From: Rahul Chandra (vrccan_at_gmail.com)
Date: Thu Sep 25 2008 - 03:11:26 PDT
======= “Unfortunate Circumstances” Continued from Taylor’s “129” ======= Location: IRATHI III Stardate: 2424 [2.8] 0925.0503 Scene: Explosion Site “Do you need anything else?” Jeff asked, looking up from a crouch at Ensign Vasquez, the PATRIOT’s Chief of Security. The Latin American man shook his head. “I believe that covers it,” he said. “Lieutenant Sanba was able to determine from sensor logs that the third marine was standing right next to the conduit at the time of explosion, which explains why we weren’t able to find her body.” “It was probably vaporized instantly,” Jeff said grimly, looking down at the two corpses of dead marines in front of him. They belonged to Privates Brian Dennehey and Larry Tate. The body Jeff had just been referring to was the body of Private Sarah Conner, who had been reported as killed in action along with the other two. Adding these three to the earlier death of the ship’s intelligence officer brought the body count to four Starfleet personnel killed on this mission, not to mention several thousand Irathi civilians. **I hope this planet is worth it,** the PATRIOT’s Executive Officer thought to himself, although he knew in his heart of hearts that he would never think so. Despite the promotion, Jeff was still a doctor and he brought the doctor’s mentality of life with him to the job. He abhorred violence and he abhorred death, both of which had come to visit the crew of the USS PATRIOT on this mission. “Can we get these bodies back to the morgue?” a voice asked, causing Jeff to turn and see Daniel standing beside him. “I’m sure their families will want them if the PATRIOT ever manages to get the hell away from this planet.” Jeff looked at Vasquez and for his part the security chief gave a small nod. “That should be fine,” Jeff said, turning back to Daniel. The marine exec nodded his head as well and tapped his comm. badge. “Clarkson to sickbay,” he said. “We have two dead bodies of marines that need to be transported to the morgue.” [[Acknowledged,]] came the reply. A few moments later, the two bodies were enveloped by a blue haze and a few moments later they were completely gone from view. “What are your orders sir?” Daniel asked, turning to Jeff once the bodies had disappeared. Ever since Catherine’s dead and Jeff’s order that Daniel get back to work, the marine had been completely businesslike. His normally relaxed and easy-going demeanour had been replaced by one that was cool and emotionless, but Jeff sensed that just under the surface there were intense emotions brewing. He just hoped they got to the end of this assignment before those emotions bubbled over. “With Colonel Maverick incapacitated for the moment,” Jeff said. “Ensign Vasquez has taken over the investigation. I need you to start organizing patrols through the capital city. Take as many marines and security personnel as you need for this, but your top priority is to re-establish security in the capital city.” “Yes sir,” Daniel replied, before turning on his heel and heading over to where a group of higher-ranking security and marine forces were standing, obviously waiting for instructions in light of the end of the evacuation. “Excuse me sir,” Jeff turned from watching the receding form of the marine to spot the PATRIOT’s new Chief Engineering Officer heading in his direction. “I just noticed something strange about the explosive devices.” “Well, don’t keep it to yourself Ensign,” Gorman replied. “What’s strange about them?” “I compared the scans we took of the initial device that was rigged not to explode by Lieutenant Jade,” Song said. “And I compared those scans to the ones we took of the devices that had been deactivated.” “I take it that you found something different between them?” Jeff asked. “Yes sir,” Meera replied, showing the tricorder data to Jeff. He took a look at the device and immediately understood what the engineer had been getting at. “I need to inform the Captain,” he said. ========= Time Index: 10 minutes later Location: USS PATRIOT Scene: Captain’s Ready Room -> Bridge -> Turbolift “Radio-isotopes?” Ben asked. Like all Starfleet Officers he had a minimum understanding of scientific principles, but with a background in tactics rather than science, the specific significance of this particular discovery escaped him. “Yes sir,” Jeff said. He was standing in front of Ben’s desk, while the Captain was seated behind it. His desk terminal had been shifted so that they could both see it, while Jeff was talking him through the discoveries Ensign Song had just made. “The explosive devices that were rigged to go off were all very crude devices and they all had the same active ingredient in the chemical reaction with the exception of the one that we know was set by Lieutenant Jade.” He tapped a few more buttons on the console, bringing up another screen before continuing. “That explosive device was inert, because the active ingredient had been replaced by a particularly radioactive isotope of Radon, an element that is essentially nonreactive.” “And you think this was Catherine’s doing?” Kenta asked. “It has to be,” Jeff answered with a nod of his head. “Nobody else would