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Main Sim - Hell Hath No Fury - Conference Room

Posted Feb. 1, 2022, 8:22 a.m. by Lieutenant Lake Holway (Counselor) (D Grisham)

Immediately on Graham’s heels was Colter. He nodded acknowledgement to those in the while introducing himself. “Admiral, I’m Cmdr. Colter, the ship’s executive officer.” DaVinci then took his seat next to Dante. In his introduction, he left out the part about being the ship’s chief of intel. No need to broadcast that information at this time.

GM

Sha has the guards remain the hall, sending one to the mess hall for drinks if any of the guest guards desired something. A smile to the other guards came with the comment and wink. “No point that only brass are treated well.” She nodded once more, assured her orders would be carried out, but Saracen security would still be on alert and courteous.

Stepping into the room, the security chief stepped to the side and remained still as the others came and got settled.

Sha
CoS

“Dante why is their standing room only,” Natasha said entering the room and hooking a thumb at the door behind her before she stopped speaking seeing the people assembled in the room. “Hell....ooooo,” Natasha quickly changed her reply and drew out her word realizing this is not just the run of the mill staff update. Three Romulans walk into a bar....and it is never good, she thought to herself before taking a seat at the table.

“Doctor Knight, Welcome. This is Admiral D’Vak and R’eadn, his Tal Shiar Liasion.”

She had no need to get coffee. She carried a travel mug with her containing enough brew to survive any meeting but especially staff meetings. The travel mug served two purposes. The first was to keep her awake. Staff meetings tended to be dry for someone in the medical department except for the time she got to announce an outbreak of Ferengi Scabies and that everyone would have to slather permethrin on every square inch of their bodies or wake up with creepy crawlies embedded under their skin. That meeting was not dull and with the events of the past day, and now with a Romulan Admiral at the meeting, things were looking to be more lively. The second reason was to have something to cover her face when someone said something that evoked an emotion. Laughter, anger, sadness…it was all easily hidden by the lip of a large plastic cup.

Natasha Knight, CMO

Connor sat in his assigned seat, and, remembering the instructions from the doctor on his boarding physical, ordered a water with additional electrolytes.
“Doctors orders,” he said to no one in particular. He opened his padd and waited for

  • Connor Hanson, Chief Engineer

“Let’s get down to business, shall we gentlemen, and ladies.”

He flashed the Tal Shiar officer a disarming and mischievous grin before turning back to face the admiral.

Colter (XO/CIO)

Once everyone was seated, Sha took her seat closest to the door, angled to view it a bit easier than the room. No need to stand like a guard. The Security Chief nodded to the XO with a smile as they arrived and she knows everyone present.

Sha
CoS

As the visitors filed in, Counselor Holway observed them with a professional eye. Personally, she found Romulans more interesting and much warmer in disposition than Vulcans, but she always kept that opinion to herself. The lack of emotions displayed by Vulcans made her work more difficult when it came to finding out what plagued them in her office. Taking a sip of tea from the steaming cup by her right hand, she settled herself for the discussion that was about to happen.

—Holway, CNS

(We still here?)

OOC: I’m here

OOC: We are indeed, with the slow down in posting and dropping of Awol limits for the Christmas period things will get much slower, don’t worry about posting to stay in limits at this point, but if anyone would like to have another thread going for more regular posting, we are about to arrive at Risa for Christmas :) Just a holiday thread for people to keep active in.

-Dave

((Thank you))

“Admiral allow me to introduce my Senior Staff,” Dante began, “You have already met Lieutenant Triton and Lieutenant Hanson of course, and Commander Colter the Executive Officer of the Saracen just now. We also have Lieutenant Holway our Counselor, Lieutenant Commander Knight our Chief Medical Officer and Lieutenant Commander Graham, our Chief of Science.”

Captain Knight

Lake gave a nod when the Captain said her name, a way of identifying herself to the Romulans. She didn’t believe she’d be much help in their particular circumstances as it appeared medical and science would be at the forefront, but one never knew.

—Holway, CNS

The corners of Tellers mouth turned up in a pleasureless smile. He didn’t know what the purpose and therefore the tone of the meeting and wasn’t going to smile if they were about to be ordered on a suicide mission.

Graham

The Admiral and R’eadn nodded to each officer in turn and the the Admiral looked at his security detail and nodded once. They immediately took up positions on either side of the door and their hands dropped to their sides… as if readying themselves for something. The Admiral then looked at Dante and said “Before I explain further Captain, I must ask… are you sure all your officers are actually yours?” The question was sincere and carried with it a weight of concern that was almost palpable.

