Pulling In the Net

Posted on Tue Aug 9th, 2022 @ 1:06pm by Lieutenant Commander Andrei Petrov & Lieutenant Johnathan Anderson III & Lieutenant Commander Lyra Cassiel & Lieutenant JG Taina M'Tras & Lieutenant Sovas Nyseth & Lieutenant JG Andrea Carrington

Mission: S1 Episode 3: Phage
Location: Cargobay 1
Timeline: Mission Day 3 at 1530
2640 words - 5.3 OF Standard Post Measure

Operations crew moved quickly, loading and moving grates and barrels of materials, some of which were retrieved from their freighter raids, but a small number of which were gathered from the planet. After the away teams returned, they took a half hour to refresh themselves with showers and changes of clothes before meeting in the Cargobay.

Andrei walked the corridor outside the cargobay, his newly wetted hair draping over his shoulders. He had shed his Kazon and was coming alone, walking the ship like he owned it as always. As he approached the door, he spotted Madeline standing against the wall with her head zeroed in on a PADD. He looked at her, but said nothing at such a distance.

After a visit to sickbay, Madeline had been able to fit in a quick sonic shower and changed back into her usual choice of uniform. She would have liked a little while longer but she was also fully aware that wasn't really an option at this point. It hadn't helped matters that she went to bed too late and had woken up far too early. Such was life when one wanted to suss out all the little secrets and goings on. She was intently reading over the initial report, but her head lifted immediately when she heard steps getting closer and she turned to look. When she saw Andrei, she actually seemed to relax a bit and lowered the PADD. With no one else around at the moment, she spoke with a slight smirk. "Forget your puppies? Or did they get a time out for bad manners?"

"One of them has returned to his duties and the other is in the agonizer for the next two hours. He must learn to watch his tongue." Andrei said without even a hint of moral dissonance about any of it. He stopped in front of her, placing a hand in his wet black hair and trying to ignore his sore body. He too had been through a tremendous amount and had very little sleep. He wouldn't let it show if he could avoid it, especially because he seemed weak enough as it was. "Besides, I don't need a Kazon entourage on Vengeance. How's your tummy then?"

"Well I didn't have anyone around to kiss it better, but your sister patched it up just fine for me." She replied easily, her eyes wandering almost lazily to his. He carried himself well and truthfully if she hadn't already known he was in rough shape, he might have even fooled her. She had to give credit for that.

"Well, next time you need only call." he said, not bothering with any superficial expressions. "I might not be a doctor, but kissing it better is a gesture I might readily offer. Baby sister can only do so much, no matter the quality of her bedside manner."

"I think baby sister can do just fine when she wants to." Madeline replied with another smirk. It wasn't suggestive; or was it? It was hard to tell. She didn't let it linger though and continued, "Looks like we had a pretty good haul over all."

"That's what I hear." he said, not having seen the report himself. He placed a hand on her arm and gently suggested the direction she should go without using force or significant strength. "Let's get in there and speak with the others. If we stand in the hallway chatting for too long, people will start to talk."

"Heavens, we wouldn't want that." She said and placed a hand on her chest as if she were offended by the very thought. Without further coaxing though, she turned to the door and stepped away from his guiding hand to walk inside.

The two of them entered the Cargobay and, ignoring the crew handling their steal, made a cool beeline toward a collection of senior staff.

"I hear we brought in a pretty big haul. Is that right?" Andrei asked the group without formal greeting.

Johnathan looked over at Andrei and grinned slightly. "Much better than that Talaxian claimed, it seems." He stepped over and offered his hand. "Haven't had the chance yet...Congratulations on your new ship, Captain. Anytime you want to head to the drag strip, I'll be glad to race you to the line."

"Thank you, Johnathan. It seems there are many professional responsibilities opening up in our small fleet." Andrei said, shaking the man's hand firmly. "Congrats on Second Officer."

Dipping his head slightly, respectfully, Johnathan replied. "Thank you, Sir."

Madeline wandered up to the group slower than Andrei had moved. She didn’t speak, merely offered a smile and nod. She was just a placeholder here, after all.

Andrea nodded as she looked towards Andrei. “We have indeed Sir. Lieutenants Anderson, M’Tras, and I found a vein of it. We dug out what we could haul of it, but there’s still plenty more down there.”

