Newton's Law

Posted on Thu Apr 18, 2019 @ 8:54pm by Captain Madelina Weisz & Lieutenant Commander Arrda & Lieutenant Commander Alex Rho & Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Barnes & Ensign Jonathan Baker

Mission: On Slippery Ground
Location: Asteroid 9831
Timeline: MD 1 || 1900 Hours

It had been an arduous journey through the plasma storms while they escorted the Apollo to its destination, but the Triumphant was finally within hailing range of the hidden base.

Ensign Jon Baker looked up from his position at Ops and over at Captain Weisz. "Captain, the base is requesting the authorization codes," he told the redhead who had been placed in command of the Odyssey class ship while the Commodore had gone on a rescue mission in the Victorious.

Maddy's level of annoyance was off the charts and growing with each passing second. She fought Michael tooth and nail about going on the rescue mission, but he'd obviously won out in the end, or she wouldn't be in command right now. "I'm sending the authorization code now," she said, doing just that.

The confirmation of the code was sent back and what had looked like a solid asteroid began to fade into a base which had docking pylons and various smaller ships around it.

=^=Confirmed. Welcome to Starbase Tigris. We got a report from the Apollo about the delay. Glad you were able to see them through safe and sound. Coordinates for docking are being sent now.=^=

The sight was rather impressive, and soothed Maddy's frayed nerves for a moment. "I'm glad we were able to be of assistance. We'll be with you in person shortly," she said to the Tigris, then turned to helm. "When the coordinates come through, take us in."

Arrda looked up at the 'asteroid' as it 'morphed' into a station. Well, it was less of a morph and more of a removal of a holographic and sensor fooler grid. It was actually fairly impressive, and he watched it in silence before returning his eyes to his console.

This mission had been... difficult, but it was over except for the debriefings and reports. He had written the report immediately after returning so that no details would be lost, but he was sure that the debriefing would bring into question his handling of the situation. Daniels had acted without his authorization, carrying out his own plan which had been reckless and could have potentially put more of his crew and the Apollo's at risk. Arrda knew he would have to address it, but he had not decided as of yet how to respond given that the plan had worked and in essence done his job. That was fairly embarrassing to a seasoned officer like himself, but that wasn't the issue. The issue was that he had to balance insubordination against the lives that had been saved, and he had not decided the best way to do that yet. For now, though, he let all of that sit in the back of his mind and marinate as they approached Starbase Tigris.

The Flight officer took the ship in next to the docking area and waited for the umbilical to extend to form an airtight lock with the Triumphant, then looked over his shoulder. "We are clear and sealed, Captain," he said.

"Time to feed the hounds, Maddy stated as she rose to her feet. "Arrda, Rho and Barnes, you're with me." With that, she began to walk away.

Tom secured his station and surrendered it to a relief bridge officer. He then rose from his chair and fell in step behind the XO.

Arrda acknowledged the order and summoned his relief. When the man arrived, he turned the console over to him and followed the XO off the bridge.

Alex cleared his station of all the information and reset it to basic Intel for the officer he'd waved over. He picked up the Intel PADD that was next to him and put it into a pocket. One never knew. He fell in step behind the others and headed off the bridge.

It wasn't long before the Captain and her three companions were aboard Starbase Tigris, awaiting whoever it was that would be greeting them. She knew they would be a debriefing, but there were still some details Maddy was a bit fuzzy on. She'd been in one place while the chaos had been happening in various places at once.

A Betazoid Lieutenant with a red collar approached as they exited the umbilical. He stopped when he didn't see Michael and looked at the redhead with four pips on her collar. "Excuse me, Captain, but I was sent to take Commodore Aravan to see Captain Th'zhollohr. Is he available?"

"If he were available, he'd be standing here in my place," Maddy pointed out. "But, as one of our crewmen is missing, he's leading rescue efforts. I'm what you get."

"I see," the Lieutenant said. "Well, it shouldn't be a problem. This way, please." He turned and headed out of the room but not going fast enough to lose them in the warren of corridors and turbolifts he led them through.

Finally, he placed his palm against a plate and waited until it recognized him. When it opened, he stepped aside. "Captain Th'zhollohr is waiting for you."

