Taking Precautions

Posted on Thu Jun 11th, 2020 @ 10:01am by Lieutenant Luke Osswell

695 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Mission 3 - Coming Full Circle
Location: Security

While on the way back to his quarters, Luke contacted Commander Hudson: "Osswell here, something strange is happening..." He summarised his encounter quickly as he changed back into his uniform in his quarters, ready to get to the bottom of this.

"You're telling me," Bec said, pinching her nose. "Meet me in my office in five," she added. Then she picked up her uniform and grumbled to herself about needing to shower later. She quickly changed and headed straight for her office. Once there, she waited for Luke outside the door, arms crossed over her chest and looking quite sour.

"Right boss", Luke replied. Having sprinkled some water into his face to clear his head (he had had, after all, a few beers), and after changing into his uniform in record speed, he soon saw his superior officer waiting for him outside his office. "So", Luke said as he walked up to her. "Who did you see, Ma'am?"

Bec looked at him curiously, but didn't say anything. Instead she stepped through the door to her office and indicated for Luke to follow. Once they were inside, she finally responded. "Lieutenant Azelya Korr who stated she was Chief Security Officer. I take it by that question, you saw someone as well."

Luke went in and listened to what the Commander had to say, then frowned. "Yes, indeed Commander, that's why I asked to meet. I saw a Lieutenant Grayson Hawk, but not only that, the computer confirmed him and Lieutenant Korr as senior Security staff. But when I asked the computer, it confirmed you and me. That's why I asked to come see you in person, right now that computer doesn't have my full trust to give me accurate information...."

"Hmm... yes, when I asked the computer who was Chief of Security, it said me first, but then changed to her. Something is going on and I don't know what it is," she leaned against her desk and frowned. "And I don't like not knowing. What do you suspect, Osswell? What's your gut telling you?"

Luke inclined his head in thought for a while. "It could be a side effect of the drug we all got against the Orions' pheromones", Luke started saying, a wave of guilt washing over him, as he remembered how he shot Lt. Glenn. Covering his momentary lapse with a cough, he continued. "We need more information though, has this happened to other crew members? More importantly, we need to assess the potential threat this poses to the ship. The computer responding positively to both their inquiries and ours has got me severely worried... Also, Grayson continuously tried to get me to Sickbay, we were actually on our way there when he vanished into thin air."

"Yeah, Korr kept trying to get me to sickbay as well," Bec frowned, now wondering if Jane was in danger. She shook her head and sighed. "We need to keep an eye on this. We need to monitor all reports coming in for mentions of strange encounters. Hopefully people actually report them and not think they've just gone crazy and be too embarrassed to send in a report. In the mean time, increase the daily patrols. But try to do so subtly. We don't need to spook anyone until we know for sure what is going on."

Luke nodded in agreement. After their last troubles, the last thing this ship needed was everyone being scared of ghosts. "I'll hand out the orders right away, on the grounds of safeguarding against any potential lingering pheromones or after effects", he said. That was certainly true, Luke thought. He was still shaken up about what he had done, and still felt a little bit more pumped up like a hormone-enraged teenage boy than usual. "Should we inform the Captain?"

"Yeah, we probably should," Bec said nodding. "Go hand out those orders and I'll finish skimming the latest reports for mentions of encounters and then we can convene on Cindy's ready room."

"Will do", Luke said. As he left, his mind was already on who he would add to the patrols. One of them, would be himself. Starting right now.

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