An Important Mission

Posted on Mon Apr 21st, 2025 @ 12:29am by Lieutenant Orin Sempton & Captain Elijah Rutherford & Lieutenant Lily Marlow & Lieutenant JG Camelia Zamfir & Lieutenant JG T'seng & Petty Officer 1st Class Dwayne Dibley

Mission: Mini Mission-Precious Delivery
Location: Ready Room/Briefing Room
Timeline: Before the Majestic leaves DS9
2640 words - 5.3 OF Standard Post Measure

After Elijah called for Orin, he went to get a bit of tea, feeling some trepidation as to what he was going to ask Orin to do. Not only Orin but, Lily as well. First off though before he spoke to Lily, he wanted to talk with Orin. He knew of Orin's trepidation as to the Holosentient world. When he heard the sound of the chime he called out, "Enter!"

Orin quickly stepped through the doors and into the Ready Room, crossing the room and stopping at the Captains desk in a few long strides. He looked at the Captain with a growing sense of uneasiness. "L-lieutenant Sempton appearing as ordered, Sir."

"Please have a seat, would you like some tea or another sort of drink?" Elijah asked. He was wanting some tea himself before they proceeded to talk.

"Hmm... Yes sir. Tea, spearmint, hot with two sugars." He answered, taking the proffered seat.

With a nod, Elijah went to get the desired tea, his being honey lemon and ginger. Bringing it back he handed Orin his tea then settled behind his desk blowing upon the tea to cool it down some. An exploratory sip, it was good. Setting the tea cup down, Elijah waited until Orin finished his first sip, then spoke.

"I need you to deliver the Holo sentients to their home. Would you be willing to do so? They have a connection to you, and I plan on sending a small team with you. Consisting of T'seng aka Splice, Camelia and Lily. I will sent a pilot with you, unless you wish to be the one to pilot the runabout. You will be lead on this mission."

Orin, who'd been in process of taking his second sip of tea tried extremely hard to not spit out it out all over his captain, and choosing instead to nearly aspirate it. He spent half a minute coughing up what he'd inhaled, and surprisingly managed to not spill the minty beverage all over the Captain's ready room. After a short time, he looked back at the Captain without feeling the need to cough. "W-W-why me, Sir?"

Elijah had an expression of concern, hoping that he wouldn't need to call medical, when the coughing fit had eased, he calmly answered. "You were there and I feel it is of utmost importance and you saw to the holo-sentients safety. Having them housed in one of the holo-suites, in their own environment. This is why I feel it should be you leading the team. " Elijah leaning forward placing his elbows upon the desk "I do understand your trepidation, however I do feel that you can do this." a look of confidence was there in the captain's eyes.

"Sir, I did my duty, but temporarily working together for short term survival isn't the same as building a long term foundation of trust." Orin put his tea down, not wanting to spill it again. "We had plenty of other people that have worked closely with Lieutenant T'Seng, Guardian and the holo-sentients. Commander Aldrich, Lieutenant Commander T'Par, Lil-" He ground his teeth for a second, embarrassed he had to catch himself. "I mean Lieutenant Marlow. And none of them had a near mental breakdown in front of the crew after learning the planet they all live on is akin to something horrific from the past." He looked down at the scar that ran through the middle of his left hand. It itched. Like fragments of the trennel were still in it. "That planet may have been evil, but it didn't deserve to become the burned out husk it became when the lensing effect of a low power phaser shot that wouldn't have normally boiled water became a concentrated blast of plasma with the intensity of a mining laser."

"I agree that is horrific, I also know that happening wasn't intentional. Lieutenant Sempton, I do feel that you are able to do this assignment. I do realize that you are embarrassed and just the fact that you did have close to a mental breakdown, you did pull yourself out of it. " he raised a finger to continue. "Yes Lily got you out of there, helped you out. However, I feel that this would be good for you to face your fear. This is something my wife told me about psychological fears, and trauma a person needs to face their fears in order to start healing from what happened. I still want you to be the one to head this mission." Elijah rubbed his chin, feeling the stubble there.

Orin stared at the floor, his jaw so tight the sound of his teeth grinding was audible. After a few seconds, he rubbed his eyes, and let out a long breath in an attempt to expel the tension in his body before saying "Yes, sir."

