Voices from the past.

Posted on Wed Jan 29th, 2025 @ 4:09pm by Commodore Finchley Kerr & Commander Shr'Nesh Karadis & Lieutenant Commander Kevin Kilbane & Commander Alec Hunter & Lieutenant Commander Isabelle Savette & Lieutenant Drevas & Lieutenant Commander Shoniara T'ghann-Dex. Doctor

2,708 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: The 'Eagle continues.
Location: USS Blackeagle
Timeline: Current.

Finchley sat back in his chair having gone over the resupply report for the ship that he'd recently received. He had to admit, he was getting a little bored just waiting around, he wished their next mission would begin soon.

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind, his desk COMM chirruped. "Kerr here."

"Sir, it's Ensign Lorrimer at Communications, Admiral Lomax is on a Priority One communiqué line."

"Put it through Ensign" Finchley replied. He opened the channel and saw Lomax face, he was rather serious and that wasn't a good thing. Ten minutes later, the talk having been had, the 'Eagle' had it's new mission and Finchley was eager to get started.

He tapped his COMM button, "This is Commodore Kerr, all Senior Officers to the Briefing Room now", then made his way there himself.

Shon had been making finishing touches to a new rota she had been drawing up for those members of the crew who had medical training. After a run with Puss, meditation and breakfast she arrived at the briefing room. "Good morning Commodore." she said as she looked around the room. "I am obviously first."

"Good morning Lieutenant" Finchley replied, "you are indeed first, please, take a seat."

Alec was manning the bridge when the Commodore's call came through to report to the Briefing Room. After turning the bridge over to Lt. Westinghouse, he headed for the briefing room. Arriving he saw Shon and Kerr already there. "Hello, Captain, Dex." He said in greeting as he moved to his chair.

"Commander" Finchley replied to Alec.

Shon nodded in friendship and gratitude. "Commander, how are you this fine morning?"

Alec smiled at Shon. "Just fine Doctor. Thank you for asking. I hope you are doing well this morning."

“Wonderful thank you.” She said.

"Just whilst it's the three of us, what do either of you know about the USS Ranger?" Finchley asked, looking at Alec and Shon.

Alec looked between Finchley and Shon, "The Ranger? Isn't she a Nebula class ship sir?" Alec ventured.

"That's the most recent one, yes" Finchley replied, "but I was referring to the original USS Ranger, a converted Marshall Class destroyer which was equipped for terraforming."

Wasn’t that the generational ship that went missing, no communications, no sign of the terraformers despite many searches over the years?

Just at that moment the door opened, Isabelle nodding politely as she entered the room. "Apologies for being a little tardy." she offered Alec and Dex both a warm smile, then walked over to the replicator to get herself a cold water before she took a seat to see what the call was about."

"How are you Isabelle?" Shon asked.

Isabelle offered Dex a warm smile. “I’m fine, thank you.”

"Hi Isabelle." Alec added pleasantly.

“Commander” Isabelle smiled at Alec, giving him a respectful nod, keeping things professional in front of Finchley.

Next through the door came Karadis and Kilbane, "...and I'm telling you that for a fact!" Kilbane emphasised the the 'fact'.

"In your dreams little man, in your dreams" Karadis laughed, taunting Kilbane.

He in turn looked at Finchley, "For the love of all that's holy, Bird, will you tell this imbecile that I can beat her anytime at chin ups, that I was the Academy record holder...still am the Academy record holder."

"As I recall, your record didn't hold, you had straps on your wrists to help keep them rigid, that was against the Academy's rules" Finchley replied, "so I think Karadis would better you."

"RIGHT, THAT'S IT!" Kilbane shouted, as he turned to Karadis, "YOU" he said, pointing at himself, "AND ME" he carried on, pointing at Karadis...

"Actually, it's the other way round" Karadis teased.

Kilbane looked at his finger, "WHATEVER, YOU AND ME, IN THE GYM AFTER THIS MEETING, CHIN UP CONTEST, WINNER GETS TO CHOOSE THE LOOSERS PUNISHMENT...DEAL????"

"I can't wait" Karadis replied, "I'm already thinking of what humiliating punishment I can dish out to you."

"Now that we've got that out the way, can we perhaps get back to the reason we're here?" Finchley asked, offering for the two of them to take a seat.

Shon looked at Kevin noting he did not look at her or even acknowledge her. She gave an inward sigh, crossed her legs and gave her attention to the meeting.

Kilbane threw himself into his seat and crossed his arms, Karadis meantime went to get herself an apple tea then sat down next to him.

