Beg, Borrow...or Steal

Jureth stalked the corridors of Lotus Fleet's venerable but still powerful warship. He was currently on his way to main engineering to check in with the crew that was supposed to be modifying the Alsea's engines for the transwarp part of the Kelvan mission. His understanding however, from Lieuetenant T'lana's report was that they hadn't even started yet and the Bajoran CO of the Alsea wanted to know why. 

Jureth needed them to start so they could finish and he could shoo them off his ship. He had a plan to enact and he didn't any extra people aboard to foul it up. He strode into main engineering and found the nearest engineer who just happened to be be a Starfleet crewman.

"Crewman," Jureth said but the man, a human, didn't immediately turn around or acknowledge him.

"Crewman!" Jureth said again this time with force and volume in his voice. The startled man practically tried to jump on the console he was working at before turning. 

"Oh..umm Captain..Sir..I-I'm sorry Sir. I didn't hear you."

"Who is in charge here Crewman?" 

The young enlisted man pointed toward another human, this one in civilian work clothes, standing near the ship's warp core with a PADD in his hand and gesturing to a Starfleet ensign standing beside him.

"Mr. Chernov  is Sir." 

Jureth looked over a the pair and then back at the crewman "thank you. Sorry I scared you."

Leaving the still startled man to his work Jureth moved toward the man he'd been directed to who looked up from his PADD just as the Alsea's CO approached him.

"and you must ve Captain Oseno." the man stated. He was as tall as Jureth, and broad shouldered with salt and pepper hair and a mild accent that Jureth was able to place as being from the Russian region of Earth.

"Mr. Chernov," Jureth said with a nod "Lieutenant T'Lana tells me that you haven't even started working on the engine modifications yet. I want to know why."

"Da, I am Victor Chernov and you Starfleet captains always vant your answers right this second..." he shook his head "Ve haven't started because the parts that ve were supposed to get are not here." 

"What do you mean they're not here?" Jureth asked his eyes narrowing and his internal temperature starting to rise

"Just vat I said, they are not here. I checked vith supply myself, the von't arrive for another veek." 

"A week?!" Jureth practically yelled "Do you know we only have 24 days until this ship gets underway?!" 

"Da I know the timetable Captain, but I cannot vork on an engine vith no parts. I am but a simple engineer." with that Chernov threw his hands in the air and they landed on his back on his overalls with a smack

Jureth wasn't amused with the gesture and glared at the man for a long minute before his logical mind gained control and reminded him this civilian was only doing his job.

"Alright," he said with a sigh "Finish going over the other ship's systems. Make sure there isn't even a flutter in all of them. I will see what I can do about the parts."

"As you vish Captain." 

Jureth left main engineering in a huff and made his way back to the turbolift. 

"Bridge." he commanded as the doors closed. 

As the lift began to move he contemplated where in the galaxy he was going to find parts for a transwap modification on Starfleet vessel for a classified mission. He couldn't just call in a favor, or dial up a Ferengi trader...no other active ship in fleet had the parts they needed...and that was when it hit him. No other active ship, but there was one inactive ship that might have the parts he needed...the Lotus. The Fleet's former flagship had an experimental transwarp drive system installed on it, perhaps he could scavenge what the Alsea needed there. Maybe he could even do it without anyone knowing he'd done it. The base was in an uproar, the other ship's in the task force were being worked on....he might even be able to bluff his way aboard the Lotus, but he would need help to pull it off. If he could do that though, with enough help, he might be able to get the Alsea modified before the rest of the task force was ready,and get her underway without the burden of the rest of the fleet.

Walking out onto the bridge he went immediately to his ready room, and opened the console. He accessed the specifications on the Lotus's transwarp drive and compared her engines to the Alsea's. Obviously the Alsea was far more advanced and the technical specifications were beyond Jureth's even rudimentary engineering knowledge. He would have to recruit an engineer sooner rather than later if he was going to pull this off. He also knew he would have to inform as few people as possible what he was planning which would mean heavily automating many of the Alsea's functions. As her captain he knew it was possible to run her with quite a bit of automation, but just how much he wasn't sure. So next he pulled up the ship's computer specs and began going over everything he would need to do to automate her major functions...including the multi-vector assault mode. It was complicated...but doable...and next...it was time to take a walk by the Lotus...

So, he made his way toward the far side of the docking area where the Lotus sat, mostly dark. The Intrepid Class vessel had been the very first one Jureth had served on when he arrived to what was then Starbase Ten. A green security chief he had adventured with Captain Gould, and Admiral Redding (he still hadn't figured out the relationship between Admiral Redding and Commander Redding..only that it was classified way above any clearance he himself held.) and faced down a raging Mugato and warmongering Klingons. He smiled to himself at the memories, as he strode toward her berth he was met by a brown-haired, middle aged, Trill female security lieutenant with a phaser in her hand. 

