A Knife In the Back

Posted on Thu May 19th, 2022 @ 6:20am by Captain Ivan Petrov & Commander Cyrus Cain & Lieutenant Commander Troy Marshall & Lieutenant Cael Maz & Captain Fergus Williams & Lieutenant Johnathan Anderson III & Lieutenant JG Melissa Jones & Callie Marshall & Petty Officer 3rd Class Eritrea Ohmsford

Mission: S1 Episode 2: Caretaker, Part II
Location: Briefing Room, Deck 1
Timeline: Mission Day 7 at 0730
2286 words - 4.6 OF Standard Post Measure

Briefing Room, Deck 1
This morning's daily briefing would be different than most. The first one which had actually taken place in five days, it should mark a return to normalcy and routine, but from the look on the face of the XO, it was clear that wasn't the case. As Eritrea and Tuli set up the table for the meeting with administrative PADDs, beverages, and breakfast refreshments, the man looked out of the forward window at the dry Ocampa world below. The energy blasts from the Caretaker Array had stopped an hour and a half before, and hadn't started again.

Eritrea approached Cyrus with a tray of snacks in hand. "Master, I have food for the meeting. Where would you like me to put it?"

"Hmm?" he asked, annoyed as his eyes remained fixed on the world below. "Just...just put it over there."

Eritrea completed her preparation tasks and stepped over to the door to await her companion.

Callie was barely any time into her 24 hour rest period but with a staff meeting called she wasn’t going to miss it simply because she was now in her third trimester of pregnancy, she felt fine apart from the weight she now carried around giving her backache. As she walked into the briefing room she offered Cain a polite smile.

“Good morning Commander.”

"Hello, Callie." he said, looking at her with concerned eyes. Her unnaturally advanced pregnancy left him with many questions.

Ensign Mattison entered the room, carrying a PADD. He noted the chief of Operations was present and the XO. All he had been told about his own chief was that she was still in surgery, 5 plus hours after her return.
"Sirs." He saluted and took a seat.

Next in was the devil dog puffing on his cigar as he messed with a modfied version of a terran phaser forced to work with some of the tech they had taken from the Ocampa. " Morning all." He said takeing his seat and putting his feet on the desk.

Johnathan entered, his eyes glued to a PADD. On it was a live feed from sickbay, showing Kassandra, unconscious on the main biobed, the medical arch closed over her. She had a few more corrective surgeries to still undergo, to repair the damage that the Ocampan had done to her. He wished he could be part of the interrogations of those savages. Looking up, he recognized that he wasn't alone. He nodded his silent greetings to everyone present, then sat in his seat, looking again at the PADD

Cael entered, eyes scanning the area, "Morning." He said as he walked toward his standard seat and set down a few PADDs that he had brought with him. One was a duty roster and the other was scans of the local area being fed to the tablet.

Callie hated seeing Johnathan so angry and upset, they weren’t in a romantic relationship anymore but she still cared. Pushing herself up out of her seat she moved into the seat next to Johnathan. “Hey, How is Kass?”

Johnathan looked over at Callie and, his voice full of pain, replied, "She's out of surgery, but still sedated. The Doc won't tell me any more than that."

Callie nodded offering an understanding smile. “She’s strong, she’ll get through this.”

Melissa walked in with a cup of coffee and sat down calmly.

Callie’s glance turned towards the door as she sensed Troy’s arrival at the meeting. He’d left her to rest so she had no doubt he’d probably be annoyed with her for being at the briefing.

Troy entered the observation lounge with his head down as he studied information on his PADD. It wasn't until he took a seat that he looked up and saw Callie there. He sighed and shook his head, but he was aware of her need to be in this meeting.

Callie offered an apologetic smile as she leant a little closer to Troy. “I’m heading straight back to your quarters after this meeting I promise.”

The last to enter, as always, was the Captain. This time, instead of the usual pleasant expression he typically wore, Ivan Petrov was a mask of irritation. He lumbered through the door and looked at no one as he moved to the head of the table. All his officers, having stood up, remained standing, as did he. The man leaned over the table, his fists balled up, and the he brought his right one down hard on the surface, causing it to shake and the pitchers of beverages to rattle slightly.

"Those fucking backstabbing Kazon; I can't believe we let them do this!"

As the senior staff looked on with uneasy and confused expressions, Commander Cain's lips parted. He waited for his commanding officer to go on, but when he did little more than stew in his rage, he decided to speak.

"An hour and a half ago, the energy-replenishing blasts from the Caretaker Array to the Ocampa world ceased completely."

Johnathan's brow creased slightly. "What does that mean, Sir?"

"We believe it means someone has gotten control of the array." Cyrus answered, his eyes moving again from Petrov to the senior staff. "You did say that the two surviving Kazon got away from you during a fire-fight, didn't you?"

Troy spoke up. "That is true sir. Our objective was rescue of our people. We were to only eliminate the Kazon should the need to arise were they determined to be duplicitous."

"They got to the control room and...somehow...gained the leverage over the Caretaker which the Ocampa had, I would speculate." Ivan said, his voice still dripping with irritation. "This is probably what they wanted since the moment they saw us. Culluh was using us to gain access to one of the most powerful pieces of technology in the known universe. We have to stop him. They question is...how?"

Callie had ramped up her mental defences the minute Ivan had entered the room, the sheer wave of anger and irritation making her block out the input.

“There could be another explanation Sir” Callie looked towards Petrov. “Perhaps the caretaker is...” She paused. “Dead. If the station is attuned to him, with his death the station might cease to function.”

