It wasn't yours to keep.

Posted on Fri Jul 19, 2019 @ 9:59pm by Captain Maritza Soran & Lieutenant JG Erich Hartmann & Lieutenant Alanna Wells & Lieutenant Kivan Ta'Gas & Miral Annhwi

2,364 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Doors of Perception
Location: Commander's Office
Timeline: MD11 1500

[ON]

Lieutenant Kivan had received the Orders the night before and had read it and re-read it several times over. He still could not get past the frustration that consumed him. They had only begun to fully understand the potential of the Romulan Core and what its purpose was. For years it had sat dormant within the station's Science department. With the sudden arrival of Pangea, the device had activated and demonstrated a still unknown connection with the planet and its phase-shifting capability.

Unfortunately, that would be all that the young Engineer would learn about the device since his department along with Science and Operations had just received word from Command that the device was to be disengaged from Starfleet systems and prepped to be transferred to Romulan custody.

"Ma'am, there is still so much that we haven't been able to ascertain about the device. Information that is highly relevant to the the planet and its time-travel capabilities." The Cardassian said while standing before his Commanding Officer.

"I know. I've argued that with the higher ups." Soran said, "Especially in light of recent events. I got overruled, with no reason given. All I can do is try and delay the inevitable whilst you try and scrape as much information as possible out of it"

The doors opened and a Romulan woman dressed in a purple gown walked in. "Hello," she said. "Who is in charge here?"

Lt. Kivan looked as the Ambassador entered the room. He withheld comment as he saw that the question was really directed towards Commander Soran as opposed to himself, Lt. Wells, or even Lt. Hartmann.

Ambassador Miral Annhwi walked into the room and looked around. When she spotted Maritza and walked over to her. "Commander Soran, we meet again." Her eyes traveled over the core, showing nothing but mild interest. She had long ago learned to keep her thoughts strictly to herself.

Lieutenant Hartmann ambled over to the Ambassador, attempting to do diplomatic disaster control until the Skipper could come into play. He tried an old trick he learned a long time ago.

“—Greetings Exalted Ambassador. I am Lieutenant Hartmann, Chief Operations Officer. How might I be of service?”—

The greeting was in Romulan, albeit stiffly accented and so formal that it was almost archaic.

She looked at the man, sizing him up. Why had he chosen to interrupt? Deciding she would play along until she learned why he felt the need to act as the commander's bodyguard, she bowed and replied, in equally formal Romulan, "Lieutenant Hartman, I give you greetings. I am here to collect that which belongs to the Romulan Empire."

Hartmann decided he needed to at least stall for time. For starts, he needed little help.

“Forgive my ignorance, Madam Ambassador.” He said, switching back to his teutonically accented English, “I know only the most basics of your language, and then only in formal Romulan. Could you please restate your query, so that I will ensure you greatest efficient service?”

Hartmann was verbally bowing and scraping, and part of him internally ground his teeth into sand at the thought, but he found that most people want to feel important, and if you treat them as such, were far more inclined to cooperate with you.

Miral sighed. "I am here about that." She waved in the general direction of the computer core. "As you are well aware, it belongs to the Romulan Empire."

Hartmann did his best to look as sad as possible. “I am aware that at one time this fine piece of engineering belonged to the Empire, yes Madam Ambassador. However, I’m certain you are aware we cannot simply unplug the device without severe consequences to station operations.”

"You're using a Romulan computer core for your station's operations?" she asked. "I was under the impression you were simply trying to study it? Is Starfleet once again stealing technology from us?"

Hartmann tried a different route. “Well madam ambassador, May I humbly ask how much time a Romulan station crew would be allotted to change over computer cores?”

"That I will discuss with the commander," she replied frostily. "And not one of her subordinates." When she walked into the room, she was willing to discuss a joint venture with the station's science department to find out why this core was connected to the planet, but after the behavior of this officer, she was having second thoughts.

