Season 2, Mission 2: Ariadne and Her Thread

Mira wrote:

[Bridge]

Seeing their new tactical officer standing at the console while the Chief dealt with passing around information about the distress call they had picked up, Mira stepped up to the newcomer, offering him a smile.  

"First shift?" she asked.  "I'm Mira, by the way."

Jaden looked up suddenly, almost surprised, but smiled.

"Yeah, I'm still getting used to the console display. I'm Jaden, nice to meet you.", he responded, noticing no rank pips. "No rank?", he asked in extension.

Jaden Terak wrote:

Jaden looked up suddenly, almost surprised, but smiled.

"Yeah, I'm still getting used to the console display. I'm Jaden, nice to meet you.", he responded, noticing no rank pips. "No rank?", he asked in extension.

[Bridge]

"Don't worry about it," Mira replied, hoping to be reassuring. "It always takes new crewmembers a couple of days to get used to a new ship. I'm sure you'll pick it up quickly." The smile grew a little wry as he commented on the lack of rank points on her collar. She had never been programmed with them. It had never been considered necessary since she wasn't really part of the command structure on the ship.

"I don't have a rank," she said, shrugging one shoulder. "I don't need one."

Julia Rellek wrote:

Julia tapped her communicator. =/\="Bridge to ready room. Captain, I hate to bother you but we could use your presence on the bridge. And Lieutenant Kejal should join us as well."=/\=

[Bridge - Sciences]

Looking up from where he'd had his head buried in star charts and mapping, Gavin Van Gelder leaned sideways in his chair, arm around the back of it. With Julia having been bumped up to the XO spot, he often found himself representing Science on bridge duty. Gavin loved working on the bridge, but it often brought him into the same world as Jiseth. Fortunately, she seemed to be staying out of his way. As he did the same. It was hard trying to maintain his friendship with Zero and avoiding the Romulan bitch, but he managed.

"Commander, we'll need to watch our backs. This debris field is on the edge of the Chelis Cloud. It's little more than a name on the map, since it hasn't been fully cataloged...but what we do know is this - it's a Class-2 nebula." Gavin blinked, realizing that he should probably elaborate further. "Uh. Anyway. Lots of gaseous matter that plays around with sensors. We...should be okay, but you can never know with nebulae."

Mira wrote:

[Bridge]

"Don't worry about it," Mira replied, hoping to be reassuring.  "It always takes new crewmembers a couple of days to get used to a new ship.  I'm sure you'll pick it up quickly."  The smile grew a little wry as he commented on the lack of rank points on her collar.  She had never been programmed with them.  It had never been considered necessary since she wasn't really part of the command structure on the ship.

"I don't have a rank," she said, shrugging one shoulder.  "I don't need one."

[Bridge - Tactical]

Jaden nodded, "You know, some people say that ranks are only a way to show the command structure... having no rank could be a good thing, it means you get to refuse to do something... not that you would do that", he said halfway in jest. The console beeped a few times and Jaden looked down for a moment, the sensors picked up some errant particles on the starboard side of the hull, likely from the area, "for a second, I thought it was a ship... just some space dust", he laughed.

"How long have you been aboard?" he asked Mira.

Bradley Miller wrote:

Bradley chuckled as Gabriel made the comment about him being drafted. “It’s an honor sir.” He said through a small fit of laughter.

He caught and quickly donned the Engineering vest that was more thrown to him than handed to him, and his hands immediately and subconsciously came to rest on their all too old and familiar standard places. One was on the Engineering tricorder, and the other had just its thumb tucked inside the left pocket of the vest, which contained three or four tools that may come in handy later on.

As Bradley watched Gabriel orchestrate the Engine room, he couldn’t help but admire how well the fellow Engineer did his job, knowing that he also maintained a near-constant rate of intense humor as well.

So she’s the second in command … or at least the highest in command that’s in the room. Bradley thought, as Gabriel instructed Kaz to take over in his absence.

Bradley did indeed miss being on a starship and in control of his own engine room, but at the very least he was able to enjoy being a part of the action for the time being. As Gabriel approached him and their squad began to move, Bradley followed.

“Sir yes sir.”

