Posted by Captain Chris Taggart (Commanding Officer) in Crossing the Klingon Border – Bridge
Snip

. Valharra sat at tactical with CWO Dawson. “Um, can the shuttles be cloaked? If so, could we deploy two and then we go in three directions, so the trail wll be distorted, they won’t know which ship to truly follow, and then we could rendezvous at a different location after we are sure we lost them.” LT Valharra suggested. He thought it might be crazy, but it might be crazy enough to work.

Lt., j.g. Valharra, Security Officer

“Negative, Mr Valharra,” Kastarak replied quickly. “Cloak only works within our own warp bubble, so the shuttles would only be covered while within a hundred metres or so from our ship.” It was a good thought, though. He made a mental note to let Valharra know that once the danger was over.

“More suggestions?”

Kastarak, Lt Cdr
First Officer and Navigations Officer

“I can try and build a small version of the cloaking device for the shuttles, Sir?” PAwl offered. But it would take time.” I might be able to adjust the cloaking and shield harmonics of the cloaking device so that it passes through us to make us appear that we have left or moved on.” Pawl also offered.

[[Lt_Jg ]] [[Pawl Batario]]
[[Chief_Engineer]] [[Uss_Chernov]]

Dawson stood, his face resolute. He knew Kastarak may not want to hear this plan, but it might be the only option they had.
“Sir,” Dawson started, “I don’t think we’ll be able to make a clean escape. From what I see, we have one advantage over the Romulans. We can fire and use our shields while cloaked. They can’t. They won’t be expecting an attack from a cloaked ship. I have located where the ship is, and am pretty confident that there should only be one, but I will widen the scans to be sure there aren’t more Romulan vessels. If it is just the one, sir, I suggest hitting it and hitting it hard. An extensive attack with photon torpedoes and phasers should destroy the ship entirely, all while keeping us fully cloaked. The Romulans won’t have time to warn the Empire, and they can’t admit to being found in Klingon space any more than we can. The Klingons may detect the fight, but by the time they arrive, we should be far from here, leaving them to find the remains of a Romulan ship in their space. This serves a duel purpose of also distracting the Klingon patrols by giving them a mystery to solve while we continue to traverse undetected.”

Lt. Q Dawson, CWO

It was a radical solution that Dawson proposed. Not necessarily a bad one, it reminded Kastarak of the Vulcan hello of not too long ago, when Vulcans and Klingons established relations. Moreover, the Romulan–Federation cold (sometimes hot) war since over a century back would also make this solution legitimate. Kastarak hoped though that the crew could come up with a better, less violent solution. But both Valharra’s and Batario’s solutions were unreasonable given the necessity of fast-paced action. If the Vorta Vor figured out who they were, they could be under attack any second now.

“Thank you, Mssrs Dawson, Batario,” Kastarak said succintly. Dawson’s proposal required the captain’s consent. Kastarak turned his head to the captain, “Sir?”

Kastarak, Lt Cdr
First Officer and Navigations Officer

Symar waited, eager to see where things went from here.

-Lieutenant Symar: Chief Medical Officer-

William frowned, beyond the riskiness of the move it went squarely against his morals, the objective of the mission, Federation law and their rules of engagement. He busied himself with trying to find whatever it was that sent out the signal to the Romulan ship.

CSO, 2O

Before letting the captain answer, Kastarak noticed a shift in Mr Grey.

“Mr Grey, your suggestions and understanding of the situation, please?”

Kastarak, Lt Cdr
First Officer and Navigations Officer

William’s head swung up and looked at Kastarak, damn the man he’d learned quickly how to function as a good XO. “I don’t have a suggestion as of yet beyond discovering how we were tracked. However I am wholeheartedly against any hostile action without cause, Starfleet does not and should not commit blatant acts of murder.”

CSO, 2O

Pawl starts doing a search for anything that may cause a leak or cause their detection. along with starting the research, to fix it fast. as his fingers danced across the console. Pawl was focused on this idea. Kassak might pick up on his focus to find answers.

[[Lt_Jg ]] [[Pawl Batario]]
[[Chief_Engineer]] [[Uss_Chernov]]

“If only the Romulans shared your sense of honour Commander Grey,” Symar replied, a hint of malice in his voice.