"I will have you inform Lieutenant Marlow and the others as to them being on this away mission. I have confidence in you, Lieutenant Sempton." Captain Rutherford stated. He knew that Orin had doubts and fears, but the crew that he suggested, for Orin's team will be more than sufficient.

"That makes one of us, sir." Orin replied with no hint of sarcasm. "I will contact Lieutenant T'Seng, Marlow and..." He closed his eyes for a second, his fingers twitched as if he was moving files around. "Camelia, sir? Forgive me, but I don't have the crew manifest memorized."

"Yes you may not have met her as of yet. She is part of the operations team and had been working closely with the holo-sentients. Which is why I had suggested her. She is Lieutenant Camelia Zamfir." Elijah getting up to get another cup of tea. "Would you like some more tea, Lieutenant Sempton?"

"No thank you, sir." He sipped what remained of his tea and set the now empty glass down, before closing his eyes and taking a breath, focusing his mind on an imaginary candle to calm it. "As to your earlier offer of a pilot, I will take you up on the offer. What is our timeline?"

"I need you and your team to leave as soon as you can gather them. We'll be heading for Earth in three days' time. That should give you enough time to find the planet and take our holo-guests to their new home. " Elijah focusing on Orin.

Orin's back stiffened with shock and his mouth opened and closed a few times as he tried to find the right words. "Sir, that leaves no time for any preparation, planning or logistics. We don't even know what we're flying into, so at minimum emergency plans will need to be crafted." He rubbed his temple as his eyes unfocused, looking at things that weren't really there. "A three day hard limit is difficult. The time needed to reach the coordinates and return leaves us with an extremely limited time frame in which to find the planet, somehow convince them to allow us access to return the holo-sentients. And that doesn't take into account any issues such as forced quarantine, involuntarily imprisonment and possible interrogation. These people apparently take the security of their planet rather seriously, from what we've been told. Creating an illusory planet that fools sensor readings to protect themselves from outsiders."

Elijah noticed a blinking upon his computer, opening it up while Orin spoke. An eye brow raised, and a slow smile could be seen. He looked up to focus on Orin, "What if there was a way to find said planet and a key offered to open the way?"

Orin's eyebrow shot up. "I'm not going to like this at all, am I sir?"

"It depends on if you have a problem with working with a holo-sentient. I just got word from Lieutenant Camelia Zamfir, that something has come to light. You will have to meet with her and come to that decision for yourself. And " Elijah paused, "Interestingly enough, those I had suggested for you to have as your away team, they were involved with this discovery. Now it is your decision to decide, will you like this."

"Sorry Sir, it's just that the last time my commanding officer smiled at me and told me everything we were worried about could be quickly and easily fixed, it ended with me being court martialed. I will contact the lieutenants for a meeting as soon as we are done here, and I find an unused conference room. From the sounds of it, I missed something rather important."

Elijah gave a nod. "I can very well understand that feeling. Well, you best get going then and find out what they have found. Once again, I have confidence in your leading this away team. Dismissed."

With a nod, Orin stood and walked out of the Ready Room. As he made his way to the turbolift, but doubled back and walked to the main Briefing Room. He checked the terminal outside the door and saw it was currently unoccupied. Walking in, he sat at the table, took off his glasses and let his body relax forward until his head hit the table. "Why me?" He grumbled, bouncing his head off the table a few times. "Why? Because 'May you live in interesting times'." A few choice swears from a dozen languages made his way through his mind, begging to be used with invective before he managed to pull himself together. He closed his eyes and checked his breathing before envisioning a series of blocks before him. He began building a structure with the irregularly shaped blocks in his mind, slowing his breath and focusing on how each block interacted with the others. After a few minutes of the exercise, he found himself calm enough to finally tap his communicator.

=^=Lieutenant Sempton to Lieutenants Marlow, T'Seng and Zamfir. Apparently, we need to have a meeting for an... Urgent mission. Please come up to the Briefing Room.=^=

The three lieutenants arrived, curiosity being seen upon their faces.

"We're here Lieutenant Sempton." Camelia said as she took a seat. She regarded Orin with an assessing gaze, noticing what seemed to be an air of nervousness.

Lily had a soft expression in her eyes, and also an encouraging smile.

T'seng who was familiar with Orin, spoke. as she went to take a seat. "Lieutenant, how may we be of service to you?"

