Let The Run Begin

Posted on Wed Jan 30th, 2019 @ 12:27am by Commodore Jane Saulitis & Lieutenant Commander Angus Murphy & Lieutenant Sandra Adamson

Mission: Run Afoul
Location: Observation Lounge
Timeline: MD 11 17:00 Hours
1615 words - 3.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Jane couldn't get the image of bloody feathers out of her mind. She took a deep breath and entered the observation lounge after calling a meeting of the senior staff. As soon as she was seated she tapped the PADD she'd been taking notes on and kept her head down, oblivious of what was going on around her so that she could just think without being interrupted.

"Are you alright captain?" Lhaes pushed away from the wall, having arrived early to survey the room and make sure no-one of the lounge staff had remained behind. He didn't want to startle her but he assumed she'd already known he was here.

Keeping her startled reaction to herself her eyes darted up to him. "No, I am not all right Commander." There was an edge to her voice, both because of a well of emotions that was trying to overwhelm her and because she didn't want to share that with anyone.

"You look like you haven't had a rest in a long time ma'am," Lhaes offered calmly, walking around to take a seat across from her. "We've found the saboteur, haven't we? He's in the brig..."

"That is what we are here to discuss," Jane said deflating a bit. "There's been a new development. We'll wait for the others before revealing it."

Rian much like his father was never late for meetings, straightening up his uniform and playing with his hair. He walked out of his room and made for the room that the meeting was to be held. His face was a picture, not quite there with the rest of humanity but not quite any where else either. He was flipping a coin over his fingers as he walked a sign of nerves, or it was for O'donnaghue men, his father never did it, of course Ethan James O'Donnaghue never got nervous. But His uncle Paddy, he was a ball of nerves and it was paddy that taught him this coping mechanism.

The blast doors opened and rian walked in "Greetings all" He said walking over to the vacant chair "Captain i hope your well?" He asked as he smoothed over his uniform.

"Captain" Shev said, coming in at the tail end of her statement. "That certainly sounds serious" he said to himself as he got to his seat by way of replicator. He was nothing without his coffee.

Jane didn't answer but did look up at her executive officer and gave him a slight eyebrow raise in respond to his calm and almost cheerful manner. For an Andorian, he was not what she had expected at all. Still, she appreciated his different perspective and opposite character.

Lieutenant Murphy was one of the last to arrive. He made eye contact with no one as he entered and sat at the far end of the conference table. His thoughts seemed elsewhere.

Sandy put her hair in order before she walked though the parting doors. They closed behind her with the same swish as it opened. She walked to the table and took a seat at the table. She gave a nod to everyone in the room. She made mental notes of all the people she hadn't seen in sickbay yet.

The next to arrive was the Chief of Tactical/Security. Jex had been a little late, going over the internal sensor logs had been a little problematic. While her empath abilities were not as strong as other Betazoids, she could tell that tensions were running high in the room.

Once everyone was in the room Jane looked up at all of them. "At 1500 hours this afternoon, Ambassador Vayr was found dead in his quarters." She let that sink in for a moment. "Not only do we have a saboteur on board, now we have a murderer. I want this ship on complete lockdown, no one goes anywhere near the major areas of the ship without exclusive command codes, those of the senior staff. I want only those absolutely necessary for repairs in engineering, any available security staff patrolling the ship." She paused and looked down at her PADD wondering if there was something else she'd wanted to say right off.

At that moment, Patrick walked in with a small hover trolley, several mugs and a large pot of coffee. He said nothing as he pushed the troley ahead of him, single handedly placed a mug in front of the first person he encountered, then filled the mug with coffee. Everyone, but the CEO. The Irishman didn't so much as look at him, refused to acknowledge him, and didn't serve him coffee. When he was done, he cast the captain a small smile before leaving the room.

Watching the awkward exchange, Lhaes straighened a little. "Might I suggest restricting non-essential personnel to quarters?" he offered, watching the civilian chef leave the room. "Or to one of the common areas on the ship such as the arboretum or the mess?"

