Patience is a Virtue (Part 2)

Posted on Fri Feb 25th, 2022 @ 11:29am by Captain Kelly O'Connor & Lieutenant Commander Amaya Capac & Lieutenant Glenn Radars & Lieutenant Cyrus Jericho & Lieutenant Dacia Stallworth

2,278 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Mission 8 - A Blast from the Past
Location: Meeting Room
Timeline: 2296/03/13 0800 hours

[FROM LAST TIME]

O'Connor's face scrunched up tighter. "I hate waiting and if the Romulans are waiting to do something to us, it is better that we preempt it." She hopped off her chair, paced to one side of the room and then back. "Something non-threatening then. We should send a communication checking on the welfare of their Captain. Perhaps that will get them talking."

Amaya wasn't sure a welfare check would be well-received. They might wonder if something untoward happened. But she also didn't think it would do any good to once again suggest they just contact them and ask for a face-to-face. "It shouldn't hurt to contact them directly if you think it's been long enough."

The Captain gave a questioning look at her XO. That was downright deferential. And yet, there was something lacking about her XO's conviction. "Other thoughts?" the Captain asked, in a daring statement.

"Why don't we go down to the planet without going down to the planet?" Cyrus said aloud, and rather ominously, before taking a sip from his mug.

[NEW]

"Send a probe?" Amaya asked.

Adams leaned forward. "Captain, may I make a suggestion?" Without waiting for a reply, he continued. "You beam down and speak to the Avian leaders. They will be impressed by your bold gesture. I ask only one thing...that I beam down before you, and scout out the area." Then he leaned back into his chair.

O'Connor was about to consider the probe when she heard Adams chime in. "Let me get this straight?" O'Connor replied, furrowing her brows at Adams, her voice taking on a low growl. "You want me to beam down onto a planet uninvited with Romulans probably on the planet. And you want me to go without anyone else?" She stood up to her full five feet in height and somehow with her face flushing red, seemed larger than life. "Choose your next words wisely, Mr. Adams."

"Captain..." Cyrus interrupted, possibly in an attempt to keep his superior out of hot water or maybe just to complete his actual thought. "I would like to complete my original thought before this gets out of hand?"

O'Connor blinked once, narrowed her eyes Adams' direction before turning to Cyrus. Sharply she said, "Go ahead with your idea because the start of it was making sense." Once again, she shot a sharp look at Adams.

Cyrus cleared his throat, before looking around the table, as he went into his original idea. "Yes, a probe would be much less obvious, and could work. However, if these species have some kind of sensors that warn them of incoming attacks, they may not see the probe as a means of scanning and may interrupt it as a weapon of some kind. My idea is a bit more bold, but would give us exactly what we want, and keep us off the planet's surface. Engineering has, no doubt, gotten a good look at how their ship works and gotten an idea of how their technology works. Possibly even retrieved whether they have sensors and what frequency they work at. If we take a shuttle down, emitting the sensor frequency to mask our approach, we can get our own scans and visual confirmation of what's going on. We can stick to a high altitude, avoid if they have any kind of aerial patrols, at the same time never having to step foot on the planet. A small shuttle, two or three man team, could get it done without drawing any attention to themselves, while still keeping the ship in orbit in the event they finally reach out."

The Captain nodded, the red fading from her face. "Do you agree that this is possible, Radars?"

Radars simply nodded. "Their sensors have nothing on ours, even this ship is way more advanced than theirs at the moment" he added.

Adams was waiting patiently for his chance to explain his plan.

Cara frowned at that, chewing on her lip. Sure, starfleet sent undercover away teams to investigate planets all the time. Especially pre-warp ones. Key word being 'pre'. On the other hand, the atmosphere of the planet was making high orbit readings from the their current holding position less than stellar. Tapping her stylus against her pad, the redhead gave a little shrug. It wasn't her place to say if it 'could' or 'couldn't' be done. The Captain had asked Lt. Radars that. The ethics of it was another matter entirely and if no one else brought it up, she just might. Then again she couldn't tell if Lt. Adams' option was any better.

But she would rather like a closer look at the planet...

Adams sat patiently, waiting his turn. But he started wondering is why the captain bothered to get a new security chief, when she wanted to do the job herself. If she wasn't going to take his advice, there was little need of him, and why didn't she just transfer him off the ship?

Adams placed his left elbow on the table, and his chin in his left hand, while his right hand was typing into a tricorder, doing tomorrow's duty assignments. He truthfully hoped that this meeting would be over soon.

"Whatever we do, we need to be careful. This is still a first contact situation and we know the Romulans have been involved at some point," Amaya reminded them.

"That's the benefit of my idea..." He paused slightly before shrugging. "... and the danger. While my idea gives us an idea of the planet, and what's on the surface, it's also a move that the Romulans may not expect. Seeing the shuttle will place them in a position to either, expose their position by trying to attack us, or force them to stay under the radar." Cyrus took a moment to think before focusing his gaze to the XO and Captain. "While the shuttle does its scans the America can adjust its tracking sensors on us. On my planet there are a bunch of satellites in orbit which act as an early warning system. There are a few orbiting the planet and some scattered much further. They are designed to detect various degrees of motion. Our government used it to track incoming ships. That's how our planet detected the Federation ship that discovered our planet and made first contact. We may not be able to visually see the ship, but with some adjustments, its possible to see the slight disruptions to the space around the field they use around their ship to stay hidden. If they move, because they fear we are getting to close, the America could detect them. In theory anyway." He looked around at everyone before asking. "Is that too much of a dumb idea?"

