240011.03.1300

USS Nile Oasis (Runabout)

Lt.Talibah entered the rather large shuttle bay for a ship the size of the Osiris, seeing the Nile Oasis was the Runabout being prepped she made her way over to it. Flicking through her PADD, with a coffee cup in her hand, barely lifting her eyes. She was able to make her way around various stacks of supplies and crew that were moving around the shuttle bay.

“Ma’am, this might be one area where watching where you walk and paying attention to your surroundings may do some good don’t want you tripping over a crate of dinnerware or being run over by some crewman in a rush to get their pallets stacked before they can go to lunch.”

“What? Oh ummmmmm.” she looked around herself seeing what she just walked through “Sorry guys, hope I did not cause anyone to drop something.” she stopped and looked up at who had spoken to her, seeing a young-ish looking Vulcan standing the Nile’s hatchway.

“Thank you, Ensign?”

“Naes, Ma’am. Welcome to the Nile’s Oasis. I have been assigned as your helmsman.”

“Okay, so how’s our girl looking?”

“The Nile Oasis is cleared for the mission, Ma’am. I double-checked that the proper systems have been added “ he points to the mission pod on the roof “and I just started running diagnostics on the main flight control systems when I saw you walking up.”

“Has our science crew reported on board yet?”

“No ma’am, I expect them in the next 15 – 20 minutes, I understand that they are going through the data from the survey vessel that passed near the system two weeks ago.”

Looking down into her cup, she let out a shallow breath. “Please tell me the replicator has a good coffee menu.”

Ensign Naes slightly tilted his head and looked over his shoulder. “Not sure ma’am, I haven’t checked.”

“Ensign, Ensign, Ensign” she clucked her tongue as she stepped up into the Nile Oasis. “Word of advice, always check the replicator menu. Especially if the Captain or XO is part of the crew.”

“ Yes, ma’am”

“Ok then, let’s get this bird ready to fly once the captain gives us the green light. Go ahead and finish up your diagnostics on the flight control and run one on the main systems. I’ll start running checks on the sensors and other systems to include the mission pod.”

The blue head of an Andorian pokes through the hatchway. “Ma’am, do you have room for one more? The Captain said he wanted someone with knowledge of Dilithium and I thought of a classmate of mine that is in engineering.”

The XO turned and looked around the ship. “We should, did he get the ok from Lt. Mathison?”

“Yes ma’am. The LT said he would send the Captain and you a message.”

“Ok then. Send them on over. You know the Captain said, “No telepaths on this one.”

“Yes, Ma’am. I  came down with your two science crew to make sure they had everything they needed.” an arm was visibly waving someone over to the runabout.

“Ok Teak, out of the way. We have work to do.” A human female wearing the pips of an ensign in a blue science tunic entered the runabout followed by a male Klingon in yellow engineering also wearing the pips of an ensign. Last but not least was a human male probably in his mid-thirties in science blue with Chief rank on his tunic.

“Ma’am” As the chief entered.

Lt.Talibah stood and faced the group in front of her. “Ok, I’m sure you got the mission brief from your department heads, so I won’t bore you by going over it again. Let’s run scans and get all the data we can for theStarfleet, No unscheduled side trips or stops on this ride folks. We will check in with the Osiris before we return to see if they have anything new for us. Any questions?

240011.03.1300

“Ok, folks. One hour till we arrive at our destination. Updates?”

“Sir, Lt.Talibah is reporting that her crew has all arrived on the Nile Oasis and is ready to go whenever you give them the green light.”

“We are not getting anything new or different from the scans, sir”

“Captain, I’ve been doing some reading on these wee bastards, the Devore Imperium, these guys are sneaky as hell and quite pushy. One thing I have noticed is that they have some sort of system that makes it hard for our sensors to detect, not quite a cloaking device just one of their systems runs differently. Maybe a good time for us to test out that, what did you call it? Echolocation, maybe that was it, upgrade.”

Kr’antren gave a slight smirk towards tactical. “ You mean the Sonar upgrade we had the chief add to the sensor arrays? Could that work Tazzeth?”

“Theoretically, yes it should. Though I would be hesitant to use it as a continuous thing, sir. May make more sense to use it situationally.”

