Meanwhile...

Posted on Sat Jul 25th, 2020 @ 5:00pm by Captain Abigail Laurens & Lieutenant Commander T'Vek & Lieutenant Mica Rue & Lieutenant Sorak & Commander Ichiko Gail & Lieutenant Odan Tran & Lieutenant Alexis Aenera

Mission: Into The Delta Triangle

The shuttles had launched and now the Astraea was holding position waiting. With Koh and Calissi acting as the go-between for the away teams, the pilots had already reported that both teams had arrived safely at their destinations, now all they could do was wait.

Lieutenant Commander T'Vek had decided, which was rather unusual for him, to make an appearance on the bridge, vice actually monitoring things from his office. Given the situation, it seemed prudent, if a tad overcautious, to make said appearance while there were two teams being deployed to separate areas of operation, a risky venture that wasn't generally recommended when other options existed. With all that being said, it didn't stop the Vulcanoid from admiring the moxie that such a move required.

The elderly Varro appeared on the bridge and took a place on the peripheral at the secondary science station. Odan Tran was a diplomate first and foremost; but, a seasoned science officer as well. He wanted to be in a position to help however he could. Tran lifted his hand behind his neck and carefully massaged his fingers against a series of horizontal ridges which protruded there. This was a habit he often indulged when he was concentrating. He monitored this console while he looked around the bridge and took it all in.

Sitting where she belonged, next to the Captain, was the ship's second Ichiko Gail. Seated with a smirk, legs crossed over one another at the knee, the rabbitess had a smirk on her features as she looked around the bridge. She enjoyed the view, though it was nothing like the view on a Ts'usugi ship. Then again, she could get away with so much compared to one of the ships back home.

Normally in a situation like this Sorak would prefer to be in engineering, however, at the request of the Captain he had reported to the bridge and found himself now stationed at the smaller spot allocated to engineering on an Akira-class bridge. Working his fingers across the screen he brought up a real time feed of the systems from engineering to monitor the ship while also tapping into the operations system to coordinate with ops as the Chief was off-world.

Lt Rue entered the bridge, nodding to the CO briefly before taking up residence near engineering. The engineer manning the main console had his fingers flying across the screen. Mica observed him, letting her body remember the old familiar vibration of the ship beneath on the bridge beneath her feet. She waited to introduce herself, not wanting to distract the man from his task. Instead, she turned to the secondary console and pulled up the engineering specs and stats of the ship, checking over each system one by one...

Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Darryl Brenson walked onto the bridge and took a deep breathe of the rarified air. He wasn't used to being here when the 'A-Team' was there, being primarily a second-watch officer, but with the Boss, her assistant and another of the higher-level security Lieutenants off the ship, he finally got a moment in the sunshine, or whatever this was called. The brown-haired, brown-eyed man settled himself behind the security console and logged on, updating himself on the ship status.

>> Tag to everyone, grab a station, settle yourself in on the bridge and pretend to be busy! <<

"Commander T'vek," Abigail twisted in her seat to turn her attention to the Intelligence Officer who was manning one of the consoles. "Is it possible to access any communications from the surface? Preferably without anyone knowing you're doing it?" she asked quietly.

T'Vek drummed the console with his fingers in thought for a moment before offering a slight shrug, "It's worth an attempt. I'll see if I can't commandeer one or two of the communications satellites from here."

Without much in the way of a pause, T'Vek began calling up the local communications network to test whether such a takeover was possible. Given the rather... loose... security that seemed to be in place, the Vulcan couldn't help but smirk to himself at how kind the locals were being in giving him some rather uninhibited access.

"It looks like we can skim at least seven of their pipelines... though there's no real guarantee any of them will contain information you actually want. Should I be looking for something in particular? Or are we just eavesdropping for the sake of it?"

"General communications, but lets set some keywords of interest... Tejar, Cardassian, etc." Abigail offered. "Anything that might give us a heads up on whether or not our friend is, or even has been down there recently."

"I'll have the computer run through the historical logs, see what we can turn up," the Vulcan said from his seat.

Turning back to face the viewscreen, Abigail leaned back in her seat, drumming her fingertips on the armrest of her chair. "Gods, this is going to make me crazy!" she finally exclaimed. "Patience is not one of my virtues. I'm really not good at just sitting around waiting like this. How much longer until the away teams are due to report in again?"

Ichiko couldn't help but smirk at Abigail. "They just checked in." she commented. A dynamic opposite to the captain's impatience, Ichiko was calm and collected. Though, being raised as she was more likely to blame then that. Ichiko could be just as impatient as Abigail, but was good at... was that an ear twitch? A tail fluff twitch?

"The Dalacari call listening into local transmissions 'Scatter Chatter', perhaps it will do you some good?" she offered.

"Well, it certainly can't make things worse," Abigail replied with a shrug. "Commander T'vek, what have you got?"

