Lieutenant Commander Lael Rosek: Payback Is So Gonna Be A B!@%#
Lael Rosek
((Bridge, USS Montreal))
::She stepped out onto the bridge just as Solok’s shipwide announcement came over the comms. It was loud enough to her sensitive ears that she winced slightly, a sharp pain lancing through her temples. But not a moment later, she’d shifted her features into an expression of cool composure as she made her way toward the Captain’s chair at the center of the bridge.::
Solok: =/\= This is Doctor Solok. All scientific and medical personnel assigned to duty in the quarantine ward are ordered to the quarantine ward immediately. Quarantine of Shuttlebays 1 and 2 will be initiated in approximately 4.775 minutes. =/\=
::The moment the comm cut, she turned to Hamasaki and Tel-ar.::
Rosek: Report?
Tel-ar: 2 Klingon freighters have arrived. They are currently engaged in staff exchanges and resupplying their facility outside of the city. They are only using their transporters to effect this activity.
Hamasaki: Activity is as expected as far as we can detect. :
Rosek: :: nods and pauses :: Are you picking up any more ships trying to breech quarantine?
Tel-ar: Nothing so far. :: Tal replied as he double checked the reports and scans from the various different shuttles in orbit. ::
Hamasaki: No more ships are attempting to breach quarantine at this time.
::She was hit with a brief wave of dizziness, but gripped the arms of the chair tightly as she mentally shook it away, trying her best to focus on the situation at hand. Now wasn’t the time for her to be unfocused. She needed to stay sharp in case she had to make another call like she had earlier. Mei was depending on her to hold down the fort.::
::A slight flush crept into her cheeks at the thought of having to answer to him for her earlier decision. As irritated as she was at German for pointing it out on the bridge in front of the crew, he was right. She hadn’t made the best choice she could have. Again, she shook the thoughts away.::
Rosek: o0 I have to stay focused. 0o ::nods:: Good. ::sighs and grimaces:: Are Klingons always this difficult?
Tel-ar: Not difficult, merely Klingon as expected. :: Tal replied to the question even as his left eye brow rose and fell. ::
Rosek: ::shakes her head:: Klingon or not...
Tel-ar: Even Klingons can bow to logic, especially if you explain it to them in very simple terms. :: As he said it Tal looked up. A slight ghost of a smile drifted across his features even as a slight hint of something tinted his normally unemotional tone. ::
Rosek: ::huffs:: Hopefully the colony’s government takes care of that after our little spectacle so we don’t have a repeat.
Hamasaki: Ma'am, I hate to interrupt, but I've detected some odd activity from some freighters in high orbit.
::Lael frowned, studying the console built into the arm of the captain's chair. Those hadn't been there before. Why hadn't they detected them until now? It was difficult to say if the freighters’ occupants had been in contact with the ill Klingons.::
Rosek: What kind of activity?
Hamasaki: There's.. a lot of communication and teleport activity from some freighters in orbit to off-colony enclaves. I wouldn't even be able to pin down their destination if it wasn't for our shuttles - the enclaves are over the horizon from us.
Rosek: Are the lifesigns Klingon, Ensign?
Tel-ar: The freighters in question are not Klingon in nature. Both of the Klingon freighters are in a fixed orbit just outside of the atmosphere and directly above their embassy facility.
Hamasaki/Bridge: Response
::That they were both Klingon...that could certainly explain why they’d been able to keep a low profile. Though how someone hadn’t caught on to their fixed orbit, she had no idea. Then again, it was likely that they had been cloaked and undetected until the Montreal had picked them up on sensors.::
Rosek: ::brow furrows and murmurs:: Strange.
Hamasaki/Bridge: Responses
Tel-ar: Most of the communications signals are coming from a Coverian freighter, however according to the registry logs this vessel was sold 2 years ago to a non-Federation company, something called thesinster, which translates roughly as Mesetur United.
Rosek: Check all logs of visitors to the colony starting from a couple weeks before the first signs of the outbreak. Is there anyone or anything that stands out?
Tel-ar: This same vessel has visited here repeatedly over the last 4 months, approximately once every two weeks but…. None of their business has been with the capitol, all of it has been with Tisoval, a fairly new settlement on an island approximate 1,386 km from here in the middle of the southern ocean.
::That in and of itself sounded like a major red flag. It made her curious about what exactly their business had been with the new settlement...especially one so remotely located. It reeked of secrets and collusion. Not that she was an expert in either. The secrets that she had had nearly been exposed a few months ago, so clearly she wasn’t that great at keeping them. These guys, however...if her suspicions were correct, they were experts and quite possibly had at least the equivalent of her lifetime in experience keeping them.::
Hamasaki/Bridge: Response
Rosek: How old is the settlement?
Tel-ar: Settlement was founded… less than a year ago.
Hamasaki/Bridge: reply
Rosek: ::brow furrows:: I suppose it’s not unexpected that a settlement so new would be receiving outside aid.
Tel-ar: There is something strange here… I cannot find any reference to this settlement in Federation records…. Only a few references in the Meridian governments records… :: slight pause as Tal did a further search. When he lifted his head and spoke his left eye brow rose and fell. :: They sold the island to Mesetur United.
Rosek: ::arches both eyebrows:: Please tell me I’m not the only one who’s smelling a scheme.
