The Place Where Cardboard Boxes Go To Die

Posted on Sun Jan 12th, 2020 @ 6:28pm by Lieutenant Commander Amie Cerys & The Narrator

Mission: S2:1: Into The Drowning Deeps
Location: Canopus Station, Administrative Block
Timeline: MD 2 : 10.45

As a Chief Counsellor took minutes with the Commanding Officer of Canopus Station, another new arrival got a similar debriefing from one of her peers.

"And this," Lieutenant Jenkin's said as the door to the cargo bay whisked open. "Is where we keep the hard copy."

The cargo bay was a small room by the standards of such things. A Stardock call facility has cargo storage areas that rivalled some shuttle bays for size, though this one was modest. It contained eight racks of shelves, each eight shelves high, each shelf holding a cargo container with a machine-readable barcode on its side. None of the boxes were labelled with anything as pedestrian as a name or an alphanumeric designation like A-Z.

The racks, though, were labelled.

Gravitic.
Optical.
Electromagnetic.
Subspace.
Phase Space.
Sociological.
Anecdotal.
Verified Reports.

That last shelf, at the back of the petite cargo bay, was two thirds empty.

"We have to store a lot of data like this in Messier 4," Jenkins said as he walked to one of the shelves and slid out a box. He opened the lid, revealing carefully racked wafers of blue-white crystal-like sheets of ice. He pulled one out and gave it tap against the metal shelf. It rang like a tuning fork. "Nanomachine fabricated demi-sapphire. Once encoded with data it's stuck in a read-only format, that requires a special reader to look into. No ability to copy data, so we actually have a transcription department for anything we need to send back to Starfleet Command in the Milky Way. I mean you've been briefed on the Myriad right Lieutenant Commander?"

Amie had...mostly..listened. She'd gone over all of the information before she got here, but she figured it best to let the Lieutenant go about his speech. But did she listen to every single word? Nope. She didn't have that attention span. She was, after all, the chief of intelligence. She knew things this lieutenant could never know. "I did, Lieutenant. And I also already knew about the layout of all this." She looked at the item he was holding. "But seeing these in person, the data doesn't do it justice. And...I guess I was briefed on most of it."

"Yeah. Kinda makes you wish we only had the Romulan Secret Police to worry about or the Obsidian Order. But a race of beings who can literally puppet a modern computer system without even breaking a sweat. Its why we have such a rocky relationship with the Colony down on Carpathia. The Traveller shot them down because the Myriad they were treated with, Abborax, wanted a distraction. Its why all sensors on the station set to autistic mode. No hard line or wireless connections between the sensor feeds and the main computer. Everything gets analysed directly, and data entered into the main computer by hand. Hell even the M/AM Reactor down in engineering is set to manual mode, in case a Myriad agent was able to get in and flick off the magnetic containment field," Jenkins said with a shake of his head. He put the wafer and the box back on the shelf. He then pointed at the shelf marked Anecdotal.

"A lot of that is from combadge transcripts picked up by the few out system away team missions. The other half is from a few organic intelligent assets we've acquired. Two alien marauders called Reka, foot soldiers for the Myriad. We started off with eight but, well they seem to eat their wounded. We thought we were safe with three in a cell until they got into a fight. Reminded me of Roosters in laying season, just tearing into one another. The other asset we have is an alien called Gastarox, a mercenary academic who kidnapped part of the engineering crew during a mission to the planet's surface. Think Vulcan level intellectual with the morals of a Ferengi and the body of a bullfrog. Pleasant fellow," Jenkins finished. "But of our assets, he's the one I'd bet money on being the mother lode."

"Hearing personal experience and opinions is more fun than reading reports any day," Amie said with a shrug. "So...they decided to drag me out here in the middle of all of this, likely just to put me to work and not let me have any time off until this is all done?" She grinned to Jenkins, "I don't expect you to know the answer to that of course."

"Ma'm? If I can speak freely?" Jenkins asked as he stood back up.

Amie nodded, "Of course, Lieutenant"

"We're out where no one has gone before, literally. Home is eight thousand light-years away, on the other side of a barrier we can't cross because the machine that sent us here is in the Alpha Quadrant. The way I see it, they sent us out here because this is actual intelligence work. We're not trying to decode missives between Cardassian diplomates and the homeworlds. Here there is just a big empty map with a lot of unknown on it," Jenkins said honestly. "Hell, just yesterday we had a ship crashed out of slip space with modern Federation Standard written on the side. RCN Dauntless. Hell of a ship from what I hear from the engineering team. Crew are from a colonial power here in the Messier 4 set up by refugees from the Earth Romulan War of the 22nd Century. How they got here, their intentions...well a smart officer could write their ticket with this assignment."

