Rescuing the Bajorans (Aftermath)

Posted on Sat Oct 12th, 2024 @ 3:32am by Lieutenant Commander Harrison Knox & Lieutenant Tyler Malbrooke & Lieutenant Daegan Baas & Lieutenant Stormy Knight & Captain Rylan Gray & Lieutenant JG Shizuru Chikura & Ensign Iren Th'ashianet

1,766 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: The Quasinon Gambit
Location: Cardassian Mining Outpost, Quasinon III
Timeline: MD003 - 1400

ON

"Sir," Stormy turned to Knox. "The Bajorans are gone. They left the planet."

Harris Knox looked the Chief Science Officer. For a moment he had no defenses, nothing at all to shield the others from seeing what he felt and he absolutely had no defenses up against a Betazoid. It was a glare, moderately heated but the biggest emotion being transmitted from his was that of utter embarrassment paired with a bitter taste of defeat.

"Should we return to the shuttle?" Shizuru asked.

Knox knew that this was not going to please Rylan one bit. "We have nothing else to do down here mission wise besides twiddle are thumbs" he replied to Shizuru. "Unless we made lemonade out of lemons" he added.

Tyler could not help but feel a little angry. He thought that if there had been no argument and they let him deactivate those shields then the Bajorans would not have gotten away. He kept his feelings under wraps though as it was not worth stirring the pot as the saying went. "I would say we should get out, it seems our work here is done."

Stormy agreed with Tyler. At the same time, she had to ask a question. "Should we check and see if there's anything of interest here first? I mean, they booby-trapped this place and got off the planet. What else did they have up their sleeves?"

"The Bajorans had some interest in this place. That or they just really like messing with the Cardassians" said Knox. "I wouldn't mind trying to get information, logs or otherwise about what this facility was used for. Whether or not the Cardassians gave us the full story" he added. Knox knew that he needed to report what had happened to Rylan though the Thunderbird undoubtedly was well aware that the Bajorans had fled.

Knox stepped away from the others, putting as much distance as he could for privacy yet knowing that he couldn't completely be out of sight as it was not safe to do so. He didn't know if a communications signal would be strong enough to cut through to the Thunderbird, but he tried anyways. "Away team to Thunderbird."

As luck would have it, there was a big enough break in the ion storms in the upper atmosphere to allow a signal to get through. Within a moment or two, the Captain's voice came on. "Thunderbird here. Status report."

"Failure," Knox replied sharply. "I failed, Captain. The Bajorans have left in a shuttle and are undoubtedly leaving orbit." He was going to take the blame for all of it because he was the First Officer. Ultimately, this was on him.

"I'm aware, Commander," Rylan said. "Apparently, they appropriated an old freighter. The Cardassians objected but saw reason. The Bajorans left on a trajectory that takes them toward the Badlands."

Daegan contemplated their apparent failure. It was likely that the Bajorans had been long gone before they even made orbit. If so did the Cardassians know and send them down here to clear the way? But for what? Why all the traps? If it was to slow someone down they succeeded but again...why? If it was a delaying action to cover their escape the Thunderbird would have them. It's even possible that they did and were unable to contact us. There were a lot of questions and for the time being, few answers.

"Sir, I suggest we return to the ship. Whatever data was here is gone and so are the people we were supposed to extract. We know there are other traps as searching the rest of the area is only going to put everyone at risk. We've been lucky. There might even be traps we cant' detect. If the Cardassians want this place back let them have it; and let them but their people at risk clearing it."

"Catch all of that Thunderbird?" Knox asked. "I'd love to poke around more. See what the hell our Cardassians friends did here, but the man's right. We barely were able to make a dent towards reaching the Bajorans without encountering trap after trap. We go poking around any more and we may not all be making it back in one piece."

"Return to the ship, away team," Rylan said. "We'll speak about this more once you're aboard."

"Well thats that then..." Shizuru said. "I'll have us back quickly once we get back to the shuttle."

“Sir, I would like to see if we can find a console before we depart. Something that is reasonably safe but has some form of access to the computer network. I can put together a trojan that will send bits of data on a subspace frequency to the Thunderbird any time the Cardassians open a comms channel…. It will take some time but give it a few weeks and we will have a complete copy of their database as it is currently.” Iren suggested

"If it can do that, could it send all recent transmissions as well? Something about this whole situation feels off and I don't know what it is," Stormy added.

