Chapter 1: Of Forgotten Things [ Day 02, 0630 ]

[ Lt (jg) Cara Siobhan Ross | CSO's Quarters | USS Augustus ]


Cara shivered as she padded across her quarters, pausing to glance out the view-port. The ship had been a warp for the better part of the past 20 hours, since departing from the Sol system. Very high warp. It was thrilling to see stars passing in streaks at speeds few ships had ever accomplished before. The new transwarp system that had been rolled out to the Excelsior and refit-Lexington class vessels was a marvel of science and engineering. It was one of a plethora of reasons why she was happy to be aboard this ship, to have nabbed this posting.

It didn't hurt matters that, despite her low rank, her position gave her a quarters she didn't have to share, and, more importantly, a sonic shower she didn't have to share. And while she preferred a hot, water shower (having grown up with this, and a large soaker tub back home) she still enjoyed the efficiency and the tingle of the shower. The way it worked fascinated the young woman's inquisitive mind, and she had every intention of fiddling with the settings at some point. Life, after all, was a grand experiment.

Having just finished one, after a quick meal upon waking, Cara now stood at her window, bare to the world, taking the view in with a serious sense of awe. There in the distance was their destination, growing larger by the moment. She'd spent most of her first duty shift - after familiarizing herself with her station - reading up on the mission briefing notes and anything she could find on the subject matter. She had a copy of the cliff-notes downloaded to her tricorder.

["REMINDER: 15 Minutes till departure"] the voice of the ships computer announced, cutting into Cara's quiet musings.

"Ah Feck! Ah'm gaun t'be late!" The red head swore, and went on a tear about her quarters, ransacking the drawers built into one of the walls, from whence she hurriedly pulled on one article of clothing after another. "Shite, shite, Cara ye damn fool lass," she went right on, sucking in as she drew up her boots over her pants leg, pausing to stare at herself in the mirror, wearing her turtleneck, proclaiming her division (science) as well as her pants and boots. No skirt today. She'd read up on the station. It'd be a might be cold and a large risk.

Unknowingly emulating her Captain, the younger officer snagged an expedition jacket from her closet and shrugged her arms into it as she ran out the door for the nearest turbolift, clutching her tricorder to her chest.

[Transporter Room 1 | Deck 3 | USS Augustus]

"Hold th'door if ye please!" she called out, seeing an officer stepping into the the Transporter room. Only as the junior officer skidded to a halt and looked up did she realize it was the captain. She could feel her face go a bit pale, and then, redden in the cheek. "Make tha' hold the door please, sir?" she ventured, sheepishly.

[ Lt (jg) Cara Siobhan Ross | Transporter room 1 | USS Augustus ] attn: @absinthe


He was taller than her, not that this was hard to do. The average male was taller than Cara, and frankly, most females of the human species gave her a bit of a glance up. So she had to physically look up to the man before she could see the smile on his face, and feel the tension bleed out of her shoulders. And he was something to take in. As with the doctor she had met before, the man in front of her was attractive by just about any standard. But that wasn't what teased a small smile out of the nervous junior lieutenant. It was the captains smile.

The man was clearly eager. There was an energy and a warmth that he extruded and it was, in short infections.

"Ah yessir, that ah'am," Cara replied with a bit of a nod, straightening up just a little bit. "Which is t'say ah am Lt. Ross, and ah am ready fer this mission. Sir. Quite loookin' forward t'it." She'd elaborated, following her captain into the Transporter room. His attitude put her at ease over her worries, of being late and looking foolish and as such the young officer favored her Captain with a bright smile. "Ah'll admit that ah was up most th'evenin reading up on our destination. Tis right fascinating."

[ Lt (jg) Syria | CSec's Quarters | USS Augustus ]

Syria was still abed after the shuttle ride and the USS Augustus leaving the Sol system. She wasn't exactly a morning person, another thing she was working on apart from her shy nature. However, with her alarm going off and knowing she had to be to the transporter room shortly she reached over and hit the dismiss button when she'd rather roll over and go back to bed. She started to stretch on her hands and knees stretching all the muscles in her back as she did so. The feline's right leg moved to the side of the bed and her foot touched the floor as she started to stand and make her way towards the living area of her quarters. Syria loved no longer need to share quarters.

