Víðarr: The Silence of a God

Posted on Mon Dec 18th, 2017 @ 11:53am by Fleet Admiral Donatella Figueroa & Commander Christopher Samuels MDiv, PhD & Lieutenant Junior Grade Fiona McGowan & Lieutenant Junior Grade Ethan O'Donoghue

Mission: S01E02 D-8 With the Devil
Location: Shuttlecraft & Elba II

Shuttlecraft Goble

Captain Donatella Figueroa had sat rather silently in her seat aboard the Musashi's shuttle. It was not the most luxurious fit, but it would make do for such a short trip down through Elba II's inhospitable atmosphere and down to the unwelcoming surface. The Captain sat silently as she reflected back on memories that she held close to her, very personal ones about the man she and her crew were going to meet: Kelvar Leonard Garth, former Starfleet Fleet Captain turned murderous son of a bitch. Criminally insane. He was at Elba II's Asylum because he was criminally insane and had killed members of his own crew. She had served under his command in the past. Something she did not really go into detail about. Another thing she had left out was that Kelvar Garth was her ex-fiancé, and she was there at his Court Martial, assisting the prosecution in putting him away.

As Ensign O'Donoghue piloted the Shuttle towards the planet, the small Federation shuttlecraft passed by the Elba II Orbital Transit Station, a relatively small sparsely manned Federation station that handled civilian transport, primarily cargo proceeding down to the planet. Though the Musashi's Shuttle would have read as a Starfleet shuttlecraft from the USS Musashi, Fig was surprised they were not greeted by the Orbital Transit Station's crew. That's odd she thought as they passed by and began their decent downward to the planet.

Feth felt the same sense of concern but vocalized it not. She merely peered out at the silent station as they flew by.

Ej was sat at the helms console of The shuttle, keeping his eyes trained on the navigation. However as they passed by the orbital station Ethan's face scrunched up, turning round to speak to his commanding officer "Surely we should have been hailed by the orbital station captain?" Ethan always vocalised his concerns, must be the Irish in him that was way to honest "Upping impulse captain" he spoke as he upped the speed of the shuttle craft "Hold on to your asses people" he said as he laughed his oh so famous banshee laugh.

"Good work, Ensign. Just don't crash land us. It won't look good on either of our records" she teased a little.

The Captain's gaze met that of her Vulcan head of security.

“Scans of the station show no unusual activity, Captain.” Feth started another scan for further verification. “Keeping in mind that the station primarily handles civilian transport and/or cargo,” she turned back to her terminal, “they may be maintaining comm silence upon seeing a Starfleet vessel. We are transmitting our transponder, so they know we are of Starfleet…and from the Musashi. In the event of prying ears, they may wish, perhaps, to keep our presence hidden. That,” Feth returned her focus to the captain, “or they may be having a communications outage. I’ve picked up scanning signatures, so they’ve scanned us. They knew we are here and who is on board, but,” back at her terminal, “no word on their acknowledgement.”

Concerned that perhaps the moderately aged facility was experiencing sensor or communication issues, Fig thought it wise to have the Musashi pay them a visit and see if there was some gremlins in their systems. Donatella looked at the Chief Engineer. "Fiona, open a channel to the Musashi before we lose communications" she ordered, knowing that communication would be spotty at best in a few minutes.

"Aye, keptin." Getting to work, Fiona busied herself with trying to open a channel, but shook her head after a few seconds. She then pulled a tool out of her pocket, popped open one of the lower comm panels, fiddled with the relays for a few seconds until sparks shot out of one of the deuotronic relays and tried opening the channel again. "That's aw th' power she can handle keptin. Channel open."

"Shuttlecraft Goble to Musashi" said the Captain, clearing her throat afterwards. "Chris, we did not get any standard greeting from the orbital transit facility. That thing is prone for technical issues. Would you mind having Musashi swing by" she said calmly. "Send whiskers and antennae to poke around and see if they can lend a hand" added Fig, nudging her XO to send Lieutenants Sh'howul and th'Zarath.

Bridge of the Musashi

Christopher had been talking to his replacement at the science station when the comm system came to life. He nodded to the ensign manning communications to open the channel. The captain's voice came over the speakers that were imbedded in the ceiling of the bridge. He eased into the center seat as he listened. He thought it odd and a bit unprofessional to refer to someone as 'whiskers' and 'antennae' but didn't voice those concerns over the comm. "We are on our way, Captain," Christopher called out. "I'll have Lieutenants Sh'howul and th'Zaranth standing by. Helm swing by the Orbital Station, once there synchronize orbit." All this could be heard over the comm and when he finished giving the order, he said, "We will investigate and I'll try to keep you apprised..." A young man, with no rank on his rank pin and the red uniform of operations, stepped up to the captain's chair and handed him a PADD to sign off on. "The atmosphere of Elba Two will interfere with communications, something we are trying to fix on our end." He handed the PADD back to the young man and smiled.

"Thank you, Commander" replied the Captain. "I understand about the communication interference. Do what you can to clean it up and keep in contact, but we shouldn't require any assistance. I'll report back to the Musashi once we have answers" she added. "Goble out" finished the Captain.

Once the captain had finished speaking and the comm was closed, Christopher tapped a couple of buttons on the arm of the command chair to open up a ship wide comm. "Bridge to Lieutenant Sh'howul and th'Zaranth, please report to the transporter room. You'll be taking a little excursion over to the Orbital Station," he said. Once the acknowledgements came through, he explained their tasks and closed the comm. He watched the viewscreen as the Musashi's helmsman eased the starship into a synchronized orbit with the Orbital Station. The station was hailed and after a few moments later, Christopher had gotten permission to send his two officers over to the station.

"Bridge to transporter room, we are in position, transport when ready."

