Posted by Commander Shara Calloway (Executive Officer) in Main Sim Start - DON’T Break A Few Eggs (Tag CO, Command Staff)

Posted by Captain Sara Kiernan (Commanding Officer) in Main Sim Start - DON’T Break A Few Eggs (Tag CO, Command Staff)

Posted by Captain Sara Kiernan (Commanding Officer) in Main Sim Start - DON’T Break A Few Eggs (Tag CO, Command Staff)
Posted by… suppressed (32) by the Post Ghost! 👻
<SNIP>

“Put it through.” Sara braced herself. Nothing good followed a priority one message. After their last escapade, Sara had been quite ready for an ordinary day. It didn’t seem like she would have any such luck.

-CO

The face on the end of the comms was unfamiliar but the Vulcan was dressed in the gray and black uniform of Star Fleet Intelligence. =/\= Captain Kiernan. Admiral Oleg has requested you and your Command Team join her immediately. The coordinates for transport have been sent to your transporter room. =/\= and the screen went dark.

GM

That doesn’t bode well. Sara thought. =/\=Senior staff report to transporter room one. We have a meeting. Priority one.=/\= She stood up from her command chair, straightened her uniform, and headed to the transporter.

-CO

Harry continued reading through the results of some of the diagnostics he had been running.

“Err… Sir?” chirped up a voice of on of the enlisted crew. Harry looked up, puzzled, before the penny dropped.

“Oh! Yes, that’s me!” he said, with a smile. “Thanks Chief!” he said, as he locked his terminal, straightened his jacket, and briskly made his way over to the turbo lift.

Emery was muttering under her breath at the stack of PaDDs on her desk. She was about half way through them, when the summons from the Captain was broadcast. “Luck must both like and hate me today.” she mused aloud, and set down the PaDD she’d just picked up, locked her console, and headed out of her office. She was glad for the summons since it was giving her a break from the reading but it was still going to be there when they were finished with whatever it was. Emery tended to pace while reading so she was burning energy while not doing much.

Bethany paused, her hands hovering over the console in the electronic warfare room. She sighed and deactivated the new program she was playing with. She pulled the chip out and pocketed it. She left, locking the room behind her and headed straight for Transporter room 1. She greeted the ops officer on duty and then faced the captain. “Good morning, Captain Kiernan.”

Lt. Cmdr. Gadi, COS

“Morning, Captain, Commander.” Aasrel said, strolling into the transporter room himself. He’d been doing nothing overly important, just departmental things that he was somewhat glad to get a break from.

~ Izei, CMO

“Good morning, Doctor,” Bethany greeted. Everyone looked strange in their Star Fleet uniforms. All nice and conformed and almost identical. Bethany smirked.

A few moments later, the youthful Lieutenant walked through the door, running a hand through his mousey-brown hair, before smoothing it back out. He spotted the Captain, as well as a Lieutenant Commander in security gold, and a Lieutenant in sciences teal.

“Hello Ma’am, all” he said, nodding at each one of them. “Lieutenant Archer.” he said, as way of introduction. He still hadn’t had chance to escape engineering and make his way to the bridge or sickbay.

Lt. Archer
Chief Engineer

The woman in ops yellow held out her hand and shook Archer’s firmly. “Lt Cmdr Gadi, Security Chief. Welcome aboard, Lt.”

Mwezi stepped into the Transporter room, adjusting his shirt as he walked. The back was still a little wonky. He stepped over next to the Captain and stood at the ready, although not before leaning in slightly with a smile. “I was in the shower,” he grumbled lightheartedly, then straightened up and was all business.

Commander Mwezi
Executive Officer USS Asimov

She nodded in greeting to the XO. And then turned to the transporter chief.

The Transporter Chief looked at the controls and said “Captain? I’m showing a destination for your transport, but the coordinates are not showing. Just that you’ve been cleared for transport.” and she looked up. “I can send you, but I don’t know where I am sending you.”

GM

Dressed in her Intelligence division colours with her brown hair swept up into a loose twist at the back of her head, Shara stepped in and caught the transporter Chief’s comments. Well, just ducky.

Harry raised an eyebrow, and cracked a slight smile. “Should I have taken out a better life insurance policy?” he asked, whimsically and to no-one in particular.

Lt. Archer
Chief Engineer

Emery laughed softly as she heard the CEO’s comment about life insurance. “We’ll be fine they wouldn’t drop us over a volcano or anything. A lake maybe but nothing that would do us any real harm.” she added lightheartedly.

“Oh, we just like doing things more dramatically around here, Lieutenant Archer,” Calloway said clearly knowing who he was.

Gadi walked over and looked at the panel, “I could hack the orders and get the codes, Captain. It would make us late, and wouldn’t negate any orders we may have been given.” Bethany knew the tactic, she had even helped refine the programs that allowed for such things to happen. This tingled of shadows in grey uniforms. Great.

