Joshua Niles
Security & Tactical
[TI22]
Posts: 649 Likes: 21
Rank: Lieutenant
Position: Tactical Officer
Species: Human
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Post by Joshua Niles on Feb 27, 2021 5:29:33 GMT
[ Lt Joshua Niles - Ambassador Hotel, Caldonia -> Captain's Ready Room, USS Mac ]Before the botanist could reply to how much on-station time her brainstorm may require, the Master Chief definitively answered that question. At least with the resources they had at this time, she could not disable their weapons internally. So that meant he would have to do it from the outside, and barring opening fire (which he would bet would be the last thing the Captain would authorize), he would need a soft-kill approach. Well, burning out their targeting systems with shipboard sensors was the best he could come up with for now... and hopefully that sort of boil-the-paint-off-a-hull active sensor pulse could be targeted precisely enough to not expose anyone to undue radiation levels... And, while he was working on the feasibility of such a thing from the limited platform that was his borrowed PADD, the Captain's commbadge chirped, and the words that came through actually stopped the Tactical officer's hands and his mouth fell open. Ordered to leave their people behind? By Admiral Ellis of all people? Since when did she have anything to do with them? And just as he wanted to speak in protest, he looked up and what he saw in his Captain stopped him dead. Captain Eastman had always truck him as being a stolid presence who let absolutely nothing fluster her in any way, yet her reddening face and the trembling of her hands said something much different. And when she replied to Henriksen, her voice was nothing like anything he'd ever seen out of her before. That cold fury... And, with the order to meet back up with her in her ready room shortly, the Tactical Officer took it as being dismissed for the time being and he made his way back down seventy floors or so down to his own suite, his long legs eating the distance with a violent energy though he did not run. But, when the door hissed shut behind him, that tightly controlled motion ended and he fairly threw himself at the task of recovering his belongings and stuffing them into his one bag. Though, at one point he looked up and caught his reflection in the mirror. And he barely recognized the mask of fury that met his gaze. And, before long, he was beamed back to the ship, clearly assigned to a random transporter room along with whoever had likely been nearby at the time, and when he strode off the pad and dropped his bag near the console. "Have this taken to my quarters," he ordered briskly; he was already uniformed, and since he had no need to go there, then he wasn't about to waste any time at all on his way to the Bridge, and eventually the Captain's Ready Room. And they were going to be getting underway, and given the current circumstances he wanted the entire tactical section at their posts and combat systems ready to be brought online at the drop of a hat. Of course, until such a time as he was ordered to bring them online they would remain dormant, but it wouldn't hurt much to ensure that all that would be needed would be flipping a single switch or pressing a single button to get them in action in a hurry. As he stepped out of the Transporter Room, he nearly ploughed a crewman over, but rather than his normal apology, he simply carried on with his hand slapping at his commbadge. "All tactical personnel, this is Lieutenant Niles. All hands on deck. I want everyone closed up and cleared away at your battle stations in five minutes and I want diagnostics and reports on everything we have available in ten." Walk and talk if you can, that was part of his job. And if he annoyed tactical personnel with this, then it was their problem. At worst, they would be getting a valuable drill out of this, at best everyone would already be in position if the red alert klaxon was to sound. And when he arrived in the Captain's Ready Room, he did just as he had seen the Master Chief do, simply pressed the chime to announce his presence, and walked in in spite of regular protocols. This was clearly a situation where protocol might be dispensed with to some degree, at least in his mind, and with PADD in hand, he had managed to at least to jot down a few notions. Though, once the team was assembled and the Captain, having shaken off the initial shock and looking much like her usual self in her uniform called for immediate options, Niles wasted no time. "Tactical probes. We seed some around the planet in our last few orbits until we clear out of the system. Set them to lie doggo, minimal power levels and strictly passive scans, and some tied into the Caldonians' information networks, and reporting back with encrypted burst transmission to report at random intervals. It'll let us keep an eye on things after we're gone, and if we can set them to detect if our people ever leave that prison camp, we can know where they've been taken."Of course, that was not what he really wanted, and he expected that the fire that burned in his eyes would say that his preference was more in line with 'the Hell with our orders' and get their people back the real easy way at this point; which was by using the Mac as precisely what she was meant to be whenever push came to shove: as a warp-capable three and a quarter million ton hammer.
