Men Of Good Conscience OOC

[Jureth]

So I was thinking now would be a good time to reveal the existence of the molecule to the junior officers...I was going to just go down a line of thought with Jureth but figured I'd spell it out here first.

[Kheren]

The Omega Directive is pretty clear:

THE FOLLOWING IS FOR CAPTAIN RANK AND ABOVE EYES AND KNOWLEDGE ONLY
VIOLATION OF THIS RESTRICTION IS PUNISHABLE BY LIFETIME IMPRISONNEMENT
ON A FEDERATION PENAL COLONY WITH NO POSSIBILITY OF APPEAL, REPRIEVE OR PAROLE.
STARFLEET WILL DENY ANY EXISTENCE OF THE FOLLOWING DIRECTIVE 


The Omega Directive

This directive supercedes and nullifies all other directives including the Prime Directive.

All Starfleet personnel and vessels, under any and all circumstances, must ensure the destruction of any Omega molecule detected, taking all the necessary precautions to ensure the safe disposal of the said substance and thus the safety of the sector where it is encountered. The use of the Omega molecule, either in research or in application, is strictly forbidden without the express permission and direct supervision of the Federation Science Council.

Failure to comply with this directive will call an immediate court martial and, above and beyond the sentence of the Court, permanent demotion and expulsion from Starfleet for both the commanding officer and crew of the guilty starship or facility. The guilty party will also be liable to legal prosecution by the Federation’s Judiciary. Any non-aligned entity possessing or using the Omega molecule is hereby declared a criminal under Interstellar Law and treated accordingly by all Starfleet personnel.

Official procedure is as follow: 
1- contact Starfleet Command under closed, encoded channel code Omega
2- erase any and all computer log relating to Omega event 
3- return to previous assignment. Omega team will then take charge of the situation.

As of now, the situation leaves no leeway outside of this. When Janeway decided to inform some of her officers, it was because she was 70,000 ly from the Federation, unable to even call Starfleet and have an Omega team dispatched. For all intent and purposes, THEY were all of Starfleet and the Omega team. Thus the directive compelled them to intervene.

We are not in the same situation at all. Therefore, we do like she did and we are in complete and willful violation of the highest order in the book.

That being said; if Rogers and Sorripto manage by themselves to find things out, things that we deliberately and legally kept away from them, it becomes their problem. They will face alone those consequences. Maybe...

It is expected they might find about it (although Syntron at sensors should be the only one able to, and being a former captain is safe from prosecution) and as active duty officers should report their findings to you. At such point, if it comes to that, you should make crystal clear this is classified at the highest level, there will be no more discussion about it and they will cease any and all inquiries beyond what you will specifically order, nothing more, nothing less, and that any deviation will have them condemned, and you and all of us with them.

And if they actually know anything about it (i.e. Rogers do because he hijacked the Diamond Star; hence why he smartly made no mention of what power source could allow such extensive use of gravitation), well they better keep their mouth shut, at least and MOST of all to you and each other, active duty officers.

Now you know why Kheren (and I guess Syntron to an extent) resigned. Not being Starfleet officers anymore, they are mostly outside the provisions of the Omega Directive. Also why Kheren made no mention of it and erased all data about it before the current meeting. He wants to protect you all from inescapable prosecution and sentencing. Court martial (and criminal prosecution for Syntron and him) for starship hijacking will be bad enough already.

One thing we have for us though; you have been officially put in charge of the Omega team. You and those you select are officially mandated to deal with this. That would protect from any prosecution on that front. Unless...

Unless your assignment has been rescinded.

Fortunately, this is not a given. Lotus Fleet will find out what officers and former officers are missing; and only one of them could have sabotaged the Horizon and three others the rest of the station; none of them being you. At this point, the hypothesis that you have been kidnapped or coerced would be on the table... and your commission still fully valid. 

That may even be extended to Rogers and Sorripto, if Kheren and/or Syntron takes all the blame on themselves. Being civilians, they can not be court martialed; only prosecuted in civil and criminal courts (kidnapping, hijacking, theft, unauthorized flight into a hazardous zone to begin with...). There might even be, I don't know, security footage aboard the Lotus showing you being violently abducted...

The Horizon might have been actually launched not only to stop the theft but also to rescue you!

One thing for sure; we violate that specific directive and everyone goes to jail, no pass go or collect 200$ and never get out of it; effectively writing off all of our characters.

[Jureth]

True, and I don't disagree with you at all.  What I was  thinking was along the lines of suspecting that the information in the Alsea computer could be false as in a mistake by the ship's computer or perhaps even planted by somebody in order to push the war narrative on to the Federation and the Fleet..