“Yaaaa don’t want any of them bugger’s figuring out how we found them if it works out here. Give them a bit of a shock when we knock on their door asking if we could borrow a cup of sugar.” 

“I’ll take that under advisement you two, Helm/ OPS anything new informatio-wise?”

“ Sir, we just received an update from Task Force 17 on the maps. Looks like most of them were still using the old Voyager logs to create the borders for the territories. Sir, you may want to take a look at this.” The view screen changes to the original map that they were using earlier, it then morphed into the new map showing the most up-to-date information being shared by friendly planets, allies, and other Starfleet vessels. 

Kr’antren got up from his chair and walked over beside the helm console, Skagath also walked over and stood beside the captain and let out a low whistle.

“Looks like the Devore Imperium has been busy the last few years.”

“It does look that way, doesn’t it? Chief Kaha, send this updated map to the Risian Sapphire, and the Abok & Igemp Mining Corporation – AIMC 562. Make sure they understand that the Imperium has expanded its territory. Let the Risian Sapphire know that according to this map their claim may be inside the Imperium borders now.”

“Message sent, captain”

“Looks like the Imperium has ballooned out on their western end.”

“ Aye, smart basterds. Staying clear of the Pitcher plant and the Borg on the southern and eastern sides. Enveloping the Subspace Sandbar on the western half sends a message on what they are after.’

“ It does, doesn’t it? Wonder how fast they moved into those areas after the initial pulse and the correlation between subspace rifts/anomalies and the growth of new dilithium fields were made.” he took one more look and then made his way back to his chair.

“That’s going to change our patrol area, sir, I’ll start working on those changes on my end with the helm. Lad, I would suggest we go to a yellow alert from here on out. With them imperium folks expanding like that who knows where they may turn up.”

“I’m glad we both agree on that lieutenant, take us to yellow alert Lieutenant. Let the alarm ring for one minute then silence it. No, need to keep that going.”

“ Yes, sir”

Kr’antren tapped his ship-wide channel button. “Osiris, I have made the preemptive decision to take us to yellow alert due to information we just received. We will more than likely be operating under a yellow alert for the foreseeable future. Do not get complacent in your duties under the alert as time goes on. Stay vigilant and report anything out of the norm to your department heads or section leaders. All telepaths, unless your department head has cleared it through me that you are mission essential during a yellow alert, report to sick bay.”

“Sir, 10 minutes out from arrival.”

“Helm, drop us out of warp. Let’s take our time and approach the system with our eyes and ears open.”

“Dropping us out of warp in 3, 2…1” the view screen went from seeing the warp tunnel effect to looking at a  trinary system in the distance. “ At full impulse sir, we are roughly two hours out from our original arrival point.”

“Good to know, Science and Comms lets get our eyes and ears open. Let’s see what is around, shall we? Chief Kaha, try to make contact with the inhabited planet, see if they are friendly or not, and if they are willing to assist with any information they may have.”

“Sir, I can confirm that they probably know we are here. I’m seeing what looks like four combination sensor and communications arrays, well that’s interesting sir, these look like Ferengi models with a few adaptations that are unfamiliar to me.”

Kr’antren leaned forward in his chair. “Well it was a Ferengi survey vessel that first reported the rift, I’d bet that the Markonian Outpost and star fleet were not the first people they called.”

A chuckle was heard from several members of the bridge staff. 

“Though I doubt that they are the sole inhabitants of that planet. Whoever else lives there I hope they know what they have gotten themselves into dealing with a Ferengi.”

Counsellor Sia walked in from the briefing room. “ I overheard the conversation, sir, truth be told it has been known that the Ferengi have been using the Barzan Wormhole for their business ventures for a while now. Still not long enough to set up a full-blown colony though a decent-sized mining colony would be possible with what Starfleet guesses they could have had in the area when this all started. ”

“True, counselor.”

 “Captain, we have received a reply from the planet, they are asking for video and comms.”

Kr’antren held up a finger, asking for a moment. He then tapped on a comm channel button.

“Number one, going to hold on to the green light for a bit. I’ll fill you in once we have some more information.”

He then pointed at the chief “Your turn, chief” As he stood and walked forward between the ops and helm consoles.

The screen was divided into 4 vertical section, three species that he could not identify off the top of his head and a male Ferengi.

