The Founder, the war and an 'eagle.

Posted on Sat Apr 22nd, 2023 @ 12:46pm by Commodore Finchley Kerr & Lieutenant Commander Jaal Jaxom & Lieutenant Kell Asaa Dr & Lieutenant T'Lira Sh'Karra & Lieutenant Commander Isabelle Savette & Lieutenant Commander Kevin Kilbane & Commander Shr'Nesh Karadis

6,262 words; about a 31 minute read

Mission: Investigate the Chintoka Shipyard Buildup
Location: USS Blackeagle/The Paulis system
Timeline: Current.

The 'eagle had moved away from the shipyard under cover of it's still functioning cloak. Finchley had crossed everything, fingers, toes, legs and even his eyes, that the cloak would keep working. Being notoriously unreliable for them, he wanted it sorted and the problem, whatever it was, fixed.

Now on the bridge, he sat in the centre chair deep in thought. They were heading into what was, by all accounts of the communications they'd decoded, a 'civil war'. He couldn't decide if this was a good or bad situation. The Dominion forces he'd fought against during the war were disciplined, well ordered, focused and tough to defeat.

More than once he'd come out of situations on the wrong end of a 'hiding', so he knew that this was as hard a mission to undertake as any he'd been on because the forces they'd be facing wouldn't be fighting just them, they'd be fighting amongst themselves.

He had all of that, plus getting to know a new crew to think about and it was making him uneasy.

"You're cogitating..." Karadis said.

Finchley nearly jumped out of his skin "GOOD GOD KARADIS!!! What the hell are you doing creeping up on me like that????"

"I wanted to make you jump," Karadis replied, a grimaced looking wide mouthed grin on her face, showing her rows of razor sharp teeth.

"You're an arse!" Finchley replied, turning back to face the main viewer.

"True, but I'm an arse that made you jump," Karadis laughed loudly.

"What can you possibly want?" Finchley asked.

"Well, you wanted me to let you know how thing were going with the cloaking device," Karadis replied.

"And?" Finchley asked impatiently, now folding his arms across himself in a petulant manner.

"Well, McCrudden says to keep your nose out of his business and he'll tell you when he's got something to report."

"He did?" Finchley asked.

"Well, no..." Karadis said "His actual words were 'What the fuck does he care, it's my cloaking device so tell that fucking grumpy blowbag that when I have anything worth reporting I'll say something, otherwise, piss off!', but I thought I'd sugar coat it a little for you."

"I take it he hadn't had his coffee then?" Finchley asked.

"No, I hid it," Karadis replied.

"Why???" Finchley asked.

"It's the whimsical side of me," Karadis said, grinning "Plus it's fun watching him climb the walls without it."

"All you're doing is making everyone else's lives a misery," Finchley retorted.

"Well, I don't care about that, I'm just amusing myself at your expense," Karadis said, sounding very happy at her reply.

"Just fu...just, stand over there!" Finchley said pointing at the other side of the bridge.

Karadis shrugged her shoulders and did as she was told.

Finchley could just tell this day was going to be a cranky one, but he'd deal with McCrudden later, right now, he wanted the ships status.

"Right, where are we at, report?" Finchley asked all the Heads of departments on the bridge.

Kell leaned forward somewhat. "Medical is squared away Captain. I'm hoping my department will be supremely bored in the coming days..."

"JEEEEZZZZZOOOOO!!!!" Finchley flinched and said loudly as Kell spoke next to his ear "Do you people just creep around the ship in slippers???"

Kell leaned back to her previous position and winked over at Karadis.

Isabelle looked across at Finchley from where she sat. “The Counselling department is ready to start evaluations and general appointments Sir.”

Calming down, Finchley looked at Kell and Isabelle and said "Good, but Doctor, I can't guarantee you'll be quiet and Counsellor, look up the files of these two" he said, thumbing between Kell and Karadis, "see if they have 'weird stalking habits' in their files, if they don't, add them..."