Johnathan looked over at Andrea and nodded his head towards her.

Sovas was keeping an eye on the the Operations crews working to sort out not only the hauls from their raids but what they had retrieved from the planet. "It seems there are quite a few rich veins of the minerals we were told about, Lieutenant Selin and I were able to locate a vein that appears to run deep into the planet."

"Though the local wildlife does seem particularly aggressive given the rather large ursine like creature with scaled skin like a snake we encountered nesting near our vein." The hybrid man offered while finally turning to face Andrei, though his attention was immediately drawn toward Madeline as he felt the presence in his mind seemed to take a keen interest in her. His mind filled with the memories of the women he had slept with back on Earth and Mars, it was almost a physical sensation for the half-Vulcan as he did his best to not outwardly show what his unwelcome passenger was dredging up. Though it seemed to stop as the memories of learning what Pon Farr was, his father teaching him that it was a time in which he allowed his Vulcan blood to indulge in mindless violence while his mother had secretly taught him that it was the time that a Vulcan would experience the primal biological urges of the bodies. She did concede that a Vulcan could purge the Pon Farr through violence but it could also be done through mating as well, though he had chosen to embrace an outlet through violence instead of indulging in the biological urge to procreate.

He felt his pulse racing, his eyes narrowing while sweat beaded on his brow as he continued to watch Madeline intently for a moment or two more before he managed to pull his attention away from her. He instead chose to focus on his PADD and the updating reports of their cargo.

At first Andrei thought the half-Vulcan was staring at him, his forehead beading with sweat and his breathing speeding. After a second thought, however, he realized he was staring at Maddie. She was still positioned behind him, so he didn't hesitate as he stepped quickly between Nyseth's line of sight, locking eyes with the man as he did so and blocking his view of Maddie. It wasn't necessarily a possessive act, but more a protective one.

"We encountered some pretty mean cat-like creatures in the mountain caves. We found a vein there with many of Dalium-Cobalt crystals with no knowledge of how much more might be there." he said, watching the strange behavior of the man. "Are you alright, Lieutenant?"

Johnathan was about to state that his team had found more than just the desired crulystal, but other precious stones and metals too. However, when he heard Andrei speaking, he looked over at the target of his attention.

Despite his best efforts to focus on the details on the PaDD, the numbers of containers, the contents and which crew were assigned to which tasks it was all for naught upon hearing Andrei's voice. Instead of the intense sexual interest he had been showing to Madeline, the entity found new amusements for itself as it triggered the savage rage that boiled in its host's blood during the curious biological phenomena known as Pon Farr. The half Vulcan's head shot up, his eyes were wide and pupils pinpoint focused on the other man. He could feel his muscles tightening, his breathing becoming deeper while his heart was beating to fuel that primal biological drive to fight. To dominate. To kill. To mate. He barely heard the sounds of the world around them so focused on the other male between him and the woman that had captured the entity's fascination as his chest felt tight with the rage he was bottling up inside, his muscles tight as the PADD in his hand began to creak, the rush of blood in his ear a cacophony of bestial desire.

A moment before it was shattered by his hand suddenly crushing the PaDD, breaking it apart into so many useless pieces as Sovas seemed to comeback to himself with a start, looking around a bit wild eyed before he seemed to compose himself with a few deep breaths to seemingly center himself. He gave a nod, a bit curt and stiff as he placed his hands behind his back to hide their shaking and the fact that he was also bleeding from the broken PADD. "Y-yes, Lieutenant, I'm still suffering from the effects of the coma I fell into during our transition here, Doctor Reed explained that I might have episodes of varying intensity."

His voice was hoarse and his tone waivered while he spoke, his eyes fixed firmly on the floor as he clenched his hand containing the broken PaDD, the components crunching as he used the pain to center himself, feeling the entity receding as it was seemingly sated.

