Séance

Posted on Fri Oct 29th, 2021 @ 7:51am by Lieutenant Commander Aurelia Taylor & Captain Garrett Lovejoy [ Taylor] & Captain Gary Taylor & Commander Sthilg & Lieutenant Colonel Azhul Naxea & Lieutenant Commander Alicia Kelea-Salik & Lieutenant Baeryn Whavi-Tonelly & Lieutenant Victor Barclay de Tolly & Lieutenant JG Miraj Derani
Edited on on Fri Oct 29th, 2021 @ 8:50am

Mission: Season 5: Episode 3: CAPETOWN
Location: Briefing room.
2679 words - 5.4 OF Standard Post Measure

Sthilg felt so odd that he was giving this briefing being the sole survivors from the barren world he'd called home. Letting out a yawn he placed the last of the info he'd managed to find. This mission was going to be a tricky business. The whole crew knew they were heading to gorn space. The fact the gorn dreadnaught Moonshadow was clearly visible of the ships starboard warp stream so they all knew they'd be heading to gorn space.

Now he had to explain why.

Alicia arrived at the briefing room, her father had given her medical clearance for light duties, and as such she walked into the briefing offering a gentle smile as she greeted her father. “Hi dad” She motioned to the replicator. “Can I get you anything?”

" Sssome coffee and a breakfast platter." The gorn said as he stood up and walked over to help her.

“Looks like you had a long night, or a way early morning” Alicia smiled as she walked over to the replicator and ordered up the coffee and breakfast platter. The size plate that emerged was a considerable size, not surprising given that Sthilg was a large individual. “One coffee and platter for you.”

" Long evening. Trying to get information from my government is worse than giving a dental checkup to a ferengi. " The gorn said as he picked up the platter before placing it on the desk. Thinking he headed back and replicated a platter for the rest of the staff which he placed in the center of the desk.

Just the smell of her father’s food was making Alicia’s stomach rumble, replicating herself a breakfast tray she returned to the table. Placing it down she took her seat. “I’m guessing this has to do with what you told Savar and myself?”

The gorn nodded gesturing to the view window where the gorn dreadnaught was clearly visible. The massive ship was flying close to the Elysium to tap into it's warp trail to increase it's own speed. " Not exactly a sssecret we're headed into gorn ssspace. " He said looking over to the old vessel.

“That’s true” Alicia grinned before tucking politely into her food. “Mmmm delicious! So what are the other Gorn going to make of my being your daughter?”

" They might find it ssslightly odd, but not very bothered. Gorn have adopted aliensss before." replied the old doctor as he took a bite feeling the warm bacon go down smoothly.

Alicia nodded continuing her food, the others would be arriving soon and she wanted to be finished before the briefing started. She paused eating to sip her fruit juice offering a smile as the door opened.

Naxea entered the room, stopping to grin at Sthilg. "Hello doctor," she then looked at Alicia and nodded. "Counselor."

" Hello, colonel. Hope the Marinesss have taken the newsss of waking up to ssseeing one of my people'sss dreadnoughtsss out the window well. Please help yourssself. " He said gesturing to the breakfast on the desk.

"Thank you. It smells great. It has certainly gotten the rumor mill up and running in Marine Country," she commented before moving to grab a bite to eat.

“I can imagine” Alicia offered a warm smile as she looked at Naxea.

Lia had watched the large Varanus class vessel approach the Elysium on sensors, she had gone to briefing room to actually see it little knowing what awaited them. Lia entered and made her way to her seat, "Hello everyone, care to explain what our friend over there wants of us?"

" All will be reviled in time my friend. Help yourself to sssome food. " the gorn said with a warm smile.

Victor came in as he had mixed feelings. He felt the absence of the Captain he hardly knew and he felt happy as he was engaged to Tonya now as he wanted to tell everyone but he had not found the opportune time to bring up his great news. He gave a kind nod to the Gorn and a few others.

Baeryn entered and glanced around the room at its occupants before casting them a smile. "Hello everyone. Hope your all well." She did her best to hide the uneasiness she felt with the appearance of the dreadnought.

Alicia smiled warmly as she looked towards Baeryn “Hello Baeryn. Please take a seat and tuck in to some breakfast, if you’d like some.”

Garrett and Gary entered next. They had been in deep conversation as the doors parted and they entered. "Hello everyone, thank you for coming." Garrett told the assembled officers.

Gary had moved to Lia's side, "You get any breakfast?" He asked.

