Things Go Too Wrong Part 1

Posted on Fri Sep 5th, 2014 @ 7:08pm by Captain Enalia Telvan & Azrhianna & Lieutenant Commander Charon Edomar & Lieutenant Richard Lockheart

Mission: Something Amiss
Location: USS Hera Bridge
Timeline: 30 minutes after shuttle launch

The shuttle was almost to the colony and no flags or alerts had been raised by this point. It seemed they were going to get there completely undetected. Enalia had been monitoring their progress on her console, practically holding her breath. It seemed the whole bridge had a certain expectant silence to it, as if even the ship herself were waiting for something to go extremely wrong. They didn't have to wait any longer as a ship started decloaking right in front of them.

The operations officer running the scans saw it first and switched the screen to the antique Klingon bird of prey. "Captain, Scout class Bird of Prey decloaking dead ahead. Range 200 kilometers." Pausing a moment, he took a few more readings. "They're not powering weapons or shields."

Standing and taking a couple steps towards the viewscreen, Enalia glared at the familiar profile of the ship before them. "Stay at yellow alert and open a channel. This is Captain Telvan of the USS Hera. We are conducting a scientific study of the effects of this star on the nearby planets. Would you like to join us?" If they didn't know their real mission, she hoped that would discourage their curiosity in the Hera's presence here.

When the screen came to life with the image of the other captain, Enalia's heart sank. This person she knew. This bitch was the one that had sent the Hera back to drydock on her last maiden voyage under Telvan's command. The sinister grin on her face told Enalia that she know why the Hera was here and that their mission was likely about to come to an abrupt bad end.

"Hello again, Captain." She spit the title out like an insult. "As I assume you remember, I'm the Captain of the Raptor, Azrhianna. I assume you're here about the Romulan prison not far from here. I don't suppose I can talk you into calling off your rescue, can I?"

Enalia's fists were clenched tight as the cynical Orion woman spoke. She certainly did remember her but she wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of letting her know she was right. "I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about. We're here on a routine survey mission. As I said, the effects of this star are very interesting."

"You know, if you lie too much you'll get wrinkles. Your sensor array isn't even pointing at the sun or any of the planets. Your people are heading into a trap and one that will make my current mission that much more difficult. I propose a temporary truce and... what do you call it... teamwork?" Azrhianna said, her words dripping with insincerity and sarcasm.

"We'll consider your words. Viewscreen off." As the screen returned to the view of the antique ship, Enalia stood there glaring at it, wishing her eyes were phasers tearing that ship apart. Forcing her jaw to relax and opening her clenched fists, she returned to her chair and looked to her XO. "I need options. She blew a large chunk out of my ship last time we met and I don't want a repeat of that."

'This is the exact reason why you don't trust SI' Charon thought with no lack of disgust. It showed on his face too. He did not like this development. “How did they know we were even here? The corona of the star should have masked our presence.” He interjected after the screen had been turned off, acid burning in his every word. As far as their options went he was not aware they had any. “And how do they know we are on a rescue mission.” Charon was now standing and pointing at the ship that was shown on the main view screen. “What kind of act is all this supposed to be? 'Secret mission' ...” Charon snorted and swallowed the hateful rant he had been about to let loose. The sides of his head had lost their grey dull colouration and were now flushed and visibly pumping with blood. He was wide awake now.

Turning around to his Captain he looked at her. The doubt in his eyes was hard to miss. “Good question. We can't trust that woman, but we just as well can't ignore the fact that our mission is compromised. For all we know the shuttle is about to be intercepted and all aboard will either be killed or taken hostage.” Charon knew all to well the effectiveness of the Tal Shiar. If some Captain of an old Klingon Bird of Prey could find out about their mission so could they.

Since the captain had asked for ideas though Charon complied. “Scan for sources of tetryon or chroniton particles.” He said in the direction of the science station. “Have Astrometrics support your effort.” With a few steps he was at the tactical console next to the Ensign manning it. “Use passive sensors to get a better idea of what our surprise guests are capable of. Try to find weak spots in the hull that we can exploit in a fight.” He ordered the tactical officer. Looking back to the centre of the bridge he said. “Everybody who does not have anything to do should think about what they know about this type of ship and how best to disable it.” He was hell bent on capturing the Captain of the Bird of Prey and beating the answer to who told her about their mission out of the woman. “Get to it!” He ordered energetically.

He made his way back towards his seat and sat down. Once there he picked up a PaDD, typed something into it and started to mutter to himself.

