Lieutenant Commander Marty Tucker - Back To Work

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Martin Tucker

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Apr 28, 2026, 11:02:46 AMApr 28

to USS Ronin

((Deck 14, Chief Engineers Quarters, USS Ronin))

Marty was still miffed that his and Rox’s shore leave was cut short. This was the second time, and it was starting to get a bit frustrating, though they got their money's worth for the time they were on the surface. He was simultaneously unpacking and putting on his uniform. And so far he’d knocked over his coffee table and broken a vase, with a flower that had been dead. He’d had it since the Academy and just forgot to water it.

He was an engineer not a botanist.

While he was trying to do more than one thing at a time, the Captain announced that some awards were given during the last mission. Marty received both the Starfleet Medal of Valor and Leadership ribbons, and Lt. JG T’Fearne was promoted to full Lieutenant, and of course, Commander Kel received his promotion as well.

He wasn’t sure exactly what was going on, as they got on board at the last minute. But he’d been summoned to the bridge for a briefing with a couple of mission specialists. At the rate it was going, he was never going to make it there; he still needed to stop by engineering to make sure everything was buttoned up and ready for anything that the Captain might throw at them.

He tossed his now-empty suitcase back in his closet in the bedroom. He looked at himself in the floor-length mirror in his room. He tugged at the bottom of his tunic, adjusted his commbadge, and headed towards his office in engineering.

((Deck 14, Chief Engineers Office, USS Ronin))

Marty walked into his office, a stack of padds left neglected. They’d piled up while he was on shore leave and had no clue what they were for. Most likely requisitions and things of that nature, something he’d save for some downtime, which he assumed was going to be at a premium the way they darted out of the system at maximum warp. Lieutenant Morgan had fiddled with the intermix and squeezed another 3% efficiency, which goosed the maximum warp up by a couple of decimiles.

He was about to tap his comm badge and summon Wren, Cabrillo, and Morgan, before he was rudely interrupted by the ship's XO, a job held just a few days ago. Though he was happy to be back in Engineering, he still wasn’t sure if Command was the track for him.

Raga: =/\= Raga to Sickbay and Engineering. Quentin, Marty. Drop whatever you’re doing and report to the conference room immediately. You’re going to want to hear this. =/\=

Tucker: Aye, Commander. Just wrapping up down here, be up in a second.

He knew he had to report to the bridge but he needed to talk with his engineering department, hopefully he’d have time after the briefing.

((Deck 3, Main Bridge, USS Ronin))

Marty reached the conference room doors and waited a second before he stepped through, because he saw his good friend, Chief Medical Officer Quentin Beck. He’d made it just before the doctor showed up, who, by the looks of it, was overly enjoying a powered doughnut.

He nodded at the doctor.

He turned to Marty, eyebrow raised.

Beck: What do you think's goin' on? Another anomaly?

Tucker: As long as it doesn’t have to do with the temporal flow or Sencha radiation, I'm good.

Quentin lifted a shoulder in a slight shrug before looking at the door and indicating they should step through and join the briefing. The door swished open, the doctor letting Marty go first. Marty surveyed the room, and something was afoot, and it wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns.

Raga: This is our CMO and our Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Commanders Beck and Tucker. Quentin, Marty, these are Lieutenants Venn and Velis. ::he looked at their guests:: If you’d be so kind as to repeat what you told us to them?

Marty nodded at the newcomers and took his position in the back of the room, leaning up against a counter, legs out and ankles crossed, the same with his arms across his chest.

Beck: V-squared, huh? Good to meet you, Venn, Velis. That definitely won't get confusing later.

Tucker: ::under his breath:: Can we give them name tags?

Niac/Venn/Kessler: response

Kel: What can you say about the creature's physiology? How is it propelling itself? Do we have any ideas on size.

Marty was still trying to find a way into the briefing, but he felt like he was watching a show already half an hour in, and he had no clue what was going on. Marty pulled out his own padd he’d brought with him, jotting down things he thought might be helpful. Marty shifted a bit as Velis began speaking to the assembled group.