[Access Node]

"Damn," Gabriel cursed, knocking his elbow on one of the corners of their work space. It wasn't a hard thing to do, considering that he was rather tall, and that they were up in the access corridors of the ship. Somewhere close to the forward sensor array, not far from a main shield generator. The latter of which seemed to be working fine right now, thank you very much. Had to take small blessings where they could.

Soon enough the duranium covering was removed, revealing an access node. Gabriel took out his tricorder, giving the area thorough scan. "Bet you didn't think you'd be getting this close to me on this trip, did you?" he asked Miller, grinning. The tricorder beeped a response, giving him a readout. "Looks like a plasma relay's tripped. It's operating on three quarters input power, and the extra effort needed to make that output might be causing our blips."

Jaden Terak wrote:

Jaden nodded, "You know, some people say that ranks are only a way to show the command structure... having no rank could be a good thing, it means you get to refuse to do something... not that you would do that", he said halfway in jest. The console beeped a few times and Jaden looked down for a moment, the sensors picked up some errant particles on the starboard side of the hull, likely from the area, "for a second, I thought it was a ship... just some space dust", he laughed.

"How long have you been aboard?" he asked Mira.

[Bridge]

"No, you don't get to refuse to do things just because you don't have a rank," Mira pointed out. "That comes with the uniform, not the rank. In any case, I just do what I'm programmed to do."

When the console beeped, Mira frowned slightly, reading through the data coming up on the console. Given the nebula they were coming up on, and the electromagnetic interference they were likely to encounter, it seemed more and more probable that she would have to deactivate herself before they got much deeper into it, or risk damaging her program.

Her attention was diverted from that line of reasoning as Jaden asked how long she had been aboard.

"I was installed a couple of weeks back when a few other crewmembers from the Athena took a temporary transfer here. Admiral Deacon likes to send her personnel on a starship from time to time to make sure they remember how everything works."

Sigma Nu wrote:

Their face split into a wide grin when they saw Telak next to Kintiss. "My two favourite doctors!" They exclaimed. To be fair, they were the only two they'd met yet, bu it was the thought that counted. "What can I do you for?"

Ilana Telak wrote:

"H-h-h-hello, S-S-Sigma," she replied to their greeting.  "I've b-b-b-been h-h-having p-p-problems w-w-with m-m-my implant.  M-m-my s-s-speech h-has b-b-been d-d-degenerating."

Good to know he was someone's favourite doctor. He couldn't exactly call that his claim to fame, but it was nice to be appreciated every once in a while.

"I took a tricorder ssscan of it," Kintiss interjected, handing Sigma the PADD with all the readings stored on it. "I wasss hoping you could diagnossse what'sss wrong with it." As long as it wasn't going to explode, he figured it was manageable. Still, there were probably a lot of ways technology like that could go wrong, and produce a number of horrible side-effects, too.

Gabriel Arthur wrote:

[Access Node]

"Damn," Gabriel cursed, knocking his elbow on one of the corners of their work space. It wasn't a hard thing to do, considering that he was rather tall, and that they were up in the access corridors of the ship. Somewhere close to the forward sensor array, not far from a main shield generator. The latter of which seemed to be working fine right now, thank you very much. Had to take small blessings where they could.

Soon enough the duranium covering was removed, revealing an access node. Gabriel took out his tricorder, giving the area thorough scan. "Bet you didn't think you'd be getting this close to me on this trip, did you?" he asked Miller, grinning. The tricorder beeped a response, giving him a readout. "Looks like a plasma relay's tripped. It's operating on three quarters input power, and the extra effort needed to make that output might be causing our blips."

[Another one of those ridiculously tight crawl spaces aboard a starship, that only Engineers ever seemed to be condemned to … aka, another Engineering Access point]

Bradley laughed heartily and shook his head once more with Gabriel’s comment; this particular joke having such a grand plethora of potential double entendres, some of which incredibly awkward, that it took him a few solid seconds to come up with a response. “Well … if one is to be an Engineer … I imagine claustrophobia had better not be one of his traits.”

There … I’m not as funny as he is but … at least it’s a shot, right? … Nah, I’ll never match his humor. … But man he is funny. Bradley had to admit, he was slightly distracted by the man’s humor, but it was a good distraction, and it was most certainly welcome. Plus Bradley, ever the professional, wasn’t the one to let such a thing get in the way of his work anyhow.

