The senior staff of the USS Denver had been all called to report to the observation lounge one by one they entered,  Captain Talon sitting patiently at the head of the of the conference table sipping her coffee.  Outside the massive windows streaks of light zipped past as the ship traveled at warp. A Romulan Warbird traveled in close formation. 

Ming headed toward the observation lounge for the senior staff meeting as ordered.  It felt odd being in a standard uniform these days.  More often he was in a fighter pilot’s flight suit…The modern ones being made to, with the helmets, help a pilot survive should a fighter sustain damage to where the cockpit environment evacuated due to damage or, worse yet, ejection was necessary.  He preferred to be ready to go if the fighter wing was called on but it was a day where a standard duty uniform was in order.  

As he entered the observation lounge he noticed two things.  The scent of coffee and that he was the first senior officer to arrive aside from Captain Talon.     He mentally shrugged as he walked in, nodding and saying in respectful greeting before taking a seat, “Captain Talon.”  

“Mr. Ming,” Rebecca greeted over her coffee.

Riandri stepped into the room as she stared down a tablet and reviewed the information they had on the Kardaleon Cluster. She glanced up as she entered the room and nodded towards the Captain and Ming. “Glad I am not late,” she muttered and took a seat beside Rebecca.

“You are,” Rebecca teased.  “Fifteen minutes early is on time.  On time is late.” It was a philosophy she personally hated, but common enough within the fleet.

Jeter slipped into the room quietly and grabbed a chair. His mind was preoccupied with concern regarding working with a Romulan ground team and as he had been in the meeting with Commander Tomarah he had a pretty good idea of what was about to be discussed. 

Tavana walked into the conference room, looking around the room to put the inhabitants to memory. “Hello Captain. I trust you are well?” She asked with an easygoing smile. As she went to her seat, she stopped suddenly. She tilted her head to the side with a questioning look in her dark eyes. She knew the Romulans had become allies, but she found herself conflicted. The opportunity to deal with the counterparts to Vulcans held an intriguing appeal. The long-standing distrust of the Romulans however, tempered her curiosity. Time would tell, to be sure. 

A quick shrug of her shoulders and a small head shake of dismissal shook her from her musings. She regained her smile and took a seat.

Collins arrived and took a seat near the middle of the table.

Arin slid through the doors at a brisk pace. Padd in hand, taking one of the last open seats on the port side. She wanted to through her relief under the bus for being tardy, but tattling was infantile. 

Cezear entered the lounge and looked around the room taking it all in, the senior staff settling themselves around the table in their presumably usual seats. “Well here goes nothing. Hello Captain. Good morning all.” as he took one of the last open seats at the table.

Rebecca nodded to Cezear,  but remained silent as the crew settled into their seats.

Conroy walked into the room among the last of the crew to arrive. He quickly took his seat, and looked around the room before picking.

“Okay with everyone here,” Rebecca announced sitting up and setting her coffee down.  She entered commands into the keypad on the table and the blank displays winked on. The Thelos Ship Foundry came up on the screen. “Our primary objective.” She paused to let that sink in. “This isn’t a full frontal assault. We are going to get in with our new Romulan allies and gather as much intel on the base as possible. The Romulans are preparing for a full scale attack later this year so getting in and out undetected is paramount. That team will be lead by Commander Jeter. Pick your team and explain what will be happening.”

Jeter nodded as he stood and with a wave of his hand projected an image of the shipyard over the table. “Thank you. As the Captain has just outlined we will be infiltrating the Foundry with a Romulan team from the Xoval. Stealth will be critical for this mission so we will only take a small number of officers. Ideally, we will be in and out without being seen but in the case that we aren’t the team will consist of Lieutenants Ming, Collins, Viat, and Beattie.” He looked at each of the officers he had mentioned before continuing, “We will beam over to the Xoval shortly to get acquainted with the Romulan officers who will be taking part. Once the Xoval is in position we will travel by a cloaked shuttle to the Foundry. Given the size of the shuttle, we should be able to slip past any detection grids or defences that are in place. Once on-site, we will beam aboard and access their computer core to obtain as much critical information on the defences, layout and planned patrol schedule. Once complete we beam out and return to the Xoval.” With that, he sat down and looked over at Captain Talon, “Back to you Captain.”

