Judgement – A Combined Effort - Part 3
by Commander Isha t'Vaurek & Colonel James Darson & Captain Tasha Tahir (NPC) & Commander Richard Dunham & Lieutenant Vincent Tan & Lieutenant JG Taleria von Alesk & Lieutenant Commander Jarred Wallace & Klingon Ambassador Toran of the House of Moqrhat & (G) erie'Riov - Sub Commander Rianni Monteros-t'Khellian
Post Details
"Our commanders are experienced, Colonel," Isha intervened finally turning her ice-green gaze to Darson; he might be assisting her but there was no need to let him get away with disparaging her ships or her people. "They understand and have accounted for such risks," she added. You have accounted for such risks? she thought with a flicker of a glance at R'Vek and Rianni.
“We don’t want to make a spectacle of ourselves,” Darson responded cooly, “but we do a greater force. There is a Marine anti-pirate taskforce in the area…the same one that I took on my last successful campaign against them. Admiral Zheng has been…relieved of his command for the time being. He’s on shore leave, pending transfer to Starfleet Command. They are waiting for another Admiral, but make no mistake. While they are here, they answer to me. I can have them here in a couple of days.”
He sighed a little as he glanced at a PADD, “Interestingly though, it didn’t show up in Mr. Tan’s report. Mr. Tan, I think the problem is on our end, and I apologize for it. I’ll have a technician look into it and submit a report by the end of the day.”
"Thank you, colonel," Vincent nodded. "Marine and Starfleet traffic are often seperated by the computers. But such traditional distinctions are a hinderance rather than a help. Your assistance on this matter would be most valuable, sir."
He looked back at Rianni and gestured with a hand, “Not only will it provide our own taskforce with a much-needed boost in versatility and firepower, but it will help with the second point. Logistics. To gather together a multi-national fleet, one must have a grouping of multi-national ships. And each of these ships is going to using different components. To repair each takes specialized tools and support staff. The Dhelan is a very impressive ship,” there was something in his voice that amounted to derision, or at least amusement, “but it is not a carrier. It may be able to hold some fighters, but can it provide all the resources to keep it running during extended operations in the field, away from a facility like this? What about quarters for pilots? The addition of my fleet would take considerable strain off of your resources, as well as keep morale high.”
“And I am willing,” he said magnanimously, “to place this fleet under your Command, erie'Riov,” he addressed Rianni by her formal rank in a tone that dripped honey and poison, “with a couple of conditions of course.”
"I appreciate and accept this gesture of cooperation, Colonel." Rianni replied, her own voice full of sugar and venom, "And might I ask what your conditions might be?"
Jarred listened intently, his mind constantly on patrol for someone being deceptive he made some notes on a PaDD and slid it down to Rick =I can get us a ship that will fill the bill just right.=
Dunham, looked at the message on the padd. A thin smile crept across his face as he deleted. He considered what Jarred was proposing. As head of intelligence he was sure the man could rustle up some interesting vessels, but allocation of starfleet starships and resources was the job of strategic operations. He typed it one the padd =run it pass Tan = then passed the padd back.
Jarred passed a simular note to Vincent, and sat back to listen to the next monologue from one of the higher ranked individuals, Jarred wasn't expecting miracles just hopefully putting the bug in his ear to get a ship of our own.
Tan forced a cough to cover his chuckle. He quickly typed =Why am I not surprised? Go for it!= in response to Jarred message. Vincent was rather more concerned about the increase in traffic around DS5 - things had been a lot easier for his department when the closest large ship was over 10 parsecs away.
While he was negotiating the specifics of this operation (mostly grilling Rianni) Darson became aware of Dunham, Wallace and Tan passing a PADD between them and being amused by the contents. At the same time annoyed and curious and getting into his role as the serious planner he held up a finger and said, “One moment please,” he reached into his cloak and produced a small spherical object. Upon closer inspection, it revealed itself to be a hard candy. He poured himself a cup of water, and placed it a little bit in front of him. After that, he spun in his seat, and took careful aim, flicking the candy lightning fast down the table at the PADD. It directly hit the face of it and ricocheted, bouncing once on the far wall and arcing gently through the air, where it landed with a plop in the glass of water he had just previously poured.
