Kill Station
Posted on Mon Jan 27th, 2025 @ 6:20am by Commander Daynah Ral & Commander Rhupert Tyree & Lieutenant Amy Gordon
1,337 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
The Foragers
Location: Intelligence Office - Deck 3 - USS Valiant
Sitting in front of her console, Amy was reading the date that was streaming in. Bits and pieces from the areas around Empok Nor and other parts of the quadrant happening, then something caught her eyes which made them widen. It happened to be some suspicious movement. Tapping her combadge she sent out a call to Rhu and Daynah.
"Commander Tyree, and Commander Ral Please meet me in the Intelligence Office please, there is something you need to see." her voice filled with urgency. Walking over to the area, her heart beating rapidly.
Daynah had been on the Bridge reading the latest reports from the rest of the Task Force that Valiant was with. They swept the Badlands for reasons that most of the ships did not know. However, she knew that they looked for a Starfleet Officer who betrayed the uniform. She read the reports and began to create bullet points for the Captain all the while the disgust at this officer welled within her. The call from Lieutenant Gordon was quite refreshing. "I am on my way Lieutenant." She responded and turned over command of the Bridge to the officer of the watch.
Daynah arrived at the Intelligence suite and made her way in through the security checkpoints. When she entered she noticed that the Captain had yet to arrive. She held out a finger to Amy as if to say whatever you have should wait or the Captain. "Hey, Lieutenant wonderful day to come to the belly of the beast." She smiled.
Giving a grin towards Daynah, Amy nodded. "It is definitely a great day to be here. How have things been?" she spoke nonchalantly, it was a good way to keep things underwrap.
Rhu had been studying the insides of his eyelids, digesting his latest log entries and sorting through that mornings data packet.
And his lunch. He made a mental note to find another chef for Valiant as the replicated tuna on wheat had a decidedly bland taste. As his comm sounded, Rhu let one eye peel open. He acknowledged the summons and climbed to his feet.
Valiant was going places. Six months ago there hadn't been enough room to swing a cat, but now they had an intel office.
Well, it was more of a closet, but it was a step up.
Even more novelly, he was being summoned. Rubbing at his face he shrugged. Small ships were like that.
Getting to his feet, Rhu made the trip and peered through the open doorway. Stepping inside, the door slid shut behind him. Rhu crossed his arms and looked at Dayna and Amy. "What have we got?"
Pulling up the data upon the small briefing table, several grainy images came up. One of the images was that of some sort of ship a large one, having been caught by an observation station. "What do you make of this?" Amy's fingers working to clear the images up a bit more.
"Looks to me like a Galor Class heading into the Badlands. But what the hell is the CDF playing at sending a ship out this far. I mean last time I checked the USS Pioneer was assigned to augment Cardassian patrols out here." Daynah raised an eyebrow in the Vulcan manner. Within her Alaryc was not pleased with these developments. This seemed like the Cardassians falling into their old ways.
Amy felt icy fingers of shock running up and down her spine, raising goosebumps along her arms, unconsciously shivering. "That to me doesn't bode well. How, why..." she paused for a moment then asked the question. "What could possibly be there that would draw their attention enough to brave the Badlands." she looked over towards Daynah. "Commander Ral, please refresh my memory. Isn't there a turbulent energy there that plays havoc with ships?"
"The Badlands is a rather large anomaly of plasma storms and Chernekov Radiation. Part of it lays in Federation space and the other in Cardassian. It is impossible to navigate so there are no maps of the inside of the anomaly. However, everything in that area can and usually is hidden. All forms of sensors fail to penetrate the Badlands. They also fail to function once inside. Typically ships go around the anomaly rather than in it." Daynah replied as she pointed out various points on the scan. "I would hate to ask Skip. But is there something going on here that only you have been privy to." She addressed Rhu, this was damned perplexing but it is possible that the Captain was made aware of something and not everyone else.
Rhu eyed the vid and at his Intel officer's question, he shook his head in the negative. "Our remit was to shepherd four other FI ships to see if any organized pirate activity was going on. Which is odd because there would be very little near this sections of space for anyone to pirate." He ruminated a few beats, then said "I asked around of course. A few ships have gone missing over the past eighteen months or so. Nothing out of the ordinary given the plasma storms and nature of the ships lost. But there have been some other anomalies too. Like that," he gestured at the screen.
"Warp signatures where there really shouldn't have been any and a few ghost sightings. Four reports in total over the same time period that those three ships went missing. Over a narrowish area of space."
Running fingers through his hair, he said. "It's thin. Pretty anorexic, given the totality. But" he emphasized, "Someone up the chain must smell something or we wouldn't be out here."
"If there is anything in the anomaly there is no way of knowing unless we go in. I recommend we scan every inch of our side of the Badlands. If anyone asks we are doing routine scans for the Federation Science Council. In the meantime perhaps we get a request filed for a team to go into the Badlands and follow this trail. SFMC perhaps?" Daynah's eyes were on the scans as she spoke. On the one hand she wanted to go in herself and see what was there on the other this was a job for a small team to get in and out in a hurry.
"Scrub this area of space, focusing on identifying specific readouts of ships. Each ship's drive can be a fingerprint and if FI can figure out the ships, they might be able to track the who and then the what. If it was me, I'd seed passive sensor's throughout the area as a start. Regardless of what Intel decides, we've got something to work on. Good work Lieutenant."
This was giving Amy a lot of food for thought, she glanced towards Rhu, "You are welcome Sir. " giving a nod. She also looked towards Daynah, "thank you for the information as well." With Daynah also being the Chief of Science, Amy knew that Daynah would have the information needed.
Daynah smiled softly. "If you need anything Lieutenant Gordon let me know. The Badlands are a fascinating but confusing place." She then turned to the Captain. "Sir, with your permission I am going to pass along what we have thus far up the chain. If this is Quaid they are going to have to get a mission together sooner rather than later so he doesn't disappear again."
Rhu nodded. "Go ahead Number One. We're working with Fleet Intel on this one and we want them to feel included. Include our findings in the log. We'll continue our operation as planned until we hear different."
Daynah nodded her acknowledgement of the Captain and turned to leave. She knew just who to call. It was time to make a call to an old friend from her days on Empok Nor.
A Joint Post By
Commander Daynah Ral
Executive Officer
USS Valiant
Lieutenant Amy Gordon
Chief Intelligence
USS Valiant
Commander Rupert Tyree
Master and Commander
USS Valiant
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