IKC FHew 7C6110
In the belly of the Whale – Decision Time
by HoD Ro' Matlh & Sogh HoS Matlh & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Sogh Marla Varquis & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Soghla' Jared & Eredh Hay'legh
Post Details
Ro' strode in to the conference room and walked to the top end of the giant metal table. He remained standing even though there was enough seating for twelve people.
What am I doing here? Marie thought, not for the first time. She’d been called to a meeting of command officers. It seemed that on this ship, everyone was a command officer if it included her. Still, she was here – as ordered – so she just had to make the best of it.
She was no sooner in the briefing room than she noticed there was only one other person present. She bit back on the expletive she’d been about to utter. She’d learnt very early to swear in Klingon; it was such an expressive language – one of the few things she admired about Klingons – and had the advantage that no-one else knew what she’d actually said. That other person was the captain so swearing in Klingon was definitely out for the moment. At least it isn’t HoS or HIchop. It was little consolation but she was thankful for small mercies.
Marla walked into the briefing room, and thought that she must be early. She found a seat at the far end of the table. She wasn't one of the commanding officers, and so felt a little out of place.
Tell had just finished her engine check and everything was running smoothly, well as smoothly as this rust bucket of a ship could handle. She tapped the wall of the engine room affectionately as if it were a pet.
"Ema Moyo" (good heart) she said in Swahili and walked to the briefing room.
When she arrived she sat next to Marla at the table to keep her company.
Hay'Legh came into the room and dropped into the nearest empty seat. She was tired, annoyed and in an incredibly foul mood. If anyone so much as looked at her the wrong way they might end up with a knife between their ribs. Even flying this Klingon Rust bucket, she should have done better against that Galor.
The doors opened again and in lumbered HoS, swinging a cup of blood wine in one hand and his d'k tahg (honor blade) in the other. He smiled broadly at Marie's obvious discomfort as he passed. In fact, he may have even slowed down and "loomed" a little! Upon reaching the head of the table, Hos leant against the wall and folded his massive arms awkwardly across his chest spilling blood wine on himself and the floor as he did. He stared expectantly at Ro'.
As HoS stumbled past, Marie wrinkled her nose in disgust. He reeked of bloodwine. It would have been bad enough if it was just on his breath but it was on his clothes too. Even his pores gave off the smell of stale alcohol.
Then he had the effrontery to leer at her! He loomed over her, probably trying to stare down her top.
She noted that he held himself tightly when he finally composed himself sufficiently to stand upright. Probably it was the only way he could keep himself from falling over.
Jared wandered in after most of the senior bridge crew. He had some kind of device in one hand, and a tool in the other which he was using to tinker. Even the engineers couldn't be quite sure what it was, although it seemed to have both klingon and federation components.
OOC: HIchop is continuing to have IP issues so I have put him on LOA for the short term.
Ro' looked around his assembled officers and crew, "I am about to make a decision that will affect us all. I felt it important to give you a chance to voice your opinions, though I make no guarantee that I will act on them. For those of you who do not know, we are currently cloaked and running from a Cardassian Galor class, thanks to the expert deductive work of Jared.
Ro’ continued, “The Galor’s engines were damaged, but they will not take long to repair them. Our cloak is useful if an enemy is not expecting us but if they know the general whereabouts of a Cloaked vessel we are not that difficult to find.
It seems the Cardassians are after the Bajoran Diplomat. HIchop tells me that he is in fact a Cardassian in disguise and the Ambassador assures me that he is a Renegade Cardassian agent on the run from the Cardassians who wish to kill him and anyone who has come into contact with him. He may be lying, I have no way to tell.
As I see it we have 4 Options;
1) We try to run cloaked for the next 18 hours till we reach the Morach Colony and offload the medical supplies and passengers as was agreed. This assumes the Cardassians will not be able to find us and have not set up other traps and blocks in our path.
2) We put out a distress call, and hope there are Romulan ships nearby. If there are they may aid us. If not it will draw the Cardassians right to us.
3) We come to a full stop and hand the Ambassador over to the Cardassians. If he is lying they may well thank us. If he is telling the truth they will carve their way through the crew and destroy the ship.
