Bridge Duty

Posted on Mon Dec 27th, 2021 @ 7:22am by Senior Chief Petty Officer Ronson Mitchell & Commander Finchley Kerr & Lieutenant Commander Aurora Vali & Lieutenant Shr'Nesh Karadis

Mission: Gamma Quadrant
Location: Bridge
Timeline: Current

Finchley looked over at Karadis and said "Karadis, scan the area, see if you pick up any additional platforms, if there are any, keep an eye on them."

"Aye Sir, scanning now" Karadis replied. It took about twenty seconds and she reported back saying "There's seven other platforms..., no, wait, make that eight, none of them active at the moment, they seem to be in a low power mode."

Finchley rubbed his chin thoughtfully "What's their location?"

"They're all equidistant from each other, covering the planet" Karadis replied.

"That's what we can pick up, I wonder what's on the far side?" Finchley thought out loud."

"We can't scan the far side Sir, there's no way of knowing from our current orbit" Karadis said.

"We don't want any surprises Karadis, make sure there's a continuous scan around the outer edges of that planet" Finchley said.

"Yes Captain" Karadis replied, turning to her console and carrying out the order.

Turning to Aurora he said "That many platforms covering a planet is rather extreme wouldn't you say?"

Aurora nodded. “Now that you mention it, that does seem strange. Especially as they’re trying to stay hidden from the universe.”

"The platforms we fired on were automated, I wonder if they all are?" Finchley wondered out loud thoughtfully.

"Counsellor, are you able to sense anything from them or sense if there's anything around them?" Finchley asked Aurora "I wouldn't like to think there's going to be any surprises."

Aurora shook her head. “It’s difficult to say Commander, there’s a hell of a lot of fear coming from the planet. Our arrival is practically causing panic.”

"It's understandable" Finchley replied "They haven't met any outsiders for some considerable time, however, some of that fear could have been instilled by this Chancellor fellow. Best you just concentrate on what's happening with the away team."

Aurora nodded. “I’ll do my best but given the emotional backwash it’ll be awkward. The only person I can truly latch onto is Savar, through our bond as husband and wife.”
Finchley nodded his understanding.

Chief Mitchell had arrived on the bridge and taken one of the rear bridge stations, helping out as some of the senior officers headed out to make first contact. " Sir from what I understand, they're xenophobic, they didn't want to be found and I think they want to keep it that way"

"Yes, we have got that impression Chief" Finchley replied. He was silent for a moment then said "Chief, see if you can hack into their communications network, stealth is required, we don't want them spooked. If we can get into them, it could give us an advantage as to what they're so afraid."

Ronson made a few amendments to his panel then moved to the Ops position on the bridge, assisting the junior officer there " I may be able to hack into their historical database, such things are generally considered low security and are easy to copy"

"If you can get into the historical database, you can then trace back into the entry system and then get in a backdoor to their communications Mr Mitchell" Finchley replied. He'd used the same technique himself a couple of times to gain information indirectly.

"Once you've checked and got in, report back to me with your findings" he finished, turning back to the main viewer.

"Yes Sir" Ronson replied and turned his attention to the panel before him. The comm network on the planet was quite complex but he aimed his searching for one of the smaller museums to see if it would hold a cultural historical database that he would be able to copy without raising the alarm.

The defense platform lay idle before them, disabled by the Sunfire's weapons. The others however were perfectly capable of powering up and destroying the Akira class ship at any time. Ronson felt the pressure of his task bearing down on his shoulders. He was comfortable serving as the Captains Yeoman, this was definitely outside his comfort zone but not outside his highly varied skillset. Make the Sunfire's best coffee he could do blindfolded, hack into an alien communications network and try to locate their historical database would take a little longer.

"Sorry Sir, still working on it" He apologised after a few long tense minutes.

"Try using an encrypted numerical cypher Mr Mitchell, Dawson's trilateral or Mason's cryptographic numerical coding, perhaps they can help" Finchley replied.

" Thank you Sir, I hadn't tried those combinations yet" Ronson admitted as he input the appropriate sequences into the ships computer. A few more minutes passed as he worked.

"Sir... I think I have it... it's gonna take a while to decode and sift through through." He announced.

"Very good Mr Mitchell, let me know when you have something" Finchley replied.

" Yes Sir" Mitchell replied and redoubled his efforts to decypher a thousand years of historical records.

Getting into the system was going to prove tricky, but he was hopeful it would yield much needed information. Treading lightly would be the key, they didn't want to provoke suspicion, however, he couldn't help but feel that not everything was what it seemed. There had to be a reason these people were so suspicious of outsiders, and it wasn't that they just wanted to be left alone . What if the Dominion had gotten there first, could they be forcing them to try and turn the Sunfire and it's crew away?

Turning to Aurora he said "Counsellor, try and scan the planet again, see if you can block out the fear and sense if there's anything out of the ordinary. I think there's something more than meets they eye...or minds there. In particular, anything of a Cardassian or Vorta nature, this doesn't add up for me, like most people here, we've all felt and sensed fear, but I think there's more to it than simple xenophobia."

Aurora nodded. “I can try Commander, but from this distance with so much interference...” she shrugged her shoulders. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to sense anything concrete.” She slowly let her mental walls down, focussing herself on the planet on the viewscreen. It took a few minutes before looked towards Finchley. “There’s...something...” She shook her head. “I can’t put it into words, it just feels...deceptive, but I can’t tell more than that!”

A short time later Ronson had written a number of search queries into the historical database, looking for repetitive images or keywords. " I think I have something Sir....it seems this race used to be spacefaring and social in the local quadrant, until an unknown species arrived and transmitted a plague that wiped out nearly the entire population. It appears they've been xenophobic and afraid of all outside contact since that point" He explained.

“A plague?” Aurora looked towards Mitchell. “I take it the plague is under control now? We don’t want to risk our people.”

Ronson dug a little deeper " From what I can figure out - this was a LONG time ago, around a thousand years ago if their 'solar rotations' are roughly one orbit. They've essentially been in hiding ever since"

“That’s a long time to be in hiding” Aurora shook her head. “No wonder they’re terrified of us.”

"My gut tells me that this isn't just about the plague" Finchley said "I can understand about not wanting anyone to come to the planet, but a thousand years is a long time to hide away."

He turned to Karadis and said "Scan this area, there's going to be ion trails from any ships that have passed this way. Perhaps they may be decayed but there could be enough left to track them back."

"Aye Captain" Karadis replied, setting about the task. A few minutes passed and she reported back.

"We have three ion trails, all emanating from further into the Gamma quadrant but ending at this planet. Given their rate of decay, the most recent one is about one two weeks old, the longest one around a month back. Sir, their all Cardassian."

Finchley wasn't surprised by this news, his gut instinct appeared to be right.

"Karadis, send that information to the away team on the shuttle, they need to know" Finchley said.

"Aye Sir, sending it now" Karadis replied, doing as she was ordered.

"Why would the Cardassians be here?" Ronson mused.

"It would be an excellent place to train up, and also strategically a good jumping point to attack our quadrant from the Gamma quadrant" Finchley replied "also, I'd have imagined they'd have studied this area and planet, so if they've noted no-one coming near, it would afford them excellent cover if they took the planet over. They could also use the xenophobia of the planets inhabitants to their advantage. I'm not saying this is what's happened, but if they are there..." and he left the end of the sentence open.

"We should keep an open eye" Ronson agreed as he kept trawling through the historical database. " The shuttle has launched, ETA to the defence platform 8 minutes"

TBC