Chief Insecurties

Posted on Tue Dec 21st, 2021 @ 10:58am by The Narrator & Lieutenant Commander Mara Ricci & Major Tatiana Skobelova

Mission: S2:4: If Not Like A Mirror
Location: Canopus Station, Main Reactor, Control Room
Timeline: MD-1 10.00

Lieutenant Kitcher rubbed at his nose irritably. The security officer whose workload took him from the Station to the colony constantly had gotten himself a little sun-baked helping to set up Camp Sunshine for its 'guests', and his reddened face was marked by the untanned skin around his eyes from where his sunglasses had been sat. The dry air of the station's air handling system also irritated the burned skin, and he mentally chided himself for scratching at his nose.

"So," he said with a huff as he folded his hand under one arm, holding it against his side. "We're guarding key locations of the station's infrastructure in case we end up getting visitations from wandering shore leave parties? Sensible. First time a Bajoran militia ship docked at Deep Space 12 half the crew ended up places they shouldn't have been, and those were only the ones we know we caught. And they are allies."

He gestured at the master display screen on one wall.

"Main reactor...antimatter storage...antimatter fabricator...fusion plants...life support...What about internal comm's?" he asked.

"They're not exactly centralized, are they?" mused Mara. "Or did you mean increase the firewall so they use their own comms instead of ours?"

"I was thinking more of making sure our comm's gear remains unfettered. Old security saying: order, counter-order, disorder. Easiest way to ruin a defense is to get conflicting orders sent into the command chain," Kitcher commented.

"I see," replied Mara, now understanding what he meant. "That shouldn't be too difficult. Time-consuming, maybe, but not difficult."

"I'll be honest, I'm not a technical details type of girl." Tatiana admitted. "That fleet could launch an attack on the station at any time. Will the com systems be down while you're performing the upgrade?"

"Considering if that fleet launches at the Station we'll be spectators not participants, I'd not call it entirely pragmatic to worry about them," Kitcher said. He looked at the Major. "I'm more concerned about the guests we have in the Quarantine Section. Camp Sunshine's nearly complete, but nearly is not gonna cut it with crazy zealot Marines. I'm not sure how comfortable I am having them on the station with the Carcosian's here. They might not like the idea of Concordance foot soldiers so close to hand."

“To be perfectly honest,” said Mara, distaste evident in her voice, “I don’t like the idea of concordance foot soldiers so close to hand. But, Carcosia is friendly. They’re not likely to attack.”

"Are they though? Really?" Kitcher asked with a squint to his eyes. "I've only met one in passing, and to be honest I felt like anything he said to me went through an internal censoring process before it came past his lips. Makes Cardassian's seem down right chatty."

“That’s fascinating,” replied Mara dryly. “I’ve met several and all have been friendly, if a bit strange. But then, I’m an engineer; who am I to say who’s strange?”

"The Carcossians are an alien culture to us. They should be strange." Tatiana replied to Mara. "Tactically speaking though, if the Carcassians were to storm the station, they should have done it after coming out of warp. Mind you, they still could. I'm not sure why they would."

"Oh that's easy," Kitcher said, stifling a yawn. "They got here first. And they ran away from a fight. I did a little digging through the historical archives, some interesting stuff. The darkest days of the Romulan War, the United Earth Space Navy and its allies in the Coalition of Worlds were practically in the stone age: no antimatter power, so warp was all done on low voltage fusion and fission plants. Project Pluto was this big game-changer, a practical antimatter reactor capable of sustained high warp. Take the fight to the Romulansin their own turf."

This time he yawned fully.

"Once the egg heads at Project Pluto got it working, they boxed up the prototype for shipment to Earth for installation on the UESN Nike. Between the testing site and Earth, the Project Pluto transport was taken, no trace. After the war it's revealed that a think tank of scientists had infiltrated Project Pluto and hijacked the transport, installing the prototype reactor on a colony ship loaded with the best and brightest minds of the time. A sort of Ivy League Noah's ark. They did some searching after the war, but no trace. Then again they were looking in the Alpha Quadrant, not out beyond the galactic rim," Kitcher yawned again. "Sorry, lot of those history archives were Two-Dee flicks. Accidently spent part of last night watching Charon, you know that classic war movie with the guy with the...he had one antenna? Shran? Shran't? Ate Arhcers dog or something."

"So when things were looking the darkest for Earth, their ancestors fled with vital equipment?" Tatiana asked rhetorically. "Sort of like the guys that take the only escape pod off a burning ship. Then, when things settle down, the rest of the crew reappear with the repaired ship. It's an awkward conversation. I'm mean, what are you supposed to say? 'Hey, I'm still alive after you abandoned me to die. Would you like a cup of tea?"

"Counter: them leaving gave the UESN and the Coalition of Worlds no other choice but to survive. The Battle of Charon was hard-fought, but would they have fought as hard had they known a wonder technology was in the background? And in the eyes of the Carcosian's ancestors is at the time survival was not assured," Kitcher shook his head. "This is something for the diplomats to figure out."

"If the leadership of Earth had asked them to run off and start a new colony, that would be understandable. Their ancestors decided on their own and without notification to run off on their own. Where I come from that kind of behavior leads to rough frontier justice." Tatiana replied.

Mara rolled her eyes. She was an engineer, not a diplomat. She found this whole conversation she turned into a lot of blah blah blah and she no longer cared. “Why does any of this matter?” she asked impatiently. “I thought we were discussing securing the station. Against our new friends.”

"Potential friends," Kitcher reminded. "Potential friends who hid a task force of dedicated warships in the glare of the sun until they knew we weren't trigger happy morons. And given their task force is outnumbered by ours by about 5 to 1, I have to imagine they feel confident in their tech advantage. Or they have friends hiding in the system we've not spotted yet."

Kitcher yawned.

"Sorry," he help up a hand in way of apology. "Either way, friend or foe, better safe than sorry. Until the diplomats can hash out what sort of relationship we're meant to have with our cousins."

"Diplomats," Tatiana snorted. "If you can't fix a part, handle a phaser, or use a tricorder Starfleet puts you in the stalwart diplomatic corp. We'd better have the comms working and our phasers ready."

"If that's true, what does that make Captian Ingram?" Kitcher asked with a wry smile.

“A diplomat, obviously,” joked Mara humorlessly. “Is that my cue to get to work? It felt like a cue, anyway.”

Tatiana gave Mara a courteous nod as she left. "I thought Captain Ingram was a science officer before getting into command? Anyways, he is in command of the station.Therefore, he actually has a real job." She replied. "I need to get back to my people. I'll have a person for my staff work out the details with you."

"And I need to go see a guy about hacking a replicator to put more caffeine than is strickly safe into a bagel or something," Kitcher said. His face scrunched up and he shuddered a bit. "Sorry, kept that yawn internal."