Getting Away Safely (Lexington)

Posted on Thu Jul 11th, 2013 @ 6:24pm by Fleet Admiral Mike K`Wor Bremer & Commander Jonathan Roebuck IV & Lieutenant K`Wor & First Ramata`tar & Captain Ryan Greenwood & Commodore Leon `Lee` Pike & Commander Jonathan Coleman & Lieutenant Anandra Delair & Lieutenant Saith i-Ki Baratan & Ensign David Brody & Ensign Anthony La Baron & Commodore Alexandra Harrison & Lieutenant JG Aidan Murphy

3,552 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: Mission 83 - Recovery
Location: USS Lexington, Bridge and Romulan Shuttle
Timeline: Following 'Taking Care of Business' and 'Following the Shuttle'

ON:

The Lexington and the Romulan shuttle continued on their way back to the Chaltok system after leaving the Romulan base on Gamma Crateris.


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USS Lexington

Aboard the Lexington, Mike was still on the Bridge as the crew watched the sensors. Their escape seemed to be clear, with nothing following them.

Warrant Officer Talan ran several sweeps of the system in all directions. "Admiral, our path is free of enemy vessels and none of the uncloaked ships at the facility have set a pursuit course."

"Tough luck." Aidan responded wryly in a quiet tone from his position at the helm. "Looks like there won't be a high speed chase."

Anandra shot him a bemused look. "Mister Murphy, words like that may give the impression that you're hoping for trouble." Having served with him in the past, Anandra's rapport with Aidan was one of general amusement. They knew each other rather well, and though they rarely sought each other's company, they did enjoy it.

Aidan merely smirked to himself as he worked his console.

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Romulan Shuttle

Aboard the Romulan shuttle, K'Temoc was sitting in the co-pilot's seat again, monitoring Romulan communications. There was limited chatter aboard the Romulan base they just left. The only mention was that a ship that had departed there had be lost.

Saith stood against the bulkhead of the tiny shuttle, saying nothing, just as she had on the way in to Gamma Crateris. She did her best to ignore both the Remans, and the Rihan prisoner, but she kept an ear to the front. The movement that wasn’t present in her body was running amok in her head. She was puzzling out the codes. There were several possibilities. First, the codes weren’t ever taken out of the system. Not likely. Second, someone else had come across the old codes, activated them, and was using them. Highly likely. Third, her father was not dead and in the aftermath of the destruction of ch’Rihan went into hiding and is still using the old codes. Moderately possible, Saith considered that even though she was on the assassination team, she hadn’t actually verified her father’s death herself. It was not inconceivable that he talked / paid his way out of dying. She was still a kid, and it was only days before the end of everything and she would be rescued. It was possible, but was it likely? Her mind ran through possible scenarios.

Brody was pleased the mission had gone as well as it had. His reservations about Saith proved to be unfounded. Despite her misgivings about the mission, she did her job and did it well. He knew she was likely still dealing with all that had just transpired. He turned to her and said lowly so no one else in the cramped quarters could hear, "How are you holding up?"

Saith's brow furrowed for a moment as she considered Brody's question. "Terrible" she said, then grinned, "but that is nothing new." She glanced at him. "Just thinking about those old codes. Something is off there. And I just can't help but think this was way too easy. Something is up, but I can't figure it out." Her gaze went to the front console again.

Coleman was working in the front of the shuttle, trying to get the shuttle back to the destination for pickup. Coleman was a little bit on edge because technically, the mission wasn't quite over. He knew that they could be found before they made it back to the Lexington and he knew that the Tal'Shiar was involved, so he knew that if caught, things would not be taken lightly. Coleman just concentrated on making sure the cloak was working and they could get out of there at the fastest speed possible.

K’Temoc looked back at everyone in the shuttle. He saw a few were engaging in a little small talk, some with concerned looks on their faces, others simply trying to relax.

“You all did well, very well under the circumstances. For now, sit back and try to relax. Once we return to the Lexington get cleaned up, eat, and rest before starting your reports.” He flashed a smile before looking back at his console.

Saith nearly laughed aloud when K'Temoc smiled. Her report would be short and sweet; well, it would be sweet anyway. She smiled to herself, then looked at Brody and quietly asked, "Want to grab a Romulan Ale while you still look like one? My treat." Of course, she knew it was illegal in federation space, but that didn't mean you couldn't get one. She had them with Maal and knew where to go.

Meanwhile, K’Wor and Roebuck were maintain their guard on the Romulan ‘guest’. The Romulan had sat quietly after being punched by K’Temoc and frisked by Lokran. He knew he had nowhere to go.

