Romulan Getaway

Posted on Sun Sep 29th, 2019 @ 12:55pm by Lieutenant Mona Gonadie & Hera & Commander Rita Paris & Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox
Edited on on Mon Sep 30th, 2019 @ 12:49pm

Mission: Family Detention
Location: Romulan Neutral Zone border, Federation side
Timeline: 2396
Tags: Golden Ghost, Romulus Bound

Looking over the Getaway Driver, her golden lines all obscured by blackness, Paris sighed.

There had been a genuine fondness for the gold with black accent paint job that matched her armor. But, practicality had to be what it was. This was a mission into Romulan space. A two man craft that could be beamed into a tight space would be handy, and they needed to blend in with the locals. Thus she had put in the order to have them repainted, although they wouldn't pass close inspection. Mona Gonadie had gone over every inch of then redesigning as the knuckleheads in R&D found the faults, and these were vast improvements over traditional Scorpions. Rita cocked an eyebrow that even the phasers had been replaced, and now the 'tailgunner' that gave the Scorpion its name had been replaced by the previous model disruptor.

All three sat patiently on the pad, looking sinister. She'd only asked for the one to be reconverted, and the gold-clad commander hadn't expected all three to get the treatment.

"Wow, Mona doesn't fool around," Paris muttered as she peered into the cockpit, and the interior controls were all in Romulan as well. Which she could now somewhat read, thanks to a few wonderful migraines. Apparently Mona had gutted them of their Federation tech? Shaking her head, Rita summoned her flight suit from the extradimensional space she carried, a gift of the goddess. As the golden composite material armor settled onto her form, Paris powered it up and shook her head. "Praise Hera."

Across the ship, an eyebrow rose.

On her armor's holographic overlay displays, she still read the three with their nomenclatures, but there was something new. The ships each showed in the displays as having active deflectors set on holographic mode.

"Holographic mode... wait," Paris began to put it together quickly. "Because the cloak, when the Klingons and Romulans use it, they use it to project nothing being there- that's the cloaking device the Federation swore not to employ. But since it's wave mapping the hull, if you just want to disguise what's there and it's the same approximate size and shape... Mona Gonadie, you mad genius. You figured out how to make a Federation cloaking device that's legal. We don't vanish, we disguise."

"It was either that or rebuild all three of them with their original hardware and this was a lot easier," came the reply over the comms from the aforementioned brightly plumed avian, a video feed popping up of her working on another holographic monstrosity. "Starfleet tinkered with holographically disguising whole ships in the past, and my system just takes it a step further using a fraction of the power. This way you get all the cool tech we installed, plus you can change the paintjob up at any time, just in case."

"Ensign, it's a good thing you refuse all promotion or I'd be liable to promote you on the spot," Paris chuckled, spinning through the options menus to flip the appearances of the Cyclones. Red, gold, blue, green, even purple... the mind boggled. "And they can't cloak like this, so they don't violate the Treaty of Algeron. Absolutely brilliant, Mona. I'm still putting you in for a commendation."

As she spoke, Paris popped the hatch on Getaway Driver, and tossed her bag of gear into it. "I'll bring the other two with me, as obviously you intended, seeing how you have them already pre-slaved to my system's operation. We might just need them both, and I will feel a lot better with your technology under me than unpredictable Romulan tech." Pausing to open her helmet, Paris spoke to the holographic image of the brightly plumed aviatrix, her expression earnest and serious. When she spoke, her voice was one of quiet calm and determination, of confidence that Mona Gonadie desperately needed to hear right now.

"We'll get them back, Mona. We'll find them, and we'll bring them home. You just stay busy in the meanwhile, and make sure we still have a home to return to when we've got them, all right? We're counting on you for that, so that you can count on us to rescue them. Which we will. Because failure is not an option." While she wasn't exactly emotionally disconnected from this situation, Paris still knew the importance of morale on the home front, and Mona needed to hear from someone who could make a difference that it was going to be alright. Paris was determined that was going to be the case, so she said so. The Dox's would be returned, safe and sound if she had any say in it.

