Mission Log 22 - Stardate 21701.16 "Hostile Negotiation"

Mission Summary

Mission dates: 241701.16 through 241711.18

Captain's Logs

Cdr Griffin Wright

Stardate 21707.29

Captain's log - Stardate 21707.29
Commander Wright, USS Sheridan

As I compose this, I am hidden away in a quiet corner of the Sheridan's reading room. With all of the damage throughout the ship, I've been staying with Lt Murphy (to my delight, which I really shouldn't have in this log, but oh well) but need a quiet place to catch up on paperwork. We are very close to Starbase Bravo, our new home as we are now part of the 2nd Fleet. Once we dock, I will report to Commodore Nezmah for debriefing and to prepare Ensign Black's Court-Martial.

I do not know what this will mean for my future, as I was in command during the 'incident', which I will get to. However, I'm confident the Sheridan will continue to be a worthy ship with a fine crew, no matter what happens...

Our assigned mission didn't sound like it would be eventful: transport a Federation official to talks with the DRR and provide security and diplomatic support. While the Ambassador turned out to be an ***, I certainly don't feel his unfortunate end was justified.

The trouble started as we briefed the crew and got underway, with an explosion in the Observation Lounge. I have now been blown up so many times I've lost count. Regardless, that is still under investigation, but we continued on our mission.

Once we made it to our destination and beamed down to the surface of Ecurai with the diplomatic detail, we discovered that my Chief of Security had gone missing. While we were eventually reunited with Commander Sothrick, we have yet to figure out what happened, and he hasn't been the same since. I am recommending he undergo a full psychiatric evaluation while on Bravo.

To make a long story short, there was an attempted assassination during the conference, and we lost one of our crew, Crewman th'Kolen, who made the ultimate sacrifice. In addition, Ensign Jeffries was seriously injured as well. That was not my finest hour, and the suspect got away, transported away before he could be secured.

And then...

While we worked to help the search for the suspect who had been transported elsewhere within the capital facility, Ensign Black was handed a logistics PADD and was discussing it with one of her Romulan counterparts. Moments later, she went quiet and pulled her phaser. Before she could be stopped, she killed the Ambassador (again, an ***, but not deserving of death) in cold blood, in front of us. The shot was point-blank, and nothing could be done to save him. Security Officer Tom McCroy quickly took down Black, and we all returned to the Sheridan with the Ambassador's body in-hand after a hasty departure. Suffice to say our relations with the DRR were not improved by these events.

Ensign Black has been secured in the brig during our travel to SBB, and the Commodore has been made aware of the situation. I am to meet with her upon our arrival, and Court-Martial proceedings will begin straightaway as well for Ensign Black.

I am ashamed. I certainly had no inkling that Black was capable of such treachery, and it breaks my heart. She had so much promise, and threw it away in an instant. She claims to have no memory of the incident, so I guess I don't know what will happen. We will find out before too long, however. In the meantime I will oversee the docking at Bravo and coordinate repairs to the ship which was severely damaged to to anti-tachyons infiltrating the ship - we still don't know what caused all that but the teams of Bravo will figure it out.

The state of my ship, and the events of this most recent mission while I was in command don't seem like they'll speak well for my career, and I am eternally frustrated by this. I will hope that Cmdr Nezmah is understanding...

End log.

Crew Logs

First Officer

Cdr Harrison Boislevesque

Stardate 2107.10

First Officer’s Log
StarDate 2107.10

First Officer Commander Harrison Boislevesque reporting.

I am really going to get my derrière kicked by either Captain Wright or someone from Command due to my ability not to make reports more regularly.

So down to business, our mission was to transport an Ambassador from Earth to a meeting with the Democratic Romulan Republic as it seems as there has been no completion of treaty terms after there wee helped to evacuate Romulus.

We had the mission briefing in the Conference Room where we learnt about the mission and the fact that the Ambassador for some reason didn't like the VIP quarter which are the most luxurious ones on the ship and he chose to disrupt Lt Feta's life and throw him out a his own quarters and take up residence there.

