As the Dust Settles

[Brian Graham 0]

As The Dust Settles

A Joint Log

By:

Lieutenant Brian Graham

&

Lieutenant Junior Grade Veloras Itana

 

 

The explosions that had rocked the station's perimeter had done minimal damage to the station itself and only peripheral damage to Excalibur. Technicians and repair crews buzzed about the bridge, trying to get things back in place. There was no real damage, more a mess than anything else. A few scrapes, some bruises and two reports of broken bones from crewmen assigned to the outer hull decks in engineering. Reports were now beginning to come in that several of the other ships had sustained moderate shrapnel and concussive damage, but thankfully, the death toll had been kept to a minimum. Only those on the ships that exploded had lost their lives.

 

Lieutenant Brian Graham had taken the center seat as Captain J'Cin prepared to head to the station to deliver his report personally to the Admiral. Veloras Itana looked over her shoulder, nervously still not comfortable with being the one "behind the wheel." She'd just barely been given time to adjust to being called "lieutenant" before being temporarily assigned to the bridge and the helm position. True to form with the way the rest of her life had gone thus far, she thought rather sardonically, chaos ensued shortly there after.

 

She finished inputting the transport coordinates and signaled the transport technician that the Captain was ready. A few seconds later he was gone and she sat amid the disheveled bridge, looking to Graham trying to hide both her nervousness and her confusion as to what they were supposed to do now.

 

"Camelot station ops reports receipt of Captain J'cin. Preliminary damage estimates show negligible damage to the station. None to Excalibur but two of the other vessels have hull damage."

 

" How bad?" Graham looked up from the console on his armrest, briefly.

 

"Repair crews are already busy. There was only one breech on the ship directly adjacent to the vessel. Their repair team reports force fields are in place. no fatalities."

 

"Good. Have any other hostile ships been detected?"

 

Veloras pulled up the tactical overlay on the smaller screen beside the navigational readout. Security teams were still busy and a replacement tactical officer would be delayed eighteen more minutes. She reviewed the data carefully, only peripherally familiar with handling the tactical database.

 

"Tachyon scans and sensor sweeps show no other anomalous readings. Beta fleet has yet to report in with their findings." She paused for a moment. "Reports from the Romulans are..." She stopped for a moment, once again consulting the console. "Pretty much what you'd expect reports from the Romulans to be. Vague."

 

Graham steepled his fingers below his chin appearing pensive but not overly nervous, and Veloras found herself envying him. She was scared to death. "Hmm, could it have been the explosion from their device that disrupted their cloaking field?" Appearing to sense her discomfort he smiled.

 

"Without knowing what type of device it is or what sort of detonator it used there's no way we can know. Our own teams have brought aboard debris from the field. Preliminary data indicates the cloaked vessel was a shuttle. They have organic matter retrieved from the wreckage but there's been no in depth analysis of it as yet." She smiled back weakly with no real emotion behind it. Nervously pulling at the collar on her dress uniform.

 

"So it basically blends in with the rest of the ship's systems until... whammo. Some Romulan officer must have heard some weird beeping and found the blasted thing." He nodded, keying another sequence of commands into the armrest console. "Have they sent us anything at all on the device itself yet?"

 

"No, they are "completing their own investigation prior to releasing any data on the confiscated device. Though, they are already proclaiming that it was their superior technological ability and keen analytical skills that allowed them to find the device before they were destroyed." Veloras almost laughed. She smiled wryly, shaking her head. "But my guess is, they got lucky, alot luckier than the other vessels."

 

"More than likely." Graham nodded agreement. "The Romulans can turn anything into a vain testament to their superiority." This time he did laugh. "Call for an update from our own security teams, please. I know they've done it twice already, but unlike the Romulans, I'm not counting on luck. I want to be sure there's nothing aboard this ship."

 

Veloras nodded, turning back to her console. "Thorough searches of our own ship still hasn't turned up anything except a mess from being tossed around during the explosions. One or two new reports of minor injuries and a lot of jostled nerves, but that's it."

 

"Good, have them keep looking, and get someone to correlate all the analysis of both the debris and the organic matter into a report so we have something to show the captain on his return." Graham rubbed his chin, his antennae flicking back briefly. "I can't think of anything else we should be doing. Now it's just a matter of waiting to see what the hostile's next move is, and what the brass decides to do about it."

 

Lieutenant Veloras pondered this for a moment, wishing she weren't so tired. She hadn't been sleeping well lately, and was still trying hard to keep it from showing while she was on duty. Being in this dress uniform didn't help. It was like a truss. She felt as if she were suffocating. Without thinking about it she removed the jacket, draping it over the back of her chair. Her thoughts began to flow more freely as oxygen once again began to reach her brain.

 

"I think a good place to start looking would be to find out who was able to infiltrate all these vessels long enough to plant the devices in the first place. That, to me, doesn't seem to be an easy thing to accomplish." Turning back to the main view screen, Veloras studied the debris field, her mind continually wandering back to how good it felt to have that damned jacket off. Still, she kept coming back to the same conclusions as to the who and how of it, and she wondered if everyone else had as well.

 

Appearing to be reading her mind, Graham leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hand. "No, it wasn't an easy undertaking at all." He nodded reflectively. "And, I'm afraid the investigations, whether they be done together or independently will arrive at the same conclusion. I really hope I'm wrong."

 

He didn't finish his train of thought. He didn't need to, Veloras knew where he was going with it, and she hoped he was wrong as well.

 

 

 

 

"Fools be my theme, let satire be my song." ~Lord Byron