***Sim Log Narrative, SD 201910.11***

Bridge:

The Penumbra was hanging in interstellar space a few light-years from the gas giant and its rings and moons where the Aslans were fighting the Kyrathians and a Covert Operations Team from the Penumbra were trying to figure out how to protect a Kyrathian Nursery from the Aslans' fury.

They had retreated in order to effect repairs, and those were nearly done. Lt. Cmdr. Jason Carter, sitting at the Helm, reported, "Captain, I've gotten full motion back to Helm controls, but inertial dampers are sluggish still."

Capt. Zak Taylor nodded from the Command Chair, "Understood, Carter." He turned his head to his Tactical Officer, "Hawke, engage the MIRAGE."

The ex-Borg Ensign's hands flew over the tactical console, double checking all the systems. He announced, "MIRAGE engaged."

MAX, the Artificial Intelligence, spoke from some random speaker, "Communications are back online. Reconn systems are reformatting."

At the rear of the Bridge, standing in front of the Master Systems Display where he had temporarily rerouted the Operations System due to his normal station having been fried, LtJG Tabeshk Tibris gave an exaggerated sigh, "I haaaaaaate not having my console yet!"

Lt. Cmdr. Bevin MacArdry, their Chief Engineer, was busily working on reinstalling the console for Tabby. She would have to redo all the wiring, and thought that while she was at it, she'd install extra breakers so that the console would be less likely to get fried again.

Lt. Cmdr. Relok, normally their Chief of Sciences but standing in for Lt. Col. Travis Patterson as Acting First Officer, checked the console beside the XO's seat, "Sensors are functional again, Captain."

With everyone having checked in, the Captain said, "Excellent. Mr. Carter, let's go find our wayward people."

"Aye sir," Carter said, "Coming about and engaging warp." He was still flying by stick due to the inertial dampers being hindered.

Tabeshk was taking out his frustration with not having "his" station by slapping himself in the face with an empty clipboard (it must be a Klingon thing).

Bevin called Tabeshk, her Scottish Brogue cutting through, "Taibby, inny spaishul canfaigiraishun ye waint fer tha bards?"

Tabeshk stopped smacking his face into the clipboard to answered, "Hmm, probably more durable ... you know, Klingon resistant."

She grinned, "Ailraidy daein tha, Taibby, me fraind. Innythaing ailse?"

He grinned back, "A bigger screen, maybe?"

She winked at him, "I'll werk an ait."

A beep sounded from the MSD and Tabeshk turned back to see an icon flashing there. "Captain, I've got a call from Dean."

But Zak had turned his chair slightly and said, "From Dean?"

But before the Captain could take the call, Carter announced, "We should be able to reach the rendezvous in 5 minutes."

Relok suggested, "Captain, it might be a good idea to contact the Aslans and let them know we're coming in cloaked .... wouldn't want some accidental explosion sending a shockwave against our shields .... again.

Zak glanced at Relok, "Good idea. Hawke coordinate our arrival with the Aslans, but maintain our MIRAGE system. I don't need to tell you to be sure to use a secure transmission. Wouldn't want the Kyrathians eavesdropping."

MAX suggested, "Mr. Hawke should be able to broadcast our IFF identifier to the Aslan Fleet. They should be able to detect us using that indicator."

Hawke responded, "Aye, sir." He started using the messaging system along with the IFF, rather than using a voice call. He knew it would be secure.

Tabeshk urged the Captain, "Sir, call from Dean? Actually, I'll just pull it up."

On the viewer appeared Lt. Cmdr. Dean Spearhorse, formerly the Chief Tactical and Security Officer of the Penumbra now serving as a Liaison between Starfleet and the Janosians back on Janidor. He was in his quarters and was leaning in close to his monitor. "Penumbra, this is Sojourner, do you copy?"

The Captain answered, "We have you, Commander, how's things on Janidor?"

"The situation is deteriorating sir. I am sending you a report." The image wavered a second and he said, "Your transmission is a bit garbled ...," and then his signal broke off.

