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Main SIM: Approaching Klingon (Tag: XO/Bridge crew/Kastarak and Valharra)

Posted Feb. 4, 2023, 1:46 a.m. by Lieutenant Alexander Blaze (Chief Engineer) (James Gray)

Posted by Captain Chris Taggart (Captain) in Main SIM: Approaching Klingon (Tag: XO/Bridge crew/Kastarak and Valharra)

Posted by Lieutenant Commander William B. Grey (Chief Science Officer / 2nd Officer) in Main SIM: Approaching Klingon (Tag: XO/Bridge crew/Kastarak and Valharra)

Posted by Captain Chris Taggart (Captain) in Main SIM: Approaching Klingon (Tag: XO/Bridge crew/Kastarak and Valharra)
Posted by… suppressed (15) by the Post Ghost! 👻
It has been a few days since his surgery, and everything is going well both with his health and the mission. Sitting in the captain’s seat he looked over to T’Aria. “Commander.
We are in Klingon space and will be orbiting the planet in two hours. Please ready the staff for an away mission and choose whom you are going to take. Take as many as you need but keep in mind it is clandestine. Or I can go and you can stay here? The choice is yours madam.”

Captain Chris Taggart, CO

Situated at the helm, T’Aria inputted a series of commands into the astrogation systems, adjusting their velocity to account for phenomena in the surrounding region. Her near-constant awareness of their position alerted her to their crossing into Klingon space, only for Taggart to confirm the observation when he called her attention. Qo’noS wasn’t far, now. T’Aria quirked an eyebrow and heeded Taggart’s orders with a discerning nod.

“No, sir. I will assemble an away team,” T’Aria tersely agreed, unwilling to risk his safety for this mission.

Starfleet classified Qo’noS as ‘uncharted space’ with little known about the system and its inhabitants except what United Earth and Coalition Era reports revealed. Even then, such accounts boiled down to ‘Class M planet’ with an ‘intricate system of subterranean volcanoes’ and a ‘dense atmosphere’. They knew slightly more about its indigenous population, the tlhIngan or ‘Klingons’, who revealed themselves to the Federation as warriors bound by a strict code of honour. They were intrepid in their acquisition of glory and dominion. Thus, relations between the Klingon Empire and Federation were unstable, impeded by hollow threats and disputes along their shared border.

Their limited intel on the Klingons and their homeworld elevated the danger of a rescue attempt. If they’d any hope of success, they needed to be quick, creative and discreet. That meant taking a basic but specialised team of no more than four, herself included. T’Aria assessed her options. There was an inherent threat to the woman’s life, exacerbated by the growing impatience of her captors. Her life was a commodity – a veritable bargaining chip – they could not risk losing, but her well-being was a different story. They needed someone qualified to care for the body and mind. Instantly, she thought of Dr Kastarak. His specialties in inter-species medicine and psychiatry paired with his prudence made him especially qualified for the task. Then, there was the issue of security. T’Aria recalled a conversation with Valharra many years before about his unique history that demonstrated a high degree of versatility and resourcefulness. No doubt, his experience and training would be invaluable.

T’Aria pondered the team a heartbeat longer before pressing the internal comms to request Dr Kastarak, Lt Valharra and NE Kiran report to the conference room for a pre-mission briefing. They had two hours before arriving at Qo’noS. That was enough time to discuss any intel they had to devise some semblance of a plan.

“Captain,” she turned to him after terminating the comms, “do you have a moment to discuss the mission?”

— T’Aria

“Of Course Commander. You want to discuss it right here or somewhere more private?”

“Lt Valharra and Dr Kastarak will convene in the conference room momentarily,” T’Aria rose and made an ‘shall we’ gesture to the lift, “I believe it prudent to discuss logistics together, sir, so we might eliminate any unnecessary confusion.”

“Roger that Commander.” He stood up and went to the lift with the Commander.