Erich realized he was losing her. “Forgive me if my tone was insolent Madam Ambassador. I meant no disrespect. I wished to merely suggest to you that, if a Romulan crew could be reasonably expected to remove a core in, say, 10 days, surely we silly, inefficient Starfleet types cannot be expected to be able to match the galaxy-famous proficiency of the Romulan Star Empire?”

She glared at him. "I wish to speak with Commander Soran, not you."

"Well I'm right here, Ambassador Annwhi." Soran didn't appreciate the ambassador's shortness with her staff, but this was no place for getting hissy.

Miral turned to Maritza. "I know. I did address you when I entered, but your guard dog here chose to intercept me."

"I don't have any guard dogs, just staff keen to make you feel at home." Maritza indicated a chair. "We have an opportunity for a deal of joint working, similar to that already taking part on Pangaea. I'm hoping you'll see this the same way."

Lieutenant Hartmann took that as his cue to leave, clicking his heels together and bowing slightly to his CO and the Ambassador before turning on his heel and finding other work to do.

Lieutenant Kivan continued to stand off to the side listening to the conversation. His blood was boiling at the thought of months of work studying the device just being wiped away by some entitled delegate.

"Ma'am, this is entirely different than Pangaea," Ta'Gas blurted out. "We've spent years studying this device and have far more knowledge of it than any new scientific team assigned to it." He said hurriedly. He knew he was out of line, but he just coudln't stand by doing nothing as a technological wonder simply slipped through his fingers.

"And what do you know of this device?" Miral asked.

"I know it was captured doing an attack on this station several years ago by factions within the Romulan government of the time." Maritza replied. "One that was unprovoked."

"The Romulan Star Empire is not responsible for the actions of dissidents," Miral replied, waving off any fault on her part. "I am here to talk about recovering the core."

"Why now?" Soran had her suspicions, given it was responding to an old frequency, that could well still be in use amongst the Romulans. Then again, only they knew that.

"Because now I am here," Miral said, believing that was enough.

'Three years, nearly four, that Core has been sitting in our possession." Long before she got here only a few months ago. "In that time, there have not only been several ambassadors, but one of them was in charge of the station. I find it unusual that its being requested now."

Hartmann took the opportunity to attempt to play diplomat. “Excuse me -Exalted Ambassador-,” he stated her title in formal Romulan, “But may I respectfully state that our two sovereign groups are not in conflict; if you might provide some reasonable notion as to why this core is so desperately desired now, we may better be able to come to a mutually beneficial arrangement. I assure you it is not our desire to humiliate or disrespect the RSE.”

She turned to the Operations Chief. "Because it is Romulan, not Federation. Because from all reports I've seen you have yet to understand how it works and there is a very real possibility that if you continue you will cause irreparable damage to the core, this station, and the planet beneath. Is that enough of a reason for you?" she said in perfect Standard.

Hartmann shrugged. “All valid arguments. But you have not addressed one issue: if those same concerns existed years ago, then may I respectfully ask why it is only now that you wish to claim it? After all, the Empire isnt known to dawdle about such things; when they decide to do something, they do it quickly and efficiently.”

"We have gained a substantial amount of information about the Core." Kivan said defensively. "We've compiled kiloquads of data since the planet has appeared. Data that my our departments are still processing and interpreting." The Engineer said while gesturing to Hartmann.

"Disconnecting the core at this point would set us back in innumerable ways." The Cardassian said as he began to pace the small space. He stopped himself from asking the question he really wanted to ask, which was ~who the hell knows this better than we do?~

"Offending me will set you back further," Miral replied coldly. "Your arguments so far have done nothing to persuade me you have any claim on the core."

The door opened and Alanna walked in. She paused to look at the tableau and try to figure out what was going on. She had yet to meet the new Chief Operations Officer, or the Romulan Ambassador, but she'd seen their pictures. The atmosphere was far too tense for her linking. She walked up to the group. "Hello. I'm Alanna Wells." She nodded to Hartmann, then turned to the ambassador and bowed. "A pleasure to meet you, ambassador."

