Season 11: Mission 9: The Hidden Truth

[Tekin Nevir]

[Bridge]

Kinley turned to Kali with a look of confusion and slight shock. "Did I just hear you say that there's Nacelles in that thing?" turning to her scanners again, sure enough, she saw them, two warp nacelles in an asteroid.   "Correct me if I'm wrong, but those look kind of like they're Federation make. Question is, how the heck did they get in an asteroid?"

[Bridge]

Nevir's heart sank a bit.  It was still theoretical after all.  He tried to hide his disappointment, but it seemed out anyways.  "We have two possible options.  One, a damaged ship was cannibalized and the engine core was build into this planetoid.  Or two, the ship hit it and buried itself into the rock.  Either option is an engineering marvel to say the least, and would be unprecedented.  Kali, look for any kind of transmitter, look at the exposed nacelles if you have to.  Find it's registry number.  Knowing what ship this is would prove useful.  Kinley, scan for ionization.  See if there is a shielding network inside the core." he said, doing his job as second officer to anticipate the Captain's orders.

[Lena Atwood]

[Sickbay]

"The almalexine sssshould counteract thossse particular ssssymptomsss," Kintiss replied as he applied the medicine to the patient. It was a mix of compounds he'd seen when he'd served on board the Meclanti, and only remembered it because the CMO on that ship had said "There, all better" just seconds before the ship was attacked. "That sssshould take care of the worssst of it." If Atwood's condition worsened, he just had to strengthen the dose.

Noting Atwood's discomfort, he grabbed a blanket from underneath the biobed and placed it gently over the crewman. "Try not to move too much, crewman," he said in as reassuring a tone as he could. "You jussst had a concusssion."

[Sickbay]

The heaving stopped not to long after the doctor applied the medicine the heaving stopped, a little more comfortable she turned onto her side on the bed. She took the blanket gratefully, clutched tightly at the edge and pulled up to her face. Her hair had fallen into her face and she tried to blow it away from her face. Concentrating intently on blowing her hair away, she didn't notice that she was falling asleep. Then she calmly slipped away to her dreams.

[Kinley Garrison]

[Bridge]

Nevir's heart sank a bit.  It was still theoretical after all.  He tried to hide his disappointment, but it seemed out anyways.  "We have two possible options.  One, a damaged ship was cannibalized and the engine core was build into this planetoid.  Or two, the ship hit it and buried itself into the rock.  Either option is an engineering marvel to say the least, and would be unprecedented.  Kali, look for any kind of transmitter, look at the exposed nacelles if you have to.  Find it's registry number.  Knowing what ship this is would prove useful.  Kinley, scan for ionization.  See if there is a shielding network inside the core." he said, doing his job as second officer to anticipate the Captain's orders.

[Observation Lounge ---> Bridge]

Jettis had been off duty, and amusing himself with a game of blackjack with a couple other crew members. It definitely hadn't been an easy game - put an El-Aurian, Bajoran, Betazoid, and a Klingon in the same room, and you get a proper 'brains versus brawn' brawl. Metaphorically, of course, but all four of them were equally competitive, and equally as determined to win, and their techniques varied wildly. The only reason they had been pulled apart was they each, one by one, had to go on duty. And Jettis was the last one to do so, as he headed up to the Bridge to take his station.

Stepping out of the turbolift, he was amused, but unsurprised to see something of interest up on the viewscreen. Honestly, when wasn't something interesting happening on the bridge?
Glancing over at the Science station, he noted but Tekin and Kinley fawning over something. Curious, he headed toward them first, although his eyes were drawn back to the asteroid on screen.
"Can I be of any assistance, sir?" He queried. If he preferred Kinley to be on duty, he definitely wouldn't interrupt. It seemed they were already in the middle of something, and he knew how pissed he would be if he was dragged away from his work in the middle of a discovery.