Orin took off his glasses and set them on the table, it felt apt to go into this mostly blind figuratively and literally. "I... The captain has tasked me with leading the mission to return the holosentients to their home." He worked his jaw a bit after he finished, like saying the words left a taste in his mouth. "The away team consists of the four of us, plus one pilot for the runabout. Our time limit is two to two and a half days. And by the way, that's a hard limit. At day three, the ship leaves for Earth." He turned and looked at where Camelia was sitting. "Lieutenant Zamfir, I know this is the first we've met, so I apologize for lack of introductions. I'm Lieutenant Orin Sempton, the ship's xenoarchaeologist, ancient weapon specialist and occasional crackpot who also happens to have the unique displeasure of having dealt with a planet that could hide itself like this one, in the past. The Captain has informed me that you have information about a metaphorical key that will get us access to the planet?"

Dwayne walked in just in time to hear the question. "We're going to need a key on top of everything else? Is the planet like some giant treasure box we have to unlock before we can get in?" Then he paused, held his hands out to his sides, and grinned. "Oh, and just to let you all know, I'm Dwayne Dibley. I'll be your pilot for this little adventure."

A trio of greetings came from the three ladies. " Hello" all three at once then they laughed.

Camelia spoke up, "Not necessarily a huge treasure box, well maybe sort of. It’s a society which wants to live their lives and not worry about anyone wanting to bother them." she turned her gaze to Orin. "Yes there is a key, and let me introduce you to Aurora."

Camelia pulled out a device from her pocket, a rather small holographic projector. She pressed a switch, and Aurora appeared.

She had long flaxen hair which reached to her waist, vibrant full of body with a slight amount of curl. She floated downward to where her feet touched the ground, her eyes a brilliant sapphire blue. Her outfit was like that of a gypsy. Flowing skirt, which was colored dark blue, a dark red peasant blouse with a wide black belt around her waist. Her feet were bare.

"Hello, I am Aurora." she looked over towards Lily, Tseng and Camelia. "Good to see you once more." she turned her brilliant blue eyes first towards Dibley then to Orin.

"I am the what you need to gain access to where our new home is."

"Cool! A talking treasure box. Or are you a genie? I get those mixed up sometimes." Dwayne grinned. "Either way, I'm your pilot."

Orin just stared at the hologram, his mind spinning with questions. After a second, he just pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind to be dealt with later. "Hello Aurora, It is nice to meet you. And you Mr. Dibley, thank you in advance for being our pilot on this rather slapdash mission."

Aurora was curious about Dibley and moved to get a close look at him," You are an interesting pilot." after a few moments of walking around him, Aurora went back to Camelia's side. "When will we be going? My family is wanting to have their freedom." her speech regarding the photonics in the holodeck.

Dwayne just raised an eyebrow. He hadn't been in the pilot seat here yet, so she had no idea what sort of pilot he was, but he grinned anyway.

"I believe that depends on when Lieutenant Sempton gives the word." Lily remarked quietly. She could tell that Orin was really nervous but she had faith in him as well. Besides he's got a team that will be supportive.

Orin picked his glasses back up and returned them to his face, blinking a bit as the world came back into focus. "The Captain has requested this be done now. As in, this meeting was to let you all know that we leave in an hour." He looked around at the group. "As stated, in three days this ship leaves for Earth. We currently don't have the luxury of time. Aurora, I'd like you to inform the other holo-sentients that we'll be getting you all home soon. I'll join you shortly to explain more to them and attempt to alleviate any concerns. Everyone else, thank you and I apologize for pulling you all away from any experiments, duties or meetings you have planned, but please gather what you think you'll need and rendezvous in the Shuttlebay as soon as possible."

He waited for everyone to leave before dropping his head into his arms and letting out a loud groan. He was already mentally exhausted and that was just a quick meeting. "I'm meant for digging in the dirt and analyzing finds, not leading. Why me?" He mopped his brow and pushed his hair back from his face, grabbing handfuls as he reached the back and took a deep breath, staring out into the void on the other side of the Briefing Room window. He reached his left hand out and stared at the scar. "Maybe this time things will actually go to plan... Yeah, and I'm Zefram Cochrane." He sighed and stood up. "Lets get this over with."