GM

DaVinci rose a quizzical eyebrow at the admiral’s comment. Was he playing mind games and shifting the focus of the current crisis on the Saracen’s crew? Was the admiral who HE said he was?

“Begging your pardon, Admiral, but would you care to explain what that is supposed to actually mean? Why wouldn’t we be ourselves?”

Colter (XO/CIO)

When the security detail had taken up positions at the door, Sha had risen and offered her chair to the Medical Chief. As security, she wasn’t the one who should be sitting. And the fact the Admiral’s detail was no longer relaxed, well that added a bit of alert to her already speeding pulse.

Sha had tightened her fists at the Admiral’s question, her own voice caught in her throat. But when the XO spoke up, she couldn’t help butting in. “Or are you asking if our allegiance is to our Captain, Admiral? I assure you, my allegiance is to my Captain and this ship. And any who challenge that are welcome to step up.” Her body tightened as if half expecting someone to start something. It took every ounce of discipline not to step towards the Admiral in direct challenge. She managed to simply tighten her fists and clench her jaw to maintain composure.

Sha
CoS

Teller presumed that is was some sort of backwards way of talking about an alternate universe, or spies. Since he didn’t have the specifics or his tricorder on him all Teller could do is look among everyone’s faces like of like a gun fighter in a spaghetti western about to go into a quick draw.

Teller

Lake found herself holding out a quieting palm in the COS’ direction. Jumping to conclusions wasn’t going to help anyone in the meeting. “I’m sure you have an excellent reason for asking that question, Admiral, but you can see by looking around the table that some of us are offended by it. Perhaps it would be best if you explain why you’re asking and what proof you need to accept that we are the proper officers of the Saracen.”

—Holway, CNS

“Easy, Sha,” Dante said, nodding his head slightly for her to be at ease. “As my Senior Officers suggest, Admiral, maybe you should expand on what you mean by that.”

Captain Knight

Sha had paused as the Counselor had raised her hand. And as the Captain nodded at her she even took a step backwards and crossed her arms rather than standing with balled fists. “Yes, Sir…” she said with respect, and clenched her jaw.

She just hopped the Admiral had a really good reason for his question. While only a couple of them had actually said anything, she was pretty sure the ruffled feathers weren’t just on her end.

Sha
CoS

The Admiral nodded in acknowledgement of the push-back, seemingly unphased by it. “No offense intended, and I have no reason to doubt the authenticity of anyone here.” D’Vak then looked at his aide and nodded once and R’eadn stood up and reached into her belt and produced an optical data-disk. She looked at Knight as if asking permission and gestured to the port on the display at the front of the room.

“Go ahead,” Dante motioned to the screen, “if there is a malware program imbedded in the disk that attempts to take control of any part of the Saracen the ships AI has clearance to initiate self destruct, but I trust you.” Dante lied, but his poker face was absolute. He had learned the art when telling Natasha that her self saucing chocolate pudding was amazing and just like his grandmothers.

Sliding the disk into the docking port, a map of a unfamiliar section of space appeared. “This is Credensela, a Class M planet on the far side of Romulan space. For over twenty five standard years, the Star Empire had a thriving colony on the surface, and a penal facility on one of it’s three moons. With the collapse of the Empire after the supernova, the colony was temporarily cut off from communication. Eight months ago, we were able to reestablish contact. When ships arrived, it seemed nothing was amiss. That was until two weeks ago when we, the Tal Shiar, discovered that every individual on the planet was a synthetic copy. We traced the creation of the ‘synthicates’ as they have come to be known to a Dr. Faustus McGonn, a human who had fled the Federation two decades ago to come work for the Star Empire. He was a genius with regards to biomolecular replication. I say ‘was’ because he was killed while attempting to defect back to the Federation. Unfortunately that now appears to have been a duplicate of the doctor. And now… we have reason to believe that the doctor has replicated himself several hundred times. But only his consciousness, which he has placed inside the synthicates as an underlying personality. We believe that the Doctor intends to smuggle himself back into the Federation with the end goal of causing a terrorist attack that will encourage the Federation to finish what the supernova started… the complete eradication of the Romulan Empire and it’s people.”

R’eadn then moved back and sat down next to Admiral D’Vak.

The Admiral looked at the assembled officers and said “The prisoners on that ship are, we believe, synthicates who are harboring the hidden consciousness of a rogue madman.”