Towards the end of the briefing it seemed as though someone didn't want the mission to go ahead as an exploration ripped through the Conference Lounge, I managed to stay sort of save as I flung myself towards the Captain knocking him out of his chair and onto the floor, luckily there was no fatalities among the people in the room.

Upon arriving at the DRR and initial contact was established we sent a diplomatic team along with the Ambassador, as it was a sensitive nature I declined the lead role form the Sheridan and indicated that Captain Wright was the best option to lead the team, but he had to be accompanied by the ships Chief of Security Lieutenant Commander Sothrick.

With the away team in the surface the rest of us turned out attention to the issue which were happening around the planet, it turned out the for some unknown reason there was pockets of anti-tachyons which when they come in contact with the hull started eating away at the hull plating, the issue was that we were having some technological issue with our deflector shields and they weren't protecting the ship.

In the end it got to a point where I ended up ordering the evacuation of Deck Two and also Deck One, I sent my family and Lieutenant Orano’s young daughter to The Ten Forwards Lounge on Deck Five and the crew which were based on the Main Bridge, we went to the Auxiliary Bridge to continue with the running of the ship.

There was so many thing that were happening on the ship around this time that I think I might have lost count of them, there was the two decks being closed down, no working deflector dish, no gravity on deck six and those anti-tachyons were now digging in to the hull near the anti-matter injection system which if they did intermix then we would be in some serious trouble and there would be a ship left to come home too.

We managed to fix the anti-tachyon issues by emptying the Buzzard Ramscoop which seemed to be housing the normally useless tachyons which counteracted each other, this gave the ship the ability to use its sensors again, along with it's transporters.

The good thing was that as there was no more anti-tachyons attacking the ship, which meant that we were able to start getting thing back on track and find out what has happened to the away team and information on that wasn't what I was expecting either as from the information we were told that there had been another explosion on the planet which caused massive amount of damage to the conference building a there was some fatalities.

We also leaned that the Ambassador had been killed during the mission and to make things worse it seemed as thought Ensign Black was responsible for the murder/assassination or what ever it is being called.

We will have to see what happens when we get to StarBase Bravo as the Ensign will be put thu get a court martial, which I'm thinking that I might be apart of.

End Log.

Tactical

CTO Lt Maggie Murphy

Stardate 21708.02

Chief Tactical Officer's Log
Stardate 21708.02

This is one Away Mission I really missed out on. Since being promoted to Chief, I've given up the ability to jump at missions – instead, I send someone else. This mission, while interesting to Starfleet HQ, seemed like a simple deliver-and-drop. An Ambassador to Romulan space, where they -the Ambassador- could work out troubles between the Romulans and whoever they've pissed off lately.

Whoops. I'll try to refrain from cussing. Save it for the personal log, I know.

The Ambassador, all personal comments aside... appeared ready for the job. He confiscated a crewman's quarters without permission, and set about doing his work. When we arrived at the planet, he insisted on having a Starfleet accompaniment, so the Captain and some Security went down with him.

What happened on the surface... I really can't tell you. The talks were about to happen, as I understand it, and there was... an explosion? And everyone was evacuated. And then the Ambassador was shot and killed. I'll... I'll withhold names for now, pending the investigation. I also didn't see it happen with my own eyes, so I'll just...

• Sound of a throat clearing *

Anyway, back at the ranch... the Sheri and I got into a bit of trouble. We were doing okay, orbiting Romulus with another of their ships, presumably to keep an eye on us. Since we weren't doing anything but waiting for Griff-- Captain Wright to come back, it wasn't really an issue. Of course, something always has to happen - “Murphy's Law,” right? - and we encountered the strangest thing. Tachyon clouds! Man, I wish we had time to investigate. Unfortunately, we're not a Science Ship, and though we were able to send out a probe, it did little to help us. Oh! Yeah, the tachyon particles started permeating the ship, god, and starting just all sorts of sh—issues for us. It actually turned pretty bad... the ship's in rough shape. The Captain's personal room is destroyed. We couldn't even seal off decks with force fields.

