Commander’s Ready Room

As the door split apart to reveal the room before him, his eyes began to scan around. To take in what was there, to gage at what the previous commander was like. As Saren stepped into the room with Orex behind him, he saw a few pieces of portraits on the wall. A couple of them were nebulas, both different colors and shapes to each other. In fact he recognized them, the Haakon Cloud and the Velorum Nebula. The third picture was an aerial view of the former Capital on Romulus. This told him that the former commander was able to see the beauty in nothing but giant clouds of dust and gas; and that they were either homesick or keeping a reminder of what was lost or both. There was more in the room, a couple stands with statues from their ancient culture but he knew that his subcommander wanted to make a point.

As soon as Saren heard the door close behind her, he knew that they can speak more privately. “You wish to question my decision further, Subcommander?” Saren asked as he picked up one of the statues to examine it before he turned in place to face her and looked at her. “I will hold no consequences, so be as blunt as you’d like to be.”

Herrana took a moment to observe the ready room of their new Valdore. It was an odd experience, like stepping into a house in which you once lived, and only see the furniture of the new tenant. 

She’d personally preferred decorating her Scorah’s ready room with model Warbirds over space paintings, but to each their own.

“I apologize for questioning you in front of the crew,” she acquiesced, turning her attention to Saren. “But I stand by what I said. I flew Warbirds like this, and I know when one isn’t mission-capable. In all honesty, I wouldn’t even want to fly it home; I’d much prefer just requesting a tow.”

Was not at all expecting an apology but the rest, he anticipated. “Questioning me in front of the crew and your experience is what I had planned.” He told her as he turned to set the statue back down on its pedestal before he went over to the desk. “I know this warbird requires so much more than what we have right now in order for it to be operational. I know answering a call for help is risky at best. Perhaps I am just taking my luck a little too far.” He then leaned over the terminal and began to access some files on the former commander.

Herrana narrowed her gaze, unsure of what the Commander was playing at. Was he agreeing with her, and prompting her to continue voicing her reluctance? Was he testing her obedience? Or perhaps just thinking aloud?

“Well, however far you would like to press your luck, it is my duty to facilitate it,” she said, opting for a more conciliatory attitude. “Should you decide to continue down this path, I stand ready to perform as ordered.”

Perhaps Saren will have to give her the details later, as he has been surprised yet again by her choice of words. He was about to continue when he began to hear something above them. “Odd.”

Thisbe was IN the panels. Well, technically, she was in the crawlspaces ABOVE the panels but her goal was to do some internal investigation of the old systems. Romulan tech wasn’t her wheelhouse, but it wasn’t a lot different than pre-war Cardassian tech and THAT she did know. The sensors were beeping and whirring with noise and lights, indicating that, so far, she was good. She was sending this all back to N’vek-who didn’t actually know she was in the walls just yet-but she hoped he would see it soon. She was a self-starter, but she was also bored to death and had already finished the novel she’d started the day before. Wandering the old boat was also boring-she knew it already. So her next best idea was THIS. Suddenly, the wood beneath her gave away, and she landed with a thud on the table in the Ready room. “Ouch,” she said softly, but hit her comms badge. “Uh, I need some help in here…” She hadn’t opened her eyes yet to see the Commander and XO there already. She sat up gingerly. “OOPS. I guess we should fix that hole.” How embarrassing was THAT?”

Saren raised a brow at the whole orthodox. “Quite.” He said, to answer her question.

Herrana had let out a quick shriek when Thisbe had crashed through the ceiling, but after composing herself, she quickly approached the young Ulhan and helped her up. 

“Are you injured, crewman?” she inquired, hoping that their already-shortstaffed operation wouldn’t fin itself further undermanned. 

While Orex was helping Thisbe, Saren frowned at what was between her and the table. Wood? “Unless I am mistaken, or that is a vent cover for a maintenance tunnel made out of wood. Did the Empire fall back to the stone age without us knowing?” Saren asked with a smirk.

Thisbe shook her head and stood up. Nothing was broken except her pride. “I think I am ok. Sorry, sir, ma’am, for the interruption. The interior wiring is good, at least.” She bit her bottom lip; it was so dumb. She was going to be in a LOT of trouble when N’vek heard about this. “I believe so? I’ll take a look at it, but we can update the materials. I should be able to have it fixed by this afternoon. If it’s anything like Cardassian boats, it was made up of whatever could be scavenged in a battle for repairs until you could return to the planet.” She didn’t share much about herself, but her father had shared such stories with his friends. “I’ll just..go now.” She could feel herself starting to redden in the cheeks. With any luck, the Romulans she worked with wouldn’t catch that part, though. Damn Bajoran genes! 

