The Audacity of it All
Posted on Sat Dec 7th, 2024 @ 9:47pm by Commodore Dazad Targaryen & Captain Zseeq & Lieutenant Commander Eve Hall & Lieutenant Commander Melanie D'BrooNi- Haistro & Lieutenant Zhi'rev & Lieutenant JG Maran
3,978 words; about a 20 minute read
Mission:
Audacious
Location: USS Saratoga
Timeline: 2401-05-04, 10:30
"I should be able to get out there soon to see you pretty soon. Things have calmed down here, and Starfleet isn't too keen on kicking up any new storms," Captain Zseeq said to his son through the communications screen.
Zseeq Diji, the captain's son with Yodrot Martaa, looked a little uncomfortable across subspace as he shifted in his seat. Diki was born while Zseeq was serving aboard the Archimedes and, at the same time as his delivery, Zseeq was having an affair with Lieutenant Sozri Verraud nearly 1,000 light-years away. Suffice it to say, his marriage didn't last, and Diji rarely saw his father.
"We'll see, Dad. Mom's interviewing for a new job and..."
"Where's your mother interviewing?" The Deltan quickly asked, still curious about his ex-wife and her happiness.
"Some Romulan thing," the boy answered, somewhat sad to say.
It was sad indeed. Right now, Zseeq rarely had a chance to see his son and he lived on Bajor with his mother. If his mom got this new position, that would take him a Quadrant away. Zseeq was going to say more when his combadge beeped.
"Chambers to Captain Zseeq."
"Hold on a second, little guy," the captain reached forward and tapped a control. "What is it, Ensign?"
"We're approaching the Khitomer. Commodore's requesting permission to meet with the Senior Staff in the Conference Room."
Zseeq looked out the window and saw that the Saratoga had slowed to impulse speeds. He looked back at the monitor displaying the Security Officer, "Bring him aboard, Ensign, and call the Senior Staff to the Transporter Room."
"Aye Sir. Bridge out."
As soon as the screen dropped back from the Lieutenant, Captain Zseeq was surprised to see that his son was no longer on the screen. Sighing, the Deltan rose from his chair to go to the Briefing Room.
Mel had been doing paperwork so the request to come up to the briefing room was wonderful breaking up the mundane. "See you later fish," she said to the newly acquired alien fish from the planet they had very briefly been on. For some reason she hadn't named it, only referring to it as fish. "I wonder what the counselor would say, that says about me," she muttered as she closed down her work station and headed to the turbo lift.
"Doctor," her receptionist said on the way out, "The surgery this afternoon, they have asked it be rescheduled to a couple of hours later."
Mel nodded. It was a routine thing, just on one of the kids. "No problem. Move it to 3. Well hopefully if nothing comes out of this meeting more pressing."
"So you were actually not amused at being beamed out?" Sethan smiled brightly at his husband, "that poor pilot, I feel for her. I mean, you're something if you're in a foul mood... and if that's gotten you riled..." He shook his head. "Poor girl."
"What, not poor me?" Zhi mocked, "I'm a scientist, how am I to study things when I'm whisked away at the first sign of danger?"
Sethan wrapped his arms around the other man, drawing him close. "Well, I'm glad she did, I'm not quite ready to lose you just yet. And now we're both here, for now so let's savour this precious time together shall we?" His good natures expression darkened the moment his husband's comm chirped, alerting him to an upcoming briefing.
Zhi kissed him, briefly but passionately. "I'll find you after the briefing and we'll go to the holodeck. You can choose the program." He grabbed his jacket and walked out.
As Captain Zseeq entered into the Briefing Room at the rear of Deck One the lights rose to normal levels from their standby settings and the LCARS monitor on the starboard bulkhead winked alive with a schematic diagram of the Saratoga. Walking around the table, the Deltan glanced out the window and saw the Khitomer flying in formation alongside. This hadn't been the first time that he'd seen the Khitomer, and something told him it wouldn't be his last, but there was something about this time that made him feel uneasy. Almost like something was going to happen he wasn't quite prepared for.