Cezear looked up as his name was called. “Yes sir. “ as he started to think about what gear he would need to bring on the mission.

Collins nodded as the briefing continued. 

Ming stirred.  He’d never particularly been fond of the Romulans…The Rihansu as he understood they liked to call themselves.   The phrase about odd bedfellows wasn’t lost on him.  He’d do what he could to make everything work to the best of his ability, but he’d have to get past one of the few biases he had.  

Arin commented. “Ach, they can’t be all bad. Any race that makes something as interesting as Romulan Ale, can’t be all bad. We just need to do a few pub crawls.”

“Maybe when this is all done we can revisit that,” Jeter said dryly as his mind ran through the mission prep and possible challenges.

“Commander, do we know the composition of the Romulan team? “ cezear asked as he listened to the brief. 

“Commander Tomarah did not inform us,” Rebecca cut in. “It’s hard to say how much involvement they will have, but as of now they are committed to the war effort and our allies. Let’s try to keep that in mind and give them the benefit of the doubt.”

“As for the rest of us. The Denver isn’t going to slip up on a shipyard unnoticed.” Entering commands the screens changed, “One point five lightyears from our main objective is the Kardaleon Cluster. On an asteroid near the 5th planet is a Prisoner-of-war camp. We are going to liberate this camp.”

Riandri leaned forward slightly before speaking, “We do not have much information on the numbers of POWs on site or who they may be but our goal is to get all of them out. We will mask our warp signature so we appear to be a Nyberian freighter, that mixed with the strong solar winds and radiation in the region the Denver should be able to approach without issue.” 

Tavana leaned forward to see the schematics better. “We might want to get a shuttle bay or 2 set for triage and recovery afterwards. I also suggest the critical cases, those who are close to death or other high probability case, be directly beamed to Sickbay. I can also have Lt. Efe get a team together to go down to the camp. I can direct things best from here.” She sat back, sienna eyes hopeful and still somewhat serene.

“The Dominion isn’t known for being gentle, so casualties are likely,” Rebecca agreed. “However,  Shuttlebay 2 has been converted into a fighter bay and quarters are quite cramped.  Perhaps Cargo Bay 5 will fulfill your triage needs.”

Tavana nodded. “I think that will be fine. I’ll put my people on it.” The Denobulan smiled. “I’ve been itching to try the new triage system I read about in a recent journal. I need to check with Efe if she’s gotten to that…” Her tone trailed off as she became lost in thought.

“We could possibly leave it as a permanent fixture. We’ll likely need it again,” Rebecca said.

Tavana nodded enthusiastically at the Captain’s suggestion. “Yes, Captain, that would be wonderful! If we could impose upon Engineering, we could rig up equipment and such when needed.” A red eyebrow rose at this. “Forgive me, but our Engineer is who now?” She looked around the table in confusion. 

“At the moment Ensign McKenzie is covering engineering,” Rebecca said.

Arin’s head was already filled with a myriad of scenarios. The asteroid field made it double. Her hands flying over the padd, she pulled from the main screen and started flight plans in her head while listening. 

“It is not defended and equipped with only rudimentary shields and garrisoned by a small battalion of Jem’Hadar, ” Rebecca replied. “We need to get in and knock out their subspace antenna before a distress signal can be made.”

Arin piped up, “Not to put too fine a point on it, Captain, but since this is likely to be a new base, the defenses hopefully won’t be set up, and prisoners and maybe a few goodies for Research and Development?”

“Goodies are unlikely,  but Commander Nalam might be able to get intel off the bases’ computers. Ms. Jones expect to fly the away team over to the base on a shuttle.  I don’t want to risk transporters until we control the base.”

“Aye Captain,” Arin replied. Then added, “If I can, I’d like to take one of the runabouts. If the transporters fail, I can either relay back to Denver with its transporters or at the very least take the first 40 off that rock.”

“Makes since.  Runabout it is.”

“Alright people,  I’ll let you break off into your teams. You are all dismissed.” Rebecca said with finality.