AT/K01 - Klingon Freighter qoH

[Aeryn Miller]

== Ensign Ardanna Svenson - Security NRC ==

Her moment of joy upon finding a manifest was short-lived as Ardanna continued searching the freighter's database. While it was useful, nothing specific related to the Dominion or any other sensitive information that might help them shed further light on what had been discovered so far. However, the security officer wouldn't be reporting back that she had been unsuccessful, as she focused her attention on the manifest itself, particularly the signs that it was a forgery. This spoke of someone hiding the true purpose of their mission. As had been evident, the more the Artemis crew dug deeper.

It was time to deliver this new information to Captain Givens, hopefully providing another piece of the puzzle as she heard Commander Omdor relay his findings, which added to what she had found, allowing them to unpick more of this mystery. Turning away from the console to address the room, Ardanna did the same once the CE was finished.

" Captain, I've found a cargo manifest, but nothing related to the Dominion or other sensitive information. It lists items such as food, medical supplies, and alcohol. Curiouser still, it says that all of this comes from Achenar IV, with them heading to Pentax III, which is a long way from here, and that there's a crew of 17 Dopterians, not Klingons. Some signs point to this being a forgery, not surprising really with what we've found so far".

Ardanna did begin to wonder how long this had been going on for, and if those responsible thought that they would ever be caught, then again, it was perhaps unfortunate for them that Artemis had happened to be in the right place at the right time.


== Tags ==

[Omdor Jaein]

Jaein listened to the captain intently, but the silence she greeted his assessment with spoke volumes. It was obvious she was thinking along the same lines he was, at least, and that was confirmed as she finally did speak. [Sounds like we have ourselves a bit of a scavenger hunt on our hands,] she joked with absolutely no humor. [Do we need the console to utilize the key for the defense system or can we hijack it somehow? I'd much rather take what evidence we need from this ship and then, blow it to Hell…]

"Acknowledged," he agreed. "Assessment in five." He heard her issue some orders to Givens as well, but he left her to that while he started working on the console itself. 

Given the fact that the console was definitely not original equipment to the freighter, he was inclined to believe they could salvage the console as a unit and simply incorporate it into the Artemis' equipment, but he wasn't sure without a full inspection. He started the tricorder in evaluating the systems software and hardware, trying to see if they could actually just duplicate the system without the console if needed. While that mapped it out, he got down and started inspecting the physical connections, trying to see how difficult it would be to remove.

==GM Input: What can I learn in the next five minutes or so?==

[Cassandra Givens]

The brunette paused in the wake of Omdor's report and then, Crawford's ensuing orders. For the sake of the other captain, she wanted to urge caution. The kind of headstrong, unrelenting pursuit she could start to see winding up was the exact type of action that would be frowned at when the admiralty reviewed whether Tyra would remain in command. And yet, a tiger couldn't change his stripes and she wasn't sure Crawford knew how to handle a problem without resorting to the old security trifecta of 'speed, surprise and violence of action'.

"Of course, I'll report back to Artemis and deliver your orders promptly," she answered, feeling a small sense of relief that the numbness in her shoulder might be resolved sooner than later.

"Svenson, make sure the Boogeyman doesn't jump out at the Commander here while he works, okay?" She requested, a gentle reminder to maintain some.aituational awareness as the security officer worked.

She offered Omdor a pained smile before disengaging from her position on the console. "Good luck, Jaein," she said quietly before requesting beam out to Artemis.

>> Transporter Room >>

[Aeryn Miller]

== Ensign Ardanna Svenson - Security NRC ==

" Aye, Captain," Svenson acknowledged, accepting the gentle reminder as any good officer would, because the security ensign wanted nothing to happen to the CE, especially on her watch. With Captain Givens returning to Artemis and the CE busy with his task, Ardanna thought of the information she had shared before Givens' departure, figuring that it was just as important to update at least the Chief with what had been found. Grabbing her weapon so she could resume keeping an eye on things, Ardanna activated her comm.

"Svenson here, Chief Captain Givens had me look into the freighter database some more, to see if I could find anything Dominion-related or sensitive information. While I was unsuccessful with that, I did manage to find a cargo manifest listing items such as food, medical supplies, and alcohol, but this is where it got interesting, specifically with it all coming from Achenar IV, with them heading to Pentax III and a crew supposedly made up of 17 Dopterians not Klingons. "From what I can tell, this points to forgery, which suggests to me that someone is covering their tracks".