About that time Carter announced, "We're at the rendezvous coordinates." The ship dropped out of warp. Dean's call shrank to a small corner of the main viewer and the remainder showed the view of the Aslans and Kyrathians still engaged in their huge firefight. Various pieces of debris, some still spewing sparks or venting atmosphere into space. Carter checked his board, "Still waiting on the Cerberus."

Tabeshk took in the main viewer and murmured, "Oh, that looks fun."

Bevin looked up from where she was working beneath the Operations Console, "Dinna cawnt an ait, Taibby, thair's a binch o guid paipul daid ailraidy ivvir their."

The Captain glanced at his Tactical Officer, "Hawke, find the Cerberus in this mess. It's well cloaked and actively hiding, but ...," he trailed off and then turned to Tabeshk, "Tabby, find the Hissing Beetle and arrange to get Delta 5 back from them ... without revealing where we are to the Kyrathians, please."

Tabeshk responded, "I'll try," and turned back to the MSD, fingers flying. He made contact with the Aslan Battlecruiser, and then, managed to restore the commlink with Spearhorse.

Dean asked, "What is the status with the bugs? With things breaking down here, I believe I am losing control of the situation and Captain Jackson believes me to be usurping his power here."

Zak furrowed his brow, "Usurping power? How? You're just a liaison, right? Surely Captain Jackson is using you within the framework of his mission, right?" But the signal cut out yet again.

Hawke interrupted, "Captain. Reports from the Aslans. It seems like they are actually on the losing side of the battle. They just lost another ship."

Zak turned to Hawke, "Damn, that's not supposed to happen. The Aslans have advanced tactical ships and the Kyrathian fleet wasn't even fully developed yet!"

Relok reported, " Captain. The Aslan's weakness was their vulnerability to swarms of Pods. But ... it looks like they still have 4 Battlecruisers to the Kyrathian only having 3 incomplete ships. They have to be out of Pods now, right?"

Hawke gave a slight shrug, "I don't know why, but it seems they are. I've sent a message requesting information of what the problem is."

Zak grimaced, "Still ... it's not our place to fight the Aslans' war for them. They'll call for backup if they think they need it. Let's get our people out of harm's way."

Tabeshk said, "Captain, I have Dean again." The Captain nodded and Dean appeared on the viewer again.

Dean was shaking his head, "Captain Jackson has appointed himself regent of the world with powers over all the local leaders in a powerplay. You know what they say about absolute power. The leaders that back him get the majority of the food and other resources. He is not listening to the knights and local lords, and the peasants have grown agitated with his strict rule. He will not listen to my recommendations anymore, calling me foolish."

Zak scowled back at him, "I thought the Sojourner was there to rebuild Janidor, not impose their own tyranny!"

Dean answered with an indignant snort, "I was here to rebuild ... Captain J thought he was here for protection. He is acting like a 20th century mob boss in his tactics ...," and his signal cut out yet again.

Tabeshk had strolled over to help Bevin with the last touches on his Operations Console. He muttered, "Sounds like somebody needs to be sat down, Captain."

Bevin added, "Aye an tairned ivvir an Mama's laip fer tha hairbrash tae thair baiksides! Thay naid a guid paiddilin!"

Tabeshk commented, "Sound's like we need to go back to Janidor, Captain, to deal with a brain-dead Captain."

Another call came in, interrupting the conversation with Dean. It was Patterson on the Cerberus, "Cerberus to Penumbra. Sorry we're late... mind opening the doors for us?"

A moment or so later Carter reported, "Confirming the Cerberus is aboard, sir."

Zak responded, "Good, Carter. Let's get some clearance from this area so we can assess our intelligence." He tapped his commbadge, "Colonel, come on up to the Bridge once you're secure so we can chat."

Carter turned the ship and Patterson acknowledged he was on his way.

MAX observed, "I detected several imperfections to Mr. Spearhorse's speech patterns during that communication."

Just as he said this, the turbolift doors opened and Patterson stepped onto the Bridge, striding over to the XO's chair. "Thanks for keeping my seat warm for me, Relok."

