Beg, Steal or Borrow – Trojan Horse - Part 3
by Commander Isha t'Vaurek & Captain Tasha Tahir (NPC) & Colonel James Darson & Alderman Dorian Gabriel

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Post Details

Title   Trojan Horse - Part 3
Mission   Beg, Steal or Borrow
Author(s)   Commander Isha t'Vaurek & Captain Tasha Tahir (NPC) & Colonel James Darson & Alderman Dorian Gabriel
Posted   Thu May 07, 2009 @ 8:51am
Location   Security Office / CO's Office / Lower Decks
Timeline   SD8 - after 18:00
IC:

The skin on the back of H'daen's neck prickled, be it instinct or be it a change in temperature registered only by his subconscious, this time he was sure he was no longer alone. His meeting would have to wait. As the brother of a Senator who had made a phenomenal and high profile rise to power over the last few years he had ample resources; one of them a claim of diplomatic immunity. Still, if he could avoid being found here, he would be.

H'daen moved closer to the rows of shelves, staying close to their shadows as he crept his way along and keeping both eyes and ears wide open.

"Sonovabitch!" Gabriel said angrily as he grabbed his phaser and promptly made his way down to the Cargo Bay. He wasn't sure just how many Romulans were lurking about the bowels of the station, but he knew enough to know that allowing the Marines to get a hold of the Romulan before he did would mean that he'd have to stand in line to gain any information from him, and that's assuming that they didn't kill him first.

Gabriel withdrew his phaser as he came upon the outer access hatch for the designated bay. According to his Padd, there was a life-form within the area that did not have a Starfleet or Federation-registered communicator. It could possibly be a civilian, but more than likely it was the Romulan that the Jarhead had mentioned earlier. Gabriel checked the setting of his Phaser and slowly inputted his access code for the hatch, deactivated the seal and slowly enter into the area in a crouched position while scanning the immediate area for either the marines or the Romulan.

"Ok . . .where are you?" He asked rhetorically.

V^V^V^V

At the same time, deeper in the cargo bay, Corporal Jones’s visor lit up with a warning of the perimeter being breached, and showed which door was responsible. He cursed under his breath as he triggered the transmitter, =^= “Home plate, Charlie-Alpha-1, we have a breach in the perimeter, please advise.” =^=

=^= “Charlie-Alpha-1, Home Plate. Lockdown was breached with an official security code, the CIO Lieutenant Gabriel. Internal Sensors have him moving towards you, 70 meters away and closing.” =^=

Jones cursed again as he stared at his sensor screen in his visor. Another dot had appeared, and was moving towards them quickly. The good news was it was a good minute or so before it reached them, and his squad was right on top of the other unidentified dot.

“In fact,” Jones thought suddenly as he stared at the wall of crates to his side, “I think he’s on the other side of here.

He sped up slightly, out pacing the other dot, so that he was a couple of meters ahead. On his screen, he could see the rest of the team flanking the intruder from the rear.

Confident in his superior positioning, he held up at the next available corner, a few meters ahead of the slow moving dot. He hefted his Carbine, set it to Level 2, and turned the corner, pointing it straight at the man in the shadows.

As the flashlight lit up the crate, Jones spotted the tell-tale facial features of a Romulan and said in an authoritative tone, “Freeze! Raise your hands over your head now, and get on the ground! Do it now!”

Gabriel heard the command being issued and he turned the corner to see the remainder of Darson's team slowly closing in on the target. Gabriel glanced at the clothing of the Romulan and observed that he was not wearing the typical uniform of a Romulan solider, nor that of the pilot that they had captured earlier in the day. This particular rat was higher up on the totem poll, so high in fact that simply arresting him for trespassing would ruin any opportunity they have of learning about the previous attack.

With his hands splayed H'daen widened his arms so that they could see he was concealing nothing; this possibility had been accounted for. "I have diplomatic status in the Federation, soldier," he said. "You will address me as Riov, understand?" There was a reason why the other powers considered Romulans to have a special talent for arrogance and H'daen was one of those who perpetuated the stereotype every time he opened his mouth. "I will speak with the ambassador, and while you're at it, get me Captain Tahir or whatever her name is."

Gabriel lowered his phaser and decided to intervene before the Marine had a chance to respond. "Sir, I apologize for the inconvenience, there must have been some mix up with evacuation procedures from the Romulan embassy." Gabriel said as he made the obvious gesture of holstering his phaser. "I'm sure that the other gentlemen here also recognize their mistake . . ." Gabriel said as he looked into the eyes of the Marine in charge. "Corporal, you and your men can stand-down now." Gabriel said.