"No not yet, to be honest I'm not that hungry but you go ahead of you want". She looked out of the windows, "That ship out there scares the collywobbles out of me, and not knowing why its here is maddening in the extreme",


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"As we are heading into Gorn space, I am going to turn this briefing over to Dr. Sthilg as he has first hand knowledge on this situation."

" Thank you. " Sthilg said standing up from his seat. " Asss you all know by now we are heading into gorn space under the Moonssshadowsss escort. The Gorn heganomy has requesssted our assssssissstance with a very unusssual problem."

His reptilian claws tapped a few buttons and a crackling message came up on the coms. Though it was nothing more than static from the rise and pitch it was clear something existed in the pattern. " One week ago thisss sssignal began appearing on gorn civillian fassster than light communications. Three daysss ago it began brodcasssting on the millitary and govermental channelsss. We have been asssked to help ssshut it down essspecilly asss it'sss one of oursss."

With another press from his finger a cleared up version of the signal began to play. " I say again mayday. This is fedration starship USS Capetown to all vessles in the The Haax system. mayday mayday. " the voice of a human clearly terrfied human came from the speakers.

“This is most intriguing,” Victor answers with concern in his voice.

"You have a talent for understatement Mr. de Tolly." Gary observed dryly.

“Indeed” Alicia nodded. “Especially as my father...” she nodded to Sthilg. “Was telling me that the crew of the Capetown were rescued when the ship originally crashed.”

The gorn nodded. " I was there when the ssship crashed into my home planet. I was the one who buried Captain Damien in a sssmall grave on one of the mountains. How the distressssss beacon has come back on line or why it'sss ssstarted broadcasssting on all channelsss will be our job. Though due to viriusss outbreak that happned after the Capetown'sss crasssh we will need to be opprating in maxium protective gear."

"What if we send a reply to the distress signal? See if it is acknowledged? Gary proposed. Might give us a little more to go on."

" The gorn have tried that and received nothing. They believe it'sss auto playing. " the lizard added.

"Wait! Call me stupid, but if everyone thinks this is an automated message. Why does it require us to go check it out?" Lia pointed to the ship shadowing them, "Can't that Gorn ship just scan the wreck?" She knew that Star Fleet had rules about shipwrecks, but this just didn't sound right to her.

" My homeworld is under a five hundred year quarantine by my people and their knowledge of older federation tech isssn't exactly the highlightsss. " The doctor explained.


The distress call was more concerning than anything else to Naxea. It most likely meant that someone was in trouble or it was an ambush. For what reason, she had no idea but she did know one thing--she didn't like it one bit. "How secure is the location of the crash site of the Capetown?"

"And did they recover the flight recorder?" Miraj asked. She'd been raised on a salvage vessel, and knew a few of the tricks emergency beacons could cause in a crash. "I mean, based on their flight path, and the time to crash, its possible that those transmissions were sent in normal space, which means that the signals have only just reached your receivers. Just an echo dues to relativity, since Space Is Big."

" The remains of the Capetown are twenty miles up a mountain range my people use to crasssh ssstarssship'sss into to break them up. It'sss remainsss ssshould ssstill be there. The head of the rescue party and his work gang sssstayed behined to ssstrip the ssship'sss warp core. They did remove the black box which is currently in ssstarfleet'sss custody. There currently pulling the info for usss." The gorn said as his hands danced as he brought up a projection of an old map.




" I'm sssorry for the quality of thisss. Thisss isss the only one my people have of the planet." Sthilg apologized.

“I take it we’re not expecting any humanoid life on the planet? With the exception of any indigenous animal life?” Alicia looked at her father. “Nothing that I would pick up on?”

" None. The planet is under quarantine by the hegemony. The lassst landing was over one hundred yearsss ago." the lizard explained.

“How long until we’re close to the planet?” Alicia said as she looked at the map Sthilg had on the screen.

"Its five point six light years and change" Miraj said automatically, not even having to think about it, "So, anything from 5 and a half years to just over a second, depending on how fast our shadow lets us go. THough if we did use the QSD, a) they couldn't catch us, and b) This close, there's a possibility of arriving before we leave." She leaned forward, examining the map. "If there's no-one on the planet, why are there all those settlements on it?"

Alicia looked at those gathered. “Once we’re close enough I should be able to sense if there’s any life down there”


"This just doesn't feel right." Gary spoke to the others. "I can't put my finger on it but something isn't adding up."

Garrett sat and listened to the others as they talked over the problem and got into the details of the mission. He was new to the group and didn't want to upset the natural closeness the group had. So he listened and took everything in.

