Officer Exfiltration

Posted on Tue Sep 1st, 2015 @ 3:48am by Fleet Admiral Sevlek

963 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Episode 89 - Futility's Return
Location: BQ Command Suite
Timeline: MD2 1625 Hours

Sevlek stood in front of the holographic display. For the moment, his attention was not on Admirals Bremer and T'Lar and their task group. He was monitoring a ground operation being conducted on Kri'le Prime. The government of the planet was detaining a Starfleet Captain and his Executive Officer.

He was listening to the extraction team's commander issuing crisp, direct commands when words were absolutely necessary. Otherwise, he used hand signals. Hand signals Sevlek was familiar with. Many of them had been designed by him and his team during his tenure as Starfleet's Chief of Strategic Intelligence Operations. The fear was that previous hand signals were old and easily interpreted by foreign intelligence agents so Admiral Nechayev tasked his office with the redesign.

He watched as the agents breached a door and entered silently. They walked down a corridor and took a flight of stairs one floor down. This was the quickest route from their beam-in location on the roof. A cloaked Defiant Class Starship was in orbit, along with the Captain's ship. The second officer, Lieutenant Commander Jeyne Robins, refused an order from Commodore Walker and kept the ship in orbit.

Sevlek's conversation with her had been short. He didn't repeat the order that Walker gave the young woman. Instead, he informed her he would back her plays as long as they did not lead to an interstellar incident. They were there to make an official first contact, one designed to engage the Kri'leans in diplomatic engagements.

Captain Arko Jeran was a skilled diplomat. A Bajoran national who was abused as a teenager and young adult by the Cardassians in the occupation of Bajor. He had negotiated settlements between several factions in several locations and he and his ship, the U.S.S. Opaka, were chosen as the best option for the Kri'le interactions. Kri'le and Bajor shared extremely similar histories and cultural conventions. The difference, though, was that on Kri'le, their religion was law. Science was secondary in importance and question faith because of science was considered a capital offense.

The XO was Commander Mike Vance. He'd passed up 4 command offers to continue serving with Captain Arko. He'd made it clear after the 4th offer that he was more interested in getting as much diplomatic experience as possible while serving with Captain Arko and that he wasn't interested in a Starship Command, but intended to transfer to the Federation Diplomatic Corps.

Both men were capable. They were the only ones allowed on the surface, but the Captain made the mistake of openly discussing how science proved the existence of the prophets and it was taken as an insult that the Kri'lean deities weren't real.

Sevlek watched as the team positioned itself defensively around a door, a three count and a breach. Three men entered the room. One fanned left, the other right and Commander Edwards, the team leader, went straight to the holding cell in the center.

Captain Arko and Commander Vance were both located within. Sevlek spoke, breaking the silence. "Nest to Hawk. Status of the package."

The respond, "Standy, Nest." The communication was real-time. Thanks in large part to the prototype slipstream communications array that had been installed when Sevlek first arrived on the station. The team leader deactivated the bars over the entrance to the cells. He stood at the door while his team's medic went forward into the cell.

Sevlek nodded to an ensign at a console on his right and the video feed of the commander shrunk and moved to the bottom left of the holodisplay as the medic's enlarged and switched places. His tricorder was our and scanning. Indicator lights flashing red. The medic pulled out a hypospray and pressed it to both of the officer's carotid arteries and then said, "Sir, they're both alive. Barely. They've been beaten and are suffering from some internal bleeding. There's also signs they were both hit at close range with disruptors at low settings." He paused as he scanned them again, "An emergency beam-out would be preferable to carrying them to the roof."

The team leader spoke, "Doc, how bad would it be for them if we did haul them to the top?"

The medic considered the tricorder, "There are broken bones and internal organ injuries. Carrying them could push the possibility of recovery into dangerous lows." A sigh, "I know a beam out could alert the security systems. Beaming 7 out at once is a large signature."

The commander spoke again, "Hawk to Nest. You've heard the sitrep."

Sevlek had the ensign switch back to the commander who was on his face cam now, "Affirmative."

"If there are no objections, I'm going to order branch to perform an emergency evac."

Sevlek watched as half of the command center's staff tensed. He knew the risk as well as they did. "Acknowledged."

He watched as the commander entered the required codes on his wrist-mounted tricorder. A new model, especially designed for easy use with one-hand in combat situations. After a moment, the response code flashed. The U.S.S. Granada, the cloaked Defiant Class Starship that infiltrated the team, would exfiltrate them.

An ensign on the wall console spoke, "Admiral. The Opaka has changed orbit and is moving to a position between the Granada and planet."

Sevlek nodded. The ship was going to cover the transporter signal, hopefully, by emitting a high-gain subspace transmission at the precise moment of transport.

The team leader spoke, "Transport in 3. Stand by."

The transmission of all of the extraction team went out and 7.2 second later the same ensign along the wall spoke, "Granada confirms acquisition of all 7 packages."

Sevlek nodded as the entire room relaxed by degrees, "Send congratulations to to the extraction team, Granada and Opaka and order them to report to Earth."

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