Missing Person, Missing Toy; A Plan to Find Both
Posted on Tue Oct 6th, 2026 @ 4:01am by Captain T’Kal & Ensign Emmanuelle Larose & Senior Chief Petty Officer C'Hira Summers & Lieutenant Commander David Erickson & Lieutenant Commander Valerie Novis & Lieutenant Commander Clay McEntyre & Lieutenant Karane Inda & Lieutenant CASTIEL 'Cas' Johnson MD & Lieutenant Megosho Gehente & Lieutenant JG Annika Johnson & Lieutenant JG Renata Novotná & Ensign Blaine McCray & Petty Officer, 2nd Class Kevra Tharos
3,174 words; about a 16 minute read
Mission:
ARYL 1X06: For Peaceful Purposes
Location: Deck 6 - Briefing Room A
Timeline: SD 8984.6 (5 November 2290, 1000)
Captain’s Log, Stardate 8984.6.
We are on course for Station Z-12, a supply transfer point near the edge of the Federation border, beyond which lay unclaimed space. Starfleet Command has requested we investigate the potential disappearance of some valuable technology.
I have summoned the senior staff to the briefing room to discuss the specifics of our investigation.
It will be the first all-staff meeting to include my new Yeoman, Petty Officer Tharos, who only came aboard yesterday.
**
The quartermaster was finishing setting up the table of morning drinks—a welcome variety of coffees, teas, and juices, plus water—and pastries and when the door opened to admit the meeting’s first arrival.
Annika was first in the room she offered a warm smile as she walked across to a seat. “Good Morning.”
Blaine walked in next, a data pad under his arm for notes. He nodded to Annika and Petty Officer Tharos as he placed his pad down at an empty spot on the table and made his way to grab a coffee and a snack. “Good mornin’, Lieutenant,” he drawled. “Yeoman, good mornin’ an’ welcome aboard. We’re flat to have you.”
Petty Officer Kevra Tharos's blue eyes went to Annika and then Blaine, her white hair gently styled away from her face. She wore the enlisted jumpsuit, belted, and and stood by one of the chairs. "Lieutenant...Ensign, thank you," she inclined her head a little, her antennae moved with it. "I am also...flat to be here?" she tried it out, a small smile on her lips as she met his eyes.
Annika grinned. “Where are my manners? Welcome aboard. Also Good Morning to you as well Ensign."
Cas walked into the room, a polite smile to everyone, before looking over to the pastries. Contemplating which to take, ultimately choosing the croissant. And a danish for Annika.
Annika couldn’t help but smile as Cas picked her up a danish, he knew how much she loved pastries.
"Gentlemen, ladies." Valerie said as she walked in, thermos in hand from which the smell of coffee drifted from. She snagged a donut with one finger while a pair of others grabbed a danish with a red fruit filling. She always liked more to stoke her metabolism in the mornings and this was a great second breakfast, "Hopefully everyone's nice and awake?"
"One or the other," David said from behind her as he followed her in. He nodded to the counselor and the doctor, before settling on the new face in the room. "Petty Officer...Tharos, yes?" he said, his usual 'charming' smile automatically coming on. "Welcome to the crew," he said, giving her a traditional Andorian salute.
Kevra made a short bow, traditional as well, before she straightened. "Thank you, Lieutenant Commander," she said, appreciating the effort. She did not say she preferred Yeoman over her rank, this was not the place or time for it.
He smiled at her and nodded at the others before slipping around and picking up a few for himself and Karane once she arrived, as well as drinks. He carefully picked them up and gave C'Hira a wink before bringing them to the conference table and sitting down, taking a sip of his coffee and getting comfortable.
Clay strode into the briefing room with the swagger and confidence expected of a Starfleet Officer and the Third in command of a Starship.
“Well get ready folks. I’ll be cracking the whip on your reports and logs.” Clay commented as he poured himself a cup of coffee. He drunk his coffee black, with very light sugar.
“And if you’re the one going after their reports, just what am I supposed to do?” Valerie asked with a serious face, but couldn’t find herself keeping it, “I suppose if you take that over, I can add more Intelligence work to my own plate, so if anyone gives you trouble, let me know and I’ll add my own… Attention to the matter.”
“We could always tag team. Both of us going after reports.” Clay said with a wicked grin.
