Mission 1 - Klingon Neutral Zone - Part 2

[Cmdr Phil]

She looked at Phil determinedly. "No, Phil. We're not leaving this to the politicians. That's exactly what Admiral Wheeler would want and then we would both be grounded. We're taking care of business here. Send a message to Starfleet that we are entering the Klingon neutral zone on my authority. Explain the circumstances to Starfleet so they are fully informed, along with video recordings."

The strength to do what had to be done - that was why she was the one in the big seat and not him.

“Aye, Captain,” he acknowledged and started assembling the message content - footage from the initial attacks, statements from the survivors, specifications of Nav’s whiskers, readings and recordings - everything Starfleet would need to exonerate them of the “crimes” the Klingons were likely to assume them guilty of or, if it all went horribly wrong, what the Pegasus would need to stand even a slightly better chance…

“Ready to send, ma’am, just need you to type in your confirmation code,” he called across.

Cindy rose from her seat and moved behind Phil, looked as if she was about to say something and resisted. She put her hand lightly on his shoulder, resting it there for a moment. She did not consider whether she put it there to comfort him or her but she knew she felt better when she did it.

Phil exhaled, letting the tension flow out of him with the breath, at least as much as he could under the circumstances, judiciously closing his eyes as Cindy punched in her code.

The moment over, she headed back to the Captain's chair and said, "Luke, catch that Romulan!"

[T-Prime]

TK didn't flinch at Keth's growled threat.

"Unless I went colour-blind recently, your uniform appears to be blue." He pointed out in cold tone, "YOUR job is to fix people. MY job is to hurt bad guys. You want my job, put in a transfer to Tactical."

Without breaking eye contact he pointed with his free hand toward the injured security personnel.

"THAT makes you a bad guy. And every minute I'm down here dealing with your temper-tantrum bullshit is a minute I'm not on the bridge thinking up ways to send every last one of those conniving, pointy-eared bastards to hell. I'd like to get back to that, so this is your last chance, Ensign; stand down!"

[Amanda Rose]

Legacy sped into the Klingon Neutral Zone. It took little time for the whiskers to catch the gravametric field of a ship similar to the size and feel of the original ship. Cindy wondered if it was the same one and asked Aislinn, "Is this the same ship? Calculate to make sure that the amount of debris left behind would account for the mass lost and difference in this field."

tag - Aislinn

Once confirmed, a new signature appeared on the whiskers. Cindy called out, "On screen."

Nothing appeared. She looked at Phil, her eyes conveying the words, Did I make a mistake? Have I got us in over our head? But nothing came from her lips as she quickly turned back and told Aislinn, "I need a calculation on our new friend please!"

tag - Aislinn, Phil

Just as Aislinn started her calculations, communications alerted, "Commander, we are getting Klingon communications about Federation attacks of satellites along the Neutral Zone...."

tag - Phil

[T-Prime]

Keth frowned at TK’s simple, but to the point objection to his current course of action. in that same instance of apparent introspection Keth came to a solution to the problem. He turned to the nearest fallen security guard, reached down as though to help him up. But instead of helping, his paw like hand grabbed the collar of the red uniform, and he simply rolled his wrist violently. With a ripping sound the majority of the red shirt was ripped off the...red shirt. It left him stunned on the floor in a white vest, shaking his head. Keth stood back up, and held the tattered shirt against his own, as though measuring it for size, and then looked at TK earnestly.

“Does this count as wearing red now?” Keth asked, as though being asked to fill out this conversation in triplicate “Can I go through now?”

“No.” TK replied as he gave Keth a wary look. A rampaging cat-man didn’t bother TK in the least, but a rampaging cat-man with clear signs of mental instability was another matter entirely. His grip on his phaser tightened.

“Your options are still stand down or get shot. And stand down is a limited time offer.”

“Why?” Keth asked, tilting his head to one side in a almost comical confused animal expression. Of course most animals had not discovered fire, broke the atom in two, gotten into space and then flown across the heavens, but squirrels were just a split acorn away from that too.

“Because you assaulted at least three security guards on your way down here.” TK reminded him, “That earns you a stay in the brig. You can walk there or we can drag your unconscious body there. We’ve probably entered the neutral zone by now, so you’ve got five seconds to start walking back the way you came.”

TK forced himself to relax his posture, but not his gun hand. His other hand slipped casually behind his back.

“But they were trying to stop me from doing my job…” Keth said slowly, as though not sure that Tk was truly grasping basic underlying principles of the situation “...which is to not cause harm. And by stopping the Romulans I will be stopping them from causing harm.”

This was flawless logic by Huan standards, which probably explained a lot. Keth frowned for a moment, as the final grain of logic fell into the bottom half of the hourglass: TK was now in his way. Buuuut….TK seemed like an alright person. After all he’d talked to Keth way longer than most, so that probably made them friends? Maybe? Who knew, human’s were strange animals whose language was handicapped in so many ways. He reached out a hand and gently pushed TK to one side of the corridor, the same way an Earthquake would gently move a building to one side.

After all, Keth didn’t want to hurt a friend.

