Chapter 3: Good Tides and Fair Winds (part 1)

Chapter 3: Good Tides and Fair Winds (part 1)

Sometime after Hartzer and Pasqual's departed the Ready Room, Sterling completed initial preparations for exiting Spacedock. Once the whole long, dreary paperwork was finally over, he then activated his combadge.

“Lieutenant Commander Archer, after you’ve confirmed that the ship is secure, set up a personnel background check of all crew members. Screen for any anomalous or unusual notes or logs in their records. With the delicate and profound nature of this upcoming mission, I want you to verify that we don’t have any conspirators on our ship. If you find anything questionable at all, notify me immediately and then follow-up with a full security investigation. Sterling out.”

He then contacted the Chief Engineer.

“Mister Hanson, continue with a thorough diagnostic of all engineering systems. I want your team to check and recheck that all systems are fully operational. Then I want you to assemble an emergency response team trained to react and respond to a series of possible ship-wide emergency scenarios. Include key members from all three shifts and have them report all results directly to you. We’re about to depart Spacedock Mr. Hanson… confirm that your department is ready to engage thrusters, impulse engines and warp drive at my command. Sterling out.”

Next up was the science department.

“Science Chief Richards, meet me on the bridge in two minutes and debrief me of methods your team has been working on to detect clocked signals and cloaked vessels at a greater range and accuracy. Sterling out.”

M'elena was at this very moment arriving on the bridge, her step light. She had some good news. Lieutenant Than and her four teams had already improved sensors by fifteen percent. Finishing inputting the data the science department had already collected, the Caitan let out a soft sigh.

Humans still puzzled her a little. She'd grown up mostly on Cait, but the last four years had been spent on Earth and in the Academy, living with her father. Yet, they still puzzled her.

Captain Sterling was such a puzzle but, whatever it was, M'elena had put down to cultural differences. M'elena watched as Captain Sterling came in as she picked up a PADD waiting on the science console. M'elena had guessed Sterling was prone to what Vulcans would call emotional outbursts.

In shortthe science chief thought, he is going to get us all killed.

She just hoped it would be quick and painless.

Then, there was the first officer. She'd not been able to work her out at all. She smelled strange... as did half the crew come to think of it. What it was, she couldn't say.

Sterling then contacted the Chief Medical Officer.

“Doctor Cyl, meet me on the bridge in three minutes and fill me in on the status of ship personnel medical exams. Sterling out.”

His last contact was to his First Officer who was also the ship’s Operations officer.

“Commander Hartzer, confirm that all bridge officer are in place and that all duty rosters and shifts are in full operation. Let me know immediately of any discrepancies. I’m heading to the bridge now. Sterling out.”

“Aye, suh,” she said, tapping her own badge. She pulled out her PADD and did just that there in the turbo. Duty rosters seemed good. Everyone was on board. All equipment was loaded...
almost all actually. Some EPS relay parts were overdue, as were some miscellaneous items for Ops and Science. They should have been onboard twenty minutes ago. Frazetti blinked, considered this, and decided to check it out; it couldn’t hurt.

“Cargo Bay 5.”

The turbo took her there with quiet efficiency. The scene it opened on was anything but.

“Yeah? Well if you’d get your goddamn antigrav pallet outta my freaking way...”

“Out of YOUR way? You ran into me, pinkskin!!”

Several enlisted crewmembers, two humans wearing the yellow of Ops and an Andorian in science blues, were engaged in an escalating argument. Boxes were tipped over on their sides around them, and the industrial transporter was unmanned and sitting useless. Well. That explained the delay.

She walked up behind them unannounced while the shouting match grew in volume. Frazetti drew in a breath...

And whistled. It was ear-piercing and cut through the arguing like a hot knife through cheese. They turned to face her and, uniformly, blanched.

“Gents.”

“Uh, C-Commander, I didn’t see you there,” stammered one of the Ops personnel.

“Evidently not. Mistuh… Cooper, ain’t it? An’ Miz Grayson?” The two Ops members mumbled assent. She turned and regarded the Andorian, who had been looking rather triumphant. “An’ you’d be Mistuh Thasvisharam.”

“Uh, yes, Commander.”

She waited a beat for them to sweat under her blue eyes. “I was wonderin’ why dere was a delay in beamin’ over da supplies we’ll need for our trip. Is dere a problem here?”

Everyone shook their heads vigorously.

She smiled.

“Aces. Now, let’s get dis cleaned up an’ be on our way, eh?”

Well aware they had been let off easy; she got enthusiastic replies from all three.

She moved to help as well; no point in having it take longer when she could pitch in. And it would be good for people to see that the new first officer wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. The first officer on her last ship had been so above the rest of the ship, and she was determined to not be like that. She had to be approachable. They had the pallet reloaded in minutes, and through some careful discussion of springball she got the three talking about just how awesome the Saturn Slammers were.

