CPO Ilid Zakrem: Options and Negotiations.
Jansen Orrey
(( Briefing Room, Zumaris High Command ))
Aitas. My part, for now, is to consider how we might make the UAW hesitate long enough to speak. Given how they have troubled you, your people likely know more both of what they desire and what they fear.
Zakrem: There will be a long night before the morning.
Moore: ::Looking at his PADD:: Not long enough. More so if we’re not willing to make a few concessions.
Aitas mirrored the look the General gave to Moore.
Byu’I’Vera: What concessions do we have left? As I have been saying, my only goal is to protect my people and keep our planet? Do you not understand?
Zakrem: A thought occurs to me. If they are not coming to attack…at least directly. But to just take what they want. This infection erased any thought they had of protecting the Zumardi…do they know about your weapon protections?
Byu’l’Vera: We have already been in a few minor skirmishes, so they are aware we are not totally defenseless. Do you understand?
Zakrem: Mister Moore can vouch that it isn’t a good use of strategy but in anger it is possible they just carve up the surface and start trying to pull the dilithium out. It makes their fleet more like a pirate armada than what they are mocking up.
Moore: Pirate armada or not, they might not be here for dilithium. That might be a secondary prize to retribution. ::sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose.:: I don’t think a military solution is going to fix this. Even if we fight on your side, it would be at best two advanced vessels with your ships and orbital defenses. While our ships easily outclass a UAW vessel any day of the week. Not seventeen of them. Not at once. The best we could do is hit and run, but that leaves your planet open. Unless you’ve got a secret weapon you’re holding out on us, diplomacy and concessions are how you win this battle. You might even have to offer up a cure.
Byu’I’Vera: Either way we are at risk of losing our planet. We understand.
The notes of discord. The chords of subterfuge. Who wouldn’t though? No was ever completely honest however there was a difference between mystery and untruthfulness.
Aitas: And you cannot offer the UAW something you do not possess.
They already said weapon testing was quick and dirty Ilid doubted the reversal would be so simple.
Moore: ::Calmly:: General, with all due respect, we’re not stupid. We’re being realistic. You’re facing Armageddon. You released a biological attack, in defense or not, that’s spreading like wildfire, and no matter what your intentions were, it is infecting everyone. Innocent civilians, non-combatants, children, it doesn’t matter, and it is a multispecies plague. There is a very high chance the UAW are coming to level your cities from orbit if you don’t surrender the cure. They might bomb your shelters, most likely sealed up by phaser fire and photon torpedoes, and your people left to suffocate. Then a high chance they strip-mine the planet, survivors alive or not, and the whole time claiming victory over an aggressive plague-releasing species. ::He paused for a moment.:: With the exception of us, there won’t be anyone to mourn. I apologize for being blunt, but we need to be realistic about this. We need to make sure we know the consequences if we fail. Which is losing everything. Based on my simulations, and the high chance we will fight alongside you… That includes us too, and everyone on the Indy. ::Quietly:: One hell of a Kobayashi Maru.
The energy and fullheadedness of youth.
Byu’I’Vera: Then let's be blunt. I am well aware of what we face and the capabilities of the UAW. I am not under any assumptions that we can hold control over our own orbit, more than likely we will need to use mobile transport inhibitors to keep them from taking our people and forcing them to ground combat where our numbers are more favorable to theirs using guerilla tactics and minimize the opportunities for orbital support. You do not seem to understand.
Zakrem: That I fully understand.
Aitas began to speak, but Moore suddenly burst back into the conversation.
Moore: ::suddenly:: What about the Corbomite Cannon? ::Glancing up, and looking around.:: What if we threaten to use the Photonic Corbomite Cannon if they don’t back down?
Ilid was watching again. Aitas raised her hand to shut up the junior officer but the General was wheeling on in the conversation.