Isabelle smiled. “Might I suggest something to calm your nerves a little Captain? You seem a little wound up.”

"If you have a whiskey on you, give me a snort," Finchley replied.

Jaal smirked to himself. It seemed Captain Kerr had a sense of humor after all. He appreciated that. He tapped some keys on the operations console to check on some things and then he ‘ahemed’ lightly and added, “Operations is ready for action Sir.” He idly wondered if Captain Kerr wanted more details. He was sure he would find out very shortly.

"Mr Jaxom, set long range sensors scans to constant surveillance, let me know the minute we pick any vessels up, but passive scans, I don't want them getting wind of us coming," Finchley replied.

The newly minted Operations Manager of the Blackeagle started tapping his console sending commands to the sensor arrays of the ship. His fingers were agile and precise in their movements as they danced along the various sections of the panel, one might even thing he was showing off but he wasn't, not intentionally. One thing Jaal hated was waste so not even movement were wasted.

Kerr sat back brooding for a minute, then said "Lieutenant Savette, search the communications again, look for anything that's a constant mention. From what little I know of it, the Paulis system is huge and I don't think we're going to just stumble upon this Founder, I think they're to cannae to remain in one place. So, a ship name, mention of a planet or planets...anything that give's us an edge."

Isabelle nodded. “I’ll see what I can find Sir.”

"Karadis, get Kilbane up here, I want his input," Finchley said.

Karadis bowed deeply "By your Command oh wise one."

Finchley ground his teeth "Just do it you fucking sarcastic, antagonistic, wise cracking....Klingon oaf!"

Karadis pretended to be wounded, and looking at Kell said "Oh, that cut to the quick, Doctor, I may need your help, I've been burned!"

Kell feigned concern for her, adding to the drama unfolding. "Stand tall and proud COB. I'm sure you can bear it!" She then lowered her voice conspiratorially, "But I'll make a batch of tonic later... just in case."

"You do both know I can hear you," Finchley replied, not turning round, "and I'm already thinking up suitable punishments for you both."

Karadis winked at Kell "I'll just fetch Kilbane, I'm sure he'll be delighted to hear you're in 'one of your moods', you know he'll try his special way of 'trying to cheer you up'..." and then she left.

Finchley opened and closed his fists a couple of times, then drew in a deep breath and tried to force himself to relax.

~Oh good grief, Kilbane will be beside himself with delight about this~ he thought to himself.

Focusing once again on the job at hand, he wished that Shon was there. As much as they'd not got off on the wrong foot at first, he did now miss her anarchic way of cutting to the chase when needs be, irritating though it was, it did seem to cheer him up.

"Dr Asaa, I want break down of what you've found out about these virus components since Commander Dex and Lieutenant Savette have returned. Make it as simple for me as possible, I'm not a Doctor, just a field medic," he said to Kell.

The string of medical verbiage trickled to a stop quickly in her mind, and knowing she'd already read in the Captain during his earlier visit to sickbay. Kell shifted gears and kept it simple and brief. "In a nutshell, it puts the genome through a virtual blender, so that it doesn't have to be tailored to an individual, it tailors all individuals to a common soupy standard in order to tack on certain desired traits. From the data and examples the team brought back, it's rather fickle and was a phenomenal failure more often than not with random embellishments to their target traits. Then they introduced nanites, which seem to have multiple purposes, but they used them to... sculpt... internal biologics at the molecular level to be more vulnerable to the concoction.

"From what I can tell, it still fails, if it was going to, but the nanites let them extend that end result, with almost timer-like predictability. Need someone to breathe ammonia? Juice up with this for that trait. Need heightened strength? Juice up to triple muscle bulk and speed. Program the nanites for how long it mitigates the internal meltdown and you have a self-expiring boost. Terminal in most cases, you could have a self-expiring assassin.

