The Story Takes Another Turn
Posted on Fri Apr 3rd, 2015 @ 10:11am by Major David Lorenz & Jackson Banning V
Mission:
Breaking New Ground
Location: USS Ghost- Orbiting at the new meeting place
BRIDGE
USS GHOST
David Lorenz stared at the holo-bulkhead, watching with grim satisfaction. He had set the bridge visual log, or BVL, to loop the destruction of HMC's Site 6 facility. He wanted to make sure that when he was imprisoned that he at least had a record of his efforts to conceal any traces of Federation presence.
Quentin also watched the repeating destruction, his eyes bright. "I'll tell ye this much, lad; when ye are told to wreck something ye don't fook around."
"I hope the courts look on this as generously as you do, pal. I am gonna be in looking out when we get back to base," David sighed. "I always knew this would come back to bite me in the ass. Maybe I can use this BVL to plea-bargain for a nice cellie named Bubba."
Quentin shook his head. "I dinnae think that the admiral is going to be looking for your head on the pike. This mission came outta nowhere because of Jimmy's geologists, but we had no way o' knowing..."
David shook his head. "This op never happened and now we have to stuff the shit back in the goose! You know what that means, right?"
Quentin was serious as he said, "No one is going to kill the wee lass. I cannae think of anywhere she would be safer than on a planet dominated by Amazons! Trust me, laddie, yer not gonna be havin a jailhouse wedding, to be sure!"
David studied the BVL loop, nodding absently.
Quentin shrugged and went back to his normal post at the security/tactical station. David began to study the loop, looking for any signs of survivors. The Dominion warship in orbit of Site 6 might make for interesting exploring and he made a note to tow the ship back to base.
"Energize," Ronin ordered the man at the console. The young man gave a mock salute and moments later, Ronin materialized aboard the Ghost, directly behind Dave and Quentin. "Am I late to party amigos?"
Dave turned to see who had just beamed in, his jaw dropping in astonishment. "I'll be a sonofa...! where the hell did they dig your ass up?" Dave went over to shake the new arrival's hand, smiling.
Quentin studied the two men, concluding the new arrival was no threat to the ship. Dave glanced at the big man and grinned. "Relax, Q, this 8-ball and I go way back!"
"Indeed we do, to the dark ages." Ronin grinned at Quentin, then turned to Dave. "You dug me up, smartass. I was happily mooning over this lovely Betazoid by a swimming pool on a perfect day when you called. I have to say, Dave old man, she was a lot prettier than you but it's good to see you again."
"You too," Dave switched gears and lowered his voice. "Our passenger is in the medical bay. She is being kept unconscious. Li and the rest are en route. I'm glad you got out before Site 6 blew to hell. Where are the others?"
"We were a small band of merry men, as you recall. You also recall I had one last one to notify...Heartbreaker. The man himself, who took care of notifying the last one on the list. The two old men...and if you repeat that I called them that I will deny it till the day I die."
David's grin grew even wider. "For now we hold station until the runabout gets here with Admiral Hawke's daughter. One Dominion warship won't be having much of a crew, but we don't know if there are more in the area. This bucket has type XX pulse phaser cannons, but only Mark XV torpedoes. nice thing is HMC R+D perfected a dedicated torpedo replicator. Shields may be iffy, but this ship is a cancelled prototype of a fast attack cruiser. The on-board AI does most of the work except for food, some tactical duties and command level operations...."
=/\= What Mr. Lorenz is trying to say is that I am the brains of this outfit. You may address me as 'Eddie', as the crew already does. =/\= said Eddie's voice.
"We need to work on your manners, you flying short-circuit!" David growled.
"Good enough for me," Ronin answered. "So bring me up to speed, will you? And make it the short, non-frilly version."
Briefly, Dave filled Ronin in on the previous 72 hours of activity, leaving out nothing. Quentin busied himself but kept an eye on Ronin as Dave finished explaining about the Atlantis Protocol, NGSC's procedures for building demolitions. "The holo-projectors were Quentin's idea since all we had was blasting charges for dilithium in raw form. Once they were in place, it was just a matter of beaming us all out on the signal."
Quentin nodded. "Me mind is occasionally good for something besides drinkin' and whoorin'."
Quentin's commen brought a laugh from Ronin. "I see you know him well." He grew serious again ass he looked back to Dave. "My next question is the biggie. What happens to us once this is all over and done? A lot of people may have a lot of questions, including whoever's mine you just blew up."
Dave exhaled slowly. "This woman was never supposed to be found, and when word got back that Voyager had returned from the Delta Quadrant, I was nervous, but it was a long way from Site 6. The admiral is waiting to see what we do, but we can't just kill her, despite the orders. Getting the shit back in the goose is not gonna be pretty. To be honest, we may end up in prison over this. This was a war crime and a cover-up, if the truth be told."
"An ordered cover-up," Ronin reminded him. "Are they going to keep her on ice? That is my suggestion, to avoid a lot of questions and to reduce the temptation for undesirables to try and grab her. " He paused as a thought struck him. "You realize this is going to expose Jackson too."
"Like I said, it's going to be a real mess."
Quentin cleared his throat. "Maybe there is a way to keep all of this under wraps. We need to get together with Li and Jimmy. What I have in mind is against a few laws, but it may the solution we need."
David shot his friend a dubious stare. "You know we can't erase her..."
"Why not?" Quentin demanded. "It's been done before! We did it all the time on criminal types who canne be rehab'ed..."
David looked at Quentin with hard, cold eyes. "All this woman did was decode the molecular sequencing of metaphasic radiation so that it could be easily replicated..."
"....and she made immortality accessible to a race o' bein's who want us dead!" Quentin finished. "If we wipe her memory, the Dominion will nae be able to get anything from her!"
"At what cost? Will we become no better than they are?" David asked.
=/\= Gentlemen, I do hate to interrupt this scintillating discussion, but the Rhine is on approach and requesting permission to soft dock. =/\= Eddie spoke up.
David turned to the viewer. "Let 'em doc, Eddie." Dave said quietly. "We will see what Li and Jim say, Quentin."
Neither man smiled as the Rhine docked with the bigger ship.
