From: Ranjani Sabarinathan (rantrek_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Sep 09 2008 - 20:31:42 PDT
“Accidents and Vanishing Acts”
(contd from Kim’s ‘Part Two’)
Location: GS-2
SD: 2.80909.1608
Scene: Ops
Kate had a lot on her mind as she paced back and forth in the GATEWAY’s operations center, which was currently abuzz with various personnel working diligently at their stations. Crichton was currently incapacitated, his condition caused by one of the alien devices the engineer was studying. Doctor Poe and alternate Cade Foster were working together to figure out a way to bring the young man back to consciousness.
[[Poe to Cmdr. MacNeil,]] Grace’s voice flowed out of the auburn haired woman’s comm. badge.
“Go ahead, Grace,” Kate stated, anxiety building up inside her over the acting CMO’s report on Jake’s medical condition.
The Orion informed, maintaining a professional tone in her voice. [[Dr. Foster and I believe a signal is transmitted by an outside source, likely one of the artifacts to his brain, which resulted in his catatonic state.]]
“Do you think it’s feeding some sort of information?” MacNeil inquired, raising an eyebrow.
Grace answered. [[Dr. Foster suggested that to be the case. The signal is targeting Lt. Crichton’s cerebral cortex.]] The cerebral cortex was a structure within the human brain that controlled memory, thought, consciousness, language, perceptual awareness and attention. [[If we can find a way to shut off the source of the signal, then we’d be able to save Lt. Crichton’s life.]]
“But there is a possibility that doing so could kill him,” Kate pointed out.
[[Yes,]] Poe agreed. [[We’re waiting to hear from Lt. Varn to find something more on those artifacts and confirm whether one of those devices was the source. If that’s the case, then we will need to find a way to shut it off without killing our patient.]]
“Right,” the Scot acknowledged, accepting the doctor’s reasoning. “Keep working on the problem and I will check on Lt. Varn to see how he’s progressing.”
[[Yes Kate,]] the aCMO complied. She had decided at that very moment to head down to the science lab to check on Thomas.
-------------------------------
Scene: Science Lab
TI: Ten minutes later
Kathryn arrived at the laboratory to be met with only two individuals working on a bunch of alien devices. MacNeil was impressed at the sight of those artifacts built by a race of beings that existed about a million years ago. The half-Nuimon ExO, prior to entering Starfleet Academy, had partaken in a civilian archaeological expedition that traveled to a deserted planet just outside the Federation border in the Alpha Quadrant to excavate the ruins of an extinct civilization. The current investigation of the devices brought by the Vorta from the Dominion prison planet suddenly brought back memories of MacNeil’s time as member of the expedition over a decade ago.
Varn looked up from his console and questioned as the Scottish woman took a step forward. “Cmdr. MacNeil, what brings you down here?”
Kate replied, eyeing the device that was kept behind a forcefield with wariness. “Just checking to see how things are progressing at your end.” Turning to the Ferengi woman, the Scot introduced. “I’m Lt. Cmdr. Kathryn MacNeil, the Executive Officer of the station. Please to meet you.”
“My name is Glomz,” the former expedition member informed, looking a little nervous.
Thomas explained. “Glomz was part of the linguistics team, who were tasked with translation of the language written on the tablets and various other items found at the dig site. She has been very helpful in assisting me in translating the information on this tablet.” The winged man pointed his finger at the rectangular stone object lying on the table.
“Any progress made so far?” MacNeil inquired, blinking, when her purple eyes moved to the artifact. Kate felt a slight sting in her eyes, the feeling one got when dust had fallen into them. She quickly turned away from the device and focused her attention on Thomas and the civilian.
The CSciO sighed as he gave his report. “Glomz and I have been able to translate a few lines on the tablet and came up with words such as storage for consciousnesses. Protection of the future of our civilization so when the time is right we would return to corporeal form. But nothing on how to bring Lt. Crichton back from his coma and I do believe the device was responsible for placing Jake in his current condition. ”
Kate gulped, her eyes growing wide. “You mean to tell me this device stored one’s soul.”
“We’re not sure as it may just be some sort of metaphor,” Varn stated, looking bewildered as well. “We’ll only know more after further translation of the tablet. However Glomz has been telling me that the expedition had already determined a cataclysmic event had taken place leading to the extinction of the civilization around a million years ago. ”
The Scottish woman questioned, sounding curious as she addressed the Ferengi. “Did you manage to uncover what kind of civilization you were dealing with? Like were they war-like or a Utopian society?”
“Our archaeologists had deduced that this ancient race were at the height of their civilization prior to becoming extinct,” Glomz explained. “Now it is possible they might have known about the catastrophe before hand and possibly came up with an escape plan.”
