Springing Varinity

Posted on Tue Jun 16th, 2026 @ 9:16pm by Captain Gary Taylor & Lieutenant JG Varinity Atoro

Mission: Interlude
Location: Varinity's Quarters.
Timeline: After Caged Commodore
1574 words - 3.1 OF Standard Post Measure

After leaving Phoenix in Sickbay, Gary headed to Varinity's cabin. He was going to need her help in locating and recovering the missing crew. He noticed the security guard still on duty 'stationed at the door. "Go back to the security complex. I'll take responsibility." He said not unkindly. As the guard nodded and left, he pressed the door chime and awaited admittance.

The chat with Alicia had been helpful. Varinity was still a little worried about what her future might hold, but now it felt less catastrophic. She had finished and discarded her tea and was in the midst of reorganising her closet to give herself something to do, her jacket discarded on the edge of the bed. It wasn't like she had anywhere to be, but changing out of the hiking attire helped ease her guilt and nerves. Then, the door chimed. Curious as to who it could be, she brought the towel she was folding to the door and opened it. Her eyes slightly widened when she saw Gary, mostly out of surprise over having another visitor. "Captain," she greeted.

"Hello Varinity, may I come in?" Gary asked a wry smile on his face as he stood in the doorway but making no attempt to enter her quarters without being asked to do so.

It wasn't like she had anywhere else to be. She stepped aside to let him in, finishing her last folds on the towel before pressing it to her body and wrapping her arms around it. "Would you like anything?"

Gary looked around the cabin before his attention landed on Varinity again, "No, no thank you perhaps when this is all over with. I need your help and wanted to know if you are ready to get back to work?"

The response Varinity wanted to say was 'hell to the yes' because there was only so much she could do in her quarters. But as the memory of what happened in the transporter room came back, she hesitated. "I am, but what about the charges?"

Despite the situation, Gary let out a soft chuckle. "Forget about them. I'll get them dropped and dismissed.. Right now I need you and your experience in finding out missing crew."

Varinity felt bad that this was his mess to deal with, but she reminded herself that it could have been a lot worse. With a single nod, she quickly went to the bedroom to swap the folded towel for her uniform jacket. She pushed her arms into the sleeves as she came back to him. "If sensors can't find the crew, then there may be some type of interference field or shielding blocking their signatures."

"Exactly and you will shift your scans from finding crew combadges or biosigns to areas of high interreference to indicate a dampening field or some sort of cloak. modulating field." Gary replied.

"Aye, sir." She began to follow Gary, feeling a little like she was breaking rules by being out of her quarters even though she had Gary's blessing. "If it hasn't happened yet, I would also advise recalling the crew. Seventeen people is too many."

Gary gave her a sidelong glance, "Recall had already been sent and crew are returning and i agree seventeen people is too many. One is too many."

There was no disagreement there. Varinity finished zipping her jacket and was fixing the communicator into place. The confirmation of a crew recall eased some of her concerns, because it meant that no more people would be taken. "Have there been any new developments since the incident in the transporter room?"

"None so far as crew except what I mentioned earlier, they are being recalled. The Commodore is in Sickbay and resting comfortably." Gary answered without hesitation.

"That's good at least," Varinity nodded.

"Yes, it certainly is." Gary replied as they arrived at a turbo lift. "In." he ordered stepping in beside her, As the lift doors closed with a soft hiss he announced "Deck 34." And the lift jerked softly into motion. Moments late it cam to a stop. Stepping out he turned to her "Sensor array. You should have everything you need to help in your search of finding our people."

Finally, a console she could get to work at. Varinity took a seat and began typing. "Maybe Commander Reece's scans would be a good starting place," she thought aloud. She pulled up his search criteria and broadened the search just a little. "Ok, searching for interference patterns, dampening fields, and accounting for field modulation." While that was running, she pulled up the scans she did before Phoenix entered the security suite in case the last scan had picked up anything. Everyone was a little distracted by the commodore storming out to check on it.

As it turned out, it was far easier to scan for shielding than it was for biosigns. Before she could really read the results from the earlier scan, the computer indicated that it had several hits. Varinity pulled up a map of the planet and had the computer overlay the results. "There's shielding around the government buildings in Pomei, and some type of modulation in three other locations." One location marker was over Pomei, one was in the mountains, one was southeast of Jekasp, and one was in the ocean.

Gary nodded, "Alright, that's a start. The government buildings is to be expected but what of these other three locations? All isolated, nothing of interest around them. Do we have any background information on these locations? What are hosts say they are?"

"Standby." Varinity pulled up the guide Teevs had created for the crew, as well as some of the information that had been accumulated over the last few days. "Nothing of note for these two," she responded, pointing to the one in the mountains and the one in the ocean. "I think one is for supplies storage and the other may be like a shuttlebay. This one though..." She looked a couple times between the notes and the southeastern section of the map to be sure. "It's in the Toruna Municipality, the one Teevs said the government sectioned off. Infiltrators in the trees or something like that. The whole area is shielded."

Gary looked at the three sites in question. "I don't believe the ocean or mountain sites house our people but this one...." He pointed at the southeast location, "I think it's where are people are. it's fairly isolated from local traffic yet accessible by land or
air, note the landing strips close by. Easy to move people in and out." He looked at Varinity, "See if yo can get anymore detailed information on the site."

Varinity scratched an itch on her shoulder as Gary talked, nodding in response to his order. It certainly seemed the most plausible, since all the other infrastructure was there, however there were no obvious structures in the area. She thought for a moment, her hand just resting on her shoulder. "It's certainly suspicious. If there is a structure, it would have to be underground because Toruna is just a forested area." To prove her point, she enabled a visual of the planet and zoomed in on the area. Sure enough, it was jungle-like terrain. "Sensors are pitching a fit so anything is possible, but the area is way too big for this forest to be the result of some type of holo-projection."

Gary looked at the site in question. "Who is to say that they haven't built an entire holding center underground for political dissents or other political prisoners. What better way to hide problems from the public than out of view."

Varinity made a face. "Hm, treason would count as something political enough for such a place..." Then, an idea. It presented itself as a shift in body language. "I wonder..." Varinity typed on the console again, entering in new configurations. She then grabbed a tricorder and spun the chair around to face Gary. "Captain, where did you have that chip implanted? Back when we were dealing with the Thaih'ea. I'd like to scan it to get its frequency."

"My right forearm." Gary replied, rolling up his uniform sleeve so Varinity could scan the chip and get the information she needed to look for similar chips.

Varinity ran the tricorder along Gary's arm for a few seconds before nodding, her lips silently repeating the numbers. For good measure, she scanned her own implanted chip, finding that the frequency had a little variation but was within the same range. Turning back to the console, she entered in the range and searched. She had to tweak the configurations a little, but after about a minute, it happened.

A ping.
Two.
Five.
Twelve.

Varinity's eyes widened slightly, not expecting her idea to work with the shielding, but it quickly gave way to hopeful contentment. It was probably the first piece of good news since this all went to hell. "I... was not expecting that to work with all the shielding." On the screen, a bunch of dots appeared in the Toruna Municipality. Seventeen, to be exact. "Will have to continue adjusting the scans to get a more accurate location, but that's definitely them. All of them."

Gary leaned closer for a better look. "Good work Varinity, very good work. Fine tune the readings. make sure these are all seventeen of our people we're definitely picking up."