Old Faces

Posted on Wed Jun 24th, 2020 @ 3:49am by Captain Nycolas Temple & Commander Owen Nash & Mauricio Arnaldo
Edited on on Fri Jul 10th, 2020 @ 6:01pm

Mission: The Evils Within
Location: Paradise Outpost Orbit
Timeline: After "Checking It"

ON: USS Severn, enroute to Paradise Outpost.

After speaking with Nyx back on the Palatine, Owen had held a discussion with Captain Rao regarding his need to return to Paradise Outpost and to pick up the lost phaser. Whilst there, in the Science lab, under extreme security, Owen had explained the Paradise mission and his concerns regarding the conversation with Nyx.

Fortunately, Rao had agreed to the idea of taking the Palatine towards the border where Paradise Outpost was located. With plenty of Starfleet vessels on border patrol on the Federations side of the line, another one on there wouldn't make too much of a difference. This was the argument he made when discussing this with the Admiralty and the orders were given to send the Vesta Class Starship out on its next mission.

Once they had begun to get close to the border, Owen managed to get permission to use a Runabout to get himself on the way to Paradise Station, a journey in itself which was a risky idea. But Owen needed to find out what was going on. The conversation with Nyx had left questions that needed answering and questions that also needed answering about Pandora's current mission as well. Being the XO, he had high-level security access and should know what's happening.

As he sat at the controls of the Runabout, Owen kept checking and re-checking the sensors to make sure that there weren't any Alrakis Pact ships in the area. The last thing he wanted was to run into one of those. A Danube Class Runabout was no match for a Breen Warship.

After several hours of carefully making his way towards the Station, Owen realised that he had closed to within range of the Paradise Outpost outer marker. Once he arrived, Owen pulled the Runabout to a stop and wondered. On the way over, he realised that he was so busy avoiding ships, he hadn't thought of a way to contact Mauricio.

If there had been any doubt about the secretive nature of the Captain's request, it was only confirmed moments later when a small craft appeared in range of Nash's shuttle. It was a personal vessel, seemingly a hybrid of different technologies, but short-range and low capability. It hadn't come from far, suggesting it could have only launched from Paradise. No sooner had the ship gotten into comms distance of Commander Nash, did he receive a hail.

"This is Commander Nash of the Federation ship Severn, please identify yourself, over," Owen asked as he tried to get a better reading on the vessel before him.

"Dios mío!" Came the familiar voice from the alien ship. "I don't believe it!" Mauricio called out with jovial glee.

"Arnaldo, is that you? It's so good to hear from you again," Owen answered. "Can you bring your ship alongside? I need to speak with you." Still wanting to get answers on this situation, Owen was at least relieved that he now had a familiar face to talk to.

"Of course, Commander!" Mauricio replied in his usual jovial tone, but there was a significantly long pause over the comms. "Uh.... just be patient."

It took several minutes of painfully awkward vessel manoeuvring (as the former Marine wasn't much of a pilot and the foreign nature of his craft didn't allow for much auto-pilot), before Arnaldo was able to settle into position and make contact again.

"So, your ship or mine, Mr. Nash?" Mauricio asked with a grin.

"Yours," Owen answered. As soon as it was clear that the two vessels were docked in unison, Owen made his way across to meet with Mauricio to get some answers.

"Permission to come aboard, Captain," Owen said in jest as he made his way on board Mauricio's vessel.

Mauricio grimaced a little, "Ugh, definitely not a Captain. I much prefer to be on firm ground these days. But it's good to see you, Commander."

"Its good to see you too. In fact, at a time like this, it's very good to see an old face that I can trust. I'm hoping that you can help me with some answers as to what the hell is going on out there," Owen stated.

The former Marine laughed, "I was hoping you could give me some answers!" He hustled back to the cockpit region of the ship and picked up a data chip and a device. "You remember when Lieutenant Mindo installed a patch on Paradise's database to introduce updated information on Federation culture and language translations?"

Owen nodded, "That's right, as I recall it was part of the agreement we had to assist the station and its crew in keeping things up to date and helping them to make sure they were up to speed on all the recent changes," he answered.

"Well, I thought we had just uploaded a one-time batch of data. Totally static, and not connected to the Federation's data streams." Mauricio explained as he installed the data chip into the hand-held device and brought up what appeared to be an information library. It showed various familiar meals, drinks, clothing, and a Federation Standard dictionary. "The info had remained unchanged ever since the Pandora had left the region. That is, until exactly twenty-four hours ago when Paradise received an additional update patch to the database. It was just one file, sent via subspace comms, directly through Lieutenant Mindo's installed software."

The Marine turned the device around and showed Commander Nash. There was indeed a new file uploaded onto Paradise's system, with a clear time stamp and location data coming from the Hesiod Region. The name of the file was 'Type 2 Phaser'.

When he saw the filename, the penny dropped for Owen. "You clever son of a bitch," he said quietly as he realised that the fil had come from Nyx. "Ok, that's a hell of a filename," he said.

