Captain to Captain
Posted on Fri Mar 20th, 2020 @ 10:54pm by Captain Benjamin Ingram Dr & Lieutenant Commander Mara Ricci
Mission:
S0E0: What Came Before
Location: Canopus Station, Station Operations, Ingrams Office.
Timeline: MD-4 12 hours after the arrival of Expedition 4.
OOC NOTE: Lt. Commander Mara Ricci as Captain Pierce Hunnicutt of the USS Sherman Potter
Captain Pierce Hunnicutt of the USS Sherman Potter still had a monster headache. The long jump had been completed nearly an hour ago and he’d had two doses of pain killers, but nothing seemed to help. He had even used a couple of old remedies- pinching the skin between thumb and forefinger and pressing on the base of the skull on either side of the spinal column- but still it persisted.
He felt like he was hung over except without any of the fun the previous night.
Oh well, if nothing could be done, he would just live with it for today. And so this is how he happened to be on his way to meet the station’s commanding officer, one Captain Benjamin Ingram. Doctor Ingram, he reminded himself. Although he was acting as the station’s captain, those with The degrees to back it up liked to be called doctor. Pierce should know; he had one of those degrees himself.
Arriving at the Captain’s office and finding the door closed, Pierce presses his thumb to the chime and waited patiently.
The door opened, revealing the glass-walled expanse of Ingram's office. Out beyond the glass were the tiered ranks of control stations that allowed Canopus Station to operate as a major port. More so now that Task Force Hecate had made it their home away from home. Ingram was stood to one side of the deck, making minute hand gestures to a holographic display filling one of the walls.
"Come in," he said without turning back. "I'll be with you in a moment, but as you can see the work beckons even here in private."
“Ain’t that always the way?” Commented Pierce as he entered the office and chose a seat across from Ingram’s desk. “A captain’s work is never done.”
"Quite," Ingram said with a thin-lipped smile. "If not power budget meetings, it's resource allocation, starfighter deployments and defence planning."
He made a grand gesture to the display pane, and all of the branching file trees folded back in on themselves and shrank back into the folded contours of save file. With a flick of his fingers, the holographic construct turned into a mote of light and flashed to the desk where it landed and vanished into the inlaid computer system.
"Of course the setting and stage for that work does take some of the edge off of the barb: Messier 4, the High Frontier," Ingram chuckled at the advertising copy that was beginning to go around the Federation thanks to the FNS. "So, Captain Hunnicutt, what is that Canopus Station can do for you and the USS Sherman Potter?"
"A vacation on a nice tropical planet would be nice," Hunnicutt joked. "Somewhere with lots of girls. Oh, I have crew who like men, too, don't I? Better make it men and girls. And rum."
"Well, I have a moon that can do a fair approximation of tropical if you're after a 10 thousand square kilometre desert. But apart from that, we've not exactly found a garden world," Ingram said, leaning back in his chair. "The last near habitable world we came across had five years prior just been roasted into a nuclear hellscape. Might I then suggest the holodecks on your own ship?"
"Suppose the holodecks will have to do," agreed Hunnicutt with a grin. "In all seriousness, though- if that's even possible for me- we've just arrived. I feel like it's me who should be asking you what we can do for you."
"A fair question..." Ingram said, stroking his chin as he tapped the desk's glossy surface. A holographic diagram of an Olympic class starship appeared above the desk, rotating slowly. "Huum, USS Sherman Potter. Hospital ship, though outfitted on paper as a first responder to conflict zones. I see the Yard's in the Milky Way have installed the new Buckler Shield system, we've had good reports of it out in Messier 4...Huum."
Ingram tapped a button, a data pane appeared on his side of the desk.
"Commodore Grission is outfitting a scouting mission to the Xilosian star system, that nuked hellscape of a planet I was telling you about. It was visited by a Messier 4 power bloc called The Concordance. They convert entire populations to their way of thinking with a fungal infection that builds an implant within the brain. Rather a clever bit of bio coding, given it seems able to take root in every exposed species who's come into contact with it. Grissom wants as much info on the Concordance as possible, so his scouts are going to dragnet the entire system and try and take apart one of the temples left behind on Xilos. You could tag along with them, get a lay of the land as it were. A hospital ship would be the ideal isolation facility for the remote study of the fungal pathogen," Ingram offered.
