Star Trek Sim/ Star Trek RPG
USS Eagle, NCC 2185
CPT Kematsopoulos, CDR Tsiolkovsky, CDR Unstoffe, LTjg Richards, Yeoman Perksandra, & Yeoman
Tsundra
JOINT LOGS
Joint Logs by Myth, Stoffe and Nouri
Title: O, What a Tangled Web We Weave
Location: The USS Eagle
Setting: The Bridge
Feeling incredibly lucky (since the AMO hadn't had her arrested on the spot)
LT Richards was headed for the bridge to make a quick report to CDR Unstoffe.
She hoped it would be quick - examining this story too closely left a lot
of hard to explain holes. She paid no attention to the robot following her,
having forgotten Bob was around in the joy of momentary escape.
The little robot followed at a respectable distance. His progeny were no
where to be seen.
Leah arrived at the bridge a bit nervous. Lister and Rimmer had been a warm
up act - Unstoffe wouldn't be so easy to trick.
Standing at Tactical, Unstoffe heard the turbolift doors part and turned
his head to notice Richard's arrival. As she stepped onto the bridge, he
motioned for her to join him.
As she stopped next to him, he pointed at the central display screen on his
console. A quick glance at the format was all it took to recognize it as
a standard security report.
"Leah," he began, pausing to let her look up from the screen, "I have reports
from Lister and Rimmer, but I'd like to know what really happened in there.
I'm pretty sure that Rimmer did not single-handedly create an opening, evacuate
Hanson and repair the comms all while saving the Captain's life." Rimmer
was famous for the literary license he typically employed when writing his
reports.
Leah was relieved that it was Rimmer's report he was questioning and not
her story. "Not quite, sir."
"Lister's report is a little more credible, but still leaves several questions,"
he said. Reading Lister's reports always provided the opposite challenge.
It was obvious he rushed through it as quickly as possible just to be done
with it.
~Uh oh...~ Leah had the sinking feeling that this was not going to go very
well.
"What did you find when you arrived?" he asked.
~Better stick to the story and hope for the best...~ "The door was malfunctioning
- when I arrived it was stuck open. That's how the CMO got in. She was checking
on the Captain."
"And Hanson was already there?" he prompted. He pulled up sensor records
on CO's quarters.
It would have made a better story if he had already been there - but if the
sensors were working properly that wasn't what they'd have recorded. "Ensign
Hanson arrived after I did, sir."
Lister's report vanished from the console screen banished to its electronic
limbo and in its place appeared the sensor logs from the Captain's quarters.
A time-stamped entry showed the arrival of both the CMO and Richards, but
nothing after that. Similarly absent were any reports of faults in the quarters'
systems.
~Oh that's not good...~ she thought.
Unstoffe highlighted the entry which showed the CMO's and LT Richards' arrival.
An image appeared clearly showing the two about to enter at different times.
Obscured from view was a third, unidentified person who arrived after the
Lieutenant.
Perplexed, Unstoffe tried manipulating the sensor logs, but nothing changed.
Talking as much to himself as to Leah, he said, "Something seems wrong with
these sensor readings."
"Yes, sir. Looks like those engineers have more to fix than we knew about,"
Leah agreed.
"What did you see when you entered?" he asked.
Meanwhile the man in the Captain's chair listened intently to CSEC and to
Richards, to see if the story will stay as they all planned it.
"Nothing overly out of the ordinary - beyond the malfunctioning door, sir.
The CMO was checking in on the Captain, who seemed to be recovering quickly,"
she said. ~Thus he was back on the bridge,~ she thought. "And the room
was a bit less neat than usual. The Captain has a number of 'gifts' from
the engineering crew that haven't been sorted or put away yet," Leah explained.
She felt a little strange describing the CO's quarters while he was in ear
shot but c'est la vie.
"I don't understand how you got stuck. If everything was normal, why didn't
you just turn around and report back. Certainly, the CMO didn't need a guard?"
Becoming more perplexed, he latched on to her phrase "a bit less neat than
usual."
"And how did you judge 'usual'? You've been there before?" he asked.
At least that bit wasn't a lie. "I dropped off a gift of my own to the Captain
before this happened, sir. The comms in the room weren't operational, so
I wasn't able to contact you from inside and before I could try from the
corridor the door shut. It didn't reopen, sir." That was true as well.
LCDR Unstoffe raised an eyebrow at the idea of a gift to the CO. "I
see," he said. "And there was nothing Hanson could do? He has the reputation
of a good, if somewhat odd, engineer."