Turning for his chair, the captain noticed the door sliding open.
Mel smiled at the Deltan Captain as she entered. "Captain, how are you?" she asked moving to the replicator to get some sort of caffeinated drink.
"I'm doing well," the Captain answered, "How is our passenger from your trip to the planet?"
"Fish is doing well. Yes I know its a terrible name. I cannot think of anything else to call it. I may just let Charlie name him. I feel the tank needs something more through. We seem to replicated his environment nicely. But its like he needs some sparkle or dazzle in there," Mel said.
"Captain, doctor," Zhi greeted as he entered the briefing room, and found a seat.
Zseeq looked away from the Doctor, "Lieutenant. Good to see you in one piece after your adventure."
"What adventure sir," the Vulcan countered, "we were safe in the caves, I don't think we were ever in any danger until we were transported back to our shuttle. We should return and complete our studies." Zhi did feel irritated about the unwanted transport, even though he couldn't blame their pilot. She had probably acted out of some logical reasoning he had yet to find.
Zseeq nodded, "I hope that we get to return at some point. The Commodore was..."
The Captain of the Saratoga was interrupted at that moment by the door to the Briefing Room sliding open, revealing the large bridge of the Saratoga beyond. From inside the command center of the Saratoga, Commander Sotra appeared first with the Commodore and two others walking alongside of him. Zseeq had a feeling he wasn't about to like what was coming.
"Attention to orders," Commander Sotra called, "Commodore on deck."
Pomp and circumstance became the order of the day when such things were ordered. He had remembered that Commodore Targaryen was a bit of a stickler for protocol, but didn't remember him being so stuffy. Standing at attention, the Deltan awaited permission to return to ease.
It came a moment later. "As you were," Commodore Dazad Targaryen directed as he walked into the polished Briefing Room. The Commander of the Maelstrom Sector, Commodore Targaryen walked with a polished poise that was characteristic of so many flag officers within Starfleet.
Walking to the head of the table, opposite where Zseeq had sat his datapad, the Commodore pulled out a chair, "Are we ready to begin, Captain?"
Nodding, Captain Zseeq answered, "Yes sir. Let's have a seat, everyone." He walked toward his chair, even more concerned about what was coming.
Four, or maybe five depending on the person, strides behind the Commodore, the unassuming Lieutenant Command Hall trailed into the room. The relatively young-looking officer took a quick glance at the gathered crew. She didn't know this group of people yet and was not sure if there was a specific pecking order or habitual seating plan for the briefing table. She tugged unassumingly at the edge of her tunic as she opted to taking a standing position around the room's perimeter.
Mel had stood up when it was announced there was a Commodore on deck. She had known a few in her time. Even her late husband had made it that far up the ladder. She smiled inwardly remembering how much Keiben would bellyache over the paperwork. This one had managed to get away from his desk. So that usually meant something interesting, something terrible or something exciting was a foot. She sat back down again when her new Captain said too and spotted the new face.
"There's a seat here Commander," she said gently. They looked rather uncomfortable tugging their tunic at the edge of the room.
"Thank you," Eve responded in a quiet tone and took the proffered seat, which she spun a few degrees towards the Commodore.
Maran, the grey skinned Cardassian, had followed the Commodore and his aides into the Saratoga's briefing room. The long haired Cardassian, kept quiet and observed the room with his hands tucked behind his back. He felt like the tension in the room could be cut with a knife, but he wasn't sure if it was the mission at hand, the presences of a Starfleet Commodore or just the amount of new faces that had just entered the room.
Commodore Dazad quietly watched as the attendees took their seats throughout the briefing room of the Saratoga. The El-Aurian Commodore had no doubt that they were all questioning exactly why they had been called, or at least he assumed as much, and he couldn't blame them for such thoughts. He'd be asking much the same if he were in their shoes. They'd be even more concerned here in a moment.