The Romulans saved us. We couldn't escape the cloud on our own, and we couldn't communicate with the other ship to try and think of a plan. The Romulans... they used what they could of their engines, and butted us out of there. We managed to empty the bussards -which were full of these tachyons- but it was too late for the Romulans... and they were destroyed.

The Away Team beamed up. We've someone in holding. We're limping our way back to Bravo.

Oh, yeah. That's our new home base now. Bravo.

Hope they can handle us.

End Log.

Ens Samuel Sakan

Stardate 21708.03

Personal Log
Stardate 21708.03

I've gotta say...the beginning of my career on the Sheridan has not been terribly auspicious. We've had two failed missions in a row. This last one was rather more catastrophic than the first, though. The first was merely a first contact mission and they preferred not to interact with the Federation, which is always a possible outcome to first contact. But this...

What little I know of the mission was that we were to deliver an ambassador to a negotiation summit. Given what occurred I'll refrain from being too blunt, but suffice it to say he did not brighten a room. This seemed to be a bit more tense than a normal ferrying mission from the start, though. A bomb was sent through the replicator into the Observation Lounge when the senior staff and the ambassador were discussing the mission.

I don't know if the origin of that was ever determined, but we continued on and arrived at the planet. And some planet it was, too. It was surrounded by dense clouds of tachyons. So, we're waiting on the return of the away team, sharing orbit with a Warbird, and the tachyons are caused all sorts of problems. They were permeating the ship, clogging the bussard collectors, and causing our systems to go haywire. At the time I couldn't tell if the Romulans were behind it, but their ship soon proved to be in a similar predicament to ours. They tried towing us out of orbit, but soon the clouds were too much for them too, and the ships bumped into each other, compressing a section of Decks 1 and 2, including the Captain's quarters.

In any case, the Romulan ship managed to move us far enough away to sort the ship out, but they did not fair as well and exploded. There have been occasions of Federation and Romulan cooperation throughout history, but to think that they all died saving us is almost incomprehensible. Where I'm from, no one would sacrifice themselves for a strange ship, no matter what race the occupants were, so for it to happen between two groups with such a history of animosity...

Anyway, things weren't much better on the planet. Another bomb had gone off, and apparently, one of our own crew members assassinated the Ambassador. I'm sure there is more to know about it, but nothing I'm privy to. I can only hope that justice is served.

And that we can show Starfleet a successful mission soon...

End Log.

Security

Ens Mazikeen T. Black

Stardate 21707.02

Witness Statement
Mazikeen T. Black Ensign SN: TYD-197-R USS Sheridan. DD-4088

I had been assigned to the USS Sheridan. Upon arrival, I was present when an explosive device was detonated on the observation lounge containing a majority of the senior staff and the Ambassador.

I will state for the record that upon meeting the Ambassador I thought he was a complete and utter [Redacted].

The rest of the voyage to our destination was uneventful.

When we arrived, I was assigned to the awayteam along with Doctor Hurst, and Lieutenant Oregano. Were were first to transport down where we were greeted by the Romulan delegation.

The Ambassador and Captain transported in next with a detachment of three security officers. Commander Sothrick was not present despite the transport operators conforming his transport.

We as a group moved into the Embassy building. I gave orders to Ensign Jeffries to deploy her personnel how she deemed best while I requested more support from the Sheridan to assist in both the Ambassadors protection and to assist in the search for the Commander. I will admit now that the Ambassador did get my goat right up, and I had words with him.

The Council chambers were sealed and we were about to begin our search for the Commander when there was an explosion from within the chambers.

Lieutenant Oregano managed to open the lockout and we assessed the situation. The Captain and Ambassador were both okay. Jeffries was unconscious, and there was one fatality from our group, Crewman th'Kolen.

The next thing to happen was the Romulans arrived en mass, demanding at first we hand over our weapons, before they were told to stand down and a suspect was produced.

This suspect was subsequently extracted by his people right under our noses.

The last think I remember was being handed a PADD containing tactical data pertaining to the terrorists they had been tracking and believed responsible for the attack.

Then I was standing over the Ambassadors body with my phaser.

