[Josh Broughm]

Mission: Suspicious Comet

Involved Ship

USS BELEREN, NCC-2261, Cmdr. Seaborn (Broughm)

Mission Summary

USS Beleren has been ordered to follow a comet that was previously encountered yesterday as stated in the commander's log. Starfleet intelligence suspects that this is a covert mobile listening station, possibly belonging to the RSE. Further orders to be relayed at time of intercept & disernation of comet's internal structure.

[Josh Broughm]

Current Status - Receipt of Mission Parameters - Stardate 65047.41 - Jan, 15th, 2388 - 08:30:00

Mission Progression: Suspicious Comet
USS BELEREN, NCC-2261, Cmdr Seaborne (Broughm)
(Admiral Backlund being played by Caymen Greener)

Commander Seaborne woke up sore & a little groggy. "Time?" He asked. The computer said, 08:30 HOURS. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, climbed out of bed and got himself a coffee with a plate of doughnuts. Seaborne had a little bit of a sweet tooth. He sat at his desk and brought up his personal mail. The first thing he looked at was today's edition of the Federation Herald.

The headline read, "Senate approves humanitarian aid for Romulans after Hobus incident." Jason sighed at this and said, "That was expected, I guess." He moved the paper to personal storage, then went on. "Dabo Tournament!! Be among some of the best Dabo players & play for biggest prize pool in history!! Register now with-" he sent this piece of mail to the trash.

STARFLEET INTELLIGENCE - PRIORITY URGENT
Please contact Admiral Backlund for mission parameters.

Jason stared at this for a minute, then sent the rest of his mail to personal storage. He opened a secured channel over subspace and said clearly, "Connect to Starfleet Intelligence, Admiral Backlund's office. Priority one, urgent." The computer beeped softly and the connection was made.

Backlund nodded as the channel was opened, his face showing through clearly. "Commander, thank you for your prompt reply." The man showed pretty much no emotion. "I trust your coffee there has you awake finally?" Seaborne was not late or anything, but the Admiral liked to give people a hard time, mostly to put them in their place, rightful or not.

Jason nodded and said, "It does the job. I understand that you have something for me?"

"Indeed." He put his own coffee mug down tapped a button on his desk sending over some data. "The comet now known as FC0018892710 that is passing through caught my eye."

Seaborne nodded in acknowledgement. "So," he said slowly, "you suspect something fishy with that comet? I found it strange that a comet of that size would just fly on past. No record of it, as stated in the report, was found."

"Yes," continued the admiral. "We just finally tagged it after said report was filed. It is not classified and only your senior staff are to receive further details." He paused. "I want you to look into this further - it may not even be, shall we say, naturally made. Figure out why it seems that way."

Jason smiled and said, "Thy will be done, Admiral. What should I label the logs regarding this mission?"

Admiral Backlund chortled. "Anything about a comet is fine for now. The rest of Starfleet can consider it that until we know more." The man ♥♥♥♥ed his head. "Classified, Commander. And please keep me apprised. Backlund out."

The channel closed. Jason sat in his chair and just stared at the display. "Seaborne to MacKenzie." he said aloud. "Go ahead," a female voice said. "Did we map that comet's flight path yesterday?" Jason asked sternly. "We did, sir," she said. "Lay in a course along that path and intercept that comet. We need more details on that thing." The female voice said, "Aye, sir!" The comms closed, leaving silence. Jason leaned back in his chair, thinking. What if the Romulans were covertly spying on us, in a bold way? They wouldn't risk an open conflict, would they? These questions swirled in his head as he finished his breakfast.

[Josh Broughm]

Current Status - Comet Found - Stardate 65061.78 - Jan, 23rd, 2388 - 14:45:00

Mission Progression: Suspicious Comet

USS BELEREN, NCC-2261, Cmdr Seaborne (Broughm)

Seaborne paced the bridge, looking rather stern. "Anything yet?" he said harshly. T'Pe said, in an even tone, "Nothing as of yet. Curious. I find that we are following a random pattern." Jason sighed and turned to Clint, his CTO. "Maybe an evasion pattern?" he asked. Clint looked up from his console and said, "Possibly. Let me see our flight path." Jason pointed to T'Pe and said, "Do it."

It took a moment for Clint to go over the flight path. "Hmmm.....," he said thoughtfully, "It is an evasion pattern, but its quite random. I doubt that it's-" T'Pe cut across him and said, "Contact with the comet, sir." Jason spun to face the viewer & said, "On screen!" A bright blue and white streak cut the screen in half, with a large oval object on one end. "Mark, get us as close to it as you can," Seaborne said, "without killing us. Clint-" The CTO cut him off and said, "Already ahead of you. Shields are up."

Jason smiled and said, "Good Man." He then turned to T'Pe and asked, "Anything yet?" She paused for a moment before saying, "All readings match our previous scans, Captain. I do not see the merit of doing another scan of this comet." Seaborne said, bluntly, "Switch to hi rez mode." She nodded and adjusted the sensor arrays.

While they were waiting, Jason went into the the ready room and replicated the bridge crew drinks. Clint got a stiff, but rather nice smelling, Raktajino. T'pe, giving a curious look to her captain, got a weak Japanese-like tea. Mark, having simple tastes, got a bottle of an ancient soda Seaborne called, 'Mug Root Beer'.

T'Pe looked up from her console and said softly, "I am detecting a slowing of the comet's velocity." Jason Paused for a moment with a cup of Tim Horton's in his hand. "The ice field is dissipating, sir." she went on. "Mark," Seaborne said, "how close are we to the comet?" Mark looked at his indicators on the console. "1,000 KM." he said. "Get us within 250 KM & use your best judgment for safety." Jason said & Mark nodded. "Clint, bring phasers up to ready & only the phasers." Jason asked. Clint said, "Aye. I take it you want to melt that ice shell?" Jason nodded, "Yeah." He said.

Jason sat back into the command chair and looked at the viewscreen. The ice field was almost completely gone & the comet had slowed to an almost crawl. T'pe said, "I am detecting a warp field." Jason turned and asked, "Romulan?" She ♥♥♥♥ed her head slightly and said, "No. In fact, there is not any record of this type of field in our databa- Sir, sensors are showing a ship within the ice shell." Jason got up and asked, "Are you sure?" T'pe nodded, "It does not match any of our records. Carbon dating puts it at about 70,000 years old." Clint spoke up and asked, "No lifesigns?" T'Pe looked at her console and said, "None, but a fair bit of computer activity." Jason spoke to Clint and said, "Melt the ice cube."

A tuned phaser beam shot from the ship and hit the ice, melting it away in thirty seconds. What was revealed was a elongated oval shape, pitted with the vast years of space flight. While it didn't have any outward hints of a propulsion system, it had a door on one side that looked like it housed a nacell type construct.

Jason looked at the object and said to T'Pe, "Copy current sensor data and transmit to Intelligence." The science officer nodded and went to her task. "Clint," he asked, "Tactical analysis?" Clint looked over his console and said, "Showing no weapons of any kind." T'Pe spoke up. "It seems to be an automated ship, sir." She said. Jason smiled and ordered, "Chief Bosley to the transporter room." He looked at T'Pe and said, "You too." Then pointed at Clint and said, "Let's go. Alyssa, the ship is yours." the three of them left as Alyssa sat at the center seat.

END POST