Chapter 2.3

Posted on Thu Nov 17th, 2022 @ 4:20pm by Captain Wilkan Targaryen & Commander Bezru Tua & Patton O'Sullivan & Lieutenant Dylan Blake & Zoey Parker

2,755 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Hope
Location: MTAC, Deep Space 12
Timeline: 2431-03-09, 10:00

Commander Bezru Tua stepped into the Military Threat Assessment Center aboard Deep Space 12 with her long, slender arms crossed and a sour disposition. Since she had been assigned to this project in the past year she had had little opportunity to be involved in any missions aside from sitting in the Captain's Chair of the Enterprise as it circled the station. Whenever something fun happened the Admiral always came across and took the chair from her, frequently reassigning her to the station while he and Captain Bishop handled whatever catastrophe the galaxy had gotten itself into.

She knew that she should be ecstatic to be the Executive Officer of the Federation's Flagship, but it was strange for her to share the role in so many respects. Tua, her symbiont, had tried to reassure her a bit that it was all worthwhile, but she still had trouble believing it. Actually, in many ways, she wondered if this was the end of her career and not the important steppingstone she'd always thought it would be.

At least the Admiral had called her to actually attend a meeting with him rather than just throw her to the wolves on something or tell her to circle the station as usual. The Military Threat Assessment Center (or MTAC) was an offshoot of the Stellar Cartography and Astrometrics Laboratories that had grown in prominence throughout Starfleet and the Federation in the last century. Instead of focusing on exploring the stars though an MTAC was solely focused on threats and overcoming them. With the Interstellar Coalition now directly opposing the Federation it was a room that was growing in importance every day.

As she looked around the surprisingly small room she was surprised to find that she was the first one there. The Admiral had asked that the Tactical and Strategic Specialists meet him to discuss the Uhura and its mission in more detail. The Trill had expected that he wanted a plan prepared for if combat erupted. Enterprise could be anywhere in a short span of time thanks to her Coaxial Drive, the only question was would the Admiral let her lead the mission or would she just be along for the ride as usual?

She wasn't alone for long.

The door hissed open emitting Lieutenant Dylan Blake inside, the young man felt somewhat out of place in the MTAC an area of the station he hadn't needed to attend very often prior to this summoning. Then again, there was still corners of the station he had yet to discover in full, the only issue he had trouble remembering just where they were. Dylan had a terrible sense of direction and had been able to hide this shortcoming serving upon a starship but here on DS12 it was becoming an issue. It was only a matter of time before Commander Hawkins wrote him up for tardiness therefore Dylan made sure he allowed himself plenty of time today and fortunately it had worked.

"Hello Commander," he greeted Tua politely. "I hope the Admiral has something more taxing for you other than circle around the station a few times." Dylan added having often joined her on those tedious tasks.

The Trill Commander smiled, "I hope so too, Lieutenant. As much as I enjoy sitting in the center seat of the Enterprise I'd prefer to be doing something rather than working on our ability to fly to the left. How about you? How are you settling in aboard DS12?"

"One day I'll actually reach my destination without getting lost," Dylan chuckled. "I'm still finding elements of the station that I didn't know existed and of course a whole new host of challenges serving upon a station entails. I've never been so busy. I think I've been converted."

The Admiral entered through the doors next, quickly noticing the arrival of the Enterprise's First Officer and Lieutenant Blake. "Commander," he greeted Tua and then Blake, "Lieutenant."

"Admiral," Tua greeted in return. "You look a little worse for wear, Sir. Are you feeling ok?"

The Admiral nodded with a broad smile, "Things are looking up. The Uhura is underway and we have time to chat. We'll get started once Mister O'Sullivan and Ms. Parker arrive."

Zoey walked into the room, and noticed that the Admiral was already waiting. "Sorry for the delay Admiral, the turbolift's seemed to be occupied. Transit took longer than anticipated." She said, wondering where Patton was.

"Apologies unnecessary," the Admiral answered. "You should have been here when I was first assigned here early in my career. The turbolifts barely worked. You don't know how many times I site to site transported."

Zoey was surprised, she had no idea they could do that. Well not without getting a lecture by security. Or so she assumed. She swore she could remember a professor telling her they could not do that. "That is a thing we can do? Site to site transport?" Zoey asked.

"My father was the CO of this base at the time. That probably added to my ability to get away with it, Lieutenant," Willian admitted with a grin. Back then his father was pushing his career forward at as break neck a speed as he could. Not long after arriving aboard the station to work with the Corps of Engineers projects here his father had maneuvered things so that Willian was serving as a babysitter captain on some of the ships within the sector. Eventually command of the Cochrane was given to him.

