"… Goes Unpunished"
Previous Post: "No Good Deed…"
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Stardate: 60298.1548
Setting: TOLAR IV, Inside Cloaked Romulan Ship, Engineering Section
Spending all of their time alone in the quasi darkness of the small engineering room of the ship that they had been brought onboard, the two Human men did what they could to pass the time. Communication with the outside world had been forcefully denied as well as their access to the rest of the ship so it was no surprise that after having accomplished the desires of those in charge the two engineers had snooped around the only room they could to try and figure out what they had been dragged into.
Studying the Romulan technology, making sense of it and learning more about the infamous cloaking device than they could have ever imagined had kept the pair occupied for the last several hours, but the novelty of this having gradually vanished had left the two Humans to look beyond the confines of their imprisonment.
Using a small and narrow maintenance tunnel, one of the two men had ventured outside of the area that they had been told to stay in, the risk of being discovered and disciplined by the Romulans having, over time, proven to be a less and less important outcome. After several moments of silence, the venturing Human returned to the main engineering section of the ship and regrouped with his partner with a less than thrilling report of what he had discovered during his trek, "It’s a dead-end."
Looking down at his partner in crime as he exited the floor level maintenance tunnel, the other man folded his arms across his chest, emphasizing the incredulity he felt. "What do you mean a *dead-end*? No one builds a tunnel that goes nowhere and does nothing, especially not the Romulans. The way this ship is built is proof enough of this."
Getting back to his feet while stretching the kinks in his back, the first man glared back at his friend as he explained what he found once again. "Listen, like I told you, that maintenance tunnel is nothing more than a small passage. There are no EPS conduits, or any conduits for that matter, the walls are as smooth as a baby's butt and as bare as your brain. I have no idea why they built it, but I know a dead-end when I go done one and that is a dead-end!"
Pushing his fellow engineer out of the way the second man kneeled down and vanished into the tunnel mumbling to himself about the incompetence of some and that in order to do something right one had to do it themselves. Moments later several banging noises came from the tunnel making the other Human drop to his knees to see what was happening. "What are you doing down there? Are you trying to get us killed? This is a small ship and that banging is bound to be heard by the Romulans who are going to be coming to see what the noise was all about."
Looking at the main door to the room with increasing nervousness, the man waited for his friend's reply which took a little longer than expected to arrive in the form of the man having returned from his rampage in the tunnel. "The Romulans are going to have their hands full trying to figure out what that massive swishing sound was, which sounded like a tidal wave hitting us, they won't be concerned by a few extra banging. In any case what I found is well worth the risk."
Inviting his friend to follow the man returned into the tunnel without saying anything else leaving his friend with two options: to either stay behind and wonder as to what had been found or to follow and see for himself.
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Stardate: 10298.1549
Setting: TOLAR IV, Inside Cloaked Romulan Ship, Hidden Room
Emerging from the small tunnel into a room that neither one of them had suspected to being there, the two Human engineers found themselves surrounded by dark columns resting against the walls on an angle. Feeling around for a clue as to what these were, the two men cursed that the lighting had been set so low that they could not even see their hands feeling the smooth surfaces of the columns. "What are these?, some kind of storage container?"
Having shifted his search to the walls in the hopes of finding a way to increase the light, the other man replied, "Why would they put all of these storage containers against the wall in this fashion?"
The answer was revealed to them when a switch commanding a section of the wall between the engineering section and the room that they had crawled into was triggered allowing some of the light from the previous room to filter into this one.
Looking at the features of the 8 columns with wide opened eyes, the two men realized in a small way what they had discovered. "These are not cargo containers, they're stasis pods!"
Grabbing his friend by the arm the other man rushed out of the room and back into the main engineering section pointing out the one detail that he had noticed above all others. "We have a bigger problem. That switch I hit did not only open the wall but it terminated the stasis fields. Who or whatever is in there is going to wake up real soon."
Looking back at the stasis pods with fear the two men came to realize that their problems would be going from bad to worse in no time flat as several hissing sounds came from the columns as they opened and hands emerged from the openings.
Things never being as easy as they should be, just then the sound of a Federation transporter was heard causing the two men to dive for cover. They had no idea why this had happened but they knew one thing for certain: with the unknown creatures coming out of the stasis pods in front of them and the transporter sound having being directly behind them, they were looking at being in the middle of something that was likely not going to be good. The sound of Romulan disruptors filling the air was all that the two men needed to know that they had been correct in their assessment.
Watching the battle unfold in disbelief the two men stayed hidden and well out of the way of the battle offering no resistance or argument when the order to deactivate the cloaking device they had worked so hard to keeping in working condition was given.
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Stardate: 10298.1601
Setting: TOLAR IV, Inside Romulan Ship, Bridge, hidden compartment
The Dominion had been made to believe that they had captured the Romulan Frigate while in reality the Tal'Shiar had allowed it to be taken for the purpose of this mission. Intel received over several months had pointed them to TOLAR IV while indicating a large possibility of trouble. The idea had been simple, to allow the Vorta and his Jem'Hadar lackeys to do the work and for Sub-Commander Jeran and his men to retake control of the ship once the Yal-Tonil was found and retrieved. This would avoid the Romulans to enter a full out confrontation with the Dominion and should things go wrong the Founders could always be accused by the Romulan Senate of theft of a ship and conspiracy against the Star Empire.
(from Julian's post)
"Sub-Commander, our cloak… its offline!"
"Where in the hell is T'Ranius?!" the sub-commander barked, "Have you been able to reach anyone in engineering?"
"No sir…"
"Sir!" the operations officer interjected, "we're being scanned… and…"
"… transported sir."
"Where are we?" as he looked around.
(back to mine)
Remaining absolutely quiet in their hidden and shielded compartment, the two Romulan Tal'Shiar agents watched through their observation screen the Federation Marines burst onto the bridge and take control of the ship. Things had not gone according to plan leaving the two Romulans to consider their alternatives.
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Stardate: 10298.1602
Setting: TOLAR IV, Inside Romulan Ship, Bridge
Watching his men escort the Vorta off the bridge, 2nd Lt. Pravat remained behind to secure the bridge and receive reports from the rest of his men as to their status. One group had three Jem'Hadars pined in one of the small cargo holds while another carefully scanned the ship for more Jem'Hadars or whatever else might be hiding on the ship. The operation to take over the ship had gone relatively well but the Enaran man still felt that there was something missing, but he wasn't sure what.
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Serena Switt {serena1141@yahoo.com.au}
Lieutenant Serenna
Chief of Operations / Second Officer
USS ANUBIS