4) We throw the Ambassador into the Life Pod and dump him into space. When the Cardassians catch up we deny any knowledge of his presence. At this range the Cardassians should not spot the Life Buoy but it is unlikely that any other ship would either. When the supplies ran out he would die.
All right, people. Which do you want us to do?"
"I say we just space him. Then the Cardassians don't get what they want and the piece of meat gets what he deserves for putting us in this mess." Hay'Legh sits back in her chair, annoyed that Ro' was even asking the crew for options. Since when did this ship become a democracy?
“I agree,” Marie growled. “Give him to them and good riddance. Mind you, I’d give him a good shot of some stabilising medicine first and put him in a lifeboat. While they’re retrieving the pod and interrogating him, it’ll give us a good opportunity to escape – no matter who it was who got our cloak cloaking us again!”
"Why waste a good pod on him" replied Tell "Inject him with tar [poison] and then space him. Better still give me a disruptor and I'll do it for you, he got us into this mess in the first place"
“You mean put him in an EV suit then shove him out an airlock?” Marie replied. “There’s a standard Federation one in the cargo bay. It’s seen better days and won’t keep out the vacuum for long but it should be long enough for the Cardassians to pick him up.”
Hay'Legh shook her head. "I say we just shove him in an airlock and space him - no shooting, no EVA suit, no lifepod. Why waste anymore of our own resources or energy on the Faelirh ch'susse-thrai [Son of a B----]?
Ro' spoke, "Let me be clear. We are not putting him in space so that the Cardassians can find him. The only rason to do that would be to deny he had ever been aboard. I am getting a strong feeling that no one feels like running, or just handing him over to the Galor. Hichop, Hos, Jared? What is your take on it?"
"I'm a little worried that all these opinions are based on the assumption that he's lying," Jared put in. "Given the possibility that he's telling the truth AND what I've learned about Cardassians, there seems to be a really strong possibility that whether we dump him overboard or not, the Galor will STILL try and hunt us down and kill us. They might just blast him while he's floating in space, and keep hunting us. In which case, he might be more useful alive than dead. If we're his only hope, he'd have a REALLY good motivation to tell us about any... tactical weaknesses that Galor might have."
"Plus... we seem to have already made enemies with whoever is hunting him. Throwing him overboard might just make enemies with whoever supports him too. Whereas saving him... well... it would be a favour that house Matlh might be able to call in at some time down the track."
"Why cant we just drop him off at the nearest habitable ... ish planet and leave him there to survive on his own." offered Tell "Otherwise I'll feed him to the warp core it might just sweeten the mixture and my engine might run a little smoother with added calcium. By the way your talking...." Then she added in a sing song voice "you want keep him, you want to feed him, you want his secrets, you want his information........" She shrugged her shoulders and sighed in frustration.
HoS grunted as he shifted his weight against the wall. He had been listening to this dross now for several minutes and couldn't understand why so much air was being wasted on this obvious low-life. "Hand him over to HIchop and me. We'll find out if he's a spy or a renegade soon enough. And, if he isn't telling the truth, he'll soon wish he was."
Ro' sighed, "We have been over this when I gave HIchop the job of interegation officer. You are not allowed to question prisoners. We only want to scare them into talking."
HoS' face was impassive, "Pain is scarey."
"No!" Ro' was emphatic.
HoS mumbled something in Klingong that sounded like, "Aw, and I was going to get myself an ear..."
Ro' turned to Tell, "Nor do we deal in posisons. That is not the way of a true warrior, to cast unconcious bodies adrift."
To Jared he mutters, "And the day I need to call on a Cardassian for a favour is the day Hay'legh should slit my throat."
He stood up, "Here is my decision. We will assume the Cardassians are going to kill us whther we hand him over or not. We will wake him and give him a fighting chance for his life. HoS, give him a knife and then throw his corpse out of the air lock. If he kills you then we have a new Tactical officer who can help us avoid the Galor. That was how we ended up with our current Helmsman and Quartermaster. Everyone else, return to your posts!"