"Afternoon Captain Oseno, can I help you Sir?"

"No no Lieutenant," Jureth said with the best smile he could manage "Just taking a stroll down memory lane." He gestured to the Lotus "I served aboard her, when I first arrived here." 

"Did you?" she asked "I heard she was a tough little ship."

Jureth nodded with a chuckle "that she was Lieutenant, that she was. It's a little sad seeing her just sitting here." 

"I suppose that time comes for every ship eventually," the woman replied "If you ever want to go aboard and reminisce Sir..just fill out the proper access forms." 

"I'll do that. Thank you Lieutenant, have a good day." 

"You too Sir." 

Jureth walked away from the berth noting that while the security officers seemed attentive, there were only two of them, and with the right documents he could probably get aboard the Lotus with a small team....and now...now he needed an engineer. He tapped his combade

"computer...locate Lieutenant Commander Sorripto." 

*     *     *

In the shadow of an unused docking port, a tall, athletic silhouette in worker coveralls watched the Bajoran captain walk the docking bay of the former flagship of Lotus Fleet with four sensitive oculars. His superior hearing allowed him to catch their conversation almost as if he had been standing right next to them. He too noticed the light guard detail of this section of the base and the even lighter complement of technicians and personel around the Lotus.

Most interesting... Great minds think alike.

As Jureth walked back the way he came, he did the same. Through the small airlock of the maintenance docking port he returned to the workbee he had borrowed to discreetly come to where the Intrepid class decommissionned vessel was resting. The Lotus had been his first space assignment under captain Felez Connora'tu, rising to chief tactical and security officer until transfered after the Borg Invasion to the Artemis as XO. It was also the Lotus, under Captain V'rell Gould, that had saved him, and the Federation, when the Artemis was lost under his own command. 

And she will do so again... if I can find a way.

As he deftly piloted the diminutive yellow pod under the sensor shadow of the starbase's structure, close enough to it's hull he could have touched it with his outstreched hand, he pondered his options in a new light.

Stealing the Lotus will not be easy; even in it's current state. And automating it for a handful of people to fly even less. But why would Jureth be looking at her when he has so much to do preparing his own ship? When last we spoke, I felt how troubled he was about Starfleet's orders; angry even. He was almost... Andorian about it. And I know him. He is the kind of officer who would show no fear in acting according to his own conscience. And as a Bajoran, he knows full well the horrors that the Federation Council wants to commit all of us to. So... why come here, to the Lotus? What does he have in mind?

He reached the reserve maintenance bay where he had borrowed the stocked workbee when it hit him.

The transwarp drive! Aside from the Horizon, the Lotus is the only ship here having faster than warp propulsion! An early prototype... but still, with the attrition, personnel disruption and delivery delays caused by mine and Syntron's departure, all across the starbase, Starfleet even, the transwarp conversion of all the ships is falling behind. But Jureth would not try to steal the Lotus; he doesn't need to. He already has a ship. He probably plans to get the one from the Lotus for his Alsea! Smart man...

He took the precaution of erasing the last flight log of the pod then used a portable baryon sweeper to erase any trace of himself, down to the subatomic level. He then removed his disguise, swept is also on the rack where he returned it then wiped out the maintenance bay's own security and surveillance records before exiting in his civilian clothes through a jefferies tube, back to the civilian storeroom he had come in. 

What is Jureth's intent? Be the first ready to strike the intruder? or... what? And if he takes the Lotus transwarp drive, there goes my only chance to beat Starfleet to the starting line. Unless he too has... other plans?

The antennae on his head were wobbling this way and that as he walked eyes lost into the distance on the half-deserted promenade.

I need an engineer; one that knows how to work with avanced propulsion, familiar with transwarp... and experienced in automating an entire starship. And I know only of one who did this before... and might be willing like me to... wear the black cape.

Back in his quarters, he took care not to disturb his wives as he called forth logged archives of the Federation Newsfeed of a few years back; about what he remembered of the theft of a starship from Utopia Plenitia, the USS Diamond Star, sistership of his own former command. And there he got the name of the Lotus Fleet engineering officer involved.

David Rogers.

 *     *     *

The computer had politely informed Jureth that Sorripto, the former engineer of the McKenzie, and who Jureth knew by reputation as being one of the best engineers in the Fleet was in the engineering lab. Jureth also knew the Cardassian, the only one Jureth had ever met in Starfleet, had a reputation for getting things done even to the point where he had run afoul of Starfleet's brass. From the unclassified information that the Bajoran had been able to find it Sorripto was also the one engineer in Lotus Fleet who could help him do what he needed to do. 