Once everyone was seated, the Commodore rose to his feet. Looking down at the tabletop, the Commodore reached down and started typing on the keyboard built into his section of the table. Like its counterparts throughout the Starfleet, the Saratoga's briefing room table was a large display. Entering commands through the keyboard, he watched as the screen changed to an image of an old Miranda Class Starship.
"Computer," Dazad called after pressing one of the controls, "disable active computer monitoring and recording devices in this room. Authorization Dazad Pi 47 Sigma 74 Alpha."
"Command confirmed. Security monitoring devices have been disabled."
Dazad sat back down in the chair as he looked around the room at the various officers gathered there and got started. "Thank you all for coming. I apologize for pulling you from your exploratory assignment, but this mission takes priority over all other concerns. Before I go any further, I have to acknowledge that this is a red directive assignment, and you are not permitted to discuss it outside of the people within this room. If you have a problem with that, you're dismissed."
Zhi leaned back, watching the screen. "I'd like to know what's so secretive about an old Miranda class vessel," he spoke up.
"I'm glad you asked, Lieutenant, and for that I will turn this over to our special envoy," the Commodore announced as he looked at Commander Hall. "The floor is yours, Commander."
Mel wasn't phased at being told it was to be kept in the room. Keiben had, had to pull a red directive in their time. She pushed her chair back a little just so she could watch the lady next to her better as she waited for the newbie to clue them further in.
Hall nodded to the Commodore and reached into her uniform jacket to pull out a slim miniature version of a PADD. She held it level in front her, gave it a few taps and then swiped forward the from the PADD's controls to the middle of the briefing table. Within a nano-second a holographic, semi-translucent image of the ship in question floated in the middle of the room, rotating clockwise in a very smooth fashion. The hologram was annotated with technical details about the ship's specifications.
"This is the Miranda Class, USS Audacious," she began, clearing her throat. "You'll notice she looks slightly different from your average vessel of this class, like the in Saratoga's service history. The Audacious was retrofitted with not only with an aft dorsal roll bar, but one on the ventral plane of the ship also."
Eve took a moment to glance back at the Commodore, she wondered just how much information she should be sharing with the Saratoga's crew. "These roll bars contained two prototype engine pods for an experimental FTL engine. On her maiden test the Audacious engaged the experimental engine and 'boom'..." she imitated and explosion with her hands, "was assumed lost. Until two days ago, when sensors picked up her signature in the Maelstrom."
"When was the maiden test carried out?" Mel asked. "How long has it been missing in action until it appeared again 2 days ago?"
"I'd assume her flight was successful if she disappeared with a bang and ended up there," Zhi commented dryly, though his expression betrayed his interest. "What is the function of the second roll bar? Why add more engine pods rather than upgrade the nacelles that are already there?" While he had temporarily served as a chief engineer before because of circumstances, he was no engineer. But the scientist was intrigued alright!
Was that humour from the Vulcan science officer? Hall mused internally, before answering the questions. "The USS Audacious' test flight was in 2268. Hard to mark it as success, given she's been missing for something like 200 years plus change." The pang of sarcasm that accompanied her statement slipped out before she knew she was being sarcastic.
"The Audacious was equipped with 2 engines. Her conventional warp drive, hence the nacelles" she pointed at the holographic representation of the ship, "... and a prototype Coaxial induction drive. The two roll bars mount the experimental coaxial drive's subatomic field manipulators. These were supposed to be allow the ship to fold space, and obtain speeds of up to 11.8 trillion miles, or 2 light years a minute."
Hall pushed back from the table, and in the process of doing so also pulled her hair back into a pony tail. She stood and began to circumnavigate the briefing table. "That's Sol to Vulcan in 8 minutes. Voyager would have been home in 10 hours. If properly refined, a Federation Starship could effectively jump from star system to star system."
"Hence our dilemma," Commodore Targaryen interjected. "The possession of the Audacious is a tactical advantage to whomever has her, and right now she's in Romulan territory." Tapping a control on his keypad, the image of the Audacious switched to a holographic map of the Maelstrom. "Starfleet Command is ordering the Saratoga to travel into the Free Space's territory here in the Maelstrom, locate the Audacious, and return it to DS12 so that it can be transported to Beta Antares to be dismantled." He looked at Commander Hall, "As Starfleet's leading expert on the Audacious, Commander Hall has been reassigned to serve as First Officer for this mission."