As Gabriel took out his tricorder, Bradley did the same. Removing the panel closest to him and scanning just as Gabriel was doing slightly farther down the … tunnel? Tube? Eh … wherever they were.

After Gabriel had finished reading aloud his tricorder readout, and Bradley noticed on his own device that the power readings were looking anything but normal, he shook his head and spoke aloud.

“Of course it’s an electrical problem. It’s always an electrical problem.”

Then he paused for a moment, thinking.

“Then again … thank God it’s an electrical problem.”

Bradley looked at Gabriel, not yet having replaced the panel in the wall sitting next to him.

“So … I go grab a new plasma relay from the spares and then we install it up here, or do you have a different plan?”

Bradley’s tricorder had picked up that the power relay he’d been scanning had been working the electrical equivalent of overtime to cover for its fallen comrade a few meters down the tube/tunnel/thing (Jefferies tube).

Of course, it made sense that Gabriel and Bradley had stumbled upon the damaged section so quickly. The first thing you would do when trying to solve any problem on a starship would be to run diagnostics, and these would tell you at least the general deck on which the power drain was occurring.

At the same time however, when you had people to spare, and you had a major problem to look into, you used those spare people to look into the problem. This was the precise reason why there were other small Engineering teams looking through the other Jefferies tubes on the ship. If the Phoenix was lucky, they wouldn’t find anything. If they were unlucky, then whatever problem existed would be solved anyhow.

Mira wrote:

[Bridge]

"No, you don't get to refuse to do things just because you don't have a rank," Mira pointed out.  "That comes with the uniform, not the rank.  In any case, I just do what I'm programmed to do."

When the console beeped, Mira frowned slightly, reading through the data coming up on the console.  Given the nebula they were coming up on, and the electromagnetic interference they were likely to encounter, it seemed more and more probable that she would have to deactivate herself before they got much deeper into it, or risk damaging her program.  

Her attention was diverted from that line of reasoning as Jaden asked how long she had been aboard.  

"I was installed a couple of weeks back when a few other crewmembers from the Athena took a temporary transfer here.  Admiral Deacon likes to send her personnel on a starship from time to time to make sure they remember how everything works."

[Bridge - Tactical]

She made a logical point about the uniform, and Jaden nodded with a slight laugh. "looks like that nebula has some errant gases, I wonder why that is...", he said aloud, running a scan.

"Do you get to travel much?", he asked as the scan was running.

Persephone M'Rai wrote:

[Bridge]

Persephone had been listening in on the conversation between Julia and security while keeping an eye on her console.  The ship was definitely being a little tempermental in her handling, but it was well within her control to compensate for the time being.  With any luck, the Engineering department would be able to track down the problem with the dampeners sooner rather than later, before half the ship had to report to sickbay for space sickness shots.

"Acknowledged, Commanderrrrr," the Caitian replied, plotting a course in the direction of the Beta Five sector.  "Courrrse laid in and engaged.  Estimated time of arrrrrrival, forrrrrty minutes at maximum impulse."

Julia nodded as the resident Caitian gave her report. "Very well Ensign. Hopefully engineering will get us those warp engines soon. I don't enjoy trotting along at impulse."

As soon as she finished speaking Gavin chimed in.

Gavin VanGelder wrote:

[Bridge - Sciences]

Looking up from where he'd had his head buried in star charts and mapping, Gavin Van Gelder leaned sideways in his chair, arm around the back of it. With Julia having been bumped up to the XO spot, he often found himself representing Science on bridge duty. Gavin loved working on the bridge, but it often brought him into the same world as Jiseth. Fortunately, she seemed to be staying out of his way. As he did the same. It was hard trying to maintain his friendship with Zero and avoiding the Romulan bitch, but he managed.

"Commander, we'll need to watch our backs. This debris field is on the edge of the Chelis Cloud. It's little more than a name on the map, since it hasn't been fully cataloged...but what we do know is this - it's a Class-2 nebula." Gavin blinked, realizing that he should probably elaborate further. "Uh. Anyway. Lots of gaseous matter that plays around with sensors. We...should be okay, but you can never know with nebulae."

Finally, something Julia understood well. She was likely one of the strongest minds in the Federation when it came to stellar phenomena. No worries, Julia, you know nebulae. She thought. "Shouldn't pose any threat. But lets be safe rather than sorry. Keep an eye on it Gavin. Go ahead and boost power to the lateral array. See if we can cut through it and get a better look.

