'Power Struggle' Discussion Thread

[Grizz]

"'She had her heart ripped out and I wasn't there to see it..."

A downbeat conference opened this week's episode as Layton continued to read out Pioneer's technical faults on McClintock's behalf. Mason restrained herself from laying blame at the time, though quickly placed Menden at the head of an investigation in to station security - citing that such a breach could not happen again. With relief teams still some time out and Pioneer's backup power grid struggling with the increased load, the crew was relocated to the Hera to follow what they believed to be the trail of the perpetrator's ship.

"'Are we sure that scan came back clean?"

As the Hera departed, Doctor Young continued Sickbay's examinations of the staff to confirm their identities in the wake of the recent incident. Ensign Sullivan was able to reconstruct the image of the alien ship prior to it's swift departure from Accobar. While Costello was unable to place it, Mason stumbled over the sight of it and appeared to show some familiarity. Nevertheless, she kept her thoughts to herself and the ship came about a discovery. The fusion core assembly was drifting alone in open space. The Hera dropped out of warp, scanned the area and set about analyzing the assembly under the threat of it being some form of trap or ambush. However, while performing their scans, the Hera received an unexpected data transmission. The ship's charts were suddenly updated with a course heading. Upon seeing these charts, Mason called a briefing a revealed that following that course would take them to the closed Telosian border. She also revealed that she vaguely recognized the design of the ship - even if it was not one she had seen before.

"'It wasn't an attack. It was an invitation"

Convinced that she was being summoned to the Telosian border, Mason asked the crew to trust her - abandoned the core assembly for a secondary pickup crew and plotting a course along the transmitted heading. She spoke briefly on a civil war between the Telosian core worlds  - closing their borders and severing all ties with the outside, leaving them unaware of which side won. Having left Telosian space with her mother at a young age, she was unable to provide any further details, though noted to Menden that she didn't want the situation reported to Starbase 215 (headed up be Leona) yet.

Nevertheless, the Hera arrived at the Telosian border - greeted by a large sensor platform, of which there were supposedly many along the edges of their territory. Keeping their distance, the crew waited for their reward for following the trail. Soon enough, the Telosian ship decloaked (explaining their ability to previous elude short-range sensors) and interrupted Mason before she could introduce herself. The man responsible, through audio channels only, revealed that he knew who she was and made a sudden request of her - to join him on the other side of the border and 'come home.'

"'Yes, Commander. Yes I know who he is."

Not for breaking formalities, Mason repeated a request for the Telosian craft to surrender the fusion core itself as a number of additional cruisers made their way to the scene - as the mystery voice grew increasingly desperate for Mason to "take the opportunity" to join him and flee the scene. She continued to decline until the cruisers arrived. Costello readied the ship for combat as most crossed the border to intercept the Hera - while some remained with the lone ship and engaged in unheard communication with it. As the heavily armed craft bore down on the Starfleet ship, Mason simply had to broadcast her identity for them to turn around. In less than a minute, the fusion core was ejected in to space and the cruisers escorted the rogue Telosian craft back with them. As McClintock rejoiced in recovering the core, the Hera pulled away from the scene - with Mason remarking that it was for them to deal with "him."

"'Congratulations, Lieutenant!"

Back on Pioneer, with the core assembly re-installed and final preparations underway to bring the fusion core back online, a second conference was called - though this was one decidedly different to the one which started the episode. While Mason implied that the security breach could and should have been averted, she also remarked that the department had undergone recent changes. With that, she handed over to Costello who set about promoting Josh Riker to the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade and offering him the role of Assistant Chief of Security following Perry's departure at Menden's hands. The staff congratulated Riker while Mason retreated to her office.

There, she made use of her terminal to bring up an image of two blonde children, one boy and one girl, standing atop a green-topped hill under a purple-tinged sky... asking "...what the hell are you doing?"

Make of that what you will. Looks like the crew got out of this scrape reasonably easily. But nothing is ever that simple in the Accobar System - this is just the tip of a Telosian iceberg, Thank you all for attending (10 of you for the most part!). Apologies for having to cut the promised "two characters return" scene - but due to the late start and finish it was best it was cut. As Crim said, it will be worth your time when it arrives. Until then, rate and discuss 'Power Struggle' - above and below!

[Grizz]

Please do drop a poll vote if you were present guys, for better or for worse. It's helpful data - especially for the better attended RPs