Season 11: Mission 9: The Hidden Truth

[Ser Conley]

[Rock ship]

Ser felt as useful as a bag full of doorknobs, Utterly pointless.  He was a pilot he had basic training in engineering.  But when it came to something like this, he had to depend on the the those who did know, what they were doing.   And those people seemed will to do their own thing.  D'vid completely  disregarded Ser order about find out how to stop the metal captors, the moment kali called on him.  And Kail just ignored him when he asked for status on the getting in contact with the Discovery.  But this was not the time or place for a reprimand.  His new commander life was on the line.  For now he'd keep an eye on them.  Getting in touch with the Discovery was there top priority.  He walked over to Jettis and Ruthie hearing a bit of their conversation.   

"So can you tell if their warp core tech is similar?" He asked Jettis.

[D'Vid]

[Ancient ship]

D'Vid head shot up, he pointed his hand at Jettis and snapped his fingers. "BINGO!" he exclaimed. "Jettis. You hit the nail on the head!" D'Vid said, looking to Ruthie. "Ruthie, can you assist the Chief or Jettis? I know what to do now!" D'Vid was smiling ear to ear. Good grief, he had looked like a imp now. Something was going on and he needed to be were Ruthie is cause she was at the engine console. (Not trying to mod here- if so I fix it)

"Rather, Ruthie, I can use your help. If that's fine with you Lieutenant," he asked.

[Tekin Nevir]

[Away Team - Aztec Ship]

Watching as the guards dragged Tekin away, he was relatively passive. His eyes widened, and he made a move to speak up, but the Guards were clearly having none of it, as they took him out of the room. Which only left them to move faster, and to solve the problem before it cost his life.
Jettis nodded to Ser, not bothering to question the sudden change in Command. He knew Ser was the highest ranking officer, new as he was to the ship, and he wouldn't be at that rank for no reason.

Moving to get back to work, he looked over to Ruthie, side-stepping to give her a place to stand and look over his shoulder.
"I believe so, yes. So we have both of the sensor readings, and no way to read them." He responded, pulling up the other readings he had. He couldn't decipher them either, but considering these were internal and external sensors, it was likely some specific sensor, like reading life signs or power level.

As Ruthie rushed off to look at the Engineering panel, he watched her for a moment, before going back to his own work, with a slightly better grasp of what all the words meant.

"Well, they said they were running low on power, right? They don't realize this is a ship - they might think that the warp core is some all-powerful God that provides them with energy." He mused aloud, glancing at Ruthie. He was interested in these types of things, Psychology and rational, but she was the one studying them. "So it would make sense that they would do the sacrifice there, to give the Warp core more life force, or energy. But I don't know that shutting it down would help." Now he glanced to Ser, looking to the highest rank officer to decide on what course of action they would take. "They already know that their power is running out. If it stops altogether, they might decide that they want to sacrifice all of us, for the most power possible." It was a tricky situation. What could theoretically work, could also get them all killed. And what could get them all killed, could also save them all.

[Rockship - As Ruthie]

The young woman shook her head at the group.  "No, you don't understand.  If this was Aztec writing, we would know everything by now.  This is like a pre-language, possibly from the Tolteca.  The people here might not realize this is a ship, but these controls were designed this way.  For some reason, this ship's power source required life even before the Aztecs.  You would think that the people who built this ship wouldn't have a death chamber next to the core unless it was used for something before." she said, looking at Jettis, and then D'Vid.

"You said something about biomatter... that's organic, right?  Why would an engine need biomatter?"

[Jettis Jyur]

[Rock ship]

Ser felt as useful as a bag full of doorknobs, Utterly pointless.  He was a pilot he had basic training in engineering.  But when it came to something like this, he had to depend on the the those who did know, what they were doing.   And those people seemed will to do their own thing.  D'vid completely  disregarded Ser order about find out how to stop the metal captors, the moment kali called on him.  And Kail just ignored him when he asked for status on the getting in contact with the Discovery.  But this was not the time or place for a reprimand.  His new commander life was on the line.  For now he'd keep an eye on them.  Getting in touch with the Discovery was there top priority.  He walked over to Jettis and Ruthie hearing a bit of their conversation.   

"So can you tell if their warp core tech is similar?" He asked Jettis.

[Rockship - As Ruthie]

The young woman shook her head at the group.  "No, you don't understand.  If this was Aztec writing, we would know everything by now.  This is like a pre-language, possibly from the Tolteca.  The people here might not realize this is a ship, but these controls were designed this way.  For some reason, this ship's power source required life even before the Aztecs.  You would think that the people who built this ship wouldn't have a death chamber next to the core unless it was used for something before." she said, looking at Jettis, and then D'Vid.

"You said something about biomatter... that's organic, right?  Why would an engine need biomatter?"