-Lieutenant Symar: Chief Medical Officer-

William turned to Symar with a full scowl “This has nothing to do with my sense of Honor Lieutenant” He said in a voice that was louder than he usually spoke with “We are Starfleet officers, we have a responsibility to uphold Federation Law and our own Rules of Engagement” Up on til this moment William hadn’t been aware that he had such a fervent belief in this regard, the moment the possibility that they’d strike first something in him screamed at the wrongness of the action.

CSO, 2O

Kastarak sensed the heightened emotional stress of the situation.

“Gentlemen, I acknowledge we are in a stressful situation. I agree with Mr Grey. We ought not to strike first when the other ship has not engaged us.”

The silence of the captain concerned Kastarak. Why was the captain so silent, we wasn’t he making an order on the cause of action?

Kastarak, who had picked up on Pawl’s fervent attempts at finding a solution, believed that Pawl and Grey could more easily find a solution together. “Mr Grey, Mr Batario, work together to find a way to either detect the Vorta Vor, or cloak whatever that they see to detect us, or, both.”

“Mr Dawson, if it comes to that we must target the Vorta Vor – I need advice on strategies.”

“And Dr Symar – in the hypothetical scenario of bringing in casualties from the Vorta Vor – what capabilities does Sickbay have to treat a group of Romulans, and, possibly, alongside our own casualties? Mr Dawson, how could internal security be organized in such a situation?

Kastarak really wanted to speak to the captain, but the captain’s apparent mental paralysis made it difficult. As such, Kastarak had to take charge of the situation and show resolution. The crew needed leadership. He may not be the best leader, but he was the leader they had right now. He intended to do his best.

Kastarak, Lt Cdr
First Officer and Navigations Officer

Symar chuckled in response to the XO’s question, “At the moment Commander, my brain and my brain alone.”

-Lieutenant Symar: Chief Medical Officer-

Dawson noted the tension on the bridge, and gave a stiff nod, more to himself than to anyone in particular. He knew that Grey was right, and he was surprised he didn’t see the wrongness of the action himself until now. But that analysis will have to wait. He needed to try to help Battario and Grey and see if they did have an alternative. If they didn’t, and Dawson suspected they wouldn’t, he also needed to be ready with an attack strategy.

“Sirs,” Dawson said, moving to Grey’s station, “I believe I have a way to help answer your questions. Before I made my suggestion, I needed to know if we could target the Vorta Vor; otherwise, any attack would be a shot in the dark. I noticed that the cloaking effects the gravitational lens of the Chernov and creates an abnormal energy distortion. I was able to cross-reference that with similar data to find the Vorta Vor, just there.” Dawson indicated a section of space about .04 AU off their starboard side. “If we widen the search area, we may be able to see if there are similar distortions in the surrounding space. If there are, then there’s likely to be more cloaked Romulan vessels, which would null the option of swift attack. I understand and sympathize with your concerns sir, and I do hope that locating the ship can give you and Mister Battario an alternative option, but we may have to face the reality that this may be our only option to make it out of this alive.”

Lt. Q Dawson, CWO

Lt. Valharra sat at the tactical station surveying the conversation and the console. He didn’t have anything to add to the situation at the moment.
Lt. Valharra, Security Officer

William shook his head to clear his thoughts, he disliked having an emotional reaction to… well anything. “You’re right Leftenant, we need to have any and all available options for us especially if it becomes necessary to fight. I should be able to run a passive scan to see if there are any more disruptions but I’d still like to track down how they found us through long distance scanning and got this close to us.”

CSO, 2O

“Thank you Mr Grey, Mr Dawson,” Kastarak commented. “I reiterate that we should not be the first ones to fire against the Vorta Vor.”

As they performed the scans Dawson recommended, and they saw that there were no other Romulan ships around. As such, the only distortion they could find would likely be the Vorta Vor. But was there a way to confirm it? Did they need to confirm it?

“Mr Dawson, Mr Valharra,” Kastarak called out. “After our surveying of the Romulan ship that we took last time we flew to Klingon space, have we identified the general weakness of Romulan ships? Would we be able to defend ourselves against a Romulan attack by targeting that weakness?”