"Thank you," the redhead said before she made her way inside. Sadly, he wasn't expecting her, but rather, he was expecting Michael. Though, given the circumstances, Maddy's presence would have to do.

A tall, muscular Andorian Thaan in a command red uniform turned from the window he had been staring out of and turned. "Ah, Comm...Captain?" Captain Th'zhollohr changed his tone as his antennae went forward towards the redhead.

"I'm aware you were expecting Commodore Aravan, but he's currently occupied with a rescue mission. One of our pilots is missing," Maddy explained, though, she would have preferred it if Michael had been present instead of her. Of course, it was her job as Executive Officer to do what was needed when he wasn't able to. "I am Captain Madeline Weisz, Executive Officer aboard the USS Triumphant, and these gentlemen with me are Master Chief Thomas Barnes, our Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Alex Rho, our Second Officer and Chief of Intelligence, and Lieutenant Arrda, our Chief of Security." She gestured to the each of the men as she introduced them.

Alex nodded towards the man. "A pleasure I'm sure, Captain." He remained quiet otherwise and took in the room around him. Always thinking, always alert.

Arrda gave a silent nod of greeting as Captain Weisz pointed him out to the station's commander. He felt no need to speak as he would simply be repeating like a parrot, so he sufficed with the nod and then continued to silently observe everything around them.

As the lowest ranked, or at least the lowest on the pecking order, Tom simply nodded. He still wasn’t sure why he was here for any reason other than solidarity, so standing in support of his fellow senior officers he would be.

Th'zhollohr returned the nod and turned his indigo gaze to the redheaded Captain. "Tell me, Captain Weisz, exactly what happened on the Apollo and how it happened," he said.

Maddy cocked her head to the side and looked at the Captain before her. "Perhaps, you'd like to answer a question for me first, Captain," she said, keeping her tone level as she spoke. "Why would anyone be interested in a ship that was supposed to contain nothing more than bioneural gelpacks? Because, the way I see it... I wouldn't have crew missing, or dead, if that's all we were meant to be escorting."

"I deeply regret the loss of any crew," the Andorian said sincerely. "In response to your question, they were not just any bioneural gelpacks. They are next generation gelpacks which were synthetically created in a quarter of the time regular gelpacks are grown, and each one can handle the capabilities of any four regular gelpacks, and last twice as long. That is why anyone and everyone would be interested in getting their hands on them."

"Thank you," the redhead said, regarding the loss of their crew, but now it was time to answer his question. Maddy was still a little fuzzy on the details, but she was sure she knew enough that it would appease the man across from them. "There were Chameloids involved. They impersonated members of our crews. They almost seemed desperate to get their hands on the gelpacks. It was because of them, and the isolinear chips involved in messing with critical ship functions, that allowed the Apollo to be boarded. Their crew was rounded up and held prisoner in one of the cargo bays. Our people were able to infiltrate, set the prisoners free and retake the ship."

"Do you know when they came aboard the ships or where?" the Andorian asked, suspecting it was at DS10. "And have they said anything since their capture?"

"DS10," the redhead said simply. "And they've not said a word since being captured."

"I can confirm that," said Alex. "They haven't said a word. During my interrogation, all I learned from the Chameloids was a sense of desperation. They do, however, have a desire to die because they failed in their mission to retrieve the gelpacks. The Orions were kept in the dark regarding their job. They only knew that they were getting paid to do a job, not what it was. They planned to double-cross their employer in the end. As far as who that is, I don't know that. Yet."

Captain Th'zhollohr listened as his antennae moved forward and he frowned. "Would it be possible for you to turn them all over to me?" he asked. "After all, the Apollo was ordered to come here, and I'm the authority on this base."

Maddy shook her head. "I cannot simply just turn them over to you without prior authorization, Captain," she replied simply. "I will contact the necessary parties to see if such a request can be carried out, but I would not get my hopes up. You may be the authority on this base, but what happened is a Federation matter. And while you, and the base are both Federation, I cannot justify it. We lost some good people today, so I will not just hand them over to you without seeking proper justice for those lives that were lost."

