The Ties That Bind (Darwin-A)
| Season 3, Episode 3 |
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| USS Darwin-A | ||
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 INACTIVE STATUS | ||
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| Notable Sims | |
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| "The Ties That Bind" | Renos meets nir contact from JAGR and passes a message along for delivery but are intercepted by Iy, who is eager to introduce them to a friend. |
Near the end of shore leave on Outpost Unity, the crew of the USS Darwin NCC-99312-A were wrapping up their personal affairs. These effort came to an abrupt end when FltCapt Renos failed to return from a personal excursion aboard an unknown vessel. A search for the missing captain and nir ship was being organized when an old nemesis, the Numiri, made a show of force by bringing a fleet into the sector to attack Outpost Unity. Unable to recall all of the Darwin’s senior crew in time, LtCmdr Maxwell Traenor ordered a standoff against the heavily armed aggressor fleet with just the Darwin and the outpost’s fledgling fighter squadron.
On Outpost Unity, the abandoned Darwin crewmembers found themselves aiding the outpost civilian contingent to emergency shelter once the battle started overhead. Their efforts took a disturbing turn as they discovered that sabotage had rendered the outpost without internal or external comms, and two familiar civilians were found with life-threatening injuries. Pinned under fire by a gunman, LtCmdr Didrik Stennes managed to get the civilians to safety while LtJG Kurt Logan and Lt Graeme Cook teamed up with an outpost Starfleet officer, Ensign Sindrana, to hunt down the suspected saboteur.
“He was stabbed! I was shot at. He was… he was a traitor. I mean Talax… Talax, um, Talaxan. I’m not going to stay here and get killed. Come on. We need to get out of here”, stammered the injured diplomatic aide Lyna Namid.
In the space above the outpost, the battle between the Numiri fleet and the Darwin started off with a literal bang as the Numiri employed an experimental metaphasic weapon to circumvent the Darwin’s shields and severely damage one of their nacelles. A battle of attrition commenced, with the Darwin barely able to hold her own. There were many casualties during the attack including LtCmdr Nicu Icavoc and Ensign Han Yamaki, both of whom required surgery by LtJG Isabel Pond and assisted by new counselor Ens Paul Scudder. Systems failures on the ship were finally found to be attributed by a leak of Borg nanites, and Traenor had Lt Merrick R’Ven, the Borg science specialist, detained under fear of being responsible for the breach. In addition, repair efforts were hampered by the untimely onset of pon farr in the Vulcan Chief Engineer LtCmdr Varaan.
Though the fighter squadron turned the course of battle against the Numiri, the heavily disabled Darwin was still outmatched against their lead vessel, who was ready to fire their metaphasic weapon again. In a desperate last measure, Traenor ordered a ramming of the lead ship, believing that the loss of the Darwin was a small measure compared to allowing the weapon to be used against the defenseless Outpost Unity. The Numiri blinked at the last moment and vacated the battle, but not before depositing a parting gift. They left behind a coffin, containing the remains of once-Darwin medic Janel Tarna, discovered by the Numiri deep within their space.
On Unity, the saboteur was subdued through unorthodox methods, basically outwitting him. Upon inspection of their vanquished foe, they are surprised to find that he was not the Talaxian he appeared to be, but a Numiri agent in disguise. He had been sabotaging aboard the outpost for months, setting up for the very attack that was occurring above them.
With the battle complete and the outpost secured, the Darwin undergoes hasty repairs with nearly three weeks of hectic activity!
The first week the Darwin swarmed with engineers, technicians and anyone with similar experience drawing both from the personnel of Unity Station and the Darwin herself, anyone that could be impressed into service, working around the clock to get the ship back to full functionality.
The next 10 days were spent chasing after the rogue ship, jump after jump the Darwin crew was somehow always a few steps behind the fleeing ship. The Endeavor rendezvoused with the Darwin dropping off much needed supplies and personnel, one of which was science officer: Ensign Lambert who was already known to Traenor as he had been one of the ensign’s instructors during the academy.
