S12 - M7: Back to Basics

[T'Ra Jones]

[Bridge]

Adeyemi didn't love a mystery. To him, the world was a set of principles and laws laid out by the Almighty. Science and communications were just another piece of it. Still, his own curiosity and duty demanded that it be solved.

The admiral nodded to the XO when he presented himself, and to the younger officer who likewise did so. Captain Jones had the habit of speaking Vulcan. Perhaps it wasn't the most formal way to greet other officers, but Adeyemi saw no reason to fault her for it. There was also some joking and work chatter going on at the Operations station between Commander Wu and a high ranked enlisted woman there.

He decided to hang back, to observe. Communications weren't exactly his specialty, anyway, and he knew firsthand how an enthusiastic newcomer could throw a wrench into the works. The Discovery crew was accustomed to one another and working together.

Instead, when Captain Jones was finished issues orders, he addressed the two members of the command staff:

"You seem to have this very well in hand." Adeyemi told them with careful courtesy. "If you think I can help, let me know."

Truth be told, he was itching to get his hands dirty. For far too long it felt as if he had been reduced to chair parade. When he'd gotten promoted it seemed as if he had traded in his phaser and tricorder for a desk and a 5 star headache at the end of the day.

[Bridge]

T'Ra could feel the atmosphere on the bridge gradually shift as each officer and crewman slowly registered the admiral's presence. For some, it was just another redshirt, nothing to bat an eye at, and this was where Evan would fall were he on the bridge. One of his favourite sayings was "A red shirt is a red shirt is a redshirt, but only between redshirts."

But there was a noticeable drop in the general noise level --at least to T'Ra's sensitive ears-- as more than one had lowered their voice, uneasy to have such a high ranking official among them. After the recent incident involving the Shran, in which she had defied Starfleet orders and engaged in a skirmish against two other Federation vessels, T'Ra was more than a little uneasy herself.

Although she had been exonerated for her part in that fiasco, and even promoted once again to the position of captain (something that had always struck Evan as rather suspicious), she couldn't help but feel like Starfleet had sent the admiral as some sort of minder. But her Vulcan upbringing had taught her how to keep her face placid and neutral in spite of the thoughts and emotions whirling through her mind. She watched the admiral from the corner of her eye as he took a step back to observe the bridge, taking care to note if his gaze lingered on any one crew member.

"Of course, sir," T'Ra responded as he stepped back over. "I'm sure we will know more in a few moments." She paused, collecting her thoughts and choosing her next words. "I hear you had a rough journey over here, but I trust things have been pleasant enough for you on the ship so far?"

[Kali Reyes]

[Bridge]
The main viewer went black as the Ops officer tried to patch the distress call through, remaining lifeless as the audio struggled to squeeze out the speakers. It was indeed a garble, but she could hear what seemed to be words, and though the universal translator was noticeably struggling to comprehend, it was starting to become clear that it was repeating itself, as if on a loop. "See what you can do to untangle that mess, Miss Reyes, and we'll see about getting science to help track down where it's coming from. Speaking of which--"

-/\-Jones to Tekin, please report to the bridge.-/\-

[Bridge]

Noise reducer, individual decibel spreading, radio frequencies, hypertuning communication relays - Kali tossed a look at Alex's quip about her coffee and territorially stuffed her thermos between her legs.

"I can't even get a lock on the proper frequency, let alone where to point," she answered Jaeger. Her eyes never left her console. "What a garbled mess-"

Ping!

Oh. That was easy.

"Putting audio and possible video on screen, Captain," she announced, then got to work trying to fulfill Jaeger's request.

[Tekin Nevir]

[Bridge]

As always, T'Ra was pleased by the first officer's quick response. Providing he wasn't asleep, it was almost immediate. The doors to the bridge were constantly in motion, opening and closing to a steady stream of officers coming and going. It wasn't long before they parted to let Tekin through, shortly after the arrival of the admiral. Judging from the look on her first officer's face, it was clear he had forgotten about this scheduled "visit", or perhaps he was still experiencing lingering embarrassment from what transpired during the recent infection. Whatever the case, he was quick to recover.

"Na'shaya, Tekin," T'Ra offered, nodding slightly before moving forward. "We may potentially have a situation on our hands," she informed the XO. "We have received what appears to be a distress call, but it is garbled and its point of origin unclear. I would like you to coordinate Ops and Science to decipher and locate the message."

