Science Stick
Posted on 22 Nov 2022 @ 1:01pm by Captain Corvus DeHavilland & Captain Lachlan Callum & Commander Faye Magnolia
Edited on on 22 Nov 2022 @ 1:05pm
Mission:
M3 - Into the Deep
Location: USS Theseus - Outside Derelict Station
Timeline: Immediately Following ‘Space Bauble - Pt 3’
1676 words - 3.4 OF Standard Post Measure
”Say that again?” Captain Callum asked, leaning onto the arm of his chair and looking across the bridge at Lieutenant Takahashi, the Theseus’s Chief Science Officer. On a scale of one to ‘what in the hell’, if he’d heard the man right this would have ranked somewhere in the ‘are you mad’ range. But he was giving him the benefit of the doubt to repeat himself and save Lachlan from the insanity he thought he’d heard.
“Commander De La Fuente is reporting that they’ve found a corpse aboard the station, and some kind of a data core. They’ve transported both aboard the Pathfinder for further review.”
Lachlan sighed, “Brilliant, that,” he complained, now feeling sick to his stomach to have heard him repeat exactly what he thought he’d heard to begin with. “Forget trying to trace a wayward ship. Let’s stop and poke at anything that looks interesting,” he added under his breath, looking away from Takahashi now at his First Officer, lurking along the edge of the railing between the Captain’s chair and the lower section of bridge. “Do we bother reminding them what the hell we’re out here for?”
“Bless their hearts, they might not understand,” Commander Magnolia answered in her sweet southern draw. “But I’ll kindly remind them that we ought to be be on our way,” she added, turning away and walking towards the other end of the railing to speak down towards Commander Brightwood and smiling her venomously sweet simper. “Reach out to the Pathfinder, find out if they’re ready to move on?” She asked.
“Straight away, mum,” Brightwood answered cheerfully, well aware of the undercurrent intended in that statement. All things considered, when he took on the the role of Chief Operations Officer this was hardly the kind of work he had in mind - passive aggressive commentary from one ships Captain to another. Though, truth be told, he had to agree with Captain Lachlan. There was little reason to dilly dally about poking their nose in scientific matters, no matter how curious, when they were supposed to be looking for these Pyrryx. After all, if this had been a scientific exploration mission they wouldn’t have needed the Theseus to babysit.
That’s what it was at the end of the day. However the Admiral, or the Captain framed it, they’d been assigned to babysit a ship full of eggheads on whatever mission their ships sensors were more suited to manage. They hadn’t been sent along to watch the science geeks perform a thousand unneeded experiments. They were here to protect them while they scanned for the Pyrryx. Something they were definitively not doing at the moment. Frustrated, Brightwood made the connection to Pathfinder as instructed. “Pathfinder confirms that all their crew is back aboard. They’re securing their new… cargo… and getting ready to get underway. Estimating one hour, mum,” he added, reading the data feed coming back and glancing back over at Magnolia still on the railing waiting for news.
“Captain?” She called over, aware he’d heard it.
“Standby Yellow Alert,” Captain Callum ordered, “Mr. Sachdev,” he added, looking over to the dark mustachioed man at the Tactical station wearing a red turban to match his uniform. “I want a full sensor sweep. Don’t worry about being polite to the station any longer.”
“Very good, Captain,” he replied, his English heavily accented, to the point Lachlan had considered requiring the man to just speak Punjabi and let the UT take care of it.
On the one hand, Lachlan was irritated to be stuck with babysitting duties. This was why he’d bucked the system for so long, knowing he’d be tasked with bullshit jobs like this, escorting a bunch of eggheads clear across nowhere wanting to poke and prod everything they came across. He wanted to carve his own path. To make his own rules and decide where their focus would be spent. But then again, this wasn’t an ordinary milk run. These eggheads stood a real chance of having their butts handed to them in a firefight with these Pyrryx. Callum wasn’t the kind to itch for a fight, but there was a certain focus and determination the expectation of one brought and this time he didn’t have to figure out how he and his merry band of misfits were going to eek out a defense. This time, he had a top of the line Prometheus class ship to stand his ground with. So, given that, he was willing to accept the Admiral’s babysitting job and prepare for the challenge of defending against a formidable enemy.
