What's out here...

Posted on Tue Feb 4th, 2025 @ 12:04am by Commodore Finchley Kerr & Commander Shr'Nesh Karadis & Lieutenant Commander Kevin Kilbane & Lieutenant Jock McCrudden & Commander Alec Hunter & Lieutenant Commander Isabelle Savette & Lieutenant Drevas & Lieutenant Commander Shoniara T'ghann-Dex. Doctor

3,380 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Voices of the past
Location: USS Blackeagle, Sector 3
Timeline: Current.

It had been a number of hours since the briefing with his Senior Staff and Finchley was waiting on someone, anyone, bringing him news on what they'd found out about the USS Ranger and her crew. He'd paced up and down, tried to take his mind off of thing by reading reports on his ships status, but it wasn't helping him.

He turned and stared at the door, willing with all his might that the chime would sound and one of the Senior Staff would be able to give him something worth hearing about.

Alec had checked and rechecked and checked the star charts and the flight plan. He wanted to make absolutely sure the information he gave the captain was correct. Sighing softly, he tapped the door chime to alert the captain someone wished entrance. He just hoped the captain didn't believe in shooting the messenger of bad news.

Finchley looked up as the chime sounded, "Come in" he called, watching as the doors opened. He saw that it was Alec, "Come in and have a seat Commander" he said, offering the one at his desk, "have you found anything?"

Hearing the captain's voice sating to come in, Alec entered and came to a stop in front of Finchley's desk, dropping into one of the chairs in front of it. "Thank you, sir. Yes, I did." he replied a bit cryptically.

The look on Alec's face was not one of hope or good news Finchley saw. "What have you found?" he asked, sitting back in his chair, waiting on what he assumed would be bad news.

"Sir, I found that the political climate on Earth was in a state of flux. The Eugenics Wars had only been over for a decade and the wounds were still fresh from the damage the caused. That's where the terraforming comes in it was seen as a new hope, a bright star for humans to reach out and start fresh and better themselves.

The Ranger and other ships were in a flotilla to travel to other planets and start a new life there. Only the Ranger didn't make it." Alec stopped and brought forth his star charts and markings showing the flotilla's path, "Look at the chart sir. The Ranger deviated from its course about midway through it's intended voyage. Which shouldn't have been possible. Which means it was programmed into the flight computer. Now look at the planets it was close to. All M-class and all able to sustain life but ruled out because of cold or heat or a thin atmosphere which wouldn't bother an Augment in the least."

Finchley looked at the star chart, there were indeed a number of planets that 'could' sustain life for anyone who was Augmented because as Alec had pointed out, it wouldn't bother them. However, there was something else, the flight deviation, something that shouldn't have happened.

"Well, there's one of two possibilities for the flight deviation Alec" Finchley said, "Well, three actually. As you mentioned it was programmed beforehand, someone changed it mid-flight intentionally or someone forced the crew to change it mid-flight. What we now need are the crew records, both medical and psychological, that's what I'm hoping the Doctor and Counsellor can bring us. This is good work though, it at least gives us a starting point."

"Forcing someone to change it would account for the 'distress' signal sir," Alec observed. "Hopefully to throw off any rescue and give whomever sent the signal an opportunity to implement their plan."

Shon stood outside the ready room paDD in hand. she had managed to discover a lot about the crew of the USS Ranger, some of it disconcerting. She pressed the chime and waited.

"Come..." Finchley said after the chime had sounded. He watched as the doors opened and Shon entered, "Doctor, good to see you, what do you have for us?"

Shon looked at Alec and nodded. "Captain, Commander, it took me a while to find this information out. I was unable to gain the advice by directly asking. That in itself was a red flag, so, I went in the back way and what I found out was...alarming. The Captain was Rachel Phillipson 32 years old. There is nothing about her background, in fact none of the crew I could find had any kind of background until the preparation for launch, again red flag. The information about this next guy I could only gain by one of my contacts and even that was difficult. The FO was Bran John 28, he had served five years on the penal colony in New Zealand for breaking into a laboratory where they kept augment DNA. He destroyed the lab, there was nothing left of it when he finished and he managed to get away. He was captured a year later and was kept in high security. So, why was he allowed to leave on the Ranger? The medic was one Sinead Noonian Singh aged 42! None of the crew had any rank in Star fleet" Shon stopped and looked expectantly at Finchley and Alec.