“Oh no, you wanted the reports, you get them!” Valerie laughed, waving her hands in front of her, “No need for everyone here to think they’re in for double jeopardy on these things!”
Walking in, Meg gave a quick nod to those present she knew, and reserved her warmest smile for the new Petty Officer she saw hovering. 'You must be our new Yeoman - welcome aboard Petty Officer Tharos,' she rattled off in Andorian, beaming a smile at her. 'I hope you've settled in well - if there's anything you need, give me a call, I'll help you rustle up anything that's missing, if I can.'
"Thank you," Yoeman Tharos smiled to her, bowing her head in greeting. "I appreciate it...and the warm welcome. Everyone has been...quite welcoming."
Moving to the table, she picked a dense Vegan pastry for herself, and paired it with a strong Centauran coffee she knew she liked the vanilla aftertaste of, and made her way to her seat, plumping herself down next to Novis. 'Good spread at these meetings,' she said happily, 'I wish our departmentals were this well-provisioned.'
Blaine filled a steaming mug of strong coffee and grabbed an apple fritter before dropping into his seat. 'Sounds like my human grandmother's motto back on the ranch. 'If you feed 'em, they'll come.'"
Clay noticed the accent. "Ensign? What abouts are ya from?" He inquired in his own Texan Drawl.
"Little ranch outside Borger, up in the Panhandle, sir," Blaine said, unable to keep the grin off his face, and knowing that his Vulcan grandfather wouldn't have been endeared by it. "Just on the south bank of the Canadian River. Yourself? I hear a familiar drawl in your voice as well."
“Hutchinson County if I’m not mistaken yes? I’m from Dallas-Fort Worth. The McEntyre Ranch is one of the largest ranches in the Metroplex.” Clay said with a sort of pride in his family history.
"Yessir. My family's been in Hutchinson County since the early Twentieth Century. Came in with the oil boom." Blaine smiled as he made a connection in his mind, his left eyebrow arching. I think we bought a stud colt off of y'all when I was in high school, to revitalize our breedin' program. Big sure-footed buckskin."
"I think so too, on one of my rotations back to Earth." Clay nods.
"Well, I guarantee he's done his job an' is one of my favorite horses on the place," Blaine said, smiling as he thought about the big buckskin.
"I'm glad to hear that, Ensign," Clay said with a smirk, raising his cup slightly before the meeting was called to order.
Annika turned to look at Cas. “How’s your day been so far?”
"So far it has been uneventful, though if I say it too loud... I may just jynx it." Cas replied
Annika grinned and nodded. “That’s very true. The universe does a good job of throwing curveballs.”
David looked up as Karane came up beside him and smiled, sliding the treats he'd gotten for her over. "Thanks for joining us," he teased.
"Its a long walk from Engineering..." Karane said. She took one of the pastries that David had saved for her. Slowly she looked it over as if examining it. 'He saved my favourite one...' she thought before she took a bit into it. "Thanks." she mumbled.
"You're welcome," he said, warmly but quietly, taking a sip of his coffee.
Renata quickly rushed to the briefing room, hoping that the Captain won't scold her for being late. She was conducting an experiment in the astrophysics lab while sending wedding dress ideas to No'xi, her Academy best friend, and time went so fast she failed to notice it was due to get to the senior staff meeting. Anyways, she slipped in the room fast, and uttered a slight "Hello" before taking her seat.
Captain T’Kal entered the room next to last, with Ensign Larose right behind her. “Good morning,” she said as she took her place at the head of the table, foregoing the refreshment offerings. “I’ve asked Ensign Larose to conduct this briefing. Emmanuelle?”
The support officer stood near a screen, cleared her throat, and began. “Thank you, Capitaine.” The screen behind her showed an advanced piece of equipment. “This is a Khir Ahl Corporation Mark-seventeen subspace amplifier, rated to thirty cochranes. Its primary use is in the manufacture of communications systems, especially relays. It is also necessary for the conduct of highly precise research in subspace physics. Unfortunately, the Corps of Engineers hypothesizes that these may be crucial components in subspace weapons.”
Annika nodded, waiting to see who would ask the first question.
"What's to stop others from copying the designs if it's made from off the shelf civvie components?" Clay asked the obvious.