"Trust me, when I saw that, I panicked." Mauricio nodded, "I was very certain we hadn't shared any information on Starfleet weaponry at all, only culture and language, so I was worried that sensitive intel was being uploaded to Paradise. However, when I opened the file it only contained two items. One, a highly encrypted video and, two, a set of instructions to deliver the file to you, Commander Nash. Here, in this very location, twenty-four hours later."

Owen stood back for a moment and took a seat in the cockpit. "This explains a lot," Owen started. "Mauricio, I won't go dragging you into something you don't need to be involved in, however, things are not all well at the moment with the Pandora and her current mission." he paused for a second. "Can I take a copy of this, I'd like to see the video and get an idea of what I'm dealing with...?" he asked.

Taking a moment to think about things, Owen changed his mind. "Actually, I'd better watch it here. Whilst I know that the Runabout is safe, there's no telling who could be watching it. Let's see the file," he said.

The video began to play immediately, showing the familiar face of Captain Temple. The lights were low in his Ready Room and the camera quite up-close to his face, intimating a private and exclusive conversation. He looked tired and more than a little concerned. At first when Nyx started speaking, the words coming out appeared to be Klingon. Then, Vulcan. And then, even stranger, a mix of Ferengi and Japanese. It was as if the file was deconstructing the language through a variety of filters, just like when the Pandora first arrived at Paradise and had trouble translating. This likely would have thrown off others, but it was just another level of subterfuge.

Nyx finally spoke clearly, "...and if my timing is correct, you should now be hearing me." He smiled, "Sorry for all the hoops, Owen, but it was necessary. I don't have long. We're about to land the Pandora on a planet and I'm scared.... And confused.... And kinda pissed off." Nyx sighed heavily and shook his head, as if trying to dismiss his thoughts. "Let me take you back to what you've missed. After you left us for Carnwennan Station, I received instructions from the newly-appointed Admiral Thac that we were to investigate a distress call from a research facility in the Hesiod system. I make a habit not to despise people on first meeting but there was an air of incompetent arrogance from Admiral Thac that told me something was suspicious about this request - not the least of all the apparent presence of a secret silence facility somewhere in the Expanse?!"

Owen stopped for a moment. He was shocked at what he was hearing. The Pandora had been in the Expanse for months and only now it comes to light that there was a Federation Starbase out there. For a moment, he thought of all the times that the ship and crew needed leave and repairs and never had that chance. this was wrong.

Owen continued with the video.

The video continued, "He gave me strict instructions that I was not to tell anyone else about our mission, even going to so far as to restrict all location data and logs to anyone else but Thac. He couldn't tell me who we were rescuing, except for that the signal came from a Research facility. Everything was 'classified'. He made it quite clear that our discretion was mandatory, so I couldn't even tell you, my XO, where we were going. Buuut," The Captain gave a sheepish grin, "You can take the boy out of SI, but not the multiple levels of data encryption and network knowledge, so, here we are." He shrugged, "Anyway, I haven't held back from sharing my concerns with the crew. I want them to know how disturbed I am by this mission. This only increased when we arrived at Hesiod and found two planets. One, a pristine, perfect-climate, liveable planet. And the other, with a nasty, inhospitable atmosphere of dense tri-nimbic interference. Imagine our surprise when we find no signs of a Federation base on Hesiod Blue, the ideal planet, but instead, the distress signal coming from Hesiod Green; a place where no Starfleet Captain would willingly lead their crew. It just didn't make sense."

Once again, as new details came to the surface, Owen was struggling with what he was hearing. However, his trust in his friend and Commanding Office gave him faith that what he was hearing was the truth. Nyx had never lied to Owen before...why come up with this now.

Again, he agreed that sending the Pandora to such a desolate world made no sense. Something was wrong...many things were wrong. Owen continued with the video.

"After much debate, we have chosen to follow the mission parameters and find some answers. Believe me, Owen, I will find out what Admiral Thac is hiding on this planet, and then I will let him know what I know." There was a fierce determination in Nyx's face for that moment, unrestrained candour for his friend. "I'm also quite curious to find out what the Federation has been secretly doing on this planet while we've been busy exploring the Expanse and fighting the Alrakis Pact. And... that's where you come in."

Owen smiled. "Who me? What a surprise..." he said with mock surprise. He also knew that Nyx knew this would be his usual response. It made sense. The Pandora and her family are his home and family too. Owen knew that he had work to do and it was coming.

"Yes, you." Temple smiled, "I assume you asked 'who me' then. If not, just pretend you did. You won't be able to reach us on the surface through shuttle or comms, the atmosphere is too horrible and you're actually not supposed to know we're here. But I need you to follow a small lead I have and bring that information to the Hesiod system." Nyx leaned in as he explained. "Obviously there is no sign of a Pithos Research facility anywhere on the databases, public or classified. I tried to discreetly find what I could but it was all nothing. That'll be too easy. So I started looking into who might be behind such a facility and specifically, who would have been in the region. Once again, I found nothing conclusive, nothing I can prove. But I did see the shadow of something..."