K’Wor looked over at Roebuck, “Think he’ll talk?”

Roebuck glared at the Romulan, “He’ll talk.”

Lee opened his eyes when he heard K'Wor and Roebuck talk and half smiled. He then looked at the Romulan prisoner and then over to K'Wor and Roebuck before walking towards the prisoner. "I think I shall have a few words with our little prisoner."

Alex was still coming down from her adrenalin rush as she listened to the chitter chatter of the shuttle passengers. She rubbed her wrist which was already forming bruises of finger imprints from the Romulan gripping her wrist tightly. It brought back memories of her past with Ruben. She didn't like it then and she didn't like it now. Alex looked over at Lee who was now heading towards the prisoner.

Roebuck looked at Pike, “Sir, let’s save it for when we’re back on the ship. We have limited room or facilities for an interrogation here.” Besides stating the obvious, Jonathan really wanted to ‘talk’ to the Romulan, alone…

Lee looked at Roebuck then at the Romulan prisoner then back to Roebuck:"Yea true there isn't much room here. I can wait." He then headed back to the bulk head he was leaning against.

Ensign Brody watched as the Romulan prisoner remained cool in the face of certain hardship once Roebuck had some alone time with him. He turned and saw the Remans who had been cowering in the corner. Brody made his way to them, remembering that they had vital information to share in exchange for their rescue. "You better keep your end of the bargain, Reman. And hope it's worth all the trouble."

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USS Lexington

Back aboard the Lexington, Mike continued to watch the clock. They were still about an hour from Chaltok. He looked around the Bridge at his Officers, so far so good …but he’d feel better once everyone was back aboard the ship.

Anthony stared down at his console, deep in thought. The situation was still too peculiar for his liking. Why did the Romulan vessel simply explode? Did Starfleet attack it? Or was it another Romulan ploy?

"Admiral," Said Anthony, "Shall I do a preemptive long range scan of the Chaltok system?"

Mike nodded, "Passive only please."

"Understood, Admiral." Said Anthony, hoping the scans would yield some information.

Several minutes later, the Lexington and Romulan shuttle dropped out of warp on the outer edge of the Chaltok system. With the area clear, the Lexington opened her main shuttle bay doors, dropping the cloak in that area only.

“Keep sharp eyes out.” Mike said, as it was now that the Lexington was its most vulnerable.

Several long seconds went by as the Romulan shuttle docked. Once it was inside, the doors closed and the cloak restored. It was a risky move, but not as much as the alternative of having to fully decloak to allow the Away Team and their guests to beam over to the Lexington.

The Teams disembarked the Romulan shuttle. K’Wor and Roebuck escorted the Romulan toward the Brig. They were met by Ramata’tar in the turbolift, and the Romulan showed his surprise at seeing a Jem’Hadar aboard a Federation Starship.

K’Temoc and Matthews headed for the Bridge after K’Temoc dismissed his team to get some food and rest. As he walked toward the turbolift, he said back to Harrison, “I want you to get that looked at in Sick-Bay.”

Alex knew better than to argue with him, "Yes sir."

Once on the Bridge, K’Temoc and Matthews looked over at the Admiral. Mike then lead them toward the CO’s Ready Room. “Ryan you have the Bridge.”

Seconds had passed in silence after they left for the ready room, and Aidan was finding himself antsy, prone to fidgeting, his desire for excitement not quite satisfied by the quick and quiet manner the mission had occurred. Not that he was ungrateful for that fact, but he'd spent so much time anticipating in anxiety that it all seemed to happen in the quiet blinking of an eye. He turned in his seat and looked at Ryan, hoping to determine whether or not the man had a sense of humor, as if he were a student looking to take advantage of having a substitute professor for the day. He decided however to keep his antics to himself (relatively), and turned back to his console, drumming a beat on it's surface before going into a tune. "While goin' the road to sweet Athy.." he began to sing (quietly) an old Irish tune, soaked in his signature brogue.

Anandra smirked to herself, having heard the tune out of Aidan before..albeit, much more raucously. She glanced over at their current in command, reading his response.


Once in the Ready Room, Mike turned back to K’Temoc and Matthews. “Well done. The Romulan ship was destroyed as it dropped out of slipstream, within Federation space. Three Starships responded to the explosion and have found traces of Thalaron radiation, isolytic isotopes, and Benamite crystals. It clearly points a finger at the Romulans for being the aggressors. The Federation Council has sent a protest the Romulans, but they haven’t responded. Intel shows your Teams were able to get in and out without suspicion.”

