USS-Daystrom Alpha mission

[Teaos]

Teaos was manning his station at the bridge. Now that his little project with Jon was done and ready to be utilized he could once more fill his position. Ensign Sternson has been working double duty for the last two days to cover for him. Teaos was sure that damn glorified paper weight of a second in command knew he was up to something but so long as he did nothing overtly suspicious he could avoid him. He had been checking the sensors every few minutes for the last five hours looking for signs of their tailgater.

This being the main shift on ship the bridge was mostly staffed by the senior officers. Looking down at the sensor panel once more he automatically looked back up again not expecting to see anything but quickly did a double take at the subspace sensors. Sitting just over a kilometer off their stern was the familiar blip.

Teaos quickly pulled the data into a file he sent it directly over to Jon's station. Meeting his eyes across the bridge they shared a nod, Jon signaled to one of the extra on duty officers to man his station as he excused himself from the bridge. Teaos knew he was on his way to load the modified torpedoes; it was his job to get the captains authorization. He sent his authorization through to unlock his entry code to the store room with the torpedoes in.

"Captain I have just been sent some of the scans from our shuttle fleets scans. I believe they may have picked up traces of one of the missing vessels warp trails, if you'd join me in the lab I'll show you the location on the viewer" He had though this would be the most likely way to get the captain off the bridge with out causing a scene. They had come across several of these supposed warp trails before that had turned out to be false alarms.

"Very well commander, lets just hope this one turns out to be something" Fletcher said as he stood signaling one of the other officers to take command of the bridge in his stead.

Walking through the doors of the labs Teaos ordered the staff working out and sealed the doors behind him. Fletcher looked inquisitively at Teaos as he made sure they were alone.

"A supposed warp trail is hardly top secret Commander, whats with the secrecy? This wouldn't have anything to do with what ever you and Lieutenant Hewer have been up to these last few days has it?"

Teaos gave a start at the Captains perceptiveness. Of coarse he was a fine captain and a highly respected member of Starfleet but working with someone you tend to forget just how good they can be.

"Yes captain, after my scans of the cargo bay after our intruder the other day I have been working on a way to apply the same method to that sensor anomaly that has been following us. Lieutenant Hewer and I have modified several torpedoes to throw out a cloud of Chroniton particles that should give us an idea what it is that is following us" Teaos said bringing up the details of the plans and the modified torpedoes on the view screen.

"Clever commander, but Chroniton particles could prove to be very dangerous to what ever it is that is following us" Fletcher said scrolling through the specification of what they had done.

"If it is some sort of anomaly I doubt it will do any harm captain, if it is a ship however well lets just say they shouldn't be following us in the first place. So captain do we have your authorization to launch? We need to do it soon before what ever it is disappears on us again" Teaos said turning to look the captain in the eye.

Fletcher turned to face one of his senior officers. The plan seemed sound even if it did have its risks to what ever it was that was following them. They stood in silence for several moments before the captain spoke again.

"Very well, do it"

Teaos didn't wait a moment. He practically jumped to one of the work stations and sent the command the Jon who should have everything set up by now.

Flicking the main view screen from the data it had been displaying to a image of the space directly behind the ship they saw 5 points of red light shot out from one of the launchers and arc in different directions.

The torpedoes detonated at their specified distance throwing out five separate clouds of neon blue particles as the highly energized Chroniton particles spread out forming one large blue cloud.

"There!" the captain pointed as a image flickered on the viewer. Sitting off just to the right of where one of the torpedoes detonated a image flickered into focus as the cloud washed over it before what ever it was banked and speed away.

"I've got something captain" Teaos exclaimed looking down at the limited scans he had been able to do in the few seconds their tailgater was visible.

[Captain Peabody]

A low thud sounded across the room, and Ensign Peabody looked up in surprise.
"What the heck was that?"
"No idea..." another young Ensign said, his face furrowed in concentration. "Sounded like...some kind of detonation. But it would have to be a pretty big one to reach us down here. I'll bet-" But his voice trailed away as their instructor entered the holodeck.
"Ah, darn it." Peabody said in annoyance. "I thought maybe we'd get Blackstar or someone interesting for a change..."
"Alright, boys." The instructor said, his mustache puffing up with every word. "Today, we'll start out with a Hostile Alien profile...The Founders." At his words, an amorphous glob of goo appeared in the center of the Holodeck. "Now, as most of you probably know, a Founder can take any shape or form, imitating any object almost perfectly." He paused. "But we're not going to worry about that today. Today, we're just going to learn to deal with them in their natural state."
"So who'd like to go first?"

