Lieutenant Commander Lael Rosek: A Man Without A Moral Compass

[Lael Rosek]

((Bridge, USS Montreal))

::At that moment, Lael heard the doors to the turbolift open and turned to see a Vulcan female step onto the bridge. By the pips on her collar, she was an Ensign and by the color of it she was Operations. Turning herself to face the woman directly, she arched a curious eyebrow.::

Rosek: Is there something I can help you with, Ensign?

Sotak: I am Ensign Sotak, the new transfer from the USS Atlantis. I was instructed to report to you, Commander.

::Ah. Brell’s ship. She was familiar with the commander turned captain having attended his promotion ceremony. A slight smile turned up the corners of her lips and she inclined her head by way of greeting. If she was recalling correctly, Sotak would be the third Vulcan to board the Montreal since Mei had taken command last November.::

Rosek: Welcome aboard, Ensign. ::pauses:: I would offer you the tour, but we’re dealing with a critical situation here.

Sotak: I see. What can I do to help?

Rosek: ::jerks her head toward the viewscreen:: We have a psychopath with no problems torturing people who wants to blow the ship and Meridian colony to bits in one hour if we don’t evacuate the ship completely and give him the command codes.

Sotak: :: raising an eyebrow :: And I assume you do not plan to do that?

Rosek: We need to figure out a way to disable his weapons without firing phasers or torpedoes or alerting him to what we’re up to. I wouldn’t put it past him to blow the ship up for trying to pull a fast one.

Hamasaki: If we can't use our ship, we'll need to use the shuttle patrol in orbit to emit a beam to interfere with their power systems during any attack to even the odds. We could also try tapping the colony grid or potentially enlisting the enclave's help for planet-to-orbit effects, as well. We'll need to get them to prepare to emit a coherent harmonic polarion beam to baffle the shields while we work on...:: Tiria momentarily racked her mind for an academy lecture she remembered.::.. we could use our sensors to emit a pulse - especially if we can get any planet side enclave - to cause an atmospheric reaction that would momentarily baffle the sensors. Ensign Sotak, can I get your assistance with this?

::Before Sotak could respond, however, Commander Tel-ar spoke.::

Tel-ar: As I was saying. I have an idea if you wish to consider it.

::She recalled that he’d been about to present his option before Sotak’s arrival interrupted. At this point, she was willing to consider just about anything that fell within reason. Everyone on the bridge was aware of their current situation and it went without saying that it was a complex one. No one knew what would set Lenik off. That was the downside of trying to outsmart a psychopath.::

Rosek: ::inclines her head:: Let’s hear it, Commander.

Tel-ar: We transfer the crew off of one of the shuttles, switch it to remote control and deliberately overload the warp core. The timing might be a little tricky but the explosion when it slams into their shields should punch a hole right through it and their ship as well.

Sotak: I admit that I have just come aboard, Commander, but I am certain we can find a less destructive solution to our problems. If, however, that proves to be incorrect, that plan could be a viable one, but only as a last resort. Besides, I assume you would want the criminal to be held accountable for his crimes, do you not?

Rosek: ::nods:: I agree.

Tel-ar: True. It is unlikely that their vessel will survive a direct hit, however the threat would be eliminated.

::An unamused grin twisted her lips. It was blunt and to the point. As tempted as much as she hated the Klingon woman in this moment, she couldn’t let her personal feelings influence her judgement. Sotak was right. They needed Lenik alive. Whether he remained alive after the conclusion of his trial was another matter entirely. In her opinion, psychopaths like Lenik who would never feel any remorse or pain for what they did...well, the universe was better off without them. All the more peace for those with a moral compass.::

Sotak: Of course. I can begin by defining the appropriate pulse and aligning it to reach the enemy ship.  :: She walked towards the front of the bridge where the other ensign stood. :: Afterwards I can coordinate with the Meridian enclave to process the polarion beam and  create something similar to a disruption field around the enemy vessel amplified by our shuttles. Especially since the ship is most probably nearly immobile, the task should not be such a complex one.

Rosek: ::nods:: He’d likely wonder what the shuttles were up to, but hopefully the field would keep him from firing on us.

Tel-ar: In that case the least we could expect would be to overload their shields and do 58.3265% damage to their vessel. That would most likely eliminate their weapons capability, their cloaking device and most likely their engines as well.

Rosek: ::nods:: All of which would be good.

