Search for our Missing
Posted on Thu Oct 14th, 2021 @ 5:50pm by Captain Dirk Taggart & Major Naomi Sylan Griffiths & Lieutenant Shri'Rao Sh'veqan & Lieutenant Commander James Trallos MD & Lieutenant JG Vespa Kale & Lieutenant JG Camille Lévesque PhD
Mission:
Buyer's Beware
Location: Bridge
Taggart stepped onto the bridge and relieved the Officer of the watch, the footsteps behind him indicated the rest of the bridge crew following him as well. He waited a moment for the officers to take their positions. "Doc, feel free to take a seat at the auxiliary station, and Lieutenant Levesque, please restate your suggestions once more."
The doctor nodded and made his way to the station and brought it up to active status. He got comfortable and brought up information but was unsure where to begin at the moment. He sat quiet and waited to see what he could do.
Ariana took her station but the expression on her face mirrored her feelings. How the hell did people go missing?
Taking a position at the science station, Camille answered the question. “Sensor resolution and a very specific and unique profile to look for, Capitaine. Refining both the ship’s primary array and one on a shuttle, working in concert, to get past any countermeasures on the planet and find, specifically, Lieutenant Hart, who should be the only Human/Betazoid on the planet.”
"Fire up the scanners and let's see what you can find," Captain Taggart ordered.
As Simon relived the watch officer at Operations and began his morning checks quickly, Simon hoped that the planet below would show the two missing crewmembers, but the main question was how on earth had they gone missing, he quickly looked to see if the Shuttles were all accounted for and that none were missing, as he checked the list he said "Sir, All shuttles are accounted for and none are missing,"
"Thank you," the Captain replied.
Camille took a few moments to realign and recalibrate the main sensor suite. She took some reserve power to give the array a boost, which she hoped would translate into greater sensor clarity. They were, after all, looking for one is on a planet of at least hundreds of millions, spread across cities and caverns. “Beginning scan now.”
Taggart nodded in affirmation but did not reply, he was staring at the viewscreen hoping that some useful information would be found.
Simon kept quiet making sure that all the shuttles were in working order in case they were needed quickly as he had sent requests to his teams in the shuttlebay to give them the once over and report back ASAP, but he knew that they would be needed so it was better they were checked and double-checked.
Taking her spot on the bridge next to her Captain Naomi took her seat and pulled up the data on the small screen on her chair arm, then looked up at the Captain "do we know any more than we already know about the actual status of Lieutenants Hart and Kale?" Griffiths asked wondering if there might be a slim chance of an update, but the Captain quashed any hopes of that, then again how could the be more information this quickly 'pull yourself together Naomi, that message from home did something to you' she said to herself and remained quiet.
"You know as much as I do Major, I'm hoping we," his response was cut off by the incoming communication alert. "On Screen," Taggart replied quickly.
A face etched with lines, a slight color, and long purple hair stared back. "Federation Ship Pennsylvania, you will power down your scanners now, failure to follow instructions will result in your banning from Ketram. A third warning will result in your ships' destruction," said the cold gravelly voice.
"Understood," Taggart replied as he stood up from the center chair. "I have people missing.."
He was cut off by the voice again. "Your scan is still running Captain, and your Federation lies will not be heard here."
Taggart turned to the science console and said simply "Shut it down." A moment later the face disappeared from the viewscreen. "Lévesque, please tell me you found something."
“Scan terminated. Et non, Capitaine,” Camille replied. “We have a lot of topographical and population data, but no one with Human/Betazoid genetic markers.” She saved the data that was received but blew out a breath as she did so, upset that her first official act as a bridge officer aboard the ship was a failure.
Taggart stood in the center of the bridge and looked a the faces of his officers. "At this point, all we know is Lieutenants Kale and Hart are missing. They could have had too much to drink or had something nefarious happened. I'm asking for suggestions on how to proceed. We could try to retrace their steps but in places like this information is bought and sold. How do we narrow down our search grid?"
He paused to contemplate the problem before asking a question, "Lieutenant Levesque, is there a way to extrapolate data from the scan we've already completed? I know we only scanned for Human Betazoid but can we use the data captured to conduct a slightly different query?"
“Probably,” Camille replied. She furrowed her brow, requiring her to adjust the glasses on her face. “We can look for other signals they might be putting out. Their commbadges, for example. I didn’t think of it before because a commbadge can be removed.” She paused a moment to think further. “We also have good topographical data on the surface and cave system, from which we can speculate on how far they might have been taken in each direction.”
Looking up from what she was doing "the moment we locate our missing people Captain I will assemble a rescue team and go and get them" Griffiths said and thought to herself 'at least it will make me feel useful' mentally shrugging she began to take note of events on the bridge as what she was doing on the small screen on her chair arm was now complete.
"You will lead the team when the time comes, Major," the captain replied.
The doctor read his screen and listened to the conversation going on. "Captain, I'd like to join the away team as well in case either of them needs medical treatment. I could at least stabilize them until we reach the shuttles, assuming they need treatment and not just a large cup of black coffee."
"You will be joining the Major also Lieutenant. For now, we have to narrow down our search grid. Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Dirk turned towards where the Science Officer sat, "Lieutenant Levesque, have you located the location of the comm badges?"
"Un moment," Camille called back from Science. "I think...yes, I have them. Three commbadges. Definitely Starfleet, and while I can't determine with one hundred per cent certainty that they belong to our missing crew members, two of them are identical in every detectable way, while the other is slightly different. I believe the identical ones belong to Lieutenant Kale." She frowned. "Unfortunately, the three commbadges are not together. They appear to be spread out across approximately one square kilometre."
Looking up and to Levesque "They are what! Never mind I heard you" she said as she shot straight up and looks at the Captain, "this is going to make a rescue team a little harder Sir if they were together, then easy, but separate, we have a small issue" Griffith's said.
"Captain forget the scanners, we will have to do this the old fashioned way. Go down and look for our missing crewmen. Permission to assemble an away team". Lt Sh'veqan requested.
"We need to backtrack the comms badges, see who had them and try to work backwards. I want to find our people as soon as possible. I want an away team assembled quickly, Major Griffiths, Doc Trallos, and Lieutenant Sh'veqan will be going on site. Lieutenant Levesque and I will remain here to assist however we can. Any questions?" The captain asked.
“I’ll continue looking through the data we collected,” Camille said. “If I find anything else of value, I’ll inform the away team.”
"No questions here Captain." Shri'Rao said.
Taking note of what had been said "I just hope they are not too badly injured and that they are quite close to each other when we do the rescue, as we may be able to get in quietly and get the first one, but the chances of them being alerted after that increase" Griffith said.
"All right you have 30 minutes, and Major Griffiths your team will be all armed this time, but I ask you to use force only as necessary. If there is nothing else I wish you all good luck.