"Arboretum sounds more viable' Shev offered. "We may need the mess hall in the investigation in some way." He said, sipping his coffee."Also. Dig up any info we can on the ambassador. Diplomat, you're going to tick a few people off. Goes with the job."

Jane pondered this for a moment. "The Arboretum is still home to some wildlife, the chickens. I think restricting crewmen to quarters when not on duty is still our best option. Lheas can work on the ambassador's past. But why here and now? Someone doesn't want the Ambassador getting to Bairl, but why?"

Murphy lifted his gaze to Patrick as the man did his rounds of coffee, but whatever he was thinking was fairly unreadable by his stoic expression. He didn't feel too slighted by not being served, but he definitely noticed it. He looked over to the captain and shook his head at her question. He did not know.

Because they were talking about security issues, Jex took the moment to speak, "Captain, I would suggest that confinement to quarters would be more manageable. It adds the benefit of limiting interactions if there are more that one conspirator, we can lock down certain rooms with forcefields, and common areas filled with people or animals would make easy soft targets for those trying to cause terror."

Sandy was only listening and then spoke up, "I agree with my colleague from security, in light of safety of the crew confining them to quarters seems the most liable option. However, I must point you to the fact that we have to do something afterwords to put the crew at ease. It has come to my attention morale is very low at the moment and I can't blame them after all that has happened. As ships doctor I feel obligated to point that out as we don't have a ships counselor present at the moment."

Jane knew all about morale, she was feeling it herself. "The sooner we catch this madman the sooner things can go back to normal and people can have their freedoms again and their morale will no doubt improve. But, I can't do anything until he or she is caught." She looked pointedly at her security and intel officers as if they weren't doing enough. "All non essential personnel are hereby resitrcted to quarters when not on duty, all civillians are confined until further notice with the possible exception of Mr. O'Malley who can continue to cook in the mess hall. But under no circumstances are any deliveries to be made to anyone."

Sandy spoke up, "I must protest, captain, Mr. O'Malley is in no condition to go back on duty. But miss Sh’ezhinnir has made me aware of his mental condition. Since the replicators are fully functional, I will allow him light duties in the kitchen under guidance of miss Sh'ezhinnir, if this is alright with you, captain?" She turned to Murphy a moment. "Miss Sh'ezhinnir also made me aware of the encounter she had with Lieutenant Murphy, she wants to make sure on all parties that it is not her intention to go against ship regulations. She simply wants to help."

"We can better monitor the crew when we know where they are," Lhaes commented, "easiest way to do that is to confine non-essential personnel to designated areas, preferably their quarters. Only those with something to hide will protest these measures."

"Mr. O'Malley has been bugging nearly the entire senior staff to be let out of his quarters in order to useful. Yes, I think a little work will do him good and he can rest when he wants to rest. I'm fairly certain we can rule him out as a suspect since he was injured in the blast and could not have the strength to kill Ambassador Vayr, still, I want Mr. O'Malley to go through the same security checks as everyone else. He will be limited to his quarters and the mess hall until this is over." She nodded at Lhaes. "Everyone know what they are doing? Good," Jane said without waiting for anyone to respond. "Dismissed." She watched everyone begin to move from their seats.

Lhaes cast the captain a meaningful look before disappearing back to his own office. He needed more information on the ambassador, and any new insights could help him determine where to start looking.

---

Lieutenant Commander Lhaes Sommers
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Majestic

Lieutenant Jexasi Rai
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Majestic

Lieutenant Junior grade Sandra Adamson
Chief Medical Officer
USS Majestic

Lieutenant Angus Murphy
Chief Engineer
USS Majestic

Commander Jane Saulitis
Commanding Officer
USS Majestic

Ensign Rian O'Donnaghue
Chief Helm Officer
USS Majestic

LtCmdr Shev Th'aziavak
Executive Officer
USS Majestic