Part of taking this job though had been the draw of being able to have his family with him. That his wife and daughter would be able to be with him all the time, not just waiting on some distant station or planet for their course to lead them home. He had gotten used to that in the last few months of shakedown and training on his new command, but here on their first real mission he’d had to leave Giselle and Olivia behind on Obsidian Command. Something his wife did not let him hear the end of, even now that he was off station and on his mission. They hadn’t had a conversation yet where she hadn’t mentioned and, truth be told, he agree with her. For the first time, really ever, he had a true home somewhere and almost as soon as they had fully settled in, he’d had to send them off. He wasn’t happy about that and, as much as he was trying not to, it was coloring his day to day interactions with the crew.
“Nothing to report on sensors, Captain.” Lieutenant Sachdev answered, interrupting Callum’s brief internal musings.
“Alright,” he nodded, watching the station on the viewport ahead of them, now leaning forward with his elbows on his thighs. He had to admit that the station didn’t look like anything he’d seen of the Pyrryx’s, though that data set was minimal. This felt wholly alien to their standards though. Then again, he had read that the Pyrryx were known to have subjugated other species under their banner. So maybe this was a hold out of that? Neither argument held enough water to convince him to let his guard down. Not yet.
“Lachlan,” Commander Magnolia said softly, now standing beside him. “It ain’t wise to linger here,” she said sweetly, drawing him to sit up properly again. “Might be this is just a derelict station, but I wouldn’t put it past these Pyrryx to know how inherently curious our people are and be lying in wait. We should move on now. Find a quieter spot to hide if the science minds need time.”
He listened quietly at first, jaw clenched tight in frustration and then slowly nodded in agreement. “Aye,” he finally said. “Aye,” he repeated as if he needed to convince himself. He drew himself up, tugging at the collar of his uniform and then called out. “Mr. Brightwood. Hail the Pathfinder.”
“Standby,” Brightwood answered cheerfully. “Channel open.”
“Captain DeHavilland, Captain Callum. I really must insist we be on the move. Now,” he emphasized. “If your teams need time to make experiments, we can find somewhere else to do it.”
“Are you seeing something we aren’t, Lachlan?” DeHavilland responded, her figure materializing in holographic form to his right, herself perched on the edge of her command chair.
“No,” he answered, “But… tell me you don’t think this whole thing doesn’t smell funny?”
Her lack of an immediate answer told Lachlan more than her words did and he let a slight sneer curl the edge of his lips. “Of course it does,” she agreed. “I just don’t necessarily agree with your sense of urgency.”
Callum chewed on the response he wanted to give, instead glancing at Magnolia who had always done a good job of presenting a calm, almost sweet, demeanor that he liked as it simmered his flash boils at a glance. In that alone she was invaluable.
“Starfleet has a reputation for being unable to resist the shiny object sticking out of the dirt,” he replied after a moment of silence to put together a response that didn’t involve him yelling. “It would be a well placed trap to be watching this, waiting for us to come and poke it with our science stick.”
Corvus looked away from his holo out to her right which was likely the viewport of her own bridge, no doubt looking at the station and considering it from that angle. What he couldn’t see was the Marine standing by the doorway to her ready room nodding in agreement as well. It was the proverbial nail in the coffin to the point she knew was right. She finally sighed and nodded, “I see your point, Captain,” she conceded. “I’ll speak with my team…” she said, activating her chairs control panel. “Fifteen minutes? Less if we can manage?”
Lachlan drew his tongue across his teeth, but nodded. “Alr-.”
“Captain! Subspace anomaly! Bearing three-six-three mark two-four-zero!” Mr. Sachdev barked out suddenly almost in time with the shrill chirping of his panel.
“How long do we have?!” Callum demanded, turning in his seat towards the man.
“Two minutes. Maybe,” he shook his head, looking back and giving a shrug to mean that no one had any idea what that might look like.
Callum turned right back to DeHavilland, herself consulting her own team. She faced him, a look a surprise and mingled fear in her eyes as he shook his head.
“You have tactical command,” Corvus declared quickly. “Orders?”
Captain Callum stood up in his seat and adjusted the collar of his uniform once more. Looking to DeHavilland he said simply. “Run."