::The chirp of her commbadge made her tense. She’d heard so much bad news today through her personal comms that she was beginning to associate the noise with that less-than-subtle gnawing in the pit of her stomach and the sharp pain at the base of her spine. Hesitating for a moment, she tapped it and waited for the other shoe to drop.::

Mei’konda: =/\= Mei’konda to Rosek.  Status update? =/\=

Rosek: ::pauses:: =/\=We got a little call from Lenik and our missing Klingon colonel, Rilaw, aboard the Miran’s Tifar. He’s given us one hour to evacuate the Montreal and give him the command codes or he’s going to target our warp reactor and blow us and the colony to kingdom come. I have Hamasaki and our new Engineering ensign, Sotak, working on a way to disable his weapons without using ours.=/\=

Mei’konda: =/\= ...We’ll be baack on the ship soon, Commander.  We’ll decontaaminate, then I’ll join you on the Bridge. Have Ensign Hamasaki prepaare our shuttles and their pilots to intercept the Miran’s Tifar.=/\=  

Hamasaki: =/\= Aye, sir. =/\= :: She began reroute the orbital shuttles, and making sure the last shuttle was ready to go. ::

Rosek: ::nods:: =/\=Yes, sir.=/\= ::pauses:: =/\=I’d recommend we have Engineering work on a way to either get our shields up or an alternative to protect the warp core just in case. There’s no way we can get off the ground quick enough to pre-empt what Lenik is likely to pull.=/\=

::Lael had a few ideas, but she was needed on the bridge and as much as she would have liked to take the time to pass them down to Engineering, she had bigger problems...like how to stop Lenik from being able to unleash on the city when he realized he wasn’t going to get what he wanted from them. Besides, the people down there were more than capable of coming up with something on their own.::

Mei’konda: =/\= Yes… I understand, Commander.  We’re recoveriing what I hope is a pure saample of the virus, something that has not passed through anyone’s body.  As soon as that’s done, we’ll beam baack aboard. =/\=

Rosek: =/\=Sounds good, sir. We’ll keep working from our end in the meantime.=/\=

Mei’konda: =/\= Understood.  Mei’konda out. =/\=

::The comm cut and she turned to each ensign in turn, an eyebrow arched.::

Rosek: How’s it coming, Ensigns?

::She hoped they’d made quick progress. There was no telling what Lenik would do next. From the little she knew of the man, he had no honor and she had little reason to believe he would be true to the hour time period he’d set for them. If they didn’t work fast, it was entirely possible that Lenik would blow them to bits without a second thought anyway.::

Hamasaki: ::still working the panel to redirect power and reprogram some of the sensor settings and layouts:: It's in progress, but I don't think we would need to wait much longer before we can execute.

Sotak: :: from the communications panel :: I have established communication with the enclave. They have agreed to collaborate with the Montreal to coordinate our efforts and are preparing the harmonic polarion beam.

Rosek: ::nods and turns to Hamasaki:: We should be able to make this work with the shuttles, right?

Hamasaki: Aye, but the power emissions of the shuttle are several orders of magnitude smaller than a ship so it won't be as effective. I'm not even sure they'll be able to do anything absent knowing more specifications of the enemy ship.

::She grimaced. Great. The last thing she needed right now was bad news. She didn’t relish the idea of putting the Montreal in front of an unpredictable enemy, especially with the innocent ill aboard. It was just too risky. But it was sounding like this didn’t stand the same chance of working if they didn’t. As if being responsible for the lives of the crew wasn’t a heavy enough burden...she’d now be responsible for the lives of two quarantine spaces full of sick civilians.::

Sotak: Indeed, more power would be required for a more stable disruption field, but it could work temporarily. We can use that opportunity to leave the atmosphere.

Rosek: ::offers an unamused grin:: At least if it doesn’t work, it’ll give them something to shoot at while we bring our weapons online. The whole “can't see the forest for the trees” thing.

Hamasaki: That is one possibility, yes. I'm hopeful it'll work, however.

Sotak: I am not sure I understand the expression, but nevertheless, we could attempt to give more power to the field through the Montreal. That may be far from ideal, but it is something we can consider, at least.

Hamasaki: I will note that while we can make execution time minimal, they may be able to react within a small window, so we may still take some fire before we can take off and raise shields.

::She’d spent long hours in Engineering helping to piece this ship back together and she knew every weakness. Lenik was right when he’d said the Miran’s Tifar had an advantage. The Montreal, even after all they’d done to get her up to scratch, was no match for Lenik’s ship. The Norway-class ship was just too old and worn to survive a prolonged firefight.::

Rosek: ::grimaces:: We need to find a way to minimalize that damage.

Hamasaki: With our doors open, even if we give no warning to the wards, an emergency ascent to minimum shield distance under standard conditions will be roughly 31 seconds. I would have to assume we are target locked from orbit, which means they can fire multiple times within that window.

Sotak: Then we must ensure that at the exact same moment we take off the shuttles and the enclave are perfectly coordinated with our own systems so that we can take advantage of their temporary inability to respond. I have the sensor pulse signal prepared, but we need to check the enclave’s progress to know when we can expect them to be ready to activate their polarion beam.

Rosek: The timing is going to have to be precise. ::pauses:: Proceed, Ensigns. Let me know the moment we’re ready to take off. There’s no time to waste.

Sotak: Understood, Commander, I can verify. :: Sotak reestablished communications with the enclave, but just then she received a strange warning from the other end. :: Commander… the enclave reports an accident. Not an accident… The enemy ship seems to have set fire on the Crescent View Medical Research Facility. :: Sotak turned to Rosek. :: What is our response?

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Lieutenant Commander Lael Rosek

Executive Officer

USS Montreal, NCC-64927

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