<USS Avalon> Information Gathering by Captain Ketchum, Commander Skyler, Lieutenant Manson, and Ensign Cate

Information Gathering

by Captain Ketchum, Commander Skyler, Lieutenant Manson, and Ensign Cate

Anthony placed his hands behind his back. Decisive and clear, he reminded 
himself again, I could do this. He too the more straight posture by readjusting 
his body a little bit more, and making it look like he was back into attention 
once again through all the chaos running amok in engineering.

"Lieutenant Cate," He replied to the woman?s greeting. If there was a greeting 
that existed between hostage and interrogator. He though about things, running 
through priorities he wasn?t all too sure what they were himself, but managed 
through it. "I want to know exactly how many there are of your people running 
hell throughout my ship. I want to know where they are precisely= what places 
they have taken aside from deck one, and how we get them off."

He looked at her cooly; she seemed perfectly calm. In fact, she seemed too calm 
about all this. But underneath it was...uncertainty? Feelings of loss? 
Something, he couldn?t quite place himself to figure out. He shrugged inwardly. 
She was the enemy, and reading her surface emotions or thoughts was not going 
to be protested by anyone- but her. If she could detect it.

He then thought something more and added, "I want to know what plans this UCP 
of yours has for this ship and its crew prior to your capture. You?re a 
Lieutenant and you have enough of an important position to know these things. 
There has got to be a better reason then just executing us all."

Keith stood behind the ?captain?, wearing the Lieutenant pips, and was 
thinking. ?He will make a great captain, someday.? He also waited for response, 
appearing to work on a console while he listened.

"Captain Ketchum, to my knowledge, the crew of the Tempest wishes to study your 
databases to regain some history lost to us during the wars. The crew is 
unnecessary. I instructed my teams to make them hostages in hopes to minimize 
the deaths. It wasn?t against orders, but it wasn?t within them either. It was 
a chance I took. I have tree teams under my command and my orders were to 
secure the bridge and sickbay. I took it upon myself to add ?and capture any 
crew for questioning.? I?ve been a bit sidetracked by Commander Skyler here and 
have no idea how my teams are doing.

"There are two squadrons of three teams with five members each. They will show 
no mercy. I am not privy to their orders. I?m guessing, however, that 
engineering will not be safe for long. Once the information has been collected 
and your crew is dead or subdued, our orders are to return to the Tempest. It 
will then destroy the Avalon," she paused to catch her breath and let the 
information sink in. During her speech, Lt. Cat?s voiced never wavered nor rose 
in volume or accent. Perfectly calm and detached. She continued, "I believe 
that I have answered your questions. Now, I request that you send me back to my 
ship."

This Lieutenant Cate was surely willing to give information, but from the 
previous communications from Skyler on the subject was that Lyryn was going to 
?defect.? But from what he just heard, that was not true. Perhaps things 
change. He wanted to play his part a little better, and jump out from under the 
console and begin yelling at her about the murder that was planned. But Keith 
held his tongue.

Anthony looked down quickly and breathed outwardly. That was a total thrity. 
Counting maybe ten to twenty more from Lyryn?s squar, it would amount to fifty. 
It was a fortunate thing that he managed to get the computer locked out in time 
with the Captain?s codes for added security. Immediately his mind was racing 
for other solutions to further difficulties for the enemy.

"Alight. Lieutenant Manson," Anthony called cooly.

Keith got out of the console and quickly stood by them.

"Lieutenant, I?d like you to see to Commander?s Skyler?s bruises- see if our 
doctor can lend a hand. And get some security for Miss Cate." 

Anthony then looked at Cate, "Lieutenant, you will be held here until...the end 
of hostilities. You will not leave before. I will not risk any sort of venture 
getting you back to your ship- that in itself would be suicide. We?re five 
hundred years out of date, and I have no intentions of giving your grew an 
inch. Until we are safe, you will be detained. And when this fiasco is over- 
we?ll see what we can do." Anthony nodded to the Captain and set off for one of 
the consoles. He needed to get the Avalon?s database re-fortified. And he hoped 
that what he said was alright with the Captain.

