Sizing Up the Situation

Posted on Sat Jun 12th, 2010 @ 6:08pm by Vice Admiral Iluvar & Commander Christopher McNeil

Mission: Episode 1.2 - "A House Divided"
Location: Ready Room, USS Pandora
Timeline: Mission Day 14

::BACKPOST::


ON:

McNeil stopped at the ready room door and pressed the chime. He'd had a feeling that the Admiral would want to speak with him at some point, and now had seemed a good a time as any since they were basically sitting around waiting for an escort into Romulan space. After a moment the door hissed open and McNeil stepped inside.

"Good afternoon, commander," Iluvar said, looking up from the terminal on his desk. He reached out with one hand to deactivate the screen. As the display vanished from view, he turned his attention toward his guest and motioned to one of the open chairs. "Please, have a seat," he offered, "Can I offer you anything?"

"No, thank you, sir," McNeil replied as he took the offered seat. "I wanted to ask if there was anything in particular you wanted my people to look for, information-wise."

"Ahh...yes," Iluvar said, settling back into his chair and pondering for a moment. Having little information to go on from the mission profile he had been provided, Iluvar knew that any addition to their knowledge base would be an asset in this assignment. "I trust you are familiar with the current political situation within the empire," he said, surveying McNeil across the desk.

"Three factions... The classical Romulan Star Empire, the Romulan Imperial State, and the Remans, all with differing agendas and different levels of social and military support. The RIS is more friendly towards the Federation than the others, but also backs equal rights for the Remans to a certain degree. Of course, all three factions are doing their best, seemingly, to stay friendly towards us at the moment."

Nodding, Iluvar considered the information carefully. It matched well what he had already known about the situation, but hearing it confirmed only helped to reinforce the validity of the information. "What do you think about our assignment," he asked, hoping to get a feel for the man's opinion about the situation.

McNeil quirked an eyebrow. He wondered if Iluvar was really interested in his opinion for its own sake, or if he just wanted to see how closely it matched his own. "I think we need to be careful how we comport ourselves. Romulans are very reasonable people under most circumstances, but they are also very cunning. They have every bit as much emotion as Humans or Klingons do, coupled with the long lives and memories of Vulcans. And we are one of very few Federation starships to be allowed into their space in the last 200 years. One mis-step and we could set our relations with them back by decades."

"What motivation do you believe that they have in inviting us to tour their space, their own defenses," Iluvar asked. It was a question that he had been pondering himself. Despite the overt appearance of a mutual interest in presenting a secure front with the Elyshans, it was possible that there was something deeper that was not readily apparent.

"If I had to guess, sir," McNeil began thoughtfully, "I would have to say that we're being caught in a political game. The situation within the Romulan Empire is very unstable right now. The only thing that all three factions have in common is that they want the Federation on their side. Therefor the Empire and the Imperial State are bending over backwards to try and act friendly towards us. The Remans are not going to quite the same lengths, but they must know that the Federation favors the right of indigenous races to determine their own fate. This invitation would seem to be an extension of the Empire's desire to have the Federation take its side."

The man made a valid point. It seemed that each of the factions were interested in gaining the favor of the Federation, even if any one of them might have overtly appeared more or less interested in such aid. The question was...why now?

"From some of the reports I've been seeing, the Empire doesn't seem as interested in having us on their side as they are in making sure the Federation doesn't get too friendly with the Imperial State," Iluvar observed.

"Prudent of them, from their perspective, as the Imperial State seemingly advocates nearly all of the core values of the Federation for Romulan society," McNeil replied. "I have to believe that such change will not come easily for a society that has been traditionally based on strict adherence to behavioral standards placing the state above the individual and a long-standing use of subterfuge as the primary instrument of foreign policy."

There was silence in the room as Iluvar pondered the information they had been discussing. In his mind, there was no reason why they shouldn't continue with their mission assignment. They had no solid evidence that the Romulans' invitation was anything but genuine. Until they could find some proof that there was an ulterior motive and discern what that motive might be, he could not support any decision to call off the mission. "We'll continue as planned," he said after a few moments, "but I think it would help us a lot if we had some more information on the current status of this region and a little more about its history. There's no sense stepping into a house that we no nothing about."

"I'll make sure my department finds whatever information we have for you, sir," McNeil replied. He already had Moretti working on researching the Romulan border colonies... he'd just need to get the rest of his staff on the matter as well... he could probably have each person research a different aspect of the region.

"Thank you, commander," Iluvar said, "I appreciate it. It is important that we prepare ourselves for whatever we might face. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. An unfortunate situation, but one that we must all learn to accept."

"I'm well used to the concept, sir," McNeil answered. "Being prepared for worst case scenarios is part of my job, after all."

Iluvar nodded politely in acknowledgment of the man's statement. Unfortunately, he had a distinct feeling that they were going to need that preparation.

OFF:

Tony
AKA
Commander Chris McNeil
Mission Advisor/Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Pandora

AND

Rear Admiral Iluvar
Commanding Officer
USS Pandora