Bridge

After six hours in the ready room briefing room, coming up with a solid report to send to the admiralty rather than contact them and brief them on the situation, Saren made his way back to the bridge to check on the status of his team. His first pick was Isha at the helm. “What’s our ETA?” Saren asked.

Isha checked her instruments before she looked at Saren. “Five hours and twenty minutes.”

Saren looked at Parau. “Keeping busy, doctor?”

“Depends what you refer as being busy with?” Hakuna looked up from her console to the Commander. 

“Just making sure you’re not sitting there doing nothing, doctor.” He winked. Was merely a joke anyway.

Saren looked around for a bit and smirked. “You know, now that this ship is the property of the Romulan Republic, we need a name for it. Ideas, anyone?”

Herrana put her hands on her hips and looked around the small collection of officers. She knew that suggesting a name was about as far from her duty as could be, given her personal history, and as such chose to keep quiet.

“I am not the greatest to remembering names, let alone making them up” Hakona admitted as she saw patients daily basis that it didn’t really matter to remember those that were involved of her care. Most of them just wanted to get a free drug to distract their minds anyway. 

Saren smiled as he went to an empty station and started to pull up some records. He had an idea but wanted to run by it with everyone. But first.

“How are the modifications coming along, N’Vek?” Saren asked. “Also, any ideas on what we should name the ship?”

Taval looked up and lifted a brow, “They are coming along adequetely. If we had more engineers, I could have swift work of the endeavout. He sighed almost theatrically, ”An Engineer could dream.” He gave a moments thought to the question, his response a bit terse at first, “Anything but ‘Rideare’. I would prefer not to be reminded of previous postings. I have no ideas other than that.”

Saren clapped his hands together. “Well, if no one can come up with a name, there is one that I have been thinking about. It deals with an Admiral that the former Empire had deemed a traitor. But after all the events we’ve witnessed, heard of, or have been informed of, I feel that he is much more of a patriot and maybe a martyr than a traitor.” Saren paused for a moment then he continued. “I’m going to recommend to Naval Command to rechristening the ship from its current Imperial name to a name that I believe will be fitting to the Republic Navy. If they accept, this warbird will from now on be called Jarok.”

N’Vek folded his arms and gave that some thought before he nodded, “It rolls off the tongue nicely, I like it.”

“Jarok…” Herrana mused, a slight smile spreading across her lips. “Back in the old days, everyone in the Navy hated him. I suppose the details of his ‘treason’ are rather fitting with the current goals of the Republic… so, I suppose it’s got my vote.”

Thisbe, hiding her best from her supervisor, had been in the makeshift area she called the office, and had replicated/smelted/procured some materials. Soon, a sufficient fix for the ceiling tile she’d broken was finished, and she’d welded it herself to the ceiling from inside, so it wouldn’t happen again. She came around the corner just in time to hear the rest of the crew discussing names. “I like Jarok. It sound appropriately Romulan to me.” She shrugged. So long as they didn’t name it anything Kardasi sounding, she didn’t care, they could call it the RR Peanut Butter. 

Saren smiled. “Then it is settled. I will inform Naval Command of our decision. Hopefully, they will approve.” He smirked.

The helm station made a notification chirp that got Isha’s attention. She read the information before she turned in her seat to look at Saren and Orex. “We’re about to drop out of warp. I had plotted a course for our drop point to be outside the star system.”

Saren nodded his head. “Good. Once we drop out, I want a full sensor sweep of the system.” He looked to Vuzhan with that order. Everyone had a temporary place on the Bridge, at least until they get a full crew, so he had Vuzhan take operations for now.

“Aye, Sir,” Vuzhan affirmed in his usual gravelly tone. “Anat System readouts coming in now. It has 5 planetary bodies, all terrestrial save for the last. Anat 1 is possibly M-class. The star is a red dwarf, not putting out a ton of light or heat of course. It’s got… hang on.” Vuzhan narrowed his gaze and his upper lip curled into a snarl. “Commander, the transponder ping of a D’deridex-class warbird has been detected between planets 2 and 3.”