The Vulcan stood, "You can have it back, Colonel."

Hawke nodded at the Colonel, "Welcome back, Patterson."

Tabeshk sat up from where he was working under the Operations Console. He began, "Hey, Pat!" but then he banged his head on the still disheveled console. He grunted, "Don't ask ... just don't ask what happened here."

Then, before the ship could jump to warp to give them the "clearance" the Captain had wanted, every system locked up. Every console went black and then displayed a single giant symbol:

Ω

Carter struggled with his joystick control, finding it unresponsive. "What the ...?"

Relok raised an eyebrow, "That's ... odd."

Tabeshk stared at it and said, "Whaaa ... in the hell is that?" Bevin grumbled a few choice curse words under her breath in Gaelic.

Hawke tried his console several times before saying, "I think we've just been hit by a virus."

The Captain glanced around the Bridge, seeing the ominous Omega characters on every consold and muttered, "Crap."

Patterson blinked a moment, checking again the display on his arm rest and then looked to the Captain, "Ready Room." It sounded more like a statement than a question.

The Captain stared at Patterson a moment, a curious look on his face. "Yes, Colonel, please." The Captain stood and glanced around. "Everyone, stand by. Carter, you have the Bridge, for what it's worth."

Patterson stood, nodding silently, and followed the Captain to his Ready Room.

Bevin dragged herself out from under the Operations Console where she and Tabeshk had been working, and strode purposefully to the main Computer Room just off the Bridge that was located just behind where the Master Systems Display was.

Tabeshk watched her go, muttering, "Okay, whatever arse pulled that stunt, can they not? I'll take my PADD and go with Bevin before I break something."

MAX's voice came through the speakers, "That will not work either, Lieutenant."

Tabeshk stopped and turned around, and said through clenched teeth, "Do you ... have any ... better ideas, MAX?"

Carter said, "The Captain said to stand by... just... sit tight."

Mere seconds after the Captain and Patterson disappeared into the Ready Room and the door slid shut, the ship's computer announced, "Doors are sealed."

A call came from LtJG T'Lin, who had been in Astrometrics processing their data from the mission to the Collection Station, "Bridge, are the computers frozen?"

Carter replied, "Standby, Lieutenant ... we're trying to figure it out. Captain's orders are to await orders."

Hawke said, " I can always try my tubules, but the XO doesn't like that." He was referring to using his Borg nanite tubules to access the subsystems.

Carter shook his head, "Hawke, let's not make things worse. Give the Command Staff a moment to figure this out. We're not in danger at the moment ... I think."

Tabeshk stood at the door to the corridor that led around to the main Computer Room, but the door didn't open. He grunted, "Doors are sealed, my arse!"

LtJG Lea Kalawai'a, who had been in a corridor headed to Main Engineering when she saw the Omega symbol appear on a console, called the Bridge, "What now? Some sort of enemy computer virus?"

Tabeshk tapped his commbadge and responded to her, "I have no idea, Lea."

She replied, "Very well."

Bevin had gotten into the main Computer Room before the doors had sealed, and was now trying to get the main computer back to behaving properly, hoping to run some antivirus codes, but unable to get past the Omega symbol and general lockout. She heard MAX announce, "This is a Federation designation. I have no further information."

Tabeshk was spiraling towards Klingon rage and so sat himself on the floor cross-legged, closed his eyes and took a deep breath before muttering to himself, "I need to calm down. Calm down, Tabeshk, calm down, don't let the Klingon rule you, it's just a bug, just an error." Then his eyes snapped open, "Wait! The MIRAGE! MAX, is the MIRAGE still active?"

MAX answered, " I am unable to determine that at this time. As with every console apparent, I too have lost the ability to interact with any ship systems."

Hawke said, "What about it? I didn't turn it off, unless whatever did this did." He reviewed the information on his frozen console, " According to the frozen console, it was still up at the time it happened."

