The team materialized in a pattern-tiled hallway and stucco white walls. Out the open face windows the timbre of the azure of celestial blue lingered over dusty arid landscape. It was breezy and sight was wonderful like the Persian Gulf on a day off from school. Near them was the doorway they needed to take.
Aarons scan about with his gaze. At a suggestion, he had equipped the marine team and others with a cricket phaser that would be discreet and not immediately noticed; at best they were nothing more than a set of chaperones for the delegation here to mediate.
He pushed open the sturdy wooden doors to the meeting spot. There was no sophistication, no motorized actuators or fancy door panels but there were electric light fixtures; the Daboraa were not just stuck in the dark ages.
The large hall which doubled as the Padishah seating room had the same mosaic tiling about it as the halls and to the right a spectacular open faced wall to look upon the land. The gathering bodies sat across each other by a small square table barely suited for a side table with pillows for chairs.
The grandly shaped Padishah sat at the forefront of the side backing the government with all the merchants and attendants at his side. He looked of a mix of Zero Mostel and Sydney Greenstreet looked down upon the spot where the delegates would speak.
Many people sauntered around and in discussion with each other awaiting the affair to start as they slowly entered with Tavek. The Vulcan stepped past his escort begin his rendezvous with the opposition to the Padishah and the local merchants’ leaders. The marines kept back at a respectful distance as not to interfere with his work.
Aarons leaned over to the doctor and noted, “Either side has something to gain by an act of stupidity. But for one of them, they’re blinded by a different stupidity: hatred. They hate outworlders and all they see is: an outworlder. Though not all of them feel this way, the problem is unfortunately, no one is wearing any bright red badges saying, ‘it’s okay, we like you’.”
The
Rainier passed above in orbit. The science station kept a close watch on the surrounding area. The shields were still not coming on which put a huge strain upon the feelings of the crew. Should the need arise, it would be of no effort to beam up the landing party from the surface.
”No. Don’t bother coming for us,” Aarons had said to him. “If something happens I’d rather you get out and take the ship to safety. We need nowhere to go during all this and can remain here.”
Jamison understood but cautioned them of the danger focused on them. Were something to happen and they pulled out, it would put them in serious jeopardy as they became a target.
“It’s better than being stuck here with no ship to return to.”Will had engineers tending to the problem of his ready room sparingly. He didn’t want to be too far from things should the need arise and the bridge would keep him out of the way in there. He sat positioned in his chair with impatient unease anticipating something to happen.
It almost surprised the captain when the comm. chirped for him.
=^=“Captain, we think we’ve got something. Can you come down to Engineering?”=^=
The Warbird loomed in a fixed position near the upper pole of the planet. The Romulans ran a tactical scan marking the location of the
Ranier. The Commander studied the ship. The capabilities were formidable and it would benefit them to consider any angle of approach if engaging her.
Capt. Jamison met the engineers. They gathered round to demonstrate their findings.
“We’ve determined that any interference with the shield matrix would require an anterior frequency emission that would counter any commands to the shield activation. Any such transmission would give off a signal.”
TEG demonstrated on a rigged scanner and a generator emitter. As the scanner moved passed the emitter it signaled the detection.
“We can start scanning the ship tracking down the cause.”
<
tag Will>
The conflicted parties gathered their people in their spots. Tavek sat on one side of the table with his aides behind him while the speaker for the Padishah sat across from him. Each side’s respective clients sat behind them in silence and listened.
The marine detail were permitted under the case of protection to be there for the ambassador despite the security, but for diplomacy, Aarons and the doctor were best to the side or elsewhere. They tried to look busy, Aarons wandered about observing the tapestries and fixings adorning the walls; he stared out the open wall at the full view of the outside.
A few hours had gone by in the time since beam down. The Engineering team had been scanning the ship looking for a trace of the interfering signal. In the meantime, the quest to find the problem in the ready room continued. The engineers were unable to find anything that explained the presence of a noise being heard.
“Sir, we can’t find anything that could be causing this noise you hear,” they told him.
<
tag Will>
“Hey hold on,” one said. He held up his tricorder, fixed on something.
The Warbird slowly approached the ship. Its cloak was active with the disruptors trained on the ship’s systems.
The engineer arrived on the bridge and headed for the ready room. He produced the scanner as they began to detect traces of a frequency pattern close by.
The Science station began to collect in its sweeps rising neutrino surges within their area. The signs were pointing to Romulan activity which alerted them immediately.
Jamison hustled to the bridge with anxiety. They were in an alert status but it could all change so quickly.
The Warbird decloaked as she closed in.
The captain turned to see it fire a few shots that made the ship rock. He ordered the ship out as she broke orbit.
