About Our Guest

Posted on Sun Mar 24th, 2019 @ 2:55am by Captain Cynthia Jackson & Lieutenant Commander Charlotte Hudson & Lieutenant Xenia Windsor & Lieutenant Steffan Haas & Lieutenant Gente López-Fonsi & Lieutenant Jane Sinclair MD, DVM & Lieutenant JG Neza Glenn & Lamia

2,619 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Mission 2 - Love ORION Mistaken
Location: Meeting Room
Timeline: 2261.224 0800

Cindy knew that Legacy still had its exploration mission but the riddle of Vivyra and amnesty still bothered her. It bothered her that Vivyra also talked of a school and that she escaped from it. It bothered her that the Orions killed themselves. Nothing matched. Why? What was missing? Without an answer, she decided that she would get her best brains involved and ferret out their suggestions. And, she summoned her Deltan warrant officer, hoping maybe she might have some insight into their Orion guest.

Messages had been sent out late last night, so she suspected that most of her crew read the message before getting on duty. She sat at the head of the table and waited for everyone to arrive.

The summons to the meeting room had caught Lamia off guard, something she did not enjoy. Surprises were not her cup of tea albeit science was always full of them. She, however, was a woman who enjoyed probabilities, statistics, and applied that in order to unmask and decloak surprises coming. She had not anticipated being called to the meeting room yet nevertheless she responded that she would be there the evening it arrived.

It was Lamia who walked through the doors, first to arrive other than Commander Cynthia Jackson, the Commanding Officer of the USS Legacy. No sooner did Lamia enter did she lay claim to a seat at the table with a simple nod at the CO. "Morning, Captain" Lamia said taking the seat and nursing a mug of steaming hot tea.

"Thank you for coming, Lamia," Cindy told the Deltan. She could feel the pull of the Deltan's sexuality but was easily able to resist it.

Dr. Jane Sinclair was the next one in the meeting room. She had a spring in her step from the great day and evening she’d had with their guest. “Good morning!” she said in a sing-song voice as she found her own seat, immediately to the Captain’s left, as this was her first meeting as Second Officer.

"Aren't you cheery today, Jane?!" Cindy told her friend. "Glad to see you. Please sit."

Bec walked in next, a strong cup of coffee in her hand. "Morning," she said almost tonelessly as she made her way to Cindy's right side and sat down. She took a sip of her coffee and stared at a spot on the table. While talking to Ayden and Jane had helped somewhat, Bec was still not sleeping well. She hid the dark circles under her eyes with dark makeup, but she knew she looked tired.

Bec was never a morning person but Cindy knew her XO. Something was off. She would have to talk to her after this meeting. She just hoped that she would not have to order Bec to do something unpleasant. Cindy gave Bec a brief acknowledgement as others filtered in.

Gente had already been in engineering since 0600 hours, when he got the reminder to head to the meeting the Captain had arranged. He was still trying to get use to all of the meetings a member of the senior staff, was required to attend. With a couple of data pads in his hands, he walked into the room, reviewing them with one hand, and with the other taking a sip of his coffee. He was lost in his reports. They were performance evaluations of the injection plasma flow system. "Morning." He called out, more as protocol, than courtesy. Gente took a seat next to Jane. He wanted to finish reviewing the report in his hand, before the other staff arrived.

"Morning, Gente," Cindy called back to her Chief Engineer. She wondered what he looked like without a PADD in his hands. "Is Legacy still purring for you?" she asked.

"Morning Captain, and yes she is." Gente said, as he put down the data pad, but not before taking another sip. He knew when the captain, engaged in conversation. Best to give the captain your undivided attention.

"Where are Steffan and Neza?" She then gave a sly look around the table and queried, "Or should I ask?"

Haas strolled into the briefing room. A steaming cup of coffee in his right hand and a PADD with all of the Comms which came in over night which couldn’t be sorted by the on duty Comms Officer due to the clearance levels. “Morning everyone.” He said with a smile as he took his seat.

Not far behind Haas was Glenn, and she glanced up when she saw everyone else already there. “Errr...are we late?” Her face flushed as she found her seat and set her hot chocolate down. “Sorry, Cindy.”

