Setting up a 'Plan B'

Posted on Sun Aug 14th, 2011 @ 7:02am by Captain Nathan Cowell MD & Major Jake Harper

Mission: Tomorrow's Arizona
Location: Commodore's Ready Room, Bridge, USS Arizona
Timeline: Shortly after 'Strange Encounters'

Any Federation ship Captain, without exception, would likely have found the idea of 'parley' with the Borg a rather laughable concept. More likely, however, they would have been extremely weary of such an exchange and the dangers presented by beaming to the surface of a planet that consisted of nothing but the Borg. The fact that Commodore Nathan Cowell was even remotely entertaining the notion of attending the meeting the Borg requested was just shy of insanity, even for him. Luckily, his wits hadn't escaped him so completely that he didn't remember the one ace he still had tucked in the hole. He had requested Major Harper's presence, not long after leaving the bridge, and was anxious to get his 'Plan B' formulated.

Jake exited the turbolift at the rear of the Bridge, doing a quick scan of the room to see if the Commodore was out on the prowl. The center was empty, and the Old Man was no where to be seen. Harper had been on board long enough to know if the Commodore wasn't planted in that seat, he was most likely in one of two places; and he doubted the lounge's bar was serving beverages during a Red Alert situation. Still, maybe he would make the suggestion at a more convenient time to institute a Happy Hour, regardless of emergencies.

The tall, bald marine made his way to the sealed door leading to the Ready Room. He was starting to frequent the room, and each visit seemed to be more entertaining than the last. The doors parted moments after taping the panel on the wall to the left, and the Major entered.

"Major, have a seat," Nathan said, indicating the chair resting before his desk, "Need to hash out a plan with you."

Down to business. It was the Commodore's trait that the Major greatly admired. Jake sat down, and crossed his leg in an attempt to get comfortable in the small chair.

"What did you have in mind, Sir?" Jake knew of the current situation, and the threat the Borg posed to the crew. He was eager to hear what the man had to say. Jake had been put face to face with many foes over his career. Romulans, Cardassians, Klingons, the Dominion, but never the Borg.

"I don't trust those assimilatin' fuckers, not as far as I can spit in their eye. Trouble is, we ain't got much choice in going down there and saying hi. Can't be helped... not with them being a bit above the cut of Borg we're used to. What I can do... or rather, what you can do, is get some men together, a right ornery bunch of jarheads if you got 'em, and prep them up for extraction ops if things go south on the surface. Much as I'd like to just have you down there, Harper, I don't want to lay the cards out there like that... not when I don't know what deck these bastards are playing from. Think you can handle that?" the old man explained.

"Fair enough, and I'm not gonna quote Starfleet General Orders to you. However, you do plan on taking someone with you...?" Harper asked, almost as though he was asking a stupid question.

"No, I figured I'd just schlep on down there by my onesies and see if they'll play nice..." Nathan grumbled sarcastically, "Of course I'll be taking people with me. I just wanted you and your men on the ready to come down and kick some Drone ass if I need it. That's why I want you on Plan B stand-by... Every time I have a Plan A and nothin' else, I get screwed. Ain't taking any chances anymore... gonna stack my deck before hand."

"I'm sure I can cook up something worthy of the name Plan B, Commodore. I'll have something on the books within the hour and my boys running simulations, as I'm sure you don't like to fly the seat of your pants when your life's on the line..."

"Depends on how drunk I am, I reckon..." Nathan muttered, giving serious thought to getting royally shitfaced before beaming down just for the hell of it.

"I can relate to that. Ever deal with Borg before?" The Major was curious to whether or not anyone on board had actually went toe to metal toe with Borg and walked away to tell the tale.

"Yeah, back when they came to my home world and went to land grabbin'. Probably why I ended up on the Enterprise-B, back when ol' Kirk got done in the first time by the Nexus. If it wasn't for that, I probably would never have heard of them until Picard got hurled into Borg space," Nathan admitted.

Jake was surprised, recalling the infamous mission from what he had read at the Academy. He had no idea that the Commodore was an El-Aurian, let alone that old. He had some more reading to do it appeared on his ship mates after all.

"I know you'll probably rant and rave you're not a mind reader, but why would they wanna talk. You of all people know they shoot first, and never ask questions... any hunches that might help in my planning process?"

"Other then... well hell... I don't know... that's why I need you to pack heat and come down firing if things go shitty. For all I know, this is some new tactic of theirs... get people to talk, then assimilate leaders and force the rest to comply. We'll just have to play this by ear," Nathan shrugged.

Jake nodded before standing, already tossing around some ideas and tactics that might come in handy in the coming hours. The plan didn't worry him, it was the means that the plan would come together that held his current thoughts. This would be the first chance to test the effectiveness of his team, and it wasn't exactly the most ideal situation to be 'getting the bugs out'. "If there isn't anything else Commodore, I'll get to it."

"Nope, you're good to go... make it happen," the old man remarked, returning his attention to other matters as the Marine made his exit.