Captivity

Posted on Wed Mar 10th, 2010 @ 6:10pm by Captain Vorn Krace & Commander Peter Brown & Commander Jordan Gunning & Lieutenant JG Winter Balmorra & Lieutenant Commander Sara Archer

Mission: Borderline Diplomacy
Location: Bevrud Capital - Location Unknown
Timeline: MD08 2349hrs

In the face of superior numbers and firepower, Vorn, the First Minister and Sovereign Kutan had been forced to surrender or be killed at the table, and had since had their weapons, combadges and all other items of technology thoroughly removed (ensuring that none of them had anything hidden on them), bags pulled over their heads, and had been roughly shoved through the government building into one of the vans they had travelled here in from the docking platform. From there, they had been driven endlessly for almost four hours, though it was hard for any of the prisoners to know for certain. Their captors insisted silence, which allowed Vorn to hear one of them giving instructions to another, leading him to the assumption that this was not one of the vehicles that was tied into the city grid, and was manually driven.

Eventually, they felt the vehicle stop moving, and the prisoners were shoved out of the vehicle. Though the bags managed to successfully hid the features of anything they might have otherwise seen, through the shade of the light coming through the stitching, Vorn could tell that it was deep into the night now, and their way was being lit by moonlight and whatever additional artificial lighting sources may be around, until they entered inside of whatever building it was they were being taken to.

They felt themselves being shoved down numerous corridors, until finally they reached the room where they were stopped. Their restraints were cut, the bags roughly removed from their heads, and then the six of them were left alone.

"Well this is fabulous." Winter said, turning to Jordan and Vorn. "And mister Gunning, you can bring as many weapons as you want to a diplomatic summit, you'll get no argument from me." Winter stated.

The security chief was barely paying attention to the other occupants of the room. He had his hands spread wide across the wall, tapping out rhythmic patterns into the bulkhead, looking for some kind of weakness. He frowned a little as he caught the end of the doctor's comment.

"I don't think any amount of armament would have helped us in that situation, Doctor." He mused in a hushed tone. "Frankly, there's nothing quite like the element of surprise but I'll bear your comments in mind for next time."

"And what ship was he talking about?" Winter asked. "What ship destroyed his?" Winter asked, distressed at her own lack of intelligence. "And then they played it out perfectly by not having transporters, engines, shields, he had us in his hand from the moment we came into orbit." Winter stated. "Mister Gunning, I take back everything I did back on the bridge trying to discourage your keen tactical eye, oh how could I have been so blind?" Winter said, babbling on.

Jordan allowed a glance at the Doctor who appeared to be having some slight difficulties in coping with their interment. He returned his attention and his gaze to the panelled wall, calmly seeking a weakness. The heavy door on the other side of the room was bound to be well secured and he had no interest in attracting the unsolicited stares of the guards beyond.

"Our regulations are in place to protect against this," Hitampki spoke up from the corner in which he had slumped whilst the Federation officers talked. "My security office is supposed to be scanning for any transporter use, so that when an unauthorised transport is made, the the culprits can be tracked to the source."

"And I suppose sending my ship out of the system was supposed to protect against something like this as well!?" Kutan snapped, as he paced the room.

"I have to agree with Kutan, your security regulations, which are just plain ridiculous, have caused the downfall of your world; you're in jail, the Elyshan clans or what ever they are, have taken over the Government building and the Iapetus has most likely been destroyed." Winter explained.

"Don't count my world out yet, Doctor," First Minister Hitampki retorted, standing in anger at the very thought of it.

Gunning was growing ever more irritated by the incessant whine of complaint which was buzzing around the room like a furious hornet. He thought it far more important to work on finding a way out of their current predicament than just arbitrarily assigning blame. However, he was quite sure that the two men would take issue with such a course of action. His sense told him that they would be more than happy to spend the rest of their lives trapped in a tiny room having some back-and-forth argument about what was, at this moment, a moot point.

Peter put his his hands behind his back and looked over everything in the room. He looked over at the Doctor then spoke.

"Doctor, don't count the Iapetus out yet, I know what she can do; and you will be surprised. Just remain calm and everything will be fine. I have been in a situation such as this before and we got out the last time as well, so put a smile on and lets get to work," he said with a smile as he walked towards the Captain he nodded at the Captain, then spoke to Hitampki.

"Okay, I know what Security Regulations you put in place failed, but they doesn't mean give up, you are the Leader of your People, and you know who has done this. Help us and I am sure if the Captain agreed we will help you as much as we can," finished Peter. He was running low on his medication and he felt it, but he couldn't have an other dose - not here, not now.

"Don't patronise me, Commander," Hitampki retorted, fired up by the doctor's comments. "I don't need some Starfleet hotshot telling me how to do my job. You haven't been on this planet a full day, so don't presume to tell me that everything will be right as rain if only we ask for your help!"

"Starfleet Hotshot, No far from that;Someone from experience in these situation" Replied Peter

"That's enough." Vorn didn't raise his voice, but filled it with all the command authority he had soaked up over his years in Starfleet. He'd been silent thus far, as he watched his officers, the Elyshan Sovereign and the Bevrudl First Minister all break down into bickering. He remembered the last time he had been taken hostage during a diplomatic visit to Maldora, and how distressed people got in captivity there. He knew from experience that they needed to put a lid on that now so that they could be productive and find a way out. "Bickering won't get us out of here. Sovereign Kutan; did you recognise anything about those Elyshans which might let us know what faction they are a part of?" Vorn knew that there were numerous factions within Elyshan space that weren't part of the Empire.

"No," Kutan replied simply, before deciding that it might be beneficial to elaborate. "The Factions don't wear uniforms, Captain, and our Intelligence reported no Faction activity of note in this area."

