#76 Revelations

Posted on Tue Apr 18th, 2023 @ 12:16am by Lieutenant Onak Qa'tok & Chief Petty Officer Jennifer Lacewell Ms.
Edited on on Tue Apr 18th, 2023 @ 12:30am

Mission: Vanished
Location: Fighter Bay/Bridge
Timeline: Current
Tags: Cyndi

~Off~
Sorry this wasn't posted last night like I had planned

~On~

Lt. Onak had gone down to the fighter bay to see for himself the ships' compliment of attack craft. He was working on a strategy for when and if they located whatever ships were hiding out there.

He had been let down in the past when he just assumed others were doing their jobs properly and had since learned to always see for himself and not accept status reports at face value.

He was about to speak to the crew chief when his comm badge beeped.

=^= "Lacewell to Onak" =^=

He tapped his badge. "Speak!"

=^= "Come to the bridge Sir. I've got activity here out the wazzoo!" =^= she said excitedly.

"Well, that sounds painful," he answered. "and just what the hell is a wazzoo?"

=^= "Just come up here Sir. I'll explain everything." =^=

"On my way!" he replied.

He entered the turbolift. "Bridge."

He stood for a moment before addressing the computer. "Computer, what have you got on the name 'wazzoo'?"

=^= "Working...Wazzoo, a species of nocturnal arboreal rodent native to Cestes three...a sweet fungal confection served with chilled grub worms invented by Chef Sleem of Ferenganar...a colloquial human term for the posterior orifice." =^=

"Lovely." he sneered.

The lift opened onto the bridge and he stepped out to see Jennifer frantically waving him over.

As he approached her excitement burst forth in a rapid fire exhalation of words. He could barely keep up so he grabbed her shoulders and with a look, got her to calm down.

"Now, slower this time. What have you found?" he asked.

"Well, I was actually quite bored and was about to take a break when the indicators went crazy! There was suddenly a series of communication streams coming and going between these two points." She already had the 3D model pulled up and indicated the two points in space she was referring to.

"Now, notice this!" She indicated a faint trail between the two points." This I believe, is another craft, very small, leaving the one point, or ship if you will, and here..." she pointed to the second ship. "...a faint energy stream from this ship intercepts this small craft, and seems to draw it to itself."

Onak smiled. "And what is your interpretation of this data Chief?" he asked.

Chief Lacewell swallowed hard. She was sure she was reading the data right but was still anxious. "Well Sir, I believe these two ships are working together." She hesitated for a moment, then went on. "By the motions of the small craft, I propose whomever was aboard it was not piloting it. There were no evasive maneuvers or weapons fire, which is what you'd expect. No, I believe it is an escape pod that managed to flee one ship only to be recaptured by the second ship."

Onak was impressed by her deductive reasoning. "And who do you suppose may have been aboard the escape pod Chief?"

"I believe there is high probability that it was Capt. Rivers Sir." she answered.

Onak stoked his beard. "We have many crew members missing Chief. What makes you believe it is Rivers?"

Jennifer stroked her chin, mirroring Onak stroking his beard. Onak noticed. "Well, because she disappeared in fairly close proximity to the first ship we registered."

"Well reasoned." Onak said.

"I've been working ideas as to what to do in the event our suspicions bore fruit..."

Jennifer was still quite excited. "So what do we do? Take some ships out there to effect a rescue or...oooh, I know! We take the marines..."

"Chief."

"Ahhh! No, we should fire up the Horizon and..."

"Chief!"

"How 'bout we..."

(Ricky Ricardo voice) "LUCY! I'm tryin' to esplain!"

"HUh? What?"

"Lucy, you know, I Love Lucy?"

"Who the hell is Lucy?"

"Who's on first."

"What?"

"What's on second."

"I don't know what..."

"THIRD BASE!"

Jennifer tapped her comm badge. "Brige to sickbay..."

Onak burst out laughing. "No, no, no! I'm just joking!"

Jennifer looked both relieved and terrified, if that were possible. "You had me worried there Sir."

Some on the bridge were looking in their direction, some amused, others slightly frightened.

"They were just some vintage Earth comedy references. When we get some time you'll have to watch some with me."

"Ooookay. So anyway, you were saying before you lost your mind?" she asked with a grin.

"First things first. Transmit your findings to all departments. Make it known I sign off on your analysis. Request all concerned departments send a representative to the conference room at seventeen-hundred hours. I will have briefed the Commodore by then. I will notify you if anything changes."

"Very good Sir." she acknowledged.