The doors parted yet again, but this time it was to admit T'Lulu. T'Ra had seen no problem granting the android permission to come to the bridge, perhaps almost as eager to see the admiral meet the android as the android to meet the admiral. "Na'shaya, Miss Soong."

[Bridge]

Nevir had nodded to the Captain, but didn't give any vocalization.  Instead, he had his console, and he was working, trying to see what Ops saw and seeing what could be done to get a broad spectrum band signal to clear it up.  With the quieter noise level, it was much easier to hear what was going on.  Filtering out the space background and using the area's gravity wave to amplify, he pushed another command, hearing a ping on Kali's console.

The Bajoran hid a grin as he leaned back, pushing a couple of commands to send a message over to the closest person he had on the ship.  It was damned good to have her back, and he just had to send Kali a message, along with the information of what he did and a map of the region.

You're welcome. -Tek

[Alexander Wu]

[Bridge]

Noise reducer, individual decibel spreading, radio frequencies, hypertuning communication relays - Kali tossed a look at Alex's quip about her coffee and territorially stuffed her thermos between her legs.

"I can't even get a lock on the proper frequency, let alone where to point," she answered Jaeger. Her eyes never left her console. "What a garbled mess-"

Ping!

Oh. That was easy.

"Putting audio and possible video on screen, Captain," she announced, then got to work trying to fulfill Jaeger's request.

[Bridge]

"Don't think I won't go there." Alex mentioned, only half-seriously. With more tasks being thrown Kali's way, he took a seat at the MVA console instead, keeping his eyes and ears open. From the sounds of things, they had just received a distress signal and were in the process of digging out the actual message and originator from the usual background haze. It was still too early to speculate just what they were about to fly into, or if it'd even be within their operational capacity, but as a former rescue specialist, Alex hated leaving anything to chance. He turned his display on and began to check the readiness of their inventory.

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

[Bridge]

"Of course, sir," T'Ra responded as he stepped back over. "I'm sure we will know more in a few moments." She paused, collecting her thoughts and choosing her next words. "I hear you had a rough journey over here, but I trust things have been pleasant enough for you on the ship so far?"

[Bridge]

Adeyemi responded in the affirmative. Briefly, he told her about the engine problems on the runabout, and how her crew was doing an exemplary job thus far repairing it.

From what he could hear at the Operations console, the distress call was coming through. Jones was an efficient officer, by her service record. Adeyemi doubted she would waste any time with socializing if the problem at hand was about to be unraveled. The admiral liked Vulcans that way. Too many of them were consumed with the pseudo religion that made up their philosophy, however. At least a few had embraced Christianity and the Church. He already missed the chapel on the Starbase Columbus, and the old Vulcan who ran it, Friar T'Vol. He would have to ask the captain about what accommodations she had made in regards to her crew's spiritual needs.

"Are there any other ships in the area?" The admiral wanted to know. "When responding to a distress call the proper procedure is to notify the nearest starbase, in this case Starbase 112."

[Lennox Ainsley]

[Armory]

Lennox had heard word that the Admiral had stepped on board. Crewman Lena Jensen had been rather excited about this fact, her face having lit up at the sheer thought.

"Calm yerself, yer gettin' yer panties in a twist again, lass."

"I know, I know but can't you also just be a little excited about it? At least show that you're excited about the Admiral being on board?"

"I'm concentratin'."

The Scotsman had been wrestling with the mechanism of the phaser, only made difficult with Jensen's rambling next to him. He got the fact that she was newly assigned to Discovery and that the presence of the top was something to be heralded but for Lennox, it was another reason why he needed to double and triple check the weaponry.

"Could ye pass me the--"

"Isomagnetic Disintegrator?"

"Aye." Lennox spared a fleeting glance at the young crewman.

He checked it over, making sure everything was in working order before showing Jensen what he had been looking for as he secured it back in the locker. Once he was certain that the weaponry was secure, Lennox left the locker room along with Jensen to go on patrol around Discovery.

[T'Ra Jones]

[Bridge]

Noise reducer, individual decibel spreading, radio frequencies, hypertuning communication relays - Kali tossed a look at Alex's quip about her coffee and territorially stuffed her thermos between her legs.

