Chapter 1.2

Posted on Sat Mar 18th, 2023 @ 12:57pm by Captain Wilkan Targaryen & Commander Bezru Tua & Commander Nathan Hawkins & Commander Ash Randall & Lieutenant Taylor Haines & Lieutenant Commander Cyrus Marner & Lieutenant R'elle & Captain Nathan Bishop & Captain Ken Jamison & Lieutenant Commander T'Lisha "Hawkeye" Bishara

3,834 words; about a 19 minute read

Mission: No Sleep Tonight
Location: Ward Room, Deep Space 12
Timeline: 2431-05-30, 20:00

Located along what was considered the aft compartment of "the Bunker,": the Ward Room for Deep Space 12 was a lot smaller than most people would have expected for its importance to the mission of the station. The primary meeting room for the Senior Staff of DS12, the Ward Room had a lot of creature comforts to allow for relaxed briefings, but it was surprisingly cramped for its importance to Starfleet operations in the Maelstrom. With three large view ports looking out to the stars, the room was dominated by an egg-shaped table in its center with seating for nine guests normally. The Admiral's chair was at the head of the table, closest to the windows, and a large display monitor was available to display data for the meeting attendees.

Admiral Willian Targaryen was surprised to find that he was not the first to arrive for the emergency session that he had called. Commander Bezru Tua had already arrived and was waiting next to the display. His Executive Officer aboard the Enterprise, she had just returned from a patrol that had lasted the last two weeks with urgent news. That wasn't what had surprised the Admiral, rather he was more shocked to see that she had switched to a red duty uniform from her traditional teal uniform, but she had been Acting Captain for this mission so it wasn't that much of a stretch. "I hope that I haven't keep you waiting too long, Commander." It was an intentional word choice. Despite his wife's chastising, he had no intentions of giving up the Enterprise just yet.

"Not at all, Admiral," the Trill answered. "I took the time to prepare for the briefing."

"I'm sure," Willian answered as he took his own chair at the head of the table. The Admiral had been fully briefed by the Commander about what was going on, but he was eager to hear what his Senior Staff thought about what the Enterprise had encountered. Willian had also shared the situation with Starfleet Command and had their input, but he would not share that until the very end. "The crew will be along soon. I asked Captain Jamison to join us as well since the Valhalla is ready for departure once more."

Commander Tua nodded, "I'm sure that it'll be a helpful addition out there since the Cardassians have gone on the offensive."

"I hope that it doesn't come to that, Commander. Fighting should always be a last resort. I'm hopeful that we can still get through this with some discretion instead of valor," the Sector Commander informed as he rose from his chair to pour a drink from the beverage bar.

"Gul Nayat didn't seem too enthused to seek a diplomatic solution," the Trill explained.

Willian took a drink of the Bolian Tonic Water, "Maybe you should have some of this, Commander. It calms the nerves."

Bezru stopped quickly, trying to hide her annoyance at the Admiral's comment, "I can assure you, Sir, that I am fine."

"Indeed," Willian answered as he heard the doors slide open.

Commander Nathan Hawkins arrived into the Ward Room and was surprised he was early just as he was at the sight of Targaryen and Tua at the drinks station. "This doesn't bode well," he remarked drawer closer. "Just how bad is this news we're going to receive?"

Cyrus stepped inside just in time to hear Commander Hawkins words. "A cup of coffee sounds like a good goal to have." the doctor giving a slight yawn, and wandered over to where the beverages were and got himself a cup of coffee, straight black. "Morning sirs."

"It's eight o'clock at night, Doc," Commander Tua commented.

"Well so it is." Cyrus drawled out, then gave out a yawn. "Apologies, I had just woken up from a nap. My body's inner clock is just slightly off." giving a slow smile.

"Sounds like you've been burning the midnight oil too much Cyrus," Nathan remarked.

Having received the summons Bishop headed for the wardroom here on Deep Space 12. He entertained no thoughts as to why he was summoned. he did idlily wonder who was going to be in attendance for the meeting. As he entered he saw others already the Cyrus, Nathan Hawkins, of course Will and Commander Tua who had succeeded him as XO for the Enterprise. "Hello everyone." He greeted.

Captain Ken Jamison wasn't a happy camper. His ship and crew were tired and the Valhalla needed repairs. They had just come back from being trapped in the mirror universe, made their report and now they were ordered here. He had left JJ, that is Commander Barnes (his wife) in charge of the Valhalla until he returned. Entering the room he nodded at the others and spoke to Will. "Hello Will."

Commander Ash Randall straightened her uniform as she approached the Ward Room. The Tuansee has come straight from a holodeck simulation of November, storm surf, off of Big Sur. It was a dangerous, difficult and nasty break and the little felinoid loved the challenge of it even though she, frequently, got rolled, dragged, smashed and, in general, demolished by it 10 times for every successful ride. She was in uniform, hair on her head still a bit damp, as she entered the Ward Room. Seeing that she was not the first to arrive and, noting who was already there, the Engineering Chief read the, general, feel of the room and made her way to a seat at the oval table.

