Arrival at Station Theta 7

Posted on Tue Jan 3, 2017 @ 9:51pm by Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit & Lieutenant Commander Miguel Torres & Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Lieutenant Cassandra Kennings & Lieutenant Nicole Anderson & Lieutenant Arashi Tanaka Mr. & Senior Chief Petty Officer Samantha Summers

2,211 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Silence
Location: USS Victory / Station Theta 7

Despite the fact that the incident involving Chief Petty Officer Summers had taken place two days ago, the ship's crew still seemed to be rather abuzz with the fact that the Captain had dealt with the implanted spy by administering a truly brutal right hook to the Chief's jaw which laid the woman out cold on the floor. Granted, the excitement had been high for a moment there,

Now however...

The Captain was bored.

Again.

Sitting on the Bridge, for the past 45 minutes the Captain had been idly drumming her nails on the armrest over...
And over...

And over...

A soft chime from her console drew her attention for a brief moment. A message request, yet again from Dr. Anderson wishing to discuss Chief Summers who remained securely in the Brig. The Captain was not currently in the mood to discuss the spy in her brig either, so she ignored it. She would deal with Summers soon enough, in her own fashion and time.

The message repeated this time two in a row, but neither received a response. Back to drumming her nails on the arm rest..

*click click click click*

*click click click click*

*click click click click*

*click click click click*

*click click click click*

*click click click click*

Behind her, something or another beeped but Kennit was so busy watching the way Lt. Naroot's subtle twitch with each click of the Captain's nails on the armrest, other than recognizing that the tone did not represent any imminent threat or issue to her ship she paid it little heed - being far more entertained by her subtle harassment of her navigator at the moment.

Penny sighed and did her best to block out the sound behind her. Manning two stations didn't take much extra of her processing power, and usually listening to the bridge sounds was entertaining. However, she was now contemplating how angry Nicole would get if the Captain's fingers accidentally broke.

From behind her, Kennit heard, "Captain, we have entered final approach range to Station Theta 7. We have been given clearance to dock at pylon 4."

Kennit leaned her head back, literally looking back toward the comm officer upside down and replied, "Pylon 4? Oh, no...I hate the number 4. Tell them to adjust our docking priority and put us at another location."

Penny glanced behind her, a look of confusion on her face.

"Ma'am?" the comm officer answered, his voice puzzled.

Having straightened back up in her seat, the Captain didn't turn this time and answered simply, "Did I stutter, Ensign?"

"No ma'am...conveying your request." After a moment of hushed conversation, during which the Captain succeeded in keeping a straight poker face though inwardly she was delighting at the conversation she could just overhear behind her, the comm officer said, "our docking assignment has been changed to pylon 6."

"Excellent!" Kennit answered, then her voice neutral with only the barest mere ghost of mirth drifting through her tone as she resumed the steady drumming of her nails on the armrest of her seat, she said "Lt. Naroot. ETA to arrival?"

"Well," Penny said, "since we're now going to pylon six, what might have been a short remaining seven minutes is now going to be an arduous seven minutes and thirty-four seconds," Penny said. "So, mahalo."

Six and a half minutes later, the turbolift door opened and Miguel stepped onto the bridge. He didn't know what he had walked into but the tension on the bridge was obvious. "Captain here's the report on the status of the computer after the arrest of...." he stopped himself from calling her by her rank. He wondered if Summers was even her name. "...Summers. We found her little surprise and removed it, and didn't find anything else. However, I placed in some safeguards that should make it nearly impossible for someone to do that again," he told her as he held out the PADD with all the information on the work his staff had done.

Holding out her hand for the PaDD he'd brought, Kennit crossed her legs as she thumbed through the report. As she read, with her free hand she began drumming on the arm rest again, glancing up briefly to look toward the helm before turning back to the report. "I don't see any information on just how she managed to install unauthorized programming into the system as she did..." the Captain commented with a look to Torres expectantly.

"Well unfortunately as a Master At Arms, she does have enough clearance for it. And since most officers in Starfleet practice restraint and don't try and access things that don't involve their jobs. There has never been a Starfleet Protocol to curtail it. I've put in a subroutine to deal with that." Miguel told her. "Unless a crew member specifically has a reason to have access to a system, they won't be able to access it."

The Captain's expression showed mild annoyance as she said, "what do you mean she had clearance to install a program that would shut down the entire ship? The last time I checked, it takes special access codes normally only authorized for use while the ship is in space dock or undergoing maintenance."

Alec had been sitting silently in the First Officer's chair, watching Rhea harass Penny with the tapping of her nails. Now he cocked his head as Rhea questioned Miguel over former Chief Petty Officer Summer's having clearance to install a program that would have shut down the entire ship if it had been implemented. He was interested in hearing the explanation.

"In a way, yes. You can essentially blame Starfleet bureaucracy, they were aware of this problem since 2285 when the crew of the Enterprise used their ranks and computer access to infiltrate Starfleet computers so they could steal the Enterprise and sabotage the USS Excelsior." He told them. "Starfleet has since then made some adjustments to their protocols, but they never eliminated the root cause. I have... well at least on this ship," he told her.

"Um, if you don't mind me asking, Miguel, what exactly did you do to eliminate this from happening again? Alec asked as he shot an apologetic look to the Captain.