"You misunderstand me, Captain Weisz," Th'zhollohr said. "I meant that I wished to question them myself. Do any of your people have information on how the ships were affected?"

"Forgive me, Captain, but how can I possibly misunderstand you asking if it would be possible for them to all be turned over to you because the Apollo was ordered to come here, and you are the authority on Starbase Tigris?" Maddy asked with an arched brow. "If you wished to simply question them, wouldn't you have said so in the first place?" With a shake of her head, she turned toward their Engineering Chief. It was safer to turn the focus elsewhere before her level of annoyance reached its breaking point. "Mister Barnes?"

Tom had stood quietly as the duel of the Captains had raged on. Nothing to him about this situation seemed to be right at all, He halfway wondered if more than half of Maddy's or Commodore Aravan's private meetings were like this, leaving him to wonder if Sir Issac Newton had pondered the laws of physics when two immovable objects encountered the other.

Nevertheless, he was here to report on situations, and report he would. "Our saboteurs knew exactly how to take down both the Triumphant and Victorious. Both ships were infected with malicious software designed to override critical systems through rapid and viral code replication. The situation on the Victorious alone was so dire that we had to perform an emergency system restore in the heat of battle, leaving us completely vulnerable to the raid. Captain, this suggests that these raiders knew what they were doing, and that these gelpacks weren't just your garden variety type. As you yourself said, these are different, but gelpack usage is common only to the Federation. Gelpacks do exist outside of it, but they're tailored for specific functions. I can't see the value of these on the black market unless it was all part of another plot."

Th'zhollohr listened to the Master Chief and nodded. "How is it possible that they managed to get that information to so thoroughly disrupt not one, but two top of the line ships without forty alerts going off as soon as the system was tampered with? Are the personnel that ineffective that they do not have countermeasures in place for such events?"

Tom tried not to take offense at such a flippant remark. Having been enlisted for twenty years, he was certain he had a lot more front-line experience than a station commander who'd likely ridden some Admiral's coattails to get a cushy assignment. "The time between chip deployment and the attack was extremely brief, just a few seconds worth. It targeted the detection systems first and quickly spread elsewhere. Even if a warm body was watching the code live, it wouldn't have been spotted."

"A few seconds?" The Andorian asked in disbelief. "A few seconds should have been more than enough time for the cybersecurity suites to detect and eliminate it." He turned his glare to the Security Chief.

"Are you telling me that your department is so incompetent, Lieutenant Arrda, that it takes more than milliseconds to detect a system intrusion and eliminate it?"

Maddy had just about enough. Her eyes blazed with disdain for the pompous ass that somehow managed to slither from a targ's backside. "You dare question my people on their competence?" she demanded, slamming her fist on his desk all the while imagining it was his face. "You, sitting here in your starbase hiding behind the guise of an asteroid where your biggest threat is if a plasma storm will show up and violate you anally."

She wasn't done. At least not yet. "Do not forget that those which you call incompetent are the very reason you are now in possession of a shipment that was meant to be taken from you, but our crew prevented that," the redhead snapped. "Perhaps the next time you wish to call anyone incompetent, you should take a long look in a mirror and study the reflection that stares back at you. That... is the epitome of incompetence, Captain. We're through here. You can kindly fuck off now. Mister Barnes, Mister Arrda, Mister Rho... we are leaving. I am no longer keen in you suffering the abuse of anyone who thinks they are above others."

The slight expression on his face was one of surprise. It almost seemed staged. Like it was a show just for the sake of show. But Captain Weisz was genuinely furious. So why would the Commanding Officer of a secret research and development base be so quick to infuriate another officer? Did he not want them around? He seemed to know how to get rid of them quickly. What else was this man hiding here?

Suffering abuse by people who think they're above others, Alex thought to himself. This was a child's storybook compared to what I've witnessed. While he had seen, and if he were honest with himself, partaken in, similar exchanges on varying levels, Alex thought it could have come out better. But when a redhead meets an Andorian, tempers are sure to flair. As such, he turned to the Andorian and nodded, "Good day, Sir." Then he turned to Captain Weisz.

Tom didn't feel it appropriate to add anything to conversation. He, therefore, simply turned and followed his fellow crewmates out the door.