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"Memory Scan"
[previous post was "Something Changed" by the cautious Jayson]
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Setting: Moon of PI ALPHA III, Underground cave system
Stardate: 30148.1845

The Captain had returned more focused and driven than the ILO had ever seen him be before.  Whatever had happened during his time away from the rest of the crew had deeply affected the Commanding Officer, so much so that his mental defences had been lowered enough for Shar'El to get glimpses into the man's most prominent memories.

Images from another ship and crew flashed in the man's head, returning to one specific officer.  From the background setting the ILO could tell that Captain Morningstar and this other man had been in this other ship's engineering section.  Obviously the two had worked together at some point but that was all that Shar'El could put together at this time.  The CO's memories had been too frantic for the Ullian to make any real sense of them, so she tried her best to piece the images together to make a *bigger picture*, one that might give clues as to what had happened and why.

Eeru was in the lead closely followed by Captain Morningstar, the rest of the crew doing their best to keep pace.  The two Lieutenants had been right behind their CO which had been an indication by itself as to the importance of the matter at hand.  Rapid actions had been called for, the reason for which none of the Ensigns knew as of yet, but it was beyond clear that the situation had changed in a major way.  The ILO could only guess as to the involvement of the ACMO in this, wondering if the Bajoran woman had in one way or another been the reason or cause for this sudden urgency for action.

The image of a dimensional rift from the Captain's memories took Shar'El by surprised and caused her to stop in mid stride.  Wydran, who had been bringing up the rear, simply scooped up the much smaller dark haired woman off her feet instead of running into her.  The two shared a quick grin confirming that all had been well before the giant FCO returned the ILO to her feet as if nothing had happened.

As the group continued on their way, the Ullian tried to find more about that one specific memory from their Captain, a memory that had been all too quickly replaced by a string of other images.  The ILO eventually saw an image that gave her a little more information to go one, the memory of a bridge of a Starfleet ship, and a plaque that named the vessel they had been on: The USS PROPHECY.

Searching through her own memories to locate that specific name would have likely been much easier had it not been for the rushing about the uneven underground corridors.  The foxy Akitashiinu had obviously been in a rush, enough so to have left her jackal bodyguard behind, but yet there had been something about the way she moved that did not convey urgency.  The more Shar'El looked at Eeru the more she sound the female to not displaying what should have been expected from some sort of emergency, one important enough to have them move as they were.

With her curiosity having found a new target, the ILO focused her gaze onto the red furred alien.  Shar'El had gained a little bit of experience in searching through the minds of an Akitashiinu and she hoped that it would be enough to allow her to actually get something useful.  At worst case the Intel Liaison Officer would walk away from this latest attempt with another headache and the reality that she would never be able to scan that race's minds and memories.

Through the chaos found within the memories of the alien mind, the ILO was able to lock in on two specific images that told of a strange story.  The first had been a memory of a machine that was as alien to the Akitashiinu as they were to the crew members of the USS ANUBIS.  The second image, the one that added the most puzzling piece to this mystery had been the memory of the man that Shar'El had seen in the Captain's own memories.

Now, for people to share aspects of certain memories had been perfectly normal given that both had experienced the same thing.  In this case though, it was easy to see that there had been no similarities between the memories other than the presence of that man.  It was logical to assume that he had been an acquaintance of both Eeru and Captain Morningstar, but that by itself had been the strange part.

Why would the two of them know this single individual and what role did he play in this alien machine?

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Tiffany Reeve

Ensign Shar'El
Intel Liaison Officer
USS ANUBIS