Unexpected Surprises

Posted on Sun Nov 6th, 2011 @ 2:02pm by Captain qeraQ' & Lieutenant Nick Marcinko

qeraQ' walked purposefully towards the council chamber considering his approach to the council. Lt.Dobry followed him, furiously scrolling through his notes to find the correct protocol for the address.

"When you approach the dais stop, look around, walk around the dais and then directly to the centre, it will indicate respect for the authority of the Council by your hesitant, and that you have fully considered your position with respect to it."

"What would it mean if I walked directly to the dais and then began to speak."

"That you are certain of your words, and will not consider alternative points of view."

"Good, that sounds appropriate for my mood."

"Are you sure...-"

"Lieutenant these people need to be woken up and shaken, I will give them the assurances they require, but I will be blunt."

"Very well, the opening form is -"

"I have already got my first words in mind."

"You should conform -"

"Lieutenant that is enough. What will happen will happen, I will let Kahless guide me. Duj tIvoq'taH, trust your instincts."

They continued in silence, Lt. Dobry worried about the diplomatic consequences of what would follow, qeraQ' thinking only of the stupidity of these people and becoming increasingly angry. It was not a happy situation. The doors loomed ahead of them, the guards standing to attention as they approached and striking the ground with their ceremonial staffs.

"Wait here, Lieutenant, once I am in please inform Lt. Commander Sakkath to standby, we will either be leaving or accelerating our current plans. If there are any developments I will have my in-ear communicator in place."

"Understood, Commander... Please try and consider our relationship with this planet in whatever you are about to say."

"I will."

He paused as the doors opened to the Council chamber, the assembled members quieting as he began to stride purposefully towards the dais. It was time to toss the dice once again.

"Shut up, cockface!" Dobry heard loudly behind him. He turned to see Marcinko dragging a yellow-haired man down the corridor, obviously against his will. Nick shoved him against the wall and said something that Dobry couldn't quite make out. "I know where your family is. I may be wearing a Starfleet uniform, but don't think that I won't hunt down every last fucking one of them down and kill them all slowly, starting with your children. Capiche?"

The man looked in Nick's eyes, realized that he wasn't joking, and slowly nodded his head. They both walked quickly up to the doors where Dobry, and the guards, stood. "I need in," Nick said to Dobry.

"No one may enter unless requested by the council," one of the guards said loudly.

"Don't worry about it, bub," Nick said. "They'll want to hear about this guy." He tried to push past one of the guards who grabbed his arm.

"Like I said, no one may enter unless--"

Nick shrugged his hand off of his bicep, pushed him against the wall and squeezed what he thought was his neck in an attempt to choke him. "I'm going in, ya' tuna fish!"

The choke hold apparently worked as the other guard came over to assist. The shouting and cursing by Nick became very loud, carrying over into the council chambers. qeraQ' looked around and cursed softly to himself. Tapping his communicator he tried to remember some of the Marine parlance from prior days.

=^= Marcinko, silent engagement alpha =^=

He didn't wait to see if the message had been received but the noise quietened. If he had understood then there would soon be a quiet message arriving via the enhanced universal translator implanted in his ear.

Backing off of the two Divitian guards, Nick tapped his communicator. "Carlos Spicy Weiner to One-Armed Jack. If you can copy, I think I've got what we need out here. I've got evidence, and this jackass' testimony, that he was purposely sabotaging those dumps, our attempts at assistance and he says was hired by some members of the congress in there. Give me a click if you got that."

qeraQ' tapped an acknowledgement and motioned him to standby, he would use the man when required. It was time to take the stand. He marched purposefully to the dais and climbed the step without pausing or making eye contact. The President stood in front of him to read the opening forms but he wasn't going to stop for him.

"You have summoned me here to talk on behalf of the Federation. To tell you that your planet is dying and to make assurances for the security and sovereignty of your people. Well your planet is dying, we will leave if you ask it. That fulfills my obligation to answer your questions." he looked around at the assembled faces settling finally on Ferantis, the older Council Member. "It does not fulfill my desire to knock some sense into you and snap you out of this stupidity!"

The reaction from the room was expected. Once the translation had settled it erupted in a blaze of shouts and shaken fists. At the back of the room some of the more junior members of the council started to try and barge their way through to the front, their eyes showing that there only intention was to get to the Klingon who dared to question their democracy.

Gradually things began to quieten, the Dacorum of the room being restored by political officers and government members. Ferantis moved forwards and looked up at the qeraQ, the anger in his eyes only just kept below the surface.

"How dare you come here and insult us! Every time we have dealt with your people, your so-called Federation of people's seeking peace, you have come and tried to tell us what to do, how to fix things. You have claimed honour and honesty, but every time you have done that in the past you have lied to us. Now you stand there and claim that we are stupid."