[Granitehewer]

Kudak was shaken back into consciousness, confound it, he'd let his mind wander to the point of almost being catatonic, with an obstinate growl from the engines of the overtly Oberth class USS Onyx, the embattled(and illegal) romulan and orion 'supplementary' components, put aside their mutal antagonism and allowed the ship, to jink,and then to rapidly abort course.
With a furious cry from its' barely compatible hybridised and antagonistic components, the Onyx automatically engaged its metaphasic shield, and Kudak, determined to withdraw, decided to seek shelter in the corona of a star, in the nearby Kol HaKavod nebula.

[MetalHead]

Jack 'MetalHead' Ryson emerged from his alcove days after he started to regenerate. Strange dreams, if dreams were possible in regeneration. His head felt too light and was spinning like crazy. His legs barely supported him. His balance was in tatters, and he almost felt like he had been drinking. But he hadn't. Something was very wrong with him. "Ry-son to sick-bay." he said, his voice shaky.

"Sickbay. Go ahead."

"I'm-ex-peer-ee-en-cing trub-les with my-self. Will ree-por-tuh as-soon-as-possssssssssible."

even his subvocal processeors were malfunctioning.

slowly, he staggered all the way to sickbay, each step a concious effort not to collapse. Borg implants were one extreeme or the other. Either they made life more efficent, or they made it terribly difficult.

[Teaos]

The doors to the labs slid open allowing Rochey to scuttle in, he had just come from the shuttle bay were he had meet there new guest. Captain Fletcher looked around the labs, most of his senior staff was present, only the doctor and Metalhead were absent as they were both detained in the sick bay.

"I'm sure many of you are wondering about what is going. I'm afraid the secrecy that has pervaded the ship over the last few days has been needed to maintain the feasibility of a project to uncover our tailgater. Commander Teaos here will do the debriefing as this was his brainchild" Fletcher said signaling Teaos to take over.

"Umm yes well " Teaos stuttered as he tried to find a place to start.

"After my successful scan of the cargo bay which detected our intruder I started to formulate a plan to employ the same method against our tailgater" Teaos said as he fired up the view screen bringing up the details of their plan which had until a few hours ago been top secret.

"Lieutenant Hewer and I modified several torpedoes to eject a cloud of charged Chroniton particles hoping that they would reveal our tailgater the same way to reveled our intruder. Once we were finished we waited until we detected the sensor blip again. We directed the anomaly at 1342 hours were we proceeded to put our plan into action. Lieutenant Hewer proceeded to ready the torpedoes for launch as I informed the captain of our plan and got his authorization" Changing the screen from the mission brief to the limited sensor scans he had been able to do for the moment the ship was visible.

"As the particles hit the object it became briefly visible to our scans. We were able to ascertain that it is indeed a ship, a Oberth class ship to be more precise, but it appears to be slightly different to any Oberth sub unit we have in our data base. It appears to be modified we can not work out yet how"

"Why would a Federation ship be following us?" Mikey asked from were he leaned against one of the work stations.

Fletcher answered this one "It isn't Federation, or at least any Federation ship that's on the books"

"What about the cloak, I've never even heard of one working like this one does. It seems totally invisible most of the time only for us to briefly catch it due to some rather unique sensor modification" Seafort asked as he walked up to the view screen to get a better look at the sensor readings.

"We couldn't ascertain much about the ships capabilities as it was still partially cloaked" Teaos said explaining the limited information on hand.

"Could it be pirates" Hewer asked.

"Possible but unlikely, I doubt Pirates could get their hands on a Federation ship even if it is an old one. And I have no idea were they would get that cloak from. But then again we have no idea who it is so it may very well be pirates" Fletcher said looking around his staff.

"They do not at the moment seem overtly hostile; I see no reason to inform the rest of the ship to what is happening. If any of you feel you need to tell any of your senior officers do so but keep it classified. We will stay on alert until we find out what is going on around here. I expect everyone to be on guard. I believe that is everything 'Fletcher looked over to Teaos who nodded' Very well, Dismissed"

[Minnsky]

"I'm the first officer you can tell me." The tholian said. Minnskys mind raced, trust had never been one of his strong suits and the idea of trusting a tholian did not sit well with him. In the end though is Starfleet training won out.
"The Fitzbirg exploded about 10 light years from here. I was a passenger and do not know if any of the escape pods made it."
"I see, I will inform the Captian. You stay here."
"I would like to see how my companion is."
"A guard will be assigned to you then."
With that the tholian walked off. Minnsky walked back to the shuttle controls. "Computer run program J78." All the panels shut down lights dimmed to fifty percent. Minnsky pulled off his CSSM shirt off, and snagged one of his civilian tunics. The lines were military style and the color a light blue. Picking up his PADD he took a seat at the end of the hatch. Slowly he blocked out the world around him, his work was always a comfort to him, and right now he needed that.

