Game session: 9/17/18. Although stuff got done, the flow was choppy. Jon left early to help his SO, and Joe also left a bit early.

Kelly returns to the Boston and passes along Bjornson’s descriptions of Madison Danning and Hector Ludivico to security. Lieutenant Alandra scans the data but doesn’t ask questions. Kelly hesitates, and then gives her a bare-bones synopsis. She listens carefully and asks, “Will they employ deadly force?” Kelly shakes his head and replies, “Unlikely. Soft security threat, look for data breaches, larceny, low-level financial fraud, that sort of thing.” Alandra nods as she takes notes, and then she asks, “Mind if I bring in Ten and Eleven for this as well?” Kelly has no objections whatsoever and Alandra smiles and proceeds.

Kelly realizes he’s awake now, and heads to the mess hall to grab an early breakfast. He then settles into his quarters and spends an hour accessing old civilian databases and collating all information about his NNOO theory and Setlik III. He complies everything and sends it to Bjornson. Bjornson sends him a thank-you text back ten minutes later, so he decides to get a jump on things and starts collating everything in the science database about the Argolis Cluster, specifically anything regarding potential Class-L or Class-M worlds. He leans that the cluster is a stellar nursery with many navigational hazards, and exploring it has been a low-priority with the Cardassian border so close. He reckons the hazards would also hamper Cardassian exploitation, and habitable worlds in the cluster are more the stuff of spacer legends than hard facts.

Khaleed continues to monitor Krim Lapas and tries to keep her adrenaline spikes from doing permanent damage. He decides on a risky experiment, to wake her up but administer a paralysis agent. Hopefully, if she’s awake for a few minutes, the implant will deactivate, and he can put her under again. He cancels the anesthesia but fails to accommodate for the agent’s reflexes. Krim’s hand shoots out in what would be a brutal strike to the genitals, but luckily, Khaleed was on the other side of the biobed. He administers the paralysis agent, waits for a few minutes, and then re-administers the anesthesia. The agent goes back under, and everything is fine… for ten minutes. Khaleed curses as the implant reactivates and starts triggering more adrenaline spikes, so he settles for countering them instead.

Aaron returns to the bridge at 0745 hours, and Commander Zeft gives him a few updates. The Nebula-class USS Phoenix is on track to arrive shortly after 1600 hours, and a briefing has been scheduled for 1800 hours with their command staff and Captain Englyss, Lieutenant Commander Kinnison, and Lieutenants Bahb and Perrault to bring them up to speed on the past few days. He adds that the repairs to the Boston are scheduled to wrap up at 1500 hours; Aaron snorts and jokes, “That long?” Zeft grins and whispers, “Commander T’kora always builds in a half-hour buffer into her estimates. She’ll likely use that last half-hour to try and eradicate the lavender smell from tactical; she’s been at it for three months now.” Aaron snickers and thanks Zeft for the update.

Gamma shift stands down and the senior officers take over, gathering on the bridge. Aaron outlines the arrival of the Phoenix and the briefing tonight, and warns everyone, “Keep an eye out for anything unusual. Shil’vala, you have the conn. I’ll be in my ready room, so let me know if anything explodes.” T’kora raises an eyebrow frostily, and the impromptu meeting breaks up. Aaron heads for his ready room while Kelly feeds all the data he’s compiled about the Argolis Cluster into a database. He the approaches Ten and Eleven and asks their help to collate all non-science data about the cluster as well. The Bynars have a rapid-fire conversation in binary, and then agree to help. Several minutes later, they hand him a padd containing all other sources of data about the Argolis Cluster; Kelly smiles and happily adds it to his database. He then spends his shift examining and collating everything into something resembling a coherent picture of the region.

