More Questions Than Answers

Posted on Thu Jan 10th, 2013 @ 6:27pm by Captain Tobias Naros & 1st Lieutenant Michael Watters & Ensign Marshall Doering & Lieutenant Commander Xavier Nor'el & Lieutenant Commander Joseph Thompson & Lieutenant Commander Robert Hogan & Lieutenant Torin Drell & Lieutenant Ophelia Lysander & Lieutenant Aniela Darvetti & Lieutenant JG Miranda Blackfur & Major Drake Lexon
Edited on on Thu Jan 10th, 2013 @ 6:58pm

Mission: Episode 1.1 - "MystiQue"
Location: Observation Lounge, USS Yorktown
Timeline: Mission Day 03, 1150 Hours

ON: [[Observation Lounge, USS Yorktown, Mission Day 03, 1150 Hours]]

Tobias had already taken his place at the head of the table by the time the first of his senior staff began arriving from the bridge. There really hadn't been much time for him to acknowledge the looks of surprise on their faces when he'd finally emerged from his ready room with Q Junior and called for an emergency meeting. They had certainly come a long way since departing Starbase 386, both physically and metaphorically. If what Q Junior had told him was true, however, they had an even longer road ahead of them.

After Tobias' announcement, Aniela had quickly locked down her station and headed straight for the observation lounge. Choosing a seat towards the middle, she nodded to the Commanding Officer as she took her seat. Unfortunately, she had no real answers for him, but was curious as to what he had discussed with Q Junior...and the others. Folding her hands on her lap, Aniela waited quietly as the others came in.

Miranda paused briefly, waiting for her on-duty replacement helm's officer to take her place and announced to her, "I've Helm," before she took off after the rest of the Senior Officers that were also on the bridge. She entered and took the nearest seat closest to the door, ready to return to the helm if needed without having to wait for the rest to clear the exit onto the bridge. Ears constantly swiveled back and forth to pick up the slightest nuances of sounds and tail lay down the side of her leg with the tip flickering back and forth.

Robert Hogan turned to one of his junior engineers and nodded to him. Without a word, the junior officer took over at the Engineering station on the aft of the bridge. Hogan followed the other senior officers to the observation lounge, wondering just what in the hell this current Q entity was going to get them in to. He walked through the doorway and turned to his right, opting to sit close to the doors. It was an old habit he picked up and kept through his career. Hogan glanced around the room, trying to gauge the expressions of the other senior staff.

Torin followed Lieutenant Commander Hogan into the room after having one of his own replacement officers take the Ops station. After Hogan took the seat nearest the door Torin chose to seat himself next to the Engineer if for no other reason than the view out the aft view ports that the spot offered. He took note of the Q entity but resisted letting his gaze linger on 'him' instead glancing at Hogan with a raised brow and giving a slight shrug. His gaze finally came to rest on the chaotic scene outside of the ship, the region's majesty and sheer horror creating an odd sensation of excitement within the Trill.

Hogan caught Torin's glance, cocked his head and shrugged a shoulder.

For once, Joe wasn't the first to arrive to a briefing. As he took his seat near the captain, though, he kept a wary eye on Q Junior. Something strange was going on, and Joe was eager to hear what it was.

Xavier headed for the conference room to attend the briefing after seeing the the ranking bridge officer from the beta shift. He still had the meeting that he had attended not long ago fresh in his mind. Inwardly he was hoping that this time things would be more productive than they were before. He noted that several officers had already taken seats at the table and were waiting for the meeting to begin. Xavier calmly strode over to the seat to the left of the captain and took his seat without saying anything.

Drake (PNPC) had been relaxing in the marines' lounge when the summons had come, so he had joined the Marine CO on the way up to Deck 1. They said little - at this point, speculation wouldn't have revealed anything - but Drake felt a grim sense that something was wrong.

Michael (PNPC) nearly stopped dead in his tracks as the two marines entered the room. It had been some time since he'd last seen the swirling clouds of super-heated plasma now visible through the large viewports running along the far wall of the observation lounge, but certainly not long enough in his opinion. The last thing he needed was to be reliving memories of his previous experiences with the Golden Discontinuity. Instead, he quickly recomposed himself and made his way to an open seat facing away from the viewports.

