Addressing the Senate
Posted on Fri Jun 23rd, 2023 @ 10:42pm by Fleet Captain Maxwell Culver & Lieutenant Rowena "Rena" Campbell & Colonel Galen s'Khev
3,869 words; about a 19 minute read
Mission:
Good Will Tour: Mountain Home [Part Two]
Location: Holography
Timeline: MD26: 0800 hours
Max sat up with a start as the holographic doctor touched his arm. “Doctor! What time is it?”
“It’s oh-seven hundred hours, Captain. I knew you had an early appointment this morning. This gives you some time to prepare and I can ask some questions?” she wondered.
“The psychogenic shock,” Max remembered. He was exhausted. “I think I caused that. I think I attached myself to Dani and forced him to say what I would have. If I did it, it wasn’t on purpose,” he admitted.
“That would explain why Counselor Campbell was entirely unaffected,” the doctor responded thoughtfully. “I’ll have to explore the possibility further once we return to the base.”
“Of course,” Max agreed. He hoped it wasn’t true, that he hadn’t grown in abilities so quickly. His abilities were also the things of El-Aurian myth. He would be the first in generations. It was a terrifying thought.
Max moved through his pack and found his razor and toothbrush. He began to clean himself up. “Do you think you can wake Counselor Campbell? She is due to sit in on this meeting with me.”
“Of course,” Christine answered, walking to the rear cabin.
Opening the doors, she placed a hand on Rena’s shoulder. “Counselor, the time is oh-seven ten hundred hours. Captain Culver explained you would be involved in a meeting with him this morning.”
Rena was actually only dozing; she hadn't slept well that day, but she sat up. "Thank you, Dr. How are the Captain and Mr. Martinez today?" She stood up to freshen her uniform. "Maybe I should replicate a fresh one," she said. "You can return to Max; I am fine!" She was. "We can talk later about the rescue missions. Were there...are they all dead?" She hoped it was quick; it bothered her that she hadn't been able to psychically connect with any of them, but they were too far away and she'd been preoccupied.
“I’m afraid they all died, Counselor. I will make my report to the captain immediately after this Senate business.” Christine’s voice was solemn, even quiet.
Rena nodded; she'd expected as much. "Thank you, Dr." She said, quietly. She dressed quickly and did what she could with the replicator for cosmetics and such. After downing a cup of replicated coffee, she went off to gather Max and see if her Comm badge could contact Colonel s'Khev.
“Let’s go! Shake a leg. Our transport time is creeping up,” Max shouted from the living space.
As Rena arrived by his side, Max managed to pick up Dani - still unconscious from Max’s interference the night previous. Christine looked at him and held out her arms, indicating she would care for him.
Max swallowed hard as he handed Dani to the hologram. Of course she could hold his weight and more. “Two to beam to sickbay and two to beam directly to the bridge.”
Galen arrived as Captain Culver transported directly to the bridge. The early hour, and the lack of sleep did not show on the Romulan's face. This came from years of training to never divulge your true nature, if you were sick and things like that. "Morning Captain. Ready to make history?"
Max adjusted his tunic and fiddled with his combadge. “Perfectly ready, Colonel.” Max’s words were strong and clear, though he knew he looked like hell aside from the fresh uniform. The results of the psychogenic shock he had suffered the night before. “Let’s get to the holodeck, on the double.”
Rena did her best to calm and energize the situation, but she was exhausted. Not so much psychically as Max was, but physically, and emotionally. She felt things deeply-likely due to her abilities-and it was a weight on her mind that she couldn't have saved just ONE person. She felt like she was eighty five instead of twenty four. "Colonel," she said, with a nod. "I am just here to advise, let me know what you'll need from me further. Where's Vi?" she sighed.
Max looked up, exhausted. “She’s already doing passive scans of the mountainside,” Max explained. “Because I’m not leaving here without permission to find out what happened to our crew. Based on the holodoc’s explanation, there is something living there.”
Without missing a beat Galen replied with an almost Vulcan like lack of emotion. "I would not be surprised. It seems to me that the people here did not do much investigating before they set all this up. Then when they did they found something that they shouldn't have. Something they are still not ready to inform us about." Galen of course referred to his conversation with Senator Killik and the Romulan expeditions that went missing.
Rena sighed, deeply and wearily. She was tired. The kind of tired that a day's sleep wouldn't fix. "Do you want me to probe?" She offered. She still could rally the few remaining brain cells floating around to put to use. "And ok. I'll coordinate with Drs Gocx and Greene later on," she said.
With the three of them present and the hour nearing 0750, Max tapped the controls on his wrist and activated the upload. The room swarmed to life around them. Clearly, only a few Senators were present in the actual Senate room, perhaps a lesson learned from the Shinzon incident of just speaking to the scattered nature of the Romulan government.