Tags Ozu Saya Shavan Th'zhaar Judith Eastman Jonathan Hunt
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Ozu Saya
Engineering/Ops
[TI19]
Posts: 878 Likes: 29
Rank: Master Chief Petty Officer
Position: CoB/Chief Engineer
Species: Vulcan-Bajoran
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Post by Ozu Saya on Feb 27, 2021 13:41:46 GMT
{Click for quoted posts} [ Room 20137] Hunt listened to the Captain and the different operations. He thought to himself maybe his operation and information were redundant. “ You’re right, Captain,” Hunt responded. His operation would entail getting the ingredients and modifying them in a way to get them out. It would take some planning and cooperation, and they barely had enough time. If they needed to get to the camp physically by alternative means, it could work, but it would be duplicative since they have different plans. [ T’Laara - Ambassador Hotel] T’Laara nodded to Lieutenant Niles. “Very well. I cannot guarantee that I will be able to find anything, however, I will look into it and see if there is anything that can be done.” She took out a PADD of her own. Eyes narrowed in concentration, she took some time to attempt to familiarize herself with the problems they were dealing with. Transporter technology was indeed outside her usual area of expertise, but taking life sign readings was not. Especially when those readings were more numerous and far less complex, and therefore required more specialized instruments to detect, than humanoid life signs. Picking out a single type of plant in a forest was a different task than beaming up a person from orbit, but perhaps that sort of thing was exactly what they needed to repurpose here. “There is some equipment in the science lab on the Mac designed for scanning and cataloging plant life. Given that such life signs are far less complex than that of humanoids, and often more numerous in their natural habitat, the scanner is more sensitive than the transporter’s. It is only designed to work up close, with the actual specimens present, and certainly not from space. However, if we could get close, or if you could design a way to increase the strength of the signals, perhaps it could be repurposed to work with and locate the partial signs of the crew amid the Kurjarians and minerals.” It was only an idea, and dubious at best. But it was more or less what Niles had asked of her, and the first thing she thought of. [ Lt Joshua Niles - Ambassador Hotel ]Ground operations were not Niles' forte. He knew it, and he expected that both the Captain and the Chief were fully aware of this. So he found himself relieved when his thoughts about a space-based extraction were considered as the best course of action. Had the Captain decreed moving to a ground assault, he still would have done his best, but he knew there were officers better-suited to planning and executing such an operation back on the Mac and he would have stated just that. However, the Captain had decided to give him his head and direct the Master Chief to go along with his intent. He was still working out the easy parts of his plans, the ones involving overwhelming the transport inhibitors and their communications with a sensor pulse without destroying their computers... or cooking the prisoners within the prison camp for that matter. Oh, it might be easier to just open fire from orbit, but doing just that would likely the kind of threshold that they would not want to cross. In the final analysis, 'disabled systems with sensors' would likely indicate restraint, as opposed to 'blasted them to smithereens with orbital phaser-fire'. He was just about there with his calculations when T'Laara spoke up, having done her own research. "I don't think we can do much with shipboard sensors. That's a passive scan for lifesigns, and if we boost the gain, even selectively, we're going to get in too much noise," he answered after running her basic idea through another tab on his borrowed PADD. Oh, what he would not give to have a full tactical console to work from just now! "As for getting closer, if you mean sub-orbital, within a few kilometers of the surface? I suppose we could get a shuttle or a runabout in that close, if we can find a way to disable their weapons emplacements. What kind of on-station time would you need to make the scan happen? Anything under a minute, I think I can jam their targeting sensors from orbit; anything more than that will need something more... aggressive and permanent. Unless the Master Chief has any luck disabling their weapons systems from the inside and keep them off-line." [ MCPO Ozu Saya - Judy's Room] ' This terminal doesn't have enough access for me to do much to affect the weapons at the prison. It's not tied into any high-level systems. It's little more than a glorified directory.
