Ensign Yogan Yalu — Textbook truth bomb
jkpbem
(( Bridge, Deck 1, USS Resolution ))
Nicholotti: =/\= You will receive our first diplomatic team shortly. I hope that this opens a long overdue dialogue between us, Prime Minister. =/\=
Double diplomatic duty. After the transmission ended, Yogan accessed the Da’al data packet and put it on the viewscreen, overlaying the prime minister’s suggested locations atop a view of the city. The government complex had a small footprint, with numerous tall buildings and very little green space within. Dense, fortified, and likely difficult to penetrate.
Knight: Away just transported down to the main planet Captain.
Yalu: Captain, the government complex has shield generators.
Yogan used another overlay to show the locations of the generators, arranged like numbers on a clock around the perimeter of the complex. He thought back to Resolution’s previous mission, when an away team became trapped behind Unity’s shields.
Nicholotti: Good to know, but a risk we need to take.
MacNemar: Ostensibly, they’re invitin’ us there as a gesture of good faith. At least shields’ll keep the away team safe from any angry Klingons while they’re down there. The Da’al may not have anywhere near the tech of the Klingons or the Federation, but they’ve got a lotta power going to those emitters. Should be pretty tough.
Knight: No new activity from the Klingon Warbirds, Transports between the vessels and the Da’al homeworld have ceased. I suspect the vessel that attacked us is now under the control of the second warbird and the Klingons have sent all the soldier the are going to send for the time being.
Nicholotti: Or all that they had. What are our estimates there? Any changes in the readings of the second vessel?
MacNemar: Power readings are increasing, Captain. They’re off batteries, probably on auxiliary power. I doubt they have warp capability yet.
Knight: Captain! The Klingon warbird is angling towards the Resolution.
Yalu: oO Aw, damn, lull over. Oo Impulse engines on standby. Ready for evasive manoeuvres on your command, Captain.
Yogan was prepared to skip town, but the Klingons responded with an unexpected alternative to weapons fire.
Yalu: Captain, the Klingon ship is hailing us.
Nicholotti: By all means.
Yogan opened the channel, and the Klingon captain appeared on the viewscreen.
Captain Kris: =/\= Federation ship! I have information that you will want to know. =/\=
Nicholotti : =/\= Please do share. =/\=
MacNemar: This oughtta be good…
Yogan smirked. Who knew that Klingons were so much drama? This captain was almost as theatrical as the Da’al prime minister, and Yogan appreciated that at least one person on the bridge was willing to call it out, if quietly enough to avoid their voice being picked up by the comm system.
Captain Kris: =/\= I have taken a prisoner from the vessel that attacked you. =/\=
Nicholotti: =/\= Perhaps then we should consider a meeting. I’m fairly sure that neither side wishes a war, though both would fight. =/\=
Captain Kris: =/\= That is barely the case, but true none the less. I have been instructed to cooperate within reason, perhaps a face to face meeting between warriors is in order. =/\=
If this had been a Trill captain, Yogan would have interpreted his bluster and his attitude as compensating for a shortcoming or concealing an insecurity that was threatening to be revealed at any moment. But for a Klingon, Yogan wondered if confrontational was their natural social state. It certainly was befitting of a warrior society, but goodness was it exhausting. Yogan was grateful he’d been born to a largely peace-loving people.
Nicholotti: =/\= Our place, or yours? =/\=
Captain Kris: =/\= Let us say yours, it is only fitting you host considering it is us who saved you… =/\=
Nicholotti: =/\= Very well. We will prepare and signal for transport when we are ready. =/\=
Captain Kris: =/\= I will bring blood wine, oh and one more thing the enemy captain that attacked your vessel….is Da’al. Targ out! =/\=
As the channel closed, Yogan whirled around to see the reaction of each bridge officer to this nugget of last minute information.
Yalu: Wow, textbook truth bomb.
While everyone seemed to be processing this news, Captain Nicholotti didn’t seem to let it slow her down. She opened a channel to the away team, who had only been planetside for a few minutes, but who had likely already encountered skittish Da’al, rampaging Klingons, or some combination of the two.
Nicholotti: =/\= Commander MacKenzie, prepare for the Resolution near your mark. It may balance the game a bit on the planet while I meet our friends above for a dinner date. =/\=
Yogan’s ears perked up at this. Was he going to get to land Resolution after all?
MacKenzie: ::wryly:: =/\= There’s a large clearing just beyond the park. You should be able to land the Resolution there. (beat) And here, I thought we were going to get the exciting mission while you got stuck up there babysitting the Klingons. =/\=
Nicholotti: =/\= I look forward to swapping stories when it’s all said and done. Take care down there.=/\=
MacKenzie: =/\= You do the same. MacKenzie out. =/\=
Nicholotti: Mister Yalu, inertial dampeners to max, prepare landing sequence based on the last information from the Prime Minister.
Yalu: oO Yes! If only my classmates at the Tenara Regional Aeronautics and Spaceflight Institute could see me now. Who’s the loser now, Gina!? Oo Aye, captain.
Nicholotti: Blue alert. Let’s get her down fast and safe.
Yogan monitored the status updates from main engineering. When the captain called a blue alert, engineering initiated the process by taking the warp core offline and venting all plasma from the nacelles. Once he saw this was underway, Yogan requested for Ops to divert all available power to the atmospheric thrusters.
MacNemar: Additional power routed to structural integrity fields and inertial dampeners. And… all decks report condition blue, Captain. And… that ship must be using some new type of scrambling. Life signs still report as Klingon, from here. I have no idea what they did, sir. I’m sorry I didn’t see it before.
Yalu: Landing struts are online. Plotting a declining glide trajectory.
As Resolution approached the planet, Yogan’s navigational reference display changed from reporting the ship’s position relative to nearby celestial bodies, and instead switched to positioning relative to the surface. The clearing where they’d been directed to land was easy to spot, it was the sizable patch of green space in an otherwise grey urban area. The autopilot was doing a fair job, but Yogan tapped a few adjustments into the X-Y translation pad, in order to give Resolution a flatter, slower, more serpentine approach.
Knight: Response?
It was a reasonably smooth descent, with the inertial dampers keeping the bridge from feeling the friction caused by atmospheric entry. Yogan continued to monitor Resolution’s speed; she was coming in a bit too fast for his taste, and he angled the ship’s nose slightly upward as the atmospheric thrusters kicked in. Approaching the landing coordinates, Yogan extended the landing struts and adjusted the inertial dampers to match the planet’s gravity. He felt a slight nudge as the landing struts made contact with the surface, and the viewscreen displayed the park and surrounding city just outside.
Yalu: Engines disengaged. Thruster exhaust is secured. Landing complete. oO Let’s see you do that, Gina. Oo
Anyone: response(s)?
((OOC: References: VOY: The 37’s, The Starfleet Survival Guide))
TAG/TBC
Ensign Yogan Yalu
Helm Officer
USS Resolution NCC-78145
Justin
D238804DS0
As you liberate yourself in metaphor, think of others, those who have lost the right to speak.
— Mahmoud Darwish