Investigation

[John Randall 0]

OFFICIAL LOG

LIEUTENANT JOHN RANDALL

USS CHALLENGER

 

(Personal Log Stardate 11410.11)

 

John arrived in engineering to begin his duty shift. He nodded back at the crew that acknowledged his passing as he made his way to his station at the main console. He accessed his inbox to see if the mission e-mail had been sent out yet, and it had been. He pulled it up, and read it.

 

The Challenger had been assigned to travel to the nearby planet of Tyrellia, which was located at the junction of the Federation, Klingon, and Romulan borders. An outpost was located near the planet there, and there had been no word from the outpost in several days, a fact which had the Tyrellian government concerned. The government wanted the Challenger to investigate the outpost, and determine what, if anything, had happened. There had also been reports of increased activity inside both the Klingon and Romulan empires, and that was the secondary reason for the Challenger to go there.

 

John finished reading the e-mail, closed it, and put his monitor back on its homepage. He got up from his station, and looked around Engineering. It looked like he was in charge for the time being, so he began to walk around the department, checking on the crew. As he neared the warp core section, he detected a decrease in the whine of the warp engines, and knew Challenger had dropped to impulse speed, which meant they had arrived at the Tyrellian system, and were about to go into orbit. He ordered a crew to do a routine inspection of the warp engines, and went back to his station at the main console to watch the display.

 

Not long into the inspection, John spotted a discrepancy in one of the baffles on engine two. He promptly contacted Lieutenant (j.g.) Steve Davis, who was the supervisor of the crew inspecting the engines. "Randall to Davis," John said as he punched the comm button. "Go ahead, Lieutenant," came the prompt reply. The assistant chief engineer told his friend what he had spotted, and Davis assured him they were on it.

 

John nodded, then punched the comm again, and contacted Lieutenant (j.g.) Jeff Michaels, ordering him to take a team and purge the plasma manifolds while they were in orbit. Michaels acknowledged the order, and signed off. John looked back at his monitor, and suddenly realized he would have to be at the engineering station on the bridge to finalize the purge of the manifolds. He contacted Michaels again, and put him in charge of engineering. Michaels acknowledged, and John got up from his station, heading for the engineering doors.

 

He went down the corridor to the turbolift, and stepped into the car as it arrived. "Bridge," he said, and the lift sped off. A few moments later, it arrived at the bridge, and he exited. He stepped out onto the bridge, and made his way across the upper section to the engineering station. He logged in, gave his passcode, and watched the display as it came up on the monitor.

 

Out of the corner of his eye, John saw Captain Ja'Lale turn to look at him, and he spread his arms out in a "safe" sign, which meant he was there on a routine matter only. Ja'Lale nodded once, and turned back to the viewscreen. As John turned his attention back to the monitor, he noticed a familiar figure at the science station: Lieutenant Anastasia Poldara was back aboard Challenger. He didn't try to get her attention, as she appeared at the moment to be very busy. He focused his attention on the display, waiting for the code that would signal the purging had been finished.

 

He heard the conversation going on between the captain and someone on the planet; he didn't turn to see what was going on, it was none of his business, really. The code then appeared on the screen signalling the end of the purge program, and he entered the code, telling the computer it was safe to shut it down. He sat back in his chair, and smiled to himself; he then logged out of the station, and stood up, preparing to leave the bridge.

 

He walked back to the turbolift, and punched the button. As he waited for the car to arrive, he looked around the bridge, but no one caught his eye. The car arrived, and he stepped in. "Deck 12," he said, and the lift whisked him away. It arrived a few moments later, and he exited; he walked down the corridor to engineering, and strode through the doors as they opened.

 

There was a beep from his communicator, and he unclipped it from his belt. "Randall here," he said. "Lieutenant, the baffle has been repaired," came the voice of Steve Davis; almost at the same time, the whine from the warp engines increased. "Acknowledged, Steve, just in time, I'd say," John answered. "Randall out." He replaced his communicator on his belt, and went to his station at the main console.

 

The Challenger arrived in orbit above the outpost, and the captain ordered an away team to take a shuttlecraft to the outpost. John was contacted by the captain, who told him to assign two engineers to the team. John acknowledged the order, and sent Stan Thomas and Bart Jenkins to join the team. They were two up-and-coming ensigns in engineering, and Randall liked them both. He continued in his supervisory role aboard the ship, occasionally helping out crew as they called for his assistance.

