Attack Vector

Posted on 03 Jul 2016 @ 12:56am by Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale & Captain Harvey Geisler & Commander Thiago Teixeira

2,391 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Risky Business
Location: XO's Office
Timeline: MD 2 || 1530 Hours

Once Lieutenant's Cooper and Corwin had reported back to her with their plan on the assault on the Chimera and Cochrane, Camila gathered everything into a detailed report and headed up to the deck where the Executive Officer's office was located and pressed the chime, a PADD in her other hand. She was so used to going directly to the Captain that it felt odd to be reporting to someone else, but she was determined to follow the chain of command. A new Executive Officer wouldn't like it if his first impression of the Chief of Security if she felt that he was a worthless link and may report that fact to the Captain.

He'd been on the bridge a grand total of two hours since coming aboard. Between getting caught up on paperwork that hadn't been touched since Xiao had met his unfortunate end and working on shift rotations, Thiago had spent most of his time holed up in his quarters. He didn't mind being in his quarters necessarily. In fact, since he had yet to make friends here, he was more comfortable alone. But endless hours sitting in one place had taken it's toll. That's when he discovered that he actually had an office.

It had taken him a while to find it. The deck listing didn't provide much insight. Fortunately, he'd finally found it. That was almost an hour previous, he realized, looking up at the chronometer on the wall.

Camila waited a moment longer and when there was no answer, she drew her phaser and quickly entered the Security override with her free hand. Before the doors were even fully opened, she entered and swept the room with her eyes, her phaser following their lead. When she saw the Executive Officer sitting unmolested at his desk and apparently at work, she lowered the phaser. "Commander Teixeira?"

"Que porra é essa!" he exclaimed, startled by the intrusion. A moment later, his heart rate slowed back to normal. "Quite an entrance, Lieutenant."

When the universal translator revealed what he had said, Camila barely restrained a laugh as her own pulse slowed from the burst of adrenaline which had flooded her system prior to her entrance of his office. "I apologize, Commander," she said. "But with the recent events which have taken place on the ship prior to your arrival, I felt that you may have been in danger when I rang the chime and you didn't respond."

"Really? I didn't even hear it. My apologies then." He picked a PADD off the ground, which he'd dropped when the young Security Chief had burst in. "In the future though, I would greatly appreciate if you try the announcer a second time before breaching my office door. Maybe even use your communicator too."

"I'll keep that in mind, Sir," she said as she holstered her phaser. "I was hoping that you had a moment to review the plans that Security has in regards to the Chimera, Cochrane and the rumored Romulan ship."

He motioned to the chair across from his own. "Of course, Lieutenant." Thiago considered the Security Chief. She was attractive with inviting brown eyes set in her oval face. "What have you got?"

Camila took the offered seat and got her thoughts together and activated the PADD. "We have decided on a three-prong attack on the Consortium ships, Commander," she started. "Lieutenant's Corwin and Cooper will be leading individual assaults on the Chimera and the Cochrane equipped with devices which will emit sound designed to operate at a level which will render most beings capable of hearing unable to move or act. They plan to beam over to the ships since shields will be inoperative in the Haydn Nebula, open a shipwide com and use the devices. Each of them will be equipped with a FM frequency device implanted in their jawbones to allow communication with the Black Hawk and have micro transporter transponders on them to allow transport back to the ship."

"For the Romulan Warbird, Petty Officer Andropov will be leading a full Security team to secure and hold it should Consortium agents be aboard with the plan to incapacitate them and remove the threat of the Thalaran device," she finished.

"Andropov is up for it? Having a Petty Officer leading an away team isn't standard."

"My Assistant Chief is going to be on one ship. My Chief K-9 Handler is going to be on another ship and I'm going to be needed here," Camila said. "He has the experience and he'll be leading an experienced team."

Thiago looked at Di Pasquale. "You know your people better than I do. If you have confidence in Mister Andropov, I do too. Who else is on his team? All your people?"