Okay, that last part was only Ardanna's opinion, but until she dug a little further, that's how she saw it. Of course, depending on what the Chief had to say, she might have to do that; however, for the time being, she kept her post and awaited a response.


== Tags ==

[GM-02]

==Omdor==

Given the fact that the Dominion console had to have been transplanted into the Klingon freighter, Jaein would be able to determine how best to disconnect it from the ship. The catch - there's always a catch - was that the console utilized on-board storage for the coding, and it required a constant power source to keep it in memory, likely as an anti-tampering measure.

Opening the back of the console, some modifications are visible showing where external batteries could be added for a short move, likely no more than an hour at the outside.

[Mara Calleja]

"Hopefully, not Jem'Hadar."

Mara’s lips pulled back, her teeth bared in a feral smile. She’d tested herself in combat against pretty much everything the Alpha Quadrant had to offer. The Jem’Hadar were a legend, made all the more intimidating by the passage of time.

There bein’ more of those bastards is a Bad Thing. Let’s not fuck around with the notion that it ain’t. But… There’s a part of me that wants to see if they’re half as scary as they’re supposed to be. I’d be lyin’ if I tried to deny it.

"If you have any spare security officers, have them start identifying the Klingons…. Maybe they're in a database and we can figure out who the Hell these idiots were," the Captain ordered.

“Will do boss,” Calleja replied as Crawford retreated to a quieter corner of the cargo bay. She turned and went to find Trevathan, making sure she still had a clear line of sight to the CO so she could respond in case of trouble. Old instincts died hard, even though she knew only too well that the redhead was more than capable of defending herself.

“Trev? New job for you and your boys,” Mara said. “Boss wants to see if we can ID any of these Klingons. Scan ‘em, check the database for any matches.”

“So we got to go check the bodies again? Lovely job,” he replied.

“I’ll kick you a grog ration when we get back. I’m not beyond bribery,” the Bandaran offered with a grin.

“Done.” Trev chuckled and then went to rally the nearest couple of officers.

[Svenson here, Chief. Captain Givens had me look into the freighter database some more, to see if I could find anything Dominion-related or sensitive information. While I was unsuccessful with that, I did manage to find a cargo manifest listing items such as food, medical supplies, and alcohol, but this is where it got interesting, specifically with it all coming from Achenar IV, with them heading to Pentax III and a crew supposedly made up of 17 Dopterians not Klingons. From what I can tell, this points to forgery, which suggests to me that someone is covering their tracks.]

Mara grinned to herself. She was stood out on her own, watching the Star Fleet teams as they worked, so she figured she was clear to use the D-word.

“Noted Ensign. We’ve not found traces of Dopterians down here. Klingons, Cardassians and one TBC so far, so you’re bang on the money. Just do me a favour, keep the whole Dominion thing quiet for now. I don’t want that hitting open channels until the Captain’s good and ready with a message of her own.”

She paused.

“What’s your status up there? How many did you lose? Givens sounded pretty beat up.”

As she waited for Svenson to come back to her, Mara remembered the sample that had been sent over to Sickbay.

There’s every chance that comes back as a Gamma Quadrant race. I better call Robin.

“Calleja to Mayfair. Can you go to a private space please, confirm when you're on your own?”

She paused to give the CMO time to get off the Sickbay floor.

“Mid Doyle has sent through a blood sample just now. I know I can trust you to be discrete so I'll catch you up. This is a slaver's ship. The blood sample came from a hidden compartment full o' chains and manacles. We've also found Dominion tech. Hence the secrecy. I don't want that word on an open channel until we're good and ready. Can you identify the race that blood sample came from and let me and the Captain know directly please?”

== GM input please - at your leisure, can you let us know if our Klingon victims appear on any databases or registers that let us identify them? ==

[Robin Mayfair]

Robin Mayfair's voice returned immediately, letting Mara know she'd moved somewhere private.

[Understood. Give me a moment and I'll let you know what we've got. Be back shortly.]

== Let you know as soon as the GM lets me know ==

[GM-02]

==Calleja==

The Klingons were mostly not in the Federation database - not surprising, since they were foreign nationals. There were, however, two of them that were in the database.

They were brothers, So'qat and Ni'qat, both of a disgraced, criminal house. They had been detained as smugglers when passing through Aldebaran with a listed destination of Pomn. Their cargo had been removed and they had been sent on their way.