 

A little while later, John's communicator chirped, and he again unclipped it from his belt. "Randall here," he said. "Lieutenant, we need you on the surface, sir," came the voice of Thomas. "We are examining a couple of generators which were badly damaged in an apparent attack of some sort here. There is an energy signature coming from them, but neither Bart nor I can identify it. Also, the science officer here is requesting a portable generator to be sent down." John had raised his eyebrows at the news of an apparent attack. "Very well, ensign; conditions there?" he asked, and about the same time, his comm beeped on his monitor. He punched the button. "Randall here," he said, and the voice of Captain Ja'Lale came over the comm.

 

"Lieutenant, you have been requested to beam to the surface of the outpost to assist the away team," it said. "Acknowledged, sir, I am in contact with them now," replied the assistant chief engineer. "Randall out." He got back in touch with Thomas, who informed him of the gear he would need. John told him he would right down, and signed off. He got up and went to his locker to grab his toolkit, then went to the engineering equipment room to get a suit. He put it on, then went to the cargo bay to grab a portable generator. He put the generator on an anti-grav cart, and told Michaels to assume the conn. He then made his way to the turbolift, and stepped into the car. "Deck 10," he said, and the lift sped off.

 

The lift arrived, and he exited the car, going down the corridor to the transporter room. He guided the cart to the pad, then ascended the pad himself. He gave the officer the coordinates, and a few seconds later, the officer nodded to him. "Energize," John said, and he shimmered out of existence. He re-materialized on the surface of an outpost that had definitely had something happen to it. He spotted lights off to his left, and made his way over. He arrived at the group, and the two engineering ensigns sighed with relief when they saw him.

 

John looked around, and nodded to them. "Ensigns," he said. He looked to his left, and caught the eye of the science ensign, Derrick Sabin. "Ensign," he said, and Sabin nodded to him. John looked to his right, and caught the eye of Marine Sergeant Hunter Matheson. "Sergeant," he said, and Matheson replied, "Lieutenant Randall, sir." John then looked back at Sabin. "You requested this, I believe," he said, and the science officer nodded. "Yes, sir," he replied, and Randall quickly showed him the basic functions.

 

Matheson then said, "I'm going to step back, sir, for a good security sweep. Com if you see or hear anything stranger than we've already seen." "Acknowledged, Sergeant, and you do the same," replied Randall. Matheson nodded, and began his sweep. Sabin said, "Can you rig up something to get some power into the station for the inside team?" John looked at him, then said, "This generator doesn't have the power for that." He then stepped over to the two ensigns. "Let's see what you have, Mr. Thomas," he said, and the ensign handed John his tricorder.

 

The assistant chief engineer looked over the data, made an adjustment, then suddenly gave a low whistle. "Well, well, well," he said almost to himself, then clicked the tab on the comlink on his suit. "Randall to Rinax, come in, please," he said. Commander Erica Rinax, the Challenger's executive officer, was in charge of the team currently inside one of the buildings which was still standing on the outpost. "Rinax here," she answered. "What do you have, Lieutenant Randall?"

 

John said, "Commander, adjust your tricorder scans to take into account a Klingon disruptor energy signature; it's all over the casings of these generators." Thomas and Jenkins looked at each other as their boss informed the first officer of his findings, and even Ensign Sabin was a little wide-eyed as well. "Adjusting now," said Rinax, and John turned his comlink again. "Sergeant Matheson, adjust your scans to include a Klingon disruptor energy signature," he said, and Matheson, after a few seconds, said, "Done, sir; it seems to be everywhere."

 

John then looked at the two ensigns from engineering, and smiled. "You boys just stepped into the big time; congratulations," he said, and smiled again as the two ensigns looked distinctly uncomfortable. He then contacted Matheson again. "I believe we're scanning the aftermath of a Klingon ambush, Sergeant," he said, and the Marine replied, "Copy that, sir." John looked around the debris scattered throughout the outpost as far as the eye could see, and thought to himself, 'Well, wonder what they're up to THIS time?' And he also wondered what part the Romulans were playing in all this. Were they simply reacting to the Klingon activity, or were they also in the midst of planning something? You just never knew with those green blooded bas-, er, beings. He shook his head as he continued to gaze around. 'One thing about it,' he thought. 'This was definitely not random. This was carefully planned. But what was their objective?'

 

 

END LOG