K’Temoc nodded, “Thank you.” He was happy the mission, so far, seemed to be a success and the objectives were met. “We also have a prisoner, a Tal Shair Captain. It couldn’t be avoided. He’s being taken to the Brig now”

Mike nodded, “Arrange an interrogation.”

“I will. Roebuck says he wants to conduct it.” K’Temoc replied. “So does Pike.”

Mike raised an eye brow, “Let Roebuck, then Pike. Maybe Jonathan can rile him up enough that Pike can pick up something from him when they talk.”

Mike then looked at Matthews, “What do you plan to do with your shuttle. Do you want to take it with us, or leave it here?”

Slade considered it for a moment, "Might as well take it back to 400. I'm sure it could be useful in the future."

Mike nodded to Matthews.

“One other thing.” K’Temoc said, “Its Ensign Baratan, by all accounts, she performed above and beyond. Without her, Team One may not of gotten their job done.”

Mike nodded and smiled, then the three left the Ready Room.

As Mike and the others came out of the ready room, Anandra stood from her seat to address them. "Good to have you back gentleman - I am assuming all went well?"

K'Temoc nodded, "As well as expected...no casualties." He flashed a smile as he headed for the turbolift, his 'ears' were itching.

Mike took his seat, and was about the order the Lexington to warp back toward Federation space when a Romulan d'Deridex Type Warbird decloaked.

"Yellow alert! Verify the cloak Mister Talan. Murphy, back us off slowly and maneuver us above the Romulan ship, Z-Plus two kilometers." Mike ordered...the Lexington wasn't in the clear yet...

"Aye sir, backing us off; repositioning above the Romulan vessel, Z-Plus two kilometers." Murphy responded at the helm.

Coleman arrived on the bridge and went over to the Engineering Station in the aft of the Bridge. He noticed that they were checking to make sure the cloak was still in check, so he went over to help Mr. Talan make sure the cloak was in working order. Coleman scanned the cloak and saw that it was in order and he said, "Admiral, the cloak's working perfectly sir."

Talan quickly diagnosed the cloaking system. There were no variances or other signs of malfunction. "Admiral, our cloaking system is operational. If we've been detected, its via other means. We should be invisible to their scanners."

Ryan looked down at his console. Nothing out of the ordinary with the cloaking systems yet it seems they may have detected us. "Ensign La Baron, was there any anomalous readings just before the Romulan decloaked? Energy surges, spikes in anything that may indicate they are were looking for us?"

Originally intending to see if there was word on the other mission (and therefore Maal) Saith had made her way to the bridge after they were released. Then she had intended to go to Security and help watch over their prisoner. But, as with so many others this plan went awry as she entered the bridge and heard the discussion.

Glancing at the Romulan war bird, she smiled, it reminded her of the ships she had served on, and she still thought they were beautiful. “How heavily traveled is this corridor?” she asked. “As you are aware, cloaks are not infallible. If the traffic is light, we will be leaving a trail that will be easy to see and follow to the ship. Even if they weren’t looking they could find it easily. That problem never did get resolved.”

She paused, looking at all the 'brass' on the bridge. “If we do have to fight, try to hit the ventral section. The ventral section includes the lower portion or 'belly" of the vessel and the slim "throat" that connects this section to the capital section.” She pointed at the "throat" area of the ship on the screen. “It connects with the superstructure atop the same thin section which contains shuttle and fighter bays and facilities. With only fifteen decks, these sections are hard to hit, but if you can get them, they do a ton of damage.”

Mike paused, he’d fought the Romulans before, several times, and he knew how to defeat them. It took him back a little for an Ensign to be telling him what to do, but he blew it off. “We’re not here to fight, we must avoid one for our mission to succeed.”

If Anthony wasn't stunned by the appearance of the Romulans, he would have been enamored with the size and majesty of the Warbird. For a moment the question about anomalous readings went straight over his head. Snapping back to reality, he responded, "The sensors detected a slight surge in neutrino readings. I'd strongly recommend a non-violent course of action."

Coleman was watching all of this unfold on the bridge, not saying much and still in his Romulan ears. While he was trying to think of possible ways to help the current situation, he remembered back to earlier in the mission with the Romulan ship equipped with Quantum Slipstream and the computer virus that accompanied it. Coleman walked over to the Admiral and the group around him and said, "Admiral, I might have an idea that might solve a few problems in our current predicament."

“What’s your idea?” Mike replid.

