Bridge Training: Cardassian Conspiracy (Part V)

Posted on Sun Feb 18th, 2024 @ 7:02am by Cadet Senior Grade Meghan Stefani & Cadet Senior Grade Daniel Weaver & Cadet Junior Grade Shafin Todenhöfer
Edited on on Tue Mar 5th, 2024 @ 10:31am

1,334 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Cadet Cruise
Location: Bridge

[PREVIOUSLY]

"Or a trap set by the Cardassians?" Daniel replied softly, looking to Shafin. "But then why would they want us gone?" He paused for a moment before adding. "Maybe it's not meant for us and we just happen to be close enough to pick up on the call?" He looked from Shafin, then back to Meghan. More confused. "But the message is my grandfather... isn't it?!" He crossed his arms over his chest and looked down. "This makes no sense. If it was a Bajoran trap for the Cardassians than we aren't in danger by the ship inside because it’s my grandfather in command. Unless its Maquis? But he died before the formation of the Maquis." He let out another sigh, only getting more and more frustrated as the mystery seemed to get confusing. "What are we missing?"

[CONTINUED]

"Or a trap set by the Cardassians?" Daniel replied softly, looking to Shafin. "But they why would they want us gone?" He paused for a moment before adding. "Maybe it's not meant for us and we just happen to by close enough to pick up on the call?" He looked from Shafin, then back to Meghan. More confused. "But the message is my grandfather... isn't it?!" He crossed his arms over his chest and looked down. "This makes no sense. If it was a Bajoran trap for the Cardassians than we aren't in danger by the ship inside because it’s my grandfather in command. Unless its Maquis? But he died before the formation of the Maquis." He let out another sigh, only getting more and more frustrated as the mystery seemed to get confusing. "What are we missing?"

"Answers," replied Shafin. "If we try to interfere with the Cardassians legal system even as much as I disagree with its whole design, we could find ourselves on trial."

"We don't know why, we only have the what," Meghan said. "The why may take time, and I'm working on it, but we may not find the answers in time. I urge caution because it still feels wrong."

"I agree," Shafin said. "Nothing about this making sense to me."

"This would be so much easier if we could communicate with the ship." Daniel placed his hands on the top of the console and let out a frustrated sigh. "But, of course not, that would make it easier. Being able to talk to that ship would be make this much easier and why would the Commodore want to make this easy." He clenched his hands into a fists and closed his eyes. "It's like he's determined to give us every roadblock in the history of Starfleet encounters. No one be surprised is the Borg suddenly show up, okay. That would just be icing on the cake."

Tara softly tapped a finger on the console "Didn't the Bajorans have a method to communicate even when their systems were down? Old Terrans used a set of dots sent electrically and sometime later used pings and flashing lights. Maybe you can get their attention that way. Also, did we try to scan their engines? You'd think that if they needed help and their engines worked, they'd try to shorten the distance with us."

Meghan looked over to her. "That doesn't work if there's too much interference. The nebula itself is keeping us from getting any sort of communication. That includes Morse Code and semaphores."

Emma frowned as she tapped on the tactical console. "I can't identify any sort of weapons on that ship," she said. "The interference from the nebula is also affecting the tactical sensors." she took a brief pause. "That includes the targeting sensors, so if we do have to fight. I'll have to target manually, by line of sight. I can't guarantee that any of my shots will be that accurate."

"Firing blindly with phasers would be inadvisable" Shafin responded prompted by Emma's assessment. "Torpedoes even worse. If we are to be pulled into engagement, we may want to do it close up and personal."

"Plus... we haven't established whether the ship is a friend or foe. We could destroy a friendly without know it." Daniel replied. "That would be bad."

"A logical understatement" quipped Shafin. "A sure fire way not to impress our proctors" he added. "We'll proceed with caution."

Meghan had the distress call broken down into sound waves and had each sound listed separately to compare them. "Umm...look at this. I thought of a lecture I attended on music and how you can break a song down to sound waves for each voice and instrument. I thought I'd try it on the distress call and look." She let them see what she'd done. "They don't look like they're from the same signal. One of them is stronger and clearer than the others. I think this is a compilation, not one signal."

Daniel looked at the console, looking up to Shafin quickly, before focusing again on Meghan. "Is there any way this could be because of the Nebula?" He started to work his way through the information he had. The 'Science Vessel' not being a science vessel. The Cardassians suddenly appearance and insistence they stand down. Now, the distress call's signal being split. "Meghan... is there a way this distress call could be a recording or fabricated to sound like it was from my grandfather, Weaver Sul?"

"I'll leave the science to Meghan," stated Shafin. "It wouldn't be the first time something was faked or altered" he added.

"It could be fabricated, yes. Or part of it. If it were multiple signals bouncing around in the nebula, we'd have echoes. This looks more like someone deliberately took a recording of your grandfather and mixed it with the signal and sent it out. As the ship looks Bajoran, it makes sense they could have accessed a recording from somewhere."

She put a hand on Daniel's arm. "You have to forget about your grandfather. He isn't there. Think of this as any random Bajoran ship that may be hiding from the Cardassians. You have to figure out if one or the other is the aggressor or if both of them are at fault in this. Then decide what we need to do." Then, more softly she added, "I know you can do this."

Shafin observed the reassuring hand on Daniel's arm. Nope thought the counseling student. Shafin was not resting his hand on Daniel's arm, shoulder, or any part of him. Which will be fine with the both of us. He took in what Meghan was saying and decided to speak up. "If someone has gone to the length of transmitting Daniel's grandfather's voice, the probability they would randomly select that recording is minimal. Therefore, this was thought out and intentional. Is it.... bait and have we taken it?"

Daniel stood there silently, his mind locked in a circle of thoughts, all pertaining to the situation. The Cardassians. His distress call from his grandfather’s ship. The mystery on whether or not the ship in the nebula was friend of foe. All of this was planted to test Daniel's reaction, set by his father the Commodore, because he knew he would take it. This was a trap. Not for the crew, but for Daniel, and as far as he was concerned he had enough.

Meghan's hand tightened on his arm. He was right, this WAS a trap, but he couldn't take the bait set just for him. He had to forget his father was behind this and work with his crew to get through this training. However, she was sorely tempted to find the man and give him a piece of her mind. Or, better yet, she'd contact Daniel's mother and tell HER what her ex-husband was doing to sabotage their son's career.

(To be continued...)

Cadet Senior Grade Daniel Weaver
Acting CO

Cadet Junior Grade Shafin Todenhöfer
Acting Executive Officer

Cadet Senior Grade Meghan Stefani
Acting Chief Science Officer

 

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