The crew of the Columbia had 8 hours before the delegation from the Hydraen ship would arrive and there was much to be done. Not only was the ceremonial presentation and dinner to be readied, but Grahm had to 'command' a starship as well as delve into the mystery before him. Ramos had to piece back together a warp drive, and Dr. Tam had a patient in a critical state. Lastly the captain had taken off-duty, all of the remaining senior officers due to... 'strange behaviors'? The Tactical Officer could think of no better words to describe the situation.
He turned away from the thoughts in his mind and looked at the man sitting in front of him. Grahm was in the Sickbay with the restrained Ensign Timmons. He had thought about having him taken to the brig, but he wanted Dr. Tam to be present. He also had ordered one of the ship's psychologist team - Dr. Laoa Chang - to be present as well.
Grahm looked at the medical reports from Dr. Tam regarding the security crewman that had stabbed his comrade, both before he had left the ship and after his return. It all seemed normal, except the readouts of higher a heart rate and glandular activity. But even that was normal when someone is put through the rigors of dangerous space flight. So, why did he stab his friend? Only one way to find out... ask.
"Computer," said John, "Record."
"Working..." was the response.
"I am sitiing here with Ensign Shane Timmons, identicode #ST458756. He is under arrest for attacking and wounding his fellow crewman, Paul Winters, and will be questioned by Dr. Chang."
Three decks up, in his office, Juan studied the technical data on the Golayshian. He also looked at the diagnostic reports that Stonn had taken when he was on board. The ship's deuterium and tritium tanks were empty and that was not something that you could re-fabricate. Without either, you did not have the fuel to create the anti-matter needed to mix in the warp core - thus no warp field generation and thus no warp flight.
From what he saw, the Golayshian was stuck in this gas ball unless they could at least power up their Impulse engines. On Impulse the ship could exit the Paulson Nebula in about 20 years! The only other options would be to invite the Golayshian crew aboard the Columbia and fly them to some place where they could get transport back to their world; only thing was that the corvette would need to be abandoned. From what Juan had heard about this princess, he didn't expect that to be an option.
The last possibility that Ramos passed through his mind would be for the Columbia to give up some of her deuterium/tritium stores. That was truly not an option at all! Starships were designed with small excesses of vital supplies, but it was not meant to be used for any other purpose. The Columbia was a support vessel to the fleet, but she was not a Tender - she did not carry supplies for other ships. She carried what she needed to maintain a five-plus year assignment before any re-fit.
"I'll talk to Stonn," thought Juan, "maybe he has some theoretical way out of this one."
Chang had finished up his interview and Grahm sat at Dr. Tam's desk thinking about Timmons responses. The argument had begun over words regarding a Hydraen female named Lijeea (pronounced Lie-E-ya) - one of the princess's entourage. Both Winters and Timmons were looking forward to her arrival but it seemed that neither were willing to allow the other to visit with her. The two crewman began to argue and the encounter then turned deadly when Timmons picked up his utensil and plunged it into Winter's abdomen.
Tam sat across from Grahm and had told the Tactical Officer that Winters would live, but it was close. Seeing the look on Grahm's face, Tam spoke...
"You know John, Winters spoke a little bit after he came out from under the anesthesia. He had asked what happened and I had told him that he had been stabbed - critically. You know what he said back to me..." the doctor paused for a moment, "He asked me if he would be back up on his feet in time to greet Lijeea when she arrived."
The doctor finished his recount with, "Winters then drifted back off and he said, 'Timmons best keep his distance...'"
OOC: Shawn, feel free to extrapolate on what I have given you in regards to Ramos and the engines.
I do not like having the main character's trying to investigate this to be essentially NPC's (i.e. Grahm and Tam... neither player has posted in a while) so, I may defer some of this stuff to you guys.
Doug
(Sorry, my internet went down again for a few days and the stupid company couldn't even figure out what was wrong until it fixed itself)
Looking across at Grahm, Tam stopped and pondered more to himself... "Sir, obviously I'm worried about this strange fixation that the two crewman have over this Hydraen. Neither of them has a history for violent or obsessive behaviour of this scale anytime before. I'd like to take more detailed neuro-scans of them both to see if there's any sort of brain abnormality there, anything that could be causing them to act so irrationally. Perhaps a brain tumour, or something of that sort. I'll let you know what I find out. In the meantime, perhaps you should interview some of the other members of the away team, to see if there was any sort of environmental effect there that could have caused the odd behaviour."
Grahm thought for a moment and then stood up. "Good idea Doc. Let me know if you find anything and I'll do the same."
