XO's office meeting

[Alexei Chekov]

Indeed, sir. I believe that even if they were working for Central Command, they would no have the authority to arrive and occupy a planet like they are doing.

The Cardassian-Federation treaty 298.1, that was signet just after the end of the Dominion war, states clearly that, in exchange for Federation help in rebuilding their stations and refiting their fleet, they would never again occupy a planet by force.

And it seems that is the case here...

I think we should contact Vontak Nor and ask them if they know what's happening here. If they don't, perhaps they'd send some help to deal with these rogues. If they do, then it's up to Starfleet HQ to solve it, don't you think?

[Peter Svensson]

For long moments, Svensson stays silent and burried into thoughts.
He then turns a computer panel to him and starts pushing some buttons.
Again a long silence, and his XO is starting to wonder if he even realizes they are still in meeting. And right when Mr. Chekov wants to speak up and ask what Svensson's decision is, he lifts his hand to hold him back from speaking.

"It is good to have access to all the files in the databases, including those that are not supposed to exist."

He pushes a button and a stellar map appears on a wall screen.

"What you see there is the location of the Dark Passage and our projected course toward it.  Now, if I magnify," he pushes another button to magnify the map, "you see that this stellar phenomena did not steal its name.  There is a small passway of clear space inside the phenomena, bordered by asteroids on one side, and clusters on the other side.  There is quite some magnetic distortion in those areas, which makes it even difficult to have long-range communications.
And Vontak Nor is located right in the deepest middle of that narrow corridor inside that phenomena."

He points out the location of Vontak Nor on the screen.

"And THAT is already one excuse to go there ourselves, instead of contacting them over subspace channel. We can claim that because of magnetic distortions, we were unable to hail them and so we decided to go there ourselves."

He pushes again some buttons and now the panel displays some scientific information about the Dark Passage on the map.

"We could use transdimensional warp to travel to the Dark Passage, but we would have to drop out of warp near its borders still.  The strong magnetic disturbance in the Dark Passage does not only disrupt subspace communication, but also warp fields.  This means that warp speed might be possible there, but it is a high risk. It could break a ship to pieces if it crosses an area with too strong magnetic interference. Transdimensional warp is probably even more dangerous, though it would not be a problem to pass by the Dark Passage with transdimensional warp, but we can't drop out of warp INSIDE the Dark Passage, if you know what I mean."

Then, at last, he pushes again some buttons and a very different course projection is showed on the map.

"What you see here is the course of the U.S.S. Evolution on its previous mission. This information is normally strictly classified, no doubt you understand. There seems to have been a friendly contact between the USS Evolution and Vontak Nor, and the Cardassians actually saved the Evolution from a very hostile species called the Loxians - who seem to reside more to the north of the Dark Passage but claim the whole area their own.
So we could use the excuse of paying a friendly visit in name of Starfleet to thank them for their help rendered to the USS Evolution in the past, and that we are also there to investigate the possible threath of the Loxians. If we can get them to help us on that, we possibly might be granted access to their computer system, and then it's only a small trick for me to break into their restricted areas and classified files.

What do you think?"

[Peter Svensson]

OFF: to keep it easy, I just post here that here starts another meeting in this office than the one posted in this topic before http://expansionfleet.sparks.priorweb.be/ikonboard/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'>

Svensson, Chekov and Rugal entered the office.

"So, here we are. I believe we have some things to discuss.  Mr. Rugal, what are your suggestions on how we handle this situation with the Cardassians turning the natives of that planet into slaves?"

[Alexei Chekov]

Admiral, if those are rogue Cardassians and they learn thet you are onboard, sir, we will face heavy resistance. Their numbers are still unknown to us and they may have more ships than we can face...

[Alexei Chekov]

Admiral, I would advise against firing on the surface of the planet, especially where they are mining. Our sensors indicate that there is a high concentration of a mineral that seems to have the property of stabilizing the omega particle into it's crystaline structure.

A phaser could just blow up half the planet, even more.

[Peter Svensson]

Thank you, Mr. Huw, we're on our way to the bridge.