Max and his crew waited, like the others for the session to begin.
Rena watched as the hologram made the room appear busier than it was. She sat, primly, in her chair, doing her hardest to appear interested. It wouldn't do for the Chief Counselor to look bored or apathetic. She tried to pump some positivity into the room. She settled for neutral.
Max realized Rena had found their table and appeared to be looking over some notes before the Senate meeting. He was surprised by how much the senate hall appeared, as if lifted from the planet and replaced somewhere else. For all he knew, that had been something they had done, saved a building instead of people. It would be in line with their way of thinking.
He needed to talk to Rena about her call to medical. The only reason she would call him there in private was for Dani. ’What have I done?’ he wondered quietly inside his own mind…he hoped. He was about to move and sit next to her, but Romulan politics interrupted.
“Captain Culver,” Senator V’trel announced and half the room quieted as their gazes shifted toward the pair. “Welcome to the Senate, an historic occasion considering you are the first Starfleet captain to be invited here.”
“The second,” Max attempted to correct V’trel.
“Ah, you speak of Picard, except he was invited by Shinzon. Traitor and murdered. Picard’s time here heralded much death under the false Praetor. I have confidence that you will do better than he.
“Picard may have been in this very room once, but he was invited by the pretender. You have been properly invited to the Senate by no other than the Praetor himself.” V’trel’s words sounded like honey.
“May I ask, captain, are you well?”
Max laughed. “A night in Mountain Home did me no good. It is,” Max paused as the images of giant spiders dragging people from their beds flashed in his mind. The images were backed by the story of the holodoctor. “quite cold and disagreeable. I’ve not had a good night’s sleep.”
V’trel seemed to shiver. “You dared stay in the city of ghosts? I have not set foot there except in holographic form and that was enough for me. Clearly a cold, dreary and dreadful place,” V’trel paused. “You are quite brave, staying in the City of the Dead.”
“Why do you call it that?” Max asked, his curiosity piqued.
V’trel was about to answer when the tones struck eight hundred hours. A gavel sounded. “Let us call together this meeting with haste. To your places all.”
Max bowed and V’trel dipped his head with true reverence for the man who slept in the City of the Dead. The pair separated and moved to their assigned seating.
“Today is an historic day for the Romulan Star Empire and United Federation of Planets as we invite Captain Maxwell Culver of Starfleet and his counsel to the Romulan Senate. Many of us, like Senator Efraine of the Praetorian Tower and Senator V’trel have had the pleasure of meeting him. They are impressed, so far, with his ability to utilize his Executive Officer, Colonel Galen s’Khev’s experience to manage such a feat as assembling the Senate at the captain’s request.
“He is wise to seek counsel from those many are older than he and the constituents that they represent. However, I understand time is of the essence. A crashed fighter brings us together early this morning. By all accounts, the fighter is likely destroyed and the crewmen dead, but there is always hope as a wise man once espoused to this chamber.
“The question before you this morning is, do we allow Captain Culver to put any more of his crew or resources toward what we feel likely to be a recovery case, knowing the dangers outside the safety of Mountain Home, or do we disallow the request and force them to continue their visit?
“Senate, what say you?”
Max could make out the Senator’s name Kail’l and his rating as Viceroy among the Senate. He wondered where the Praetor was. Perhaps this was too far below his need to be there in person. Max wasn’t well versed enough in Romulan politics to determine when the Praetor should come crawling off his throne.
“They’re going to put this to vote so early in the agenda?” Max whispered to no one really.
Galen had been sitting at their table for quite some time as his work was already done. He managed to get the Senate to convene. That should be enough, however, the more he heard the more he seemed interested in the goings on. When Max asked his rhetorical question Galen could not help but answer. "Something like this does not need discussion. It is a simple question of permission. They will either grant it or they will not."
Rena shushed the men; men were RIDICULOUS. The Colonel, not so much; these were his people, but the Captain was already on thin ice and didn't need to press his luck. Suddenly, an old show tune popped into her head. She fought an urge to hum it, pushed it away, and glared at Max. She tried to send him a message to be quiet, and calm down, not knowing if he'd receive. She hadn't been aware that he had abilities-stronger than hers, even-and it was going to be hard helping him learn to control and deal with it. She'd have to research it. After she took a long shower and a nap. She tuned into the cacophony of voices in the room, the Senate talking amongst themselves. It SEEMED to be positive, from what she could gather-Romulans were not known for giving off body language and had an uncanny ability to block empaths at times-something that annoyed her greatly-the Colonel did it to her often.