Kimball settles into tactical and spots Alandra’s input of the security flags regarding Madison Dannings and Ensign Hector Ludivico. He examines the files and then accesses several law enforcement databases to learn more. Once he’s compiled everything he can he settles into a passive surveillance mode to keep an eye out for anything unusual. Meanwhile, Hel-Torin Ghatorii returns to sickbay and relieves Khaleed. He pulls Khaleed aside for a few minutes and tells him, “I’d like to recommend you for bridge duty on a probationary basis. I don’t like not having trained medical personnel on the bridge, especially in an emergency, and I’m thinking you could keep an eye on the life support systems and function as a backup to the science station, if you’re interested. This will help get you better-rounded, which I think will be an asset in your career.” Khaleed is definitely interested, and Hel-Torin promises to speak with Captain Englyss on his behalf. Khaleed heads to bed.

Hel-Torin enters Aaron’s cramped ready room at 1400 hours and lays out his proposal for Khaleed taking bridge duty. Aaron considers the idea and then agrees to try it out; he can see the logic behind it. They talk for a bit, and Hel-Torin invites Aaron to go for lunch – and get out of this photon torpedo casing he calls a ready room. Aaron snickers but agrees, and they head down to the officer’s mess. They get food and settle in, and Hel-Torin starts telling Aaron stories. He explains the shuttles; each shuttle is named after a Bostonian suburb and the names are usually recycled when a shuttle is swapped out, such as the Cambridge and Somerville, which are now the new runabouts.

The exception is the Malden. Apparently, the Malden I was destroyed in the line of duty, but managed to bring her crew home safely before being scuttled. It became a tradition that the Malden would be numbered to honor that, and the Malden II suffered a similar fate: she was heavily damaged but got her flight crew back safely before being decommissioned. This was back in 2357, and they got the Malden III. Hel-Torin came aboard in 2362, and the Malden III continued to serve until the very beginning of last year – early 2366 – when it simply vanished from the shuttlebay. Aaron stares, dumbfounded, as Hel-Torin explains, “The science department labeled it an ‘unspecified temporal incident’ and Captain Shen forwarded their report, only it was intercepted and redacted by the Department of Temporal Investigations. They said, and I quote, ‘Don’t worry, it will return eventually.’ Captain Shen decided that wasn’t good enough, and acquired a replacement, the Malden IV.”

Aaron shakes his head as he tries to process the implications to all this, and likens it to a variant of 3-D chess that made the rounds fifty year ago – 4-D chess, with rules on removing pieces and replacing them turns later, as if they’d traveled in time. Although some species enjoyed the game, it was not popular. Hel-Torin snorts but isn’t surprised, and then asks, “Can I give you some command advice?” Aaron replies, “Always,” and Hel-Torin smiles briefly before saying, “When it comes to the Bynars, always include specific parameters.” He explains how once, a few years ago, the Boston was engaged in a running battle with the Cardassians, and discovered a Cardassian installation on a nearby planet. Captain Shen gave the same order Aaron did: drop out of warp as close to the planet as possible. She did not include any parameters, so the Bynars executed the course, and the Boston dropped out of warp inside the planetary gravity well.

Aaron groans and Hel-Torin smirks and adds, “That day, we learned you can hear enraged screaming from main engineering all throughout the ship. Also, our inertia dampeners are very good but have their limits, and Cardassians do not expect you to do that, and don’t raise planetary shields in time. We managed to destroy the installation and escape, but T’kora was definitely not happy and we spent a lot of time in dry-dock for repairs.” Aaron laughs and they chat for a while longer.

At 1410 hours, the Boston’s warp core comes back online and all systems checks come back green. T’kora marches onto the bridge at 1414 hours with an engineer’s kit, a large bottle of something, and a determined look. Kimball hastily gets out of her way, and T’kora disassembles his station in minutes and starts spraying everything with the concoction in the bottle. Unfortunately, after several minutes, the smell of lavender only gets stronger, and Kimball gets a glimpse of the passion and rage that lurks in the Vulcan heart: T’kora’s eyes narrow to slits, her hands curl into angry claws, and she utters a string of Vulcan profanity. Kimball wisely averts his eyes and remains silent.

Alpha shift ends at 1600 hours, and several Starfleet personnel gather on Starbase 211 to watch the Phoenix’s arrival. At 1603 hours, the Phoenix drops out of warp and cruises towards the starbase, performing a graceful arc before docking. The assembled personnel see the Nebula-class as the spiritual successor to the Miranda-class and spot the movement of the larger crew as they disembark. The Phoenix crew has some time to settle in and secure their ship until the briefing.

