The Crashed Meeting
Posted on Fri Apr 3rd, 2020 @ 11:11am by Captain Luka Mahone & Lieutenant Theodore Winslow & Lieutenant JG Lillian James & Oliver Stone
1,508 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Canary
Location: Captain's Office, Command Center
Timeline: MD 08 : 1028 Hrs
Luka decided upon the change of pace for his weekly session with Oliver. Neither seemed to much care for the humdrum of 'updates' about the colony, a requirement that Starfleet insisted upon out of both men. Their sessions had devolved into Luka coming with some form of food for breakfast, and they spent their time pontificating one thing or another. This time around, it was dogs.
"Now that we've gotten our... important subjects out of the way," Luka began, before beckoning his fluff of a pup over. Lugh was happy to oblige, content to sit in his corner with the chew toy he was given until summoned. Slobbery, vibrantly colored toy in his mouth, the malamute pup trotted over, setting the toy down before looking to Luka with oblivious happiness. "What are the chances we could make room for a dog breeder on the colony? With all the snow, malamutes and mush dogs could easily be put to work..."
"Oh I'm sure we can carve out a space for one." Oliver replied in his typically droll Southern accent. He too loved dogs and if he had the time for one he'd have one. It would be a beast of one too, not these small dogs that people seemed to love. To him it was go big or go home. "Everyone loves dogs, right?" he asked as he took a drink of his coffee.
Luka almost replied with an affirmative before his eyes narrowed. "Well, you know, except for certain Caitians. We've had a few incidents on one of the bases I was on where the Captain's dog nearly started an all out war with a Caitian delegation when he decided to chase the son of the head ambassador around one of the maintenance decks. That was... eventful."
Lillian walked through the compound on her way to the Captian's office. The information that she had cannot wait, while she wasn't certain of all of it, it was important enough that she do this in person. This all started out as small but it seems to be getting bigger and bigger by the minute. Lillian really hoped that she would be able to clear Lt. Winslow, but she was having a hard time staying objective. it would be one more thing to talk to the Captain about. She opened the door to the office complex and walked to the Captain's outer office, taking off her coat and gloves along the way. When she reached her destination, she set her things down on a chair for visitors, and spoke to the secretary, "I need to speak to the Captain right away. Is he in there? And is he alone?" Shuffling the PADDS in her hands while she waited.
Davna's eyes snapped from the console screen as soon as the door opened up to reveal Lillian and another of the scientists. The sight of the young security officer concerned her, especially with the alarm in her voice. "... He's in a meeting right now with the Civilian Director... should I... should I tell him you're here?"
"Yes, this information cannot wait. Tell him that it's about the crash. That way it gives him a chance to get rid of the Civilian Director if he needs to." Lillian said, not wanting to alarm the woman but not bring able to help it. The information alarmed Lillian and she couldn't keep it out of her voice.
"Ah." With that, Davna reached for her PaDD, silently typing for a few moments, before looking up at the two women. "The crash? Are we speaking of the shuttle that's being examined?"
Viana said nothing but she was practically bouncing next to the other woman. "Yes! Now can we go in?" The Ensign asked impatiently.
Lillian nodded yes to Davna, then she quietly said to Viana, "You need to calm down, I understand that you're excited, but we need to tell the Captain the facts, with as little excitement as possible."
"I'm not excited. I'm impatient Sir." The Science Officer said back. "I'm a scientist and can tell facts with my eyes closed." She reminded with a glanced at Davna waiting for an answer.
"Well, I'm a yeoman and things take time." Davna stated calmly. "You two can go in now, but you'll have to deal with the Director."
"Can deal with him easily," Viana assured as she pressed on through into the room with the Commanding Officer and Civilian Director were sat. "Sorry, Sir... Director but we have some news that cannot wait."
Luka looked over in concern. Whenever someone came bursting into his office these days, there was a good chance that something had exploded. Or the Intelligence team had finally arrived.
He recognized Viana as part of the science crew, and his eyes focused back to front. The sight of Lillian made matters worse. They had found something. He didn't move from his seated position. Not yet. "Is everything alright?"
"The shuttle Sir. We have found some information from it." Viana tried to explain but noticed the look he gave the pair.
"Oh." Luka's gaze flickered between the scientists, then to Oliver. He was unsure how the Civilian Director would feel about hearing about this discovery, but it caused enough of a stir that Luka felt he needed to at least hear them out. "... Let's hear it then."
"Well the shuttle we might have got some navigation information but the exciting part sir is there are messages in the computer still. There is data there that we can fix and work out what is going on. That is exciting right?" The scientist was caught up in what she wanted to say that she was there in front of the Captain having had to wait so long and been told off for her bubbling excitement.
Luka's eyes narrowed as he sat upright. This got his attention for sure. There wasn't even a mental debate over whether he should have 'allowed' the Civilian Director to appear on scene. No, Oliver should have right to be there. "Well, let's hear it."
As soon as Viana pressed play, the screen lit up, and the face of a blonde haired woman appeared. Static interrupted the view intermittently, but what was clear was the pilot's uniform and how clean-kept she appeared. "This is... Holmes..."
Luka leaned forward as the woman began to speak, already frustrated with how hard it seemed to be to hear the message through the static. "Is this before or after clean up on your part?"
"This is after we have clean it up a bit. I can attempt more but i thought you should see this at quick at possible." The Science Officer explained.
The message didn't stop, playing onward. "If you're hearing this," a large, static pause followed before "And likely the remains of the Colony."
"... power outages since - " the log cut out and the screen went blank for a prolonged moment, before the log sprang to life once more. "-arrival of the Activists, and it is my-"
The image on screen flickered, before giving out one final time. Luka stared at the message that read 'transmission lost' in bright blue, blinking. "And that's everything?"
"Pretty much," Viana explained quickly. She couldn't give any more information than what had been shown so she offered a quick shrug.
Luka folded his arms against his chest, frowning deeply. "... This won't do. How many others have seen this?"
"As far as I know sir, just the four of us, although there were a bunch of people crawling all over the shuttle, all of which were not wanting to share information," Lillian replied.
"Good." The Captain fell silent. They would have to work quickly. "Keep it that way, best you can. Until we can discover more information, I don't want any sort of news breaking out that whatever happened however many years ago was bad. Not until we have all the details." His eyes flickered to Oliver. "... All four of us need to keep it within those circles for now."
Luka rose, his previous meeting's subject already lost to this much more important matter. He spoke to both officers standing before him. He seemed solemn, but his orders were with an authority he had not given in quite some time. "I need you to lock down the whole shuttle. Miss James, the only people allowed access will be the two of us - apologies Ensign, but until we sort this out, we will have to leave you out of this." His eyes closed, deep in thought. "... I cannot stress enough how much this cannot get out until we determine what's wrong and exactly what the log is talking about."
His eyes opened, and he gave the two woman a stern look. "Understood?"
"Yes sir," Viana said without hesitation. There was nothing she could add to it so it was easier to just agree.
"Yes sir, understood sir." Lillian replied.
"Good." Luka fell silent for a moment, before giving a heavy sigh. "Dismissed."
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