A Plan Refinement

Posted on Sat Apr 16th, 2022 @ 8:31pm by Captain Calypso Skyie & Lieutenant Commander Alexander Espersen

Mission: Pirates! (Or Yo Ho Ho And A Bottle Of Yum)
Location: Calypso's Quarters

Fresh back from the station, Cally waited only until she was out of sight of the sentry at the hatch door before she tapped her comm, "Commander Esperson, meet me in my quarters at once." She didn't even wait for the response before she cut the commlink, unsealing the uniform jacket as she walked quickly to beat him there.

She entered the room, stripping off the jacket and tossing it to the side, the fabric hitting the floor as she ran her fingers through her hair. Yes, it had all been an act. Yes, she knew that Nat understood what was happening. And yes, she'd planted that PADD in her quarters since there could be no more communication between the two of them. It was an off-the cuff refinement to the plan, one that she probably should have consulted someone else on, but it was too late now.

Alexander Espersen had been on bridge watch when the instructions came across the comm system. He acknowledged, gave the conn to the next-seniormost officer, and left in the turbolift.

As he approached the door to her quarters, he was surprised to see them open automatically at his approach. He stopped in his tracks for just a second from the surprise, and then shrugged and went inside, apparently just a moment after her. "You asked to see me."

Cally pulled her fingers from her hair, a frizz of loose hairs ending up almost like a halo above her head, “Yup, I wanted you to know that Fist Lieutenant Markova is being evicted from the ship as we speak. Well, I should say, Civilian Natalya Markova is.” There was a light in her eye that belied the words she’d just spoken.

"Wait, what?" he asked. This was all so sudden. He had seen Markova's file and knew she was something of a loose cannon, but had not expected.... He saw something in Cally's eye that made his brow furrow. "What happened?" he asked more calmly.

This time a smile crossed her face, “Settle down, you wanted to be in on everything as well you should be. It was her idea, Alex, because I need you to drag out the modifications for a couple extra days. I’ll find a short cargo run to a rather unsavory planet, then we’re going on another cargo run back to Dexic with an unescorted convoy. A high value cargo, or at least that’s what we’ll officially be carrying, call it just under three weeks from now. Nat thinks that’ll give her enough time to join up with that pirate group ‘in a fit of rage’ and give them our travel plans and cargo.”

Alexander's brow unfurrowed and the corners of his lips curled up into a smile. "So she has an airtight cover story for why she's out there, with a grudge against Starfleet. And having served on the Q-Ship Chimera, she would know about our plans." He let out a chuckle. "That's clever, Captain."

"Well, having served on Chimera up to the point where her Captain was relieved of duty for negligence and the ship altered to be a lightly armed freighter." Cally smirked, "Less crew, fewer weapons, but a plan to show more teeth than we actually have. That means you, Commander Espersen, are the official CO of the ship under that guise."

"I am?" Alexander asked, surprised. "Well, I suppose that makes sense. If someone were to look up my file, they could easily figure that they'd put me in command of fifty washups on a wreck converted into a replenishment ship."

"And relieving me of my command wouldn't be too surprising if they looked at mine, because who knows? I could have become far too timid to retain command, besides, I was a Marine." She waggled her eyebrows, "I'll be on the battle bridge when they come in, monitoring everything with a full watch. Suck them in, fake a surrender, then blow the crap out of them." She hesitated a moment, "I want to be in a fighter, to be honest, that Venture-class is going to have to be our first target, she's got the speed and maneuverability to escape and get back to their base to warn them if we don't and if I were in that fighter I... 'Borrowed' from the Academy, I could probably prevent that."

“So at some point, we drop the façade,” Alexander says, “and after initial strike, command functions transfer from the main bridge to the battle bridge?” He gestured to a chair, asking permission to sit. “As for the Venture, we might not have anything that can equal its maneuverability but we can maybe negate it.”