“Mr. Dunham, Mr. Wallace, Mr. Tan,” he said with all the tone and mannerisms of an irate schoolteacher who had just caught unruly students doing something they weren’t supposed to, “Do you have something funny that you want to share with the rest of us? Was Wallace telling you that he got beat up by an unruly band of adorable intergalactic space bunnies? Because if it was, I want to hear that story too so I can laugh at him. Otherwise, can we pay attention?”
Jarred wanted to start laughing, but he decided to fire off a verbal photon torpedo "No Colonel I was playing hockey with the Klingons from the Ta'kahr" he paused as he debated on the space bunnies remark "in actuality I might be able to get a starship that will meet our needs, and it's almost marine proof." Jarred said with a black eye gleaming with blood, "Depending on how soon this little crusade is planned to start." Jarred paused "and the space bunnies comment was immature even for a marine."
Darson’s reaction to Wallace’s comment was to say in a deadly serious tone, “Don’t mock the space bunny Lieutenant. If you’d seen what I’d seen, you’d know that they are far more dangerous than you can possibly imagine. And as for the ship…what did you have in mind?”
Vincent almost brought his palm to his face when he heard Wallace blurt out what they were planning. He meant every word he had said previously about there being divisions between the fleet and the marines. And now Wallace *and* Dunham had handed over a perfectly good opportunity to run a nice quiet operation without excessive interference and oversight. Tan did not like the idea of sharing information, especially when one or more of the people on DS5 had intentions that were not innocent. Not to mention the Romulan pressence in the room.
"I think that Wallace's methods and the methods of his department are best left unquestioned, colonel," Vincent said guardedly. "I am no expert in his field. Neither are you, sir. So perhaps we should leave him to do his job as he sees fit. Besides, colonel, our guest do not wish to be bored with such details."
Isha wrapped her fingers round the arms of her chair. She was having to take a more active role in this meeting than she wished. The last thing that Isha wanted to do was to come away from this meeting with a reputation for tactical planning, that the ability existed was apparent from her success in politics but ability in one arena did not necessarily translate into another field and Isha had gone to great lengths throughout her life to ensure that people did not put one and one together; in the eyes of many it would make her altogether too dangerous.
"Gentlemen," Isha said, and though her tone was soft it was enough to quiet the room, "and Captain Tahir. We should not bicker. I could understand some distrust of us," she said with a flick of a jeweled hand towards her cousin and niece, "but I did not expect such tensions among yourselves," or at least she had not expected them to be displayed so openly. "We have an opportunity, and as your Lieutenant Tan advised there are other vessels in the area that would support this venture, and I note that they are there with the express permission of Starfleet," she added with a sharp glare at Tan. "Colonel Darson's offer of ships that normally fall under his jurisdiction also adds to the diversity of the proposed fleet."
Isha knew fine well that the goal of the mission was annihilation, not to bring pirates home for a cosy trial and she was fairly sure that Darson understood that too - the rest of the room ... well there were perhaps a few too many 'noble' motives here to be entirely comfortable with that idea.
“Oooh,” Darson thought calmly as he leaned back in his chair, “Isha’s got fangs” She was right though. And it bothered him a little bit. He had known what made her tick, hell he had even told her so. But to see her powers at work, it was truly a fearful thing. “No wonder people want you dead,” he thought morbidly.
But still, she knew how the game was played. He had his orders from far above his paygrade…make a point. Go through the motions, offer a chance to surrender, but the tacit understanding at High Command was that there were to be no arrests from this little venture. He had even been given authorization to share the locations of several major pirate hubs that his last operation had helped uncover. He was waiting for the right moment though.
