Chapter IIa: Absolute Disaster

"Permission granted," Cass responds, standing in front of her chair with her hands laced behind her back. She hopes she looks more relaxed than she feels. Darcy Jr.'s betrayal has shaken her confidence, not in herself, but in her acting first officer's judgment. Cass fears that choosing her was another error on her part.

When you talk to Darcy, she looks at you silently for a few seconds before simply responding with "I will not do anything to endanger this mission, Commander." You then dismiss her.

Right after you give permission to beam over, three people materialize in ops. Captain Tulak greets all of you and says: "Thank you for allowing us to meet on your ship. I am Captain Tulak Intash, this is my first officer, Commander Lewis Archer, and this is my head of security, Lieutenant Commander Eric Waters. Should we begin?"

Well, then tell me this, then - what the heck did they use to play poker with? I mean, yeah, they wanted us to believe that this was an ideal, post-capitalism society, and yet we see them buying stuff! It's so confusing!

The Antarctica crew sits down as well. Captain Tulak looks at her head of security who begins speaking.
"A few weeks ago we were passing through this sector, accompanying a convoy of transport ships that were carrying Void Crystals, phaser and photon torpedo systems and antimatter chambers. The convoy was attacked by half a dozen ships, one of them a Consortium ship, Explorer class. We barely managed to beat them back before they got through our shields but in their retreat they managed to attach one of their ships to one of the convoy ships and pull it with them into Warp."
Captain Tulak speaks up next: "We have not communicated with any of the pirates since they did not respond to our hails. The admiral informed us that you communicated with the group that attacked you and that they were led by Captain Ery-An. Is that true?"

Exactly! How did the Starfleet folks buy drinks and holosuite time at Quark's? They spent a LOT of time there, and he sure wasn't waiving payment because the Federation was too enlightened to deal with money.

"Then it should be our main objective to retrieve the Captain as well as the members of your crew - and any other hostages the pirates may keep.", Captain Tulak replied. "You already have a plan?"

Darcy explains the plan: Tracking the USS Verdun's Warp signature, manually filling the ships with the tranquilizer gas by cutting into the hull and administering it from there and then boarding them to look for and recover the kidnapped crewmembers.
The captain listens carefully and then looks at her crewmembers. Lt. Comm. Waters turns towards Zlam. "How much of the gas is available? Do we have enough in case the three ships you've encountered rendezvoused with another ship? And who is going to administer the gas? If they are discovered and the enemy ships turn on their shields, they are almost certainly dead."
Captain Tulak adds: "And we have to find a way to get our people onto the hull of the ships undiscovered."

"Doctor, I have full confidence in your abilities but does it seem wise to do it all by yourself? If there are three ships, shouldn't we hit them all simultaneously?", Commander Archer questions. "We all have heard of your impressive achievements during your career so far but I assure you, you will find our scientists just as capable of installing and regulating the gas dispensers as yourself."