[Bridge]

  "On it right away, sir." She could tell that he was a bit disappointed that it wasn't a natural phenomenon. She was a tad disappointed herself in the fact that it wasn't fully a natural phenomenon. Turning around to start the next round of scans, she noticed her fellow science officer arrive on the bridge. "Hey Jettis, pull up a chair. Could you help us analyze all these scans that are coming in? This rock has a lot of stuff to fully process.""
She tapped a few more commands into the computer and the next wave of scanner results popped up. Tekin was right. There was a system of ionization deep inside the core of the asteroid. It was faint, but somehow still rather functional. By all means, it shouldn't have been still working, whenever it got into this humongous rock, but somehow it still was.

[Kintiss]

"Odd combination of medication, doctor." he said, as he looked at the details of the treatment. "But I guess it's effective nonetheless. What shall we do next?" He said, eyeing the still-sitting spill of sick on the floor. He knew that he wouldn't want to be the one cleaning it up. If all else failed they could always call over a crewman to do it... Crewman hazing was still legal, right?

[Sickbay]

As he watched Atwood drift off to sleep, Kintiss set down the hypospray and set the biobed to closely monitor her vitals, and to send an alert to his terminal if there was any radical change. If anything happened to her, he would know.

"If the concussssion issssn't too bad, we jussst need to let her resssst," he said finally. "I'll need you to clear her ssschedule and put her on recuperation for the next..." he hesitated as he judged just how much time crewman Atwood might need. "...the next five dayssss. And, uh, we'll get a crewman to clean that up," he added, pointing to the puddle of sick.

[Klabax Cottle]

[Sickbay]

As he watched Atwood drift off to sleep, Kintiss set down the hypospray and set the biobed to closely monitor her vitals, and to send an alert to his terminal if there was any radical change. If anything happened to her, he would know.

"If the concussssion issssn't too bad, we jussst need to let her resssst," he said finally. "I'll need you to clear her ssschedule and put her on recuperation for the next..." he hesitated as he judged just how much time crewman Atwood might need. "...the next five dayssss. And, uh, we'll get a crewman to clean that up," he added, pointing to the puddle of sick.

Klabax nodded and pulled up Atwood's schedule, clearing it and removing any meetings, experiments, or activities that could damage her. For all intents she was on walking bedrest. "I'm sure the crewman will be crushed to know she can't attend Commander Valerii's four hour lecture on  ecological damage caused by the eppoh." he said, a very heavy indication of sarcasm. Valerii tended to be long winded and boring as can be, so it was likely a secret victory for the Crewman.

He also summoned a crewman from sanitation, who arrived quickly and cleaned the mess up. That gone, the aroma quickly dissipated. All was peaceful now, at least until the next crisis hit. "What now, Doctor?" he asked, returning to the forms that his boss had forwarded to him to work on.

[Kintiss]

Klabax nodded and pulled up Atwood's schedule, clearing it and removing any meetings, experiments, or activities that could damage her. For all intents she was on walking bedrest. "I'm sure the crewman will be crushed to know she can't attend Commander Valerii's four hour lecture on  ecological damage caused by the eppoh." he said, a very heavy indication of sarcasm. Valerii tended to be long winded and boring as can be, so it was likely a secret victory for the Crewman.

He also summoned a crewman from sanitation, who arrived quickly and cleaned the mess up. That gone, the aroma quickly dissipated. All was peaceful now, at least until the next crisis hit. "What now, Doctor?" he asked, returning to the forms that his boss had forwarded to him to work on.

[Sickbay]

Kintiss left Atwood to her rest and Cottle to his work. He smirked at his fellow doctor's remark about Commander Valerii's lecture. The rulebook did say that patients with concussion were to avoid mentally strenuous activities, and that certainly qualified.

"Now we finisssh that paperwork and hope no-one elsssse crackssss their head open," he said, grabbing a Raktajino from the replicator and heading to his office. "The ssshuttlebay crew sssaid they'd ssssend ssssomeone up for her. Let me know when they arrive."

[Solluk]

(OOC - If it is inappropriate for me to post at this juncture, please let me know and I shall remove this entry.)

