The first of many...?

Posted on Sat Nov 18, 2017 @ 9:14am by Lieutenant Alanna Wells & Captain Maritza Soran

1,182 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Rumours
Location: Commander Soran's office
Timeline: MD 09 0930

::ON::

It was a small spark of good news. And whilst Starfleet had set things in motion weeks ago, that she would have a new science officer so soon after taking over was a good omen. She checked the woman's file again, to make sure she had all the details, and then squared it up on her desk, checked her reflection in the black glass of her desk to make sure her braids were securely in place, and then Maritza Soran, the new commander of Deep Space Five waited, expecting a prompt ringing of her bell.

Alanna's trip to Deep Space Five was uneventful. She hoped it was a good omen for things to come. After checking in with the OOD to arrange for her personal belongings to be sent to her new quarters, she loaded a map onto her PADD and headed for the Captain's office to report in.

She paused outside the door to adjust her uniform and ring the door chime.

The new science officer was precisely on time. Excellent. "Come in!" she called,

Alanna walked in and took a moment to look at the office. You could often tell what the person was like by how they decorated their office. "Hello, Ma'am. I'm Alanna Wells," she said.

"Pleased to meet you, miss wells." There was a chair shoved into a far corner of the office, but Maritza didn't offer it. "I trust your trip here was uneventful?"

"It was." Alanna smiled. "It gave me time to catch up on some reading."

Maritza nodded, her store of small talk used up. "And how much are you aware of the situation here?" DS5 had a strange amd evolving roll, especially now that blasted planet had emerged with its unknown gate technology and strange ruins.

"Honestly? I didn't get any. I was simply told to hop on the first shuttle I could get and come here," Alanna said. "Starfleet figured I could learn what I needed once I got here."

"Then they did you a disservice. Come here." Maritza got to her feet and moved over to the observation window, where beneath them, serene, Pangaea turned stately through its daily revolution. "That is Pangaea, our extra dimensional emigre. Its rich in natural resources, dilithium the least of them. But the key issue is the cavern complex. Site B is some two kilometers across, and goes down at least two kilometers. So far we've counted an average of one hundred fifty eight caverns. We believe that most contain some sort of portal. So far we've investigated three. One crossed several hundred light years. One we think crossed to Vulcan before the peace of Sarek and the Romulan Exodus, and the other goes to Cardassia IV in 2373."

The scientist in Alanna itched to investigate those portals. To see Vulcan before Surak would be...fascinating. Keeping the wrong people from finding out and exploiting those portals would be quite a task. "Who's exploring the caverns?" she asked.

"Currently? No-one. Site B is under marine guard, no-one goes in without station command approval. Each trip in so far has caused issues. Crew have been trapped behind, or in the case of the Cardassia one, put on trial for warcrimes committed last week, during the dominion war. As well as temporally displacing a civilian child. When temporal investigations gets here theyre going to have a pink fit." Maritza glared down at the planet below, continuing to turn, uncaring of the chaos it had unleashed.

"That was going to be my next question," Alanna said. "If Temporal Investigations was involved. I will admit, I'd love to catalog those tunnels and see where each one goes." She grinned at the commander. "From an historical and anthropological stand, this is an amazing find. In my opinion, you should know where each tunnel leads and then lock it down."

"Well, I confess that didn't occur to any of the multitude of Starfleet officers on this station." Soran said drily. "Thank you for your incredible insight."

Alanna blushed. It was a rather obvious statement to make. "Sorry."

"Site B is...stubbornly non-euclidean." Maritza explained. "Going past certain points leads you to another, unconnected point, with no apparent transporter effect, and no way of reorientating yourself. Repeatedly passing the same point does not repeatedly transport you to the same destination every time. We think there might be a pattern to it, but so far as soon as we think there's a pattern to the repetition, it changes."

"Fascinating. Sorry." Alanna grinned. "Scientific curiosity. It would be interesting to see if you could find a pattern, but that would take a lot more data. And may not be something you want to deal with." Although she thought it would be interesting to see if they could find out.

"No, Ms Wells, it will be interesting to see if you can find a pattern. As you can imagine, Starfleet Command are keen to see if there is anything useful down there. And if that isnt enough for you, Site A is occupied by flesh eating shadows and probably sentient insects. And then there is supervising all the research projects and consulting with our branch of the Daystrom Institute. I hope you like to be busy."

"I do. And I like a good challenge," Alanna said. Although she wasn't too keen on running into the flesh-eating shadows. "I'll see what my scientists have done and go from there."

"Good. I'll leave you to get to know your department. You are expected to make appointments with the Medical to transfer your case notes in the next seventy two hours."

"I will," Alanna said. "Thank you."

"And one last thing, Ms Wells, I don't wish to alarm you, but if you haven't had a firearms proficiency check recently, please drop in to security and update your certifications. We are on the raggedy edge, I expect all my crew to be prepared."

"I'll make sure I get that set up as soon as I get my physical and psychological evaluations taken care of." Weapons proficiency was also important when you were working as an archaeologist on a small planet, too. It hadn't been necessary on her last assignment, but she did need to get back in practice. "Is there anything else I need to do right away, ma'am?"

"Only about a hundred different things. I'm sure Mr Asher will inform you of everything you need to know."

"Poor Mr. Asher," she said. The image of her walking into a lab to confront Mr. Asher and ask him for a list of everything she needed to know immediately made her smile. She wasn't sure if the CO would appreciate her humor, though. She composed herself. "That will be one of my first priorities, ma'am. Thank you. If there's nothing else, I have a steep learning curve to get caught up and I'd like to get started."

"Of course. Good luck, Ms Wells"

"Thank you." Alanna had a feeling she would need it.

::OFF::

Commander Maritza Soran
Commanding Officer
DS5

Lieutenant JG Alanna Wells
Chief Science Officer
DS5

 

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