The Tactical Officer left the sickbay and walked to the turbolift. When the doors to the lift opened he got in and spoke two words, "Deck 5."
He would start at the top. The captain's quarters were on five. Once there, he rang the bell to Darkan's room.
"Come," Darkan called. "Ahh, Grahm. I wondered when I'd be seeing you. How's the investigation going so far?"
Quote from: GandalfOfBorg"Come," Darkan called. "Ahh, Grahm. I wondered when I'd be seeing you. How's the investigation going so far?"
"Not bad Captain," replied Grahm. "I just wanted to ask you a couple of questions:
1) Did you notice anything strange upon your arrival or the time that you stayed on the Hydraen ship? Any interactions that might have caused a problem?
2) Was there any potential harmful foods or drinks that could have been consumed? Was the atmosphere suitable for humans or vulcans?
3) Do you feel there is a potential threat from the Hydraens?
OOC: Just another quick reminder to the players - what you guys are 'feeling' is just plain attraction to the Hydraen allure and any emotions (i.e. guilt, jealousy) that might come from that.
"Well not really so, no. I've never encountered these people before so I wouldn't be able to say if there was anything 'strange' about them and I don't recall any untoward incidents."
- - -
"I suppose there could have been but there were no obvious and/or immediate effects that I recall (though they may have been deleterious) other than maybe alcoholic beverages they may have had available; I didn't imbibe, myself. The atmoshere seemed alright, you might look into the sensor logs of the shuttle or those taken by Stonn for more information there."
- - -
"No, at this time I don't feel there is any threat from them, but the earlier incident and this investigation may change that."
Quote from: GandalfOfBorg"Well not really so, no. I've never encountered these people before so I wouldn't be able to say if there was anything 'strange' about them and I don't recall any untoward incidents."
- - -
"I suppose there could have been but there were no obvious and/or immediate effects that I recall (though they may have been deleterious) other than maybe alcoholic beverages they may have had available; I didn't imbibe, myself. The atmoshere seemed alright, you might look into the sensor logs of the shuttle or those taken by Stonn for more information there."
- - -
"No, at this time I don't feel there is any threat from them, but the earlier incident and this investigation may change that."
"All right Captain.. I appreciate it. I'll let you know if we uncover anything."
Grahm stood and left his commander's quarters and he felt just as lost as he did before he had come. He walked over to the wall comm and pushed the button for a ship-wide page, "Mr. Stonn, Grahm... could you meet me in the Officer's lounge on Deck-2."
Maybe the Vulcan would have more to offer - Grahm walked down the hall towards the turbolift.
Behind him, still sitting in his room, Darkan thought about the questions posed to him and as he did, the image of Isaboul filled his mind. He suddenly felt warm and could feel his heart beat a bit faster. He realized that he was really looking forward to her arrival... but then Mia!?
Darkan suddenly felt cold sweats on his brow as the turmoil in his mind and the natural urges that drive a man conflicted. He was in love with Mia, so far away and some day they would marry... but the princess... she would be here soon.
The turbolift arrived and Pushkin clambered out, a towel draped over his shoulders apparently after a vigorous workout. Grahm decided to take the opportunity and interview the helmsman.
"Hey Alex," he said, "Why don't you come with me? I am waiting for Stonn to meet me in the officer's lounge, so until then let's go have a talk."
Alex smiled and nodded and the two climbed back onto the lift and rode it up to Deck-2. The doors opened and Alex led the way out, strolling over to take a table near the large rear viewing port. They could both see the Golayshian sitting off the Columbia's stern about 1,000 meters away.
"They'll be here tonight John! Wait 'til you see, tovarishch! Of course, one of the fine ladies is claimed by yours truly."
Grahm noted the excitement in Pushkin. He had always been a 'ladies man', so-to-speak, but the intensity of his excitement seemed... odd.
"What is it about her, Alex? You seem excited to see her."
"I don't know John, it's just... just... I don't know. She is beautiful and... wow... she is just beautiful. I can't wait to take her to dinner."
"How do you know she will want to go with you?" asked Grahm innocently. The reaction was not what he expected.
"WHY WOULDN'T SHE!" snarled Alex as he stood up from the table. The other officer staff members in the lounge turned in the direction of the two men. "YOU THINK SHE WOULD WANT TO GO WITH YOU! HA!"
The anger in Pushkin's face was real – dangerously real. The Tactical Officer was larger and he knew his skill was greater than that of his diminutive companion, but he still took caution. Grahm looked about to make sure there were no potential weapons or items that could be used as such. Noticing none, Grahm decided to diffuse the situation with words. He laughed and smiled broadly and then spoke...