[Shuttlebay]

"Hey, your shift's done.  If you want, I can wrap that up for you.   Um... what is it you're doing, anyway?"

Solluk was on his knees, holding a tricorder in one hand, and a laser welder in the other.  The welder was at its lowest power setting, producing a level of output that would not be welding anything.  Rather, he was running the beam over the deck, cooking stray bits of organic matter that his scrubbing and use of disinfectant products had failed to dislodge.

He glanced up to see an unfamiliar crewman leaning over him as he worked.   His shift replacement, no doubt.   There were still many members of the department that he had yet to meet.  He had only recently arrived on the Discovery, and the innate awkwardness that seemed innate to any new assignment had kept him from mingling extensively.

"A crewman injured herself earlier," Solluk explained, "spilling a great deal of blood.   Someone was instructed to clean up the biohazard incident.  That person in turn instructed me to clean up the biohazard incident.  I am too low in rank to instruct anyone else to clean up the biohazard incident.  So here I am."

The crewman blinked at him, perhaps thinking that Solluk enjoyed using the term 'biohazard incident' a little too much.   "Yeah, but... what are you doing now?"

Solluk's tricorder found a microscopic speck of biomatter a half-meter further on, and he adjusted his aim,  incinerating the cells with his torch.   "While I have completed the vast majority of the cleanup," he said, "it occurred to me that some particulate matter from the blood may have escaped my attentions.  I decided to check with a tricorder, and my supposition was correct.   In accordance with biohazard containment procedures, I am rendering any residual blood matter sterile with this torch."

The crewman chuckled, "That sounds tedious."

Solluk completed his scan of the deck, and then closed his tricorder.   "Yes," he said, standing up, "exceedingly so.  But now it is done."

The crewman shrugged, "You know, you probably didn't need to treat this like a biohazard spill.   The Docs keep us pretty healthy up here."

"You are probably right," Solluk conceded, "but I am putting my foot here for the first time.  I could do worse for myself than a reputation for thoroughness."

"Well," the crewman said, "your reputation is safe with me.  My name's Benecek, by the way.  My friends call me Bennie."

Solluk smiled and shook the man's hand.  "Benecek.  My name is Solluk."

"You're a Vulcan, aren't you," Bennie asked, seemingly incredulous.

"Yes," Solluk said, his smile becoming less certain, "And you seem to be human."

"I don't think I've ever seen a Vulcan smile before," Bennie remarked.

"Ah," Solluk said, and now his smile completely vanished as he disengaged from the handshake, "No... I expect not.  Good day, crewman."

Bennie frowned as he watched the Vulcan turn and leave, seemingly insulted.

[sickbay]

Solluk stepped into the ship's main medical facility, glancing about as he introduced himself.

"Hello Sirs," he said, "I'm crewman Solluk.  I was told that a fellow crewman injured themselves in the shuttle bay today.  I just spent the latter portion of my shift cleaning up their blood.  I hope it isn't an overreach, but I thought I'd check in to see if they were going to be all right."

(tag Doctors, patient)

[D'Vid]

[engineering]

As D'Vid was doing his diagnosis test through out the ship. He decided to do an extra one in the Science Lab from the station he was at in Engineering. He wanted to be sure things are fine. He ran a by-pass series diagnosis on the passage litahium connector. Matter off fact, he had wanted to be sure it was running smoothy because Lieutenant Max had solved the riddle on the cut of power when the hood went out down in the Science lab.

[Ser Conley]

[Shuttlebay]

Ser walked into the shuttle bay, PADD in hand.   It seemed like, he been strapped to his desk since come back.  A mountain of paper work had been waiting for him on arrival.  So he buckle down and got to work.  He  decided to put off, meeting his staff, until after he finished, but after three days of non stop work.  Ser needed a distraction.

He already met with several of his staff, opting to go to them for the short introduction.  Next on his list was Crewman Lena Atwood.   According to The work schedule she would be performing maintenance on the Delta flyer.

Stifling a yawn, Ser started his search of the shuttle for his crewman.  He looked around the exterior,  then walked inside the delta flyer and check there too.