'Via Olsen, I may be able to cause some difficulties for the prison: scrambling communications on a basic level, causing random power outages. We might be able to flash the lights to get a message to our people. Since we don't know exactly where they are, it would be difficult to target a message. The difficulty I see there is not knowing what codes the members of the group are familiar with. We could run a short message through a rotation of several different codes. It would also make the light flashes seem more random.
'I concur with Lt. Niles' recommendation that we return to the ship. I may be able to do more with the Caldonian systems from there.' Saya continued exploring Olsen's systems from her PADD, not trying to make any changes or give commands for the moment. She didn't want to take the risk that the little drone would be noticed before they had the chance to use its systems to help the other team. ---------- Tag Judith Eastman , Jonathan Hunt , Joshua Niles , Shavan Th'zhaar [Capt. Judith Eastman(-Williams) & Max Williams - Room 20137]With the crew talking, and Max by her side, Judy genuinely believed that they could make this work. They were moving in the right direction, and more or less in harmony. And then, she got a comm from the ship. =A= "Henriksen to Eastman. We're being ordered to leave Caldonia immediately," =A= the young woman said. =A= "Do they realize some of our people are being detained?" =A= Judy asked. =A= "Yes, and Admiral Ellis says we're to leave them there. No attempts at negotiation or rescue." =A= Judy's face turned bright red, and her hands began to tremble, as though they had a mind of their own. Slowly, she calmed herself down, taking a series of deep breaths. =A= "Captain?" =A= =A= "Get everyone beamed up in 15 minutes, my orders, and draft a formal protest. Eastman out," =A= Judy ordered. She whispered, in that steely tone of fury. "The brass is ordering us to leave, so we will be beaming up, but it doesn't look like we can use much of the rest of our plan. While you're packing, think of vulnerabilities we can use from a distance, and codes we can use to communicate," she informed the crew, her furious whisper undercut by a little bit of shameful trembling. She had failed, failed to protect the five who were now left to their own devices in a labor camp. "Meet me in my Ready Room in 30 minutes."Max put a hand around Judy's waist, just to remind her that he, her loving husband, was there for her. 30 minutes later[Capt. Judith Eastman(-Williams) & Lt. j.g. Mabel Henriksen - Captain's Ready Room, USS Mac]As Judy sat at her desk, in her ready room, several changes of the last half-hour were noticeable. First, she had changed into her duty uniform. Second, her eyes were red, puffy, and now behind her bifocals. Third, some of the makeup had been washed away from her face. Fourth, her hair was now in a tight ponytail. Evidently, after the others had left her room, the Captain had broken down in tears. She'd cried for all five crewmembers she'd failed to protect, and for all their loved ones. There could be a thorough post-mortem later, but in this emotional moment, Judy laid the blame on her own shoulders, not on anyone else - not even Antoinette Ellis. Now, she had to rebound quickly, putting her disheveled hair in a ponytail, replacing fallen contacts with her glasses, washing away runny makeup, and returning to work. She looked around the room, at Mabel, and at the team that had convened in the hotel room, and now here. "What can we do - for them - before we leave?" she asked. Her anger had dissipated, but she was a little hoarse, yet another tell-tale sign (that she made no effort to conceal) of the tears she'd washed away.