Cally looked at him for a couple seconds even as she gestured permission to seat himself. A Venture was almost like a fighter, just a bit bigger and only slightly better armed, which was why it was a scout ship. Most pirates didn’t use them because they had no room for anything but the most valuable small-volume cargoes, “What are you thinking?”

Alexander sat down and then reached into his pocket, where he kept a small notepad and mechanical pencil. He flipped to an empty page and began to sketch.

“This is a rough outline of the modifications we’re making to the ship,” he explained. “To turn us into a Q-ship. Among all the internal changes, we’re adding some external pods here, here, here, and here. They increase our cargo capacity but they also conceal our primary phaser array. But there’s a twist.”

Intrigued, Cally raised her eyebrows in a silent question, but obediently leaned forward in her chair to look at the sketches.

He flipped the page and roughly drew one of the pods. “See here? This is a large external door, enabling us to carry large equipment, like fully constructed mining apparatuses or fusion drives. Typical on these pods. But how do you get those big machines inside?”

Transporters? Workbees? Those were the first two thoughts that she had, but given the placement of the pods, neither of those would be very efficient, “Tractor beams?” She guessed, hoping it was right.

“Tractor beams,” he said, nodding. “I learned from my surprise tactical test, Captain. I’ll run simulations to get it right but I think when we release the pods, we’ll be exposing our main weapons, decreasing our mass to increase maneuverability, and at the same time launching four tractor beam drones, controllable from the main bridge.”

“Oh my gods..” Calypso’s eyes opened as a visual played itself out in her head. While she didn’t know the configuration of the beam drones, four pyramid-shaped drones flew out from the jettisoned cargo pods and oriented on a Venture-class ship that suddenly pivoted in space but went nowhere, the Chimera maneuvering around for the perfect shot and… “How much space would they take up in one of our own holds? Would they be worth keeping after the ambush?”

The first officer grinned. “Ms. Jade and I will get to work trying to miniaturize them. I’m sure we can get one or even two to fit in a cargo bay, or the shuttle maintenance area.”

"Just the flexibility that could give us in just about anything." Cally mused, "We don't want to threaten someone, launch a tractor beam pod to keep them away." She gestured with her hand, "Need to deflect debris or an asteroid, tractor pod. The uses could be absolutely endless."

"They can also be useful for keeping us safe in dense asteroid fields, or other places where we risk damage from debris," Alexander added. "Once a few of the engineering team get thinking about this, I'm sure it will be done in no time. There's nothing better at motivating an engineer than an interesting project."

"I can think of other 'interesting projects' if it comes down to it." Calypso smirked, "Anything to keep all of you busy however I can, right? But I'm getting distracted. Any objection to me just blowing the Venture away once we trap it?"

Alexander shook his head. "Tactically it's the best move. There will be other ships we can capture for our purposes."

“A Miranda, a Steamrunner and an Intrepid…” Calypso agreed, “I’m going to work with Mark to find out a way to disable the Intrepid, but just disabling the Steamrunner may be tough… They were meant to dish it out and take it, the Miranda I’m less worried about either getting away or hurting us bad. Of course, we don’t even know what’s coming at us, so we need contingency plans.”

"The Steamrunner was indeed designed to take punishment," Alexander agreed, "but depending on the variant there might be some weaknesses we can exploit. Some were deployed as artillery vessels, which would sit away from a battlezone and fire long-range warp-capable tricobalt torpedoes towards stationary targets. The launch systems in the pod were finicky, to say the least. Now I expect these pirates don't have artillery torpedoes but the exploit in the pod might still be, well, exploitable."

He paused to think for a moment. "Other models had rather large internal spaces for fighter craft or relief shuttles. If we can get the landing bay doors open there's a lot of damage we could do internally."

“I didn’t see any reports of their using fighters, which is abnormal for a pirate group, but they could be holding them in reserve because they haven’t actually needed them yet.” Cally looked up at the ceiling, “We don’t have nearly enough information on these people yet, but there isn’t any to be had. But… They may also use that landing bay for cargo haulage, so it’s probably shuttles in there if anything.”

