Lt. Commander T’Korva from house of Ba’lethe - Orders & Command Structure…
Toxin Arlill
1stLt Samuel Woolheater - Ride the Wave
(( Beyond the Gates, Approx. 30 kilometers beyond the Garasi District, Argratha Capital City, Argrathi V ))
They’d made it to just beyond the site where they’d been sent to track down a odd transporter signal and Woolheater was performing a security sweep. They now walked along the same, their conveyance left behind in lieu of a more discrete approach.
Lahl: Well, this is certainly something.
Ke was nervous, she’d certainly lived the “safe” life, in fact this is the furthest she’d really ventured beyond any major metropolitan area — her parent’s always felt the cities were safer. She even went to engineering school a few blocks from where she’d gotten her primary & secondary education — this was exhilarating.
T’Korva: (quietly) Anything lieutenant?
Woolheater: (softly) Something’s not right. ::beat:: These power signatures are enough to drive industrial cargo transporters… but I don’t see any pads.
The sounds of a transporter ahead sparked her curiosity.
Lahl: Do you hear that though? Something sounds like a transporter beam of some kind. No?
Ke: These sites should be inactive.
T’Korva: Then what is being beamed in?
Woolheater: Energy patterns could be faked. Staged you know? Just set up an emitter. If this is buried, we’ll only confirm it by getting closer. It’s possible that they buried their operation inside the ground to avoid satellite imagery.
Lahl: That’s probably the most likely explanation, I think.
Ke: Why set up something so elaborate way out here?
T’Korva: Likely to confuse anyone searching for the real destination.
Lahl: So…Ke, do you know anything about this area?
Ke: Our people often put our stronger listening post technologies further from urbanized areas to avoid interference and the potential for exposure to harmful radiation, but this technology should be offline, for years now. We’re using newer smaller sites for technology like this.
Woolheater: Lifesigns. No lifesigns. Could be cloaked body armor. But out here in the heat and the dust and the dirt? Nah. We’d see some distortion or heat waves.
T’Korva: We need options.
Lahl: So…what’s our plan when we get there? We should probably have a plan, no?
Woolheater: ::consulting the tricorder:: There’s just one entrance here. That…narrows down…the options some.
This stood out as very odd to Ke, their safety regulations agency required multiple egresses in every design, but if there was only one on this building, then she couldn’t help but wonder why.
Ke: That’s odd, our regulations require multiple entrances ::beat:: is it possible they’ve closed off the others?
This was a bit unsettling to T’Korva — she’d been in enough battles to recognize a potential threat, or trap…
T’Korva: We need to proceed with extreme caution.
Lahl: At the very least, we should have the concepts of a plan.
Woolheater: Copy that.
(( Decommissioned Subspace Navigational Array #DDV261 ))
They’d arrived at the entrance to the listening post, and T’Korva presumed it had to be some equivalent of a navigational array of sorts.
The entrance opened with ease as Woolheater took the lead. T’Korva drew her own weapon and set it to stun — she had no intention of being found guilty of some crime and having those awful memories implanted in her mind. She was impressed by how aware and steady Woolheater was as he swept the immediate space within the entrance.
Woolheater: Clear!
oO For now at least Oo
The space was almost bare, empty, it surprised Ke, of the smugglers had been using this facility, wouldn’t there be more evidence?
Ke: It’s ::beat:: untouched ::looking around::.
She was right, T’Korva surveyed the room and it seemed like it was a time capsule, untouched for some time.
T’Korva: Something is not right, why would they beam anything to this location?
Lahl: Response?
The place wasn’t just empty. It had been left. That is…everything except a much newer looking six-person cargo combo transporter pad.
The team finally came across a new piece of equipment, a large carbo transporter pad capable of personnel transport. Ke was surprised to find it here, not exactly standard issue for navigational stations, at least not those she’d studied.
Woolheater: Whatever was here, we missed it.
T’Korva: Did they know we were coming then?
Ke moved around the room, using her scanner to review some of the older and newer technologies to hopefully gather clues.
Lahl: Response?
T’Korva spun around, her weapon coming to level, her gaze fixed on the transporter pad now cycling a incoming transport. The room’s hue changed, a blue hue cast as an item appeared on the transporter pad… an envelope.
The device activated showing a Starfleet lieutenant, whom T’Korva struggled to recall, being attacked by a Argrathi citizen in a medical ward. Her blood boiled with rage watching a crew member being attacked.
Ke: That’s the Central Clinic, I recognize the patterns on the walls, I’ve been there bfore.
T’Korva: There are a couple teams currently deployed there.
Lahl: Response?
Woolheater took the letter and opened it. Over his shoulder T’Korva could see only the words “I SEE YOU” — even for a Klingon, this cause an uneasiness.
Woolheater: Damn. This isn’t a distro site. It’s a tripwire. To get whoever was getting too close to reveal ourselves. ::a beat.:: It’s bait. And we walked right into it.
Woolheater: No personnel. No staging. No handling infrastructure.
The pad began to cycle again and what appeared to be some type emitter appeared. Ke took a big step backwards.
Lahl: Response?
Woolheater: They built this to be found… but not to be used. ::His gaze returned to the transporter. Then, quieter:: But they didn’t break the line.
Lahl: Response?
Woolheater: If that pattern’s stable, it could still be connected to the source. To them…whoever’s doing this. :: A small beat…measured. He cocked his head:: We could try to ride it back to its origin.
Ke: I can’t fight, I’ve never, I mean I will, but, I…
T’Korva: ::cutting off the engineer while turning to Woolheater:: While that sounds like we would come upon a worthy battle, we need to anticipate that they’d already considered that. There are only four of us, and only two of us ::looking at Lahl with curiosity:: experienced in battle.
There was a part of T’Korva that was really considering Woolheater’s suggestion, it would break open this case and potentially prevent any more of her officers from being attacked. But she was a “good Starfleet officer” and wouldn’t put her team in a dangerous situation where the odds were very likely stacked against them.
T’Korva: No, we report in and stand by for further orders. ::beat:: Send a message to Lieutenant Commander Nilsen.
She didn’t treasure the idea of reaching out to her superior officer, she was still trying to get a handle on the man, but with OEB away, he was technically the commanding mission officer for the time being.
Lahl: Response?
[[ End Act 1 for T’Korva ]]
Lieutenant Commander T'Korva
Fleet Relief Officer
Currently Assigned to USS Octavia E, Butler NCC-82850
Writer ID.: O239910TA4