The Search is On

Posted on Fri Jan 31st, 2025 @ 11:21pm by Lieutenant Sarah Wilson & Senior Chief Petty Officer Ronson Mitchell & Commander Jenna Ramthorne & Commander Dean House & 2nd Lieutenant Connor McQueen & Commodore S'thenosis Gorgox & Lieutenant Commander Rynn Upland & Lieutenant Thomas Haldeman & Lieutenant Alison Haldeman & Lieutenant Freya Ross

Mission: Ramant
Location: USS Sunfire
Timeline: Current

They were just entering the first system and already the search was becoming complicated. There were three planets in this system alone capable of supporting life. Process of elimination showed one was pre-warp but the other two were advanced enough to have boarded the Sunfire. Without using warp drive within the system, that meant extra travel time between planets in order to get close enough to perform a biological scan for their people. If they had the DNA trace of the species it would narrow the search. Then there was no guarantee the ship was planet bound, as numerous races that took to the stars often remained spread out throughout the quadrant.

She needed this to happen faster with much more efficiency than it currently was happening. It was time to rely on others, something she often struggled with, for ideas. "Alright people, our people are out here somewhere. We need ideas for how to find them faster and I am open to suggestions." She said to the bridge crew.

"Do we have enough power for one of those flash illumination things?" Ronson asked from the back of the bridge, having forgotten the technical word for it. Their options were limited in trying to find a cloaked ship or a hidden planet where their people could be held.

"What if we searched for high end energy devices? Maintaining and building ships with cloaks would take a lot of power" He shrugged at the simplicity of it. It couldn't be that easy. The first planet was L class and devoid of life after a routine sensor sweep.

Tom spoke from the tactical station. "Implement sensor sweeps of the surrounding planets. Concentrating, looking for highly sophisticated technology. As well as advanced medical technology. The kind that our attackers would need to support the attack on us."

The Turbolift doors to the Bridge opened, and there was this eerie pause of silence. Just after that, one body flew past the doors and then a second. Dean came out with two more over his shoulders and not so delicately slammed them down on the deck. He was slightly worse for wear but they'd seen him much more worse off and still going. "Who in the hell are these assholes and where has half of our crew gone?"

"Well I guess he found some of them" Ronson quipped as Dean arrived on the bridge again. "Our people have been abducted, to a ship we can't see or track"

"If I may suggest Commander.." Allison looked towards Jenna. "We could try scanning for the bio signs of our people, as far as we know there are no Federation colonies out here, so if we find biosigns that's most likely where they'll be."

"Good point Allie." Tom said with approval. "It is something to go on Commander." He said to Jenna.

"I hate to be a debbie downer here kiddos, but that's not going to work." Making sure the four he'd taken care of were detailed and in the Brig with all of the force fields, dampening fields, and any other fields, even tachyons were in place. "They just made bitches out of us and have our people. We're not going to be able to just do an easy bio-scan." Dean gave a shrug, not taking over at Tactical. He didn't have to, Tom had it handled.

"Mr. House is right." Jenna stood and agreed as she looked at the 'people' he had just deposited on the bridge. "Long-range scanners aren't fine-tuned enough to search for bio-signatures, only short-range. The best we can do is a high orbit and to do that with one ship, one at a time, will take a long time. Time our people don't have."

She walked around the railing to the people then gave a side look to Dean, "How were you able to locate them? And, were you able to get any answers out of them before they became unconscious?"

Dean tilted his head ever so slightly and tap his right ear with a finger, "I could hear them. Also I wasn't particularly focused on interrogation as I was trying to stop the ones I could. There is..of course, and idea I have."

Connor had been in communication with his teams sweeping the decks of the ship when Dean had come through with his bounty. He tilted his head slightly and watched. Looking around he suddenly remembered.. “My comm badge is with the Captain. I was able to slip it under her collar just before she disappeared. Is there anyway we can “ping” it to get a signal to bounce back?”

There was the squint of one eye a moment, Dean shrugged, "It's worth a shot. Good thinking Connor."