[Mikey]

As the senior staff filed out of the lab, Mikey grabbed Harrison by the nape of the neck and ducked into an adjacent, currently unused containment room. "I presume that someone on that ship sent you the orb?"

"Well, I expect it would seem so," replied Harrison. "Do you now see from which of us two - me or that ship - you have more to fear?"

"Hmmm. You were on good terms with that crew when you kidnapped me - I wonder what has happened to such a group of tightly-knit friends?" After receiving no reply from the forcedly-expressionless human, Mikey continued, "You are correct, however. They are the ones who are following us, and their most likely motive for wanting you dead is the fact that you are not as much of a danger to us as they would like you to be."

"I willingly released you from the Lernaean Oath, Mr. W'trisk," - Harrison paused for a moment at the Andorian's icy stare - "because I know full well that I am on the side of the, ah... debate - between the Onyx and myself - which you would have espoused yourself." As Mikey began to move closer and speak again, Harrison continued, "When the time is right, I will perhaps reveal the nature of that debate."

Mikey leaned forward until he could feel the vibration of the human's few hours' worth of facial hair. "See that you remain on the right side of that debate, Mr. Harrison."

Finally making his way to the lounge, Mikey gratefully saw Blackstar standing by a table with one unoccupied seat next to it, and two pints on it. Mikey finished his by the time he had sat down. "Tough day at the office?" shi teased.

"Nothing that laying down under a ticked-off Andorian bull wouldn't solve," sighed Mikey. "Let's talk about ANYTHING other than work right now."

[Granitehewer]

Alexis Harrison, swept into the lounge, padds and papers unfurling and clumsily sprawling across the floor, he, in a gawky, clumsy motion, buckled himself like a man unused to manual effort, and almost farcically picked up every sheaf, leaf, page and padd, with all the bearing of a man, who ''needs'' to be a tyrant to an aide or attache, to fill every whim, from lattes to legalisms.
Alexis, flustered, reddened and highly ineptly, almost disorientatedly, placed a pile of padds, marked 'Andorian Impressionism', on the table, shared by the Chakat and Mikey, with a strained, and curt, wave and an abrupt forced smile and pointing gesturication with a crooked finger, Alexis stormed out, like an unappreciated benefactor, who'd taken precious time from his chores, to labour benevolently for a fellow comrade.
Little did anyone realise, that one of the padds'; the one marked 'Andorian Ice Sculptures and Ice Scriptures', actually contained a medical report on Harrison, that confirmed his romulan and not vulcan ancestory, through an almost imperceivable idiosyncracy in his genetics, this clearly was a clear indicator of trust.

[Teaos]

"Out" Quinn said as he dropped his last three cards. Teaos and several of his staff were playing cards in his quarters. After several days of long hours and little sleep ti was good to unwind. The rest of his staff that were on duty were reading over the limited sensor scans they had been able to do of their tailgater trying to find any new information about who they might be.

"You do realize no one is impressed with you winning all the time" Mark said as he counted out the cards remaining in his had "You are the only one who knows the rules to these games"

"Just be lucky you decided not to play poker or you'd all owe me your holodeck times for the next year" Quinn said writing up the score, the next closest play Jessica was still over twice his score.

"So how are you finding life on a starship Jessica?" Teaos asked as he dealt out the next hand.

"The equipment is as good as anything I ever had as a civilian worker but I can't say much about the space on this ship or the rest of the crew" She said as she looked down at her hand with contempt. Apparently Quinn had neglected to tell her about bluffing.

"Well at least what we have is top of the line, I did my first service on a Miranda the least said about that the better" Teaos said as he sorted out his hands into suits.

"So when do you hope to be given your own ship? Mark asked as he picked up from the deck having no moves to make.

"Well Novas and all ships geared towards science are still being made at a rather slow rate since Starfleet is trying to get their fleet numbers back up. But I don't see them neglecting them for to long, there are to many people like us in power to let those power hungry admirals have it there way for to long" Teaos said as he picked up from the deck as well.

"You in command of a starship that's going to be one screwed up ship" Quinn said causing the group to roar with laughter which just got louder when Teaos threatened him with filling bridge duty during Commander Rocheys reign

[Mikey]

"...and that's why this 'beer' fascinates me so," Mikey was saying. "It's hard for an Andorian to even imagine having so many vegetable products - grain, flowers, sugar, spices in some cases, and those little fungi - to use for making an alcoholic beverage."

