Ludus Incipit, Part 3

Posted on Thu Dec 6, 2018 @ 9:34pm by Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit & Lieutenant Samantha Raylen & Lieutenant Commander Miguel Torres & Lieutenant Cassandra Kennings & Lieutenant Nicole Anderson

1,710 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Plaga Navis
Location: Varied

USS Victory - Bridge

On the Bridge, Lt Cmdr Torres was uncomfortable and unhappy at the continued silence from the away team. At this point, the away team should be returning within the next 6 hours if all went as planned. They should break comm blackout and report in... so far there’d been only continued silence. Another hour passed.

Cassandra had joined the bridge crew and was seated at the First Officer's station, her communications earpiece in place, listening for the first ping of a hail.

“Commander, contact on the sensors inbound..” Lt. Davenport asid.

"They're hailing us," Cassandra said, looking towards him, relief on her face. "It's the Rascal."

Miguel nodded "Pipe it through." he said though inside he was breathing a sigh of release. At least the rest of the crew would be happy no more battle drills for awhile.

The comm suddenly chimed, “Kennit to Victory.”

"It's good to hear from you Captain. Did everything go as planned?" he asked and then waited for her reply.

“Have security and medical personnel meet us on the flight deck. Our guest will require a medical check and then I want him safely secured in the quarters prepared for his use, the XO and Doctor are unaccounted for. Prepare to move the ship to the Arcturus Cluster. apparently there was a Starfleet Intel operative present. Major Crowe and his marines caught a ride with him and we expect to rendezvous with them at that location, at which time if the XO and Doctor have not made contact we’re going back...”

"Understood Captain. We'll be ready to move on your command." he replied. Once they had finished talking he followed through with her orders.


Hanger Deck - USS Victory

As soon as the Rascal had touched down, Torres was present to greet them, along with security and medical teams as requested. He was somewhat taken back by the Captain's appearance when she disembarked the Rascal, her skin pale and partially mottled as a result of the nanites in her blood. Her eyes were dark, her entire body radiated tension though she was calm and in control as she approached him, “status report..” Kennit asked.

"The Victory is fully operational, her crew are ready to do whatever you need." Torres replied

Behind them came a voice very familiar to him, unfortunately. “Oh my god.. Mickey... why does it not surprise me to see you hanging around with my wife still..” Torrance said as he approached, accompanied by two security officers.

Miguel smiled "Nate..." he said with a smile of his own. "I guess it was to much to hope that time would have given you your just deserts." he said and then moving with speed that none of the others had seen before Miguel hit him square in the jaw. He was careful not to hit him with his full strength out of fear that it would have killed him. But it was more than enough to knock him out cold. "I've told you before the name is Miguel not Mickey." he stated even though he knew the man couldn't hear him at the moment.

If the Chief Engineer's reaction surprised the Captain, she didn't show it. She just blinked. Looked at Nathan sprawled on the deck out cold. Then cast a sidelong glance at the Engineer standing next to her for a moment before looking once more at their 'guest' who'd been knocked out cold by the Miguel's blow.

"Feel better?" she asked in a mild voice.

"It'll do for now." he replied.

She shook her head ever so very slightly, and just gave him one gentle pat on the shoulder. Then, focusing on the security guard said "Scrape him off the deck would you? Get him to sickbay and have Dr. P'k'ala look him over. I want him checked out thoroughly after his stay in that prison. Be sure that there is an escort present of two security personnel with him at all times."

Tanaka nodded, "We'll make sure he's well looked after Captain.." Whatever his thoughts on having just witnessed the Chief Engineer flatten the man .. he kept to himself.

(OOC: Filling in since Tanaka didn't respond and I dislike scrolling for a half hour to reach the end of the posts to keep adding things.. lol)

Shifting her attention to Torres, she said "We have a problem. The XO, CMO, and our latest group of Marines did not follow orders, and did not make the extraction point in time. We couldn't linger, the prison had rather potent anti-ship weaponry which forced our hand and we had to take off. Supposedly, Major Crowe encountered an agent from Starfleet Intel.. someone named Holbridge.. James Holbridge. He stated he would rendezvous with Victory at the Arcturus Cluster in 36 hours. That will put us 4 hours at max warp from the planet where I can only assume the XO and Doctor are still stranded.. attempting to evade capture if they haven't already been taken into custody. I want all communications from that planet scanned for any news of their activities.. as soon as we are in range start scanning for them."