Senator Talwe’en, a middle-aged woman stood. “Let them recover their people and their craft, but only in the daylight. Who knows what goes on after dark in those bloody cold mountains.”
There was a flurry of agreements and their opposition. Senator Killik stood, making Talwe’en seem frail and old. “We know that we lost two work crews to the dangers of those mountains. Once the Mountain Home was built, we lost another thirty within the first weeks.” He coughed into a handkerchief and Max spotted green blood. As tired as he was, he had spotted it. “Why sacrifice Starfleet either crew or equipment to explore what we already know is deadly, during the sun or moon.”
“Killik knows more,” Max said to Galen. “Rena, I know you’re tired but are you getting anything?”
Rena looked from Max to Galen, then back to Max. "Permission to speak freely?" Once he nodded, she sighed. "He's very ill, and so, he's not able to block me. All I am getting are pictures, not words-spiders, LARGE ONES, like Earth's tarantulas, but white. Cuter, but I still wouldn't touch it," she said, shivering.
"Something else. I am probing as deeply as I can but...I am tired, and I can't go too far. He WILL block me eventually. The Colonel here does it all the time," she indicated Galen, "But I understand why. It's not a supernatural phenomenon-I think it was put there by the Government-maybe T'al Shiar-to scare the villagers." She stopped, settling back down. "I need to use the ladies' room, please excuse me." A quick break would refresh her.
“Galen, he wouldn’t give up intelligence like giant arthropods - white, fuzzy, cute or otherwise- I don’t care what kind of dinner you shared and if he did tell you such things, we need to rethink our relationship. He had to say something.” Max tapped the box in his lap and opened it. On top was the child’s drawing of the people being eaten or drawn being pulled by ropes - in this case, probably webbing.
Galen stood and, with a hand wave, hushed the murmurs of the Senate. "Hear me now my countrymen. For I wish to speak," he paused as the final words of Senators could be heard and eventually the room fell silent. "First, I wish to point out as a matter of protocol; we are speaking of Starfleet personnel and Starfleet equipment. As such, Captain Culver needs not seek permission from the governmental body. Our treaty with the Federation clearly states that either side may enter the other's territory for tasks such as this one.
“Captain Culver, however, saw it prudent to seek the permission and support of this Senate." Galen paused to allow that fact to settle into the heads of all gathered. When there was no protestation to what he had said, he continued. This time he raised a finger toward Senator Killik. "Senator, my next point is for you. Yes, I understand that a number of your men went into the mountains and never returned. I know that if I were in your shoes, I would have investigated to the fullest. I would want to know what killed my people. However, in your case, it seems that you have backed down, and perhaps are even hiding something. Now, I, the representative of the Romulan Fleet, am exercising my right to have this Senate force Killik to speak up. Who seconds my motion?" It was a bold move and Galen knew it. But, he suspected it was about to pay off.
Senator V’trel stood. “I second the motion. I have long wondered what was covered up in the harsh mountains. Not so harsh that life can’t be sustained, even improved from how they live there now. But we’ve lost 120 engineers before Mountain Home was completed. Two whole teams of Romulan engineers.
“Later, when the town was built proper, they lost another thirty people. Do we know if these were more engineers, as Senator Killik states, or worse, townspeople?”
Max nudged Galen. Handing him the box, he said, “These were drawn by a child.”
Galen took the drawings and began to hold them up as he spoke. "These were drawn by a child of Mountain Home. Care to explain what it is they are drawing Senator. Before you speak of the imagination of a child know that children rarely lie about things they have seen, especially things that they have seen and are afraid of."
Max stood strongly, proudly. “We already know these spider creatures exist. There is proof of their existence from our holographic medical program.” Using his PaDD, Max pulled up the doctor’s visual recordings. “This is the visual recording, no sound. We feel in this case, no sound is necessary.
On a large screen, four medium dog sized white spiders crawled through a large rent in the shuttle. The creatures moved to attack the EMH, confused by her appearance as alive. Larger spider’s feet probed the surfaces, clearly trying to open the tear more.
“I’d have to imagine that these are what killed your engineering teams. Both of them…and the thirty civilians that were drug off in the night. Killed the family who lived in that very same pod Senator Killik put me up for the night. My guess is, Killik hoped I would be drug off by these spiders and eaten last night too.”
Senator Killik rose slowly, using his staff to pull up his bulk. “I was told by this Senate to use the arctic cold as an excuse to the people of this world as to how we lost one hundred and twenty engineers. Hypothermic madness, lost in the snow, ice, wind.
“We built the devices which would throw off geometrics, visual functions, even simple magnetics. This crash was Starfleet’s fault, they were meant to stay on their flight paths, damn it!”
