It Begins

Posted on Wed Feb 28, 2018 @ 8:29pm by Commodore Michael Aravan & Captain Madelina Weisz & Lieutenant Commander Arrda & Lieutenant Martha Cusack & Lieutenant Commander Kelani Tetanal & Lieutenant Sarish-Illiana Luvol & Lieutenant Commander Alex Rho & Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Barnes & Valasa Caenala

Mission: Falling Star
Location: Gavarian Corridor
Timeline: MD 33 || 0800 Hours
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The Chief of Flight sat at the helm of the massive Odyssey class starship and checked the navigation data that had been given to them by Ambassador Caenela and glanced back at the Commodore while he waited for the order to engage.

Michael looked at the Chief of Flight and the others on the bridge at their various stations and knew he had a damned fine crew. The problem was that they were going into Romulan space and possibly into a conflict between a divided Empire and he had to take all the civilians, including his wife and kids, into consideration.

The Victorious had gone ahead with several reconnaissance fighters to check for possible ambushes, but the nagging feeling persisted that he was leading the ship into a trap. Still, he had faith in the crew and the capabilities of the ship. He glanced over at Maddy and gave a nod. "Want to set a sedate place of Warp Three, Captain?"

Maddy turned her attention toward the helm from her spot next to Michael. "You heard the man," she said, nodding her head toward the officer.

The helmsman checked the course set into the Navigation, then engaged at Warp Three. "Warp Three engaged. Estimated time of arrival is twelve hours."

"Mister Barnes, put those sensors to work," Michael told the Chief of Operations.

"With pleasure," said the non-commissioned officer. With a few swift keystrokes, he brought his gravity wave sensor pallets online. On the initial sweep, there were some abnormalities in the reporting, which a diagnostic quickly revealed an improper configuration. Tom made some quick adjustments to their settings and ran other sweep. "Sensors are online and functional," he reported. "It'll take a few minutes to generate a proper readout of what's around us, but once that's generated, detecting new abnormalities will be instant."

"Lieutenant Cusack, prepare tactical solutions for all and any known Romulan ship designs, but keep the weapons offline for now," Michael told the Tactical Chief.

Martha nodded and made the necessary arrangements to combat Romulan vessels. With the weapons ready to come online at the touch of a button she gave confirmation she was ready to defend the ship at a moment's notice.

"We'll be ready for them Commodore" Martha reported.

Maddy turned toward the Science station. "Lieutenant Tetanal... begin scans of the area as we move for starmaps. Continue with that until further notice."

"Aye, Captain,". Kelani acknowledged, her hands already moving over her console. " Commencing scans now."

Kelani monitored the scans, wanting to be able to report quickly, should the need arise.

"You have the bridge, Maddy," Michael said as he came to his feet. "I'll be in my Ready Room if you need me."

"Yes, Commodore," the XO said as she rose to her feet, too. Once he vacated the bridge, Maddy tapped her combadge. =^=Weisz to Topou... keep the Transwarp engines and Quantum slipstream offline. We want the warp cores running at maximum efficiency.=^=

With that done, she tapped her combadge a second time. =^=Weisz to Rho... begin monitoring subspace traffic. Let me know if you find anything.=^=

Alex tapped his combadge and replied from Intel. =^=Understood, Captain. Starfleet Intelligence will be listening. Always listening. Rho out.=^= He added that last bit with a smile on his face...perpetuating the well-established persona.

And finally, a third tap if her combadge had her contacting sickbay. =^=Weisz to Luvol... begin preparing for heavy casualties.=^=

Sarish sighed as she heard the call. It was a call that she had been expected, but in truth, she hated this part of the job. She knew it was inevitable, of course - battle was not pleasant, but it was necessary. She handed a PADD to a nurse. "Acknowledged. We're ready down here." She said.

Tom instinctively shuddered at the mention of casualties, having been through many situations where it involved a high number of wounded and injured Starfleet personnel. In this instance, however, these casualties were Romulan citizens. It was an honorable thing to help, but Tom could only imagine the power requirements from a medical facility working overtime. Turning to face the XO, Tom said, "Captain, when we arrive, we might want to activate the auxiliary reactors, or perhaps the quantum slipstream drive, if for nothing else, but to provide additional power while in orbit. Between our sensors and sickbay, we're going to need everything, especially if we have to suddenly run."

