Briefing Between Kwai and BluRox

[Capt Rian Kwai 0]

Briefing

Captain Rian Kwai & Admiral BluRox, USS Republic

 

“Bridge, open a secure channel from the Ready Room to Admiral BluRox on Republic, please.”

 

Captain Rian Kwai sat back in the chair as she waited for confirmation that the communication channel was open and that Blu was available. The brief time afforded to her while this was being set up allowed the Trill to mull over exactly how she was going to brief her Admiral on what was going on. There was a lot of information both to convey and to still sort out. She just hoped Blu had the patience to deal with it all.

 

What Rian didn’t know was that Blu had been pacing back and forth in her ready room ever since her abbreviated comm regarding Romulan prisoners aboard Excalibur. Hearing the private communications channel activate, she quickly took a seat at her desk and keyed the button to open the channel.

 

When the computer chimed its readiness, Kwai sat up and positioned herself in front of the revolving UPC signal as she waited for Blu to complete the transmission connection. As soon as she saw Blu’s pinned back ears, Rian felt her stomach twist. She knew the Admiral was at her wits end, and now she would add more fuel to the fire. It was days like this that she’d suggest anger management classes for the Admiral - if she wasn’t so protective of her own hide.

 

“Admiral,” she said, nodding. “First off, I want you to know that everything over here seems to be safe, sound and quiet. The Excalibur crew has been cooperative, even welcoming to our crew members. And aside for a few very minor dust-ups that I think had more to do with the Excalibur crew’s frustration than anything, we’ve had smooth sailing so far. I did place a restriction on the Excalibur crew that if they are not on duty, they are confined to quarters. If things continue as they are, and if LtCdr Robinson agrees, I’ll loosen the restriction while we’re en-route to Earth.”

 

Still waiting for the other shoe to drop, Blu only responded with a curt, “Continue.”

 

“I do, however, need to brief you on a few things that we’ve encountered since our arrival.”

 

“Such as?” Blu said almost with a bit of a challenge to her voice.

 

Rian took a deep breath,. “I’m not entirely sure where to start first, so I’m just going to dive right in and we’ll muddle through together, yes?” She offered a tight smile, trying to show that she was calm and on top of the situation. She had every intention of trying to relieve some of the obvious aggravation that the Admiral was feeling.

 

“Well, first, on a lighter note, we’ve secured the cloaking device. You should see it, Blu: One of the security folks send me a holo of it a bit ago - it’s encased in a glittery bubble gum pink box in Engineering.” Rian chuckled. “I’m told it was their Chief Engineer’s idea. Some sort of warped sense of humor about the situation. Jax would love it. Heck, if we were ever to put Jax and Mr. Admiran in a room together, I think they’d give Starfleet a run for their money.” The smile now was genuine, though she still sought to lighten the mood.

 

“Well, yes. About that....Jax requested to go have a look at their engineering department about 20 minutes ago, and I believe she beamed right to their engineering department, to make sure all was in order for the ride home.” Errrika shook her head, a headache already starting to flare. “You might want to check in with her, to make sure she doesn’t short something out.”

 

Kwai simply shook her head and scribbled on the PADD in front of her before continuing on. “On a more serious note, they do have some prisoners being held down in their brig that we’ll need to sort out. I’ve been told they are part of the weapons smuggling ring. The weapons they found in their possession are also in the cargo hold. Four humans and four Romulans.” Rian then frowned. “There was a fifth Romulan. I’m told that he had died prior to our arrival. Possible suicide. I have Bardolph confirming that right now with our people and the Excalibur’s crew. I’ll let you know what I hear back from him.”

 

“Rian, please, do NOT, do NOT tell me, that we have a dead Romulan! You seriously are NOT telling me that they had a Romulan prisoner, and their security staff let him commit suicide?”

 

Rian paused to collect herself and continue more diplomatically. “I don’t think they let him do anything -- it just happened. But if t’Mirok catches wind of this before we get all our facts straight, she’ll be pretty upset. The B-team crew has been gossiping pretty heavily about her and about the crew here. I can’t stop it; everyone is pretty excitable at the moment. Even Wydown found out t’Mirok was aboard before I even got a chance to say anything. So if Excalibur knows she’s around, chances are it won’t be long before she hears rumors that Excal has Romulans on board as well.”

 

“Oh Bloody Blue Blazes!! That must have been what prompted the damned woman’s outburst on the bridge a moment ago?” Errrika went to dig her claws into the desk, only finding the smooth polished obsidian of the new desktop, leaving her claws to just click on the rock as they made contact. “Blast!”

 

“What outburst?” Rian asked.

 

“The Romulan, when I returned to the bridge a few moments ago, confronted me about the cloaking device and what I was planning on doing with it. When I told her it would be handled, she called me a liar to my face. All because I was ‘hiding’ things from her. Now we just need to organize who told her what? And how we’re going to break this down into manageable portions?”

 

“Before things get too far out of hand, I think I might have a way to salvage the situation,” Rian motioned to the screen. “Bear with me here; this might be a long explanation. Apparently in their exploits the Excalibur managed picked up a Starfleet Intelligence officer, Lt Adam Pierson, in distress. Before you even ask, yes I did verify his identity as an operative, he’s legit. He’s been conducting a covert op in Romulan space for a while now and was able to obtain information that does corroborate the Excalibur’s claims that there are weapons being smuggled into the Gamma quadrant.”

