Star Trek: Sentinel

[squiggy]

USS SentinelSickbay
Sytok stared at the Bolian in annoyance.
Unbeknownst to the blue creature, Sytok's mental shields were still down, and more to the point, his psychic abilities, due to lack of proper training, were running amuck. He knew what the bolian was holding back, although he would not admit to so much.
He looked up at the bolian, and wondered why Chomal would try to hide such a thing, however he decided to just ignore it.
The constant flood of thoughts/emotions running through him were making it hard for him to think, however, he decided to just not mention it. It would make things easier, especially if another vulcan were to find out. He knew full well that any other vulcan in this unique situation would declare themselves unfit for duty, however, HE wasn't any other vulcan. He refused to be restrained by abilities he didn't know he possessed. Instead, he embraced them.
Sorting through the waves and waves of information being thrown at him, albeit indirectly, he started piecing together the past few days.
Most telepaths, when assaulted by the constant unshielded stream of other's thoughts, would simply lose who they were, but Sytok was still a vulcan. His logically structured brain simply routed psychic signals differently, so he constantly knew what was his, and what was not.
He wondered if this was what being a borg drone was like, but shook his head of that thought. He had read about the Enterprise-E's "adventures" with the borg, and they scared him.
As he sifted through the information, he noted that his thoughts were unshielded, and telepaths around him seemed to be able to read his thoughts. He would have to figure out a way to shield himself before they met up with the Exuza again. While they seemed to have problems telepathically conversing with non-telepaths, he personally was still quite well aware of the way they tormented his mind while he was on the floor of his quarters.
Then it hit him.
"I have to speak to the captain! He has to know these things don't like us! He has to know they want us to die!" He yelled at the bolian, who had been quietly cooing him, even though Sytok was essentially ripping relevant data out of the annoying thing's mind.
Instead of helping... the creature... just... sat there. And kept on talking to him.
Sytok cursed.

[Spellbinder Marik]

-U.s.s. Sentinel, Shuttlebay-

Haley entered the shuttle bay. She noticed the Captain waiting near the shuttle. She hadn�t received a call to report to the shuttlebay but that didn�t alleviate the feeling that she was late. Haley approached the Captain.
�Are we ready sir?�

[Lord Borg]

-U.S.S. Sentinel, Racquetball Court-

Elora watched the Captain walked out, and then waited a moment to make sure she was alone. When she was sure of it, she tapped her combadge, and spoke into it, recording a message to remember later. This was something she had often did out of habit, not that she really needed to, with her memory the way it was.

"Note to self" she said, "Remember to speak to records about Captain McGowan, find out whats not in the Personel records...what makes this man tick? What drives him forward?"

Elora tapped her combadge to turn it off, there was much, much more to research, but that short message would be all she needed to recall her entire line of thought, and what she was looking for. Rayne picked up a ball she had brought with her, and bounced it off the floor. She had considared practicing some, but then was suddenly not in the mood for it, and left the room, to return to her quarters.

[Ziona]

USS Sentinel, Messhall, Savur's Sanctuary

Kiyra was sitting by herself, reading quietly from a PADD and sipping on a cup of tea. The news that the mission would take quite some time didn't surprise her as much as it seemed to surprise the rest of the crew. She was ready and willing to be out on this ship until the mission was completely. And knowing that her father was right there, as well as her sister, made things a bit more interesting.

She raised her eyebrow as she saw someone walk by. She didn't know half the crew as well as she would have liked, but with time, things would most likely become more intimate. It always did on spaceships.

With a sigh, Kiyra went back to her reading, glancing from time to time out into space before returning to her studies.

[Founder]

-USS Sentinel, Sickbay-

Chomal was taken aback by the Vulcan's cries of despair and warning. He placed a hand on Sytok's chest to try and calm him. It seemed the poor Vulcan was ranting about something the captain already knew and knew very well. However, Sytok obviously did not know about the captain's abduction, thus him wanting to warn McGowan.