Their reunion would be short lived as Traenor called for all senior staff to report to the briefing room.
Uncharacteristically Traenor gets right down to business. After introducing Lambert to the rest of the crew he reveals that Renos and Iy were both missing. While the department heads had already known this information, for the rest of the crew it has been considered an internal security matter and on a need to know basis. Until now. In the meantime the science staff has been tracking the vessel, and that it is suspected that Renos and Iy are being taken back to J’anii. With the help of the Endeavor and a trader captain it is believed that they have a confirmed path of the vessel and they should be catching up within 24 hours.
Valdivia and Lambert have been assigned to Astrometrics to watch for spacial phenomena and track down the rogue ship with R’Ven taking the bridge station to act as a liaison. Varaan and Brell are assigned to shore up key systems. Logan was assigned to bridge to ready the ship for a tactical engagement and Scudder would be on the bridge as well to assist with any diplomatic options. Cook and Pond are assigned to conduct an autopsy on the remains of an old friend of the crew: Janel Tarna that the Numiri have recently returned.
Logan stops Traenor after the meeting and discusses his fears and suppositions about the rogue ship: What was it? Why is was there? Who made it? Logan suggested that it may be a product of data stolen from the Raikenoff’s vessel? Traenor did not agree think that it was Raikenoff’s or consortium, but had no ideas as to who’s it was. Then the conversation shifted to what the rogue ship had been doing while it was on Outpost unity and whether Renos and Iy were taken or went voluntarily. Logan postulated that with the rogue ship’s inferior QSD that they have to have some sort of inside knowledge in order to stay ahead of the pursuing Darwin. Neither Logan nor Tranor could believe that Renos would have gone voluntarily or that he would divulge command codes. That left only Iy. Logan suggests attempting ping Renos’ combadge when they were in range to be sure that he was even on board the ship, then hitting the other ship with something that would alert Renos that they were there, and several other options that might help. Traenor told Logan to send the information to Ops so they could implement them. After giving Traenor a short pep talk based on his experience as a marine Logan left leaving Traenor to formulate his plans.
Meanwhile Doctor Cook checks in on Icavoc. It starts off awkward, with Cook knocking over a picture and making a few mistakes, but as Cook talks he redeems himself and actually impresses Icavoc. Cook also states that he wants to run a few tests on Icavoc’s arm and possibly check with the Captain or First Officer and Pond about growing him a new one, to which Icavoc responds he would take it one step at a time but he appreciated the support. Cook also suggests having Counselor Scudder check in on him as well to which Icavoc agrees. Finishing his check on Icavoc’s stump, Cook reminds Icavoc that his door is always open and takes his leave.
Sometime later Logan also arrives to check on Icavoc as well. They discuss the current mission and Logan says he would be happier if Icavoc was in charge claiming that he’s just a door kicker. Icavoc disagrees and expresses his confidence in the security officer’s abilities. Using Dokkran proverbs and mythological references as well as sound reasoning Logan encourages Icavoc to walk around and talk with different ones. He agrees and Logan thanks him.
For the next several hours Icavoc walked the ship, stopping in many of the critical areas of the ship and talked to those in his department. Although he called them by name and was charismatic he was unsettled by the way many stared at his stump of an arm. Eventually he made it back to his room and after spending some time restlessly pacing around his room he gave a call to counselor Scudder and scheduled an immediate appointment with him.
Meanwhile Logan arrives in engineering where Varaan and Brell were discussing the remaining repairs and how they were going and possible priorities when Logan entered to have a quick word with them. He asked Varaan about a way to boost a comm signal to something like a full pattern enhancer, or even stronger, but without the size or bulk and yet simple enough to work in a firefight. Varaan said he understood and began working on ideas. Meanwhile Logan asked Brell he asked about a tactical targeting adaption, to which Brell replied that they had already been set up and gave him the necessary codes to access it from the tactical station. Seemingly please Logan left.
