Fenris Rangers Meet Rosie Crew

Posted on Fri Jan 1st, 2021 @ 9:11am by Captain Rueben Gregnol & Executive Officer Jake Ford & Jasper Offermans & Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein & Jinx Jorasco & Chief Helmsman Eden Bowers & Satun t'Rralleen

Mission: Mission 12 - Railway
Location: Deck 6 - Observation Lounge
Timeline: MD03 - 10:00
2398 words - 4.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Indigo was nervous about this meeting. She glanced at the group around her, but everyone else stood in their own little worlds as they waited to transport across. The group was made of people who had intelligence, bitter struggles, and bravery in their past who used it to create comradery and help people when and where they could. There are no opposing people against the current leadership and that did not appear to be changing any time soon, so he allowed them to learn and thrive hopefully. Indigo just wanted a group to grow with. She could not help but relax a little bit as the familiar feeling of transporting happened, and they stood on an old-fashioned transporter platform. A small group was standing there waiting for them. "Not too shabby," the blue-haired woman said by way of greeting.

"We're not tourists," Kaylin chastised, as the group closed in on their hosts. She picked out the tall one from before. "Captain Gregno? Kaylin Jaal of the FRS Thrai. Thank you again for your offer of assistance in this rather sensitive matter. The Rangers don't have many allies on the Federation side of the border."

"Of course." Eden didn't have to pretend to make her voice deep or anything, as it came in out Gregnol's usual drawl. "This is my XO Ford, Chief Engineer Burnstein, Liha who I believe you know and Eden who flies the ship." That was a good enough introduction wasn't it? "We'll walk you to the observation lounge." Was that what Gregnol called it? Eden shrugged slightly. They certainly weren't going to notice that.

Kaylin nodded sharply, motioning for the big Human to lead the way.

Taev looked across the welcome party and smiled at Liha. She didn't seem to be looking at him, but then it would be like her to play it cool.

Liha stood tall and presented as much of a neutral mask as she could manage with Jake's face. It was an effort of will not to look at her own body to see if Jake was blowing his part in playing her.

Sensing the eyes on him, Jake looked down at the deck and tried to keep himself as neutral as possible, and close to Liha in his own body, if only for the odd sense of protection that gave.

Jinx had shown up, just to get a peek at these Rangers, but Avalon wasn’t senior staff, so really had no business hanging around, so she hurried on as the group left the transporter room.

Danica followed with the other Rangers, eying this motley crew of independent operators. She tapped a finger on the handle of one of her knives and frowned. Something felt...off here. But she smiled to the Mary Rose crew as they were led out of the transporter room.

Gregnol gulped. It was going well so far as the group was led to the observation lounge that was only one deck up. It was not used often, but would give them the most space to operate. "Dixoho is going to be commed in. She is our navigator," Gregnol piped up. He needed her there, but there was just too much risking if they knew what they looked like.

"Uh, right, yes," Eden replied in Gregnol's deep voice, as it had been her voice that piped up. "So then it's this way," she grunted. And suddenly the situation was amusing her again. She fought to keep a smile off his face.

Jasper had stayed in the background, watching the events. He really didn't trust the new arrivals. He also wasn't exactly sure why the crew was acting so different. Everything was wrong. That is, except for the ship. For once he was feeling more confident that things were functioning closer to normal, at least for the moment.

Danica eyed the captain of the Mary Rose curiously. He found something amusing. She looked to their security chief, too. He was...confused. The emotions of this crew were odd, and she was sensing a lot of deception. She wondered if she should warn Kaylin. She kept her hands close to her knives in case there was a threat.

As de facto leader of the Ranger crew, Kaylin followed alongside Gregnol as they headed for the observation lounge. As they arrived, she came straight to the point.

"I don't like asking for help," she explained. "However, our resources are limited, and a ship the size of ours is not well equipped for hauling passengers." She unfolded her arms, holding out an isolinear stick. "The White Wanderer is an old freighter, converted for these sorts of simple supply runs. However, their ship appears to have been damaged and drifted off course. We think potentially into an ancient minefield. Or at least near one." Her eyes flashed to Liha, the other Romulan present from the resident crew. "Naturally this minefield utilises older cloaking technology. However, a ship such as the White Wanderer would have no chance of escaping without being destroyed." She looked back to Gregnol, her face full of intensity. "This is where you come in. The Mary Rose is equipped not only with more advanced sensors, but the capacity to carry any refugees if necessary."

"I see," Eden said cautiously. "I think our crew is not unsympathetic to such things." She glanced at Gregnol for confirmation that it was indeed okay to say yes. "We will help in any way we can."

Gregnol admired the other captain as she stood there, wishing under other circumstances he would have been a lot friendlier instead of stuck in a secondary role trying to assist without taking over. “I will patch Dixoho in as well. She will be itching to look at this area of space,” Gregnol said in the guise of Eden the Helmswoman, and took the isolinear stick and moved to the console at the far end of the observation lounge to bring up the map of the local area.

Danica wandered around the outskirts of the room, ostensibly admiring the view, but keeping tabs on the Mary Rose crew.

Liha straightened beside Eden, watching the Rangers, partly playing the role of Jake with the captain, but also eyeing the ones she didn't know. One of them struck her as being a little too casual, more sightseeing than focused on a rescue mission, and it set off her internal yellow alert for being watched.

"Good." Kaylin glanced over at Indigo. "Give them our sensor data. As well as the originally plotted course of the Wanderer. See if their helm officer can work out the likely position and formulate a search plan."

Indigo smiled a little more and nodded as she went to the console that was being used to upload to their navigator. It would take a few moments for the original plotted course of the Wanderer to download onto such an old computer, but it would be worth it to see if someone who worked with such old stuff could do as good of a job as she suspected they would have to do in such an environment.