"The possibilities are almost endless but by the same token," she paused, "you could take away certain traits, even kill pretty much anyone, but not just one individual, you could target any number that share a particular biological indicator. I suspect your super killer compound also has this targeted version related to it. They've cooked up some nasty shite and killed a lot of people doing it." She let that end it as she gauged everyone's reactions. They didn't necessarily need to know what the Captain already knew about fabricating a bomb in one's own body unless he wanted them too!

Once the results of the initial passive scan started scrolling across his panel Lieutenant Jaxom announced, "Sir, so far we've found eight communication relays, not of Federation origin, fourteen Dominion ships of various classes, the breakdown will appear in the lower left of the main viewer in a moment, and one derelict substation plant on the fourth planet in the system."

Finchley started, then rhetorically asked "A derelict substation?"

"Are you able to scan the rest of the planet Lieutenant, to see what technology is there?"

In itself, a derelict substation would be overlooked, but this was Dominion territory, they didn't waste anything. There had to be a reason that this particular substation was left as it was.

The Trill smirked to himself and cracked his knuckles. He was in his element now. He liked his job despite all the trouble he’d caused in the past. He worked his operations station like a concert pianist directing the various sensor suites the Blackeagle employed at their intended target.

Then the wait for the results. Jaal sat with his elbows resting on the armrests of his chair with his fingers steepled in anticipation.

Moments later the information started scrolling across his screen. One of Jaal’s eyebrows quirked upward in that familiar Vulcanesque style. “Well that’s interesting,” he said more to himself than anyone else.

T'Lira looked over at him and cocked her eyebrows.

Jaal cleared his throat. “The fourth planet has a stronger than normal magnetic field making passive surface scans difficult but… the substation we detected is connected to a larger framework of structures… possibly labs, materials processing equipment, and even landing pads and docking ports for small craft. It’s a class K world, the weather outside is not pleasant, there are a lot of high winds making dust storms with lightning.” He spun around in his chair to face Captain Kerr, “I suspect a good chance of underground structures as well but we won’t be able to scan below the surface until we get closer or we switch to active sensors.”

Curiosity was almost getting the better of Finchley, he did want to know more about the fourth planet... now, but he had to hold that at bay.

"No... hold off on the active sensors... for now," Finchley said to Jaal "I think we're best of getting closer to the planet and then using them."

"Captain, may I suggest we launch a probe,?" T'Lira recommended. "It can get a lot closer than we can and still use its passive sensors," The Science officer added.

"It's a good idea Lieutenant, however, none of the probes we have will have a cloaking device in them, so they'll be visible to the Dominion ships even if they use passive scanning" Finchley replied, "However...what if we used one as a diversion? Say, we skirt the planet, drop it with a launch timer to move an hour later. That way we can come back around the planet to the launch pad side, wait for the probe to move, that'll set the Dominion ships scrabbling, we then launch the 'Eyrie', cloaked, and take 'it' down to the planet surface."

I see what you're getting at, Sir. The probe would act as a sort of wild weasel, pinging the enemy and drawing off ships and fire. Possibly letting us slip through their lines undetected." T'Lira said. It might be possible to adjust the probes sensor telemetry to make it seem like something else, possibly a passenger ship or a tactical shuttle," T'Lira added

[Tag] Captain Kerr

The operations lieutenant was not surprised by Captain Kerr's answer considering the nature of this endeavor. "Aye Captain," Jaal replied dutifully while spinning his chair around to face his console once again. Now it was wait and watch time, to see if anything changed or if something new showed up.

At that point, the turbo-lift doors opened and Karadis walked out, followed by an officer.

That officer walked towards Finchley, saying "What ho, brother from another mother!"

Finchley closed his eyes, one of the banes of his life was now there... Kevin Kilbane to be precise.

"Kev," Finchley nodded at Kilbane, "always a displeasure to see you."

Kilbane grinned widely, "Mother Karadis here said you wanted to see me."

Karadis slapped him on the back of the head "I'll bloody 'Mother Karadis you', you insolent twat!"

"Hey!" Kilbane complained, turning to look at Karadis.