Velis: ::folds her hands:: In truth, we don’t know much about the creature. Only that it is very large, moreso than our instruments and scans can measure without days, possibly weeks of deeper research. None of the ships that have been sent to study it have been able to get close enough for more than cursory studies. We haven’t wanted to risk provoking it to defend itself.

oO Who’s very large are we talking about? I have ideas of what's very large. But that does not always jive with someone else take. Oo

Beck: Um. All due respect, but considering all of the previous ships you've sent to study this thing haven't had much luck, what makes the Ronin any different? Don't get me wrong, I love the girl, but we're not exactly on the cutting edge when it comes to Science vessels.

Marty wanted to throw a wadded-up napkin at Quentin for insulting his old bucket of stem bolts; from this range, he’d hit him right in the bean. But that would most likely be filed under conduct unbecoming or some such nonsense. And honestly, who has time for that?

Venn/Kessler: Responses

Niac / Raga: Responses

Kel: Spaceborne life forms are a long standing interest of mine. We've been tracking several signals which we believe could be cosmozoan, I'll get the data sent to you.

Marty thought about it, and almost tuned out, his thought this one is for the geeks. But from an engineering standpoint, it would be interesting. Bioengineering has always been a taboo subject, but when Marty thought of that term “Bioengineering,” he didn’t think of messing with the human genome or anything like that. He thought of living breathing ships, bio ships were a less elegant term, but it would be something to check out.

Tucker: I’m going to agree with the good doctor, what makes us, basically, a war relic giong to have those other ships don’t. Now, that’s not me bad-mouthing the Ronin, but we do have limits to what we can accomplish.

Velis: ::thoughtfully:: My task is to work with your science and medical personnel to learn more about the creature. ::glances at Venn:: The lieutenant can perhaps enlighten you more as to her purpose.

Venn: Response

Niac / Raga / Kessler: Responses

Kel: Surely, we won't be taking the creature out of its natural environment?

Marty did little to hide a chuckle at that statement, and Beck seemed to be in agreement. It would be akin to just trying to up and move Mount Rushmore or Mount Everest. You just don’t remove those things from their environment, and trying to remove this one sounded sketchy at best.

Beck: If this thing is as big as they're making it sound, I'm not sure we could take it out of its natural environment. ::a beat:: Still… I echo Doctor Kel's sentiment. We know next to nothing about this thing, do we really want to see what happens if we try to push it into a cage?

Tucker: Corning something we know nothing about? What part about that seems like a good plan? I’m up for figuring out what this thing is, but we’ve got to be smart about it.

V'Len leaned in to look at Karrod.

Kel: Sir, it's one thing to study a creature, it's something else to attempt to contain or relocate it.

Marty nodded along with Quentin.

Beck: I'm not sure they make lassos big enough to wrangle something like this, anyway.

Tucker: ::to Beck:: I’m sure I could whip something up, on a bit larger scale. It’s all theory, but I bet there’s a way to lasso it, so to speak. ::he shrugged:: It’d take some finagling.

Niac/Raga/Kessler/Venn/Velis: Response

Kel began entering information into his padd. The Doctor pushed the last bit of donut into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully.

Kel: The spaceborne life form the Starfleet has encountered communicate in a variety of ways. I'd suggest a long range scan of the creature's magnetic field and EM emissions. Maybe there's a way we can let it know we're not a threat.

Beck: That's assuming the thing would even notice us to begin with.

Tucker: ::looking at his former roommate:: I’m sure if you got out and waved your arms frantically, maybe it’d notice? In all seriousness, why would you want to get noticed by something that is, ::using air quotes:: “very large”.

Niac/Raga/Kessler/Venn/Velis: Response

Kel: ::looking at Velis:: Do you suppose it would respond to a standard hail?

Beck: That would depend greatly on whether this thing is alive or not. I find it hard to believe something this immense is alive, let alone sentient, but I'm sure people said the same thing about blue whales back on Earth a few centuries ago. Just because I'm having trouble conceiving of it doesn't make it impossible.

Tucker: If this thing is still alive, then what? It’s like the dog chasing the car, it finally caught the car, now it has no clue what it’s going to do with it. I mean, what is the ultimate goal here?