Have you seen Nollel?

Posted on Fri Sep 4th, 2026 @ 9:25pm by Ka'see 'Cassie' McAvoy (*) & Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein

Mission: Veils
Timeline: Day 6 18:00
1751 words - 3.5 OF Standard Post Measure

Cassie was not sure why she was worried but she had been looking over communication logs after the ship had reported a glitch and noticed that Nollel had been contacted by the ship but there had been no response since that’s to the glitch. She looked up as she saw Michael coming towards her from engineering. “Hello Michael.” She declared calmly not wanting to make him panic.

"Hey, Cassie," he replied and puffed a tired breath. He really shouldn't have told a Denobulan that the new replicators could make anything he might want to eat. "I just finished resetting every replicator in the lounge, which somehow also affected the mess hall. Please tell me Kaelan's 'culinary experiments' haven't turned your equipment to blue cheese or something."

“Well that sounds like a busy day. Have you seen Nollel since about 16 hundred hours?” She finally asked wishing she had the more human notion of small talk under her belt instead of the bluntness and straight to the point.

"Not since she went down to the planet. I thought she might have met up with T'Ango and Gunnar since I was tied up." His brows drew down. "Why? Is something wrong?"

“She was trying to contact the ship when the glitch happened and we have not been able to raise her since.” Cassie admitted feeling terrible that she was doing it. “I was just hoping that you might have a meet up point or she might have forgotten to check back in.”

"Glitch?" He was chief engineer. He should know if something glitched, but if it hadn't been that long and if it wasn't critical, it would have just gone to the incident report pile. "I had no idea. We were going to meet, but she was going to tell me where, depending on when I was free. I was just on my way to change before comm-ing her."

...which apparently wouldn't have worked. "Have you tried to locate her badge? The locator on the commbadge is independent of the comm connection."

“It is still saying she’s in the caverns, but it’s not moved in awhile,” Cassie admitted. “But the planet, especially underground, is affecting our sensors. The Allhallowians warned us it might happen the further that we get into the festival. I was hoping you had heard from her and that it was the glitch affecting another system and the comms log had just not recorded it.”

"Okay, if she'd gone to the Trial, she might have comm'd before heading in and not realized it hadn't gone through." He said it almost as much for himself as for Cassie. Two hours wasn't over long for wandering in there from what he'd heard and she might not have entered right away since the Allhallowians like to space people out to make the experience truly personal. But the glitch... not that long ago he wouldn't have thought much of it - when he'd signed on to Rosie there'd been dozens of minor (and some not so minor) glitches logged each day - but after the recent upfit things had been running smoothly. "Has anyone run a diagnostic on this glitch? Resolved it or at least determined source and how many systems were affected?"

"It's been repaired and reported for the most part, which is why I have come to find you," Cassie explained quickly. She wanted to physically check whether Nollel was onboard.

He'd check the report later. Right now, the concern was Nollel. Two hours isn't that long, he told himself. Staying in one place so long was worrying but she might be caught in some revery in one of the cavern chambers, or the badge had gotten knocked off and she didn't realize she'd lost it, or ...she'd fallen and was knocked out, bleeding on the cavern floor. I should have gone with her... He hadn't wanted to do the Trial. He knew all too well what fears and memories would confront him - he'd lived with those ghosts riding him for years. One of them had nearly destroyed his relationship with Nollel. Of course, now, right when he was finally feeling as though he'd moved on, started fresh, the memory of losing Erica returned to hit him despite having stayed a supposedly safe orbital distance from the Trial. "Is anyone else at Trial right now? Or anyone nearby we can reach who could check on her?"

"Not from our end. Can we go check with your friends and see if they have seen her? T'Ango and Gunnar wasn't it?" She asked. She knew that she might be worrying for nothing but the comms had seemed panicked; she was not going to tell him what she had heard just yet as she did not want to worry him anymore.

"Yes! Yes, they'd be there," he replied, realizing his level of anxiety was showing in not having thought of them immediately. A marine and medic were the perfect team to send, and he knew beyond any doubt that they'd immediately agree to help - give T'Ango a rescue mission and she On It. That is, if they weren't already part of it. They'd both been planning on doing the Trial, so for all he knew they were already in the caverns, possibly even in the same position since they might have met up with Nollel on the way. "You said the glitch was repaired, right? So if they haven't gone into the caverns already themselves, I should be able to raise them on comms."