Straightening her posture ever-so-slightly, Herrana stood close to Saren and spoke to him softly. “Sir, I recommend taking cover inside the gas of Anat 5. It’s possible that the D’deridex may already have detected us, but they won’t be able to pinpoint our location through the atmosphere and radiation of your standard gas giant.”

Saren approached the helm station just when Vuzhan mentioned the warbird but was glad that Orex had the same idea. “Isha.” That was all Saren had to say, as he could already see her changing Jarok‘s course.

“Already on it, Commander,” Isha announced as she eased the Jarok into the upper atmosphere of the gas giant after raising the ship’s shields.

Saren smiled. “All right. Now that we’re in cover, engage the cloaking device.”

Isha began inputting the command to comply but an error popped up on her screen. With a frown, she attempted again and the same error cropped up. “I would love to, but the system saying it is not functioning.”

Saren turned on his feet to look at N’Vek. “I suppose the only chance you would know if something was wrong with it is when we attempt to activate it, correct?” He asked, curious as to why this was missed. He wasn’t upset or disappointed, just figured that sometimes, issues don’t show themselves until you try to turn it on.

N’Vek winced and closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose as he let out an audible sigh, “Yes, sir. I’m afraid that is correct. There’s only so much a diagnostics and simulation run can do. Some issues only show in actual performance.” He swiftly walked over towards Isha and leaned over her slightly to read the error

When Isha felt N’Vek was looking over her shoulder, she brought up the error report and opened the detailed section where lines of code would run through. Eventually, it would halt and show several lines flashing red, indicating what was wrong with the cloaking device.

Meanwhile, on the D’Deridex Warbird

Commander Tumek stood there behind her soldiers in the corridor to main engineering. Currently, the only one accessible to such a location, as all other corridors were sealed shut by bulkheads and forcefields. Those of which, her authorization codes failed to open, which was to be expected during an onboard mutiny. Both sides had lost several crewmembers during the initial uprising but the mutineers managed to gain control of main engineering, which gave them control of the ship’s vital functions. Her first officer was one of those who mutinied against her and managed to lock her out of key systems. Such as control of life support, security systems, and airlocks. She couldn’t engage the ship’s security countermeasures, open up several sections to the vacuum of space, or vent certain decks full of deadly gas. No. She was forced to command her loyal crew in a fight to regain control of her ship, section by section, deck by deck. Now she was in the position to find out who originally started this mutiny, as the mutineers have chosen to negotiate. At first, she thought it was her first officer who initiated it but clearly she was mistaken.

On the other side of the corridor, guarding the intersection that leads to main engineering were a bunch of crewmembers with rifles and pistols, all aimed down at the loyalists at the Commander. Of course, everyone was ordered to hold fire while the negotiations took place but there was always a chance for someone to get a little itchy trigger finger, or mentally lose control and snap. But the leader of the mutinied crew had faith in their will to remain calm, as the individual in commando armor stepped forward, establishing that they were the ones in charge.

Commander Tumek smirked and spoke softly behind her. “Get ready to take them out.”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” The individual’s voice boomed loudly as the helmet amplified their voice. Perhaps putting on a little show. The hands rose up to their helmet, the fingers immediately finding the release from memory. With the right force and motion, the helmet hissed as the airtight seal was released. Then slowly the helmet was pulled up and off their head, and they took the helmet in their left hand and rested it against their left hip.

Tumek’s eyes widened for only a second, then she regained her composure and smirked. “I should have known that you were behind all of this, Jadek!”

Jadek smirked. “Well, I had to do something.” Jadek then turned at the waist only slightly to toss his helmet backward at one of the crewmembers behind him, who caught it with ease. He then returned his attention to Commander Tumek.

“You better be careful, Jadek. That overconfidence will get you killed.” Said Tumek.

Jadek smiled. “You know, I was just about to say the exact same thing. You see, you know what my commandos and I are capable of. As we speak, I have eyes and ears in these walls.” Jadek then pointed at the ceiling. “In case you forgot, there is a maintenance tunnel right above us and I got a guy who’s got the very weapon that will pierce through the wall like butter. So, telling your people to take me out kinda hurts my feelings a little bit.”

Tumek scoffed. “You lie. You have no such weaponry. I know the ship’s manifest like the back of my hand.”