"Karadis, that was unkind," Finchley said, then slapped Kilbane on the head as well "You should have waited till I slapped him first, then it was your turn."

Kilbane turned to look at Finchley "HEY!!"

"Stop being cheeky and you won't get slapped," Finchley said, "but to answer you, yes, I want to see you."

Rubbing his head on the two parts where he'd been slapped, Kilbane replied, "What about?"

Karadis slapped Kilbane's head again, "What about...Sir!"

"WILL YOU STOP SLAPPING ME!!!!!" Kilbane shouted at Karadis.

"Act courteously and I will," Karadis replied.

"All right, all right, that's enough slapping...for now," Finchley said. He walked back over to his chair and sat down, then looked at Kilbane. "The Paulis system, what do you know about it."

Kilbane flinched as Karadis moved, thinking she was going to slap him again, but when he saw she was just moving over to stand beside Finchley, he replied, "Well...not much...only a handful of ships got that far during the war, and that was only at the end. The Hornet...eh, the Ajax...the IKS K'leHa and one Vulcan vessel, the P'thar. They were chasing what remained of the Dominion Second fleet. They cornered them at a planet called Runaman...and tore them all a new one. As far as I know, they all returned back to Federation space. Why are you asking about it?"

"We're heading to the fourth planet in the system right now," Finchley replied.

"The fourth planet?" Kilbane asked, questioningly.

"Yes, the fourth planet," Finchley answered.

"Captain, the fourth planet is Runaman..." Kilbane said.

"Really?" Finchley replied, "Did the reports from any of those ships mention whether it was deliberate that they stopped at that particular planet?"

"From my recollection, the Captain of the Ajax reported that they could have made a run for deeper into the Paulis system, but it was deliberate that they made for Runaman" Kilbane replied.

"To me, that means they were looking to protect something..." Finchley said.

"Or someone..." Kilbane countered.

"Were there any reports of beam outs from the Dominion ships down to the planet?" Finchley asked.

"That I don't know," Kilbane said.

"Get onto 'The bookkeeper', see if you can get information on that battle," Finchley said "Particularly any information regarding transporter activity from any of their ships."

"Aye Captain" Kilbane replied, turning and walking off.

Finchley turned to Karadis "What do you think?"

"The planets the key" Karadis replied "To find the Founder, we need to crack why they stopped here instead of carrying on running."

"Agreed" Finchley said.

He looked at Jaal "Mr. Jaxom, we'll be close enough for active scans in two minutes, I want a one hundred-mile scan around that derelict substation, above and below ground."

"Aye," came the enthusiastic reply. Jaal immediately went to his console and readied the sensor arrays for their task.

Shon entered the bridge to find the tension ramped up. She looked at Finchley and waited.

Finchley looked over as the turbo-lift doors opened and saw Shon walk out and onto the bridge.

Nearby, Dr. Asaa alternated her gaze between the XO and the scans running across her PADD.

"Sho..." he began "...Commander Dex," He then changed it to. "It's good to have you back on duty and on the bridge again, how are you feeling?"

“I am feeling fine Sir, the nanites are currently inert. I understand you have a continuous lock on me to beam me into space if needed, very wise. What is our current status, Sir?” She asked.

"That's a last resort Commander, I don't foresee it happening, but I'm sure you can understand the precaution, given the roles were reversed, you'd do the same" Finchley replied.

"The current status, well, we're approaching the fourth planet in the system, one that has a derelict substation on it" Finchley carried on, "In itself, not unusual if the planet was uninhabited, but this is Dominion, or former Dominion, territory, and they never wasted a resource, especially a substation, so why is this one derelict. Add to that the fact that Kilbane recalled that at the end of the war, what remained of the Dominion Second Fleet made run for it and stopped at this planet only to be defeated by the Allied force chasing them. Why did they stop here, who or what made them...I have a hunch that what happened to you and Lieutenant Savette on the shipyard is connected to why they did. We're going there to find out, do you think you're up to that?"

