Posted by Ensign Cassidy Abrams (Security Officer) in Bridge - After Starbase 51 - Main Sim

Posted by Captain Johann Dvorak (CO) in Bridge - After Starbase 51 - Main Sim

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Avik (XO) in Bridge - After Starbase 51 - Main Sim
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻
=/\= Captain’s log, Stardate 72018.76. After a week stop over at Starbase 51, we are now underway to star cluster Alpha 9-9-2, 192 light years away from the base. Our mission: deep space exploration. Starfleet Command also wants us to keep a look out for possible alien civilizations in this region, as well as class-M planets suitable for colonization. =/\=

Johann lifted his finger off of the recording button located on the armrest of his chair while he considered what else to add to the log entry. He wasn’t even sure how to mention the refugee situation coherently without also discussing the “secondary assignment” in his mission orders that only he and Avik had been permitted to see by Admiral Jason McGinnis. The Admiral’s written instructions were very clear that those orders were highly classified, and probably couldn’t be entered into his log.

At least he couldn’t enter it in any log entries recorded here on the Bridge, while it was full of people working. On the viewscreen, the stars flew towards the ship and past it in the all too familiar way that they did when travelling at warp speed. Even at Warp 7.25, it would take a long time to reach the star cluster. Why is our cruising speed a fractional warp factor anyway? he wondered. I thought whole numbers were supposed to be more efficient.

He shook his head, to deliberately discourage himself from being distracted from thinking about the mission at hand. He wasn’t supposed to reveal much about them, but the secondary orders included a lot of disturbing information about what it was the Admiral wanted investigated. Johann didn’t like the idea of just going in this general direction and waiting for whoever these snake-people to come find Europa, so he started thinking about how Europa could find them first.

“Did anyone talk to those refugees on the base?” he asked to nobody in particular.

– Johann Dvorak, CO

Glancing again the expected readouts on her console, Cassidy’s interest was piqued at the captain’s question. “I did. Met one of them in one of the eating establishments. Poor… person was jumpy. I managed to talk him through a moment of panic. I don’t know if we’re coming back to the base at any point, but if we do, I might see if Archie is still there and see how his asylum process is going. Once you get over your initial surprise at him being more or less a very large spider, he seemed like a genuinely nice being, if rather traumatized.” Her conversation with Archie had sat heavily with her all day, especially after the revelation about what happened to his family.

Ensign Abrams, Security

The Captain swiveled the command chair to face Abrams. Archie? he wondered. What a weird name for an alien to have… He was then reminded of a time when he had served with an Andorian who went by “Bob” because it was vastly easier for non-Andorians to pronounce than his actual given name.

Avik stood on the bridge. She stood beside her CO’s chair, her hands behind her usual stiff posture and stared into the warp lines darted across the screen. It had been nearly a week since she actually slept as she pondered over the file’s information. The data held too many holes causing any of her logical theories to fall apart.

Her attention twitched toward Abrams when she caught the Security officer’s answer to the CO’s question.

“There’s numerous intelligent lifeforms with insect-like features, could you be more specific?” Avik asked.

She appeared to be trying to involve herself in the conversation, rather than fishing for information. Her brown eyes resisted turning to the Security officer while her tone remained neutral. She hoped the CO might actually follow her lead in the ‘casual conversation’ approach.

–XO, Avik, Lt. Cmdr

Cass smiled. “Oh, you couldn’t miss him if you tried, trust me. Over two meters tall, skinny, four sets of eyes on a hairy brown face, wearing…” She chuckled slightly. “A Hawaiian shirt.”

“He was from somewhere out here, right?” the Captain asked, deciding to lead the conversation slightly instead of play the whole thing totally casual.

– Johann Dvorak, CO

OOC: Somehow during the thread, we all started calling him Archie rather than Archnie, but… hey it still fits the convo, lol.
IC:
Cassidy wasn’t dense, nor did she miss the fact that she suddenly had attention on her. But at the same time, the whole thing in the bar had felt… weird. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but what little she had learned from Archie made her worried for him. Resting her hands on the top edge of the console, Abrams mirrored their casualness. “He didn’t really say where he was from exactly. Just that his wife and family were killed behind closed doors on their military base and Admiral McGinnis had allowed him to stay on the Starbase while he awaited a decision from the Diplomatic Corps on being granted asylum. Apparently he had fled an attack on his people, and his people where dispersed after their defences were overrun.”

“But you know what was weird? While we were with him, he suddenly got terrified. He said his species had a sense that could pick up when predators were nearby and while he had been fine when he first arrived, the last few days that sense had been triggered often. He said he felt like he was always being watched.” Cass frowned slightly. “I’m not prone to overreaction, and even he admitted that he might be just reactive from what was certainly a traumatizing event, but me and my krav maga immediately looked for the nearest object that could be used as a weapon. I believed him and that put me on the defensive. I know he should be safe on the base, but… I’m kind of worried for him.”

Ensign Abrams, Security

Johann frowned at this. He wished he had known about it before they left the base, but his orders would have been unlikely to change anyway.

No, he thought. That has to be their problem, and they have professionals who are capable of handling it. We need to find out wherever it is that these… ‘predators’… are coming from.

“That’s odd that you felt it too, actually,” Johann observed. “Have you noticed anything like that happening again since your conversation?”

– Johann Dvorak, CO