Brief Brig Briefing

Posted on Wed Dec 4th, 2024 @ 12:54am by Captain Aisling Banerjee & Commander Maxwell Fitzroy & Lieutenant Commander Subak Ren & Lieutenant Commander J'haz Sasha & Lieutenant T’Ux & Lieutenant JG Shijo Yara

1,849 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Crew Shakedown
Location: The Brig
Timeline: tbd

Consciousness returned slowly to T'ux, Fitzroy and Subak. They found themselves in one of the cells in the brig along with Jones and the publican, the latter whom was still unconscious, sleeping on the cot, snoring softly. Jones was seated at the end of the cot, arms crossed, a bemused expression on his face.

On the other side of the force field sat Banerjee, Shijo and Sasha were on hand as well as an unfamiliar Andorian lieutenant Commander. There were a collection of open folding chairs arrayed around her and she was seated in one.

"In matters both military and scientific," the Captain stated, "When one asks a question one expects a clear, direct answer. So when I specifically asked which possible duplicates you saw on Earth I expected to hear a name or names. Your apparent reluctance to tell me whom you saw made me...suspicious."

"It was-" Jones began.

"I. Did. Not. Ask. You."

Jones' mouth snapped shut.

Aisling returned her attention to her three imprisoned officers, "Now, if you want out of there I require an answer. Did you see duplicates, and if so, which duplicates?"

"I thought you heard Ren saying he saw a duplicate of me, and I confirmed what he saw." Fitzroy looks at the Captain. "But I was working out a concussion. So I apologize I was not as direct as you intended me to be Ma'am."

Ren is likewise in a less than agreeable mood, waking up from unexpected unconsciousness for the second time in such a short span. "I will endeavor to be more direct in the future, Captain," he says. "It was either Commander Fitzroy's twin brother, or some other sort of twin. Given that we know we are dealing with a mirror universe, there seems to be an obvious explanation." He remains polite and matter-of-fact, but Subak takes note of the Captain's paranoia. There is likely a very good reason for it; perhaps past experience. Subak remembers the Changeling infiltration from his youth; bad memories.

Aisling gave a nod at that.

T'Ux was deeply agitated... although he had his resting cat face on as usual. The only tell-tail signs were his tail flicking, and ears. "I did not see any duplicates Captain. I apologise if I was too focused on finishing the treatment to your leg rather than providing you an answer. I figured one of the others would respond while I did my job. But I will note down for future reference of your preferences. I trust there is no further issue so far with the leg?" His tone was curt and polite, although there was no mistaking his anger he felt at what he perceived as injustice.

"Lieutenant S'Lace treated the leg," Aisling replied, "It is fine as long as I do not have to kick anyone," she regarded the trio of officers as if she were pondering just that. Then she gave a sigh, "Very well! This," she nodded to the Andorian, "Is lieutenant Commander th'Voluthrianshain," she carefully enunciated the officer's name, "he is our new Chief Tactical Officer. You will find some PADDs in your cell there, I believe the publican is using them as a makeshift pillow. We will be leaving as soon as we get clearance; I want to be on our way to rendezvous with Duranik and Leath. Just a few things to cover; our enemy has attacked two away teams, it is possible they might be attacking a third as we speak. What else would the enemy attempt? Second, I believe there was talk about pursuing information regarding our mystery attacker whose body was left behind in the warehouse below?"

She glanced at Yara and Sasha.

T’Ux’s tail twitched more. “Captain you are behaving rashly. How do we know you’re who you actually are?”

Subak glances over at the Caitian. The Doctor and he are on the same wavelength, it seems.

"You mean, how do you know I wasn't replaced by a duplicate when I went down to the surface, my leg wound caused by a fight with the 'real' Aisling Banerjee, and Yara here is another duplicate and Lirien was a casualty in the fight, and both lieutenant Commanders Sasha and th'Voluthrianshain are my Mirror Universe minions, and I am keeping you in that cell until such time as your evil counterparts arrive to replace you?"

Banerjee paused, then gave a reluctant shrug, "Well, when I put it like that..."

Subak raises an eyebrow at the mention of Lieutenant Lirien being a casualty. "You do bring up interesting possibilities, Captain," he says.

She sighed and turned to Yara, "Lieutenant, switch off the cell's force field," she turned back to the cell's inhabitants, "A quick way to confirm I am the 'good' Asiling Banerjee is for Commander Fitzroy to ask me about something only he and I would know, or have Elle interrogate me in regards to our first meeting. But please make it quick; we do need to be going and we have a great deal to cover in a very short time."

Yara does as commanded.