As the crew bustled to the XO's orders, Enalia sat there quietly thinking things over. Prior tachyon scans had shown no cloaked vessels, but that didn't mean there weren't any. For all they knew, there could be a powered down and cloaked warbird on the surface of the planet their team was about to land on. "What's your plan you old pirate?" she muttered under her breath. Looking over the sensor data, they had confirmed the age and registry of the klingon ship. It had been built so long ago it still had the old trigger happy cloaking device. Azrhianna knew about that flaw though, so they couldn't make use of it.

As tempted as she was to just order the ship's destruction, she wanted something more from the Orion woman. Enalia wanted revenge. Enalia wanted to make her watch as her own ship and crew burned before her eyes. There was no way she was putting her into the brig again, though. Perhaps Nexi could do another job for her soon...

But this was getting them nowhere. She breathed deeply before steeling herself and turning the screen back to the pirate's sinister face. "I want to know how you know about our mission and why you want our cooperation."

Azrhianna nodded slowly at the question. "A fair question. Here's a fair answer. Someone I need is there and I've been sitting here for almost a week when you almost rammed my ship jumping out of warp that fast. Like I said, this whole prison colony is a trap. I suspected they want me, but since you're here I'm not sure now. Believe it or not, that's the truth."

Muting the outgoing comm signal, Enalia sighed. "Scan for warp trails, see if there's one for the Raptor made recently."

Lieutenant Lockheart sat at the emergency manual override console, turned around and looking at the the view screen. Strat Ops didn't have any designated seats on the bridge, so Richard just took the closest empty seat. Mulling the situation over in his head, Richard became more and more concerned. If the Klingon vessel revealed anything about their mission publicly, the consequences could be disastrous. The Federation was supposed to be helping the Romulans regain their former strength. This mission had the potential to be scandalous, and could severely sour Federation-Romulan relations.

Though, thinking about it, the Federation and Klingons had been getting along quite well since the Dominion War. The Klingon ship wasn't a new, very advanced model, and had no real reason to be cloaked, as far as Richard was concerned. The captain was a seedy character, and didn't seem to be trustworthy in the slightest. Richard hopped up from his seat, and walked over to where the captain was standing. "Captain, this ship... You seem to know quite about it, and the other captain. Who is she? I simply don't believe she's working with the Klingons, so who does she work for?"

Enalia still had that look in her eyes that she wanted to kill something when Lt Lockheart began speaking, but they soon softened when she realized she was likely the only one aboard that would remember who that Orion woman was. "She's a pirate and one I dare say is one of the smartest and most nefarious ones out there. She works for no one but herself as far as I know. If you check the database, we've had a run in with her before. She killed a number of my crew and crippled the Hera, sending her back to drydock. She shows up now and then, wreaks some havoc, then vanishes for some time. The fact that she's here means she's about to do something big - likely in Federation space."

Looking between Lockheart and Charon, Enalia continued. "If you have a chance to capture her, don't. She'll want to be captured. Kill her. Cripple her. Blow up her ship. Do what it takes to get rid of her but whatever you do, do NOT let her aboard this ship. Is that understood?"

Charon nodded. Kill her on sight. He typed a short order into the small console on his armrest to inform security. “Security has been informed to shoot her on sight and shoot to kill.” He relayed to the Captain. In his head though a tiny voice was making itself heard with a great deal of anticipation. ”Oh please try and board our ship. Please please please!” A mad chuckle followed and Charon had to force it out of his mind. Slowly the voice faded and Charon had to massage the side of his head with on e hand. Another migraine developing. “So how are we going to deal with her? And what are we going to do about the away team? They need to be made aware of this change in circumstance.”
He wasn't sure how much this actually changed anything. After all he was sure that they were heading for a trap.

"We needed to assume it's a trap from the beginning. If we contact them now, the Romulans will detect the signal and figure out where the team is. There's nothing we actually can do right now, other than possibly cause a distraction." Enalia said, finally calm enough to think rationally. "The next question is, is she telling the truth. She's not known to flat out lie, so I'm inclined to believe her..."

Charon did not know weather to believe the Orion woman's claims. While he was still looking at his PaDD and working on ways to take care of the Bird of Prey an Ensign in the back spoke up.

“Captain, I am detecting a very faint warp signature. It is consistent with that of a Klingon Bird of Prey. It is dispersed almost completely. I can't pinpoint when they arrived but it was not recently.”

