Arrayah listened to the discussion between the two men closely. It looked to be a good team in the making. This pleased her.

As her thoughts turned to the men and women who were battling the newly discovered aliens, Arrayah found herself listening for the return of Ensign Russ. Arrayah wanted to know the status of the ships and to see if she were going to need to do any special preparation for their arrival.

That is if they could determine when they would arrive...
_________________
Lt. Commander Arrayah
Counselor, USS Oriskany

Andrea entered the Admiral's officer with a grim look on her face. It was a characterisitc none of them had seen in her before.

Ens Russ: Admiral, I've tried hailing Infiniti and received no response. What would you like me to do, Sir?

The Ensign looked towards LtCmdr Arrayah and Lt. Tyler as she waited on an order from RAdm Martinelli.
_________________
Lt. Junior Grade Andrea M. Russ
Administrative Assistant, Starbase 34

Nick shook his head.

Lt. Tyler: Well, it can't mean too much, I mean, they were heading to help the Oriskany, so it's possible they're engaged and can't respond. But, then again, I'm also being optimistic. I missed the Dominion War, so I still get that from time to time.

But the truth was, it was denial. Nick just did not want to believe that yet another ship was in trouble.
_________________
Lieutenant Nicholas Tyler
Chief of Security, Starbase 34

The future USS Oriskany Counselor watched Ensign Russ as she delivered her news, or rather, lack of news. Then Arrayah turned her emerald eyes on the Admiral, but something in Nick's voice caused her head to swivel and watch him. He was sounding optimistic, but something...wasn't quite right.
_________________
Lt. Commander Arrayah
Counselor, USS Oriskany

The Admiral rose up from behind his desk and spoke out to the base's computer. It was obvious to everyone in the office that he was about to do something out of the realm of normality.

RAdm Martinelli: Computer, prepare to send an emergency message on subspace frequency 98.7.

SB34-Com: Standing by .

RAdm Martinelli: Explorer, this is Admiral Martinelli on Starbase 34 in the Gamma Quadrant. I have lost contact with Aeryck and I need your assistance. Please respond.

Tony remained standing as he waited on a response from the legendary vessel that brough Adm Arayuss back from the Andromeda Galaxy in a phenominally short amount of time. RAdm Martinelli hoped that with the ship's ability to get from Point A to Point B in record classified speed, it wouldn't take long to hear back from it.
_________________
Vice Admiral Anthony M. Martinelli
Executive Officer, USS Sutherland
Chief of Fleet Operations, Gamma Fleet
Starfleet, United Federation of Planets

Nick racked his memory, but he could not think of any Starfleet ship that bore that name that he had heard of. From what the Admiral was saying about it, Nick figured it was a prototype, but he hadn't heard of any Explorer Class. In fact, Explorer was more of a designation to him, for ships like the Intrepid, Galaxy, Luna, and Sovereign.

Lt. Tyler: Sir, just what is the Explorer? She some kind of classified prototype or something? I've never heard of that class before.

Truth be told, it could have been, and Nick would have never known without the right clearance.
_________________
Lieutenant Nicholas Tyler
Chief of Security, Starbase 34

The Admiral thought for a few moments before going into the history of USS Explorer. Tony figured under the current situation, he should inform the Chief of Security.

RAdm Martinelli: Well, USS Explorer is an Intrepid Class registry NCC-74659, that was launched back in 2371 under the command of Captain Aeryck Arayuss. Their missions were generally classified since they were working directly for Omega Sector, however in late 2377, the Explorer was presumed lost when it was investigating a sub-dimensional fissure and was caught in it's gravity well and brought inside. Before the ship entered the entire crew, less it's Captain, escaped in Shuttles, Escape Pods and the Aerowing. By remaining behind Captain Arayuss was able to use the Tractor Beams to push the escaping crafts out of the well to safety. Once Explorer entered the fissure the anomaly collapsed and the ship was presumed lost.

The Admiral reached for a glass of water he had on his desk, took a drink and then continued telling Lt. Tyler of Explorer's relevence to Starfleet.