Tabeshk let out a sigh, "Okay then. I am my father's son. When automatic doesn't work, go manual. If the doors won't open, you make them open." He let out a sigh before adding, " preferably without breaking them." He tapped his commbadge, "Tabby to Bevin, hang on, dear, I'll get to you somehow."

Bevin's Brogue came back, "Tapadh leibh gu, dearbh. Thaink ye sae mich, Taibby, dair."

But Carter ordered, "Stay at your post, Lieutenant!"

Tabeshk whirled at him, "Seriously?!?"

Carter glared back, "Yes, seriously. Those were the Captain's orders."

Tabeshk let out a wooshing sigh and seemed to deflate, "I know, but ... I literally can't do anything here with this arse of a symbol blocking everything!"

Finally, Patterson emerged from the Ready Room and accessed a comm-panel and opened the All Hands channel, "All Senior Officers of Lieutenant Commander and higher report IMMEDIATELY to the Observation Lounge."

Hawke glanced up at the All-Call and grunted, "Huh, why not the Department Heads?"

Tabeshk asked, "And what about me, can I go see Bevin?"

But Patterson just said, "Computer, disengage the Omega lockout, authorization Patterson 1 1 3 7 Black 5 9."

The computer recognized the voice print and security code and released all of the door seals and reset the computer lockout. The Omega symbol simply disappeared and all systems seemed to restore to normal operations.

Then the Colonel turned to Tabeshk, "Lieutenant Tibris, you have the Conn. Begin rerouting power to recon systems."

Tabeshk pouted, "Again? I have the Bridge? Oh, come on!"

Hawke said, "I'm good if you want me to take it, Tabs."

Tabeshk grunted, "No disrespect but ... hell no."

Hawke whined, "Awww ... but why not, you clearly don't like it!"

Tabeshk said to Hawke, "It's not that I don't like it, Hawke, it's just this is the third time in a row. It's kinda annoying."

Patterson glanced at the Tactical Officer, "Mr. Hawke, I need a full inventory of every weapon on this ship."

Hawke nodded, "Yes, sir. I assume visually?"

Patterson nodded and turned towards the Observation Lounge. As he did, the Captain emerged from the Ready Room and strode purposefully towards the Observation Lounge without a word. Relok turned to follow him, nearly overwhelmed by curiosity but containing himself. Carter stood from the Helm console and followed the others into the Lounge, leaving only Tabeshk and Hawke on the Bridge.

Returning Covert Ops Team:

The Covert Operations Team that had infiltrated the Collection Station thinking it was just a supply depot had discovered it was in fact a Kyrathian Nursery. The two Junior Lieutenants, Lea Kalawai'a and T'Lin, Dr. K'Trevala, and the Marine Pathfinders had been ordered by Patterson to return to the shuttle known as the FedEx and configure it to serve as the power source for a shield generator he was installing at the Nursery to protect the "innocent children".

Deep in the station, Patterson set up the shield generator at the entrance to the nursery tunnels. As he set one of the last anchor points, he tapped his commbadge, "T'Lin, have you all reconfigured the shuttle and prepared for beamout?"

Lea nervously fidgeted with her hands while T'Lin used old-fashioned pencil and paper to record her notes. Impatient, Lea snapped her fingers at T'Lin, "Hey, you can copy those later, Patterson needs power!"

T'Lin quietly lifted her gaze and considered Lea, "I am not the one who can reconfigure the shuttle. That would be you, seeing as you are the engineer. The motion of your hand was not required, my hearing has not been damaged."

Sensing rising tension, the pilot said, "Shouldn't take much to reroute all the power to the shield emitters. Pretty simple, right?"

T'Lin turned to the pilot, "I am not proficient at it, but I suppose I shall." She accessed a console and started helping to reroute the power to the shield generator.

Finally, Patterson finished and had the shield generator set. He accessed the PADD on the forearm of his combat armor and called the AI of the Cerberus, "AEGIS, energize." He shimmered out of existence and reappeared aboard the advanced reconnaissance cruiser.

Just as he materialized his comm chirped with a call from Lea, "How's it going down there?"

