Cerulean Stars - Chapter 63

Cerulean Stars - Chapter 63

Stardate 48187.4 - March 10, 2371 - 09:37:00

Due to the unfortunately large amount of work Raine had been saddled with by Commander Sisko and Admiral Toddman, she had yet to actually have a chance to meet any of the Romulan team outside of Sub-commander T’Rul. 

Though from those members of the Defiant’s crew that had, the Asari had learned that they seemed to be generally standoffish outside of issues related to their official duties. Something she suspected wasn’t helped by nearly half of the crew on the currently overloaded ship being security officers who seemed to be almost universally paranoid about the Romulans being here to try and steal Starfleet secrets.

Which was a big part of why, after realizing the problem on their second day of travel, Raine had given the security officers on board enough homework on the Bajor Sector and Gamma Quadrant to keep them functionally stuck in their quarters for the rest of the trip back to Deep Space Nine outside of their physical training rotations.

But that had still left her with the general problem of trying to meet up with the other Romulans, without directly telling T’Rul she wanted to meet up with the other Romulans. Not the least because Raine was still more then a bit conflicted about the whole ‘you’re free to try your luck with these two’ option the Romulan woman had presented to her.

In the end she had come up blank and written off even trying till they were back on the station. So it had been a complete surprise when she had been informed by T’Rul that her sister T’Rel wished to have a meeting with the command staff about a potential problem she had discovered with the cloak during the series of tests they had been running since setting off.

A roundabout enough way to do things when T’Rul could have just told Sisko directly, that Raine had become instantly suspicious about the possibility that her and T’Rel’s inclusion was just an excuse to try and actually get the pair in a room together.

And it had worked, because all four of them were now in the Defiant’s ready room.

In person T’Rel really did look a lot like her sister, maybe an inch taller and late twenties to T’Rul’s mid thirties. But possessed of the same generic haircut that Raine had been interested to learn from one of Spock’s reports was omnipresent across their military for the sole reason of making any single officer harder for other humanoids to visually distinguish from other military serving Romulans.

“So.” Sisko began, clasping his hands together as he stared at the trio from the other side of this small desk. “Commander Brooks tells me that you think you've discovered a problem with the cloak?”

“Yes.” T'Rul confirmed with a nod as she motioned to the other woman. “Centurion T'Rel can explain.”

“All right.” Sisko agreed, looking towards T'Rel in interest as Raine began to wonder if T'Rul's choice to go through her might have just been the Romulan way of doing things.

“Thank you Commander.” T'Rel said, giving the man a nod of acknowledgement as she took a small step forward. “As you are aware, the cloak installed on the Defiant was originally designed for one of our Dhelan class vessels.”

Raine blinked, having not been aware of that, though she supposed it made sense given that was the 'newest’ class of comparable size to the Defiant that Starfleet was openly aware of. Not that she knew whether others actually existed, or whether Starfleet knew about them or not, but it felt like a thing that would be safe to assume.

“The Defiant however has a much higher core output then the Dhelan class.” T'Rel continued in a tone that almost felt to Raine like she was annoyed with that fact. “And while we were not sure whether it would be a problem, the recent tests have shown a small emissions leakage when the core is run above 67% capacity.”

“Can you compensate?” Sisko inquired, separating his hands and beginning to tap his index finger on the table in a way that suggested he really wanted to fiddle with this baseball right now.

T'Rel turned her eyes to T'Rul, the older woman giving a slight nod of seeming permission in response.

“Possibly.” T'Rel admitted. “However I would need direct access to the Defiant's warp core, deflector, and sensors to make the attempt.”

And that was likely to be a firm no Raine mused to herself.

“I don't see any problem with that.” Sisko offered to Raine's surprise after considering it for a moment. “Though for security reasons I'll have to have Commander Brooks supervise.”

“That would be acceptable.” T'Rul agreed with a small smile as the sudden feeling settled over Raine that she had lost a battle she didn't even know she was fighting.

