RP Log: Unfortunate Events
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Stardate:
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| 2024-08-22 16:27 | |
- Quarters East One <Deep Space 9>
- Deep Space 9 has no designated quarters for the station's commanding officer. So, these look like all the rest in the east section of the habitat ring. The large room contains a bed, a desk, a replicator, standard bookshelving, and other fleet-issue furnishings.
- The occupant has added a meditation slab made of jet black stone. There is also a large pet bed on the opposite wal. Otherwise, there are few personal effects immediately visible.
The door chime at Out sounds, "*be boowoop*"
From within the room, there is at first no answer. You can faintly hear something playing, not music probably. There's the sound of claws on the floor and a thump, as T'Shaav's pet thumps against the door. Another moment passes, and the door opens, though without voice command.
Branch Admiral Svetzvani arrives from Habitat Ring East.
The lights in the quarters are turned off, and it is very dark in the room. T'Shaav is sitting with her back to the door, out of uniform, and she doesn't turn around. Her posture appears normal enough, straightbacked, head up, which is about all you might be able to tell from the angle. The sounds you heard from outside are clear now. A voice is speaking through some static. T'Shaav has turned off the universal translator interface in the room, and she appears to be listening to the words in the origional language. The language has a flowing kind of sound with more vowel sounds than in Standard or Vulcan. The person on the audio recording coughts, and the recording goes on. Soon, the person's voice ceases to speak, and there is static then, it stops.
Svetzvani steps in and blinks at the lower-than-expected light level. "T'Shaav?" she asks, squinting involuntarily while her eyes try to adjust. "Is that you? What are you doing?"
She is silent for a long beat. Finally, she says, "Listening, attending to something I was supposed to hear." the Vulcan replies. She flicks a switch, and the voice replays part of the message, but the universal translator is active, and the words are in Standard. ""Comms are destroyed, that option is out, but it was thought they would see our antimatter purge. Damn Starfleet, we know they have a listening device on this side of the wormhole, but they either aren't listening or don't care to help the Rihannsu." The Romulan starts coughing again, and T'Shaav's finger stabs a button, silencing the recording.
"The Romulan Captain's final log entry," Tink says, slowly coming far enough in the room for the door to slide closed behind her. "Where did you get that?"
"It was attached to Captain Anewan's report copied to you and to me," the Vulcan says. "And yes, that is what it is, but more. You may remember when I first took command here, and the Romulans came to call. We, you and I, talked about me establishing a back channel communication with the empire. She was our back channel."
Svetzvani takes a seat at a nearby chair. After a long pause she says, "You seem more unsettled than I would have expected."
"She died," T'Shaav says, "with information we need. That can be attended to. But I am disturbed, yes. I am disturbed, because she died believing that we did not care enough about ROmulan lives to rescue them. She also died believing that we, that this station perhaps, would receive her distress signal and interpret it correctly." A beat. "I was not in Operations at the time. I reviewed the logs later. Had I been there, I would have understood at once that a Romulan ship venting antimatter represented a ship in distress, and I would have dispatched someone to respond immediately. But I was not there, and I did not give that instruction, and for whatever reason, something we must determine, no one else responded timely, and she and her crew died, believing, rightly, that we could have saved them, and believing wrongly, that we chose not to do so. So, yes, I am disturbed on some level."
She turns to face you, regarding you in silence now.
Svetzvani takes a deep breath, then lets it out slowly. "DS9 did indeed send out a message that they had detected the antimatter dump," she says quietly. "And the Kestrel was sent to investigate. But for reasons that I'm not clear on, the Kestrel took an inordinate amount of time getting to the scene. First, they spent a lot of time poking around at DS9, maybe looking for cloaked Romulan ships on our side of the wormhole. When I noticed that they hadn't gone through, I contacted them and cleared that up, telling them that the ship was on the Gamma side. But.." She stops and takes another deep breath. "I later found that instead of going to the Gamma Quadrant at that point, the Kestrel left Bajoran space completely and went somewhere else. I don't know where, and I don't know for what purpose. But it was some hours later before they returned and finally went through the wormhole."
"That is truly unfortunate," T'Shaav says. "I know that crew well. There must have been something urgent to hand, or they would not have delayed investigating. I would have been tempted to take the Monitor immediately, but the proper thing was to send another. Still, one thinks that if they had responded timely, that crew would still be alive, and we would possess whatever strategic information the Romulans wanted to provide."
Svetzvani nods slowly. "And unfortunately," she adds. "It now becomes our duty... or rather, my duty... to ask that question. What was so important that they delayed responding to the report of a ship in distress?" She sighs with a pained expression on her face.
T'Shaav nods. "I want to search for the flight data recorder," the Vulcan says. "We must learn what Herem had to tell us. I think she learned what the burrowers are, and it cost her her life. And," A pause. "I want to take her body home. Do you think we can arrange for her return?"
"I'll make every effort to reach the Romulans and let them know that we'd like to return the Riov's body to them," Tink says. "If you have another back channel, that might be helpful. As for the flight recorder..." She pauses and considers. "Unless you want to send a runabout through, we'll probably have to have the Kestrel look for it. I'll consider other options though."