[Away Team - Aztec Ship]

Jettis paused, cocking his head as she pointed out the flaw in his logic. "You wouldn't need one," he hummed, glancing back at the sensors, "it would actually be a really inefficient source of energy, unless you just had a bunch of mating tribbles for an infinite source. Theoretically though, it could be used as some sort of... fuel..." He shuddered at the thought, glancing back at the rest of the group, interest piqued at Conley's question. "Or, if it wasn't a warp core at all. Is this ship capable of warp?" The question suddenly occurred to him. On the bridge, someone had mentioned that it looked like a Starfleet ship, and even had the nacelles to prove, although nobody had successfully found the identity of the ship. And now, considering the power source seemed to be vastly different from theirs, it seemed an odd question to ask.

Moving back to the internal scanners, he tried to decipher what exactly was going on with them. "It seems like a warp core, but functions more like an old Earth car Engine, a really fast one. Minus the human sacrifice." He reported, glancing over to D'Vid and Kali. "But the Engineering station might get a better reading o that than mine. D'Vid, could you double check on that?" He added, moving back to the external scanners. "Because this thing was just floating, wasn't it? Didn't seem to be too 'at-warp' to me, though it may have just ran out of energy. Still apparently have enough for food, though, so they must have replicators somewhere." He glanced over his shoulder at the feast that was still sitting there, untouched.

[D'Vid]

Moving back to the internal scanners, he tried to decipher what exactly was going on with them. "It seems like a warp core, but functions more like an old Earth car Engine, a really fast one. Minus the human sacrifice." He reported, glancing over to D'Vid and Kali. "But the Engineering station might get a better reading o that than mine. D'Vid, could you double check on that?" He added, moving back to the external scanners. "Because this thing was just floating, wasn't it? Didn't seem to be too 'at-warp' to me, though it may have just ran out of energy. Still apparently have enough for food, though, so they must have replicators somewhere." He glanced over his shoulder at the feast that was still sitting there, untouched.

[Lena Atwood]

Kyan craned his neck to peer over the railing to his right, where the doors opened onto the bridge. Unfortunately it was just Atwood, and no Ainsley. The ancient boy shrugged internally. They would have to make due. At least Kinley was awake. Thank the Lady for that.

"Welcome to the party." Kyan offered amicably. "Take Tactical. We need weapons the now, and in the way that Mr. Solluk needs some privacy every seven years or so, so try to make it snappy!" He then turned toward Kinley. "And Science lady, if you would please try to contact those creatures that shot at us. if Solluk is right, maybe we can avoid having to send them all to the Summerlands." Or end up there today ourselves if he was going to be honest about the thing. "And Solluk, keep the rock where it is. But get ready for some fancy flying should the need arise."

Hopefully, Kyan thought, the Grups in Sickbay would sort out the Captain and he could soon return to his tactical station. it was much preferred to just sitting in the big chair telling folk where to go and what to do.

"Yes sir!" She half jogged over to the station and sat down. It took her a good few minutes to get comfortable at the station. She'd never done done this on a starship, only on shuttles. And never with weaponry this large.

"Tactical ready."

[Ser Conley]

"Maybe we don't have to go that far.  Is there away to siphon off energy from the Discovery to this... ship?" He said as he loomed to D'vid. 
"The Discovery does have way to transfer energy ship to ship right?"

[D'Vid]

[Kinley Garrison]

[Away Team]

"Hey!" Kali snarled, but was stopped by the metal like a poxed freak thanks to their guards. She watched helplessly when Tekin was taken away. "That guy couldn't hold himself in a game of darts! I'm the greatest warrior!" No one took her bluff seriously, which left her fuming.

The fact that Conley took over - and not her was more unsettling. But then she realized quite grimly that yeah, he outranked her. He just waltzed onto the ship just recently and he outranked her. That was what divided the enlisted from the commissioned. Tekin warned her this would happen. She stood staring at him in disbelief and she wanted to say that she didn't follow anyone's orders save for the Captain and his XO.

She said nothing and drew her irritation into something productive like working the controls. No response from the Discovery. Great. But she had one tiny ace up her sleeve and moved frequencies to a personal channel she always had open on her end.

"D'Vid, open up a channel to Discovery," Kali said and pulled out her personal PADD. "I'm gonna get their attention. Like a concert." The Captain liked operatic scream-o, didn't he? At any rate, Hello Mega-Hole's Symphony blasting at all comms should get the ship's attention.

[Bridge]

She picked up a transmission from the Away team. But something was interfering with the message. Perhaps whatever the space rock was made up of was interfering with the signal.
  She asked, trying to get a lock on the message. 

[Kinley Garrison]

OOC. I'm just trying to figure out a way to tie up the loose end. Sorry if it seems out of place.


[Bridge]

Kinley looked around at the situation. The asteroid was getting ever closer in range to the planet . She pondered what to do about the situation.

