Post #126: Rescue Plan

Posted on Wed Oct 23rd, 2024 @ 9:30pm by Lieutenant JG Celine Quinn & Commander Jordan Haines & Lieutenant Commander Michael McMahon & Lieutenant Jude Haines & Lieutenant Charles Andrews & Lieutenant Marty Stokes & Lieutenant T'Shas Cruz & Lieutenant V'Lar & Major Charlotte Thrace
Edited on on Wed Oct 23rd, 2024 @ 11:20pm

2,989 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Obsidian
Location: Conference Room - USS Arcadia

ON:

Jordan sat in the conference room, waiting for the others to arrive. He had already heard from Charlotte, she would be walking in any moment. He looked up as he saw her walk in the room.

Charlotte went straight to the replicator and got her synonymous hot chocolate before looking at Jordan "Why do I get the impression I'm not going to like this?" she said

When Marty walked in, she headed straight for Jordan. “We need to talk about the Cardassian woman when you’re free,” she said.

“Of course.” Jordan said. “Have a seat.” He looked to Charlotte. “Marine General Talo Jackson is being held.” He slid her a padd. “That is the location and I apologize for the short notice but we’ve got about thirty minutes to come up with a plan. The team will be those on this ship, there is no time to have anyone join us. Read it over while the others arrive.”

Jordan turned back to Marty. “If you can tell me quickly I am listening.” His eyes met hers. “Captain Pontmercy has put priority on this.”

Charlotte practically ran to the computer console on the wall and started crash studying, something not seen since her academy days. Thirty minutes wasn't brilliant but it was something.

T'Shas entered the room and went to the replicator and ordered a hot Vulcan tea. She sat down and took a sip of her tea.

“Well, honestly she doesn’t seemed to be the dangerous type, I think she’s telling the truth,” Marty said looking at Jordan. “But what can we do about it?” As Marty finished speaking, Celine walked into the room.

"I am sorry that I am late," she said, a little surprised that the meeting had started already. She took a seat, and listened to what the others were saying.

Andrews arrived, studying a PADD that he had brought with him. He retrieved a ciffee from the replicator and took a seat.

“I am glad to hear that.” Jordan said honestly. “Unfortunately, we can do nothing until we rescue General Jackson. She is safe in the brig and given what she needs. Once this rescue is over then we will discuss it.”

Jude had come in at the tail end of the conversation. “Before you let her go I would like another crack at her.”

"You're not the only one." V'Lar said

“We can discuss that later.” Jordan murmured As he waited for the others.

Charlotte turned around having heard Jude and V'Lar's voices she motioned them over if there was going to be an initial guestimate it was going to be them, at least until they were ready to start this meeting.

Jude headed over to where Charlotte was waiting with Jordan by his side. He waited for Charlotte to speak.

"This is a little more tricky than we'd like because well you'll see when we start but safe to say we have two problems, I've got a foundation as to a possible way of rescuing him but we've actually got to find him first. We need to take this one problem at a time and walk ourselves through it. "

Mike walked in, the last to arrive. He had spoken to his Uncle and Aunt to check and see how they were doing and gave them the update as to what was happening. He sat down and waited for the meeting to begin.

“He won’t have a comm badge.” Jude said quietly. “We could scan the planet and see if we can separate him from them or at least the lifeforms. He should be locked up and restrained.”

"Are we sure a Diplomatic approach is out of the question," Celine spoke up and asked?

“I agree,” Marty said with a nod toward Celine. “For the safety of everyone involved, shouldn’t we try a peaceful approach first?”

"I'm not sure, but pirates usually kill, maim, and don't negotiate." Mike looked at Jordan. "You are the only one here with pirate expertise, what do you think."

"Before the Commander answers that I'd to throw the base premise of what I'm thinking into the mix because it's relevant to Celine's point." Charlotte said "I don't think we have the personnel for an assault what I think we can do is be a little more subtle, go in as pirates ourselves and see if we can appeal to the base instinct of greed which may allow us to trade something for the General, with who we have available I'd rather we tried to make them bring him to us rather than we have to go looking for a needle in a haystack. But I'll defer to the Commander's expertise in the piracy department in terms of if that's got merit."

“It does have merit.” Jordan said, thinking a moment. “The trouble is, It would have to be something worth a Starfleet Command Marine General.” He looked to Charlotte. “He is worth a lot to them, his wealth of knowledge alone would have our enemies chomping at the bit.” He paused. “Our advantage is most pirates don’t want to deal with our enemies. They can’t be trusted.”

"The other advantage is that they may not even know who he is, unless they caught him in uniform of course." V'Lar said "But if we were going to make an offer just to draw them out we do have one thing we could use."