Alec glanced at Finchley and then back at Shon. "All red flags for sure. Question is, why wasn't it caught before time to launch?"

Finchley pondered over what Shon had said, those were indeed Red Flag's, all of them.

"I'm not wanting to jump to any conclusions, as the information is thin as I thought it might be" he said, "However, having someone with the last name Noonian Singh, one has to believe it's a relative or direct descendant of Khan Noonian Singh and that spells danger in itself, never mind the lack of information on the rest of the crew."

Isabelle arrived she hadn’t had much luck herself, walking in she offered Finchley a disappointed look. “Sorry Commodore, I’ve gone through every channel open to me and I’m getting nowhere. There’s no psych profiles, no reports of any kind. I don’t see how that’s even possible. All I got was the run around, saying that files were either non existent, or sealed beyond my level of clearance.”

"Well, from the information on the crew the Doctor has given us, corelated with what happened with the ships flight plan the Commander found out, we have a serious situation if the psych evaluations are being withheld" Finchley replied. "What I have to ask myself is this, there's been two previous searches for the Ranger, and in neither report does it mention anything remotely connected to Augments...why is that?"

He scratched his chin, "I smell a rat, there's more to this than meets the eye, you can't just launch a terraforming vessel with a crew who have no background or psych evaluation easily. Someone at the top of the chain must have known something...question is, do we try to find out, or do we just launch as per orders and see what we can make of the situation?"

"Well Sir I still have a couple of irons in the fire but I have to tread carefully, my source is very skittish and will run if pushed too far. However one last piece of information I managed to obtain was that the Ranger was fitted with some kind of medical tech, highly hush hush...something to do with possibly transforming unaltered dna to augment dna in an already grown human. I think that wherever we are going may prove to be highly dangerous."

This additional information had Finchley now beginning to worry. "What if it's a case of not everyone on board the Ranger was aware that there were Augments there? There is another thing to consider, what was the energy source that truck the ship?"

"Excuse me sir." Alec interrupted. "But launching the ship isn't that hard or complicated. However, removing crew files could only come from the highest levels. So, someone knew what was going on. There is something else sir. Something I noticed. The ship's name was originally going to be Morning Star before the Ranger was made available. Morning Star was the name of Khan Noonian Singh private satellite designed to eradicate life on Earth but it was obviously never used." Alec added.

"Actually, launching a a ship is harder than you think Commander" Finchley replied, "you can't just waltz in there and take off, you need to go through a plethora of things before the launch. Plus, this was part of a flotilla, so someone somewhere in the upper echelons knew about the ships launch" Finchley replied. "That I didn't know about, the name change or the satellite. Do you have any information on what became of it?" he asked Alec.

Alec didn't answer. He wasn't going to get into a pissing contest with the captain over how hard it was or wasn't to launch a ship. Best to just be quiet. "The satellite was destroyed."

"Get me the schematics of it, it's a satellite, they'll be on file" Finchley told him.

"Yes sir." Alec answered simply. Not bothering to point out the file could have been 'lost' or misplaced just as other records concerning the Ranger had disappeared.

Speaking of schematics, Drevas chose that very moment to enter the briefing room with his PADD in hand. "I've completed my search of what reports there are from the time. There appear to be no major modifications to the Ranger itself apart from the clearing of certain rooms to store terraforming equipment and materials." He said.

“It’s all very odd” Isabelle frowned. “Files that I can’t access can only be sealed by those higher up the ladder. Either that or there were never any reviews of the crew done, which would be unusual to say the least. I’d have thought those on Earth would have been glad to see the Augments leave to start a life elsewhere, they were never welcome, or wanted anywhere.”