The screen changed to a list of transport logs preened from Carnwennan Station; it was standard background information that ships typically stored away when they came into subspace range of a Federation facility. Perfunctory and boring. This one was Starfleet personnel present on the station in December 2387; when the Pandora passed by on her entry to The Expanse. It was a long list of names, some with assigned ships and some without. One name became highlighted, Admiral Gordon Francis. He was listed as present on the station, but he had no transport logs to or from the station, no publicly stated business, nor was he assigned anywhere.

"People without specific assignments don't show up in specific places." Temple's voice could be heard. "Unless they had a specific reason to be there."

Then, another list appeared. This one was from March 2389, sent from Starfleet HQ, and a list of all known personnel in the Inconnu Expanse that needed to evacuate from the region after the Alrakis Pact's announcement of Federation expulsion from their territory. Once again, the name Admiral Gordon Francis appeared. It gave a vague, planetary system for his evacuation point but again no ship was assigned to him. It was unclear how he was planning to vacate the area, or even if he was being removed at all.

"He'd been in the Expanse for a heck of a long time for a guy with no assignment in the region," Nyx commented.

Finally, a third list, after the Inconnu Access Agreement was signed in May 2389, granting restricted admittance in and out of the region. Admiral Francis was listed in an "Approved General Travel" section, though still with no assigned ship or declared duty. In the need to conceal whatever Francis was doing, it had been inadvertently revealed that he was up to something worth hiding.

"Of all three lists," Nyx was saying as his face reappeared, "Admiral Francis is the highest-ranking official in the Expanse at the time. And yet, he had no assignment nor associated ship. He was given no ranking powers on Carnwennan, despite the station chief being only a Captain. He was not placed in charge of the evacuation effort, which would normally default to him as the highest rank. He was not given priority refuge, either, he was just another personnel to collect. How he got to Carnwennan Station, or into the Expanse, we can't see. Though it's unlikely he walked therefrom." Nyx snarked with a laugh, "The only thing I have to go on apart from the absence of information, is that when Starfleet sent out the evacuation list, Admiral Francis was apparently going to get evac from the Delavi System. Delavi is a known resource and trading hub, with transport routes heading into the Carwennan Corridor. It is also the only inhabited system near Hesiod. If someone was travelling to and from Hesiod, they would go to Delavi. I believe the expulsion announcement caught Francis by surprise and, in their panic to ensure all Federation personnel were accounted for, Starfleet HQ revealed he was in the area."

"Curiouser and curiouser... A Starfleet Flag Admiral on the wrong side of the line when the truce was called..." Owen mumbled. "The Universe never fails to amaze... What do you need me to do?" he asked the video.

"I need you to go to the Delavi system. Find any traces of Francis. Where he's been, who he's met with, and even if there are some supply arrangements that he's made that we can trace." Nyx said earnestly, "You may need to use some undercover work and subterfuge, but it may be worth it if we find some answers. Find out what you can and then discreetly travel to Hesiod Blue to rendezvous with Lieutenant Boucher. He has set up a base camp there and will be able to patrol the region too. Though hopefully, we'll be off Green quickly enough and we can all discuss what we've discovered together."

Nyx signed and leaned straight into the camera again, as he said, "Be safe, Owen. And watch your back."

The screen turned black, before a series of encryption data figures scrolled past the screen, hiding the Captain's message once again.

"Well, well, well. It never rains but it pours. God only knows why this has all happened but there are questions that need answers," he said almost to himself and Mauricio. Standing up from his seat, Owen turned to his former crewmate.

"Thank you for this, Mauricio. I appreciate you taking the risk to meet me here and to show me this recording. It seems I have a lot of work to do." Owen folded his arms as he considered his next move.

"Don't fancy some action do you? I could use some reliable backup..."

Mauricio sat back in his chair and thought about this for a while. He felt like he had only just left the Pandora, but the sight of concern on the Captain's face, and his grave warning at the end, was pulling at the former Starfleet officer's conscious. He knew Paradise was under control for now and that Katya would understand his desire to help his former ship, in fact, she had been more than willing to send him to meet Commander Nash, out of gratitude for the Pandora's assistance.

Finally, he nodded, "Si, mi amigo. I can help you." He smiled, "In fact, I know the Delavi system is one of our trading partners. I have never been there myself, but if we went as representatives of Paradise, it may help you... avoid suspicion."

Owen smiled as his former colleague agreed to join him on his mission. "Excellent, I'll get my things and then we get going. I suspect that time is now against us," he explained.

"Bueno!" Mauricio beamed, "I suggest we take my ship, too. It'll bend in more than your shiny, Federation shuttle. Let me know when you're ready to go and we can depart immediately." He turned back to his console and started sending a subspace message to Katya to inform her of their change of plans.

Owen nodded as he went back over to the Runabout to gather what he needed for the mission ahead of him. Whilst onboard, he preset the Runabouts autopilot to return itself back to the Palatine and left a small "post it" note for Tobias to find so he knew what was happening to him. Once all was completed, Owen made his way back to Mauricio's vessel and stowed his belongings and equipment.

"Shall we?" Owen asked as he took the co-pilot seat.

"We Shall!" Mauricio said with gusto as he disconnected his vessel from the Runabout. To the untrained eye, two small ships departed on completely different vectors, heading on completely different courses...