We cannot leave until that is done and until the Versailles's warp core and flight data recorder have been turned over to the Charles Tucker upon her return. Meanwhile, our own mission, to seek out and neutralize Cardassian cloaking technology, will be put on hold pending Mr. Coil's return and any changes to that mission Starfleet feels are warranted." She assumes Kemper knows her mission orders, but realizes he may not. "Meanwhile, Admiral, I will draft a full report to Admiral Somyk and Starfleet Command detailing all that we have learned, and I will state that our next steps will be determined by what your department learns next, if that is agreeable to you."
"I work here, and I'm not sure I really grasp what our mission is fully, but that's another issue," Tarun says as he catches a glimmer of T'Shaav's thoughts. "But as for the fertilizer, the quartermaster has been working with the relevant parties, and I anticipate we should have offloaded adequate quantities in the next couple of days, sir."
"There's an aid component to your present mission, isn't there, Captain?" Kemper asks T'Shaav. "Orias III is in particularly bad shape, so delivery of food, water, and other supplies might be pretext enough for Buran to go there herself." He pauses for just a moment. "You might be able to kill two birds with one stone, as it were."
"It's a half decent guess they'll need the same fertilizer, so I'll work on that while I have my other projects going" LePage says
"There is," the Vulcan says. "Yes, I can see how both aims might be satisfied. We will wait to hear from your office before finally proceeding, sir."
"Some of the fertilizer's characteristics might need to be tweaked for the planet's particular terrain, but, yeah, you generally need to enrich the soil when you want to grow in it," Tarun observes, nodding. "I can pull the planet's geophysical profile if that would be useful to you, sir," he says toward LePage.
"Very well, then," Kemper replies, nodding. "It would seem we all have something to do next, and so, I will leave you all to it unless there's something else you'd like to discuss." His gaze shifts toward T'Shaav, as though that particular point is addressed to her.
LePage nods to Tarun quietly
"Nothing at this time, Admiral, thank you," the Vulcan says. "Would you like an escort back to the transporter room?"
Tarun takes some notes on a PADD he seems to have had with him all along, quickly dispatching the information about Orias III's characteristics to LePage.
"Very well," Kemper says, standing. "I can probably find my way, but I'll take an escort if you think one is prudent."
T'Shaav considers it a matter of courtesy, not prudence. She hits upon an idea, thinking of it as maybe a way to do something nice for a junior officer. Betazoid things and Betazoids, one kinda junior, one very much not. "Mr. Tarun, kindly escort the admiral to the transporter room and see him safely back to his flagship," she orders.
"Yes, sir," Tarun says, also standing. He steps to the side of his chair and pushes it under the table, turning toward the door, and gesturing for the Admiral to follow. "If you'll follow me, sir," he says to Kemper. "Perhaps at your own peril." A beat. "I'm still learning the ship, but I think I can steer us to the transporter room."
"Assuming you don't mistake the airlock for the transporter room, I expect it'll be fine," Kemper replies in a way that is meant to be reassuring but might sound quite wry. "Lead the way."
LePage leans back in his chair, sighing before he forces himself to rise up.
T'Shaav nods to LePage. "That will be all, Lieutenant. I will need your report soonest." A beat. "I found your performance quite satisfactory on this mission."
[Remote Uplink Device (5164): Tarun Console Room One: Tarun to T'Shaav the Admiral has returned to the Copernicus.]
"Mm, that's somethin'" LePage nods. "What am I reporting over, specifically? I have a few projects"
"Most immediately, tonight's mission. But include any other data you may have, if you have it."
"Right" LePage nods. "Anything else?"
You say, "Dismissed."