On Report

Posted on Tue Sep 13th, 2016 @ 12:01am by Lieutenant Valeria Mordin

Mission: Do Not Follow
Location: Ready Room

Valeria waited a solid five minutes. Partially to make sure that the Victory wasn't about to become a barge to send them all to the next life, and partially to allow everyone to reach their destinations. Once that internal countdown had passed, "Mister Kilbane, could I see you in the Ready Room?" technically, it was her bridge, which made it her ready room.

This entire scenario was in the hands of the invading forces now. Whether the Victory and her crew live or die, it was out of her hands. She made her way to the doorway of the Ready Room after appointing the next in line to appraise her if anything changes in the slightest.

~Mr Kilbane~ Kevin thought to himself ~This doesn't sound good~ he finished as he fell in step behind Valeria.

The rabbitess waited for the door to close before she began, "I want you to know that I feel that the situation that just unfolded was handled rashly and borderline irrationally. The option to endanger the entirety of the crew and subject the saucer section to the subsequent self-destruction of the reactor, while an entire battery of torpedoes lay unused, I feel is in erratic behavior. The only reason I called you in here, to hear me voice such thoughts, is because the attitude and attention of Mr. Bertrand was also directed at you." a pause, to collect her thoughts, "I'm collecting mental notes, and plan to write a full formal complaint, in fifty hours. That should be sufficient time for Mr. Bertrand to deal with the current situation, resolve any immediate crisis, and seek either of us out to explain his erratic reaction. Failing this, I send my report."

Kevin didn't hold out any hope for that to ever happen in their reality, but he kept that thought to himself.

"I'm not calling you here to sway you to my side. Nor will I ask you the insulting question of where your loyalties lay. I'm telling you this because I will be mentioning you by name in my report and do not wish for it to be a surprise to you, and to let you know that if you are planning a report of your own, you are not alone."

"Well, firstly, thank you for telling me all that, next, thanks for not asking" Kevin said "but to answer the question, my loyalty lies with my duty to Starfleet Intelligence as well as to my crew mates and ensuring their safety as well as that of the the ship as well. Speaking of the ships safety, I am planning to write my own report, and it will include the Captains orders, stating that he ordered the Victory to be abandoned without exhausting all options, despite you and I giving him other options, thus leaving the saucer section at the mercy of any other enemy vessel that approached. It will also record Commander Cuprum stepping in and cutting off those options before they could be fully explored."

She gave a nod at the end of his reply, "I agree, and I will be citing such." she then shook her head, "I called you in here so the others of the bridge crew wouldn't hear our dissent. We cannot really know what's going on in their head or in their day to cause such a retort, but there's nothing to be gained by speaking such aloud in front of the others." she gave a smirk, "Though, I expect you figured that part out."

"My primary concern now is that at the end of all of this I'm brought up on review. Possibly even brought up on charges. If that happens, please don't rush to my aid like a knight in your old tales." a soft smile, "I'd appreciate the gesture, but it would only potentially hurt you and your career. Whatever happens will happen to me... provided we survive the next forty eight hours."

"Indeed I had" he replied, then added "and yes, cooler heads should have prevailed."

"In regards to being a knight in shining armour, well, let's just say I'd never let you fall on your own sword, at least, not without me helping you make sure it was sharp" he laughed. "As for potentially hurting my own career, you're forgetting something Lieutenant" Kevin said "I'm Starfleet Intelligence, was I ever really here...." he winked mischievously.

She joined in his laugh with a gentle giggle of her own. At his mischievous tone and wink, she gave a soft smile, "I wasn't aware I was in the presence of a ghost." a pause, as she looked through the viewing port into the endless depths of space, and the looming figure of the enemy craft, "I wonder why they stopped? Don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful, but I have so many questions that I doubt we'll ever get the answers to."

"It's the scientist in me. Inner curiosity is almost a requirement." she paused, "I wanted to also thank you. When I initially protested you could have remained quiet. It's comforting to know that I wasn't the only one that thought something was amiss. We'll see how the next fifty hours plays out before I say I owe you one. Even if you were never here." she added with a giggle.

Kevin was glad to be able to share his thoughts with someone so like minded, and he was also glad to be able to relax after the tenseness of the bridge incident.

"I didn't get the nickname 'Casper' for nothing you know" he said, joining in the mirth "but, to answer you, I have no idea why they stopped either. It could have been curiosity as to why we were trying to help a stricken ship, or it could have been that because it was a different Captain to the one who crippled the Seattle he wanted to taunt us before killing us, or yet again, perhaps they just wanted to borrow a cup of sugar!"

"Casper... that's a reference I don't get. If we live, you'll have to explain it to me." she mentioned, before continuing, "Though, perhaps they're curious. Maybe we're the first to pierce their defenses, to any extent, and they're curious as to how. Which means we might expect to be called up at some point. It makes tactical sense to interrogate anyone who pierces your defenses to shore up the holes, so we might want to have a cover story prepared. If they truly are hostile to the point of dishonorable action, to tell them how to plug the holes in their defenses isn't something that sits well with me."

