Time To Work

Posted on Thu Dec 23rd, 2021 @ 5:34am by Lieutenant Commander Ull Arkyn & Captain Devin Hadenbeer

1,935 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Into The Void
Location: Bridge, airlocks, hull of the ship

Ull found the bridge had the "new ship smell" that came from a newly christened vessel, or one that had undergone a refit. He found the Tactical station easily enough, the crewman monitoring it nodded politely and stood aside to allow him access. Sitting in the captain's chair was a young ensign, judging by his black eyes he was a Betazoid. He too gave Ull a nod and a smile and then went back to whatever he was doing with a PADD.

The Tactical layout was standard, with perhaps a couple new features as engineers loved to change things. The ship's warp core operating at minimal level to keep the ship systems powered and due to safety reasons the phaser arrays were "cold", the torpedo tubes unloaded. Interestingly enough there seemed to be more torpedoes in the inventory than what the ship class would normally carry, as well as something called "BT munitions" stored in one of the cargo bays, which normally would not be a place to put anything as dangerous as live torpedoes.

As he noticed the quiet and the presence of someone near him he turned quickly to see who it was, and tried to step back as he turned, which caused him to bump into the terminal.

"Hello..." He said as he worked to regain his composure.

Captain Devin Hadenbeer stood there, cane held in a two fisted grip behind her back, her head cocked as she regarded the new Tactical officer. Her expression was unreadable and she did not respond for a full ten seconds.

"What are you looking at, Commander," she inquired mildly, her voice not betraying her thoughts.

Ull regained his composure as he realized it was Captain Hadenbeer. "We have a situation, sir. These torpedoes aren't stored properly and are a danger to all." Ull smiled at Captain Hadenbeer.

OOC: I edited out the music part. The music only plays when Hadenbeer comes aboard. There will be other minor incidents but at the moment Ull would be unaware of the issue.

"Oh?" Hadenbeer strolled over to the Tactical console and eyed the torpedo inventory, "Ah, you mean those?" she pointed to the 'BT' torpedoes, "Leave them where they are, Commander. They are not your concern."

She regarded him soberly, "If and when they do become your concern then you will be happy we have them. Their payload is...inert."

She brightened, "So! When was the last time you performed a space walk?"

Ull gives Captain Hadenbeer a quizzical look before he decides to respond. "Inert... Understood, sir." He ponders a second. "I don't think I have been on a proper spacewalk since I was an Ensign. Are we checking on something, sir?"

"You could say that," Hadenbeer replied as she led the CTO to the turbolift doors. As the 'lift took them to another deck Hadenbeer inquired, "So, Commander, any questions for me?"

Ull thought about that for a second before he responded. "I haven't had a chance to go over previous incident reports yet. Is there anything, security wise, that you are concerned about, sir? Any issues you feel I should know about before I meet and brief my security team?"

"Nothing I am overly worried about," Hadenbeer replied after a moment's consideration, "I think we can discuss it more at a later time."

Once in the airlock the systems checks for the space suits proceeded quickly and efficiently. Curiously enough Hadenbeer had confiscated Ull's communicator and after removing her own handed them to the crewman on duty at the lock, informing her to insure the bridge kept on "eye" on them.

Outside Hadenbeer withdrew what was known as a comm tether, which could link two suits to one another to allow communication between them...

As they checked over their suits Ull said aloud. "Seems like they have made some changes to these suits since last I was in one."

He connected the comm tether to his suit and then tested it to confirm it was working. "Can you hear me, sir?"

"Perfectly, lieutenant. Follow me."

Devin led them slowly along the outer hull, taking care to place each step carefully. As they walked she said, "I wanted to afford us the highest level of privacy, lieutenant; this way no one can overhear us. You asked about incident reports. For a while now we have been dealing with what I suppose you can call a 'practical joker'. So far the pranks have been harmless but I will admit they do violate some Starfleet regulations. Nevertheless I do consider them a low priority compared to your other duties."

Ull followed Captain Hadenbeer carefully stepping and putting his steps where she did. He listened carefully to what she was saying. "The problem with practical jokers, sir, is that their pranks may start of harmless but they usually escalate until they can become dangerous. I can understand setting it as a low priority, in comparison to my other duties, but I will set this a little higher than that. Not to get in the way of more important duties. What pranks have they pulled so far, sir?

"Nothing serious," Hadenbeer replied, not breaking stride, "Mostly they seem directed at me. Music playing when I come aboard, the turbolift taking me to places I do not want to go...like Sickbay. So far none of the pranks have interfered with the duties of any of the ship's personnel...Ah!"