Byu’I’Vera: You imply that I am not being realistic, and yet you want to gamble the fate of my species on a bluff of a made up weapon, in hopes they go away. I do not know how you do things in the Federation, but I do not gamble the lives of three planets and over 2 trillion lives on a bluff, and I do not appreciate you treating this situation as a joke. At this point, if we are talking about being realist, why am I to trust any of your insights on this. What benefit do you all add to this? You have already admitted you cannot provide any assistance to space combat, you are offering no protection and yet you are criticizing and demanding we cease use and neuter our use of biological weapons, due to moral issues, while we face having families ripped from their homes and losing our home planets then offer nothing but empty promises of ‘maybe they will talk’. I know you are already working on a cure to render useless our one weapon that is causing the UAW to hesitate. Who is to say you discover the cure, give it to the UAW and now we have lost our only piece of leverage. How am I to trust you are neutral, and have not already sided with the UAW, trying to render us defenseless for their invasion. How can I trust your assurances, when a month later the UAW can try to invade again after you all have forgotten about us. You do not understand.
Aitas: From our information, the weapon has pushed the UAW toward aggression. It might have worked well should it merely sabotage their ships, but now they see themselves as facing destruction as well.
Burn the whole world down with you as you go. That part they got from their database..
Zakrem: The thorn in the paw of the Surah.
Moore: Response
Byu’I’Vera: I ask you this, what concession do we have left to give? Are we to surrender and abandon our homes next as the UAW drills into our planet to destroy it and then Golva in the aftermath. You are correct we face Armageddon, So when we are backed into a wall, facing the end to our way of life either through the destruction of planets, or through a quiet death of three species forced to live on one planet where we will more than likely face billions of death from starvation, disease, exposure to the elements due to mass homelessness, and probably infighting due to a lack of resources. You want me to concede the biological weapon, fine, but then I need something of equal value from you or them. I need something concrete and certain that guarantees the safety of our people and our planet. I do not think that is unreasonable. Do you understand now?
Why the pathogen?
Aitas: Thank you for your clarity, General. Our people are currently pursuing the return of those people the UAW took from you, as a show of our intent. ::A glance to Zakrem:: Might you contact the Independence; let them know we’d like an update on the matter.
She didn’t envy Hopper that discussion, but it was a crucial one.
Zakrem: Of course. ::Ilid stepped over to the console in the room.::
Moore: Response
Byu’I’Vera: If the Federation does care, it should be known that your involvement has caused the Vaadwaur to make us an offer recently. They offer the protection of their fleet for our loyalty and data on our new weapon. I am not keen on trading one occupier for another. But at least they are not demanding we abandon our homes. They seem to understand.
Of course they did. Again Ilid fought the eyeroll.
Aitas: I would not expect you to consider anything less. We have had dealings with the Vaadwaur before, on varying terms. If our presence helps you reach a more favorable arrangement with them, then I am glad of it.
Yes because the Vaadwaur need a bio weapon don’t they?
Zakrem: The request has been sent.
Moore: Response
Aitas: Chief, Lieutenant, perhaps you could offer some recommendations for how we might assist in the protection of civilians. With the General’s permission.
Ilid rubbed his beard for a moment staring into the middle distance working to recall.
Zakrem: Concentrate your civilian population. If they are close enough together the UAW can’t beam into them and have to beam nearby. If you believe in your ability to use guerrilla tactics then that is where you set up ambushes and choke points.
Ilid shifted his head to the side.
Zakrem: We could also have the engineering teams start mass producing transport scramblers that we can set up. ::glancing at Moore:: Or we could see if the Indy as well as some of your orbital systems could generate enough Ionic Radiation to completely negate transporters of any sort. That would not only solve part of this problem but prevent easy surface invasions at a later date.
Byu’I’Vera/Moore: Response
Aitas: ::turning back to the general:: I can see why you find the offer from the Vaadwaur compelling and concerning, General. I cannot promise you a fleet. But, we have no wish to be overlords either. What if you could mine some portion of the dilithium yourselves, without damaging your planet?
That again was something that could appeal. As long as the Zumardi weren’t a secret Gelrakian offshoot.
Byu’I’Vera/Moore: Response
Aitas: It would give you a much stronger resource with which to bargain, whether with the Vaadwaur, the UAW, or any others.
Ilid had an idea but would it be enough of a push.
Zakrem: We have been doing it for a number of centuries. We have naturally harmonic ways to not only mine it but synthesize it and recrystalize used dilithium. Those are things we can help with after this incident to prevent this from reoccuring. No weapons needed.
Byu’I’Vera/Moore: Response
TAG/TBC
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Chief Petty Officer
Ilid Zakrem
Special Operations Officer
Amity Outpost
O238506JO0