Finchley listened to what both Drevas and Isabelle had to say then replied, firstly to Drevas, "That is very strange, from memory, the Marshall Class had a number of laser cannons and photon torpedo launchers, for to be a refit terraforming ship, that's a lot of fire power to retain. I'd have thought that they'd dull it down so to speak, give them more room for the equipment. Something's not right with that, they didn't need so much weaponry...unless someone Senior knew they'd need it."

"An inside job, perhaps, from high up in Starfleet bureaucracy. Perhaps they had conspired to hijack the Ranger for whatever purpose they might've had." Drevas suggested. It made sense in context; it wouldn't have been the first time a corrupt Starfleet official did shady things for their own gain - even if it meant conspiring with unsavoury parties.

"That needs further investigation" Finchley replied, "We need to know who was Senior enough at the time to effect such an undertaking, and was it sanctioned."

Looking at Isabelle he then said, "Counsellor, if you could, get back in contact with whoever you tried to get the information from and use my name as the one seeking the information. If you still have no luck getting it, tell them I'll visit them personally and get it, and they won't want me 'asking them' a second time."

Isabelle nodded. “Aye Sir, I’ll do my best to convince them that it’s best to let me see the records.” She offered a wry smile.

"Good" Finchley replied, "and go over them with a fine tooth comb please Counsellor, we don't want any surprises" he finished.

“Of course Sir, I’ll go now and see what I can find out.” Isabelle offered a smile before getting up from her seat to go and try her contacts once more.

~ A few minutes later ~

Isabelle practically flew back through the door, it seemed using Finchley’s name had worked dividends. “Bingo!” She held out a PADD for Finchley to look at. “According to the records, there were definitely Augments onboard, but the biggest mystery is there is mention of children being scheduled to be aboard the Ranger. Those children never boarded the ship prior to departure, something about the flotilla departing earlier than planned. Unfortunately there’s no mention of any names, so I don’t know who those were, or are.”

"Those poor children" Finchley answered, "and poor parents as well, seeing their kids left behind. Surely there must have been some sort of record as to what happened with those children, they can't have just disappeared, never to have been heard of again."

Alec was halfway listening as he quietly worked to access the Morning Star satellite file. After several attempts he was able to access the file but several parts of it had been removed. What was available showed the satellite to be a biological weapon capable of manipulating the Van Allen Belt and destroying Earth's ozone layer and thereby killing all life on Earth. The satellite had been destroyed by unknown forces. He slid the PaDD to Kerr so he could see the information.

Finchley picked up the Padd and read what was there. Looking round to Kilbane he handed it to him and said, "Check with Barras."

"Aye Sir" Kilbane replied.

"Then institute order six" Finchley added.

"Six?" Kilbane asked, surprised.

"Is there a problem Commander?" Finchley asked.

Kilbane shook his head, "No, no problem, I just didn't think it warranted that."

"You have your orders Kilbane, follow them or I find someone who will" Finchley ended the conversation.

Finchley then stood up, "Right, we launch in two hours, if anyone wants me I'll be in my Ready Room, dismissed."

Alec just nodded at the captain's order and headed back to the bridge.

Shon had gained some surprising information from her source which, because of the information had now gone dry but it had been worth it. Entering the bridge she saw Alec there. “Commander, pertaining to my brief to try to find out more about the medical tech that I mention during the briefing. Well it seems there was some stolen experimental dna segmentation gained from some of the augment prisoners from the original Noonian Singh captives. This had been stored at a top secret facility for many years. Several attempts had been made to destroy it, but for some reason Starfleet wanted it kept. Just before the Ranger launched it was presumed destroyed in an explosion in the Greenland facility.” Shon knew she was rambling but the whole story was important.

“It seems that someone at the very top an Admiral Bessant who, then was head of Starfleet Medical was found guilty of removing it and giving it to the Ranger Captain. Bessant apparently committed suicide but left a complete log of what the mutated dna could do. My source told me that the augment dna could be given to any living thing be it human, animal, clones and within twenty four hours it would react with the host dna to produce…..something, what he could not tell me. Now I pushed him but I am sure he did not know.”