Jureth also knew this was the point of no return. If he recruited Sorripto he was all in, all in on scavenging parts from one Starfleet vessel to help him steal another. All in on disobeying direct, classified orders and  going out on his own to try and prevent the Starfleet and the Federation Council from starting a needless war. Even if he accomplished his goals and it turned out to be the right thing to do he was most likely going to land in front of a court martial. He could see no scenario in which he didn't lose his command and maybe even his commission. None of it mattered now though, what mattered was that Starfleet was wrong, the Council was wrong, and Jureth knew it. He was certain others did too, but they were in no position to help him. 

As he reached the lab, rather an odd destination for a ship captain, he found numerous personnel working on various experiments but he didn't immediately see Sorripto. He approached a female Vulcan ensign who was working on something Jureth wasn't able to identify.

"Ensign, I'm Captain Oseno of the Alsea, is Lieutenant Commander Sorripto around?" 

"Aye Sir," the woman replied "I believe the Commander is in another part of the lab. If you will please wait here I will have the computer page him. Many of our experiments are quite sensitive to disturbance so we do not permit additional personnel in that area." 

She entered several commands into her console then went back to working on her project and Jureth waited.

The console in front of Jureth beeped in response and he instantly felt the cooling rush of a transporter beam. When Jureth materialized he was in Sorripto's lab. He noticed two work stations and two laboratory stations, both of which were running experiments on nano technology. Sorripto was alone and based on the personal touches to the lab it appeared he is often that way. Before he could say anything Sorripto put his finger to his own lips in the universal sign for silence. In his other hand was something metal and small and before Jureth could even guess what it was Sorripto flicked his wrist and threw the small item which directly hit Jureth's combadge. Looking down he noticed it looked like a little dart, but clearly more advanced.

"Sorry about that Captain, we can't have anyone listening in or tracking us now can we?" Sorripto said with an almost eager tone.

"Now what can I do for you?"

Jureth was slightly shocked, it was almost as if Sorripto not only knew he'd been coming, but why he was there...it was quite odd.

"Well Commander, I'm here because I have a problem, and I think you can help me solve it."

Sorripto nodded slowly. The snooping and prying he had done finally all clicked. Jureth, who Sorripto always knew was one of the good ones, was clearly ready to go around Federation leadership to do the right thing. Sorripto had been on this road before, and he was being singled out then he knew it was a road he would gladly walk again.

"Solving problems is what I do Captain" Sorripto replied

The small smirk hid his excitement.

"What do you need me to do?"

"To put it bluntly, I need to steal two things. The transwarp drive unit from the Lotus...and my own ship."

Sorripto, usually quick with a witty response, found himself paused to respond. This task was more than even he anticipated. He knew Jureth would want him to steal a ship, but a transwarp drive. This new mission had an urgency Sorripto had clearly underestimated.

"So you want me to sneak aboard the Lotus, steal their transwarp drive, install it aboard the Alsea and then I assume work as your engineer while you steal a ship and go off in a great big hurry and deal with a threat that a bunch of stuffy bureaucrats are not dealing with properly?"

Jureth nodded "That is the gist of it. Starfleet and the Federation are making a mistake. I want to stop them." 

"Sounds like fun"

Sorripto pointed towards the floor panel Jureth was standing on.

"Just take half a step back for me"

Jureth looked down slightly confused, but he complied stepping back off of it slightly. 

"I'm not sure I want to know why I just did that," the Bajoran stated "this is not going to be an easy task Commander, and frankly it might get both of us banished to the Delta Quadrant." 

As Jureth was talking Sorripto entered a series of commands on the panel at his work station. The sound of gas escaping filled the room as the panel Jureth was standing on opened upwards to reveal a storage compartment. While it was well assembled Jureth could easily tell the compartment was handmade. Sorripto walked over and reached into the compartment pulling out two bags.

"If it was easy it would not be any fun" Sorripto retorted with a wink.

Back at the station Sorripto closed the panel which sealed shut. Even having seen it open Jureth could not tell it was there.

"Stealing a transwarp drive is going to require a bit more" Sorripto stated.

As he was inventorying what was in the larger of the two bags he grabbed Sorripto walked over to the experiment station closest to the window and reached through it. His arm vanished nearly up to the shoulder. The entire experiment was a holographic illusion. Sorripto pulled a third bag and a smaller object wrapped in leather. Upon closer examination it was a holster and a Cardassian phase pistol, one that was clearly old. Seeing Jureth eye the weapon Sorripto simply smiled.

"They confiscated this from me following my formal charges after that little misunderstanding with the cultists. When this is over remind me to tell you the story of why it is not in Starfleet evidence storage anymore."