Miguel nodded taking in her orders. He had so hoped that he would be able to go back to engineering. But with the XO still off ship that meant he was next in line and thus had to fill in.

In a voice which gave away a hint of the anxiety, stress and flat out anger she was feeling.. the Captain answered "A great many things would be much simpler if people could simply follow orders.."

"Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll find away to get themselves off that planet." he said trying to reassure her.

"You know I don't believe in luck.." she answered in a quiet voice. "I'll be on the Bridge, I need you to prep the Ranger as well as the Valkyrie fighters for possible action. As soon as you have confirmed operational readiness, let me know."

He nodded his understanding of her orders, and that was good enough for the Captain. She left then, heading for the bridge.

Once she'd reached the Bridge, after checking on the ship's status the Captain retreated to her Ready Room where she drafted a SITREP report which gave a brief overview of their current situation and then sent it to the TF-38 XO.


** Meanwhile Back on The Prison Planet**

Alec and Nicole had watched from a safe vantage point while the prison had sent out patrols around the prison but none coming quite as far out as they were. Even if a patrol did come out they were hidden beneath a rock overhang, tucked into a cave and out of sight from any prying eyes. "We'll wait a little longer, twilight or dark than make our way to the spaceport and find 'borrow' a ship to get back to the Victory."

"I don't really relish the idea of sitting here that long," Nicole said. "I can always try calling the Castel but I'm reasonably sure the Captain would blow it out of the sky on principle." She looked at the car they were in. "Wait, why are we hiding? We're in one of their vehicles. Why not just drive out like a patrol and keep on going till we find a public place with a ship to 'borrow'?"

"Reasonably sure? Doctor, The Captain would blow that ship, Captain Edwards and her merry crew into space dust just for the hell of it. You can be sure of that." Alec answered. He looked at her, a stunned look on his face. "That's brilliant Doctor. I'm thinking sneaky and your going obvious but it works." He started the car and edged out of their hiding place. "Alright here we go." He told her and proceeded away from the prison and toward anywhere they could 'borrow' a ship and get back to the Victory.

"We need someone alone," Nicole said. "Preferably a male, to make things easier."

"Any particular reason it has to be a male?" Alec questioned as they raced along.

"Remember those things we were fighting?" Nicole said, trying to distract herself from his driving. "Their king had a telepathic link to the rest of them. A low-level psionic ability that let him control them once they were reduced to instinctual beasts. One of the genetic things to seep past my father's firewall was a version of that. I can put in a post-hypnotic suggestion of sorts, at best. It works best on the weaker members of a species."

Alec turned his head and favored her with a look, "The weaker members of the species? Care to elaborate?"

"If you have to ask..." she said, leaving the rest of the sentence hanging. She watched the landscape go by. "Do you have any idea where you're headed?" she said after several minutes.

Alec sighed in frustration but said nothing. It wasn't worth getting into an argument. "If you have to ask..." He said turning her question back on her.

She bobbed her eyebrows. "Touche."

"However, I'll answer your question." He pointed at the horizon. "We're headed toward the spaceport. You can see the plasma trails of some of the smaller ships as they enter the atmosphere. We'll get a ship there."

"Head to the loading docks," Nicole said. "We need a one-man delivery ship with warp capability, not a multi-crew transport vessel."

Alec nodded at her suggestion, "Will do. Um one person? Where are you going to be? In the cargo bay?"

"Well we are technically the cargo," she said. "That or standing room only."

"Ahhh." He replied with a nod of his head as he understood what Nicole had in mind. "You mean I can't fly it?" He bantered before continuing "Your going to have to give your 'subject' complete instructions as far as contacting the Victory."

"I'll figure it out," she assured him as they approached the spaceport's cargo area. "Let's find our new friend."

"Of that, I'm sure of." He agreed . "Um, we should act like we like each other, you know as to not draw undo attention to ourselves." He looked at her, "It's just a suggestion."

(To Be Continued in Part 4)

 

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