Lt. Cmdr. Gadi, COS

Shara smirked a little and wondered what Sara would do under the circumstances. This was their first stint at playing by the rules in many months and she wondered how many others were still finding it all very odd.

~Shara Calloway, CIO

Sara walked into the transporter room, her face blank in a way that most would find difficult to read, but those close to her would recognize as her clinging as tightly as she could to control over herself and her circumstances. After what they had just been through, she was in no hurry to go back to the dark side of service again. She had gambled everything when she left port for that mission, gambled her crew’s safety and continued well-being. She wasn’t going to do that again.

When everyone was ready, Sara nodded to the transporter chief to send them down.

-CO

The CO, XO, and Department Heads vanished in a swirl of gold and blue light…

And reappeared seconds later in a dark room- obviously a lab of some kind- with only small areas lit up with lights from directly overhead showing empty table or, as was the case for the newly arrived Asimov crew, a single table. On the table on a small transparent aluminum stand sat a gold-and-jewel encrusted egg-shaped orb with the figure of a nude winged human female holding a sword aloft set on the top. Gems of all various kinds were expertly set in the gold filigree and accents. If this had been a few hundred years before, people on Earth would have paid millions of whatever currency to own the piece. Even today there would probably be some figures in the galaxy that would give up their, or someone ele’s, right arm to have such a piece in their collection.

As the crew took in the scene, a figure stepped out of the darkness and into full view- Admiral Brenda Oleg, Commanding Officer of all of Star Fleet Intelligence. “Captain.” she said politely to Kiernan. She then looked at each officer in turn and addressed each by rank and surname. “I am Admiral Oleg.” she added, as if anyone in the room didn’t know who she was. Unlike many of her predecessors, Oleg was transparent about her role within Star Fleet. Reporting directly to the President of the Federation and the Commander of Star Fleet; she made public appearances and participated in panels and gave presentations to governments and academic gatherings. “Thank you all very much for coming. Now tell me… does anyone here have any knowledge of late nineteenth and early twentieth century Earth artists? Specifically Russian, and specifically jewelers?” she asked with a grin. “It is alright if you don’t, but it could help going forward.”

GM

“It looks like a Fabergé egg. They are a jewelled egg created by the jewellery firm House of Fabergé, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. As many as 69 were created, of which 57 were known to have survived into the 21st century. Virtually all were manufactured under the supervision of Peter Carl Fabergé between 1885 and 1917.”

Lt. Cmdr. Gadi, COS

“The most famous are his 52 “Imperial” eggs, 46 of which have survived, though of those 13 have been missing since the early 22nd Century. They were made for the Russian emperors Alexander III and Nicholas II as Easter gifts for their wives and mothers.” Emery added with a cheeky grin. “If I am right this is one of those missing 13 but I would need a closer look to certain of it’s authenticity.” She wasn’t about to approach it not without permission given.

OOC: I can edit if needed just let me know. :)

McCoy
Chief Science Officer
USS Asimov

“Correct on the first two thirds, incorrect on the last.” The Admiral took a breath and slowly exhaled. “Now tell me if any of you know anything about the Shiang-Gui Masscre during the Dominion War.”

GM

Shara shook her head. “Sounds like something I definitely would have read about given I read everything I could get my hands on after I was recruited following my return to the Alpha Quadrant, but it doesn’t ring a bell and I have an excellent memory.” A massacre was not something she would have forgotten.

~Shara Calloway, CIO

The Admiral nodded. “Not surprising. The, well, the powers that were at the time did a remarkable job of removing it from history… everywhere.” she said and then took a deep breath and sighed heavily. “Shiang-Gui was a settlement on a remote and wholly non-strategic planet that fell into a small but really odd area of space where the Dominion, the Union, and the Maquis had zero presence. From what I can gather, they were just kind of forgotten about. The planet had nothing in the way of strategic resources, nothing of importance to anyone involved in the war. And I mean nothing. And then this happened.”

The Admiral picked up a pair of tweezers and reached over to the egg, sliding the tweezers into an open part of the fillagree-and-jeweled decorative cover. She pinched a small gold leaf and pulled…

And a section of the egg itself slid out revealing an micro-isolinear chip. “The egg was ‘delivered’ to the Federation Ambassador to Seferian VII, an independent world near the wormhole to the Delta Quadrant. And by delivered, I mean a Federation Security agent dressed as a clown dove through the glass window of the Ambassador’s residence and died on the floor with a knife in his back. This egg was in his hand. The local authorities tagged it as evidence and when it was cross-checked in the Federation database it flagged in our system… Fleet Intel. FedSec contacted us, and one of our agents went to retrieve it. The day after she delivered the egg to an Intel courier, she was found tortured to death in a waste disposal holding tank on a civilian starship. The courier dropped this off at Intel Headquarters four days ago. They haven’t been seen since. We just found the chip yesterday. It wouldn’t open to anyone’s credentials but mine. And not because I am the Commanding Officer of Intel, my professional credentials did nothing. I had to use a combination of both those and my personal credentials to open the damn thing.” She slid the chip into a reader and looked at the crew. “Other than me, you are the only ones to see what’s on this.” and she hit play.