Charon took note of the Ensign's words but did not look up. He was again typing on the small screen on his armrest. “Captain, I am sending you the orders I just issued.” Charon nudged his head in the direction of the captains chair and the small console next to it. On it was an encrypted message. Charon had ordered the Torpedo bay to ready a few photon torpedoes and increase their yield. Secruity was taking up posts in vital areas of the ship. Tactical had been instructed to fire the modified torpedoes in case the Orion's ship was going to activate its cloak without Azrhianna having the curtsey of telling them first. With a properly aimed spread they would simply blow up the whole spatial grid that the Bird of Prey could be in right after going into cloak. Even if by chance it did not destroy the bird of prey it would disable it and leave it heavily damaged. The fun part was that the Hera did not have to target the enemy ship and therefore Azrhianna would not be able to tell what was in store for her. “I figured that would agree with you.” He said with determination. Funny. He was supposed to be an explorer and a healer. Here he was, planing to blow up an enemy ship. Oh the joy of being first officer.
”Come one, go over there you pansy. You know you can end this without bloodshed!” The tiny voice in his head said, malice oozing out of every word. For some reason Charon did neither ignore nor push the voice away this time.

Nodding at her screen, Enalia thought it over for a moment. "A good idea. Let's just hope she's not prepared for it." Looking up into his eyes, she continued. "I would like to get her aid if possible and I think I have an idea but I'll need to use you as a bartering chip. How much do you trust me?"

He had to roll that sentence around his head for a few moments. How much did he trust her? She was his captain and therefore he was obligated to give her some trust in advance. But really had she earned any of it yet? No. Maybe this would be her chance to do so.
“How about I answer that question afterwards?” He said in a low voice so the rest of the bridge would not hear it. The humans and those with even worse hearing anyway. “Tell me what you got in mind.”

"There's no way we can recall the team at this point so they're pretty much on their own. I want you go over to their ship with a viridium patch hidden on you as a sort of liaison. Most likely she'll want you on some sort of mission team so with that patch we'll be able to beam you and anyone near you out of just about anything. We should also be able to track their cloak while you're aboard if necessary." Enalia explained in hushed tones. "They'll have to go in and try to get their person during or after our team does their thing but at least they should think they have a chance using our team as a distraction. It's a pretty shoddy plan, isn't it?"

A viridium patch. That was actually a good idea. If the enemy could be fooled that easily. But it was worth a try. “It is a plan.” He said to bring the whole thing down more realistic levels. It was quite the gamble the captain was proposing. “I suppose you believe that you know her well enough to make that assessment.” He was wary that the Captain herself was not too sure about the outcome of this mission. He did not like to see a plan like this rest on assumptions. “Can we really say what she is going to do? You said yourself that she is very cunning.”

"I know she wants our help and that her weapons and shields are down supports that. She waited until our team was minutes from landing to rush our decision. She knows we can't signal them now without alerting the prison. Based on those 3 facts, I'm betting she's expecting me to want someone on her ship and that I'll have a way to track them. If so, she'll want to put her wife on our bridge. She's an assassin so as unapealing as the prospect is, we'll still have a slight advantage having you on her ship." In her own mind her reasoning was sound, but Enalia couldn't help but feel she was missing something. "I'm not sure she's here by coincidence, nor am I convinced she wants someone from the prison. Because of that, I'm thinking that she's the trap rather than the prison and the best way to disable a trap is to spring that trap."

“So we'll walk into her trap, knowing we do, and at least keep that slim advantage.” Charon said thoughtfully scratching his chin. Then he got up. “Okay, lets do it.” He said with a strange cheerful anticipation. In his head the tiny voice got louder. Yes, yesss! A mad chuckle echoed through his head. I am going to have so much fun. Charon didn't even try to fight it. He knew it was wrong but somehow the dangerous situation ahead did manage to weaken his resolve. If he had been perfectly honest he was not fit for duty in his condition. Not by a long shot. But then he was not being honest.

Standing and stepping towards the viewscreen, Enalia smiled almost wickedly. "Excellent then. Let's get this over with before the madness of it wears off, shall we? Ensign viewscreen back on please." As the other captain came back up on the screen, Enalia smiled brighter. "We've decided to help you. We can't contact our team now, so I'd like my first officer to coordinate our efforts from your bridge if that's ok."

The sinister Orion woman nodded. "I'll concede to that if you'll allow one of my officers to do the same. You can even restrain her if you like. I recommend we get moving though. Your team should be landing in moments and they'll need you to provide a distraction and me to provide support. I assume those are the roles to which you feel we best are suited for?"

Enalia nodded back. Either she was starting to think like this woman or this woman was making her dance to an even bigger tune. Either way, they got what was needed for now. "Thank you. Please stand by for transport." Signalling for the channel to be closed, she turned back to Charon. "Good luck."

”Oh but we won't need luck.” The tiny voice in Charons head said with glee and giggled like a little girl. “Thank you.” Charon managed to respond and made his way towards the turbolift. He would have to make a short detour to get that viridium patch Telvan had been speaking about.
While he was moving up the ramp that lead to the raised aft part of the bridge he spoke to the captain over the shoulder. “I will report in as often as possible.” With that he was in the turbolift and on his way to the Klingon Bird of Prey.