Taylor came into the conference room and looked about. Some of the people he recognized directly, others he knew of through reading station crew information and rosters. The room was larger than most conference rooms he had been in since his academy days. Then again, research stations, like his last posting tended to focus their space design on labs, not conference rooms.

Having interacted with the doctor a lot since he had come aboard, he sat down next to Cyrus while giving everyone else a nod.

Ken saw the number of ranking officers and made a decision. He tapped his combadge, "Jamison to JJ. JJ get over to the station now. We're in the wardroom. Something big is going on."

“There’s always something Ken. I just don’t understand why they need us right now in the shape we’re in. Can’t even get the replicators to work right. I ordered Coffee and got Gak! “. The list of things that work right is shorter than the list of repairs.” She sighed. “We’ll be ready somehow.”

"JJ, I know, we need a lot of repairs and we're scheduled to get them but get over here, I want you in this meeting. you need to hear this. Beam over here, we're in the wardroom." Ken urged.

“Aye Captain, on my way.”

JJ looked around the bridge. The senior staff were all off dealing with their own departmental problems. That left Koa Pua who was only a Lt Jg the ranking officer on the bridge. “Koa. All this glorious fun is yours to command.”

Koa , who was on the floor repairing a com panel sat up suddenly banging her head. “Ow…I mean gee thanks?”

JJ chuckled a bit and left the bridge.

A moment later she materialized outside of the meeting room. She made her way through the crowd, some how managing to gracefully acquire a real cup of coffee before sitting down next to Ken. “Hey, at least they have coffee here.”

Ken inhaled the heady aroma. "They sure do JJ. Make sure we get some before we have to ship out again. By the way who did you leave in charge for you to get over here?" He asked interested in hearing JJ's answer.

R'elle and T'lisha were in bed, enjoying dessert in bed after a nice dinner. Unwinding after a long day when the call came. "Oh well so much for enjoying the evening! Duty calls darling!" She reluctantly got out of bed and put a fresh uniform on.

T'lisha followed suit. "That it does. Maybe afterward we can come back and have some fun."

"Ohh I like the sound of that! Let's focus on the meeting first though. It sounds important."

T'lisha nodded and put on a fresh uniform as well. Quickly the pair exited their quarters and headed off to the conference room.

The pair entered the conference room

Noting that the majority of the Senior Staff was present, Willian nodded to Commander Tua as he took his seat. "Thank you all for joining me at this late hour," he glanced at Doctor Marner, "or this early hour. The Enterprise has returned from its weeks long patrol of the Demilitarized Zone and has found something interesting. I'll now turn this meeting over to Commander Bezru Tua, who was the Acting Captain during the tour," he did his best to hide his true feelings about not having been on the Enterprise during its assignment. It had really been hard on him to give for freedom for others on his ship. "Commander?'

"Thank you, Admiral," the Trill woman walked over to the wall panel. Pressing a control on the interface, "As the Admiral explained the Enterprise has been on a patrol of the Cardassian DMZ within the Maelstrom for several weeks. It was all routine until earlier today when we were touring the Alioth System," the monitor corresponded with her statements, switching to a starchart of the system. "We were going to head back to open space when we detected six energy signatures on the Cardassian side of the border. I ordered Enterprise to intercept."

The screen shifted to show six emblems of the Republic of Cardassia, "When we arrived the Enterprise was greeted by six Cardassian vessels: one Keldon, three Galors, two Hidekis. No big deal, normally, but these ships exhibited atypical power signatures. When we scanned it we matched the signature to the plasma weapon utilized by the Interstellar Coalition."

"The Cardassian Envoy has denied any involvement by his people with the Interstellar Coalition," Willian interrupted.

"Yes Admiral," Bezru continued, "the leader of the Cardassian fleet, Gul Nayat of the Cardassian Fourth Order, ordered Enterprise to withdraw from the system as the Cardassians had annexed the system as part of their territory."

Cyrus had raised his cup of coffee in a salute to Taylor and Hawkins, and had a small smile at Will's comment. His attention was caught by the news about the Cardassians, him sitting up more.

While the Doctor sat with rapt attention an indication the coffee he'd made himself must be hitting the mark Hawkins sat back in his seat in thoughtfully as the briefing continued and the possible ramifications of the this discovery fell into place.

"Our first encounter with that weapon system there wasn't a whole lot of time to work out a defense against it." Ash stated, quietly. "Still, what was tried, at the time, reduced the effectiveness of it by about 20% so the damage we took was just, really bad, instead of catastrophically bad." The Chief Engineer, continued, as she scratched her left ear in thought. "There's been more than a couple minutes since then to consider how to, effectively, counter that weapon and I think we were on the right path in the first encounter." She added and looked to the Admiral. "It's simple and doesn't require a 10 month refit to implement so, naturally, it hasn't been sanctioned for testing." She mused, with a little smile and shrugged.

