Rendezvous with the USS Huron

Posted on Fri Jul 29th, 2022 @ 11:03pm by Captain Maia Sterling & Lieutenant Steve O'Carroll & Lieutenant Commander Sheena Toran-Blake & Lieutenant Commander Robert Hendon & Lieutenant JG Gavin Ross & Lieutenant Marianna Grant & Lieutenant Kasey Tanger & Lieutenant Commander Havri Belbre & Lieutenant Isabelle Raal & Lieutenant Marina Tanger & Lieutenant Commander Rick Gibbs & Lieutenant T'Plana-hath

Mission: Shore Leave
Location: Deep Space
Timeline: 239507.21.1

Captains Log Supplemental Stardate 239507.21.1

I have informed Starfleet Command about the loss of the USS Rutledge, they have ordered the USS Huron a Miranda class freighter to pick up the survivors. The Leto is currently on course to rendezvous with them. Interesting that we haven't seen any sign of the Orion marauders that attacked the Rutledge. Mr. Tanger has interviewed all the survivors and they all tell the same story about being attacked by anthropomorphic playing cards. Two we have locked in the brig, from an action on the Rutledge when we tried to save the vessel. Though they seem deactivated or inert. Dr. Hendon and Dr. Grant have done an excellent job of patching up the survivors and fitting those that needed them with prosthetics. We also have another unexpected passenger, Alice from Alice in Wonderland though she seems strangely quiet too. She is under guard and locked in guest quarters. For a ship on shore leave, we have seen a lot of action. I can only hope any adventure we find on Omicron Delta will be more tranquil than we have so far experienced.

Sterling Maia A. Captain
Commanding Officer
USS Leto NCC-80916

-------------------Bridge USS Leto---------------------

[ON]

The Leto had been at warp 2 for a little under 2 hours. We had orders to offload the survivors of the starship Rutledge. Maia had the center seat as it was the middle of the alpha shift. Her Yeoman handed her a fuel consumption report shortly after she had completed her log entry. Maia signed it and sent her on her way.

"Lt. Ross any sign of the Huron, she asked her science officer."

Seated at Sciences, Ross had turned to Captain Sterling. “Affirmative, Captain.” Ross acknowledged.

“The USS Huron will be in communications range within the next hour. Warp 7.2 and closing in on our rendezvous coordinates, Ma’am.” Gavin smiled as he was fresh on the bridge of the Leto. The vessel had completely updated sciences modules, reconfiguring, and recalibrating intel.

"Thank you, Mr. Ross," Maia acknowledged.

Rick was rather curious about their new 'passenger.' Looking up from his station, "Permission to go down and have a little talk with our fairy tale book, Captain?"

"Okay, Mr. Gibbs but be careful she isn't entirely real I think, or at least I don't think she is what she appears to be," The Captain replied.

"I think I have a pretty good idea of how to go about this. Has anyone else actually read the real story? Not the other iterations that have been made after the first?" He gave a curious look to Maia.

"Do you mean Alice in Wonderland or Alice through the looking glass, Mr. Gibbs? I've read both. Why do you ask?" Maia asked.

Rick gave a bit of a nod, "Yes. Perhaps some kind of trama has happened and that personality has taken over for the moment, hence the look and the gimmicks. Or it's some kind of game or there's..." trailing off, "You get the idea."

“Did I hear mention of Alice in Wonderland?” Isabelle smiled as she approached from the turbo-lift. “I’d heard we had somewhat odd persons onboard. Anything I can do to assist?”

Perhaps you can go down and meet with our captive and help Mr. Gibbs try to figure out what's going on with her, that is if you don't mind the assistance, Mr. Gibbs?" Maia suggested.

Isabelle looked towards Gibbs to see if he’d agree. “I’ll be happy to if I’m not treading on your toes Lieutenant?”

There was a shake of his head a little bit and a smile given. "I don't mind at all. We should grab a few things from sickbay. Leave them outside the room at first. Just there if we need anything. Same with regular tricorders, etc." Rick motioned a hand to the open turbolift doors.

“Good idea” Isabelle nodded and headed towards the turbolift, to say she was curious about their visitor was an understatement.

Rick stepped in behind her and called for the supply deck first, looking to Isabelle. "Should we replicate costumes also in case we need to change into them at some point, you think?"

Isabelle gave it consideration. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea, given we don’t know anything about the situation. Let’s wait and see what comes to light first.”


