Tricky Decision
Posted on 08 Jan 2023 @ 7:29pm by Captain Corvus DeHavilland & Captain Lachlan Callum & Commander Faye Magnolia & Major Declan Finn & Commander Calliope Zahn
Mission:
M3 - Into the Deep
Location: USS Theseus
Timeline: MD08 2015HRS
2055 words - 4.1 OF Standard Post Measure
Fleeting as she knew it was going to be, it was refreshing to get off the Pathfinder even if it was only to go to the conference room of the Theseus. Captain DeHavilland just wanted the change of pace as a means of clearing her head a bit. Just stepping off the transporter pad she remarked how new the ship smelled. She’d been here before, but with everything going on at the time, she’d hardly had the mindset to take it all in. In fact, last time she'd been here she’d promised the ship’s Captain something she had yet to deliver on which was now clutched against her chest.
As she stepped off the transporter pad, Major Finn stepped off behind her, flanked on the other side by Commander Zahn. The former had become a nuisance she’d gotten used to and was, as loathe as she was to admit it, become something of a crutch. A counterpoint she didn’t know she needed. While the latter she was still getting used to. She’d started to let her guard down slightly, but was still very wary. Calliope might have been making progress, but it was still early days for her to have regained Corvus’ trust.
Calliope could sense a different mood among the faces they passed. While both crews were on the same mission, this one was composed of officers who had worked together much longer. Calliope was keenly aware of how the acclimation between personnel became second nature over time, and how that secret sauce was practically absent on Pathfinder. Such teamwork and trust showed up in performance results but was organic and undetectable otherwise. It always made her miss her tours of duty when such synergy could be taken for granted. All she could try to do was foster it and hope. But the Pathfinder, being attached to the station, had no such ongoing assigned crew, cycling through personnel as the occasion called for it. Besides, the example was hardly being best modeled by Pathfinder’s Command team. Frowning, Calliope watched over Corvus’ shoulder as they were guided through the corridors.
The doors to the conference room hissed open to admit their trio. Major Finn made a brief glance about the room and then started to leave, giving a steely nod to Corvus as he turned to leave. She answered by pulling out a chair, pointing to it and walking on down the table towards Commander Magnolia standing at the end in welcome.
Commander Faye Magnolia was a tall, sweet-tempered blonde woman who was smiling brightly at their new guests. She held out her hand to greet the Captain. “Nice to see you again, Captain DeHavilland. Captain Callum will be along shortly,” she said, shaking her hand.
“Good to see you again,” Corvus answered, now gesturing about the room. “Pathfinder’s First Officer, Commander Zahn and Major Finn, OC’s Marine Commander,” she said, indicating them each in turn.
“Commander,” Calliope acknowledged minimally. Since they’d met in such a memorable circumstance before, Theseus having collected the still flaming shuttle *Seventeen* after its final ride, Calliope doubted she merited additional introduction.
“Major,” Magnolia nodded to him, shaking the hand he came over and offered.
The door to the conference room that led into the bridge opened and a sandy-haired man walked through, followed shortly by Captain Callum. The former took a chair that seemed to be the one he always took, by the way he went straight for it (at least to Corvus’ eye) while the latter went straight to Captain DeHavilland, hand outstretched.
“Welcome aboard,” Callum grunted to her as he came forward.
Corvus didn’t take his hand, but instead stuck the long, tall box she’d been carrying to the man with a smirk. “Last time we met, I promised you a large bottle,” she said, pointing to the box in his hands wrapped in brown paper.
Callum smirked and set the box on the conference table by his spot. “Cheers for that,” he said, patting the top.
Corvus introduced both Calliope and Declan and then Callum introduced Commander Brightwood, the other man at the table and gestured for them all to sit down. “Do you know something I don’t about this mission?” he asked as he sat down, pointing to the lone Marine at the table.
“My Marines and I are here at the Admiral’s command,” Declan chimed in.
“Right. Well,” Callum pressed on. “Let’s get to it, then. Mr. Brightwood,” he said, gesturing down the table.
“Very good, sir,” Brightwood replied in his clipped British accent, accessing the controls on the table in front of him. The image of a strange object appeared over the center of the table, courtesy of the room’s embedded holodeck emitters. The design was very crude and appeared to have been cobbled together with existing parts of other designs. It had sharp, angular edges, crude seams and pock-marked surfaces. Looking closer, Corvus was almost positive she could see something like algae stuck to the sides of it. All in all a very strange object.
“The subspace disturbance we detected was made by this object,” Brightwood began explaining. He adjusted the view to the back of the object. “The FTL drive on this object matches known signature and subspace qualities of Pyrryx devices, but it’s very clearly not.”
“How do we know it’s not?” DeHavilland asked with a shake of her head. “Considering how little we know…”
“Ah, because this is clearly a probe, Captain,” he smiled, tapping his controls again. “This is what the probe was broadcasting,” he said, playing the feed.
Once more, the Theseus’ staff listened to the feed, something they’d listened to more than a few times, trying to glean something new from the very simple statements.