Patterson answered, "I've got the generator in place and ready, and I've beamed up to the Cerberus. Standby for exfil." He used the Marine-speak jargon for "exfiltration", the opposite of "infiltration". Then he reminded them, "Just make sure you guys have that shuttle dumping power to the shield emitters on the frequency of that generator."

Lea answered, "Right." She moved to the front of the shuttle to help reconfigure the shields, since the whole shield generator and the idea to use it was hers in the first place.

Patterson carefully piloted the Cerberus to where the FedEx was parked on the tiny moon. He called, "FedEx, Cerberus standing by. Let's try to make this quick people." Above them the Aslans and Kyrathians were continuing the massive firefight.

Eventually, the FedEx was reconfigured to power the shield generator developed by Lea, and the Away Team is beamed over to the Cerberus. As they are transporting, the Penumbra dropped out of warp in the system, headed for their rendezvous.

Patterson turned to account for his team, and finding them all aboard, he gave a nod and said, "Let's get out of here."

Lea gave him a stern look. "Right. This better work."

Patterson glanced over his shoulder at her, "It'll work, Lea." He opened a comm channel to the Aslan flagship, "Cerberus to Hissing Beetle. I'm relaying coordinates for a priority target. We'll need focused fire on that location. I'll make a pass close by so you can beam our two crewmembers aboard."

The two members of Delta 5 that had been beamed to the Beetle materialized on the Cerberus and Shadow began checking them for injuries. They were battered and bruised from the firefight, and suffering some mild dehydration, but no worse for wear.

The clicks and thunks of Aslan speech came through the commlink, followed by the Universal Translator, "We have returned your crewmembers. If we catch a break, we'll see about hitting that target you tagged. Hissing Beetle out."

Patterson quickly escaped the battle zone to rendezvous with the Penumbra. He called, "Cerberus to Penumbra. Sorry we're late ... mind opening the doors for us?"

The Hangar Bay doors opened and Patterson entered and set down. Shadow and the Delta 5 members beamed directly to Sickbay to make sure he hadn't missed any internal injuries, and the rest strolled down the ramp and out into the corridor outside the Hangar Bay on Deck 10.

Patterson said, "T'Lin, get that data to Astrometrics. Work with MAX to decipher it. Hines, take your team to debrief. Lea," he patted her shoulder, "Good work."

Lea blushed slightly at the praise, "Thank you," she muttered.

The Captain's voice came over the comm, "Colonel, come on up to the Bridge once you're secure so we can chat."

Patterson answered, "I'm on my way, sir." He strode off to a nearby turbolift headed for the Bridge.

T'Lin turned and headed for a ladder since Astrometrics was just down one deck, on Deck 11. Before long she was quietly working, alone in the Astrometrics Lab, downloading and processing the information from the Collection Station when suddenly the computer went black and then displayed the single symbol of Omega. She tapped her commbadge, "Bridge, are the computers frozen?"

The voice of Lt. Cmdr. Jason Carter replied, "Standby, Lieutenant ... we're trying to figure it out. Captain's orders are to await orders."

Lea had headed to a different turbolift to go up two decks to Main Engineering on Deck 8. After exiting the lift, she was walking down the corridor when she saw one of the wall panels light up in a weird fashion. She made a sound and asked nobody in particular, "Tsa, what now?" The panel displayed nothing but a single large symbol: Omega. She called the Bridge, "What now? Some sort of enemy computer virus?"

LtJG Tabeshk Tibris answered, "I have no idea, Lea."

She replied, "Very well." Concerned, she pried open the wall panel and began tinkering with the wiring, trying to restore normal access.

Ready Room:

The Captain strode into his Ready Room with Patterson on his heels. Once Patterson had cleared the door and it slid shut he called, "Computer, seal the doors. No entry without authorization."

The computer acknowledged that the doors were sealed and the Captain whirled on Patterson. "You recognize that symbol." It was a statement, not a question. "How is that?"