--------------Intelligence Office---------------

T'Plana was in the 'dark room' at her workstation. She was reviewing all the data she had time to recover before the loss of the Rutledge, unfortunately, the warp core explosion destroyed the computer core when it ejected. She only had the data she was able to download before she was beamed out and the explosion occurred. As she was reviewing the data a stream caught her attention it was a Vulcan letter, it read as Tor t'nash-veh sa-mekh t’shank, s' ish-veh ko-fu sutok. La' nam-tor wuh thurai dvun svi' t'nash-veh mathematical zhagra (To my Father T’Shank, from your daughter Sutok. Here is the next move in my mathematical game.). Then what proceeded was a series of highly complex mathematical equations that suddenly ended in a corrupted data stream.

Marina walked across to T’Plana-hath. “How is the data review coming along Lieutenant?”

T'Plana-hath looked at her superior "I have uncovered a message to the V'Shar from one of their agents who were on the Rutledge, unfortunately, the last part of it became corrupted data. Without the ending part of the coded message, I am unable to start deciphering the code." She frowned for just a brief second and looked up at Marina "I do still have some contacts in the V'Shar that could provide me the needed cipher, however, the cost to me would be high and personal."

Marina shook her head. “Then we do what we can with what we've got. I may have some contacts back on Betazed that maybe able to help with that. The downside is they’re ex-Caliphate members. I don’t even know if the authorities on Betazed would allow us contact.”

T'Plana-hath paused and raised her left eyebrow for a second as she considered what Lieutenant Marina Tanger said, "I would advise against such action, especially so soon after your deep cover assignment with them. No, it is most logical for me to reach out to the V'Shar, as it is a V'Shar agent and code; even though it is being introduced to Starfleet Intelligence." T'Plana-hath looked at Lieutenant Tanger, "Do not worry about the price, I am willing to accept what Sutok will ask, a bonding between me and his nephew."

“A bonding...” Marina sighed. “That’s quite some price, but if you’re sure it’s what you want.”

T'Plana-hath smiled slightly and raised her left eyebrow, "We will also require the services of one of the diplomatic communication stations. I do not think it would be wise to use the Starfleet Intelligence communication relay, and most definitely not the ship's normal communication relay. The captain has made it a point that it is not the Leto mission in regards to Captain Arwella, and I would prefer that Starfleet Intelligence does not get wind of our investigation at this time. Diplomatic communication stations are provided the 'safety' of no intrusion by any species worlds."

“I suggest a conversation with Lieutenant Tanger regarding that one” Marina smiled. “He is the Chief Diplomatic Officer.”

"Then I suggest you lead the way, Lieutenant. Diplomats are not authorized in the Intelligence suite. Also, it would appear you may have ties with Lieutenant Tanger. Also, I would not mind having the Ambassador and yourself present when I contact the V'Shar." Lieutenant j.g. T'Plana-hath stated.

Marina nodded. “Let’s see what the Lieutenant has to say, and we’ll go from there.”


-----------------Sick Bay----------------------------

=/\=Sterling to Dr. Hendon, how are things going with your patients, Doctor =/\=

=/\= We have managed to nullify the anticoagulant in all the patients. They will be weak for a while they lost a lot of blood. But we're confident the butchers' bill won’t contain any fatalities. Captain.=/\= Robert said

=/\= We will rendezvous in less than an hour with the Huron will you be finished treating the injured by then =/\=
The Captain asked.

=/\ Shouldn’t be a problem.=/\= Hendon replied

"just finishing up the last one here Dr. Hendon." Marianna said before turning back to the Bolian she was checking the stub of what was once the foot of a young ensign. "that is healing nicely Ensign T'Chall. In a week or so we can start getting you fitted for your new foot. I have to warn you, you have a long road ahead, with pain and work. But for now, rest and let us know if anything changes." She smiles at the young Bolian.

T'Ghal looked at her.

"We are due to leave on the Huron. By next week many of us will be on a starbase in physical therapy. It's the emotional stress that I have to learn to overcome. Who would have thought we would ever be attacked by playing cards? I will probably have about 6 months before I get my next assignment, with the Rutledge being destroyed," T'Ghal said.

"I do hope we meet again Doctor, thanks for healing me. It was touch and go for a while." T'Gahl added.

“ Yes. But next time let’s hope your are not losing blood.” Robert said

"good luck to both of you. I do hope you will go a long way with your careers and please stay in touch." Patting the young Bolian's leg.

