Prologue: Inauspicious Beginning to a Starfleet Career

[Shurijo]

"Thank you, Jacob. I'm Shur Ijocado, navigator." Shur adds to the conversation. "We've just arrived and were walking around to get familiar with the layout when we bumped into each other."

[Orvost]

The rest of the cadet squad introduce themselves. The first to do so is the tall andorian female. She steps forward and addresses Jacob with a curt nod of acknowledgement:
“Serao Zh’rialrehr, communications.”

The other human male speaks up as well:
“Miles Campeodor, security.”

Finally, the human female makes sure she has the last word as far as introductions:
“April Weathers, Helm. And it seems your colleagues need some encouragement.”

Weathers casts a brief but pointing glance toward the other members of the science team. More of them have quickly cleaned and changed and joined their fellows eating. Most of them are the younger lieutenants.

The lack of females on the survey team has led many of them to crave social interaction with women. They are casting furtive glances toward your group, noticing the radiant presence of Weathers and the leggy, statuesque form of Serao. They probably see this as the best opportunity to socialize they’ve had in a while. For now they are eating, visiting together, milling about, and generally feeling out the situation.

Either oblivious to what Weathers is bringing attention to, or disregarding it entirely, cadet Serao speaks again to Jacob:
“It is strange to me that you would be assigned to a planet-side scientific survey team as a midshipman. A cadet cruise can hardly be called a cruise if you aren’t aboard a starship.”

[Bohemond]

DeVries takes in the situation, and chuckles a bit. "I think I should warn you, the presence of Midshipmen Zh'rialhehr and Weathers has made the research team rather inquisitive, if I may say," Jacob says in his best inside voice, but also using his knowledge of the Andorian language to get the pronunciation of Serao's name spot on. "I've never seen them clean up this quickly before." He swirls his fork around the grey noodles covered in the dark liquid and eats a mouthful of it. "It's amazing how teriyaki sauce can sustain a person."

After getting a mouthful in his stomach, Jacob responds to the table. "No worries, Spacer. I was busy dissecting foul-smelling things in my exobiology curriculum. Good times." DeVries then looks to Ijocado. The rich kid who gets into fights? he thinks to himself. "Weren't you the kendo champion?" Jacob says, drawing on his vague memories of the underclassmen who entered the Academy after him.

When Serao asks Jacob about his cadet cruise, the science officer looks around furtively. He says in a low voice, "Well, I was supposed to be with the Gulliver. A plum assignment. Galactic exploration. Sawyer class, meaning a small crew so I can get 'hands on' rather than polishing bulkheads. A mostly Andorian crew, which builds my cred for being able to work with other cultures. But, I've been here for two weeks and ..." Jacob's eyes quickly meet the gaze of the other people at his table, "I think something bad has happened. I don't have any proof, but it's not looking good." DeVries eats another mouthful of grey noodles.

[Shurijo]

"What do you mean, something bad happened?" Shur asks ignoring the kendo comment at the moment.

[Bohemond]

Jacob looks around nervously and speaks in a low voice. "The Gulliver hasn't had a single communication for weeks. From what I've been able to glean from the records, she's become a search and rescue mission. I tried to dig a little deeper. For about the last six months, the Gulliver's location and course has been classified beyond my clearance. I don't know if this has to do with so many new recruits at this station awaiting their ships, but the part of me that wants to wear a tinfoil hat has questions. Just my thoughts." DeVries takes another portion of his teriyaki-grey noodle cuisine.

[Shurijo]

"How did you learn this?" Shur asks. "Starfleet does all kinds of classified missions, so that doesn't seem too unreasonable."

[Bohemond]

"The databanks on station. Most ship routes are commonly available to fleet officers. Sure, military command probably does all sort of secret stuff,"DeVries says as he takes another forkful of food. "But galactic exploration doesn't send ships into the vast expanse of space without recording so much as a heading. There's usually logs of intended routes, ETAs, regular updates. Nothing from the Gulliver. And what I can find, it seems that Starfleet might be starting to get worried as well."

[ManWithDoor]

Alik listens in silence, worried as well for his friend's ship. He grabs something to drink, then sits back down. "That's rough. From a purely selfish point of view I'm glad you never made it on the Gulliver. I hope they turn up eventually."

[Orvost]

“I may be able to help.”

It’s Cadet Campeador who has spoken up. He looks around for a moment before he continues.

“If it’s a simple matter of security clearance, I may be able to help. On average, a security officer like me will have a higher security clearance than an officer of equal rank from another service branch. It’s not a big difference, just one step, at most, on the ‘need to know’ scale. That may be all you need. Once I’m officially deputized tomorrow, I could try to look into the matter of your ship. If I have a convincing pretext, I may even ask for a temporary increase in my clearance. Anyway, I’ll look into it. If I find anything, and it’s something I can share, I will let you know.”

[Shurijo]

Shur winces at the thought of a security officer prying into data outside of his duties. "Are you sure you want to do that, Miles? If you don't have a need-to-know, you might get in trouble for looking into it. Just tread carefully. "