"Ensign Hanson didn't manage to get anything working, no, sir." Leah left
off that Hanson hadn't bothered trying, either-he'd been a bit busy keeping
everyone not dead.
Commander Valentina Tsiolkovsky was also on the bridge as was the Captain.
She was trying to think of how to break it to the Captain that the XO was
dead. She had just about figured it out when . . . SWISH!! The turbolift
doors opened.
The Captain looked up in the direction of the sound. Yeoman Meredith Perksandra
arrived on bridge with a tray of sandwiches. "Lunch?" he asked hopefully.
"Yes," replied the Chief Engineer tersely, having wanted to get over with
telling the Captain the bad news. The Captain's stomach growled in affirmation
that this was indeed good timing for lunch.
Yeoman Perksandra was still trying to get her job back as Captain's Yeoman.
She had brought a variety of sandwiches that she thought the Captain would
like and didn't bother to bring the CENG's favorite. Meredith sashayed over
to the Captain's chair, even though she knew he could not see her. She didn't
want to get sloppy in her approach to things even though he was temporarily
blind.
"I brought your favorites, sir," the pretty Yeoman announced to the Captain.
The Captain smiled. "Thank you," he said. "Roast beef with plenty of tomato
and mayo?" he asked hopefully.
"Of course, sir," she said making last minute adjustments to his sandwich
that he could not see. She wasn't sure exactly what he would want since he
had been acting odd since the head injury and the cargo bay accident. "It's
so good to have you back, sir," she said smiling winsomely.
"Good to be back," he said eagerly taking the sandwich as she put it in his
hand.
The Chief Engineer rolled her eyes. She had seen Yeoman "Perky's" type much
too often in Starfleet, especially around her father.
"Coffee, extra strong and plenty of cream ((https://usseagle2185.tripod.com/rbwomperchw2.html))?"
Yeoman Perksandra asked, wondering if that was correct.
The CO smiled, "Yes."
The Chief Engineer, who had not been around the Captain in a while, wondered
briefly when he started to drink it that way again. She had been very busy
with running the ship and with the repairs and had not had much time to visit
him since the accident. She helped herself to a Reuben sandwich and
strong tea while Perksandra was fixing the CO's coffee. "Thanks," she replied
not wanting to give the young pretty yeoman any more time around the Captain.
She was secretly glad that "Perky" was no longer the Captain's Yeoman. Among
other things, she was just too "perky". CENG had been suspicious, at first,
when the change in Yeoman's had happened so suddenly, but then after she
knew Yeoman Tsundra's secret, she felt better about it.
In the background of the bridge, Yeoman Tsundra sat out of the way. She worked
on a few things she needed to get done but mostly watched everything carefully
especially where the CO was concerned. She saw the obvious attempts of Perksandra
to try and win her way back to her brief stint as Captain's Yeoman. She was
going to make sure that didn't happen.
Yeoman Perksandra left the Captain and CENG and made the round with the food.
"CSEC?" she asked.
LCDR Unstoffe glanced over at the Yeoman. "Don't mind if I do, thanks," he
replied, taking the tuna salad.
CSEC continued his conversation with the lieutenant. "And what was he doing
with a drawn phaser set on maximum? I didn't authorize a shoot to kill order."
And here was the tricky part. In retrospect, it might have been better going
with the laser tag theory... "I don't know what Ensign Hanson was doing with
the phaser, sir. In any case, he tripped over the 'gifts' and accidentally
took out part of the Captain's wall." Or rather most of it and the bathroom
as well.
CSEC kept focused on his young protégé as he replied to the
Yeoman. "Coffee, thanks. Blond and sweet," he said.
Yeoman Perksandra giggled and whispered, "Same." She finished making the
coffee and waited to give it to him.
Without skipping a beat, he continued to Richards, "I read that in Lister's
report. Didn't make sense to me. Rimmer was positively scathing in his comments.
'No one I helped train could ever make that kind of mistake' was his remark.
Rimmer's ego aside, a type II phaser simply shouldn't misfire like that.
He'd almost would have to have been trying to shoot someone before he fell
and just missed," he said speculating out loud, but very close to the truth.
Leah scowled. She didn't like being accused of lying, never mind that that
was exactly what she was doing. "It was an accident, sir." That wasn't going
to fly on its own - a type II really wouldn't have misfired. "I believe Hanson
may have modified it - perhaps that affected the safety feature?" She accidentally
dropped Hanson's rank out of nervousness.