"Aye sir," came the reply over the comm. A few moments stretched out and Christopher waited for confirmation that that the transport was a success. "They have beamed over," came the next reply.

"Good, be sure to keep a lock on them at all times," Christopher said, he received the confirmation and closed the comm. He swung the chair toward science. "I want a full sensor sweep of the station, if so much as a person breaks wind, I want to know about it."

Brandon smiled, and nodded. "Aye sir."

Christopher smiled in return and then proceeded to turn his chair back to the forward position. He kept his gaze on the Orbital Station and Elba II, something didn't sit right with him about all this but all he could do was wait and see.

****
Elba II

EJ pushed the buttons on his console, landing the shuttle craft. Placing his hand on the under carriage thrusters and slowed the decent to the planet. EJ was used to being sat at the console "hold on guys this could get a little bumpy" he said as he looked at the console trying to figure out what was the problem "We've got a bit of turbulence guys going to try stabilise us"he said as he punched the reverse thrusters and eventually the craft stabilised, lowering the craft slowly "Sorry about the bumps guys atomosphere was giving us a little bit of a battering" he said as he took his hands off the console.

Once the Federation shuttlecraft transmitted its identification to the facility's automated security, the shuttlecraft had touched down on the landing pad. The mechanism was activated and a shimmering blue force shield encompassed over the shuttle. "That's the facility's bio dome" proclaimed the Captain. "Keep your environmental suites on. It's extra protection against the toxic gasses, but the dome isn't 100% effective. It will last for several minutes, allowing enough time to leave the shuttle and enter the facility" she added as she stood up and proceeded to put her environmental suit's helmet on.

The Captain knew better than to exit the shuttle first. Federation territory or not, she was not quite as reckless as Captain Christopher Pike. She waited for the Vulcan to take point. "Lead the way, Ensign" she said to Ensign D'Darra. Fig knew the distance from the landing pas to the entrance of the facility was a very brief walk at a brisk pace, five minutes at most.

As instructed the Vulcan took point and began to lead the way. There was a pathway from the landing pad to the entrance of the facility. Though they had landed on a Federation planet, Feth was armed per her security duties. Figueroa gave her a nod.

Figueroa had looked at the other three. She had brought security just to be on the safe side. EJ was brought for his piloting abilities and perhaps because the Captain had taken a bit of a personal affinity towards him, strictly platonic and professional. She saw a bit of herself in him and the markings of a potential Captain in the future. Doctor Hill was of course brought to evaluate the subject: Kevlar Garth and to perform a polygraph on the man. Fig knew the Ship's Physician was opposed to any sort of truth serum. He was a pain in her ass, but the strengthening of her ethical fibers. Ensign McGowan's technical expertise was reassurance that the shuttle could handle the journey and to assist the Doctor in setting up the polygraph.

"I want you to remember," she said addressing none of them specifically. "The man you are about to meet is not accurately painted in the Academy texts. Though his heroics are more or less accurate, the stuff the Academy chooses to teach you about Captain Garth is not what you will be coming face to face with. He is a charlatan. He is a fake. He is nothing more than a manipulative empty shell of the man he is remembered as being. The war hero is no more, and in his place pure evil took root" she explained.

Ej sat there listening to his commanding officer speak,he had reviewed captain garths extensive record at the academy, it was apart of the young ensigns final dissertation. Ej internally laughed “empty shell is one way to put it captain, the man might as well of been a con artist” he said as he looked forward all steely eyed “ or to put it into different words he was the worlds best con artist” he said twiddling with his thumbs “Remind me to give him a swift boot,bastard deserves it wasted a whole five thousand words on him in my dissertation at the academy, so yea not the bigots biggest fan” Ej said as he looked around thinking about his friend. Shraz ma buddy, if he even utters five words to me Ej thougt laughing a little out of nerves if anything.

Fig bit her button lip as memories flashed through her mind like strobe lights, the emotions coming over her like small tidal waves. “He was always a bit prejudice, but we often over looked that. I served alongside him, under him for a while, EJ. I know him...knew him better than most people. He had everyone fooled. I never thought he’d murder anyone let alone members of his own crew” Fig said.

They reached the facility, entering. “Doctor Hill and Fiona, I want you two to start working on modifying the tricorder to act as a polygraph” she ordered.

Fiona looked to the doctor and held up her tool kit with a smile. "Whatever ye need me tae dae, doctur."


Fig looked at the Vulcan Security Chief “Feth, go see to it that Captain Garth is ready for questioning” she ordered.

“EJ, you’re with me. We are going to find the Administrator and inform them that we are here and that we need to question Garth.”

Ej had finally came down from his dishonourable tirade of captain Garth, maybe it wasn’t needed but Ej was honest if anything. He dident like the man full stop and nothing in this world would change that fact, he loooked at his commanding officer “understood Captain, you want me in there when you interigate him?” Ej said showing concern for his commanding officer “ honestly if you do it’d be no bother I’d feel better knowing I was there” Ej had grown fond of his commanding officer, she was everything he aspired to be one day “Infact sckrew the rules if your going in there so am I cap’n I don’t trust him not that I don’t trust the rest of our party but I want to make sure personally his pretty mouth stays truthful” ej said being quite firm but with a hint of jokiness behind his tone.

Donatella could appreciate the young Irishmen's bombastic personality and his grab life by the horns attitude. He was a ride or die type of officer. Young and naïve, but with time would come experience and those experiences would undoubtedly mellow and mature him. She saw potential in EJ. "Ensign, you can accompany me in there when I go to speak with him" she said with a nod. "However, I need a few moments alone to prepare myself for this battle" she said waving off EJ and the others to go about and do what needed to be done. Fig needed to collect her thoughts before the anxiety overwhelmed her.