USS PATRIOT: Ready Room ("Exposition")

From: Naomi Lara (naomi.lara_at_gmail.com)
Date: Wed Jan 24 2007 - 16:50:57 PST


 "Exposition"
Con't from Rahul's Post

Location: USS PATRIOT
Scene: Ready Room

"This situation is rapidly deteriorating from bad to worse.  We need to
quickly figure out what is going on, and how we're involved in all of it."
Helice began as she looked at the woeful remains of her senior staff.  It
was just herself, Cal and Maverick.  It was a pitiful state of affairs, but
most of her senior staff were on the planet, and some were missing.

They desperately needed to pull back and regroup.  "Preliminary intelligence
suggests that the central government is fighting a battle on two fronts.
One is within its society, and one within its own ranks."  That information
had come easily enough from Kenta who had done his own digging about.  But
it was a worrying sign that a society could destabilize so quickly.

"Maybe they should take the hint."  Maverick grunted with a dark scowl.  He
didn't think very highly of politics

"Traditionally, that has never happened."  Cal resisted the urge to roll her
eyes.  In some ways, Mav kept reminding her of a barbarian that wanted
nothing better then a fight.  He was so cynical.  More so then her.  "Do we
need to call for additional help?"  She asked, directing the question at
Helice.

The Captain shook her head with a slight frown.  "There's not much we can
truly do here.  We certinaly can't stand in the way of what the majority of
people want on Esperion.  And we ourselves are not targeted, so, I think
backup would just escalate things to an even higher level."  The woman sat
down in her chair and glanced at the two officers.  "If we can figure out
what's going on below, we can make the best decisions."

"How's the search going?"  Maverick asked after a momentary pause.  It was a
segway from the topic, but he needed to know, and Jones always had the most
up-to-date information.

"It's continuing."  She replied with a brisk nod.  "We haven't found them
yet, but the pilots have caught a couple of signals.  They suspect they're
underground."

"The Central Government is the democratically elected representative of
these people.  Their opposition, if you will was Jurveus who has through
peaceful means at least, funded and organized his own faction in a bid to
govern the planet.  He however doesn't seem to have meddled in the
politics.  Although a person of that influence would have curried a lot of
favor from the politicians."  Jones quickly ran through the list of facts as
she understood them.  Jurveus' group was at the very least the lesser of
their concerns.

"So he's a puppet master."  Bret mused out loud.  He didn't like it when
people pulled strings from the shadows.  It showed lack of courage, or some
personality that was too devious altogether.   "He wasn't responsible for
that bomb?"

"No, that was done by a person called dubbed Half-Tail."  Cal replied.  "He
works in the Esperion government, but has used the confusion to make his own
move for power.  He staged the bomb and the take over at Beliel."  The
Anarian casually flipped her red hair over her shoulder.

"What's left of it anyway."  The marine replied.

"We don't know it was him." Helice counseled her Operations Officer.

"There cannot possibly be a coup within a coup within a coup.  That is
absolute madness.  It has to be Half-Tail."

"Why not Jurveus?"  Jones asked the young woman.

"He wouldn't gain anything from it."  The alien woman shook her head, she
felt very strongly about this, down to the very marrow of her bones.  "He's
trying to win the people over with smiles and talk. Not with explosions and
mass murder."  Cal retorted stubbornly.

"So what now?"  Maverick replied.
"We do nothing.  We have no right to interfere with the social processes of
a planet.  We do, however, have a right to get our people back."  Helice
stated with a faint shake of her head.  Esperion was not a Federation
planet, they could really do little to help.   "Kenta and Kel are leading
the ground teams to the recovery of Clarkson, Rochemonte, Calhoun and
Harris.  We should know their status within the hour."  Jones said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
NRPG:  This is just my way of cleaning up the story a little bit, it was
getting a little too muddy

Thanks Rahul for oyur help!

Naomi Lara

Catherine Sterling Jade
ILO

and

Tellah Cal
Chief Ops


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