Patterson switched to the At Ease position and answered, "During my deployment with Starfleet Intelligence, sir, I was given Clearance Level 10. I am aware of the Omega Directive ... but I was not a member of the Omega Team."

The Captain sighed, "Of course. Starfleet Intelligence. Very well then. You know the Omega Directive supersedes all other directives. We need to find out what we've detected and where."

Patterson nodded, "Yes, and with extreme discretion."

Zak stepped to his desk and accessed the terminal, still displaying the ominous Omega symbol. He pressed a few buttons and the computer performed a retina scan and a DNA test of the sweat on his fingertips. Finally it accepted his identity and cleared the symbol.

Patterson, growing impatient, asked, "Sir?"

The computer reported, "Omega Particle detected on the eighth planet of this system."

Zak sighed, "Well, that confirms it. We're going out to the 8th planet. And just like Voyager, we have no access to the real Omega Team, so we have to handle it ourselves. What do we tell the crew?"

Patterson gave a slight shrug, "Only what they need to do, but not why."

Zak nodded, "Right, need to know only. Summon the senior officers ... Lieutenant Commanders only. Let's keep a lid on this as long as we can."

Patterson nodded, "Understood." He turned then ordered, "Computer, unseal the room, authorization Patterson-1-1-3-7-Black-5-9."

The computer recognized the voiceprint and security code and cleared the lockout. The Captain sat at his desk and pulled up a schematic of the system on the terminal. After a moment of studying, he logged off, sat back, gave a sigh, and ran his fingers through his hair. Then, he stood and straightened his uniform and strode back out onto the Bridge, headed for the Observation Lounge.

On the Sojourner at Janidor:

In orbit above the planet Janidor, in his quarters aboard the USS Sojourner, Lt. Cmdr. Dean Spearhorse opened a commlink from his computer terminal, "Penumbra, this is Sojourner, come in please."

There was no immediate response. After a moment he repeated, "Penumbra, this is Sojourner, do you copy?"

Finally, the voice of Capt. Zak Taylor came back, "We have you, Commander, how's things on Janidor?"

Dean leaned forward towards the computer display. "The situation is deteriorating sir. I am sending you a report." The Captain's face on his viewscreen wriggled and pixelated a moment. Dean said, "Your transmission is a bit garbled ...," and the signal cut out.

Several minutes later he was able to reconnect and Dean asked, "What is the status with the bugs? With things breaking down here, I believe I am losing control of the situation and Captain Jackson believes me to be usurping his power here."

Zak furrowed his brow, "Usurping power? How? You're just a liaison, right? Surely Captain Jackson is using you within the framework of his mission, right?"

Again, the signal cut out. When he'd finally managed to restore the signal he shook his head.

"Captain Jackson has appointed himself regent of the world with powers over all the local leaders in a powerplay. You know what they say about absolute power. The leaders that back him get the majority of the food and other resources. He is not listening to the knights and local lords, and the peasants have grown agitated with his strict rule. He will not listen to my recommendations anymore, calling me foolish."

Zak scowled back at him, "I thought the Sojourner was there to rebuild Janidor, not impose their own tyranny!"

Dean answered with an indignant snort, "I was here to rebuild ... Captain J thought he was here for protection. He is acting like a 20th century mob boss in his tactics ...," he trailed off, but it didn't matter, the signal had cut out again.

And then from a different monitor on the other side of the room came a call, "Security, detain Lt. Cmdr. Spearhorse, and if he continues to make trouble, toss him out an air lock!"

In Attendance:

Capt. Z. Taylor, LtCol. T. Patterson, LtCmdr. Relok, LtCmdr. MacArdry, Dr. K'Trevala, LtCmdr. Dean Spearhorse, LtCmdr. J. Carter, Lt. (JG) T'Lin, Lt. (JG) Tabeshk Tibris, Lt. (JG) Kalawai'a, Ens. Denovan Hawke, MGySgt Hines

NPCs:

MAX (played by Hines), AEGIS (played by Patterson), Fed-Ex_Pilot (played by Patterson), Sojourner_CaptJackson (played by Spearhorse)

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