The Way Up

Posted on Wed Aug 5th, 2026 @ 1:18pm by Lieutenant Arianna Frost & Captain Nycolas Temple & Lieutenant Jack Lashmore

Mission: A New Day at Midnight
Location: Shuttle Bay
Timeline: Following 'The Way Down'

ON:

The Pandora had manoeuvred her way across the nebula and positioned in front of the Scout ship. It was delicate work getting the shuttle bay lined up with the Scout, Ensign Milkovich working hard to compensate against the ebb and flow of the dense particles in the nebula. Then, even when in position, it’s not like they could just open the bay doors, that would only serve to invite the White Diamond Nebula inside the Pandora. Instead, they employed a series of filtering shields, held tightly to the hull of smaller craft, that slowly but safely brought the Scout within its new home.

Finally with the craft touched down and suitably decontaminated on the Pandora’s deck, Nyx emerged from the safety of the corridor to approach his new crew members.

Standing before the exit hatch of the scout-ship, duffle strapped under shoulder, uniform jacket re-donned and overall ready to exit...though he found himself extending the seconds before he had to take that final step forward. Hesitation all of a sudden, self-doubts? Fear? Not even he really knew, but for a split second he found himself wishing he had never left his log cabin back on Earth.

Frost, her own duffle bag over shoulder, stepped past him, clasping his shoulder as she did so. "Come on mate, she'll be right. We've only not done this for years. We know what we're doing!" She called over her shoulder as she stepped down the ramp and headed over to the new Commanding Officer whom she noticed approaching them.

Jack muttered a single expletive under his breath with a sigh and followed her down the ramp; he could not help but glance about the immediate surroundings. Even with a handful of type-9 shuttlecraft and an added federation scout, the hangar was quite roomy. >i>Could have brought over a scout each he mused. Though to be fair, he was accustomed to overly cramped hangars in his Starfleet experience. First a warborn akira-class carrying more fighters than it should, followed by a nebula-class with more shuttles than it needed.

Jack continued to follow Arianna, finding himself having to suppress a smirk at the sudden turn of tables. When they first met, she seemed the one struggling with her demons, and he was the one playing casual-go-lucky; the moment they both boarded a Federation Capital-sized vessel, though, it seemed the roles had suddenly switched. Stopping by her side, Jack straightened his stance and stood to attention ebfore his new commanding officer. "Captain."

“Lieutenants.” Nyx smiled at the two, exchanging a quick hand shake with them both. Two junior officers appeared behind him and reached out to take their personal items. “Please, we don’t have much time. I’d like to get you up to speed as soon as possible.”

"From what little information we were recently sent during our time to intercept the Pandora, pirates on one of our smaller outermost colonies?" Jack replied, "with any luck a state-of-the-art Luna-class vessel should make quick business of it." Yeah...you just jinxed it, Jack, bloody idiot, he thought to himself.

“Not quite pirates.” Nyx answered, nodding towards the corridor doorway. “They were organised, prepared. And while they were brutal, we believe this was a planned attack. They did damage, twelve lives lost so far, countless more injured. But they weren’t coming for resources, they raided a museum and we believe stole some artefacts. We don’t know what as yet.”

"That almost sounds like a militia, or a rebellion." Ari commended as she walked beside the two. "Possibly locals, or being aided by the locals. A museum is no random target nowadays. It houses...or hides something they want." She said, already making a mental note of information she would look for and request based on availability.

"We'll need to look at other planets in the nebula." Nyx nodded, "Omipro itself was uninhabited at the time of Federation settlement; the colony was born from an archeological dig into an ancient species that had once lived there but died out centuries ago. The museum still housed artefacts from that expedition... and had done for years before this attack occurred." They approached the turbo lift and Nyx tapped at the call button. "Why raid it now?" He asked, more aloud than specifically to anyone.

Ari nodded, "do we have any local assets with intel available, or are we door knocking?" She asked as the Turbolift door opened.

"We'll have to speak with the colony's leadership, see if they have anything for us." Nyx replied. "Deck One." He commanded the lift as they entered.

Jack remained silent as the two continued to relay details and thoughts. There was little he could add in terms of the tactical assessment as of yet; some things could only be mostly prepared for and only adjusted to match the situation once it arose and he assumed the Pandora had been preparing for most of the past few weeks. He did however hate the thought towards the focused theft of artifacts by an impressively armed force; how many occurrences in the past few decades of ancient relics holding unreasonable power or the secrets to forgotten weapons was almost beyond count. "How much does Starfleet know about the history of past cultures in this region? Seems an awful lot of firepower for the standard black market relic hunters."

"Only guesses really based on what they found in the site." Nyx replied, "There is a brief article on the museum on the database, but research into the relics was still on-going. Perhaps they unknowingly uncovered something of value to someone?"

Jack nodded. "To unfortunately speak from experience...Pirates and raiders generally are only opportunistic with things that have a set value and guaranteed use or value on a market. Replicators, generators, weapons and medical supplies and the like. Someone saw value here at least if they were as well armed and ready as you suggested, sir. All quite prepared and premeditated."

Arianna nodded, "agreed. Who's going groundside, sir?" She looked over from Jack to Nyx.