By the time she left ten minutes later, they were practically best friends, and the area was back in action. They’d have the last of the supplies shortly.

She didn’t allow herself to smile until she was back in the turbo. There, in private, a grin split her face.

Score.

Meanwhile, in the Ready Room, the Captain then deactivated his computer terminal, took his last sips of his moderately warm mint tea and then placed the cup back down in the carved in cupholder. He then stood up, straightened out his new uniform and proceed out to the bridge.

Arriving onto to the main bridge a few steps away, he briefly glanced panoramically at all of the bridge stations: from Science through Communications. A youthful officer manning the tactical station noticed the Captain standing there and stood up at full attention:

“Captain on the bridge!” as the remaining officers immediately stood up from their post as well.

Sterling smirked at the enthusiastic officers and signaled them to sit down and resume their posts and then stated:

“While such formality is appreciated and acknowledged, let us consider that display of official respect for rank sufficient to last for the remainder of this mission.”

M'elena watched as Captain Sterling returned, she picked up the PADD waiting on the science console.

"My report sir, science is working on a way of projecting a tetryon beam to detect a cloaking field, sensor efficacy is up fifteen percent. We can now scan an extra half parsec in front and around the ship. Science lab two is working on detecting power emissions from a cloaked vessle. Science lab three is working on directly pin pointing the power consumption of the tetryon compositor. The tetryon compositor as we know creates the subatomic field which allows a cloaking device to function. Science lab one is...not functioning again, the power coupling in the lab needs replacement"

The Caitan Science officer seemed rather nervous and a bit agitated to Sterling. He wondered if this position was not a bit too strenuous for her. He made a mental note to have Pasqual stop by and visit with the science chief and gauge her aptitude for this position.

“Thank you Lieutenant M’elena,” the Captain responded; “perhaps your science team could also work with our engineering staff in modifying sensor arrays and recalibrating the deflector configurations to enhance the various tetryon functions. Also, contact Starbase requisitions immediately and have them send you a replacement power coupling before we depart. They will most likely need to beam it aboard because we won’t have time to wait for it to be shuttled over. Then see if you can get the sensor efficiency levels up to twenty-five percent while we are en route. Let me or Commander Hartzer know if there are any other issues, concerns or updates to report. Thank you.”

Sterling then walked down as the other officers acknowledged his order and resumed their duty at their respective posts. He came to the center seat and proceeded to sit down and get himself acclimated to the newly refitted chair along with his newly granted promotion to Captaincy.

He then glanced down at the controls built-in within the arms of the chairs and engaged the ship-wide communications switch.

“Greetings again, crew of the starship Icarus. This is Captain Sterling. We are about to begin undocking procedures momentarily. I realize that this has been a somewhat tumultuous undertaking arriving to a new ship and while under such limiting time constraints striving to prepare yourself and your departments for our upcoming missions. The tension is high and your patience may be limited. Remember though, we are a team aboard this vessel and we are each responsible for the welfare of our ship and her crew. That includes knowing your position and all of its responsibilities thoroughly while also demonstrating respect and appreciation for your fellow crew members. As members of Starfleet, you know the code in which we follow. By now, you should also know all Federation General Orders and Directives by heart. Nevertheless, you will see these posted and displayed in all common off-duty areas; such as the mess halls and recreational areas. It is our duty not only to follow the letters of these laws, but to live and work within the spirit of what these regulations represent.”

Sterling paused for a moment before continuing.

“You were each hand-selected by Starfleet Command and the Federation Council to be an integral member of this amazingly renovated Starship as part of her crew. I am proud to serve as your Commander and I look forward to witnessing your excellence and dedication to this ship and Starfleet demonstrated through your vast efforts and accomplishments. Prepare for launch and may the solar winds be on our backs… Sterling out.”

Several decks down, Frazetti decided she really liked his speeches. She felt the same way, but she could never be that… verbose about it. He put into words the feelings she felt in her heart, and the ideals she held in the greatest regard.

The lift leading to the bridge was heard coming up in its shaft and shortly stopped. The doors opened and Janus Falcar stepped out onto the Bridge. He spotted the Captain and moved up to him.

As Sterling was conversing with tactical Chief Petty Officer Andrea Glass from the center seat, the Romulan Helm Officer approached them and gave the indication that he clearly need to talk to him.

He nodded to CPO Glass that their conversation would need to be continued later. She easily understood his gesture and nodded in return and walked back to her tactical station.

The Captain then turned his attention to the helm officer.

“Can I help you Mister Falcar?”

