Time for talks and family
Posted on Tue Dec 31st, 2024 @ 8:17am by Captain Mira Rodale & Commander Kevin Lance & Lieutenant Commander Awal Kronnelti & Lieutenant Tracey Walker Jr & Lieutenant Betaras K'ner
Edited on on Sun Jan 5th, 2025 @ 6:45pm
Mission:
Red Matters
Location: USS Chuck Norris
Timeline: Present
On:
{Family quarters}
Kolar and Ashla had both been the center of their attention that evening. Kolar squealed. "Me fly the ship. me do!"
Mira laughed as she rolled over on the floor to watch Kolar jumping up and down with his excitement to fly. "Oh, hold on there. We haven't even fixed the ship, yet. How about when we get to the Base, we all go on an adventure in the holodeck?"
Kolar looked at her speculative. "They got ships?"
Mira nodded with a grin.
Kolar bit his lip. "And I can fly it?"
Mira laughed. "Of course you can. we will all go, and you can be the captain until your dada mutinies and takes over the ship." She laughed.
Kevin held his hand to his chest in mock distress. "You wound me, madam," he replied, "I am nothing if not your loyal subordinate." He ducked swiftly to avoid a pillow that Mira threw in his direction.
Kolar giggled at how fast his mom moved. One minute, she was lying on the floor with his sister, and then she jumped up and twirled him around.
"Now, little man, it's bedtime." Mira carried him off to his room. Vaytoc slowly got up, stretching in a very cat type of motion, then followed.
{Next morning, Briefing room}
She decided that this information should be entrusted with her main department heads. She had no idea if this temporal officer would make himself known again to them. But, seeing as he had been popping up in her life since she was 19 years old, there was a good chance he would keep doing so.
Everyone came in and took their seats. She smiled. " This is an information briefing, and the information I share needs to remain with us. There are secret departments within Star Fleet. It's probably far more than I even know about. One is in charge of temporal alterations. Sometimes, they fix them or make sure they don't happen. Other times, they let them happen for the betterment of the Federation. Our last mission was one of them. I was warned not to do anything stupid, full hearty, and not to be on ambassador Spock ship."
She rolled her eyes, sitting back in her chair. "That information only made me second guess every choice I made. The black hole made an alternate timeline on the other end of the black hole. One that Ambassador Spock is alive, but Vulcan was destroyed by the ship we encountered." she gave them a moment to take all that in.
Awol was the first to ask. "Who and when did they contact you."
Mira sighed. "The day of the meeting with Spock. And ...." She blushed. "I don't know his name. he told me once but I was 19 and really, really drunk. It's been a game of his not telling me again. But he did save my life."
Kevin shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Mira’s description of her informant sounded quite a bit like Shadow. A nameless, enigmatic puppeteer pulling her strings. Whether or not they were the same person, or represented the same interest within the Federation, was a question that he needed to consider.
K'ner feels there's a story there, but if the captain thinks it'll pertain to the current sequence of events, she's sure she'll relate more details.
"If he actually gave you a real name anyway eh?" K'ner shrugged. "Is there another event coming?"
"Hopefully not until we get the Norris repaired," Kevin replied dryly.
K'ner nodded. "We do have several vulnerabilities at the moment."
Trace nodded, "There's an understatement." He mulled over what he was hearing, but had no experience, and no desire to experience, anything to do with time travel. Well, maybe if he had met Geneva earlier in his life...
Awol raised his hand in a stop motion. "Hold on. I am getting the feeling you are glossing over much needed information. I also feel there is a story we would all like to hear." Awol told her firmly.
Oh yeah, she had hoped so many people would be asking other things they would forget about that.
She put her hand over her face for a moment. "Right. Ok, yes he did give me more cryptid information. Again, I'll be second guessing my choices."
Awol nodded. "Tell us. I assume you had no idea why he told you not to be in Spock’s ship or that Vulcan would be destroyed."
Mira nodded. "Yeah, I didn't know the why or what would happen. Seems if I had been on Spock’s ship, the Norris was destroyed and our daughter didn't get the chance of growing up to be this amazing diplomat." Mira shrugged. "In the other timeline, I seemed to have died trying to save James T Kirk on a frozen planet. All of that was avoided by staying on the Norris."
