Planning the Plan
Posted on Monday October 26th, 2020 @ 8:00pm by Niyahra Riohn & Timothy Bennett & Wraet tr'Melanth & Tevek
Mission:
Marauder's Map
Location: Unknown, Surface of Rangalor V
Timeline: MD02 - Early morning
1711 words - 3.4 OF Standard Post Measure
Niyahra was pacing the small, dimly lit, room. There were so many thoughts going through her head and mostly they centered around the logic of calling this meeting and the risk of reaching out to all these different parties. She turned to look at Wraet every time she reached the end of the room, hoping to get some sort of reassurance from the presence of this Romulan advisor that had presented himself to her yesterday with a proposition, "They'll be here..." She said, more to reassure herself than Wraet, she wondered if the man had ice in his veins.
The Romulan watched her pacing, like a set'leth waiting for a dinner bowl. It was almost amusing - almost. The Riohn symbiote inside her might be more than twice his age, but Niyahra was very young and she had had a life that predisposed her to expect the worst. Wraet could understand that; in many ways he had too. However, he had long ago learned to master anxious impatience. "I'm sure they will," he stated calmly. "In fact, I take a degree of comfort in the fact that they are not here yet. Being thorough about avoiding detection takes time."
In a dank corner at the far end of the room the non discreet green and white orbs of a Romulan transporter beam hummed and rapidly constructed three individuals.
They all wore burnt orange uniforms, two of them were battled hardened and weathered looking humans adorned with black curaiss and carrying large black lances. They flanked a Vulcan male in a gold curaiss. Above his left eye a Borg implant flashed with a red light. The Vulcan surveryed the room and nodded in the direction of the individuals who had already arrived. Before the war he would have offered them the words 'live long and prosper'. But now they seemed like empty words.
Lightly tapping the helmet shapped emblem on his curaiss he spoke calmly. "Tevek to the Surak, area is secure. Maintain cloak and active scans, wait for my instructions."
"Just Ty, then." She looked at the chronometer on her wrist, wondering how long they'd wait for him. And if he was compromised, they'd have to move away from this location because he had known this location and if he knew then the DPI would know. And if the DPI would know then they'd be storming this place any minute now.
Having surveyed the evolving scene, and now being more certain than not, that the whole thing wasn’t ultimately a DPI round up, Ty decided to reveal himself. His conversation with the Trill had been quite illuminating, if a little hard to believe; he was still trying to get his head around it. He had made her a promise though, that he would be here; two promises really, the second being that he wouldn’t hesitate to kill her if she revealed the past he had left behind. He removed the JemH’adar shrouding device from his forearm and unshrouded as he raised his hands, the weapons being drawn on him by the crowd thankfully didn’t fire. He looked up to the shrouding device, held aloft in his right hand; “previous owner didn’t need it any more. Handy.” He offered by way of a sort of ‘I come in peace’.
Feeling her heart beat in her throat and her hand clutched around the small phaser pistol she all but shot him at the sight of the shimmer, she bit her tongue not to shout out his actual name as he had been quite clear he didn't really feel like sharing that with anyone else, "Dramatic entry... that could've gotten you killed." She had to consciously will her hand to release the grip on the phaser. She took in a deep breath and took a moment to reassert herself before looking over at Wraet, "I believe you have a proposal for us."
"Indeed." Wraet inclined his head to her, still in the mode of his Vulcan cover. "I have information on a starship, one that Starfleet was in the process of building when the war ended, but was abandoned and forgotten. According to the data, it was close enough to complete that it should be possible to make it functional without too much work. Therefore, I lay before you a proposal: Claim this vessel and use it for the purpose it never saw - to fight the Dominion. I can provide coordinates and a ...degree of aid... to accomplish this."
Ty scoffed, and his less than healthy lifestyle made him momentarily lose control of it as he began to cough, recovering after a few seconds, he shook his head. “That’s what you brought me out here for?” He shot a disgruntled look at the Trill; “what - you’re going to take on the entire Dominion with a twenty year old half ass ship!?”