“Captain, the Commander gave me two sets of courses. I’ve gone over them and learned all I can about them. As you might know, course 1, is shorter as it’s a straight course to our designations, Khii. The second course, is a little longer as we go parallel to the neutral zone, then alter course to cross and head for Khii. They both have pros and cons, for example time, danger, or whatever it may be. However for either course, there is danger no matter what, if someone wants to attack, they will find a way no matter what. Either way, the decision is yours, Captain.”

Suddenly his PADD beeped, and he looked at it.

“And, flight ops is green. All shuttles are also all green. We are ready to go.”

"Well, Mister Falcar...” Sterling commented as he began perusing the PADD handed to him, leaning toward the Romulan officer clutching the PADD carefully, indicating that they were going to have a relatively private conversation, “I was just going through our tentative route just moments ago in the Ready Room. It seems our path may be even a bit more complicated. We are going to be picking up two addition passengers along the way in sep…”

Just then, his combadge signaled an incoming call from the Chief of Security Lieutenant Commander Archer.

* * *

Lieutenant Olivia Lien, Starfleet Corps of Engineers, moved briskly through the corridors of newly completed U.S.S Icarus. She knew the ship would be launching soon, and she had precious little time to complete the final inspections that had been assigned to her. The rapid pace at which the Icarus had been refitted was something that the SCE was paying special attention to.

Her CO had given her the task of inspecting many of the ship's major systems including the ship's main deflector.

Now, followed by her security escort, a young human petty officer named Vance, she approached the main deflector control room.

"Here Petty Officer, this will be our last stop."

"Aye Sir." Vance replied.

Olivia entered the main deflector control room and walked over to one of the diagnostic consoles. Bringing it online she began a diagnostic on the main deflector array. As it ran Olivia began a visual inspection of the space as was required by SCE regulations. As she looked around the room something caught her eye...it appeared to be a loose panel. Had it been left loose by the refit engineers? She approached it and looked closer. No, the panel had been removed and replaced, but not quite closed completely.

"Petty Officer, why is this panel loose?" Olivia asked Vance

"I'm sorry Lieutenant I don't know."

Olivia pulled the panel off completely and examined the contents behind it.

"These are the control chips for the main deflector programming. No one but an experienced engineer should be tampering with these."

From her belt she extracted her tricorder, and pulled up a program specially written to diagnose isolinear chips. As she scanned the deflector control chips everything seemed fine and she was beginning to think she was being paranoid, but suddenly the tricorder beeped at her. She turned to Vance.

"Petty Officer, contact your superior immediately."

Back in the security office Brian sat with Cadet Thran once more scanning through the crew records. While Thran did more of the mundane computer work Brian was looking over the senior officers and in particular Doctor Cyl. At first he had thought that Counselor Pasqual would be his problem but after his confrontation with the doctor in Sickbay Brian was worried that Cyl may drive the entire crew insane. The man was arrogant and overzealous and Brian wondered if the attitude was related to his recent joining. As he pondered the thought his combadge chirped:

"Vance to Archer."

"Archer here."

"Sir, this is Petty Officer Vance, I'm escorting one of the SCE inspectors. She seems to have found something out of sorts and asked me to call you immediately."

"Where are you Vance?"

"Main deflector control Sir."

"Sit tight Petty Officer I'm on my way, Archer out."

Brian turned to Thran, "Stay here Mister Thran, I'll be back shortly."

"Aye, Sir."

Brian walked out of the security office, and to the turbolift. As he rode toward the deflector control room he wondered what the inspector could have possibly found that would be a security concern. Some very bad things began to come to mind, and Brian didn't like the idea that any of them would be happening on his ship. The lift stopped and he strode quickly to the deflector control room where he found Petty Officer Vance and a shorter woman with short black hair, and blue eyes.

"What seems to be the trouble?" Brian asked as he walked up.

"Commander, I am Olivia Lien, Corps of Engineers," the black haired woman stated "I was finishing my inspection when I noticed that one of the panels seemed to be loose. At first I thought maybe the workers had not fastened it properly, but then I noticed it appeared to have been removed and replaced. When I scanned the control chips I found two that are not what they appear to be."

"What do you mean?"

"Sir, they are physically the same as all the other chips, but their subroutines have been altered."

"Altered how?"

"I don't know without further analysis."

"Hold that thought Lieutenant."

Alarms and bells were going off in Brian's head as he tapped his combadge.

"Archer to Captain Sterling; Sir, I need to see you in Main Deflector Control immediately."

“Acknowledged, Lieutenant Commander, I will be right down.”

He stood up and excused himself from his conversation with the helm officer.

“Excuse me for the interruption, Mister Falcar. I shall return after I address whatever issue Mister Archer has to present to me. Meanwhile, please take your station and begin mapping in both routes, knowing that either one will need to be altered to accommodate the additional rendezvous points that will need to be configured to procure our additional delegates.”

Sterling then immediately turned and took the Turbolift down to the main deflector room on deck 21.

