Bridge Duty Escalates: Part 5

Posted on Sat Nov 11th, 2023 @ 8:58am by Captain Ryhl th'Zeles & Ensign Sar & Commander Chalan Kendri & Lieutenant Commander Johanna Lyngstad & Commander Jason Elliot & Ensign Dramin
Edited on on Sat Nov 11th, 2023 @ 8:59am

1,931 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: Campor III - Resupply
Timeline: MD C15

By now, Feeva had gotten to her feet, and crossed to a closer position. She felt like, by now, she and the Commander had a decent working relationship and he'd listen to her. She caught his eye, and raised an eyebrow. "Calm down," she mouthed. Kas nodded silently in acknowledgment.

Ryhl looked to Kendri with an understanding. He was glad to see her also assert herself with Brok'tan. He spoke with a new openness in his voice. "Brok'tan. It would be an honor to include you in our investigation and discussions with the Romulans. There is a common ground here. My battle is to bring us together at any cost. I hope you will forgive my rash judgments."

Brok'tan paused for a moment. "I believe we both made rash judgments, it's an old tale. Sometimes the elders forget the lessons their young ones learned so well, I trust my errors can be forgiven as well."

"Well said". Ryhl's expression warmed into a closed smile. "I've learned to trust the wisdom of the Klingon ways." Ryhl bowed towards Broktan, lowering his antennae.

The old warrior bowed to the Captain as he spoke, then turned to Kas and touched his forehead to his. "Forget "Nothing." Both men said in unison.

"Commander Chalan, I will not interfere with your negotiations," Brok'tan stated. "I will be available if you need me, however you won't. You, Kas, and this crew have this well in hand."

"The negotiations are between the Klingons and the Romulans. We are simply mediators. You will speak for the Klingon presence in this sector," Kendri stated from the far corner of the Bridge. She needed to be on her way to the transporter room. "Just give me a chance to bring HoD Vurla to the table by logic and reason - not violence. If I fail, then as the Captain said, we will not interfere. But there will be no blood shed on this ship."

"There must be a peaceful solution. Getting Vurla to the table was half of the battle. It sounds like we're all on the same page." Ryhl looked from person to person as he spoke.

"Mister Tomm, lower shields and prepare for word on Vurla for transport. Stand down red alert. Please also prepare a security party to greet future guests in Transporter Room 1."

“Lowering shields, Captain. Dispatching a Security team to the Transporter Room. Can we make this fast, sir? It would make me feel better to get the shields back up in an expeditious manner,” Tomm said.

Ryhl laughed. "I'm with you Mister Tomm. Let's cycle this transport quickly once again."

"I'll prepare the negotiations room." Dramin muttered. He began to walk towards the turbolift. God knows how much of hell would break loose if the good Klingon captain decided to solve things the old fashioned Klingon way - and then no one would be able to keep them in check. Except maybe a few good, strong security officers, maybe.

"I will assist Mr. Dramin," she said. She could oversee the man's work and do her own planning quickly.

"Very well, Ensign. Thank you", Ryhl said. "Stick around. You may prove yourself quite useful."

"Lieutenant Ligan, please greet HoD Vurla in Transport Room 1, and take her to the conference room. Kas you should go as well," Kendri directed.

"Aye commander," Kas said.

"Open a channel to the Romulan vessel", Ryhl said, taking a few steps closer to Rachel at Ops.

Rachel complied. "Channel open Sir." She once again took a look at the bands being transmitted over and something caught her eye, so she isolated it and began trying to figure out what it was.

As he got closer to Rachel, he added, "Have you noticed any other interesting ships on comms since I've been away? Any more Romulans?"

"There was a short transmission they received. I thought at first it was an anomaly but I remembered seeing that same burst on the same frequency and pulled up our scan history and we can see it every 6 hours. So my presumption would be someone is making sure to provide them with updates every so often. What exactly that means, I don't know. Maybe other ships or updates for orders? Who knows." Rachel pulled up the cryptographic sequences to quickly show the structure. "Without their keys it could take hours or years to crack that algo, just depends if we randomly hit the key or not."

Sar turned to Sarah. "Curious." The Captain's somewhat confrontational route towards peace made the Vulcan uncomfortable. "They seem to have come to an agreement, despite each taking a staunch stance."

Sarah was watching, trying to not appear afraid. "Yes...sometimes, like humans, the males of our friendly species need to talk it out, and sometimes that includes yelling. Emotions get in the way sometimes. That's not necessarily a bad thing, Sar," she said. "Just...dangerous sometimes. However, it seems like it's resolved. Maybe we should finish our task," she said.

"Indeed," Sar said, "Though most of our work on the bridge is likely done." They would soon have to travel to different access points to help turn their planning into action.

Johanna had the morning shift on sensor duty, which she liked. She liked eating a good breakfast and then getting right to work. She knew the ship was dealing with Romulans currently. Detecting cloaked ships was always a challenge. When the Federation would figure out a way to detect them, the next version of the cloak would cover that up. The current method used involved detecting gravity distortions as the ships passed heavy gravity objects. A Romulan ship was probably orbiting the planet, as they were. Making a few educated guesses (if I were the Romulan ship, where would I be?), Johanna detected a slight anomaly. It might be a Romulan ship; it might not. Her quiet voice came from the Science station after about 10 minutes of work.

