Cloak and Dagger

Posted on Sun Aug 20th, 2023 @ 12:54pm by Captain Aaron Larson & Lieutenant Commander Mira Napier & Lieutenant JG Jenny Goldstein & Petty Officer 1st Class Blair Stevens

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: https://www.uss-deliverance.starfleetuk.org/index.php/sim/missions/id/1
Location: USS Deliverance
Timeline: After the Captain comes on board
Tags: Napier, Larson

The pig faced Engineering Officer, who had overseen the fitting of both the new ship's warp and impulse engines and the new Romulan cloaking technology, and would stay onboard during the vessel's shake-out voyage to DS9 to pick up the rest of the regular crew, including a new engineering chief, one Alula Beru, should have been happy. His job was nearly done and there had been relatively few hiccups during the construction of the advanced new vessel. It was one of Star Fleet's finest, most powerful star ships.

But Lieutenant Commander Klagg was not a happy little Tellarite as he entered the Security centre of the new ship, unannounced and without a by-you-leave, stomping up to the Chief of Security's desk with a wrinkle in his snout and a snort as he spoke.

"Napier!" She was no doubt used to his somewhat terse manner by now. But, unlike her, he had the excuse that he was a Tellarite. "We need to see the Captain about this damn Rommie Cloaking device. I don't like it, don't like it at all. Too much closed circuitry. Can't tell what's going on in there. And I've just seen who's going to be looking after it once we get to Nine: some half Romulan hybrid! Looks mighty fishy to me. You're in charge of security, aren't you concerned?!" he asked, half implying she wasn't doing her job properly for not bringing it up before she did.

"Well, anyway, Captain's on board now, playing around with bits of parchment with the Admiral. Once that nonsense is over, I vote we should go and see him about it!" he finished, with another loud snort by way of punctuation.

Napier sighed a moment as she looked at the Tellarite, "I am concerned, but we have to assign someone to keep an eye on the Hybrid and that is if we are certain he'd be a threat. I'll send a request to talk to the Captain with you." She grabbed a few padds and set them aside, so she could access the computer. She proceeded to send the Captain the message of the request and asked that he respond via combadge. She didn't want to interrupted his conversation with the Admiral over this concern. She sent the message and then she looked up at the Tellarite, "I sent the message."

Kagg nodded. "She", he grumped.

He realised that comment had been a little too spartan, even for him.

"The hybrid..." there was a long pause. "She's a she." There was another pause. "Probably one of them Femme Fatales. Half Rommie half... something called a Trill. ... Don't know much about 'em. .... Stick big slugs up inside themselves or something. ... Sounds disgusting.... You wouldn't stick a slug up inside yourself, would you, Napier? .... No. ...... Me neither."

The wait for the reply was torture, but he seemed to want to stop and wait. He looked around the security centre.

"Need anything fixing while I'm here?" he asked.

The captain's Yeoman entered the captain's ready room. The captain looked up at the Yeoman. "What is it?"

"The chief of security and the acting chief engineer would like to talk to you, sir." Stevens responded.

The captain muttered, "What is it now?" He looked at his Yeoman. "Have them report here......immediately!"

"Aye sir." Stevens turned and returned to her office. "Commanders Napier and Kagg are to report to the captain's ready room immediately!"

Napier nodded to the Yeoman. She glanced to Kagg and she rose towards the exit. She bid him to leave the room first, but he'd pushed in to go first anyway, the pig. She looked and kept quiet as she walked with Kagg to the Ready Room. She rang the bell for entrance, once they arrived at the Ready Room.

"Hmph! Hope he takes this seriously! This Captain seems more interested in being waited on hand and trotter by nubile young yeomen than coming down and inspecting my engines!" Kagg muttered, thinking that the power source was the most important part of any ship. To be fair, without them, the rest of the ship was useless.

The Yeoman heard the door chime, and she pressed the 'door open' at her desk. She saw the Tellarite and a woman enter the room. She stood up, and said, "Please follow me." and she walked towards the captains office, pressing the chime.

"Enter!" The captain put down his work and looked at Stevens. "Show them in, Yeoman, then remain in the room."

"Aye sir." She showed the visitors in, then she walked to the captain's desk and stood near it.

Tellarites weren't known for beating about the bush. "Captain" Kagg grunted, ignoring the slip of a girl he kept around, presumably as window-dressing for his mundane office. "It's about these Rommie gimmicks they've insisted we've got to ship, and the person who's going to be controlling them." he started.

Larson kept a calm voice. "Commander. The Romulans, and that is the correct term to be used in the future, gave us the cloaking device because we are allies now. It was installed by Romulans engineers and the engineer who would makes sure it runs properly, will be in charge of it. If they need help, they will ask."

"Huh, well she's half Rommie... huh, sorry, 'Romulan', herself. And you're right, they fitted the device and we can't even scan the insides: for all we know, those backstabbing, pointy eared bastards might have planted a bomb in each of the our new ships of the line! And then there's the power consumption issue..." To be fair, Kagg's paranoia apart, that was a valid point: to use the cloaking device, you had to run down power to shields, weaponry and a half a dozen more functions aboard the ship.

Mira didn't see the security issue with the Romulans that Kagg did, but she knew to always be alert and that went with any species or person and it didn't matter with her. She glanced to the Captain, hoping that he'd help calm down the tellarite at the very least. She slightly pressed her lips as she didn't have information, since she basically delivered the source that felt like there was a problem and she felt that the Captain could handle this one, if not the commander.

Larson suddenly stood up from his chair and faced the Tellarite, "I know how you Tellarites love to argue just to hear your own voice, BUT, not on my ship!" He came from behind his desk. "Commander, you are the chief engineering officer, are you not? If you are, then you should have no trouble keep the Romulan Cloaking Device on line and working! If you can't do your job, the Romulan engineer will be taking over the responsibility of keeping the cloak up and running, and you will not, repeat NOT, get in her way! Do I Make Myself Clear????"

"There's no point getting excited about it Captain!" returned the porcine Lieutenant Commander, the pot calling the kettle black, as it were.

"I'm just pointing out that we don't fully understand exactly how this device works and that we are denied access to a detailed scan. I can make the damned thing work! The lowliest Ensign in the Engineering Department can do that. I'm just saying... if anything goes queer on this ship, that's the first place you should look. That and the half-breed coming on board at DS9. It would be remiss of me not to point that out Captain. Maybe that breaks some precious politically correct Federation taboos, but that's the way I see it!" Kagg snorted.

Larson looked at him, then sat back down in his chair. "I will request that the spacedock send over an expert in the cloaking device so you can run your scans. You will have until we reach Deep Space Nine to get it running. Understand commander?"

"I can make it work! I just can't guarantee it won't blow up in our faces!!" corrected Kagg. Hadn't he been listening? Kagg certainly bellowed loudly enough!

Napier looked to Larson, she really didn't want to have to watch the engineers. She just hoped they could work together and stay out of trouble. She looked for permission to be dismissed, since she did what she felt was her part.. Unless, she was requested of more, which she'd assign security for.

"Is there anything else?" Larson looked at the engineer and Napier.

"No, that's all." said Kagg grumpily, before adding to Napier "You didn't say much!" They were not noted for their tact, Tellarites.

 

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