Beg, Steal or Borrow – Hide and Sneak
by Commander Isha t'Vaurek & Lieutenant JG Opaka Jo'el
Post Details
ON:
Jo'el left the slight dip in gravity as the transporter beam released him. He jerked his phaser in several directions before looking at Isha. "A holding cell? I assume this is your family's vessel. My phaser's still working for some reason..."
“They know that I am aboard, but they’re not expecting anyone else to be with me, if they were there would have been someone here,” she laid her hands flat against the door and her forehead between them against the cold grey metal. She slammed her hand against the door before turning back to the room.
He cocked his head to the side, pondering this situation. The Academy generally implied that the Romulans wouldn't care to take low-ranking officers alive unless they had something valuable. In Jo'el's case, he had a person the Romulans wanted badly.
"This is your turf, Isha. What's our move?"
“Find somewhere to conceal yourself," Isha said, "Stay there until they come for me, then get yourself to an escape pod. As long as your compatriots aren’t feeling too trigger happy, there’s a good chance you’ll be alive at the end of the day. If you are here when they come for me they’ll shoot you on sight.”
Jo'el bit the inside of his cheek as he contemplated his options. "I wouldn't be doing my job if I acted to preserve myself first. We stick together until the station finds us."
Isha bit her lower lip, "I'm safe for now. They want me alive - it was important enough for them to drop their shields in the middle of a battle."
"I can't argue with you there. If they wanted you dead, they would have scattered our patterns in open space." Jo'el's eyes widened as their situation became more clear.
"Even if they did drop their shields, the station's shields were holding. How did they find us?"
Isha disagreed, “For a few seconds at least both the station and this ship were open and undefended. This had to have been automatically pre-set – they simply would not have had the time to locate my own signal.” An unpleasant idea was occurring to Isha; of all the people who had been through her office that morning who would have done such a thing?
"Your signal... somebody tagged you. If there's a transponder on you, I should be able to use it with my comm badge to amplify our signal to the station's sensors. Then it's up to them to notice our blip while everything's exploding around them."
Isha nodded. Methodically she drew her hand over one exposed shoulder and over the soft ruched fabric of her sleeve and then the other, “Help me, Opaka! Check my back it must be here somewhere,” she instructed lifting her hair out of the way.
Jo'el plucked a metallic grey square from Isha's back. "That's uncanny, it looks almost exactly like the other buttons on your dress. If we weren't looking specifically for a transporter beacon, we'd never have noticed it."
“I don’t recognise it,” Isha said. “Can you do as you said and modify it or do you require the assistance of a technician?” she asked implying that if that were the case he might have a long wait.
"If you'd be so humble as to provide me with one of your hairpins, I think my phaser can do the rest of the work." Jo'el plucked a long filament from Isha's scalp without waiting for her reply.
“Then you really are more adaptable than us. Innovation is not exactly encouraged in the ranks – it gives people too many ideas. If I asked a Rihannsu security officer to modify a piece of technical equipment, he would stare stupidly at his disruptor before going to ask his superior officer for permission to tell me he didn’t know how.”
"I always liked those old school gold helmets. Probably made it easier to tell who was thick-headed and who was just devious back in the 23rd." Jo'el set his phaser for a modified welding setting. "Just the same, I had some great engineering professors at the Academy."
He bit down on his bottom lip as he popped open the Starfleet delta and linked its wiring to the transponder. He gave it a test click, looking up at Isha optimistically. "That should do it. We're good to go."
“Then please get yourself home. You cannot fight the entire crew of a warbird. I may have to do what I joked about and find a way to disable this ship. It is the Vrelnec,” she said with a swallow as she examined a block of cuniform writing on a control panel. “Should I get the chance, I am having this vessel renamed. The first was irreparably damaged after a skirmish with a rabble of Klingons, the second was lost at Chin’toka taking half of my closest family with it, and now this one … you believe in your Bajoran gods, don’t you, Opaka? Once you’re back on deep space five, spare a moment to pray for me.”
Jo'el shook his head. "I can't leave without you. There's got to be some way for us to stay in contact if we get separated..."
“Can you alter it to transmit a voice signal to you? I’ll not be able to hear you, but you will be able to hear me.”