She hated to admit it, but there was that familiar buzz of an investigation. Unravelling a mystery and finding answers. It...it was exciting.

Jack found himself interjecting before the Captain could reply, "I would not be a Security Chief without saying let's not get ahead of ourselves, with respect. Best see what presents in orbit, scans and a few hails first before dedicating thought to the surface."

Arianna nodded, acquiescing. "Of course."

"Once we have ascertained the situation, my number one, Commander Llewellyn, will be leading an away mission to the planet's surface." Nyx said. He miraculously pulled two PADDs from his pocket and handed over one each to the officers. "Lieutenant Lashmore, work with him to secure the colony's government and ensure order is restored. Lieutenant Commander Christine J'Oh will oversee the medical response with Ensign DeVine. Lieutenant Liana J'Oh will coordinate any necessary repairs with Engineering." He looked to Arianna, "Lieutenant Frost, work with Lieutenant Xanth and Jarok to begin the investigation at the museum as soon as it is safe to do so. We need answers."

Ari nodded, "yes, sir." She said as she took her PADD from Temple. "I'll liaise with Lieutenants Xanth and Jarok ASAP. Though I would advise everyone has the secondary objective of being on the look out for anything or anyone suspicious. Unsubs are often prone to returning to the scene of the crime, often in disguise to relive the event, or to see what the opposition is doing."

Jack kept any further thoughts to himself as he accepted the PADD, he was not about to put the ass in assumption until he had a better read of the situation and evidence of activities. "Not to sound like I'm jumping the gun, but...shall we?" He indicated the hangar exit with a nod. "Safety of the ship first and all, the sooner we get out of the nebula density and into the protection of the planets gravity well the better."

“Yes, let’s.” Nyx smiled, as they boarded the turbo lift and began their ascent up to the Bridge. “We can do the friendly get to know you once we’re out of this situation. I was surprised by your appointments to the Pandora, but I know Starfleet have been working overtime to get the Pandora fully staffed.”

"Full disclosure," Jack glanced toward Arianna then to Nyx, "I think we're on the receiving end of charity. A... it's not what you know but who you know, situation."

Ari nodded, "yeah, I think Lieutenant Lashmore is onto something there." She said as she looked up at Temple. Ari wanted to say 'we won't let you down, sir.' It felt awfully hypocritical though, considering. She wanted to say something though, but couldn't find the words. No words felt right, and that, to her, felt very unnatural. Words were her thing, after all.

Nyx leaned against the wall of the lift, relaxing his posture. “I’m familiar with that situation. Someone we have in common?”

Arianna shrugged, "dunno, sir. Does Commodore Alexander Night ring a bell? He connects Lieutenant Lashmore and myself, but I don't know how far the net goes. Then again, it could be someone else that we don't know. Our alternatives were prison or hermitism, so there were really no choices in the matter."

Jack arched an eyebrow toward Arianna and felt the need to clarify at least his standing on the prison instance, "To be fair, I was imprisoned by the bad guys...sir." Awkward moment as he pondered Arianna's prison prospects, she actually deserved prison??

Arianna said nothing met Jack's eyes for a moment before refocusing on Temple. She had said enough, and the Turbolift was not the place to discuss classified information.

Nyx kept his expression deliberately neutral, letting the Lieutenants do the talking, and the reciprocal eye glances, as he carefully watched them both. Talk of prison and favours, this wasn’t the typical ship assignment. Then, nothing about their arrival had been usual; who would ever send two officers into a dangerous nebula in a Scout ship? Now it appeared there were additional layers to the situation, and Nyx’s interest was piqued. He just wasn’t sure if Commodore Night’s ‘charitable’ act was to benefit the Pandora, or the Lieutenants. Or, as was usually the case, the Commodore himself.

Sensing the pair had chosen to curtail any further discussion, Nyx did what he always did when he wanted to move on. He released his hands from his sides and clapped them together pointedly. He put on a jovial laugh for added effect. “Well, we will have a lot to discuss once we’re off Omipro. We’re heading to Bridge, unless you were in need of some medical first? It can’t have been a smooth ride rolling through the Nebula in that toy ship?”

Thankful for the change of topic Jack shook his head, "sonic showers and non pre-packaged food can wait, Captain. If my calculations arent too far off we're pretty close to the planet and we should be serving them before serve ourselves." If Jack knew how to do anything, it was his old trick to simply defer to regulation and the Federation Constitution when it came to duty. Ship, crew, mission - civilians before the prior three.

Frost nodded, "agreed, sir. We can wait. The people down there can't."

Nyx nodded, “I like to hear it. Well, once this is all settled we can have a proper conversation.” The lift was slowing as it approached the Bridge deck. He looked back to the new officers and couldn’t help but smile. This was the moment they went from recruits to officers. Pandora officers. “You guys ready?”

"For a second, I thought you weren't the typical Captain. See Miss Frost, we're already labelled." Jack then offered a reassuring, in terms of 'it's a joke', glance to the Captain. "We'll muddle through...sir."

Ari resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "We're old hands, sir. She'll be right." She said with a smile and a nod of her own.

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