Thomas pointed out. “For such an advanced civilization, they could have left the planet using ships or teleportation.” He then asked. “Did you find any evidence of teleportation or any other means of transportation?”
The Ferengi linguist replied. “They possessed ships, capable of travelling at extremely fast speeds but we haven’t found anything to confirm the existence of teleportation technology.”
Kathryn remarked, sounding puzzled. “Well if they possessed ships, then it wouldn’t make sense to create storage devices for consciousnesses. There is more to the story here I guess.” The medically trained first officer sighed when saying the last few words. “Alright,” she decided. “Keep me updated on your progress and alert me immediately of anything that you deem critically important.”
“Yes Commander,” Varn nodded.
--------------------------------
Scene: Security Department
Sardra Vol informed, greeting the ExO at the entrance to the security department. “Melin still insists he had nothing to do with Lt. Crichton’s predicament.” The two women walked down the corridor towards the half-Vulcan’s office. “Logic dictates the Vorta is telling the truth. Lying is not beneficial for him and should he return to the Dominion, he would be executed.”
“And another Melin clone would take his place, one that is not defective,” Kate quipped.
The hybrid stated, perking up her brow. “It is very rare the Vorta clones end up becoming defective.”
“Except he’s still devoted to the Founders,” MacNeil reminded. “So is he truly defective or is it possible to share a different opinion from other Vorta? I mean Vorta are genetically programmed to revere the changelings as Gods.”
“An interesting viewpoint, Commander,” Sardra commented as they reached her office. “What is the status of Lt. Crichton?”
“He’s still comatose,” the other woman replied sadly. “Dr. Poe and Dr. Foster are doing everything they can to keep him alive.”
The Vulcan/Romulan officer inquired. “Has it been confirmed that the artifact was responsible for putting Lt. Crichton in his current state?”
“Lt. Varn is still working on that,” the ExO answered, her eyes changing colour to hazel. “But the chances of the device being responsible for its attack on Mr. Crichton are very strong.” She changed subject as they entered Sardra’s office. “Any signs of enemy infiltration following my conversation with Vertec?” Kate remembered her communiqué with the infamous Vorta had ended with the latter making a veiled threat against the GATEWAY. The Dominion truly believed the artifacts were brought to the station and were willing to do anything to retrieve them. MacNeil knew no matter what happened the enemy should not gain possession of those devices.
“Negative,” Sardra answered. “Lt. Cmdr. Drake and the rest of the intelligence department have been monitoring the entire station and so far reported nothing unusual.”
“Lt. Stephens noticed a subspace distortion on his fighter’s sensors, just before crashing onto the moon,” Kate brought up. “A member of the science department is currently analyzing the sensor data sent by him.”
Vol raised her eyebrow. “Did they find out what caused the distortion?”
“Not yet.” MacNeil shook her head. “Hopefully it is just some random anomaly.”
[[Varn to Lt. Cmdr. MacNeil,]] Thomas’ voice sprang through the tall woman’s comm. badge. [[We got a serious problem.]]
“MacNeil here,” Kate responded, her heart racing. “Explain.”
[[The device that attacked Lt. Crichton,]] Varn began, sounding shocked. [[It just vanished.]]
“What!” The ExO exclaimed, her eyes widening with disbelief. “How did that happen?”
The CSciO replied. [[We did nothing to trigger it.]]
The Nuimon hybrid quickly tapped her comm. badge. “MacNeil to Ops.”
[[Ops here,]] Lt. Ganesh responded.
“Run a sensor sweep of the entire complex and the surrounding areas,” she ordered. “One of the artifacts disappeared and possibly transported to another location.”
[[Yes ma’am,]] Savitri complied. A minute later, the aOps announced, trying to maintain her composure. [[Commander, I’m receiving disturbing reports from the promenade.]]
“Like what?”
[[Sensors pick up the appearance of a strange object giving out a bright, green light,]] the Indian woman reported. [[It matches the signature of the artifact and is suspended above the promenade.]]
Sardra announced, jumping into the conversation. “One of my officers contacted me about a serious security situation down in the promenade. Apparently the artifact’s appearance had created a wide-spread panic amongst the civilian population. Some have begun rioting.”
MacNeil produced a huge sigh of dismay. This was a disaster. The station had been plunged into chaos and the Dominion hadn’t even launched an assault. And the situation only worsened.
“A number of people have fallen unconscious,” Vol reported. “I’m dispatching security teams down to the promenade and heading down there myself.”
Kate nodded, her heart having sunk at the latest news. “Understood, Ensign.” Tapping on her comm. badge, the Scot contacted Lt. Poe. “MacNeil to Sickbay.”
[[Sickbay here,]] Grace answered.
“Send in medical teams down to the promenade,” the ExO ordered. “There is a medical crisis and an unknown number of casualties, suffering the same fate as Lt. Crichton.”