Despite the obvious illegal connotation, never mind the holographic experiment Jureth actually smiled "If we end up in a Federation prison you'll have plenty of time to tell me. You know stealing the Alsea isn't going to be a walk in the park either. I may be in command but there is no way the two of us can run the entire ship, but I suppose it will have to be one theft at a time. The Lotus is relatively lightly guarded, we probably could even bluff our way aboard with the right access documents. That right there is about as far as I've gotten with the whole idea. I just know I can't let them start a senseless war." 

"All jokes aside, there is never shame in doing the right thing" Soripto responded.

Sorripto then pulled out a small device about the size of a combadge and handed it to Jureth.

"This is a site to site transporter device of my own design. What you need to do is bluff your way onto the Lotus, get somewhere unseen and the activate it. It will beam me over untraced and then we can make our way to engineering"

Sorripto began to work through some of the tools in the bags he had produced.

"I will get everything ready on my end, and you better hurry. I can trick the system, but it will not take long for them to notice the components are missing".

Jureth took the device and examined it briefly, it was a security officer's worst nightmare. For half a second he almost felt guilty about what he was about to do, but he pushed the thought away. 

"Understood. It shouldn't take me long. I just need to come up with a decent pretense for going aboard, but I think with the parts delays for the Alsea I have just the reason I need. Now then...how do I get out of here?" 

"Oh right, sorry" Sorripto responded almost amused at himself.

He walked over and activated the panel beaming Jureth back to the entrance of the lab suprising the Ensign who had greeted him when he first arrived.

"Thank you for your help Ensign," Jureth said as he headed for the door to the lab leaving the Vulcan woman shaking her head.

The Bajoran returned to his quarters on the starbase where his soon to be wife was waiting to greet him.

"Where in the name of Bajor have you been?" Cat asked with both concern and anger in her voice "I called the Alsea, they said you weren't aboard. The computer couldn't locate you, I was beginning to think you skipped out on me."

Jureth laughed "You're not getting rid of me that easily." 

"It's not funny Jureth. Why couldn't the computer find you?" 

Jureth had to be careful, he didn't want to involve Cat in what was about to happen. In fact, he needed to make sure that she stayed completely in the dark so that she couldn't be held responsible when things did start to happen.

"Calm down," he said with a soothing tone "I'm sure it was just a computer glitch. I'll get a new combadge from the Alsea when I go back aboard."

"That doesn't tell me where you were." 

"There have been some major parts delays for our upcoming mission. I was trying to find a workaround." 

"And?" 

"its a work in progress, look you know I can't talk about it." 

She sighed "I know. There are all sorts of rumors around the base, Captain Kheren and Captain Syntron have resigned, and the word classified is getting thrown around way too much for my liking." 

"All I can tell you is I'm leaving in 23 days. Minimal crew, and I don't know how long we'll be gone." 

"I don't like any of this." 

Jureth put his arms around her and pulled in for a hug "I know. I don't either." 


*    *    *

Jureth was the key to this conspiracy, Gould was sure of that.
He was a good man that everyone trusted, an easy mark for anyone that needed resources.
His ship the Alsea was rapitidly being overhauled for some clandestine mission involving the war and possibly Omega particals and whatever that was Captain Kheren had refused it at the cost of his commission.
But Kheren had NOT gone home and he found this susticious.
He had expected to hear the Andorian actively confronting Star Fleet over his reasons for resigning, but instead.. nothing.
Gould could not imagine the man giving up so quietly, even if he could not do so openly.
It took little effort keeping tabs on Oseno, the man was one of the most liked people on the station and inquieres about his location drew little intrest given his level of invouvment.

The tracking program he activated would inform him anytime someone mentioned Jureths name in a low security entry log, although he made sure to make in non-evasive enough not to get flagged himself.
It would tell him when and where someone mentioned him, but no further details.
Only one odd recorded incident stood out, he visited the USS Lotus viewing port off the dock.
Not an unprecedented thing to do by any means but the timing was curious.
He checked to see if Oseno, or anyone out of the ordinary had been to the Lotus recently, but it seemed not to be so.

His fantastic analytical mind worked on the problem, if the Lotus was of interest why?
If there was to be any chance to restore the ship from storage they would have started by now and the ablative plating system had already been removed for reverse engineering.
That left it's only true value, it's transwarp drive.
Yes.. yes it made sense.. Kheren needed a way to get there first, wherever 'there' was.
And he had turned to his former crewman.. his friend.. someone he trusted and was trusted by, for help.
He stood up an closed his eyes, there was no proof but it made sense, and he was never wrong.
Now the question was.. what would he do about it?