Locating the Nikko

Posted on Thu May 19th, 2022 @ 10:50pm by Captain Maho Takahashi & Commander Keisuke Takahashi 'K.T.' & Commander Ichika Misono & Lieutenant Alisha Reno & Lieutenant JG Sterling Archer

1,375 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Trade Troubles
Location: Conference Room, Deck 1
Timeline: Shortly before the Myogi arrives in the Y'Tem sector

With the Myogi now only a few days out from Y'Tem, Maho had ordered a meeting with Commander Misono, Keisuke, Lieutenant Reno, and a Mission Advisor that had been brought aboard during the brief crew rotation at Utopia Planitia. Maho was hoping that Lieutenant Reno had been able to unearth some information on the more precise whereabouts of the Nikko, as Y'Tem was but a wild guess, when the Nikko could be anywhere along the expansive Klingon-Federation border.

As was to be partially expected, Ichika was the first to show up, PADD already in-hand and ready to take notes.

"Captain," she nodded, taking her seat.

Maho nodded wordlessly in response as Commander Misono assumed her seat.

Archer boarded the USS Myogi at Utopia Planitia. The need for a mission advisor was apparent. The Myogi would need analytic analysis, Starfleet fundamentals and inter-sector coordination. All in an effort to seek out the Nikko. This was more than finding a missing vessel. This was a situation that was brewing both political and it simmered with the missing Nikko.

"Captain, Commander. It is both a pleasure and honor to be your mission advisor on the Myogi." Mallory gave a nod of respect. The lieutenant junior grade officer brought unorthodox measures and mission advice from pure analytics.

"It's a pleasure to have you aboard, Lieutenant:" Maho responded coldly. "I take it you have already been briefed on our mission?"

Archer calmly watched as the Myogi crew were disseminated the mission briefing at hand. "Yes, Captain. I have been pre-listed." Archer nodded to Maho, a brief smile, before taking a seat out of the way; Not a chair of paramount importance.

Sterling Mallory Archibald or “Archer” had special authority to do as an advisor. His job was to advise on mission opportunities when they arose with the resources and personnel at the captain’s disposal within official federation channels and depots. Current federation fleet supplies, capacities, and opportunities for supply connections all concerned him. Albeit, he acted almost as an outside Operations Officer, mission-wise. Archers very nature, an advisor, was placed on the USS Myogi helping the crew search for Commander Iwaki.

Alisha had walked in a few moments after Archer, carrying a series of PADDs in the crook of her arm, her uniform utter perfection as nothing on her face betrayed any emotion she may be feeling, that fitting in with the tight skirt that went down to her knees. That expression changed ever so slightly as she smiled to first Maho, Keisuke and ichika, "Captain, Commanders, good afternoon. Lieutenant Archer, to you as well." She had yet to actually meet the Lieutenant officially, but courtesy did demand a cordial greeting.

"Have a seat, Lieutenant," Ichika nodded, gesticulating towards an empty chair. "You're just in time."

This time, despite herself, Alisha couldn't help but crack more of a genuine smile as she fought a chuckle, "I do believe that even if I were late, I'd be just in time." She made her way around and seated herself, placing her stack of documents in front of her, "After all, I'm the one with the information all of ya'll really want, or at least that's your hope if I'm not mistaken? Spoiler: I do."

"Well, let's put your claim to the test, Lieutenant:" Maho said. "Now, I believe everyone's here, so we can go ahead and start: As everyone in the room knows, we have been tasked to rendezvous with the USS Nikko and place its captain; Commander Seiji Iwaki, under arrest. Unfortunately, until now we've had no word on the Nikko's precise whereabouts, and our destination is but the beginning of a search area which could span roughly the entire Federation-Klingon border. An area this large would take months to comb. Months we don't have on our side, as the Klingons are growing impatient with each passing day, and they have promised to declare war on us if this situation isn't resolved swiftly. Lieutenant Reno; I hope you've been able to narrow down this search area, or perhaps you've been in direct contact with your counterpart on the Nikko."

Alisha nodded and dealt PADDs out to each of the four officers in the room with them as if they were playing cards, happy that she still had an additional extra, given that she'd not known specifically that the other Lieutenant would be there, "I've sent a coded message to Lieutenant Dorev, Nikko's Chief Intelligence Officer, but I haven't heard back from him yet. That itself is an ominous data point, since Hiro Dorev and I were classmates at the Academy, went through all of our Intelligence courses together. That leads me to believe that he's either a prisoner, working with Commander Iwaki or most likely dead. Standard procedure for when our Captains go off the reservation is to activate a tracer that relays information through navigational bouys to give the location of a ship. Dorev has not done so and he's one of those I remember as being a loyal officer, he'd do his duty even if it cost him." She grimaced mentally at the thought of Hiro being dead, but it was truly the most likely result.

She tapped her PADD to activate it, more for reminders than actually needing the information in front of her, "I've been collating and correlating all of the sightings we've heard about Nikko, timing, locations, how long she was in normal space, vectors and everything. In that time, I've found that Commander Iwaki has been attempting to avoid setting any sort of pattern, but I note the word 'attempting', because he most certainly has been. I'll get to location shortly, but I spotted that he enters any star system off the plane of the ecliptic, in eighty percent of his appearances, he's entered the system in question from above the plane of the system, so as to give his long-range sensors a better view of potential opposition. The downside is that it takes him longer to reach his target." She gave a half-shrug, "As to location, Nikko has been spotted in a dozen systems ranging from Va'Vang up to Boreth, including several systems that are further into Klingon territory. Again, Commander Iwaki has been trying to bounce around avoid setting any patterns, with four systems he's visited being outside what I've determined to be his operating parameters." She tapped a button on her PADD, sending a signal to the others that highlight two star systems, "If he holds to form, Iwaki and Nikko will be in either Korinar or Dayos in approximately two days from today, sixty percent chance of Korinar, thirty-five percent for Dayos and another five percent that he jumps his normal pattern breaking foray two stops too early."

"Then Korinar might be our safest bet." Keisuke said. "I've been monitoring Klingon merchant traffic, and a Klingon freighter is set to pass through the system in about the correct timetable Reno has presented us."

"If we were to divert from our current heading to Korinar; how long would it take us to get there at our current speed?" Maho asked.

The Intelligence Officer glanced at the upper corner of the last PADD of her stack, “Sixteen hours, forty-two minutes and ten seconds if we stay at our current speed. Dayos would be just over thirty-eight hours.” She included the other option due to the fact that it would be more time critical we’re they to go that direction instead, “Korinar is a system that does have a fair amount of asteroid activity, a planet succumbed to gravitational stresses approximately a quarter-million years ago and the asteroid belt is still expanding, but maintaining orbital distance with a width of ten thousand kilometers, but outside the Goldilocks belt.”

Archer repositioned himself placing aside his padd gently. The padd held statistics and information. There was no need for the information overload at this initial meeting unless his information reported had changed, which was still fresh. “Commander Iwaki runs a tight ship. A crew this large ceasing all inter-subspace communications for so long must be difficult. "

"The closer we get the earliest we could hear chatter from their com systems on a wideband?" Archer spoke to Commander and Captain.

To be continued...

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