The Best Laid Plans...

Posted on Thu Feb 27th, 2025 @ 3:24am by Captain Michael Murphy & Lieutenant Commander Steve Ryan & Lieutenant Kestra Ral & Lieutenant Stuart Mann
Edited on on Thu Feb 27th, 2025 @ 1:24pm

Mission: Through the Looking Glass
Location: Janus VI

ON:

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USS Montana Bridge

Lieutenant Mitchell settled into the Captain's chair. He didn't like being used for command anymore, and he had made sure the higher-ups knew that. The Captain had assured him this would be an easy time. An hour, tops. He took a deep breath and waited to hear from the away team.

Lieutenant Mann was seated at his usually post, ready for any orders.

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Janus VI

The away team beamed down to the mining colony. It was not bustling with activity like Captain Murphy would have expected. An eerie silence was hanging over the cavernous facility.

Murphy broke the silence. "Clearly, there isn't any mining going on here anymore."

Not far from where they beamed down, several large pallets of crates were piled up.

A perplexed look showed up on Steve's face while he flipped on his tricorder to get a better reading of the situation and especially the radiation levels.

Before he could say anything else, his communicator chirped and he flipped it open. "Captain Murphy here."

"This is Lieutenant Mitchell," the voice sounded anxious. "A Klingon ship just decloaked."

The melodious sound of a transporter beam interrupted their conversation. Six Klingons appeared from the beams.

"Standby, Mitchell," Murphy said. "We've got company down here, too." He closed the communicator and holstered it.

As the Klingons materialized, Steve turned abruptly, stopping his scans and instinctively closing his hand to the phaser, just for extra precautions.

Kestra raised an eyebrow at the sudden appearance of the Klingons. It was highly unusual that Janus VI minding colony would do business with them, but as she had heard the Ferengi say often 'profit is profit'. So far, nothing this group had done was by the book or following proper protocols. No wonder there was trouble on Janus VI.

Kestra subtly shifted her body, moving a little closer to the XO, uncomfortable being a few feet away from the others in her group. Kestra continued her scans, keeping her eyes on the tricorder, but her mental attention was on the Klingons. She was picking up 'surprise' from them. They had known the federation ship was in orbit but not in the mines.

The scans showed no radiation at all. They also revealed that the pallets of crates were pergium and other minerals, apparently all packed up for a pickup.

"Starfleet?" The Klingon at the front of the group called out at the landing party. "Did Vanderberg get cold feet and call you for help?"

"Just a standard check in," Murphy called back, choosing his words carefully. It was hard to not immediately think of the Klingons as enemies. He would definitely be keeping his guard up. "We didn't expect to see you here, either. I assume you're the Empire's public relations committee?"

The Klingon's laugh was hearty. He began walking towards the Montana's landing party, the rest of his own party following him.

"SO what brings you in here?" asked Steve still keeping his eyes locked on them.

"vay' vImev" Kestra told them to stop advancing. She raised a delicate eyebrow when they didn't.

"Do you have an appointment? Because I don't have you on my schedule." She asked them quickly as she kept backing up. They advanced, hadn't they said something about helping. Has they being asked to help? What was going on here?

Darn, she felt short Kestra though as she looked up at the Klingons. She had just detected a silicon compound she wasn't familiar with and movement before these guys showed up.

The lead Klingon stopped three feet away from Murphy, with his entourage close behind him. They made no threatening movements nor gave any sign that they felt threatened. "We have an arrangement to pick up some supplies tomorrow. Admittedly, we are early. When we saw a Federation starship, we worried that Vanderberg was trying to back out of the deal."

Vanderberg, Gratingol, and the facility's Chief of Security exited a nearby building and approached the group.

Steve noted the trio of Janus IV inhabitants approaching.
"Oh there goes our chance to be stealthy and make a surprise visit" he moaned but eager to understand a bit more on what this mess was all about. --Picking up a cargo...radioactive material... what was going on down here?-- he thought.

Once they got close, Vanderberg could be seen to be visibly sweating. Gratingol and the Chief of Security looked angry.

"Klingons? Here? What's the meaning of this?" Vanderberg asked in an effort to sound concerned.