Half a minute later, Ser exited frowning and a little worried.  He looked around and found an engineering Crewman, a Petty officer second class rate, on his collar.

"Excuse me PO.  I'm looking for FC Crewman Lena Atwood.  Have you seen her?" Ser asked. 

[Kali Reyes]

[Bridge]

Nevir's heart sank a bit.  It was still theoretical after all.  He tried to hide his disappointment, but it seemed out anyways.  "We have two possible options.  One, a damaged ship was cannibalized and the engine core was build into this planetoid.  Or two, the ship hit it and buried itself into the rock.  Either option is an engineering marvel to say the least, and would be unprecedented.  Kali, look for any kind of transmitter, look at the exposed nacelles if you have to.  Find it's registry number.  Knowing what ship this is would prove useful.  Kinley, scan for ionization.  See if there is a shielding network inside the core." he said, doing his job as second officer to anticipate the Captain's orders.

[Bridge]

The hail icon continued to blink above her while she scanned the ship as Tekin ordered. But it was just too damn curious. She decided to screw protocol and wait for her superior officers by flipping the icon. "This is Chief Reyes of the USS Discovery," she announced. "Your uh... 'ship's' trajectory is on the path of a planet. Do you require any assistance?"

There was silence, so she tried to put it up on the screen. The picture wobbled and distorted, but there was some kind of humanoid shape. She signaled the communications officer to put the translator on standby when garbled audio finally graced her question.

"ÁŒ§WÁŒ¸eÁÅ¸ÁŒ¢.ÁÂ .ÁŒ·. ÁŒ¨Á¢Áâ,¬tÁÂÁâ,¬Á¡rÁÅ¾ÁÅ"aÁŒ¨cÁŒ¸ÁÅ¾kÁÅ"eÁÂÁÂdÁ'"°ÁŒ§ÁŒ"º..ÁŒ"¢ÁŒ´ÁŒ¨.Á¢ÁŒ¢ Áâ,¬ÁŒ¢sÁŒ"ºhÁÂÁŒ¶ÁÅ¸iÁÂ Áâ,¬p'ÁÂ ÁŒ¢sÁŒ§ Á¡sÁÂ Á¢ÁŒ"¢eÁŒµnÁŒ§ÁÂ sÁŒ´orÁŒ¨ÁŒ§sÁÅ¸ÁŒ¨.ÁŒµÁÅ" Á¡Á¡SÁâ,¬eÁÅ"ntÁËœÁÂ dÁÂisÁËœtÁŒ¡ÁŒ¸rÁÂeÁŒ"ºsÁÅ¾sÁÂÁŒ·ÁÅ¸.ÁÅ¾ÁŒ¸.. seÁÂÁŒµn-"

Their communications officer frowned at her findings. "That's... odd. The translator is picking up a dialect that almost patterns certain languages back on Earth."

"Eh... Eastern Tellarite is nearly the same verbiage as Shakespearean English. Can't be that coincidental."

She shook her head. "Except that with most dialect patterns from Federation planets, the parallels to human language is only at 70%. This is nearly ninety."

If Kali had pointed ears, they'd be perking up right now. "You've got my attention, Ensign. Can you pinpoint which dialect?"

"I'll need more examples before I can compile enough for the linguistic database," Ensign Quill replied. "The static's hard enough for the translator to pick up."

"Well..." Kali grinned almost excitedly at her XO and Cap. "This is quite the puzzler, ain't it? No visual, disrupted audio, what sounds like a distress signal... please tell me you're thinking what I'm thinking." Away team, away team, away team-

[Klabax Cottle]

[Sickbay]

Kintiss left Atwood to her rest and Cottle to his work. He smirked at his fellow doctor's remark about Commander Valerii's lecture. The rulebook did say that patients with concussion were to avoid mentally strenuous activities, and that certainly qualified.

"Now we finisssh that paperwork and hope no-one elsssse crackssss their head open," he said, grabbing a Raktajino from the replicator and heading to his office. "The ssshuttlebay crew sssaid they'd ssssend ssssomeone up for her. Let me know when they arrive."

