Expansion Fleet - Avalon Archive

There is, however, a problem, sir. As soon as we hail Vontak Nor, the Cardassians here will notice our presence. Perhaps the only way of contacting them safely would be to exit the system.

*grins* That's why you're the boss... And of course we could play with the Cardassian excessive pride and their need to prove themselves better than the Federation.

I guess offering a dinner on board our ship would be a nice thing to do... Especially if at the time you were "ill", sir... So that you would be able to sneak in and no one would miss you.

Also, we could always arrange for a group of rogue Loxians to attack them while we are there... A group of well funded Loxians, of course... *grins once more*

So, let's tell helm to lay a course to the dark passage and tactical could prepare an unmarked shuttle for a rendezvous with Loxians, if we have to.

*stands up*

Well... It's time for action sir.

*goes out of the office after the Director*

(Edited by Alexei Chekov at 4:30 pm on April 1, 2003)

No we cant. I have been given command of every cardassian man woman and child in the Delta quadrant, so they have to obey me...

If their outlaws they should be hanged... Let me talk to them, and if that dont work, let me... deal with them...

*enters the room after Director Svensson*

Please, take a seat, sir.

*points to a chair on the conference desk*

Computer, display all the data I have requested.

*turns a computer screen to himself and another to the Director*

*reads for some time*

So, sir, what do you think?

"Yes, this is a dilemma indeed. During my long years in the different secret departments of Intelligence, I have learned that often one can achieve more by operating on his own, than by allowing others to interfere too.
What I mean is... right now the Cardassians don't know we are here... so we have the element of surprise. They think we are not here, and so they will not try to hide things from us, which they would do without a doubt if they knew of our presence.
If we contact Vontak Nor and they know about this, definitely they will warn these Cardassians here and our element of surprise is gone.
If Vontak Nor does not know about this, they may still decide to warn these Cardassians, even if they don't tell us so.

And contacting Starfleet Command... what will they do? They're just a bunch of bureaucrats that need years to make a decision. It is people like us here who are sent secretly throughout the galaxy, to set things right and ensure its safety before anyone even will have a chance to know there was ever a danger. And if Starfleet Command decides to do something about it, it would be people like us they would send anyway, so we might as well do the job while we're at it, and not wait for Starfleet Command until it's too late!"

*Svensson needed to calm down and took a few deep breaths. There was a short silence, and he was drown in thoughts for long moments. Then he spoke up again*

"If we could somehow find out what Vontak Nor knows and doesn't know, without giving away that we know about it too... but a thing like that can't be done over subspace. We need to meet those Cardassians at Vontak Nor personally. How far are we off from Vontak Nor and the Dark Passage?"

"I don't know if these Loxians can be trusted. Records tell they are most violent and hostile, and are not open to reason so far.  We might finding ourselves backstabbed in the end, perhaps.  But then again, risks exists to be taken.  Let's do it!"

*Svensson leaves the room and returns to the bridge too*

OFF: continues back in the mission topic now.

"Then what do you propose we should do about the situation? Surely we can't let them continue like this."

"We have to keep the possibility in mind that they are outlaws, and dont intend to take orders from any Cardassian offical at all. They might be exiles from the Cardassian Union, and in that case, it means we WILL face resistance. But then again, this ship is capable of handling a blow, so I suppose we try to talk to them first before going to aggressive action.
But we have to keep one thing in mind before everything else: the safety of the local population. They have been done harm more than enough, and we should not make it worse."

*reads thoughtfully the informations*

"I have heard about Cardassian activity in the Dark Passage, my informants had told me they have a station there called Vontak Nor.  But we are still quite some distance away from the Dark Passage and what this information tells me, these Cardassians appear not to work together with the ones of Vontak Nor. In fact, one doesn't know about the presence of the other even. Their Intelligence is clearly lacking, compared to ours.
Perhaps these Cardassians here are not even working for Central Command, but are similar to what Starfleet once called the Maquis, and they prefer to occupy planets like they once did with Bajor. Do I understand that correctly?"

If we use the transdimensional warp, maybe minutes, but we wouldn't want Vontak Nor to see us emerging from a dimensional rift, would we? O regular warp speed... *taps some commands on his desk's computer terminal* Seven hours on warp 9 and a day and a half if we go on warp 5. I suggest warp 9, sir.

And we will, of course, use our phase cloaking and drop it as soon as we approach sensor range on Vontak Nor. It'd be best for us if they didn't find out about the cloaking too...