Awol looked thoughtful "Any other cryptid message?"
Mira frowned "yes..... but I don't know when this is supposed to happen."
Awol waved his hand in a come out with it motion.
Sighing, Mira continued. "It would seem, at a later date in time, I have no idea when. Kevin will be sent on a mission. I have no idea why or what that will be about. A trusted friend of mine will approach me about an... " she sighed again; "an under cover mission. I told him that I am a mom of 2 and a captain I don't do those mission anymore."
Awol perked up. "But you did at one time."
Mira nodded. "When I thought I was invincible and didn't really care if I lived or died. It was all about living in the moment."
K'ner nodded. "And that has changed."
It was a statement more than anything else but Mira nodded. "I have changed. It would seem whatever this mission is about, if I don't go then a group of Federation woman will be missing forever." Mira sat back frowning." He also said that it would push my emotional and moral boundaries. I am so not liking the sound of that.” Mira told them all. “There is a warning that was given....If I don't go, Kolar will get killed and Ashla and I taken." Mira looked visibly shaken up." She looked over at Kevin. "He said you wouldn't be able to find me." Her voice cracked saying that. "If I go on the mission then they are safe."
Awol nodded. "When do you go?"
"I have no idea. I don't know who I would trust with my life that I would willing leave my children without Kevin or myself to protect them and undertake a dangerous mission. It's more of his darn cryptid stuff." Mira felt frustrated.
Awol watched her for a moment and decided to change the information he wanted. "You said you trust this agent and he saved your life. tell us about that."
"yeah, ok 19 just started the Academy and a book nerd. Trying to fit in with the wild crowd. I got talked into a drinking contest." Mira smirked "I won but wasn't feeling great. So I decided I should return to my quarters. As I was leaving, a fight broke out. Some guy I was passing in the bar pulled his arm back to punch someone, but I caught the elbow. I remember the explosion of pain and hitting the wall. sliding down the wall dazed and some guy picking me up. He said I was in the wrong place and the wrong time and he was taking me home. That ended up being the temporal officer. Not really sure what happened after that but I woke up the next morning in my pajamas, in my bed and there was a report of an explosion that happened at the bar in the information feed. He has shown up a few times after that on SB10 and DS15..."
I fudging hate cryptic shit said Awal.
Mira nodded she really did, too. "When we reach Beta Antares. We will be on leave until repairs are completed. " She rubbed the back or her neck "might be longer than we planned since there is far more damage to the ship than we reported. Do we want to hang out on the base or try to get transportation to a planet for a vacation?"
K'ner mulled over the information. "Did he say you had to go alone? And with Commander Lance gone as well, that would leave Cdr Montgomery in command," she said, gesturing at the 2nd officer. "Actually, while we're in dock for repairs, would be the time when your absence wouldn't be noticed as much as regular duty..." She looked like she was running data back and forth in her head...
Mira set back, surprised then ran the conversation in her head again. "No, he didn't. He just said I would be needed for that mission to work."
Mira tapped her fingers on the table. "There is more information." Mira reluctantly told them. “When I was an Ensign on SB10, the base was attacked by the Orions. 16 young female Starfleet officers were kidnapped." She was quiet for a moment before she reluctantly continued. "I was one of them." Mira looked down at her hand, not really wanting to see any pity in her crews eyes. "it took 8 weeks to get us all back. After a warning from a star fleet officer, I checked up on the other woman. It was just before we were taken into the Matrix. I am the only one left. The others have disappear. No trace of them. I have a team looking into this, and they aren't encumbered by the rules of Starfleet to find these women. Still nothing at all. it's like they ceased to exist. I think the woman they are talking about has to be the ones I am looking for. I just don't understand, after all this time, why the Orion’s would recapture women? Or, how they managed to leave no trace. . If they were resold, there would be a record.”
K'ner's eyes harden a bit. "What happened during the time you were taken?"