"No Alex... there is no way she would wanna go with me, not when there is you! No, I was just joking around."
The look on Alex's face changed to one of puzzlement for a moment, as one who tries to see if this were a trap, but then he smiled and sat back down. He returned the laugh, "Aye tovarishch, she will be looking forward to her arrival here as well and we shall have a wonderful visit. Well... I must go and get a shower."
Grahm gave a nod to the helmsman and watched as he walked away. He did not need to ask anymore questions - he had learned plenty from their short exchange. John looked about for Mr. Stonn but he desired to leave the lounge and go find the doctor. He wanted a second opinion.
Tam quickly setup the system to run in depth neuronalysis on both crewmembers that were involved in the scuffle. Then, he called them in one at a time for the tests. After that was the fun part... sitting and staring at the results until he figured out just what on earth was going on with these two crewmembers. As always, he was extremely thorough with what his test was calibrated to detect. The first sweep was to pick up anything obvious, like a brain tumour or growth of some sort. After that, there were several sweeps to monitor brain activity on different levels, to determine if there were any unusual portions of the brain being used, or notable patterns in the activity. Once he'd done the tests, he'd just have to see what he could find, and hope that Grahm's search was turning up something.
(Not sure what Med tests you need, let me know)
OOC: Whoops. Missed that post somehow... sorry. :oops:
Stonn will meet with Grahm at his next available opportunity. I'll flesh out what delayed him if necessary...
OOC: Chris, don't worry about rolling any test for your studies, they would have been very routine. But the following gives you the results.
Shawn, flessh out Stonn from this as you wish.
Tam's scans of both men were clean for the most part – no discernible abnormalities. The only thing he could see was an elevated heart rate and activity in the glands. Both men were showing high levels of testosterone as well. That was interesting to the doctor, and something he hadn't noticed on their arrival back from the Golayshian.
As he sat there, the comm panel lit up and beeped. Tam pushed the button in answer, "Doctor Tam here."
"Hey Doc, it's John. I have a theory that I want you to test... separate the men and tell then talk to them about the Hydraen women that they had met the night before. Ask them about their arrival tonight and then tell them each a different lie – tell them that the Hydraen lady is coming to see the other." Grahm paused for a moment to let it sink in with the Doctor. "Then report to me their reactions. I recommend you have your scanners going when you do."
After his call, Grahm decided that he would go find Stonn – perhaps the Vulcan was at his station on the bridge. He got up and went to a set of stairs that wound up to the top deck of the Columbia. Moments later he walked onto the bridge, the chamber busy as oft was the case.
Sure enough, Stonn sat at his station seemingly deep in thought as he reviewed whatever it was that he was studying. The person that caught Grahm's eye even more was the brown-haired comm officer sitting quietly at her station. He walked over to her and stood by her for a moment waiting for her to notice. She paid him no attention.
Perplexed, Grahm spoke, "Anything to report Lieutenant?"
"No sir," was the short reply.
Grahm wanted to open up more dialogue with Townshend but this was not the time or the place. He turned to walk away but then her voice stopped him in mid-step.
"Oh... except for the fact that the Hydraen Princess called from the Golayshian, she wanted to talk to the Captain. I connected her... seems she and her entourage wants to come over early."
Grahm could hear the ice in her voice. He turned to look at her but she didn't look back. He finished walking to the command chair where Chief Engineer Ramos sat, the ship under his command. The two officers met eyes and both could read the other's thoughts. Ramos pressed a button.
"Captain Darkan... this is Ramos..."
OOC: Matt, I need you to make an Opposed Willpower Test TN:
Roll(2d6)+7: 5,5,+7 Total:17 (+9 Courage) = 26
If you fail, you have been 'persuaded' to allow the princesses entourage to come over sooner rather than later - whether you turned command over to Grahm or not.
"Mr. Grahm," offered Stonn as he turned towards him, "I apologize for my tardiness. I was co-ordinating repair schedules with Mr. Ramos based on my observations within the Hydraen ship's engine room. I have just concluded, and have time to speak with you if it is convenient."
Turning to the unsettled comm officer, he spoke softly.
"Ms. Townshend, did the Princess give any reason why she wished to come aboard earlier?"
OOC: Oh man, that's evil. Can Darkan tell that she is purposefully trying to influence his decision? Would a Perception test bare this out? I'd like to know before I decide to apply any Courage to the test.