"I know commander. I sssugest we land two teamsss. One to hike up to the remainsss of the Capetown from MS 1331 and one to land in FS 10001 and ssset up a bassse camp in cassse we have any encountersss with the virusss that nearly wiped out the colony. Believe me you do not want to have this thing lossse on the ssship." the doctor stated.

"I suggest the teams use the Marines' EVA Suit as it's more durable in hostile environments and combat than the standard EVA suit used by the Fleet," Naxea suggested.

" I was thinking the sssame thing Colonel. We will need to have them equipped for climbing for the hike to the Capetown. " The gorn replied. " Captain may i convert one of the cargo baysss into a heavy decontamination center." The gorn asked.

Lia now raised her hand, "Exocomps, couldn't we just drop a couple of Exocomps out of a shuttle and let them check out the site?"

" Asss much asss Sssnow would be willing to help the mountain range is rich in Magnessite altha. It would scamble his flight module and the ssshuttlesss asss well. We can land sssafley at my home village as we mined that area clear. " The gorn explained.

"I can get a shuttle to the wreck." Miraj stated. "I don't need sensors." She frowned, or tried to, her flared orbital arches didn't have the full range or movement full humans did. "Sorry, how long did you say that wreck had been there?

" Nearly two hundred years. It may have moved sssince i was last there. I'm afraid this is the only image of the crassshsssite i could find." Sthilg replied as hr brought up a very old holo image. A very young gorn who was obviously the doctor standing before them had an arm around his shoulder. Said arm belonging to an even big more fearsome-looking gorn who bore an uncanny resemblance.

Behind them lay the wreck of the Capetown the vessel clearly having half-buried itself into a mountain side lying at an almost 45% degree angle. One of her nacelle had broken off and a massive scar down her right side had been seared away. Behind them, gorn in mountaineering gear were carefully helping a very badly wounded Starfleet crew down onto the small nearly flat area on the mountainside. The 2250 uniform being unmistakable.

Alicia smiled as the image on screen. “I take it that is your father in the picture with you?” She looked at Sthilg. “I wish I could accompany you to the surface, I’d like to see your home village, but I’m not up to climbing. Unless you need anyone to man base camp?”

" It isss. Dimar former major in the hegemony army and hardest ship breaker my ssspecies ever produced." The gorn said a small tear forming in his right eye. " He died five daysss later asss i held hisss hand. It wasss all i could do."

Alicia nodded. “I’m so sorry!”

" It'sss okay my dear." The gorn said wiping his tear away with his sleeve. " I had to bury my whole family there and i've been away far too long. I'd prefer if your not there lieutenant you are ssstill recovering from major sssurgeory."

Alicia nodded. “Fair enough” she gave her father a smile. “I wouldn’t want you worrying about me. You have enough to concentrate on down there, I’ll monitor you from the bridge.”

The gorn nodded in reply. Looking to the rest of the crew he asked " Any questionsss?"

Miraj was squinting at the image, calclating. "Why did they crash? Except thats not really a crash, look at the angle they hit the ground. If they'd had thrusters, any competent pilot would have got the nose up to protect the saucer section. And if they don't have thrusters. Well, theres no evidence of carbon scoring for freefall, and anyway, the speed times mass times uncontrolled spin would have smashed that ship apart as she bounced over those peaks there, and scatter her across twenty kilometers. " Miraj cocked her head, trying to see what was niggling her instincts. "Its like they drove headfirst into that mountain on purpose." She said to herself, puzzled. "I need that blackbox."

" You'll get it my friend don't you worry. From what i can remember from what Peleia told me the ship was in warp when something happened. Ssshe was down in sssickbay and remembered being thrown from her bed by a massive jolt. The bridge ssstarted ssscreaming that the controlsss wasn't responding and that the ssship was accelerating. The lassst thing ssshe heard from it was that the pilot was using the docking thrusters to try and put them down on my homelandsss oceansss." the gorn said calmly as he picked up his medical almanac from his pocket and flicked through to one of the pages. A frown spread over his face as he tapped something. " Ssshe wrote down a note here sssays that there was a faint purple light glowing around the ssship. "

"I still think there has to be another way", Lia glanced at the grainy image. "I hate to be a wet blanket on this, but this isn't sitting right with me".

" I underssstand Lia, but sssomeonesss going to have to go down and ssswitch it off. " the gorn replied.

Standing up, Lia moved round to where Sthilg was. "Then I guess I'll be going on a trip, but I'm not happy about it".

The gorn gave a polite nod before he looked to the rest of the table. " Any questionsss?"