Star Trek PBEM Sim / Star Trek RPG
OUR STAR TREK PBEM STORIES: HOLDING ON
Title: Holding On, Part Three
Location: Pandora's Box, Ready Room
Captain Kamranov and Commander Varsahlaveu were discussing the mission at hand and what had happened to the Chief Engineer when LT Knnekhesskt interrupted.
"Sirs, receiving transmission. Flash precedence. Sending to you now," the lieutenant announced.
The CO checked his monitor. "Received. Good work. Shutting comms for review," he said.
"Understood. Knnekhesskt out," the energetic lieutenant replied cutting his connection with the Captain. He knew if the CO or XO wanted more they would contact him.
The CO punched the button and all technical and other information was displayed along with a link to begin the message. The Captain touched the link, watched the screen and listened. The message was audio only and a visual representation of it was available for viewing. There was no voice, just generated audio code crafted to look like natural interference.
A waterfall display of colors rolled down the CO's screen. Bright lines indicated the exact frequencies of transmission with the intensity varying for differences in signal strength. As he watched, one pattern repeated itself over and over thanks to the hard work of LT Knnekhesskt of discovering how the repetitions were varied to avoid detection by traditional automated systems.
"Immediate recover. Four two. Basket. Full. Holding on. Grey owl. Jumla. Taroo. Seven. Eight. Precepts."
The XO's eyes widened.
"XO?" the Captain asked.
"It's from one of our PsyOps agents. Message says captured, interrogated need assistance in escaping from a prison ship. If it is who I think it is, this rescue supersedes everything, including bailing out big shots from their own stupidity. Agent was sent to infiltrate a series of groups until she got to Nirvannah," he said, giving just the highlights and typing and footnoting the code for him along with the other details and possibilities of interpretation. The last three months had given the XO plenty of practice with this set of rotating non computer generated codes and attempts to find that agent.
"Her name?" Captain Kamranov asked.
"Anise Cavell," the XO replied.
"Cavell?", the Captain said not recalling this name, except for Earth's history.
Someone you know very very well and have worked with before. Partially genetically engineered for assignments like this. Billed and billeted as a super weapon of sorts. Need to get her out ASAP."
The Captain believed the XO of course, but looked puzzled, unable to remember her. There was no memory eating at him just the sound of the XO's voice that implied there was even more reasons to him to change the mission at hand.
"Someone you worked before," the XO volunteered tentatively. "She also went by other aliases and calls. A lot like you have. Ahri, Sarandotja, Serant, Taresey, Crissy Jalane, Blaise, Boomer, Bugs, Ikal,..."
A faint flicker of light shone in Captain's eyes...Blaise seems familiar somehow how, maybe," he said. ~If not her then it might be someone else I've known,~ he thought.
"You were close to her. Besides on missions," the XO volunteered again. There was something the Captain needed to know and he wasn't sure how to say it. In his experience with humans, he generally found that for things like this, letting the other person figure it out on their own, memory wipe or not, was ultimately less shocking and abrupt for them. He let his eye contact with the Captain at that moment do the talking for him.
"Dated?" the Captain guessed.
"More than that," the XO replied leaving it right there.
Now it was turn for the Captain's eyes to grow wide.