Julia looked up to the tactical station where their newest officer, Ensign Terak, was working. "Welcome aboard Ensign and congratulations on your new assignment. If you don't mind, I'm going to have to put you to work immediately. Lieutenant Pardek, I need you and Ensign Terak to bring shields online. Experiment with frequencies in the upper EM bands. You should be able to find a frequency that better protects us form any harmful gases that may be present in the anomaly."

[Ready Room]

Quote :

"Right now, the ship works, and I'd rather keep it that way. Try not to put too many backs up, all right?"

Buris sighed lightly and nodded, looking at the Captain. "Aye, Captain. I'll...do my best."

For him to be less than certain of his ability to not put too many backs up was absolutely normal. And yet the mood in the Ready Room seemed to have relaxed between two people who'd been ready to beat the daylights out of one another not so very long ago.

And then the moment was ruined in the best way possible.

Quote :

Julia tapped her communicator. =/\="Bridge to ready room. Captain, I hate to bother you but we could use your presence on the bridge. And Lieutenant Kejal should join us as well."=/\=

He looked across the woman's desk and stepped aside with a half-smile. "As they said in Main Engineering on the Wellington whenever an alert would sound, they're playing our song, Sir."

[Bridge]

Stepping out onto the Bridge, he glanced around, relieving the crewman at the Bridge Ops station with a few words. The Bridge was humming with everything that'd be expected of exploring this charnel-house.

Quote :

"Commander, we'll need to watch our backs. This debris field is on the edge of the Chelis Cloud. It's little more than a name on the map, since it hasn't been fully cataloged...but what we do know is this - it's a Class-2 nebula." Gavin blinked, realizing that he should probably elaborate further. "Uh. Anyway. Lots of gaseous matter that plays around with sensors. We...should be okay, but you can never know with nebulae."

Quote :

"Shouldn't pose any threat. But lets be safe rather than sorry. Keep an eye on it Gavin. Go ahead and boost power to the lateral array. See if we can cut through it and get a better look.

Julia looked up to the tactical station where their newest officer, Ensign Terak, was working. "Welcome aboard Ensign and congratulations on your new assignment. If you don't mind, I'm going to have to put you to work immediately. Lieutenant Pardek, I need you and Ensign Terak to bring shields online. Experiment with frequencies in the upper EM bands. You should be able to find a frequency that better protects us form any harmful gases that may be present in the anomaly."

Buris couldn't help but agree with van Gelder. Having grown up in spitting distance of the Badlands, he knew darn well what a nebula could mean to a ship if they weren't careful. He looked down at his board and turned halfway to the command crew, nodding first to M'Rai. "Well, if we're looking at a Class 2 nebula, I suggest launching Type 2 probes. We can send out several probes and navigate on them. Plus, I'd take a guess that Engineering has a small multiphase shield generator sitting around that we could jerry-rig into a probe's casing along with the test equipment - so that Security can run their shield experiment safely, and in real conditions - rather than simulation."

[Pod, Torpedo Room]

Quote :

"Acknowledged Ensign, we're kind of busy down here but I'll do my best to get someone to come and put your fears at ease. Engineering out."

Before Arlan could respond, the Engineer had cut the channel - just as he'd realized it was Kaz who he'd just spoken to. He wondered if there was anything more to say, but at least a 'huh, that was weird' about the Q incident on the Starbase might be in order.

Regardless, he turned back in the torpedo room to see two of the Enlisted crewmen arguing with one of the manual loader tubes... and losing. "Hey! Can that nonsense, guys! We got Engineering coming up, so ship-shape it and quick!"

He walked over and pulled out his tricorder, working on what would have been an everyday issue up here in the Pod - if it weren't for whatever was wrong with the dampeners. It really did feel like the darn thing was going to fall off at any second.

He knew that Kaz would send the best person she had on hand, so all he could do was make sure the torpedo room was on their best behavior - difficult for one of the few places where Starfleet still preferred a roughneck to an officer.

Jaden Terak wrote:

She made a logical point about the uniform, and Jaden nodded with a slight laugh. "looks like that nebula has some errant gases, I wonder why that is...", he said aloud, running a scan.

"Do you get to travel much?", he asked as the scan was running.