I honestly don't know what happened. I obviously shot him. And I'm sorry. I just don't know why I shot him. I mean, sure he was a total [Redacted], but why did I do it?

I wish I knew.

End Log.

Engineering

CE Lt Dick Powell

Stardate 21708.08

Chief Engineer's Log
Star Date 21708.08

The mission was a failure, and so, too, seems Lieutenant Marshall's brief stint as acting chief engineer. Besides the minor detail that the mission began with an attempt to incapacitate the senior officers, and succeeded in injuring me as well as nearly killing a fresh midshipman, the mission appeared as a comedy of errors, or perhaps a well-orchestrated sabotage. The anti-tachyon fields that caused the hull breaches---and very nearly a core breach, too---were too well-placed to have been anything but orchestrated: they worked as an effectual landmine in disabling the Sherry.

The ensign who killed the ambassador---despite the captain's briefing on the matter, the reasons for her actions are still unclear to me, perhaps because of the effects of the anti-tachyon cloud I walked through as I repaired the second deck of the ship---is to be court-martialled, and Thelonius' resignation---

The shuffling of papers and a stack of PADDs is heard

---sits here on my desk. As to the latter, I'd be quite remiss to lose him as an officer, but I'd be more negligent to refuse to forward the request; I haven't spoken to Theo since we left the planet; he's been dodging me and communicating through his own assistants. His breakdown, and poor handling of the situation warrants his voluntary resignation, but I expected to be processing a transfer request, paired with a glowing recommendation from me for a specialist position on a captial ship. But, such is his choice; perhaps it was my failing in pushing him into the position of assitant chief engineer too soon.

Damage to the ship is extensive, and repairs are ongoing; I suspect we'll be berthed at Star Base Bravo---our new home port---for far longer than typical for some extensive repairs and perhaps a refit. I intend to recommend the same to Starfleet Engineering when I have my chance. We were able to repair the shielding and the deflector dish, and got enough functional force fields in essential hull areas which suffered breaches, but I've ordered decks one and much of two only be populated by engineering personnel until we reach SBB, in a day: senior officers have claimed a corner of Ten Forward as their mess, and all operations have proceeded from the auxiliary bridge. Replicators were brought on-line as soon as we had the deflector dish and shields repaired adequately to move at full impulse away from the planet. The crafty handiness of one ensign---I don't know her name yet---allowed us to jump to warp, for a hasty retreat back to Bravo.

Around the wheel we go, again; with the loss of the ambassador on this mission, I suspect something far less exciting will be our next project---just as well; Doctor Brooks seems insistent that after my injuries, what with my age, the excitement of this mission was not good for me.

A brief coughing fit ensues.

But, what is Starfleet engineering beyond running around in an EVA suit repairing hull breaches in a field of anti-tachyons? All the doctor's orders did to benefit me before was to put off paperwork, so I won't claim to be intent on keeping them. The ship must move on, and thus the paperwork must flow.

End Log.

Science

CSO Lt Feta

Stardate 21708.01

Chief Science Officer's Log
Star Date 21708.01

Feta here.

We didn't think there would be much work for the Science Department for this mission, but things quickly went off spec. The planet we took the ambassador to turned out to be surrounded by what I consider to be insufficiently explained anti-tachyons. I personally suspect a malicious force working against the Federation or the Romulans or both.

Considering the ambassadors apparent death on the planet at our own hands, I cannot discount a force within the Federation in general or our ship specifically, but I will leave such consideration to those members of the crew trained in such matters.

As for the anti-tachyons, we where lucky to have stumbled on a method of neutralization using the ramscoops. The Romulan ship did not seem to be so lucky.

I am still out of the loop, so to speak, on much of went on today.

End Log.

Lt Mia Orano

Stardate 21707.08

Science Officer's Log
Star Date 21707.08

There used to be an Engineer on the Intrepid that used to say well damn that's one sticky wicket we got our selves in Enough said right? Where was I again?

Ah yes, I hate and I say this with every fiber of my being, that I hate going on mission, something always happens when I go on these freaking missions seriously I just want to punch the guy in the face that thought oh Mia is like tots amazaballs she can go on the mission...Yeah i got two fingers for that guy damn.

