Their eyes uncovered!

Posted on Saturday 18 December 2021 @ 17:15 by Admiral David Jackson & Captain Melody Jones & Commander Seklar & Lieutenant Marbim Rejal & Lieutenant Nir’anyar

Mission: First Contact
Location: Transporter room 1, Observation lounge
Timeline: MD4 1100
1062 words - 2.1 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Melody was waiting for fo the away team to materialise in the transporter room.

"On behalf of the United Federation of Planet, Welcome aboard the Merlin. I'm Captain Melody Jones. Please know that you are among friends here and you are quite safe."

Bob stepped off the transporter pad first, looking around in awe "Thank you, Captain. It's an honour and a privilege to be here."

The former first officer -now chief engineer- said nothing as he coalesced on the transporter pad. His expression however spoke volumes, insofar the Vulcan did express anything. He clearly did not approve of a primitive warp flight species to be shown their more advanced technology.

Mathias gave a quick nod to the Captain when he materialized and stepped off. He was truly curious as to what they will find out about these people they had come across.

"If you'll follow me, we'll go up to the observation lounge where you can meet some more of my senior staff."

The group headed in the turbo lift up to the observation lounge. "I'd like you to meet the rest of our senior staff. My first officer, Commander Regal, our tactical officer lieutenant Morgan, our Chief counsellor Commander Miller, Lieutenant Nir'anyar our Doctor, and our Marine commander Major Scarlet.

Bob turned and smiled at each of them as Melody introduced them. "Thank you for your warm welcome Captain. Our people have a saying. Friends are like stars, you may not always see them but they're always there." he added giving her a pointed look.

Melody looked at him for a moment, then turned to Anya. When she spoke now, her words were very clear and deliberate and she also spoke volumes with her eyes. "Doctor, would you mind giving our new guests a quick medical exam in sickbay?" She turned to Taron and smiled reassuringly. "It's just one of our protocols. Don't worry, you won't feel a thing."

"Of course," the Doctor said picking up on the silent communications she was receiving from Melody. "If you would like to follow me young man and we can run a few noninvasive scans... It won't take very long!"
The pair left the room, Anya escorting him away so the rest of the senior staff could talk more freely.

Miles politely greeted their new guests and raised an eyebrow at the way Melody requests the trip to the medical bay. Surreptitiously, Miles begins watching the newcomers hoping to see why Melody is concerned or has something up her sleeve.

When he was certain his colleague had left the room, Bob let out a sigh of relief. "Sorry about that Captain, couldn't risk exposing my cover. I'm Commander Bob Gainsborough, second in Command of Starfleet's undercover first contact team assigned to the planet Ocronia. We've been observing the inhabitants from with their society for almost 6 months now after it was discovered they were about to discover warp flight and to determine the possibility of formal first contact."

"Welcome aboard Commander." She turned to the rest of the senior staff "Apologies, Admiral Jackson had told me there was a team on the planet just before we made contact with their ship but we didn't know if the team had been successful in joining their warp program, they're been out of contact for some time and it was assumed something had gone wrong. I couldn't risk exposing any of the team members."

"Then where is the rest of the team?" Seklar asked bluntly.


Melody turned back to Bob "So, what went wrong Commander?"

"It started about two weeks ago. The team leader, Captain Andrews discovered something that troubled him greatly. He disappeared shortly after and we haven't seen him since. Just before he vanished, he left a message that none of us understood. It simply said 'Omega' We don't know what it means.

Melody's face fell. "I'm afraid I do commander." She tapped her com badge "Jones to Jackson. Please join me in the Observation lounge. We have a problem."

Mathias's eyebrows rose upwards as his face went a bit pale. No not good at all.

Seklar said nothing, his expression going utterly unreadable as the message sank in. As a former first officer, and even as someone who had held the rank of captain for quite some time, Seklar knew what Omega meant, and also knew that it wasn't to be discussed in public.


A few moments later, Admiral Jackson entered. "Greeting Captain, everyone. Are you must be our Ocronian representative."

Melody stepped in "This is Commander Gainsborough from the undercover first contact team. Apparently, their Commanding officer went AWOL after discovering some Omega."

That Immediately got the Admiral's attention. The Admiral thought for a moment. "Normally we would not be having this conversation but since we're so far from any Starfleet intervention I'm overriding standard protocol as this situation needs resolving quickly. He addressed the senior staff "Not one word of what I'm about to tell you can leave this room, understood?"

" Aye Sir! " Responded Gregor, As he waited and wondered at what the Admiral was going to talk about.

"Perhaps we should employ security measures?" Seklar suggested quietly, "so that even while this location should be secure, nothing said here is logged. And make sure there cannot be any security breaches."

Gregor nodded. "I agree with Sir, I will post security at all critical areas to prevent accidental access. That and as long as our visitors are aboard ship, all communications will be restricted access and by crew authorization code only. That way no we have no prime directive violations. "

Melody nodded "A wise precaution but, if it should become necessary to destroy any Omega we find, the Omega directive overrides the prime directive."


OFF:

●●●● Captain Melody Jones
Commanding Officer
USS Merlin


○●● Lieutenant Commander Marbim Rejal
Executive Officer
USS Merlin


●● Lieutenant Nir’anyar
Chief Medical Officer
USS Merlin


○● Lieutenant JG Gregor Morgan
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Merlin


●● Lieutenant Mathias McPhee
Chief Operations Officer
USS Merlin


●●● Commander Seklar
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Merlin