Maddy tapped her combadge. =^=Weisz to Engineering. Activate the auxiliary reactors and keep them on reserve.=^=

Once that order was given and the link was closed, the XO turned to Tom. "Mister Barnes, monitor the output and make sure the reserves are adequate in case we need them."

"Aye, Captain," answered the Master Chief as he turned back to his console.

A soft tone emanated from the OPs console, indicating a subspace transmission being directed at the Triumphant.

Tom looked over to investigate the source of the tone. “Captain,” he announced. “Our transceiver has just received a message. It reads, "Calsaria Guard Group to Triumphant. Request secure hail. Encryption protocol Ri'kaishaasi. Ambassador Valasa Caenala will have appropriate codes."” he turned to see what the Captain planned to do.

Even if Maddy didn't agree with having the Ambassador on the bridge, it wasn't her call to make. "Prepare to hail," the Captain ordered as she turned her attention to the Caenala. "I believe you are in possession of the appropriate codes, Ambassador. If you could share those with Mister Barnes?" She gestured toward the Master Chief with her hand.

Valasa nodded slightly and made her way over to the OPs station, opening her jacket as she did so. She pulled out a thin PADD, made from the green alloys common to Romulan manufacturing. She came to the side of the Chief, showing him the locked screen which she quickly unlocked by pressing a finger to the screen. On the display there was a vast array of coded protocols and files, though Valasa was quickly able to identify the code mentioned in the data bust. The screen changed to show an equation along with values for each of the variables used in the Ri'kaishaasi protocol.

"That's the encryption algorithm, those are your keys." Valasa said, keeping a tight grip on the PADD as she pointed them out to the Chief.

Tom, keeping both eyes on the PADD, quickly retyped the algorithm since the Romulan did not seem ready to simply hand over the PADD. It took him a few seconds to do so, considering the length and complexity of the code. When he finished, he checked the holographic screen against her PADD. "Looks like that's it," he said, committing the algorithm to the computer. "We're ready, Captain."

Maddy tapped her combadge. =^=Weisz to Aravan... your presence is required on the bridge.=^= She ended the link and looked to Tom. "Put it through once Commodore Aravan joins us."

Michael came out of his ready room and looked at assembled officers as he approached Maddy. "What's the situation, Captain?" he asked her.

"We have an incoming hail," Maddy replied. "Put it through, Mister Barnes."

"Aye, aye," Tom replied, pressing the appropriate button. "Coming through now."

An aging Romulan man appeared on the screen, slouching back in what appeared to be a captains chair with his head propped up by his fist. He wore an old Romulan military jacket with it's front opened and it's fabric frayed and damaged in places. However underneath that his clothing would have been more in line with that of a farmer than a military officer. It would be easy to mistake him as unprofessional or as an irregular but anyone catching his eye would have seen a sparkle of tactical brilliance as he grimaced, lost in thought.

After a brief moment he straightened up and looked at the monitor, linking his fingers together as his elbows rested on the armrest =^=This is Enarrain Lagarus of the RAV Allusis to the USS Triumphant.=^=

Maddy turned her attention to the aging Romulan on the screen and chose to make introductions herself. "I am Captain Madelina Weisz, Executive Officer of the USS Triumphant," she began, then gestured toward Michael who was standing next to her right. "And this is our Commanding Officer, Commodore Michael Aravan."

Michael studied the Romulan on screen and noted the discrepancies in his attire, but said nothing about it. "Enarrain Lagarus," he said by way of introduction.

=^=Captain, Commodore.=^= Lagarus replied with a courteous nod. =^=I'm contacting you to advise you that there is a change to our security plans. Imperials have sent a relief flotilla complete with enough escorts to make us nervous. My task force is being redeployed to head them off, which means the Corridor will be undefended for the foreseeable future.=^=

"Thank you for letting us know, Enarrain Lagarus. Should we be expecting any trouble?" Michael asked politely since he knew the Victorious and several reconnaissance fighters had gone ahead for just such a reason.