Although Ophelia had left Sickbay as soon as she received word of the briefing, she was still the last to arrive. From what little she’d heard, she had missed out on something very exciting indeed taking place on the Bridge. The doctor had experienced the ship’s unusually rough starts and stops for herself, though, and had been reorganizing spilled medical supplies for the better part of a half hour before receiving her summons. Hastening to take the last available seat, her gaze lingered for a moment on the uniformed young man who was making himself at home among the senior officers. With her curiosity well and truly piqued, she waited in silence for Captain Naros to begin. She'd learn soon enough what was going on.

There was no doubt in Tobias' mind that the members of his senior staff were quite perplexed by their current situation. The El-Aurian had gone over it at least twice with Q Junior and, even then, he still wasn't sure he understood the entirety of it himself. One thing was for certain...one way or another, they all had a long way to go before this would be over.

Seeing that most everyone had taken their seats, Tobias leaned forward slightly in his chair and waited only a moment for things to quiet down before he started to address them. "I'm sure we all have a lot of questions we would like to see answered right now," Tobias began, "Where are we? How did we get here? What was that mysterious energy sphere we encountered? Who is this young man that suddenly appeared to us?" He paused at this point to survey those seated around the table. Each of them seemed able to relate in some way, shape, or form to at least one of the questions he had just listed.

Miranda nodded, narrowing her eyes slightly as she did so. She managed to keep herself under control as she watched the captain and the stranger who had started all of this, thus delaying their mission to Cardassian. "No offense, Captain, but did the intruder..." she paused to nod in the direction of the newcomer, "...give a plausible explanation to answer those questions?" There was a soft, underlying growl in the tone of her voice as she spoke. "I know where we are...the Golden Discontinuity," she continued, ignoring the disproving looks she was getting from the others for speaking out of turn, "What about the rest of the questions?"

Although Aniela's expression showed nothing but calm, she was finding herself less and less impressed with the Caitian Flight Control Officer. Miranda had questioned Tobias' decision to leave her in charge and was now jumping in and being somewhat rude. She was curious how Tobias would handle the Caitian's outburst.

Out of the corner of his eye, Tobias could see their visitor was starting to get restless again and the El-Aurian could hardly blame him. It was a wonder the relatively young entity had been able to keep himself from using his powers this long. In fact, since arriving aboard the Yorktown, the only display of power Q Junior had exhibited was when he had transported them from their original location to the middle of the Discontinuity.

"A valid question, lieutenant," Tobias replied calmly, "one which our guest will answer for himself in a moment. Before I turn things over to him, does anyone else have any concerns they wish to voice?"

Aniela was not surprised about the finesse of Tobias' answer; she had always found him well-spoken. The main questions she had at this point, though, were ones that he had already mentioned - other than the lingering question on her mind...why he had left her in charge. That question, however, would wait. Besides, she preferred to get a feel for everyone else's personalities before jumping in.

Being the new kid on the block, so to speak, Hogan was loath to say much of anything, but felt he needed to press forward. "Captain, I have a question or two regarding this situation. First, I wonder what kind of long term affect this travel is going to have on our dilithium intermix chamber. Second, I would like to know if our 'guest' knows what exactly happened with the vortices interfering with our systems."

Miranda's attention kept drifting back to Q Junior as she sat there watching the others. She wondered what it would be like to have such power at one's command. There wasn't so much as a purr or a growl as her tail wove rapid curves behind her and below the view of others at the table to relieve the urge to spring into action to defend her shipmates, all senior to her, and rip the intruder apart. Knowing he had the ability to transport a ship billions upon billions of kilometers through space in an instant, however, kept her sitting in her place at the conference table.

The relatively young entity had been watching the exchange with some apprehension. It was a feeling he had never really experienced, even when his own father had taken away his powers and abandoned him aboard Voyager, until he'd seen one of his only friends lying on a biobed with little hope of recovering. Now the feeling was back and Junior was certain he didn't like it at all.