"We are not proposing to dictate a strategy, merely to suggest one that can be amended depending on the outcome of this confidential meeting," Isha said ignoring the slight change in Darson's demeanour for now - she could deal with that later. "I am offering the resources of the Stelam Shiar to help quash an irritation that has been grating on all of us for too long, and having been allowed to linger, too many innocents of all origins have suffered for it," she said, applying the emotional argument.
"Intelligence has the location of one pirate base and two more probable locations, plus a list of operatives that feed them information, and since The Colonel's movements are monitored by some of these operatives chances are the nature of this meeting has already been figured out, so working quietly has gone out the airlock I'll see if I can get you access to project Long Blade." Jarred said baiting the hook with one of his cards.
Isha was not about to be drawn into a skirmish between Darson and the Chief Intelligence Officer and as such she merely linked her fingers together in her lap and swivelled her chair so that she could see R'Vek and Rianni. The look she gave them said don't bite but if they read it remained to be seen.
R'Vek had to contain the urge to burst out laughing at Wallace's poorly disguised bluff, ~Humans are so damned amusing.~ He looked over and shook his head at Rianni as if to let her know that her old friend was bluffing, too, ~Of course, if anyone would know it would be her.~
"As I have said, any and all help from the involved parties is appreciated." Rianni continued, not acknowledging anything specific, "This operation was proposed to not only rid the region of piracy but to foster better relations amongst our peoples and I hope we're making progress in both ventures."
R'Vek smiled slyly, it seemed Daddy's little girl had learned a lot from her Aunt.
Jarred decided to play his whole hand, "The coffee bar by turbolift 21a the owner is a known operative, moments after we all started to arrive here he was on the comm to an unknown relay, where he had contact with the captain of the pirate ship 'Red sorrow'"
"Unless someone has been openly discussing in public the nature of this meeting there is no reason why that assumption should be made ... I can think of at least ten different reasons why we might be here." Isha had not realized quite how fragmented the senior staff of Deep Space Five were but now she was seeing very clearly the dividing lines that split them. It would make her plan much easier in the long run, she thought. The immediate opportunity however was to unify them.
"Putting that aside," Isha continued, "if what you say is true and that group are to a degree alerted to our intentions then very little has changed. That s simply one ship and one group. We should not make the mistake of believing them to be a coalition. These groups are more likely to withhold such information from one another than to share it."
Isha tilted her head to one side, a thoughtful expression settling on her features. "If I were a pirate captain," she said, "I would hold back and wait for the combined force to take out my main rivals before I consolidated my position and gathered in the remnants of the other groups in order to strengthen my own. I would then lie low and wait because I would realize that it would be only a matter of time before the attention of the Federation and her allies was turned elsewhere. Then I would resume my trade," she continued, "happy with the knowledge that my position had been irrevocably strengthened."
Jarred was annoyed at one point but would concede another to the ambassador, "Madam Ambassador there's two ways to catch a pirate, the heavy handed methods that seem to be the theme of this meeting and there is another," Jarred paused to see if Darson was going to say something typical of a career black ops marine "And there's bait and lure."
~ Or just blow them to smitherenes ~ Thought Tasha not sure about the Bait, or more to the point, who was prepared to offer themselves to that position, but let the debate continue without input as she listened intently to the plans that were being laid bare before them.
Isha nodded gently they would need to lure them into the open, that was true but equally they had to dig out the root of the problem. In order to move focus away from the arguably heavy handed approach Isha posed a question. "What would you propose we use as bait, Lieutenant Wallace?"
"And if security here is as compromised as you say it is, Lt. Wallace, what assurance do we have that this bait won't be known of before we even launch it?" R'Vek interjected, this man was beginning to irritate him, "Further, if you know of an operative working here on DS5 why have you not taken steps to do something about him? I mean no disrespect, Lieutenant, but I would certainly be interested to know the method behind your madness."
