Inventory

Posted on Tue Apr 29th, 2025 @ 12:43pm by Lieutenant Kestra Ral & Lieutenant Commander Steve Ryan

1,308 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Maintaining the Status Quo
Location: XO Office

[XO Office]

The XO office, not really wide and spacey, was practical to say the least. The desk was simple: dark brushed duranium with a black glassy top, a 3D printed model of an alien starship rested on the edge of it, as a reminder of Commander Ryan’s past successes. PaDDs and mission notes were scattered around the desk on all the available space.

A single viewport behind the XO's desk offers a modest view of space, often half-obscured by structural ribs that cross the outer hull — but in the stillness between duty shifts, starlight pours in, stark and cold. Right now, the stark figure of Janus VI displayed through it.

Steve was sitting at his desk, silently pondering the next steps to be taken and waiting for Kestra to show up as concurred.

[Science Lab]

Kestra had been having nightmares and started using an A cortical inhibitor to control theta wave activity in her the brain so she could sleep. Her paracortex, had a spike of psilosynine. It had all started around the time she met the Reman named S'Rinarix of course being swamped by the Horta hadn’t helped much. Taking the inhibitor off she picked up her cup of Jestral tea and headed to the XO's office.

[XO Office]

Keying the door to let him know she was there it opened automatically so she walked in with a smile, “Sir you wanted to see me?”

Steve looked up, from his desk and smiled her. He offered a brief nod, one hand still resting on a PaDD he had yet to read.
“Yeah, come in. Have a seat. How are you?" He asked politely.

With a nod she took a seat. Kestra raised an eyebrow at the question. She wasn’t sure if she could ever remember anyone asking her that before. Another Betazoid would just know. Of course for a human conversation the response was “I am fine sir and how are you?” so she went with that.

Steve nodded silently "I'm glad you recovered fully, I am..." He hesitated "... concerned" he finally chose.

Laying back on his chair he got straight to the point "I can't still understand what happened in engineering and I can't avoid thinking that we had on board an unknown device nobody knew...if that is the only one." he concluded.

Kestra had stiffened when he said concerned but relaxed when she realized this conversation wasn’t about her. “the device” she nodded. “I was actually more concerned with the men that came to repair it. It ….” She chuckled nervously “it was like they weren’t there. I got no feeling, no emotions at all from them. I have never experienced that before. How did they know to come a fix it?”

"Were they wearing thoughts blocking devices?" Steve asked as Kestra mentioned the strangers.

Kestra bit her lip in thought. “when I walk into a room I get a sense of strong emotions. Anger hate, lust, fear and other emotions. There is always a sense of life. I could not read them as living. It was like a group of holodeck people joined us. It could have been a device they had on themselves I just don’t know.”

Steve shook his head and scratched his forehead.
"I really can't make anything out of what happened" he breathed slowly "...and...not to be paranoid but, I fear we might have other mystery devices on board".

Kestra nodded “ Some one might be keeping tabs on us. We had been in the mirror universe. Time is slightly different then the history we knew because of that Roman ship exploding . Nothing major mind you but I have found slight changes. It would take me a lifetime to document the changes in the whole universe.” she gave a little shrug. “Perhaps we should start scanning for other devices?”

"Changes?" he worriedly inquired.
"Yes, that was exactly my idea" referring to the scanning for possible other devices "I am summoning very few people, only one I trust per each department, and have them do an in depth search. Of course I'm just asking them to do a detailed inventory without getting into further details if they are not accustomed with the happenings" he explained to the CSO.

Kestra nodded in thought “Wise. Each of the department heads should know all the equipment in their departments” she tapped her fingers against the cup in her hand. “We haven’t docked anyplace since we left earth. So if there are devices on the ship. They would have had to have been with us since we left. Perhaps to keep track of our mission?” Kestra wasn’t sure. The mission had been unsettling. It was almost like Star Fleet had thought they would not survive it.

Steve shrugged "Could be, but that implies that Starfleet knew the mission was not exactly as it initially seemed." he laid back restfully on his chair scrathcing his chin "Maybe we're just beta testing something that should go into production and will be default equipment of Starfleet vessels... but I would think someone would have informed at least the Captain of it." he opinioned.

She gave a little nod, “should have. I still remember the message we were sent by that white haired Admiral” she frowned for a moment then started to quote it.

"Captain Adams and crew. By now you should have reached the Federation-Romulan border. Your orders are to adjust your heading to 324 Mark 7 and, when you reach that area, your mission will be clear. This mission is classified and your ship is expendable. Good luck, Starfleet out."

Kestra raise an eyebrow “I also remember a talk I had with Captain Adams. He was having trouble dealing with decisions he needed to make. I had thought at the time it was only normal captain decisions but what if it was more? It might even be the reason he left.” She have a little shrug “of course if it is something classified we might not ever find out every thing but perhaps we should watch our back?”

Steve nodded thoughtfully. "I didn't think of that discussion with Captain Adams. Now those words do sound differently" he concurred with Kestra "We should keep alert and don't underestimate anything".

She gave it some thought as to the next part she added. "As to the Horta on the planet below us. I believe I can make contact with them. They are highly intelligent and telepathic. I was overwhelmed because there was 15 of them enraged and some were in great pain. They were all talking at the same time and I was feeling all their pain. By now they should have calmed down and I should be able to talk with them. If the Captain wants to open commutations.

The XO took his PaDD and took note of the interesting suggestion of the CSO.

"I believe trying to make contact with them would be helpful. They might have overheard something from the mining personnel that could put us to some advantage before the Klingons come back or while we await Starfleet's response. I will talk to the captain about it but I guess he will be eager to roll this out" he confirmed.

Kestra nodded "then until I hear back I'll go over the science departments to see if anything looks odd."

"Perfect, thankyou" the XO profusely thanked Kestra for her help and turned back to his paper work, reviewing mission reports and department reports from the past missions, trying to figure out if anything got installed into "his" ship or something odd had already been reported a while back.

Kestra gave a smile then left his office to head back to her department.
----------------------------

Lt. Cmdr. Steve Ryan
XO, USS Montana

Lt. Kestra Ral
CSO, USS Montana

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