"Astraea Actual, this is Ghost. Away Team Alpha reports a disaster at the mining site at their location. They are providing assistance. Orders or updates?"

The communication broke the silence on the bridge. "Ghost, stand by for orders," Abigail stated, standing up from her seat and turning around. "Commander T'vek, find a communication channel with information on this mine disaster," she ordered.

It didn't take a whole lot of searching to find one, though it was somewhat garbled in places. More of the information coming through looked to be downplaying the incident, which was typical of backwater worlds. Anything that would draw attention to them would garner the eyes of people they'd much rather avoid having around. With that in mind, T'Vek forwarded the reports to the Captain's personal terminal, filtering out the ones that wouldn't be of much use.

"Astraea Actual. Update from Away Team Alpha. Advised to prepare Sickbay for MCI possible." Ghost, err... Koh felt very comfortable and at home here, talking like a pilot, flying like a pilot, but all he was here was a relay. He wanted to be there.. even just to lift debris with his shuttle.

Turning toward Ichiko, Abigail drew in a deep breath. "I think the plan just went out the window," she murmured softly. "Ghost, confirm our people are safe. Notify Commander Rogers to break protocol. Starfleet is standing by to offer any and all assistance required."

"Roger. Relaying orders and moving to assist." Koh confirmed, before switching positions to better relay to the team below.

"Commander Gail, we may need to assemble another away team, if we do, I want you leading it up," Abigail said calmly before turning to look across at Lieutenant Sorak. "Lieutenant, open a channel to Warrant Officer Veera and Away Team Two. I want away team two recalled immediately to return to the ship. The extra hands may be useful for rendering assistance on Kessik IV."

Ichiko gave a nod, "I'll start immediately."

“Underwood Captain. Working on communications now.” Sorak replied as his fingers reached out and glided across his screen, accessing the communications system and activating it. =/\=“Astraea to Away Team Two, this is Lieutenant Sorak. Please proceed to your extraction point and prepare to return to the ship. We'll debrief you once you're onboard."

"This is Dead Eye. Repositioning to send a comm channel through to Away Team Two." Callisi's comm came through loud and clear as she moved her shuttle to relay.

Styveck sat in the mission advisor's chair on the bridge near the Captain. His presence on the bridge was to observe the overall stress indicators of the bridge team. He didn't operate on a bridge very often, but quite enjoyed the opportunity. He sat quietly with his ever present PADD making minor notes and observations.

"Astraea actual, this is Dead Eye. Negative contact on Away Team Two. Advise."

Sorak arched his brow as the shuttle reported they could not raise the away team. Turning to the Captains General direction he folded his arms behind his back and relayed the message. “Captain, Dead Eye cannot raise Away Team Two. Directions?”

Abigail glanced from Sorak to Ichiko, raising an eyebrow slightly. "What the hell is going on down there? Dead Eye, prepare to return to the Astraea for further orders. Helm, take us into a synchronous orbit of Kessik III. Commander Gail, prepare an away team to render assistance on Kessik IV. I'll take a team to Kessik III to find our people."

Shaking his head, Darryl cleared his throat as he tried to remember which protocol it was, but couldn't, "Umm, Captain? I don't think that's advisable? If you're sending the Executive Officer on an away mission, I don't think you should leave the ship as well. We've got an awful lot of senior officers already not here." He instantly wanted to melt into the console he was standing behind.

Abigail turned toward the Lieutenant at the Security station on the bridge. "I don't see much of a choice Lieutenant," she replied calmly. "As you pointed out, we have an awful lot of senior officers already not here, so unless you have another viable solution, this is what we're going to do."

“N-no ma’am.” Darryl flushed red, of course he should have had a viable option ready, that was one of his duties when here at THIS station. The young man cursed at himself very fluently in his mind, then stopped as another idea hit him, one that could save some face for him at least, “Do you want me to get a security team ready to escort you, Captain?”

Until now, Tran had been a silent observer, he did not feel it was his place to inject his thoughts. He was a simple traveller aboard the Astraea, and unlike many of the crew present he was not overly familiar with the mission which was unraveling before his eyes. Tran carefully watched the interactions between the young Lieutenant and his captain, and he decided to weigh in, tossing the man a support line, “If circumstances demand that Section 12, Paragraph 4, or thereabouts, be dismissed then certain security measures are likely warranted.”

It was Sorak's turn to speak up, having not received orders from the Captain he took the chance to study where Alpha Team was and had some concerns. "Captain, if there is a mining disaster you will need an engineers assistance planet side. I will gladly escort you and provide some clarity to this brewing storm."

"I'll keep that in mind, thank you Lieutenant. Commander Gail, my ready room if you don't mind," Abigail said quietly as she started walking across the bridge. "Commander T'Vek, you have the bridge."