To Blow up Or Not To Blow Up… That Is The Question

Posted on Sat May 22nd, 2021 @ 7:37pm by Captain Rueben Gregnol & Executive Officer Jake Ford & Micheal Robertson & Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein & Jinx Jorasco

Mission: Mission 13: Stowaway
Location: Briefing Room
Timeline: MD 08 07:00
2074 words - 4.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Gregnol stared out the window as everyone sat waiting for him to comment or even look at them. He was pretty sure this was one of his darkest days, and he had looked at himself from the other universe and saw nothing but evil. The Ferengi had brought them into something that they would never be able to fight their way out of or even attempt to.

They had very few choices at the moment on what to do, especially with one of their crew needing to get to Betazed before she died. It was all rolling around in his head, trying to be the first issue that they needed to deal with -- Ferengi D'Kora Marauder class ship just off the port side, stowaway, or dying Dixoho. He smacked his hand against the glass.

Micheal sat in his seat, to Reuben's left, across from Jake. His mind was a storm of emotions and thoughts. Anger at that couple for bringing this trouble to the Rosie, impotent rage at the ship with its guns trained on his home and family, and desperate anxiety over the current state of the woman that he loved more than anything. Had the Alexandria been fully functional, he would have taken Di and fled to Betazed at top speed. Unfortunately, his shuttle only had impulse at the moment. So he sat there, unusually silent, as he waited for Reuben to speak.

Stifling a yawn, Lil tried to look professional, which of course she always did. She had to remind herself this wasn't Starfleet anymore. Leaning back, she watched the others come in and didn't offer any greeting, since they didn't really know her well enough yet.

Burnie filed in, making notes on his PADD as he took a seat. Nothing was ever easy around here, but then sometimes that was half the fun. Even if they were outgunned, they were far from helpless, and this was exactly the sort of situation where he could really employ his natural talents.

Jake sat down just as Burnie did, his brow still furrowed as he thought about everything that they had going on at the moment.

Finally, Gregnol turned back around and looked at everyone. “So we all know we have a few issues going on right now. Far more than we have ever experienced, which is hard to believe after we met our doublegangers, but there. We have no help, no communication, so we only have this crew to figure this all out. Someone pick one of our problems and let’s try and think of a solution to it.” Gregnol sounded calm and composed, but he really wanted nothing more than to go and yell angrily at the pair who had brought all the trouble on them when it was meant to be a simple cargo run to get credits.

Finally thinking he had an idea, though a bad one, Michael spoke. "If I can get some help getting my shuttle's warp drive fixed, we could try to make it look like the metamorph is onboard, and I'll haul ass outta here, forcing the Marauder to go after me."

"She's of no value to them if she imprints on someone though," Lil pointed out. "Unless the future husband agrees to pay anyway. We could try talking to her, get her to see that she's not just some piece of cargo and has choices about where she wants to go and what she wants to do. We sure as hell aren't going to give her back to them!" Lil insisted.

"Then how about we give them something else?" Burnie suggested. "I can make it look like the stasis box is still working and spoof the metamorph's biosigns, so we beam that over to them. Personally, I'd fill it with explosives set on a timer, but Liha suggested..." he paused a moment, semi-mouthing Romulan words before deciding against trying to pronounce them, "The translation is basically 'prize surprise'. Seems to be the Romulan version of Trojan Horse. She says if she goes in the box, she can pop out after they store it, take out the crew and meet us at Betazed."

"Clearly we're no match for them in a fight. Do we have anyone we can go to for help? Starfleet might have some patrol ships, especially near a significant member world," Jake suggested. "As much as we're staying under their radar, they're more likely to be looking at a Ferengi Marauder as causing trouble rather than a decades-old ship like this one."

“We have no communication. It’s being jammed,” Gregnol admitted, working backwards through what everyone had suggested. He had already attempted to contact anyone close by, but nothing was getting in or out. “Let’s think on the Ferengi D'Kora Marauder class ship just off the port side before we add our stowaway and dying… the other issues. The shuttle cannot be fixed in time. I’ve seen how in pieces it is.” He finally sat down and looked at Burnie. “Liha is being deadly serious, isn’t she?”

"Yeah." Burnie nodded, trying perhaps not entirely successfully to keep his opinion on that off his face. "Personally I prefer explosives, but there's a decent chance she could pull it off. Put her in there with knives and a tool kit, and in her words, 'All I need to do is get to the captain and start taking slices off his lobes'."

Jinx frowned, scratching at Zambi’s scaly hide as the raptor curled in the too big seat beside her. “How many crew does that marauder have?” she asked. “Might be a lot of people for Liha to get through. I could take a look at the signal jamming. Maybe we can punch something through to someone.”

"I would have thought that was already being done," Gregnol snapped before frowning. "None of this is helping. Chances and maybes. The captain is not Ferengi... he isn't Ferengi. So who is he?" Gregnol brought up the picture of the man who had been on the other ship. Gray dreadlocks, a skinny, gloomy face. Dead black eyes, set narrowly within their sockets, and scar reaching from just under the right eye, running towards the other eye, and ending on his forehead.

