Something Strange in the Neighborhood

Posted on Mon Jul 19th, 2010 @ 9:22am by Commander Fala Awen & Vice Admiral Iluvar & Commander Earlond & Commander Christopher McNeil

Mission: Episode 1.2 - "A House Divided"
Location: USS Pandora, Bridge
Timeline: Day 16, 1430 hours

ON: [[USS Pandora, Bridge, Day 16, 1430]]

After a brief lunch a couple hours ago, Awen had been on the bridge. Thus far, nothing exciting had happened - the Romulan vessel was still there, just sitting quietly. Still, though, she'd been running regular scans of the area in case someone else decided to show up. Considering the condition of the colony though, the Bajoran doubted that very much.

Isela (NPC), still a little nervous, looked up from the Science console. Her eyes darted around the bridge. Perhaps it was partly due to her conflicting emotions and personalities, but she was feeling paranoid; concerned that the rest of the bridge crew didn't think she belonged. Sonya (NPC) had asked her to take over on the bridge for awhile, so the young Trill had done so. The Assistant Chief Science officer had already set up regular scans of the area, so Isela had little to do unless something showed up.

Earlond glanced over at the ensign at the Science staton. He hadn't seen her on the bridge before - she certainly seemed nervous enough to have had little experience with bridge duty.

After spending a few pleasant minutes enjoying the ensign's discomfort, Earlond suddenly remembered that he had certain duties as XO, namely to help the crew work smoothly together. Since there wasn't much going on at the moment, he decided he should probably try to help the ensign feel more comfortable with the rest of the bridge crew. With a sigh, he turned towards her again.

"Ensign," Earlond said. "Have you done bridge duty before?"

Blinking in surprise, Isela turned to look at the Commander. Apparently it was even more obvious than she had originally thought. "Um....well...no, sir, I haven't." She hated to admit it, but the bridge, with all its high ranking officers, was rather intimidating.

"I see," Earlond said. He was torn - it would be fun to make her squirm a little, but Iluvar would certainly not approve. "Do you expect to see more bridge duty in the future?"

"I'm....not sure, sir," Isela replied, still a little hesistant. "Ensign Masterson asked me to take over for her for a little while. I suppose since she asked me this time, she'd ask me again if everything goes well." The hesitance and shyness were getting a little annoying to her; they seemed more amplified due to still not being entirely comfortable with the previous hosts' personalities.

"I see no reason to see why it shouldn't go well," Earlond said. "You know your work, or Ensign Masterson wouldn't have asked you up here; therefore, you should have no problem. Remember, everyone starts as an ensign." Though not entirely true, Earlond felt the sentiment was close enough to provide some encouragement.

Isela gave a brief smile at the Commander's words, "Thank you sir, I appreciate it." Somehow she got the feeling that he perhaps didn't entirely believe what he had told her, but she shook the feeling away. Apparently Tolm's (NPC) paranoia and distrust were getting the better of her. Isela didn't want to be like him though, at least not in that regard.

"Carry on," Earlond said with a nod, turning forward again. He had missed an opportunity to have fun with the ensign, but at least he had managed to boost her confidence, if only a little.

McNeil stepped onto the bridge and made his way to his usual spot at the Mission Ops console, directly behind the center seat. He wasn't really sure why he'd decided to come up to the bridge this afternoon, but somehow he had the feeling he should be here. McNeil always trusted his intuition.

The Science console beeped quietly, alerting Isela that it had finished its most recent scan. She looked through the information quickly, but then paused and looked again slowly. Her fingers tapped on the screen, bringing up the previous scan results side-by-side with the current ones. The Trill frowned, then spoke up, "Sir, I'm getting some odd readings."

Iluvar looked up from the PADD he had been reviewing and turned his attention toward the science station. "What kind of readings," he asked, wondering if yet another piece of the puzzle was ready to make itself known.

"Well," Isela began as she continued tapping at the console, trying to do some quick analyzing, "it...seems to be some neutrino emissions."

Neutrino emissions in and of themselves were not necessarily something to concern oneself with. However, considering that they were well within Romulan space and taking into account the current state of affairs amongst the factions, not to mention their own mystery here on Nerus V, one could never be too careful. "Source," Iluvar asked, mulling the possibilities in his mind as he listened for the Trill's response.

Isela frowned, shaking her head, "I can't pinpoint it exactly, sir...I can only tell you that it's coming from somewhere in this system." She felt terrible having to say that - like she'd failed her Commanding Officer. But she simply couldn't find the exact source.

At the Tactical station, Awen looked over at the young Trill at Science. She had a few ideas as to what could be causing the emissions and she didn't like them. One of the most worrisome was the idea that more Romulan ships were going to pay them a visit. Just in case, she increased the range and frequency of her tactical scans.

"Continue scanning and keep me appraised of your results," Iluvar said, understanding just how difficult it could be to localize emissions sometimes. In his younger days, trying to track down a single set of emissions amidst the numerous gasses of the Briar Patch could have been considered an olympian-esque feat.

"Of course, sir," Isela replied. Glancing down at the scan parameters, she made a few tweaks and then set the scan to run again.

"Admiral," Awen said from her station, "I recommend we go to yellow alert. We may not know what is causing the neutrino emissions, but I can't think of anything good." Normally she might be more willing to wait for a more definitive identification of the emissions, but being in Romulan space made her more leery.

Iluvar considered the Bajoran's proposal. It was a prudent precaution, to be sure, but was it the best course of action for a diplomatic mission? After all, it hadn't been that long ago that the Enterprise had come under attack while on a diplomatic mission to Romulus, albeit at the false invitation of what many could consider to be a madman. There was a time and place for every thing. "Increase status to yellow alert," Iluvar said, "but remember, we are on a diplomatic mission."

"Of course sir," Awen replied. Her right index finger slid across the console and then the rest of her fingers quickly started tapping to bring the Pandora to Yellow Alert. True, it could be voice activated, but she had found a slight glitch in the programming, which she still needed to bring up with Ops.

"Any sign that the D'Kar has detected the emissions?" McNeil asked out of pure curiosity. He knew that Romulans were no better at detecting their own cloaked ships than the Federation was, which meant that only the vastness of space and careful attention to course and patrol assignments kept warbirds from colliding with each other. He wasn't sure, however, about their ability to detect neutrinos, which were often a side-effect of the cloaking field.

Allowing her fingers to dance across the console to run yet another scan, Awen paused to wait for the results and then glanced over at Christopher, "They don't seem to be actively scanning anything, haven't raised shields or armed their weapons. The D'Kar is just sitting there....as it has been, Commander."

"Alright... even for Romulans they're acting odd," McNeil muttered. "Especially with the current instability in the Empire. If I were a Romulan commander I'd be scanning everything, especially with a Federation ship sitting in my space."

Although she didn't like the situation, Awen had to admit that for the time being there wasn't much more they could do. Frowning the Bajoran said, "I suppose for now we're doing everything we can...until we find the source of those emissions, all we can do is keep scanning and wait."

"Patience is a virtue," Iluvar said, turning his attention to the main viewscreen. Another Romulan ship could be out there somewhere and it was making the crew nervous. They could only hope that, if it was another vessel, diplomacy would prevail.

OFF:

JP brought to you by:

Ensign Isela Vin (NPC)
Science Officer
USS Pandora
played by: Lt Cmdr Fala

and

Lieutenant Commander Fala Awen
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Pandora

and

Commander Christopher McNeil
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Pandora

and

Commander Earlond
Executive Officer
USS Pandora

and

Rear Admiral Iluvar
Commanding Officer
USS Pandora