"Suffice it to say, Commander, and with all due respect, it's fixed and I don't feel comfortable telling anyone how I fixed it especially on an open bridge since then that could lead them on a path to knowing how to undo what I did. So the fewer amount of people who know how I did it, the better. However, the Captain has a highly detailed report of how it was done in the PADD I just gave her. If she decides to share that with you, that's up to her." Miguel hadn't even realized how that might have sounded until after he said it. He must have been more tired than he thought. But keeping the ship running at the level the crew had been used to wasn't easy without the resources they once had. That and he had taken it on himself to do most of the extra duties that needed to be done so that he didn't overwork his staff that was already stretched thin.

Alec nodded. "Fair enough, Miguel," he answered showing no sign of being upset with Miguel's answer,

"Very well, then all that remains is to decide what to do with our troublesome yet, not very efficient little spy," Kennit stated. "We are technically cut off from the Federation, without adequate means of holding her to protect the ship and crew from further attempts at sabotage. I will not keep a traitor on my ship, yet there is nowhere I can safely turn her over to any authority."

Lieutenant Monsoon was seated at an auxiliary station, listening intently on the conversations that were happening between various persons on the bridge. His attention had been drawn from his console where he was initiating a data link with the Starbase. It hadn't taken him long to be listening in to what was happening before he realized he was ignoring the acceptance request beeping on his station. He flicked his head back to the terminal and keyed in a few commands and started the data link.

Willam had been at the meeting previously and had witnessed what happened with Summers. It didn't seem right to him; something seemed off about the whole thing, and he felt uneasy about the way she had been treated. In Willam's opinion, it seemed as though something wasn't right. Until the facts were readily available, Willam decided it was best not to get involved unless called upon by his superior officers.

Alec waited for Rhea to finish before speaking. "Talk about being between a rock and a hard place. She's probably more secure here than anywhere else especially the way things are right now. She can't escape the brig. However, I understand your feelings on this Captain. She deceived all of us. Is there any way we can fit her with a collar or some sort of inhibitor that in the unlikely event she did escape the brig it would knock her into next week."

"She's supposed to be a trained Romulan operative right? Anything we put on her, chances are she'll figure out how to disable or remove it. Maybe even before she finds a way out of the brig." Miguel stated. "What about some sort of nano device that the Doctor could implant in her?"

"Don't know about her being a trained Romulan operative. She got caught and by her own mouth." Alec countered. "Though the nano device I do like."

"Maybe her conditioning got shaken after Nicole shot you...two..." Penny said, slowing at the look on Hunter's face and slowly turned back around to the viewscreen.

"I want the spy off my ship." the Captain said in a no-nonsense tone. "We don't have the resources or space for dead weight. As soon as we can arrange the transfer of the prisoner the happier I'll be."

Alec nodded, "Of course Captain. it will be taken care of." He replied in an understanding tone, hoping his answer would appease her.

At the ops station, Willam had managed to download a recent mapping update into the system's memory banks and refreshed all areas of the ship that required the information. Scrolling through various data cores of information he noticed a new addition to the crew compliment.

"Captain? I have Staff Warrant Officer Benjamin Gates ready to come aboard. The station has cleared him for transport. Would you like me to meet him at the airlock. I have done all I can here for now." Willam announced to the Captain.

Kennit gave a quick nod, "By all means. Escort him to the XO for check in and obtaining quarters assignments." She told him, giving the XO a slightly amused look as she spoke, knowing how much he enjoyed such tasks.

Willam hadn't been on the vessel for long but could tell how much the Captain was pleased with her instruction.

"Yes Captain," Willam said looking over to both the Captain and the XO with a smile.

Alec shot her a *gee thanks* look and refrained from sighing, rolling his eyes or making any comment at this unwanted and unwelcomed task Rhea had dumped in his lap.

Rising from his seat he pushed several of the buttons on his console and logged off the workstation and proceeded to the Turbolift. Willam was about to head down to collect the new crew member and give himself some peace and quiet from the people on the bridge. The turbolift approached the bridge and Willam traded placed with the female passenger who had arrived.

The turbolift doors opened and Cassandra stepped onto the bridge, nodding and smiling at one of the officers at the rear of the bridge as she made her way down to the front. She stopped in front of the Captain and handed her a padd. "Final reports for the crew transfers, supply requisitions, crew requests for shore leave, and the such." She clasped her hands in front of her. "And I assume you'd like Station Security to lend us a hand?"

"Station security.." the Captain answered. She then let out a short snort of laughter, followed by "If you want to call the four idle officers they have over there that... I think we will do better to rely on our own personnel in this case."

Cassandra inclined her head. "As you wish." She stepped back and moved to the upper deck of the bridge.

With a ka-chunk the ship suddenly stopped moving and the hum of the engines lowered as the ship docked with the station. Penny locked down her boards and turned around, sitting back. "We're docked," she said.

"Thank you Lieutenant Naroot, I trust that thunk didn't scuff the paint.." Kennit answered.

::Aboard the station::

Ben had been waiting for awhile but he was a patient man. He'd been catching up on some Starfleet training manuals and reading through a number of PAdDs containing information on the latest investigative techniques. Most of his personal items, he had in a duffle bag slung over his shoulder.

To be continued

 

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