The first plague (Part 4)

Posted on Fri Dec 29th, 2017 @ 9:21am by Captain Landon Mabrade & Captain Darius Cayne & Colonel Wilhelm Baron von Hackleberg & Commander Ashe Rii'Na MD & Commander Raven Adams & Lieutenant Aria Kanzaki & Lieutenant JG Terry Wu & Lieutenant JG Serena Giacomo & Khiy Tal'ehrihn
Edited on on Fri Dec 29th, 2017 @ 9:37am

1,057 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Pirating Typhon resources
Location: Briefing room

OLD

Raven was surprised by Darius' actions, and the strong negative emotions he was projecting. "You were asked to attend this meeting the same as the rest of us," she said quietly to Darius. "None of us knows why escorts are being attacked, or what the end goal might be. We're not here to fight over who's right or who's wrong, but to brainstorm. If you have an opinion, please share it."

NEW

Darius looked over to Raven and replied softly. "This isn't my first time dealing with something like this. The same thing happened the last time. Everyone jumping to the easiest answer, trying to solve the problem right away. You want to know what happened last time? People ended up dead. As much as your friend is getting on my last nerve, I don't want to see him dead. I don't want to see anyone dead. I can't help but see this going down the same road."

"We're not solving this, we're talking about what we can do to learn more." She wasn't about to tell him that Morticia would probably be involved. She hadn't told him about her yet. "There's a difference," she replied. "And if you know of a similar situation, you should say so."

"You clearly want to talk, otherwise you wouldn't have been so rude." Khiy said, growing more frustrated. "So talk. Save us from ourselves."

"I'm sorry, do I throw myself in your private conversations?" Darius replied, looking over to Khiy. He held back before looking over to Raven and replying. "See? Even though he gave me lip and I could break his face easily, I restrained myself." He gave a slight smirk before adding. "I have a few ideas that could help narrow down the who and the where, but I wouldn't want to ruin your boys hubris because he clearly has the answers to everything."

Raven had enough. "If he's giving you lip it's because you came in here with a chip on your shoulder and an attitude that told all of us how little you really want to be here and in spite of my asking, you seem unwilling to help." 

She turned to Khiy. "Morticia said she'll be heading out shortly to see if she can find where the pirates originated from. She might get answers that a Starfleet officer wouldn't. She has no plans to do more than gather information."

"Clearly, you're right. My mistake. Far be it from me to get in the way of your loyalty to your friend." Darius immediately got up, taking his PADD. "If you'll excuse me." He left the room. 

No, clearly she was not right. And she could have used his help to gather information, but not when he was so antagonistic and refused to even share what he knew. Why did he have to be so difficult, anyway? he came in, mocked them for their BS and then intimated they were going to be at each others' throats and someone was going to end up dead. But he wouldn't explain and he wouldn't help. Well, if anyone was going to get hurt, she'd make sure it was Morticia and not someone else. She wasn't going to put anyone else's life on the line, if it came down to that.

Khiy watched the man exit the room. He sighed and ran his hand over his face. "I'm sorry Raven." He looked over the others in the room. "To you as well. It was unprofessional of me to push him. I hope we can return to the crisis at hand."

"It's okay." It was Darius' choice as well as Khiy's.

Terry had watched the drama unfold quietly, not wanting to draw any antipathy onto himself. He was actually trying to make this posting work until he could get an assignment onto an actual ship. And while annoyed at Cayne for speaking over Serena, he wasn't going to enter that fray. "Ok, if we're looking to ask the right questions, I have one. Could these pirates be in any way involved with the terrorists who blew up the Promenade?"

"Raven and Aria, that angle falls upon you two." Mabrade nod to Wu. "That is something to consider with respect to the timing and weakening our defenses good observation Wu." Mabrade took a breath to get his thoughts straight. "Attacking to weaken escorts could also be a ploy to make their 'hunting' better with less resistance in the short term, still not enough profit. This feels personal, the attacks are focused but lack an obvious objective." Looking around the room. "If this is continued Terrorists activity then these attacks could be a smoke screen, but what is so important to warrant such a Smoke Screen is also in question. I would like some answers if possible?" He glanced to Billy Jo. "Commander Rhodes, you have any new toys we could pull into quick service, maybe our upgraded Saber out of the docks soon?"

"Not in the way of ships, but I have some toys we've been playing with over at the shipyards," Billy Jo said. "We've got some EMP cannons that can shoot a warp core or a comm system as easily as I can shoot a gnat at 500 paces. We'll shut down any ship that tries to approach us without proper clearance."

"Nice to know." Mabrade said and while he had eye contact with her. "Think you can spare some for the Patrol ships, if we could get one of those pirates we might find a bit more information?"

Khiy spoke. "You made an interesting point earlier Captain. Significant Starfleet support could be called in to deal with this threat within hours. Could that be what their objective is? Draw attention to the station and leave pockets exposed elsewhere? I wouldn't presume to ask what Starfleet patrol patterns look like, but if the closest available ships are pulled to the Typhon for support, what would be abandoned?"

Khiy leaned back in his chair and tapped on the table. "The big question I have is really quite simple. It's the same question your average pirate asks himself about everything; 'how do I profit?' Their ships are taking damage and expending ordinance, those are big out of pocket expenditures. Currently they are operating at a loss. How do they profit?"

TBC

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