At 1800 hours Aaron, Kimball, Khaleed, and Kelly gather in the primary auditorium; Admiral Shafiq and Commander Bjornson are already present. A moment later Captain Benjamin Maxwell enters with his exec, Commander Colin Buldini, and his counselor, Lieutenant Armina Jasra. Captain Maxwell greets them all by name and is very gregarious; he compliments Aaron’s handling of the Orions last month, he commiserates with Kimball about the loss of the USS Springfield, and chats with Kelly about his work. Commander Buldini is equally gregarious, and shares condolences to Kimball about the loss of his father at Wolf 359.

In marked contrast is Counselor Jasra, who is aloof. Aaron greets her with a traditional Betazoid phrase, but swiftly realizes he’s botched things as Armina is a member of one of Betazed’s noble lineages and his greeting was far too familiar. He manages to correct himself mid-sentence and apologizes; growing up on Betazed has left him with an understanding of the noble houses. She accepts his apology with a nod but casts a sharp glare to Kelly when he thinks to himself, “What a cold fish.” As the admiral calls for the meeting to come to order, the officer suddenly realize Counselor Jasra is suffering from debilitating pain; she stands ramrod straight, but her hands are shaking behind her back. Bahb starts reaching for a tricorder but sits down anyway. Everyone sits – except for Bjornson. Admiral Shafiq turns to glare, but he raises a hand and says, “My apologies. I was unaware there would be a Betazoid at this meeting, and I have deleterious effects on them. I will depart and catch up later.”¹⁾

Bjornson walks out without further ceremony, leaving everyone flat-footed, but Armina lets out a soft gasp and immediately relaxes. Sweat beads on her forehead, but she seems better. Captain Maxwell speaks with her briefly before signaling for the briefing to begin. Admiral Shafiq formally welcomes the Phoenix to Starbase 211 and then cedes the chair to Aaron. Aaron outlines the mission to LV-397 and the confrontation with the Prakesh but hesitates. Admiral Shafiq nods once, so Aaron outlines what came next: the discovery of the Matruse Devices and their encounter with Harold, the Romulan scientist, and his actions and behaviors. Captain Maxwell mutters, “So he’s bat-shit crazy, then?” Aaron shrugs and replies, “Yes, but he doesn’t want this technology falling into the wrong hands.”

Aaron wraps up the briefing with the discovery of the Cardassian spy. The room is silent for a few moments, and then Captain Maxwell asks, “What are we going to do with the Bajorans?” Admiral Shafiq dodges the question, so Captain Maxwell turns to Aaron, thanks him for the update, and asks if he needs anything from the Phoenix. Aaron jokes, “Industrial-grade odor eliminator?” Admiral Shafiq smothers a smile as Captain Maxwell looks lost, and she guesses, “Commander T’kora is at it again?” Aaron shrugs and Kimball nods solemnly and states, “I learned a lot of new Vulcan words today. Words I didn’t think were in their vocabulary.” The admiral laughs aloud at that, and gives the Phoenix crew a quick explanation. There are some chuckles, and Aaron says simply, “We have a sixty-five year-old ship.”

Admiral Shafiq announces that the Boston will depart at 1000 hours tomorrow and ends the briefing. The officers file out, and Kelly returns to the Boston to sleep. Kimball roams a bit, while Khaleed also returns to the ship. Aaron heads to the Pod, and explores the recreation facilities. Located off the park, the recreation facility is surprisingly vast and has swimming pools, ice rinks, basketball courts, springball courts, and Parisses Squares arenas. He lingers to watch a vicious hockey game between human and Andorian teams but departs after twenty minutes. He roams for a bit, looking for a quiet place to listen and simply be, before finding a small Vulcan complex in the parkland offering meditation cells. The cells are open enough to listen to people enjoying the park, and the monk sweeping bows slightly to Aaron before departing. Aaron settles in to relax and finds the space tranquil and calming.