[Kheren]

Now that is a cool twist. I wouldn't disagree playing on that angle

[Kheren]

If we want to play with the sabotage subplot, we could each make a separate post about our search (and resolve if so desired) to introduce this into the story before the alien encounter.

if we find nothing, then the search for the real reason for the Federation's aberrant stance will have to be deeper, more complex and left to later (possibly the third part of our trilogy).

If we do find something, we can use it to find out much more quickly who did what and probably why. It would become part of this second story, leaving the ''chase for the culprit and prove guilt'' only for the third part. It would also give a lot more to do for our two miracle workers. i.e. Kheren can certainly find sabotage in a tactical system, but not remove it. That should be out of his level of competence. (I'm a starship commander, not an engineer!)

As an example; since the goal is evidently to send the UFP to war, Jureth and Kheren should find no tampering in the tactical systems or weaponry. They want us to use them after all.

However, we could find either a remote or self-activated device/program to take control of them so that, if we do not activate them, they can get activated or self activate and force us to fight by starting hostilities ourselves against our will.

Since The Alsea was in drydock for extensive repair and refit, it could either mean someone inside Lotus Fleet is responsible or someone higher up back at Starfleet  with access to ship design, building, components and shipping (a certainty if the sabotage is integrated into a new system and thus escape Lotus Fleet's notice). Thus setting the stage for the third story.

Thoughts?

[BLZBUB]

 A good place to store a sub-program for this sabotage scenario would be within the programming of the Cadet cruise encounter.
 As you recall, the cadets answered a distress call ( a Fed. probe sent it ) as part of their training. The subsequent battle happened 
after that probe encounter. I would think if there was a sub program hidden within the probe, it would have downloaded the sabotage into the Alsea perhaps?

 Also, this would negate Sangliar from suspicion eventually ( I suppose we could blame the Tellarite right of the bat for a scapegoat ... )

 Just some thoughts to go forward on.

[Sorripto]

Given the nature of his story arc with Sisko and the cult Sorripto is perfect for any storyline involving sabotage. He obviously would not be the saboteur, but would love the chase of finding any evidence of it. I have an idea I would love play out with that thread.

[Jureth]

I'm okay with playing the search out before we arrive at the coordinates. As Kheren said it would integrate the two engineers and also give everyone something to be doing during the transit time. 

[Jeff T]

So with all of these ideas laid out... how are we going to proceed?

BLZBUB's idea regarding the Cadet cruise and the probe encounter seems like an intriguing plot point.
An embedded hidden program within the probe would not likely be detected by a skeletal ship of rookies, which could be why it was selected as the target.

The questions then begs, who would have the know-how, rationale and opportunity to orchestrate such an elaborate sabotage... and how would this tie-in to the attack the cadets encountered afterwards? How do we differentiate between real threats and something potentially fabricated?

Is this something we want to discuss OOC first then IC afterwards or does the GM want to secretly map out most of these events/details? Regardless, we will need some indication how to proceed as we are "investigating" for answers.

[Kheren]

BLZBUB's idea would make a nice tie-in to a ''subverted Federation'' plot as outlined in our premisce.

I'm open to Sorripto making his own sabotage subplot. Without knowing the details yet, I think will be able to tie-in with the behind-the-scene idea I have in mind for this entire trilogy.

Jeff, your questions are exactly the crux of the mystery of this story. Who could do this, how and why? Where does the Intruder fits in it? What is the real threat? For the moment, it's for me to know and for you to find out (hehe).

One hint I can give; all of it ties in directly with canon. And again, I'm confident what Sorripto has in mind can be fitted with it, as we all follow Trek canon and our own canon rigourously.

So how to proceed? here is my suggestion:

- Rogers can find out about the probe use, thus confirming there is something wrong within Starfleet and resolve the faulty programming.
- Sorripto can find actual sabotage of the Alsea, possibly the actual culprits (at least the ''hired hands'').
- Syntron could find out through research of Starfleet activities and Federation policies that these two specific actions taken as a hypothesis of a larger scheme points out indeed to a much larger operation originating to as high up as not only Starfleet Command, but the Federation Council as well.
- Jureth tactically studying the encounter with the Intruder could find out it's actions were not at all those of an agressive hostile force (i.e. like a Borg Cube would) but more like that of someone startled and either angry or afraid or confused... or any combination of those.
- Kheren is also a tactical officer who could work with Jureth on this (or independently from another angle) and being Andorian has a natural mindset to perceive patterns, especially in agressive situations and thus, could piece it all together once all those pieces are brought together (meaning then the GM can reveal things... and/or built up the plot further.)

How does that looks so far?