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"Shadows Dealings"
[Previous Post: "Dancing With Shadows"]
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<< And so it begins.>>
- Ambassador Kosh

Setting: VALLA ROYAL, Corridor
Stardate: 63077.0310

As guests of the VALLA ROYAL, the business man and his bodyguard had been supplied with basic quarters while they waited for the outcome of the investigation into the state of the computer cores that the duo had officially come here to claim.  In order to maintain their cover though, the Native American and Oltharian had been forced to remain in these quarters instead of joining the others in search of information and the ANUBIS' missing CO.

On the bright side of things this had allowed the HATHOR's CO to establish a sort of command post from which they would be able to coordinate their efforts.  At least that had been the idea, an idea that had not been as of yet implemented.

"So?" Erik inquired of the Chief Engineer; the fact that their combined knowledge and expertise had not found a solution to their problem had been frustrating to say the least.

"There is no way to get any sort of communication to or from the HATHOR," the Oltharian replied with a sigh.  "In fact we can't even contact the rest of the team."

"Is the VALLA ROYAL jamming our communications, and if so why?" The Native American inquired to no one in particular hoping that thinking out loud might enable him to think of something that he had not considered before.  "Did we do something to blow our cover and is the rest of the team in danger?"  Erik's frustration had only mounted over the last hour, the same unanswered questions having repeated in his head non-stop.

"I think I may have something," the Oltharian announced as the small view screen on the desk came to life.  "Since I was unable to get any information from the communication's array of the VALLA ROYAL, I thought I would try something different and tap into the orbital sensors, those that insure that the station does no crash into the planet."

"Those sensors would only be directed to the planet and will be of little use to us," Captain Morningstar pointed out, somewhat puzzled by the line of thinking of the Oltharian.

"We have been working on the idea that it was the VALLA ROYAL which was blocking communications, but they have no reason to do this, so what if we have been working on a wrong assumption?" Elan offered with a smile as he turned the monitor to face the visibly confused CO.  On the screen, a representation of the VALLA ROYAL orbital station in relation to the planet had been displayed, as well as an energy field surrounding the station.

"Where is that field coming from?  The planet?" Erik asked, having already gathered that this had been the cause of their inability to communicate with anyone else.

Instead of voicing his reply, the Oltharian simply modified the display to include the surrounding space and ships contained therein.  A single beam of energy could now be seen emanating from the battle cruiser to the station.

"Is there a way to intercept that ship's communications?" The Native American demanded, his frustration having turned to anger.  "I have the bad feeling that whatever these guys are up to it won't be pleasant for any of us."

"Already working on it," the Oltharian stated, his imposing finger already having begun their expert dance on the controls.  "I'm picking up a lot of chatter, some internal, some between other vessels, none of which is encoded.  It seems that whatever they have to say they are not worried about anyone else listening in on it."

"Nothing scarier than someone who believes their position to be so strong that they have nothing to hide," Erik sighed, not at all reassured by this latest discovery.

"Here is something of interest," Elan pointed as he isolated one specific communication from the long list that they had been able to eavesdrop on.  "Communication from their home world addressed to a Trodat stating that they have control of the Grand Council.  That message is being relayed to a specific location on the station, likely to avoid being disrupted by the interference field they have generated."

"A planetary coup?  What do we have on this Trodat?" Morningstar demanded, his fears having slowly begun to turn into reality.

"VALLA ROYAL has one Trodat listed on their political guest list," Elan reported after having done a quick search of the station's databank that he had earlier broken into.  "He's the son of the PYTHRON Ambassador."

"Get me the target location of that transmission," the Native American ordered, all too sure that the time for action had been now.  "Best case scenario we'll be just in time to save the Ambassador, worst case we'll get there in time to pick up the pieces and hope that we can stop this from affecting others on the station."

"The communication beam was directed to a cargo hold," the ANUBIS' CEO reported.  "According to the station's own map, the Ambassador's son is in H-0101 now."

"Let's go," Erik stated as he headed for the door letting the imposing Oltharian with the task of catching up.  "Hope we'll be lucky enough to run into others along the way.

--==(/\)==--
Francois Charette

Lieutenant Elan Talak Fairborn
Chief Engineering Officer
USS ANUBIS

AND

Robotics Engineering Officer
NEW ALEXANDRIA

Also

Captain Erik Morningstar
Commanding Officer
USS PARADOX