“There are other components that are needed to create the weaponry,” Valerie answered the question, having done some of her own research before the meeting, though her personal in-depth knowledge of subspace weaponry was lacking. Still, she was the local ‘Intelligence’ asset aboard, “Of them, two others are relatively off-the-shelf components, activation circuit and the ion inversion chamber,” fancy way of saying power source, “But there are several items that would be required that are far more controlled due to military applications potential. That’s not to say they can’t be acquired or worked around by an inspired individual, only difficult.”
David frowned. "Was one stolen? Or has someone we don't like hinted at acquiring a new toy?"
Karane crossed her arms. "If they want to turn that into a weapon, they'll need some sort of anti-matter reaction. That or something else that destroys subspace, but I don't know if such a substance even exists." She said. "Can we get our hands on one? I can work it out from there. Perhaps come up with a way to neutralise them."
Looking at the screen, Meg's hindbrain itched with the fuzzy recollection of subspace interference. 'Is this what we detected - that explosion from within the Klingon Empire?'
"It could be," Valerie answered Meg's question first as she gave a weebly handwave, "We're far enough away that it could have been one of several things, the test of a subspace weapon is only one of them." She looked at Karane, "As for getting our hands on a weapon of this type? No. Whether or not the Federation actually have working subspace weapons is highly classified and if we do, we would not be handed one." She glanced to David, "And no, me saying it that way doesn't mean 'We have them but we just aren't going to admit it.'"
David cocked an eyebrow. "And me looking at you like this doesn't mean I don't believe that, but there's little we can do about it," he said.
The Trill tapped a few buttons and brought up a map on the screen indicating where the explosion had been projected to be, "We are here, the explosion was here." She pointed out the two locations, "Ensign McCray, how long would it take us to get there at say... Warp Seven?" Valerie looked at T'Kal, "I'm not saying we should, ma'am, but the more we know..."
Blaine picked up his data slate and started the calculations before he looked up. “Three days, sixteen hours at Warp Seven, Commander. though David might have a more accurate flight path.“
David checked his charts. "I'd have to see if we can skirt through the Bek'tahl Nebulae. If the Klingons haven't mined it, we could use it for cover on our way. It'll also depend on how discreet we want to be."
“Didn’t you say the explosion was within the Klingon Empire? Will they even want us poking around?” Annika added.
T’Kal watched as the crew exchanged ideas like this. She was pleased everyone felt free to talk like this.
“Visiting Klingon space for an inspection is not on the table,” T’Kal said. “At least not today.” She nodded to Ensign Larose to continue.
“Commander Novis was right,” Emmanuelle explained. “Several components in a subspace isolytic weapon, at least as our engineers have theorized, are difficult to manufacture.”
“The Klingon Empire has many things, including a massive military-industrial complex,” T’Kal noted. “But it produces only comparatively simple technologies. In many ways, it is far easier to build ten battlecruisers than one 30-cochrane amplifier.”
“Exactement,” Emmanuelle said. “The civilian industrial and R&D sector in the Federation is more advanced than anything the Klingons have. It has been assessed that the Klingons cannot manufacture these items domestically.”
Her screen changed from the map that Valerie had brought up to a zoomed-out map of her own, with three sites marked. “Five weeks ago, Khir Ahl Corporation sold one of these units to a university on Archanis IV. Two weeks ago, Khir Ahl employees asked to inspect the item. However, when they arrived, it was gone, as was the graduate student who procured it.”
She pointed to the three dots on the map. “These three dots show the present locations of subspace amplifiers of this type. One, this one,” she pointed with emphasis to the bottom dot on her map, “is in Sector 262, at storage site Z-12, pending transfer to its ultimate end-user. Starfleet Command has ordered us to learn more and, if the Klingons are attempting to seize it, intercept them.”
Valerie already knew this, but had to play Devil's Advocate. It was part of her job, "If it becomes necessary, are we allowed to open fire on the Klingons?" She asked carefully, "Clearly we can't allow them to obtain a subspace weapon, but are we authorized to start a war to prevent this?"
“Station Z-12 is well within our territory,” T’Kal noted. “If we see Klingon activity there, then we are fully cleared to engage. If our investigation takes us out of our space, then it becomes a bit more difficult, however we are authorized to enforce customary interstellar law, which includes addressing what could easily be considered piracy in deep space.”