Tag Ozu Saya , Joshua Niles , Shavan Th'zhaar , Jonathan Hunt [ Lt Joshua Niles - Ambassador Hotel, Caldonia -> Captain's Ready Room, USS Mac ]Before the botanist could reply to how much on-station time her brainstorm may require, the Master Chief definitively answered that question. At least with the resources they had at this time, she could not disable their weapons internally. So that meant he would have to do it from the outside, and barring opening fire (which he would bet would be the last thing the Captain would authorize), he would need a soft-kill approach. Well, burning out their targeting systems with shipboard sensors was the best he could come up with for now... and hopefully that sort of boil-the-paint-off-a-hull active sensor pulse could be targeted precisely enough to not expose anyone to undue radiation levels... And, while he was working on the feasibility of such a thing from the limited platform that was his borrowed PADD, the Captain's commbadge chirped, and the words that came through actually stopped the Tactical officer's hands and his mouth fell open. Ordered to leave their people behind? By Admiral Ellis of all people? Since when did she have anything to do with them? And just as he wanted to speak in protest, he looked up and what he saw in his Captain stopped him dead. Captain Eastman had always truck him as being a stolid presence who let absolutely nothing fluster her in any way, yet her reddening face and the trembling of her hands said something much different. And when she replied to Henriksen, her voice was nothing like anything he'd ever seen out of her before. That cold fury... And, with the order to meet back up with her in her ready room shortly, the Tactical Officer took it as being dismissed for the time being and he made his way back down seventy floors or so down to his own suite, his long legs eating the distance with a violent energy though he did not run. But, when the door hissed shut behind him, that tightly controlled motion ended and he fairly threw himself at the task of recovering his belongings and stuffing them into his one bag. Though, at one point he looked up and caught his reflection in the mirror. And he barely recognized the mask of fury that met his gaze. And, before long, he was beamed back to the ship, clearly assigned to a random transporter room along with whoever had likely been nearby at the time, and when he strode off the pad and dropped his bag near the console. "Have this taken to my quarters," he ordered briskly; he was already uniformed, and since he had no need to go there, then he wasn't about to waste any time at all on his way to the Bridge, and eventually the Captain's Ready Room. And they were going to be getting underway, and given the current circumstances he wanted the entire tactical section at their posts and combat systems ready to be brought online at the drop of a hat. Of course, until such a time as he was ordered to bring them online they would remain dormant, but it wouldn't hurt much to ensure that all that would be needed would be flipping a single switch or pressing a single button to get them in action in a hurry. As he stepped out of the Transporter Room, he nearly ploughed a crewman over, but rather than his normal apology, he simply carried on with his hand slapping at his commbadge. "All tactical personnel, this is Lieutenant Niles. All hands on deck. I want everyone closed up and cleared away at your battle stations in five minutes and I want diagnostics and reports on everything we have available in ten." Walk and talk if you can, that was part of his job. And if he annoyed tactical personnel with this, then it was their problem. At worst, they would be getting a valuable drill out of this, at best everyone would already be in position if the red alert klaxon was to sound. And when he arrived in the Captain's Ready Room, he did just as he had seen the Master Chief do, simply pressed the chime to announce his presence, and walked in in spite of regular protocols. This was clearly a situation where protocol might be dispensed with to some degree, at least in his mind, and with PADD in hand, he had managed to at least to jot down a few notions. Though, once the team was assembled and the Captain, having shaken off the initial shock and looking much like her usual self in her uniform called for immediate options, Niles wasted no time. "Tactical probes. We seed some around the planet in our last few orbits until we clear out of the system. Set them to lie doggo, minimal power levels and strictly passive scans, and some tied into the Caldonians' information networks, and reporting back with encrypted burst transmission to report at random intervals. It'll let us keep an eye on things after we're gone, and if we can set them to detect if our people ever leave that prison camp, we can know where they've been taken."Of course, that was not what he really wanted, and he expected that the fire that burned in his eyes would say that his preference was more in line with 'the Hell with our orders' and get their people back the real easy way at this point; which was by using the Mac as precisely what she was meant to be whenever push came to shove: as a warp-capable three and a quarter million ton hammer.
