Sd 241505.10 Joint Log: Part I Away Mission (LtCmdr Valenar, Lt dei`Silvisi, various NPCs)

Posted on Mon May 11th, 2015 @ 12:10am by Commander Isabella dei`Silvisi & Captain Innovindil Valenar

1,203 words; about a 6 minute read

Isabella tripped over another piece of equipment that had fallen during the survey ships crash landing and managed to catch herself by reaching out and grabbing Petty Officer Brentworth. Her sudden and unexpected movement caught the medic off balance and both stumbled several steps before they both caught their feet and regained their balance. Mentally, Isabella scolded herself for not thinking to grab a flashlight from the shuttle. All she had was a phaser and a tricorder, and neither made for a decent light source.

"I'm sorry," she said as Brentworth swept his flashlight behind her to see what she had tripped over.

"It's no problem, ma'am," the medic said with a grin. His smile turned into a frown as he noticed what she had tripped over. "When did civilian survey ships start getting Starfleet torpedo casings as part of their equipment?"

Isabella turned and felt the blood drain from her face as she saw that she had tripped over what looked like a standard photon torpedo casing. While it was easy enough to convert a torpedo into a probe by removing the warhead and explosives from the casing and replacing them with sensor equipment, it was rare for civilian ship to even have such a casing on board, and after she inspected the casing closer, she discovered that this particular torpedo casing hadn't been converted and was still very much a photon torpedo.

"Oh, sh*t," Isabella muttered as she backed carefully.

"I'll say," Brentworth said as he swept the room carefully with the light. Another three casings could be seen scattered about the room, along with the loading mechanism and launcher system. "Why didn't they explode during the crash?"

"They have to be armed and set to detonate upon contact before they will explode. It's a safety feature that was developed just in case of crash landings such as this," Isabella said as she followed the light and made a mental note of everything she saw. "But four photon torpedoes and a standard issue Starfleet launcher and magazine system built into a cargo bay aren’t normal for a simple survey ship."

"The whole ship has been converted, which doesn't make any sense," Brentworth said.

Isabella nodded as she tapped her commbadge. "dei`Silvisi to Valenar."

Halfway across the ship, Innovindil was frowning as she stood in the ships engineering compartment and stared at something that made no sense to her. Together with Ensign Daniels she had searched the lower sections of the survey ship and found a number of oddities, such as the one she was staring at. Beside her, Ensign Karen Daniels was scanning with her tricorder, probably just to do something. The sound of dei`Silvisi's voice broke through into Innovindil's thoughts. Tapping her comm. badge, she responded.

"Valenar here, go ahead Lieutenant," Innovindil said.

"Commander, we've found a photon torpedo launcher and a number of torpedoes installed in the port side forward cargo bay," Isabella reported. "None of the torpedoes have been reconfigured for use as sensor probes."

"That just adds to the strangeness of what I’m looking at, then," Innovindil said. "This ship has a standard issue Starfleet Mark Seven warp core. In addition, the main cargo hold was reconfigured to act as a shuttle bay."

"Could this be a ... What are those ships called? The disguised military ships that appear as civilian ships?" Isabella frowned as she tried to recall the term that escaped her.

"A Q-ship," Innovindil replied darkly. "No, Q-ships are designed from the beginning for their purpose. This ship has been modified and upgraded recently. Whoever did the redesign was also in a hurry. The work on the upgrades isn't exactly the best, and Q-ships only appear to be a civilian ship on the outside. This ship was converted recently and in a hurry."

Before Isabella could say anything further, Brentworth's voice called out, drawing her attention away from the mystery of the true purpose of the ship and back to the away team's primary mission.

"I've got a life sign!" Brentworth called from an open hatch that was on the far side of the compartment.

Isabella hurried over, thankful that he at least remembered to shine his light her way so she could avoid anything that she could trip over. Reaching the hatch, she followed the medic down a short corridor that turned into an intersection. Brentworth turned left, leading the way to the front of the ship until he finally stopped at a series of hatches. After a quick inspection of the hatches, Isabella realized that they were the escape pods. She quickly tapped her commbadge.

"Commander Valenar, we've found the crew. Seven life signs coming from the escape pods located in the front of the ship on the port side," Isabella reported quickly.

"I'm on my way. Don't open the hatches until I arrive," Innovindil ordered as she quickly charged across the engineering compartment and down the access corridor, Ensign Daniels hurrying after her. She quickly made her way through the ship to the escape hatches, where dei`Silvisi and Brentworth were both waiting.

"Report," Innovindil said as she stepped up to stand beside the first hatch.

"We've confirmed seven life signs, five humans, one Betazoid, one Trill," Isabella reported as she finished scanning with her tricorder and returned it to her belt. "They're in the first two pods. The other escape pods are all empty."

"Let's open the first one, then," Innovindil said as she drew her hand phaser and stood back to where she could cover both hatches.

Isabella nodded and knelt beside the escape pods hatch controls. Removing the cover plate, she set it to the side and wished that they had brought an engineer with them. Bypassing a door was simple enough, but it took several minutes before she identified the correct sequence. The hatches to both escape pods slid open. Isabella quickly stood and backed out of the way. Brentworth shined his light into both as he called out to those inside.

"We're coming out, damn you!" an angry male voice snapped. Within minutes, the seven survivors were all standing in the corridors with the away team. Three of the humans were male, as was the Bajoran. They, along with two of the human women and the Trill woman wore Starfleet uniforms, while the Betazoid woman wore a civilian outfit. The highest ranking Starfleet Officer was a Lieutenant, who blinked towards the Endeavour crew.

"Which ship are you from? I didn't know there were any Starfleet ships in this region," the Lieutenant said.

"I'm Lieutenant Isabella dei‘Silvisi, from the USS Endeavour. We were en route to Kokiri for a survey when we received your distress signal," Isabella replied.

"Endeavour? I've never heard of your ship. You're lying!" the civilian snapped.

"Boldly spoken for a Betazoid," Innovindil growled. Turning a glare towards the Lieutenant, she holstered her phaser as she spoke.

"I'm Lieutenant Commander Innovindil Valenar, acting Executive Officer of the Endeavour. Who are you and what were you doing here?" she asked.

"Don't answer!" the civilian quickly snapped. "We were conducting vital research. This was a simple civilian survey ship and you have no grounds to interrogate my crew."

To be continued . . .

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