“If you have the communication codes yes.” The woman agreed seeing the cogs turning in her friends mind as he thought on ways to help the woman. “Was Nollel okay about going instead of Captain?” She asked indicating they could head to transporter.

Focused on finding Gunnar's comm code on his wristPaDD, Burnie almost missed the question. But then it brought him up short. There'd been some sort of VIP thing with the Captain invited down to go through. He really needed to pay more attention in staff meetings. "I guess she was. I hadn't realized until now that she took his place rather than just going on her own." Adding that to a glitch and... "Whether I can reach my friends or not, I'm going down. I'll need the coordinates of her badge, then let Gregnol know, and Liha."

“I will come with you.” Cassie promised. She wanted to check on Nollel herself. It was hard having friends when you have the ability to shut off your emotions and seem cold and aloof but Nollel had never questioned any of her behaviour. She had been there after her husband left and cleaned up the mess she had thrown his clothes and items into the corridor.

"Thank you," Burnie said, sincerely grateful, though he shouldn't have been surprised by the offer. Cassie had been one of his best friends on the ship even before they'd swapped bodies, but afterward there'd been a particular bond and it had later extended to Nollel. How lucky could a guy be to have his best friend also become close friends with his wife?

As they reached the transporter room, he activated the comm system. "Burnie to Gunnar. Please come in."

----------

Down on the planet, T'Ango and Gunnar were just changing for their planned Trial.

"You're wearing it." She held out a strap necklace with a beaded Warrior's Pendant.

"I wore it for the bonfire because of our song, but it's a foreign decoration. In my regular uniform, it's not -"

A chirp from his comm interrupted the argument. Tapping his comm, they both immediately forgot the dispute at the tone in their friend's voice. "We're here," Gunnar replied. "What's going on? You sound worried."

++ "Nollel went into the Trial over two hours ago. Apparently there was a glitch that lost a message from her to ship and now that I know, her badge is there but it hasn't moved for over an hour. No one else from the ship is down there. Are you anywhere near the Trial?" ++

The pair exchanged a look. It could nothing, but neither would bet a single credit on that. Plus, Burnie was worried for his mate. There was no way they wouldn't help.

"We were heading out to enter it. Send us her coordinates," T'Ango said, leaning over Gunnar's shoulder to speak into his comm, and simultaneous fixing the pendant on his neck.

++ "Thank you! I'll meet you at the entrance with Cassie. Burnie out." ++

-------------

As Burnie and Cassie materialized just outside the interference zone surrounding the Trial caverns, T'Ango and Gunnar arrived, slightly winded from running to meet them. T'Ango was in Dosadi fatigues, mottled grey tone camouflage with multiple pockets, though missing the usual sidearm as the Allhallowians did not permit weapons inside (wisely given the psychological effects of the Trials). Gunnar was also no longer in the civilian clothes he'd been wearing for the festival, but his regular uniform, medkit on his hip. However, both were wearing the five, tube-beaded strands of a Dosadi Warrior's Pendant with its sapphire jewel suspended in the middle; Gunnar rather less comfortably than T'Ango.

"I'm so glad to see you guys, specially you with that medkit." Burnie said, coming forward to clasp Gunnar's arm and T'Ango's shoulder. "You remember Cassie?" he added, indicating the woman they'd met briefly on the ship tour and then at the bonfire.

Cassie offered a smile to the pair. "She might not be hurt. She might have lost her comm." Cassie said for what felt like the 100th time as she joined the trio, still looking around. She was not jumping to conclusions until she had physical proof that something was wrong, other than a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach, which was not like her.

"Hopefully that's all it is," T'Ango said. Though privately she couldn't help thinking that if that was the case, Nollel would have come out by now and gotten someone to contact the ship. "We'll head in and make our way to the badge coordinates. If she's not there, we can find it and return it to her." She tried to say it brightly to keep Burnie's spirits up. "I tuned my magnetic compass on the way over, so since scanning devices aren't allowed, we can still navigate to her last known coordinates."

"As long as we find her," Burnie said, heading purposefully toward the entrance.