Situation Report: Freecloud is Getting Even More Crowded, Part 2
Posted on Thu Jan 30th, 2025 @ 7:19pm by Captain Remy Johansen & Commander Maxun Spello & Lieutenant Commander Razka Kas & Lieutenant Commander Nash Winters & Major Clay McEntyre III & Lieutenant JG Xalanth & Ensign Awidat
1,478 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
Gone, Without Ever Knowing the Way
Location: USS Astrea, Just out of Freecloud's sensor range
Timeline: MD 1: 1000 Hours
Continued from: Freecloud is Getting Even More Crowded
A familiar voice broke through the familiar hum that was the background noise on the engineering decks. =^=Captain Johansen to Engineering =^=
"Nash," the engineer said curtly. "Go ahead, Captain. What can I do for you?"
Back on the Bridge, Remy smiled and the engineering chief's informality. =^=Commander, a few things actually. It is starting to get a little busy around Freecloud. We may eventually have to move in and make our presence known, but until then I want to make sure we're well enough off of everyone's sensors. Can you patch in to what we've got and make sure we're good. Also, once we've checked in on that, start analyzing this incoming traffic for any modifications. Make sure they are who they say they look like they are. You know what I mean. =^=
When Remy was a young officer, Nash was the engineer who had made such modifications to ship her team used in an undercover operation. She trusted that he knew what to look for better than anyone.
Nash tried to stifle a laugh. "Understood. Let me see what I can find. I’ll get you a report within the hour. Nash out."
He smiled fully when the channel closed. He remembered meeting Remy all those years ago. Things were awkward and a little tense at first, but she and Nash soon became fast friends and developed a deep respect for one another.
Nash walked to a station that was unoccupied and accessed the scanner array. He then accessed an algorithm he wrote to detect non-Federation and non-Starfleet technology. The parameters could be adjusted to account for comm traffic, unusual carrier waves, radiation spikes, and sensor beams that don’t align with known specifications.
Nash started his sweeps directed toward the increased traffic in orbit of Freecloud. While waiting for the computer to compile the information, he got a cup of coffee from the replicator.
Later Nash sipped his coffee and monitored the incoming scans and data. He accessed the visual scans and noticed the usual heavy incoming and outgoing port traffic. Nash continued watching and noticed a Klingon shuttle almost collide with what looked like a Ferengi merchant vessel. “That was close…holy shit….” he said out loud to himself. Just before he checked the chronometer (he’d been staring at the console for almost two hours at this point), Nash noticed two ships that hardly moved at all despite the flurry of activity in the surrounding space.
“That doesn’t seem right. Not even in orbit and keeping relative adjacent position with each other,” Nash said to himself again. He ran a spectral analysis on both ships. The first was a Yridian transport and the other looked like a Boslic freighter. No unusual emissions or radiation from either vessel, no other out of the ordinary signatures. His algorithm continued to run while Nash scanned through subspace comm and EM bands. That’s when he found it. “Would you look at that? Son of a bitch. Winters, you’re good. Very good.”
Nash tapped his comm, "Engineering to Bridge. Captain, there’s something you need to see. I can come up to you or would rather come down to me? There are two ships holding position outside Freecloud."
From the Bridge of Astrea, the Captain was just about to clear McEntyre's team to clear the main shuttlebay. "Ensign Awidat, tell the away teams to halt their departure protocols. Nash found something, they'll need to aware of."
"Yes, Ma'am," Awidat responded as she communicated to the team.
Remy tapped her commbadge =^=Come to the Bridge. You're just in time to catch the Marines before they left. Let's brief them. I want to get a secure line out to Holana and let Razka and Xalanth know what's out there too.=^=
"Very well, then. I’ll transfer the results of my findings to a Bridge station. Nash out."
The turbolift opened and the Caitian Major reentered the bridge. Kitted up in tactical gear, his custom phaser rifle slinged on his chest. He put the sunglasses he'd been wearing on his forehead as he walked over to where the Captain and XO were standing.
"We got trouble?" Clay asked curiously.
"Lt. Commander Winters is on his way up with a report on some of the ships in the area," Remy responded.
All eyes were on Nash as he stepped onto the Bridge. He walked directly to his engineering station and entered his access codes to transfer the scans to this location. He motioned over to his friend and Commanding Officer. “Captain…..do we have a line open to Holana? You said you wanted everyone read in on this.”
"Yeah, they should be patched into your station," Remy replied. "You can put it it on the main viewscreen."
The Captain tapped the controls next to her seat. "Astrea to Holana, are you able to hear us okay?" She asked.
=^=Reading you loud and clear captain.=^= The red lizard replied from the shuttle cockpit. " We have another data packet to send over." he added his talon-like figures ready to send it over.
The captain nodded to herself. "Send it over now, while we have the secure signal locked," Remy replied.
=^=Sending,=^= Xalanth replied and with the flick of a switch the data packet was transferred.
While the file was being transferred, Remy took the opportunity to check in on Kas. Without being obvious about it, she knew he had taken his daughter with him. "Kas, everyone holding up okay over there?" she asked. "I'm inclined to have someone rendezvous with you to pick up Keena in case we need you to engage. I'm sure Mrs. Winters wouldn't mind riding along, so there's a familiar face."
Kas paused for a moment before answering, children were often present during missions among his people. Keena, knew how to operates every panel in his vessel, including the weapons and he had acted as a copilot when he was only a few years older. Kas had seen many things when he was younger Keena, he wondered what she had already seen her time with their people. Being with Starfleet gave him the opportunity to give her the difference life, he wasn't sure if it would be better. However...
=^=Yes, thank you, Captain. That would be prudent... And yes, Mrs. Winters is a good call, we see the Winters as kin.=^=
"I think so too," the Captain responded solemnly. She nodded to Nash, giving him the indicator to go ahead with what he had.
Nash tapped a control to transfer the scan data and images to the main viewscreen. The visual record was on the left half of the screen. Nash’s algorithm still ran and data scrolled along the right side of the screen.
“At first, nothing seemed to stand out. You can see the green and yellow blobs on the left? Those represent normal everyday commerce traffic and so on. The two ships in the lower right quadrant? They remain stationary. I was looking at this thing and monitoring for about 90 minutes. Those two ships never deviated from their position. I decided to dig deeper.”
Nash continued. “I ran through all EM bands and sub space frequencies. That’s when I found something. I narrowed the bandwidth and…..”. He tapped another control to reveal wave patterns appear between the two ships. “Captain, these two vessels are communicating with each other. The Yridian and Boslic vessels. Now it could be nothing. They might be old friends. ‘Say, let’s go find a nice place to eat.’ or “How about taking a trip to Cestus 3 to watch a ballgame?’ It could also be two parties sharing or selling information we need. Whatever it is, I think an investigation is in order.”
Clay was the first to speak up. "I know I'll sound like a basic Marine, but we could pull out the Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure book and board them for 'Safety Inspections'"
“Might be a little risky, Major, however, seeing how they react to our presence may give us a clue into their intent. I might be looking too much into it, but if they’re nervous, chatty, and jumpy, then they’re hiding something. Captain, your thoughts?”
"No, we're not engaging with anyone unless it's an emergency. We're outside of Federation Space," Remy reminded everyone. "We're simply getting as much information as possible for the moment. Once we engage we lose a lot of strategic advantages. And to be honest, at this point they could slip right through our fingers if we aren't careful."
The Captain took a brief moment to contemplate the information coming in along with everyone's ideas on what to do next.
~tbc~
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