“Good morning gentleman and lady, I am Captain Kr’Antren of the federation vessel USS Osiris. We are here as part of the star fleet task force that has been brought into the Delta quadrant to help figure out the cause of this new dilithium that has been appearing throughout the Gradin Belt. Who do I have the privilege of speaking to? This is our first encounter with people from the Delta Quadrant so if you could tell us who your people are it would be much appreciated.”

Counsellor Sia walked up and stood beside Shrybass and the operations console.

“What do you want, federation? We are here running a legal business venture and helping the fine folks of this system build themselves into a trading hub and possible relaxation destination for any that come through.”

“ Yes, I’m sure all of your paperwork would check out Mr.? “

“Rharpax, I’m the owner and CEO of Rharpax Mining and Trading,”

“Thank you Mr. Rharpax. We are not here to interfere in any business ventures you may have with these gentlemen and ladies. We are here to  look into the dilithium and offer any assistance that we can.”

“Ahem Captain, I am Governor Zcarva, I represent the Entharan colony which currently is housed in what we call the City of Five Hills. The other gentleman and I make up what we have named the Governor’s council. We are the respective leaders of our colonies and so when we meet we speak on behalf of them.”

“Nice to meet you Governor Zcarva”

“Captain, I am called Krilhik. I am the governor of the Jye colony. Our city lies in an area along our coast. If you have a chance we would gladly receive you at Silver Dawn. Named after the beautiful sunrises here.”

“Governor Krilhik” Kr’antren nodded his head in greeting.” If we ever get a chance for some shore leave, I’m sure members of my crew would be most honored to visit your city.”

“Captain, Governor Buoln’Drit. I represent the Nuu’Bari colony, we pride ourselves as the first founders on this planet. Our city lies amongst a great open plan which we have cultivated for agricultural use. Our great city is known as Chaerunt E’blaier

“ As I said earlier, I am Rharpax. Governor of the Rharpax Trade city.”

“Of course, Governor Rharpax.”

“ Governor Rharpax, I’m sure you are aware of the report made by the Ferengi Survey vessel a week ago.”

“Yes, yes… I signed off on it.”

“Ahh very well then. I guess I don’t need to go into what the report said.”

Governors, as I said in my introduction. We are here to research the Subspace anomalies and rifts that seem to be opening around the Gradin Belt and why after these rifts open does this new strain of Dilithium begin to grow on any surface it can. We would like your assistance in these regards as your star system was a recent area for one of these rifts.”

“Let me first start by asking if there is anything you need from us in the way of assistance, be it medical or otherwise. We have a very good doctor onboard if needed, and we do have some supplies that we have brought from the alpha quadrant.”

All of the governors start talking at once. Kr’Antren holds up a hand. “Governors please one at a time. I believe we should move this conversation to our ships briefing room so that I am better able to notate what we discuss. Please give me a few minutes to talk to my crew and Counselor Sia and myself will join you there.”

“Very well Captain”

The view screen goes back to the normal view as Counsellor Sia walked over to and entered the Cairo briefing room on the operations console side.

“Skagath you have the Conn,stay at yellow alert for now.”

“Helm, all stop at this location.”

“Chief you ok?”

“ Yes sir, no effects from this distance as far as I can tell. Sir I can tell you though what I felt through that channel was not as pleasant. Was starting to develop one hell of a migraine and lots of very low whispers. Not strong enough to affect me mentaly but it was there. One if not more of those governors has a lot of the Dilithium near them. And I don’t think it was the Ferengi.”

He looked at her for a few moments as he ran one of his hands through his beard, the crew knew that this meant he was thinking and considering his options. “Ok, though at the first chance you get I want you to go get checked out by Doc, if she says you’re good then we’re all good and you can come back for your next shift.”

He then went back to his chair and hit the comms button “Number one, we are going to hold on your mission. We have opened communications with the inhabitants of the planet, to include a Ferengi contingent of miners and traders. I’m about to go back to the meeting with them. Mission is not scrubbed but we may change it. I’ll let you know, for now sit back and relax.”

He then took his PADD from the seat and entered the Cairo Briefing room.

60 or so minutes later

The Captain and counsellor walk back onto the bridge.

