Reviewing the Facts

[Kallah Ramson 0]

Filtered through Aegean's cloak the streaking stars seen at warp out of the Captain's forward viewport made odd grey swirls rather than the normal crisp spectral lines. With no other sources of illumination to contend with these phantoms of distorted light freely cast dancing shadows across the room. Uneven waves washed across the far bulkhead. A whirlpool of grey tones circled the desk and chairs to one side. Patterns like raindrops on still waters splashed across the face of the figure seated on the floor in the center of the room.

 

Kallah Ramson sat in meditation. She carefully processed all the information they had. It was the best way for her to separate the facts from all the feelings radiating from the minds around her. A genetic inheritance from her Vulcan Great Grandfather perhaps? In any case it was a valuable tool in such trying times.

 

The first fact they knew was that Jorahl was dead, shot with a disruptor from behind by a Romulan. The station had either been seized or was about to be seized by outside forces, now apparently a renegade faction of Romulans. Five warbirds were in the area around Aegis. The Defense Grid had been locked down and was inaccessible to either side. These vital clues Jorahl gave his life for them to know.

 

What that meant was a full assault by Revenge, Aegean, and Missouri would do no good. Five warbirds and presumably control of most of Aegis' weaponry were too much even for these three advanced ships, even if they didn't have to deal with the Defense Grid. But, with the Grid down Aegean could enter the area under cloak.

 

Other clues were gathered from the computer link with Aegis. One warbird was physically docked with the station, two more lay in close parking orbits, but the other two were not on sensors so were most likely cloaked and patrolling the asteroid field. The link also told them the shipyard had been emptied of personnel and powered down. Civilian mining operations had been restricted to areas clearly within Aegis' weaponry range. All other traffic had been diverted from the area.

 

Some of the more interesting clues would have been totally looked over by those not familiar with Aegis. The station's roster had been forged. There were a lot of additional transfers of Romulan officers, presumably the renegade faction pulling some strings very high up the chain of command. But, that was not the only oddity. According to records twice as many security crewmen had been assigned to Revenge and Aegean than were actually aboard now. Most of medical's trauma experts were at a conference on Kitla IV, which had no such conference let alone a breathable atmosphere! A fifth of Engineering's roster just didn't exist. Here and there officers and crew one would see everyday were not on the record. The first fears were that the Romulans made these people disappear. But, if Jorahl had manage to safeguard and hide them away they could be laying in wait or already actively engaging in operations to retake the station.

 

How to retake the station was now the main question. The Romulans clearly had command of the Control Tower. Main engineering and the computer core would have been the next critical targets. Ramson knew Jorahl would not let these fall easily but there had to be limits to what he could do without tipping his hand. However, like the station roster the operational specs of Aegis were also off in areas. While in reality Pylons A and B were near mirrors of each other the specs now showed it's computer core a simple backup unit. Likewise Pylon B's main power core was offline and listed at a third of it's actual power output. As a whole the importance of Pylon B had been downplayed and the interconnection of control systems hidden.

 

The battle plans in their simplest terms came down to control of three areas; one of Aegis' control centers, a main computer, and station power. The first to seize all three of these would have effective control of most all parts of the station. As much as Jorahl had done there were equally motivated Romulans on the other side doing everything they could to take Aegis by whatever force was needed.

 

Kallah exhaled as she opened her eyes. The assault teams knew their jobs. Her job was to get Aegean close enough to beam them over. It was fitting the starship Jorahl had designed would be delivering those seeking revenge for his death. As she thought of the dangers awaiting Ramson prayed no other revenge would be needed.