Posted by Ensign Elemirre Serinde (Engineering Officer) in Main Sim - Bridge

Posted by Vice Admiral CockRoach (GM) in Main Sim - Bridge
[snip]

=/\= Well nothing really worth pointing out, good R&R spot but nothing else worth doing. We found a few samples of deeper minerals for industrial projects maybe but effort to get them would be not worth it for Earth at this time. The quality is too poor I hear for you Fleeties to use for your fancier ships…=/\= He said. The tone sounded friendly but an undercurrent of probably wanting the Soujourner and Starfleet gone from the system was there at the edge of his tone.

Green moved away from the screen to the far side of the bridge where the comms station was. A Chief Petty was there, what was her name, Carter, yes, Melody Carter. She was an attractive, round faced robust looking brunette. Leaning over he asked in a low voice, “Chief, bring up a map of area trade routes. Does anything pass by here?” He glanced over to the screen, silently assessing Captain Baker while Melody worked her console.

• Green

Green murmured under his breath, “Sorry mate, us ‘Fleeties’ will be around for a while.” He then grunted as he looked at the data.

Pulling up the maps of documented trade routes from the Merchant arm of Earth, officially the closest route was one from Earth passing to Vulcan. Which by warp 1-2 or so was from here still almost 2-3 weeks off course from that route. Having one much less three of these ships show up out of no where was certainly odd. It was possible there were undocumented registered trade routes United Earth Merchants were keeping off the books that passed by this system which would make a group trip into unknown space more likely for protection and stopping here for basic R&R as claimed. But it was still odd.

“Unless there are other significant worlds beyond here to warrant such a course deviation ..” Reggie shook his head and scratched at his beard. “It sounds like they’ve been doing some prospecting. Cats. Minerals. Natives.” As he thought ..

As this all came up on their data bank screen for Green. NE Hollands leaned over from one of the side consoles, murmuring quietly. “..Sir? Maybe its nothing, and maybe its a poor scan result, but I think I’m picking up non-human life signs on the Barker. Not fully sure because there seems to be some radiation interference nearby in the hold by it but they might be a match for the native cave dwellers down below..” he said.

GM CockRoach

Reggie’s back stiffened at that. “This is just a audio call. Chief, put the map of the trade route on the screen for the XO to refer to. Extrapolate further along on the star map to see if there is anything beyond that might justify trading ships going through here. Ensign Hollands, put your scan results up on the screen as well. And continue to work to refine your scans and identify the radiation type and life forms.”

Standing he moved along the edge of the bridge to catch the XO’s attention and gestured that information was coming up onto the screen.

• Green, NL Eng

Heather saw Green moving around and nodded towards him. Granted she had spent her career in Starfleet, and had grown up on Earth, but she never quite understood the frustrations of the freighters.

=^= That’s unfortunate to hear, but thank you for the input Captain. Any chance you would be willing to share your data with us? The brass are wanting us to do a survey of the planet, and anything you’d be willing to share might help us in getting on our way that much sooner. =^=

Cmdr. Grace - XO/CSO

=/\= Afraid my boss paying for my ship would need to approve such a transfer, Commander. You can contact Haris Mason at Earth Cargo sometime to request it later. =/\= He said. Again the hint of a terse ‘get out of my system’ sort of implication or claim for having the Sojourner gone was underlying the trader Captain. =/\= Really isn’t much worth your survey work you could tell your higher ups out this way.=/\= He said.

“Yeah, I hear you. Here’s your hat, what’s the hurry,” Reggie muttered. “Ye aren’t getting rid of us so easily, mate. We’ve made it out this far and will go farther still. Your free lunch won’t be free much longer.” He glanced to the XO expecting her to read him at least a little of the riot act, that they weren’t here just to sight see but plant ourselves here.

Heather looked over at Green and gave him a look that said, ‘really, right now?”

=^= Understood. Figured it was at least worth a shot of asking. =^+

Aiden slipped quietly onto the bridge, taking his station from NE Charles and quickly familiarizing himself with the situation. The linguist was quite a bit paler than normal, but otherwise in fairly decent condition. Having an idea, he started scanning to see if there was any communication between the three freighters co-occurring with their call with the Sojourner.

Aiden Conlon, Comms/Linguist

=/= Science to bridge we have something odd going on. Commander Grace, do you remember the alien signal we found? The one being controlled by an Earth cargo comm signal? =/=

=^= Would you mind holding on one second Captain? =^= Heather said over the top of Locke’s comm. She quickly signaled to Aiden to suspend the call with the freighter for a second or two.

There was a brief pause before continuing.

=/= After we mostly blocked it, we located the main habitats of the natives. They are in the northern and central areas of the main continent. There are also signs of someone mining the dilthium deposits near where we found that small camp of natives. =/=

-Lt. Naomi D. Locke, Sci (cross post from Science Lab)

With this data in hand they could make a pretty good guess on the scans of the life signs on the first freighter and now that they had a clearer scan profile on all three freighters in fact held somewhere between 10-15 or so of the native humanoids on the ships. It was hard to make out their status given nearby holds held material which would cause interference to most basic sensors that Earth ships used. It seems these freighters were either returning natives from the planet from elsewhere......or poaching them for use elsewhere and were here to pick up more.

GM CockRoach

“Split screen again on the viewer. Let’s have those scans up there for the XO to work off,” Reggie said. He was frowning around his significant beard and his dark brows were furrowed. There wasn’t anything to say that natives couldn’t be aboard, no law yet to suggest that one couldn’t interfere with others developing on a world. Maybe there should be something. Right now all they had was a handful of the natives aboard. His ancestors used natives as laborers where they had ports. Could be just that. Cheap labor. Or it could be more. Good British blood was spilled trying to eradicate slavers centuries ago. Perhaps it may come to that again. By the way they were so eager for them to get gone it was more than just wanting to get to their ‘shore leave’. Perhaps they had their own mining operation going. They knew about the dilithium deposits and their grade level. Wasn’t to say that there weren’t markets for them somewhere. Same thing with the plants that had healing properties that Serinde mentioned. Both were low hanging fruit on this world that eager opportunists could easily take.
- Green, NL Eng

“Well isn’t that interesting…” Heather trailed off as she looked over the data. “Get the Captain up here ASAP.”

=^= Good work Lieutenant. See what else you can find now that you’ve found a way through the jammers. =^=

Taking a deep breath she nodded to Aidan to put the freighter Captain back on the screen.

=^= Sorry about that Captain, ships business. I know you are very busy, so thank you for taking the time to talk with us, and I should let the science teams get back to finishing up their mapping of this system for the brass. Anything else I should know before we wrap up here, and get out of your hair? =^=

Cmdr. Grace - XO/CSO