"Depends on if the shuttle is caught--or shot down," Amaya said, flashing Cyrus a smile.

Cyrus smiled back, nodding his head a bit, acknowledging the risk. "Like I said, its risky, but it balances the situation in our favor." He held his hands up slightly and continued. "Hear me out. If they take a shot at the shuttle it was force them to expose their position. Their cloak has to be disengaged for them to raise their own shields and fire. Revealing their position will force us to act. Starfleet has labeled the Romulans as a threat and it puts us in a position to not only defend us, but the species on the planet. If they don't detect us, then the scans of the planet could reveal possible Romulan technology on the surface, while the track sensors could expose their cloaked ship. Foreign technology, especially by a familiar and hostile species we've encountered before, puts us in a position to help or call in for reinforcements. More ships show up and Romulans lose their window for remaining covert. Possibly pushing them to retreat. Their are risks, and I will gladly pilot the shuttle because it was my idea, but its risks puts us in a better position then we are now."

Amaya nodded. She'd volunteer to go with him if the captain agreed to his suggestion.

Now this was a Chief Security Officer, O'Connor thought to herself. O'Connor's face turned red when she noticed that Adams was not paying attention to the meeting or what his Assistant Chief was saying. Fuming, she walked over to Adams' seat and noticed he was working on duty rosters. "Mr. Adams, you can take yourself off the duty roster. You're relieved of duty. It is clear to me that you do not take this situation seriously at all and your Assistant Chief, now Acting Chief has come up with some relevant and useful ideas. You're excused from this meeting."

Adams stood up. "I was multitasking, captain, while I was waiting for an opportunity to present my plan, but, it appears, I was never going to have that chance." He slid the tricorder to Cyrus. "Looks like you're now on the hot seat." He reached into his shirt, pulled out a chain, that held a data crystal. "On this you will find my request for transfer, captain." He dropped the transfer request on the desk, then walked out of the room.

O'Connor did not miss a beat as she signed the transfer request and told the computer, "Computer, transfer all security codes from Lieutenant John Adams to Lieutenant Cyrus Jericho on my authority as Captain Kelly Jean O'Connor, confirmation code, alpha omega theta five three eight two."

The computer indicated, "Confirmation acknowledged. Security protocols transferred."

The captain further continued, "Also, please have the logs entry that of this moment, I am promoting Cyrus Jericho from Junior Grade Lieutenant to Full Lieutenant will all the ranks and privileges accorded thereof. He shall also be promoted to America's Chief Security and Tactical Officer."

The computer repeated back, "Logged and acknowledged."

O'Connor gave Cyrus a crooked grin, "Now, Chief, pick your team."

Cyrus sat there in a cloud of complete confusion of what was going on. First with the Chief, Former Chief, giving him a tricorder. Tricorders weren't generally part of a Security Officers uniform, but maybe it was important due to the current mission. Second was the fact he came into the briefing with a data crystal with an already prepared transfer request. Almost as if he was expecting to use it regardless of how this came out. Lastly, the Captain's quick removal of his superior without a warning or second chance. It came on so suddenly Cyrus instinctively rubbed the back of his neck feeling a sudden case of whiplash.

He cleared his throat and looked over to the Captain, a slight smile, but only a little due to still being a bit taken back by the whole exchange. "O...kay." He replied softly before adding with almost no hesitation. "Did he come in to the meeting with a prepared request for a transfer? Does anyone else find that odd?"

"I would rather concentrate on the mission than Mr. Adams. He is no longer part of this crew," O'Connor replied, furrowing her eyebrows at Cyrus, hoping that he would get back to picking his team rather than dwelling on the rubbish that was Adams.

Cyrus could do nothing but nod his head to the Captain. While, he had no intention of making it to Chief in this manner, it was already done and the mission was the primary focus. He simply cleared his throat and replied. "Do I have time to review the crew manifest to decide who would best fit or would you like an answer now, Captain?"

Amaya was trying to wrap her mind around what happened. First, the way Adams acted and reacted was far from what she expected from a senior officer--then again, so was Radars'. Second, how quickly it turned into a resignation. Why had he even come prepared with a resignation? That made no sense. A stunt like that would hurt his career. It also showed how quick O'Connor was to pounce. "Captain, do you want to send a probe or a shuttle to survey the planet?"

"We're going to run the shuttle as Jericho laid out," the Captain answered. She then looked at the two of them, knowing there was an attraction between them. Although she would love to find out how much of a man Jericho was, she was not about to interfere with their blossoming relationship. "You have two hours to review the manifest. You can do it with Capac to quicken the task. If the avians have contacted us before then, all of this will be unnecessary. If not, we have our plan B in place. Any other thoughts from anyone?" she asked in a commanding tone.

"No, ma'am." Amaya was sure Cyrus could come up with his team on his own, but she wasn't going to question the Captain's orders at this point. She'd give him what help she could--if he needed any. Then she'd see if she could go on the shuttle. As a linguist, she knew Romulan and might be of use as that, or as a communications specialist.

"Ah suppose little 'ole Medical will be ready for any support you'all need.' Stallworth added. "Ah even have my Day bag already packed for such an occasion should the need ah-rise?"

"Hopefully that will not be needed," O'Connor replied simply. "Very well, you have your tasks. Dismissed."

Amaya nodded. "Yes,ma'am." She wasn't going to linger, in case the captain changed her mind. Glancing at Cyrus, she left to grab something from her quarters before meeting him to go over the roster.

 

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