Junior cast a glance in the direction of Captain Naros. The two made eye contact and he watched the El-Aurian give a small nod of approval, indicating it was time for them to proceed. "The interference you described was caused by the same entities that made the energy sphere," Junior said as he took a step forward to address the assembled officers, "They were trying to stop your ship."

Curiosity may have kill the cat, but Miranda was going to have satisfaction of knowing. Once again spoke up, "Why?" She simply growled out, lowering her paw-like hands below the table to hide her claws a they involuntary extended and retracted.

Xavier sat pondering what had just been announced by the young being. He couldn't help but wonder what entities could create an energy sphere that could do what it did before they were moved out of harms way by Jr. Xavier had to speak up to ask the question at the forefront of his mind. "While I would also like to know an answer to what Lieutenant Blackfur asked, I believe also just as important would be who has done this."

"And whether it's something we should be expecting again," Joe chimed in, mindful of their vulnerability.

Junior gave a sideways glance in Naros' direction, wondering why he'd ever allowed the El-Aurian to talk him into this presentation in the first place. Clearly these people were resistant to the very idea of his presence aboard their vessel. He could only imagine what they would think when they learned the truth. "Actually, I'm going to have to side with the cat on this one," he answered slowly, "The who isn't as important as the why. Your vessel was attacked because they were after me...and they certainly won't be giving up just because I brought us here."

Joe's visage became grimmer, if that were even possible. Just as he had expected, they weren't out of the fire yet. However, he wasn't bitter towards Junior; despite the being's very apparent power, it seemed clear that he was in his own form of trouble and had come looking for help. Joe's sense of duty and honor bound him to offer what help he could, so now his thoughts turned away from his distrust of Junior - which still existed, albeit in diminished amounts - to the protection of the Yorktown and everyone on her.

Drake caught Joe's eye and gave a half-smile. The seasoned starfighter pilot knew exactly what had just transpired for Joe. Turning back to Junior, Drake continued to listen but remained a silent observer for now.

Miranda stared at Junior, waiting to speak to see if anyone else had any questions. Emboldened by the fact her own question had been answered and the XO's rebuffed, she asked softly, "Why are they after you? You piddled in the wrong sandbox?"

There was a flash of indignation in Junior's eyes at the feline's statement. "...and that would be the perfect example right there," he said with a cold look in the lieutenant's direction, "From the moment I arrived, you have all viewed me with suspicion. There's no point in denying it...unlimited control of space, matter, and time, remember? I've seen the way you look at me, heard the way you've talked about me right in front of my face. You don't trust me."

"Given your track record, can you really blame us?" Joe pointed out. "You haven't really been a shining example of honor."

"Exactly," Junior said emphatically, gesturing with one arm toward the former marine.

"While I do agree the why is important, knowing who is after you and now us is just as important of a question for you to answer," Xavier replied, all the while working on keeping the anger out of his voice after having his valid question rebuffed.

Tobias cleared his throat, drawing attention to himself for the first time since having turned the briefing over to Junior. "We've each raised valid points," the El-Aurian said slowly, "but the fact of the matter is, whether we like it or not, we are involved. Q came to us because he believed we could help him and I, for one, am not about to turn him away now."

“Hear, hear,” Ophelia agreed softly, momentarily breaking her silence. She had not been present for Q Junior’s initial arrival, and she could only imagine the shock and surprise that would have followed his sudden appearance, but she didn’t feel that his presence now warranted so much open distrust and even, in some cases, barely hidden aversion. Turning Junior away now would not only be cold and inhumane, but would go against everything that Starfleet stood for, as far as Ophelia was concerned. Returning once more to the role of attentive observer, the doctor lapsed into silence again, curious to see where the briefing would lead now.

Though she couldn't blame anyone for mistrusting the Q who had shown up on their vessel, Aniela could see that their wariness was rubbing Q Junior the wrong way. True, they could simply ask him to leave, but given his power he didn't have to comply and obviously Tobias wasn't leaning that way. The curious Scientist in her was extremely curious as to what was going on and what it was that had chased them. Aniela nodded at Tobias, showing her agreement, and spoke, "If we are to help, sir, any information, no matter how insignificant it might seem, could be crucial."

