Lieutenant Jack Kessler - Who Let Niac off the ship without Security

[Joel Cannistraro]

[[Mission Start - Kessler]]

((Bridge, Deck 3, USS Ronin))

A routine mapping mission was now a horrific loss for the Ronin and her crew and Jack's gut spun in frustration, anger and bitter contempt for allowing the Captain and XO to leave the ship without a security team. He had been overruled by Niac but as Jack rode the turbolift to the bridge his mind raced to the fact that he should have pushed harder. The summons to the bridge only came moments ago, right after the ship went to Yellow Alert. Jack had been in the Security suite monitoring the daily watch and bridge communications when the unthinkable happened. He had been on his feet and headed out of the suite as V'Len made the call for him to report to the bridge. 

As the turbolift doors opened Jack stepped out onto the forward, starboard side of the bridge and looked at the command team in mid stride as he headed for the Security station on the port side of the command deck. His eyes moved from Tuckers to V'Len's and then to O'Connor and Wren and then to the main view screen as he continued his trek across the deck to his station.

Taking a seat at the console Jack immediately brought up his personal configuration which combined both his departments of Security and the ships Tactical systems. His fingers raced across the console to bring up the data he wanted to see and knew the command team was probably thinking about as well. Jack pursed his lips together as he noted an issue with the long range sensors and that the Ronin was operating on short range sensors for the moment. His eyes danced across the scans twice and then he took a moment to glance over his shoulder to V'Len  and locked eyes with his best friend. His first time as acting Captain of the Ronin and the CO and XO are killed in some unexplained lightning storm in space. Jack felt horrible for his friend and what must be going through him.

Kel:  Jack, are we alone in this system?

Kessler:  Aye skipper, your sky is clear as far I can see, but we are on limited range being that we are on short range sensors.

V'Len nodded and Jack shot a glance at Tucker, the ship's Chief Engineer who was now acting First officer. oO What are we doing about these sensors? Oo Jack allowed the thought to roll through his head but kept the question to himself. It was not the time or place to question the XO, especially in front of junior officers. 

Kel:  Ok.  Mr. O'Connor, Mr. Kessler keep scanning.  We need to know every particle floating around out there.  Anything that could give us a clue as to what's going on.  ::Turning::  Ensign Wren see what you can do to boost our sensor strength.

Kessler: Aye sir.

Wren: ::quietly:: Aye sir.

O'Connor: Response

Kel: You can pull power from the auxiliary systems if you need to but don't take down any major systems without checking first.  

Jack had spent a great deal of time crawling around the inner workings of his new ship, learning everything he could about the ship's systems as they compared to the vessels he previously served aboard. As the ship's Tactical Chief it was his job to know the offensive and defensive systems better than anyone else on the ship and he took pride in doing just that.

Wren: I’m releasing sensor probes. In about three minutes I’ll be able to give you a report on anything out of the ordinary.

Kessler: ::eyes fixed on his console:: I'm bringing the tactical sensor array and optical systems online as a backup. 

As the ship was at Yellow Alert, the weapons systems normally remained offline and while they did not appear to need the weapons systems at the current time, they did need extra eyes in the sky and the ships weapons platform, like all others in the fleet had its own optical array for targeting. Jack had the system online in the blink of an eye and began using it as a counter sweep to backup the Ronin's sensor platform. The more eyes they had the better and Jack hated not having eyes when it came to the safety of the ship.

O'Connor: Response

As Jack continued working his scans of the space he caught movement behind him as V'Len turned to Dr. Shortith who was at one of the auxiliary stations.

Kel:  Shortith, look here on Karrod's neck and Toryn's shoulder.  There's some kind of injury, but it seems partially healed.  Are those burns?  Dermal irritation of some kind?

Shortith: Response

Kel:  We need information in order to formulate a plan so I'm willing to look at any minute details for a hint as to what to do.

Wren: ::Clearing her throat, uncomfortable at having interrupted him:: Sir? The probes are almost finished scanning the area. There are Chronitons, like we thought, but they seem to be moving in a sort of orbit around the area where the detonation occurred. None of them have been beamed aboard with the rest of the wreckage. oO They’re staying in such an odd formation… it’s almost as though they’re holding the shape of the ship itself. Oo

Kessler: ::puzzled:: Those chronitons are showing some form of echo or displacement wave unlike anything I have seen or the Ronin's computer has seen.

Shortith/O'Connor: Response

Kel:  We have one goal.  Get Niac and Raga back and potentially save the Federation.  

Wren: ::tapping at her screen::..... buddy , what are you doing? oO Did I miss something? I thought I sent the right recall code. Oo Um…. One of the probes doesn’t seem to be responding to the recall. I’ve tried the standard code, but it’s not responding.

Kessler: :: glancing over to Wren:: Try sending an Emergency Recall with the security code Alpha-Sierra - 0 - 1 - Alpha. 

Kel/Shortith/O'Connor: Response

Wren nodded, re-typing the command as carefully as she could, before pressing her lips together into a frown as the probe still didn’t respond. 

Wren: Sir, the probe appears to have vanished. I’m no longer getting a reading on it, and the ship can’t pick it up either. We have the completed scan from the two that were recovered, but that third one is completely gone.

Jack trained the tactical sensor pallette and optical array on the location of the probe Wren had lost. The puzzle was getting larger by the moment.

Kessler: Confirmed, the probe has vanished from sensors and optical view.

Kel/Shortith/O'Connor: Response

Wren: Sir, do you mind if I go to engineering to check on the probes that did come back? If something happened to the third one, it might be happening to the other two.

Jacked glanced at Wren and then back over his shoulder to V'Len. They needed hard, cold data on what was going on and so far, they had debris and a missing probe and sensor scans the Ronin's computer could not make sense of. Jack understood Wren's desire to physically check the probes but at the same time he knew that there was an inherent danger of cross contamination with whatever that storm was and the contact made with the probes and he knew V'Len was thinking about that as well.

Kel: Response

Wren: Aye, sir. 

Kessler: ::looking back to Kel:: Commander, until we know more about this phenomenon I recommend we maintain a safer distance. 

He wanted answers as much as the next person but right now he needed to think about his two priorities. The safety of the ship and the safety of the crew. They had no idea what this storm was but it had been, in some form, the cause of the destruction of the Captain's yacht and the cause of death to the CO and XO. That to Jack meant the Ronin was not immune to the affects of the storm. 

Kel/Shortith/O'Connor: Response 

Kessler: ::turning back to his console:: I think I can adjust for that. Give me one moment.

Kel/Shortith/O'Connor: Response

As Kessler made the adjustments he listened to the others on the bridge trying to make sure he was not missing a beat. Still dealing with the frustration of letting the Captain off the ship without him or a security team, Jack entered the last of the commands into his console and looked up.

Kessler: Adjustments made sir.

Kel/Shortith/O'Connor: Response

Tags/TBC

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Lieutenant Jack Kessler

Chief Tactical/Security Officer

USS Ronin

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