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“So is there anything outside of access that you will be needing?” Raine asked T'Rel as they made their way towards engineering.

“Possibly.” T'Rel answered her. “For our own security reasons I cannot explain the exact mechanics of what I'll be attempting, but it involves matching or canceling out several factors between the cloak, deflector, and warp core.”

That somewhat made sense to Raine, she wasn’t an expert on cloaking technology by any means, but all three of Starfleet's primary branches were expected to have a general level of knowledge about it. Both so they would be able to toe the line of Treaty of Algeron, and because they were almost guaranteed to encounter other groups utilizing it to various degrees.

“Commander Sisko’s not going to want to drop out of warp for any big adjustments given how overloaded we’re running.” Raine informed T’Rel with a shake of her head, papering over the bigger reason that he would almost surely want O’Brien around to double check her work.”

“Understandable.” T'Rel agreed with a smirk. “In his position I'm not sure I would trust making major adjustments on this prototype away from a station either.”

“You can use the secondary engineering station over there.” Raine said, motioning over to the wall station on their left while narrowing her eyes slightly at the Romulan woman as the sudden understanding that this was how it was going to be washed over her. 

“Will you be all right with the basic LCARS interface?” She continued with an innocent smile, perfectly willing to play the subtle insinuation game now that it had been initiated. “Or do you need me to run one of our Romulan adaptation overlays.”

“No need for either.” T'Rel returned as she made her way over to the indicated station, the pair of on duty officers giving them both a wide berth as she did. The movements suggesting to the Asari that Sisko had preempted their arrival with a warning about just what the pair were going to be doing. “I'm proficient with the generation of engineering interfaces currently in use on this vessel.”

Which Raine knew T'Rel technically shouldn't have been since they were low level classified, but it was also on the 'we know that they know so don't bother hiding it’ list she had been handed by Admiral Toddman. The contents of which had really left the Asari wondering just why they had even bothered to classify some of those things in the first place. 

Because seriously, who cared if the Cardassians or Romulans knew stuff like the outflow pressure of Starfleet’s waste recycling systems or the exact shade of tan on the internal paneling.

“That will save us some time I suppose.” Raine agreed, holding back an amused grin as the controls failed to respond to the increasingly annoyed looking T’Rel’s attempted manipulations of them. “However you may want to let me unlock that first, as the current security settings have stations in secure locations go into lockdown if they are left unattended for more than a couple minutes.”

“A prudent precaution I suppose.” T’Rel grudgingly admitted, glancing over her shoulder at the Asari with an expectant look on her face.

“Computer.” Raine ordered with a slightly smug look from knowing she’d won the exchange. “Unlock engineering station two-b up to access level beta-four, authorization code Brooks-Gamma-0-4-7.”

The verbal authorization code in this case was complete bullshit, something Raine had included in the spur of the moment to temporarily hide the fact that the computer was actually checking a combination of other things to see if the Asari was on the list of people authorized to do what she was asking it to.

But she suspected the Romulan woman would find the blatant subterfuge amusing when she inevitably found out by seeing one of the other officers unlock a station without it. So the Asari didn’t feel particularly bad about messing with T’Rel by doing it, even if Commander Sisko would probably give her a disappointed glare if he found out.

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Stardate 48195.9 - March 13, 2371 - 12:05:02

Looking between the padd in her hands and the other four members of the station's senior staff that were gathered around the central station of ops, Kira Nerys was forced to admit, if only to herself, that they might be in trouble.

“You’ve all had time to go over the simulations by now.” She finally put forward to them. “And best case scenario, we’d be able to take out a dozen Jem’Hadar ships before the station and defensive picket are overwhelmed.”

“More realistically I’d say we get eight.” O’Brien admitted with a frown, which was one more then Kira had figured in her own estimate. 

“There must be something more we could do.” Dax muttered, crossing her arms under her breasts as she furrowed her brow in thought.

“Short of Bajor letting us move their new station over here.” O’Brien floated with a questioning look to Kira.