[Sickbay]

Solluk stepped into the ship's main medical facility, glancing about as he introduced himself.

"Hello Sirs," he said, "I'm crewman Solluk.  I was told that a fellow crewman injured themselves in the shuttle bay today.  I just spent the latter portion of my shift cleaning up their blood.  I hope it isn't an overreach, but I thought I'd check in to see if they were going to be all right."

[Sickbay]

"No more injuries would be a good thing." he said, nodding. "I'll let you know." He said, as the doors opened and a crewman walked in.

"Crewman Solluk. Welcome." he said, appraising the man. "Crewman Atwood is here and fine, resting comfortably." he said, indicating the figure lying on the biobed. "I take it you are new here, Mister Solluk." he said, judging by the fact that the paperwork had not come up with his medical files.

He called over to Kintiss next. "Hey boss, there's a crewman here to see Atwood, maybe the one you're looking for?"

He'd dropped the 'sir' part of the address, not that he did it intentionally, but it was always a cumbersome addition. He turned back to his work, leaving half an ear open for any comments made his way.

[Jettis Jyur]

[Bridge]

  "On it right away, sir." She could tell that he was a bit disappointed that it wasn't a natural phenomenon. She was a tad disappointed herself in the fact that it wasn't fully a natural phenomenon. Turning around to start the next round of scans, she noticed her fellow science officer arrive on the bridge. "Hey Jettis, pull up a chair. Could you help us analyze all these scans that are coming in? This rock has a lot of stuff to fully process.""
She tapped a few more commands into the computer and the next wave of scanner results popped up. Tekin was right. There was a system of ionization deep inside the core of the asteroid. It was faint, but somehow still rather functional. By all means, it shouldn't have been still working, whenever it got into this humongous rock, but somehow it still was.

[Bridge]

Jettis nodded to Kinley, doing just so. Glancing down at the small screen, her curiously glanced over what was already there, getting himself acquainted with the current situation. The readings were odd, to say the least. It as as if an active ship were sitting inside an... asteroid? Evidently that was the case, and it was hurtling straight towards a planet too small to survive the impact.
"Are we sure this real? It's not made of synthesized rock, perhaps an attempt at a stealth attack? Or just an attempt at hiding," he mused aloud, throwing out possible reasons for this phenomena.

Eyeing the scans as they came in, he paused, glancing up as the message played through, the voice distorted and hard to hear. Jettis narrowed his eyes, trying to catch a glimpse at what the 'thing' was, but it proved impossible - the transmission was far too weak.
Moving back to the scanners, he tried to identify life signs - when that inevitably failed through all the interference, he sifted through the information available. Now finding the asteroid

"Is the shell mostly metallic?" He finally spoke up, even though he was in the process of double checking that fact himself. "Maybe we could chip away from around it, avoid destroying the ship. From there the pieces should be small enough to drag away with the tractor beam." His eyes skimmed over the readings again, before glancing up at the viewscreen again. A few more ideas bounced around in his head, but he would pitch them on at a time, getting confirmation of whether or not it was workable.

[Lena Atwood]

[Shuttlebay]

Ser walked into the shuttle bay, PADD in hand.   It seemed like, he been strapped to his desk since come back.  A mountain of paper work had been waiting for him on arrival.  So he buckle down and got to work.  He  decided to put off, meeting his staff, until after he finished, but after three days of non stop work.  Ser needed a distraction.

He already met with several of his staff, opting to go to them for the short introduction.  Next on his list was Crewman Lena Atwood.   According to The work schedule she would be performing maintenance on the Delta flyer.

Stifling a yawn, Ser started his search of the shuttle for his crewman.  He looked around the exterior,  then walked inside the delta flyer and check there too.

Half a minute later, Ser exited frowning and a little worried.  He looked around and found an engineering Crewman, a Petty officer second class rate, on his collar.

"Excuse me PO.  I'm looking for FC Crewman Lena Atwood.  Have you seen her?" Ser asked.