"These...beings...they're made up entirely of energy," Junior said, the tone of his voice less indignant that it had been only moments ago, "They didn't start out that way, of course, but after centuries of evolutionary processes, this is where they've ended up." The young entity paused and extended a hand to the science officer in which he held a single PADD. "This is what I've been able to gather about their natural state," he continued, "it should help you to recalibrate your sensors...maybe even give us a bit of a heads up when they might be getting close."

Aniela watched the Q quietly as he provided further information. Beings made of energy...that was certain to pique the interest of some of those in her department as well as Ophelia, if she had to guess. As she took the PADD, she nodded and offered him a small smile. "Thank you, I'll start reviewing it right away."

"Thompson, Drake, Watters...start looking for a way to secure a defensible position," Tobias continued, "Q might have a few ideas that could help us in that area as well."

"Aye, Sir," Joe said. He exchanged glances with Drake and Watters, knowing that they were both already working on plans even as he acknowledged the captain's command. Nodding, Joe turned his attention back to Q Junior. Though he had expressed distrust of the being earlier - and certainly still held some degree of wariness towards him - Joe had already shifted his mindset to include Q as at least a temporary ally and asset.

"Hogan, Drell, Darvetti...I want the three of you to see if there isn't any way we can boost our operating efficiency," Tobias said as he turned his attention to the respective heads of engineering, operations, and science, "The Golden Discontinuity is known for its ability to interfere with starship systems and I don't want to be caught off guard when these aliens show up again."

"Of course, sir," Aniela replied. "I also already have those in my department researching the readings from our initial encounter with the sphere." Not to mention she now had the additional information from Q Junior. Hopefully it would be helpful as well.

Torin had remained silent for the entirety of the briefing, his gaze having lingered on Junior the most but also having taken stock of the other's reactions to the situation. Despite the Q's obvious power Torin couldn't help but feel sorry for the entity though the reason for his empathy wasn't entirely clear. He had never been the suspicious sort but even so, the Q's behavior thus far was more indicative of a peaceful being, or perhaps a very sly one. Rousing himself from his revere Torin met the Captain's glance and replied simply, "Yes Captain."

"Aye, aye skipper. We'll get on it right away." said Hogan.

=^= Bridge to Captain Naros =^= the voice of Ensign Doering (PNPC) interjected via the ship's intercom.

"What is it, Mister Doering," the captain asked.

=^= Sorry for the interruption, sir =^= the young operations officer replied =^= but sensors have detected a large object nearby...an asteroid by the looks of it. Results are still inconclusive, but we think there might be some sort of artificial structures on the surface. =^=

The ensign's words echoed sharply in Michael's ears as those around the table slowly began processing what had been said. He turned ever so slightly in his chair until he was able to see the swirling clouds of super-heated plasma still visible through the large viewports behind him. Maybe some part of him had hoped, what with so much of the Discontinuity being unexplored, that they might have ended up somewhere...anywhere other than here. Michael could already start to see the ghostly outline of the asteroid through the gasses and he knew they might as well have sailed right off the edge of the map into one of his darkest nightmares.

OFF

A Joint Mission Post By:

Captain Tobias Naros
Commanding Officer
USS Yorktown

Lieutenant Commander Xavier Nor'el
Executive Officer
USS Yorktown

Lieutenant Commander Joseph Thompson
Chief Security/Tactical Officer & Second Officer
USS Yorktown

Lieutenant Commander Robert Hogan
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Yorktown

Major Drake Lexon (PNPC)
Phantom Squad Leader
USS Yorktown
Played By: LtCmdr Thompson

Lieutenant Torin Drell
Chief Operations Officer
USS Yorktown

Lieutenant Ophelia Lysander
Chief Medical Officer
USS Yorktown

Lieutenant Aniela Darvetti
Chief Science Officer
USS Yorktown

Lieutenant JG Miranda Blackfur
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Yorktown

First Lieutenant Michael Watters (PNPC)
Marine Commanding Officer
USS Yorktown
Played By: Capt Naros

Ensign Marshall Doering (PNPC)
Assistant Chief Operations Officer
USS Yorktown
Played By: Capt Naros

and

Q Junior
Played By: Capt Naros