Give him back! (Part I of V)

Posted on Tue Apr 21, 2020 @ 11:30pm by Captain Maritza Soran & Lieutenant Annora Tessaro & Lieutenant JG Natalie Cross & Lieutenant Si'Lar Trellis

1,837 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Et In Arcadia Ego
Location: Various around DS5
Timeline: Back post : Doors of Perception, MD 17

[ON]

When Trellis had brought her the information that Claude had been seen being taken onto a civilian ship that had been in docking bay 44 seventy two hours ago, and he'd narrowed it down to three options, the John Bull/ the Viridian Dream and the Archangel, Maritza hadn't hesitated. She had a tactical officer hovering over the tractor controls in case any of those ships, now in the holding pattern, tried to make a run for it, and now she wanted a boarding crew on each of them in twenty minutes.

Once word came down about strong evidence placing Claude on one of three ships, security passed word onto Soran. Annora had her suspicions about what course of action the Commander would take but needed confirmation.

"Afternoon Ma'am. How do you want to handle this?"

With extreme prejudice. "I want each ship boarded simultaneously. No warnings for whichever is the real target. Beam in as many as you need. I'll trust you to determine the best tactics. Strip those ships to the bones, and stun anyone who gives you trouble. We'll sort them out later."

Natalie arrived just in time to hear the instructions being given. Never a dull moment around here. She thought to herself. Nodding to the others, she said. "Hello."

Annora nodded at the Intel chief as she moved to give orders to her security teams. =/\= "Tessaro to Florizel. I need you to call up all six Strategic Response Teams. Send them to the briefing room as soon as they're geared up. I also need an extra fifty four security guards to join the mission. Call up the next shift early if you need to. I'll be down to brief shortly." =/\=

She turned back to the Commander. "That's three teams of 10 per ship, or 6 teams of 5. I'll leave the specifics to the team leaders depending on conditions."

Maritza nodded. "Good. And when you find him, I want Intel and your investigations unit after every scrap of evidence. Proof of the crime obviously, but also in case we can link them back to the greater Humans First movement. Any other questions?"

Lieutenant Trellis sat back and drew in a deep breathe as he listened to the Commander give her orders. He had been through this before. He knew how this was going to go down. . .and he was afraid of how high the body count would be this time.

"Ma'am. . ." he said with obvious hesitation in his voice. "Ma'am, I don't believe this is a good idea. In fact, I'm I'm certain this is a bad idea." He said, his voice gaining more strength to it.

"Senior Chief U'Van and I led the team that went onboard the Ferengi vessel the last time we went in guns ablazing." The Trill Security Officer said, referring to the mission to invade the Ferengi Ambassador's vessel after it tried to negotiate a fee to return the children that were onboard.

"We're not dealing with a bunch of money-grubbing Ferengis here. Those three vessels are civilian vessels." He said, gesturing towards the Commanders's window "All we know is that a vessel that had been docked with the station within the past 72 hours may contain Yeoman Toussaint. If we seize the wrong vessel with absolutely no warrant, there will be hell to pay." He said, standing up from his chair.

"We need to take more time to confirm which vessel he is on, without tipping off the other vessels. The more probable cause we have, the better off we'll be." He said, his heart pounding a mile a minute.

Annora understood what the other security officer was getting at, but had a different take on the situation. "If we were talking about searching private quarters or an embassy I'd agree. However we are dealing with ships that could easily make a run for it. Therefore the threshold for carrying out a search is lower. We have probable cause to board the vessels without a warrant. If he is found on one of the ships, we can use that as grounds for a warrant."

Maritza ground her teeth. She knew both sides had a point but damn it, it was her yeoman. "You've seen what they've done to him already. I don't doubt for a moment his life is at stake. They've taken care to mask his life signs. Mr Trellis, if you have any ideas on how to narrow this down, you have as long as it takes Ms Tessaro to brief her away teams."

The briefing itself would be short, it was gathering everyone that would take the longest. Annora glanced at the time. "We should be ready to transport in twelve minutes. Lieutenant Cross if any of your people wish to join the search, they need to report to the briefing room ASAP. Commander, I'll make sure you're kept in the loop."

Si'Lar exhaled with frustration. He knew this was not the right way to proceed, but there was no way he could convice the Commander to change her course of action. He waited until the Security officers had gotten outside of the Commander's office before he grabbed Anoora's arm urgently.

"Damnit, what are we doing!?" He asked pointedly. "You know as well as I do that this is going to end in absolute chaos if we go storming onboard those civilian vessels based off the info we have." He pleaded with the Security Chief.