H'daen's eyes slid toward the newcomer. He appeared to be playing a different game but that did not make him any less dangerous, it did however make him someone that might be useful.

"Indeed. I'm sure this man is only doing his job," H'daen said with a gracious smile.

Jones growled under his breath as the blasted intelligence officer started talking with the witness. He brought up his Carbine and trained it on Gabriel, “Lieutenant, you are out of line. I have not even had the chance to search this man for weapons. So stop interfering in our duties, or so help me god I will shoot you and leave you here in a nice deep sleep.”

Gabriel knew that the Marines in this area would not hesitate to shoot not just the Romulan but a "fleetie" as well if he just so happened to step in the wrong direction. He also recognized that arresting the Romulan would yield only short-term results. The smarter decision would be to wait and observe.

"You'll have to excuse the soldiers, I guess budgets forced them to skip over the art of 'civility' during boot-camp." Gabriel said as he returned his gaze towards the Romulan. "Was there a particular place you were trying to reach?" He inquired.

"I was looking for Captain Tahir," H'daen said carefully, "we had cause to speak some days ago with regard to certain missing property. I can't say that I expect to find her down here, however with all the disturbance I seem to have taken a wrong turn."

"Of Course sir," Gabriel said with a smile. "If you just walk out of the Cargo bay and take your first left, that should lead you to the nearest turbolift." He directed.

H'daen nodded his thanks; it was too easy he thought.

Even as the Romulan took a step in the direction of the hatch, Jones stepped in front to cut him off, “Not another step,” He said with acid in his voice, “Nobody is going anywhere until I sort his out. You,” he said to the Romulan, “Claim that you’re looking for Captain Tahir. You’re a long, long way from Operations…nobody comes in here by accident, unless their looking for something. And while we’re on the subject of diplomatic status, do you expect me to take you at your word that-“

"I expect you to follow protocol, in order to verify that claim," H'daen replied slowly as if the man had the brains of a Klingon. "My name is H'daen tr'Rehu ... would you like me to spell it out for you?"

Jones growled at the man’s interruption and was about to launch back into his spiel, when suddenly a voice came from behind him.

“At ease, Corporal.”

Jones spun at the sound of a female’s voice to find Lt. Chau’saura and a SpecOps fire team emerge from the shadows with barely a sound. Not as good as the Major mind you, but in all the excitement he had missed their approach.

Oddly enough, even the ILO was wearing combat armor that was strangely flattering on her figure. The SpecOps Marines were silent guardians, heavily armed but lightly equipped for mobility.

They spread out quickly around the bay, two taking up position directly behind Lt. Gabriel, and two staying next to the Lieutenant. She strode forward in slow deliberate steps, glancing around at the surroundings with a disdainful expression on her face. Eventually she stopped in front of H’daen and regarded him with an icy expression, “Well Riov …how fascinating it is to encounter you in such a place like this.”

H'daen stretched out his fingers as if examining his fingernails in a rather bored manner, "Yes, isn't it. I can't imagine how I ended up here," he said.

She turned to face the dumbfounded Corporal with a silent glare in her eyes, “As it turns out,” she thought, “this Romulan really is a Commander…of one of the Romulan ships that just attacked us. Unfortunately, his ship is now…less than space-worthy,” she turned back to face H’daen.

“Riov, I’m sure that you can understand the concern of my Marines…in such times suspicious actions like your, no matter how innocent they may be, are treated with the utmost seriousness. I’m sure that if you would just consent to a quick search and answer a couple of questions, you can be on your way.”

Gabriel walked over to Lt. Chau'saura and grabbed her arm and briskly walked her over to a nearby corner. He looked into her eyes and swiftly dropped her arm before speaking to her in a softened tone. "Hi, I don't think we've had a chance to meet. My name is Dorian." He said with a smile.

"I understand that you and your men are all just trying to do your job, however I think we both can recognize that this man here is walking around to either find something or someone. Unfortunately, if we arrest him right now for loitering, then we'll never find out exactly what he was up to." He said in a measured tone.