"Xander Felkopin," Micheal stated. "I never met him, but I know of him, somewhat. He has a bounty on his head in twelve star systems. Theft, arms smuggling, kidnapping, murder. He's got a list of crimes longer than my arm. If he's in command over there, we may have a problem, Boss."

Burnie suspected that would just make him a more attractive target to Liha. "In my experience a lot of problems can be solved with the judicious application of explosives..."

“He does look mean,” Jinx had to admit, looking at the picture, a bit cowed by Gregnol’s tone. “What is so valuable about this girl?”

"Kriosian metamorphs are extremely rare. Supposedly they have the ability to bond with a mate and basically empathically know how to please them," Lil said in near disgust. "The race was once known for their empathic abilities, but apparently it's died out in all but a few individuals every century or so. So basically there are people out there who would bid highly for a prize like that."

“Fezzik and Jenna do not believe it is her really. It is the cost of the transport. They’ve been running a lot of operations outside of the FCA to avoid taxes and bribes,” Gregnol muttered, thinking of the pair that had sung like canaries once they had been locked up. It would be so easy to blame them, but it was luck. The captain settled into silence for a moment before looking at Burnie. “How long would your idea that does not invoke Liha take to rig up?” he wondered.

"A couple hours," Burnie replied, relieved Gregnol was going with his idea and not Liha’s, though she was going to be disappointed. Something about seeing her old Ranger friends seemed to have gotten her fighter instincts going. "Mostly to fix the stasis box and set up the biosignature spoof. I can also use that to mask the explosives so any filters on their transporters won't catch them." A brief grin crossed his face. "Setting the explosives will only take a few minutes."

"Pull whatever help you need from the other engineers," Jake suggested. "Time's not our friend right now." He felt unnerved that they were in this tight spot, with no clear way out of it. Not exactly a Kobayashi Maru, but definitely less comfortable than any of them would have liked.

Gregnol nodded and glanced at Jake. His thoughts were similar. I was a shame neither was a telepath. “Pull anyone you need, engineer or any one else,” the man stated. He was not going to let anyone be lazy when they were on limited time. “We need to make sure the engines do not fail us as well.” The ship had a habit of being stubborn at the wrong time.

“So our other problems, the girl and Dixoho?” The man was not wanting to bring them up, but they needed to face facts.

“If it’s a matter of cost, can we pay them off?” Jinx asked. “Do we have that kind of money?” She wasn’t aware of the ship’s finances, only that she got paid regularly. “Then we could return the girl home, or wherever she needs to go.”

“Nope.” Gregnol shook his head. Of course they did not have the funds for this type of thing; it was why they were doing the cargo run on a ship that was so old. “And they are not going to let us go, and I think we all agree we are not giving the girl over to them.”

"Oh, I wholeheartedly agree. They get her over my dead body." Lil wanted to spit on the ground, but resisted that particular urge.

"I agree. She's had it tough enough being stuffed into a box," Jake nodded. "How's Dixoho doing, anyway?"

Gregnol frowned a little and glanced at the armoury chief before he commented, “She would be a lot better if we were closer to Betazed and not trapped here,” he said, hoping the implications resonated enough for everyone. Time was limited beyond anything they had experienced before.

Hearing the back and forth discussion about Di and her current state of critical health had Michael growing angrier and angrier as the conversation went on. He wanted so badly to have her healthy and happy. He would willingly give his life to save hers if that's what the cost would be.

“There’s a thought,” Jinx said. “We now have a spare stasis chamber. Would that benefit Dixoho?” she asked. “Would that buy her more time, halt the progress of the disease? Or at least slow it?”

"That's not a bad idea, under the circumstances." Jake nodded thoughtfully. "If Burnie can make it safe, of course. We don't know how long Dix has, so if we can keep her alive longer until we can find help..."

"Um..." Burnie raised his hand. "While we might be able to get it working, doing that kind of negates the 'fill it with explosives and beam it over to them' idea. Given an extra five or six hours, I could probably fab a box that would pass a cursory look, but spoofing life readings on an actual stasis box is one thing; spoofing readings to make a glorified tin can read like a functioning stasis box is a whole other level."

“Stuck between saving Dix and saving the girl,” Jinx said with a sigh.

Micheal said nothing, though his mind was screaming that Dixoho's life was most important. His jaw muscles kept flexing as the emotions roiled deep inside.

“It is not saving the girl.” Gregnol reminded wondering if they had been listening. The whole ship was threatened by this event. “We do it the way we discussed. Burnie’s way,” Gregnol declared. He knew Dixoho would say the same. “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Or the one,” he said simply, gathering his items up. He had always wanted to say that in a serious meeting, but it was not how he had imagined it at all. “We’ve got work to do. Let’s get to it.”