"OK so how sturdy is this defense, Ash! How much can we withstand?" R'elle asked. not her usual department but she wanted to know!

Ash looked to R'elle, a little surprised by the question, and considered for a second or two before she answered. "It's a targeted defense. Basically, prevent the weapon energy from reaching us by intercepting and disrupting it's targeting and energy transport using, precisely, aligned magnetic lines of force." She explained, quietly. "I think it would be a, move and counter move, situation so, the question is more one of how long can we keep it up and against how many foes at the same time rather than how much can we take." She added.

"Computer," Willian called, "Display data on Interstellar Coalition plasma weapon and describe on my authorization."

A schematic diagram of the weapon appeared on the Ward Room's monitor as the computer spoke, "The plasmatic pulsar device is a direct-fire plasma weapon developed by the Interstellar Coalition. When locked onto an opponent, the weapon delivers multiple successive plasma volleys against the target. Due to the way the damage affects the target, smaller individual volleys are more likely to damage weapons and power systems than their damage equivalent in a single volley. This allows the ISC combatant to effectively strip away the weapons of many of their targets in a single volley." Toward the end the screen image changed to a recreation of the attack on the Enterprise at Talos, the display scrolling through the damage assessment.

Hawkins winced at the recreation, it hadn't been a pleasant experience.

"Starfleet Command has ordered that we not engage a vessel armed with such a weapon unless all other options have been expended," the Trill Commander informed, "including retreat."

"Do we have any knowledge of how many vessels have been outfitted with this weaponry?" Hawkins asked Tua.

The Chief Engineer looked as though she was going to say something but kept her mouth shut instead. It didn't, really, matter how many ships were equipped with the weapon if the standing order was to retreat every time they encountered one that had it or appeared to have it.

"The six Cardassian vessels we encountered were all armed with the weapon," the Trill answered, having noticed Commander Ash. "Presumably all of the vessels within the Interstellar Coalition would be armed with this device as well."

"Ops to the Admiral."

Willian rose from his chair and looked at the rest of the Senior Officers, "Please continue. I'll be right back."

"Well, if we're going to retreat from any vessel equipped with such a weapon we can expect anyone and everyone with an axe to grind, against the Federation, to be so equipped however it can be managed." Ash mused, quietly.

The Acting Captain of the Enterprise nodded, "It's a last ditch effort, yes, but the standing order is retreat needs to be considered as well ahead of engagement. The Enterprise is the only vessel that engaged a ship armed with this weapon. It barely survived."

"Then again, there's always the possibility that we could try to infiltrate one of those Cardassian ships and take it," the Trill mused.

Ash grinned. "I'm in, though, I don't know how stealing one of their ships helps us unless you're looking to get your hands on the weapon system." Ash stated.

Cyrus was quiet for most of the meeting, that image of that weapon. It made him wince, and the image of Talos, took him back to when the last of the Talosians had died. He quietly took a sip of his coffee, and still said not a word.

"It was just a passing thought that I'd had, really," the Commander tried to save face. "I'm really not sure how the Cardassians had acquired such a weapon to be frank." She looked around the room and remembered that the Uhura had been assigned to investigate the Cardassians for a potential link to the Coalition. "Captain Bishop, you had recently been part of a mission to investigate potential Cardassian involvement with the Coalition. Do you have any insights that may assist us?"

Ash shrugged and looked to Bishop. The engineer liked the idea of stealing a Cardassian ship to get their hands on the Plasma Weapon system. There was no quicker way to devise an effective counter measure for a 'NEW' weapons than having that weapons in hand to reverse engineer. What got Ash, to a small degree, is it didn't look much different than the Plasma Pulse Cannon that Star Fleet had dismissed as not worth the time to develop. Live and learn.

Bishop didn't look left or right as he first considered the question and then how he was going to answer. "We did." He nodded. "In both encounters we were warned off by the Cardassians after they claimed that they were not b part of the Coalition. In the first encounter we didn't get close to notice and our sensors detected nothing out of the ordinary in the station's weapons. In the second encounter, a different story. We were again warned off and a denial was issued by the Cardassians. We were then pursued by multiple Cardassian ships and my science officer Mr. Godfry was able to scan the Cardassian ships and noticed a unique weapons signature which we attribute to this new weapon the Cardassians have in their arsenal."

"Or, appear to have in their arsenal." Ash mused, aloud, while she considered what it would take to refit a vessel with such a weapon; the structural changes to accommodate such a weapon would be, at the very least, daunting, not to mention the changes to power systems, and the like. "That weapon isn't just a thing you can swap in place of a disruptor bank." the Engineer observed.