"Our science officer should be able to help with that," Liha suggested, nodding toward Burnie in Cassie's body.

Off to the side a little, Jake was still feeling the frustration of not being able to be himself. He wanted to be there, standing beside the captain -- or even Eden -- and helping things move forward. Instead, he was doing his best to skulk. The eyes of the Romulans kept drifting over to him. Especially one of them -- Taev, he recalled the Romulan captain introducing him. Possibly Liha's old comrade. Best avoid as much as possible.

Taev had hung back a bit, letting Liha ignore him. He didn't mind. The mission came first, and he knew it would be important to Liha that no one think she had any other interest. But that didn't mean that he had no other interest, or that he should avoid her completely. Coming over to her, he smiled. "You are just as I remember you," he said softly in Romulan.

Jake felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end as he heard the words come from the man. He didn't speak Romulan and the universal translator hadn't picked up the words clearly. He just shook his head, figuring that might do enough to get rid of the attention, and shifted a half-step closer to Liha in his own body.

Liha cursed Jake's inferior human hearing. She had no idea what Taev had said, but obviously Jake either had no idea or didn't know how to respond. Fortunately, stepping away seemed to put Taev off, though she felt a pang at the disappointment on his face. They were friends, sometimes more, and she hated to hurt him. Maybe someday she'd be able to explain.

“You have a science officer on this ship?” Indigo snorted, watching the download happen in front of her eyes.

"We have more than one," Burnie said, trying to keep from glancing at Cassie in his body. "Once we have a likely location, I'll be working with the Chief Engineer to work out how to confirm it and get to them."

Eavesdropping from the corridor, Avalon-Jinx almost spoke up, but then remembered she wasn’t the science officer.

Danica looked toward the door, sensing the presence of another person.

"It is just Avalon being nosey. My... our crew are trustworthy, just a bit nosey and wanting to know everything," Gregnol said with a smile to the woman as the download finally completed.

Avalon-Jinx blushed and moved further down the corridor. She would have to look at the data later. Danica looked at Gregnol skeptically, but kept her reservations to herself.

"I have the information," Dixoho assured. "It will take me a few minutes to look through it, but I have a few questions about this minefield. How old is it?" the woman asked, hoping someone could at least give her a rough estimate to work on how far they might have shifted from their original pattern.

Eden felt like she should be saying something, but she wasn't sure when to speak or what to ask. It was all so confusing to her.

"It's been there since the Dominion War," Taev supplied, turning to the question to avoid further awkwardness with Liha. "Part of the measures added as defense in case the Dominion conquered the Federation, or the Klingons and Federation turned on us after the Dominion was conquered. Rumor has it that the Tal Shiar also enhanced it once the threat from Hobus was clear."

Dixoho rolled her eyes at the voice that let her know the numerous options of why the mine field was there. The voice was Romulan in tone and pitch. “Thank you, strange voice.” She commented on thinking through options. Three decades was not a long time at all really. “So I think that if they’ve been there only three decades or so I cannot imagine their orbits have degraded much,” she mused.

“I concur,” Indigo offered up, looking at where the voice was coming from. “Though it would depend on if they have been damaged by passing ships and other artificial or natural satellites.”

"Like an ion storm, the sort that drove the refugee ship off course?" Taev asked sarcastically.

“Any ship impacts should be on record,” Xia commented.

“And we could get local sensor beacon readings on the ion storm,” Avalon-Jinx said, coming into the room. “It would at least give us any potential drift pattern. “The ion storm might also have interfered with the mine cloaks. They wouldn’t be as sophisticated as Romulan ship cloaks, and twenty years old.”

Indigo nudged Taev with her padd, giving him the look as she shook her head. "I am already working on it," Dixoho commented via the communication system. Everyone thought they could muscle in on her job. She had been doing those kinds of calculations since she was tiny. If only these people knew what she used to do for a living.

Avalon nodded, Jinx reminding herself she was just supposed to be the hydroponics bay operator.

"It sounds,” Kaylin interjected, sensing an underlying tension in the room, "that the scans will take some time to fully complete. I suggest we reconvene when your people have made some progress in finding the refugees." She paused, as though there were pain in even considering her next request. "Perhaps, Captain Gregnol, you would join me for dinner? It seems we owe you much for your aid in this matter, and I am led to believe that the sharing of food is a Human custom in such a situation."

Elements! It was all Liha could do to keep a neutral expression, one that didn't show what a monumental opportunity for disaster that would be. Of course, declining without a good excuse would be too, and would leave the Thrai's crew with no reason not to hang around here. She wished, nearly prayed, for any local deities to provide some good way out of this.


Eden tried not to look surprised. And before she had a chance to answer the real Gregnol spoke up, sealing her fate.


“Sounds perfect. I will stay here with Dixoho and the scans and routes, Bossman,” Gregnol commented, hoping that Liha took the hint to go along as Jake and the Executive Officer.

Right. Any local deities here either hate me or are just as useful as deities anywhere, Liha thought bitterly. There was only one sane option after all. "I'll accompany the captain. Mr. Burnstein is more than capable of directing the engineering preparations here."

"Ka'see is going to stay with me and coordinate as well," Cassie said keeping to the plan to stay with there opposite. It had worked for them so far with everything that had gone on in the last forty-eight hours.

"Sure, dinner. Let me know the details." Eden finally answered wondering how she was going to pull this off. Perhaps it was time to have a conversation with Gregnol and his wife, if she had time.

Well wasn’t this going to be an interesting afternoon was all Cassie thought offering a smile to everyone.