Alec listened intently to Shon as she told him what she had found out. "Good work Shon, excellent work in fact. It amazes me how through the academy and then in various postings, Starfleet Officers are reminded again and again of the Prime Directive. But higher ups read that as admirals break or ignore with no more thought than blowing out a match. You should tell the captain this. I am sure he will be most interested."

Shon knew she had to tell Finchley but was so excited she had managed to gain the information she thought Alec would enjoy the information. She moved across to the ready room and pressed the chime. Now the adrenaline was leaving her she was feeling decidedly tired.

Finchley had literally sat down in his chair when the chime sounded. He sighed, was there something he'd forgotten to say?

"Come" he called out.

Shon walked in and waited for the door to close. “Sorry to disturb you but I found some information out that might interest you about that augment dna I mentioned in the meeting. May I sit?” She asked.

"That's perfectly fine Doctor, and by all means" Finchley replied as he motioned to the seat in front of his desk. "Now, what have you found out?"

Shon sat and sighed, she was hoping he had called her Shon so she could call him Finchley. For some strange reason she wanted the closeness. “Long story short, although I used up my best source,” she smiled. “Someone under an Admiral Bessant had worked on the dna obtained for the Noonian Singh augments. They found a way to combine it at any time with any race and even animals and insects with results in twenty four hours. No waiting for augment children to grow. This dna was stolen and sent on the flagship, the Ranger…….” Shon felt shaky and dizzy. “So what is next for us?” She asked wearily.

"Well, we ship out in two hours" Finchley replied, "Once we reach the last known co-ordinates the Ranger sent, we'll scan the area to see if there's any unusual activity happening. I mean we've no chance of picking up anything like an ion trail after all this time, that'll have dissipated long ago. Still, you never know, we may pick up something. As for the DNA information you've uncovered, good work by the way, we'll have to corollate all the information we've discovered about the ship and it's crew, see if we can piece together what's happened."

At that point, the chime sounded and again and Finchley called out for whoever it was to enter. The doors opened and Kilbane walked in, "That's ord..." then he saw Shon and shut up.

It 's ok Kilbane, you can speak freely" Finchley said.

Kilbane nodded in reply, "That's order six implemented Commodore."

"Thank you, keep tabs will you" Finchley replied.

Kilbane stood beside Shon, and seeing she was weary he said, "If I may be so bold, you look beat Shon, perhaps an hours rest will do you good."

Shon nodded, "That's for sure, I have not meditated for thirty six hours. Commodore may I ask what is Order Six?"

Finchley didn't answer, instead, Kilbane said, "It's a search and destroy order." He then leaned down and whispered, "We can discuss it later."

Shon nodded, "If what we think we are up against is really there then, I understand." Shon took Kilbane's hand for a second needing the touch, nodded at the Commodore and left. She was beginning to feel ill. she looked up and saw Isabelle.

Out on the bridge Isabelle waited for Shon to depart the Ready Room, She had noticed Shon was looking tired and wanted to check she was okay.

Back in the Ready Room, Finchley looked at Kilbane, "Be careful with what you tell the Doctor, Kilbane. She's not cleared for the level of information that includes what Order Six is for."

"Oh for gods sake Bird, give me a break!" Kilbane sighed, "The cloak and dagger shit doesn't work with me anymore, Shon can keep a secret."

Finchley stood up quickly, knocking his chair over in the process, "It Commodore, Captain or Sir to you when you're in here and on addresing me whilst on duty Commander, am I perfectly clear?"

Kilbane was taken aback by the sudden explosive change in Finchley's demeanour, "Yes Sir" he replied.

"And don't you fucking forget it!" Finchley answered him.

"Am I dismissed Commodore?" Kilbane asked.

"Yes, get out of my sight" Finchley replied coarsely."

Kilbane nodded and turned to leave, but just as he reached the door, Finchley said, "One last thing Commander, keep your personal life with the Doctor out of duty time, I won't tolerate any of this hand holding shit, and you tell that to her too, have you got that!"

Kilbane didn't reply at first, he just stared daggers and his CO, "I'll be sure to see it doesn't happen again Sir, let's hope that nothing like this crops up again any other time when anyone's on duty", and with that he left the room.

 

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