Posted by Civilian Tock (Bartender) in Pre-Sim: A Delivery Arrives

Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in Pre-Sim: A Delivery Arrives

Posted by Civilian Tock (Bartender) in Pre-Sim: A Delivery Arrives
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻
OOC: This takes place a short time (a couple of days, perhaps) after this ‘party’ I’m hearing about!

IC: Spacetime rippled almost perceivably as the Kelpie dropped out of warp alongside the Leviathan. Excess energy from the warp engines was dropped, stimulating a photon burst resulting in a bright flash that momentarily illuminated every space on the Starfleet cruiser with a port facing window.

=^=Kelpie to Leviathan.=^= The bold, feminine voice of the freighter’s captain bounced around the bridge as her hail was received. =^=Designate a cargo bay and prepare for our landing there.=^=

Any ensign with little else to do on the bridge would have been struck by the freighter captain’s forwardness in addressing a Starfleet cruiser in such a way. Usually, cargo deliveries would sit awaiting orders upon their arrival. Moreover, this ship was no Starfleet vessel. It wasn’t registered as such, at least. Kaplan F17’s like this were usually civilian owned. It was a novel arrival, to say the least.

---

A short time later the docking was approved, prompting the Kelpie to gradually approach the Leviathan from the aft on maneuvering thrusters. Electromagnetic crackly buzzing marked the moment the ship met the forcefield maintaining the hospitable atmosphere of Cargo Bay 1. Gracefully, the blue tinged ship was lowered into place in the centre of the chamber. It touched down with a satisfying bump and then all was still.

As Leviathan crew members began moving around the bay once the ship was safely touched down, a section at the rear of the ship opened. Slowly but surely, a ramp was beginning to be lowered, opening the ship up for disembarkation and unloading. Somewhere within the depths of the clean white containers stacked in the Kelpie’s belly, something was ticking.

Tick-tock. Tick-tock.

-Tock-

Nobody had been expecting a delivery. But then on the USS Leviathan, expectation and reality oft existed in separate, occasionally parallel, dimensions. Still, Captain Cobb was no fool and, as the freighter inched towards the cargo bay doors, he ordered a Priority 1 evacuation of the areas immediately above and below, as well as the corridors surrounding, cargo bay 1. In the blink of an eye all sentient life had dissappeared from the location, save for a small contingent of security officers, chosen to deliver a personal welcome to the invading craft.

With phasers drawn, the officers began to form a ring around the vessel, NE’s Gary and Blair drawing the short straws and taking up position in front of the descending ramp. As the two men scanned the darkened interior of the craft with growing anxiety, the voice of their shift leader, McReady, rang out from the control booth.

=^= Captain of the shuttle Kelpie. Please step out of the vessel with your hands raised above your head. =^=

It was at that moment that Gary’s ears caught an unfamiliar noise. “Hey,” he hissed over to his partner, Blair, “You hear that?”
=^=Ah, Sir?=^= Blair was quick to alert McReady via his own commbadge, =^=we got something ticking in here.=^=

McReady’s response was lightning fast, borne of years of experience and training. =^=We got a bomb. Hit the deck. I’m establishing a perimeter field. Captain of the Kelpie, I repeat, come out with your hands up. NOW!=^=

• NE’s McReady, Gary & Blair

Cockily yet somehow also cautiously a tall woman with dark hair in a ponytail strolled out of the shadows. At first, her shape appeared to be that of the the shadows themselves sliding forwards thanks to her boiler suit matching the darkness of a hair. Her hands were raised, one of them pinching a PADD between fingers. Another figure appeared behind her but remained shrouded in shadow.

“Here”, she boomed in a hushed tone, “you can calm down.” She slowly approached the ensigns and held out the PADD in offering. Inspection would reveal valid Starfleet security clearance, including unadvertised but obvious to anyone looking codes relating to the ARU itself. The actual content of the file being displayed were inaccessible without the security codes of the XO or CO however.

