With Tail Between Their Legs (Part III of III)

Posted on Sun Oct 17, 2021 @ 4:11pm by Captain Maritza Soran & Commander Amia Telamon M.D. & Civilian Hydel Turvan

2,302 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Si vis pacem, para bellum
Location: DS5/ USS Titan
Timeline: MD 07 1500

Previously in With Tail Between Their Legs

Gul Kyren wanted to argue, but she saw the logic in his position. Keep them away from the station and you won't have to worry about any more shooting incidents,at least for now.

She sighed as she turned back to the glinn. "Carry out the order. Also, signal the surface that there may be escape pods and shuttles landing on Pangaea's surface, so be prepared to retrieve them," she said.

On the Titan, T'vael heard the Cardassians, and didn't trust them one little bit. "I am prepared to consider the last action as the panicked mistake of an overpromoted secretary. If your ships lock on to us, that will absolutely be considered an act of war."

And now the conclusion

---

*** USS Titan - Sickbay - ***

Amia Telamon had attempted to return to DS5 aboard the Titan, and whilst she was on her way here, technically as a passenger, she had been assisting in Sickbay to pass the time and keep her mind off what she might find when she got back. When the ship was fired on and casualties began to pour in, she found herself deeply involved suddenly and had to cease thinking about her concerns for her own colleagues and staff as she had now become deeply ensconced in saving lives.

The Titan's CMO was a very good doctor and efficient to the point of almost infallibility. He had been very tolerant of having another Medical Department Head in his Sickbay, displaced from her own home and beside herself with worry about those she had left behind who were apparently now in trouble.

When the ship's own crew started to come in injured, however, he stopped just being kind and putting up with Amia and suddenly found her very useful. In her element at last, Amia worked hard and put her own worries out of her head temporarily.

Once the flow of incoming injured began to slow and the more critical cases had all been attended to, starting off on their treatment and recovery plans etc., Amia cleaned herself up and went to see the CMO for permission to go to the bridge to see if there was any way to still get to the station, perhaps if shuttles were being sent over with evacuees. If the sick would need transfer, naturally Amia would help with that, and if the injured began to need more help then Dr. Rogers promised to call her back, but until then she was on her way to the bridge to see if she could get an update.

On her way to the bridge -- not that it was too very far, luckily, relatively speaking -- it became more and more apparent just how badly the ship had been damaged as she had to divert around and stop to get information from the staff she passed along the way. Things were bad. Clearly.

What could have possessed the Cardassians? They had been pompous and strutting when she had last been here, but...this was insanity. Why would they try to provoke a war? What did they hope to gain?

The planet. The portals, of course, that was what they hoped to gain, but why would they think Starfleet wouldn't stop them?

As Amia stood in the sliding doorway of the bridge she heard Admiral T'vael saying, "I am prepared to consider the last action the panicked mistake of an overpromoted secretary. If your ships lock on to us, that will absolutely be considered an act of war."


Spirits and gods! Amia thought. If they haven't done enough for us to consider their actions a declaration of war so far, then the Federation truly must have become as toothless as they're clearly banking on! Her spine ran cold and she shivered, standing still for several moments in shock. Several crew members looked up and seemed to be wondering what she was doing here, just standing in the doorway looking pale. She decided to move deeper into the bridge and stopped, waiting for the CO to have a spare moment to talk to her, if such a thing was going to be possible at all. She also looked around, hoping to see the XO or the Ops Chief looking as if they might have a second free, but it looked very unlikely, just as she would have expected in the circumstances. She was about to turn around and leave them to their problems, none of which she wanted to have to shoulder herself, nor to interrupt or impede.

Without much fanfare, the face of Legate Hydel Turvan appeared on the view screen of the critically damaged Starfleet vessel. "Admiral T'vael, I am Legate Hydel Turvan, Administrator for Pangaea and Deep Space 5. My people will provide rescue assistance to your crewmembers. If you wish to have an audience with me, then transport down to the planet's surface. If you'd like, you can bring a small escort along with you."

"That won't be necessary. We do not need your assistance, and I only wish to have our officers returned to us. There are a number of senior officers not accounted for, starting with Captain Soran."

"I fail to see how that is any of my concern at the moment," Legate Turvan responded curtly. He had tried to extend the hand of friendship to the Vulcan, but she had obviously chosen a different path. "Your officers were given explicit instructions to leave Deep Space Five as well as the planet's surface. If they fail to comply, then they will have to deal with the consequences of their own decisions," he said flatly. He had resisted the urge to order his troops to round up and imprison the various stragglers only because he did not have sufficient manpower to secure the portals, the station, and chase after the scattered Federation fighters within his area of operation.

"If you wish to be of any assistance, provide me a list of your missing officers and I will be sure to have my people keep an eye out for them," he suggested. "Otherwise, I suggest you focus on repairing your faltering vessel. I'd hate to have to dispatch a recovery crew for it," he said smugly.

"Please beam Commander Ryan to us directly. We know he is still on the station." T'Vael knew who she needed accounted for, and she wasn't about to give Turvan any clues over who might be about to offer resistance.

Legate Turvan sighed and leaned back in his chair as he contemplated the Vulcan's request. "It seems to me that you have found yourself in quite the predicament," he replied. "From where I sit, it would appear that I hold all of the cards...as well as Mr. Ryan," he said, purposely refusing to say his rank. "I will turn him over to the Federation after he has been held accountable for crimes committed against the people of Cardassia," he said, while slamming his fist down on his chair. "We Cardassians have very...very long memories and we do not quickly forget transgressions against us," he said.