"Don't feel so bad, I know how easy your ego is to bruise when it comes to...masculinity, but you have someone else to strut about for now" she laughed, nodding at Shon.

Kevin looked across at Shon, then suddenly felt stupid. He smiled at her and said, "Sorry you had to see that Doctor, we" and he pointed between Karadis and himself, "have this ongoing battle so see who's the more Alpha male between us."

"Hey, who are you calling a 'male', I'm female" Karadis replied, punching him in the arm.

Drevas heard scraps of the conversation from beyond the door even before he entered the room. A battle between the captain and Shr'nesh was sure to end with at least a few bruises - not just on the ego, mind. Funny how last mission he'd heard them arguing like enemies, only to now exchange playful banter. How wonderfully weird this crew was.

"Captain. Commanders." Drevas nodded to the rest as he entered the briefing room and took at seat at the table. "

Finchley looked at his Chief of Security, they were tardy and the last to arrive, it wasn't boding very well for them.

"Finally..." Finchley replied, and looking at Drevas went on, "...everyone's here."

He stood up, "Right, eyes open, mouths shut and listen up, we have a new mission. SFI communications have received a low frequency distress call from the USS Ranger. Now, in itself, that may not seem much as we do get distress calls now and again. This one however stands out, it's from the USS Ranger NCC-286. That ship was part of a terraforming flotilla in twenty two 'o' six...yes, you heard that right. The SFI Admiralty have been in touch with me and given me the following information. The radio transmission gave their last known co-ordinates, along with a fragmented message stating the ship had been struck by an energy source which knocked out normal sub-space communications and most of the ships primary power systems. The last part of the message was they were limping towards a planet, then their message stopped. 'We', are being sent out to those last set of co-ordinates to see if we can ascertain what happened to them. Bare in mind, this message being a radio message, it's taken three hundred and seventy three years for it to reach us."

He sat down again, "Now you can speak" he said, looking round the table.

Shon spoke looking around, "If they are still alive we could be looking at a generational event, that is even if they had succeeded in their terraforming. They may be in dire need of medical assistance."

"The operative word being 'if' Doctor. After three hundred and seventy-three years. They have forgotten about Starfleet and it's passed into the realm of legend." Alec replied.

Finchley looked at his Executive Officer, "Historically, no matter what culture you look at, any legend from that culture has an element of truth in it. True, the facts can be diluted, or in some cases exaggerated, but in the end, the element of truth and fact is still there. Personally I don't think they will have forgotten about Starfleet, I think they'll still have an element of the standards that the Federation set. Regardless, this is all circumspect till we can or cannot find them 'if' they survived and managed to build a colony."

He looked around the table, "I need someone to look into the terraforming capabilities that the Ranger had onboard, plus any other additional equipment that they had stored. The ship was a Marshall Class destroyer refit, so she'd be bigger than the other terraforming flotilla ships at the time and able to withstand longer periods out in space. Any volunteers?" he asked.

"I'll see what I can find out about the Ranger's crew Sir" Isabelle offered a warm smile. "It'll give us a better idea of who we might be dealing with if there are surviving generations out there."

Alec nodded at Isabelle's offer. "Good Isabelle, see what information you can come up with and once you have it, let me know and we'll bring it to the captain. I'll look into the ship itself. May be something there that can help us."

"It may be something or it may be nothing, but check the flight path they took" Finchley said to Alec, "Dig into the star charts of the last definite known co-ordinates the ship gave and compare what they were like when the Ranger sent them and what they're like now. You never know, they may have changed and it may have been overlooked in previous searches."

Alec nodded, "I'll go over the flight path and the star charts with a fine-tooth comb."

"What about the rest of the flotilla, did any of them go missing or report any unusual happenings?" Kilbane asked.

"Not that I'm aware of" Finchley replied, "but why don't you check that out."

Kilbane nodded, "I'll get onto it once we're done."

"There's also the fact that they were caught by surprise is seems" Finchley went on, "why weren't they able to raise their shields to stop what was coming at them, even if they were surprised?"

He looked at Drevas, "Find out what you can about the Rangers refit from being a Marshall Class destroyer to becoming a terraforming vessel. Were certain things removed or added, could anything in that refit cause the ship to become unable to defend itself?"

"I believe I might be able to search Starfleet's databases for that." Drevas replied. If anything he suspected that the most the ship might've had done was to clear rooms for supplies - though, again, he'd need to check to be absolutely sure.

Finchley then looked at Shon. "Doctor, see if you can find the medical records of the crew, look them over, check for anything unusual."