Tags Ozu Saya Shavan Th'zhaar Judith Eastman Jonathan Hunt [ MCPO Ozu Saya - Caldonia --> Captain's Ready Room] Saya left Judy's room silently and returned to her own. It took her a scant few minutes to pack up her things, and soon she was back aboard the ship and heading to her large, empty quarters. She was glad Kyo and Evekh weren't there, while at the same time she wished desperately for their comforting presence. After changing into uniform, Saya made a quick stop in engineering to check on things before reporting to Judy's ready room, where she entered and sat silently, folding her hands on top of her PADD on the table. She listened dispassionately as Niles spoke, observing her old friend's face. Saya could see the differences, even if others couldn't. She understood how very upset the captain was. Finally, she spoke, her tone measured. It was the only way she could keep from breaking down herself, to put on the Vulcan mask at the risk of her crewmates thinking she didn't care about their comrades. ' I will be able to tie the drone into that network,' Saya said with a nod at Lt. Niles. ' It should allow us to gather a significant amount of information about the external protections of the camp. I would not recommend attempting to send it inside. There would be too great a risk of it being noticed and destroyed. However, we can have the data it gathers saved onboard so that if the team can get ahold of technology that allows Ms. Fox to establish contact with the drone, they will have access to the data that has been gathered to aid in their escape.
'Lt. Niles, before we depart, would it be possible to beam down a few caches of supplies around the prison without triggering the security measures, perhaps a few kilometers away? We could also encode that data into the drone.' She glanced down at her PADD where she could see the video feed as Olsen floated around the outside of the prison camp. ---------- Tag Judith Eastman and Joshua Niles. soft tags to others
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Shavan Th'zhaar
Science
[TI35]
Posts: 800 Likes: 19
Rank: Lieutenant
Position: Assistant Chief of Science
Species: Orion/Andorian
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Post by Shavan Th'zhaar on Feb 27, 2021 14:40:56 GMT
[ T’Laara - Ambassador Hotel -> Ready Room, USS Mac] All chances seemed to be against them. But even so, T’Laara once again bent over the PADD, to try to get Niles a better answer about how to practically implement her idea and how close they would have to get. “I cannot say for certain at this point, but if we plan it right, we might be able to do it in such a window of time.” It would take some very precise calculations and preparation. Before she could do any more, however, Captain Eastman announced that they were leaving. T’Laara got to her feet, staring at the older woman. And yet, this clearly wasn’t the captain’s call, and so there was definitely nothing T’Laara could say or do about it. She kept silent and composed, and yet inside her thoughts were anything but. After a hurried move from the hotel back to her temporary quarters on the Mac, she quickly made her way to the science lab for a closer look at the scanners her initial idea had been based on. There was still a chance that they might be able to do something… a very small chance, but humans did like to fight the odds. When she looked up again, the half hour had already passed. And so, a few minutes after the scheduled time, T’Laara entered the Captain’s ready room. She may be involved in this more by happenstance than anything, but there was no backing out now. She knew what she knew. The others attempted to continue the conversation, and she stood silently and stiffly, listening and taking note. “I can assist with repurposing the scanners as we were discussing, to aid our probes in gathering as much data as possible.” It was all they could do. Joshua Niles Ozu Saya Judith Eastman Jonathan Hunt
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Judith Eastman
Civilian
Grandma
Posts: 2,593 Likes: 84
Rank: Civilian/other
Position: Civil Servant
Species: Human
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Post by Judith Eastman on Feb 27, 2021 17:37:36 GMT
[ Lt Joshua Niles - Ambassador Hotel, Caldonia -> Captain's Ready Room, USS Mac ]And when he arrived in the Captain's Ready Room, he did just as he had seen the Master Chief do, simply pressed the chime to announce his presence, and walked in in spite of regular protocols. This was clearly a situation where protocol might be dispensed with to some degree, at least in his mind, and with PADD in hand, he had managed to at least to jot down a few notions. Though, once the team was assembled and the Captain, having shaken off the initial shock and looking much like her usual self in her uniform called for immediate options, Niles wasted no time. "Tactical probes. We seed some around the planet in our last few orbits until we clear out of the system. Set them to lie doggo, minimal power levels and strictly passive scans, and some tied into the Caldonians' information networks, and