Commodore Kalianna Nicholotti - And They All Fell Down

[Marissa Jeffrey]

((Bridge, USS Excalibur - A))

With the second officer taking a look at the probe and whatever secrets it might hold, Kali found herself staring at the screen. There was nothing out there but darkness and stars, but she wanted to will the Daisy into existence. 

Nicholotti: What's out there? Where is the ship this came from? What are we not seeing?

Bean: If I can share some good news. I’m not seeing anything that looks like debris in the vicinity of the beacon. Whatever ship launched it, they left the area intact. ::beat, realizing:: Boom. I’ll try to reconstruct a warp trail.

That was a great place to start. It was almost as if there were now some kind of breadcrumbs being left for them to follow. The thing was, would following them get them to the end result that they wanted?

Daniels: No debris is a good thing. ::He stared at the sector map on the Nav console.:: Can you see where they went, Kirky?

As they responded, another voice broke through.

Jovenan: =/\= E- Ensign Jovenan to the bridge =/\=

Kali placed the voice and the face from the briefing not long ago.

Nicholotti: =/\= Go ahead, Ensign. What do you have?=/\=

Kali refocused on the speaker and what she was about to say.

Jovenan: =/\= Commodore, Lieutenant Seta, Ensign Jones and I have been analysing the material we have, the course and specifications of the Daisy, the equipment the missing officers had and other things. We believe the K-7 to be the likeliest destination, but there’s strong indication of contact to an outside party. They are more likely to be meeting with somebody there or rendezvousing with another vessel. With their travel time, they might not be there anymore. =/\=

That was both disheartening and promising. They had something of a target now, but the idea that they were so far behind that they probably missed them tempered her hope. She considered things for a moment before responding.

Nicholotti: =/\= Motivations? =/\=

Jovenan: =/\= We have hypothesised of relation to the previous mission, but without evidence it’s difficult to tell who’s to other party. Uh… We found something else, too. Commander MacKenzie and Lieutenant Dakora met not long before their departure in a pub on DS229. On security footage, we can see them reading what seems like a transmission the Commander had received, probably just before their meeting. It seems that it was that transmission that triggered them to leave the ship. We have passed our data to Lieutenant Daniels and his team if they can find out more about the transmission. We can't do much about that on our own. =/\=

It must have been a hell of a message to get her first officer to leave safety and not tell anyone where they were going.

Nicholotti: =/\= Well, you've done great getting us this far, Ensign. Thank you. =/\=

But that wasn't enough for the young officer. It was clear that sitting around and waiting was not what any of them wanted to do. Even Kali hated the prospect, even though that's exactly what she was being forced to do. Breadcrumbs didn't lead to many high speed chases, after all.

Jovenan: =/\= Ensign Jones is preparing the sickbay. Do you have orders for Lieutenant Seta or me… or the rest of the science department, sir? =/\=

Nicholotti: =/\= Detailed analysis of the surrounding space. I want to know everything about everything. =/\=

That was a start. As the line closed, she almost added that they should prepare for a possible away mission, but without anything definitive, she thought better of it.

Bean: I’m not seeing any warp trails. The ship must have transited this space too long ago, or the beacon was launched and arrived here under its own propulsion system. Sorry, captain.

She sighed.

Nicholotti: I feel like we're being played.

Her friend and newest officer frowned at her slightly.

Daniels: Hopefully they'll be able to pull some useful intel off of that beacon.

Hopefully. That was a stretch. 

Bean: It sounds like all roads point to K-7, though. Lieutenant Dakora went on a mission there not too long ago. ::beat:: Taddison’s disappearance could be a follow up. Maybe they went to collect the Flarn’pan tracker Kijana told us about?

That just didn't sound like something the her first officer and the intel chief would run off and do, but K7 did seem like the only real lead they had.

Nicholotti: Who knows why, but it seems like there's a lot of things that converge on the station.

Daniels: It does seem to be the general consensus.

And the helmsman spoke up before Kali could even ask.

Bean: If Lieutenant Yellir approves us to fire up the QSD, we could be in the vicinity of K-7 in a matter of minutes.

Nicholotti: Good. But is that it? Is there nothing else to consider?

Silence settled on the bridge for a long moment as Kali and the others stared at the viewscreen and the map that sat on one side of it. There was something out there, they just had to figure out what it was.

Daniels: Mister Bean, humor me and check the scans you ran on the probe for traces of theta-xenon and sirillium. I've got a hunch that I'd like to vet out.

Bean: Response

Nicholotti: What are you thinking?

She glanced at him and he pointed to a place on the map.

Daniels: Like I said, at this point it's just a hunch. But, if I was going to vanish without a trace, the Azure Nebula seems like a pretty good spot.

Bean: Response

Kali raised an eyebrow. Colt scratched his beard. There had been a number of incidents involving that nebula that had gotten her into trouble in the past. Everything from dragons to waystations...

Daniels: It would also negate some of our size and power advantages, as some of Excalibur's advanced scanning and targeting systems won't work with the natural interference.

Bean: Response

Nicholotti: Which means if we are being played, then we need to be careful.

Kali frowned slightly. 

Daniels/Bean: Responses?

She tapped her badge again.

Nicholotti: =/\= Bridge to Ensign Jovenan.=/\=

Jovenan: =/\= Response? =/\=

Kali locked eyes with the two officers who had gotten this far in turn, thinking before she spoke.

Nicholotti: =/\= Come to the bridge. We need some science assistance in unlocking the Azure nebula's hidden secrets. =/\=

Of which she doubted were few. No, the nebula held many secrets. The question was, did it hold the ones that were important to the Excalibur and her crew.

Jovenan: =/\= Response? =/\=

At about that time, a dull rumble reverberated under her boots. It was almost imperceptible, unnoticeable, unless you happened to be one with the ship. Kali almost passed it off as an energy shift, and she might have ignored it, save for the screaming alerts and the angry red flashing on the ship's master systems display. The raven-haired command officer approached, almost worried of what she was going to find, and with good reason.

She slapped her badge again.

Nicholotti: =/\= Medical emergency, cargo bay one! =/\=

If the team had already been inside, there was no telling what condition they might be in. Or anyone else in the vicinity of the explosion. She whirled around.

Nicholotti: What. Happened?

Bean/Daniels/Any: Responses?

TAG/TBC

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Commodore Kalianna Nicholotti

Commanding Officer

USS Excalibur - A

R238605KN0