Zoey just grinned, that must have been awesome. She knew her parents were to strict, and never let her have fun when she was younger. They were good parents, but she learned in Starfleet, how to have fun.

Blake pursed his lips thoughtfully wondering if Hawkins would allow him to site to site transport on the many occasion the Lieutenant's sense of direction failed.

"We're going to get things started," Willian said noting that Commander O'Sullivan still hadn't arrived. Reaching for the PADD he carried, Willian tapped a sequence onto the small flat screen and a holographic map of the Maelstrom appeared in the center of the room. Willian stepped toward it, "I'm sure each of you is more than aware of the region on display: the Maelstrom Sector, a region of space far from Federation territory that Starfleet Command the Federation Council has deemed as being a needed backup for Command."

He pressed another control, "Most of the Maelstrom is still unclaimed territory, but the rest is held by us, the Cardassian Union, and remnants of the Romulan Star Empire. The Cardassians are facing the possibility of another civil war thanks to the machinations of the True Way. The Uhura is out investigating potential bases, but we need to be prepared to offer support to them in the event that they come under attack. That's where you all come in. We need to be prepared with a plan should the Uhura face insurmountable odds."

Blake suppressed a shiver recalling with clarity how the USS Spock was severely wounded several months back while transporting the President back to Earth. The constant fear of further attack never left his mind as they limped closer to home aided by a civilian craft having been left adrift and blind in the assault. "Do we have any intel of just how much enemy force we could expect?" he asked the Admiral.

Patton had entered the room just as the Admiral started to speak. He stood off to the side, not wanting to pull anyone's attention away from the mission details. O'Sullivan stood with his arm crossed and headed over, taking a seat next to Zoey as he spoke.

"Things are heating up in the area where the Uhura is currently." Patton replied with confidence. "I'd like to give a definitive answer but the enemy force is sneaky. There have been reports of a single ship attacking and also several at one time. We need to be prepared for anything." He took a deep breath. "To say that things have heated up isn't quite accurate. Something is brewing and could escalate at any moment."

"There are a few enemy ships lurking around the area. It's clear they are posturing. It could be a scare tactic. Getting us to show our hand." Zoey suggested as she decided to chime in.

The Admiral nodded, "Very true. Starfleet Command is very intent on keeping our location as secret as possible for the time being. With our being established as the secondary command and control center for the Federation in the event that Earth is compromised there are a lot of risks if our location is discovered. Which is why we are so restrictive of vessels traveling to and from this outpost at the moment."

"Then why assign the flagship of the Federation here?" Tua asked out of the blue.

"I asked the same thing," Willian answered. "There are a lot of concerns to the morale of the Federation should the Enterprise be lost due to the history of its name. Going back as far as the Constitution Class during the brief Klingon War in the 23rd Century Starfleet tends to isolate Enterprise from harm." He smirked, "Which is exactly why my next orders are going to be so surprising."

He typed on the workstation, "As you may, or may not know, Enterprise is one of five vessels of the Illustrious Class. They were intended to be the next generation flagship of the Federation with one vessel being produced at each of the founding worlds shipyards. Each of those vessels now orbits their homeworld, save Enterprise, which will be leading Battle Group Omega moving forward. If war breaks out with the Interstellar Coalition, Enterprise will be frequently on the frontline due to her Coaxial Drive."

"Finally, something to do other than orbit this station," Tua mumbled.

Blake couldn't hide a snicker that escaped his lips at her comment. Then, catching the scorning glare from the senior staff he sheepishly composed himself.

"In the event that the Uhura comes under fire though we need a plan," the Admiral reminded. "The Coalition employs a weapon that we were barely able to overcome during our first encounter with them at Talos. Our Engineers have come to call it the Plasmatic Pulsar Device. This weapon fires a series of intensely focused plasma energy pulses that scans show travel to the target via a carrier wave. Arriving over the course of several seconds, once one of the pulses hits the carrier wave becomes locked, effectively hitting the target up to four times with one shot. We only saw the other pulses miss one time during the first engagement, when the Enterprise was within 500 meters of the enemy ship. Tactical believes that the weapon has a failsafe to prevent it from hitting the originating ship."

"Has Starfleet R&D been able to reverse engineer the weapon, or at least been able to identify its components?" Zoey asked, as the tactical thinker in her started to come out. She hoped they would have been able to use the logs from the ship to ascertain some sort of plan or at least data from the engagement.