“Nothing new on the scans sir, though I have started to make adjustments for picking up any of the signals from the rift.”

“That’s a start for now, lieutenant. The governors have agreed to send us data from the various sensor platforms along with their observations from the time while the rift was open. Once you have it, start running a full analysis on it. They also have ongoing recordings of the after effects which they will give us access to.”

“Chief Kaha, send a message for Lt.Talibah to come up to the bridge as soon as possible. We have some interesting things to discuss that the governors brought to our attention.”

The chief tapped her combadge and relayed the message. “she is on her way, captain”

“chief you were right, both the Entharan and Nuu’Bari cities have extremely profuse growths of blood dilithium. To add to that neither one of those species are telepathic but they do have other species in their colonies that are. Let me stop there, better call the Doc in on this.”

He tapped his combadge “ Doctor M’Gok, Captain Kr’Antren please report to the bridge as soon as possible.”

“ I’m already here sir, I heard that the chief had a reaction during a communications “meeting” and I came up to check on her as soon as I could.” 

Counselor Sia nodded her head at the captain.

“We will wait a couple minutes for number one to join us; so I don’t have to go through everything multiple times.”

Several minutes later the turbolift doors opened as Lt.Talibah entered and took her seat.

“ ok, everyone is here.” He spent the next few minutes catching everyone up to the point he was at.

“As I was telling the chief. There are telepathic people on the planet. Doc’ they are sending you a case file on most of the cases. They did say that some of the cases were treated for mild headaches and a state of unease and sent home to rest. That’s not the worst of it though. Part of their medical plans is to take all of the telepaths and move them to a place of safety that is currently not near any of the blood dilithium deposits by several thousand kilometres. From what I understand the area they are moving them to is near Silver Dawn City which from what  they told us was on the far side of the planet from where the rift was. So it has very low quantities of the Dilithium growths. However the security and construction teams swear that when they are working to set up the temporary hospital and shelters for the telepaths they sometimes see small groups of people wearing black in the forests around the area that will be used. They also report finding small fragments of blood dilithium secreted into places around the site.”

Both Skagath and the Doc look at each other, the Doc nods as she is still checking over the chief. “Captain, that sounds to me like someone maybe paying a bit too much attention to the telepaths. If what those security folks and the construction crews is telling their people is true, hiding small pieces of this Blood Dilithium amongst the housing and hospital could be a way to test its long term effects on telepaths. It may have the same effect of feeding small doses of poison to someone so that they just think they are getting sick and till they start to feel worse and worse as they get more and more of the bloody stuff into their bodies. It is a common way that assassins work in many cultures that use that type of stuff for their dirty work.”

Kr’Antren looked at his PADD “That’s what i noted down also.” He then held up his PADD to both Skagath and the DOC. “ You can see what my next thought was.” written in big letters in an angry looking large and bolt note was the word “WEAPONIZATION”

“ Doc, would it be possible” 

Doctor M’gok sat back onto the step she was barely on and let out a long breath with a shudder “ Not only would it be possible but I think it would be highly likely. One option would be to turn it into some sort of weapon or device that could be used to deliver it to an area. Another idea would be to see if you could figure out a way to administer it without the intended target even knowing.” 

The captain stood and walked to look at the view screen. “Let’s say in a hospital or a refugee camp or maybe even a city.”

“Yes, sir”

“Ok, we stay here for now. Doc I want a full report on possible effects of a weaponized Blood dilithium. Skagath, I want a report on how it could be weaponized and used. Number one, consider your mission scrubbed for the time being. Helm plot a course that makes a loop around the system warp 2, plan for interment stops say every thirty to sixty minutes where we will run scans and sensor sweeps. When we come out of warp , continue at impulse. Mix them up so it doesn’t create a pattern. I want those reports by 1000 hours tomorrow morning. We have work to do ladies and gentlemen, Dismissed.”

Several minutes later

 Kr’Antren is seated in his chair watching the bridge staff work around him.

“ Sir, I have plotted the route. Also added an axis change turning each rotation so that we can cover the system and surrounding area from different angles, this will also give us a chance to get some reading from the area near where the rift was located.”

“Good idea Lieutenant, smart thinking on your part. Ok then, take us to warp 2. Let’s roll.”