Perception - (6+5)+2=13
Quote from: GandalfOfBorgOOC: Oh man, that's evil. Can Darkan tell that she is purposefully trying to influence his decision? Would a Perception test bare this out? I'd like to know before I decide to apply any Courage to the test.
Perception - (6+5)+2=13
I don't know how to put it any other way Matt than it would feel like she is laying on 'major' charm and that there is a suppressed desire* in Darkan to see her. It would be like a married man having an affair, I guess - he knows its wrong but the desire is too strong.
*Edit: Actually that desire is not so much supressed anymore as can be seen in the other crewmen
Now understand that she is beautiful by any man's standard, and men would be very happy to get her attention, but she is also working a strong bit of Mojo on Darkan. But he is not aware of anything other than the fact that he is starting to be drawn to this woman... make sense?
So, in regards to using courage to oppose this test... yes he could, it would be the feelings that he has towards Mia getting in the mix causing guilt. Only thing is, be sure and chek your current Status to see what is available to you.
OOC: One last thing, how soon is soon for their arrival?
OOC: Hey Matt, she will have tried to coax the Captain into letting them come within the next half-hour of game time.
Townshend turned toward the XO and said, "No sir, she made no explanation other than that she and her emissary is ready."
Jess ended the statement with a huff that both Stonn and Grahm could easily perceive. John wondered why she had been so agitated, but then she had also taken the trip to the Golayshian.
"Both men and women were on edge since their return," thought the Tactical Officer. It was apparent to John that there was definitely something wrong with the Away Team - none were acting normally. The question was what did the captain do or say?
Grahm turned to Stonn as Ramos called to the captain, "One moment Mr. Stonn, we can talk after we speak with the Captain."
Quote from: tomcat
Grahm turned to Stonn as he called to the captain, "One moment Mr. Stonn, we can talk after I speak with the Captain."
Stonn nodded and sat back down at his station...
Here is a question Shawn, when Darkan ordered Ramos to start preparing a plan to assist the Golayshian in repairs - did he send a team to the Hydraen ship? It has been a couple of hours since the morning briefing when the command was given.
Let me know,
Thanks
EDIT: Also, I need Stonn to make a Sys Ops (Sensors) TN 15
Quote from: tomcatHere is a question Shawn, when Darkan ordered Ramos to start preparing a plan to assist the Golayshian in repairs - did he send a team to the Hydraen ship? It has been a couple of hours since the morning briefing when the command was given.
Let me know,
Thanks
EDIT: Also, I need Stonn to make a Sys Ops (Sensors) TN 15
OOC: No, he didn't. I interpreted a past post as saying that Stonn was going to coordinate repairs with Ramos based on what he saw in their engine room. I also assumed that anything would wait until after a formal meeting/reception/dinner, and they'd deploy afterwards - if I misinterpreted that, then I apologize - let me know what you need me to do to fix it...
:arrow: Sensors roll (TN 15)
Roll(2d6)+11:5,1,+11 Total:17
OOC: Hey Shawn, no need for a fix, I was just checking to see if I had any other Columbia crewman that may have had exposure to the Hydraen pheromone.
As Stonn sat looking at Grahm, his console began to beep. The Vulcan turned in his chair and began to scan the readouts - the Columbia's sensors were registering an object approching from starboard beyond the Golayshian.
Stonn snapped to attention at the first sign of the object.
It was difficult to tell what it was, but in a nebula this thick - it seemed unlikely that anything arriving in such proximity to two ships would be coincidental.
In the nebula, the shields were all but useless, and he abhorred violent conflict, but as humans say, "discretion is the better part of valor"...
Raising his voice sharply, Stonn's voice curtly barked out across the ship as he thumbed his panel's comm button.
"Yellow alert. All personnel to standby stations. Captain to the bridge."
OOC: Will this call to the bridge come before or after Darkan should have made his decision?
OOC: If allowed, Darkan would use the first response regardless as he is loathe to alter his previous orders since he is allowed to "refuse an absurd or self-defeating proposal, no matter how high the persuader's test result." (PG, pg. 121)
"Pardon me, Princess, I am needed. We can continue this discussion later. At the moment, I cannot allow you to come aboard for safety's sake due to some isolated incidents."
OOC: If not...
Willpower - (1+1)+2=4
"We've had some problems since we left you and I don't think a half hour will be enough time for our preparations and security, how about 1 hour?"
Quote from: GandalfOfBorgOOC: Will this call to the bridge come before or after Darkan should have made his decision?
The call would have been after you talked to Isaboul.
