The Search Within the Search pt3
Posted on Sat Sep 18th, 2021 @ 3:12pm by Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell & Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Commander Finchley Kerr & Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Lieutenant Commander Sandra "Phantom" Risa & Lieutenant Chester "Duo" Maxwell & Commander Dean House & Lieutenant Commander Thriss Kla'ren & Lieutenant Commander Aurora Vali & Lieutenant JG Avarak
Mission:
Gamma Quadrant
Location: Gamma Quadrant - Ion Cloud
Timeline: Current
[USS Sunfire bridge]
"Hideki-Class Cardassian ship. Only a scout ship? That's odd..." Dean made an amused look. "I'm sure there are more near or, going to be, on the way."
" Put the ship on the viewscreen and overlay their position in the ion cloud" Rhenora ordered, rising from her chair as though she could see their opposition better by merely standing closer to the viewscreen. If there was one, there would most likely be more. "Red alert"
"Shields up. Arm phasers and photon torpedoes." Savar said from his XO chair. After issuing the orders he rose and moved to Rhenora's side. "Opinion Captain."
Dean did both orders, from Rhenora and Savar.
"Arm but hold for now, I want to ask questions before we fire if necessary. Hold position. Open hailing frequencies" The Captain ordered, still standing in the centre of the bridge. " Cardassian cruiser, This is Captain Kaylen of the USS Sunfire, we have your location, please state your purpose for being in the ion cloud"
Aurora sat forward in her seat keeping her senses active for any hint of hidden emotion from the Cardassians, so she could advise Rhenora. Not that Cardassians were easy to read.
Savar glanced in Aurora's direction. "Are you able to sense anything Aurora?" He asked. For if Aurora could give them some insight on what the Cardassians were feeling it would make any talks far simpler.
Aurora looked towards Savar. “I’m trying but... Cardassians are infinitely difficult to read. They control their emotions so well. I do get the impression that they weren’t expecting to be revealed though.”
Savar nodded at the information Aurora had provided. "Very good Aurora. and I understand. However, if you are able to pick up anything else from the Cardassians, please let us know."
Looking at Aurora, "I agree that they are very hard to pick up on but I am getting something else from elsewhere on that ship. Deception and deviousness. I would suggest that there is a lie somewhere as to the reason why they are there," Sandra said.
"The Lieutenant may have something there" Finchley said "the deception you may be sensing Commander is that they aren't the only Cardassian ships here. It's a rather bizarre coincidence that this is the area in which the Patterson was attacked and also the area the New Bajor carriers went missing in and that Cardassian ship just happened to be in the same vicinity at the same time..."
The Captain listened carefully to what was being said. Deception and lies weren't uncommon for Cardassians, but she had a feeling there was something bigger going on.
Aurora looked at Rhenora. “I’ll study their interaction with you, if there’s something going on I should be able to pick up on it.”
[Arngard bridge]
Slowly, very slowly, the Arngard began to right its pitch. Inside, Glinn Topar and the helmsman still fought furiously with the controls.
"Report!" Traman called loudly, beginning to feel that his ship was coming back under their control again.
"Gul, the Federation ship has put up their shields, charged their phasers and photon torpedoes, they're also hailing us and asking why we're in the ion cloud" the Trooper at Comm's reported.
Traman nodded and looked around to the Helmsman.
"The ship is steady Gul, all flight controls are back to normal, however, the cloaking device is still offline," he said.
Traman looked back at the Comm's Trooper and said "Open a channel back to the Federation ship!"
The Trooper worked his control panel, then looked back round at Tramar and said "Channel open Gul."
Traman cleared his throat and said "This is Gul Traman of the Cardassian vessel Arngard. Our ship was returning from a deep space research mission when we received a distress call. It was pretty fragmented, however, we did manage to trace it's origins to near this ion cloud. We could find any vessel out with it, so we've been attempting to find out if it drifted in here. Unfortunately, we were struck by a radiation burst and it disabled us slightly but we've rectified our problems. Tell me, why are you and your ship here Captain Kaylen?"
