Pawns and Precursors

Posted on Mon Apr 18th, 2011 @ 3:16pm by Captain Nathan Cowell MD & Commodore Amanda Pike & Lieutenant Colonel Anastasia DeVries & 1st Lieutenant Lukas DeVries
Edited on on Mon Apr 18th, 2011 @ 4:26pm

Mission: Renegades
Location: Various
Timeline: Directly after 'Sneak Attack'

=Captain's Ready Room, USS Arizona=

Commodore Nathan Cowell had invested just enough time to replicate the proper uniform prior to departing for his designated meeting with the commander of the USS Casey. Regardless of his personal displeasure for his promotion to Flag Officer, and his overall disdain for political postings in general, it was a matter of record and there was no point trying to hide it or violate any number of regulations pretending it didn't happen. With all the chaos happening around the Arizona at the moment it really didn't matter to anyone when Nathan walked out of his Ready Room, which had also been sufficiently trashed in the attack, that he was now wearing Commodore pips. Things just kept moving right along...

"Joker, I'm beaming over there to the Casey, keep things together until I get back," Doc Cowell hollered out as he made for the turbolift on the other side of the bridge.

"Aye, Captain..." Roberts said, looking back just long enough to register the sudden change in uniform, "Err... Commodore..."

"Long story, will explain later," Nathan said dismissively before vanishing into the turbolift.

=Transporter Room One, USS Casey=

The transporter operator standing at the console swiped his fingers up the transport activation panel, starting the re-materialization process. The shimmering of the matter stream began to fill the pad that would soon hold the form of Cdre. Cowell. Within seconds, his energized matter coalesced into solid form and he was standing on the pad. He looked around for a second to get his bearings before stepping off the transporter.

"So, who's who and what's going on?" Nathan asked.

Looking up from his console briefly to greet the newcomer, the Lieutenant pointed his finger towards the door. "Commodore Pike should be on the bridge, waiting for your arrival. If you'd like I could escort you there."

"It's the one furthest up top, I think I can manage. Turbolift just outside?" Nathan asked.

The Lieutenant nodded and that was all the old man needed before he disappeared out of the transporter room and entered the lift. Nathan ordered it to take him to the bridge, which the lift silently complied. The ride took all of roughly a dozen or so seconds and he was deposited on the deck he'd requested. The small bridge indicated to Nathan that he was on a small ship, probably no bigger, if not a touch smaller than the Arizona, though Nathan hadn't actually bothered to ask or inquire of Major DeVries as to what the Casey actually was.

"Ok, where is this Pike person at? All this subterfuge and cloak and dagger shit is starting to wear thin..." Nathan groused as he stepped fully onto the bridge. Give that the woman he was hunting was of equal rank, he didn't care much to engage in pleasant chit chat.

From the moment the grumpy figure entered onto the bridge all personnel took a brief moment to 'size' the man up. Now, all eyes focused onto the blonde haired woman near the view screen. "She would be directly towards the front," the voice replied as she began the walk to close the distance between them. "So glad of you to stop on by. I'm sure you have questions."

"Sure do," Nathan said bluntly, "Who exactly are you, for starters. After that gets cleared up, where the hell did you come from? I never remember seeing a ship out in this area named the Casey on any of the tactical reports I've gotten. Add to that your sudden appearance when we're about to be blown to hell, which I'm grateful for of course, but it could have been timed a little better so I didn't lose twenty odd good people... I think that's good for the moment."

"Commodore?" the voice of a slightly taller Bajoran man called from near the tactical console.

Raising a hand to assure him everything was alright, the woman again turned her attention towards the elder man. "The name is Amanda Pike. My vessel has been following you since you're departure from the other side of the Neutral Zone. You see... we're fugitives of the Federation in a manner of speaking. Only my ties to Section 31 has managed to keep us for the most part alive and undetected. Which, of course, brings us to you. I'm sure you recall your meeting with Mr. Lynch?"

"Yeah... wormy little fuck boy... reminded me of someone equally slimy but a lot more dead. But anyway, I do recall him coming to me on Pacifica, but he really didn't have much good to say. Why, is he the reason we got ass raped by Romulans?" Nathan asked with a frown.

Amanda shook her head though the phrase 'ass raped' did leave an intriguing image in her mind. "Unfortunately you're raping has nothing to do with him or even me. We're here on an entirely different matter all together. I'm not sure how much you know, but I'm going to offer you the super short condensed version right now. There are members of the section that, believe it or not, are not serving in the fleet's best interest. Some of those individuals have been plotting a rather nasty attack on the Federation itself. One such member of this team turned on his buddies... and had been on the run for the last four some years... until I found him. He's currently in my ready room. Shall we go have a talk?"

"And here I thought you were all evil, selfish shitheads... Learn something new everyday..." Nathan muttered loud enough for everyone to hear it before he shrugged, "What the hell, I'm already knee deep in this shit, might as well dive on in. Lead the way, Miss Mandy."

She raised an eyebrow. "That's Amanda, if you don't mind," she retorted sharply as she motioned for him to proceed through to the nearby door. "I suppose I should further warn you... this situation will only get worse once Anastasia hears about it."

"I'm not shocked about that," Nathan said dismissively as he walked through the door and found some kid sitting in a seat in the Ready Room. Nathan wasn't entirely sure about it, but he did look a little like the Major, if nothing else in the way he carried himself. Nathan went out on a limb and made the obvious commentary.