“Of course I understand Captain, I would do the same if the positions were reversed and I am fine, more than fine in fact. The nanites gave me a boost. I am certainly up to anything you ask of me sir, as your XO I am here to serve you and the ship.” Shon looked at Kell who was still watching her. She tapped the side of her head, “And I am hoping to get these little buggers removed.” She sat in her chair and checked her armrest for information on the fourth planet.

The turbo-lift doors opened again, and Kilbane walked out and over to Finchley. In his right palm, he held a large silver disc "You're going to find this rather interesting...", then he remembered Karadis and added, "...Sir."

"Go on" Finchley replied.

"Well, 'The bookkeeper' here has the answer to your question," Kilbane said, and tapped the top of the disc "Relay decoded intercepted communication Alpha Zulu one one three Foxtrot one."

A shimmer from the disc and a bald-headed figure appeared and began speaking "...emy force have followed us...cargo to beam...stored...underg...Founder aware of situation...", then another shimmer and the figure disappeared.

"After that, a beam out from one of the Dominion ships was detected, but as to where exactly whatever it was got beamed to, we're not sure," Kilbane said.

"They must have come from the shipyard, that was the last big engagement against the Second Fleet," Finchley said "So I'm betting that whatever that cargo was, it came from there. Ok, let's see what's been found."

He looked at Jaal "What have you found Mr. Jaxom?"

Data was already scrolling down his screen. After a few taps on his console, he explained. "We do have an underground complex but it looks like it's only for power generation. I can confirm previously suspected material processing equipment, labs, small craft landing, repair facilities, and docking ports. There's one section that looks to be living quarters. The power generation is operating at about ten percent of its capacity. There are no other unnatural occurring things in the area you asked to be scanned. The Dominion ships we detected earlier are in stationary orbits around the planet in a pattern that suggests they're looking out visually, not just with sensor sweeps." He spun around in his chair to face the captain, "Since the last report there has been no other space traffic or comm signals in the system. Would you like a tactical display on the main screen?"

Dex stood and walked up to Jaxom. “Yes please Lieutenant,” she said, looking expectantly for the information to appear on the main viewer.

Without a word, Jaal touched one key on his console. Now the main view screen mirrored his own split-screen display. On the left half was the planet with the Dominion ships encircling it. The substation in question was shown highlighted in three intersecting rectangles. The right half showed a close-up aerial image of the facility highlighted by the computer. Structures on the surface were green while structures below the surface were blue.

"The planet's magnetic field and blowing dust cause a lot of static electricity to be generated. I'm pretty sure that's what causes the lightning storms. I'm not sure it'd be a good idea to beam through that," Jaal explained as he added the local weather patterns to the planetary display on the left. "But there are fairly large windows of calm."

“Would the planetary conditions have any effect on a shuttle?” She asked.

Jaal looked up at her, "With full shielding on type six and higher would suffer no ill effects from these atmospheric conditions. We'd have to scan for wind shears though, they play hell with anything in the air... but a shuttle runs the risk of being detected by the enemy vessels keeping watch... unless it's cloaked..." his brow wrinkled. "Do we have a cloaking shuttle aboard?" he asked with his eyebrows raised curiously.

"The Chief Engineer was working on a smaller prototype, scale down from the Klingon one we have been using, but I've no idea if it's ready" Finchley replied.

He tapped his COMM badge and said "Captain to Engineering, Mr. McCrudden, have you been able to make a working cloaking device for any of our shuttles?"

There was silence for a moment, then a reply came back "If a' hud definite news, believe me, ah'd tell ye. but, seein' as ah've no, whit dis the silence tell ye?"

"That you're not sure it works" Finchley replied.

"Gie that man a biscuit" MCrudden said.

"Is it fitted to a shuttle?" Finchley asked.

"Aye, a type six, but it's not been tested yit" McCrudden replied.

"Fine, we'll do a 'live' test en route to the planet," Finchley said.