[USS Sunfire bridge]
" We are investigating an attack on a fellow starship - the Patterson, as well as attempting to locate two Bajoran carriers that have been listed as missing" The Sunfire Captain replied honestly, having learned long ago that deception only led to more deception.
The turbo-lift doors opened on the bridge and Shr'Nesh Karadis hurried out and over to Finchley "You're going to want to see this Sir!" she said, handing over the PADD.
Finchley scanned the contents quickly, then looked back at Karadis and said "This is direct from their ships' computer?"
"Yes Sir" Karadis replied.
Not wanting to interrupt the Captain as she spoke to her opposite number on the Cardassian vessel, he moved calmly from where he was down to stand next to the CO. He made a slight noise like trying to clear his throat and surreptitiously handed her the PADD, nodding down to it.
" Ops, pause transmission" Rhenora ordered and turned her attention to Finchley.
As soon as the transmission paused, Finchley pointed to the screen on the PADD and said "My Assistant was running scans on the Cardassian ship from her station in Strategic Ops Captain, she managed to get into the mainframe, albeit only for a minute or so, but enough time to download what she could. The last few transmissions were to other Cardassian ships inside the ion cloud. There's also partial information on where they came from, and it wasn't 'deep space' as they said, it was from only four sectors away and it has something to do with searching for two ships, though I don't know what type or from where, but we can hazard a guess, can't we. Whatever that Gul is saying is a lie regarding where they came from. They're not answering a distress call, I think they're looking to close it down!"
" So it is as you originally suspected" Rhenora kept her face neutral so as to not betray any emotion. What would happen next would be a very delicate game of cat and mouse. One false word, or move - and the game would be afoot.
"All systems, standby readiness in case we defend ourselves in a hurry." She ordered before turning her attention back to Ops.
"Ops - resume transmission"
She turned her attention back to the Gul on the screen. " My apologies Gul, now where were we?"
[Arngard bridge]
Gul Traman was physically annoyed at the interruption to the conversation he'd been having with the Captain of the Federation vessel. His face couldn't hide it, but he tried his best to keep his voice calm as he once again asked his question "I was asking why you and your ship were here Captain Kaylen?"
Just as he got to the end of his question Glinn Topar moved forward and whispered something in Traman's ear to which Traman nodded, then turned his attention back to the screen
[Sunfire bridge]
She could tell he was agitated, years of fighting them in close quarters gave her the ability to pick up the smallest nuances.
" As I previously mentioned we are investigating the attack on the USS. Patterson" she drew the words out slowly, knowing it would anger him more. The more emotional he was, the more he was likely to make a mistake or show his full hand.
Karadis in the meantime had started checking Finchley's console as he had gone to talk with the Captain. Onscreen, two blips appeared, so she immediately began a scan and trace. Her eyes widened as the information came back.
"Oh my God, there's two more Hideki vessels on an approach vector within the ion cloud Captain!" she called out.
"Steady..." Rhenora cautioned before turning her attention back to the Gul. "Friends of yours? A lot of ships for a distress call don't you think?"
Aurora was paying close attention to the interaction between Rhenora and the Gul, there was definitely something he was holding back.
[Arngard bridge]
"I have no idea about this USS Patterson attack you're referring to Captain, like I said, we've been on a deep space mission and were returning when we came across the fragmented distress call. If you're asking about the other two ships approaching my coordinates, they to are part of the mission we were on" Traman answered.
It was at this point that the COMM's Trooper turned to his Senior Officer and said "Gul, we have a transmission from the Galander, they have information for you."
"Excuse me Captain Kaylen, I must see to this" Traman said, then replied back to the Trooper "Close communication."
The screen on the Hideki ship went blank, and Traman moved over to the COMM's console. Hitting the open link button he said "What do you have?"
"We have the Bajoran ships on sensor Gul, they're less than a sector away!"
Traman, banged the console in delight "Send me the coordinates then contact the K'inodo and tell them to follow us there, we have them now!"
Within moments the Arngard Helm had the coordinates and they'd told Traman.
"Set course, all ships, full impulse now" he said, returning to his Command seat. Without turning the screen or communications with the Sunfire back on, he flippantly said "Sorry Captain Kaylen, much as I'd love to have stayed and talked with you, duty calls..."
TBC