[Shuttlebay]
[NPC Vitaly Sokoloff]

Vitaly hesitated until he realized he was being addressed by an officer, once he knew though he came to attention smoothly. "I am sorry sir, I do not know who you're talking about?" His thick accent betrayed his upbringing in the Urals. He thought for a moment, and ran his hand through his hair. "Bare with me sir." He turned to the console he'd been working at moments before and started bringing up shift records. "And here we are.." The shifts were supplied with photos from the personnel records. "Oh!" He started laughing. "The explosion girl!" He struggled the words out as he laughed so hard. Eventually he managed to calm himself down, but even as he spoke he had a broad grin across his face. "She had an accident this morning, blew something up!" He chuckled. "I think she is in zhe sickbay." He cursed his accent under his breath, he worked hard to keep his speech in check. "Shhheee... is in sickbay I think." He emphasized the she hard.

[Solluk]

[Sickbay]

"Crewman Solluk. Welcome." he said, appraising the man. "Crewman Atwood is here and fine, resting comfortably." he said, indicating the figure lying on the biobed.

"Thank you, Sir," Solluk said, smiling at the Denobulan, "I'm glad to hear she's going to be fine.  There was a surprising amount of blood."

"I take it you are new here, Mister Solluk." he said, judging by the fact that the paperwork had not come up with his medical files.

"Yes, Sir," Solluk confirmed, "I only just arrived before the ship departed on its current mission."

He called over to Kintiss next. "Hey boss, there's a crewman here to see Atwood, maybe the one you're looking for?"

Solluk's eyebrows lifted.  The Medical department on this ship seemed to enjoy an unusual level of informality.  He turned to see who the Denobulan was speaking to, and was surprised to note a figure that resembled a deep desert serpent.  It was a species of humanoid he had never encountered before.  Hardly the sort of image one might hope to see beside their sickbed.  Though, he supposed Vulcans might look just as alarming to people of his race.

[Ser Conley]

[Shuttlebay]
[NPC Vitaly Sokoloff]

Vitaly hesitated until he realized he was being addressed by an officer, once he knew though he came to attention smoothly. "I am sorry sir, I do not know who you're talking about?" His thick accent betrayed his upbringing in the Urals. He thought for a moment, and ran his hand through his hair. "Bare with me sir." He turned to the console he'd been working at moments before and started bringing up shift records. "And here we are.." The shifts were supplied with photos from the personnel records. "Oh!" He started laughing. "The explosion girl!" He struggled the words out as he laughed so hard. Eventually he managed to calm himself down, but even as he spoke he had a broad grin across his face. "She had an accident this morning, blew something up!" He chuckled. "I think she is in zhe sickbay." He cursed his accent under his breath, he worked hard to keep his speech in check. "Shhheee... is in sickbay I think." He emphasized the she hard.

[shuttlebay]

A Quiet rage boiled in Ser's gut, but he waited for the man to finish.   She was in the sickbay that was good.  He'd go to see her shorty, but first...

"Crewman, I've had a lot of crew mates and friends explode around me.  I assure you NONE of them were funny."  He said, then he stepped into the man space.  Until they were almost nose to nose.

"When she wakes up, if she not already awake.  She going to feel a lot of different emotions.  Mainly embarrassment and shame.  She does not need people laughing behind her back, over something she had no control over.  Izn't zat right, Crewman."   If the man was smart he get his meaning with Ser's last accented words.  If he were dumb he just hate Ser for making fun of him.   Ser didn't really care.  Either way he'd punished the man. If only a little.

"Think on my words.  I'll leave you to it." Ser turned on his heels and headed out of the shuttlebay.

[Sickbay]

Two minutes later he walked through the sickbay door.  He immediately saw a small group of people were congregating around a biobed.  Assuming that was Atwood on the bed, because the rest were unoccupied, Ser stepped over and made himself known.

"Excuse me."  He said quietly, as he noticed the Crewman was sleeping.
"Is this Atwood?" He asked.