Mikey had been sitting and talking with Blackstar for the better part of an hour, discussing the circumstances of hir arrival in this universe; his disapproving father; his great-great-grandfather establishing the fame of clan Trisk at the Battle of Weytahn; Chakat culture; and many other things. Blackstar couldn't believe the number of cultural references that could be attributed solely to the possibility of freezing to death. Shi felt more comfortable than she had in a while - it wasn't that Mikey was overly sensitive, or anything like that - he just didn't seem to have human standards of tacitness, privacy, or "untouchable" subjects.

After Mr. Harrison gave the stack of PADDs to Mikey, the Andorian perused them carelessly. "You know these bookworm types," explained Mikey. "Couldn't believe he had such gaps in his knowledge of a Federation civilization." On looking at one, however, he straightened in his chair, looked at Blackstar, and said, "Umm... you'll have to excuse me. I just realized that my updated duty roster is due IMMEDIATELY to the Quartz Commander."

Blackstar chuckled slightly. "Of course," shi said. "I wouldn't want you to cross HIM."

"Computer," said Mikey on his way to the bridge, while downloading his roster to a PADD, "get me the pilot of the recovered shuttle."

"Hello?" said Minnsky.

"Yes, Mr.... Minnsky, correct? This is Cmdr. W'trisk, of the operations department. I am going to send a couple of auxiliary-craft techs to begin repair work on your shuttle."

"No! That is, I have some engineering experience, and have made some modifications. I prefer to do the work myself, but thanks for your offer. Minnsky out."

Entering the bridge, Mikey handed Rochey the PADD and said, "Updated duty roster, sir, for your immediate review." Rochey cocked on eye at him as Mikey continued, "Also, our new guest has refused assitance with repairs to his craft."

"Hmmm..." said the Tholian, half to himself. "Thank you."

Mikey left as Rochey looked at the PADD. Immediate review of a simple duty roster? Looking down, he saw a fairly normal shift schedule - then, scrolling down, he found the seemingly random paragraph in blocky, formal Tholian characters. "I can't say he's entirely trustworthy," read the message, "but in the matter at hand, our friend appears to be on the correct side of the issue."

[Minnsky]

Minnsky scowled, how long had he been out, and to be distracted by something so trivial. Glancing at his PADD he found twenty minuets had past. He rubbed his nose and moved back to the rear of the Wells. "Were the hell is my escort." He said thumbing the edge of his PADD. He could of course just com the medical bay but that was so impersonal, that and he wouldn't be able to get other information he needed. "Guess he had a point though." Changing his train of thought he moved to the side of the shuttle. The external damage was worse then he had thought. The cargo bin had just missed his port nessel, and the name was gone. Crouching down he slid his hand along the edge of nessel. There was no major damage though there could be something inside. He would have to run a full diagnostic. Back in side he started up the computer. "Wells, run command Alpha." As he looked at his PADD and mumbled about the lack of an escort again the interior of the Wells changed. Both side walls disappeared to an expense of space, the walls turned white in a nice contrast to the maroon floors. Were there had once been the main walk way stood a MSD consol, to the left a see threw MSD with the some unknown ships schematics, to the left multiple tables all filled with ship components, testers and scanners. "And shoot this Ops guy dosnt even have the smarts to look up my history, its not like im dead, " he moved to the MSD consol and hit a button the MSD showed the Wells now. "And the captain, were the hell is he, or her, shoot he'er." He turned to the MSD "hipskich." He started working on the Wells from inside, each adjustment being made by nanites in the hull. Out side the ship looked the same, Minnsky avoided the out side stuff, better to not draw suspicion. Crewmembers passed by oblivious to the work inside, and Minnsky worked oblivious to there passing. One in particular, standing by the still open hatch, dressed in security, mouth open, phaser in hand, the escort had arrived.

[Teaos]

Teaos was sitting at his desk idly playing drumming his fingers on his desk. They had found out what their tailgater was finally but they still had no idea who it was. Or how they were staying cloaked. It was like no cloak they had encountered before. It left only the briefest of flashes before totally disappearing.

Captain Fletcher had asked him to find out ways of tracking and hopefully capturing the ship. His team was still going over the limited sensor sweeps trying to find anything new. He was currently trying to think of a way to trap their tailgater.

Ever since their success at spotting it the ship hadn't shown up on sensors again, not even the sensor blips.

