The Plan

Posted on Sun Jun 11th, 2023 @ 1:38pm by Lieutenant Sarah Wilson & Senior Chief Petty Officer Ronson Mitchell & Commander Dean House & Lieutenant Chester "Duo" Maxwell & Lieutenant Commander Thriss Kla'ren & 1st Lieutenant Kate Score & Ensign Kitiuas Thenis & Lieutenant Thomas Haldeman & Lieutenant Alison Haldeman

Mission: Repairs and Retribution
Location: USS Sunfire Conference Room
Timeline: Current

Dean had noticed Bonnie come in, but everyone was quick to trying to get to work, get a plan out. He was listening to all of them of course. Coming up with ones of his own as well. "Cloaking device. First thing we need is a cloaking device. Other than narrowing down those ships, which I think only one will have them."

"You're gonna steal a cloaking device?" Sarah's jaw dropped as she stared at Dean.

Ronson looked up, "the Brisbane is docked here at the moment, wasn't that the next ship slated for a cloaking device?" He asked.

The Chief Engineer raised an eyebrow and looked at Dean. "I'm not trying to say anything out of line or that this is a bad idea because if we could get our hands on a cloaking device that would give us a large advantage, but shouldn't we try and do things officially first before we have to essentially break the law? Unless it will take too long to get authorization?"

"I was certainly thinking about it, Sarah. Or another ship with one. Or perhaps we could use some contacts to borrow a Klingon or Romulan ship." Dean looked to Thriss, "That's the problem, they want us to sit on our hands and not do anything, to let them handle it. Which we know that will take forever and be to late."

"I'm all for take first and ask questions later" Sarah piped up, feeling a little more brazen. "Those Cardassians will kill the Captain and the others sooner rather than later"

Bonnie agreed with Thriss. This all seemed underhanded and wrong on so many levels. She looked around the room at those who appeared to be onboard with the idea of stealing a cloaking device, even from another Federation ship, even if it meant helping to save the Captain's life. They were Starfleet officers after all and them turning so quickly to undermine duty and the authority on the starbase felt out of character.

That was until she latched her eyes upon Dean and realized he was leading the charge. Once more put in charge, and once more reckless and failing to see the bigger picture beyond the length of that perfectly shaped nose. Even Sarah was being gung-ho, something she had not expected from the tired surgeon. All together this caused Bonnie to cross her arms defensively and shake her head admonishing their responsive actions.

She wanted to call them out. To tell them they were reacting instead of thinking through the situation. As this thought crossed her mind she realized perhaps why Remal had left the room. Maybe he was reacting as well. She was his friend and the one who had helped her on her way to the Sunfire. She remembered Cody and suddenly realized no one had paid any attention to her. And so she dropped her arms and left, looking for the man with the broad shoulders and the sad eyes.

Sarah watched as a myriad of emotions flooded across Bonnie's face before the young woman quietly exited the room. Had they done something wrong? Were they heading down the wrong path? "Ok what if we don't steal a cloaking device and just take the Sunfire out?"

"Bonnie where are you.." Dean let it drift off there. "We'd just have to come up with a different approach to it."

"So we could potentially pull this off without breaking any rules,laws and potential noses?" Ronson enquired with a questioning eyebrow.

Dean's head shook, "Not exactly. We're suppose to be on hold pretty much. So why we're taking her out would have to be very convincing with dock control. It'd also require delaying certain messages to get through to certain Starbase personnel if they question our reason."

"But it would still be better than pilfering a cloaking device and hotfotting it." Ronson continued, pushing his point just a little.

"I'd prefer that also, it's just easier to get where we want with a cloak." Dean's lips pursed a moment. "We could do that and then still do the using favors part to get a hold of a cloaking device later."

Tom spoke up, "I think we board the Sunfire. take her out for 'trials' to clear with dock control and check the repairs. Delay receiving any messages when they realize what we're doing. As Commander House says we can call in favors to get a cloaking device."