Jadek bobbed his head from side to side. “Eehh…kinda. You may know your ship‘s manifest but you don’t know my commando‘s manifest. Sure when my squad was attached to your ship, you were given the basic manifest but you weren’t given everything. Kind of defeats the purpose.”

Tumek frowned at him. “What do you want?” She asked with much annoyance in her voice.

Jadek smiled and opened his arms with his hands up, palms open. “I just want you to surrender full control of the ship to me, and there will be no more bloodshed.”

Tumek scoffed. “Unacceptable. As Commander of an Imperial Warbird, relinquishing my command to anyone is treason and punishable by death.”

Jadek rolled his eyes. “Oh come on, Tumek! The Empire is dead! There are no more rules, no more regulations, no employee policy handbook, just us and the galaxy.”

“And that is where you are wrong, Jadek! The Empire is forever!” Tumek raised her voice at him.

Jadek sighed with a shake of his head. “And that is why I had to stop you. Why we,” He opened his arms up more, gesturing to those behind him. “Had to stop you. Ordering me or anyone else on this ship to slaughter innocent civilian lives because they chose to leave a system that has failed us, is just blind and stupid.”

“You better watch your mouth, Jadek!” Tumek growled.

“Or what?” Jadek raised his voice before dropping it down. “You know I’m right, Tumek. Ever since we lost our homeworld, the Empire became corrupt and broken. Colonies were begging for help and the Empire did nothing! That is why it collapsed, that is why the Empire is no more!”

“That is enough!” Tumek shouted. “I refused to accept that the Empire is gone and I refuse to accept any terms from you. As of this moment, these negotiations are over and I swear to you, Jadek. I will take back my ship, at whatever the cost!”

“Even if it costs you your soul, Commander?!” Jadek asked her. “Because that is exactly what it will take to get back your ship. And anyone else who continues to follow you so blindly, might as well sell their souls along with yours.”

“Jadek! It’s ready!” A voice came from the terminal on his left arm.

Tumek looked at it and then back at him. “What was that?!”

Jadek sighed then threw up his arms. “A backup plan in case I couldn’t change your mind.” Jadek then raised his left arm up and pressed a button on the terminal. “Do it.” With one command, a forcefield was erected between them.

“No!” Tumek shouted.

Jadek shrugged again. “Until you surrender full control of this ship, I will do everything I can to keep you away from main engineering.”

“I will find a way, Jadek! And when I do, I will have your head! I swear it!”

Jadek wiggled a finger. “Temper, temper, Commander. Best not look distraught in front of your loyal crew.” He then turned around at his feet and signaled everyone to leave.

As soon as Jadek and his people made it back to main engineering, someone approached him. It was Dosek, Jadek’s second in command. “We have a problem.”

Jadek raised his brows. “I know that.”

“Not the one we’re dealing with now, Jadek.” Dosek then led Jadek to a nearby terminal and pointed. “I’m talking about this.” What Dosek was pointing at was a sensor log.

“Okay, so you got access to the sensor logs.” Said Jadek.

Dosek rolled his eyes. “Stop playing around, Jadek! This is serious!” Dosek then pressed a few buttons and an image popped up. “Imaging scanners were also able to catch it before it disappeared behind the gas giant. But this was taken right at the edge of our scanners.”

“Magnify and enhance it,” Jadek ordered.

Dosek shook his head. “This is magnified and enhanced. As I said, right at the edge of our scanners.” The image showed a very blurred object but through training and years of experience studying images like these, they could identify it as a warbird. Dosek did, and he knew Jadek will too.

“Do we know which direction it came from?” Jadek asked.

Dosek grabbed a pad with data that had been put together and analyzed by other commandos. “Two theories. It either came from the Romulan Republic or it could be another Imperial vessel or a Free State warbird; either or could have circled around to make it look like they’re friendly.”

Jadek shook his head. “Doesn’t make sense. If it was Imperial, they would have come to us right away. If it was Free State or Romulan Republic, they would have engaged cloak and be right on top of us.”

“It’s possible that their cloaking device is damaged. Why else would they hide behind the gas giant?” Dosek asked rhetorically.

Jadek nodded his head with the same thought in mind. “Keep an eye on the sensors. Scan for any tachyon emissions, or anything at all that would indicate a cloaked vessel. If by some chance their cloaking device is damaged, they could still send small crafts and all of our crafts can cloak. I don’t want any surprises.”

