=/\= Bridge =/\= The turbolift doors rushed open as Acheson walked in. He looked around before sighting Colonel Bretam. He walked over to the Colonel. "Queen, Drone 3 of 5 ready to return to the collective." he moved about robotically, hoping to induce a mild chuckle after the experience. Keylor looked towards Acheson, whom had roboticly moved to where he was seated. . He raised an eyebrow and wondered if the doctor had been premature in her assessments of releasing Acheson to light duty. He simply gave a odd look in Acheson's direction, not saying a word and not amused. Acheson stiffened a bit, regretting immediately the inappropriate attitude he'd taken upon reporting for duty. His tone reflected a sudden surge in professionalism: "Sir, I'm ready and able to return to duty. Doctor Carpenter cleared me. I understand you wanted to see me?" he looked back. Still with a slight scowell on his face he looked over acheson. "Yes Lieutenant, we are about to embark on a rescue mission in the attempts to retreive the remainder of our crew." he paused for a moment. "We will procede to the station under cloak an attempt to locate our remaining crew with sensors, and then transport them here." KEylor pointed back to the tactical station. " I want you to monitor the cloak. WE suspect the station cannoot scann outside of thier hull, but I dont want to take chances." "Aye, sir .... though I would like to offer you the tactical side of that situation. We would be cloaked, but they could fire antiprotons from their deflector if they suspected a cloaked ship nearby. That would force us to decloak. Our shields would be down for 3 or 4 seconds while we disengaged the cloak and raised shields. The starbase is armed with phaser arrays, though that's really an understatement. Those arrays fire about 25,000 kJ per millisecond of energy and are designed to repell attacking ships. I don't know what the pollen's affect on them is, but if our shields are down and they get a direct hit with one of those phasers, ... the consequences will be severe. A lucky hit could even destroy the ship, especially since we'll have to be within transporter range." He sighed and shook his head, seemingly horrified against the possibility. "But, that said, I can probably keep us completely invisible. You should just be ready for some fast action if anything goes wrong, sir." Keylor nodded his head," Yes lieutenant. I understand the risk. But our intel on the situation is that they are sensor blind. So there is a good chance they can't target accurately. That coupled by the most likely scenario that whom ever might be manning the weapons, is probably not at the top of their form. If we should decloak, I have every confidence you could raise the shields before they are needed." "Sir, with your permission, I would like to conduct a tactical analysis of the Starbase before we arrive based on the data from the Pack Mule. We may need to hit it hard and fast with only a few shots and I want to see if I can arrange that." Keylor sighed at the thought of attacking a federation starbase. "Very well. You have 15 minutes to retrieve the data before we disengage the docking collar on the mule." he paused for a second. " But I don't want to get in to a shooting match. Even though they might be unreasonable, I would like to avoid all conflict at every possibility. Keep the cloak running and we should be fine." Acheson nodded. "Sir, I do understand your trepidation at the thought of having to open fire on a Federation starbase. I'll try to create a scenario whereby they are only disabled, and not destroyed. Sir, after all, if we are destroyed nobody will be able to inform Starfleet Command of this problem." Keylor nodded. "Very well lieutenant, take your post." He watched as Nathan headed to the tactical console . He then looked forward. "Helm plot a course for the base. Make sure you keep us as far away from the docked ships as you can." "Aye, aye sir!" came the reply form Lt York. Keylor then looked back to Andersen. "Lieutenant. Inform all sections we will be making way in 15 minutes. Make preparations to release the mule and let her drift, we will bring Mister Sikes back to his ship later." Hearing Andersen reply back , Keylor settled in to his seat ad waited the long 15 minutes before they depart. ===End Log=== Col Bretam Keylor Captain & Lt Nathan Acheson CTAC