But what shall we say once we arrive there? How can we lure them to tell us what we want and, most important, what will be our cover? Exploration vessel?

Let me speak to them first. They might listen to me, after all, I AM the highest cardassian officer in this quadrant. If that dont work... Let me... convince them anyway...

Rouge cardassians or not, they know better then to kill or capture me or any of you. We can get ships here within a week or less.

But ok, what do u propose?

"Ok then, phasers are not a good option. Perhaps we can beam the Cardassian population from the surface at once, and lock them in a cargo bay on our ship?"

Sir, we have arrived at the planet, i have been training extensively in this terrain (off: which is?)

i have my two custom build hand phasers, an extended range phase rifle with scope, several photonic grenades and my good old katana (off:ninja sword)

lets go....

Off: :biggrin:

Indeed, sir. I believe that even if they were working for Central Command, they would no have the authority to arrive and occupy a planet like they are doing.

The Cardassian-Federation treaty 298.1, that was signet just after the end of the Dominion war, states clearly that, in exchange for Federation help in rebuilding their stations and refiting their fleet, they would never again occupy a planet by force.

And it seems that is the case here...

I think we should contact Vontak Nor and ask them if they know what's happening here. If they don't, perhaps they'd send some help to deal with these rogues. If they do, then it's up to Starfleet HQ to solve it, don't you think?

For long moments, Svensson stays silent and burried into thoughts.
He then turns a computer panel to him and starts pushing some buttons.
Again a long silence, and his XO is starting to wonder if he even realizes they are still in meeting. And right when Mr. Chekov wants to speak up and ask what Svensson's decision is, he lifts his hand to hold him back from speaking.

"It is good to have access to all the files in the databases, including those that are not supposed to exist."

He pushes a button and a stellar map appears on a wall screen.

"What you see there is the location of the Dark Passage and our projected course toward it.  Now, if I magnify," he pushes another button to magnify the map, "you see that this stellar phenomena did not steal its name.  There is a small passway of clear space inside the phenomena, bordered by asteroids on one side, and clusters on the other side.  There is quite some magnetic distortion in those areas, which makes it even difficult to have long-range communications.
And Vontak Nor is located right in the deepest middle of that narrow corridor inside that phenomena."

He points out the location of Vontak Nor on the screen.

"And THAT is already one excuse to go there ourselves, instead of contacting them over subspace channel. We can claim that because of magnetic distortions, we were unable to hail them and so we decided to go there ourselves."

He pushes again some buttons and now the panel displays some scientific information about the Dark Passage on the map.

"We could use transdimensional warp to travel to the Dark Passage, but we would have to drop out of warp near its borders still.  The strong magnetic disturbance in the Dark Passage does not only disrupt subspace communication, but also warp fields.  This means that warp speed might be possible there, but it is a high risk. It could break a ship to pieces if it crosses an area with too strong magnetic interference. Transdimensional warp is probably even more dangerous, though it would not be a problem to pass by the Dark Passage with transdimensional warp, but we can't drop out of warp INSIDE the Dark Passage, if you know what I mean."

Then, at last, he pushes again some buttons and a very different course projection is showed on the map.

"What you see here is the course of the U.S.S. Evolution on its previous mission. This information is normally strictly classified, no doubt you understand. There seems to have been a friendly contact between the USS Evolution and Vontak Nor, and the Cardassians actually saved the Evolution from a very hostile species called the Loxians - who seem to reside more to the north of the Dark Passage but claim the whole area their own.
So we could use the excuse of paying a friendly visit in name of Starfleet to thank them for their help rendered to the USS Evolution in the past, and that we are also there to investigate the possible threath of the Loxians. If we can get them to help us on that, we possibly might be granted access to their computer system, and then it's only a small trick for me to break into their restricted areas and classified files.

What do you think?"

OFF: to keep it easy, I just post here that here starts another meeting in this office than the one posted in this topic before

Svensson, Chekov and Rugal entered the office.

"So, here we are. I believe we have some things to discuss.  Mr. Rugal, what are your suggestions on how we handle this situation with the Cardassians turning the natives of that planet into slaves?"

Admiral, if those are rogue Cardassians and they learn thet you are onboard, sir, we will face heavy resistance. Their numbers are still unknown to us and they may have more ships than we can face...

Admiral, I would advise against firing on the surface of the planet, especially where they are mining. Our sensors indicate that there is a high concentration of a mineral that seems to have the property of stabilizing the omega particle into it's crystaline structure.

A phaser could just blow up half the planet, even more.

Thank you, Mr. Huw, we're on our way to the bridge.