Making the Jester Dance

Posted on Thu Jul 18th, 2019 @ 5:31pm by Captain Abigail Laurens & Commander Ichiko Gail & Lieutenant Aleksander Voroshilov

Mission: War and Peacekeeping

Reaching up, Abigail tapped her commbadge lightly. "Lieutenant Voroshilov, report to the Captain's ready room immediately," she ordered tersely, closing the link without waiting for a reply.

Taking a sip from her latte, Abigail cast a faint smile at Ichiko. "There is a certain enjoyment that is going to come out of messing with his head," she said quietly by way of explanation over the unusual summons.

The alert forced Aleksi to fall of the couch he had been dozing on, a string of curses in at least three different languages escaped his mouth. Looking around, making sure the Captain had in fact not broke into his room he pushed himself up onto his knees. Finishing the rest of his drink, he stood up and brushed off his uniform. He darted out the door, running a hand through his hair and picking up his PADD, tapping his commbadge, "I'm on my way."

Considering there hadn't been an alert something must have happened to the Zendaya, that or she needed a sudoku puzzle solved. He was hoping for the former because he while he enjoyed puzzles, he hated sudoku. After a few minutes he was at the Ready Room door, tapping the chime.

"Enter," Abigail ordered, watching as he entered. "Lieutenant Voroshilov, I believe you know Commander Gail," she said, motioning toward the Ts'usugi First Officer with one hand. "I suggest you take a seat Lieutenant, we're going to be here for a bit."

"Yes ma'am," Well, at least it isn't sudoku. Taking a seat, his eyes went from the Captain then to the XO sensing a rather tense air. In one of his few moments of sense taking hold he let the ranking officers take lead during the Waltz. Well almost, "I take it we're calling in for dinner?"

"Zendaya has suffered a serious systems failure and can't complete their mission," Abigail said quietly. "We've been ordered to Rendezvous with the Zendaya and retrieve their guests before continuing on to Trion 8." She left the statement as simple as possible, wanting to see his reactions.

It took him a brief moment to fully process what she had said, a growing look of concern on his face. There was no surprise though, this was something he had expected. Whether it had been the government, rebels, or Murphy's Law something was going to happen. It was the fact they were putting two volatile compounds together that gave him the gravest concern, "Well, at least I know the terrain better than either party. How long until we reach them?"

"Fourteen hours, give or take." Ichiko responded in a somewhat neutral tone. It was hard to really get a proper read on her. Though, she had a cup of tea, so she wasn't all that upset.

The Ambassador would have enough air locked in it to keep it alive for that long, if not for a week or two longer. Which was good, the next step would to be run an investigation on the vessel to see what had happened, "What do we have as far as readings? Any venting gasses or unusual heat sources?"

"Nothing. They're too far away from us. All I know is that the ship has suffered a catastrophic systems failure and almost all of their systems are offline. We weren't told it was foul play or anything else. Given your reaction, I'm thinking you suspect foul play?" Abigail asked quietly.

"That's my job ma'am," Aleksi leaned back in his chair, "We can't be sure it's foul play, we also can't rule it out. A ship breaks down, all major systems failing? Both the tyrants and terrorists would love to kill each other off. What can I say, I'm not a fan of coincidences."

"There's an old book on the way of war, that says that in times of conflict, discount coincidence." Ichiko offered. "If we presume foul play, then bringing them aboard the Astraea would no doubt subject us to a similar fate. Especially if it means eliminating their political enemies." she pointed out. "I'd recommend scrambling the codes on the weapons lockers and doubling security at Engineering. At minimum."

"I'd want the bridge, engineering and medical off limits without prior approval and an armed escort," Abigail said quietly. "As Commander Gail suggested we'll need to take precautions over the weapons lockers, maybe see if Operations can do something about that, set the codes to rescramble routinely?" She sighed. "You realise once we bring the insurgents onto the ship we're essentially required to house them all on the same deck?"

"We're fresh from stardock. Still a few bugs to work out. Apologies to our guests, but we may need to house you in separate regions to ensure a comfortable and safe transit." Ichiko cited as a suggested course of action.

Abigail nodded slowly. "I'll go speak to Lieutenant Matashi, see what her recommendations are regarding accommodations and additional security measures..." She turned toward Ichiko. "Do you want to take Engineering? Just give them a heads up on the situation? Make them aware we'll be changing out codes for weapons lockers and placing armed guards in their area? It may pay to see if there's any other sections they think are worth guarding or paying closer attention to as well."

"An investigation of the Zendaya may also be in order, assuming the crew on board hasn't completed one already or if they think it's an accident," Aleksi chimed in, "It could highlight vulnerabilities we need to deal with on our end. I would also suggest keeping them away from any water or air circulation systems."

With another slow nod, Abigail leaned back in her seat. "Do you know anyone on the Zendaya that might be able to get you more information?" she asked cautiously.

"No one I'd trust to find out what really happened, possibly the Chief Engineer if it's truly a malfunction," Aleksi leaned forward a little, "I have 14 hours and plenty of caffine to know the intimate details of the Zendaya. From there I should have a few theories to run, narrowing down the search areas," He decided to take a little bit of a gamble, "I'm asking for one hour once we rendevous with them to do my own inspection, claim last minute logistics issues. I'll have a better understanding from there. Once all parties come on board I'll try to get as much info as I can without being too obvious about it."

"Do it," Abigail ordered quietly. "Just remember what I said earlier about discretion." She paused for a moment, casting a questioning glance at Ichiko. "Anything else you can think of Commander that we may need to take into account?"

"Restricting replicator access." she started, another sip of her tea. "We could request that they beam over rather than arrive via shuttlecraft so that we can screen them for toxins, and render inert any explosives or phaser weapons." she pointed out.

"Though, I'm certain each of those already crossed your minds."

"If they were smart enough to get this far, they're smart enough to not overtly antagonize us. I'd still scan them though," He retreated a little into his own thoughts, figuring out what else he'd sneak on board, "The problem is we're dealing with a terrorist that's survived for years in a profession where even the good ones are lucky to live out one. I can create a bomb with little more than powdered aluminum, oxide, and a flame," He looked up, snapping his fingers to make the point, "We'll need vigilance, or else the rest is just window dressing."

Ichiko nodded in agreement. "Double the rotations, establish a patrol. We turn this ship into a fortress." she mentioned, "And you're right, with the right materials in the right quantity and combination ordinary household items become deadly." she thought, "How long is the remainder of our trip? Think we could get away with disengaging replicators across that entire deck, aside from simple basics?" she optioned. "I hate to be such a bad host, but it sounds like we might be inheriting bad guests."

"Well, lets go rally the troops," Abigail said with a sigh as she pushed her chair back. "We can regroup and work out where we're at after we get through speaking to everyone."