Madeline had immediately noticed the look she had received from Sovas when he had looked past Andrei. The irritation had been instant, but it didn't appear on her face. No, the only thing she let appear there was a look of mild concern and a frown of discomfort. She was more than a little - and genuinely - surprised when Andrei stepped in front of her to shield her from this man who she hadn't even been in the presence of for ten minutes looking at her like he was ready to violate her even in front of these people. Surprising herself, she also felt... thankful. After taking a moment to just be out of sight, she took a step out from behind Andrei just in time to see the PADD shatter in Sovas' hands. Her arms came up and crossed in a defensive gesture, one hand lingering very near the dagger at her side. She eyed Sovas warily, the frown still on her lovely face.

"I could pass on seeing the cats again, really." She spoke up loudly enough to be heard and to break the tension but not in an assertive way. She managed a half smile to go along with it.

Andrea moved across to Sovas, but kept a wary distance so as not to make him feel threatened. “Lieutenant, if you’re not well I can take over here for now?” She offered a friendly smile.

M'Tras couldn't help tensing with the growing tension in the room. Her eyes also moved to Sovas. Terrans ruled in the Empire and yet it was well-known that Vulcans could be formidable, physically and otherwise. A PADD was not easy to break. Then she looked at Andrea. For now, she stayed ready but didn't throw herself into the situation. It might be best, she thought, to just let everyone calm down.

The half-Vulcan frowned as he looked to Andrea, his brow furrowing deeper as he felt like he was going insane before letting out a deep breath. "I am fine Ensign, though I will let you know if I need any assistance." His voice was still tight but aside from the fact that he was holding himself rather stiffly, he wasn't displaying any of the aberrant behavior from before.

His attention turned to Andrei and Madeline as he let out another slow, deep breath. "Though if either of you would prefer I leave, I would understand." His statement was cautious since he didn't know why he'd been triggered into what he could best describe as Pon Farr though it still wasn't time for that.

“Truthfully,” Madeline spoke up, the mild annoyance of someone seemingly embarrassed and an unnerved note both laced her voice, “I feel like if we all just focused for the next five to ten minutes and stopped dwelling on it, we could all leave and move on to better things.”

Having heard her response, Andrei turned his attention back to the meeting as if none of it had happened. He looked at Sovas with analytical eyes, but hardly challenged him.

“Right then. We have four drop teams tasked with digging into the earth and grabbing as many as we can. It won’t be safe, so we’re leaning on Kazon crews to safeguard Terran lives.” Andrei said. “Have you anything else to report?”

"The Dalium-Cobalt crystals can easily be broken off by hand and gathered that way but it would he highly inefficient, science teams had found that they do not respond well to nadion particles used in our phasers as it can cause a cascade resonance to develop and cause the crystal to explode," The half-Vulcan replied to Andrei, holding his gaze and giving him a nod.

"Manual tools and when we need to break though I suggest that it be explosives experts from our crew since I'm certain that the Kazon would end up blowing themselves up along with collapsing the cavern tunnels."

"I have explosives training and experience," Johnathan spoke up helpfully. He would do anything to prove himself worthy of Kassandra's hand to the Captain.

"Sir, however expertly done, extensive controlled demolition will have an impact on the structural integrity of the caverns. If we're going to be mining, I'd like to put in some ceiling and wall supports," M'Tras volunteered.

"And between the two of you and Operations, you should be able to plan the digs with everything considered." Andrei said, looking between Johnathan, Taina, and Sovas. My Kazon will be at your disposal at every stage."

"We'll send some security personnel with the teams to keep an eye out for any more hostile wildlife." Madeline offered up, having nothing useful logistically to add, but at least could provide protection. Her eyes moved over the group with interest, studying their faces and expressions in silence.

Though distracted by his previous behavior, Sovas did at least seem to be keeping up with the conversation as the half-Vulcan looked to Andrei again, giving a nod. "I'll see to it that shifts, necessary equipment and transport schedules are set up and distributed,"

Johnathan nodded respectfully to Andrei. "Thank you, Sir.

Andrei grinned. Even though he had a command, it didn’t technically out him in charge of this team. In fact, considering Johnathan was second officer of Vengeance and almost all elements of the mission involved Vengeance crew, he had just as good a claim on running the show. But Andrei had heard about his deal with Kassandra and his father and suspected he had become a bit of a puppy hoping to impress. He shook his head; that was the opposite of what his father would want, but it played into his hands instead.

They continued the meeting for just a few more minutes, discussing logistics and making plans for how they would move things forward, and then Andrei dismissed them.