The Admiral shook his head, "Not yet to my knowledge. Command has ordered Tactical and Intelligence to work together to try to recover a sample of the weapon, but so far no success. Since this hasn't become a real shooting war yet, despite what happened to the Enterprise at Talos, we haven't wanted to push the envelope too far in the wrong direction. Since the weapon is installed directly into the Coalition's ships we'd have to capture one."

"That's not going to be an easy task. I assume that's why we're here." Zoey as she glanced over at Patton. Then over to the Admiral.

"In a sense, yes," the Admiral answered. "The Uhura has been launched to investigate two potential sources of Coalition interference in the Cardassian Union. Command has reason to believe that the Coalition has been funneling materials to the Cardassian True Way in hopes of destabilizing the Union and, in turn, destabilizing the Union's relationship with us. The Uhura is to intervene if it does find such a dealing, and we are in reserve, but we need to ensure both ships survive."

Willian brought up the station on the holographic table, "Meet Vlulyr Tuok. The station is a Tuok series outpost and was built as a listening post during the Dominion War to monitor Alpha Quadrant Alliance ships trying to come at Cardassian territory fromt he galactic north. The station is a smaller version of the Nor series starbase, featuring the same core structure and inner docking ring while lacking the outer docking ring and towers. Don't let that fool you though, this station is heavily armed for its size with disruptors based on Dominion technology, phasers, and torpedoes. Their standard crew was only around 175 people, but they could support upwards of 1,000 individuals at any given time. The Cardassians have been cramming their ships and stations with people though. This was the first place the Uhura's traveling to."

"So, this is a diplomatic mission?" Zoey asked, as she looked over to the Admiral. She knew deep down, two ships against a station was not a good strategy. But peace talks, would be the best course of action.

“What are my orders?” Patton looked at William. “Security is essential in my opinion.” He wasn’t going to be left behind.

Bezru interrupted, "Same as the rest of us probably: sit around and wait."

Willian nodded, "Sad but accurate. Enterprise is waiting in reserve should the Uhura come under attack. The Interstellar Coalition may be the aggressor," he paused, "or the Cardassians themselves as the True Way has been benefiting from an unknown benefactor and is investigating. Think of their mission as a prelude to the peace mission," Willian said now looking at Zoey. The Cardassian Union has been growing in strength and diplomacy ever since the Dominion War ended, but the True Way still wants to go back to the old ways. The Coalition may be their strategy to do so. Commander Tua, have Enterprise ready for departure should we need her. Patton, you'll go back aboard should it be launched with Zoey as the Strategic Operations Officer for the mission."

The Trill First Officer interjected, "Who will be in command of the Enterprise?"

"I will, Commander," Targaryen answered.

"Sir, with respect to you and your history, the Enterprise was nearly destroyed last time it went near that station with you in command. I believe you would be better served to sit this one out," the Commander was direct and to the point.

Blake arced an eyebrow at Tua's nerve to challenge the Admiral - a brave act for most, though clearly Tua wasn't fazed.

The Admiral nodded, "You may be right, Commander, but not today. Admiral's prerogative. Enterprise is my flagship and the best vessel suited for combat against a starbase that we have in our little fleet. I'll be ok."

Surprisingly, Bezru relented, "As you wish, Admiral."

"Anything else to add?" Their CO asked.

Zoey looked around the room. While she supported her CO she did not like the idea of using the Uhura as bait. Well in her eyes it felt like the ship was being used as bait. And what guarantee the Enterprise would do better this time around. Seemed like a suicide mission. "Let's hope we do not have to wait long, the wait will eat us up. I rather they make their move so we can get passed this current situation." Zoey called out a little annoyed but in a soft tone.

"Be careful what you wish for, Lieutenant," the Trill Captain cautioned, "you may just get it."

Willian ignored the comment, "Uhura should be arriving at the first potential site now, Lieutenant. Guess we'll find out soon enough."

This whole situation didn't sit well with Patton but as they were trained so hard for back in the academy days, orders were orders. He stood in his position and waited for this meeting to end. It was pointless to discuss this anymore, decisions had been made.

Zoey heard what the others were saying. She really had nothing knew to add to the conversation, so she decided to remain silent for the moment. She hoped the mission would not cost the men and women of the USS Uhura their lives. She did not like using Starfleet officers as bait.

"Dismissed," the Admiral commanded.

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