To be Continued ...
by Commander Isha t'Vaurek & Colonel James Darson & Captain Tasha Tahir (NPC) & Commander Richard Dunham & Lieutenant Vincent Tan & Lieutenant JG Taleria von Alesk & Lieutenant Commander Jarred Wallace & Klingon Ambassador Toran of the House of Moqrhat & (G) erie'Riov - Sub Commander Rianni Monteros-t'Khellian
Post Details
| Title | A Combined Effort - Part 3 | |
| Mission | Judgement | |
| Author(s) | Commander Isha t'Vaurek & Colonel James Darson & Captain Tasha Tahir (NPC) & Commander Richard Dunham & Lieutenant Vincent Tan & Lieutenant JG Taleria von Alesk & Lieutenant Commander Jarred Wallace & Klingon Ambassador Toran of the House of Moqrhat & (G) erie'Riov - Sub Commander Rianni Monteros-t'Khellian | |
| Posted | Wed Sep 22, 2010 @ 7:26am | |
| Location | Ops |
“We don’t want to make a spectacle of ourselves,” Darson responded cooly, “but we do a greater force. There is a Marine anti-pirate taskforce in the area…the same one that I took on my last successful campaign against them. Admiral Zheng has been…relieved of his command for the time being. He’s on shore leave, pending transfer to Starfleet Command. They are waiting for another Admiral, but make no mistake. While they are here, they answer to me. I can have them here in a couple of days.”
He sighed a little as he glanced at a PADD, “Interestingly though, it didn’t show up in Mr. Tan’s report. Mr. Tan, I think the problem is on our end, and I apologize for it. I’ll have a technician look into it and submit a report by the end of the day.”
"Thank you, colonel," Vincent nodded. "Marine and Starfleet traffic are often seperated by the computers. But such traditional distinctions are a hinderance rather than a help. Your assistance on this matter would be most valuable, sir."
He looked back at Rianni and gestured with a hand, “Not only will it provide our own taskforce with a much-needed boost in versatility and firepower, but it will help with the second point. Logistics. To gather together a multi-national fleet, one must have a grouping of multi-national ships. And each of these ships is going to using different components. To repair each takes specialized tools and support staff. The Dhelan is a very impressive ship,” there was something in his voice that amounted to derision, or at least amusement, “but it is not a carrier. It may be able to hold some fighters, but can it provide all the resources to keep it running during extended operations in the field, away from a facility like this? What about quarters for pilots? The addition of my fleet would take considerable strain off of your resources, as well as keep morale high.”
“And I am willing,” he said magnanimously, “to place this fleet under your Command, erie'Riov,” he addressed Rianni by her formal rank in a tone that dripped honey and poison, “with a couple of conditions of course.”
"I appreciate and accept this gesture of cooperation, Colonel." Rianni replied, her own voice full of sugar and venom, "And might I ask what your conditions might be?"
Jarred listened intently, his mind constantly on patrol for someone being deceptive he made some notes on a PaDD and slid it down to Rick =I can get us a ship that will fill the bill just right.=
Dunham, looked at the message on the padd. A thin smile crept across his face as he deleted. He considered what Jarred was proposing. As head of intelligence he was sure the man could rustle up some interesting vessels, but allocation of starfleet starships and resources was the job of strategic operations. He typed it one the padd =run it pass Tan = then passed the padd back.
Jarred passed a simular note to Vincent, and sat back to listen to the next monologue from one of the higher ranked individuals, Jarred wasn't expecting miracles just hopefully putting the bug in his ear to get a ship of our own.
Tan forced a cough to cover his chuckle. He quickly typed =Why am I not surprised? Go for it!= in response to Jarred message. Vincent was rather more concerned about the increase in traffic around DS5 - things had been a lot easier for his department when the closest large ship was over 10 parsecs away.
