The Beginning of the End

Posted on Wed Nov 9th, 2011 @ 11:59am by Commander Sakkath

=^= U.S.S. Takei =^=

Sakkath had been forced to abandon his project, despite the hours invested. It had become abundantly clear to him that he was just as likely to vent the atmosphere of Divitia Prime as he was to pull the ionized gases into the void of space. He reasoned that the planet's populace would be less than pleased with the more unfavorable of the two possible results... provided they were not asphyxiated immediately.

He was clearing several of his PADDs when the comm chimed. Activating his badge, he set the devices aside.

"This is Sakkath," he said simply.

=^= "Lieutenant Dobry for you from the planet, sir." =^=

"Patch him through." The Vulcan Commander turned his attention to the monitor that adorned his Ready Room's desk, now alive with the dark-skinned Haliian's face.

"Lieutenant Dobry, what may I do for you?"

"Commander," the diplomat acknowledged with a nod. "Commander qeraQ' is in with the council presently. He asked me to inform you that, pending whatever he's about to say, we will either be departing or accelerating our current plans." Sakkath possessed no great understanding of emotions, but he could tell that Dobry was more than mildly displeased with something. He surmised the words 'Klingon diplomacy' might be involved. Commander qeraQ', though a seasoned officer, was not Lieutenant Commander Kh'ali, who had managed to resolve those two seemingly disparate terms into something truly unique.

The Vulcan nodded. "We will be prepared," he promised. Sakkath had opened his mouth to speak further, but was interrupted as some kind of ruckus caused Dobry to turn.

The Lieutenant's expression soured further. "Excuse me, Commander, but I need to deal with this," he said, exasperated as the channel closed. Sakkath could not be certain, but he believed he heard some very colorful, very... Carlos Spicy Weiner-esque dialogue in those few moments. Dobry would certainly have his hands full, but all Sakkath needed to know was that Li had trusted Nick to get results. He would share in his wife's faith. If Mister Marcinko had appeared, it was hopefully a harbinger that things were progressing in the Federation's, and thus Divitia's, best interests.

Standing and straightening his uniform, the Vulcan made his way to the bridge, stopping in front of the command chair. His staff seemed to sense that things were about to be in motion. The atmosphere on the bridge became one of intention, a stillness that awaited action. The string of orders that Sakkath set to issue only affirmed that.

"Please signal the Hammond," he began, "and inform them to maintain a lock on the members of their away teams. Our transporter room is to do the same. In the meantime, helm, you have coordinates from Commander Leroy indicating the positions on the planet whose geological stability would weather sustained phaser fire?"

"Aye, sir," came the response from the Ensign there. "He sent them up a few hours ago."

"Divide the list geographically between the northern and southern hemispheres. Send the northern coordinates to the Hammond and ask them to assume geosynchronous orbit over the first position. We will do the same with our moiety of the planet." Sakkath began to turn to face stations in turn then. On a ship like the Berkeley he might have called a staff meeting for this purpose, but on a vessel such as the Takei such would have been both wasteful and illogical.

"Tactical, you will assume responsibility for the southern firing positions. Operations, ensure that we have the power necessary to maintain a constant rate of fire. Engineering, begin a level 2 diagnostic of our phaser arrays."

From Conn to Ops, Tactical to Engineering, and all throughout the compact vessel that was the Takei a flurry of activity set into motion. The time to act with the President's executive authority seemed to be upon them.

Sakkath took his seat then, watching the orb of Divitia and the stars beyond move slowly as they sought their new orbit. He steepled his fingers before him, considering what was about to happen.

The Vulcan knew that this sort of heavy-handed solution would likely leave the Divitians less than pleased, but there was simply no alternative. Left to their own devices, energy consumption for shielding on the planet's surface would exhaust their supplies and Divitia Prime would die, along with many of its people. Beneath the planet's crust, there was a chance.

He only hoped that chance would be enough to forgive a pair of Federation vessels, sent in peace, from firing on the planet below.

__________________________
Lieutenant Commander Sakkath
Commanding Officer - USS Takei
Chief of Operations - SB 900