Accepting the Elyshan's answer, Vorn turned to Hitampki. "First Minister. You said Shintaka when Atakimpa and your guards turned on us. What does that mean?"

Taking a deep sigh, clearly feeling that to go into the matter was pointless, the Minister nevertheless complied. "It's literal translation to Federation Basic is roughly "Independence", or "Freedom". Shintaka are an underground movement who wish to keep Bevrud independent. They have very few followers and lack the resources to be anything more than a nuisance. I said the name without thinking," he said dismissively.

"Well apparently your information was inaccurate," Kutan snapped.

The banter between the prisoners was brought to an abrupt end as the door to the cell slid open. Two Bevrudl guards walked in, keeping their weapons trained on the First Minister and the Sovereign. Strolling in behind them was Atakimpa and an unknown Elyshan. "Greetings, First Minister, Sovereign, Captain," he said nodding to each in turn. "I hope you are enjoying your new accommodations." His ear to ear grin was very irritating to the captives.

"Do you really think you'll get away with this, Atakimpa!?" Hitampki shouted.

"My dear, First Minister, I already have. The Elyshan ship has aleady been destroyed, and the Starfleet vessel is far from full power. Do you really think I'd be so stupid as to not plan this out?"

Kutan was still furious. "You destroyed my ship!"

"How could I? I've been on Bevrud the whole time." He gestured to his Elyshan escort. "He destroyed your ship." Atakimpa scanned over the crowd again. "Now, you'll have to excuse me. I have a lot of work to attend to. I'll send someone for you soon, Hitampki. For now, enjoy your stay, and don't hesitate to call for room service." With the same obnoxious grin, Atakimpa nodded to the captives and retreated to the hall. The Elyshan and Bevrudl escorts followed, and the door closed with a resounding clang behind them.

Peter crossed his arms, then looked at the closed door. He started to think, then looked at the Captain as an idea came to his mind.

"Is there anyway we can get into the air system,? If someone is able to get out we might be able to get some support to help deal with the situation. I hate to move onto a more Tactical motive but desperate times I believe are in order," finished Peter as he felt the pain of his medication starting to wear off.

The miniature echo of Brown's words still hung in the air as the captives turned their eyes toward the Iapetus' tactical officer who had been almost completely silent since he had initially spoken to the doctor. He was pointing up towards the ceiling, a solid alloy vent hung above them, a few feet above their heads. It exuded light, clearly emanating from a better lit area of the building. However, the vent was less than twenty centimetres across.

"Well, Commander. I doubt any of are going to fit through there." He commented, more than a little irritated that his superior thought that he would have overlooked such an escape route. He shrugged, "I suppose you're welcome to try though."

Peter looked up then took a breath as he looked at the door then at the group. "What about the oldest trick of the book; Medical Emergency? Or some way to get into contact with the outside world? If only any of you were telepathic," replied Peter.

Jordan shot the commander a look. "Yes. Damn our luck."

"It's no use," a nearly hysterical First Minister whined. "We're all doomed anyway."

"We're only doomed because of your insufferable rules!" Kutan was quick to add.

"Sovereign," Vorn said sternly, hoping that the Elyshan wouldn't verbally lash out at him too. "It won't help us any throwing blame at each other," he explained.

"Minister Hitampki," he continued, turning to the Bevrudl. "I need you to tell me everything you know of this 'Shintaka' group you spoke of."

"There isn't really much to tell. Shintaka is an isolationist movement. They've been preaching Bevrud for Bevrudl only. So far they've been limited to the occasional protest. They've never shown any signs of violence before now. The only reason I mentioned them is because they are the only group that has shown any kind of interest in the negotiations." Hitampki rocked nervously. "I never would have suspected that Atakimpi was a part of it."

"Do you know what happens when you assume?" Winter asked, but the old Earth metaphor came up blank in her mind. "You make................ah............... well point of the story, dont assume anything until you have a basis for your assumstions to be right or wrong." Winter explained.

Jordan flashed a series of glances around the room at his fellow captives. He eventually had to approach the door as the rest of the room seemed pretty much impregnable. He felt like a caged bear, unable to adequately communicate the fury he was feeling. He wanted to just bang on the door until it fell down but he was pretty sure that was not a practical option.

He examined the hinges on the door closely, trying to find some weakness. He knew for a fact that leaving by the door, unarmed would probably lead to a volley of disruptor fire and six small piles of ash lying on the floor of the corridor but if they could exploit a weakness in the door they could use it as a distraction. Unfortunately there was no such weakness to be found.

Peter put his hands behind his back and thought of what to do next but his mind was clouded by the pain of withdrawl from the medication.

"So to pass the time, anyone want to talk about home?" Winter asked. "In stressful and seemingly grim situations I find it comforting to discuss one's life." Winter explained. "Anyone want to go first?"

Peter walked up to the door he placed his figures along the cracks he looked up to the top of the door then he walked to the center of the room and looked up at the lights he then looked at the Air interchange system Peter took an deep breath

"External relays, interesting," muttered Peter as he he said this he looked at the Captain for an long moment before turning from his Look to an other part of the room

Jordan had seen enough and reckoned it was about time he submitted his 'report' to the Captain. "Captain Krace, sir." He said quietly and deferentially. "I don't see any way that we're going to get out of here without some sort of... outside stimuli."

"Let's just hope that there's some outside stimuli that'll act in our favour then," Vorn replied.

--------------------
Captain Vorn Krace
Commanding Officer

Commander Peter Brown
Chief Strat Ops Officer

Lieutenant Jordan Gunning
Chief of Security

Lieutenant JG Winter Balmorra
Chief Medical Officer
USS Iapetus

NPCs played by Vorn Krace & Sara Archer