Striking while the iron is hot - part 1

Posted on Tue Oct 24, 2017 @ 3:33am by Captain Maritza Soran & Lieutenant Liam Reynolds & Civilian Hydel Turvan

2,349 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Rumours
Location: OPS - Warship
Timeline: MD 08 1400

[ON]
Gul Druman Nivall quickly stepped onto his bridge, almost faster than the doors could slide open to permit his entrance. He immediately scanned the area to see what Soldiers were on duty at the moment. He knew that he needed his finest Soldiers to be ready to respond to his next command without any hesitation.

"Comm! Get me the Commander of Deep Space Five and their Diplomatic Officer!" He barked as he took his position in his command chair. He had received news that the Hardesh had been attacked by terrorists from Deep Space Five. The cowards had waited until the Cardassian vessel began a security inspection onboard before they self-destructed, killing several of his men. Their sacrifice would not be in vain.

It took a few moments, as the comms officer who took the call booted it up the chain of command, and then a blonde haired trill woman appeared on screen. "This is Commander Soran, how may I be of assistance?" she said crisply, with an edge to her tone of This better be important

"This is Gul Nivall, commander of the 127th Tactical Wing of the Sixth Order," He announced fully. He wanted the Federation to know that they weren't dealing with some lowly assistant or Yeoman. They were speaking with the true authority. "We are in search of those responsible for the terrorist attack against the Cardassian vessel Hardesh." He said fiercely. "We knowledge that these terrorists have fled back to Deep Space Five." He stated.

"Terrorist attack?" Maritza frowned and checked her reports. "I have no records of such. I do have a report of Cardassians in international space firing on and then boarding a trading vessel. Perhaps you could explain what Cardassia is doing committing acts of piracy?" She wasn't going to take any crap from these bullies, desperately clinging to the glory days now thirty years past.

Gul Nivall looked at the young woman who was staring back at him through the viewscreen. It took him several moments to accept that she was actually responding to him in such a manner.

"I do not know what small amount of authority you hold onboard that station, but I would prefer that you go obtain your Commanding Officer, or at the very least the Executive Officer." He responded. "This is an important matter and I want to speak to someone with the appropriate level of authority." He said pointedly.

So it begins Martiza thought, leaning back in her chair and lacing her fingers together. "I am the commanding officer," she told him with iron in her voice. "I hold all the authority." Suck on that, you jumped up little toad.

Gul Nivall blinked several times before responding. "What a sad state of affairs. . .it appears the Federation has handled control of this facility from a Romulan to a mere child." He replied in as sympathetic of a tone as he could muster.

"Then I suppose I will be your first exercise in diplomatic negotiation." He said with a lightened face, but still not completely smiling. "Simply turn over the terrorists to our custody and we will not burden the Federation with having to become any further involved." He said.

"In fact, I will note in my log the Federation's complete cooperation so that your superiors will see how well you are handling this new responsibility." He said in a patronizing tone to the much younger individual.

"Captain," Liam said walking into clearly a situation likely to get very volatile, "If I may?" It felt odd addressing the Blond Trill as the CO but there was no time to process it further. She would likely not be happy he had to do what he was about too but time had to be bought to stop that warship and its hot head commander making a serious error due to his ego and for them to assess the situation properly.

Soran kept her face straight, even though she wanted to gloat. If that bully of a cardassian captain objected her relative youth, see how he liked being handed off to a junior officer. "I'll give you a choice, Gul Nivall. You can speak to my Diplomatic officer like a grown up, or I can end this conversation and authorise an interdiction of you ship for Piracy in Open Space."

Gul Nivall nodded in the general direction of the man. "Yes, defer to your diplomat." He said smugly.

Liam faced the view screen, no doubt some other high and mightily Gul wanting to try walk all over them. "I am the chief diplomatic officer and diplomatic procedure of which the Cardassian empire has agreed to adhere too upon this station to the point of which you have an embassy with us, states that your issue a 15497 request to get your ambassador here in this room. That individual should be doing the talking for you in any situation, especially one requesting aid in terrorists retrieval. I have taken the liberty of requesting your ambassador from his lunch so he will be expecting the paperwork."

"I would suggest Gul Nivall," Liam briefly glanced at his personal PADD of which Mortimer had nicely fed him who he was dealing with, "that you prepare to beam down to the diplomatic deck where all parties can convene appropriately. Captain Soran, you can then of course note in the station log that protocol was followed by the Cardassian parties involved. Which a copy will of course be sent to Cardassia Prime."

Gul Nivall was incensed. What gave this. . .diplomat the unmitigated gall and audacity to speak to him as if he were an equal. He was the Commander of a storied Tactical Wing that had fought in countless battles for Cardassia. He wielded the power and control of thousands of loyal Soldiers to Cardassia. And this. . .hand-holder saw himself fit to address him.

To add insult to injury, this man had directed him to call that bureaucrat Turvan into this conversation. As if he was incapable of such sensitive matters. Gul Nivall could not let this affront stand.

He jumped to his feet and planted them as he stared intently into the viewer. "I am the Commander of the 127th Tactical Wing of the Sixth Order, I am not some lowly Federation Freighter Captain. . ." he began slowly. "I will not be spoken down to by some diplomat and his newly-minted Captain. . .a Captain so green that Starfleet hadn't seen fit to give her a fourth pip." He said with an obvious edge in his voice.

"I will not waste my time negotiating with those that harbor terrorists. . .I will not sit by idle as you allow those murders to escape Cardassian justice. . ." He said as he narrowed his eyes and chose his next words carefully.