A holo-vid activated and filled up the open air above the table the egg sat on. It was a personal recording, apparently made by a young human girl judging from the voice narrating the scene. “This is Rupert.” the voice said as the vid showed a stuffed toy bunny with a top hat. “Rupert is my best friend and makes sure that I eat my vegi… vega… vegibitals every day and brush my teeth, Rupert is super smart and very handsome.” Another stuffed rabbit appeared, dropped next to Rupert with a soft plop. “This is Maximillian. Maximillian is a d!<k.” and an older female voice said “Allison Breithwaite! Where did you learn such language!” with a hint of amusement in her voice. “From Daddy. That’s what he calls Mr. Roberson next door when they are done arguing over the fence.” The woman in the background laughed softly. “Well.. yeah, he does. But that is a grownup word, not a little girl word, okay?” “Okay, Mommy.” and there was a pause. “Where was I? Oh yeah. Maximillian. So-” and her voice was drowned out by a screaming male voice yelling “RUN!!! RUN!!! THEY’RE KILLING EVERYONE!!!!” and then the sound of some kind of energy weapon and screaming… and the vid went dark.

There was nothing for a moment, and then another vid came up. This seemed to be a security feed of some kind. No audio, but it showed a street. Everything looked normal. There were sliders and such moving along, business fronts on either side of the street, and pedestrians walking along with seemingly not a care. Then suddenly there were people running from the left side of the vid to the right side, grabbing and shoving people, trying to get them to move. A shadow fell over the left side of the street and there was a flash… and then nothing, the vid was done.

Another pause, then a vid of a small spaceport. Less than ten ships were landed and in various states of being loaded and unloaded with people working or walking to and from various tasks. A large sign said ‘Shiang-Gui Commercial Spaceport’. This time there was no panic, just a flash… but this time the vid didn’t cut out. In less than a second, the spaceport was a nightmare scene of flame and scorched, melted structures. The few dozen people that just prior had been moving around were smoldering corpses, and the vid slowly distorted as the recording obviously began melting.

Another vid began, but this one wasn’t from the town. It was obviously from a satellite looking outwards. For the first ten or so seconds, it was simply a field of stars. Then, just barely in the frame of the satellites recorder, a bright flash that was easily recognizable to everyone present as a ship dropping out of warp. in the half second it was visible, the Admiral froze the vid and pointed to the ship… an unmarked Star Fleet Sovereign-class.

“According to this file… a Star Fleet vessel attacked and destroyed an unarmed and wholly defenseless human colony, killing everyone. And then someone went to a great deal of trouble removing every reference to the attack, the people, and the colony itself from history. I want to know who. I want to know why. And I want these people-” and she pointed at the vid, “-brought to justice.” She looked around at the Command Crew of the Asimov, each in turn. “You now know exactly as much as I do. Any questions?”

GM

Shara swore aloud. And the some more. In different languages too! She had plenty of questions, but most were ones they’d need to dig to find answers for. “What resources, Fleet, civilian or otherwise do we have access to?” She needed to know what they were working with from the get-go as it would make the early part of the investigation easier. Her body was stock still as she spoke though, her face impassive. Other than the swearing, Shara had a plain expression and stuffed any emotions deep, deep down.

~Shara Calloway, CIO

The Admiral looked at Calloway and said “For this? You can have anything I can get you. But I want all of you to tread carefully. Someone somewhere knows about this file. And they are going to great lengths to keep it hidden. But I can’t release this until we have e some kind of corroborating evidence… and someone to hold accountable.”

GM

“Did any radio transmissions or telemetry survive? Or the satellite record any registration or distinguishing marks on the ship?” Gadi asked.

Lt. Cmdr. Gadi, COS

The Admiral looked at Galdi and shook her head sadly. “As I said Commander… you now know as much as I do. This is all we have.”

GM

bump

bump

“We can fo through the Metadata on the files, images, and sensor logs from the satellite and see if they give us any clues, Captain.” If they could determine the position of the satellite then they could extrapolate the direction the ship came from and try to back track at least.

Lt. Cmdr. Gadi, COS

Shara muttered under her breath as she weighed the vague details they had versus what they were being asked to do and her words certainly sounded a lot like, A [bleep]ing needle in a haystack.

~Shara Calloway, CIO

The Admiral looked at Calloway. “A needle that signifies dozens… if not hundreds… of innocent lives lost, Commander. And I for one do not intend to lose those poor souls to whatever abyss is trying to be created to hide them.”