OOC: If you’re interested in joining the away team, feel free to report in place of ‘NE Kiran’! :)

(Blaze can help with his hacking skills like opening door shutting down security systems and getting info and tapping into there coms)

After Kastarak had received his orders from T’Aria, he pondered who else would be on the team. The missive from the commander did not specify that to him, but he trusted the commander implicitly. She would have given the utmost consideration for an away team. This would be Kastarak’s first away mission on a non-Federation planet. Visits to Qo’noS are rare for Federation people. He knew that Captain Archer of the pre-Federation Earth had visited the planet in an event, more than hundred years earlier, that, one way or another, paved the way for the formation of the Federation. The maps that they had was from then, appropriately (but perhaps unethically) updated through underground trading with other networks, such as Orion syndicates. The Orion thoughts led Kastarak to think of Sega’a, and he realized that he actually felt the absence of his friend. It was a curious sensation –– an emptiness of sort, as if there was a somatic hollowness within him. He made a mental note to meditate over this later on. Now he needed to prepare to act Romulan and land down on Qo’noS. If that was what he was supposed to do – he had not received other orders or instructions. Were Romulus and Qo’noS on friendly terms? Why was there so little intelligence on the matter?

He checked the weather planetside, and it seemed fine with wearing just a thinner coat over his Romulan clothes. He found it peculiar that his top had shoulder pads, but fashion was not a Vulcan passion (despite Kastarak’s rather trendy hairstyle – though it had begun being a bit messier since the departure from Risa. Would there be a way for him to get it done. Perhaps Umbri – if they were on board – could help – which led to another thought: how had he missed whether Umbri was on board or not. Was he a bad friend? Why did he feel the need to emotionally label the friendship?

Was he unmeditated? Had Symar’s masking dysfunction rubbed off on Kastarak?

This needed to be fully purged. Yet – he knew – if he was to pretend being a Romulan while down on the surface, he would need to smile, frown, laugh, growl, talk more with his hands and facial muscles – and that, he knew too, would activate emotions within him. Emotions are to be physically expressed – from an evolutionary point of view – and not expressing them physically naturally makes it easier to repress them. As such… what could his “cosplay”, so to speak, cause him to act?

He packed a medical bag, taking care that nothing Federation would be in it – in case of emergencies.

– Ensign Kastarak

Captain Chris Taggart, CO

— T’Aria

Captain Chris Taggart CO

Lt Valharra got the message to report to the conference room, so he ended his patrol and headed to the conference room. He thought to himself as he walked to the room. “A mission to Qo’nos, I haven’t been there in this place, I have been to the Qo’nos from before the black hole. I remember a prominent Vulcan Ambassador sent me there for research on thier atmosphere after a volcano erupted. He walked in the conference room, where Captain Taggart and Commander T’Aria were waiting. “Hello Captain and Commander.” He greeted them as he sat down at the table they were at.
Lt Valharra, ACWO

Whilst the Captain joined his first officer for their discussion William took the central chair. It seemed that a Romulan Captains’ chair wasn’t designed with great comfort in mind which did suit him quite well, the less time spent there the better, or else he’d continue to get used to the feeling. When he originally enlisted in Starfleet he’d hoped to get assigned to a Science vessel or station to get started on some research, for the past six or so years he’d gone from the youngest most inexperienced junior officer on the ship to Second Officer with enough Command hours to qualify for a career ship. Sometimes he wondered if Taggart was grooming him for command although that was most certainly unlikely. He gave no unnecessary orders, well there were no orders to give so he simply read the status report and waited.

CSO, 2O

“While William was sitting in the Captains chair, the alarm went off indicating that they were being targeted..while cloaked.

Storyteller

William sat up straighter, well he couldn’t really sit straighter but his shoulder tensed and he could feel his hands closing into fists “Red alert, prepare for combat” His voice sounded cold to his ears, even less emotion than his usual stoic tone “Science, Where is that target lock coming from?, Tactical, confirm cloak status and any emissions or signals that might compromise stealth, prepare to drop cloak and engage deflectors.”

CSO, 2O

The science officer was looking around and try trying to find what was going on. “There!” He yelled and put it on the main viewer. There were two Klingon Bird of Prey uncloaking behind them and another in front of them along with a defense tower to the right. A hail was being sent from the ship in the front.