"You said a graduate student disappeared along with the unit," David said. "We know the Klingons have hired humans to do their dirty work. We may not even see the Klingons. They keep their noses clean--as clean as Klingon nose can be--and their human sympathizer steals the item."
“This is why we need more information,” Emmanuelle replied. “We need the smoking gun—the irrefutable evidence that Klingons are procuring these items from us, so we can stop them.”
Kevra had remained quiet through the briefing, taking notes and listening as the conversation moved through subjects that were well outside her own responsibilities. Her antennae shifted slightly as Emmanuelle finished and she looked down at her notes for a moment. She hesitated. It wasn't really her place to contribute to a senior staff discussion, particularly on her second day aboard. "Excuse me," she said finally, looking towards Emmanuelle and then at the others. "Do we have a complete file on the graduate student? Their background, communications, anyone they were regularly in contact with?" she asked. If not, she would do what she could to try and acquire the records.
'Does the graduate student even exist?' Meg asked from her end of the table. 'I know they nabbed the device, but it could just be deep cover. You know ... when we were training, we used to be shown bursts transmissions from the Klingon Empire, in Klingon, just transmitting out random numbers and phrases, and there would be a burst transmission at a random interval afterwards. We could pinpoint them, but never identify the users. Lots of rumours that the Klingons had deep-cover agents we couldn't pick up with bioscans ...'
“Like the sleeper agents the Soviet Union an’ United States had durian’ Earth’s Cold War in the Twentieth Century?” Blaine asked, his ears instantly picking up.
“I’ll make the file available for senior officers, but the graduate student does exist. He was last visually seen at the Archanis University about two days after the delivery of the component. Communications records indicate he was still on planet a week later, but there were no confirmed sightings of him.” Valerie stated, “Intelligence interviewed his girlfriend, but she’s not seen him since a visual comm call the day before the last transmission. Assessments are on the bubble about whether the student was abducted or not.”
"Abducted or willing, we follow his trail, odds are we follow the device," David said.
'At least part of its trail,' Meg opined, 'if the Klingons are good - and they are good at intelligence work - they'll have separated the student from the shipment and taken them in different directions, expecting us to make the assumption that we're going to look for the student in the first place.'
"I would like to address two issues at once," T'Kal said. "You are right that we should search for the student. At the same time, we have an amplifier at Station Z12 that will soon be taken by its buyer. One trail we should follow, and another that will soon be laid."
She turned to Valerie. "Commander, prepare an away team. You'll be looking for the student." She looked at David and Karane. "You two have been working on the Accipiter. Is it ready?"
David glanced at Karane, sharing a silent shrug. "It was still in decent shape when I brought it aboard; really just needed a tune-up before we started tinkering. If Lieutenant Inda is satisfied I haven't broken it further, I'm ready to fly it." He gave her a polite grin.
Karane crossed her arms, and leant back with her eyes closed. "If you break it, you fix it." She paused. "And then I kill you."
"She says yes," David said.
"Good." T'Kal's eyes scanned across the rest of the room. "The Ark Royal will proceed to Z12 and follow the amplifier from there. Any further questions?"
Shaking her head, Meg made a few notes into her PADD, intrigued at what Karane and David had dreamed up between them for this shuttle.
Annika shook her head as well, there was nothing she needed to ask right now.
“Alright then,” T’Kal said as she stood. “Dismissed.”
END
Captain T’Kal
Commanding Officer
Lieutenant Commander Clay McEntyre
Second Officer, Chief of Security
USS Ark Royal
Ensign Emmanuelle Larose
Bridge Support Officer
Lieutenant Karane Inda
Chief Engineer
Lieutenant jg Annika Johnson
Chief Counsellor
Lieutenant Megosho Gehente
Chief Communications Officer
Lieutenant Commander David Erickson
Chief Navigator
PO2 Kevra Tharos
Captain's Yeoman
Lieutenant Commander Valerie Novis
XO/Chief Tactical Officer
Ensign Blaine McCray
Helm Officer
Lieutenant Renata Novotná
Chief Science Officer
Ensign Emmanuelle Larose
Bridge Support Officer
SCPO C’Hira Summers
Quartermaster
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