Group decisions

Posted on Fri Dec 23rd, 2016 @ 2:03am by Commander Bertrand Cuprum & Captain Elijah Michaels & Commander Cor Cordale

Mission: Smoke and Mirrors
Location: Captains Ready Room
Timeline: 09:00 hours (Day after the evacuation.)

Elijah poured himself a fresh cup of tea. The Captain had showered and slept a little before getting back to work to deal with the aftermath of the Andrasi situation. He had a Colony of confused people and some very ethical matters to contend with.

"Commander Cuprum, Commander Cordale please report to my Ready Room." Elijah said pressing the Com panel on his desk.

Bert had recovered instantly, as soon as he was away from the effects of the Andrasite gas. He had ordered the Victory to break orbit but remain close, as they still had a number of Andrassi patients in the medical bay. Understandably, without the influence of the gas, none of the patients had shown any signs of the violence and paranoia of their planet-side kin.

He arrived in the ready room, somehow making his tight red uniform look rumpled. There was just something about Bertrand that made him look like he hadn't slept, even if he stepped out of a salon.

"Morning, Captain," he said as he arrived, handing a PADD over. "Current situation brief. The Victory is fine, as are our guests, but we might have some difficulty finding a way to get them back to the planet without taking fire from their battery. Kevin's efforts were only a temporary measure to buy us a beam out window."

He watch the Captain carefully, "You found something in the records office, didn't you?"

The answer coming was interrupted by the door opening up and the resident Thux making his way in. To be blunt and direct, he looked like hammered reactor waste. In his prosthetic, a mug of coffee that held a substance blacker than the void of space that almost filled the room with the smell of cinnamon. "Mornin'." Cordale muttered as he entered the ready room. He took a sip of what was in his mug.

There was already the rumor going around the ship of the last time Cordale took his team into the mine back on the planet, and how he nearly tore someone's head off. How it took a triple dose of sedative to calm him, and how adrenaline had countered the side effects of such a dose for quite some time.

Turns out, that time was up about five minutes ago.

"I'll hit sickbay after this. Thux honor." a pause, "Promise I'll all here. Except for the headache. And the memories." and there were memories. Were he more awake, he might try to reel them in for Bertrand's sake.

Bertrand glanced at the Flux, but he worked in an industry that regularly dealt with some dark places in the soul and he had long ago developed his defences against others memories. Secretly he was glad that the gas had affected him differently. He is not sure how he would have responded if he had found himself back at Wolf 359.

"Gentlemen, a very good morning to you both." Elijah said with a nod towards the pair of them. "Take a seat, we have a lot to discuss."

Elijah trawled through the information on his personal terminal. "I have spoken with Starfleet Command, they agree with my assessment that the Andrasi are posing a risk by using the Andrasite, but as they are not affiliated with the Federation the Prime Directive takes hold."

"If they are not affiliated, how did they get a Federation frequency to send their distress call on?" Bertrand asked. "That subspace transceiver they had was of our make, not consistent with their level of tech at all."

"Gates gave it to them." Elijah said in response, not beating about the bush and getting to the point.

A name like that perked Cordale's attention instantly. "The same Gates?" he asked, just to clarify. Hell for all he knew, Gates was a common name.

Bertrand took a deep and slow breath, "So. There is the bit of the story that I was missing."

He looked at the pair, "You may remember a mission we did not 'officially' take part in, to a station that never existed, to recover data about a project that never happened? We handed in all of the data, which we never collected, from the research over to Agent Smith. Except that I had viewed much of the data and... well, my memory is not entirely organic any more, and Nanites are very good at retrieving and rebuilding missing bits of information. Not always accurately, it has to be said but..."

"When I was looking at the chemical formula for the Andrisite gas it... it filled a memory gap the Nanites had been struggling with. It is a key ingredient in the W-49 gas that was released onto the station. If Gates had been here, then it is probable that he has been trading for the gas, hence the sudden increase in its use and production."

Cordale calmly transferred his coffee to his living hand. "But without something of substance, we just have your word against his. No offense Bertrand, but he's got a nice wall of pips to hide behind." Cordale pointed out. Then he turned to Elijah, "So, what's the next move on our part? We've got a society we're technically not supposed to interfere with, beyond what's already happened, but they're potentially suffering because of Federation interference. I can work with the Science teams to work on a counter-agent and delivery system for the Andrisite, but I don't think we're very welcome down there at the moment."

He paused, to take a swig, "Even I know, we've got to tread lightly here."

Elijah nodded in agreement at the assessment of his two colleagues. "I agree, we have to tread lightly on this matter." The Captain sat back in his chair. "Alright here is what we do, we use the data we collected from the survey to run a simulation on if we can cure it." He commented. "We adhere to the Prime Directive in this case and if we can cure it we make a decision from there."

"Thing is," Bert rubbed the back of his neck, "there is a cure. None of those in our sick bay show any signs of the issues on the surface. It looks like the effects are brought on by the presence of the gas, though prolonged exposure does increase your response to it."

"Bottom line, though, if the Andrassi are not willing to give up using it as a power source, then their society is going to be one built on violent bouts of paranoia. Won't be the first."

"Not necessarily. I mean, if the brains in the Science division can work on an inhibitor or some form of inoculation, maybe we can avoid a society of violence." Cor speculated, "I mean, it's a long shot, but that's kinda our job."

"That is a fair point." Elijah said with at Cors assessment.

"On other topics," he pulled another PADD, "Starfleet are trying to address the Jannari threat. We lost contact with a colony on the border. We do not know why but SF are treating it as suspicious. We have orders to meet with a small fleet at the Borim sector for training in new tactical strategies in preparation of engaging the Jennari again."

He handed the PADD to Cor, "They have some weapons and engine specs they think may be more resistant to their weapons."

Cordale took the PaDD with a nod, "I'll see about tipping the scales in our favor for our next meeting. Maybe then we'll be the one laying down terms?" the Thux said, a dark air about him that normally wasn't present. If it was something he didn't abide at all, it was the hint of the Jennari enslaving the peoples of the Federation.

"Alright, we try and resolve the Andrassi situation as quickly and efficiently as we can." Elijah said as he turned into the serious Captain for a second. "I want the Ship ready to leave Orbit on the off chance we can't get anywhere."

"We still have thirteen Andrassi in our Medical bay. We can't simply beam them down, because as soon as we come into range that orbital gun will fire, and if we lower our shields for transport..." Bertrand just left the comment hanging. "We could try and take a hit, drop the shields for transport and then raise shields again, but the timing... It'd be a hard thing for our new Tactics officer."

"Load the Andrassi onto shuttles, launch the shuttles outside of the range of their weapon, and have the shuttles hide behind the Victory. Our shields will be up, but the shuttles have transporters, right? Keep the shuttles' shields down, let them do all the beaming, and we'll act as a shield." Cordale suggested. "Unless you want to break in our new officer. Then yeah, timing." he chuckled.

Elijah sat back and pondered his options. "Number One, get the Shuttles ready to Launch and get me Pilots to fly them." The Captain nodded in appreciation of his two Officers. "I don't want to have anymore casualties if we are going into War Games."

He turned to Cor. "Commander get me extra power to Shields and Structural Integrity, divert from whatever you need." The Captain nodded. "I'd like you to take Ops for this one, you could use the Bridge Experience."

Bert nodded, "I'll prepare some coordinated flight plans to minimize each shuttles exposure to potential ground fire, and rotate our facing so we can distribute the hits. We will still need a moment for each shuttle to be clear of us and enable beaming. When that happens they'll be exposed, so timing is going to be on a hairline."

He looked at Elijah, "We'll get it done, Captain."