"I come here and say these things having watched this Council for a week. Having seen how our help has been treated. You call us arrogant... Every time my team have made suggestions they have been marginalised. You have even tried to have my men arrested by some kind of secret policeman after your secret chemical dump had contaminated my reconaisscence teams! Since we have arrived, at the request of your Speaker and your President, my people have become frustrated, alienated, and ignored. Most of that has started in this room."

"We have done nothing to harm the interests of Divitia -"

"The bureaucracy, lengthy process and lack of responsibility demonstrated by the people I'm this room had made this problem far worse. Your President is attempting to gain control of this situation. Instead of listening you argue. Well perhaps what you need is to see what some of your democracy has achieved. Marcinko, bring him in."

Despite his being called to the front, the two guards at the door attempted to keep him out. In short order he flattened one and threw the second through the double doors, opening them with a very loud clang that reverberated throughout the chamber's halls. He quickly grabbed his 'source' by the elbow and walked him over the second guard and through the barrage of Divitian Council members yelling and throwing books.

One older Divitian in particular stood and faced them both. Eittan, the man Nick had with him, started to pull away but Nick hissed in his ear, "Run now and I will not only kill you where you stand but I will filet your entire family slowly..."

Eittan stopped, swallowed hard, and the two walked past the council member up to where qeraQ' stood. With a nod from the Commander, Nick spoke, despite the rigid guidelines set forth by the Council on who could speak and when.

"This man, Eittan, a Rheger Tuhg Thanatoksin, was found purposely sabotaging the chemical dumps in the area to make them even more harmful to your atmosphere. Not only was he sabotaging your planet, but he was also sabotaging the work done by the Starfleet personnel that your people requested help from."

The roars from the crowd returned with jeers toward the Rheger Tuhg, an offshoot of the Thanatoksin race that had attempted to migrate to Divitia Prime but had the borders shut off to them and many of their kind exterminated by Divitian public safety personnel. Once the crowd quietened, Nick continued.

"Before you all get your panties in a wad, I would like for Eittan to let you know who hired him to do this sabotage." He turned to Eittan. "Do it."

After what felt like an eternity, and with a shaky hand, Eittan finally pointed to three Council Elders, one of which had stood in front of them on the way to the dais. "Council members Moberl, Reizanti and Zerh'and."

Nick looked at qeraQ' fully expecting the crowd to explode again. Oddly...there was complete silence. At least until Reizanti, the Council member from the aisle, shouted, "You are a liar! You cannot prove this!"

"That's right," Nick interrupted. "He cannot, but I can. I have a recording of the four of you meeting outside the dump site just to the northwest of this city. It lasted almost fifteen minutes and I can provide it to the Council if needed."

A quiet murmur spread throughout the large room.

Moberl, sitting to the right of where qeraQ', Nick and Eittan stood, got slowly out of his chair and began moving towards a door. Once he did, Zerh'and and Reizanti followed suit.

"Perhaps not everyone is as concerned with the survival of this planet as you are Council Member Ferantis." qeraQ' looked at the man closely, he seemed to be one of the more influential members of the council. "I will not meddle in the affairs of this planet any further than we have done already. I will leave you to solve these problems unless you ask otherwise. I have already told you we will leave when we are asked. The Federation is not your enemy, despite what you might think, our scientists are already working on a plan to help you further. We will do nothing without permission, but I ask that you give the President the authority to solve these problems directly. Your planet is dying. If you do nothing then the atmosphere will be irreparable in 2 weeks. Your power consumption is crippling you further, and the forecasts predict that you have 2 months of reserves before this planet will be uninhabitable. The choice is yours."

The room was completely silent now, qeraQ' stepped down for the dais and motioned for Marcinko to follow him with Eittan. At the door a security team was waiting.

"I suggest. You take this man into protective custody. If we hear anything about him coming to harm before he can give evidence I will personally see to it that you are held responsible." the security tea, took charge do Eittan and left, qeraQ' turned to Marcinko. "Better late than never Chief"

"I know it looks better with Eittan being in their custody--no potential influence from us, and all that, but I have a very bad feeling about it."

The two were joined by Dobry just outside the chamber doors.

"How's that for a study on political science?" Nick asked the Lieutenant with a shit-eating grin on his face.

"Remind me never to let the two of you loose in a delicate political situation... Oh wait I just did...!"

"The message was effectively delivered Lieutenant. Sometimes it takes a surprise to outflank the opposition. It is in there hands now. We must wait for the decision."

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A post by:

Commander qeraQ'
Executive Officer and reluctant diplomat

SCPO Marcinko
Sneaky bastard with good timing