"Commander Zaitsev is in command right now," Chomal said, "And there will be plenty of time for you to talk to them, but you must relax. I'd really rather would not have to sedate you, sir."

-USS Sentinel, Shuttlebay-

The captain nodded his head as he saw Haley enter and approach him.

"Yes, lieutenant," He said, "We are."

He walked towards the open are of the shuttle and walked in. The Type-8 shuttle was rather small and could only fit two people at the console. It didn't matter as the ship had everything that they would need. McGowan climbed in and moved towards the two empty chairs at the front of the shuttle. He plopped down in one seat and waited until Haley was in and comfortable to leave.

[Spellbinder Marik]

-U.s.s. Washington, Cockpit-

Haley entered the cockpit and sat in one of the seats. She quickly ran systems light system check. Everything was in order.
�Do you want to pilot the shuttle or should I?�

[squiggy]

USS SentinelSickbay
As the vulcan listened quietly to the bolian's thoughts, he picked out that the captain had been abducted, and that the captain had notified starfleet command.
He relaxed a little.
He continued to sift carefully through the thoughts of those around him, with a few intriguing personalities picked out. Two in specific, he found very interesting, as he listened in. One was busy in the raquetball court, and the other, he sensed, was in the messhall.
He tried to probe the vulcans, but found that as typical to all telepaths, they had incredible psychic shielding up.
He shook his head in annoyance.
He realized he was very very hungry.
He looked at the Bolian, and realized there was no way this creature would let him up.
He quietly reached around the side of the bed, and grabbed a hypo-spray, which he then programmed for a bolian-specific sedative.
He looked towards the LMH, who, was thankfully otherwise occupied.
Sytok quickly pushed the sedative into the bolian's main artery in his leg, laid the annoying creature down on his medic bed, and, still in patient gown, left for the messhall.

USS SentinelTurbolift
A few crewmembers going in various directions watched the vulcan get on the turbolift, and go to the messhall, although none seemed to quite have the nerve to ask the vulcan about the patient gown he was wearing.
Sytok could HEAR thier strange thoughts about it. But he was pleased they were polite enough to keep it to themselves.

USS SentinelMesshall
He walked up to Savur's counter.
"What's the special of the day, owner?" He asked.
He could sense those around him curious about his patient gown, and he still was intrigued by the ensign reading on her own, who was trying not to let it be known she was observing others.
Quietly, he sat there, and listened to the vulcan on the other side of the counter. Had he been any other creature but a vulcan, Sytok would not have had to ask what the special was, however, he noted that Savur's mental shields were stronger, perhaps, then even some of the high priests on vulcan. Sytok found this curious, but he was too hungry to really care.

[Founder]

-USS Washington, Cockpit-

McGowan nodded to the controls before Haley.

"You pilot," He ordered, "I want to scan the nebula and study the information."

He opened a channel to the flight control deck.

"This is the shuttle Washington," He said, "We're all ready over here."

There was a moment of silence and then the shuttlebay doors opened. The Vulcan did not wish them luck, but he didn't find that surprising from the quiet Tulak. McGowan looked at Haley.

"Take us out, lieutenant." He said.

[Spellbinder Marik]

-U.s.s. Washington, Cockpit-

�Aye sir.� Haley accessed the controls and fired the thrusters. When they were clear of the ship she locked in on the nebula.
�Course locked in, eta 2 minutes at present speed.� Haley became silent. Why the Captain needed her to pilot the shuttle she didn�t know. It could have just as easily been someone else.

[Founder]

-USS Setinel, Savur's Sanctuary-

Savur was pouring an officer a drink of Andorian Ale when he noticed the Vulcan Sytok enter. As an ever observant agent, he was careful to observe his surroundings. However, there was no possible way that he could ever miss Sytok. The Vulcan was in a medical patient's clothing and had approached the bar for something. Savur frowned in his Vulcan manner and eyed Sytok without speak for the longest time. Finally, he gave in and replied.