Cindy snickered knowingly but then got down to business. "I brought you all out here to discuss our mission and our guest. As you know, we have been sent out here to completely map the area and study any anomalies that we find. The borderlands are a large unknown and merit study. However, we also have someone that came out of them, namely our very unique Orion, Vivyra. I will let Bec tell the story of her arrival and what we know. That way, I can think through some of the issues that she brings up. Bec?"

As the Captain started, Xenia walked through the doors. She wasn't late by the time, but clearly the command were more than punctual. That was fine. She would have to remember to arrive at least ten minutes early from now on. In the meantime, she snuck in quietly, took a seat at the opposite side of the table from the Captain, and immmediately turned her ears to the XO.

"I believe everyone knows of how she arrived on the ship, but to summarize, we responded to a distress signal that turned out to be one Orion female in a ship being pursued by two larger Orion ships," Bec paused to take a sip of her coffee. "We rescued the female, Vivyra, and the larger ships destroyed her ship and then each other. Which is strange in and of itself. After speaking with our guest, Cindy, Doc, and I learned that she had been held captive at a school, with others, on an unknown planet and that she had escaped."

“Any indication as to why she was being held captive, Commander?” Steffan asked, curiously.

"None, the girl says she does not know why she and others were held captive, just that they could not leave the planet," Bec shrugged.

“She hasn’t said much more about that to me since,” Jane added. “I’ve been getting to know her though. She may yet open up, but right now we’ve just been building up a mutual trust.”

Cindy watched her officers, hoping that someone had a question or idea that could crack the nut.

Xenia, in the back, leaned forward over the table. "Were we able to recover any of the wreckage? Any recording device that may have given us a clue to their intentions?" She tried to recall her knowledge of Orion transports, when an idea occurred to her. "Do we even know if either or both ships on the offensive were occupied by Orions?"

Glancing down the table to Xenia, Neza nodded to the questions. "I still haven't gone through all the information the sensors gave, but my questions are similar."

"What's taking so long, Neza?" Cindy asked pointedly. To Xenia, Cindy answered, "We know at least one was Captained by an Orion. The other did not respond when we hailed them."

Neza put up a hand, "We're running them through everything we have. I have gone through the initial scans but not anything else. Hoping one of the other filters we run the information through will give us something but so far we haven't been able to come up with anything."

Cindy sighed. She wished she could put her finger on the problem. "I just do not want to leave this area and pick a random place to explore when we have this mystery, too. However, if we do not want the Admiralty up our rear ends, we had better make a decision quickly."

"Perhaps we can have an away team investigate this mystery, while the Legacy jumps on ahead with the current mission plan." Gente said, curious to see what Cindy would say.

"If there was terra firma available for the away team, I would be more inclined to do it, Gente. I do not like the idea of leaving a nearly helpless shuttle and team out here when we can't even figure out why the Orions would kill themselves," Cindy told Gente. "If you can think of a way to get around that, I might be willing to reconsider."

“Then Legacy will need to stay and investigate then.” Steffan thought out loud.

"Is there debris that can be beamed up and sifted through?" asked Jane. "Maybe some computer system survived intact. Vivyra implied that she might be able to give more information if she had access to her ship."

“That’s not a bad idea, Captain.” Steffan said sitting forward. “If there is anything I should be able to break their security and find out what’s going on.”

"I agree. Make it happen. Neza and Gente, coordinate on sifting through the wreckage and find something, anything that will get information. If you need assistance, talk to Vivyra."

“Of course, Cindy,” Neza said before looking to Gente with a nod.

"Yes Captain." Gente said, wondering why Neza kept calling the Captain by her first name? He wondered if they were old friends, or did the Captain want to be called by her first name?

"As for our guest," Jane said, "she appears to be in good health. Her injuries have been treated. She doesn't have free reign of the ship, but I've been showing her around and spending time with her. I bet if she was given access to some of the ship's systems, she'd try to give us more information. Otherwise, I've not heard her say too much about her captivity. One or two details only."

"She can have access to any nonessential and non confidential materials. I see no reason to restrict her." Before making that a command, Cindy asked the table. "Do any of you?"

“May I suggest that what she does access is monitored?” Haas suggested.