=^=I'd be shocked if you were to pass though unabated Commodore. My little patrol route has been quite for a few days now, so I'd happily wager that they're massing for a large operation.=^= He then sighed =^=Were it up to me we'd stick around and deal with the fallout later. But we've got to keep all the colonies feeling safe and secure. I am sorry about this Commodore.=^=

I'll bet you are Michael thought but kept his expression neutral. They couldn't be blamed for not wanting to be in a potential war zone. They weren't military and the ones who had been were tired of fighting for the sake of fighting. "We'll undertake every precaution." He thought of Valasa for a moment and her actions with the codes before he continued. "Is this the best protocol to reach you and your forces, Enarrain Lagarus?"

The Romulan nodded =^=For the moment. Since we've got a secure channel I'll have signals send you a few other protocols we've got as a backup in case they're compromised.=^=

"I'm certain that Ambassador Caenala also has the protocols we may need," the Commodore said with a glance at the Romulan woman at the Ops console. "We estimate that it'll take us roughly twelve hours at our current speed to arrive at Cassandara," he said, deliberately giving misinformation. However, warp could be increased but he wanted to give the Victorious time to scout ahead.

=^=Very well Commodore.=^= Lagarus said with a slight nod. =^=We'll advise central=^=

"Triumphant out," Michael said and had the connection closed.

==Intelligence Cryptanalysis - Signals Analysis Facility==

Granted, Alex could have been in the Communications Center to monitor subspace transmissions. But he knew that Romulan transmissions would be encrypted, so he was standing on the upper level at the center table in Signals Analysis. That was when he saw the incoming message from a Romulan ship. He smiled and reached above the table, taking the holographic image that represented the incoming message. He moved it to the side because he knew they would handle it on the Bridge.

"Lieutenant," said CPO Selmack, "Intel Communications is routing a transmission and some chatter to us." She turned to face Alex. "It's encoded, sir."

"Thanks, Chief," said Alex. Then that means it'll be fun. Let's have it." He watched as the encoded transmission appeared above the holo-table. Alex opened several of their decryption protocols and cryptanalysis programs. He wasn't going to play around the Romulans. Namely, because they wouldn't show them the same courtesy. A few moments later, Alex had what he was looking for. It looked like there were several Romulan ships that were bringing food and medical supplies to the planet that they were heading to. Relief...huh...interesting. But there was also something else. Something in the chatter...another possible strike. Oh hell.

Alex tapped his combadge. =^=Rho to Bridge. I have something.=^=

=^=What is it, Lieutenant?=^= the Captain asked.

=^=We've picked up some chatter about several Romulan ships that are bringing food and medical supplies to the planet that we're headed to. I can't confirm that from down here, though. I would stay on my toes, too. There's talk on their subspace channels about another possible strike. Again, unconfirmed. But warrants caution.=^= replied Alex.

=^=Thank you, Mister Rho. We'll be prepared.=^= Maddy stated. =^=Let me know if anything else comes up.=^=

=^=Will do, Captain. Rho out.=^= He took the next batch of incoming transmissions and put them through a keyword analysis program. Always searching. Always looking. Always knowing.

===Bridge===

Michael looked at the assembled officers. "We're on a mission of mercy, but be prepared for anything," he said confidently. "The Independent Romulan Systems Allied Forces is a new hope for Romulans who wish peace and we're not here to fight. However, we will take diplomatic measures hand in hand with our mission. Questions?"

With the objective fresh in her mind Martha was confident she was prepared for any rapid change in the situation.

Martha shook her head. "No Commodore."

Douglas knew what he had to do, knew what he needed his people to do. His part in this was, currently, very clear. He shook his head. "No, sir."

Kelani spoke quietly, “No questions, sir”. She thought very privately, ~Just a hope for a successful mission without casualties ~

Tom also shook his head and gave no verbal response. His eyes, however, remained on the sensor readings to be sure nothing disrupted their flight path.

"I have none, Commodore," the Captain stated. But... I do have a few reservations.

With a nod, Michael turned the ship back over to Maddy and excused himself to head back to the Ready Room.