"Sounds... safe," replied Hunnicutt with a grin. "Even so, it might be interesting to see how it works. And we've got an Epidemic Intelligence department on board. I'm sure they'd be interested in it as well." He paused a moment. "We heard rumors about Carcosia in the area. I never know how much of the Federation News Service I can believe, though."
"Yes. The Reciprocity of Carcosia. They're new," Ingram said with a sour note to his words. His hand made a gesture above the desk, and the hologram of the Sherman Potter vanished to be replaced by something similar but utterly different. At a glance, it shared the same design heritage as a traditional Starfleet ship. Two warp nacelles, an engineering hull and a command section. But everything was subtly off: the vertically stacked nacelles, the long narrow sword-like profile.
The theorised weapon compliment.
"We've got one of their ships in dock at the moment, the RNS Dauntless. Had an engineering malfunction whilst passing through our star system, dropped out of quantum not 100 yards from the engineering module of this station. They hail from a colonial power that, supposedly, arose from an exodus fleet that fled the Earth Romulan War of 2156. Just shy of 240 ago. They've advanced well beyond us in terms of technology, and we know an embarrassingly small amount about their culture and society," Ingram explained.
"They probably know frightfully little about us, too," offered Pierce. "After all, we're not much like we were 240 years ago. At least I should hope not!"
"You'd be surprised," Ingram said guardedly. "These people are descendants of a group who fled a war on the back of stolen technology that might have shortened the conflict significantly. They saw a hopeless cause, and fled. How they got to Messier 4 through the Galactic Barrier is a mystery. But you are right, we know very little about them. Though I'd hardly call a medical ship a good scout."
“You’d be surprised,” replied Hunnicutt. “As long as we’re not trying to pry into their health history, doctors put people off their guard. ‘Nice scarf.’ ‘Why thank you I made it myself.’ ‘Oh, you knit?’ ‘Yes, it’s one of my many hobbies.’ ‘Oh? What else do you enjoy?’ ‘I also sing with a barbershop quartet and can the vegetables from my own hydroponic garden.’” He grinned. “It’s almost as if they’re glad they don’t have to talk about their blood pressure and lack of exercise.”
"Yes, but these are not people seeking our aid. Though they do seem to have more experience handling the Concordance. It might well do to have your ship visit them, to seek out such information and indeed perhaps gain some intelligence on our allies." Ingram mused. "I will have to pass this idea along to Commodore Grissom, he is after all theatre commander for Messier 4."
The way Ingram said that last part made it all sound so...Well. Pained was the word.
"Theater commander," repeated Hunnicutt. "That's reassuring. But, yes, I agree a visit to them would be beneficial. I could probably come up with a reasonable excuse for going to talk to them. After all, it might be a good idea to have some updated bio information on them, just in case. If they're willing to provide it. And we, in turn, can update their information on us. You know: just in case."
"Just in case," Ingram said with a thin, tight smile. He made a closing gesture with his hand, and the hologram of the rapier of a starship vanished. In its place, a series of file folders began to shrink down with little musical notes. "I'm transferring our medical reports on the Concordance bio implant and fungal infection to your personal data partition. I'm sorry to say I will not be providing you with any of our infected patients, given their violent tendencies I'd rather not risk your state of the art medical vessel."
After that, he stood.
"I'll pass along your plan to Grissom, I'm sure he'll be eager to get the Carcosian's on our side and sign off on the plan. Until then Canopus Station is yours, feel free to requisition supplies and materials as you see fit," Ingram extended a hand across the desk to Hunnicutt.
"Thank you, sir," replied Hunnicutt, standing and grasping Ingram's hand in his. "Once we have a direction, we'll be out of your hair."
"We'll be here to welcome you home when you return," Ingram gave him a firm handshake. "We are a small fraternity out here in Messier 4. I would not want your ship to be lost. Safe journey and fair sea's Captain Hunnicutt."
"Thank you, sir," said Pierce and then hesitated a moment. "And... to you whatever the equivalent is for lighthouses. Or docks. Both, actually."