“Shall we begin unloading already?” a gruff voice called out from behind. All the activity easily drowned out the ticking quietly eminating from somewhere in the space but it continued without missing a beat, or a tock, the whole time.

-Crew of the Kelpie-

Remaining on his belly, Gary reached up to obtain the PADD, then laid it on the ground before him as he glanced from its surface to Blair and then back.
=^=Ah…the codes check out, Sir=^- he called up to McReady. =^=Delivery of equipment from ARU Headquarters. Command authorisation only.=^=

In the control booth, McReady cancelled his alert, his regret at the dissipation of such potential excitement palpable. Then with a sigh he tapped at his own badge. =^=Captain. McReady here. We got a delivery from ARU command. You need to sign off on it.=^=

Several minutes passed while McReady made himself comfortable in the control booth, his eyes never leaving the Kelpie’s chief. While on the deck, the other men once more found their feet with varying degrees of embarrassment, weapons still drawn but de-escalated to stun. Then finally, the doors opened once again and in strode a man who, were it not for the pips on the collar, could easily be mistaken for maintenance crew. Or perhaps a resident vagrant. The uniform passed for regulation at first glance, no single hole or tear large enough to immediately draw the eye. So too the hair, gathered in an approximation of a ponytail, the long beard similarly styled. But it was in those cerulean blue eyes that one truly began to question the man’s standing. For while they might still whisper vaguely of importance and respectability, they sung far louder of one who had just woken from a very long, and very drunken, nap.

“Well now, what’s all this?” he roared, advancing quickly on the small craft, outstretched hand already demanding the manifest. “I didn’t realise it was my birthday, eh!”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

“Hardly”, the other captain barked. Not for a second would she stand for Cobb outperforming her own gruffness. A fresh pad flew into her hand from the shadows and without delay she flung it on to Cobb. Entering the man’s security codes would reveal a single file of a type indicating it was attached to a new specimen being transferred to his ship.

Cobb’s eyebrows raised to his hairline and he wondered, briefly, if he should summon McHarrie. But then why should the research corps get all the fun?

“Although, there is plenty of new kit for you in there. Electromagnetic and gravimetric containment fields among other things. R&D has ironed out some of their imperfections so you’ll have some toys to play with alongside your new job.”

He nodded, the engineer within him almost brimming with excitement at the thought of such technical delights. But in an attempt to remain at least remotely professional, Cobb simply cleared his throat and commented, “Ah, good. Lt Hampton will be pleased.”

The woman looked over her shoulder and beckoned her crew to come forward. Half a dozen or so crew, all dressed in the same style of indistinct boiler suit, walked nonchalantly down the ramp one at a time, each accompanying a cubical white container floating above the ramp, held aloft by an array of finely focussed tractor beams eminating from somewhere within the Kelpie’s cargo bay. All but one of the boxes was set down in a section of the bay designated for depositing cargo and the crew set to work unloading the remaining containers. One, however, was placed alongside the duo of captains. The crew member attending to it handed his captain yet another PADD before making himself scarce. Tick-tock. Tick-tock.

As the cargo was brought out, Cobb waved a hand and almost immediately, the gathered Leviathan crew began claiming various items to shepherd to their intended destinations. Only one box was left untouched. One box, it seemed, none of the men or women would go near…

The PADD was then offered to the other captain. “And this, this is an order from Starfleet Command to accept the boarding of a civilian.” Her hand was placed on top of the container as she scoffed. “Well, the word ‘civilian’ is really just a technicality. There’s no option in that field of the form that would properly describe… this.”

-Crew of the Kelpie-

“Civilian?” Zachariah coughed. “So it’s a…lifeform, then?”
Almost instantly McReady was at his side, weapon drawn, his core team establishing a close perimeter. At the shift leader’s signal, Gary approached and prepared to open the crate and peer inside…

• Captain Zachariah Cobb