Missing in Action

Posted on Wed Jul 17th, 2019 @ 3:59pm by Fleet Admiral Donatella Figueroa & Commander K'Niras Sh'howul & Lieutenant Commander Seleya & Lieutenant Aeryn Vinia

Mission: S01E04 The Outpost Has Eyes
Location: USS Musashi | Deck 1 | Bridge

A mixture of panic and dismay had been circulating around the USS Musashi once the landing party returned minus one. Scuttlebutt moved about the starship faster than phaser fire, it did not go unnoticed that Ensign Ethan O'Donoghue, "EJ" as his friends aboard known him as did not return with the landing party he left with. This was information that hit Captain Figueroa extremely hard once she and her group returned to the starship after making a discovery on a nearby asteroid, a downed Andorian starship from deep within Pre-Federation history. If that was not enough of a gem, there was more to it than a simple historic shipwreck. There had been survivors, and one somehow still clung to life in stasis when Fig and her group found him. He was brought back to the USS Musashi and taken to Sickbay were attempts to 'thaw' him awake were undoubtedly underway by Musashi's medical staff. The watchful eyes of security personnel were looming to ensure their frozen Andorian did not cause too many problems.

It was a meeting that Captain Figueroa was looking forward to for how could she not? Living breathing history was at her doorstep. If they could revive the Andorian and keep him alive with modern medicine, he would be an individual displaced both physically and temporally. Time was linear and he had chosen a means of preserving his life by staying still, preserved by stasis all these years. There was so much to deal with. No sooner did she set foot on her starship did she receive the news. EJ was missing. Of course, her first response was to ask how and what happened, but there were more questions raised than answers. The planet was searched by the landing party as soon as EJ went missing.

The planet caused a lot of issues with sensors, transporters, and practically every ship system. Tricorders were effective in limited range and modifications needed to be made to ship's sensors to try and compensate for the interference. EJ was the best helmsmen that the USS Musashi had, a young ensign whom Fig had entrusted the position of Ship's Helmsmen to. Now, he was missing and evidence was mounting that he was not on the planet, but Fig was not about to risk leaving anyone behind. Another ensign was sitting at the helmsmen's station when Captain Figueroa walked onto the Bridge. "Ensign Ferretti, you're relieved," she said placing her hand on the man's right shoulder. He must have looked concerned or frightened that he did something wrong because Fig shot him a reassuring glance.

She took the helmsmen's seat that EJ was more often than not sitting in except when he was off duty, or in this case missing in action. I have to find him she thought to herself. The Captain was a career woman, she had served in Starfleet for many years, starting as a Yeoman and working her way to becoming an officer. She was a war veteran and had plenty of years as a navigator, taking the helm on a dozen occasions in her long service. Sitting next to her at the navigation seat was Ensign Lincoln. "We're going down for a closer look," she said aloud to Lincoln and to everyone present on the Bridge. "If EJ is down there, we need to get closer to the surface with our sensors" she added.

The Captain turned in her seat slightly. "Mister Jakku, monitor communications from the surface of the planet. It is possible EJ will try to keep contacting the ship...and if he's as smart as I know him to be he's figured out a way to send some sort of distress signal" she stated.

Something struck her at that moment an idea. All this interference from the planet was a problem that needed to be taken care of. Even if EJ was sending a signal or trying to contact them, it would be nearly impossible to receive it clearly. "We need more power..." Fig muttered to herself as the USS Musashi took a steep decline cutting through the planet's atmosphere, into the ionosphere before Fig started leveling the large starship off into a relatively low orbit. The starship was plowing through clouds.

Fig reached to her right and pressed a communications control. "Bridge to Engineering... Lieutenant Sh'howul, I want you to draw power wherever you can to the deflector dish. Make modifications as necessary, but I need to turn it into a large receiver to boost strength. If there's so much as a whisper on a comm line down there I want Communications to hear it."

K'Niras came back over the comm, "Aye, Sir. It will take me a few moments... I can take some systems offline for a little bit if you think it would help." He started to pull power from systems they weren't currently using or that were redundant. It wouldn't take long to get any of it back if they came up against an emergency.

"Well, we need to breathe so please keep life support online. I'd like to have weapons and shields ready if necessary, but anything not presently in use or of low importance can probably be spared right now," replied Captain Figueroa. "Just don't take anything away from Sickbay. They have their hands full with the survivors and our frozen friend," added Fig.

K'Niras came back, "You got it Captain. Transferring power now. You should have it..." There was a pause while the Caitian worked. "Now. That should at least boost the power enough that we could probably pick up radio and microwaves..." he chuckled.

"We'll be sure to listen for any dings up here, even if it's just to say the turkey is done" replied the Captain.

Come on EJ she thought to herself. There was something shortly thereafter, but it was not from the surface and it was not from outside the starship. It was internal...coming from Sickbay. The Captain opened the internal comm channel. "Go ahead Sickbay," said the Captain, knowing an update was due.

Seleya had been working on the Andorian. There were a few complications but she'd deal with them. "Doctor Seleya here, Captain," she said stating the obvious. "The survivors, for the most part are doing well. We've stabilized all but two who... will probably not make it through the night." She's make sure that she worked hard to ensure that they did but she was a realist and sometimes giving the worst case and having the best happen was a necessity. Better to over deliver and under promise... or so went the Earth saying. "The Andorian has some underlying conditions that need to be dealt with before I could bring him fully out of stasis. It will take another hour."

"Noted," replied the captain. "Please, do your best with treating the survivors," added Fig. Of course, you will, but I have to say it anyways, she thought about the redundancy. "The ones that don't make it. Use whatever you need to in order to identify them accurately. I don't want to have to give bad news to the wrong family," she added.

"Understood, Captain," Seleya said, turning back to her work.

"Nurse Vinia," the captain said over the open comm channel to Sickbay. "If you have any concerns with waking the Andorian we've recused, please note them for the official record. I cannot say I won't ignore them if you are strongly opposed to this procedure, but I respect any professional objections. You will, however, need to be ready to deal with whatever psychological effects this displacement may cause for our guest if we can successfully wake him. I know I'm potentially opening Pandora's box here... but I see no other options. To leave him in stasis or to terminate his life goes against my compassion."

"I think that reorienting him to this time will be difficult. However once the confusion from the initial freezing wears off, it should be possible to do that." There was a brief pause while Aeryn collected her thoughts. "I suggest sedating him while he thaws, and having Andorian crewmembers like Shras present to avoid anyone being seriously injured should he decide to wake up angry."

Fig listened to the report and suggestions. "I agree with you. Shras will probably be the right person to have there when he wakes, or at least be the one to start showing him around and earning his trust."

Seleya listened to the exchange. When they were ready to wake him she would. There would not be a way, captain or not, she would let the Andorian perish. Too many had been lost.

As Captain Figueroa ran through the thought of waking the Andorian, she continued to scan for any signs of EJ to no avail. She was forced to break off the search when the starship's sensors detected activity in the system. "Figueroa out," she said terminating the comm channel to Sickbay. The USS Musashi quickly pulled up and ascended into a high orbit of the planet once more only to be met with company.

The starship was immediately brought into yellow alert conditions...