Debrief

Posted on 17 Jun 2023 @ 4:00pm by Commander Kristiana Petrova & Captain Easton Lawe

970 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Deus ex Machina
Location: Ready Room

"Well, that was a shit show and a half," Kristiana muttered as she all but stumbled her way to one of the chairs decorating Captain Lawe's ready room. She looked frazzled, irritated even, though otherwise alright.

Easton watched his first officer as she made her way in. There weren't any physical injuries, that he could see, but she definitely looked like a woman near the edge. "Can I offer you a drink?" he asked, his low voice a rumbling mixture of concern and faint traces of amusement. "I don't mean the replicated stuff, either."

"Coffee. Black. Strong. With some vodka in, if you have any," she muttered, closing her eyes and leaning back in the chair, rubbing her face. "How are things up here? How much d'you know about what happened down there?"

"I only know what little came through before your return and the immediate after-action," Easton said, getting up to walk to the replicator and make a cup of coffee. "I'm afraid I only have whiskey. If you want some of that, I can add it. Otherwise, we had some issues up here too, though several seemed to rectify on their own when things changed for the away team."

"Whiskey'll do. I just need something - strong. Real," Kris muttered, rubbing her temples. "Long story short is, that facility is a Oran'taku research facility, built to study an artefact they found on that moon. Turns out the artefact was some sort of alien - intelligence, you'll have to ask a science type person about the specifics. It took over the minds of a portion of the base's crew. Fights broke out. The entity tried to find a way to escape. Started attacking ensign Walker, started attacking the ship's systems."

"We found some crew left free of its influence. They were instrumental in us getting to the artefact, where we took out the influenced crew by way of stun fire. The artefact started talking to us through one of the mind controlled crew, tried to reason, tried to appeal to our mercy," Kristiana's expression hardened through the fatigue. "I gave the order to destroy it. Commander Taliborn threw a makeshift explosive that took out the artefact and a few of the mind controlled crew. We escaped with minor injuries - bruises, scrapes. I'll write up a proper report once I can find myself some time to rest, but that's the long and the short of it."

After handing her the heavily-spiked drink, Easton sat back in his chair to listen to the ad hoc report. He didn't interrupt. When she was done, he blew out a quiet breath and sipped from his own drink. "Many of the system issues here returned to normal after your actions on the base," he said, "but there are a few lingering problems that I guess we'll need to fix on our own."

Eyes closed, she took a long, slow sip from the drink, letting it linger for a moment or two before opening her eyes again. "We've got a good team for that. I've told Taliborn to report to sickbay for his injuries. Next we'll have to figure out a way to get Ensign Walker back onboard. I'm thinking we prepare a bay, put up a forcefield and other defenses, then beam her onboard. She seems completely powered down from what I could tell. That should give our engineering and ops teams a chance to secure her before powering her back on. Considering she was compromised by a hostile entity, any precautions we can take seem like the prudent thing to do."

"I agree," Easton said with a slow, thoughtful nod. "We need to get her back aboard but we must be cautious." He paused for a sip of his drink. "It seems that AIs in general were easy marks. Odin has not been sighted in several hours at this point. She was in the middle of speaking with our new doctor, it would seem, and a system fluctuation made her vanish mid-statement. She hasn't appeared again yet."

"That is concerning," Kristiana frowned. "Hopefully she'll show up again, healthy and functional. With the Ensign we have a decidated hardware platform with a dedicated operating system, but as I understand we haven't yet figured out what part of the ship Odin is - bound to? Runs from? It's not just a system we know, that we can reset." Beat. "I'd miss her if she was gone."

"She remains quite the enigma but, yes, something of an endearing one," the captain agreed with a wry chuckle. "I hope she appears again soon as well. I imagine she is somehow tied into one of the systems that didn't magically correct itself and will come back once we finish repairs."

"Mm. Something like that," Kris just looked tired, though the drink seemed to be doing her some good at least. "Remind me to get you a good bottle of vodka."

Easton arched a brow slightly and chuckled again. "It's never really been my drink of choice." He paused. "You should get some rest, and possible take a pass through sickbay as well to make sure there aren't any lingering affects of that artifact or being."

"The vodka is for me, for next time I'm here for a debrief," Kris chuckled, finishing her drink. "Yeah, I'll grab a shower, then write my full report." she said, rising to her feet again.

"Then you're still not really getting me a bottle of vodka, just looking for a place to stash it." He smirked and then nodded toward the door. "Take it easy, Commander." He almost said, 'Hopefully things will be quiet for a while now,' but he didn't want to jinx anything.

Petrova shrugged. "Same difference, really," a faint smile, as she headed back out again.

 

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