reporting back with encrypted burst transmission to report at random intervals. It'll let us keep an eye on things after we're gone, and if we can set them to detect if our people ever leave that prison camp, we can know where they've been taken."Of course, that was not what he really wanted, and he expected that the fire that burned in his eyes would say that his preference was more in line with 'the Hell with our orders' and get their people back the real easy way at this point; which was by using the Mac as precisely what she was meant to be whenever push came to shove: as a warp-capable three and a quarter million ton hammer. [ MCPO Ozu Saya - Caldonia --> Captain's Ready Room] Saya left Judy's room silently and returned to her own. It took her a scant few minutes to pack up her things, and soon she was back aboard the ship and heading to her large, empty quarters. She was glad Kyo and Evekh weren't there, while at the same time she wished desperately for their comforting presence. After changing into uniform, Saya made a quick stop in engineering to check on things before reporting to Judy's ready room, where she entered and sat silently, folding her hands on top of her PADD on the table. She listened dispassionately as Niles spoke, observing her old friend's face. Saya could see the differences, even if others couldn't. She understood how very upset the captain was. Finally, she spoke, her tone measured. It was the only way she could keep from breaking down herself, to put on the Vulcan mask at the risk of her crewmates thinking she didn't care about their comrades. ' I will be able to tie the drone into that network,' Saya said with a nod at Lt. Niles. ' It should allow us to gather a significant amount of information about the external protections of the camp. I would not recommend attempting to send it inside. There would be too great a risk of it being noticed and destroyed. However, we can have the data it gathers saved onboard so that if the team can get ahold of technology that allows Ms. Fox to establish contact with the drone, they will have access to the data that has been gathered to aid in their escape.
'Lt. Niles, before we depart, would it be possible to beam down a few caches of supplies around the prison without triggering the security measures, perhaps a few kilometers away? We could also encode that data into the drone.' She glanced down at her PADD where she could see the video feed as Olsen floated around the outside of the prison camp. [ T’Laara - Ambassador Hotel -> Ready Room, USS Mac] All chances seemed to be against them. But even so, T’Laara once again bent over the PADD, to try to get Niles a better answer about how to practically implement her idea and how close they would have to get. “I cannot say for certain at this point, but if we plan it right, we might be able to do it in such a window of time.” It would take some very precise calculations and preparation. Before she could do any more, however, Captain Eastman announced that they were leaving. T’Laara got to her feet, staring at the older woman. And yet, this clearly wasn’t the captain’s call, and so there was definitely nothing T’Laara could say or do about it. She kept silent and composed, and yet inside her thoughts were anything but. After a hurried move from the hotel back to her temporary quarters on the Mac, she quickly made her way to the science lab for a closer look at the scanners her initial idea had been based on. There was still a chance that they might be able to do something… a very small chance, but humans did like to fight the odds. When she looked up again, the half hour had already passed. And so, a few minutes after the scheduled time, T’Laara entered the Captain’s ready room. She may be involved in this more by happenstance than anything, but there was no backing out now. She knew what she knew. The others attempted to continue the conversation, and she stood silently and stiffly, listening and taking note. “I can assist with repurposing the scanners as we were discussing, to aid our probes in gathering as much data as possible.” It was all they could do. [Capt. Judith Eastman(-Williams) & Lt. j.g. Mabel Henriksen - Captain's Ready Room]At the very least, the crew's spirits had not been broken, although Judy knew that Joshua Niles would, as usual, need to have a close eye kept on him. She certainly understood why he was prone to aggressive action, but it was a tendency that had to be kept in check. "We have to make it look accidental," she guided, her hoarse voice tinged with a sense of purpose. "Let's release the probes in a chaotic-looking manner, like we're having some kind of hardware problem, and have them activate at a delay."She left the question of beaming supplies down to Niles, so he could express whether it was viable. It could be assumed that the same guideline of "making it look like an accident" applied. Mabel was as troubled by the fate of the five crewmembers as anyone, and yet her scientific curiosity was still strong. "Can we still communicate with the probes from the station without being intercepted?" she asked.