Iren thought for a moment, scratching idly at his temple. “It could probably be coded to include transmission logs as well, aye. It might take an extra few moments to set up but it may very well be worth it.”

"Unless you route that through the subspace network the ship would have to remain here to receive the data. But, if you route it through the network it could be found by the Cardassians." Tyler loved the idea, however, there had to be a better way. One that could be undetected. At the moment he set his mind to the task.

Lieutenant Commander Harrison Knox gave a nod of approval. "If we pass a console along the way back, make it so, but we need to do it in a way that does not get detected or rather tracked back to us," stated Knox. This mission was a failure, but it did not need to be a complete failure.

"Eyes sharp people, the Bajorans may be hone but the danger remains. This place is still rigged with deadly traps" he lectured. "We'll take the safest path we can back to the shuttle."

As they started out Tyler turned his mind toward how they could get the logs transmitted. He walked in silence allowing himself to be led around by the rest of the team. Within a short time he perked up and turned toward Ensign Th'ashianet. "Ensign suppose we program your transmissions to piggy back on Cardassian subspace transceivers. This would not only allow the data to be transmitted to us at a greater distance, but, the Cardassians would most likely dismiss this as general subspace interference." As he spoke he looked around for a console.

Iren nodded, his antennae twitching as he thought through it. “I had already planned to utilize an encoded subspace frequency to transmit the data packets… but if we paired that with your idea it will nearly ensure that it goes undetected. To be safe we could set up the transceivers to generate a false ‘interference’ signal when it opens the subspace channel to us to provide an extra layer of protection”

"Those are great ideas." Stormy smiled at Iren and Tyler. "I'll gladly help with the data once we get back to the ship if you need it." She wasn't sure what--if anything--they'd find, but she was eager to get whatever data they could while they were here.

Lieutenant Commander Knox knew that he was in a bit of a gambit, taking such a move was risky. They could not under any circumstances be caught by the Cardassians. That would to diplomatic catastrophes when the Federation and the Cardassian Union were in the thick of trying to court one another for reasons that were far too many pips than what Knox had on his collar. He liked just being the middle man, tasked with something to do and trying to do it well enough to check off as completed.

Still, none of this felt right. Nothing about the Federation helping the Cardassians sat well with him, and whatever happened here on Quasinon III was not in the brochures. They had not even scratched the surface. "Make sure our 'great ideas' don't come with buyer's remorse" muttered Knox.

Iren nodded, turning his head toward Knox and attempting to feel out the Commander for a moment before simply replying. "Understood, Commander." He pulled out a PaDD and set to work preparing the trojan and as an extra precaution he added a 'shell' of randomly shifting data to it to help it blend into the computer as just background processes; he worked in silence, focusing and letting his limited telepathy act as his guide as to where the team was in proximity to him as they moved.

Tyler began to work on a console nearby. He had to get access to the communications subroutines if the plan would work. They were an relatively unprotected system so with any luck. Just as he thought of that he was in. Tyler turned to Ensign Th'ashianet. "I have the communications systems ready to receive the data program. Once initiated this program should run until discovered."

Stormy decided to spend her time scanning the planet and the air around them for any trace elements to see if she could find out what else they were mining. She still suspected they were doing something they wanted to stay a secret.

Several minutes later...

Harrison Knox's back was presses against the seat and the young lieutenant's flight maneuvers upon approach were not as stomach churning as the fact they had taken Cardassians property with them, and Knox had not stopped it. He had let it be because he trusted his gut and he trusted what Captain DeVane, a woman he had known for years had told him before the away mission. He had contacted her for advise, but received a lot more than he had bargained for.

When the shuttle touched down aboard the Thunderbird, Knox felt sick. "Don't do anything with what we took until I've spoken with the Captain" instructed Knox. He knew that he needed to speak with Rylan.

OFF

A Post By

Lieutenant Commander Harrison Knox
Executive Officer

Lieutenant Tyler Malbrooke
Chief Operations Officer

Lieutenant Stormy Knight
Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant Ayren Kelan
Ship's Counselor

Lieutenant Daegan Baas
Chief Engineer

Lieutenant JG Shizuru Chikura
Flight Control Officer

Ensign Irene Th'ashianet (NPC)

Featuring

Captain Rylan Gray
Commanding Officer

 

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