While he was negotiating the specifics of this operation (mostly grilling Rianni) Darson became aware of Dunham, Wallace and Tan passing a PADD between them and being amused by the contents. At the same time annoyed and curious and getting into his role as the serious planner he held up a finger and said, “One moment please,” he reached into his cloak and produced a small spherical object. Upon closer inspection, it revealed itself to be a hard candy. He poured himself a cup of water, and placed it a little bit in front of him. After that, he spun in his seat, and took careful aim, flicking the candy lightning fast down the table at the PADD. It directly hit the face of it and ricocheted, bouncing once on the far wall and arcing gently through the air, where it landed with a plop in the glass of water he had just previously poured.
“Mr. Dunham, Mr. Wallace, Mr. Tan,” he said with all the tone and mannerisms of an irate schoolteacher who had just caught unruly students doing something they weren’t supposed to, “Do you have something funny that you want to share with the rest of us? Was Wallace telling you that he got beat up by an unruly band of adorable intergalactic space bunnies? Because if it was, I want to hear that story too so I can laugh at him. Otherwise, can we pay attention?”
Jarred wanted to start laughing, but he decided to fire off a verbal photon torpedo "No Colonel I was playing hockey with the Klingons from the Ta'kahr" he paused as he debated on the space bunnies remark "in actuality I might be able to get a starship that will meet our needs, and it's almost marine proof." Jarred said with a black eye gleaming with blood, "Depending on how soon this little crusade is planned to start." Jarred paused "and the space bunnies comment was immature even for a marine."
Darson’s reaction to Wallace’s comment was to say in a deadly serious tone, “Don’t mock the space bunny Lieutenant. If you’d seen what I’d seen, you’d know that they are far more dangerous than you can possibly imagine. And as for the ship…what did you have in mind?”
Vincent almost brought his palm to his face when he heard Wallace blurt out what they were planning. He meant every word he had said previously about there being divisions between the fleet and the marines. And now Wallace *and* Dunham had handed over a perfectly good opportunity to run a nice quiet operation without excessive interference and oversight. Tan did not like the idea of sharing information, especially when one or more of the people on DS5 had intentions that were not innocent. Not to mention the Romulan pressence in the room.
"I think that Wallace's methods and the methods of his department are best left unquestioned, colonel," Vincent said guardedly. "I am no expert in his field. Neither are you, sir. So perhaps we should leave him to do his job as he sees fit. Besides, colonel, our guest do not wish to be bored with such details."
Isha wrapped her fingers round the arms of her chair. She was having to take a more active role in this meeting than she wished. The last thing that Isha wanted to do was to come away from this meeting with a reputation for tactical planning, that the ability existed was apparent from her success in politics but ability in one arena did not necessarily translate into another field and Isha had gone to great lengths throughout her life to ensure that people did not put one and one together; in the eyes of many it would make her altogether too dangerous.
"Gentlemen," Isha said, and though her tone was soft it was enough to quiet the room, "and Captain Tahir. We should not bicker. I could understand some distrust of us," she said with a flick of a jeweled hand towards her cousin and niece, "but I did not expect such tensions among yourselves," or at least she had not expected them to be displayed so openly. "We have an opportunity, and as your Lieutenant Tan advised there are other vessels in the area that would support this venture, and I note that they are there with the express permission of Starfleet," she added with a sharp glare at Tan. "Colonel Darson's offer of ships that normally fall under his jurisdiction also adds to the diversity of the proposed fleet."
Isha knew fine well that the goal of the mission was annihilation, not to bring pirates home for a cosy trial and she was fairly sure that Darson understood that too - the rest of the room ... well there were perhaps a few too many 'noble' motives here to be entirely comfortable with that idea.
“Oooh,” Darson thought calmly as he leaned back in his chair, “Isha’s got fangs” She was right though. And it bothered him a little bit. He had known what made her tick, hell he had even told her so. But to see her powers at work, it was truly a fearful thing. “No wonder people want you dead,” he thought morbidly.
But still, she knew how the game was played. He had his orders from far above his paygrade…make a point. Go through the motions, offer a chance to surrender, but the tacit understanding at High Command was that there were to be no arrests from this little venture. He had even been given authorization to share the locations of several major pirate hubs that his last operation had helped uncover. He was waiting for the right moment though.