Back to the mission report So we had to escort some Ambassador type guy to a planet so he can meet people I guess, seems pretty straight forward right?

Nope the mission went south quickly, I mean the mission sank so fast it would reach the bottom of the ocean before the Titanic could, we had explosions people dying..yeah..my first death..I umm I don't know what to say about that..will it get better who knows will I see more people die my calculations say I have a high chance 99.9 percent to be exact.

Man I did not sign up for this, what the hell is wrong with people..bad enough I got a strange vibe when the Fancy Romanulans showed there Vulcan cosplaying behinds and then we had explosions freaking explosions I mean who wakes up in the morning and goes hmm I think I will explode stuff today..

Seriously first time meeting the Romanulans all I could think off was dude are you cosplaying as a Vulcan seriously get your own fashion sense., I swear I feel like Starfleet are trying to kill me..I know I said this before but every time I'm on a mission something goes wrong I think I'm cursed..or I need to go back to teaching at the Academy again..I miss my chair..

Oh I forgot to mention Black she shot the Ambassador right between the eyes bang..Now we are going to a Random Starbase out on the..you have to be kidding me the Romulan boarder that's it I'm talking to the Captain about this..

End Log.

Medical

CMO LCdr Daniel Brooks

Stardate 21704.10

Chief Medical Officer's Log
Star Date 21704.10

Lieutenant Commander Daniel Brooks recording,

I thought I would make a quick log before I get too busy here in Sickbay.

This mission is classified and I can't say too much about the mission itself until cleared by Command but needless to say it has already been eventful.

On another note it was refreshing to see the Captain pop in down here due to a injury sustained earlier on in the Observation Lounge thanks to our First Officer Boislevesque. Rather then myself hunting around the ship and dragging the Captain down here by the scruff of his or her's uniform. I guess if you don't work in medical you have this 'fear' or so called 'white coat syndrome' they called it a couple of centuries back. Being in medical you just don't see it, but then again.. us Doctor's probably make as worst patients as the Command Officers if truth be told.

I have sent our new Midshipman Hurst down with the away team. I wanted to note this in my log as it kind of like when I first started on the Copernicus all those years ago and Commander Lee Ander sent me down with the away team then as a Midshipman.

It kind of put your nerves on edge but at the same time helps you into breaking through that first initial part of handling seasoned officers as a young medic. So, I gave this a go with Midshipman Hurst and look forward to hearing her thoughts when she gets back. Don't take this the wrong way.. I'm not testing the young officer by no means. I thought it might benefit her like it did me.

Now, I await the danger that might come our way from this mission and in doing so have updated a number of other patients that have been in and out of sickbay.

End Log.

Stardate 21706.25

Chief Medical Officer's Log
Star Date 21706.25

Lieutenant Commander Daniel Brooks recording,

Our mission didn't go as expected but with regards to that I believe it is best left unsaid for now.

While Midshipman Hurst went on the away mission we had normal procedures going on in Sickbay but then everything went into chaos when there was a major power filer which caused not just all the lights to go off putting us into pitch blackness but the gravity also went off. This caused a nightmare plus the doors to Sickbay sealed shut and at one point we even lost communication with outside the department leaving us very isolated. Before the communication went off I did have time to get some medics that weren't inside Sickbay to go and set up an emergency Sickbay in a cargo bay.

I tried to force the doors open with a make shift cutter but it only end up sealing itself to the door. I also ended up with a gash on my head from something flying in the dark.. eventually the power came back online.. lighting the place up but the gravity and doors where still not working. It was then I heard a scream. It was Harry Langston. I made my way in the direction of where the noise came from. Arriving in the area it turned out he was trapped inside one of the lockers. With some difficulty I tried to get him out. At one point the whole thing started to spin and you could hear Harry vomiting inside. When I finally managed to get the door open not only did Harry come out but all his vomit floated out to covering the both of us.