"I could take the Monitor and conduct a search," she says. "Or you could order Kestrel to do so, but it will be several days. You should know, that is, you should be informed, that I ordered Kestrel to report here to debrief with me first before having their shield grid repaired. I did this because the ship was not in immediate danger, and I considered a debrief urgent. I was not sure I could make that an order, or I would have. I wanted their sensor logs. Captain Anewan chose to remain here to debrief, and he has sent his command on to Antares for retrofit. So if you would speak with him, he is here now."
The door chime at Out sounds, "*be boowoop*"
Svetzvani nods, then glances toward the door at the sound of the chime.
"Computer, standard elumination." Then, she opens the door electronically.
Captain Anewan arrives from Habitat Ring East.
Svetzvani is sitting in a chair, but gets to her feet as the door opens.
T'Shaav is out of uniform and has been speaking with Svetzvani. She stands, turning to the door as well.
Anewan enters and is surprised to see the Admiral and says, "Admiral," but he turns his attnetion to T'Shaav, the one he is looking for, "Captain. my ship tells me you wanted to talk."
Svetzvani offers a small, somewhat guarded smile. "Jiemba. It's good to see you, as always," she says. She doesn't offer Anewan a seat though, as this is not her office.
T'Shaav nods. "Indeed, Captain," she says, appearing her nrormal self, except that she is in her quarters for whatever reason. "I had hoped to debrief with you as soon as you returned, given your contact with the Romulan vessel in the gamma quadrant. Thank you for copying me on your report." She gestures to another chair. "Feel free to sit."
Anewan moves to take the offered seat. He tugs his uniform down and sits, "It what you asked. It's the least I could do. Another detour for the Kestrel. I am starting to think the Romulans are perhaps a key player in this whole tangled mess."
"The Romulans?" Tink asks as she retakes her seat. "In what way?"
Anewan turns to the admiral to answer. "This is what..the third? Fourth damaged ship from the Romlan Empire? They've bitten off more than they can chew and somehow have a hand in the violence going on," he shrugs.
T'Shaav walks to the replicator, still listening. "What would everyone like?" She asks, deferring to Svetzvani for this part of the conversation.
"Nothing for me, thank you," Tink says to T'Shaav. Turning her attention back to Anewan she says, "We certainly can't discount that possibility, but we also have no idea what the Romulans' motives are,what they're trying to accomplish there. They might, like us, just be on a fact finding mission, though in a much more aggressive style."
Anewan responds, "Chai tea. Hot please," the he turns towards Tink. "Could be that as well. But somehow, they are finding action that we are not."
T'Shaav replicates the chai tea and a Vulcan spiced tea for herself, and walks back over. She reseats herself, still listening.
"We have stayed, so far anyway, out of Dominion space," Tink suggests. "We already know that there's some kind of struggle going on within Dominion borders. It might be because of the Romulans, true. But the Romulans may also have just gotten caught in the crossfire."
Anewan nods, "Sure Tink," he says to T'Shaav, "Thank You," then he says to both in general. "Who ever it is, my concern is that they are hostile. There is no good reason for the Romulans to drop their cloak while in the Gamma Quadrant. Well, no reason that I can think of."
Svetzvani leans forward. "Drop their cloak? What do you mean?" she asks.
Anewan sips, "As far as I know, as I remember, they can't fire their weapons while cloaked. So unless they were somehow detected, they dropped their cloak to do combat."
Svetzvani nods. "Possible," Tink says. "Or as you said, unless they were detected in some way. There are cultures in the galaxy with the ability to overcome the cloaking advantage. The Dominion itself has shown in the past that cloaking technology is not as effective on them as it is on us." She smiles a little more warmly this time. "I'm not trying to shoot down your ideas, Jiemba. But we have to consider any and all possibilities until we know for sure. We can't allow ourselves to jump to conclusions. There's a very good chance that you're absolutely right, and I'm just grasping at straws."
Anewan nods, "It is too bad I misinterpreted the," he throws up air quotes "'signal flare' they launched."
Svetzvani hesitates, then says slowly, "Yes. We're going to have to talk about that later." She glances significantly at T'Shaav and adds to Anewan, "In private."
Anewan nods once slowly, "Aye. Sir," he licks his lips. "Is there anything going on in Romulan Territory?"
Svetzvani shrugs. "There's always something, I'm sure," she says. "But we haven't heard anything lately. Who knows whether that's good or bad?"
Anewan doesn't have much more to say, "Do you think the Romulans would want the Riov back?"
"Jokes about my being a Rihannsu operative aside," T'Shaav says, her first light tone maybe this day. "I would like to send her body home, Captain."
Svetzvani shoots an amused glance at T'Shaav, then says to both, "We're going to try to get her body back home, of course. We'll have to see what the Romulans say when we contact them." She laughs lightly, without humor, and adds, "I'm surprised they haven't contacted us about it already. They seem to know everything that happens before it does."
Anewan nods, "Where should we leave her?"
Svetzvani thinks for a second. "The Kestrel's at Antares now, I understand. You can move her to the morgue there, if they have one. If not, drop her off here at DS9. We'll handle the rest." She sighs, then stands. "Well, I'll let the two of you go through your briefing," she says with a glance at both other officers. "Jiemba, come see me on the Shiloh when you're done."
Anewan nods and stands, "Aye Sir."
Svetzvani says her goodbyes to the others, then waves and goes.
Anewan finishes his tea and says, "I'll see you in a bit Captain."
T'Shaav nods. "Thank you, Captain."