"We are not proposing to dictate a strategy, merely to suggest one that can be amended depending on the outcome of this confidential meeting," Isha said ignoring the slight change in Darson's demeanour for now - she could deal with that later. "I am offering the resources of the Stelam Shiar to help quash an irritation that has been grating on all of us for too long, and having been allowed to linger, too many innocents of all origins have suffered for it," she said, applying the emotional argument.
"Intelligence has the location of one pirate base and two more probable locations, plus a list of operatives that feed them information, and since The Colonel's movements are monitored by some of these operatives chances are the nature of this meeting has already been figured out, so working quietly has gone out the airlock I'll see if I can get you access to project Long Blade." Jarred said baiting the hook with one of his cards.
Isha was not about to be drawn into a skirmish between Darson and the Chief Intelligence Officer and as such she merely linked her fingers together in her lap and swivelled her chair so that she could see R'Vek and Rianni. The look she gave them said don't bite but if they read it remained to be seen.
R'Vek had to contain the urge to burst out laughing at Wallace's poorly disguised bluff, ~Humans are so damned amusing.~ He looked over and shook his head at Rianni as if to let her know that her old friend was bluffing, too, ~Of course, if anyone would know it would be her.~
"As I have said, any and all help from the involved parties is appreciated." Rianni continued, not acknowledging anything specific, "This operation was proposed to not only rid the region of piracy but to foster better relations amongst our peoples and I hope we're making progress in both ventures."
R'Vek smiled slyly, it seemed Daddy's little girl had learned a lot from her Aunt.
Jarred decided to play his whole hand, "The coffee bar by turbolift 21a the owner is a known operative, moments after we all started to arrive here he was on the comm to an unknown relay, where he had contact with the captain of the pirate ship 'Red sorrow'"
"Unless someone has been openly discussing in public the nature of this meeting there is no reason why that assumption should be made ... I can think of at least ten different reasons why we might be here." Isha had not realized quite how fragmented the senior staff of Deep Space Five were but now she was seeing very clearly the dividing lines that split them. It would make her plan much easier in the long run, she thought. The immediate opportunity however was to unify them.
"Putting that aside," Isha continued, "if what you say is true and that group are to a degree alerted to our intentions then very little has changed. That s simply one ship and one group. We should not make the mistake of believing them to be a coalition. These groups are more likely to withhold such information from one another than to share it."
Isha tilted her head to one side, a thoughtful expression settling on her features. "If I were a pirate captain," she said, "I would hold back and wait for the combined force to take out my main rivals before I consolidated my position and gathered in the remnants of the other groups in order to strengthen my own. I would then lie low and wait because I would realize that it would be only a matter of time before the attention of the Federation and her allies was turned elsewhere. Then I would resume my trade," she continued, "happy with the knowledge that my position had been irrevocably strengthened."
Jarred was annoyed at one point but would concede another to the ambassador, "Madam Ambassador there's two ways to catch a pirate, the heavy handed methods that seem to be the theme of this meeting and there is another," Jarred paused to see if Darson was going to say something typical of a career black ops marine "And there's bait and lure."
~ Or just blow them to smitherenes ~ Thought Tasha not sure about the Bait, or more to the point, who was prepared to offer themselves to that position, but let the debate continue without input as she listened intently to the plans that were being laid bare before them.
Isha nodded gently they would need to lure them into the open, that was true but equally they had to dig out the root of the problem. In order to move focus away from the arguably heavy handed approach Isha posed a question. "What would you propose we use as bait, Lieutenant Wallace?"
"And if security here is as compromised as you say it is, Lt. Wallace, what assurance do we have that this bait won't be known of before we even launch it?" R'Vek interjected, this man was beginning to irritate him, "Further, if you know of an operative working here on DS5 why have you not taken steps to do something about him? I mean no disrespect, Lieutenant, but I would certainly be interested to know the method behind your madness."
To be Continued ...