OOC: A private post from HoS to follow and then a wrap up from the Captain and we will be ready for our next story. I will be awarding mission badges soon.
by HoD Ro' Matlh & Sogh HoS Matlh & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Sogh Marla Varquis & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Soghla' Jared & Eredh Hay'legh
Post Details
| Title | Decision Time | |
| Mission | In the belly of the Whale | |
| Author(s) | HoD Ro' Matlh & Sogh HoS Matlh & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Sogh Marla Varquis & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Soghla' Jared & Eredh Hay'legh | |
| Posted | Tue Apr 06, 2010 @ 5:56am | |
| Location | Briefing Room, Deck 2 | |
| Timeline | Eighteen hours from Morach |
What am I doing here? Marie thought, not for the first time. She’d been called to a meeting of command officers. It seemed that on this ship, everyone was a command officer if it included her. Still, she was here – as ordered – so she just had to make the best of it.
She was no sooner in the briefing room than she noticed there was only one other person present. She bit back on the expletive she’d been about to utter. She’d learnt very early to swear in Klingon; it was such an expressive language – one of the few things she admired about Klingons – and had the advantage that no-one else knew what she’d actually said. That other person was the captain so swearing in Klingon was definitely out for the moment. At least it isn’t HoS or HIchop. It was little consolation but she was thankful for small mercies.
Marla walked into the briefing room, and thought that she must be early. She found a seat at the far end of the table. She wasn't one of the commanding officers, and so felt a little out of place.
Tell had just finished her engine check and everything was running smoothly, well as smoothly as this rust bucket of a ship could handle. She tapped the wall of the engine room affectionately as if it were a pet.
"Ema Moyo" (good heart) she said in Swahili and walked to the briefing room.
When she arrived she sat next to Marla at the table to keep her company.
Hay'Legh came into the room and dropped into the nearest empty seat. She was tired, annoyed and in an incredibly foul mood. If anyone so much as looked at her the wrong way they might end up with a knife between their ribs. Even flying this Klingon Rust bucket, she should have done better against that Galor.
The doors opened again and in lumbered HoS, swinging a cup of blood wine in one hand and his d'k tahg (honor blade) in the other. He smiled broadly at Marie's obvious discomfort as he passed. In fact, he may have even slowed down and "loomed" a little! Upon reaching the head of the table, Hos leant against the wall and folded his massive arms awkwardly across his chest spilling blood wine on himself and the floor as he did. He stared expectantly at Ro'.
As HoS stumbled past, Marie wrinkled her nose in disgust. He reeked of bloodwine. It would have been bad enough if it was just on his breath but it was on his clothes too. Even his pores gave off the smell of stale alcohol.
Then he had the effrontery to leer at her! He loomed over her, probably trying to stare down her top.
She noted that he held himself tightly when he finally composed himself sufficiently to stand upright. Probably it was the only way he could keep himself from falling over.
Jared wandered in after most of the senior bridge crew. He had some kind of device in one hand, and a tool in the other which he was using to tinker. Even the engineers couldn't be quite sure what it was, although it seemed to have both klingon and federation components.
OOC: HIchop is continuing to have IP issues so I have put him on LOA for the short term.
Ro' looked around his assembled officers and crew, "I am about to make a decision that will affect us all. I felt it important to give you a chance to voice your opinions, though I make no guarantee that I will act on them. For those of you who do not know, we are currently cloaked and running from a Cardassian Galor class, thanks to the expert deductive work of Jared.
Ro’ continued, “The Galor’s engines were damaged, but they will not take long to repair them. Our cloak is useful if an enemy is not expecting us but if they know the general whereabouts of a Cloaked vessel we are not that difficult to find.
It seems the Cardassians are after the Bajoran Diplomat. HIchop tells me that he is in fact a Cardassian in disguise and the Ambassador assures me that he is a Renegade Cardassian agent on the run from the Cardassians who wish to kill him and anyone who has come into contact with him. He may be lying, I have no way to tell.
As I see it we have 4 Options;
1) We try to run cloaked for the next 18 hours till we reach the Morach Colony and offload the medical supplies and passengers as was agreed. This assumes the Cardassians will not be able to find us and have not set up other traps and blocks in our path.
2) We put out a distress call, and hope there are Romulan ships nearby. If there are they may aid us. If not it will draw the Cardassians right to us.
3) We come to a full stop and hand the Ambassador over to the Cardassians. If he is lying they may well thank us. If he is telling the truth they will carve their way through the crew and destroy the ship.