"The special of the day is I'Danian Spice Pudding," He said in an emotionless tone, "However, I will serve you nothing, Mr. Sytok."

The Vulcan had always seemed unusual to Savur, but especially at the very moment.

"You are clearly not to be discharged from sickbay," He said, "Logic therefore dictates that you are to return where the competent medical team will watch over you."

With that, he turned his back and moved towards another customer. Savur would not cause trouble and drag Sytok out unless the Vulcan made a scene, which he was somewhat doing already. Hopefully, security would swiftly arrive and drag the Vulcan back to sickbay. Until then, Savur put up with his antics, but ignored him.

-USS Washington, Cockpit-

The captain nodded and prepared the sensors on his console as Haley piloted the vessel. As he tapped at the console, he looked over at the young Haley. She was rather beautiful, if not way too young for him. However, he did find it so strange that there were so many young people in Starfleet. No doubt a result of the Dominion Wars and the massive casulties that Starfleet took.

"Lieutenant," He told her, "Once I ascertain how to safely get us into the nebula, I need you to find a way to adapt our shields, if they'll work, to withstand the nebula. I don't know, that is your area of expertise."

-USS Sentinel, Sickbay-

The LMH had spotted the poor Bolian, unconcious at a nearby biobed. When he saw Sytok missing, it didn't take him long to discover what had happened.

"Sickbay to bridge," He called out, "This is the LMH. We have a mild emegency down here. One of our patients is missing and he is..potentially dangerous. It is Dr. Sytok."

He didn't think that Sytok was bad perse, but he did realize the Vulcan was not in a proper mental state and due to Vulcan's heightened mental abilities, when they were mentally ill, it was ten times worse. He feared for Sytok and any potential crewmen that got in his way...

[Spellbinder Marik]

-U.s.s. Washington, Cockpit-

�Understood sir.� Haley accessed the small engineering panel. She preferred the larger ones with wall mounted displays but shuttles weren�t built for such things.

[squiggy]

USS SentinelCorridor
Sytok was unimpressed by the blatant dismissal, and scene that the bar owner had started up. Rather then cause a scene, he simply left.
Sensing that security had been called, he decided to do the best thing he could think of.
Cursing himself inwardly for acting purely on logic, he walked into the security office, waving a white... well... it was a slipper, actually, but it served just fine as a flag.
"No, don't start searching for me. I'm here already." He said quietly, and sat down in one of the empty brig cells.

[La Forge]

U.S.S. Sentinel, Bridge

Valentina had returned to her silent contemplation when the silence was again interrupted by the chirping sound of her combadge. She was starting to get the slightest bit annoyed by the constant interruptions, but, it came with the job.

"Sickbay to bridge. This is the LMH. We have a mild emergency down here. One of our patients is missing and he is...potentially dangerous. It is Dr. Sytok." came the voice of Julian Bashir or at least a perfect copy of it. The voice really belonged to the Long-Term Medical Hologram or LMH for short.

According to the LMH, the ship's chief medical officer, a Vulcan by the name of Sytok, was missing. Valentina could remember the debacle with the Vulcan doctor that had occured less than a week ago. Apparently, the good doctor had lost control of his telepathic barriers for some reason and began to go insane, for lack of a better term. While she didn't pretend to understand what had really happened to Sytok, she did know one thing and that was that the volatile doctor could be trouble and now it seemed that she was right. And, with the Sentinel so far away from home and for so long, it was doubtful that the Vulcan would be able to get any treatment for his condition and someone in that sort of condition wouldn't be someone that Valentina would want serving as chief medical officer. In short, the situation with Sytok was a bad one.

