CDR Naxell — Eavesdropped the Ball
Naxell
((Science Lab, Deck 16, USS Khitomer))
The lights began to flicker. A pang of fear of further power disruption from the cloud and its filaments appeared and was washed away as the lights shifted in rapid, smooth patterns. This must have been the light show Dewitt promised. He turned his eyes toward the containment chamber that held their sample, and the strange energy signal.
It seemed to hold something else, too. A shimmer, or a flicker. It was hard to describe. Or maybe it was the way his eyes were being overloaded by the Bridge’s visible onslaught.
Naxell: Did you see that?
Melville-Kilpatrick: Yes, sir. Do you think it's… escalating?
Naxell: Escalating?
The last word that Ensign Melville-Kilpatrick spoke was not the word Commander Naxell expected to hear. He wasn’t sure, precisely, what he expected to hear in reference to the little shimmer he saw in the containment chamber. The Denobulan quirked a bushy eyebrow at his human counterpart and gave him a surprised look. He liked surprises.
Melville-Kilpatrick: You know, responding to what we're doing to it...or maybe what the others are doing to those filaments?
Naxell: Responding and reacting. Intelligently, you think? An interesting theory. To what?
Melville-Kilpatrick: Well, if we know that the sound affects it, maybe the frequency of the scanner is doing something to it.
Naxell’s eyes fell towards the scanner. It was possible, he had to admit. The scanner technology was, to most humanoid species, utterly invisible and undetectable. He couldn’t see or feel it any more than he could see or feel someone else’s emotion. But he knew that those weren’t quite as undetectable as his own perception might have it.
He would have made a half-joking remark about plopping the seemingly inert sample of the cloud into a torture chamber set to “tickle,” but the comm interrupted him. It was probably for the best.
B’Ella: =/\= Ensign B’Ella to Captain Naxell. Ensign Graves has found a coded message from Ensign Matthews that was intercepted here in Stellar Cryptography. =/\=
For the second time in a very short span, someone's final word choice has caught him completely flat-footed.
Naxell: =/\= …Cryptography? =/\=
B’Ella: =/\= It was an old Terran Morse Code. I was able to decipher it. It reads as follows, SOS I am okay for now. They are going to do something to me. I am not complying. SOS Lock onto my helmet. =/\=
It was a clever joke, but Commander Naxell wasn't entirely sure that the Klingon Woman was being intentionally punny. Stellar Cryptography, indeed! He was going to have to tell… someone about this. The faculty at the academy? His old CO? He didn't quite have that rapport with his First Officer yet.
Suddenly, Naxell felt very lonely.
Naxell: =/\= I see, Ensign. Well, codebreaking aside, it’s “Stellar Carto—” =/\=
B’Ella: =/\= One moment sir, I believe Graves has made contact. =/\=
A long pause followed. He thought he could make out some faint voices. The two of them stood there, silent, an embarrassingly long while, trying to make out a word or two. Frustration took him and he switched off the scanner with a flourish.
Naxell: This is foolish. Stellar Cartography is— let's go, Ensign. ::gesturing to the scanner:: Put a pin in this.
Melville-Kilpatrick: Response
((Seconds later, Stellar Cartography, Deck 16, USS Khitomer))
It was literally across the hall. What was he doing, trying to listen to a background conversation through Ensign B’Ella’s combadge? He was looking very silly, that's what he was doing. With Ensign Melville-Kilpatrick in tow, Commander Naxell slipped into the room quietly, so as not to interrupt the effort to reach Z Ensign Matthews.
Matthews: ~/\~ Get ~~ Graves? Heading there ~~~~. Call ~~~~. ~/\~
Graves: ~/\~ Response ~/\~
Naxell didn't know what the conversation had sounded like before he arrived, but even when Matthews’s voice wasn't heard in the transmission, there was some static coming through along with it. Now, there was nothing.
B’Ella: Graves? Did we lose him?
Graves: Response
As Ensign Graves gave his best, futile effort to reconnect, Commander Naxell crept closer to the pair, ears listening intently.
B’Ella: =/\= Captain were you able to make out any of that? What are your orders, sir? =/\=
Naxell: Not really, no.
It was a cruel joke, especially in the midst of such serious matters. But truly—how many times in life does one get the chance to see a startled Klingon jump?
Graves / Melville-Kilpatrick: =/\= Response =/\=
Naxell: We know he's alive, he's ambulatory, and he's coherent. More or less. What else do we need to worry about, Doctor?
Melville-Kilpatrick / Graves / B'Ella: Response
He turned, placing his palms on the top edge of the main console. He leaned forward and peered into the holographic representation of the cloud, and their ship trapped within it. Transporters were a no go, even if their scanners could function in the hostile soup.
Naxell: Is there any way we can get more information to him? Let him know who's over there? If he's looking for Lieutenant Semara's team as hard as they're looking for him, we might get get a little luck.
Melville-Kilpatrick / Graves / B'Ella: Response
TBC
——— ●●● ———
Commander Nax-Ellarneii-Tellargo
Commanding Officer
USS Khitomer (NCC-62400)
A240001NH3