Post 487: Home Field Advantage

Stardate:71010.1600
Title: Home Field Advantage
Author: =/\= Zanh Liis
Scene: USS Independence, various
Time: Following "Welcome to Yensul 2 and "Alone in a Crowd 2"
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Zanh Liis immediately felt as if she could breathe more easily the moment her feet were once again standing firmly upon the deck plates of the USS Independence.

She, Blane and Jariel materialized before their guests, and she spoke now to each man in turn.

"I have a job for each of you." Zanh handed Jariel a PADD that she'd been given by Tegget just before they'd beamed out. "He offered me this religious literature as a gift. Jariel, I want you to speed read through it and tell me in an hour if there's anything in here that we need to know. Look especially for references to converting other people to the faith, and any mention of this 'multi-faceted family' structure they were talking about."

Jariel took the PADD and nodded. [[I'll get to work right away, Captain. Lieutenant.]] He nodded to Blane, then headed for his office. She took a breath before speaking to Blane.

"Thomas, I really have to ask you to take one for the team on this," She hurried to finish as the transporter operator informed her that the party on the planet was still waiting; impatiently, from the sound of it. "They can wait until I'm finished," she replied with irritation, and then she turned back to Blane. "I would like you to take them on a brief tour of the ship. Have a little chat with them. Man to man. "

He whistled softly. "Does it have to be man to man?"

"I know it's asking a lot. But it's apparent I'm not going to get anything out of them myself. Try to get through it as best you can. Don't resort to entrapment to get them to confess any outright wrongdoing should anything be going on behind closed doors. . .but ask questions that must be answered more in-depth than with a yes or a no. I trust you. You'll do fine."

"I'll do my best."

"After about an hour, show them to quarters and let them get freshened up. Tell them we convene in the main conference room in two hours time to begin the talks, then brief me on how your tour went. I may want, at that point, to start asking if they've seen any sign of the Alchemy. At this moment, though I'm just not ready to volunteer that much. Not until we know what we're really dealing with."

"Understood." Blane said. "Anything else Captain?" He asked as she paused in the doorway.

"Give them just enough rope, Mr. Blane."

He knew just what she meant, and he believed she was right. It wouldn't take much. If his instincts were correct and they did have something more to hide, given just enough rope, these people were surely going to hang themselves.

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Zanh made her way to Engineering and found Stratton and Briggs working with Micah Samson from Science. They had relieved T'Ana and Dengar, who had been woken from sleep and up all night modifying the sensors.

"Report."

"Lily and Rada used the information you provided to reconfigure external sensors to look for any trace of the Alchemy, Captain," Lt. Samson, the senior officer, replied. "We have found what appears to be the slightest trace of Alchemy's transwarp signature in the Yensul system but no sign of the ship itself."

"Show me."

Samson changed the information on his screen and pointed to a map of Yensuli space. "See this? That variation right there, it's consistent with a very faint transwarp signature. The moons here have a lot of comet activity going on. There also seems to be an unexplained change in the density of the space itself around these moons. The have a heavier gravity pull than they should for moons so small. See?" he pointed to further information and Zanh nodded.

"Any chance they ran into problems from the comet activity or these dense gravity pockets and landed on one of those moons for repairs?"

"We scanned all three moons, Sir, and there is no sign of any life or technology on them."

"No debris fields, either?"

"No, Sir."

*That's a relief, anyway,* Zanh sighed. "So basically, we have every reason to believe that they came out of transwarp as scheduled and then they just vanished?"

"Unfortunately." Benjamin Stratton added. "We're still fine-tuning the equipment, Captain, and are about to run another set of sensor sweeps of the moons. But as far as we can tell, if Alchemy did come out of transwarp here, they didn't stay here. Or,"

He stopped short of saying what he was thinking, but Zanh read his expression clearly enough. It said, 'or there was an explosion and there isn't enough left of the Alchemy for us to find'.

She nodded soberly. "Thank you, everyone. Keep me advised."

Zanh noticed that Ensign Briggs looked particularly distraught by the fact that they couldn't find the Alchemy, and while not knowing why, Zanh still put a hand on the girl's shoulder.

"We'll find them, Ensign. We won't stop looking until we find them. The moment you have new information, find me. I'll be on the bridge."

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Zanh exited the lift to the bridge, and as she looked around at the young faces surrounding her, each holding a place at a station that a more familiar form usually occupied, she suddenly felt very sick to her stomach. *Where the hell are you, Salvek?*

"Captain on the bridge." N'Dura declared, rising from the center chair. She'd been in command of the ship while Zanh and Blane visited the planet.

"Report, Lt. Commander."

"All systems are functioning within established parameters, Captain." N'Dura responded. She slowly shifted her eyes to the ceiling and leaned closer to the Bajoran. "I need to have a word with you, Sir. Privately."

"Very well." Zanh moved into the ready room without delay, and the Klingon followed. She had not been looking forward to this- but now was the time for her to try to explain to Zanh Liis that late last night, Fox Margolis had tried to set Xander Corbinsky free.

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=/\= Captain Zanh Liis
Acting Commanding Officer
USS Independence NCC-90791