Himeji's Discovery

Posted on Fri Jul 18th, 2025 @ 2:57pm by Lieutenant Kayoko Himeji & Colonel Josiah McEntyre & Commander Saul Whitford

1,761 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: The Campaign for Coridan
Location: Shuttlepod 2 - Launch Bay

There it was again. And again. And then again. Kayoko sat back in the forward seat on the shuttlepod and let out an exasperated sigh. She stayed there, paused in silent thought for a few moments before leaning forward and toggling the communications switches.

"Himeji to Colonel McEntyre and Commander Whitford. I need to see you immediately in the shuttlepod bay. Shuttlepod Two..." she said simply.

Josiah bolts up in his bed, the comm chirping a bit too loudly than he would have liked. He only just got cleared by sickbay and slumped into his bed in his quarters only a few scant hours ago and now was startled awake by the in-ship comms.

He reached over to tap the comm panel on a side table to reply, groggy.

"Mc..McEntyre. Yes, Lieu?

"Sorry if I woke you sir. But I need you to come down to Shuttlepod Two in the launch bay right away." Kayoko responded. "It's urgent, like... really urgent. Oh and if you pass the mess hall, we're going to need coffee..."

Josiah sighed softly. "I'm on my way." He tapped the comm panel again, hearing the chirp that the connection closed. He stretched a bit and looked over to the small screen with the time display. Early...Too Early.

Josiah turned himself, sitting on the bed as he reached down for a shirt that was crumpled by the bed, a distressed one with the MACO Special Warfare Center insignia on it. He pulls it on as he got up. Still in sleeping pants in a flannel like pattern. He was careful not to wake the sleeping form of Gunnar Magnusson who was stlll asleep in the bed. He scrawled a quick note and then padded softly out of his quarters towards the launch bay.

--------

Awoken by a com chirp on his quarters' workspace, Whitford sleepily read a message from their Chief Helm Officer. The light on the channel indicated she was in an active voice conversation with the Colonel, so he had to suffice with a text summary of the summons.

Groaning to himself, he rolled out of bed hastening to pull on a decent-enough uniform to be presentable. Wincing around his wound, he wondered how little sleep he had actually gotten considering that he had been 'out' late with Major Iria. A fascinating woman as he was beginning to understand. Or not, considering how complex Vulcans were. Leaving the front of his uniform unzipped, he pulled his boots on and went stomping down the corridor in search of the turbolift, the largest coffee he could grab, and the answer to this summons.

[* * *]

Stepping through the door into one of Unicorn's launch bays, he spotted the cockpit light on in Shuttlepod Two. Making his way over, he rapped on the hull next to the hatch, and stepped inside. 'You called, Lieutenant?'

Josiah walked in about the same time. He looked like he was still asleep and frankly also looking like he was nearly dead anyways. He had a full stubble beard on his face from not shaving for some time, his eyes were sunken with dark bags under his eyes.

"Lieutenant Himeji, I hope you have a good reason for getting me up at the ass crack of dawn." Josiah grumbled, taking a sip of coffee from the large stainless steel mug in his hand, which was emblazoned with the Unicorn Mission Patch, clearly from the Wardroom. He leaned into the shuttle, his head next to Saul's as he looked in at Lieutenant Himeji.

Once both of them were here Kayoko jumped out of the chair and slammed the door down, then locked it shut. "Don't worry, we're not going anywhere." She told them.

She returned to the cockpit. "So, the engines failed over Coridan. The fact that they did that has been bothering me, so I started looking into things." She stated. She began to flick switches and controls on the helm console of the shuttlepod. "I've been using this shuttlepod as a makeshift 'simulator' to replicate what happened. To find what may have gone wrong." She explained. "Watch".

The small screen showed a simulation of the shuttlepod approaching a planet. "As you can see, the approach was perfectly fine. This all matches up, until we enter orbit..."

Kayoko pulled the pod into orbit exactly like the Unicorn was. "If something had happened, like if I stall the engines, or shut off power this happens..." she said as she flicked a switch.

A loud alarm began to blare out, and several red lights lit up. "I got that warning. But... this is where things get interesting." She stated. Slowly the shuttlepod began to descend down towards the planet.

"In order to do a restart of the impulse engines. The system should automatically purge all plasma from the whole impulse system. It's to prevent plasma becoming contaminated which could damage the nacelle coils..." she iniated the restart sequence. Another alarm went off. "The way to dump plasma is opening the plasma ducts."