Alison nodded. “I think Ops could report problems with the comms systems, and some other glitches that may require a while to fix.” She offered a smile.

Ronson looked at Sarah, who looked at Tom and then to Dean. "Soooooo....."

"Alright. We'll work more that way then. Someone.." Dean motioned his hand in the direction Bonnie and Remal went. "Get them back here please."

Blake looked at the people around her. She had followed the conversation and she'd be lying if she said she wasn't worried sick about their missing people. Looking at Dr. Wilson, she noticed that the woman seemed a tad worse for wear. Blake didn't blame her. Their recent "planet adventure" had put a great strain on the woman. Now they had people missing. This wasn't good. She just hoped that they could get their people back in decent shape.

"I'll go find them" Ronson offered and headed for the door, slipping out and into the throng of repair people that had no idea what was actually going on.

"So what do we need to do to make this happen?" Sarah asked, acknowledging Blake's worried gaze with a softened smile. "And we do do this ourselves or recall the crew?"

"Recalling the crew would be ideal and the best cover but it is time consuming. and time is of the essence is it not?" Tom replied.

"Well..there is..another option, I suppose." Dean crossed his arms over his chest. "We can be bounty hunters. We can make up the fake IDs and data fast enough. Start listening to the undergrowth of things. If you get what I mean."

"I get what you mean Commander." Tom replied "But it is still time consuming. In that we have to listen, sift through rumors, half truths and flat out lies while our Captain, First officer and Chief Counselor are still out of reach. Not to mention, how do we know which information to believe?"

Ensign Kitiuas Thenis slide past the security guards on the gangway. They recognized her and had even raised their eyebrows as she walked past. Kit was dressed in traditional Orion clothing; leaving little to one’s imagination about her body. She hit her combadge =^=Bridge are there any senior officers on ship and if so where are they?=^= A pause and response came back =^=Affirmative. Commander Dean House, and several other senior staff are in the conference room. Kitiuas sighed; there was not enough time for her to change. Instead she made a beeline to the nearest turbolift, ignoring the stares from the few crew on board. Soon she was outside the conference room door; the doors slide open and she stepped inside the conference room, still in her traditional Orion clothing. “Surprise everybody, guess I do not need to tell you about the Cardassian situation.” She was not sure if everyone was shocked by her appearance or the news she knew about the Captain and others being kidnapped.

"Ahhhh how do you know about the Captain and the others?" Sarah asked, curious as to how Kit found out. They had only known themselves for a short period of time.

Kit sighed inwardly and then stated calmly “My cousin Tayshi D'hetr, diplomat representative for the Eau de Nil and member of the Orion Colonies Intelligence. Her First Officer Jaittu and Chief of Security Ngekkom ‘saved me from being spotted by Cardassians. She had gathered intelligence that a hard core splinter group of the Cardassian Obsidian Order had designs on several key officers of the Sunfire. Been with her as she is sorting out the intelligence from their confidant and source.”

"Friends in high places...good to know" Sarah replied with a smile before turning her attention back to Commander House and Lt Halderman. "So the plan was to take the Sunfire out? Are the support craft still in the hanger bay? We're probably gonna need a few of them when we get to the pointy end of this"

Kitiuas smirked "We may not need to take the Sunfire out, there is an alternative. I may be able to convince my cousin to use her current ship, the Thimmerand. There are several advantages to this, first it is an Orion free-trader ship; meaning it can travel virtually anywhere that free-traders can go, especially Orion free-traders. Two it is the newest Orion starship of the line, a Wander-class blockade runner equipped with an acquired Romulan clocking device, her outrigger weapon pods are currently equipped with four OD-4 disruptors and two Federation-designed FP-1 photon torpedoes and two intelligence sensor pods. Three we would have a highly trained Orion crew of approximately one hundred strong. Finally, we would have access to my cousin's intelligence on this matter." Kit looked about the table, "Only one thing, everyone would need to take the counter-agent Antipheromone 10; because I can assure you none of the Orion crew will voluntarily take the suppressant I take." She looked at everyone, consciously aware she was dressed in her traditional Orion garb.

