IBEX Ariven

Posted on Sat 14th Sep, 2024 @ 12:20am by Commander Geraldine "Geri" Severide & Captain Gordon Francis & Commander Paul Graves PsyD

1,047 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: The Phoenix Gamble
Location: SB109
Timeline: MD2

Previously... https://sb109.sim-station.net/index.php/sim/viewpost/2339

-Start-

{Second Star- Conference Lounge}

The captain watched the time tick slowly down. Judah had secretly regained control of the ship but was allowing the lockout to continue to keep the peace. They all conferenced in the lounge behind the bridge, otherwise known as Fala's office.

Kas was furious at the long wait, "Two days, we have been forced to sit on our hands now."

Quinton wasn't one to stop righteous indignation. This was an overreach from Starfleet to take over their ship instead of simply asking, so let her pace the carpet to a thread.

Othor commented, "A little under a quarter hour we should arrive at Starbase 109."

Quinton mused and then asked, "We are certain that's the destination?"

Othor and Judah both nodded and Quinton took that as gospel. He added another question, "Do we know anything?"

Judah piped up, "Saladin class destroyer, old as hell. When their computer attacked us I got glimmers of it. An EMH sort of program... but more, different. There's Starfleet and Romulan and Klingon coding in their system, not to mention so many other signals I can't identify. Their man we treated had an experimental weapon, they have Starfleet command authorization, and there are maybe two people on board who work for Intelligence and have assisted them. There have been no signals except for the transporter when we took on the injured man."

Fala spat verbally, "Cloak and Dagger nonsense."

Kas added, "And when we arrive, what will happen?"

Everyone was silent, until Quinton broke the trend.

"Judah has control of the ship. If we really need to, we shake 'em off and run."

*

{SB109- Operations}

Entaaro Nasz was losing his chess match, and the anonymized profile avatar of his opponent was dancing in a way that triggered his Klingon blood rage. The strategy was not working and he was going to lose a queen very soon. Staring at the board was futile, the dancing wiggle consumed his attention. When multiple alarms sounded on his station the professionalism came over him and he flicked it away.

The board showed red; he hit the comms immediately. "Captain Francis, we are experiencing a cascade reaction in the Docking Ring! Bay 2 has decompressed to vent fire, no casualties reported as of yet."

In his office, Captain Francis brought up the status of the docking bay. Commander Severide had done a very good job with the false alert. Even he couldn't tell if it was real or not. He tapped his comm badge. "Thank you, Mr. Nasz. Please keep me updated."

As Francis waited for an update from Commander Severide, he tapped his desk console. He moved his knight and took his opponent's queen, smiling to himself.

In her private office the summons from her programmed overrides chimed moments before the "explosion." She confirmed nobody was occupying the docking bay and didn't rescind the program. Sparks flew from a few panels, but the status alerts would indicate venting to avoid plasma fire. then all the sensors internally for the bay would be "melted." It only needed to last for two days apparently, that was what their protocol had allowed for in the message. They just needed to sit still and not look in the room and then it would presumably leave under its own power.

This ship was only allowed to stay for forty eight hours and then it had to disappear back into the waves. The height of such secrecy made her stomach twist with the desire to know more.

She sent message to Captain Francis, "Agent is inbound with package in tow."

Geri loved a good mystery but this was was coming from deep space and causing them a lot of trouble. She had found nothing on any ship named "Ibex" anywhere in the scant time she had to look. There had to be more intel out there, the team needed to know what was going on, keeping them in the dark was not good practice, her first allegiance was to Starfleet.

She sent another one separately right after. "We need to know more. Convene senior staff?"

The reply came in fast. "Get everyone to Conference Room, Deck 4. We need to make this quick."

Geri pondered for a moment, to send a message like this required delicate wording.

#"Captain Francis requests a meeting in fifteen minutes. Conference room, Deck 4. Discretion for your staff and reason for absence is requested."

***

On the bridge of the Second Star, the small dot of the starbase was becoming visible with short-range sensors. Details poured in, and Quinton whistled at its size. Whoever they were towing had to go there; that was the whole point of all of this. The comm showed incoming hails but their comms hadn't worked since the initial lockout. He was worried, Starfleet didn't like silently approaching ships towing cloaked packages. Few would.

"Judah?" Quinton called out, "It's time we sent a message. You've retained your essence in the systems, there's no chance he's got you in any way?"

Judah checked, the Reggie program coming from the mysterious ship was currently in control, the way a child is holding the wheel sitting on your lap. Reggie was nothing compared to a living brain synced to a Quaternary Quantum core.

"No problem at all, he's a program, I'm a programmer."

"Send a message, all of our logs pertaining to this, any data, I'm going to warn them, no matter who this is, I won't deliver a good liar into the hands of my patron saints. Just that and this..."

Quinton needed to consider what was most important, the lengths of the crew to remain secrecy were evident. He had to respect their decisions.

"Our ship is towing an invisible burden we know is a ship. Consider for yourself if what we were forced to carry bodes you well. We have no means of stopping this process without losses to ourselves. I am telling you because we are not enemies and I want to see you continue to serve the people of this region. In my estimation, they are good people who need help. Captain Beck out."

Judah sent the message and two seconds later, all of the lights cut out.

-TBC-

 

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