Monkeying Around

Posted on Sat Jul 22nd, 2023 @ 7:54am by Captain Shran dh'Klar & Commander Samantha Howard & Ensign Kate Kono

Mission: Damn Dirty Apes
Location: USS Washington

Shran sat in the center of the bridge as the ship raced through space to their destination, the last known location of Jon's shuttle when they had received the SOS. "ETA?" he questioned.

"We will arrive is 12 minutes" L'Rissa replied.

"Anything on sensors?" he questioned.

"Not currently detecting the shuttle. It sounded like they were making an emergency landing on a nearby planet" Celes answered.

"Continue all scans. What do we know about the system they were in?"Shran asked, concern obvious in his voice.

"Not much. It is another star system with minimal information. I have all science departments running full scans to gather as much information as possible" Celes replied.

Shran was frustrated. After the recent Q incident with Q and the upcoming Kilrathi talks, a rescue mission for his officers was the last thing he wanted, and yet here they were. He heard the turbolift doors open in the rear of the bridge and he looked back to see Sam and Kate coming up to the bridge. "Good, we may have work for both of you quite soon" Shran said with a grin.

"Oh oh" Sam quipped as she heard the Captain. "It's never a good thing when you need my services" there was a wry smile there as she spoke and headed to her 2XO position.

"We received an emergency call from Jon and Callie. We are en route. You may need to render medical aid." Shran looked at Kate, "we may require your intel abilities. We apparently have very little information regarding the system we are approaching. Be prepared to accompany an away team if needed. Sam, you will lead the away team should it be necessary."

" Yes Sir" Sam nodded as she mentally started preparing for who and what she would take on this potential search and rescue mission. Looking towards the viewscreen the system didn't seem that different to the hundreds of others they had seen - but for one small difference. Their shuttle had gone down in this one.

Kate had a little while to get used to her new situation living on a ship in a world of ---. She stopped thinking about it and just nodded to the Captain. Q had enabled her to have all the knowledge of an alternate past which came with everything from how to use the touch-plate on a turbolift to four years of Starfleet Academy which included the very expertise that Shran was calling on at the moment. She would have been excited for her first mission if it wasn't for the fact that Jon and Callie needed help. She realized that fiction wasn't fiction anymore when it came to the newly realized fact that this was her reality now. She looked up toward the ceiling of the bridge as if looking up to some unknown author to her reality. It was all fading away for her because it didn't matter. She was here now, and Callie and Jon weren't just -- some character. They were Callie, and Jon; crew, colleagues, and friends. Four years of Academy, and knowledge of everything required to get her through this new life of hers but ---

She cared about these people. With that care came the urge to leave the bridge and get to work. She nodded to the Captain.

"I'll get right on it, sir. I'll check with stellar cartography and check the logs for previous excursions into this area by other crews or colonies if there have been any as well as look into the history and how this place even ended up on the database." She was surprised with herself, she actually knew what she was doing. She headed toward the turbolift slowly in case someone needed to add anything else to take with her on her haste to help.

"No other crews have been to this system ensign" Deanna said from Ops. The Betazoid stood from her stations and made her way towards the turbolift. "I will accompany you to astrometrics. I have requested all science departments send all sensor data there."

Shran looked at the trio of officers and then focused his gaze at Sam, "I'll let you know what we find. Go with Deanna in case she finds anything of pertinence."

" Yes Sir" Sam nodded towards Shran and then followed Deanna towards the turbolift and astrometrics. The lack of data on this system was concerning - they had no idea what they were about to get into, or what their missing people had gotten into.

Kate stopped at the turbo-lift door and turned to face the bridge.
"Nobody's been to this system. Why was there a runabout here?" It was the first question Kate had on her mind that required some gap-filling and for an intelligence officer, it made sense to ask a question about a Runabout in a system that hadn't yet been explored by a mainline exploration ship.

"I'll need to have info about the Runabouts mission as well as maintenance logs in order to be able to get the best answers, can someone send that to me?" She stepped into the lift and held the door open just in case someone had an answer ready for her right away.

As the turbolift doors closed and hurried them off to their destination, Deanna looked at the young ensign, "Cmdr Grayson and Callie were returning from a diplomatic mission. It is believed that they experienced some sort of mechanical failure, though we won't know the exact issues until we find them. The mechanical logs are easy enough to get once we arrive at astrometrics." She smiled. She could sense how much Kate wanted to prove herself given this new situation.