"Modified it? Where is the phaser now?" CSEC asked, not noticing that she
had dropped the rank.
And now the really tricky part. The CDR was not going to like this. "Ensign
Hanson is in possession of it, sir."
"I thought he was injured and sent to Sickbay?" he replied.
"Yes, sir. He said something about using it to power one of his tools- I
think he left it with in his toolkit in the COs quarters." Obviously, he
hadn't carried it off with him on the stretcher.
The Chief of Security's eyes widened. "Leah, you left an illegally modified
and potentially malfunctioning phaser just floating around in some tool kit?"
he asked disappointedly. "And what is this reference Lister makes to Hanson
collapsing from his injuries?" he added.
Yeoman Perksandra continued smiling at CSEC, still stirring his coffee.
LCDR Unstoffe accepted the coffee from Yeoman while continuing to look towards
Leah. "Thank you, Yeoman," he said taking a sip. ~Whoa, that's what I call
sweet,~ he thought as the sugar destroyed any coffee flavor that may have
been present. Not wishing to hurt the Yeoman's feelings, aloud he said,
"Great! Just how I like it."
Yeoman Perksandra replied sultrily, "I am glad you like...it" It was unclear
to her if CSEC was oblivious to her full meaning of the remarks or just planning
it cool and hard to get in front of a subordinate.
Leah's face went red. "I'm not in a position to order H- Ensign Hanson to
do anything at the moment, sir." At least not without arguing about it for
ten minutes before hand.
This time, CSEC noticed the stutter on the name.
"I felt the phaser would be safe enough in the Captain's room since no one
will be entering it alone with the classified information in there." Leah
added. This also luckily kept the mess of the plant room and the evidence
of Tsundra's ritual out of sight. "And I assumed Ensign Hanson had permission
for his modifications, sir."
"Why not? He's an ensign and you're a lieutenant, and in weapon safety you're
the expert, not him," he observed.
Yeoman Perksandra heard enough and moved on to other bridge crew. She knew
this story already.
"It's... a long story, sir." Leah sighed. "I'm sure you'll be hearing it
soon anyways - I broke his nose. He's not really inclined to listen to me
now."
LCDR Unstoffe replied sounding shocked and a little disappointed in his protege.
"Leah, you what? What happened? You just can't go around hitting fellow officers,
especially those junior to you," he admonished her.
The Captain was surprised. ~I missed that somewhere with the missing days,
weeks, maybe years ... what happened between the two, ~ he thought. Since
both of them were in on part of the conspiracy it would be important for
him to find out what happened and try to get them reconciled.
Leah looked down. "It's not that simple, sir. And it won't happen again."
~I really don't need THAT much laundry on my conscience!~
LCDR Unstoffe realized this might not be the place to explore this part of
the story fully. "Okay. Recover the phaser and have someone else in engineering
run a full system's check. I want to know why it misfired like that," he
ordered.
~Phew! Looks like he'll believe it ... for now. ~ "Aye, sir." ~Now how do
I get a modified phaser to hand over...?~
"And I need to know what Lister is talking about regarding Hanson. Was he
injured when he fell or did he collapse from earlier injuries?" He paused
and then made a mental note to himself, mumbling audibly, "Maybe I need to
call Lister up here and ask him."
"Ensign Hanson arrived injured, as I told Ensign Lister." Leah forced herself
to keep a relatively calm tone. "Sir."
The man who everyone except Tsundra thought was the Captain over heard this
and wished he could come up with a distraction for Richards. Nothing he could
think of was plausible. Too much was riding on him be able to carry on the
deception until things in both places could get fixed. He'd have to keep
thinking.
The Chief of Security continued questioning. "Do you know how he was injured?
Were his injuries visible when he arrived?" he asked.
"Yes, Ensign Hanson said he didn't remember and before he could leave for
Sickbay the door shut, sir." That was also true, although now that she knew
a little more about the intruder Leah had a feeling she knew who may have
done it. "And before you ask - no, I didn't do it, sir."
As the two talked, the Captain thought, ~I definitely have to figure out
what happened between them. Especially in on this as they are. ~ He
turned to Val. "Do you know what they are talking about?" he whispered softly.
"Da, Richards and Hanson have personalities that don't go well together,"
she replied. She looked briefly over at CSEC. "That happens sometimes."
CSEC and CENG had had more than there share of disagreements since they began
working together.
"And?" he asked.
"Vhell, scuttlebutt has it she timed him.." she said.
"You mean clocked him?" he said guessing at the idiom she meant.
"Da," Valentina replied.
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