Raise the Jolly Roger!

Posted on Mon Apr 11th, 2016 @ 2:54am by Commander Bertrand Cuprum & Captain Elijah Michaels & Commander Cor Cordale & Lieutenant Ishan Satele

Mission: Vipers and Scoundrels

The Captain's yacht was a piece of work by the time the engineers had finished with it. New, redundant Impulse drives had been "Tacked on" to the standard EPS grid. This meant that while they flew with the regular systems off line they would not show anything suspicious on sensors, but if they needed to, all the original systems were still operational. Phasers and Shields were only being run at half power and they were keeping at Warp 5.

Thankfully the internals were still unmodified and comfortable even by Federations generous standards. Bertrand arrived on the bridge, having personally checked their payload.

"Status, 38?" he barked.

"Power steady, EPS holding, sensors clear." Cordale said, a little more gruff than usual. He allowed a little more of his prosthetic to show than usual, now exposing the full shoulder joint to view. "Our after-markets are all holding."

Taking the opulant command chair he addressed the helm, "What's our ETA, duchess?"

"I'd say we have at least another hour to go yet" Satele reported

Turning to Tacitcal he called, "Keep our weapons hot but low powered. We aren't here to pick a fight, but we have no back up, so if something drops in our lap, I want the option."

He turned to Kevin, "And I trust our passengers have found themselves somewhere quite to stay out of the way?"

"I'm not my brothers keeper" Kevin replied "So I don't much care" he went on, then added "Oh, I forgot, that should be, I don't much care.......Sir!!!" he finished.

Bertrand could only half repress the smile. The crew were enjoying this.

=^= Trafalgar this is the Bridge, you are cleared to depart the Ship when you are ready. =^= Captain Michaels said over the Comm channel to the Yacht.

Kevin turned from the communications console he now stood at, looked at the Captain and said "Message from the USS Victory bridge for us Captain Bellend, we're clear to depart when we're ready. Do you wish me to send a reply?"

Bertrand shook his head, "Just the acknowledge ping for message received. Take us out Duchess."

Satele smiled, "let's have some fun shall we?"

The Victory quickly fell away into the black as the small ship moved towards the station.

"38, Can you simulate a minor leak of some sort? Nothing serious. The sort that we could afford to 'ignore'."

"There ain't many leaks on a starship that fall under the 'minor' category, but I think I can work something up." The Thux stated before heading to a bridge station. After a few moments of thought, and a few more of activity on the station, the Thux gave a nod. "We have an argon leak on deck three. Nothing vital, nothing we can't put off."

Less than an hour later the station came into long range sensors. It was Cardasian in design, but not as large as a Nor class, having previously served as a minor listening post. Old ship hulks had been welded onto the frame to provide additional living and working space.

"Mr Dogberry," he said to Kevin. "Gather anything you can as we approach, but passive scans only. I want to know as much about that station and any ships that are docked with it before we set foot on her."

"Aye aye Sssssirrrrr, that information be gathered an' given yeah quicker than you can say pieces o' eight" Kevin replied in character.

"Take us out of Warp, Duchess. Let's not be over cautious, but let's not provoke anything. 38, get one of the Ambasadors up here."

Dropping the ship out of warp, Satele immediately went to 3/4 impulse. As they did, the ship shuddered a little before easing out, "that Argon leak is interfering with the main deflector. It's causing a delay in the response time between the helm and the ship"

Thirty-Eight gave the captain a nod, and then headed off of the bridge. The 'guest accommodations' weren't terrible, but the conversion done to the ole' yacht certainly took a little of the cushy pleasure cruiser aspect away. The Thux would pad back up to the bridge with Ambassador Collins, the Thux's mechanical hand on Collins' shoulder none-too-friendly like.

"Good of you to join us, Ambassador," Bertrand said with exaggerated cordiality.

Kevin set the sensors to passive scan mode. As the data came in, he started to make notes for his report. Once completed he turned to the Captain and said "The upper pylons only have 2 docking ports working. They have ships in them already, a Ferengi D'Kora class and....well, would you look at that, it's a museum piece....how in the hell it's still flying I don't know, but it would seem we have a Klingon D7 class!"

Bertrand nodded, "The D7 are still in use. Klingons make there ship's to last. Though the k't'inga are certainly more common, I've seen a D7 punch a respectable hole in a Dominon cruiser during the war."

"The lower docking ports have about half a dozen ships docked, various classes from Caradassian freighters to Bolian merchant ships. The station itself has what would appear to be a defense grid of.....ion cannons....surely not, no wait, there's more, they've adapted photon torpedo tubes, class three by the looks of them. The passive scans can't penetrate deep into the stations infrastructure so I can only give you what I can. There's nineteen levels....and that's the best I can get without probing harder with the scans" he finished.

"That's good intel, Dogberry. We'll make for the lower Pylons, but I suspect the commanders will be on the upper levels 'lording it over' the lesser crew and merchants. That is standard Cardassian design. Open a channel to the station."

There was a crackle of static for a moment and then a scared face appeared, "Who goes there?"

Bertrand/Bellend waved the Admiral forward. He looked at the monitor, sweat appearing on his brow, "This is Ambassador C... Collins. I am here about the Payment for Klimtec."

The scar turned into an unfriendly leer, "Good to see you again, Collins. The commander will be disappointed. He was looking forward to enjoying the company of his guests a little more. You can dock at port 7."

The screen went dead.

Bellend told the Admiral, "You better go back and tell the others to be ready to disembark."

After he left Bertrand addressed the away team, "There is more going on here. That man recognized Collins. This is not the Ambassador's first visit to the station. Collins is mortally afraid, but of us as much as the crew of that station. Keep on your toes."

"When we go aboard, I want 38 to go with the Ambassadors to deliver the payment and collect the hostages."

"Done." The Thux replied. Simple and to the point.

"Dogberry, I want you to get a better look at this station; population, level and type of trade that occurs here. Avoid anything sensitive that could give us away."

"Oh have no fear, I'll have them so mesmerized with pretense that they'll be singing like little birdies and giving me the information without them even realizing it" Kevin replied "and you should realize by now that 'avoid' is my middle name" he finished with an evil smile.

Thirty-Eight chuckled under his breath at something that was probably only funny to him.

"Sela, your job is to protect the ship and keep it ready to go at a moment's notice."

"Duchess, this is your arena. Go out and make our presence felt. Carouse, gamble, whatever; give us some credibility."

Satele smiled, "oh joy, time for some fun. I wonder if the bar is open"

"Just remember we are on our own out here. No back up. Watch your back."

"Just a bit of friendly advice, excessive politeness is a dead giveaway that you don't belong. Just remember, the unwritten rule out here is shoot first, send flowers later" Satele said, trying to help them act a little less Starfleet.

"Pfft, flowers..." Thirty-Eight disregarded with a wave of his prosthetic limb, though afterwards he did check the charge on his sidearm. "Sooner we get docked, sooner I can get closer to seeing how shitty the bar here is."

"Mind you don't mix your soda pops......pops" Kevin said to the Thux "You know how you older lot can't hold your drink!" he finished, walking past Cordale and off the bridge. Making his way to his quarters, he started to prepare for his time on the station.

Bertrand's face darkened at the off hand comment, but he knew it wasn't targeted at him. No point getting upset at nothing, he told himself.