Ensign Kai Fletcher-Bouchard - So, When You’re Near Me, Darling, Can’t You Hear Me?
Jonathan
((Director of Strategic Operations Office, Deck 1, USS Thor))
The small group had gathered in the DSO’s office to discuss all things Security and Intelligence, specifically in regard to the brand new cruise liner filled to the brim with diplomats and guests of importance, along with rather relevant members of the Thor’s own crew.
So far, they’d established that the liner had abysmal security and could be breached, hacked, or otherwise infiltrated with surprising ease.
All rather concerning, when the flight path set before the Syren’s Song was so utterly perfect and devoid of living threats.
Fletcher-Bouchard: ::turning to Vharo:: Do you have access to any older reports? Prior to the Syren’s Song announcement, I mean. The route’s clear now, but it may not have always been that way.
Turn to what used to be there; if some faction moved recently, or a specific type of activity came to an end in that region, that might be the people they were looking for.
Vharo: Response
And of course, the Orion did indeed have the data in question. Kai watched the display intently, watching the little points move around the map, and all the while, the flight path remained entirely clear. Damn.
Naledi: Crack Pop Hiss Snap… It thinks the Syren Song is in danger. Why would a region of space with so much crime have a strip so perfectly clear? Especially given that we know the abundance of disruptive anomalies in the area.
It didn’t make sense in the slightest for a single strip of space to be entirely clear constantly in a sea of crime and activity. Unless, of course, there was some unspoken agreement between the local powers. A safe zone, of sorts.
Winters: ::unfolding her arms:: That is odd indeed. If our crew is in danger I want over there right now. I can blend in as a tourist or stand out as a Marine but I want over there.
She was a straight-to-the-action sort, wasn’t she? Made sense for a marine.
Fletcher-Bouchard: We could beam a small security team over, blame it on the Admiralty wanting a more official presence, given the number of high-ranking Starfleet personnel over there.
A small lie to throw anyone off the true reason.
Vharo: Response
Naledi looked like they were about to respond; whatever that response was, however, was cut off by the little beep beep emanating from their desk, indicating an incoming message. The conversation stopped, and one little palp push set the message to play.
The mood plummeted as the Captain’s voice rang out, a simple call for aid.
Promontory: “SOS. Syren under attack, Janaran unresponsive. Send help.”
It almost seemed like they’d called the universe’s bluff; discussing a potential threat had somehow willed a very real one into existence.
Naledi: Crick Snap Pop Hiss Crack… Why did we have to be right? This is a general distress call, bounced through relays. Team, we need to triangulate where it came from, cross-referencing with the data from stellar cartography.
Winters jumped up immediately and set to work on a secondary console; Kai was a few seconds behind, but squeezed himself next to her.
Winters: Working on it but this message seems to have been bounced around a lot. I could use some help on the secondary relays as well.
Bounced around a lot, was curious.
Fletcher-Bouchard: Let me see what I can do. If it’s bouncing around, I’d bet there’s something interfering with the signal on the Captain’s end, some sort of block.
Probably had to ping the signal off of anything available just to get through the Thor. Still, the task was proving much harder than it normally would have been. The anomalies that they’d previously highlighted were proving a rather annoying extra challenge to navigate.
Vharo: Response
The group of officers lapsed into a brief silence, each working on their own end to pinpoint where the rather sudden SOS had come from.
Naledi: Tick Crack Snap Pop… Is anyone having any luck?
Winters: ::pausing:: Does anyone have the Janaran on scans?
Not exactly an answer, but also a source of concern. The Captain had said unresponsive, which could mean any number of things. Disabled, comms were down, destroyed, stuck behind a great big block of interference.
As Kai continued to wrangle the secondary relays into cooperation, the display changed again, this time showing a plasma trail marked as the Janaran’s.
Naledi: Crick Snap Pop Hiss… Potentially, it has a trace which ends. Logically, it would be at the end of the trail. But reports do not show a wreckage.
Fletcher-Bouchard: In my experience, ships don’t disappear ::pondering:: Maybe the trail’s been masked, and they’ve moved away from that location.
Not that he particularly thought that was the case. What cause would the Janaran have to hide? Unless there was a threat of some sort, they hadn’t been able to detect it as of yet.
Generally speaking, ships didn’t just up and disappear; if their plasma trail led to a specific location, then the ship had more than likely been there and was probably still close by, barring a great cosmic hand snatching them up.
That was the realm of Qs and Caretakers, neither of which seemed remotely likely in this case.
Vharo: Response
Winters: Agreed, but we need to realize they sent that message at the first opportunity. But that does not mean they are still there. What are the sensors telling us about their combadge locations? I am suspecting the attackers would have removed them but my gut says one of the bad guys has the badges either on his person or on the same deck.
This was also true. With the way the signal had been bounced left, right, and all around, there was more than enough time to move the Captain elsewhere, if he’d been taken captive.
Naledi: Crick Snap Pop Crack… It seems that the crew of the Syren Song and the diplomats are on two separate systems. The crew badges give an exact location, however the Starfleet ones are less specific.
Somehow, they’d cycled back to the issue of separate systems again. He was, however, surprised that their own badges were less reliable in this instance.
Fletcher-Bouchard: I’d have thought ours would be more exact. Anything interfering with the readings?
Vharo: Response
That somehow explained a great deal, yet absolutely nothing at all. Still, knowing that something was interfering put them one step closer to unravelling the whole mess.
Winters: Have you guys ever seen a signal degeneration like this? It looks like something is just erasing the signal from the transmission side but in an extremely odd pattern. I have never seen this.
Naledi: Pop Tick Snap Pop… Could it be an intentional attempt at sabotage?
It looked entirely wrong, nothing like any of the signal erasing methods he’d come across before.
Fletcher-Bouchard: If it’s sabotage, then I’m not sure how they’re doing it. We’ll run the pattern through our database anyway; if Starfleet has encountered anything like it, it’ll be in our files somewhere.
Unless, of course, it was new and unknown. If that were the case, then they were about to become familiar with some new unfriendly neighbours.
Vharo: Response
Naledi: Crick Pop Snap… An anomaly?
Fletcher-Bouchard: Too structured. This looks intentional.
Which still didn’t really help them. Too many possibilities and stray bits of information, with nothing substantial pulling it all together into a nicely packaged answer. They were missing something, somewhere, somehow.
Vharo / Winters: Response
Hearing the faint creek of the DSO’s chair, Kai turned his head towards them, awaiting whatever order was about to be issued. There was only so much they could do from here; in an ideal world, he’d take a shuttle and a team over to investigate first-hand, instead of relying on sensors that weren’t giving the full picture.
Naledi: Pass an approximate location to the bridge. Assuming we’re going in after the distress call, they’ll require our assistance. Let’s continue our attempts to crack into this system. Who know’s what else we may find.
Not quite what he was hoping for, but it was a step in that direction at least. Chain of command being what it was, he couldn’t fly off on a whim.
So, turning back to the console, Kai did as he was told, and resumed his attempts at getting into the system, and getting his hands on some proper information.
Fletcher-Bouchard: Yes ma’am
Boots on the ground would come later. This was still the information-gathering phase after all; he just had to remember to be patient and ignore the desire to jet off and pull their people back to safety himself.
Vharo / Winters: Response
End Scene for Fletcher-Bouchard
Ensign Kai Fletcher-Bouchard
Security Officer
USS Thor
G240106NA2
He/Him/His (Player/Character)