Camila looked at the list. "Ensign Shep Hollingsworth, Ensign Hernandez, Chief Warrant Officer 2nd Class Ricardo Gutierrez, and Warrant Officer 1st Sali Barns and an assortment of others," she told him. "Since this is a small ship, we have to leave a Security compliment here to protect her in case the Consortium attempts to board us as well. It's happened before and it'll happen again and I'll be ready."

"Have the non-Security personnel been cleared by their department heads? If you need some help with that, I can provide some polite nudging to any holdouts. I'll just need the names," he offered. As Executive Officer, one of his tasks was to coordinate between departments, and this mission was going to need a lot of cooperative work.

"No, Sir," she said. "I would greatly appreciate it. I've been extremely busy coordinating with Security the past day and a half to get everything sorted out. I was hoping to have a solid start on the Search and Rescue team by now, but so far, only one person has shown up for training."

"That's what I'm here for, Lieutenant," Teixeira said with a smile. "I'd love to hear more about this Search and Rescue team concept. Maybe we can talk about it over drinks some day," he offered.

"Captain Geisler has all the details," Camila said. "He approved it before you came aboard, Commander. Myself, Lieutenant Cooper and now Lieutenant Corwin are all SAR certified and I had talked to the Captain about training a team from Black Hawk and improve everyone's skills and enable them to learn skills in other areas. It would improve upon officer quality as well as better away teams. As for drinks, well, I may consider it if we all come out of this mess alive and mentally sound."

"Of course. I don't want to distract you from your duties," he confirmed. "But I would like to get to know the senior staff better. Both professionally and personally." His green eyes sparkled.

"Professionally is fine, Commander," she said. "My personal life is extremely busy from the moment I get off duty until I crawl in bed with my boyfriend. The defenses of the ship are my primary concern in this meeting, though, and I'm prepared to defend it with everything available." She hesitated. "There is one thing which I'm reluctant to bring up as it requires authorization and we're radio silent at the moment."

"Oh?" Thiago said, his curiosity piqued. "What is that?"

"I want authorization to use a tri-cobalt device to destroy the Romulan warbird as a last ditch effort if all else fails," Camila said.

He wasn't sure what he was expecting Di Pasquale to say, but it definitely wasn't that. "I see," he said quietly. "Have you talked to the Captain about this yet?"

"No, Sir," Camila said. "I'm following the chain of command." Which she hadn't always done, but the green eyed Commander did not need to know that.

"Understood," he replied, considering the request. He wasn't about to authorize use of a tri-cobalt himself. He was entirely too new to the Black Hawk to make such a large decision. In the future, once he had a better read on Geisler and they'd formed a better relationship, maybe then. "That is a decision for the Captain to make. Would you like me to raise it with him, or would you prefer to do it yourself? Perhaps we could approach him together."

"Approaching him together would be for the best," she said. "It's going to require mutual agreement and he'll probably have questions," she said. "I haven't held anything back from you, Commander, but something like this is bigger than both of us."

"Agreed," he assented. Thiago had worked with plenty of security chiefs in his 20+ year career. Di Pasquale was right up there with some of the best, based on his admittedly limited interaction with her so far. Her professionalism and instinct seemed top-notch. Despite the breaking in his office and leveling a phaser at him incident of just a few minutes previous. But she'd done that out of what appeared to be genuine dedication to her job protecting the ship and its crew.

"Teixeira to Geisler," he called after tapping his comm badge.

A pause existed before Harvey's voice was returned over the comm. =^= "Geisler here. Go ahead." =^=

"Lieutenant Di Pasquale and I need to meet with you. It's mission related."

His response was immediate. =^= "On my way." =^= The channel closed with a chirp.

Thiago looked up at Di Pasquale. "Can I get you anything from the replicator?"

"No, thank you," she said.