"Possible Romulan cloaked ship, heading 345 mark 2."

Making note, Rachel quickly refocused scanners on the section indicated, trying to identify the power signature.

The ship's sensors had emitted a Tachyon scan that was able to pick up the Romulan signature within a certain distance. The scan could tell the difference between a Klingon and Romulan signature. Vurla's ship had escaped detection. A Romulan scout ship decloaked as it sped towards the Warbird.

A hail came in from the Warbird.

From Ops, "The Romulans are hailing us, Captain, from the D'deridex."

"Put the Romulans on Screen," Ryhl said.

"This is Commander Rutrauka of the IRV Haak. Are you aware that our starfighters have come under attack? I thought you people were supposed to provide order to this region." The screen showed a Romulan officer clad in gray attire, short hair framing her pale, delicate features.

"Commander, There was a misunderstanding." Ryhl looked to Kendri as they moved to the forefront of the bridge's central space. "Commander Chalan and I would like to welcome you aboard the Columbia for a brief meeting. We've got to get this settled. Our crew has seen incidents across the planet. Something is up." There was sincerity in Ryhl's voice and open expression. "The Klingons lost a fighter, as have the Romulans. We must share information and investigate this together. Especially for your sake as neighbors."

Rutrauka looked to Kendri, subconsciously placing more trust in what she might say.

"It's true, Commander. The Ferengi settlement has also been sabotaged. Representatives from the Klingon colony are here and have shared intelligence with us about the attack. I know you weren't responsible for what happened to the Klingon ships. Someone wants you to think they were," Kendri explained. "Come to the Columbia, and we will share with you what we've found so far. If you engage in battle now, you are giving the enemy what they want. We need to work together to discover who the true enemy is."

Kendri looked at the Commander over the view screen, and held her eye contact with the Romulan. Kendri knew that they were taught to be suspicious, mistrustful. It was important to show the Commander she had nothing to hide.

Rutrauka trusted both of their words combined more than either alone. Her eyes looked deep into Kendri's as she gauged her reaction. Romulan command structure was muddied by complex politics and the inclusion of the Tal Shiar. A unified reaction signaled truth to the Romulans. After moments of consideration, the Commander spoke. "We will prepare for this meeting. It appears there is much to discuss." Her eyes moved from those of Kendri and Ryhl to study the bridge behind them.

"Thank you for your consideration," Ryhl said. "Bring two associates. We hope you can bring information to share as well. Together we can get to the bottom of this."

"No promises Captain," said Rutrauka as she lifted her chin. "We will try our best to ensure this investigation proceeds smoothly."

"That's all we ask," Ryhl continued.

The Romulan commander nodded. "Very well. Give us ten minutes. Captain. Commander." Rutrauka looked to Kendri once more, eyes lingering on the contact. The channel closed.

Ryhl immediately turned to Kendri and exhaled a deep breath. "That's a start. Can I ask you to greet our guests in Transporter Room One? I'll be back there and we'll escort them to the meeting together. I just have to finish a few more things on the bridge first. Be sure to notify any officers you think might be of help with this. I'll tell a few others to meet us in Conference Room One."

"Of course, Captain," Kendri responded.

Speaking of the conference room, Ryhl's commbadge chirped just about then:

=/\= Ensign Dramin to the captain. Sir, the conference room is *a soft bump is heard in the background, followed by a wince of pain and one or two seconds of rapid-fire mutterings in Kelpien* ready to receive our guests. I am willing to meet and accompany them from the transporter room if necessary. =/\=

Ryhl tapped his commbadge. "Thank you Ensign. Please do prepare to welcome our guests in Transporter Room One. Commander Chalan and I will join you shortly." His antennae twitched curiously as he wondered about the thud and stammering. He imagined the Ensign must have bumped into something from the sound of things.

Feeva let out a sigh from the corner of the Conference room. "Do be careful, Ensign," she said. "Good work here. Go to the Transporter room. I'll finish preparations here," she said.

With that, she set about placing glass cups of water on the table-a total of ten, with a slice of lemon in each. She'd have preferred to have more prepared but sometimes it couldn't be helped. She also placed a PADD at each station. She prepped the Subspace relayer to make a call to HQ, in the off chance it was necessary to escalate things-they could have Rear Admiral Albion on the phone in just a few moments. Hopefully, it wouldn't be necessary. Finally, she settled in, waiting for the others to arrive.

The flag officer of mixed Betazoid and human heritage had taken an interest in the Columbia's travels. Many at Starfleet HQ considered the ship their pet project.

Rachel took a look at her idea for the jamming and knew it could use some refinement, but she definitely didn't have the workspace for that here on the Bridge. She tapped on her console to order a junior officer to take the station and then made her way to the turbo lift and entered "Engineering lab 3." she ordered as the doors closed.

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