4) We throw the Ambassador into the Life Pod and dump him into space. When the Cardassians catch up we deny any knowledge of his presence. At this range the Cardassians should not spot the Life Buoy but it is unlikely that any other ship would either. When the supplies ran out he would die.
All right, people. Which do you want us to do?"
"I say we just space him. Then the Cardassians don't get what they want and the piece of meat gets what he deserves for putting us in this mess." Hay'Legh sits back in her chair, annoyed that Ro' was even asking the crew for options. Since when did this ship become a democracy?
“I agree,” Marie growled. “Give him to them and good riddance. Mind you, I’d give him a good shot of some stabilising medicine first and put him in a lifeboat. While they’re retrieving the pod and interrogating him, it’ll give us a good opportunity to escape – no matter who it was who got our cloak cloaking us again!”
"Why waste a good pod on him" replied Tell "Inject him with tar [poison] and then space him. Better still give me a disruptor and I'll do it for you, he got us into this mess in the first place"
“You mean put him in an EV suit then shove him out an airlock?” Marie replied. “There’s a standard Federation one in the cargo bay. It’s seen better days and won’t keep out the vacuum for long but it should be long enough for the Cardassians to pick him up.”
Hay'Legh shook her head. "I say we just shove him in an airlock and space him - no shooting, no EVA suit, no lifepod. Why waste anymore of our own resources or energy on the Faelirh ch'susse-thrai [Son of a B----]?
Ro' spoke, "Let me be clear. We are not putting him in space so that the Cardassians can find him. The only rason to do that would be to deny he had ever been aboard. I am getting a strong feeling that no one feels like running, or just handing him over to the Galor. Hichop, Hos, Jared? What is your take on it?"
"I'm a little worried that all these opinions are based on the assumption that he's lying," Jared put in. "Given the possibility that he's telling the truth AND what I've learned about Cardassians, there seems to be a really strong possibility that whether we dump him overboard or not, the Galor will STILL try and hunt us down and kill us. They might just blast him while he's floating in space, and keep hunting us. In which case, he might be more useful alive than dead. If we're his only hope, he'd have a REALLY good motivation to tell us about any... tactical weaknesses that Galor might have."
"Plus... we seem to have already made enemies with whoever is hunting him. Throwing him overboard might just make enemies with whoever supports him too. Whereas saving him... well... it would be a favour that house Matlh might be able to call in at some time down the track."
"Why cant we just drop him off at the nearest habitable ... ish planet and leave him there to survive on his own." offered Tell "Otherwise I'll feed him to the warp core it might just sweeten the mixture and my engine might run a little smoother with added calcium. By the way your talking...." Then she added in a sing song voice "you want keep him, you want to feed him, you want his secrets, you want his information........" She shrugged her shoulders and sighed in frustration.
HoS grunted as he shifted his weight against the wall. He had been listening to this dross now for several minutes and couldn't understand why so much air was being wasted on this obvious low-life. "Hand him over to HIchop and me. We'll find out if he's a spy or a renegade soon enough. And, if he isn't telling the truth, he'll soon wish he was."
Ro' sighed, "We have been over this when I gave HIchop the job of interegation officer. You are not allowed to question prisoners. We only want to scare them into talking."
HoS' face was impassive, "Pain is scarey."
"No!" Ro' was emphatic.
HoS mumbled something in Klingong that sounded like, "Aw, and I was going to get myself an ear..."
Ro' turned to Tell, "Nor do we deal in posisons. That is not the way of a true warrior, to cast unconcious bodies adrift."
To Jared he mutters, "And the day I need to call on a Cardassian for a favour is the day Hay'legh should slit my throat."
He stood up, "Here is my decision. We will assume the Cardassians are going to kill us whther we hand him over or not. We will wake him and give him a fighting chance for his life. HoS, give him a knife and then throw his corpse out of the air lock. If he kills you then we have a new Tactical officer who can help us avoid the Galor. That was how we ended up with our current Helmsman and Quartermaster. Everyone else, return to your posts!"
OOC: A private post from HoS to follow and then a wrap up from the Captain and we will be ready for our next story. I will be awarding mission badges soon.