Zseeq's attention snapped to the Commodore, "Sir, with respect, I have an Exec."
"We're aware of that, Captain, but you need an expert available to you and your crew on this mission, and Commander Hall is it. We haven't forgotten about Commander Sotra though, quite the opposite in fact. The good Lieutenant Commander is being reassigned to serve as the Exec under Captain Brell at Deep Space 12 with the rank of full Commander."
"Commodore, I am understanding of the need; nonetheless, my place is here on the Saratoga," Sotra countered.
Dazad shook his head, "Not this time, Commander. We're going to be transporting your personal belongings over to the Khitomer. You're dismissed to go pack."
"Too bad she only just unpacked," Zseeq mumbled.
"What was that, Captain?" Targaryen questioned.
The Deltan shook his head, "Nothing."
"Good," the Commodore concluded as he looked around the room. "You're dismissed, Commander."
Eve shot a look towards the Commodore, her eyes narrowing in confusion and frustration. She had agreed to join the mission as specialist, there had been no indication of this move when the Commodore had recruited her.
"Aye Sir," the Vulcan answered as she rose from her chair. Approaching the door, she turned back toward the crew of the Saratoga, "It has been agreeable to serve with you." She lifted her fingers in the traditional Vulcan salute, "Live long and prosper."
As the doors closed behind Sotra, Dazad looked back at the remaining crew, "You have one shot at this and time is wasting. Anything else for the good of the order?"
Zhi watched the exchange with growing amazement, and perhaps a touch of anger as Sotra was dismissed just like that. As she left, he turned to their guest, arching a single eyebrow at him. "Wouldn't it be more prudent to simply destroy that vessel rather than take it in tow and risk exposure?" He deliberately didn't use the word 'logical' as he addressed the admiral.
Mel was also sad to see the Vulcan go. Whereas she understood the nuance's of rapid change that occurred in Starfleet sometimes Sotra had saved both hers and her daughters life. Something didn't fit right here. At no point had they said the mission had been to disappear for 200 years. Yes they needed to retrieve this vessel but also figure out what had happened to it in this maiden voyage. And was there ANY possibility some of the crew had appeared.
She considered asking further but Zhi'rev had got in first and she wasn't sure that questioning the Admiral was the right tact. They would find out pretty quickly she mused.
"That's a good proposal, but simply destroying the Audacious isn't an appropriate strategy in this instance. We would have to collect any remaining debris, which increases the amount of time we would be in potentially hostile territory. Recovery is the better option," Targaryen answered.
"Recovery is the only option." She moved passed the awkwardness, "We need to understand what happened to the drive, so we can build that learning into the next model."
Zseeq picked up on what the Commander said before the others and pounced upon it, "So, Starfleet is sending us out to recover the Audacious so you can pick up again where you left off?" He looked away from Hall to the Commodore as he said it. "We're risking war with a foreign power for what? The name of progress?"
"Starfleet Command has made no determinations on the fate of the Audacious," the El-Aurian answered as he turned his attention away from the Captain to Commander Hall, "aside from the decision to dismantle the craft after its recovered. As for the fate of the Coaxial Drive, that is up to the determination of people far above our paygrades, Captain."
"While we're the ones risking our lives to recover the damn thing," the Deltan protested.
Dazad shifted in his seat, "I'm not certain that I appreciate your tone, but, seeing as you're a captain in this fleet, I'm certain you're aware that Starfleet officers don't always have the luxury of safe assignments."
"And here I thought we were explorers," Zseeq continued his challenge, "and that the days of Starfleet being a military organization were over."
"This is not the time nor the place for this discussion. Right now, I have to focus on this mission being completed and being sure that the Saratoga is up for the task," Targaryen rose from his seat and looked around the room at the Starfleet personnel gathered there. "You need to be sure that you are because failure won't be tolerated. Now, prepared for departure, crew. I'll expect updates upon your arrival at the Audacious." Commodore Targaryen exited the Briefing Room to return to the Khitomer.