Meanwhile in Astrometrics Valdivia and Lambert arrive and begin to prepare the Astrometrics lab for what was to come. It was during these preparations that Lambert reveals to Valdivia that his scientific specialty was inter-dimensional physics and that he was quite at home in the Astrometrics lab. And after Lambert shares a little bit of his history Valdivia suggests assigning him there, to which Lambert assents. After that R’Ven calls from the bridge and together they coordinate with the bridge to set up a more closely tied in interface as they keep up their pursuit of the rogue ship. After a brief hiccup in connecting the data stream, the connection is established and set in place. Next Lambert examines the location where there final QSD jump would take them. It was in the area of a binary neutron star system. Unfortunately the data about that system had not been updated in some time, so it was unknown if the stars had collapsed into each other or not creating a black hole.
It has been 24 hours after Traenor’s briefing and many things are going on around the ship, including the preparations for the autopsy in sickbay
In sickbay, Cook walks into sickbay clutching his hand. Still grieving over the loss of Tarna he had punched the wall of the turbolift. After spending some time in his office he had a nurse look over his hand. Pond in the meantime had spent her time going over the paperwork and other things preparing herself for the autopsy. When Pond arrived in sickbay sometime later she finds Cook and his injured hand and they talk. First they discuss his hand and why he did what he did to hurt it, but quickly enough the turn to doing the very thing they came there to do. Perform the autopsy. When Cook asked Pond about any customs for the dead Pond explained about some of the lesser known Trill religions and customs. They were about to start the autopsy when Logan entered the room and asks for a stimulant for Captain Renos. One that he could use when they catch up to the ship that is holding Renos and one that could be administered by security personnel in the middle of a fight and no ability to monitor. Both doctors pointed out that it would irresponsible and dangerous and refuse to do it. Logan said that he understood and left after requesting a copy of the autopsy report, and asking that if they come with anything on the stimulant to send the information to security; to which the doctors agree. After a few question from Pond about Cook looking in on her patient, both doctors get to work on the autopsy itself.
Meanwhile the Darwin has final arrived in the region where the Rogue ship should be located, and much as Astrometrics had surmised, the region has centered on the two large stars orbiting each other but fortunately they had not collapsed. Unfortunately the entire region was being blanked with heavy radiation and gravimetric distortions making it the perfect place for a stealthed ship on the run to hide.
Meanwhile aboard the JDF Lotaris It had been more than two and a half weeks of intensive psychotectic treatments for Renos, and up until now the fleet captain was still finding ways to resist, but his hold on nir identity was becoming more and more tenuous.
Piloted by Iy the Lotaris was headed towards J’anii on a meandering course trying to stay ahead of the Darwin, trying to give Zorel time to work on Renos. But try as ne might and using all the knowledge that ne had picked up from nir time on the Darwin there was a creeping realization that a reckoning was soon to come!
Meanwhile Zorel continued to try one tactic after another against Renos, pain, deprivation, drugs, Zoral used several psychological strategems in a concerted effort to break Renos! Contacting Renos’ parents Zoral tried to push nim with peer pressure. In another Another Zorel tried reason, pointing out that Renos’ inability to identify with a single gender was Renos’ instinct telling nir that neither were correct for a J’anaii. There was even the offer of freedom from the deviant disease, freedom to return to nir old life. The last, and probably the most damaging tactic was informing Renos that the Darwin had been destroyed!
The pain of that loss overwhelmed nir a way that the others could not. As ne thought about the loss of the crew and especially Geordie, the fog and haze of the drugs and psychological attacks finally took their toll on the J’naii captain, and with that blow many of the last remaining walls that Renos had built up fell, as ne broke down in tears and hurled insults at Zorel.
Zoral only laughted, believeing that victory was finally close at hand!
And the Lotaris came under attack from the Darwin, the impacts reaching into the core of the ship and gave the Captain a renewed sense of hope.
This episode is still airing. Stay tuned for periodic updates!
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| REV SD 239306.20 |
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