[Bridge - Tactical]

"Not much. It's easier to deactivate me when in transit, so I don't get to see much beyond what's in the computer," Mira replied before looking over to the ship's first officer. "Looks like you're needed. Good luck newbie."

Stepping back from the console, Mira was content to observe rather than participate. She was, after all, a back up program, not intended to actually take the place of a crewmember but rather to assist where necessary.

Kejal Buris wrote:

Buris sighed lightly and nodded, looking at the Captain. "Aye, Captain.  I'll...do my best."

For him to be less than certain of his ability to not put too many backs up was absolutely normal.  And yet the mood in the Ready Room seemed to have relaxed between two people who'd been ready to beat the daylights out of one another not so very long ago.

And then the moment was ruined in the best way possible.

Julia Rellek wrote:

Julia tapped her communicator. =/\="Bridge to ready room. Captain, I hate to bother you but we could use your presence on the bridge. And Lieutenant Kejal should join us as well."=/\=

Kejal Buris' wrote:

He looked across the woman's desk and stepped aside with a half-smile. "As they said in Main Engineering on the Wellington whenever an alert would sound, they're playing our song, Sir."

[Bridge]

Stepping out onto the Bridge, he glanced around, relieving the crewman at the Bridge Ops station with a few words.  The Bridge was humming with everything that'd be expected of exploring this charnel-house.

Buris couldn't help but agree with van Gelder.  Having grown up in spitting distance of the Badlands, he knew darn well what a nebula could mean to a ship if they weren't careful.  He looked down at his board and turned halfway to the command crew, nodding first to M'Rai.  "Well, if we're looking at a Class 2 nebula, I suggest launching Type 2 probes.  We can send out several probes and navigate on them.  Plus, I'd take a guess that Engineering has a small multiphase shield generator sitting around that we could jerry-rig into a probe's casing along with the test equipment - so that Security can run their shield experiment safely, and in real conditions - rather than simulation."

[Bridge]

Although she wasn't entirely convinced by Kejal's words about trying not to put off too many of her crew, there was nothing else that could be said before a communication came in from the bridge, requesting their presence.

Getting up from her desk, the young Romulan made her way quickly out onto the bridge, remarking that the viewscreen was showing the outer fringes of a nebula.  Her attention turned to her first officer.

"Situation report, Julia."

Kintiss wrote:

Good to know he was someone's favourite doctor. He couldn't exactly call that his claim to fame, but it was nice to be appreciated every once in a while.

"I took a tricorder ssscan of it," Kintiss interjected, handing Sigma the PADD with all the readings stored on it. "I wasss hoping you could diagnossse what'sss wrong with it." As long as it wasn't going to explode, he figured it was manageable. Still, there were probably a lot of ways technology like that could go wrong, and produce a number of horrible side-effects, too.

[Sickbay]

"Implant troubles?" Sigma chortled. "Well, you called the right cyborg." The Deltan had an extensive map of their own modifying implants that continued to grow. So much time in their parent's lab and so much time in the hospital had given them ample opportunity to begin their knowledge on the subject. Further education had merely strengthened that until they ouild be well and truly called an expert.

Sigma retracted their tools into their fingers and pulled out their engineering tricorder. "Just let me run a few scans..." They muttered. They passed it over the two connected sections of the cardassian's implant, including the wire which kept the two working together. Fancy tech... they thought. "I've got something like this... Nice interworkings..." Sigma was muttering to no one in particular, bu was trying hard to contain their extensive excitement anyway. A passing thought about he inconvenience of an exposed wire occured, but it was stopped by the readout of the internal components themselves.

There was some wear on the implants themselves, but more striking was the conglomeration of dead cells and the presence of unusually high levels of t-cells around the implants. Tis combined with a few other factors in the specific nature of the damage led Sigma apto an immediate diagnosis-- it was, after all, something they'd had before themselves.

"I'm afraid that there's some definite indication that you might be expediting rejection of the device at both implant sites."

Julia Rellek wrote:

Julia nodded as the resident Caitian gave her report. "Very well Ensign. Hopefully engineering will get us those warp engines soon. I don't enjoy trotting along at impulse."