Kastarak, Lt Cdr
First Officer and Navigations Officer

Dawson thought over strategies. He had reviewed the Romulan vessel’s findings and noted its weaknesses in the computer’s targeting. With that knowledge, he could either cripple the ship or utterly destroy it. However, neither option seemed to pan out. If they crippled the ship, the Klingons could find them and then their presence would be known. If they destroyed the ship, well, it seemed apparent that could only be a last resort. It’s up to the Captain and Kastarak.

“I have looked over the details of the Romulan ship,” Dawson said, “and I’m confident we’d be able to use that knowledge, plus our cloaking attacks, to our advantage. I don’t know how we’ll avoid a fight at this point, but if it comes to it, we’ll be ready. Either to cripple, or destroy the Vorta Vor.”

Dawson looked between Taggart and Kastarak. Once the order was given, he could have Valharra enter in the preprogrammed firing sequence based on the Vorta Vor’s location. Since there was only one ship, Dawson was confident in the Chernov’s ability to take it down.

Lt. Q Dawson, CWO

OOC: Oh thank god! I didn’t split the thread! xD

-Kieron-

Chris finally spoke up. “Well. A less violent way to to get out of this is to have the dinner here on our ship. Once their Captain and some other higher ups get here on board we can have a dinner. I myself will be in the Brig. Bound up and beaten. I will need one of you to rough me up but not too bad so I can still act. There needs to be a way that makes it look like you all got hold of the ship with a struggle. They’d expect that since these Romulans know of me and I’m a great catch and prize for them.”

“Then you, Kastarak, use your codes to delete your profile and Mr. Grey’s from the ships computer so they can’t look at the crew manifest and see that you’re part of the Chernov. If they ask about the other prisoners say that you killed them and spaced their bodies. Once w you all bring them down to me and “offer” me to them, and they accept, open my cell for and then you all stun or kill the other, but stun their Captain so we can take him prisoner.”

“Once that is going on Mr. Dawson will for upon the now, hopefully uncloaked Romulan ship and destroy it. But you can’t power up the weapons until you’re given the orders Mr. Dawson. I don’t want them to get wise to or plan or weary to it. Is that an ok of a plan? Frankly I’d like to capture the other ship and use it but I don’t see how at this time.”

Captain Chris_Taggart
Captain USS_Chernov

“Excuse me, Sir. Can we knock them out and then place them in stasis?” Pawl offered a suggestion. “And as for roughing you up as you humans put it, we could do that with some medical magic with makeup or prosthetics just unless you want the real approach??” As he focused his attention on the others. “this way if we lose power or a worse case they won’t die since the stasis units are on an independent system,” Pawl finished as he finished the idea. as he finished what he could from the engineering console. “I need to go to Engineering to finish making the adjustments I made to the systems hoping that will prevent any further detection from the Romulans or Klingons if that becomes an issue”. Pawl waited to hear what else might be said.

[[Lt_Jg ]] [[Pawl Batario]]
[[Chief_Engineer]] [[Uss_Chernov]]

“Good thinking Pawl. We need to do a quick medical magic. Don’t kill them, just knock them out....”. Chris just got another idea. “Ok. How about this. Work the medical magic on me. Then bring them down here to parade me around for them. Then give me to their Captain and ask to help you take me to their ship. Them once we are all on their ship, start stunning them and then we’ll have two ships and a bunch of Romulan prisoners. I’ll need a weapon that can be hidden on my person.”

Captain Chris_Taggart
Captain USS_Chernov

While Kastarak had been cautiously supportive of the captain’s plan, his latest comments made Kastarak a bit more weary.

“Captain, gentlemen, I must interject. Ethically, and, indeed, legally, it is hard to justify an offensive manoeuvre against the Vorta Vor. I can agree to a pretend-meeting with the senior crew of the Vorta Vor here on the Chernov, as it would allow us to be more safe and gather intelligence without the necessity of violence. Let’s circle back to plan the invitation of the Romulan captain and plan for our ‘cosplay’ so to speak, while allowing for the option of ‘knocking out’ if our cover is blown.”

Kastarak, Lt Cdr
First Officer and Navigations Officer