Mission Briefing

[Joe Manning 0]

Commander Mench had not been comfortable in an airlock with five Klingons. He was even less so leaping across the vacuum between QoB and Starbase 215. He was not sure why K'mLak had decided to bring two armed guards with her -- the idea here was to have a small team capable of causing a little bit of havoc on the station without drawing too much attention. But now Mench was the lone smooth face in a crowd of bumps and ridges. He would have to watch his back.

 

This had not been the plan. The plan had been to wait for Xandra and Fox to slip away from the station's medical and security personnel and knock out its sensor grid so a team could transport over. But Mench began to worry that his Klingon bridge crew would become impatient waiting for two humans to produce results and would do something rash, like opening fire on the station. K'mLak especially worried Mench in that regard, and he was beginning to wonder if elevating her responsibilities on QoB had been a mistake.

 

A hiss indicated that Bekk Ag'gh had managed to unseal the airlock. Hopefully his claim that station ops would not detect this intrusion would be hold up. As the team filed through the opening airlock, Mench began to formulate plans and contingencies. His team would have two objectives -- to make their way toward the communications beacon to render it suitable for transport, and to provide distractions for the other team. Much still depended on Xandra and Fox and whatever plans they had to blind the station crew.

 

* * * * *

 

"Channel open, Commander."

 

Lieutenant Commander Eastwood strode to the communications terminal in the command center and saw the face of Admiral Agnon, the regional commander stationed on Aldebaran. "Admiral, I'm glad we were able to reach you."

 

"What is it, Lieutenant Commander?" The Andorian asked. "I hope you do not require my counsel on shipping schedules and merchant disputes."

 

Eastwood began to laugh, but quickly stopped himself as he remembered how poor his posting to Starbase 215 was. He gave the Admiral a mildly sheepish look and replied, "Ah, no, sir. A situation of much greater import has arisen. We are currently providing medical treatment to two individuals who were recently held captive by Klingon slavers."

 

One of the Admiral's antennae straightened. "Klingons? This far from the border?"

 

"Yes," Eastwood nodded, almost proudly. "The same Klingons responsible for the attack on the USS Pompei. One of the captives is an officer, Lieutenant Xandra Collins, who was taken from Pompei and managed to escape. We have yet to identify the other individual -- his face has been mangled so badly -- but we have several close matches in the archives which we are trying to narrow down."

 

"How did these two find themselves in your care?" The Admiral's tone almost suggested that it was totally implausible for someone of Eastwood's minimal importance to have had such a great responsibility placed at his feet.

 

The tone was not missed by Eastwood. He cleared his throat and answered, "Well, that is somewhat strange ... sir. They arrived aboard an escape pod which is not capable of faster-than-light speed. I believe this slaver ship may still be in the area, possibly damaged. Lieutenant Collins suggested that they were planning to assault my base, but broke off to affect repairs. I am not sure how comfortable I am with that, and we do not currently have any ships stationed -or- stopping off here."

 

"Very well, Lieutenant Commander," Agnon gave a bothered reply. "I want you to file a complete report on these two captives, including detailed testimony from both of them and a thorough analysis of the escape pod. Meanwhile, I will determine if any ships are available to assist you. If I am not mistaken, there is one currently assigned to the Klingon border, investigating just this sort of activity ... "