"According to what I read, he was on a mission when he went missing, so I'm pretty sure he was in his uniform. " Mike said. "Could we somehow try an approach where we went down in the dark. Less likely to be many people there. We should do a scan of the planet like Jude suggested. See who and what is there."

"I'm willing to bet there's a fair few humans in that city is there any way of distinguishing his bio sign from the others?" Charlotte asked.

"Actually, what about takin' his biosign baseline from Starfleet records an' using that to filter a scan? If he's so important, we should have a record of him somewhere." Andrews shrugged. "Just sayin'."

“He is important enough.” Jordan spoke up. “General Jackson is the Starfleet Marine Command Officer.” He looked to Charlotte. “The first order of business is to find out if General Jackson is there and who in fact is holding him. All we have is the word of a “supposed” defecting Cardassian. We would be fools to takep her word for it.”

“I agree.” Jude spoke up. “No offense, Lieutenant Stokes, but I don’t believe she has been entirely honest with us.”

Mike went to the console and typed a few codes in. “His bioscan is in the computer but you need permission from admiralty to access. I can reach out to my Aunt and Uncle and unlock it so we have that to use to find his location.” Celine frowned, thinking.

"If he's wearing his uniform, can't we scan for his comm badge? That would get us in the right direction. Even if he's been separated from it we will know generally where to look, and then the bioscan with his DNA could bring us right to him."

Mike looked up from sending an urgent message to his Aunt and Uncle. “ would the pirates have destroyed it?”

"I'm not sure," the Diplomatic Chief admitted. "I suppose we won't know until we are close enough for scans. I'd suggest still getting the DNA so we can scan for it, but also run scans for his comm badge once we arrive. The more tools we have, the higher chance we have for success."

"In all probability the combadge will have been destroyed or at least he won't be wearing it now, it just depends on the knowledge and experience of whoever is holding him.." V'Lar said "Combadge's are like flare guns, everyone knows they're more than just communication devices, they're unique signal beacons each one registered to a single officer that's why when you do internal sensor scans of a ship you can pinpoint specific individuals in the metaphorical melting pot. The overwhelming majority of criminal elements within the quadrant know that so if it's not been destroyed it's more likely to be a means for us to narrow the search area rather than actually pinpoint him." Celine frowned again before speaking.

"That's what I meant. I'm not nieve enough to think they left it on him. But I am hoping it will help narrow the search."

“There isn’t a set answer to that and it is worth exploring.” Jordan spoke up. “When I was a pirate I would have either destroyed it or off loaded it in a sale so it headed in a different direction away from the prisoner.” He smiled then. “But not all pirates are smart like me, some consider them a souvenir. There could be some idiot down there wearing it.” He looked to Mike. “Contact the Admirals for permission to check his file.”

Andrews watched the interplay between the officers, seeing the dynamic flow. These two were interesting to observe, and he smiled to himself. Better to keep his observations and opinions to himself. After all, 'twas better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you were addleheaded than to open your mouth and remove any doubt, wasn't it?

“It brings us back to what we have that they might want.” Jude spoke up. “Bad enough to trade Jackson for. If I had the choice going in as pirates would be my choice.”

"We do have one thing, well not technically a thing." V'Lar said.

“Are you going to keep us in suspense?” Jordan growled. “Or tell us what you are referring to?” He didn’t like all this run around crap. “We are on a schedule.”

"She means me." Charlotte said "And she's right, I oversaw development of a weapon that makes the stuff outlawed by Khitomer look like catapults and I know how it was done and the entire quadrant knows what I did. That's pretty enticing." she took a breath "Now before anyone says anything, remember we're Starfleet we're not going to give them weapons, drugs or contraband and we're certainly not trading people. The exchange is a tactical ploy, I'd expect a double cross so if hypothetically we were saying me for Jackson then it's possible I get close enough to him to put an emergency beam out module on him so we get him to safety before shots are fired."

“Risk one officer for another.” Jude shook his head, “I don’t recommend this,
commander. I am responsible for the safety of the crew on this ship. There has to be some other way.”

"I'm not that mad about it either" Charlotte said, "I'd sooner not do it but tactically it's the right play so I'm up for it. When we get down there my responsibility becomes keeping you all in one piece and getting General Jackson back safely, I back myself to be able to get the General to safety and I back all of you to make sure that I don't come to harm."

Mike looked at Charlotte, "I'm sorry, but why would they trade for you? I mean General Jackson has the same knowledge you do plus more. You are basically a downgrade from what they have already. If I were them, I'd shoot you for offering yourself."

“Enough!” Jordan growled. It was the voice he used back in the day when pirates ran to hide. “I will be making the decision not any of you.” His eyes met Jude’s who looked pissed off. “You are responsible for the crew but I decide who does what. If I agree to this your job will be to stay on her, a guard if you will and keep her alive.” He looked to Charlotte. “Convince me.” Jordan was a fair person and Charlotte knew this, they had been friends a long time. He held up his hand when others would have spoken. “She will convince me why they would want a marine commander over a general who knows more Federation secrets than Tribbles multiply. The rest of you will shut up.” It might not be polite but it was Jordan’s way.

