Plan B

Posted on May 26, 2014 @ 9:47pm by Commander Gene McInnis
Edited on on Oct 26, 2015 @ 2:26pm

Mission: The Tangled Webs We Weave
Location: The BLADE

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"Plan B"

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Location: BLADE (Pirate vessel, unregistered)
Scene: Flight Deck
Star Date: 2.140522.1915

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This was not the plan.

Tomas' Alexei Vukovich scowled at the sensors as the starship swept past them, it's sensors banging off everything around it. The face he wore was blandly human and forgettable. It was part of the job, being forgettable.

"Did they see us?" the Captain hissed.

"Captain" was a loose term on board the BLADE. The Andorian currently holding the position had taken it from a Klingon mercenary who'd had the unfortunate bad grace to fall into plasma conduit ... with a knife in his back. And hadn't THAT been a mess to clean up!

"Unknown," Vukovich snapped.

They were hiding in the magnetic field of a small asteroid, powered down and watching for strays among the miners who worked this field looking for exotics to harvest for the benefit of rich folk who would never know where they came from. A missing miner or two ... who was going to care?

Star Fleet, apparently, Vukovich thought.

The ship they'd sent had become a real problem of late. The USS PANDORA wasn't easy to evade. And they had a bad habit of singular success against the various pirates plying their illegal trade in the sector. There was somebody smart on that ship, and Tomas' had a couple of ideas who that someone might be. Layne, in all probability. The man was not afraid to get bloody if the situation warranted. But there was something else ... something Vukovich couldn't quite lay his hands on. Tactics he almost recognized.

"Unknown why?" the Andorian leaned over his shoulder, his antennae writhing.

"Because we're reduced to passive sensors. That ship out there is pinging the hell out of everything. It's like ringing a big damned bell. We're trying not to be part of that."

The Andorian wasn't altogether happy with his explanation, but apparently Vukovich's current plan worked for him, too. But, of course, this wasn't really his plan either.

Vukovich was an infiltrator, an agent provocateur. It had started during the Dominion War where he'd managed to sabotage a goodly number of the attack ships trying to take the GATEWAY STATION. Someone had guessed those weren't accidents. And someone was very thorough. They'd found him sitting at a cafe', sipping coffee. They'd sat down without being invited and spoke his name. His real name. Not the name he was currently using as a tourist from BAJOR. He was certain it wasn't the body that had given him away. That was perfect.

A perfect copy of someone on the dead list. As a BORG/Human, he'd had certain abilities, but when he'd crossed paths with a rogue BORG Queen and tried to assimilate her while she was trying to assimilate him ... all kinds of craziness had transpired. Every bit of him was cybernetic now, right down to his cellular structure. He was an accidental occurrence, something the BORG Queen had hoped for herself. He was the equivalent of a BORG/FOUNDER, able to change shape at will. He only looked human when he wanted to. It made him perfect for the job.

So Section 31 had made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

He'd been working for them ever since. In fact, this little outing among the pirates had been a way for Section 31 to keep tabs on the growing problem out in the dark. Pirates caused all kinds of difficulty, and the Section didn't want anything like that interfering with whatever plans they were making. Currently, he looked like an ordinary human. The man he'd copied was in custody ... at least that was what he'd been told. More likely dead. Section 31 didn't pull punches, and it didn't bother him overmuch.

"Time to go," the Andorian nodded at the pilot.

"I'd wait a little longer if I were you," Tomas' said. "That ship has a lot bigger sensor range than we do."

"Keep the asteroid between us and them," the Andorian said. "We'll be gone before they double back in their search pattern."

This was the plan. Infiltrate and follow the rat down the hole. The PANDORA was making that difficult, but not impossible. And if the PANDORA was just pretending ... well, he could just be paint on a wall if it came to that.

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NRPG: the other side of our little encounter, and one more lost soul heard from ...

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Kenneth Field
writing for:
Mac, a photonic lifeform, USS PANDORA
Tomas' Alexei Vukovich, Section 31