Standing in the small anteroom off to the side of the Ward Room, Admiral Targaryen tapped his communicator, "Go ahead."

Lieutenant Talyn's voice filtered through the small communicator, "Admiral, our border probes have detected that the Cardassian vessels that have claimed Alioth are on the move."

"Where are they headed, Lieutenant?" Willian asked concerned,

"Scans suggest that they're continuing on course for Ascella."

The Admiral spoke absently, "Another system that they lost."

The Operations Officer thought this was meant for her, "Correct."

DS12's Commander smirked, "Thanks for confirming. Yellow alert, please. I'll be back in the bunker shortly. Out."

"We've seen this before though," Commander Tua interjected as the Yellow Alert lighting came alive in the Ward Room. "The Cardassian True Way had partnered with a Maelstrom based civilization known as the Kessok in the late 2370s and used their weapons as part of their own arsenal. True, they did create new designs, but some of the Cardassian vessels were fitted with Kessok based weapons. This may be no different," the XO of the Enterprise opined.

The Admiral, having returned from his conversation with Operations, overheard the tail end of the discussion, "What about the Kessok?"

Tua paraphrased for the Admiral, "There was a brief discussion about the liklihood that the Cardassians were truly fitted with the Coalition's weapon and a proposal that we try to acquire one of their vessels. Why are we at Yellow Alert, Admiral?"

Now it was Willian's turn to paraphrase, "The Cardassian vessels have now invaded a second star system that was formerly theirs. As much as I am wanting to limit the risk to our ships, it would seem now we have no other option but to proceed to negotiate before the Cardassians attempt to take the entire sector, potentially by force."

Ash, dead panned, the admiral and then shrugged. "Negotiations may be a bit difficult, from the sounds of things, unless the weapons signatures are a ruse." The Engineer commented.

"I hope that they are, Commander, but I doubt that they are," Willian answered. "The True Way has been known to operate out in this Sector for a long time and they've wanted to retake the Cardassian government for even longer than that. To accomplish that they need resources, supplies, and Starfleet Intelligence has been suspecting the Interstellar Coalition was supporting them. Looks like we may have the proof of that now."

Willian retook his seat as he considered what the Trill Commander had proposed, "So, you want to try to steal a Cardassian ship?"

Looking at R'elle, she mouthed the words, 'steal a Cardassian ship's? T'Lisha's thoughts were nervously jumbled at this point. Looking at the assembled group, "How do you propose to commandeer Cardassian ship? Flying them is not the question cause I can fly them but how do we 'steal one'?" T'Lisha said.

"That's easy T'Lisha." Bishop replied with a wicked grin, "We use stealth and guile and lots of luck."

"Yeah a whole lot of luck! Capt Bishop, I wish you the best on that but personally I think your nuts!" R'elle said. She looked at T'lisha and shrugged.

"A plan helps, as well." Ash said, with a chuckle. "Happenstance and opportunity don't hurt." She added, thinking of her own acquisition of a Romulan War Bird.

"How much time do we have?" Hawkins asked with mixed feelings about the proposal.

"With the way that the Cardassians are moving through the systems not long," the XO answered. "It would appear that they are focused on recovering worlds that they had lost. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to take the entire Sector."

Willian agreed with that, "Alright. Let's do things the right way before we start an interstellar incident. I will alert Starfleet Command about our idea and they'll probably ask me to speak with the Cardassian Diplomatic Envoy before we proceed. Meanwhile, let's prepare ourselves for the possibility that we will be trying to capture a Cardassian ship." He looked at the gathered group, "Exec, Jamison, Tua, Haines, Hawkins, and Ash I'd like you to meet to discuss options for potential targets among this group of ships. Everyone else, get some rest because I have a feeling this will be a very long night. Is there anything else before we dismiss?"

Ash looked to the Admiral. "For planning purposes, Admiral. Are we going by the book? The book is in the same room with us? Or, what book?" The Chief Engineer asked, directly.

Hawkins smirked at her question, it was typical of Ash to push the boundaries and forever think outside the box - her traits would certainly be key if they were to pull this off successfully.

"For the time being we are going by the book," Willian confirmed. "I'm going to go speak with the Cardassian Ambassador. Perhaps we can get some support from the Cardassian government, but I'm also not too certain how cooperative he will be."

Cyrus gave a slight grunt as he moved to get out of his chair. "Let me know where you want me to fit in all of this. I'm off to get some sleep."

"I agree with the Doctor," the Admiral replied, "all of you need to get some rest because I have a feeling we're going to need it."

"By the book, Admiral." Ash confirmed while she picked up a PADD and began to pull, historical, detailed scans, of the various, Cardassian, ships to compare with the most recent scans from the recent encounters. "Time to compare and contrast and find a soft spot." The Chief engineer commented as she went to work.

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