"Insults"
(Previous Post was Serena's "Tactical Observations")
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Stardate: 60342.1045
Once not so long ago he had been in charge of a mighty cruiser which
had been involved in countless battles for the glory of the Cardassian
Union… now, after having unknowingly stepped on the toes of an operative of
the Obsidian Order Gul Massar had found himself in command of a simple
freighter running cargo runs between 2 second rate systems. That had been the
first insult.
Central Command had done all that it could to protect the Gul's rank
and command but in the end the influence of the Cardassian Intel Agency had
proven to be too strong… and that the officer Gul Massar had gone
against had been the nephew of the head of the Obsidian Order had of course not helped matters any. Massar found all of his hard earned privileges
revoked leaving him with nothing but a name that had been made to be stricken
from the official records. Being cast into the shadows of obscurity had
been the second and possibly the most painful insult of them all.
The reassignment of Massar to the freighter and its route had been widely publicized throughout the Cardassian Union as a show of strength by the Obsidian Order and had only added another insult to the once proud and loyal soldier of CARDASSIA. For 3 years the Gul carried out all of the duties of his new position without uttering a single complaint knowing that anything he openly said about the order would likely only make an already bad situation worse. Gul Massar eventually accepted his new life as a freighter captain taking some minor comfort in that he would no longer have to endure the insults being hurled in his direction by the head of the Obsidian Order who obviously still held a grudge against the officer who had insulted his nephew.
When the Gul learned that his ship had been selected to host a *Fleeter* for a Medical Exchange program between the Federation and the Cardassian Union Massar's resolve dropped to an all time low, this latest insult having been more than the proud soldier could handle. To be *exiled* to run cargo runs for the rest of his life had apparently not been enough and the head of the Obsidian Order had obviously decided to add yet another insult to Massar's ever growing list.
Although the 2 superpowers were not at war the tensions between Humans
and Cardassians had never really been erased after the Dominion War so many
decades ago. Many claimed that this had been in part due to the
efforts of the Obsidian Order to undermine the Federation's continued efforts to expand and even maybe try to draw some of the worlds under the control of
CARDASSIA PRIME away from the union. Others, like Gul Massar, suspected that the Federation had never wanted the Cardassian Union to regain the glory
that it had once had and had done everything to undermine the rebuilding
efforts. Even after all that he had faced and endured, Massar still found
himself siding with the opinions of the Cardassian and Obsidian Order when it
came to the mighty Federation.
Of course this meant that having a *Fleeter* onboard his ship had only
made things worse and had led Gul Massar to actually be physically ill at
the thought of his decks being soiled by the feet of a Federation Doctor.
The real insult in this matter had been that he could not go to see the CMO
to seek some kind of relief for his discomfort since *Doctor Hogg* had
been the only medical officer onboard the freighter… for a crew of 48 men it had not made sense to have more than 1 Doctor. At least there had been a
*nurse* that Massar could try to call upon when she had not been busy with her
other duties as assistant to the Chief Engineer.
"Our sensors just went dead," the CSciO reported all of a sudden with
complete surprise… there had been no warnings whatsoever. One second
the sensors were working and the next they could not see past the forward
most section of their hull.
"Drop us down to impulse speed and call Drast to tell him that the
sensors are down… again," the Gul sighed feeling the tension in his neck jump
several points. To be in charge of a freighter had apparently not been
insult enough… the ship also needed to be falling apart at the seams.
Although annoying these frequent malfunctions had proven to be a distraction of sorts to an otherwise uneventful routine… but that would soon change.
"What the!!!" the FCO exclaimed as the form of an unidentified ship
zoomed in front of them… close enough for everyone on the bridge to see its
markings without even trying. "What's a Federation ship doing inside
Cardassian space?"
"I don't know… but we are in no shape to find out. Contact Central
Command and relay our position and situation… also I want that *Fleeter* we
have onboard shoved into whatever brig we can come up with until they can
explain what this is all about," Massar bellowed obviously less than thrilled
with what had just happened.
"Communications with CARDASSIA PRIME are also down… I am unable to
raise anyone from Central Command or any of the patrols in this region," the
communications officer who also doubled as the CSciO replayed
immediately jumping to the conclusion that the Federation ship that they had just seen had someone managed to block their systems.
"Helm turn us around and be ready to engage full engines… we need to
get out of this interference field as fast as we can. As for our *Fleeter*
Doctor, if she resists… shoot her."
The entire crew of the Cardassian freighter went into action trying as
best they could to comply with the orders given and deal with the situation
that had unfolded all around them… but just when they thought they had
things under control something else happened.
The sound of multiple impacts against their outer hull filled the air
as the lights went out and the ship was made to violently rock under the
repeated assault.
"Primary power had been knocked off-line… reading multiple hull
breaches throughout the ship… emergency force fields are inoperative… bulkheads are being dropped into containment position," the ExO reported unable to detect the cause of the sudden list of events and malfunctions.
"Have we been boarded?" Massar inquired thinking that maybe the impacts
had been a new delivery system used by the Federation to have their troops
land onboard enemy ships.
"Negative… internal sensors are not showing anything or anyone," the
CSciO reported just as another set of impacts rocked the ship sending
everyone off their seats and onto the floor. By the time the command staff of the Cardassian freighter had regained their footing they discovered one of
the sources of their problems standing inside the turbolift, the doors to
the pod having been ripped open.
Since he had been demoted to being in command of a simple freighter Gul
Massar had not been made aware of the situation with the Imperians… and
even if he had there would have been nothing he or anyone else onboard his
ship could have done against the mechanical machines that had so easily
boarded his vessel and dealt with what little opposition they had so far
encountered.
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"We are Grey, we stand between the Candle and the Star, between the
Darkness and the Light" 2006 post #124
Setting: Cardassian Freighter
Sabrina Jones {sabrina_sweet@hotmail.com}
Captain Sabrina Rikar
Commanding Officer
USS ANUBIS, NCC-18501
-Entilza Delenn, Babylon 5