He squinted as he considered that possibility. "Extension courses don't fail me now... I think I finally understand why humans put so much stock in men who can defuse bombs with bubblegum and tin foil." Jo'el frowned as he found a wall comm unit. "I'm could piggyback my comm badge's receiver over a low radio frequency. As long as you're near a working comm panel, I could listen in on you. But as I've already stated, I'm not leaving you behind. I have a duty to perform, and losing you would not only be a personal failure, it could cause this situation to escalate across both sides of the Neutral Zone. I can't risk that."
As the panel lit beneath Isha’s fingers she smiled softly, “I can’t force you to go, Opaka,” she said as she retrieved a schematic of the ship; Nniol had not done a complete override of the codes she had asked the shipyard to have programmed. “Come here, look. You might be the first lloann'na to see this. Twenty six decks in the front section. We are here – deck 14, if this were a Galae vessel section would be occupied by Tal’Shiar but in this at least Nniol has sense, he’ll not allow them a presence aboard any more than I would. This is a secondary transporter room, and as the area isn’t secure, I don’t expect they’ll give me long. We’ll have company as soon as they can spare someone … in fact now that this has been activated, I’m sure they’re on their way to make sure they get me before they lose me.”
"We move together," Jo'el stated bluntly, "or we don't move at all, Madam Ambassador."
Isha looked up at Opaka through her eyelashes, “If they know I am sitting in a holding cell waiting for my husband’s brother to deign to speak with me, they will not be looking for an intruder. You will be able to move much more easily.”
Jo'el frowned again, deeply conflicted. "You seem beyond the point of being diplomatic, so I won't fight you." He smiled, his violet eyes sparkling with a combination of exasperation and playfulness. "Where should I go? What can I do to help?"
“The security office is on deck six. That’s where they’ll take me, you follow … I will be doing my best to subvert who ever is unfortunate enough to be given charge of me – if mhnei’sahe still means anything to anyone on this ship, I’ll be free before you get there,” Isha smirked. “Do try not to draw attention to yourself,” she said glancing at his hair. “Most of the crew will be too busy to be anywhere near the corridors but keep your eyes open. And if we cloak before you reach me, head straight for the bridge.”
"Nine decks up, that's do-able," Jo'el cracked his neck and nodded to her. "I'll find a storage locker or something to duck hide in until they've got you. Give me a chance to see potential sites for sabotage, should mhnei’sahe prove to be worthless. Assuming they take you on the turbolifts, I'm going to take those access ladders I saw on the schematic."
Taking her lower lip between her teeth Isha turned back to the control panel, “Let’s see if we can get that door open. And Opaka, whatever they do or say when they take me, I implore you to do nothing, our success depends on their not considering me to be a threat.”
"And not considering me at all, got it. No promises, Isha. The second I'm convinced your life is in peril, I'm coming in firing."
Isha raised an eyebrow, in other circumstances she would quite like to see that; she was the sort of woman who appreciated men who took action. “You’re quite determined aren’t you,” she said as she tapped a fingernail on the edge of the panel. “There. Try the door, please.”
Jo'el heard a click as the magnetic locks disengaged. The door cracked but didn't open, so Jo'el wedged his fingers in the crack and pulled the doors apart. Once it was open wide enough to permit exit, he turned back to Isha. "That should do it."
“Good. Go and hide yourself … is that going to work?” she asked eying the transponder sceptically.
He tapped on the comm badge, hearing a small amount of static and an echo of Isha's breathing. "It's doing alright. So long as there aren't any dead zone in the ship's comm systems, I should be able to hear everything."
Isha nodded. She raised a hand and tilted her head to one side as she listened, “Footsteps, from that direction,” she warned. “Please go. Now.”
"Good luck, Isha," Jo'el said, heading in the opposite direction. "Oh, Madam Ambassador, do me a favor?"
Her eyes swivelled back in his direction as Isha grasped the panels of the half open door for support, “Name it,” she said.
"If we make it back alive, please don't tell anyone I let you out of my sight."