As TK was unceremoniously cast aside he fired his phaser with one hand and tossed a small cylindrical object down the corridor in the direction Keth was headed with the other hand. With the aid of 40 thousand years of evolution, Keth’s razor sharp instincts kicked in and overrode the small revolt of common sense that said: ‘Wait, DON’T!’. That instinct that had seen millions of Huan across time avoid accident and hunt prey, let Keth see the small bouncing cylinder for two small fractions of a second.

TK immediately turned his head, closed his eyes tight and covered his ears. The stun grenade detonated with an almost 200 decibel pop and six million candela worth of light.

Do you know what chomk looks like? No? Well thats because its a colour in a spectrum of light the human eye cannot see into. If you wanted to put it on the EM spectrum its a just a shade in the UV band, so you might think of it as purple in tone. Well, its not, thats like comparing candy to candle wax, but Keth’s sensitive eyes saw chrom in all its brilliance. And yelk. And jarn, which is a truly awful colour and surely arose from the little known 400th Circle of Huanni Hell: Fashion Diaspora. And the sound...well to say sound and vision were Keth’s two only weaknesses would do to sum up the list. His stomach wasn’t a weakness, apart from last Tuesday when he had bad clams.

He howled, not in pain but in pure instinctual anger. Gone was the overly cheerful, far to optimistic and kind to a fault crew member who had been the butt of many jokes in his short service on the Legacy. What reeled back from TK, its roar echoing not just down the hall but through eons of mankind's own fight for survival on Earth, was a wild animal. Claws that had been hinted out grew out in a sudden singing rush, the tips of the inch long blades serrated to help cut and keep ahold of struggling prey. Blind and deaf though he was, Keth’s first reaction was to swing outwards: first swing was high and over powered, spinning Keth around...

The sensory assault lasted less than a second, and as soon as it was over TK swung the item strapped to his back around into his arms and discharged a trio of high potency tranquilizer rounds into Keth’s back.

...the three needle punctures barely registered past the adrenaline and rage pumping through Keth’s system. All it did was bring TK to Keth’s attention. He began the turn, soon looming over TK with fang bared, a deep bone shaking growl rumbling from some place small mammals go to die.

And then he froze.

That old adage about listening for tree’s became true, as Keth keeled over onto his back, the thunder of his fall clearly heard.

TK let out a long breath when Keth’s rampage turned into a chemical induced nap. He tried to shake the ringing out of his ear as he strolled up to one of the traumatized security guards. TK pulled the man to his feet at thrust the tranquillizer gun into his arms.

“TAKE THAT FURBALL TO THE BRIG. IF HE SO MUCH AS TWITCHES, TRANQ HIM AGAIN.” TK ordered, in what seemed like a perfectly reasonable volume. Then he headed back to the bridge.

[Azaria]

SsssssssssssssshhrEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssshhhhreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEeeeeeeee

The sound was overpowering.

ShshshshshreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesshhhhreeeeeeeEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

She could barely hear anything else, and hardly noticed the world around her.

SshhhreeeeeeeeeEEEEeeeeeeeeeemmmaaaaammssshhhhhhhhhhhhmaaamaaaaarrrrrrrryouuuuuueeeeeeeesh alright?

She blinked the water from her eyes and forced them to focus on the face... which was only centimeters from her own!

"Ma'am, are you alright?"

The injured crewman that she'd stopped to help... but why was he so close?
Another second and she realized she was clutching him like a Koala bear to a branch.

She pulled herself away, blushing, and shook her head to knock the last of the tinnitus from her ears, "Yes, thank you crewman... I think I'll be okay. Are you alright? You took a bad crash."

The crewman shrugged with a small grimace - his left shoulder hung lower than the other, and he held his right arm protectively over his rib cage.. oh, she though guiltily, I probably didn't do those injuries any favors by bear hugging him.

"I'll help you down to sickbay in a moment," she said gently, as she helped him sit back more comfortably, so the possibly broken ribs would less impede his breathing, "I am going to check on the others. Okay?"

He nodded and pointed to the prone form on the deck some ten feet away, fuzz swaying gently in the airflow. "glad I won't have to be the one trying to drag that back to sickbay."

Marian gave him a sly grin, "you and me both."

Standing she tried to move around, then gave up and scrambled over Keth's prone form, checking quickly that he was, in fact, breathing and not about to drown in the alarmingly large pool of drool forming beneath his open maw. She spied the red tipped darts, barely visible amongst the long, glossy fur, and gave an appreciative nod and 'hmm!'

"Lieutenant Williams," she called in a voice a bit louder than she's intended, "are you alright?"

Tags

[T-Prime]

[Melissa Richards]

[Cmdr Phil]

Cindy sounded confident, but Phil could see the worried look in her eye. She had every right to be worried - they were following a ship that had seriously whacked them previously into enemy territory - an enemy which had already been conned into believing they were pirates, or worse…

Getting out of this alive was going to take some serious tactics, although he was relieved to see Williams retake his position. The man’s aim and nerve were a definite asset in this situation.

