Entering Orbit

Posted on Fri Apr 16th, 2010 @ 4:20am by Vice Admiral Iluvar & Commander Earlond & Commander Fala Awen & Commander Michael Evans M.D.

Mission: Episode 1.2 - "A House Divided"
Location: Main Bridge, USS Pandora
Timeline: MD15, 0648

ON: [[Main Bridge, USS Pandora, MD15, 0648]]

Having chosen to remain on the bridge during the first leg of their journey through Romulan space, Iluvar was already present when the Alpha shift arrived at oh-six-hundred hours. He greeted them warmly and watched as the usual events of a shift change took place around him. No sooner had his senior staff settled into their posts than their first destination appeared on long-range sensors.

"Admiral, I have the Nerus system on sensors, dead ahead," Gran (NPC) reported, almost as soon as he'd settled into her seat.

Iluvar adjusted himself in his seat as he pondered the news. Starfleet had some familiarity with the systems along the neutral zone and within Romulan space, but he knew of nothing significant in the Nerus system. "Any signal from the D'Kar," he asked, wondering if their escort might give some indication as to their next course of action.

Tapping the console's panel to bring up the communication logs to check, and ensuring that they were receiving no current communications, Gran shook his head. "None."

"Sir, Romulans are slowing to impulse." Keloas announced as the D'kar slowed in front of the Pandora.

"Stay with them," Earlond said. With an effort, he resisted the impulse to call for a readying of weapons; this was supposed to remain somewhat diplomatic, and the Pandora arming its tactical systems would not help promote that. "What do we have in the system?"

Looking up at Earlond briefly, Awen then turned her eyes back to her console. She typed in a few commands and ran a new sweep on the system. "I'm not picking up any other vessels in the system....no military installations are present either. The planets seem to be uninhabited, except one. Picking up on faint traces on the surface of what seems to be a Romulan signature."

"Patience is a virtue, commander," Iluvar said slowly, sensing his first officer's concern as he watched the main viewscreen, "Mr. Keloas, what's our heading?"

"The course we are on takes us to the fifth planet in the system sir." Tyreel said, he slid his chair over a bit and looked at his sensor readout. "Best I can tell you is that its a L-Class, not much more."

"Bring us into orbit," Earlond said. "See if you can get any more information on the surface."

Gran (NPC) tapped away at his console, running several sweeps of the planet and its surface. He hoped the Romulans were expecting this sort of standard operation, because he had a pretty good feeling that there would be some problems if they didn't. So far, the warbird didn't seem to be doing anything in response to the scans. "Planet is Class-L, sir," Gran reported over his shoulder as he watched the information appear on the readouts, "I'm detecting a lot of geological activity and an unusual amount of atmospheric turbulence."

Awen entered the command to run a tactical sweep of the surface. It took slightly longer than usual due to the various disturbances, but she eventually got the report. "Sir, I'm detecting what may be a colony on one of the northern continents... The tactical sensors are having difficulty breaking through some of the turbulence and geological activity, though." The Bajoran doubted it would help, but tried to modify the sensors to see if she could get better results.

Evans was trying to support Awen's efforts from his own Life Sciences console. He was curious about the inhabitants of this supposed colony. All he could see so far, though, were spotty bits in the area of what must be a cluster of some very durable, if rudimentary, structures. "Romulan real estate at its best?" he ventured wryly as the sensor resolution was slowly pieced into something that vaguely resembled discernable.

"It's not exactly designed for comfort," Earlond said. "Facilities like this tend to be aimed towards function rather than unnecessary luxury." Personally, Earlond prefered functionality to comfort, but he knew that didn't often sit well with others.

"Either way, gentlemen, there we are here and there are Romulans down there," Iluvar said, bringing a close to the matter, "Mr. Earlond, I want you to take an away team to the surface and conduct an initial survey of whatever it is down there that we've been brought to see. I'm sure that our guides have several more stops planned for our tour. We don't want to bog down their timetable now, do we?"

"Fala," Earlond said, standing with a nod. He tapped his combadge. "Dr. Winchester, meet us in Transporter Room One." Turning, he lead the way towards the turbolift.

Awen gave Earlond a slight nod in return to acknowledge the order. Her thoughts quickly went through the officers available before she tapped her commbadge, "Fala to Vek, Scora, and Revan.....Vek, report to the bridge, Scora and Revan report to Transporter Room One."

"Mr. Keloas, put us into synchronous orbit over the Romulan signature," Iluvar ordered as Earlond and Fala disappeared into the turbolift, "Mr. Gran, see if we can't clear up some of that interference. I'd like to get a better picture of what's down there."

As the remaining members of the bridge crew began carrying out his orders, Iluvar rested his elbows on the arms of his chair and folded his hands in front of his face. The admiral focused his attention on the image of the planet on the main viewscreen as it rotated slowly below them. Though this was where their Romulan escort had brought them, he couldn't help but share some of the concerns of his crew that it didn't appear to be a vital installation. It was either that, or the Romulan Empire was worse off than they thought.

OFF

A JP by:

Rear Admiral Iluvar
Commanding Officer
USS Pandora

Commander Earlond
Executive Officer
USS Pandora

Lieutenant Commander Michael Evans
Chief Medical Officer/Second Officer
USS Pandora

Lieutenant Commander Fala Awen
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Pandora

Ensign Tyreel Keloas
Assistant Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Pandora

and

Petty Officer Gran (NPC)
Operations Officer
USS Pandora
Played by: RAdm Iluvar