Posted by Lieutenant Commander Bethany Kovra Gadi (Chief of Security) in side - sim: Contingency Plans (Tag Martel)

Posted by Lieutenant Miranda Martel (Chief Engineer) in side - sim: Contingency Plans (Tag Martel)

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Bethany Kovra Gadi (Chief of Security) in side - sim: Contingency Plans (Tag Martel)
Posted by… suppressed (14) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Bethy hadn’t talk to Mira Miranda since that night the four of them had gotten drunk on Calloway’s shine. Now they had switched ships, which Bethy was sure Miranda had been even more busy than any other department. Just the cloak alone was a huge move.

But now the cruise ship had arrived and Martel had been, last Bethy had heard, ordered to go on the cruise. It bothered her for reasons she couldn’t quite explain. She made her way to Miranda’s quarters and pressed the chime.

Gadi, CoS

Who could possibly be– She sighed, taking a deep breath as she collected herself. “It’s open.”

Turning, she faced the door. As the portal opened, admitting Gadi the tension in her shoulders dropped, well a little anyway. “Business or pleasure,” she asked, head tipped forward, brows lowered. It was the look of someone ready for a fight, plain as day for someone with Gadi’s training and experience. A moment later, it melted away into a brief smirk.

Marti, cranky CE

Bethy stepped in and took in Miranda’s edginess and paused as the door shut. She stayed relaxed, but looked unsure until Miranda smirked. “A little of both. Well, business and personal anyway. Do you have a minute? I know you have to leave soon.”

Gadi, CoS

“First they throw me on the Cloud, prancing around as some preppy … You know what, nevermind. What’s up,” she said, moving over to drop onto the couch. There was hardly anywhere to sit in these god forsaken pillboxes. She patted the couch next to her and tucked one foot up under her as though she might try to hatch it.

Marti

Bethy moved over and sat on the couch, cross-legged, turned sideways to look at her. “Yeah, I know. I was with the Cap when she made the deal. I don’t know if it was a good idea. This whole thing is…crap.” Bethany sighed and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “Well you’re leaving and well, there is no solid plan. Not that plans last after the first move, but still…and no one is really prepped or trained for this. They are sending almost all the senior staff, and very little information with dangerous people. The unknowns alone…” Bethy was rambling. She paused with a breath and reached into her pocket. “Anyway, I wanted to uh give you this.” She held out a bracelet. Braided leather cuff with three gemstones set equidistant from each other. “This one ” She pointed at the gushing one nearest the buckle, “turn twice. One counter-clockwise and then back clockwise, then depress it. It will activate a beacon transponder. I’ll be able to beam you out.”

Gadi, COS

Miranda sat up more and studied the object. “And the other two?” There was no small amount of curiosity there. Already she was turning over and theorizing how it might work. Of course she’d poke and prod at it, but with caution and care. Last thing she would want to do is damage it, render it inert., anything like that. But ever the engineer, she loved to know how thins worked. And of course the knowledge would be useful in the future.

Miranda

“Just decorative. I have had more versatile ones, but I’m not an engineer. This is the extent of my skill with them.” Bethany shrugged. “A … friend designed those. They are a deeply guarded secret.”

Gadi, COS

“Well, hopefully I won’t have to use it.” She frowned. “If things go sideways, there probably wont be a chance to though.” After a moment she held out her hand, either so Gadi could pass it over, or attach it herself.

Bethy reached out and fastened it around Miranda’s wrist and there was a soft snick. “It locks. It will recognize my bioprint and yours to remove it. No one else can. It won’t falk off by accident. If things seem to be going bad you can do the two turns to prep it, so you only have to depress it. You turn it off by reversing the process.” Bethy met her gaze, “I hope you don’t need it, but this makes sure you get home.”

Reaching up, Miranda rubbed at the dark circles around her eyes with a groan. “Refresh me on our time table? I can barely remember what day it is right now. Maybe I can get a few hours of sleep on the cruise liner before all this goes down. Or something. I dunno.”

Miranda

“Three days. The ship arrived so you can board any time. Mwezi and Dacascos are finding the targets and lead then to the exfil point. Mwezi is also setting the charges to the transport scramblers. Speaking of if you turn on the beacon and they are still up, I can track you and will come get you no matter what. Okay?” Bethy seemed to realize she was still holding Miranda’s hand and let go. “Last I heard there is still a team planning to ‘pirate’ the cruise ship. That is how we are planning the targets to go willingly with Mwezi and Dacascos. Cause whatever sabotage you can.”