Storyteller

“Engineering, science, find out how they discovered our location, see if our cloak is compromised” He ordered in a voice far too stable for how nervous he felt. He closed his hands into a fist to stop them from shaking “Get the away team on the Bridge immediately, I need someone who looks like a Romulan.” He added, tensing his jaw to keep from grinding his teeth “Answer hail, voice only” He took a deep breath =^=Good Afternoon=^= he spoke with no small amount of venom added to his voice, an inflection he thought appropriate for someone commanding a Romulan Warship.

CSO, 2O

The engineer and science officer both said, “yes sir!” at the same time and went to look for the reasons. A very gruff and curt voice came on. =/\= Why are you here in Klingon space Romulan? We told you idiots that the coup was not till next week! Are you trying to ruin the very thing that we both are working towards? Answer me! And put me on the view screen! =/\=

Storyteller

William thought furiously, he didn’t have time to wait for the Captain to make a lie on the spot Coup? That was unexpected, the fact that Romulans had been invited gave them some leeway “I was under the impression that Klingons had a mind for tactics and warfare” He put as much derision as he thought a Romulan would speak with, a way of insulting whilst sounding completely bored with the situation “Do you never conduct early reconnaissance?” He again only bordered on being confidently arrogant” And I have no interest in further compromising operational security by transmitting a visual signal over the Klingon homeworld, letting you know we are here was bad enough” He looked at the engineering and science team, he needed to know how they’d been discovered to sell his scheme.

CSO, 2O

The Science officer muted the talk and ran over. “Commander! There was no way that they could have picked us up and knew we were here. We were doing everything right.” Before he could continue the Klingon spoke again. =/\= We are familiar with tactics. We only knew you were here because you showed us a way to trace your particular warp signature of this very vessel. So Commander Sovul. Do you plan on meeting face to face for the first time. I want you to beam over to my ship and we will discuss on how to move this along further. =/\=

Storyteller

Internally William groaned, this particular ship just happened to be the one Romulans had used for some sort of coup. He didn’t have much time =^=”Commander Sovul is not currently on the ship, I am Sub-Commander Telem”=^= He didn’t know much about Romulan military protocols but he’d done whatever reading was available before they set out to capture the ship. He chose not to be a familiar person to the Klingons in case he couldn’t avoid meeting them =^=”My orders were to avoid contact unless absolutely necessary. Secrecy is still the most important factor.”=^= He put a more grumbling tone into his voice, a supplicant complaining about what his superiors forced him to do. He muted the channel for a moment “scour the computer systems for any orders or information about this Coup, if it’s locked find Blaze and get him to brute force it” He could potentially do it himself but he wasn’t familiar enough with Romulan system architecture, Blaze had been running the ships engineering systems for a good while now and he was smart enough to find somewhere to begin.

NE Johnsen at the helm messaged Blaze and told him to scour the computer system for anything related for a coup or Klingon related.

He unmuted the Comms again =^=”If my presence is necessary for the conclusion of this mission I will transport over. Be warned that I will not have time to remove my disguise”=^= He said matter-of-factly then muted himself again “Find a Romulan Uniform in my size, a Sub-Commander rank pi, and a sidearm.” He gave the order to no one in particular. He searched his memory for the inventory list that was included in their daily briefing, he wasn’t sure what the status of the Romulan clothing was.

CSO, 2O

NE Tobin nodded and ran out of the Bridge to find a uniform and came back with one in five minutes. It was the correct rank of Sub-Commander, but he just got lucky as he didn’t know what it looked liked. “This is the only uniform in your size sir.” The NE stated.

=/\= A disguise. Well done. We asked for the best and got the best. Let us know when you are ready and we will beam you over. One final thing Sub-Commander. Are you planning on bringing anybody with you? =/\=

Storyteller

Blaze was checking the engineering console and input a few commands and started to read the status. “Sir we have a small plasma leak. It will take me 3 minutes to bypass afew conduits to avoid the leaking area. So about 5-6 minutes total” he said looking up

Lt. Alexander Blaze (CE)


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