Rubbing the back of her neck, Cerys sighed, "More out here than I think any of us realize, even those who have been out here for a while. But..." Her eyes scanned the room, "Maybe we'll actually be able to sort this out, and figure out what else out here needs us." She glanced back to Jenkins, "Sorry, my last postings have pretty much office jobs, plus a stint of teaching a few cadets. So being out in all of this? Its been a long time."

"Well, welcome back Commander," Jenkin's said with a grin. "Here we're a mix of SFI, Federation Diplomatic Service, and Starfleet Stellar Cartography. Pretty much a hodgepodge of information gathering departments. It's not like we can run assets like we're trying to infiltrate the Romulan Senate. We were planning a mixer, later on, to introduce you to the section heads."

"Thanks, Lieutenant. And I've noticed its a hodgepodge of every department. However, I've not seen any other Intelligence officers as of yet. I'm sure I'll meet them eventually. At least, I hope so." Amie raised an eyebrow at the mixer, "I sure hope that it isn't just because of me that this mixer is being held. Else I'll feel awful awkward."

"We've got the section heads for the SFI, Fed Diplo and StellerCat. I think it's a Lutetant and two doctors, PhD's not medical. And of course their plus-ones, and their own department heads. We booked a lounge on the Medina Level," Jenkins gestured back to the cargo bay. "But this is what nearly a year in Messier 4 looks like. A lot of not sure, and very little definitive proof."

Nodding to the list of people going, at least it wasn't all for her. She followed the gesture and looked around, "And a lot of research and possibly recategorizing depending on what is found." Her eyes scanned the room again, "I might end up doing a lot of the sorting work container by container not in this room. I hate staying in cargo bays for too long."

“Well you have a nice office. Good view out over the Pier 2. Plus the interview suite we have set up has pretty good facilities,” Jenkins reported. “If you stow your gear Ma’m, I can escort you to the lounge. Or if you want to skip it, you can dive right in. Word’s come down the pipe th Carcsian Navy and a detachment of Starfleet Engineers are going down to the planet to deactivate the Prior structure. From what happened last time, might be a good way of getting your feet wet. And getting to know the new neighbours.”

It was a tough decision, jumping right into a mission or hanging out and getting aquatinted with everything. "When does said mission leave? I'd like to try to settle in at least a little and hit up that mixer if possible."

Jenkin's rolled up his white Canopus Station uniform and eyed the wrist comp under it.

"I think you have a few hours at least."

"Well, then I think I will go get settled in. This work will always be here, but getting a chance to relax before being thrown into a mission might be the best idea here." She bit her lip, "Though, I don't have any idea where they put me. I wasn't told that in the information I was given before getting here."

"Huh," Jenkins said. He slid his wrist back, consulted his wrist comp for a second, and then threw a holographic display pane into the air. The slightly transparent pane floated in the air and began to display a simplified map of Canopus Station. Directions began to spill on to it, suggested tram station stops, all of it ending in the Residential Block. "Two levels above the Xilosian neighbourhood. Officer's berths, pretty sparse as far as population go but the station was built with excess for expansion."

Looking over the map, Amie pulled out a PADD she had. "I like your display better, but..." she marked the location on her own map and also marked down the suggested tram locations. "At least I can try to not get lost before having to meet up for the mission."

“Yeah, station this size would usually have a Superintendent AI. Yet another disadvantage to working in Myriad territory, no central control program to lead you to your quarters,” Jenkins smiled, and the holo display vanished. “Anyway, I’ll let the department know you’re getting your feet wet with a mission this afternoon. We’ll reschedule.”

"Sounds like a plan. I'll go get as settled as I can and do a bit of exploring before meeting up for the mission. Anything I need to bring, or just myself?"

"Just yourself. Away team report from last time just said advanced tech didn't work. Phaser's still operated, but the beam came out...odd. Ill-advised to firing one if you have to," Jenkins reported. "Also last time they stumbled across a raiding party of Reka being lead by a Mercinacy Academic called Gastarox. He's in holding, but like I said he's a story to experience."

Nodding, Amie headed off to get to her quarters, realizing she had a crazy adventure ahead of her.