"There." She said pointing to the roof where the speakers were. "The sensors have detected we're close to an atmosphere and is warning me to close the ducts." She turned around to face them. "I never got that warning. I only closed the ducts once I noticed they were open..."

She stopped for a moment. "Someone disabled that safety alarm. If I hadn't noticed, six seconds later the Unicorn would have ignited the atmosphere killing everyone down there and damaging, if not destroying the entire ship."

'My God,' Whitford exclaimed under his breath, instinctively moving his hand to the crucifix on his chest. He took a big swig of coffee, and looked to the slight Helm Officer. 'And how many times have you run the simulations and not gotten the warning alarm. Just so we're clear in what's being implied here.'

"Including this one I just showed you... twenty six." Kayoko said simply.

Josiah looked over the data again, alarmed. His face showed it, clearly, his eyes wide.

"Suliban?" He postulated for the others. "Jon Archer had the same thing happen to him when he first visited Coridan in 2151 with NX-01." He lothed mentioning Archer but did so to reference the event in question.

"It's possible. They knew that Coridan had high levels of Teteazine in the atmosphere." Kayoko replied. "But, since we're at war with the Romulans... this wasn't an accident or malfunction. Every safety backup was disabled, and then re-enabled later on. Someone tried to cover this up because it failed."

Josiah pondered, thought, his face furrowed in thought. This could be bad. Romulan Sabatours operating in the fleet. How would they even know What or Who to look for? It was a bit much for how early it was.

"Saul," Josiah turned to his XO. "We can not let this get out. It'll be a fucking witch hunt if we tell people we may have sabatours aboard." He turned to the young Lieutenant with a thought in his mind.

"Lieutenant, Continue with your investigation, use whatever resources you need. Commander Whitford can give you the necessary clearances and authority."

'Aye, sir,' Whitford replied with a nod. 'We'll keep a tight lid on it - but we'll need to bring in T'shir at some point or another. Can't have one of the seniormost officers on the ship not be in the loop.' He pondered for a moment. 'She can provide com logs to Himeji.' Saul drained his mug, then looked at the Helm officer, 'you up for digging through the logs to see if we have any anomalies? They have to be communicating somehow.'

"They may not be communicating at all." Kayoko responded. "They may be acting on 'standing orders'. I've read a lot of mystery novels..." she explained. "However. I would suggest tightening security in all vital areas. If they choose to sabotage a critical system such as the Warp Core..." she paused. "You get the idea."

Whitford arched his eyebrows. 'Yes, I think the officer in charge of security gets the idea, Lieutenant.' He nodded, 'they may be operating independently, but I would like to eliminate the possibility of illicit comms.' Straightening to his full height, he stretched. 'For someone who's only read mystery novels, this is good work. We should all get some rest, for now.'

Whitford looked directly at Himeji, 'and Lieutenant, come by my office tomorrow we can go through some Security principles, chain of custody for evidence and the like, just some know we won't be running in circles. Make an appointment for an after-action debrief to cover it.'

Josiah stood tall, looking at the both of them. "Keep me in the loop on this. Both of you." He spoke with an undertone of concern.

"Saul, in the morning, I want you to discretely contact your counterparts though the rest of the fleet, have them also check their systems. Just to cover our asses."

He took another sip of coffee then nodded his head.

"Thank you both."

'No problem, Colonel,' Whitford replied with a nod. The coffee was kicking in to his system, and he knew it would be a while before he could rest. 'I'll get the message out tonight. Can't have saboteurs running around the Fleet after Coridan - the Romulans will be smarting, and putting a few ships out of commission will hit the spot for them.'

Kayoko nodded to Saul, letting him know she would be there. "I'll wipe the shuttlepod logs. So that this meeting never happened," she added.

'Download the simulations to a bio-encrypted PADD keyed to you alone, then wipe any record of it in the ship's computers while you're at it,' Saul advised as he met her eyes. 'Use a drive over-writer if you have to, to scramble it up further. Should make quite the challenge for our Romulan friend.'

"Understood sir," Kayoko responded with a small smile.

"I'll reach out to SOCOM, thank you all. Now, I suggest we all go back to sleep, before people figure out we're missing from our beds. Me included. Gunnar probably noticed I left by now and I don't want an angry Icelander coming after me." Josiah said with a soft smile before he nodded to them both and headed for the doors to the hanger.

Posting by:

Colonel Josiah McEntyre
Commanding Officer

Commander Saul Whitford
Chief Armoury/First Officer

Lieutenant Kayoko Himeji
Chief Helm Officer

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