"Oan yer ain heed be it, son...McCrudden oot" and the link went dead.

Finchley would have to take some time out to speak to the Chief Engineer, his lack of...manners were intolerable.

Turning to Shon he said "Take Doctor Asaa with you, go to the hanger deck and find out which shuttle has the cloaking device in it and check to see if it's hooked up. Message me and let me know please."

Kell turned to the XO and followed her out.

Shon nodded and headed for the turbo-lift, she waited for Assa to catch up. “You don’t have to creep around me, Doctor. Know why you are with me and it does not bother me. You have your job to do and I have mine.” She sighed and exclaimed. “Hangar Deck”. The lift sped on its way.

Kell smiled. "Noted... I just don't wanna get beamed out into space by accident if you act up, or the captain just thinks you're a pain in his hip joint."

It took only moments to reach their destination. Shon jogged along the corridor and into the hanger deck. There were three shuttles in the bay. “Tell me if any of these three disappear Docotor,” Stepping into the nearest one she stepped up to the controls and sat in the pilot's seat. The shuttle sprang to life and Shon noted there was no cloak installed. Quickly she shut it down, jumped out, and raced to the next one. This time it responded in the affirmative that the cloak was working.

“DOCTOR?” She shouted, “is it working?”

Kell shouted back. "I can't hear you, so it must be working!" She gave the XO's empty space a thumbs up, then felt her way along the side as the hatch opened, revealing the inside of a shuttle in the middle of nowhere. The view, as she concentrated, looked a little off as she moved around, looking it over to see if there were any visible spots.

Once she'd done a 360 and looked under and over, she stuck her head in the hatch. "Looks good so far. It looks a little shimmery if you're looking right at it, but that's probably only if you're right on top of it. Nothing to notice at a distance."

'Feels pretty weird,' Kell thought to herself, looking at her hands as they felt a little tingly.

Shon tapped her comm =/\= Captain the cloak on the ‘Eyrie’ is working satisfactorily. =/\=

Tapping his COMM badge to reply, Finchley said "That's good news, thank you, Commander. Make sure she's fully ready for deployment should we take her out."

“Aye Sir” she replied as she began to check the interior of the shuttle beginning with the life support system, navigation, stabilization, and its small weapons load. She glanced at the Doctor. “Can you check the status of the medical supplies and the phaser lock compartment please? We are also going to need pulse rifles and explosives.”

Kell nods, making sure the med drawers were squared away. Checking the phaser department went by the numbers and she eventually reported, "All good commander."

"Mr. Jaxom, get us the coordinates for that landing pad," Finchley said, turning to Jaal "and check to see if those Dominion ships around the planet are on a regular patrol pattern, or randomly placed."

"Aye, coordinates are being sent to the Eyrie," Jaal replied. He also added information on the weather patterns for the next fifty hours in that area of the planet. Then he went on, "The ships in orbit are arranged in such a way that all approach vectors can be seen visually and with sensors. They are not moving." He spun around in his chair to face Captain Kerr and finished, "Judging from these EM signatures, they are using only passive scanning at this time."

"We'll just have to 'ghost' our way in" Finchley replied "The 'Eyrie' will set off within the hour, and when she gets to within spitting distance of the planet the engine power will be reduced to thrusters...with random course corrections so as to appear to be background noise. Momentum will keep it going, and yes, it'll take longer to reach the planet I know, but that's just something we'll have to live with."

Jaal nodded in response to Captain Kerr’s comments as he worked his console. He was keeping an eye on weather patterns in case the away team needed an emergency beam out. In another section of his console, a close eye was being kept on the Dominion vessels surrounding the planet. In yet another section, he was working out the best possible escape vectors based on the known specifications of those very vessels. One small section was continuously looking for incoming traffic into the solar system and signals that could be considered communications signals.

"Lieutenant Savette, as we approach the Dominion ships, will you be able to sense anything from them, or will the distance be too great?" Finchley asked Isabelle.