OFF:
Ambassador Isha t’Khellian
Ensign Opaka Jo'el
VIP Bodyguard
by Commander Isha t'Vaurek & Lieutenant JG Opaka Jo'el
Post Details
| Title | Hide and Sneak | |
| Mission | Beg, Steal or Borrow | |
| Author(s) | Commander Isha t'Vaurek & Lieutenant JG Opaka Jo'el | |
| Posted | Thu Apr 16, 2009 @ 6:46am | |
| Location | Warbird Vrelnec | |
| Timeline | SD8 - just after 14:00 |
Jo'el left the slight dip in gravity as the transporter beam released him. He jerked his phaser in several directions before looking at Isha. "A holding cell? I assume this is your family's vessel. My phaser's still working for some reason..."
“They know that I am aboard, but they’re not expecting anyone else to be with me, if they were there would have been someone here,” she laid her hands flat against the door and her forehead between them against the cold grey metal. She slammed her hand against the door before turning back to the room.
He cocked his head to the side, pondering this situation. The Academy generally implied that the Romulans wouldn't care to take low-ranking officers alive unless they had something valuable. In Jo'el's case, he had a person the Romulans wanted badly.
"This is your turf, Isha. What's our move?"
“Find somewhere to conceal yourself," Isha said, "Stay there until they come for me, then get yourself to an escape pod. As long as your compatriots aren’t feeling too trigger happy, there’s a good chance you’ll be alive at the end of the day. If you are here when they come for me they’ll shoot you on sight.”
Jo'el bit the inside of his cheek as he contemplated his options. "I wouldn't be doing my job if I acted to preserve myself first. We stick together until the station finds us."
Isha bit her lower lip, "I'm safe for now. They want me alive - it was important enough for them to drop their shields in the middle of a battle."
"I can't argue with you there. If they wanted you dead, they would have scattered our patterns in open space." Jo'el's eyes widened as their situation became more clear.
"Even if they did drop their shields, the station's shields were holding. How did they find us?"
Isha disagreed, “For a few seconds at least both the station and this ship were open and undefended. This had to have been automatically pre-set – they simply would not have had the time to locate my own signal.” An unpleasant idea was occurring to Isha; of all the people who had been through her office that morning who would have done such a thing?
"Your signal... somebody tagged you. If there's a transponder on you, I should be able to use it with my comm badge to amplify our signal to the station's sensors. Then it's up to them to notice our blip while everything's exploding around them."
Isha nodded. Methodically she drew her hand over one exposed shoulder and over the soft ruched fabric of her sleeve and then the other, “Help me, Opaka! Check my back it must be here somewhere,” she instructed lifting her hair out of the way.
Jo'el plucked a metallic grey square from Isha's back. "That's uncanny, it looks almost exactly like the other buttons on your dress. If we weren't looking specifically for a transporter beacon, we'd never have noticed it."
“I don’t recognise it,” Isha said. “Can you do as you said and modify it or do you require the assistance of a technician?” she asked implying that if that were the case he might have a long wait.
"If you'd be so humble as to provide me with one of your hairpins, I think my phaser can do the rest of the work." Jo'el plucked a long filament from Isha's scalp without waiting for her reply.
“Then you really are more adaptable than us. Innovation is not exactly encouraged in the ranks – it gives people too many ideas. If I asked a Rihannsu security officer to modify a piece of technical equipment, he would stare stupidly at his disruptor before going to ask his superior officer for permission to tell me he didn’t know how.”
"I always liked those old school gold helmets. Probably made it easier to tell who was thick-headed and who was just devious back in the 23rd." Jo'el set his phaser for a modified welding setting. "Just the same, I had some great engineering professors at the Academy."
He bit down on his bottom lip as he popped open the Starfleet delta and linked its wiring to the transponder. He gave it a test click, looking up at Isha optimistically. "That should do it. We're good to go."
“Then please get yourself home. You cannot fight the entire crew of a warbird. I may have to do what I joked about and find a way to disable this ship. It is the Vrelnec,” she said with a swallow as she examined a block of cuniform writing on a control panel. “Should I get the chance, I am having this vessel renamed. The first was irreparably damaged after a skirmish with a rabble of Klingons, the second was lost at Chin’toka taking half of my closest family with it, and now this one … you believe in your Bajoran gods, don’t you, Opaka? Once you’re back on deep space five, spare a moment to pray for me.”
Jo'el shook his head. "I can't leave without you. There's got to be some way for us to stay in contact if we get separated..."