As the doors slid behind the Commodore, Zseeq looked around at the crew of the Saratoga. Feeling somewhat defeated, he asked, "Options?"
"I don't trust him," Zhi offered, "we're just one ship. I know the Romulans are divided and scattered but if the Audacious is in their space they have the right of recovery. Wouldn't it be more prudent to work with them on this? Recover any crew found on that ship and destroy it anyway? No-one should have that kind of power, it'll shift the balance remarkably and I'm not sure if I like that idea."
Zseeq nodded, "The Romulans aren't likely to agree to work with us on this and, if they did, the likelihood that they'd turn on us is pretty high. I agree that we can't afford for the Romulans to obtain the Audacious or their technology though. As to whether anyone should have that kind of power," the Captain shrugged as if uncertain. With everything that had been happening in the Federation in recent months he wasn't sure how to answer that part. Instead, he merely sighed as he considered it.
"This is a Red Directive mission," Hall glanced back at Zhi disapprovingly, before returning her attention to the Commanding Officer, "We don't get to question the orders."
He looked at Commander Hall, "So, Exec, what exactly do we do when we find this ship? What if we encounter the Romulans?"
"That depends on the state of the ship. For all we know, we could fly her back under her own power. If not, we could tractor her back to Starbase." She leaned over the edge of the table, "As for the Romulans, we negotiate. And if they can't be negotiated with well..." She let the end of her sentence hang in the air.
Maran now stood in the room, a stranger to everyone and hadn't been introduced. He was in a state of limbo, should he speak up or wait until spoken too? With how the Commodore had just left he decided to stand quietly and wait until he was addressed.
"I hope that you aren't insinuating what I think you're insinuating, Commander. We will be violating their territory in this mission. We could very well start a war," the Deltan answered, wondering if his feelings were more because of the loss of his XO or this mission. He looked at the Cardassian, "and who's your friend that the Commodore neglected to introduce."
"Red Directive, Sir." she spoke with a confidence that the 26 year old found from deep inside. Eve raised herself in a standing position again and gestured towards her the Cardassian. "Experimental ships and engines, require test pilots. I understand the Lieutenant is one of Daystrom's best."
Zseeq laughed, "For a moment I was worried his name was Red Directive. Who are you, Lieutenant?"
The Cardassian cleared his throat. "I'm Lieutenant Maran, I've been assigned to the Saratoga as her new helmsman." He replied taking a step forward towards the Captain.
Before the Captain could say a word to the new Helmsman, Zhi interrupted.
"So, any questions we ask gets countered with 'red directive '?" Zhi questioned, "and we do get to question questionable orders. If the Romulans can't get that ship, we should be able to destroy it rather than risk another war with the Romulans. We should be trying to work with them, get them to be our allies for longer than when it's simply convenient."
"I think we should establish what happened to the crew first before any talk of questioning orders and destroying ships," Mel said simply. "It disappeared for over 200 years. Anything could have happened. There might still be people alive."
"Truth is we don't know what we will find when we reach the Audacious," the captain admitted to the group. "I'm not thrilled that we're going into enemy territory to try to recover this ship, but - as much as I hate to admit it - I also realize we don't have much of a choice either." He looked up at the Cardassian, "Lieutenant Maran, set course for the search grid of the Audacious, Warp 8, and welcome aboard."
"Understood, sir." The Lieutenant said before giving a curt nod and exiting the briefing room to head to the bridge.
Zseeq started to rise from his seat, "Let's get to our stations and prepare. Commander, I'd like to speak with you for a moment." He directed to the new XO.
Zhi rose from his seat and started to head to the bridge. He could not help the uneasy feeling as he passed the new XO, and the visiting admiral. And what was worse, he couldn't vent his feelings to his husband as this meeting was classified.
After everyone had left, the Captain turned toward the new, conscripted XO. "Shall we begin, Commander?"
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