Mira tensed for a moment, and then her eyes met K’ner’s. “It was bad… I can’t even be in a locked room. The Orions have a smell that …… it sets off panic attacks. The people they take are normally taken to certain areas called the block and sold. Either as a slave or food. They really don’t care which. It took a while to get to the block. You’re tagged and processed, then put on display. The bidding starts, and then your new owner takes you away with them. I had scars, both physically and mentally, when I was found. All of the women taken are older now. We aren’t fresh young girls that would bring them any profit worth hunting us down for. The Orion that bought me was killed. Kolar …… well, he killed the man. There has to be a reason."
K'ner controlled her breathing. "So you heard something. Or saw something... or someone... They're covering their tracks... but why now... something has changed. What are the Orions, or whomever is related to this group, up to now that's important enough to risk such a level of exposure if they get caught trying to remove you... or take you for that matter..."
Mira thought about it. "The Orion’s are working with the Gorn." Mira frowned. That time had been so hellish and full of pain. She had gone through things to survive that she never wanted to think about again. closing her eyes, trying to keep the panic from taking over her. Kolar had held her when she awoke screaming and trying to rebuild who she needed to be now.
The fun-loving carefree Mira had died at the hands of the Orions. She had been young, playful, and easygoing. Mira felt a little lightheaded as she realized she had forgotten to breathe. Taking steady breaths, Mira couldn't seem to bring herself to relive her time there. But there had been one odd thing that stood out in her mind.
She stood up quickly, feeling the need to run. "There was a ship that we met on the way to the block. They were Orions but different, not as aggressive. It was like they lived under oppression.. I remember trying to hear over the moans and cries to hear what was being said. They said they were dead ringers. That they had to have them as replacement but they couldn't seem to agree on a price and the group that took us thought there would be more profits selling us. One of the men called me by my middle name." Mira wrapped her arms around her. the Orion that bought her had called her Angel as well.
K'ner watched as the Captain relived part of her past. 'This could get dicey,' she thought, 'if the Captain and her family are to emerge out the other end intact.'
"Any idea of where to look, or we just waiting for the next path to make itself known?" K'ner already had Peke working on some subtle information-gathering, but the more they knew, the more they could prepare for... as much as one can prepare for the unknown...
Mira was lost in thought for a few moments. "I am not sure." Her eyes went to Kevin but he was his quiet self. "Kevin has ah...." she had almost said ‘order’ but that wasn't right. "I'll be under protection at all times off the ship." Mira gave a little sigh as she pulled up her sleeve showing a bracelet. It was pretty and looked like jewelry, but it wasn't. "The tracker can't be taken off. Security has the code. I will be with someone at all times." She gave a little shrug. "Who needs privacy right?"
Mira sat back down. “I haven't gotten orders that Kevin is needed off ship but... It's possible the two things will happen at one time. So there is really only 4 people off this ship that I would trust with my life. Thor, who has become a uncle to me. Jetta, a crazy Risian who would more then likely cause a riot before being able to come up with plans. V, she is an amazing engineer and was my commanding officer at one time. Last is Isbethal, she is a Klingon/Caitian. she is a professional ... Problem solver.
Murphy raised his Vulcan eyebrow. "an assassin?"
Mira hadn't wanted to say that but.
"yeah and she is also the one I hired to find the women."
Murphy nodded. "So, more then likely, she will find some information and want to act quickly."
Mira thought about it. "Yeah, and if she is involved and needs me? Things are going to die."
Murphy understood what she meant. "I have only heard you referred to as being Angela when we were in the mirror universe. If that has anything to do with this, then you are a dead ringer for her. Perhaps that is why we have not been able to find the other woman. they may not be in this universe."
K'ner sighed. "Well, if that's so, then that's not good. That'll certainly make things tougher, both in response and planning. Too much insight on their side. And, as usual, we're short on intel..." K'ner shrugged. "Wouldn't be no fun if it was easy I suppose!"
OFF:
Lt Betaras K'ner
Hazard Team Combat Medic TL-B / CMO
USS Chuck Norris
&
Lieutenant Commander Awal Kronnelti
Chief of security and tactical
USS Chuck Norris
And
Captain Mira Rodale
CO USS Chuck Norris