Tag Joshua Niles , Ozu Saya , Shavan Th'zhaar
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Joshua Niles
Security & Tactical
[TI22]
Posts: 649 Likes: 21
Rank: Lieutenant
Position: Tactical Officer
Species: Human
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Post by Joshua Niles on Feb 28, 2021 4:20:58 GMT
[ Lt Joshua Niles - Captain's Ready Room, USS Mac ]It did not take an expert in interstellar laws and logistics to know that taking immediate aggressive action to recover their people might not be the best course of action. Of course, Judge Roth might be able to formulate a legal decision that would justify their actions pretty much on the spot, but Caldonia also represented a source of a strategic material that could not be risked at this time. At least not unless a new regular supply could be secured first. Which were, pretty much, the only reasons Niles did not suggest it and instead expected that it would remain as an unspoken distant alternate plan for the time being. And, with the other members of this conference speaking, his mind was working furiously as he was tapping at his PADD to enter variables and possibilities and evaluating their feasibility as they were being presented. Some of it would work, while other notions were less workable in his opinion. However, much would need to be put into motion fairly quickly. And, well, he found himself in an odd position. "Captain, I don't think an accidental release would be a good idea. The Caldonians would probably insist we feed them information about what was launched so they can at least track it, and likely intercept it at some point. What I had in mind was a covert, low energy release. Really, little more than pushing them out an airlock or the shuttlebay so there would be no launch signatures at all. And without the flare from the tubes and the initial ignition of probe drives, even we would have a hard time finding them if we didn't know what to look for, and where."A probe, after all, was about two meters long, and without its drive active and its transponder disabled (and the telltale flare from a standard high-energy launch from the torpedo tubes), searching for one even within the relatively small confines of a planet's orbitals would make seeking a needle in a haystack seem like child's play. Of course, if the Captain wanted to actually go on with her idea, then all he could say was 'aye aye' and proceed as ordered. But, the other matter, that of getting supply caches on the surface undetected? Well, that actually could be pretty much artless all right. "Master Chief, short answer is yes. The Caldonian's planetary security needs are geared towards protecting themselves from their slaves getting uppity, not protecting themselves from someone who's got so much as technological parity with them, let alone superiority." Now that they were no longer on the surface, the Lieutenant felt absolutely no need to not say precisely what he felt about their erstwhile hosts. "So yes, we can beam down supplies pretty much in complete impunity, probably as close as five kilometers from the prison camp itself. We can have the cases coded to our people's DNA and fitted with anti-tamper measures as well to prevent anyone else from getting into them."While the exact nature of the measures he had mentioned still had to be figured out, and their implementation would be left to the true experts within the Security team, he at least knew that it could be done. Which brought him to Mabel's own question. "Not in real time, Miss Henriksen, and certainly not a two-way link either. My intent is to set the probes to send encrypted burst transmissions at random intervals, and we would have to rely on their internal programming if we want to avoid having any command input getting detected. That should make for an extremely low probability of detection and intercept, and I am confident our encryption will hold up to the Caldonians' resources."