"Justice will be meted out to my satisfaction, with or without your cooperation. . ." He said as he allowed the last part of his sentence to linger.

Liam took a deep breathe. "We have had many commanders of many Cardassian orders come to this station and deem to make demands rather than follow the protocol's set out by your empire and the Federation in our treaty. And we have had many commanders of many Cardassian orders attempt to degrade and demean our officers. This tactic does not work. In fact you have a diplomatic officer who spends his time trying to smooth over these "colourful" instances like we are experiencing right now. Well officially anyway. If you met Justice out to your satisfaction then you put that treaty in jeopardy. Do you wish to be the one Commander whose legacy was he was so inpatient he could not and would not be bothered to follow his own empires treaty legislation? We will listen to and discuss your issue. In the diplomatic arena with your diplomatic ambassador."

"Also I respectfully remind you that if you make any move without our cooperation against any person or persons on this station it will be viewed as an act of war especially as we have it on record that we have outlined to you the official process that you should be following.

In which case if the empire wishes to break the treaty and go to war with us, you better have a order 13 signed and sealed from your government stating this is the action that they want. Which going by the legislation laid out by your government in our treaty states you will give it to your diplomatic officer to officially notify us. Then all Cardassian citizens will leave onboard the nearest Cardassian ship which just happens to be .... mmmmm the 127th Tactical wing of the sixth order. So before you can met out any kind of justice with or without cooperation, you will be a glorified taxi service first and I will have the greatest pleasure of closing down you embassy, personally. So do you really want to roll those dice and continue on trying to intimidate the CO of this station, who by the way puts me in the brig if I disagree with her. Imagine what she will do with you, with the law on her side. Forth pip or not. She may look green but believe me she's not one to cross.

Or shall we expect you in the diplomatic deck with your Ambassador?" Liam finished.

Maritza resisted the urge to give Liam a round of applause. It wouldn't be politic to do it in front of the Cardassian. But it was nicely done.

Gul Nivall waited several moments for the air to clear before he responded to the diplomat. He wanted to make sure that what he said was understood clearly and without any misinterpretation.

"Every Cardassian citizen, include those residing on your station, understand that the greatest sacrifice they can make is to fall for the greater good of Cardassia. If that means forfeiting one's own existence all in the effort to bring cowardly terrorists to justice, then so be it. The overarching message will be that Cardassia will not back down to terrorists and they will not hide behind diplomatic bureaucrats who fear battle." He said as he took a step closer towards the view screen.

"Your Commander may have the law on her side, but I have an entire Tactical Wing. You appear to be a smart Human, do the math." He said grimly.

"I'm a smart Betaziod/human hybrid and an even smarter diplomat. Also this space station is armed and ready to defend itself "if necessary". But let us hope it does not come to that. And that the Cardassian Empire is not so willing to quickly discard its allies because it won't follow its own written out and agreed rules. And due to the impatience and ego's of its Guls.

Let us also hope that if they are willing to do that, it does not give a negative message to its other allies who also happen to be allies of the Federation. As a breach in the peace treaty and being declared war on, would mean they would have to come to our aid. You may command the entire tactical fleet but can you go to war with Klingons, the Romulans, the Ferengi, My people just to name a few? Also you have yet to issue a formal order 13. So let us hope that you do in fact have the backing of your empire to make such talk and that you are not operating as a rogue Cardassian here as if that's the case, Cardassia central will have to strip you of your command if there not behind you.

The Federation is not afraid of a fight but let us make sure that all other avenues are explored, diplomatically.

"By all means, call your Klingon lapdogs to rush to your aide, invite the Ferengi's if you think that will tip the scale. You should hope they get here in time." He said as he terminated the link.

"Captain if I may suggest two things," Liam said sighing briefly at the idiocy of this latest Gul, "Have the Cardassian ambassador summoned to your office with a security escort immediately, and up the the station to a yellow alert."

Oh, that would be a pleasure. "Yellow Alert!" she commanded the computer. "Soran, to Security, please tell Ambassador turvan that I request the pleasure of his company. Immediately. Without excuses, and please make sure he gets here."

There was a brief acknowledgement from security.

Liam touched his comm. badge him and Mortimer having been expecting this for a while. "Reynolds to Mortimer, get Jenkins up. C1 is now in play."

"You want him to fire both barrels sir."

"I want every barrel," Liam said simply. "Have him tie Cardassia Prime up with every part of bureaucracy going via every channel going, pulling every audience going in to view it and also it's time to throw out some breadcrumbs and bring our little birds back into roost."

"Have they pressed the kill switch?" Mortimer asked.

"Nadda, no order 13, just another pumped up Gul from the sixth waving a saber like he's dancing on plaxion rocks calling the Klingons lap dogs of course. I wish they would take some time to come up with some new insults. Anyway hopefully this ones stupid enough to tip their hand."

"Agreed, I assume you will be briefing the Captain so I'll get C2 rolling also and keep you informed. Mortimer out."

"Ma'am," Liam turned back to Soran with the smallest hint of a dry smile on his face, "Do you know what a Paso Doble is?"

She shook her head. "Something from Earth I assume?"

"The dance of war. A ceremonious battle between man and beast," Liam said darkly.

"Well the bulls been released and it's time to start the dance,"

To Be Continued

[OFF]


Commanding Gul
Druman Nivall
127th Tactical Wing

Lieutenant Liam Reynolds
Chief Diplomatic officer
DS5

Commander Maritza Soran
Commanding Officer
DS5

 

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