RAdm Martinelli: In late 2378, the Explorer unexpectedly appeared on the final approach vector for Omega Base. This was a surprise to many considering the ship was believed lost. After confirmation that it was indeed the missing vessel and that Captain Arayuss was aboard, the ship was allowed to dock. It turned out that the fissure was an opening to a transdimensional void and Captain Arayuss came in contact with another ship stranded in there and assisted in getting the Captain of that vessel back to his home world, which was in the Andromeda Galaxy. As a show of gratitude the ship's computer was connected to their sentient computer network which brought sentience to Explorer's computer. The device used to bring the ship to the alien Captain's planet and saving his son's life, was modified to remain as a functioning device integrated in Explorer's Main Engineering. The device was then used to bring the ship back to the Alpha Quadrant of our galaxy in a matter of weeks. Making it the fastest journey ever recorded between the two galaxies, and Explorer to have been the only Federation ship to have been to the Andromeda Galaxy. Explorer is fully automated and under the complete control of the sentient computer running it. Both Omega Sector and Starfleet Command aren't exactly thrilled with that since they cannot order the ship to do anything it doesn't feel like doing. But because the ship spent so much time alone with Captain Arayuss on the way back from Andromeda, they have a strong bonded friendship and I know Explorer would do whatever it could to protect him, which is what I'm counting on right now.

Tony drank the rest of his glass of his water and waited to hear from Explorer over the channel he told SB34's computer to transmit his message on. The Admiral also listed for any other questions or comments LtCmdr Arrayah or Lt. Tyler had for him while they were in his office, since Ens Russ returned to her desk hoping to hear something from Infiniti, Oriskany, or Whitestar.
_________________
Vice Admiral Anthony M. Martinelli
Executive Officer, USS Sutherland
Chief of Fleet Operations, Gamma Fleet
Starfleet, United Federation of Planets

Nick nodded, filing that information away in his mind if he ever needed it again.

Lt. Tyler: Interesting. I didn't know that. But I haven't been around long either. Of course. So, while we're waiting, do we have some kind of plan that I should be working out to impliment?

The newly appointed Chief of Security went back over the information on his PADD, but there was hardly any experience for him to pull from. He never fought against the Borg, Cardassians, or the Jem'Hadar. Not really, any how. Sure, he had been in plenty of holo-simulations, but that was not real experience. Already Nick was nervous about if the Security Team would take it well to have someone with barely 3 years experience ordering them around.
_________________
Lieutenant Nicholas Tyler
Chief of Security, Starbase 34

The Admiral nodded and smiled to the young Lieutenant as he responded to his inquiry.

RAdm Martinelli: Well, Nick, if I may be so bold as to call you that? I do have a plan I would like you to impliment. The new modified Phaser Rifles are being distributed to every member of SB34's Security Personnel as we speak, as well as the Marines. We need to put the base on Intruder Alert Standby until further notice. If anybody spots a single one of those things on this base, I want it blown back to Hell.

Tony was very clear in his wording as he got to the end of his instructions. He didn't want a single Deltauran on SB34 trying to propagate their species amongst the civilian population that lived on the Federation's only outpost in the Gamma Quadrant.
_________________
Vice Admiral Anthony M. Martinelli
Executive Officer, USS Sutherland
Chief of Fleet Operations, Gamma Fleet
Starfleet, United Federation of Planets

Nick nodded slowly, glancing over the PADD yet again.

Lt. Tyler: I understand, Sir. I'll do what I can to at least keep it played down enough to avoid mass panic. If the Security Teams need to be focused on keeping these things off the station, the last thing we need is everyone panicking about them as well. Fear is just as powerful as any Phaser or torpedo.

A slight grin crossed his face as the same words that his mentor on the USS Nova told him had slipped. He quickly let it evaporate though, as he had no intention of allowing the wrong image come through.

Lt. Tyler: It will be a tightrope to walk with keeping alert, but not giving people reason to panic and cause this to be harder than it should be. I expect that the Starfleet personnel would be more adaptive to this, but the civilians not so much.

Of course, that too was optimism speaking.
_________________
Lieutenant Nicholas Tyler
Chief of Security, Starbase 34