"So... let me guess, you're her kid, she thinks you suffered some horrible fate, and now that you're back you're going to have a tearful reunion with your mother that will likely tear yet another asshole into my already asshole filled ship... Have I gotten close to the mark on this so far?" the old man deduced.

Amanda scoffed at the mere thought of any tearful reunion. "You'll be lucky if she doesn't set phaser to vaporize."

"You must be Cowell," the young man finally spoke as he rose to his feet. "I suppose I should thank you for not getting your ass handed to you sooner or else I might have missed this opportunity. Nevertheless, what's done is done and now we must press forward. The Delta Quadrant is in serious danger and we have to stop it."

"Yes, I'm Commodore Cowell," Nathan corrected, "And what exactly does that have to do with you and the price of tea in China... Wait..."

Nathan paused for a moment as an idea formulated in his head, "This wouldn't be some kind of set-up on your parts to get my ship where you wanted it to be to combat whatever danger you're over here yammering about, would it? I'd hate to think someone's trying to use me and my boat as pawns..."

"We're all pawns... metaphorically speaking," the man continued. "But, in simple terms, yes, you're correct. As I'm sure the other Commodore has mentioned, the Casey is, for lack of better words, a ship on the run and thus cannot lead this mission in the way in should be led. I have reason to believe certain agents within Section 31 have been working with Species 8472 in an attempt to invade and conquer most of Delta Quadrant. As I'm sure you're even further aware, 8472 is not an enemy to be taken lightly and any sudden appearance by them would cause a confusion not seen since the Dominion War."

Nathan frowned for two reasons, the first being that he didn't much care to be used for anyone's aims other than his own. Secondly, despite that, he understood that the threat of Species 8472 was a real one that could not be taken, as the boy had said, lightly. What the Commodore had to do now was reconcile his utter disdain for the situation and the urgency of things. Reluctantly, Nathan allowed the fact that he was being bullied by shadow puppeteers to slide to the wayside in favor of focusing on the immediate needs of the greater good.

"Ignoring for a second that we're being snowballed into this shit... what exactly is going on? How does this all relate to what's happening right now? Or is this just in addition to what we're going through right this second?" Nathan asked finally.

The young man shook his head. "Nothing that you're dealing with at present has anything to do with what I just told you. Random encounters I guess one could call it. I suspect we could take them out rather quickly though."

"Yeah, that sounds fine by me... We can do that and then attend to this other business later I suppose. That just leaves the matter of what we're doing with you..." Nathan said, his eyes narrowing, "What's your name, anyhow? You didn't bother to introduce yourself."

"It's Lukas. Lukas DeVries," he replied casually. "I don't suppose you'd mind me tagging along with you? I suspect I've put the Casey in danger long enough."

Amanda sighed at the remark, despite it being true. "I told you not to worry about me. Besides, you just told the man we could take care of his problem real quick didn't you?"

"Yeah yeah yeah... Stay here, come to the Arizona, makes no difference to me. I just want to kick those Romulans into the next existence and be done with it. We need to go over anything else before I go back and oversee my people putting my Humpty Dumpty back together?" Nathan asked grumpily.

Both of them shook their heads in unison. "If you'd like I could send over some of my personnel to speed up the efforts," Amanda offered.

"The more the merrier. I'm sure there's plenty of shit to fix, and I'm down two dozen hands..." Nathan said sourly, "Once we get back in a shape worthy of rendering retaliatory ass kickings, we'll have to coordinate our attack plan. Until then..."

Nathan turned to Lukas, "You in Starfleet or you a civilian?"

"1st Lieutenant, Starfleet Marines," the man replied with a curious glare. "Specializing in intel, of course."

"Alright, Lieutenant, move your ass," Nathan ordered, pointing to the door. When the boy was out of the door, Nathan looked over to Amanda, "Am I crazy, or is he not from this reality?"

Pacing in the small area which housed her resident fish tank, Amanda took a deep breath. "You're not crazy. Both Lukas and his twin, Kristin, are indeed from an alternate universe. Their arrival here was a bit... unpredicted as you can imagine... but the insight they can offer from having lived in a place that we couldn't even fathom speaks in volumes. Don't get me wrong Commodore. He's young... a bit cocky and got a temper to rival his mother's... but he's a damn good kid. I suspect he'll do some good things if you keep him around."

Nathan shrugged, "That remains to be seen. I just wanted to know why I was getting that name feeling... Anyway, I'll be in touch, Mandy."

Before the woman could correct him a second time, Nathan was out the door, meeting up with Lukas near the turbolift just in time to ride down to the transporter room with him. Nathan could have let the boy off without an inquisition, but that just wouldn't have been in his nature...

"So, how bad do you think she's going to bludgeon you when she sees you? Should I have medical on stand-by?" the Commodore asked.

Lukas considered his question before smiling. "For me or them? Cause I suspect she'll attempt to annihilate anything within ten miles. Still... it would be... nice to see her. It's been a long time."

Nathan couldn't help but laugh, "Well, I hope you say that when we get there. Hate to see you turn tail and run..."

The two of them mounted the transporter pad and soon were aboard the USS Arizona once more, the figure of one Major Anastasia S. DeVries waiting for them when they re-materialized. Nathan was the first to walk down the transporter pad, smug as always.

"I'd say I found him, but I think Mandy Pike over there was really responsible for that. He just followed me home. You two play nice..." the old man said before heading out into the dimly lit corridor beyond.