Crossing into the unknown

Posted on 12 Oct 2019 @ 7:20pm by Captain Jonathan Reynolds & Commander Amelia Fox & Lieutenant Mitchell Graham & Lieutenant Commander Aidan Datari & Lieutenant Commander True Keading & Lieutenant JG Lilura Karakalakss

Mission: Mission 2 - The Agora crossroads
Location: Bridge
Timeline: MD1 11:00
1565 words - 3.1 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Jon was feeling uneasy about this. It wasn't just the discussion with True earlier and having to admit he was concerned at her going. There was just something …. The Agora Crossroads. Thats what this place had translated as. His experience with crossroads was if you didn't pick the right path, you went south. There was even the ancient legend of the blues artist in Mississippi. Crossroads were in essence a source of unease. However they had to investigate and this was happening.

He reached Fox's quarters ready to walk down to the shuttle to see off the away team. He wasn't expecting his Xo to be in the costume she was when she opened the door. "Are you channelling rocky horror/biker chic number one?" he asked taking in her gothic appearance.

Amelia cast a final, critical eye over her outfit before turning and falling instep with Jon. “I thought something intimidating would be called for, besides black is slimming.”

They reached the shuttle bay, Jon had to admit that Karakalakss, Datari and Mitchell had done a good job on retrofitting their shuttle. He didn't recognise it as a Federation model at all.

"Everything's good to go?" he asked.

True hurried in just as she heard the Captain say those words. "Sorry I'm late." She'd chosen a simple suede style jacket with lots of pockets inside and out so that she could secure and hide things if need by. Plus it gave her the excuse to put her hands in the pockets, which she tended to do when she was nervous. She had simple black trousers on, light weight boots and her blonde hair was a simple plait down her back. "Fashion crisis," she joked.

Jon nodded at her his approval. He felt better she had accepted his knife.

Aidan nodded. His expression was a mixture of excitement and annoyance. He had spent the last ten minutes telling Sherlock how it was and that he was not to come down no matter what. He had impressed the importance of staying with Emme on the little dragon, assuring him that she needed protection, not him. Hadn't he proven already he could handle himself. "Protect Emme," he had said before leaving for the shuttle. Sherlock had hooted in response, clearly not happy about this development.

"Good to go," he told his CO as he studied the heavily modified shuttle.

"Interesting hat Lieutenant Datari," Jon commented turning to take in the young trill. He and Amelia's looks couldn't be further apart.

The Trill managed a small smile as he dipped his hat at the man. "Gotta hide the spot somehow sir," he offered, before putting it back onto his head. It matched well with his loose fitting black pants and equally black tunic. Almost made him look like a gangster.

Jon nodded and said nothing further though the thought he could have used makeup or surgically concealed them if he was that worried about his spots on this station ran through his mind. Perhaps the ensign just liked hats!

Amelia called out. “Right then, let’s get this show on the road. All aboard.”

Just then the main hatch opened and Lilura came out of the shuttle. She smiled to those getting ready to come onboard. "Hey, Y'all. You're ready to head out. I just finished tuning the power and engines signature output to match Civilian transports. It means less power, less speed, but that matches your vessel."

True turned to Jon she knew their relationship needed to be kept quiet so she gave him a simple smile and mouthed the words, 'I'll be fine' before walking into the shuttle.

Lilura gurgled in her style of laughing. She replied, "Tap in the Andromeda's comm badge prefix code into the power distribution system and the changes will retrovert and you will have full Starfleet power, engines, and defense. Remember, Civilian transports are only allowed anti-personnel weapons, not ship to ship, so right now, your phasers and hidden triple shot photon are off-line."

Jon watched True disappear, the knot in his stomach still present. He focused on what Lilura was telling them. Is it could revert back so quickly that was an impressive feat. "Lets hope they don't have very sophisticated scanning checks you have to go through to pick all that up even if they are disabled."