[Robin Mayfair]

Mara's badge chirped.

[Mayfair to Calleja. Sorry for the delay. The computer is showing some weirdness about the sample... samples, plural. It's still analyzing, but whatever this is isn't normal and seems to be giving the system a headache while it figures it out. I'll contact you and the Captain as soon as I get the results.."

Time passed. Then more of it. It took five minutes for another response to come through. This time the message went to Mara and Tyra.

[Mayfair to Crawford and Calleja. I have information about the prisoner blood samples requested by Calleja. Not sure if you want anyone else to hear this. If you need to move someplace private let me know.]

Robin waited for confirmation from the two officers before continuing. 

[There are thirteen blood samples, not one. Five Cardassians, eight Vorta. All of them are clones, not just the Vorta, which is why the computer was having problems figuring things out. Different ages, but otherwise the same.]

There was another pause. 

[Captain, request permission to beam to the freighter. I'd like to take a medical tricorder and genetic scanner and see if there's anything else I can figure out.]

== Tag Mara and Tyra ==

[Aeryn Miller]

== Ensign Ardanna Svenson - Security NRC ==

Ardanna quickly received a response from Chief Calleja, listening tentatively while her DH spoke about what they had found so far in the Cargo Bay, and how the Ensign's instincts and suspicions regarding the falsified information hadn't been too far off the mark. None of this was sitting well with the freighter brat, but there was nothing she could do about it, other than do her job. The request to keep all things Dominion quiet would be adhered to, and Ardanna responded as such.

" Acknowledged, Chief".

When asked about her status and to confirm casualty numbers, Ardanna took a look around, remembering everything that had happened, not that she was going to forget the fight or how everyone except herself had been beamed back to the ship. The ensign decided to be honest because what was the point in trying to sugar-coat it and play it down, especially as she would have to document it all after it was over.

" All the prisoners are either stunned or dead, and I've got Commander Omdor here with me," she replied, pausing before she continued with the harder part of her report. " Thankfully, we didn't lose anyone. I had everyone who was injured beamed back to Artemis as soon as the last Klingon was taken down, but yeah, it wasn't pretty, Chief".

Ignoring the shiver down her spine as she relived that moment, Ardanna refocused, knowing she needed to keep going until given the order to head back.


== Tags ==

[Mara Calleja]

[Understood. Give me a moment and I'll let you know what we've got. Be back shortly.]

Mara appreciated how straight to business Robin was. The senior officers had a lot to figure out, after an apparently innocuous stop of a smuggler ship had produced evidence of an enemy long thought to have been beaten and now seemingly moving quietly right under the Federation’s nose.

How do we even play this now? The moment we report this back, Command are gonna have us scannin’ every molecule in this nebula for more evidence. And they’d be right to do so. I’m gonna be bored outta my tiny mind watchin’ sensor readouts.

[Acknowledged, Chief] came the reply from Svenson on the Bridge. [All the prisoners are either stunned or dead, and I've got Commander Omdor here with me. Thankfully, we didn't lose anyone. I had everyone who was injured beamed back to Artemis as soon as the last Klingon was taken down, but yeah, it wasn't pretty, Chief.]

“Glad everyone’s safe,” Mara replied. “I’ll get the names off you later and we can go see ‘em in Sickbay. In the meantime, look after our new spanner monkey in chief for me. I know Engineerin’ probably isn’t your strong suit but try and keep switched on. You ain’t missin’ much down here. Yell if you need me.”

With the channel closed, the Chief sighed. It was a personal policy of hers that if anyone under her command ended up in Sickbay, she made a point to visit them at the earliest opportunity. It kept her connected with the consequences of her decisions, and for the most part it seemed to reassure the crew members that had been hurt.

At this rate I’m gonna have to stop by half the department. No losses to Okehampton’s team but the bridge team took a beatin’ and we lost two here as well.

“Hey Chief. Come check this out!”

Trevathan was waving at Calleja from across the cargo bay, and the Amazonian Lieutenant headed over to see what had got him so excited.

“So most of these guys, shocker, they’re on no registers or databases,” the Security officer said, handing over a tricorder as he stood over the bodies of the two Klingons that Mara had taken out at the same time. “These two though, they flagged up. Er… So-cat and Ni-cat, I think it says.” His mangling of the Klingon names wasn’t unexpected. “Detained as smugglers and cargo confiscated near Aldebaran. Destination was given as Pomn. I’m sure I’ve heard of that place, but can’t tell you why. Either way, it’s a lead.”