Miral raised an eyebrow at the new arrival. "The science officer, yes?" She knew who the woman was, having read the reports by the Romulan scientists, but she wasn't going to admit that.

"Yes, I am. I take it you are here about the core?"

The ambassador sighed. "Yes, but the commander is loath to give me what is mine."

"Yes, technically it is yours, but it was considered abandoned," Alanna said. "Would you consider sharing it with our scientists?"

"It is Romulan, therefore it is ours."

"Could we agree to share it?" Alanna asked, glancing at Soran.

"I am all in favour of such an arrangement," Better that than loose it completely, Soran thought.

"Would that not be my decision to make?" Miral said haughtily.

"Yes, it would," Alanna said. "But we have information on Pangaea and how it relates to the core. You do not. So, we have something to offer as well."

Miral raised an eyebrow. That was the first point that bore consideration. She did not know much about the planet, but what she heard intrigued her. "Perhaps. In the name of science. And cooperation." Especially if she got something out of it.

"Would moving it to the research colony be a compromise, accesible to your researchers equally woth pur own?" It would possibly count as handing it over, whilst still having reasonable control over it, Soran thought.

"Did you not have an explosion on the planet recently?" Miral asked. "Can you assure me that the facility will be safe?"

"The Raddon Corporation has been banned from Pangaea," Alanna said. "The explosion was due to research they were conducting."

Raddon. Miral heard something about them. "If you could assure me that the site is secure, I will consider it." She looked around. It would be preferable to leaving it here.

"The site is fully secure and we've recently increased it with an allocation of marines as an addition to our Starfleet security." Soran replied,

The Romulan nodded. "Very well. As long as my people have equal access to everything involving the core and can dictate what we consider to be classfied."

"As long as you can assure us that it is classified," Alanna said. "And we ask for the same. The portal complex is classified. Anything in our core involving that we want for ourselves."

"Agreed. Unless it involves my people specifically."

"Only if you can show that it is pertient to you only," Alanna countered.

"And how shall we verify this to your satisfaction?" Miral asked.

"One of your scientist and I will be the only two privy to aht information. If we agree it belongs to one or the other of us, then we leave it at that," Alanna said. "If we disagree, then you and Commander Soran will be brought in to talk it over."

Miral considered the science officer for a long moment. Then she looked at the others in the room and then back at Alanna. "How do I know I can trust you?"

"You don't," Alanna said bluntly. "You can read my record or talk to other scientists I've worked with, and I can do the same for your representative, but there really is no way either of us can be certain. So, we both have to take it on faith."

"I do not take things on faith, lieutenant," the ambassador said. "Especially when dealing with the Federation."

"Except for your scientists, I can say the same," Alanna replied.

Miral looked at her for a long moment. "I will agree to give it a try. But the first time you deceive me, I take the core."

Alanna paused for a moment, then looked at Commander Soran. Without waiting for her to comment, Alanna turned back to Miral. "As long as it's mutual, I will agree--if the commander is also okay with this."

Maritza looked to her Chief of ops and her best engineer. "Gentlemen?" If they had any caveats or objections, now was the time.

Hartmann nodded to the CO.

"No ma'am, nothing further from Engineering." Kivan said.

"Alright then." Soran realised it was time to finish this. Lieutenant Ta'gas will liaise with Dr Wells and yourself, Madame Ambassador, to oversee the transfer. Lieutenant Hartmann will work with your technicians to prepare laboratory space for it at the colony."

Miral looked at each person in turn, then nodded. "That is acceptable. Thank you."

Soran nodded, then glanced to her best engineer and the new head of ops. "Make it so."

[OFF]


Commander Maritza Soran
CO
DS5

Miral Annhwi
Romulan Ambassador
DS5

Lieutenant j.g.
Kivan Ta'Gas
Assistant Chief Engineer

Lieutenant j.g. Erich Hartmann
Chief Operations Officer
DS5

 

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