“What if they’re Imperial?” Dosek asked.

Jadek pursed his lips with a thought he had hoped to avoid. “We can’t chance it if they are. The moment you know where a cloaked ship is, destroy it.”

“Understood.” Said Dosek.

Saren crossed his arms over his chest with a heavy sigh. “Well, since we can’t cloak the ship, I say we take a shuttle, cloak it and approach the warbird. Find out if it is Imperial, what they’re doing above the colony, and see what we can do to get rid of it. We still have the element of surprise on our hands, if we can approach the warbird in a cloaked shuttle without being detected, we could sneak a few torpedoes on board. Perhaps overload them and beam them directly to engineering?” Saren suggested, curious as to what others would say.

Thisbe sat at a console, a little lost about the exact Romulan phraseology being thrown around. Kardæsi and even Bajoran were much different languages, and the only thing she had in common with these folks was that she wasn’t Terran. Still, the basics were the same; there was the “go”, “Stop” and “warp speed” controls, as well as several weaponry ones. Right now, she was focused on the ship in their peripheral radar, even though the others already knew. Dogfighting she could handle; didn’t want to, but could. She spoke up, though. “Beam them to Engineering?”Actually, that could work. “I have some tools out but nothing that would pose a danger; I can get those put away quickly.” Finally, some action! 

“Assuming the D’deridex doesn’t have the necessary ambient sensors to detect a cloaked shuttle, that isn’t a bad idea,” Herrana nodded as Saren spoke. “Any offensive action would rely on them not raising shields, though. As such, we’d only have first strike capability… the second we’re targeted, we’re out of options.”

N’Vek raised a brow, “My brother infiltrated a D’Deridex before. In a shuttle, yes. I think it was Federation built. So it is possible, I know it is.”

Saren nodded his head. “Right. Isha. Prar. N’Vek. Stay with the ship. N’Vek, see what you can do in fixing the ship’s cloak. The rest of us will take the shuttle, drop a buoy here,” Saren brought up the system map and pointed at a spot on the side of the gas giant. “It will act as a transceiver. This way, if we were able to determine that the ship is friendly, we can send a message to you three, so that you can bring the ship to us.”

Isha nodded her head. “Understood.”

N’Vek smiled tersely, inclining his head sharply once, “Yes, understood. I will have it fixed.” He was vibily irritated at his own errors.

Saren nodded once again. “Vuzhan, head to the torpedo bay and tag a couple of torpedoes. We will beam you and the torpedoes over onto the runabout. Orex, Parau, let’s go.” Saren led them to the shuttle bay where they will board the runabout they used to get to this ship.

N’Vek waited till the others started to walk away before he threw up his hands dramatically to himself adn uttered a few expletives under his breath as he headed off towards the cloaking device.

“Bring us in nice and slow, don’t want the emissions from our engines throwing the cloak off,” Saren told Orex, who he had asked to pilot the runabout. Surely the cloak was advanced enough not to be affected by such old flaws but in this situation, runabout to a D’Deridex class, he didn’t want to take any chances.

“Aye, Commander,” Herrana replied, sliding back the shuttle’s impulse power as the D’Deridex grew to accommodate nearly the entire viewscreen. She hadn’t seen one of these in twelve years – not nearly enough time to forget the class’s gargantuan size, but perhaps enough time to forget how daunting it was to approach one. In proportion to their size, a D’Deridex was actually slightly under-gunned compared to their new ship, yet it was simply so large that even a fully powered Valdore would struggle to knock it out of a fight.

Saren began to run a passive scan. He did not want to take any chances of revealing their location. It took a little longer but he got the information he was looking for. Which left a frown on his face. “Strange. There are two large groups of life signs throughout the ship. One large group near the command section and the other in the engineering section. Something is certainly off.”

Suddenly a tractor beam latched onto the shuttle which disrupted the cloak and left them completely hopeless to the warbird before them. Sarex stared at where the tractor beam originated from. “Well, that’s not good.”

“I don’t know who you are, or why you are here but you have fifteen seconds to explain yourselves before I fire on you. Starting now.” A voice came from the intercom, indicating that they didn’t hail them directly but created an open channel.

The shuttle’s sensors detected a power buildup in the aft disruptor beam emitter. Time was of the essence.