Lilura smiled and snorted in laughter. "They won't. In order to pick up the shifted weight elements for proper weighting in atmospheric environments, you would need a Tachyon scan with a Federation Scout sensor, which I would hope they don't have. If they do, hell, nothing will get past them. Now."

Lilura now held up specialty hull paint cans in fluorescent paints. "Now, what is the name of your privateer vessel, and I will create your ship symbol from that name."

Aidan just stared, tipping his hat slightly back. "I thought we had to be inconspicuous," he muttered, "how will bright paint achieve that?"

Jon chuckled at the two of them. "Well I agree with you lieutenant, perhaps tone it down with the paints but you are all going to need a cover story, who you are, where you are from and what do you do?”

"I'll leave that in your capable hands Number one," he told Fox.

Lilura shook her head. "You realize that the paints will only show up with Ultraviolet light. Thus, the craft would be indistinct until shown with UV rays. As I understand from attending Raves at the Academy, only Civies use UV to highlight markings to find out what the gang/raver/privateer is marking themselves as. So, the paints are low keyed until highlighted by UV, and then I would hope the crew would be proud of being privateers with their own PAID OFF Ship for best acceptance of runs. No bank over your shoulder means picking and choosing what you desire, with insurance being added according to what the run is. Or, am I misunderstood?"

"UV in a shuttle?" Aidan just shook his head. "How odd."

Lilura grinned. The time she spent in frontier worlds was about to pay off. "Not odd, for civies and privateers. Only for starfleet is it odd. Trust me, you want a muted paint of your chosen ship brotherhood with UV behind it for pride."

Mitchell's voice interrupted over the comm. "Bridge to Captain. Long-range sensors indicate an unknown vessel approaching at warp. Doesn't look like they see us yet. ETA approximately 1 hour."

"We better go then don't we," Aidan pressed, gesturing towards their mangled craft. "Ladies first?"

Amelia slipped a type one phaser into a jacket pocket from a weapons locker before coming back over to the shuttle. "We better get going before we attract any unwanted attention." Amelia stepped onto the shuttle.

The Trill science chief followed, leaning out to give True a hand up, should she want it. "So what are we posing as, should we encounter anyone? What are we?"

Amelia thought for a moment before explaining to the assembled officers. “We’ll pose as merchants. When we arrive I think we should split up into 2 teams. Me and you in The first team and Alex, Rose and Haulval in the second. Our comm badges have been encrypted so We won’t have any eavesdropping but keep any communications discreet. Tapp the badge twice to signal for everyone to rendezvous back at the shuttle. If you tap and hold the badge for 10 seconds it will trigger an emergency transport back to the shuttle. Use this as a last resort. If someone recognized a federation transporter beam, the gig is up.” Any questions? We’re looking for something called The Black Hole.”

Lilura stepped away from the Hull. She had used her tail to paint as her eyes followed the chosen symbol on her Padd, and it was an almost perfect match, but yet with swoops showing hand done and not computer, which lent credence to a merchant privateer ship.

"Noted Bridge," Jon responded. "Looks like we might have something to do while the away team are off. I'll be up as soon as the shuttles launched."

He turned back to the away team, had once last glance at True before saying "Report back in as soon as you can and take no unnecessary risks.

Amelia head popped out of the door neat to True’s. “We won’t”. She added before putting a hand on True’s shoulder and pulling her into the shuttle.

Amelia powered up the engines as the door shut and the shuttle lifted up off the deck.

Lilura nodded to Jon, "Anything else, sir, before I return to Engineering?"

"No thank you Lieutenant. Good job," Jon said as he watched the runabout disappear through the forcefield and make its way off the Andromeda.


OFF:

●● Lieutenant Amelia Fox
Executive Officer
USS Andromeda


●●● Commander Jonathan Reynolds
Commanding Officer
USS Andromeda


●● Lieutenant Aidan Datari
Chief Science Officer
USS Andromeda

●○ Lieutenant JG Lilura Siana Karakalakss
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Andromeda

●● Lieutenant True Keading
Chief Counselor
USS Andromeda


●● Lieutenant Mitchell Graham
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Andromeda