“Captain, if I may…” he invited her over to his console.

tag - Cindy

“If we can persuade the Klingons to pause long enough to look at the evidence, they will be able to see that the profile of the damage they have suffered doesn’t match our profile, especially if we let them do a level 3 sweep…” That would be enough for them to assess the energy signature of their weapons systems, but not the spread or strength. Any more and they would be giving away valuable intel to another enemy.

“I believe they are familiar with the phrase ‘my enemy’s enemy is my ally’, although they will no doubt attribute it to a prominent Klingon philosopher.” Phil gave a wry smile. It was one of the things he liked about the Klingons. They weren’t averse to picking up new ideas, even if they did feel a need to take the credit. “The question will be how do we stay alive long enough to convince them of the truth.”

tag - CIndy

[T-Prime]

"THERE'S STILL A GOOD CHANCE THE KLINGONS DON'T KNOW WE'VE CROSSED INTO THE NEUTRAL ZONE. I SUGGEST WE SEND ALL OF THE INTEL WE HAVE ON THE ROMULAN RAIDER TO THE NEAREST KLINGON INSTALLATION." TK advised in his still too-loud voice. "THEY MAY DISTRUST US AS A VALID SOURCE, BUT WHEN THE COME AFTER US THEY'LL FIND THE ROMULANS. CONFIRMING OUR INTEL AND POSSIBLY ENTICING THEM TO HELP US BLOW OUR COMMON ENEMY TO HELL."

[Amanda Rose]

Legacy sped into the Klingon Neutral Zone. It took little time for the whiskers to catch the gravametric field of a ship similar to the size and feel of the original ship. Cindy wondered if it was the same one and asked Aislinn, "Is this the same ship? Calculate to make sure that the amount of debris left behind would account for the mass lost and difference in this field."

tag - Aislinn

Once confirmed, a new signature appeared on the whiskers. Cindy called out, "On screen."

Nothing appeared. She looked at Phil, her eyes conveying the words, Did I make a mistake? Have I got us in over our head? But nothing came from her lips as she quickly turned back and told Aislinn, "I need a calculation on our new friend please!"

tag - Aislinn, Phil

Just as Aislinn started her calculations, communications alerted, "Commander, we are getting Klingon communications about Federation attacks of satellites along the Neutral Zone...."

tag - Aislinn (or not)

Cindy sounded confident, but Phil could see the worried look in her eye. She had every right to be worried - they were following a ship that had seriously whacked them previously into enemy territory - an enemy which had already been conned into believing they were pirates, or worse…

Getting out of this alive was going to take some serious tactics, although he was relieved to see Williams retake his position. The man’s aim and nerve were a definite asset in this situation.

“Captain, if I may…” he invited her over to his console.

Cindy appeared to stride calmly over towards Phil but her insides were turning. She purposely exuded confidence but she knew that she had absolutely no right to be so. "What is it, Phil?"

“If we can persuade the Klingons to pause long enough to look at the evidence, they will be able to see that the profile of the damage they have suffered doesn’t match our profile, especially if we let them do a level 3 sweep…” That would be enough for them to assess the energy signature of their weapons systems, but not the spread or strength. Any more and they would be giving away valuable intel to another enemy.

“I believe they are familiar with the phrase ‘my enemy’s enemy is my ally’, although they will no doubt attribute it to a prominent Klingon philosopher.” Phil gave a wry smile. It was one of the things he liked about the Klingons. They weren’t averse to picking up new ideas, even if they did feel a need to take the credit. “The question will be how do we stay alive long enough to convince them of the truth.”

"A very good question, Phil because firing at the Klingons, even defensively does not seem like it is going to convince them of anything. And clearly, they have not figured out how to detect the second ship, or if they have, they have no idea that Romulans are inside. As far as they know, or at least from what I can tell they might think, is that this is new Federation technology that has just come over for a test run. Why suspect Romulans when their border is so far away?"

tag - Phil

"THERE'S STILL A GOOD CHANCE THE KLINGONS DON'T KNOW WE'VE CROSSED INTO THE NEUTRAL ZONE. I SUGGEST WE SEND ALL OF THE INTEL WE HAVE ON THE ROMULAN RAIDER TO THE NEAREST KLINGON INSTALLATION." TK advised in his still too-loud voice. "THEY MAY DISTRUST US AS A VALID SOURCE, BUT WHEN THE COME AFTER US THEY'LL FIND THE ROMULANS. CONFIRMING OUR INTEL AND POSSIBLY ENTICING THEM TO HELP US BLOW OUR COMMON ENEMY TO HELL."

Cindy wondered why Williams was yelling and she asked, "Should I even ask how you managed to subdue Ensign Soban?"

tag - Williams

Considering the recommendations of Williams and Phil, she had to admit that there was hope in providing the intelligence to them. She just hoped that the Klingons would not fire at them and ask questions later. It also meant somehow keeping both Romulans interested in Legacy. Her eyes lit up as she considered an idea, "Phil, what do you think the best way would be to provoke another plasma attack from the Romulans, say when the Klingons are in visual range?"

tag - Phil

"Lieutenant Williams, please send all the information that you think that a Klingon would find interesting on the Klingons and then make sure to also send them a message of peace and assistance in the most non-threatening way possible."

tag - Williams, Phil