Rainier fired phasers back at her as the Warbird pursued. Her shields held as she let off another volley.
The
Rainier was at a disadvantage. Any actions taken wouldn’t stand up to the Warbird so long as her own shields were down and theirs were up. Will was faced with the possibility of running away.
“Sir! We found this.” They held up source generating the emissions inside the ready room.
Will’s gift from before. It was giving off signals that were interfering with the shield matrix’s activation. He ordered the ship back around and face the Warbird. The ship swung around to face its enemy. Will blasted the plaque.
“We have shield!” they cried.
The Warbird detected the change in defense systems. With its shields up,
Rainier was a formidable opponent indeed. K’sulas broke off attack and prepared to move away. Jamison ordered torpedoes which impacted on the Warbird with fire.
As it began to cloak, the captain ordered another hit within the location of the last hit. The hit took and damage occurred to the engine of the Warbird. Plasma streamed out belying her location making it easy to track. With the shields down in the presence of the cloak, she fired again. This time a surge shot through the drive systems of the Romulan Warbird preventing warp. They locked on a tractor beam holding the K’sulas in place while Will hailed them.
Will informed them in no small way that they weren’t going to get away and that they had been beaten. There was no point in self-destructing; it would only help to insure his report on the violation of Neutral Zone Treaty and the interpreted act of war. They were poised to listen.
The talks went on. Aarons stood by watching, barely listening; it was all so minor. The comm. chirped as he was being hailed.
=^=“The spy is one of the diplomatic party.”=^=
“The diplomatic party?” he asked.
=^=“Yes. Try to find out whom. Whoever it was planted the device that was shorting out our shields. Try not to let it affect the peace talks.”=^=
Aarons stared at the gathered crowd. His eyes darted back and forth as he considered the notion.
“Which one is it?” he thought. “Any one of them could be it. Could be all three? Maybe one and some other…?”He strained his mind to find some answer.
”K’Mar? Lanell? Could it be one of them? Perhaps one of the locals was a Romulan spy hiding amongst the crowd.” He focused his thoughts on the matter. Suddenly he came to.
Michael walked straight toward the delegates at the center as they turned in attention. Aarons’ fist connected straight with Tavek’s face. Everyone was in shock as a commotion eked.
“Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.”
Everyone hushed.
“I’m sorry Ambassador, did you have some feeling about that?”
Vulcans were very well known throughout most of known space and were particularly accepted amongst most outworlders.
Realizing the situation, Tavek turned and ran as Aarons leapt over the table at him bringing him to the floor. They struggled on the floor as Tavek wrestled from his grip and bolted through the door opposite their entrance. The room was in chaos as tensions stood off at each other.
Michael chased him through the doorway leading out into another hallway filled with rooms. He looked around searching for which way he might have gone. The door slammed him as Tavek jumped him from the room he attempted to escape through.
Aarons snapped after him grabbing him and attempting to beat him down. A punch here or two and a swing back, two more. Tavek continued to run as Aarons refused to let him go. He charged at the imposter taking him head first to the ground as they tumbled over. He felt the hits as he pinned the other down then on his feet as he threw him to the wall with a couple of punches to go with it. They grapple around each other against the wall with some low punches and some downward thrusts back and forth struggling against one another.
They gave chase once more as Michael snatched his target and tried to grapple with him again. As they struggled they locked onto each other then went soaring as they flew through the sand-glass window back into the meeting chamber.
Squabbling on the floor, Michael held on fast as his hand drove itself into Tavek’s face. Tavek held too strangling the commander. Michael struggled to hang on the strain was so much; his opponent fighting every bit to escape his grasp. He could feel himself desperately trying to hang on. Suddenly the feeling went out of him as he lost consciousness to the Vulcan hand on his neck. K’Mar and Lanell stood over the two men as everyone watched.
Michael woke again in Sickbay. His body had been through much in fight with Tavek. The captain was over him as he propped himself up.
"
Just so you know, we have the spy in custody. The real Tavek was killed in replacing him. The peace talks have come to a conclusion. After the commotion, the opposition decided to settle with getting water from the government again then dealing with unstable outworlders anymore; fortunately K’Mar and Lanell were there to negotiate fair terms for them. The Warbird failed to get us out of the way."
“So, the Federation lost its stakes in the sector but the Romulans were exposed, the opposition caved in, we’re out an ambassador but they lost a spy so… who won?”
Will thought for a moment. "
You."
Michael smiled as he rested his arms behind his head. “Oh yeah.”
After the case had been wrapped up, Jamison returned to his regular duties as ship’s captain. He was on his way in the middle of something when he was stopped.
“Captain,” they said. “We finished translating the writings on that plaque you received.”
“In logic we find reason. In truth there is not without reason. In logic we find ourselves.”