Kejal Buris wrote:

Buris couldn't help but agree with van Gelder. Having grown up in spitting distance of the Badlands, he knew darn well what a nebula could mean to a ship if they weren't careful. He looked down at his board and turned halfway to the command crew, nodding first to M'Rai. "Well, if we're looking at a Class 2 nebula, I suggest launching Type 2 probes. We can send out several probes and navigate on them. Plus, I'd take a guess that Engineering has a small multiphase shield generator sitting around that we could jerry-rig into a probe's casing along with the test equipment - so that Security can run their shield experiment safely, and in real conditions - rather than simulation."

[Bridge - Helm]

She didn't say so, but Persephone had to agree with Julia. Not being able to go to warp made her feel particularly vulnerable, in such an area of space, evidenced by the fact that her ears were pinned back. She kept her eyes focused on her console, wanting to be able to be taken by surprise by anything out there.

The only time she glanced up was when she heard the ready room door slide open to admit the captain and Kejal back to the bridge, offering the operations officer a slight smile in response to his nod in her direction before turning back to her console.

Sigma Nu wrote:

"Implant troubles?" Sigma chortled. "Well, you called the right cyborg." The Deltan had an extensive map of their own modifying implants that continued to grow. So much time in their parent's lab and so much time in the hospital had given them ample opportunity to begin their knowledge on the subject. Further education had merely strengthened that until they ouild be well and truly called an expert.

Sigma retracted their tools into their fingers and pulled out their engineering tricorder. "Just let me run a few scans..." They muttered. They passed it over the two connected sections of the cardassian's implant, including the wire which kept the two working together. Fancy tech... they thought. "I've got something like this... Nice interworkings..." Sigma was muttering to no one in particular, bu was trying hard to contain their extensive excitement anyway.  A passing thought about he inconvenience of an exposed wire occured, but it was stopped by the readout of the internal components themselves.

There was some wear on the implants themselves, but more striking was the conglomeration of dead cells and the presence of unusually high levels of t-cells around the implants. Tis combined with a few other factors in the specific nature of the damage led Sigma apto an immediate diagnosis-- it was, after all, something they'd had before themselves.

"I'm afraid that there's some definite indication that you might be expediting rejection of the device at both implant sites."

[Sickbay]

With some difficulty, Ilana managed to sit still while the strange operations crewman ran their scans. A difficult feat since it meant that Sigma had to get up quite close and personal which the Cardassian wasn't generally a fan of. Hearing that Sigma had something similar did reassure her a little, but it was the only one of the various mutterings that did.

"R-r-r-rejection?" The word came out as far more of a scared squeak than she had intended it to be. It couldn't bode well, not given how hard it had been to get the implant to take in her system. Her mind immediately went to various treatment plans, but she knew that it wasn't up to her to make that call. She was the patient here, not the doctor.

"Wh-wh-what d-d-do I d-d-do? H-h-have y-y-you ever h-h-had an i-implant b-be r-r-rejected?"

Ilana Telak wrote:

[Sickbay]

With some difficulty, Ilana managed to sit still while the strange operations crewman ran their scans.  A difficult feat since it meant that Sigma had to get up quite close and personal which the Cardassian wasn't generally a fan of.  Hearing that Sigma had something similar did reassure her a little, but it was the only one of the various mutterings that did.

"R-r-r-rejection?" The word came out as far more of a scared squeak than she had intended it to be.  It couldn't bode well, not given how hard it had been to get the implant to take in her system.  Her mind immediately went to various treatment plans, but she knew that it wasn't up to her to make that call.  She was the patient here, not the doctor.

"Wh-wh-what d-d-do I d-d-do?  H-h-have y-y-you ever h-h-had an i-implant b-be r-r-rejected?"

[Sickbay]

Running more scans was a little redundant, but Sigma kept up with it from a distance just to monitor. Their head was whizzing already, running and crunching equations as easy as humans did basic maths. They were thinking about Ilana's implant, how they could improve on it... Or even redesign one. That would be a real treat.

They had to pause and remember that they were dealing with a person and not a science experiment. It was hard when you sometimes felt like one yourself. They tilted their head at Ilana and considered their reply.

"I've had more implants go rouge on me than I wanna think about," Sigma said. "As you can see, I'm still here. I'm on a fun mixup of different antirejection medication, which is probably what you need. This awesome doctor here," Sigma continued with a somewhat wild gesture to Kintiss, "can help you with the exact stuff for that. You might need a replacement in the future, which is way more in my realm than drugs."