“Which means they probably won’t open the doors on their own,” he said. “And those doors will be reinforced. Hmmm…Do we know much about their computer systems?”

His eyes squinted when Cally pulled her head back. He stared a moment at her neck. “Have anything to tell me…Captain?”

Color crossed her face and neck as she blushed from the scrutiny, but she still tried out a joke, “Well, I’m not pregnant if that’s what you’re asking, thank you very much.” She gave a dry laugh, “Okay, so here’s what happened.” She used her hands as if to frame a picture, “I was walking along the station’s promenade when I happened to see the Task Force CO meandering around, so I did what any skipper should do and I went to say hi! Then all of the sudden, he ambushed me! Asked me how I was doing, then got everyone and their mother’s attention and BAM!” She smacked a fist into her other hand, “Told everyone that I was being promoted to Captain! I didn’t get a choice, truly!” She grinned widely.

His smile matched hers. “Well, congratulations. I only wish I’d been there. Can I treat you for dinner to celebrate? I’m told there’s a place on the Starbase that’s quite good.”

"Me? Refuse free food?" Calypso smirked slyly, "Never! But thanks, I'm kindof surprised there wasn't some sort of 'official' complaint, but now that we're in a Task Force away from Earth, Towers doesn't get much of a say it seems!" She laced her hands behind her head, "At least we know that I'll have a bit more authority when we meet someone new, right?"

Alexander nodded. “People respond better to the word ‘Captain’. Even new cultures; the translator seems to find a word that means authority.” He put his hands on the armrest and pushed himself to a standing position. “The night before we launch. Twenty-thirty hours. I’ll handle the reservation and send you the coordinates. Their dress code borders on formalwear but everyone says it’s absolutely worth it.”

"Dress uniform, or civilian clothes do you think?" She asked him, cocking her head slightly, "I'm game either way, but that dress uniform itches like the devil sometimes."

“I think they might throw you out for coming in a dress uniform,” he joked. “They’re no-nonsense about this. They love Starfleet Officers but they want style. Civilian all the way.”

"In that case, I might just have to go all out for this one, then." Cally's eyes sparkled, "Make everyone else look like a pauper, right?"

“As you stride through the airlock, the security guards will do a double-take,” Alexander said. “The crowds will part as they would for true Betazoid nobility.”

"Then I've got my work cut out for me to get ready for it." Calypso sighed, "I'm going to feel bad for going out like this with Nat going off to who knows-where that's dangerous. But, she knows what she's getting into and we may be her shoes soon enough. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die?"

"Exactly," Alexander agreed. "And we'll make it up to her when she gets back. Lavish her with luxury like she's never seen for a job superbly done. This is how you manage people, right?"

“That is how you reward people for doing semi-suicidal tasks for you, yup.” Cally nodded, “All right, shoo! If I’m going to have to look like a Princess that’s the heir apparent for the Throne of Kellia, I’m going to need to spend at least an hour or two to take a nice hot shower and get all prettied up!”

"Oh, this won't be for another few days yet, Captain," he said. "I know there's a stereotype of women taking a long time to get ready, but it shouldn't take you that long." He laughed. "Still, I should go back to the bridge, and after that a pile of paperwork awaits."

“Few days, buddy? The night after tomorrow night it is then, we’ve got a supply run to make to Artiv, if we’re going to keep to the cover I told Nat about.” She beamed, “I’d hate to keep an ambush waiting, especially since we’ll be the guests of honor.”

“The ship will look the part,” he confirmed. “And we’re still scheduled for this afternoon’s lesson?”

"Of course!" Calypso brightened up, "Since we're not having dinner tonight, that means I get to torture you some more today instead!" A toothy grin crossed her face, "What shall it be for an exercise?"

Alexander raised an eyebrow and scoffed. “Last time I picked, you ignored my logical pick and selected paperwork, so why don’t you pick.”

“A random event it is.” Cally laughed, “Show up ready for anything! I’ll make sure it’s interesting.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, before turning around and exiting her quarters, on his way back to the bridge to finish his watch shift.