The pair had reached a segment of the hull with a view of Earth not obstructed by the dry dock. She pointed and said, "See that land mass there? The large island? I am from there. It's called 'England'."

She turned to Ull, "Do you miss home, Commander? I stopped missing mine after the last of my family living here died or moved off planet."

Ull let out a low whistle at the sight of Earth from here, and followed Captain Hadenbeer's pointing. He had seen Earth from a ship before, but the view was definitely different from inside a spacesuit. "I do miss home, sir. I did get to visit for a while before my last Security Officer tour. My parents and little brother are still there. Though I guess I can't really call him little anymore, he is taller and bigger than I am now." Ull chuckled at his last comment.

"I think once my parents are gone, and if my brother ever moves away from Orion, I will probably miss it a lot less. I am pretty close to my brother. I tried to talk him into joining Starfleet, but that isn't the path he wanted to take." Ull stops and just thinks about his family for a few.

"I will see if I can figure out who the prankster is. It does make it a little easier if they are only targeting you."

Hadenbeer gave a noncommittal grunt at that. After a few moments of silence she said, "What is important is your brother is happy and feels productive. I have known officers who joined Starfleet because they were expected to due to legacy; a more miserable bunch you will never find. Well, we aren't getting any work done out here and I am certain the work crews are not happy there are two warm bodies scurrying across the hull. Fortunately the refit was relatively minor, all things considered."

She led Ull across the hull to a different airlock, she removed the comm tether and then cycled the door. Inside the air pressurized, once it equaled the atmosphere in the ship she opened the door-

Music played, something on an Terran piano. Hadenbeer had just begun removing her helmet, Ull could see her grimace.

"One of mine," she replied after a moment, "I was seventeen when I wrote that. Not my best work..."

Ull listened for a moment before saying anything. "Thank you, sir. For putting it into perspective about my brother. You are right. As long as he is happy."

He listened to the music a moment more. "The music is pretty good, though I will admit that it isn't really my taste. Your Terran music has never hit me the way that I enjoy." He pondered the prank for a sec. "Though how did they know we would be here, or is it being played everywhere?"

Ull stepped away from Captain Hadenbeer to look for a terminal to access. He wanted to look for system access logs to both this airlock and the ships 1mc system. Also, he kept in mind that if it is only playing here they may have had access to the sensors tracking then as they walked across the hull.

In response Devin walked over to the door leading into the corridor, Ull heard the music from there, and he saw a pair of crewmen walk past as if this were completely normal.

"Every time I come on board," The Captain explained. Transporter, shuttle, coming in from a space walk, it never fails. The music plays everywhere; personal quarters, holodeck, bridge."

The wall terminal granted Ull access to the information he was looking for. it seemed that there was no active request for sensor data. However if a person knew the captain had left by an airlock and was the only person outside, then they might have assumed whomever entered via another airlock was her. As for the music, the source of the command was proving a bit more difficult to pin down.

"You won't find them standing here in the airlock, Commander," Devin replied, now free of her space suit, "If at all. In the coming weeks I think you will find yourself busy enough to make this a low priority, perhaps even a hobby."

She smiled wryly, "Perhaps I am the practical joker and I am just doing this to see how far I can wind you up? Now let's go; I'm sure you have a staff you want to meet and a ship to explore..."

Ull chuckled at Captain Hadenbeer's joke, but also contemplated it for a few seconds. "You are right, sir. I do have a team to meet with." Ull started to get out of his spacesuit.

Ull made sure everything was put away before he exited the airlock. As he walked though he thought about the ways the prankster could be operating. They could have the coding linked to the Captain's commlink, or they could be working under assumptions for when she was leaving and returning. He would have to keep his ears open to catch every time the music played. He would also spend some of his downtime looking through the coding to see if he can find the bit causing the music to activate. That may lead him to who it is. At least finding the changes should allow him to look through the changelogs for that particular file to see who all had changed anything.

He also noted that he should look through the security staff records and see who had been on board the shortest amount of time. They might not know the crew that well, but they would be the best candidates to assist him with this investigation, since the pranks have been going on for a while.

Devin stopped at a junction in the corridor, she turned to Ull and said, "This is where we part ways for now, lieutenant; I have to head back planetside to see an Admiral about a doctor. Welcome aboard the Lionheart," she smiled nebulously, "I hope things do not become too...interesting for you..."

And with that she turned and headed off...

 

RSS Feed