A slanted eyebrow ascended. "Hardly," Wraet replied dryly. "We would no more be taking on the' entire Dominion' with this ship than you were when relieving a Jem'Hadar of that shrouding device. However, what we could do with it would have significantly greater impact. However, if you're not interested, I suggest you leave as I see no reason to provide further information as to someone who adds nothing but a potential security risk."
Tevek had been watching these exchanges with a level of professional disdain. This was not how the guard operated and the lack of discipline was unsettling. But still these were his clients and after all 'a contract is a contract'. He stepped forward and patted the gold plated Romulan disruptor that hung at his hip. "Perhaps we should eliminate any security threats now?" He suggested with no hint of emotion. "Of course, that may incur additional costs." He informed the group in the same dry monotone.
Wraet lifted a hand with the utter confidence of the person bankrolling the contract. "That will not be necessary." His eyes slide toward the human. "Yet."
"Can we just not threaten to kill each other?" Niyahra looked around and then at Ty, "I brought you here because I need someone that's familiar with the controls, familiar with the tactical systems, someone that I can trust." She looked around indicating clearly that the rest of those around her clearly didn't fall in that last category, "if that's not you, feel free to walk away and continue crying into your glass of off-brand ale."
Ty looked sideways at each of those present, then back to Niyahra. Behind his thick beard, he contemplated his chances with his disruptor for a moment; an old habit of sizing the room up. Deciding better of the odds, he looked dead into the eyes of the deadpan man with the Romulan pistol on his belt, pointing at his old Trill comrade without breaking his glare, he replied "so long as she's here, so am I. Not a moment longer".
With at least a bit more confidence that Bennett wouldn't be walking away she turned to Wraet, "So, tell us what aid are you offering?" She knew better than to ask what support they would get from the RSE. He'd never admit to working with them. And it was abundantly clear that they would be used as disposable and deniable assets once they had gotten their hands on a vessel.
"I have connections that should prove useful," Wraet replied, head tipping fractionally toward Tevek. "But my primary contribution is knowledge; in this case, knowledge of the location of a starship built on a standard design but with systems upgraded to make her a ship of war. She was not completed, but my sources indicate that her records were altered to make it appear that she was not even spaceworthy with the intent of that she would be left to lie as scrap until she could be retrieved. Sadly, those who had hoped to retrieve her did not survive the aftermath of the war."
"So now it's up to us," Niyahra nodded with a new found resolution, before looking over at Bennett, "Are we going to do this?"
Ty clicked his tongue and made a long, direct eye contact; without saying anything he nodded, conveying in that look years of an old relationship which said that he was with her from this point on.
Tevek folded his arms and looked around the room. "You have hired my entire company to retrieve one ship?" He asked bluntly. His human half felt a slight unease about being back on a Federation vessel, the Romulan ships provided to the Latinum guard had become like home and felt far more secure than a Starfleet vessel ever did!
He paced away from his guards and looked Niyahra in the eye. "I'm not entirely sure you have thought through the logic of this plan." He stated. "One ship can only do so much, perhaps you're leaders should consider an alternative plan." He suggested.
"Surely you can see the strategic value of a former Starfleet ship - one not associated with any current faction. It was after all my understanding that your leadership preferred that Latinum Guard ships not be too obviously associated with actions the Dominion would deem rebellious," Wraet replied evenly, neglecting of course to mention that it was also the preference of the Tal Shiar. "But if you have the authority to over ride that decision..." Eyebrows jogged up and down, the vulcanoid equivalent of a shrug.
"And one ship can do so much more than no ship at all," Niyahra added to that, then she smiled and made wide motion to the rest of the gathered people, "plus, you're not just getting a ship, you're getting all of us too!" She then leaned forward a bit, "oh, and you're getting paid of course." She looked around the room, "We're flying out at 1400 hours, the location will be shared with you five minutes prior. So you better be prepared." She didn't wait for a response, she had to make sure they had a way to get there, and a capable person to fix the ship up. She had heard of someone and as luck would have it whispers had that someone within travel distance.