Julia Rellek wrote:

Julia looked up to the tactical station where their newest officer, Ensign Terak, was working. "Welcome aboard Ensign and congratulations on your new assignment. If you don't mind, I'm going to have to put you to work immediately. Lieutenant Pardek, I need you and Ensign Terak to bring shields online. Experiment with frequencies in the upper EM bands. You should be able to find a frequency that better protects us form any harmful gases that may be present in the anomaly."

[Bridge - Tactical]

He nodded to Mira and smiled a bit, thinking he'd need all the luck he could get.

"Aye Commander", he said, looking toward Lt. Pardek's position. He wondered if there was any relation to Pardek on Romulus, Jaden had read a report from the Enterprise where Picard and Data had gone to Romulus to find Ambassador Spock. Perhaps a coincidence, he thought as the bridge turned more busy.

Kejal Buris wrote:

Buris couldn't help but agree with van Gelder. Having grown up in spitting distance of the Badlands, he knew darn well what a nebula could mean to a ship if they weren't careful. He looked down at his board and turned halfway to the command crew, nodding first to M'Rai. "Well, if we're looking at a Class 2 nebula, I suggest launching Type 2 probes. We can send out several probes and navigate on them. Plus, I'd take a guess that Engineering has a small multiphase shield generator sitting around that we could jerry-rig into a probe's casing along with the test equipment - so that Security can run their shield experiment safely, and in real conditions - rather than simulation."

[Bridge]

Julia shook her head as he spoke. "No Lieutenant. Given the nature of our mission I have no plans to take a stroll through that nebula. We will consider this a fall back position. In case we do need to enter it. I'm probably going overboard with the shield modifications. Its just a type 2 nebula, Lieutenant, no need for red alert."

Archangel T'Koris wrote:

"Situation report, Julia."

"Ah Captain." Julia smiled and stood up from her seat. "Lieutenant Pardek picked up a distress call in sector Beta five of a debris field. Ive ordered the ship to engage an intercept course at maximum impulse. Commander Arthur reports that the warp engines should be available within minutes. He's still trying to adjust the inertial dampeners. Lieutenant VanGelder detected a type 2 nebula close to our destination. Ive ordered continuous scans and shields moved into the upper EM bands to mitigate the risk of any harmful gases."

Julia Rellek wrote:

"Ah Captain." Julia smiled and stood up from her seat. "Lieutenant Pardek picked up a distress call in sector Beta five of a debris field. Ive ordered the ship to engage an intercept course at maximum impulse. Commander Arthur reports that the warp engines should be available within minutes. He's still trying to adjust the inertial dampeners. Lieutenant VanGelder detected a type 2 nebula close to our destination. Ive ordered continuous scans and shields moved into the upper EM bands to mitigate the risk of any harmful gases."

[Bridge]

"Acknowledged," Archangel replied to the report, staying on her feet despite Julia getting up from the centre seat. It had always been a little habit of hers to stay on her feet while there was something happening. It just felt wrong to be sat down in such situations.

She folded her arms, thinking over the report and pondering possible courses of actions. "That nebula's going to complicate our scans to determine what happened to that ship, so everyone keep their eyes open. If necessary, station someone by a window to make sure we don't get any surprises."

Sigma Nu wrote:

"I've had more implants go rouge on me than I wanna think about," Sigma said. "As you can see, I'm still here. I'm on a fun mixup of different antirejection medication, which is probably what you need. This awesome doctor here," Sigma continued with a somewhat wild gesture to Kintiss, "can help you with the exact stuff for that. You might need a replacement in the future, which is way more in my realm than drugs."

[Sickbay]

Kintiss couldn't help but feel a stab of sympathy for Telak. True, as a doctor, he needed to be detached from his patients, but Doctor Telak had been around when he was first settling into life on the Phoenix. She'd helped him out and been a friendly face, not that friendly faces had been lacking, and now that it looked like she was rejecting her implant, he wanted to help her out.

"Of courssse, you'd be put on a weaker dossse than what Petty Officer Nu takesss," he interjected. His experience with antirejection medication was painfully limited, but from what he understood, they worked like old immunosuppressant medicines. If Doctor Telak agreed to take them, they wouldn't be pleasant, but they'd do her a world of good when it came to her implant.