"I'll get security on it at once. Zaitsev out." Valentina replied to the LMH, speaking into her activated combadge. And, with that, she tapped her combadge and terminated the link. She then tapped it a second time, this time, in order to contact security, security being the ship's chief science officer, Lieutenant Commander Vincent Pominville. "This is Commander Zaitsev to Lieutenant Commander Pominville." Valentina began, introducing herself first. "I want you to track down the good doctor, Doctor Sytok. He's on the loose and apparently he's..." she paused, trying to think of the right word to use. "...unstable. I need you to find him before he does anything that he might regret." she continued, at length. "Understood?" Valentina asked, wanting to make sure that Commander Pominville thoroughly understood what was being requested of him. She most certainly couldn't have the doctor stirring up trouble for her while the captain's gone. That wouldn't be good for her or anyone.

[Valathous]

~ Security Officer, USS Sentinel ~

It had been a while now since Pominville had been allowed to leave sickbay. He still had a minor headache but it wasn't anything he couldn't ignore. He was on the tail end of a shift and was just in the midsts of finishing up on reading some rather boring reports on nothing out of the ordinary or exciting on happening on the ship recently. This, of course, was until the good Vulcan Doctor Sytok walked into the security office waving a slipper, claiming he surrendered and sat in a brig cell. Pominville, who had seen this as he was using one of the regular desks rather than his officer, simply raised an eyebrow and was about to say something when Commander Zaitsev's voice came over the line ordering him to locate the Doctor.

"Yes, Commander," Pominville started, who then looked into the brig and smirked, "I've apprehended him, Commander. He's in the brig."

Pominville, who had been sitting his his legs up on his desk, swung them around and off as he got to his feet, walked over to the brig, and activated the forcefield as he chuckled, "You know, you have to be the most courteous trouble maker I know. What was it you did, anyways?"

Pominville hoped to save most of the interrogation for his next shift as his head was bothering him and he wanted to relax for once, but he needed to at least figure out what went on.

[squiggy]

USS SentinelBrig
Sytok sat there, and smiled. He could feel the poor security officer's pain, and attempted to relieve it using his psychic abilities.
"Well... I'll give you the simple list. My mental shields aren't working, I can't stop reading other people's thoughts, and I assaulted a bolian nurse who was annoying as hell to get out of sickbay, using a sedative. I was then abruptly dismissed by the owner of the messhall... so I came here. To avoid getting in more trouble." He said quietly

[Founder]

-USS Washington, Cockpit-



The small shuttle swiftly moved towards the bright and quite massive nebula. McGowan tried to speak to Haley, to learn something more about his chief engineer. However, she seemed very straight to the point when she spoke. It didn't leave much room for conversation. He leaned back in his seat and thought about the Ezuxa threat and how powerful they were compared to the Sentinel. He wished there was more he could do, but it seemed like he had his hands tied behind his back.

"Lieutenant Taydan," He spoke, "Did you have an opportunity to study the Ezuxa weapon? Perhaps find a way for our shields to better withstand them?"

[Spellbinder Marik]

-U.s.s. Washington, Cockpit-

Haley turned her head toward the captain. He�d asked her about the Ezuxa weapon.
�I�ve been studying it in my spare time. What I currently know is that they use a tri-phasing modulator which I would guess is used to attempt a quick punch through enemy shields. I�ve also discovered we can�t replicate the unit that powers the weapon.� Haley paused.
�As for defending against the weapon I would suggest installing a tri-phasing modulator on our shield grid. Theoretically it should protect the shields from the beam.�

[Lord Borg]

USS Sentinel, Savur's Sanctuary

Elora entered the room and gasped in amazement. If she hadn't known better, she'd think that she had just gone though a time machine to the 23rd century, in the 2200's. She took a look around the room and smiled at the detail, it was a look into the past, she thought.


Rayne stepped forward into the room, allowing time to see who was in the room, when she saw Kiyra McGowan, one of the Captain's daughters. She sighed silently, then walked over to the table and looked down at the woman.

"Hello, Lieutenant McGowan" she greeted.

[Ziona]

USS Sentinel, Savur's Sanctuary

Kiyra glanced up, half-surprised, and saw Elora. She stood quickly and saluted the woman.

"Hello, ma'am." She remained at attention until told otherwise.