"There were signs of his frailty in your last interactions with him Captain, it is possible. But that said, if the Kazon did betray us, then they deserve the same as the Ocampa." Ensign Mattison said calmly.

Melissa spoke. "Cullah did smile too much. Smile... Smile... Smile... I dislike people who smile for no reason." She noted. "But I may have a solution. I have been studying the method of energy transfer by the array. I think we can... 'taint the goods' per say." She mentioned. "The dampening pulse we used against the Ocampa, can be used to infuse the energy transfer in the same way. We can include the pulse with the transfer, and send the Kazon a 'surprise.'"

“Assuming they’re making use of the energy transfers at all.” Cain said, thinking. “But if they aren’t, we’ll find ourselves in a swarm of ships and be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. And this time, no one would be coming in at the last minute to help us.”

“We need that Array to get home.” Ivan said with a scowl. “Do you all think Cullah might send us if we let him keep the damn thing?”

"I wouldn't trust them to use the replicator to make a bacon sandwich without blowing themselves up." The marine replied honestly as he could.

Cael brought a stylus to his lips and tapped them ever so softly. He was absorbing all the ideas being shared and getting brought up to speed on the situation. He knew very little about what went on aside from there was a kidnapping and revenge was taken or attempted. This was a downside to caring only about himself these days. He, of course, would offer any assistance so long as it kept him and the vessel in top shape. "If we can not make it home via this array, it would be wise to have a contingency plan in place. I will spend my time and data collected to plan an alternate route home and alternate means."

"I agree..." Melissa noted. "Even now.. If I understand Cullah as well as I anticipate... He is quite aware he possesses the only means for us to return to Terra. He is counting on this. His plan was to use us to seize control of the Array, and therefore he had a dual purpose. Now he has access to the array he's counting on what we will do next, and he's preparing accordingly." Melissa examined. "Behind that smiling mouth..." She said in a sharp tone... "He is contemplating on our reaction. So we have to act in a way he cannot anticipate, derail his plotting with a factor he cannot prepare for."

"Leave the system out of potential scanner range, engage cloak, return, transport over, and take control when he least expects it." Cael said plainly, "That's worked for me in the past with races that do not know of cloak."

"Astute plan, Lieutenant." Melissa complimented. "However, he probably anticipates such a move. Returning cloaked will give us the element of surprise. We were able to get some scans of the Kazon ships, perhaps we can modify our transporters to beam onto his ships and facilities without being detected."

"Mattson, have we seen any evidence that the Kazon have anything approaching cloaking technology? Or anyone in this area for that matter?" Ivan asked, looking toward his daughter's temporary replacement. "If not, they may have literally never seen one before."

"No Sir, all information we have show that the Kazon have no where near the level of our technology" Jonas replied. He glanced at the CO. "We have yet to debrief your guests in the shuttlebay."

"Then we must conceal our ship's true capabilities as much as possible. Play your hand, Captain, but don't put all the cards into play." Melissa advised.

“We will make time for that, hopefully, when we are securely back in the Alpha Quadrant. For now, getting there is our focus.” Ivan said to Mattson. He then turned his eyes to the rest of the crew. “Between our Imperial Marines and our security forces, I think we have enough manpower to take the key control areas of two of their predator-type ships. We could come in under cloak, beam them aboard, and then park ourselves at the most vulnerable part of their fleet. Under cloak, we have leverage in talking to Cullah and getting what we want.

Callie shifted position in her seat to get more comfortable before looking towards Ivan. “Ensign Monroe will be manning Ops for now Captain, at least until I get medical clearance to return to my duties. She’s a competent officer, she’ll do you proud.”

"I'm sure she'll perform admirably." he said, nodding to her. "We want to make sure you're safe."

He cleared his throat and looked to the rest of the group.

"So we attempt to negotiate for a way back to the Alpha Quadrant. If we can't have that, then we unleash hell on the Kazon Fleet. The array didn't appear to be weaponized, so she won't be able to take part in the battle in any meaningful way. Once the fleet is gone, we will board her, formally execute Cullah, and take things into our own hands. Any objections?"

Troy nodded to the Captain and XO. "We do need the Array to return home, but we should also consider that taking the array and putting a garrison on it could prove invaluable to the Empire. Nor can we allow any faction other than us to keep the Array. The threat that technology to Terra is too great."

"I see what you mean, Lieutenant. And that very thought has entered my mind a thousand times since we arrived in this quadrant." Ivan said with frown. "We will see what resistance we face when we arrive. If it seems plausible without excessive loss of life, then we will take the Array."

"Alpha shift begins in seven minutes, folks. Get yourselves ready." Cain said, his own fingers strumming his arm.

"Dismissed." said Ivan.

Cael nodded and collected his things. He was Gamma shift and thus turnover would be on his head. But seeing how everyone was briefed, he considered going straight to work on a route home or going to the bar. In this case, the bar won. As he exited he b-lined for the nearest turbo lift to change.

Callie nodded, pushing herself up from her seat she smiled and nodded to Troy before heading for his quarters to rest as she’d promised. She could update Andrea via comms, and catch up on reports while she was at it.

Johnathan stood, collecting his PADD, unknowingly turning the image of Kassandra in sickbay in such a way that Petrov could see. He continued to turn and started to head out to the bridge.

Ivan noticed the image on the PADD and frowned. He had been worried about Kassandra; of course he had been, but he had extremely important things to focus on. Within himself, he resolved to go see her in the next few minutes. Johnathan, on the other hand, would no doubt be doing enough visiting for the both of them when he was off duty.

Mattison left the room wondering how long the Captain would hold off on allowing them to speak with those in the shuttlebay.