Mara nodded. She always carried a PADD in her webbing and she linked the data slate up with the tricorder to download the information before handing the scanner back.

“It is. I’ll go pass that on to the Cap. Good work,” she said, clapping the man on the shoulder as she headed over to where Crawford and Ramius were watching the destruction of the qoH’s cargo from a safe distance.

As she walked, Robin reported back. Mara was between teams and listening on an earpiece there was no chance of eavesdroppers.

[There are thirteen blood samples, not one. Five Cardassians, eight Vorta. All of them are clones, not just the Vorta, which is why the computer was having problems figuring things out. Different ages, but otherwise the same.]

Who the fuck is clonin’ Cardassians? That don’t make sense. Unless the Cardassian is or was somethin’ special?

[Captain, request permission to beam to the freighter. I'd like to take a medical tricorder and genetic scanner and see if there's anything else I can figure out.]

That part made Mara grin to herself. Robin’s curiosity had gotten the better of her. Normally she would have objected but the qoH had been pacified enough that it was probably reasonably safe.

The Security Chief got to Tyra and Nathan just as the CMO finished her report and request.

“Info overload time,” the Bandaran said, handing over the PADD with So’qat and Ni’qat’s data on. “We’ve been checkin’ the bodies, and 2 of them actually got a hit,” she added. “These 2. Detained as smugglers passin’ through Aldebaran. But we do have a destination, place called Pomn. Not one I’m familiar with, but could be a lead. What about you, Mr Intelligence? You recognise the name Pomn?” she asked, looking straight at Nathan.

== Tags all! ==

[Omdor Jaein]

Jaein straightened up from his survey, rubbing a hand on his back. You're getting too old for this, he told himself. If he'd had the sense the Prophets gave a pylchyk, he would've stayed at his desk job. And yet here you are.

Fortunately, the situation wasn't quite as dire as he had thought. That wasn't the same as being easy, but at least it was doable. It appeared that the console used a ROM chip to hold its codes and information, which was explicitly not connected to any form of battery backup. If it lost power, then the information was instantly lost and essentially unrecoverable. Given how sensitive it was, he wouldn't even want to take it by transporter, just to be sure.

Fortunately, it appeared that whoever had installed the thing here on this Klingon freighter had already circumvented this problem once. There were some ports installed inside the console's rear designed to take an extra power source, letting it remain powered even after disconnecting from the ship. So, he thought, once I can get some batteries and a shuttle, we should be good, right?

Right.

He sat down and hit his commbadge. "Omdor to Crawford," he said. "We can get the console over to the Artemis, and I shouldn't have any trouble getting it installed onboard. To get it done, though, I'm going to need a shuttle; I'm not comfortable sending it through the transporter, given how sensitive the thing is."

Once he signed off with her, he hit the badge again, first calling to Artemis to get a couple of fusion batteries transported over, and then he called Ensign Han. "Omdor to Han, please come to the freighter's bridge. Gonna need a hand up here."

==Tags Crawford and Han!==

[Aeryn Miller]

== Ensign Ardanna Svenson - Security NRC ==

[Glad everyone’s safe,] came the response.[I’ll get the names off you later and we can go see ‘em in Sickbay. In the meantime, look after our new spanner monkey in chief for me. I know Engineerin’ probably isn’t your strong suit but try and keep switched on. You ain’t missin’ much down here. Yell if you need me]

Ardanna listened as the Chief spoke, liking the idea of having Calleja accompany her to Sickbay to visit those who had been injured on her watch. Being a security officer wasn't for the fainthearted, and there was always the chance that you might never come back when you got assigned to away missions. However, Ardanna was grateful that she wouldn't have their deaths on her conscience. As for any guilt she felt, well, that would be dealt with and forgotten after enough time.

" Sounds good to me, Chief, and acknowledged, Svenson out".

Closing the channel for the time being, Ardanna shifted slightly, happy to know that she wasn't missing anything that needed her attention down in the cargo bay, deciding that there had been enough surprises today. So, with the Chief's instructions in mind, along with the ones that Captain Givens had given her earlier, Ardanna stayed within easy reach of Chief Omdor, close enough to assist if needed or to protect him should anything else happen.

