The Orion, The Stitch and The Warp Core

Posted on Fri Dec 20th, 2024 @ 5:42am by Lieutenant Commander Keishara Davaris & Lieutenant JG Sam Matthews & Commander Steven Greco & Lieutenant JG Baaru Liana

1,324 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Year One: Strange Bedfellows
Location: USS Moore - Various Locations
Timeline: MD 006 - 1437 hours

Standing in Engineering, Liana was keeping herself busy by running another series of diagnoses on any engineering system she could think of. To be honest, she was doing it to stay out of the way of the Orion's coming onboard. She really didn't like this idea of asking them for help, but she wasn't exactly in a position to argue.

As she worked her way down the list of ship parts she was responsible for, she noticed something odd on her boards. Someone was currently in one of the auxiliary warp core rooms. Normally, these rooms were kept powered down while the ship was in its normal stage. These auxiliary warp cores only came online when the ship went into MVAM. Quickly checking her crew roster, she didn't find anyone working in that section of the ship or any of her staff even having living quarters near that warp core.

Tapping her combadge, Liana figure she should report it in as something suspicious at least. "Lieutenant Baaru to Security. Can I get a couple of your fine Security officers to check out something for me?"

Always monitoring all calls that came into security Keishara caught one from Lieutenant Baaru. "Where do you need us, Lieutenant?" she asked with an arched brow. She'd been getting reports of suspicious Orion movements since they started coming on board but most were just people being paranoid. Maybe this was different.

"Can I get you to check the Auxiliary warp core on deck 2. It should be powered down, but I think someone is in there playing around. None of my staff are scheduled to be in there. I can meet you in there if you wish."

Keishara frowned. "Meet me there. Davaris out." she closed the channel, signalled Lieutenant Matthews to follow, and headed down to the location specified. "Davaris to Greco, I'm investigating a potential break in down on deck 2, auxiliary warp core. If it's Orion related there may be an incident.

Steve sighed to himself as he got up from the Conn, tapping his combadge. "On my way, Commander. Send a security detail to meet us there. Lieutenant, you have the bridge." He said to Stewart as he headed for the turbolift.

"Not my first rodeo." Keishara said aloud as she rolled her eyes. That was a courtesy call, nothing more but yet he was on his way. Always liked to get involved.

When Keishara arrived with Sam she could see Liana was already outside as well. In the background a swoosh of doors revealed Greco and Keishara gave him a glance before typing in her security code so the doors of the auxiliary room would open.

Kneeling down besides the auxiliary warp core, the Orion was trying to figure out how the warp core worked by looking it over. He had a PADD in his hand and was making the occasional note as he went. The moment the door opened, the Orion jumped in surprise and quickly tried to hide in the darkened room, but as he hid, he dropped the PADD on the deck just out of his reach.

Liana stepped into the room just behind the XO and quickly looked around the room. "whoever's in here better not have touched anything"

Steve couldn’t help but smile to himself at the engineer’s attitude. He gestured for Davaris and Matthews to do a sweep. “It’s alright, Lieutenant. We will get it sorted out. Just stay close to me.” He said quietly, scanning the room as well to see if anything was out of place.

"Sam." Keishara nodded towards the out from behind the two officers who had seemingly just waltzed in without a care in the galaxy. Sam took the middle right and Keishara middle left. "Computer, put the lights on. I'm not doing this in the dark." she sighed.

As the lights came on she spotted a PADD on the ground and went in for a closer look only to find someone appear in her peripheral. Her right hand went to her holstered phaser, not removing it but simply resting on it and left held up, open palmed and fingers splayed. It wasn't aggressive but it did let them know she meant business. "Come out here, now." she ordered as Sam moved in for support behind her.

Steve gripped his phaser tighter as he took position to cover the security officers, mindful of the young engineer behind him.

Initially thinking of trying to run, the Orion quickly noticed that he was surrounded in this small room by what he assumed was three security officers, so instead he chose a different idea. Slowly standing up with his hands raised, he put on his best panicked expression that he could, “Oh thank the heavens that you're here. I got so lost on this ship. I found the door open and looked inside out of curiosity, and once I stepped inside, the door closed and locked me in here”

“What a load of crap” Liana said, clearly not believing his story, “this room is locked tight while not in use, there’s no way it was just open.”

Keishara gave the explanation an eye roll. "Do you honestly think we'd leave auxiliary warp cores unsecured?" she said, her tone dripping with sarcasm as she stooped to retrieve the fallen PADD. Standing up, she fixed Sam with a look that prompted him to adjust his stance, while she reviewed the information on the PADD. "So you're telling me this mystery door just happened to open for you, and while supposedly trapped in here — with an unlocked door — you thought it'd be a good time to jot down notes on the warp core? The coolant systems? How it integrates with our multi-vector assault mode?" she inquired.

The Orion gave a shrug, “I was curious?”

"Considering the security measures on this door, I'm inclined to believe that curiosity spurred you to break and enter." Keishara raised one finger. "That's trespassing in a high-security zone," she lifted another, "and potentially espionage," as a third finger joined the first two. Her gaze fixed on Greco. "Does that sound accurate, Commander?"

The commander folded his arms over his chest as he watched the Orion and El Aurian. "Sounds about right to me, Commander. All serious offenses in Federation space."

Looking at the three fingers, the Orion tried to think up a way out of this. He was clearly caught red handed, and his superiors would definitely kill him for his failure. "um wait wait, don't I get some kind of diplomat thing?"

Without changing the expression on his face, Greco tightened his jaw until his ears hurt. The little snake was right. They couldn't just throw him in brig and drop him off at the closest star base. This trade agreement complicated matters. He would have to bring this to the captain's attention with his Syndicate counterpart and Davaris also involved. "Lieutenant, escort our guest to the brig to be detained until we have a chance to discuss his wanderings with both the captain and his." Greco ordered Matthews.

Turning to the engineer next, Greco continued. "Lieutenant Baaru, I want a full diagnostic of every system and console in this room and a detailed report of your findings on my desk within twelve hours. I want to know what exactly he was up to in here."

“Count on it Commander” Liana said as she quickly got to work.

"Come on you little creep." Keishara said to the Orion and gave Sam a knowing look to get a move on. Sam extended his hand, "If you'll follow me sir." he said more respectfully than his superior. He would walk in adjacent to the Orion and Keishara just off and behind him. Just to keep an eye on what he did. She wouldn't have any sudden movements, even if he didn't have anywhere to go. She didn't trust any of them.

 

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