Ronson took a few moments to bring up McQueen's combadge and run a sweep for a signal..he overlaid the results on to the main viewscreen. "I'm getting something, but it comes and goes as though there's energy fluctuations"

"You could narrow the band to filter through some of those fluctuations and the white noise." Dean chimed back.

Jenna was intently watching the screen for results. Her original idea of sending ships out in all directions was superseded by the simple, intelligent, foresight of Lieutenant McQueen. It didn't matter, as long as they were able to track their people.

"To improve our chances of success, we can also ping the other's combadges, Commander Savar, Lt. Commander Vali, Bonnie, Commander Baldric." Tom added from tactical.

Dean shook his head, "Unless they made sure to take them and disable or destroy them. That's what I would do."

"You might destroy the obvious ones, but a concealed one?" Ronson asked hopefully. "What if someone who was abducted had a subcutaneous tracker? Dr Wilson would have that information" it wasn't uncommon for officers in sensitive positions or roles that would make them targets to have such.

"I wasn't dismissing the idea in the least. Just stating the obvious. We do have the one that was hidden. Also, Ronson, yes that would work as well." The subcutaneous implants. "We can try it. Telepathy would work also."

"Do we have any telepathic crew members left?" Allison looked around curiously. "Seeing as these attackers knew just what they were doing, they've probably thought of ways to block any sort of rescue as well. We could just walk into a giant trap."

"It is a possibility Alie." Tom agreed. "However, I think whoever took the crew, our friends is thinking they covered all their bases and that we will never be able to track where they went. Otherwise, they could have destroyed this ship and crew. No, I think they are confident in their escape."

She took a breath, telepathy was a finicky tool. Aurora had mentioned picking up 'something' before they were boarded. It was possible the aliens had some form of telepathy. After trying to block others out for so long did she dare allow them in, that flood of thoughts. She decided on a course of action, "McQueen, Mr. House, please take our new guests to the brig and persuade them to tell us where and why. Meanwhile we will continue to track whatever signal we can."

She turned back to the center chair with a second thought in her mind, "Mr. House, a word in private please?" Her hands were behind her back as she walked off towards the Captain's ready room.

Ronson watched as they left the bridge and sent a request to Dr Wilson to see if any of the crew members abducted had subcutaneous tracking implants. He knew Captain Kaylen was a possibility but was unsure of anyone else.

Just then Rynn entered the bridge and stopped to catch her breath. Engineering was stable for the moment and she felt more useful on the bridge. The staff in engineering could handle themselves for the moment. She trusted them, as Thriss did.

She finally caught her breath. "Sorry I'm late to the party, but we could try and reveal their position or at least their destination with tachyon emissions" she suggested.

Dean raised an eyebrow. Giving a pause a moment before he turned to follow Jenna into the Ready Room. Waiting for the doors to close behind him. "Yes, Commander?"

As Connor looked from the two bodies who still lay unconscious on the bridge deck to the ready room where the door had already closed, he tilted his head and with a small shake took a hold of each of their arms as he dragged them to the lift and away to the brig.

"I'll alert sickbay that you will need their assistance" Ronson called before the doors closed. And sent yet another message to the harried CMO.

The doors closed behind Dean and Jenna turned on a dime to face him. She intended to keep the conversation brief. "You are next in Command. I do not want to overstep my bounds and only assumed control when we were unsure of where you had gone." She smiled to show she meant well. "The bridge is yours."

Dean waved a hand, "You did what you needed to. I don't have a problem taking second seat for the time being."

Nodding her approval she replied, "Fair enough. I just didn't want any conflict when our focus should be on our people. Thank you for being understanding." She shifted. "Now are you okay with interrogating our guests?" The quicker they got some answers, the quicker they could form a rescue party.


Meanwhile down in the brig Dr Wilson was standing outside the forcefield with a perplexed look on her face. These beings were not in the Federation database, and looked like nothing she had ever seen. She was unsure of how to treat that and hat their bodies would tolerate. Furthermore they were clearly an advanced species and had showed how dangerous they could be.

TBC