 

“How many damned crews and operatives do we have over here in Romulan space? Oh for blazes sake!” Blu sighed heavily. “Continue, because if this was the good news, I’m not sure I want the bad news.”

 

“He’s willing to share his information with t’Mirok and he thinks he can soften the blow of the Romulan’s death. I’d like to give him the chance. We’ll need to set up a secure channel to do this, I don’t want this broadcast over subspace for every Tom, Dick, and Harry to hear. Think we can arrange that?”

 

“I don’t see why not, but I believe we’re going to have to have this performed out here, in the middle of the nowhere,” Blu answered.

 

“There’s another issue with this operative though that you should be aware of. Adam says he has completed his mission and doesn’t wish to be returned to Romulan space at this time. And I’m afraid that, in order to preserve his cover, he would be forced to return with her to Romulus. Discussing the death of the Romulan prisoner with her, as well as the intelligence, however, would probably make it clear he’s not what he appears to be. To complicate it further, apparently the crew here has been trying to figure out the man’s identity and have put him in a hostile situation. Commander Wydown feels that Adam would continue to be a disruption for the crew and in danger to both himself and the crew if he continues in his current guise.”

 

“Ok, so you’re saying we have a Romulan, on a Federation ship, that isn’t really a Romulan, who doesn’t want your real Romulans, or our real Romulan, to know he’s not a real Romulan. Probably because they’d spot him before he could get his ‘Jolan’ out of his ‘tru’. And to be clear, he definitely doesn’t want to go back to Romulus, where everyone might realize he’s a fake, and take turns watching him watching us watching him.”

 

“Blu, if he weren’t convincing after twenty years of experience, he’d be dead already.” Rian smirked, trying to keep in mind that Blu's aggravation wasn't stemming so much with Mr Pierson, but the situation as a whole. She paused a moment then continued with the bad news. “You might not like my decision, but this was the best option presented to me and one that I’m inclined to think will work. Commander Wydown is going to oversee the removal of the Romulan guise from the operative and then we’re going to blend him in with the Republic security team here. This way, t’Mirok can not insist that he travel back with the riffraff to Romulus and Excalibur crew won’t be head-hunting for the Intel Operative. As Commander Wydown pointed out, the Excalibur would notice another name on their roster, but most likely wouldn’t notice another one of our crew members ambling about. Especially with all the beaming in and beaming out we’ve been doing lately.”

 

“It might work,” Blu said. Her voice indicated her hesitation but, in this case, she would defer to her exec.

 

“I’ll be briefing LtCdr Robinson about the situation shortly so he can also keep an eye on things. We’re trying to keep this between the two of us” -- she motioned to Blu and herself, then started ticking off names -- “Robinson, Wydown, Matsumura and Pierson. It might be good for you or I to be present when t’Mirok and Adam talk instead of some random security officer so that we can contain the issue. And we’ve made the stipulation to Mr Pierson that he is to remain aboard Excalibur and not transfer with any of the Republic team. The only exception that I can think of to this ‘rule’ would be if you think it would bet better for Adam to speak to t’Mirok in person?”

 

“I’m not so certain that the Romulan woman is too impressed by me anymore, having just called me a liar to my face. Were she not who she was, and had I not already told the crew that they had to treat her with kid gloves, I can not challenge her myself. However, I have lost a lot of the respect I had attributed to her for her restraint. Of all people to accuse me of lying to them?” Blu growled.

 

“Blu, you have to realize that if she’s heard rumors all ready, and she doesn’t feel like she’s getting a straight answer, I’m not surprised she snapped -- especially with all the stupid comments our own crew has made. More surprised that it took her this long to do so. And if you were in this mood when the two of you met...well...I can only imagine what that looked like. In a lot of ways, the two of you are a lot alike.” It was the closest Rian would come to telling Blu her temper was a bit out of control. She couldn’t blame the Admiral for being hopping mad about the whole ordeal, but jumping down a diplomatic envoy’s throat was only going to make the situation worse.

 

“I’ll sit in on the meeting with t’Mirok and Pierson. I just don’t know where yet to do it. I’ll get back with you.” She paused. “And yes, I know what you’re thinking, this sounds like a crazy plan. Cdr Wydown came up with it. I still think the woman is a few dilithium crystals short of a warp core, but she is actually a very creative woman. Very little impulse control, but a smart woman.” Rian paused, furrowing her brow. “Can I give you my impression of the situation?”

 

Blu was steaming that her own Executive Officer was defending the Romulan woman’s position. “Fine,” she answered curtly.

 

“I don’t necessarily think these are bad people. I think they and their Captain made a colossal mistake in going about the problem the way he did, and the crew was along for the ride. I’m not defending their actions - wrong is wrong - but their intentions were good. They’re going to take a lot of heat for this. I’m just saying, well, I think I feel sorry for them. There’s a part of me that sympathizes with them right now.”

 

“Colossal mistake! Ha! That’s the understatement of the millennium.”

 

Kwai sighed heavily, “I have to go, Blu. I’ve got a few more loose ends to tie up before I meet with Will and Adam. I’ll comm back after I get done with them. Tell Holly to behave, please. I want my seat back when this is all done.” Rian waved at the screen and then leaned heavily back in the chair. Oh, she was so craving a flying waffle right about now...