MSNPC Casavel Ifra: Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
Sarah Terry
((Main Office, Ivory Tower, StarBase 118))
There was at least some small satisfaction in seeing groups of Starfleet officers and Ameoneians come together and start planning the logistics of their search and rescue operation. If only it was anything other than a search and rescue operation… Still, it felt better to be doing something productive than to be locked in a standstill. He turned to Commander Ross.
Ifra: Do you know if this incident is isolated to the tower? When was the last time you were able to contact someone elsewhere on the station?
Ross: I'm afraid it is not. Shortly after your arrival, there were reports from Sickbay about similar incidents. Ops and Security are unreachable. It seems the whole station is drowning in Chaos.
He hadn’t really been expecting good news, but having bad news confirmed was still… unpleasant. Ifra sighed and planted his hands on his hips.
Ifra: Just our luck.
Ross: ::turning to the groups of officers:: One of our Officers, Counsellor Bryce, has been taken hostage by the Ameoneian Chancellor. Both of them have been influenced by the memory loss. It is very important not to escalate the situation further. We are working together in this - we want both of them unharmed. ::he took a deep breath:: Sergeant Larell will take the lead. I want the whole tower searched.
He and Ross exchanged a glance and then gave a curt nod to the teams around them. Sergeant Larell began assigning teams to different parts of the search grid. Ifra was proud of how quickly the whole operation was coming together. Which just left the two second-in-commands to figure out what the hell was happening with the lights.
Ifra: So we have a power outage and a communication blackout. And ::he gestured vaguely at the general madness of the tower:: the memory loss, of course, but… I don’t know about you, but I’m no doctor. Hopefully other minds will be working on that. I assume our efforts will be best spent restoring power to this section of the station.
Ross: We need to figure out wh...-
Ifra was listening intently to the commander when the human’s face suddenly froze, and then he quickly snapped his head to and fro around them. Not a heartening turn of events. Ifra could feel the feathers on the back of his head slowly start to rise, and then Ross immediately took off, desperately searching the space.
Ross: Where's the Captain?!
Ifra took a sharp breath. That explained the commander’s distress. He looked around as well, scanning the faces of the officers who remained in the Ivory Tower.
Ifra: I don’t see him…
Ross: He was right behind me when we came ba-...
Ross sprinted back to the hallway where they’d followed Sael, panic evident in his every move.
Ross: Captain?! - Fairhug? Where... Gogi!!
Ifra could only stare after the man with sympathy. A red-headed Bardeezan was not someone easily missed - if the captain were still nearby, he’d already be found. Unless, of course, he didn’t *want* to be found. Captainship forced upon you when you had no memory of even coming to a station like this? Perhaps they should have expected the man to make a run for it at his earliest opportunity.
Ross came back to Ifra with his hands buried in his hair.
Ross: He's gone.
What comforted these humans? A kind word? A… pat on the shoulder? The poor commander looked positively ill as Ifra stood awkwardly next to him. He finally settled on a commiserating grimace.
Ifra: Well… I suppose the good news is that we’ve already formed search parties.
Maybe this was not the time for bright sides, but Ifra wasn’t sure what else to say. He gestured to Larell to join them.
Ifra: ::clearing his throat:: I’m afraid it seems that both Sael and the station’s captain have a future in escape artistry.. If you would be so kind as to inform the teams that they are now also looking for Captain Fairhug, I would appreciate it.
Ross: ?
Larell cast a small glance at the distressed human, and then nodded, and went to immediately update the search parties, which left Ifra to turn back to Ross.
Ifra: I’m sure he… perhaps he merely needed a moment to process the situation and stepped away. And, ::he shrugged:: to be fair, Sael and Fairhug were not exactly *helping* the situation.
Ifra did love to find a silver lining. Perhaps it wasn’t the most diplomatic thing to say (and certainly not something he would be repeating to Sael when they found him), but he couldn’t deny that a part of him was relieved to be speaking to someone who knew what the hell was happening, even if what was happening wasn’t great.
Ross: ?
Ifra: We’ll search every inch of this tower. And I don’t know about the captain, but Athemir was never particularly adept at hiding. He much preferred to meet a situation head-on. I’m sure they’ll be found soon. And we can increase those odds if we figure out what’s blocking our communication. There must be a local power conduit we can access?
Ross: ?
Ifra looked down at his clanking armor with a heavy sigh. And spared a thought for the state of his knees.
Ifra: ::with resignation:: And just how much crawling might that entail?
Ross: ?
Ameoneian Minister of Extraglobal Affairs
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