"I can't even get a lock on the proper frequency, let alone where to point," she answered Jaeger. Her eyes never left her console. "What a garbled mess-"

Ping!

Oh. That was easy.

"Putting audio and possible video on screen, Captain," she announced, then got to work trying to fulfill Jaeger's request.

[Bridge]

Adeyemi responded in the affirmative. Briefly, he told her about the engine problems on the runabout, and how her crew was doing an exemplary job thus far repairing it.

From what he could hear at the Operations console, the distress call was coming through. Jones was an efficient officer, by her service record. Adeyemi doubted she would waste any time with socializing if the problem at hand was about to be unraveled. The admiral liked Vulcans that way. Too many of them were consumed with the pseudo religion that made up their philosophy, however. At least a few had embraced Christianity and the Church. He already missed the chapel on the Starbase Columbus, and the old Vulcan who ran it, Friar T'Vol. He would have to ask the captain about what accommodations she had made in regards to her crew's spiritual needs.

"Are there any other ships in the area?" The admiral wanted to know. "When responding to a distress call the proper procedure is to notify the nearest starbase, in this case Starbase 112."

[Bridge]

T'Ra listened attentively as the admiral spoke, taking in his mannerisms every bit as much as the words coming out of his mouth. And no doubt he had been observing in a similar fashion. She was certain of it, but what would he make of this unusual Vulcan? Now wasn't the time for meditating on such, but it was a topic she wanted to address in depth when time permitted.

As Kali tried again to patch the signal through, the main viewer finally flickered to life, but it did so in spurts of blurry, distorted images. Trying to find a pattern in any of it made her dizzy, so she closed her eyes a moment to focus on her attention on the sound. The universal translator was struggling as well. If not for the gravity of the situation, T'Ra might have laughed. It reminded her of a mission years ago, when she was a Lieutenant under Zuriel Soreka. The universal translator had failed completely, having to rely on her background as a xenolinguist.

"They're desperate for aid," T'Ra said at last. "Dying en masse, from the sound of it. Some sort of disease. They don't have much time." Admiral Adeyemi went on about proper procedure, and T'Ra nodded. "Ms. Reyes, send a message to the Starbase, and then call all senior officers to the conference room." They weren't going to sit by.

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

[Bridge]

T'Ra listened attentively as the admiral spoke, taking in his mannerisms every bit as much as the words coming out of his mouth. And no doubt he had been observing in a similar fashion. She was certain of it, but what would he make of this unusual Vulcan? Now wasn't the time for meditating on such, but it was a topic she wanted to address in depth when time permitted.

As Kali tried again to patch the signal through, the main viewer finally flickered to life, but it did so in spurts of blurry, distorted images. Trying to find a pattern in any of it made her dizzy, so she closed her eyes a moment to focus on her attention on the sound. The universal translator was struggling as well. If not for the gravity of the situation, T'Ra might have laughed. It reminded her of a mission years ago, when she was a Lieutenant under Zuriel Soreka. The universal translator had failed completely, having to rely on her background as a xenolinguist.

"They're desperate for aid," T'Ra said at last. "Dying en masse, from the sound of it. Some sort of disease. They don't have much time." Admiral Adeyemi went on about proper procedure, and T'Ra nodded. "Ms. Reyes, send a message to the Starbase, and then call all senior officers to the conference room." They weren't going to sit by.

[Bridge]

Adeyemi was frankly amazed at the linguistic and telepathic skill of the Discovery's captain. She was able to ascertain the meaning of the message, even though interference. Clearly, his time here on the flagship was going to be noteworthy for more reasons than he had thought.

[Conference Room]

The admiral took an unobtrusive spot at the captain's left hand, on the side. It wasn't his attention to take over the meeting, let alone command of the Discovery. He was there to observe and lend a hand where needed. Adeyemi took a PADD from his pocket and tapped out a few notes while he waited for the meeting to start.

[Declan Vincent]

[Deck 9]

Repairs on the Admiral's runabout was proceeding with only the occasional hiccup. It could have been worse if the entire warp core assembly needed to be replaced; a job that he never ever preferred.

He had about a thirty minute window while the T-14 modules went through the installing process and he had very little to do till then. If he simply waited in the Cargo Bay to listen to Johanssen assume yet again that the Admiral was aboard for some nafarious reason...he have to shoot him.....with kindness.