"Sounds like a proper plan, Captain." Fitzroy looks over the Captain. "In our first conversation, before we started our mission, we discussed our chief engineer and any concerns he might have over Elle. What did I say that affirmed my faith in Star Fleet and our Engineer?" He coughs "And what was the response when I asked you about the Kirk/Picard debate? How did the discussion on away missions resolve?"

Aisling paused as she tried to recall the details of the conversation.

"Neither Picard or Kirk were mentioned," she replied, "But you wished to determine if I was a Captain who preferred to be in the field. Elle attempted to insert her opinion on the matter and I conceded there were others more qualified to taking risks. And if I recall you and Elle were both in agreement.

"As to Leath, you mentioned the diversity of cultures, races, creeds in Starfleet," she smiled, "And you mentioned something about no one getting a Bat'leth to the skull."

She sighed, "Now, all of you were scanned by Commander Sasha; beings from another universe have a unique 'signature' and all of you are, thankfully, native to this universe. She also scanned everyone else here in this room so we are all 'clean'. A corpse was left behind on the surface and we have identified them as a Starfleet crewman, that is as far as we have gotten. There is still no word from Leath and Duranik, which disturbs me. I have made preparations to leave as soon as we have clearance. I think that catches all of us up."

"Its not like this is the first time I had to take a nap after a mission." Fitzroy laughs.

Ren takes in all this information, stroking his beard pensively. "If the Commander is satisfied you are the real Captain," he says, "then I suppose that is that." There is one more thing, though, that prevents Subak from feeling that he is all caught up. "But what was that you said about Lieutenant Lirien being a casualty?" he asks, turning his attention to the Andorian for a moment before looking back to the Captain.

Fitzroy nods to Ren, acknowledging he accepts the Captain's statements.

Aisling visibly winced, "I apologize. That was an entirely hypothetical scenario and perhaps a touch acerbic. Lieutenant Lirien is fine; she is temporarily assigned to the warehouse where the device was being stored, acting as liaison for that facility's commanding officer, while we gained lieutenant Commander Sasha. Now, let's move on, shall we?"

"People trying to kill you does set one on edge." Fitzroy nods to the Captain. Ren hmms his agreement to that sentiment.

Yara checks on the scans to see how easily they could be intergrated into ongoing security procedures. Then contacts command to get details of who has gone missing. He puts in requests for missing non-starfleet personnel as well, and begins to build an analysis of this to see if there are any discernable patterns.

"What else do we need to get done before we leave ma'am?" Fitzroy says straightening himself up.

T'Ux was quiet for a bit as Aisling confirmed some details. The feline was still quite surly on being gassed like that and then tossed in the brig. Not that he didn't understand why the captain did that, but he still didn't like it. "If there's no objections I would like to head back to sick bay to resume my duties." He would however check if Jones and the publican needed any more assistance medically speaking.

Yara collates information, noting a significant pattern. "Captain, all of the 'missing' personnel, were serving aboard the Capital ship of Luna Class, The Knossos. You may remember that they went missing 19 months ago, and was found nine months ago, having been severely damaged in a freak ion storm. About twenty percent fatalities including the captain and xo. I am checking the location of other survivors - starting at most senior. I wonder if the whole crew was replaced... ".

Sasha stood up from her biobed and folded her hands behind her in a casual version of parade rest.
'That is a plausible supposition, one that fits the facts given us. I would suggest moving forwards with this as a a working theory until new facts present themselves."

Meanwhile, Subak gets up and fetches one of the PADDs that had been serving as pillows. After checking for any information that had been pre-earmarked for his attention, Ren checks the stardate, the time, and sends a message to his team to confirm the crew rotation and task status - and the ship's cat status. Can't forget the cat. He looks up, when Yara speaks. "That is indeed logical," he says, after Sasha's remark. "In other news, you may be interested to learn, Captain, that Pawsitive Charge has discovered a favorite sleeping spot, right in the medical bay." Dr. T'Ux may find the exact location - right on top of one of the workstations - a bit less than favorable, but Ren will mention that when it becomes necessary.

Aisling stared incredulously at Subak. They were dealing with extra-dimensional invaders that might have very well hijacked a Starfleet vessel. One of the invaders was a duplicate of their first officer, And the Chief Operations Officer was worried about...the cat?

She stood, "Fine. We kick this up to Starfleet Intelligence and see what they want done. Mister Jones, I assume you will make yourself available for a debrief regarding the part you are playing in all this?"

Jones shrugged, "I have no place I need to be, Captain. If your ship has a pub I would be more than happy to provide my services as bartender," he gave Subak an ureadable look, "I would even make an effort to keep the cat out of mischief."

"I...will consider it," Aisling replied after a pause. She strode out of the brig, wondering briefly about the mental state of her Chief of Operations...

 

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