She had a quick sonar shower to clean up and dressed in her uniform, hello cat she didn't like water that much enough to brush her teeth though. Syria hated getting caught in the rain so she was more than thankful for climate control stations rather than random showers like before climate control stations. Making sure she had her phaser at her hip Syria left her quarters heading to Security first she wanted to make sure she had a phaser rifle just in case it was needed.

[Secuirty - Armory|USS Augustus]

She made quick work of entering Security and making her way to the armory so she could grab the phaser rifle she wanted to bring with her. The feline security chief acknowledged those around her as she came and went before heading to the transporter room next.

[ Transporter room 1 | USS Augustus ]

Syria slowed as she noticed Cara, Dean, and the Captain, "I apologize if I am late." She said still rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she looked from the captain to the other two officers her voice coming out as a natural purr.

[ Lt (jg) Syria | Transporter room 1 | USS Augustus ]

Syria looked to the Medical chief with a curious eye, she too could hear their heartbeats, but not enough to gauge their rate of beat from this distance. That was not uncommon among caitians but the Doctor was not of her race, from what she could tell he was human. The feline's eyes returned to the Captain with a nod, "I am glad I have not caused us any delay." Syria said her words rolling on her tongue with a natural purr.

When the captain reached for his communicator to contact his second in command, Syria fell silent and waited for Commander Evelon, to respond to the captain's inquiry as she turned to look at Cara and the Doctor wondering if he was still trying his hand at flirting with the young lady.

Dean raised an eyebrow a moment. Looking between the trio. There was certainly a bit of conflict there seeing the Captains expression. That could say one of two things. Either he did not know, or he chose to pretend he did not know. One or the other, it would be best to keep up appearances. "Besides, I just happen to have a good ear and a judge of mannerisms. Unlike our Caitian friend here who can actually hear every time we take a breath." Motioning to Syria.

"I'm simply attuned to such things, like I am the only one who is not nervous about this mission." He held up a finger a moment, "Which, actually, is a good thing. That means that you all are excited, eager. Wouldn't be here if you wanted to sit at home and do nothing. Bravo and cheers."

Moving over and all equipped already, and maybe taken a few spare transporter conduit relay junctions as well while he was in the back, to step up on the pad. "I hate this damn thing.." Giving a glance to Cara again with a crinch of his nose. Holding his hand out, "Lieutenant." He was trying at least, he did have an eye on the red head, Cara. Who wouldn't? Really. She was magnificent. Though, work came so heads up and chin high, other than waiting to see if she'd take his hand. If not then he'd simply settle it at his side.

[ Lt (jg) Cara Siobhan Ross | Transporter room 1 | USS Augustus ]


Well as far as explanations go, that wasn't the best one she'd ever heard. It wasn't the worse either. And Cara found it impossible to deny the fact that she was indeed excited about the mission. Eager, as the Doctor had worded it ,was an accurate diagnosis. She glanced up at her Captain and cocked a red eyebrow a bit on her forehead, as if to ask, Aye, ahn ye believe him? Or is it another bucket o'codswallop?

All the same, the Doctor and their Security officer mounted the transporter, the latter offering a counterpoint to the former's comments about disliking the transporters. And then Dr. House offered a hand to her. She couldn't very well make a scene of turning him down, and for all the different emotions the man stirred, this, at the very least, reminded her of the lads back home. A bit of Chivalry goes a long way, her father was prone to saying.

"Thank ye, Doctor," Cara replied, taking his hand with her own and allowing the man to help her up, onto the transporter pads. She gave him a small nod - it was a kind gesture - and noted to both of the officers already there, "Ah find the mechanism's personally fascinatin' mah self. They recently refined the dematerialization process not too long ago. There was a rather engrossing paper about it. More engineering than strictly sciences Ah suppose, but there's a lot ah crossing paths within' tha disciplines.