Sigma Nu wrote:

"I've had more implants go rouge on me than I wanna think about," Sigma said. "As you can see, I'm still here. I'm on a fun mixup of different antirejection medication, which is probably what you need. This awesome doctor here," Sigma continued with a somewhat wild gesture to Kintiss, "can help you with the exact stuff for that. You might need a replacement in the future, which is way more in my realm than drugs."

Kintiss wrote:

Kintiss couldn't help but feel a stab of sympathy for Telak. True, as a doctor, he needed to be detached from his patients, but Doctor Telak had been around when he was first settling into life on the Phoenix. She'd helped him out and been a friendly face, not that friendly faces had been lacking, and now that it looked like she was rejecting her implant, he wanted to help her out.

"Of courssse, you'd be put on a weaker dossse than what Petty Officer Nu takesss," he interjected. His experience with antirejection medication was painfully limited, but from what he understood, they worked like old immunosuppressant medicines. If Doctor Telak agreed to take them, they wouldn't be pleasant, but they'd do her a world of good when it came to her implant.

[Sickbay]

Hearing that Sigma struggled with rejection of their implants as well reassured Ilana a little. She wasn't alone in this problem, nor did it seem to be all that uncommon. The cocktail of drugs, although one she wasn't familiar with, she did remember seeing when she had glanced through the medical records of the new transfers.

Turning her attention to Kintiss, she nodded slightly, looking down at her hands. Kintiss was making an effort to reassure her it would seem, but she knew that a course of anti-rejection drugs was not going to be pleasant.

"I g-g-g-guess I d-d-don't h-h-have m-m-much of a ch-ch-choice if I w-w-want t-t-to k-k-k-keep s-s-speaking," she replied, offering the pair of them a slight smile. "I d-d-don't th-th-think underg-going another r-r-round of s-s-surgery t-t-to p-p-put in a n-n-new i-implant is a g-g-g-good idea r-r-right n-n-now, S-S-Sigma, b-b-but I'll k-k-keep it in m-m-mind, if y-y-you'll h-h-help m-m-me d-d-design one."

Ilana Telak wrote:

"I g-g-g-guess I d-d-don't h-h-have m-m-much of a ch-ch-choice if I w-w-want t-t-to k-k-k-keep s-s-speaking," she replied, offering the pair of them a slight smile.  "I d-d-don't th-th-think underg-going another r-r-round of s-s-surgery t-t-to p-p-put in a n-n-new i-implant is a g-g-g-good idea r-r-right n-n-now, S-S-Sigma, b-b-but I'll k-k-keep it in m-m-mind, if y-y-you'll h-h-help m-m-me d-d-design one."

[Sickbay]

She was taking it better than he had expected her to. Kintiss suspected that it might have been because she was putting on a brave face. While Sigma may have been excited about the possibility of designing a replacement implant, he couldn't find anything to get excited about.

"I'll draft up a pressscription and dossssage plan for you. It ssssshould be ready by tomorrow, probably." He'd have it ready sooner, but he already had a lot on his plate, what with physicals and sickbay maintenance, not to mention allowing time to deal with medical emergencies and his...other project. He felt as though he would have to work on his prioritising.

Kintiss wrote:

She was taking it better than he had expected her to. Kintiss suspected that it might have been because she was putting on a brave face. While Sigma may have been excited about the possibility of designing a replacement implant, he couldn't find anything to get excited about.

"I'll draft up a pressscription and dossssage plan for you. It ssssshould be ready by tomorrow, probably." He'd have it ready sooner, but he already had a lot on his plate, what with physicals and sickbay maintenance, not to mention allowing time to deal with medical emergencies and his...other project. He felt as though he would have to work on his prioritising.

[Sickbay]

Kintiss was right about her putting on a brave face in light of the news about her implant, but Ilana didn't see any other way of doing things. On the inside, she was starting to panic a little, afraid that the implant would reach the stage of rejection where it was no longer functional and she would once again be rendered mute once again. And how would Raynor react if he found out? Would she manage not to tell him?

Her train of thought was derailed as Kintiss spoke again and she offered him another slight smile. "Th-th-thank y-y-you, K-K-Kintiss. I j-j-just h-h-hope it w-w-works."