“Can you alter it to transmit a voice signal to you? I’ll not be able to hear you, but you will be able to hear me.”
He squinted as he considered that possibility. "Extension courses don't fail me now... I think I finally understand why humans put so much stock in men who can defuse bombs with bubblegum and tin foil." Jo'el frowned as he found a wall comm unit. "I'm could piggyback my comm badge's receiver over a low radio frequency. As long as you're near a working comm panel, I could listen in on you. But as I've already stated, I'm not leaving you behind. I have a duty to perform, and losing you would not only be a personal failure, it could cause this situation to escalate across both sides of the Neutral Zone. I can't risk that."
As the panel lit beneath Isha’s fingers she smiled softly, “I can’t force you to go, Opaka,” she said as she retrieved a schematic of the ship; Nniol had not done a complete override of the codes she had asked the shipyard to have programmed. “Come here, look. You might be the first lloann'na to see this. Twenty six decks in the front section. We are here – deck 14, if this were a Galae vessel section would be occupied by Tal’Shiar but in this at least Nniol has sense, he’ll not allow them a presence aboard any more than I would. This is a secondary transporter room, and as the area isn’t secure, I don’t expect they’ll give me long. We’ll have company as soon as they can spare someone … in fact now that this has been activated, I’m sure they’re on their way to make sure they get me before they lose me.”
"We move together," Jo'el stated bluntly, "or we don't move at all, Madam Ambassador."
Isha looked up at Opaka through her eyelashes, “If they know I am sitting in a holding cell waiting for my husband’s brother to deign to speak with me, they will not be looking for an intruder. You will be able to move much more easily.”
Jo'el frowned again, deeply conflicted. "You seem beyond the point of being diplomatic, so I won't fight you." He smiled, his violet eyes sparkling with a combination of exasperation and playfulness. "Where should I go? What can I do to help?"
“The security office is on deck six. That’s where they’ll take me, you follow … I will be doing my best to subvert who ever is unfortunate enough to be given charge of me – if mhnei’sahe still means anything to anyone on this ship, I’ll be free before you get there,” Isha smirked. “Do try not to draw attention to yourself,” she said glancing at his hair. “Most of the crew will be too busy to be anywhere near the corridors but keep your eyes open. And if we cloak before you reach me, head straight for the bridge.”
"Nine decks up, that's do-able," Jo'el cracked his neck and nodded to her. "I'll find a storage locker or something to duck hide in until they've got you. Give me a chance to see potential sites for sabotage, should mhnei’sahe prove to be worthless. Assuming they take you on the turbolifts, I'm going to take those access ladders I saw on the schematic."
Taking her lower lip between her teeth Isha turned back to the control panel, “Let’s see if we can get that door open. And Opaka, whatever they do or say when they take me, I implore you to do nothing, our success depends on their not considering me to be a threat.”
"And not considering me at all, got it. No promises, Isha. The second I'm convinced your life is in peril, I'm coming in firing."
Isha raised an eyebrow, in other circumstances she would quite like to see that; she was the sort of woman who appreciated men who took action. “You’re quite determined aren’t you,” she said as she tapped a fingernail on the edge of the panel. “There. Try the door, please.”
Jo'el heard a click as the magnetic locks disengaged. The door cracked but didn't open, so Jo'el wedged his fingers in the crack and pulled the doors apart. Once it was open wide enough to permit exit, he turned back to Isha. "That should do it."
“Good. Go and hide yourself … is that going to work?” she asked eying the transponder sceptically.
He tapped on the comm badge, hearing a small amount of static and an echo of Isha's breathing. "It's doing alright. So long as there aren't any dead zone in the ship's comm systems, I should be able to hear everything."
Isha nodded. She raised a hand and tilted her head to one side as she listened, “Footsteps, from that direction,” she warned. “Please go. Now.”
"Good luck, Isha," Jo'el said, heading in the opposite direction. "Oh, Madam Ambassador, do me a favor?"
Her eyes swivelled back in his direction as Isha grasped the panels of the half open door for support, “Name it,” she said.
"If we make it back alive, please don't tell anyone I let you out of my sight."
OFF:
Ambassador Isha t’Khellian
Ensign Opaka Jo'el
VIP Bodyguard