== Tags ==

[Cassandra Givens]

[Givens to Crawford. A trail has been found but it's faint and getting fainter. We're on the clock now.]

[Tyra Crawford]

With orders given, Tyra had drifted back towards Nathan, her blue eyes taking in the scene of chaos as security officers did what they did best: destroyed everything in their path. She might have been amused if she wasn't so annoyed that they were having to go this far.

[Mayfair to Crawford and Calleja. I have information about the prisoner blood samples requested by Calleja. Not sure if you want anyone else to hear this. If you need to move someplace private let me know.]

Her gaze shifted towards Nathan, who was the only person within earshot of her. And given their earlier conversation, if she couldn't trust him with information, she was in deep trouble in general. In fact, she made a motion for him to step a little closer.

[There are thirteen blood samples, not one. Five Cardassians, eight Vorta. All of them are clones, not just the Vorta, which is why the computer was having problems figuring things out. Different ages, but otherwise the same.]

Her brow furrowed for a moment as she processed the information. Cloning, while ethically questionable in most causes, wasn't unheard of in some of the darker corners of the quadrant but typically, the reasoning was fairly self-evident like wanting to clone a deceased child or misguidedly trying to create an effective fighting force on a smaller scale. What did one gain from cloning a specific Cardassian and a specific Vorta?

[Captain, request permission to beam to the freighter. I'd like to take a medical tricorder and genetic scanner and see if there's anything else I can figure out.]

The redhead tipped her head slightly, looking actively for Calleja. She could only assume, at this point, one more person wouldn't change the security situation and frankly, Tyra was very, very curious as to their current mystery.

"I don't--" Tyra broke off as Calleja approached, pausing for the statuesque COS's report.

“Info overload time,” the Bandaran said, handing over the PADD with So’qat and Ni’qat’s data on. “We’ve been checkin’ the bodies, and 2 of them actually got a hit,” she added. “These 2. Detained as smugglers passin’ through Aldebaran. But we do have a destination, place called Pomn. Not one I’m familiar with, but could be a lead. What about you, Mr Intelligence? You recognise the name Pomn?” she asked, looking straight at Nathan.

There was an overly dramatic aspect to the way Tyra's gaze shifted to Nathan, her eyebrow arching even as she had to force her lip into a serious line. "Pomn, huh? Gosh, that sounds kind of familiar…. Where have I heard that name before?"

Of course, Nathan would read the expression clearly as 'oh look, the gift that keeps ******* giving' but fortunately, the squawk of her communicator kept her from digging further into that.

[Givens to Crawford. A trail has been found but it's faint and getting fainter. We're on the clock now.]

There was a split second where Tyra considered telling Givens to go ahead and launch Artemis after the trail while they continued to work but then, she remembered their circumstances. They had absolutely demolished this vessel; there was no guarantee Artemis could find the vessel again if it was left to drift and the vessel was not capable of defending itself if someone got curious in Artemis' absence. No, it was time to cut their losses.

"We need to move. Calleja, we need to get any relevant evidence over to Artemis as well the bodies before getting our personnel over. Between you and Nathan, figure out what we need to do with this ship. If it's served it's purpose, let's destroy it but if you think there's a reason to keep it, we'll tag it and come back. Whatever the decision, we're on a tight schedule now."

Then, she toggled to Mayfair, who she'd inadvertently left hanging. "Do-- Robin, I'm sorry to have to deny the request. We have located their trail and need to start backtracking it before it erodes further. Calleja will be getting all samples, scans and bodies to you for further analysis; I know it's not as good as hands-on but it's the best I can do right now. Your priority is to figure out why someone is cloning those specific DNA profiles and maybe who they are."

[Omdor to Crawford,] Omdor reported, adding to the chaos. [We can get the console over to the Artemis, and I shouldn't have any trouble getting it installed onboard. To get it done, though, I'm going to need a shuttle; I'm not comfortable sending it through the transporter, given how sensitive the thing is.]

"Use whatever you need. We've found the ship's trail and we need to get moving after it so use whatever resources and personnel you need to get this done as quickly as possible," she instructed before looking back at Calleja and then, Nathan.

"When it rains, it pours."

== Tag everyone, basically. ==

[Robin Mayfair]

[Understood, Captain. I'll assign someone to get on that immediately. Lieutenant Calleja, could you have one of your people tag the bodies for transport and let the Transporter Room know when they're done? It makes things easier. Mayfair out.]