[[Acknowledged,]] the Orion complied.
Kate had decided to then return back up to Ops to monitor the situation from there.
--------------------------------
Scene: Ops
[[Varn to Cmdr. MacNeil.]] The call came from the winged officer as soon as the half-Nuimon woman entered the Operations Center.
“What’s wrong?” Kate inquired, figuring the CSciO wasn’t contacting her to give good news.
[[Another device disappeared,]] he informed, slowly becoming annoyed. [[I already asked Operations to locate its new position.]]
The ExO felt her head spinning as she rushed down the steps to the lower floor, where both Lt. Ganesh and Lt. Giles stood at their consoles, heavily concentrated on their tasks. She hoped the problem wasn’t going to get worse. She felt melancholy at the lives affected by the artifact and hoped both medical and the science departments would find a way to save them. Kate wished her CO was here on the station at the moment, taking care of the situation. She hoped Daisy would return soon from BAJOR.
Ensign Ariel Mason from tactical announced. “Commander, one of the phasers is powering up and aiming directly for ANDARA.”
“Do something to stop the weapon from firing!” Kate ordered, panic filling her voice as she began shaking with fear.
“I can’t, Commander,” the tactical officer said, looking dismayed. “The system’s locked me out.” Seconds passed at lightning speed as everyone stared helplessly, when laser beams streamed in the planet’s direction.
Kate froze on spot and hoped the phaser beam did not hit any of the populated areas and instead a dominion base. Slowly, the station’s first officer ordered. “Report.”
“The target hit was one of the planet’s artificial satellites,” Mason informed.
“Well the bright side is nothing happened to the planet itself,” MacNeil remarked dryly. “Unfortunately the Dominion will deem it as an unprovoked attack on our part and strike back.” Turning to everyone, she questioned, becoming irate. “Any explanation on how the phasers just randomly fired?”
“We’re working on the problem, ma’am,” Mason informed.
Kate ordered. “Get to the bottom of it. I want to know exactly if it is one of the missing artifacts or a sabotage attempt.”
Randy Giles alerted, his jaws tightening. “You’re not going to like this next bit of news.”
“Oh, go ahead, Lt. Giles,” MacNeil snapped.
“I’m picking up a Dominion fleet build up down on ANDARA and just outside our borders,” the SOO informed. “Looks like they’re planning on responding to our attempted attack on them.”
Kate protested, gritting her teeth. “But it was an accident.”
“Commander,” Ganesh said, sighing. “Looks like you’ll have a chance to explain to them as I am receiving a communiqué from ANDARA.”
“Put it through,” MacNeil sighed, folding her arms.
“Aye ma’am,” the aOps complied. Within seconds, the officers were met with the angry image of Vertec, whom Kate spoke with a few hours ago. The female Vorta was clearly boiling with fury and her violet eyes were shooting daggers at the tall form of the GATEWAY’s Executive officer.
{{What’s the meaning of this unprovoked attack, Lt. Commander MacNeil?}} Vertec began icily.
The Scot innocently replied. “It was an accident…”
{{Do you think we’re that obtuse to be fooled, Commander?}} The Vorta interrupted, her tone brimming with intense ire.
“Our weapon fired on its own,” Kate explained quickly. “We were unable to prevent it from happening.”
{{You lie,}}Vertec claimed. {{We’re at war after all, Lt. Commander and the Federation have been eager to steal ANDARA from us.}}
The ExO remarked cheekily. “Well, perhaps you wanted an excuse to strike the station by sabotaging our weapons systems and looks like you got one.”
The Vorta denied harshly. {{That’s not true, Lt. Commander.}}
“Of course you’d say that, Vertec,” Kate snorted, glaring at the other woman.
{{Be warned, Lt. Commander,}} Vertec threatened. {{Our forces will be attacking the GATEWAY in response to your assault against us.}} The communication abruptly ended.
“Looks like the attack will commence in mere minutes,” the Strategic Operations Officer informed.
Kate ordered. “Go to Red Alert and announce to the rest of the population that the station is under attack.”
************************************************************************
NRPG: Well looks like I’ve plunged the station in chaos. Not only the alien artifacts are causing problems, but the station will be under attack by the Dominion.
Ranjani Sabarinathan
FRPG Archivist
Speaking for...
[/\]o..
Lieutenant Commander Kathryn MacNeil, MD
Executive Officer
GATEWAY STATION- 2
and
[/\].
Ensign Meera Song
Chief Engineering Officer
USS PATRIOT
and
[/\]....
Captain Anaqueen Spankryz
Commanding Officer
USS COMMENDATION (Novella Unit)
and
[/\]..
Lieutenant Etallia Halois
Senior ACTi
Starfleet Academy
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