--------------Diplomatic Office----------------------

Lt. Kasey Tanger was updating files and preparing a report to give to the Huron's crew about his findings and personal observations of the crew of the Rutledge. Also in this report would be his take on the mysterious Alice. He had been watching computer feeds of the quarters she was in and she seemed to be almost childlike in her appearance and mannerisms but he sensed more from the entity. He felt that something was off. He wish he could be in there to try to get her to talk but he knew that someone else was better qualified at that task. He would just go about his business and then see if he would be helpful in other ways to bide his time until they got to Omnicon Delta for shore leave. He had never been there but was curious to see how well they could help him act out his curious fantasy of going on a quest similar to an old Earth role-playing game called Dungeons and Dragons. He would enjoy being a half-elf druid in a troop who would off to help a village gang their freedom from a terrible gang of thieves or pirates.

--------------Bridge----------

LCdr Belbre was sitting at the Security console going over what little bit of data she had been about to recover before the USS Rutledge blew up. She wanted to know how the cards with Orion's faces could get on board the ship and then gain access to the ship's computers and files.

She wanted to try to figure it out so it did not happen on the Leto. She had been through everything and it seemed there was no answer to how it happened. She moved to the Tactical weapons control panel and did some things there to maybe come up with an answer to her questions.

Sheena stepped from the turbo-lift onto the bridge deep in thought. Seeing that the captain was there, she took her seat, "You would never think that you would actually see a playing card fighting you or running rampant destroying a ship. However, with all we do know about the Orions, especially one with the wealth she has, I wouldn't put it past her to be somehow involved in this. Yet, the questions remain, why, what, and if there was something specific they were after. I don't believe it was a fluke or a random happenstance," she said looking at Maia...

"I was reading some of the reports from Captain James T. Kirk's original Enterprise missions. He visited Omicron Delta twice and indicated that the computer itself was sentient and had a sense of fair play. Playing cards and indeed Alice, from Alice in Wonderland was indicated in his report. Could it be that the computer itself was somehow trying to get our attention?" Maia postulated.

“Lt. Commander Belbre. May I be able to help?” Gavin stood and crossed his forearms, not able to help himself but leaning into the side of the aft tactical systems operated by the officer. Ross was just as interested in the science aspect of the problem as Havri was in figuring out the security breach of the characters.

"You sure can Lt Gavin. I am trying to figure out how they were able to breach the security protocols on the Rutledge and then able to overload the warp core to prevent it from happening on the Leto. I was able to get some limited information from the security computers before the warp core forced me to leave. It is limited but may help us protect the Leto from them if we run across them again." replied Belbre.

“Perhaps Orion’s sentient computers infected and took over the related systems on the Rutledge.” He posited Belbre. “There are countless cascade protocols designed to intervene in this exact scenario. A scenario that leads to a computer breached warp core is highly suspect.” Gavin stated the obvious.

“Were the Alice characters of holographic concept or human-like?” Ross had just beamed aboard hours ago, he was quickly catching up to the fascinating mission.

"Well for one they did seem to be real and not holographic. I am thinking they are from a program they stole someplace. Plus they had emotions as well. As Commander Toran and I beamed back to the Leto, one of the cards was shaking its fist and appeared to be cursing because we got away.

Also, they seem to follow orders closely with the higher cards as well. Alice seemed to be in total command though. and they seemed to look to her for guidance,"Belbre said.

“Interesting.” Ross had replied to Belbre regarding the eccentricities of the cards. “If we are to protect the Leto, it would be prudent to study the Alice card. How was the USS Rutledge compromised? Did there appear to be a neural link between Alice and the other cards?”

Bebre replied, "I am telepathic and did not sense any telepathic activity. And unless they use one I could not detect then there was none. I am not sure how they communicate with each other at this time. It is possible they may use a telepathic communications system I cannot detect.

"Interesting," Ross examined the tricorder readings from the away team on the Rutledge. "Fascinating creatures."

-----------------Arrival of the USS Huron-------------------

The Starship Huron arrived. It was a Miranda class starship with proper hailing codes. The survivors of the Rutledge were offloaded to the Huron without incident.

Captain Sterling ordered the Leto to resume her course for Omicron Delta.

[OFF]

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A post by:

Captain Maia A Sterling
Commanding Officer
USS Leto NCC-80916

&

Lieutenant Marina Tanger
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Leto NCC 80916

&

Lieutenant Junior Grade Rick Gibbs
Assistant Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Leto NCC-80916

&

Lieutentant Commander Havri Belbe
Chief of Security? Chief Tactical Officer
USS Leto NCC-80916

&

Lieutenant Gavin Ross
Chief Science Officer
USS Leto NCC-80916

&

Lt. Cmdr. Sheena Toran
Executive Officer
USS Leto NCC-80916

&

Lieutenant Marianna Grant
Asst. Chief Medical Officer
USS Leto NCC-80916