"They said they made a deal to get supplies from you," Murphy said, straightforwardly.

Vanderberg quickly moved to Murphy, grabbing his arm while trying to turn to keep his two companions in his view. "They made me do it, please protect me and I'll tell you everything!"

The Chief of Security drew a phaser pistol and aimed it at Vanderberg. At the same time, Gratingol took a step backwards.

Steve drew his phaser as well and aimed it against the threat. His left hand quickly hit the comm badge opening a channel with the Montana for an emergency beam out in case of need...but waited, keeping his aim to the local chief of security while not forgetting the Klinigons out there, that could still pose a threat.

A rumbling sound began to emanate from the ground in multiple places around the group. Twelve Horta emerged from their acidic tunnels and began shooting acid at the Klingons, Gratingol, and the Chief of Medicine. Almost immediately Gratingol and the Chief of Medicine were no more, and the Klingons were down to two remaining. The two Klingons began aiming their disrupters nervously at the Horta and Montana crew before one shouted something into a communicator and they disappeared as quickly as they had arrived. This left the Montana crew with Gratingol and a dozen Horta.

The rumbling sound emanating from the ground seemed to come from all around her Kestra thought. Twelve creatures that looked like living rock entered. They melted the stone walls around them like it was butter. That was when the pain hit her hard and she fell to her knees in agony. Kestra looked down at her arm she expected it to be gone but…. Nothing was wrong with it not one mark and still the pain continued. It wasn’t her pain.

“don’t hurt them please.” Kestra wasn’t sure who she was saying that to. The creatures or the humans.
“murders, evil ones, you took them and killed so many hatchings.” Kestra could hear the thoughts pouring into her mind. Someone had wronged these beings. They had shared their world and was repaid by so much death.

Steve knelt helping Kestra up.
"Sir, we need to leave" he told Captain Murphy with a worried look, hesitating before requesting the emergency beam out of the entire away team plus Vanderberg.

The shimmering transporter beam took them before any more could be done.

Murphy broke Vanderberg’s grip on him. “Explain yourself.”

Vanderberg looked pained. “The Klingons showed up and offered to purchase pergium for almost double what it’s worth. I wanted nothing to do with it, but Gratingol wanted the money. When he couldn’t convince me, he partnered with our Chief of Security to strong arm me into it. It was an off the books deal, he saw it as his ticket to a luxurious retirement.”

Murphy wasn’t convinced. “That doesn’t explain the reaction of the creatures down there. It seems odd that they didn’t harm us.”

Vanderberg’s look turned to shame. “Our partnership with the Horta may now be at an end. In order to make the order without drawing attention to it, we had to try to incentivize the Horta into working harder and faster, using pain as a motivator. They had already fought back in the mines, I hadn’t expected them to attack where we met. I swear though I had nothing to do with causing any harm to them. I do regret that I am now the last survivor of Janus VI.”

Murphy nodded towards the security officers with them. “Right now I have no way of knowing if the only reason you’re alive is because you were among our landing party or not. You’re under arrest. We’ll take you to the nearest Starbase and eventually you’ll stand trial for the events here.”

Steve shook his head in dismay while watching Vanderberg being taken away by the security.
"I think he is telling the truth." he then turned towards Kestra "How do you feel, lieutenant? Want me to accompany you to sickbay?" he asked.

Kestra nodded. “I was just going to ask to go to sickbay sir. Those pour beings. So much mental power and pain.” She shook her head sadly. “The betrayal they felt was to much.”

"Sir" he recalled Murphy's attention "one last thing, what shall we do with Klingons? I mean, we still have one of their vessels in orbit and their landing party won't make it back...we might be in an uneasy situation" he considered.

"Let's keep the ship on yellow alert," Murphy answered. "They'll no doubt call for reinforcements, and I don't feel right leaving this system until they're gone. I'll head to the Bridge while you accompany Lieutenant Ral. Meet me there when you can."



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Captain Michael Murphy
Commanding Officer
USS Montana

Lt. Cmdr. Steve Ryan
XO
USS Montana

LT. Kestra Ral
CSO
USS Montana

Lieutenant Stuart Mann
Navigation Officer
USS Montana