"Lieutenant, we have talked for several hours and this is the first time that 
you have mentioned anything at all about what your plans were. I am curious as 
to why you waited when you had such ample opportunity to tell your story. 
Especially when you weren?t surrounded by ?the enemy?." Skyler waited for a 
response, while at the same time trying to figure out what Keith was up to. She 
hated being out of the loop.

Lyryn was beginning to be weary of all this talking. ?Why weren?t they doing 
anything?? She could understand why they were upset, to put it mildly, but 
hadn?t she proved herself to Skyler already? She was trying to help them! 
Didn?t they see that? ?I?ve put my life and career on the line to try and spare 
their lives,? she thought, ?why don?t they see that?? That thought was 
immediately followed by ?why couldn?t I have just done my job? Serves me right 
for meddling with the fates of others. Ungrateful ones at that.?

Her thought synapses fired quickly and randomly. Though she wanted to cry out 
in frustration, Lyryn tried once again to explain things.

"Look here Captain," she began, dismissing any formality, "you seem to be a 
direct and to the point man, so I shall cater to your designs." 

This caught to the ?captain?s ? attention. He turned to look at her with 
narrowing frowns building in, but he let her continue- couldn?t let slide now.

"The Tempest?s main goal is to destroy the Avalon. Genocide didn?t sit well 
with me, alright? That was the only consideration fir my actions. I couldn?t 
bear to see an innocent crew destroyed. Id didn?t know what to do. At the time, 
the only thing I could think of was instructing my crew not to kill anyone in 
hopes to buy you enough time to get away. Once I came aboard and saw how ill 
equipped to deal with my people that your crew was, I had to conjure up 
something a bit more drastic. Granted, it was not well thought out at all, but 
there we are- I?m you prisoner, trying my damndest to help you, at most likely 
the cost of my life, and you are resting on your laurels, checking bruises- 
instead of getting the hell out of here." Though her voiced remained quiet, it 
was dripping with venomous frustration. 

"Now listen. Here is the plan," Lyryn boldly continued, "you must retreat to a 
safe section of the ship- sickbay or the bridge, for they will be controlled by 
my people. You must let me take charge of the situation. No harm will come to 
you. Let my people take the information they want. They- we- will leave. Once 
returned to my ship, I will do my best to delay your destruction. You use that 
time to get out of here. I trust you have your finest minds figuring out how to 
do it, right?" She waited for the captain to acknowledge her statement. Though 
when he did not, she continued.

"I have a friend- an engineer- who I think will help me. He can take our 
sensors offline long enough for you to make your escape." There was a stunned 
silence at the end of the Lieutenant?s second speech. She used that moment to 
answer Skyler?s question. Looking directly into the commander?s eyes, Lyryn 
said with a slight grin, "I answered all your questions, Commander. I guess you 
just didn?t ask the right one."

Assumptions. She really thought that this crew would actually place trust in 
her hand for the assumption that her ?loyal? team would follow her and that her 
engineer would actually risk his life they way she did for this crew. Anthony 
shook his head; trust your enemy, was that it? He glared at her, "you have our 
consideration, and how we deal with our intruders is none of your concern. You 
give a plan based on assumptions that your would-be followers will actually 
listen to you. Assumptions- that is all I hear from your plan. And trust, you 
speak of. Trust in your squad, and your engineer friend- it seems some words 
have changed over time."

Keith looked at Skyler, "Commander Skyler, perhaps you?d like to have your 
bruises tended to. Let me get Doctor Roan to look at those for you. She has set 
up and examining room in the Chief Engineering?s office," he was with a wink. 
"We?ll have the Lieutenant looked at next," Keith motioned a guard or two to 
keep an eye on her.

Skyler wasn?t sure what was going on, but she did what she was ?ordered? to do 
and that was to report to Doctor Roan in the Chief Engineer?s office. She took 
one last look at Lyryn and just shook her head as if to say, ?why don?t you 
just give in and join us??

"Yes sir, I will report to the Doctor now. Perhaps she will be able to tell me 
how Mehdi is doing as well." She turned and walked away hoping that Lyryn would 
do the right thing.



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