“Not going to happen.” She told him with a shake of her head, having already asked the First Minister about the possibility herself and gotten a half hour long explanation about why the idea was a non-starter.

“I just can’t see much more we can do.” O’Brien continued with a sigh. “Maybe if we were able to get fusion reaction chambers four and six operational I could try and use the extra power to reinforce the station's structural integrity some. But we’re barely keeping our heads above the water with the maintenance requirements of the four we have active now.”

“Even if you could.” Bashir added with a concerned tone. “The casualties are going to be appalling.”

“All right.” Kira said as she began pacing back and forth, using the activity of the motion to help herself think. “What if we pull the picket back and let them board the station. That still doesn’t mean we have to surrender.”

“What are you suggesting?” Dax asked, focusing on Kira with a look that was equal parts concern and interest.

“We can hide in the conduits, set up booby-traps, and prepare ambushes.” Kira suggested, the idea of doing to the Dominion what they had done to the Cardassians more than a bit appealing to her given what they had found on New Bajor. “Keep them bogged down trying to secure the station till a Federation fleet can arrive and then catch them in a pincer between it and the Bajoran defense fleet.”

“With the extra security staff that’s been trickling in we could certainly try.” Odo offered, seeming to consider the suggestion for a moment before shaking his head. “But I suspect there wouldn’t be much of a station left by the time Starfleet reinforcements got here.”

“That leaves us with two options.” Dax presented to the group. “Abandon the station and make a stand around Bajor, or collapse the entrance to the wormhole.”

Kira had to fight back the urge to visibly cringe at the second suggestion, though something about the first was prodding her mind in the direction of a possible third option.

“Chief.” She began, stopping in her pacing to focus on the man in question. “Is there any chance we could pull a reverse of what we did two years ago and move the station back into orbit of Bajor?”

O’Brien frowned at that, and Kira could all but see him running the numbers in his head.

“Yeah.” He finally answered with a nod of his head. “Might even be easier if we can get the Dara'Kajal to tow us.”

“We can make that–” Kira began, only to be interrupted by an alert sounding from Dax’s science station.

The trill woman rushed over, her hands flying across the interface as the sudden worry that this might be it settled into Kira’s stomach.

“Some kind of large subspace surge has just tripped the station's security sensors.” Dax announced in a concerned tone.

“Where is it?” Kira demanded as she moved back to the central station.

“Bearing one four eight mark two one five. Distance three hundred meters.” Dax answered after a moment.

“That’s almost inside our shield perimeter.” O’Brien muttered as he rushed to his station.

A few tense seconds passed before Dax spoke up again.

“From the intensity and the harmonic signature, it could be a cloaked ship, but I've never seen an energy dispersal pattern like this.”

“Whatever it is, it’s too close for comfort.” Kira told them, not willing to risk Starfleet’s normal response to situations like this given the circumstances. “Red Alert. Raise shields, energize phaser banks, stand-by to lock photon torpedoes on. And someone contact the Bajoran pickets to tell them to be ready.”

“The energy signature's fluctuating.” Dax reported as she brought up the location on the central monitor. “It's decloaking.”

The ship that shimmered into existence on the screen was somehow both recognizably Starfleet in its design, yet not. However the registry that named it the USS Defiant NX-74205 painted on its hull left little doubt which government it belonged to.

“It's definitely a Federation starship.” Dax confessed with a frown as she studied the readings on her display. “But I've never seen that design before.”

“A Federation ship with a cloaking device?” O’Brien put forward sounding almost offended by the very idea of it on principle.

“It's hailing us.” Dax relayed, the woman’s shoulders relaxing slightly now that it was clear they weren’t in immediate danger.

 “On screen.” Kira ordered as a sudden suspicion settled over her, because this kind of overly dramatic entrance would be just like Commander Sisko. A thought that was confirmed a moment later as a video of the man appeared on the central screen.

“Sorry to startle you Major.” He offered with an amused smile. “But I brought back a little surprise for the Dominion and wanted to test its cloaking device out beforehand.”