GM

Shara met the Admiral’s gaze evenly. “And you should be well aware that I’m the last person you need to remind of that, Admiral,” she said curtly. Hadn’t she been doing the impossible for decades now? Hell, hadn’t she sworn everything to protect those that she felt had been given a raw deal. She hadn’t been one of those Maquis who was in it just for the fight. And never in the years since had she ever become that way. It had never been anything less that doing things because it was the right thing to do.

~Shara Calloway, CIO

Bump for others

“Admiral, why did this egg flag Fleet Intel?” Gadi asked. If no one knew about the incident at Shiang-Gui, what was the story behind the container.

“And a follow up, what did FedSec have to say about their agent that was murdered and his mission?”

Lt. Cmdr. Gadi, COS

Admiral Oleg nodded in approval. “Excellent questions, Commander. The egg was reported stolen from the Royal Heritage Museum in Moscow, Russia, Earth two years ago. The suspect was a former Intel officer who had been court-martialed and became a kind of… ‘freelance asset retriever’… a fancy term for thief. When I say ‘was’, I mean he was killed in bar fight several months later. The egg had never been found… until now. As to the FedSec question, they are being wholly unsurprisingly tight-lipped about the whole matter.”

GM

“Everyone who’s seen this record is standing here.” Sara finally cut in, her face completely dark. “But it seems like we’re juggling a lot of players. Couriers, people all up and down FedSec, Intel, Fleet staff… how many people actually know? And how much risk am I putting my crew in for this?”

-CO

Oleg looked at Kiernan and said “Know about the egg? Hundreds, probably. Hell, we already have a formal request from the museum for it’s return. It was marked as evidence in a murder investigation, after all. Know about this file? Like you said… everyone who has seen that is in this room. I was the only one who could open it. So the file was sent to me… not to Intel as an organization. As for how much risk, Captain? I’d say a great deal. Everyone who has had this thing in their possession for the past two weeks is dead. So I’m assuming I’m a target now. Hence the need for all of this.” and she gestured around the darkened room.

GM

Shara’s foggy blue eyes gazed piercingly at the admiral, studying her as if she were a puzzle. “Why you? What’s your connection? And yes, please do humour us with even speculation. Any detail could help, as you well know,” Calloway said in a tone that said she would not be dismissed.

~Shara Calloway, CIO

“Because I have the egg.” Oleg said flatly. “I am assuming, and we all know what we say about assuming, that since I opened the file someone knows I did so. And if they are not hesitant about stacking bodies just for knowing about the egg? I imagine they will be much more motivated knowing that I have their file.” She shrugged. “And if they have been able to keep something like this completely hidden in a universe of infinite data redundancy, then their reach is substantial.” She pinched the bridge of her nose and squeezed her eyes shut. “I don’t like being in the crosshairs… but getting justice for those people is more important than that. But that is also why I am tasking you all with this. I am hoping that you can get a jump on this before who or whatever is behind it knows that you are the trail. And I will do everything I can to deflect attention away from you all for as long as I can. In short, you should anticipate opposition of the highest order as you dig into this. Don’t trust anyone outside this room and your crew. Now then… what do you need that you don’t have to get started?”

GM

“The computer terminal you used to open the file- I want to get someone on it, checking it for the tiniest trail. Admiral, as much as we should assume you’re in the crosshairs… it responded to your credentials. You’re connected somehow. And maybe you don’t know the link yet. But someone went to great lengths to keep that file sealed, and it opened for you. So as much as anything else, we need to figure out why someone would do all of this… draw this much attention and never retrieve the egg or the chip. A part of me thinks that you seeing needed to happen. For something else.” She turned to her crew. “I want to be on this as fast as possible. Make sure everyone is onboard and strapped in. And get Pikelsimer to try and feel out some FedSec data without raising any flags. We need to know who knows what.”

-CO

The Admiral nodded and said “Of course. I will transfer the hardware and any associated data.”

“I’ll talk to Piklesimer ,” Shara said. If there was anyone who could have that casual conversation with the man who was now more or less attached to the ship, it was her.

~Shara Calloway, CIO

The Admiral looked at Calloway and said “I would appreciate that, Commander. Your husband is one of the few FedSec personnel I have ever found at least peripherally helpful.” She picked up a PaDD and tapped a few commands. “Very well.” and she looked up. “The egg is now yours, although records show it is being sent to Memory Alpha via covert courier.” She slid the chip back into the egg and then picked it up and set it in a black case and closed it. Sliding it towards Kiernan, she said “There you go.” and she looked at the assembled crew. “Everyone who has had possession of this has died. Please… be careful. I want to see all of you back here when this is done, and that is an order.” she added with a sincere but grim smile. Perhaps.... just maybe… the ship and crew were finally working for someone that did actually give a damn about them.

GM