Saith felt her temper rise, but she bit her tongue and chose instead to turn and head for the turbolift. Good thing she couldn't slam the door to the turbolift she thought as she stepped inside. She headed back to her quarters, going over her conversation in her head. She didn't remember recommending an attack, but of course assumptions were made. "Computer, I don't want to be distrubed unless we are on Red Alert" she said as she entered her quarters and flung herself on the bed. She had thought she was making progress, but now was pretty sure she was right back where she started from.

Lee was sitting at his station on the bridge as he listened to Coleman's idea.

"Well, the computer virus that we implemented to make the one Romulan ship drop out of slipstream, it was simple computer engineering. With a tweak to some of the algorithms, we could use it to make the other Romulan ship out there power down. I could make it work where whenever they use a certain type of senor or something, they could power down and we go home basically in the clear." Coleman said, looking at Pike and Bremer.

Lee nodded:"I think that's a good idea and it probably could work Commander."

Mike was had concerns over the idea. He didn’t want to give the Romulans too many opportunities to find a way to devise a strategy against the virus, nor did he want to give them the chance to find them while they were uploading the virus too. He though it over for a moment, then decided…

“Do it, take all due precautions that we’re not detected.” Mike replied.

Coleman nodded and headed to the Engineering station on the bridge to quickly reverse engineer the virus that they had devised for the other part of the mission. He also made sure that all indications of the Federation were gone as well. Within a few minutes, Coleman nodded that he was ready to release the virus to the Romulan ship.

Mike nodded to Coleman, then looked back at the screen. The giant Warbird filled the view, and he waited for some sign that the vessel was incapacitated.

Coleman sent the signal out to the warbird and looked at the screen and hoped that his virus would work yet again.

Warrant Officer Talan was the first to notice any indication of success. "Admiral, the warbird is lurching to port and dropping down the Z-axis. Main power is fluctuating."

Mike smirked. “Nice work.” He walked back to Tactical and glanced at the sensors for a moment, then headed back to his chair.

“Mister Murphy, ease us off, half impulse until we’re sure the Warbird’s sensors are offline, then maximum warp for the Triangle.” Bremer ordered.

“The Triangle?” K’Temoc said in surprise.

“Yes. The Romulans don’t monitor that area as intensely as they do along the Federation border. If we cross through their sensor/tachyon net along a known Pirate route, the Romulans should believe we’re just another Pirate ship if they pick us up at all.” Mike replied. “Then getting back into Federation space will be simple.


It had been a few hours since the Lexington had set course for home. Aboard the Lexington, the members of the Away Teams had all visited Sick-Bay and had their Romulan appearances changed back to their natural ones. The Romulan ‘guest’ was sitting comfortably in the Brig, and the Reman Scientists were assigned to guest quarters, and a Security escort.

Some of the Officers that had been assigned to the Team were taking a rest, others were back on duty. Roebuck was in the Bridge, keeping the Romulan company. K’Wor was back on the Bridge, and K’Temoc was also back on the Bridge looking over the data collected from the Romulan base.

On the Bridge, Mike was pacing as the Lexington neared the Romulan border with the pirate infested Triangle.

“Admiral, there’s a small vessel on sensors, a Pirate raider, Hawk class. It’s damaged and attempting to cross back into the Triangle. I’m not picking up any Romulans in pursuit though.” K’Wor reported from Tactical Two.

“Mister Murphy, take us out of warp. Keep our distance from the Pirate ship, but set a parallel course into the Triangle. Once we near the sensor net, drop us to two-hundred KPH until we’re through. Once safely inside the Triangle, set a course for Starbase 400, maximum warp.” Mike ordered as he watched the damaged Pirate vessel on the viewer.

It took only a few minutes for the Lexington to leave Romulan space and blast off into Warp again to traverse the Triangle, heading back to Starbase 400, but those tense minutes seemed to take hours.

Once the ship was at warp again, Mike finally took his seat again and allowed himself to relax.

The trip through the Triangle was a short one, and within thirty minutes, the Lexington was again in Federation space. As planned, the ship sent a secured data-burst to Starbase 400 to open the space doors so the Lexington could enter while cloaked, keeping the stealthy appearance the ship never left.

Within a matter of moments, the Lexington was back inside Starbase 400’s docking back, the doors closed, and the ship decloaked just before docking.

Once the ship was docked, Mike tapped the 1MC button on his armrest panel, “Admiral to crew, well done everyone. Secure all stations, then get some rest. Everyone had three days leave. Dismissed.”

It was good to be home…that giant floating space station orbiting Kaleb IV…


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