Quote from: GoBOOC: If allowed, Darkan would use the first response regardless as he is loathe to alter his previous orders since he is allowed to "refuse an absurd or self-defeating proposal, no matter how high the persuader's test result." (PG, pg. 121)
This would be the case if he was opposing a
Persuade roll, the roll being opposed is
Influence, which by the description...
"characters do not follow orders to the letter, nor do they necessarily change their own beliefs. Instead, they passively comply with the characters wishes...". So, this comment will not work...
"Pardon me, Princess, I am needed. We can continue this discussion later. At the moment, I cannot allow you to come aboard for safety's sake due to some isolated incidents."Quote from: GoBOOC: If not...
Willpower - (1+1)+2=4 (-3) = 1 DISASTROUS FAILURE
"We've had some problems since we left you and I don't think a half hour will be enough time for our preparations and security, how about 1 hour?"
This one does... and due to the Disastrous failure, because on double 1's you would roll a d3 and subtract it from the result even further (I did it for you) - I think you'd be putty in her hands.
None of this is known to any characters, but I am going to give it to you so you can better understand what is happening to your character so that the Roleplaying may be easier -Little is known about the Hydraen people of the planet Hydra, which circles Tau Hydrae in that binary system. This is due to the fact that they are not members of the Federation and allow little access to their world. Still, they have made contact and do trade with all people that they can and are a very wealthy world and system.
Much of their wealth stems from one potent ability that the Hydraen females possess - they naturally release a very potent pheromone that affects males of most species and allows them to influence their decision making - the men become very amorous to the females (sometimes to the point of possessiveness and violence) and the Hydraens use that to their advantage. Females of other species are iritated by the pheromone and makes them want to get away - from both men of their own speceis as well as the Hydraens. The more interest a Hydraen female shows a male, the more the pheromone takes a hold. This is why most emmissaries of the Hydraen world are female.
So knowing this now, hopefully you can understand what is going on with Darkan, you may not like it, but he is desiring Isaboul. Of course he is resisting and that would be the guilt he would feel for Mia and you can RP that stuff into it, but you don't know anything else than that Isaboul is looking real good to you about right now.
Any questions, gimme a shout...
Tam decides that he's always in the mood for an experiment, and follows Grahm's suggestion, isolating the two men from each other and then speaking with them one at a time.
First he nonchalantly wanders into Ensign Timmons' room, and addresses him. "So Ensign, I hope you don't mind but I just wanted to do a quick followup interview, to my tests. Is there anything else that you can tell me about your time spent on the Hydraen ship? Hmm.. anything else about this woman Lijeea?" He takes careful note of the response the crewman gives to this question, noting that at the sound of her name, his eyes go somewhat out of focus, as if he's drifting off somewhere else when he talks about her.
"Thank you for your help, that will be all. I'll be sure to pass your regards on to Lijeea via Mr. Winters, I hear that he'll be seeing her tonight."
And with that comment, Tam jumps back out of the way as Ensign Timmons leaps up and starts to get a little crazy [OC: feel free to extrapolate on how he reacts here]. After a few moments, Tam's observed all that he needs to, and he quickly hits Timmons with the loaded Hypospray he'd kept concealed in his hand, knocking Timmons out instantly before he can do any damage to himself or anybody else.
A few moments later next door, Tam performs the exact same experiment, and finds the exact same results there. Quickly, he calls Grahm.
"John, the experiment went exactly as predicted. There is definitely a hormonal response raging out of control in both of these crew members. Much more than should normally be present in them after such a short time in the lady's company. I'm going to see what else I can work up, I just wanted to let you know. Tam out."
Heading back to his lab, Dr. Tam starts to more closely inspect blood samples taken from the entire away team. Now that he knows it's a hormonal affect, it should make it easier to know what to look for. There must be some sort of pheremone's interfering with the crewmen's reactions. If he can isolate which one it is, he might be able to create a pheremone inhibitor, to grant him and the other non-affected crewmembers an immunity to the effect, and possibly even cure the others. It looked like he had a lot of work to do, and not a lot of time to do it before the entourage arrives...
OOC: Ok, no problem. So it was an Influence test, good to know. Here's my ammended response.
"We've had some problems since we left you and I don't think a half hour will be enough time for our preparations and security, but I don't see that you'd have much to worry about if I were your escort. I, *err*, we look forward to your arrival in 30 minutes."
Just as he was about to call the bridge, Grahm called down to him. "The more I think about the incident, the more I believe it was really an isolated occurence, an anomaly. Even if its not, I plan to be the princess' escort when they arrive in a half hour. Please make sure the proper formalities are met security-wise."
Very nice post Matt! Expect a new one from me later on tonight.