think to use a nonreactive element in a bomb.” “Okay,” Ben said, leaning back in his chair and regarding his Executive Officer carefully. “Let’s assume for the moment that you’re right. Why would she have done this?” “To leave us a clue, just in case something happened to her,” Gorman replied. “What kind of clue?” “There are no sources of radon on this planet,” Gorman continued. “At least, none for the particular isotope we are interested in. We know however that this isotope can be derived from two different isotopes of the element thorium through the process of radioactive decay. Normally, it would take a long time for that decay to take place, but with a tricorder and a little ingenuity it is possible to force the elements to emit the alpha and beta particles necessary to decay into the next isotope in the series.” “And thorium can be mined from magnacite ore,” Kenta continued, seeing where Jeff’s line of thought was going. “Exactly!” Jeff said, punctuating the word aggressively as he said it. “Ensign Song did a scan of the surface of the planet and there is only one major source of magnacite. It is located in a series of mountains that our sensors have been unable to penetrate, but we have detected several large openings that could be cave entrances in the face of the mountain range. Excuse me sir, but that can’t just be a coincidence.” Benjamin frowned, thinking for a long time about the situation. Finally, he looked up at his First Officer and leaned forward in his chair. “Send a small team to investigate,” he said finally. “Yes sir!” Jeff said enthusiastically, before turning and heading for the exit. As he emerged onto the bridge, he looked in the direction of the flight control console. “Lieutenant Corwin,” he said, not breaking stride for the turbolift. “You’re with me.” The surprised Flight Control Officer secured her station and then had to practically run to catch up with the Executive Officer before the turbolift doors closed. ========== Time Index: 30 minutes later Location: IRATHI III Scene: Starfleet mobile command “Alright, here’s the deal,” Jeff said, looking around at the officers he’d gathered to the briefing. Daniel Clarkson was representing the marines, while Meera Song was there on behalf of engineering. Jeff had nabbed Tanith Corwin and Tam Niala from the ship on his way to the transporter room and they were present as well. At present, all of them were looking at a map. “We need to send a team to investigate any entrances into these mountains here,” Jeff said, pointing for emphasis. “We have reason to believe that these caves may hold clues regarding the location of the terrorists, if not the actual people themselves.” “I want the four of you plus one extra marine to form the investigative team,” Gorman continued, looking at each officer. “I’ll stay here and coordinate the security preparations for the city, while Lieutenant Sanba will be left in charge of the relief efforts. Ensign Vasquez will continue the investigation of the bombs on this end, passing along any information he finds to Colonel Maverick when he is ready enough to take over the investigation once more.” “There’s a problem,” Daniel said, when Jeff had finished speaking. “With the patrols through the city you ordered, only myself and Lieutenant Morris are left here. All of the other marines with the exception of those in sickbay or the morgue are patrolling the city. If you send the two of us on this mission, you won’t have any marine support if a situation develops back here.” Jeff nodded his understanding of that particular caveat. “We’ll just have to take that risk,” he said. “We’re quickly running out of options. I’ll have Vasquez bring additional security forces down from the PATRIOT and have them guard the site. At the moment, patrolling the city and keeping order amongst the population is the higher priority and the marines are needed there.” “Understood,” Daniel said. “Does anyone have any questions?” Gorman asked, looking at the assembled officers. “What exactly are we looking for?” Tanith asked. By position she was the highest ranking officer in the away team and therefore would be leading it. “You’re looking for anything that can help us,” Jeff answered. “Preferably something like a settlement, but at this stage I’ll take anything I can get. You’re dismissed, prepare to move out immediately.” A few minutes later, an away team consisting of Lieutenant Tanith Corwin, Ensign Tam Niala, Ensign Meera Song, marine Major Daniel Clarkson and marine 1st Lieutenant Josh Morris departed the mobile command post, beginning their trek towards the mountain range in question. ========== NRPG: Just moving things along. I tried to give everyone something to do, so if someone wants to write the next part of this, feel free to go ahead! If not, I’ll continue it the next time I post. Alix/Bethany/Ran -> Tag! ========== Rahul Chandra <vrccan_at_gmail.com> Playing… Lieutenant Commander Jeffrey Gorman, MD Executive Officer USS PATRIOT & Major Daniel Clarkson, MD Marine Executive Officer USS PATRIOT No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 270.7.1/1688 - Release Date: 24/09/2008 6:29 AM From HyperNews_at_youth.net
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