As Harvey was deeper in the bowels of the ship, it took him a few minutes to arrive at Mac's--Thiago's office. He'd never had the opportunity to visit Xiao while he held the role. The feeling now was bittersweet as he found himself thinking of former crew while he was pleased that he actually had a first officer to attend to ship's business.

Harvey entered the office to find both Thiago and Camila waiting for him. "Commander. Lieutenant," he greeted. "What do you have?"

"Lieutenant Di Pasquale brought something up to me. I decided it was a suggestion that warranted your attention," Teixeira explained. He wasn't about to tell the Captain to sit down, but he did motion towards the open chair next to the Security Chief. "Go ahead, Lieutenant."

"Captain," Camila said with a nod as he entered and gave her his full attention. "I was just briefing Commander Teixeira on the plans which I have made with Security regarding the taking of the Chimera and Cochrane, and a tentative plan for the Romulan warbird, but there is one contingency plan which I wished to discuss only with you and the Commander as it requires a decision which must be mutual." She took a breath and slowly let it out. "I wish authorization to use a tri-cobalt device in the event that we are unable to capture or destroy the rumored Tholaran device, Sir," she said as she met his eyes directly.

Harvey nodded, now fully understanding the gravity of why he was in the room. Since he came aboard, the Black Hawk possessed 15 Tri-Cobalt Devices. He hadn't used a single one, nor had he ordered or seen one ordered fired since the Dominion War, at least in areas he was involved in. "What is the possibility of thalaron residue after an explosion of that magnitude?" he asked.

"My suggestion is to beam the tri-cobalt device directly to the engineering section of the Romulan warbird and detonate it. The micro singularity that warbirds of that design utilize in lieu of a warp core should cause an implosion which will suck any radiation, the detonation and the warbird itself into it without adversely affecting us or other ships," Camila said. "Of course, the plan is to capture or destroy the warbird prior to that attempt, Captain."

"I doubt the Romulans will very much appreciate our willingness to destroy one of their own," Harvey responded, thinking that the Romulans have had plenty of chances to track down their lost bird. But what the Romulans felt didn't matter. If there was a dangerous weapon on board, it couldn't be allowed to fall into Consortium hands. Turning to Thiago, Harvey asked, having already made up his mind, "What were your thoughts on the matter, Commander?"

Teixeira considered his words carefully. He wanted to discuss the topic more with the Captain, in private, and therefore didn't want to appear to commit to a course of action in front of Di Pasquale. "I think that the Lieutenant's idea has some merit," he started. "It is certainly worth consideration. We have some time before we will need to make a final decision." He hoped that Geisler would hold off on giving approval just yet.

"But there's no telling how much time we have once we enter the nebula," Harvey countered. "We could find the Romulan ship, assuming the damn thing exists, in a matter of minutes or days." The Captain sighed, for the first time in months, legitimately missing exploring. "And because of that I don't know what there is to take into consideration, aside from any fall out from radiation or instability of the nebula. It'll be a last resort, Lieutenant. Nothing more."

"I understand, Captain," Camila responded. She hadn't expected a heartfelt go ahead on such a device and was glad that he had considered it to use as a last resort. "Permission to get one ready, Sir."

Harvey merely nodded, not wanting to say any more on the matter. Deep down, he hoped that this would be the end of it, and that they'd never have to use such a destructive weapon. He also wondered what it was like when the first atomic bomb had been used on Earth. Did the President look at that situation with the same gravity?

Camila returned the nod. "Is there anything else you wished to cover?" She asked both the men.

"I have nothing pressing," Harvey said, looking to Teixeira. "You, Commander?"

Teixeira shook his head. "No, Captain. I am sure that the Lieutenant's team will be able to get the job done." Which will remove the need for the need to use a tri-cobalt, he thought.

Harvey nodded to both officers. "As am I," he confirmed. "See you for lunch, Commander," Harvey said before leaving the room to finish his inspection.

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