GM

Sha frowned. She wasn’t a fan of clones, copies, synthetics or whatever folks were calling them these days. When one has lived their life, they were meant to die and move on into the next life. For her, she hoped it would be Sto’vo’kor. But she knew many cultures had such afterlife or heaven and hell equivalents.

“Do we know how long the synthetics have been in those positions? We’re they planted there recently or have they been there for years?” She didn’t realize she had stepped closer to the screen till she spoke up. Then she clasped her hand behind her back and stepped back to her place against the wall. “I’m sorry. But I think the answer would help to give us a timeline of when the Doctor was here and how long such things take.”

Sha
CoS

“Along with that, tell me how you came to believe that he may be attempting a terrorist attack when prior to that you killed his clone thinking it was him, for trying to defect back to us? Forgive me for being aware that now claiming he is a terrorist so we simply destroy all synthetics in an attempt to save ourselves would be a very Romulan thing to do. We may not be actively hostile but,” Dante motioned to R’eadn, “the Tal Shiar is still the Tal Shiar. I need something more solid to go on, examining these so called synthetics would be a start.”

Dante Knight, CO

The Admiral cocked his head at Dante and then shook it, as if disappointed. “Of course.... the age old adage of ‘Romulan subterfuge’. Well Captain, all of our data is on that disk. Review it as you wish. R’eadn will also provide you with anything else you feel is pertinent. But for now… as you are in Romulan space, I will instruct you to not move or attempt to retrieve anyone or anything from that ship. It is evidence in our investigation. That ship also harbors, officially, escaped prisoners. Prisoners your Federation has not laid claim to nor requested the return of. And such exchanges are far beyond the paygrades of anyone in this room, so at the minimum you will have to contact your Command to get direction, correct? Now as to our unofficial situation… We have not asked you to destroy anyone, nor did we purposefully try and end the Doctor’s life. In fact, we didn’t do that all. You did. He stole a Romulan ship and crossed into the border. One of your patrol vessels hailed the ship, received no answer, and they detected the ship preparing to jump to warp. They fired and destroyed the ship in much the same way you destroyed the vessel earlier. Look at your Action Reports for this area, Captain. Six months ago. I’m sure you will find it corroborates the information I am giving you.”

GM

“What that ship harbors Admiral is not much of my concern until we confirm who is on it.” Now it was Dante’s turn to give a disappointed frown at the Admiral. “That ship is Federation, not Romulan and has been missing for years. Now, it turns up in Romulan space with people you claim are fugitives. Where are our people and what happened to that ship.” Dante leaned back and his eyes turned hard. “I’m sure you are aware that taking a Federation ship captive and imprisoning the crew is an act of War, so no, I have no obligation to contact my Command when the safety of Federation citizens are in question at your hands, a very probably situation considering that the occupants of this lost Federation ship broadcast a call for help. I am wiling to follow your wishes At The Moment, Admiral, while we investigate your information, but likewise I will not permit you to attempt to retrieve anyone or anything from Our ship. “Sha,” Dante said looking at his Security Chief, “Can you bring up incident reports in this sector? Federation ships do not fire on any ship about to go to warp without provocation, even Romulan ships. That situation you are describing would only be similar to our situation now in any way, if they were being fired on, like we were. Starfleet does not go around wantonly destroying ships that don’t fire first.”

Captain Knight

With nothing to add to the conversation, Connor was just sitting at the table jotting down notes on his padd and sipping at his ‘special’ water.

He looked at his padd, and accessed what he could on the engineering capabilities of the ships in question. Was there a power fluctuation, something that suggested one of the ships was not what they appeared to be?

  • CE

Depending on the sophistication on cloning and replication techniques the determination of who was or was not a synthetic would vary in difficulty. Teller would like to find a way to do it with a scanner but in some cases a genetic sample would need to be taken. He rolled his eyes. Maybe he could get the CMO to work with him on that. Technically it was an overlap between their two department.

Teller.

Sha nodded at the Captain’s request. Moving to the wall unit, she typed in the search parameters and waited for the answers to come up about the incident the Admiral was describing.

She remained silent and tried her best to remain personal.

Sha
CoS

Holway watched the Captain and the Admiral as they carefully stepped through their power play with each other. It was ridiculous to think that anyone on the Saracen was a clone just because the Admiral suggested it. The ship and its crew had been called to the area intact and they hadn’t experienced any intrusions as of yet.

—Holway, CNS


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