[Valathous]

~ Brig, Security Office, USS Sentinel ~

"Ahh, so a grocery list of problems?" Pominville ask, "At least you still have your logic and were able to realize your wrongs and come here. That will undoubtedly help you as we would have caught you eventually. The fact you turned yourself in couple with the collapse of your mental barriers will likely have this whole ordeal sorted with a simple medical examination, manditory meditation, and an apology to the nurse."

Pominville wasn't a nasty man bent on locking people up for any and every infraction. If the Vulcan doctor was sick in such a way as he can't control his mental barriers, then it was likely his emotions were out of whack, too, leaving him confused and disoriented.

"I'll have to discuss the issue with the commander and the nurse first, though. If the nurse wishes to press charges, it may ended up a little more difficult."

Pominville also didn't see it as all the smart to incarcerate the chief medical officer. Although, if the man was unstable, perhaps even if he was medically superior to anyone else on the ship he could be a danger during any surgeries that could arise. There was an LMH on the ship wasn't there?

[Lord Borg]

USS Sentinel, Savur's Sanctuary

Elora blushed at being called ma'am, and being saluted, she cleared her throat and glanced around, glad that no one was watching, or at least the entire room wasn't watching.

"You don't have to salute me, Lieutenant" Elora smiled, "At ease."

[Ziona]

USS Sentinel, Savur's Sanctuary

Kiyra smiled and relaxed, motioning for Elora to take a seat as well.

"Please, sit down, ma'am." Kiyra waited for the woman to take a seat before sitting down herself. "What brings you here, ma'am? May I get you anything?"

Kiyra waited in baited silence for the woman to answer.

[squiggy]

USS SentinelBrig
Sytok sat there with his thoughts, and a padd he had stuck in the slipper he wasn't waving. He was playing chess with the computer, and sifting through the thoughts of those around him. The forcefield seemed to dampen his range quite a bit, he couldn't even sense people walking in the hallway. He picked up on the Security officer's concerns, and shook his head.
Apparently the security officer hadn't bothered to look at Sytok's profile, otherwise he would have 1) Searched him for odd items prior to activating the forcefield, and 2) not even given the notion that sytok was "unstable".
By definition, he was "unstable" because he was not a typical vulcan, however, as to odd items, all he had was his PADD.
He knew that his brain had suffered significant damage during Pon Far, infact, he had come close to dying. The odd currents now circulating in his brain, had, not ever before, existed within him. Infact, his psychic abilities, he was discovering slowly, through logical examination of his brain, had been a mutation of standard vulcan touch-telepathy into the old-fashioned type of telepathy that had once been weaponized, and which had been carefully removed from vulcan society through the implementation of vulcan trainings.
The PADD beeped.
A personal message.
He sighed.

[Lord Borg]

USS Sentinel, Savur's Sanctuary

Rayne gave a curt nod and sat down and looked around the room and looked back to Kiyra. She wondered what would be good to have and pondered over ideas.

"Well, if they have it, perhaps some red tea" she said politely.

[Founder]