Shon nodded and leaned forward, “The records should be somewhere, probably buried deep inside Starfleet Medical. I also have a couple of…shall we say ‘off grid’ leads I can follow. I should be able to come up with a report in a few hours.”

He looked at Isabelle, "You as well Commander, though from a Counselling perspective, see if anyone stands out."

Isabelle nodded offering Dex a smile before looking back at Finchley. “Understood Sir.”

Finchley looked round the table, "Look, I know this is a bit of a needle in a haystack situation, but I have a gut feeling there's something in this. Previous searches didn't turn up any wreckage of the ship, no emergency buoys, no jettisoned ships logs, no life pods...there was nothing. When they were struck by whatever hit them, it took out everything except the ability to send a radio transmission."

"What about me?" Karadis asked.

"Ah, I have a very easy job for you" Finchley replied, "One where you're diplomatic skills will prove to be useful."

Kilbane sniggered, "Her diplomatic skills, that's a good one!"

Finchley gave Kilbane a withering stare, "I was trying to soften the task."

Karadis punched Kilbane in the arm, "Hey, I do have that!", which in turn only made Kilbane laugh harder.

"I want you..." Finchley carried on, looking hard at Karadis, "...to contact the Klingon High Council and try to find out if any of their ships that were in the area, either just before or just after, that the Ranger was in reported any unusual happenings, or indeed if any ships went missing."

Karadis glared at him, "You hate me don't you, you just hate me. You know I'm not well liked in those circles, they see me as Federation stooge."

"Yes, but you're still Klingon and your house still sits on the Council, so try them first and see what you can come up with" Finchley smiled.

He looked back round the table, "We need to think outside the box people, is there anything else we need to look into?"

Alec looked at the others, "If we're thinking outside the box and as there is a distinct and noticeable absence of any hostile force either natural or by an alien species. We may have to consider the fact, that this was all planned, that they don't want to be found."

Finchley looked at Alec, "That's not actually a bad shout Commander, I hadn't considered that. That then opens up another avenue of consideration, what was the political landscape like at the time and would it have impacted on the flotillas mission?"

Then a thought struck him, and he banged his hand down flat on the table, "OH...MY...GOD.........what if it had something to do with Augments?"

Alec nodded, "It is a possibility sir. A good one."

“That would make sense,” Shon said, “and if this is true it makes our job a lot harder. We could be looking at a major threat to the Federation and a possible change in the balance of power in the quadrant.” She was anxious to get started and waited for the meeting to end.

"That's if they're still in the quadrant" Finchley replied to Shon, "it's the sixty four thousand dollar question."

He stood up, "Right you all have your assignments, I'd like your findings as soon as you have them, dismissed."

Drevas nodded, stood and left the briefing room for his office. He didn't normally like having to sit at his monitor for hours on end, but hey, hopefully this search of his wouldn't take all that long. Lest, of course, he run into barriers of the more bureaucratic kind.

Alec rose from his chair. he had a task to undertake and fulfill. Hopefully it would provide a clue to just what they were looking at and potentially avoid any traps.

Getting up from her seat Isabelle was ready to go and look up what information she could find. It was already proving to be an interesting mission and they hadn’t started yet.

Shon excused herself with a look at Kevin and then left for sickbay. It was, thankfully empty as she replicated a green tea and sat at her desk ready to begin.

Kevin saw the look, but didn't understand what it meant.

Finchley got up and walked across to the window and looked out at the 'view', spacedock.

He hadn't realised that Karadis and Kilbane were still there in the room.

"Bird, what is it, what's wrong?" Karadis asked.

Finchley turned at the sound of her voice, seeing her her and Kilbane still in the room. He sighed, knowing that there was no way he could just placate them with just any old excuse.

"It's the thought that there could be Augments involved in this" he replied, "it's not to say that they are, but if there's even a possibility that they are, this could spell trouble."

"Well we won't know till we have more information bub" Kilbane replied, "you worry to much."

"You don't worry enough!" Finchley replied, sounding taught and frustrated.

Karadis walked over to him, "It's not like we haven't faced stronger opposition before, or smarter, we just have to deal with it as best we can."

"That's the thing, what if they 'are' smarter?" he answered.

"Then we deal with it the way we've dealt with it before...kick the doors in and ask questions later" Karadis smiled.

She turned and walked over to Kilbane, "Up you, and out, leave Bird to ponder on the greater things in life."

Kilbane rose out his seat and walked after Karadis, and as they both left the room, Finchley turned and looked back out the window.

"What if we're not smarter..." he said quietly to himself.

 

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