Chau’saura stared at the arm until he let go of it, and made a small show of brushing that area on her armor off. Without even giving him the courtesy of looking in your eyes, she said, “You may have not had a chance to meet me Lieutenant, but I’ve certainly had a chance to meet you. I am First Lieutenant Chau’saura, the Marine Intelligence Liason Officer…and I have followed your exploits on the station very closely. Every exploit,” She said, putting stress on the word.

Her eyes flicked over to stare at him in the normal way Vulcan’s did, quietly, unemotional and dethatched, “And before you get on my case about arresting people, let me assure you that I am not here to do something like that. If he doesn’t have anything illegal on him, he is free to go.”

She leaned in close to his ear and said in a whisper, “The Major, for reason’s he refused to disclose to me, gave me two small orders regarding you, Lieutenant. One of them was that we should work together in the event of something like this happening. Logic dictates that that will provide the best results. Is that too hard for you to comprehend?”

"I understand that it doesn't require much analytical thinking to pull a trigger, but I would assume that your men would understand the subtly necessary when dealing with not just a Romulan, but a pretty high-ranking Romulan. If your men simply drag him off to the stockade, then we won't learn anything." He continued to say in a measured and lowered tone.

"If you two are quite finished," H'daen interrupted loudly, "I am shocked to learn that my ship, a diplomatic vessel has been caught in this skirmish .. and destroyed, you say." He exhaled a long slow breath and looked down sadly, "Most unfortunate that the majority of those on board were a delegation from a religious sect. To think that if it were not for a quirk of fortune, I would have been among them," H'daen raised his eyes.

"I apologize for the inconvenience sir, I'll have Lieutenant Chau’saura help you in one moment." Gabriel said with a smile. He turned towards the non-less than enthused Lieutenant and continued to maintain his smile for appearance sake. "Whatever it is that you are going to do, I suggest you do it now, but be *subtle*" he said with emphasis on the last word.

Chau’saura cocked her head to the side slightly and fixed Dorian with what could be considered a bored expression. But then again, with Vulcans it always looked like a bored expression. She moved away from him and back towards H’dean, motioning one of the black clad Marines to start ‘searching’ him. She drew a PADD out of a pouch and asked in a level tone, “Now Riov…would you mind telling me the sequence of events that lead to your arrival on the station after you talked with Captain Tahir?”

"Most unfortunate and peculiar. I took it upon myself to investigate the theft of certain of that sect's artifacts. That is why I am here. I found myself unwilling to believe that the station was not involved ... I thought that I could find those artifacts myself and avert the inevitable hostilities. How was I to know that others in the party would prove trigger happy without my guidance," he shrugged.

Chau’saura raised an eyebrow, but dutifully entered the information into the PADD. The Marine was still busy with the search, so she moved on and said, “And how exactly did you come to be on Deep Space 5? Station operations received no indication of your arrival, or we would have given you a proper escort befitting someone of your rank.”

H'daen sighed, "That's the thing about diplomatic status. Immunity makes one more inclined to do inadvisable things ... like come aboard this station without proper clearance, for example, but safe in the knowledge that if my visit is prolonged, my government will be on hand to ensure that it remains both a short and pleasant stay."

"That won't be a problem, I'll be more than glad to help you from here on out." Gabriel said as he walked over to the Commander.

“Indeed,” Chau’saura said slowly as she eyed Gabriel. The Marine stood up and patted the Romulan on the shoulder once, which was the predetermined signal for planting the bug, and announced that the Romulan was indeed un-armed, “Well,” she said, “I’m very sorry to have kept you waiting Riov. You are now free to go. Please endeavor to not get lost from now on, and if you do find yourself in need of directions, please ask for some.”

H'daen restrained himself from laughing at his good fortune; dolts, the lot of them! "I just hope your interference has not caused me to lose the trail of my artefacts altogether," he said tightly.

“Lieutenant Gabriel,” Chau’saura called out as Dorian and the Romulan were leaving, “If you could stay back for a moment? I have something we need to discuss,” she turned to face Corporal Jones, “Corporal, you may return to your patrol. Thank you for your diligence.”

With an annoyed glance at Dorian, Jones hefted his rifle and proceeded back the way he had come.

Gabriel nodded to the Romulan as he turned to walk back towards the Lieutenant. "Yes . . .what can I help you with?" He said in a measured tone, not sure what else needed to be done.

OFF:

Lieutenant
Dorian Gabriel
Chief Security/Intelligence Officer

Riov H'daen tr'Rehu NPCd by Louise

Marines NPC'd by Major James Darson