“Stranger. Friend. We are the Korinn,” the voice began again. Still a strangely ethereal voice that sounded as if it was traveling a great distance. The voice reminded Corvus of her childhood, trying to yell at her friends in the pool under the water . “We have been enslaved and our planet is being destroyed. Our people are dying. We need help. Please. Will you help us?”
Major Finn let out a slow breath, looking over to Commander Zahn. “Guess Commander Quinn wasn’t so far off the mark.”
“He’ll tell you that he rarely is.” Calliope said. “But this raises some other questions for me. Quinn hadn’t fully translated the Korinn language on the computer core. Yet here they are, able to communicate a message in Federation Standard. Something must have changed between the time the comms station and the probe were launched. It’s been a couple of decades, after all. It seems in that time they somehow came to know about us.”
“The starfleet records the Admiral provided suggest that the Pyrryx have destroyed more than a few vessels from Federation aligned worlds. Maybe they’ve been able to do what we have not and downloaded data cores?” Commander Magnolia suggested.
"If they've been subjugates of the Pyrryx and managed to use the knowledge to launch a probe, they could possibly have some other information." Calliope agreed. "It fits the claim."
“If they’re subjugated by the Pyrryx, we’d be flying right into Pyrryx territory, wouldn’t we?” Callum asked the room with a shake of his head. It didn’t sound like the smartest idea, which was probably why he liked it.
“Hypothetically.” Calliope had to agree. It wasn’t in her to stand across imaginary political boundaries and accept that on the other side of them people just had to die under some oppressive regime. People she could otherwise help. She’d been in hot water once or thrice for getting creative with borders and treaties. Captain Winters had always given her a stern tongue lashing, made comments on her record and then poured her a couple fingers of his favorite scotch and a double for himself before he had to cover their asses on subspace calls with preliminary finding committees. Although it was always unspoken, she knew that Winters hadn’t actually disapproved of her actions. It was just the yoke of command and the order of things. She never envied that role. Callum struck her as having the same itch she did, and the thick skin required to deal with fleet brass and legal inquiries on the other side of it. But she was less certain of Corvus.
Corvus was a lot more careful in uncharted waters. Calliope ventured a little further with her opinion. “There’s no sign or anything. The Pyrryx aren’t talkative enough to work out borders and aren’t likely to teach us their favorite dance moves at a diplomatic event. They’ve already got everyone on our side scrambling and we need whatever edge we can get.” She motioned to the hologram of the probe. “The Korinn are asking for help and may have a deeper understanding of the Pyrryx— insights into how they operate and where they’re from and what motivates them. Whatever we can learn will help us dissipate the threat, either through improving our defenses or understanding what might actually bring them to a negotiation table. Insight is always the most effective when you’re out gunned.”
Frowning, Captain DeHavilland looked at her counterpart. “We’d be flying into the Lion’s den.”
“It’s probably a trap,” he agreed.
“So… then you agree we shouldn’t go?” Corvus asked, a little surprised. His reputation wasn’t that of a cautious man.
“Hell no,” he shook his head. “Best way to deal with a trap is to spring it. Make them think they’re taking us by surprise when they’re not. Best case scenario, this isn’t a lie,” he said, gesturing at the hologram. “Worst case… we spring the trap, get a good solid scan of what we find and then run like hell,” he grinned as if the latter idea sounded much more fun.
Corvus sat back, frustrated because she wanted to be more aggressive in her moves but was plagued by this constant need to back off. This overwhelming desire not to put any more lives in danger, especially needlessly. It had been easy when the station had been attacked. It had been life and death. The decisions were easier. Here, the decisions were muddled and nebulous and the answer far from clear.
“It’s a hell of a risk,” she finally said, leaning on the table to look at Lachlan, glancing briefly over to Calliope and then Finn who gave the slightest of affirming nods. “I want both ships at Red Alert and the moment we spot Pyrryx vessels, we run like hell.”
“I’ll be ready with scanners the moment we drop out of warp,” Brightwood chimed in brightly. “We’ll make the best use of our time, should we have very little.”
“All the tactical scenario’s we’ve been running have revolved around the Pyrryx dropping in on us. With the shoe on the other foot, we should have the upper hand we need to confuse them, then high tail it on back,” Commander Magnolia chimed in.
“Calli?” Corvus asked quietly, looking over to her First Officer here.
Calliope met her eye. There was a lot of uncertainty there, so she responded to the informal as formally as she could, as if she could telepathically imbue Corvus with the confidence that she had in her. “Captain.”
DeHavilland took it for what she presumed it was - a tacit acknowledgement that she didn’t have anything else to add and that she agreed, more or less, with their plan.
“Alright, Lachlan. We follow the plan to the letter. We warp in, make a quick assessment and if necessary get the hell out. Red Alert as soon as we jump.”
“Aye, Captain,” Lachlan nodded with a smirk. “We’ll get to it. I’ll have an action plan within the hour.”
“Ok,” Corvus said, standing up, and bringing the rest of the staff to the table. “We stick to the plan. Everyone comes home.”