As he exited the lift and entered the main deflector area, the Captain approached his chief of security and asked quizzically:

“Well, Mister Archer... what have you and your team uncovered?”

"I'd like to say I had something to do with this, Sir, but Lieutenant Lien here did all the work."

"Olivia Lien, Captain, Starfleet Corps of Engineers. Sir, I was finishing a routine prelaunch inspection as mandated by SCE for every new ship launch and discovered that someone had tampered with your deflector control chips."

"In short, Captain, we have a saboteur aboard," Brian said, a grim expression on his face.

The expression that flashed across Sterling’s face as a reaction from the security chief’s message was both grim and foreboding. Still in spacedock, and yet some form of opposition had already attempted a deliberate act of subversion or potential destruction.

He looked intently at the Starfleet Corps of Engineers officer.

“Excellent investigative work, Olivia Lien. So, what possible impact would this tampering have had on these deflector control chips?”

"Thank you Captain," Lien replied accepting the compliment. "But without further analysis, I can't say what they might have been programmed for. I would however recommend you replace them immediately with freshly replicated chips."

“A wise recommendation indeed, Lieutenant,” agreed the Captain.

"In addition, Sir," Archer said then, "I recommend we tell no one but Commander Hartzer, and my assistant department chief Lieutenant Strider about this. If there is a saboteur aboard and he or she suspects we're on to them, they may panic and do something drastic.''

“Agreed Mister Archer. I appreciate you calling me in on this immediately. We’ll keep this event limited to a very tight and close circle of officers. If there are saboteurs and they are aware that we are on to their activity, they may also choose do nothing but hide deeper in the shadows and wait for an opportune moment to strike again. Obviously, neither of these options is preferable.”

''I also recommend that our chief engineer replace those chips himself or we have Lieutenant Lien do it. That way we can be sure the chips are genuine.''

“Oh, Mister Archer, I believe the Lieutenant here has demonstrated that she should be the one to handle the replacement of these isolinear chips,” the Captain stated as he smiled sincerely at this very thorough and efficient officer. “But please… do so very discretely Lieutenant… I don’t want any raised eyebrows or notice taken of any aspect of this procedure. After the chips have been replaced, take these reprogrammed chips to a secured site and examine them very thoroughly. I want to know what the alterations would have resulted from using them so that we know what level of damage this saboteur was intending to create.”

Archer then added:

''Finally, I think we should order our chief engineer to run diagnostics on all the major systems at the highest level before we leave spacedock. Meanwhile I will work on a plan to catch this person if they are in fact still aboard."

“Considering these circumstances, I wholeheartedly agree, Mister Archer; a full diagnostic sweep is essential. See that this is started after Lieutenant Lien replaces the isolinear chips. Meanwhile, check all records and logs to see who has been in this part of this ship since our arrival… including engineering personnel, but not just limited to them. I want the name of every person who stepped foot or any appendage into this part of the ship. I will also contact Admiral Kelek and obtain the records of any and all Starbase 39 personnel who were recently in this part of the ship.”

Sterling pondered for a moment and then whispered:

“Afterward, see what kind of trap you could possibly devise to potentially catch this rat.”

He then looked at the two officers together.

“We'll meet up again when any of us has an update to report. To clarify, this is a covert operation; nothing regarding this incident or investigation will be written up or broadcast on any device at anytime. We’ll do all of this in person… and in a more secure location than this one. Any questions?”

Brian nodded in acknowledgement of the Captain's orders.

"Aye Sir, I will get this taken care of, and I will catch whoever did this. It’s only a matter of time."

Brian then turned to address Lieutenant Lien.

"Lien, as the Captain said, let's get those chips replaced."

"I'll get right to it Commander, and I will be as discreet as possible."

"Thank you Lieutenant, and Vance..."

"Yes Sir?"

"Stay with the Lieutenant, if anyone attempts to interfere with the repairs you have my authorization to detain them, or stun them, whichever you feel is more appropriate. If you have problems, call me and no one else."

"Aye Sir."

"Good, I'm going to go find Lieutenant Strider, I'll find my way to the bridge shortly Captain."

Brian left the group standing there and headed for the turbolift he suspected that the Captain wouldn't be far behind him. This was just the kind of thing Brian had been afraid would happen since the moment he found out what their mission was. He almost wished he hadn't burned his bridge to Section 31. He could use their resources right about now.

As he had that thought, he wondered if they could possibly be behind this, but she shook it off. Even Stone wasn't stupid enough to send an operative where he knew Archer would be. It had to be someone else, a rogue element of Starfleet, the Tal Shiar, the Remans, the Klingons... at this point, he wasn't ruling anything or anyone out.

As the meeting with the Lieutenant Commander concluded, Sterling followed behind Brian Archer to the turbolift.

He stepped into the lift as the security chief ordered it to the bridge.