Isabelle looked towards Finchley. “It depends on who is there Captain, Betazoids can’t read Founders, but I should be able to pick up on any others that may be there. If you want accuracy I may need to be close.”

"I doubt the Founder is anywhere near here" Finchley said "To close to the shipyard and any danger that could hold, no, they'll be a safe distance away from any action. Believe me, we'll be close Lieutenant, so anything you can pick up and relate will be useful."

He looked thoughtful for a second, then seemed to come to a decision "Ok...Lieutenants Savette, Jaxom and Sh'Karra, meet me in the hanger bay in thirty minutes, that's when we'll be leaving in shuttle 'Eyrie' for the planet, we need to know what's going on there."

Isabelle nodded. “Aye Sir”

T'Lira replied, "Aye Sir"

“Aye Sir,” Jaal repeated.

Tapping his COMM badge he said "Doctor Asaa, you and Commander Dex report back to me on the bridge immediately."

Dex looked at Asaa, “I thought we would be going to the planet Doctor?” She said, “I wonder why the Captain wants us back on the bridge.

Kell shrugged. "Oh, I quit wondering 'why' with the Captain a long time ago. Let's get a quick on."

Finishing their checks on the shuttle the pair made their way back to the bridge.

“Captain?” Shon question entering the bridge with Kell right behind her.

"I wanted to ask you away from prying ears and make sure you're definitely feeling well enough to go on this mission" Finchley said to Shon.

Shon looked at him with surprise and in replying stammered slightly. “Captain..erm..well I am completely fine apart from this nanite bomb in my head. Better than fine in fact, of course I want this out of me but if that is not possible for the good of everyone you must beam me out into space.” She looked serious. “Captain I have not been your XO for longer you have my complete loyalty. If I were not fit I would not hesitate to remove myself from the mission…”

Kell nodded at the CO. "You've decided to put medical in charge of the ship while you're gone Captain my Captain?"

"I didn't realise you read poetry Doctor, and to answer your question...Hell no!" Finchley replied.

"You're coming with us, you'll be monitoring and making sure the Commander here is as fit as can be expected at all times" he added.

Kell raises a small box with a red button just under her thumb. "I'm on it sir! She won't be a problem."

Shon smiled, “I think we might need a bigger shuttle!”

Tapping his COMM badge, Finchley said "Captain to Mr McCrudden, make your way to the bridge immediately, Kerr out."

A couple of minutes later, the turbo-lift doors opened, and a rather grumpy-sounding Engineering Officer marched out and over to Finchley "What kin ye possibly want that takes me away fae Engineering..." McCrudden asked, and eyeing up an angry-looking Karadis, quickly added "...Sir?"

"We're taking the 'Eyrie' down to the planet's surface McCrudden" Finchley began "You'll be in charge of the Blackeagle whilst we're away."

"Now wait a minute..." McCrudden began to protest, but Finchley cut him off "Good, that's that settled, off you scoot you, but be back up here in twenty minutes!"

Turning to Shon, Kell, and Karadis he said "Right, let's get going."

Shon smiled and headed to the ‘eyrie’ with the away team. It would be a tight fit but it would do. She pulled Kell back and whispered “you have all you need to beam me out if you have too?”

"As long as the equipment works correctly, yes. If not, I'll just push you out." Shon wasn't sure just how much she was kidding by the look on her face.

Kell busied herself securing into a chair. She guessed it might be a bumpy trip...

Shon sat next to Karadis and strapped herself in half smiling at the Klingon woman.

Karadis glared at Shon "I hope those little fuckers in your brain do you some damage, if they don't, I will, don't think I've forgotten what you did!"

Shon looked into the distance, “ That’s Commander fucker to you and I was hoping you had not forgotten Karadis. I know I haven’t, and if I loose my head you can always make up something about me to dine out on.”

The time it took to plant the probe and get back to their starting point passed without incident, and Finchley was glad, everything seemed ready.