Mike looked at Jordan and continued to wait for a reply from the Admirals. He laughed to himself. Anytime Charlotte was involved, Jordan always seemed to do whatever she wanted. This yet again appeared to be one of those times. But Mike would stay quiet and wait for authorization codes.

"The entire quadrant knows I violated the Omega Directive, they know I oversaw the stabilising of an Omega Particle, they know I used that Particle as the power supply for a weapon, which when finished obliterated a fleet of arguably the most advanced Starships we've faced in recent years." Charlotte said "I know all the ins and outs of how that was done right down to the science, the General doesn't know that because we didn't keep records. The power anyone wielding a weapon like that gains is huge, it will appeal to a criminal element because it is the potential for them to obtain the big gun. The General may be able to give them information about Federation weaknesses which they can exploit but I'm someone who can give them their invincible spear at which point they don't need Jackson. I'm more appealing in terms of what may bring a pirate crew profit and success."

Jordan didn’t like putting anyone in danger. Not one member of his crew but they had a point and at the moment he wasn’t certain they had an option. “I am tempted to go with it but if I do there are rules. First off, Jude is the security chief, if he tells you to do something everyone will listen. It is his responsibility to keep the Lieutenant safe.” His eyes met V’Lar’s. “You have a tendency to have your hands in the cookie jar. Stay out of his way, Lieutenant.” He looked around. “Anyone else?”

"If we're posing as pirates we don't want anything Starfleet on us, so we're talking civvies, non Starfleet weapons, equipment and coms." V'Lar said. Celine held up her hands.

"I am sorry, but I just have to say this. There are so many things that can go wrong with this plan. We have no motive, no plan, no point of contact, we do not know the reason he was taken, and for what purpose he is serving them as their prisoner. This is a terrible idea, no offense."

"I agree with Celine. " Mike said. "However I have heard from the Admiralty and I have the information we need so that we can figure out where he is and perform a rescue mission. It is my belief that again, going in at night doing a rescue attempt, as opposed to trying to trade and all this other stuff would work better. I think Charlotte and Jude should come up with a rescue attempt plan together and the rest of us follow the plan. No need for sacrifices or anything like that."

Charlotte sighed "We already have a solid rescue plan. We don't know where he is, we don't know who has him, what the layout of where he's being held is. Added to which we lack the personnel to mount an assault as an operation. If we weren't on the clock then I'd have been calling for Joel, Okan, Yujas and other personnel experienced in mounting an assault of the nature to be on a shuttle right now, but we don't have that and myself and Jude have to plan with what we have and who we have. That means an assault is not viable in my opinion and that the ruse is the better option. We create the situation where they bring Jackson to us, we use the trade as the means of extracting the General safely that minimises the risk to him and us, and when they inevitably double cross us, which they will, we make good our escape." she looked at Celine "We're not going to know the answers to any of those questions until we get him back and right now I believe this is the safest way of doing that." she sighed again "This is my area, I know what I'm doing, subtlety will prevail over assaulting an unknown. So do you trust me or not?" Celine pursed her lips.

"I know you know what you are doing, there are just so many variables." She looked at the Commander. "You all are better at this that I am, obviously. I leave you to it, of course. But it seems terribly risky to me. We better have a good idea of what we are doing beforehand."

“We will go with this plan.” Jordan said quietly. “McMahon I want you to be the one who handles Jackson and gets him to safety. The rest of us will be defending Thrace who will not have the abiility to defend herself until one of us can remove her restraints.” He looked around. “Make your shots count, don’t be shy they will be shooting to kill.”

Off:

Commander Jordan Haines
Executive Officer
Starbase Obsidian/USS Arcadia

Lieutenant Jude Haines
Chief Security Officer
Starbase Obsidian/USS Arcadia

Lieutenant Junior Grade Celine Quinn
Chief Diplomatic Officer
Starbase Obsidian / USS Arcadia

First Lieutenant Charlotte Thrace
Marine CO
USS Arcadia/Starbase Obsidian

Lieutenant Junior Grade V'Lar
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Arcadia/Starbase Obsidian

Lieutenant Commander Mike McMahon
Chief Operations Officer
Starbase Obsidian / USS Arcadia

Lieutenant Junior Grade Charles Andrews
Chief Flight Officer
Starbase Obsidian/USS Arcadia

Lieutenant Junior Grade Marty Stokes
Chief Counselor
USS Arcadia/Starbase Obsidian

Lieutenant JG T'Shas Cruz
Chief Science Officer
USS Arcadia/Starbase Obsidian

 

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