PNPC Gunnery Sergeant Gideon Knight - A Hard Days Knight
Martin Tucker
Knight: :: rubbing his beard:: Maybe it’s me, but this feels off. I can’t quite put my finger on it.
Singh nodded, keeping her eyes on the holo-globe. Gideon, too, kept an eye on FOC as the skeleton crew did what they did best: get crap done. Knight didn’t see a reason to call the morning shift in yet; the night crew would handle it, so the morning shift wouldn’t whine about actually having to work.
Singh: It's not just you, Gunny. That instinct that's still hardwired in the very back of our brains, that one that warned our ancestors that something just out of sight was stalking them in the tall grass? Mine has been screaming at me for hours. In my experience, it's worth listening to. There is a threat here...to us...to the ship...possibly to far, far more. The Captain and the XO died trying to warn us about what it was. I just wish more of their message had gotten through. Has the analysis of the yacht debris turned up anything at all?
There were honestly no closer to figuring out what went wrong than they were at the outset. It had proven that on pieces of the Captain's Yacht were not the Kurosawa, but different ones. And that’s what drove Gunny batty: the fact that the debris was their ship.
Knight: ::turning to the Major:: It’s slow going, we do know that the debris we brought on board and the black box were not our Captain’s Yacht, and that the heightened level of chronitons is worth mentioning as it’s gearing up to be a temporal black hole, and we don’t want to get sucked into that.
The Major looked as though she had something sassy to say, but she nipped it at the tip of her tongue.
Singh: Ours is a life-saving profession, Gunnery Sergeant. Sometimes that means putting ourselves in harms way, other times that means taking violent action in service of protecting the innocent. I am willing to do either if the need arises...but I cannot put myself in front of some vague spectral emissions to defend our people and I cannot blindly fire weapons until the universe bends to my will. I've tried it more than once and it never helps. We must determine how to unravel this mystery before it takes more from us.
Knight: I went to S&R school because we’re a life-saving profession, I want to find those who are lost, and bring them the help they need. Don’t get me wrong, ::he smiled:: I love being a Quartermaster, but I miss those days of being the lead.
Before the Major could get a reply out, she was interrupted as the comm line cracked to life. It was one of Valkyrie’s, he could tell by the transponder code.
Gra'vel: =/\= ...cuttles to Ronin...Severe...si...interfe...senso...indeterm...plea....advis....=/\=
The Major all but slammed her hand down on the comm button. Gideon was already trying to fine-tune the transmission so they could at least make heads or tails of it.
Singh: =/\= Say again, Valkyrie 1-1, say again. =/\= Gunny, boost the gain on the transceiver as high as it will go. Try applying a narrow-band filter; we have to scrub out that noise.
Knight: Way ahead of you, Major!
Finally, after running through several narrow-band filters and the gain boost and the holo-globed fuzzed for a second, the image that they were looking at was traded for data coming in from the Horta’s ship. But what was coming through was mind-boggling.
Singh: Saali kutti....what could have done that?!
At first glance, something obvious went wrong; it looked as though they’d been attacked. The Shinano was dead in space. Gideon's hands crossed the LCARS console, with some of the fighters now basically circling the Runabout as ordered. There was a gaping hole in the rear of the Shinano that went through and through. That was why they weren’t getting life-sign readings: it was possible there were no survivors, but that didn’t explain the hole.
He pointed to the hole.
Knight: That was courtesy of a Sencha weapon. ::he crossed his arms:: It’s the only thing that would make a hole that size, and all readings I’m getting back say it’s drenched in Sencha radiation. But that still doesn’t explain the comm’s we got from the Shinano….
Singh: Response
Knight: If I’ve done my homework, this has to be a Lattice Alliance work. I know they had a super weapon that the Ronin ultimately took care of. Could they have made it on a smaller scale? I know they’ve been quite recently.
Gideon started going through the database and couldn’t find anything related to ship mounted Sencha weapon, except for the Super weapon that was taken care of. This is a whole new world of what the eff? Because if there is a ship in the vicinity, they need to be on the lookout for it. A Sencha weapon was not something this sector of space really needed right now.
Singh: Response
Knight: Hang with me here, Major.:: he keyed open the comm system to all fighters:: =/\= Valkyrie 1-1, Ronin actual, are there any other craft in sight? =/\=
If Gideon’s gut was right, that ship had to still be out there, unless it got sucked into the still-forming temporal black hole, either one wasn’t good.
Gra’vel: =/\= Response =/\=
Singh: Response