Killik leaned over the table and mopped his sweaty forehead with a handkerchief. “Kill the Starfleet captain, drive the Federation away from our planet, make them all go away!!” Killik shouted, his veins in his neck stood out green. “It is what you all wanted.” He managed to point his arm around the room, accusatory at the whole of the Senate.
Killik looked as if he had more to say, but he doubled over as an army of spiders spilled out of his mouth.
Rena's stomach turned as the Romulan doubled over, vomiting up spiders. Ew. Still, she manipulated the air to the best of her ability, until the Senate was calmer. They'd figure out quickly it was her doing it, but for now, she didn't care.
“Those spiders will kill every person in Mountain Home within 24 hours,” Max said as the image of Killik blinked out. Looking to Galen, he had no idea what to do. And then, he did.
Max pushed the Senate to a small screen as he had the holodeck create a new uplink. Galen and Max were now inside a McCall class fighter. “Skip the pre-flight protocols except de-icing,” Max ordered.
“I ask for the Senate’s quick response on destroying Senator Killik’s Hall, everything under it until their are no more spiders that can intrude on the people.
“Rena, get back to Triton, between you and Chet, you’ll figure this out while Galen and I hope we don’t get eaten by monster spiders!”
Rena nodded, and stood up to head to the transporter. "Aye, sir. Colonel, sir? WATCH HIM. Don't let him do anything too stupid," she said, with a deep sigh. She was tired of his fuckery today.
Despite the spiders that came from Killik's mouth Galen still had a response lined up. However, just as he was about to speak he found himself in a fighter with the Captain. "Yes sir. Deicing in progress." He replied to the Captain's order. A moment later the shuttle was ready for launch but Galen still had no idea exactly where the Captain intended on going. "We are ready for launch sir."
Viceroy Kail’l seemed to look off screen for a moment and then back to the Starfleet people. “The Praetor orders the destruction of the hall and the immediate quarantine of the area around it after its destruction”
Max looked to the Viceroy. “We already have a fighter in position.”
Max settled into his seat at the pilot’s chair. The engines were warmed up and the systems displayed nominal. “Engaging thrusters, evacuation and quarantine orders have been issued to those outside the hall.
“Colonel s’Khev, target only Senator Killik’s Hall. Just enough firepower to destroy that target alone,” Max said, his thoughts crystal clear.
"Yes sir." Galen programed two torpedoes for localized detonation. As soon as he had the target in site Galen fired. "Firing now." Within seconds the hall went up in a bright fireball. The explosion was local to the structure but burned so hot that there was not much debris. Most of it vaporized in the explosion.
“Excellent shooting, Colonel s’Khev. Send out the forcefield pods and quarantine what’s left of the area, including and microcracking in the surrounding infrastructure and ground layer. Make sure whatever he just let loose on that town, if it survived, is unable to enter the town.”
"Understood!" Galen worked fast and furiously and a lance of blue light emitted from the fighter. This lance of light was followed by three small black spheres. "Forcefields are away, up and holding. I have sealed the microcracks and whatever is down there is going to stay down there now."
Max set the fighter back in its position, shut the engines down and powered down all systems before activating the command lockouts. Once done, he readjusted his and Galen’s position’s back to the Senate.
With a calmness about him now that he knew most of the mystery and the collusion of the Senate itself, he announced, “Thank you, Viceroy Kail’l, and to the Praetor himself, specifically for his quick command of the situation. I would recommend we strike any of Senator Killik’s final words regarding blame upon the Senate. It’s clear he was a very sick man.”
“It’s clear there is much to do, attending to our own crew and dealing with the investigation and further securing the safety of Mountain Home. We ask to be excused from further discussion to begin such great tasks, Praetor, Viceroy Kail’l.”
“If there is no objection, I say we release Captain Culver to attend to his crew.” When no one spoke, Max and Galen were dismissed from the council remotely.
Back in the plain holodeck, Max shrugged. “Off to work we go, Colonel. You’ll initiate the investigation for the lost fighter and I’ll secure the city from further spider infestation.
“Time to fumigate the town,” Max joked, but the joke landed heavy between them.
“What if they find out what we’re doing?!”
“You’ve told me we’re using the experiment at such low settings and with new research. They won’t find out what your doing.”
“But…but you gave us money, backed the research, made all this possible.”
“My records show no such transactions. It would be a shame if I was brought into this even…accidentally. Do we understand each other?”
“Clearly…”
The whispers dies as the Senate released. The men smiled at their comrades in wisdom. “Gentleman.” Each man said as the others passed by their physical presence. No such conversation would dare take place off the planet or on the holodeck, anywhere outside his control.
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