Tags Ozu Saya Shavan Th'zhaar Judith Eastman
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Judith Eastman
Civilian
Grandma
Posts: 2,593 Likes: 84
Rank: Civilian/other
Position: Civil Servant
Species: Human
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Post by Judith Eastman on Mar 1, 2021 14:54:56 GMT
The next morning
[Capt. Judith Eastman(-Williams) - Captain's Ready Room, USS Mac]
Judy sat in her Ready Room, her face neutral, and therefore conspicuously devoid of the usual smile. Behind her, the Federation flag flew, while on her desk, the usual tchotchkes had been replaced by five candles. A politician's daughter, Judy knew a thing or two about aesthetics, and had created a somber, weighty environment for this message.
"Members of the crew, residents of the station, my friends," she opened her address, speaking in soft, measured words.
"I come to you today with great sorrow, and deep regret, to inform you... that five of our own are currently held on Caldonia. They are: Matthew Harmon, Shavan Th'zhaar, Syl O'Connell, Charlie Fox, and Kova Sh'qaleq."
She paused, letting those words sink in.
"Just over a day ago, the five of them went down to the surface of Caldonia, to the mountains, where the Kurjarian population live. They went there of their own initiative, as citizens, to document the conditions in which the Kurjarians live under Caldonian rule, conditions that they - our five colleagues - deemed to be unconscionable. They believed it was... morally right, morally necessary, to do so, despite the risks."
"All five were captured by Caldonian security forces, and taken to a Caldonian labor camp. We were ordered not to rescue them, so as not to disrupt the Federation's negotiations with the Caldonian government. I am working to have them released, but we must be... clear-eyed about the fact that the Caldonian government may hold them for months, if not years, as a bargaining chip."
Judy sounded apologetic, her sadness and shame making themselves known. She also tactfully failed to mention the secret measures her people had taken to make an escape easier.
"It is not my place to tell... any of you what or how to think about these events; that judgement is for each of you to make for yourselves. I expect that more information will become available to you, and to the public, in the coming days and weeks, that will help you in that. However, I hope you will allow me to share with you some words from Judge Estelle Roth, who accompanied us; this is but one perspective that you can consider, if you'd like."
Judy took up a PADD, and began to read from it.
"The Caldonian Technocratic Republic is, by any meaningful definition, an authoritarian regime. Their leadership, selected through their caste system, is beholden only to itself. There is no sign of equality under the law, in this place where higher castes act with impunity. Dissenting opinions are brutally suppressed, and the Kurjarian species are subject to a separate and starkly unequal system. Their economy is built on the backs of Kurjarian slaves, and their so-called legal system consists of detention at the cruelest of labor camps. As I write these words, I think of 1930s Germany. I am terrified of where this leads."
Judy paused, letting these words be absorbed.
"The taking of the Caldonia Five - Charlotte Fox, Matthew Harmon, Sylvia O'Connell, Kova Sh'qaleq, and Shavan Th'zhaar - is indicative of two frightful trends. First, that the Caldonian state will stop at nothing to conceal its speciesist, despotic nature. Second, that the Caldonian government believes that we - the United Federation of Planets - will not dare to punish them for even the most brazen acts. The Federation must demand the immediate release of the Caldonia Five as a precondition to any future negotiations, or else such acts on the part of the Caldonian government will become increasingly regular."
Judy put the PADD away, and then looked right into the holorecorder.
"These words are taken from Judge Roth's report to the Federation Council. They will also appear in her Op-Ed, which will be published in tomorrow's New York Times."
Unbeknownst to anyone, including the NYT, the report and Op-Ed were both co-authored by Captain Eastman, drafted over rivers of decaf in her quarters.
"I know that the Caldonia Five are also friends, neighbors, colleagues, to many of us, and this will be a trying time for our whole community. If you are hurting, know that you are not alone. We are all here for you. I am here for you."
"Thank you, thank you, for taking the time to listen."
Judy bowed, and the recording ended. She felt that she said what she had to say, to make sure that at the very least, the Caldonia Five's sacrifices and suffering will not be in vain. At best, she hoped that enough public relations pressure would bring about their release, or that they could safely escape.
FIN
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