Last Chance
Posted on Wed Jul 3rd, 2024 @ 3:01pm by Captain Remy Johansen & Lieutenant Commander Razka Kas & Lieutenant Eirly Andersen
1,272 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Helping Brunel
Location: Holana, Main Shuttlebay, USS Astrea
Timeline: MD 13, 0500 Hours
Kas had relieved the main Shuttlebay's Delta shift early, over an hour prior to their planned departure, and Spello would be showing up early for Bridge duty relieving Delta's Bridge any time now. The Captain had left her communicator in her quarters and had brought a communicator for everyone with no personal identifying information associated with it.
Kas was in the Holana prepping for their journey, he'd told the Delta shift he'd be venting the plasma tanks to explain the evaluation of the shuttle bay. Kas opened a concealed access panel near the auxiliary shield generator. He began connecting seemingly random circuits. He was activating the shuttle's sheath tech his people had installed that wasn't completely legal in Federation space The Hybrid had already activated the COMM unit, once Remy brought their communicators he'd link them up, and their communication would be undetectable. He'd also set up the crew cabins for his comrades.
"Eirly should be here any minute," Remy said as she stowed a small bag away on board. "We've got a half hour or so window as our sweet spot to get out of the area undetected."
Kas nodded, he trusted Remy to get them past Starfleet. It was his own people he was concerned about.He knew that more Quath’Mar vessels were voyaging in Federation space than normal. He didn't know if they would detect them. He didn't make eye contact with Remy as he moved past her toward the cockpit.
"So sorry I'm late, I had a few little mishaps before I could get here," Eirly said as she entered the shuttle and saw the Captain and Lieutenant Commander already there and added with a firm nod in both their direction, "Captain, Commander."
"This isn't a 'Captain' kind of mission. We're off books starting now. You can call me Remy." Remy handed Eirly an unassigned communicator. "Welcome to the team."
"Call me Kas," The Hybrid stated. "Stow your gear in the cabin on the left."
Eirly took the communicator with a nod and fixed it to her jacket, removing her official one and putting it in her bag and stowing it to where Kas had directed. She took a deep breath in and out: it didn't feel right to be so casual with the Captain, sorry, Remy and Kas.
"Thanks guys, are we waiting on anyone else?" She queried as she took an available seat.
"This is it for the away team," Remy answered. "We've got some assistance staying on board. Capulet will be quietly keeping our tracks covered. She's good."
"Okay, this is fine" Eirly muttered in Danish and nodded, suddenly realising that she was going to get closer to the Captain than she ever thought would be possible. "I don't believe I've met Capulet before, but obviously I'm going to trust your judgement on this one." Capulet sounded familiar, but she was just remembering the old poetry she'd once read about.
"Our Chief Science Officer. You've definitely crossed paths. We won't jinx our trip by planning any formal introductions just yet," Remy responded. "All right guys, let's get moving - last chance if anyone wants out. We'll talk on the way."
“I am with you to the end,” Kas said.
"I'm all in," Eirly said with a nod and half smile.
The shuttle Bay depressurized and the door opened revealing the stars.
“Strap in,” Kas said as the Holana came to life. “The ride will be a little Bumpy. I have to navigate us under the sensor array. I can't keep us completely in the blind spot, but this should make covering our tracks easier.”
After they cleared the ship and were safely on their way at warp, Remy started to explain in more detail. "A little over five years ago I was a science officer working with two researchers. We had in our possession three positronic matrices. My involvement was... we had intelligence, proof that an organization was working on genetic based warfare - viruses - that would target the human population and potentially others."
"After the Mars attack, all matrices were collected by Starfleet. Known medical uses discontinued, research shut down. We didn't really expect it to go on this long. Well, I didn't. But apparently some others did. We're going to go try to bring one of these back," Remy stated.
"You know they're not just going to let us walk in and out with one of them, right?" Eirly asked with a quizzical look on her face. "Do we at least have a rough plan of how to get in and out, where to go, what to look for while we're there so we can minimize the risks of being caught?"
"What we have is a tip," Remy responded. "Of course we have equipment here to mask our biometric information, among other things should we need it, and this shuttle can cloak. But we'll start here."
Remy took out a disk shaped device and held it in her hand as she activated it, first bringing up a holoimage of a woman - about twice Remy's age. "Rebecca Lange was a quiet benefactor for a lot of the medical research involving the positronic matrices during the time. The word is that she may have found a way to keep some of going off grid. Problems 1 and 2 will be finding her and convince her that we aren't a Starfleet trap."
"I can help with the second," Kas said. "The Til'Gisa clan of my people have been trying to convince the Federation to give them a matrix to heal a rare ailment some of their elders suffer from. I can tell this woman I'm working for them."
Kas gave Remy a guarded look, "once we've helped the boy I would like to give the matrix to them. They would use it well and wouldn't let it fall into the wrong hands."
"I appreciate the offer, but it's not as simple as that. You are a Starfleet officer, and that is easy enough to look into. It's best we front who we are anyway, we don't need traces of being looked up while we are out here," Remy said. "And she'll know who I am. If she did continue the projects, my name would have been all over the work. If we can get to her, we'll need to be completely forthcoming. We have too much to lose if we aren't."
"And what if we can't get to her? Is there anyone else we could potentially go to that wouldn't basically out us for what we're doing there?" Eirly asked, more to confirm that all the bases were covered and there wasn't going to be any holes in the plan for something to go wrong. Afterall, they all had a lot riding on this being a success.
Remy sighed and stood up. "If we can't get to her, then Chrys' role becomes even more crucial. I was part of a team of three scientists working with half a dozen matrices that we built. Starfleet is holding them somewhere, and I plan to find a way to bring one of them back."
Kas pressed a few buttons on the console, "I just activated the cloaking device. The deflector dish and sensor array are at a quarter power, so we'll be even harder to detect. The Holana's cloaking device is unregistered, I guess we can add that to our list of infractions."
Captain Remira Johansen
Commanding Officer
USS Astrea
Lt. Commander Razka Kas
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Astrea
Lieutenant Eirlyu Andersen
Chief of Security and Tactical Divisions
USS Astrea
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