Hamasaki/Bridge: reply
::The chirp of her commbadge caught her attention and she arched an eyebrow, tapping it.::
Mei’konda: =/\= Mei’konda to Rosek, priiority one. =/\=
::She tensed. As if this situation wasn't bad enough. She could only imagine what had made Mei add the words “priority one”. It was a test of her resolve holding it together with so much bearing down on her. This time last year, she might have cracked under the pressure. Having only spent a few short months as first officer, she hadn’t ever thought that the first time she really took the hot seat would be under circumstances like these.::
Rosek: =/\=Rosek here, sir.=/\=
Mei’konda: =/\= Commander, I’ve reviewed security camera footaage in the City Hall. Lenik of Vulcan was here. He put something in the water supply. =/\=
::Though she had no first hand experience with the man, she'd read the reports...at least those that she could access with her clearance. For a Vulcan, some of the things he'd done bordered on illogical. He was an extremist and wasn't above murder. She shuddered. From what she'd read, he made his victims suffer extensively before finally ending their lives.::
Mei’konda: =/\= Alert the medicaal department that whether or not the disease is aiirborne, it is at least spread through the water supply. We’re haaving the Crescent View water supply shut down, so have ops beam water supplies to collections points in the city. =/\=
Rosek: ::nods sagely:: =/\= Aye, sir.=/\=
Mei’konda: =/\= We’ll be baack on the ship soon, Commander. Keep an eye out for anything unusual. If Lenik is still here, we need to catch him. =/\=
Rosek: =/\=Understood, sir. Rosek out.=/\=
::As the line cut, her commbadge chirped again and she tapped it.::
Skyfire: =/\= Dr. Skyfire to bridge. =/\=
Rosek: =/\=Rosek here. Go ahead, Doctor.=/\=
Tel-ar/Hamasaki/Bridge: Response
Skyfire: =/\= Colonel Rilaw has somehow breached quarantine and is no longer aboard the Montreal. Mr. Fergus reported that she was missing from our secondary quarantine ward after an escort brought her to it. =/\=
::Lael closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose. Could this day get any worse? Their shields were up, so it was highly improbable that she could have been taken without either medical, security, or someone on the bridge knowing it. But then, they’d been distracted by the ships they’d detected. Still...they’d have noticed.::
Rosek: ::sighs:: o0 Yet another thing I’m going to have to explain to Mei when he takes back the big chair. 0o
::And she wasn’t looking forward to that conversation one bit. Her first chance to prove herself and it wasn’t going well at all. She could only hope that Command would be as understanding as she suspected Mei would be.::
Rosek: =/\=We’ll handle it, Doctor.=/\= ::pauses:: =/\=Something Commander Mei’konda wanted me to pass along...It’s looking like the plague was passed initially through the water supply. He and his team are working to shut the Crescent View water supply down.=/\=
Tel-ar/Hamasaki/Bridge: Response
Skyfire: =/\=Response=/\=
Rosek: =/\=Understood, Doctor. Keep me apprised. Rosek out.=/\=
::If Lael weren’t the central focus of the bridge crew, she would have thrown her hands up in frustration as she received an alert of an incoming hail. Her gaze went to the console on the chair’s arm and her brow furrowed.::
Hamasaki: Response
Rosek: ::nods:: Put it through, Ensign.
::Her brow furrowed in confusion as a Klingon woman appeared on the viewscreen, tensing moments later when she saw the familiar cold eyes of Lenik staring back at her. She’d seen his image dozens of times in the reports and in the profile Starfleet had constructed given what little they knew of him and his activities. To have that gaze trained on her was chilling.::
::Her grip on the arms of the chair tightened momentarily before she rose, her posture composed and her hands tucked together behind her back. She met Lenik’s emotionless expression with a neutral expression of her own despite the mixture of emotions raging inside of her, making her pulse race and her heart slam against the walls of her chest. Her gaze met the woman’s::
Rosek: =/\=This is Lieutenant Commander Lael Rosek of the USS Montreal. What is your business here?=/\=
Tel-ar/Hamasaki/Bridge: Responses
Rilaw: =/\= There’s a time and a place for such frivolous questions, but right now keep quiet and listen to what we’re about to tell you. The virus has spread and it won’t stop. Whatever you do is pointless. The way your Denobulan had succumbed to only a small dose of the virus shows us that in a matter of seconds anyone, not just Klingons, are susceptible to the plague. =/\=
::Her breath caught in her throat as she struggled to make sense of what the woman was saying. Surely this wasn’t the woman who had escaped quarantine. How was that possible? It bothered her immensely that someone had been able to slip past their defenses and initiate a transport...something that should have been impossible with the shields raised.::
::In the long seconds that felt like an eternity, her mind caught onto something the woman had said. Denobulan. That she was aware of, they only had one Denobulan currently serving aboard the Montreal. She felt like she’d been punched in the stomach, nausea hitting her full force and almost bringing her to her knees. Her lips became a thin line, her jaw tense. Succumbed. No. No, no, no.::
::Fighting panic, she shook the thought from her mind, the fire in her gaze hot enough to melt deuterium as she again met the Klingon woman’s gaze. She forced herself to stay focused, channeling her anger into determination to see this woman brought to justice. She’d revel later in the tortures she could put this woman through, if only in her mind, for what she’d done.::
Rosek: =/\=What are your terms?=/\=
Lenik: =/\= We don’t want anything. I wonder, Commander. How much damage would your ship’s warp core exploding cause, with it parked on the planet, near the center of the capitol city? =/\=
Rosek: ::narrows her gaze:: =/\=I'm not sure if you're aware, Lenik, but I don't respond well to threats nor does Starfleet negotiate with terrorists. If you and your men stand down now, you have my word that I won't fire on your ship.=/\=
Lenik/Rilaw: =/\=Responses=/\=
Rosek: ::arches both eyebrows:: =/\=You'll find that I'm not known for offering second chances. Lower your shields or we'll lower them for you. Either way ends with you in our brig.=/\=
Lenik/Rilaw: =/\=Responses=/\=
Hamasaki/Tel-ar/Bridge: =/\=Responses =/\=