He didn't want to speculate since the higher your rank, the more Starfleet politics interceded. The Admiral could be aboard for a mundane inspection or to haul off the lot for gross incompetence for the epidemic fiasco. The Discovery could have been severely damaged or destroyed. How many bars of latinum would be required to compensate? Tantalus V penal colony was the last place he wanted to end his days...

Such brooding only made him almost as paranoid as his fellow engineer back in the Cargo Bay.

As it happened, 2 security personnel were coming from the other direction. He decided to be blunt.
"Excuse me, seeing you are Security, do you have any idea why the Admiral is aboard? "

[Ardyn Jaeger]

[Bridge]

T'Ra listened attentively as the admiral spoke, taking in his mannerisms every bit as much as the words coming out of his mouth. And no doubt he had been observing in a similar fashion. She was certain of it, but what would he make of this unusual Vulcan? Now wasn't the time for meditating on such, but it was a topic she wanted to address in depth when time permitted.

As Kali tried again to patch the signal through, the main viewer finally flickered to life, but it did so in spurts of blurry, distorted images. Trying to find a pattern in any of it made her dizzy, so she closed her eyes a moment to focus on her attention on the sound. The universal translator was struggling as well. If not for the gravity of the situation, T'Ra might have laughed. It reminded her of a mission years ago, when she was a Lieutenant under Zuriel Soreka. The universal translator had failed completely, having to rely on her background as a xenolinguist.

"They're desperate for aid," T'Ra said at last. "Dying en masse, from the sound of it. Some sort of disease. They don't have much time." Admiral Adeyemi went on about proper procedure, and T'Ra nodded. "Ms. Reyes, send a message to the Starbase, and then call all senior officers to the conference room." They weren't going to sit by.

[Bridge]
Ardyn was somewhat reluctant to leave, as Steve had hopped onto her lap and curled up into that peculiar loaf shape of his while they were trying to decode the signal.  "C'mon buddy, get off. I gotta go." Ardyn said as she pulled the little raptor off her. Steve was giving her his puppy dog eyes again, quite the dirty tactic of his. After a little standoff, Ardyn capitulated. "Fine. You win." She said, hefting the dinosaur in her arms.
Heading down into the conference room, Steve in tow, she set him down on the floor, only to have him hop on her lap again. "So, what's the game plan for this?" She asked, breaking the silence.

[T'Ra Jones]

[Bridge]

Adeyemi was frankly amazed at the linguistic and telepathic skill of the Discovery's captain. She was able to ascertain the meaning of the message, even though interference. Clearly, his time here on the flagship was going to be noteworthy for more reasons than he had thought.

[Conference Room]

The admiral took an unobtrusive spot at the captain's left hand, on the side. It wasn't his attention to take over the meeting, let alone command of the Discovery. He was there to observe and lend a hand where needed. Adeyemi took a PADD from his pocket and tapped out a few notes while he waited for the meeting to start.

[Conference Room]

T'Ra waited for those present on the bridge to file out before dipping out into the corridor herself. The conference room was only two decks down, so she elected to walk, allowing herself a couple extra seconds to meditate on the situation before the discussion with her fellow officers. The Admiral was already there when she arrived. "We may need to prepare ourselves for a first contact situation," she said in low voice as she slid into the seat next to his. "The words the universal translator couldn't convert didn't resemble any language I've worked with before." Though T'Ra could speak dozens of languages herself, that was nothing but a drop in the bucket of the thousands of languages in the universe.

Heading down into the conference room, Steve in tow, she set him down on the floor, only to have him hop on her lap again. "So, what's the game plan for this?" She asked, breaking the silence.

If the admiral wasn't present, T'Ra might have quipped that the game plan was to be 'big damn heroes', but instead, she added, "That's what we're here to find out, Miss Jaeger. And once the rest of the senior officers arrive, we can get down to it."

[Inzjana]

CONFERENCE ROOM
[Posting as: (NPC) CSO Lieutenant Johan Spielenberg]

The Chief Science Officer, Lieutenant Johan Spielenberg, mumbling to himself in his native German, annoyed with himself that he couldn't ascertain where the signal was coming from despite having plenty of time he thought to do so.

Johan was a competent officer but pushing fifty and still only a Lieutenant had made him sore at everyone, especially those who were still young and had higher ranks than he did. Mostly though, he was really just disappointed in himself for not achieving the position in Starfleet he had always dreamed of; Captain.