Turvan recognized that without Captain Soran, Ryan was the senior-most member of the Starfleet detachment onboard. Allowing him to walk free would just give him the opportunity to rally together some form of counterattack against the station. The longer he kept Ryan under his thumb, the longer he could insure that he would not interfere with his plans for the portals on the planet below.

"Cardassia already tried him for that crime, and found not guilty," T'vael pointed out. "Therefore Ryan is either a hostage, or a prisoner of war. Which is it?"

Legate Turvan recognized what the Vulcan was trying to do with her selective choice of words. By getting Cardassia to deem him to be a prisoner of war, then it would give credibility to those who wanted to launch a counterattack against Turvan's forces to retake the station and planet below. He wanted to stall the arrival of Starfleet forces for as long as it took to gain complete control over the portals.

"There was never a declaration of war, Admiral. Your people relinquished their hold on this area and agreed to withdraw their forces," he said dismissively.."Mr. Ryan cannot be a prisoner of war if there is no war in the first place.

"Moreover, that hearing was a farce and you know it. It was a mere production put on by the Federation to simply appear to be a trial," the Cardassian responded bitterly. "This time, the deciding tribunal will not be stacked with his former commanding officer and other puppets of the Federation," he said accusingly.

T'vael kept her face impassive. The briefing notes had said Turvan was unable to deal with reality and insisted on saying things that weren't true in a desperate attempt to make it reality. She wasn't going to battle his delusion. He had just said there was no war. That would make the politics easier. "If there is no war, then we shall treat you and your people as criminals, and answer any harm to our people in kind." She cut the transmission.

She turned to her officers. "Contact Starfleet. Tell them it's a rogue group and that Hydel Turvan is completely insane. Logic may not be an option.”

[DS5]

Legate Hydel steepled his fingers as he watched the view screen shut off rudely. He knew that she was going to become a problem for him as the days and weeks went on. He did not wish to engage a full Starfleet armada, but he could not simply submit to the will of the Federation or else this entire endeavor would be a failure.

“Continue to monitor the situation involving those vessels. If they make any movement towards the planet, the station is directed to take all necessary steps to prevent such an action, up to and including lethal response,” he said as he stood up and made his way towards his office. “Get me a secure channel with Gil Kyren, immediately,” he snapped.

“Understood, Legate,” came the response of the Cardassian communications officer.

[Vulcan Embassy]

T'gan arranged with the Vulcan Embassy to be one of two dozen civilians evacuated from DS5. All were civilians who worked for Starfleet in one capacity or other. Two of those evacuating were friends of hers. They'd agreed to help her smuggle her database off the station. That would ensure that if by some means she was identified, the database would not be confiscated by the Cardassians.

Going with a group also gave her a better chance of not being identified. Now that the request had gone out, it was a matter of waiting for a ship to pick them up.

[Titan]

Amia finally got the all-clear to try to take an escape pod to the planet. There was little or no chance of her getting onto DS5 now, but she was of no use to her own colleagues nor her duty by sitting on the Titan waiting to be towed away or held as a bargaining chip in this insanity. She agreed that she wasn't likely to have an easy ride of it, and once down had a fifty percent chance of being found by Cardassians anyway, but she insisted she must try, and her rank of commander made it possible for her to guarantee not to admit to having agreed or even asked to undertake this.

She took full responsibility for her own actions and choices, and on this basis managed to get the help she needed (unofficially) to attempt what was to look like a maverick bit of spontaneity off her own back. It was risky and very uncomfortable.

There were several moments inside the claustrophobically small pod that the buffeting, random spiralling, spinning, and plummeting made her feel like she was going to be violently sick, and that was a possibility that would be amongst the most distressing and disgusting things that she could imagine. She concentrated on her breathing and tried to stay as loosely braced as possible without ending up thrown about more than ever, the plan being to lessen the chance that she would get there (hopefully) but with broken bones or disastrous consequences (Spirits not, please) of her own (rapidly becoming very regrettable) wild, (probably stupid) very dangerous choice of means to try to get back. She felt the atmospheric burn, not so much from any heat but from the flexing and booming that the little pod undertook as it strove to do its part. She felt the chutes release and the jolty, jerky response through the pod as it (and the chutes) fought the atmosphere to slow down.

By the time her pod finally hit the ground, dug in, and rolled itself into a form of stop, Amia was hanging upside down in her harness, the wind knocked out of her, and her stomach successful at last in emptying itself, fortunately downwards and away from her, so that when she was finally able to heave in a breath, it wasn't full of any unwanted fluids. It was such a traumatic experience that the CMO blacked out for a short while and awoke, still hanging there, wondering how long she had been out, and, for that matter, where she was.

[OFF]

A JP between:

Legate Hydel Turvan
Prefect of the Cardassian Administrative Zone Deep Space 5
Cardassian Empire

Gul Meran Denat
Operational Commander Pangaea
Cardassian Empire

Gul Kalena Vashur
Commander
127th Tactical Wing

Gul Natomi Kyren
Deep Space 5 Administrator
Cardassian Empire

Gul Remul Hulceen
Executive Officer
Cardassian Empire

Admiral T'Vael
Starfleet Security


and

Cmdr Amia Telamon
CMO - DS5 - Returning From Leave

 

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