"So, to continue your analogy, they could be here for the entire bag of sugar." she paused in thought for a moment, "There's something I'd like you to do, and I feel that you might be one of the few people who could actually perform this task. I'm certain Engineering is seeking a physical reason as to our loss of power. A fused coil, or a breakdown in magnetics. I'd like for you to scour the computer for any form of data intrusion. They spared us, but we have no guarantee that they did not also spare the Seattle before her destruction."

"See if our computers have been compromised. Draw power from whatever systems you need that aren't vital to our immediate future."

Kevin thought long and hard about what Valeria had just said. There were a few permutations running through his thoughts as to why they'd been spared, and why the Seattle had been more or less destroyed.

"We also have what we downloaded from the Seattle's computer" Kevin said "So by running a side by side comparison, we may find something useful. There's bound to be a trace left if their ships computer was scanned, but there's something else. 'If' they spared the Seattle at first, what then compelled them to destroy her? The Seattle would only have tactical information of it's most recent missions, it wouldn't carry sensitive information about the Federation as a whole. No, they're up to something, something that the Seattle didn't have that 'we' do. Right, I'll start the comparison straight after we've finished here."

He was about to say something else, when a sudden thought struck him "Hey, they've transported onto our ship, which means they'll have had to drop their shields in order to complete said transport. They're going to have to do the same on the way back one would assume. As far as I'm aware, though we never used the Polaron torpedo because the temp XO ordered us not to, I don't recall Karadis being told to dismantle it. You're the sciency one, could 'we' simultaneously transport that Polaron torpedo, fitted with a remote detonator, onto the other ship at the same time these other guys are beamed back, and more importantly, could we disguise the torpedo so it's not detected? I mean, I'm not convinced by the CO's and temp XO's recent actions, so could we do this as a 'Plan B' in case their Plan A goes turtle?"

"The entire logs of the scan as well as what was received from them should be in the Science wing's archive, provided there's power. I'll give you full, uncontested access to those records." she then held up a hand, "And before you say that you can easily get said access, I believe it best to simply save you the trouble, in the name of interdepartmental relations. I imagine it helps to be on friendly terms with the sciency one." she gave him a smirk.

"As for why the Seattle was destroyed, it may link up nicely to the fact that someone transported from that ship to our's. Very likely, they transported to the Seattle. Perhaps an exchange was offered, or terms of surrender were declared and when the terms were deemed unacceptable, the Seattle was destroyed." Valeria was assuming a lot, but it made a lot of sense. "As for the transporting of essentially a trojan horse onto their craft to coincide with their onboard team transporting back, it's very risky and potentially dangerous. If a positive outcome is reached by the Captain and the standing XO, we likely won't know about it until well after the torpedo is aboard. Once they find said torpedo, it'll put us in a compromising position." she pointed out.

"We also don't know if any remote detonation codes we send will reach the torpedo through their hull and through their shields. We could plan to transport the torpedo to a few meters outside their hull, which would be within their shield coverage. Their own shields should protect any life boats from the polaron burst. Though our window of activation would be slim. We'd essentially need to know exactly when the party was leaving, and the results of the visit."

"It was just a thought" Kevin said "trying to cover as many possible eventualities. I have to say though, gut instinct tells me that there's not going to be a positive outcome in any of this. I've learned to trust that instinct as it's very rarely wrong."

"And by the way, Visa Vie, me gaining access to the sciency one's archives just because I'm Intel" Kevin said "would I ever do such a thing?" he added, putting on an over exaggerated pious look on his face and placing his hands prayer like in front of him.

"Hope for the sun, prepare for the storm. Mother always said such." Valeria gave a soft smile. "While Father always said to trust your instinct. I suppose such concepts are universal. We can compare and contrast social memes in the future, provided we survive the present." a pause, "We should return to the bridge, just in case. I can't authorize any course of action, but we should be prepared to defend ourselves if we must."

"As for you gaining access to Science division's files, certainly not. You'd have to be here to do that." she gave a rare smile. "I think that covers everything I wanted to talk with you about. If we're done, then you're dismissed Mister Kilbane." she spoke in a tone of faux authority.

"By your leave M'lady" Kevin said, theatrically bowing low before Valeria, and as he stood up again, a childish grin on his face, he added "I shall away and find out what these brigands be up to!"

She gave a smirk at his antics that lingered well after he left the room. It did have a nice ring to it, though: Captain Mordin. Not after today, she thought to herself. Though, alive and never captain was certainly better than postmortem promotions. Suddenly, she felt like an intruder in the Ready Room, and with such a feeling in her gut, her gut was telling her to return to her bridge. Temporary such it may be.