-USS Washington, Cockpit-

McGowan pondered Haley's thoughts on upgrading the Sentinel to better withstand Ezuxa weaponry. She didn't comment on the organic properties of the weapon and he wondered if she purposelly omitted that due to not having ideas on how to adjust to it or if her idea alone would take care of that part as well. As she piloted the vessel while simultaneously telling him her ideas on the weapon, he thought about what he had read on her in her Starfleet report. When he had chosen her to pilot the Washington, he had read a little about her to see what type of person she was, as if some kind of sterile report from Starfleet Command could report that. It couldn't, but it still told him a decent amount about her. Apparently, she had several reprimands and complaints from other officers. She had even spent some time in the brig, which almost made him wonder how she was even still in Starfleet. He thought back to how his friend, admiral Reeves, had said that all the new crew were specially selected for this task. For example, Vincent Pominville, his chief tactical and security officer, had an enormous amount of experiance with fighting. Another example was Mace Zjarot, his counselor, but also a diplomat and no doubt selected to work on dealing with this new threat diplomatically. After experiancing the horror of the Ezuxa firsthand, McGowan felt that dealing with them diplomatically was not an option. He pondered what the Ezuxa would do once they found out that McGowan had not only defied them, but was actively trying to find ways to halt their invasion. There were times he hated Starfleet, but he really hated them at this moment. It was ridiculous for them to shelve all of this onto the Sentinel. While they were ordered to avoid conflict, it was still ludicrous to make them do this. Surely a Klingon ship, armed with a cloaking device, could do this or perhaps a smaller Starfleet vessel, such as a Nova-class? The Steamrunner-class was not necessarily built for stealth, but made to be a light escort. A fighter ship that backed up other fighter ships or maybe patrol or even escort a transport from planet A to planet B, but this role seemed monumental, a little too monumental for this ship. Perhaps McGowan was not giving credit to the crew, as obviously Starfleet felt they were the...absolute best for this mission. Which brought him back to the young Haley. Why was she in this mission? Was it simply for her engineering skills or something else? He found that a tiny part of him could be seen in her. She seemed to thumb her nose at authority and he, despite being a starship captain, absolutely respected her for it. There was a time when he believed that rules and regulations were stupid. In a sense, he still believed that, but he would never really admit that as that invited chaos aboard a starship. No, he had to appear to be the hard-ass starship captain. That was his role in this mission, while the super team of handpicked Starfleet officers completed the mission. He felt bitter that he had no real role in this other then to just lead them. While that seemed important, McGowan realized that in reality, all of them were such key players that this mission would fail without them. Without him? Valentina could simply take over and finish what he had been doing. McGowan was on this mission for one reason and that was because he had a friend in Starfleet Command, nothing more. He most certainly was not a heroic captain like Picard or Sisko. In fact, his legacy in comparison to them was rather...puny. McGowan felt a pang in his heart as he realized that he lived Starfleet day in and day out and that would be the rest of his life.

"What am I doing?" He thought to himself.

McGowan was only in Starfleet because of Sana, no other reason. With her gone, he had no reason to remain other then the fact that Starfleet had become his life. Sure he could resign and run off into his own private science ship and go off to explore, but a part of him would not be happy. He had become too accostomed to Starfleet life. It the insidiousness of Starfleet that he hated the most. Starfleet had become a part of him and that was nothing he could really change. In addition to that, his daughters would now lead lives in Starfleet. He couldn't change that, especially with Kyleigh. She no doubt relished in the fact that she was hurting her father. McGowan was still confused as to how both of his daughters ended up under his service, but he had not been able to pursue those answers. Kiyra revealed that a part of her did this to please him and so that he could see firsthand what an outstanding officer she had become. Kyleigh was in...security, no longer the sciences. He didn't understand how she came to join the Sentinel crew, especially as she knew he was the captain of the vessel. No matter what, he would face her and seek the answers that he needed. He was an old man, damnit, and he deserved the answers, no matter how difficult they maybe to attain. While his mind rushed about in a flurry of questions, some ranging from Haley's unknown past and others to his daughters' status aboard the Sentinel, the console rang out as they neared the nebula.

"I'm raising the shields." He warned Haley.

He checked the power output and saw that everything was within normal parameters. There were minor energy surges erupting from the nebula but the shuttle emitted such a low power signiture that the nebula didn't seem attracted to it. Mcgowan had to squint his eyes as the nebula was so magnificantly bright.

"I'm running a full sensor sweep now." He announced.

His hands raced over the console and he scanned the nebula for all data possible. He tilted his head in confusion when he detected something rather...unusual.

"Wait a minute," He said to Haley, "I'm detecting something, but I can't make heads or tails of it. There is a massive energy build-up coming from the nebula."

McGowan's eyes widened as he read the energy output data.

"Haley!" He yelled, "Turn us about! Away from the nebula!!!!"