The Deltan had held her tongue and refrained from prematurely commenting. However, now was the time to speak up. Lamia cleared her throat. "I would strongly encourage we do monitor what she accesses. You may want to give her some freedom to roam to nonessential areas, but forgive if this sounds prejudiced, but Orion women are known for being crafty and deceitful."

Jane shook her head. “I’m seeing no evidence of deceit from her. She’s been open with me. She’s the victim here.” She looked at everyone around the table, hoping for a supporter. “Monitoring her access makes sense, but I have a problem with starting from the basis that she’s lying to us.”

Cindy asked the Deltan, "Correct me if I'm wrong, because Bec brought this up sooner, isn't it typical for Orions females to have an adverse effect on other women? Yet, I don't see that happening, either."

“I thought it was men.” Haas commented with a shrug.

“It’s both,” Jane said, “but the reaction men experience is different than with women. Both are normally quite noticeable, and I’ve not experienced anything either.” How can they be implying that she’s deceiving us? Lamia better have a good explanation.

"I don't know if I can tweak the internal sensors to alert us if it happens. That's not exactly a nice thing to do though anyways. But they can have a reaction on men and women," Neza stated, "Just in different ways, as Jane said."

"Men can't resist Orion women, especially when they dance, so the stories go," Cindy replied with a snicker, looking at Haas meaningfully. "But women have the opposite reaction. Yet, I've seen neither. Maybe the stories were exaggerated?" Cindy considered.

"Most stories get exaggerated," Bec pointed out. "However, until we know for certain we need to tread carefully. I know Jane says she's not seeing this behaviour, but all noted behaviour of Orions is that they are deceitful and crafty. And that females have strange effects on others, be it alluring or angering. She may be behaving now, but we must treat her like all non-Starfleet officers. Restricted access is the number one thing all visitors receive," she looked to Cindy. "Limited access to computers, no access to working spaces, open access to common areas, such as the mess and the gym. I would suggest no access to the lounge, to give any officers who are bothered by her presence a place to relax with the knowledge that she cannot interrupt," she suggested.

"Bec," Jane said, "I agree with most of that, but not about the lounge. Is she a social outcast now? We have civilian guests on starships sometimes and they're not usually forbidden from getting a drink and being social. Officers aren't usually bothered by civilian presence either. If it's because she's Orion, then that's a different conversation we'll need to have."

"Perhaps we should look at having a female security chaperone assigned to our guest, for her safety and the safety of the men crewmates on the ship." Gente suggested, expecting to be shot down for his idea. Logically it made sense. But would the captain or the crew agree with him?

Cindy finally decided, "This is what we will do. We will give her access to all non-working spaces. For the lounge, she will need to be supervised by a woman, as Gente suggested." Cindy looked over at Jane and said, "I assume that you will do that for the most part, Jane, unless you have an issue with that."

For a moment, Jane stared daggers at Gente, but then she mellowed at Cindy's suggestion. "Of course, Cindy. I'd be happy to."

"Neza, Gente and Lamia, you have twelve hours to find me something out of that wreckage to point me in a direction. If not, we will continue on our mission as normal. Of course, if we find nothing, I do not know what to do about the amnesty claim. By the same token, nobody seems to be pursuing her. Perhaps that will be an issue for Starfleet to handle."

Looking to Gente and Lamie, Neza turned back and nodded. "Understood. Anything we find, you'll know."

"Any last thoughts?" Cindy asked her crew.

Xenia piped up from the back again. "Captain, if I may, I suggest that we not strictly assume that the second vessel was commanded, nor possibly occupied by Orions, and consider what implications that may mean as we go forward with the investigation. At least until more evidence is found otherwise."

"What would you suggest that it means?" Cindy inquired.

Xenia frowned, thinking the alternate wasn't hard to decipher. "Only the possibility that a second party is involved," she responded. "Obviously, we don't know who, but it seems like the involvement of certain races would be...undesirable."

"Perhaps you can sift the wreckage along with Gente, Neza and Lamia to determine what bodies or other evidence can be found from everything. What do you think, Xenia?"

"We'll take any help we can get, if you feel up to joining," came Neza's voice.

"If that's what you'd like, Captain, I'd be glad to." She nodded to Neza her acknowledgment as well.

"Go ahead," Cindy encouraged. She then rose, "You all have your orders. Figure this out," Cindy told her crew.

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