Hopefully, the universe was willing.

"Thank you, Commander. I've been told that I need to trust in all of you so..." There was a brief pause as Mona was obviously getting emotional, wiping tears from her eyes before they leaked out. "So I leave this all to you. May the blessings of the Moon Goddess and Hera go with you."

Again, from across the ship, a certain person reacted, this time with a knowing grin. She wasn't the only one smiling down, however.

“I’ll get them back, Mona. I have no idea how, but then, that’s usually my strongest suit, as Sonak says,” Rita admitted. After all, improvisation in the moment was what often made her successful when planning and tactics failed. “The Captain and Sonak will be with me, and we’ve got the best chance imaginable of pulling this off and bringing them home. So with that said,” Paris climbed into the getaway driver, the holographics over the controls canceling out as she deactivated them to jack her armor into the system for a hardline redundancy to the wireless signal. Slaving the other two Cyclones to her control, she began her preflight checks on all three vehicles.

“Time for a rendezvous with Romulus,” Rita muttered.

Rather than ending the call or wishing the commander good luck, Mona paused a moment, a look of worry crossing her face a moment before she spoke up. "Commander... Rita... I normally don't put much faith in dreams... But with our bond, there might be something more to mine since..."

Talking about the incident was clearly still difficult for the brightly plumed Miradonian as even in the holo-comm, her feathers looked flat as she looked down at her workbench. "I've been having a repeating dream and they got stronger for a bit, and now they're getting a bit weaker. I'm trying to reach for my Minay over a great distance and she's trying to tell me something... but I just... I can't make out what she's trying to say..."

She then looked back up into the sensor and at Rita. "I think this is a trap. For the Captain, for you, for the Hera... For all of us. Please be careful."

"I'd hug you if you were close, Miss Gonadie. Mrs, Gonadie, I suppose officially now." Shaking her head, her eyes still somehow drawn to the Lollipop guild forelock she was sporting, the golden oldie of another age shook her head sadly. "Mona, Sonak has warned me of danger from the planet in standard orbit. From a neighboring dimension. I know when he's in trouble, and he knows when I need him. I believe you... I have no problem believing you whatsoever, Mona."

"I've seen too much of the multiverse to be jaded, Ensign. So I believe you. Without hesitation, I believe you." The sincerity in the human woman's bright blue eyes were convincingly earnest. "Don't let her know that we're coming or she's liable to do something self-sacrificing in the name of trying to save us from her trouble. You know your wife," Paris ended with a small smug smile.

"Thank you," Mona replied, almost to tears once more. "I don't think our bond is nearly so strong she'd hear anything back but I'll do my best not to let her know. Just... May the wings of the Moon Goddess guide you and the Trickster slumber as you fly silently." The blessing was something her mother and foster parents both said to her often growing up as it was a traditional Miradonian blessing for safe travels. Here it somehow felt more appropriate than the normal 'good luck'.

"Keep that candle in the window, Mrs. Gonadie. We'll be home soon enough." With that said, Rita snapped her armor's helmet shut, the plates building and stacking to unpack the high-tech polymer plates of the EVA armor and assemble them over her head. As she activated the Getaway Driver, Curiosity and Cherry Bomb, lifted them off the deck with precision synchronization, and the trio cloaked back to Scorpion black as they cut through the void.

Ahead loomed one of the great Romulan 'Birds of Prey' of her day. She'd seen them before, of course, back in her own day. But this was a rare opportunity to take a vanity flight around one, and this was an opportunity she wasn't going to pass up. This would serve as an exterior examination of the starship, after all. If she was risking life and limb aboard a starship for the next few weeks, she was determined that it be one with which she was both familiar and confident.

Besides, taking her time would be worth it to take a good long look at this beauty.

"Hello 'Golden Ghost'... funny, in a way that's me too..."