[Tekin Nevir]

(RPing as Kali with her approval)

[Rockship - Control Room]

Ruthie was at the comm station when the first familiar voice came in.  The Discovery.  Ruthie worked with Kali to clear the message, and then was able to get a translator going.

Kali turned and flashed a thumbs up at Ser, hitting the comm button.

"Yes, can you hear us?  We found out what this is... a ship full of Aztecs.  They are apparently using some sort of bio-engine that requires sacrifice.  They've already taken Commander Tekin.  We're working on a way to restore power before they kill the Commander." she said, looking to Ruthie and D'Vid.

"Do what you can, we'll worry about everything else later.  We have precious time!." she said, with a serious look on her face.

Meanwhile, the bound and ornate dressed Nevir was lead to a room, where a green glowing reactor flooded the room with light.  There, in the middle, a sacrificial altar.  To his slight relief, instead of just being pushed down, he was kept standing, while the High Priest began his ritual, starting with face painting.

[Solluk]

[Non-Rock Alien Ship]

The observation of the *DESIGNATION: FEDERATION* aliens had not gone entirely according to plan.  The problem had proved to be in the simulacra that were created for the infiltration portion of the mission.   In some ways, the aliens had been duplicated too perfectly, with the host bodies duplicating the mental flaws of the aliens.   This resulted in their infiltrators being discovered.   Now it was time to retrieve their operatives and return their captives.   

Hopefully, they would have enough useful data amidst the corrupted perceptions.

The Business of Exploration and Discovery was a difficult one.

[Real Bridge]

The alien ship on the viewscreen fired bolts of energy at the Discovery.   These were not weapons, but rather a retrieval carrier-wave for their infiltrators.  In a flash, Solluk and his compatriots were seamlessly returned to the real Discovery, leaving their simulations behind.   At the same time, the temporarily created simulations were dissociated into atomic debris, and the consciousness of the aliens was returned from whence it came.

Well... it was almost seamless.   The real Solluk, returned to his station, suddenly exclaimed.

"What?!  How did we get here again?  Sir!  They've somehow moved our position.   We've been retrieved from the opposite end of the asteroid, and the alien ship is now dead-ahead!"

He looked over his shoulder and blinked in confusion when he saw who was in command of the bridge. 

"...Sir?"

(tag)

[Ser Conley]

(RPing as Kali with her approval)

[Rockship - Control Room]

Ruthie was at the comm station when the first familiar voice came in.  The Discovery.  Ruthie worked with Kali to clear the message, and then was able to get a translator going.

Kali turned and flashed a thumbs up at Ser, hitting the comm button.

"Yes, can you hear us?  We found out what this is... a ship full of Aztecs.  They are apparently using some sort of bio-engine that requires sacrifice.  They've already taken Commander Tekin.  We're working on a way to restore power before they kill the Commander." she said, looking to Ruthie and D'Vid.

"Do what you can, we'll worry about everything else later.  We have precious time!." she said, with a serious look on her face.

Meanwhile, the bound and ornate dressed Nevir was lead to a room, where a green glowing reactor flooded the room with light.  There, in the middle, a sacrificial altar.  To his slight relief, instead of just being pushed down, he was kept standing, while the High Priest began his ritual, starting with face painting.

"Good."  Ser said, finally something was going there way.  Ser looked to D'vid and Jettis. 

"Jettis we need to find out what's happening with the Commander.  Get back on the panel and find a camera feed or something that will tell us." He turn to D'vid

"PO rally you plan to  supply power to this ship.  Then get a tell them to get a lock on the away team.  And to transport on your singal." Last he turned to Ruthie. 

"You sure these people think the gods are powering the ship?"

[Tekin Nevir]

Whether by some luck or skill, as Nevir was pushed down to be sacrificed, the work done was D'Vid caused a power surged, causing the lights to go out and then come back on with full power.  The biomatter engine was bypassed and finally died out, and before anyone could respond, Nevir was beamed out along with the rest of the crew.

First Officer's Log, Supplimental:

With the away team rescued, and intimate knowledge of the systems of the ship, we were able to alter the course, instead aiming the ship for Starbase 43.  A science team is on en route to rescue these time lost people.  With the risk of the planet averted, the Discovery has changed course as well to the Rystian Nebula.  While the away team has gotten a clean bill of health, I can only imagine what kind of effects it will have on us.

The alien ship that appeared while we were away left soon after the rock-ship regained power.  Several members of the crew reported either weird behavior or the feeling of being abducted.  While I don't doubt the integrity of my crew, the unfortunate truth is that without any evidence, and with no readings from the alien craft, we can't prove or disprove their story.

Whoever these beings are, we can only hope that any future interactions will be more... fulfilling.  The idea of being able to abduct different species and have clones out immediately is disturbing to say the least.

End Log.