Annora encouraged her troops to not blindly follow orders, so she wasn't upset at Si'Lar's objections. It also helped they were of equal rank. If a crewman straight out of training objected in the same manner, she'd be less likely to listen.

"Believe it or not, my original major was International Relations. bit I also spent just over a year tracking down terrorists such as Humans First. I'm well aware of the risks of boarding these ships. Ideally I'd give the crews a warning before boarding, but considering the risks I'm not sure that's wise. Even 30 seconds is enough time for them to kill the Yeoman. We beam a team of 10 to both the bridge and main engineering to quickly gain control. The remaining groups of five transport to other areas with life-signs. From there we branch out. Hopefully the innocent crews let us do our job without much trouble. When it's over they're free to lodge a formal complaint. As for the third ship, they're likely to put up a fight either way. If you have another idea, I'm listening."

Stepping into the turbolift, she waited for him to enter before giving their destination.

Following suit, Natalie stepped inside the turbolift. She was to be at the brief along with a few of her people. She didn't want to invite a crowd. The security teams had a history of training and working together; adding new individuals to the group would add unknowns that in a situation like this was not ideal.

Si'Lar and another junior security officer joined the two officers on the turbolift and waited as the doors closed behind them. His mind raced as he tried to think of alternative scenarios that would avoid the ensuing trouble that was about to erupt. He couldn't call off the mission and it was obvious that the Commander's mind was firmly made up.

Eventually the lift came to an end and the group began to file off. Lt. Trellis followed along with Annora as they made their way back to Main Security to oversee the mission.

Chief Peterson greeted the group as thy entered the security office.
"Afternoon Lieutenants, Petty Officer."

The presence of the Intel chief didn't go unnoticed, but didn't give him any info on what was transpiring.
"Who are we raiding today Lieutenant?"


He'd find out in the briefing, but Annora quickly read him in on the situation anyway. "The freighter's, John Bull/, Viridian Dream and Archangel. Intel has strong evidence our missing Yeoman is on one of those three vessels. The Commander wants this handled quote 'with extreme prejudice.' Unquote. The plan is to simultaneously board all three vessels and search them stem from stern. Lieutenant Trellis is concerned about the fallout from such action. While I agree, barring any other ideas we're going with shock and awe."

The Klingon/Human security officer nodded. "That explains why Florizel called in a large number of third shift plus the SRU Teams. I thought maybe we were going after Raddon. There is bound to be public backlash against this. Lieutenant Cross, any chance of narrowing down our search any further?"

"Unfortunately, this is the best that we can do with the time we have." Natalie replied.

Si'Lar merely stood within the door-frame and listened as the Chief dictated her orders. He sighed as he watched the other officers present. As he did, he saw Petty Officer Walters walking away from the group. Si'Lar watched him for several moments as he continued to walk away down the corridor, speaking into a small object in his hand.

"Walters, what's the status of that inventory report we wrote on the. . ." The Security Investigation Officer said calmly at first. His voice grew more concerned as the crewman continued to walk away without responding.

"Uh...Walters?" Si'Lar said, this time his voice less certain. "Petty Officer Walters!" Lieutenant Trellis said more sternly as he stood up from the wall and turned towards the apparently subordinate crewman. However the command went unheeded as the Petty Officer looked briefly over his shoulder, but continued to walk away.

"Who ar---who are you talking to!?" Lt. Trellis shouted as he started to confront the Petty Officer. "Walters! Put down that communicator!" He shouted as he took off down the hall.

Annora noticed the interaction between Trellis and Walters, but initially let Trellis handle it. When he didn't return in short order, she left to office to see what was occurring.

"...deck 16 by the secondary. . .shit! They're on their way, do whatever you hav---" Petty Officer Walters was tackled by Lieutenant Si'Lar before he was able to complete his sentence into the device.

She entered the hallway in time to see Trellis tackle the wayward Petty Officer. Her left hand dropped to the phaser on her hip, but didn't draw.
"Lt Trellis, what is happening?"

Trellis continued to struggle with the Petty Officer for several more moments before he was final able to pin the Human's face down into the deck while using his knee to apply pressure to his shoulder blames, keeping him down.

"I caught him communicating to someone!" Lt. Trellis said. "I think he's in contact with someone on one of the ships!" He added.

To Be Continued

Commander Maritza Soran
Commanding Officer
DS5

Lieutenant Annora Tessaro
Chief Security Officer
DS5

Lieutenant JG Natalie Cross
Chief Intelligence Officer
Ds5

Lieutenant Silar Trellis
Undercover Operations Co-ordinator
DS5

Antagonists NPCs by Dorian Gabriel

 

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