Thing is, when Ah was aimin'ta beam to th' Augustus, the chaps at the planetside facility said Ah had to shuttle over. Still don't understand why. Ah figured a quick beam to the orbital dock, and another beam over, but nope." She frowned a bit. This being a conversation that should have been hashed out the day before.

"Ah suppose they were pullin' tha wool over mah eyes."

[ Captain Mason Finch | Transporter Room | USS Augustus ] attm: syrano Angelus Kai

When she emerged from seemingly nowhere Mason all but jumped. "Oh, Commander! I can't believe I didn't see you," he said relaxing back into an easy smile. He had, up until that point, simply been watching his senior staff interact. Though he was a bit confused by some of the nuances, clearly he'd missed some interaction in the past, he was pleased to see they were, in fact, getting along. It was good to see them working well together, and then, of course, there was Evelon. She was a fine officer, but she honestly scared him a little sometimes.

"Yes indeed, I think we've made the team there wait quite long enough," he said and moved to the transporter pad. He waited for the others to follow suit and gave a nod to the transporter chief. "Energize."

---

[ Commodore Roland Locke | Transporter Station | USS Augustus ]

Since the 'crisis' had begun Roland Locke had gotten very little sleep. Instead, he had spent much of his time going over the reports that were flying across his desk about the problems the research team was facing. He was not too pleased with what was going on, but his team was handling themselves well enough for him to not write any of them up. But his mood was not exactly one on the road to improvement. No, he had spent the last few days getting more tired and thus more agitated. It didn't help that his only expert on what the colony was supposed to be like, an alien life form he had come to know as Syrano, would spend much of his time intoxicated and beyond that was of very little use to the situation at hand.

And now, standing in the transporter station of the station he was getting especially impatient waiting for his, so called, 'saviors' to arrive. He detested Starfleet for getting more involved in his work. The situation was far from a crisis point and he was in no mood to have to go over all of the details of the station with yet another idiotic flyboy captain who decided to get involved in his business. No, this matter would have been better handled by him and his team and not some outsiders who knew nothing of it.

"Sir, they're signaling they're ready to beam aboard," the transporter chief said from the console behind him.

"Power up the system and standby to receive," he said, his tone not outright upset, but quite curt.

As he watched the system powered up and a square area around a transporter landing pad formed a thin blue line that hung in the air, the signal boosters activating. The process of beaming onto the station was not the smoothest of transports, but it got the job done well enough and only laster a handful of seconds longer than a regular cycle. When the landing team materialized. Mason blinked a few times and looked around.

"Power down the system," Roland said not looking away from the landing party. A moment later the thin blue lines that hung in the air disappeared. "Welcome to the Arcturian Station. You'll forgive me if we skip over the usual pleasantries and get right to the matter at hand?" he asked looking to the man with the highest ranking pins.

"Of course," Mason said. He wasn't used to skipping introductions, but clearly, the situation called for a degree of urgency. "We're here at your disposal." He moved from the transporter pad and held out his hand, his usual smile quickly forming on his face.

Roland neither smiled nor shook the man's hand. "If I had it my way Captain, you wouldn't be here," he said stiffly. "But since you are here, we might as well get to it. less than 24 hours ago we had another reactor activate and we're not certain who or what activated. We have presumed that there is a central computer to the station though it seems to be running on automatic functions. We believe the reactor activated to help ease the power load of the system, however, my team has yet to access the central core. I have a team working on that, so if you want to send some people down there to help, that'd be a good place to start. While they do that, I think it best you meet our resident expert on the station, though I am not certain you will find him much more help than I have." Roland spoke politely enough, but there was a hostility in his tone that made his position clear.

Mason nodded thoughtfully. "Alight," he said after a moment and turned to his team. "Evelon, I want you to take Syria down and see what you can do about accessing the core," he said doing his best to look professional, repressing his desire to at least smile. He knew the situation was grave, but he was just so excited that he could barely contain it. He was here and he was getting to do what he always wanted to do, be the captain. But now was the time to act all the same. "Me, Cara, and Dean will go meet this expert. I figure we should let our resident scientists learn what they can about this. Contact me when you know something, alright?"