Sarah looked at Dean and Tom again, wondering how they were going to roll with this new information. Would they still take the Sunfire with the Orion's in tow, would they opt for the Orion vessel or would they hatch another plan entirely?

"I would honestly feel better on our own ship, no offence to you Kit or your cousin." She admitted.

Kitius smiled “Be that as it is Lieutenant, the regions of space we may have to travel in are not friendly towards the Federation or Starfleet. Travelling on and with ‘Orion Free-traders’ as ‘Free-Traders’ ourselves would greatly reduce the chances of us being attacked and obliterated; much less causing an awkward intergalaxy political brouhaha. Then there is the fact should we take the USS Sunfire out, without permission or clearance, we will be hunted down as criminals by Starfleet and the Federation. I do not know about you but the thought of a ‘vacation’ at a rehab penal colony does not sound like fun. Have I sufficiently summed up the issue of using the Sunfire for this; or do you think having fellow Starfleet officers and vessels chasing us and firing on us; along with the Cardassians’ and their allies, like fun to you. I believe we need to rescue our people, but must not jump without careful forethought to the matter. Now if you will excuse me for a bit, I need to change my clothing.” With that statement Kit spun around, providing everyone more than a glimpse of her body and left the conference room.

"I understand that" Sarah replied but returned to her previous point "but I would feel better taking the Sunfire, I believe we all would. We know our ship and our people*

Tom looked at Kit as she spun on her heel and left the room. He then returned his attention to the rest of the group. "I agree with Sarah. We need the Sunfire, as she stated we know the ship, its systems and what our people can do with those systems."

All of that was fine and dandy but now there was another part of the crew walking out. That's not really a show of being one crew on this, was it? Dean looked to the rest of them, "We're going with the Sunfire. We can always have them come. What we need to do right now is go find the others, and get Kit back with us. We all need to be united in this."

Thriss didn't enjoy that they were on the brink of breaking the law. Though in his mind it was a understandable reason to do so. This is why he was reluctant to do so, but he would stand by whichever plan that would be placed into motion. He turned towards Dean. "Once the meeting is over I'll begin getting our primary systems up and ready. I'll also see what I can do with the transwarp drive. It was damaged in the crash and with everything else I haven't had that much time to work on it, but we made need it for this and if the remaining damage isn't too bad I may be able to get it running again."

Ronson returned at that moment with a concerned look on his face " I couldn't find Remal, Patin or Bonnie, but I'm hedging my bets that Remal and Patin may go rouge. I saw Kit as I was coming back, is she coming with us?" The CPO commented, catching himself up on the conversation.

Tom glanced at House. "Commander, we need to stop talking and begin moving. The Captain and the others are getting farther away with each passing minute. We need to power up the Sunfire, get Kit back here."

As Kit Left the Room she ran right into Score who was just walking around and almost knocked over she caught her self and said "hey Where are you off to in a hurry?

"That's what I've been trying to do, Tom." Dean sighed a little bit. "I'm sure they are. I'm trying to get us all grouped back up and it's not working that well. Everyone going with different ideas. I'm trying to be polite here, which I guess is about to stop."

"Let's get to the bridge, get things going and try to convince Kit to come back while we do it. Remal and Patin I feel are determined to do their own thing if they are refusing hails and are hiding. I dare say they will.be heading in our direction anyway." Ronson advised.

"I know you are sir. it wasn't a criticism." Tom answered and then replied to Ronson. "A good idea Ronson. Let's get to the bridge and get started. If Kit wants to come, she is welcome, but we need to focus on our kidnapped officers. Remal and Patin have made it clear. They are going to do their own thing."

"Grab up Kit then. Even if she wants to go with the other group or her cousin. Nevermind that, I'll do it." Dean tapped his combadge, "House to Sunfire. Beam myself and party directly to the Bridge. Grab Ensign Thenis as well. Energize when ready."

TBC