Standing up he walked into the main lab deciding to do something productive with his time. Hopefully something would come to him soon.

[Captain Peabody]

Ensign Peabody bounced with excitement as he walked down the corridor toward his charge. But he could have been the Prince of the Galaxy for all Peabody cared Finally, finally, after months of training and patrol duty, he had been given an actual mission...and one without Rakh'ar tagging along beating him at everything no less. This was going to be quite a treat.
Stepping to the hatchway, he opened his mouth, and then shut it in surprise. Inside the hatchway was nothing less than a working Science Lab, over which his charge, a man in a blue tunic and black pants, was working. He paused, his mouth hanging slightly open. Maybe this was going to be a bit more difficult than he had expected...

[Monroe]

Ensign Boush Munro abdoned his helmet as he prepared to grab nuetrience from the leathal environment outside his room. Like the Thorian he was contained to his room due to physiological reasons most of the time. A curse but also a gift. The Breen and Federation relations never fullly healed after the Dominion War and th Federation made being a Breen difficult, even with their 'enlightened' non prejudice ways. He often was distrusted and passed over for promotion.

Stepping past the two layers of doors into the lethality of outside his helmet read the air and temperature. His crystalized cells would fracture in an instant. Such was the way of the Galaxy.

The Star Fleet uniform hung stretched and bulky over his Breen suit. For awhile Star Fleet command had tried to restrict the Breen to wearing Star Fleet issued suits. The insult had been extreme. If Worf of the Defiant can wear Klingon honor pieces over his uniform a Breen can do the opposite, a uniform over his.

Approaching the mess hall he noticed a female ensign human look oddly at him, "I'd glare back but my gaze can turn your kind to stone." He stated coldly halting his stride in front of her before her eyes fell to the side as she slowly walked away.

No solice came from anyone on board. Thorians and Breen were at a state of undeclared war and while Rochey was a military mind and would treat Boush professionally there was no friendship to be had. The Andorian was likewise. Andorians claimed to be lovers of the cold but were not. Anyone that drinks liquid water is not a true cold race.

Pulling out the chair of his choice he sat down with a heavy clang turning a few heads and pulled out his datapad to begin working on a security report for the drone. Numberous problems continued to be reported but beyond the phantom nothing really had been going on that he was aware of. The chief approached with a series of viles containing liquid that Boush's cells needed for cellular resporation. "Want any ice with that." The waiter asked jokenly trying to be friendly.

Boush slowly set the datapad down and turned his head to stare expressionless at the crewman. The liquid blood of the human pulsed in his neck as he began to prespire. Seeing the nervousness Boush instantly changed moods, "Thanks for asking but no." There was a visible sigh in the waiter as he backed away from the intimidating Breen. Boush made a mental note to repay the insult at a later date. Breens had long memories.

Hooking the viles to the underside of his helmet's mussle he pressed a buttons and the food was sucked into a small container in his helmet before cooled properly and then fed into his maw. To simply eat it without cooling first would result in a very painful death.

There had been several complaints from engineering already about the problems of keeping Boush comfortable. Metal tended to be very breakable at such low temperatures, reason the Breen had taken so long to use metalic tools and weapons. Also the reason they didn't perfer dead ships.



((Sorry for the long post, wanted to make his introduction kinda long so you get his personality. Future ones will be shorter, I promiss Oh and I may have missed some facts about the story trying to catch up to where you guys were, I don't think I screwed anything up though))

[Minnsky]

Peabody stared in confusion at the man, then stepped tentatively forward. "Uh...Sir? What exactly are you doing?"
"Working on my ship, " he shook his head as he looked up, "what does it lo..Wells save and end." the lab vanished. "How long have you been there?"
Peabody blinked. This wasn't exactly what he'd been expecting... "Uh...I was ordered to be your escort...
"Sir." He added belatedly, then: "I just got here."
"Good then," Melter moved forward and stretched out his hand. "I'm Xe..." he stopped him self, two mistakes in a row, he was on roll. "I'm Metler Minnsky, call me Metler. Um..how much did you see?"
"Um...what do you mean?" Peabody tried, his voice a little too casual. Whatever happened now, he would be sure to report this little altercation to the senior staff. They'd know what it meant. "Would you like to go to Sickbay now?"
Minnsky eyed the man for a second. "Right then, sickbay. then the eatery, if you guys have one. I missed your name." Metler smiled as they exited the ship, sure the guy had lied to him about what had been seen but minnsky needed to have a freind here.
"Of course, sir. If you'll follow me?" Turning he headed towards the turbolifts. "By the way, the name's Peabody--Ensign Peabody."