Red Alert on the Runnymede

[Atragon9 0]

 

Roger Wendover was the head of the security detail for the Federation Council and he remembers back to when he had a full head of hair - it was before he took this job.

 

Securing the Council was tough enough when they met in SFHQ in old San Francisco on Earth, but this Council was under threat. There were extremists dead set on isolating and strengthening Earth and humans from the rest of the Galaxy. The flaw in that line of reasoning is that isolation will only weaken an organism, organization or species. Wendover's job, however, was not to argue dogma with terrorists, he just needed to keep these important people alive.

 

First, he tried stasis fields around the meeting rooms and then the meeting buildings. Then, these crazies started to use suicide attacks on the surrounding neighborhoods, and innocents got hurt and the buildings themselves became unstable. They moved the meeting locations, but that only worked for a short while before the zealots found the new and, supposedly secret, venues. The Council was not able to meet as often as they needed and his teams were being run ragged constantly setting up new safe zones, so Wendover got approval to go offworld.

 

It took months, but he decided to use a vessel rather than a colony world or a Starbase. A ship was much more defensible and could even move out of harm's way, if need be. He used a very small crew to get this ready, the more who knew, the greater chances of a leak. He made sure to let certain bureaucrats know that they would relocate the meetings to Starbase 1, so that they would spread their own "leak" of information. It was working pretty well, but slowly. They had to find a decommissioned ship, completely overhaul it, triple-hull it, and load all of the Council's communication gear into it. Then he added his own special sensors and equipment, but the Council prohibited him from putting any offensive ordnance onboard as "it would defeat the purpose of the Federation Council." He would always rub his bald head in agitation every time he heard them try and force feed him that load of droppings - but again, he wasn't here to argue tenets, just shield the delegates. Finally, he had to make the vessel so ordinary that it could be anywhere in the Federation and raise no eyebrows. Cargo carrier - big, slow, always around, so visible, they're invisible. He had the outer hull pre-distressed so it looked ... used. The only nod to it's purpose was the name he gave it, the Runnymede. Scholars of ancient Earth history might get the reference, but it was also ordinary enough to keep most people from digging around TOO much. Besides, he really liked the name and what it stood for so, damn it, he was going to keep it.

 

So, here he is, pacing the ship as it sits in the Regulus system and the Council meets within. His masterpiece is so heavily camouflaged that any Federation ship could come alongside and not know that the Runnymede is anything more than a carrier for terraforming equipment. Of course, he always had backup. There were his three heavily cloaked battle cruisers that were never far from the Runnymede at any given time. The only thing that made him nervous were those damn Black Ops ships that the Council seems to favor. He had heard the stories about Melville and how he had rotted from the inside and he just never trusted the people that made a living out of being so deep under cover for so long. Looking out his command post window, he shivered as he watched one of the nastier ones, of these kind, sitting out there and waiting. The Liberator was one mean-looking ship - and it wasn't just looks, it ireally was Mean. Commodore Lenscher is someone trusted by the Council, but he always gave Wendover the chills. Maybe it was all that unchecked power that Lenscher could wield throughout the Federation without restraint, how could that NOT warp someone?

 

So, all was well, or as well as could be expected, just before all Hell broke loose. His sensor chief told him that a huge explosion was detected on the Liberator and then it starts shooting wide dispersion phaser fire at nothing. Just as suddenly a Nebula repair ship decloaks right between Liberator and Runnymede, DECLOAKS!! What the hell is a tug doing with a cloak?? It's even a cloak that is off the records for any cloaking system that's registered. So, the Liberator and this Neb start shooting at each other and the Neb moves toward us, but is doing it defensively. They show us their back and keep shooting the Liberator. I call for our cruisers and get the Council's shuttles ready for quick escape, but I don't disturb their meeting, not yet. There isn't much they can do, except get in my way and make my job even harder. This Neb makes me as nervous as the Liberator, what's with that unregistered cloak? It's not be as big, but there's something funny about a Neb that can take on a Sovereign Dreadnaught and seems to actually Want To. The two of them are chipping away at each other pretty good, but that will just make my cruisers' job that much easier.

 

What happens if you keep rubbing your head after all the hair is gone - I forget, how many layers of skin do we have???

 

Ahh, here comes my Cavalry, it's time to shut down this little party and send everyone home.