Gadi, COS

“Yeah, that would have been my plan if I had been allowed to go as a tech. But ~noooo~. Instead, I’m stuck in this stupid rich-girl cover that…” MIranda shook her head, her jaw set. “Truth is, I’m not even sure what use I’ll be, stuck in that role.” The decision wasn’t very bright. It was downright stupid in her book, not that she would say so out loud. This whole operation had been it’s own lunacy. A nightmare she kept expecting to wake up from. This was just one more layer of madness and insanity to stack onto the pile she supposed.

Miranda

“You are a rich girl who is mad at her daddy and rebelling. You are beautiful and rich. You can get anyone to do what you want. Guests and staff. Play to that.” Bethy nodded. “I understand how you feel. Sabotage anything you can. Even getting people to distrust each other can cause chaos when the raid happens.”

Gadi, CoS

“I feel like I should be logging holodeck time for intelligence training. Counter-interrogation. That sort of thing. I can handle myself in a firefight, or hand to hand. I’m sharp and can think on my feet, but this is just… not my skillset. Yeah, I know, it’s just social engineering. Har-har.” She shook her head with a half laugh she didn’t really feel. Social engineering, because there is no patch for people’s stupidity.

Reaching up, she ran her fingers through her hair, scrubbing at her scalp, forcing herself to stay seated on the couch, rather than pacing around the tiny box of her quarters. The last time she’d stuck her neck out left her with some prescription-grade issues. And now they wanted her to stick her hand back in the flames, in the most exposed, least safe way.

Miranda gathered herself up with a deep breath in, holding it, and letting it out slowly. Box breathing. “I suppose I could use that. Snarky and snotty isn’t much of a reach.” She broke into a momentary grin. “Need a reason to sell why I’m pissed off at daddy though. And blowing his money.”

Marti

Bethy laughed, hard, for a moment. “Pretend Piklesimer is your dad. You are plenty angry at him. Then again who isn’t? Take that anger and channel it. Your ‘daddy’ is trying to control your life, not see you as a person, and you are out to claim your life as your own. In a spectacularly explosive and embarrassing way, to pass him off.”

Gadi, CoS

She turned the idea over in her head, more imagining in layers, then broke out into a half laugh and a bright grin. “That’s not too far off the mark. That’s why you’re the professional,” she said, then shook her head. Reaching up, she ran her fingers through her hair, then made a mental note. “Too bad this isn’t a Mythology class. I’m sure we’d have a cosmetologist aboard that could help with some style considerations.” Miranda chewed her lower lip in thought. “Then again short hair might be just fine for this. Dad would be so mad I cut off all my long hair.”

Miranda

Bethany nodded, “Good. Go with either no cosmetics because it takes away from the image of a demure lady or go outrageous and bold for the same reason. But avoid gaudy. Clothes - Tom boyish or again outrageously teasing.”

Bethany

“Well, I’ve already got the tom boy thing going,” she mused. “Might be fun to do something else, right? Though that’s kind of out of my wheelhouse. I’d need something i can pull off on my own.” Slowly she chewed her lower lip. “At least with a holodeck and replicators this is an easy game of Dress Up.” She broke into bright smile.

Miranda

Bethany advised caution. “Fun to do something different is good. But make sure you are comfortable with it. You don’t want to go into this particular situation with something you are not sure about. You can’t change personality mid mission. But if it appeals to you, go for it and embrace it fully.” She pulled out a small data chip. “This has a hacking program on it. It will basically change the language display of the ship to a conglomeration of 30 different languages. They will have to have a really talented linguist to unscramble it. It’s filled with a few photos and ‘love letters’ between you and Capn Jack.” Their holographic AI. “There is a photo of the two of you together in the lounge from the pelican. Delete that file and it will activate the program. Otherwise the chip is just a data chip if they check it. When you all are ready to start the take over, plug this in and delete that file. It will create total chaos without affecting critical systems and set off early warnings.”

Bethany

“Wouldn’t…” Miranda paused for a moment, simulating the effects in her head. The concern that their universal translators would just sort it out quickly. But the problem was that the data set would be too big. It would take a while to sort out all the gobbley-gook back into their respective languages. Toss in some cryptography spicy sauce… It would be areal headache. The only thing they could do in the interim would be firewalling off the affected systems. Assuming that didn’t work, they’d have to purge the main operating system. Either resetting it entirely or wiping it and operate with the base operating system. It would function, but like crap.

“That’s pretty devious,” she said with an evil grin a couple seconds later. “As for the other thing, I don’t see those things being contradictory, unless we were to go for a total glamor look. Which isn’t really what I had in mind. Tomboy is probably more my speed, especially in this situation. I guess anyway. That’s the most comfortable.

“Speaking of Jack… With the Pelican gone, what’s … going on with him?”

Miranda