Finchley looked at the countdown, ten minutes to the probe activating. It was time to get things underway, but he felt a little uneasy, things were just to quiet.

"Mr Jaxom, initiate the cloak, take us out and head towards the planet" Finchley said.

Jaal's hands did their dance on the console. He wasn't particularly comfortable in the pilot's chair. This type six shuttle was the biggest thing he'd ever flown. He hoped it wasn't much different than the smaller craft.

The 'Eyrie', cloaked, headed off, and within eight minutes was almost on top of the Dominion ships. It was time to put their plan into place.

During the flight down, Jaal kept an eye on the Dominion ships. Any change in their status could indicate someone thought something was afoot.

"Cut the main engines, use thrusters as I said," Finchley ordered.

"Aye," Jaal tapped his console in a professional manner and engaged the shuttle's thrusters while shutting down the impulse drive. If they were going to be detected, now would probably be the time. He went as easy as he could to prevent any soil or debris from getting kicked up by the thruster's backwash.

It had felt like an eternity that the shuttle drifted through space using just the thrusters. However, as they did, the probe 'con' kicked in, and in response to it being detected, some of the Dominion ships moved off to check out what was happening. This afforded the shuttle to carry on without being detected, enter the planets atmosphere and glide down to the landing pad.

“Take a breath Lieutenant” Shon said softly sensing the stress in his simple “aye”. She looked at Assa, “the nanites are talking to each other, check me out now!” She said as urgently and softly as she could.

Kell's eyes stayed mostly on her forearm PADD. At Shon's urgent tone she tapped the screen a couple of times, her thumb rubbing lightly over the button in her other hand. "Convince them we're nowhere near their creator. From what they said, they'll want to be sure..." She glances up at Shon to gauge her reaction.

Shon closed her eyes and tried to communicate with her nanite invaders. They seemed confused no longer sure where they were and they were surprised when she attempted to reassure them. Finally she managed it and they slept once again. She breathed a sigh of relief and nodded to Asaa.

Now safely landed, and with no clear sign that any alert had been sounded, Finchley allowed himself an inner sigh of relief. The first part of this dangerous mission was complete...they'd actually arrived in one piece.

The next part was still difficult though. getting into the derelict substation. Using visual scanners only, he checked the perimeter around the pad and the buildings close by, but there seemed to be no signs of movement. A decision had to be made, and though it went against his instinct, he made a passive scan to try and detect any heat signatures...but there were none.

Turning to face everyone in the shuttle he said "This is the tricky part. Once we're inside, we'll split into two teams. Savette, Jaxom, Sh'Karra, Tristen, you'll scout the structure above ground, find out what you can about the enemy forces set up. We need to know their strengths and how they're set up. Are we up against just the Jem'Hadar or are there others...Breen for instance. Find out of there's a communications area and if there is, break into it. As I said before, I doubt very much that the Founder is here on Runaman, so you're objective is to find out where they really are, that's vital. Meantime Dex, Asaa, Kilbane and Karadis, we'll go below ground and try and discover where this other Vorta scientist is, find out how to get rid of these nanites from Savette and Dex. I honestly don't know if our communicators will work, and if they do, whether or not it'll alert the Dominion soldiers to our presence. Use them 'only' as a last resort."

Jaal ahemed softly, “We have about two hours before one of those dust and lightening storms roll into the area. It’s estimated to last about three hours then we’ll be in the clear again in case we need to get beamed out.”

"A beam out's not going to happen Mr Jaxom" Finchley replied "The Blackeagle won't be risked to come and get us, there's too many Dominion ships around the planet. I already said we're on our own regarding this mission, nobody's coming to get us if it goes tits up, the same goes for our journey here on the 'Eyrie', we're on our own, we came in on the shuttle, we go back on the shuttle. If the balloon goes up and we're discovered, then it's our Alamo, Butch and Sundance, Custer's Last Stand...you get the picture."

Jaal exhaled slowly, "Understood Sir."

[TBC]

 

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