Then the doors started to work again so I quickly got Harry to make his way to the cargo bay as the communication came back online I was requested to go to Ten Forward which I manged to grab a floating medkit and make my way there.

Having treated a number of patients there I communicated through to Harry to see how things were going on in the cargo bay. Turns out they needed some extra medics. I made sure there was some on way then headed there myself after fixing up my last patient. When I arrived at cargo bay Engineering got back to me and let me know that they managed to get majority of Sickbay back online. So all critical patients were immediately transferred from the make shift medical bay and all non-urgent patient were treated there.

At this point Harry introduced me to Midshipman Perim. I remember that she was a transfer and it wasn't long after she reported in did we go on the mission. My interaction in that time was small due to everything that had been going on but Harry informed me that she had been in the cargo bay from the beginning.

Midshipman Perim had worked well to keep the patients being treated at a good pace even in very difficult circumstances.

Midshipman Hurst meanwhile returned from the eventful away mission which resulted in us leaving the mission earlier then expected. I told her she had done her best and that all that she could have done. I hope this doesn't make it an issue for her to attend other away missions.

Sickbay itself is now fixed and back to normal. This is the second time Sickbay has been in a poor way, the last time was when I was on the Copernicus and we had a grenade thrown in through the door. It can make things really hard for the medical team who sometimes are already under pressure but I am very proud of my team as they performed brilliantly.

End Log.

Mid Raven Hurst

Stardate 21707.02

Personal Log
Star Date 21707.02

Fresh from the academy and assigned to the Sheridan, but I never expected to be sent on an away mission on my first day but as my grandfather say's best way to learn to swim is to jump in to the deep end of the pool.. and that's just what Dr Brooks did, threw me in the deep end...without arm bands, I like him.

The mission did not go as well as anyone hoped the team consisted of Captain Wright, Lt Sothrick, Lt Orano, Ens Black,Myself also some other security to help protect Ambassador Whitten.

First we beamed down to the planet and Lt Sothrick was missing, Esn Black had to take over with the security of the team and we were greeted by the Romulan welcoming committee.

We made our way to the embassy with the very rude and obnoxious Ambassador, I got the feeling that the way he treated the people around him most likely did him no favours, we also lost contact with the Sheridan.

We entered the building and after about five to ten minuets we were shut in, and it was at this point in the mission that it went FUBAR,the main meeting hall went boom and the doors were stuck.

Maz and Orano got the doors open and we went in and Captain wright was already helping the injured Selena Jeffries, I did my best to stabilise her till help arrived and I was not impressed in the way the Romulans handled Jeffries.

Somehow the comms to the ship was restored and whilst I was in contact with the Sheridan, there was a phaser fire and shouting, Maz was on the ground with a security officer on top, holding her down and Orano was over Whitten calling for medical assistance, but before I could attend we were beamed back to the ship and that's the mission ended.

I wonder why Maz did what she did, I get the feeling we will get on well and I hope she'll be ok.

End Log.

Mid Kell Perim

Stardate 21708.06

Personal Log
Star Date 21708.06

Straight out of the Gettysburg frying pan into the fire of the Sheridan.

Not literally, of course. The Gettysburg was more of a "meteor through the viewscreen" than just a frying pan. And although applying tourniquets whilst covered in pilot paste was not particularly fun, I do miss my old CMO. She was extremely supportive

Speaking of, I have not really spent too much time around my colleagues I've mostly spent my time alone, aside from my shifts in sickbay. I did run into Junior Lieutenant Harry Langston.

• Sound of a sad sigh*

I even had to look his name up 'cause I did not remember it. Typical me.

He joined me in dealing with the cargo-bay triage. Whilst it was more than a handful it was by far not as stressful as the meteor situation back at the Getty. Langston himself was very useful. By just arriving he had taken a whole load of stress and work off of my shoulders, and whilst I did have nurses there to help me, I don't think I ever want to be the only doctor around again anytime soon.

Lieutenant Commander Brooks did seem pleased with my work however, and praise from the CMO definitely helps work my confidence and the fact there are less crew on board the Sheridan is weirdly reassuring somehow.

I think I can manage this after all.

End Log.