A family of scientists put paid to him being anything else but a scientist himself, but the Spielenberg family had no love for any military body and were very disappointed when Johan told them of his plan to join Starfleet.

After graduating Starfleet Academy, Johan moved to Vulcan and attempted to join the Vulcan Science Academy but after the third attempt moved back to Earth, tail between his legs and a grudge against the Vulcans the size of the Grand Canyon, which happened to be in proportion to his ego. He wasn't afraid to make his disdain for Vulcans known either, usually calling them Á¢â,¬Ëœrobots', even fully expecting Vulcans to really be robots, especially any Vulcan that just happened to be under him in any science department aboard a Federation starship.

"Here Captain," Johan stated nonchalantly, as he entered in to the conference room, in his I-haven't-had-coffee-yet moods at the moment.

[Alexander Wu]

[Conference Room]

T'Ra waited for those present on the bridge to file out before dipping out into the corridor herself. The conference room was only two decks down, so she elected to walk, allowing herself a couple extra seconds to meditate on the situation before the discussion with her fellow officers. The Admiral was already there when she arrived. "We may need to prepare ourselves for a first contact situation," she said in low voice as she slid into the seat next to his. "The words the universal translator couldn't convert didn't resemble any language I've worked with before." Though T'Ra could speak dozens of languages herself, that was nothing but a drop in the bucket of the thousands of languages in the universe.

If the admiral wasn't present, T'Ra might have quipped that the game plan was to be Á¢â,¬Ëœbig damn heroes', but instead, she added, "That's what we're here to find out, Miss Jaeger. And once the rest of the senior officers arrive, we can get down to it."

[Conference Room]

Having taken the time to obtain a mug of tea on his way to the briefing, Alex wasn't surprised to see that others had arrived before he had. On the other hand, he wasn't exactly thrilled to see that Jaeger was there. He supposed it was his own fault. When they had moved him back into the second officer position, Alex had begun an initiative to have junior officers nearing promotion sit in on senior officer briefings, to help acclimatize them to what they may one day face. While glad Kali had continued his idea, he wasn't particularly thrilled about today's participant.

Still, Alex reckoned he couldn't avoid her, someone in his own department no less, forever. Taking a seat across the table, he gave her a slight nod. Glancing at T'ra, his eyes landed on the Admiral, the cryptic message once again entering his thoughts. Alex had no idea what any of it meant, only that it apparently had something to do with Luke. Was he in trouble? Adeyemi had suggested it, but hadn't gone into details. Knowing he'd need to do plenty more research, and most likely in private judging from the Admiral's choice of destroying the note, Alex resigned himself to a few long nights after the current mission.

[Kali Reyes]

[Bridge]

Kali shot a look at him after receiving Tekin's message and grinned at his audacity. After calling on the officers for the Conference Room and scrambling up a message of confirmation to the starbase, she took her thermos and kept a close eye on it, sure that Alex would indeed take his half-hearted threat to heart and steal it.

[Conference Room]

The Admiral was visiting, so it kind of meant they were to be on his best behavior - which meant doubly so for Kali, who was Enlisted - and therefore didn't have much love for decorum that came from Officer school. So she took her seat, crossed her legs and tried to simply be productive eye-candy for the duration of the meeting... which wasn't hard at all. She flashed her pearly whites at the Admiral, which was a cultural faux pas in at least a dozen Federation cultures, but he was human. Probably.

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

[Conference Room]

As the room began to fill up, Adeyemi took note of each Discovery crewmember: Jaeger and Wu, both in Flight. There seemed to be something going on between them. The admiral couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Also there was the chief science officer, and then Chief Reyes, the Operations Department Head. Adeyemi eyed Reyes, hiding the sour feelings he was experiencing. Surreptitiously, he pulled up the senior enlisted woman's file and perused it, careful to angle the screen of his pad away from anyone else. Her performance evaluations were constantly stellar; that was not her issue. The issue was her behavior: drinking, fraternization, and general debauchery. As the chief came in a tiny, imperceptible sound escaped from Adeyemi's lips: an mmhm, one of those strange verbal hiccups that isn't quite a word.

To cover it, Adeyemi gently cleared his throat and sipped some water from a nearby glass, hoping no one would notice and that Captain Jones would just get right down to business.