Getting Back To Business

The most of the senior staff was gathering for the briefing that the Captain had called just thirty minutes earlier. Only Rahel Kahfre and Lieutenant Rhee were absent. The CMO had just completed a double shift, trying to single-handedly run Sickbay and was taking some well-earned rest. Rhee had also made her apologies, she was working on something down on holodeck two. Aki had said that she would brief both Doctor's when they had the time.

Aki was the last to enter the room, accompanied by Lieutenant Wright, the Taurus's new Intelligence officer. The Captain sat down at the head of the table, whilst James headed for a vacant seat half way down the room.

"Thank you all for coming so promptly." Aki started. "I'd like to formally announce that as of half an hour ago, the Taurus is no long co-operating with the Dominion in our search for the missing Federation scientists. I have formally requested that the Jem'Hadar and the Vorta Sabá be taken off the ship and as we sit here, they are being transported over to the Dominion battleship that has just arrived."

There was an obvious sigh of relief at the news that the Taurus was no longer home to Jem'Hadar soldiers, even if the Federation was at peace with the Dominion. There were just too many difficult memories of the war between the two governments.

"Which means we are now on our own." Aki continued. "But thanks to our new Intel officer, we may have a lead on these rogue Jem'Hadar. Mister Wright, if you'd like to explain what you have discovered."

James rose from his seat and walked over to the viewscreen. He tapped a couple of buttons on the Padd he had in his hand and the image of a planet appeared on the screen.

"This is Mirisam V." James started. "It's officially classed as being class L, but there are a couple of areas where human life can thrive comfortably. One of these areas is the island continent of Arvia Nova and there is a Federation research base on the island. The base has nearly fifty Federation scientists and support staff, plus at least another fifty family members. My source believes that this colony will be the next target for the rogue Jem'Hadar."

"Why ?" A curious Logan McQueen asked. "What's there that the Jem'Hadar would want ?"

"My source believes that these Jem'Hadar are still very short of supplies." James continued. "They have told me that Dominion forces have been strengthened throughout the sector in response to the raids that have been made. My own analyses of the information I received have shown that there is a pattern to the raids, with the exception of the raid on Juno III. It is my belief that Juno III and the two scientists that were kidnapped were taken for a specific reason. All the other raids on Dominion outposts have been for one of two reasons, the gathering of additional equipment, especially ship weapons and the collection of certain Jem'Hadar."

"Do we have any idea of the numbers were looking at ?" Captain Taybar asked.

"The Dominion are being very cagey about the number of Jem'Hadar who have defected to these rouge Jem'Hadar. But we do know that they have taken a substantial number of photon torpedoes and at least one battle cruiser." James replied.

"Sounds like they are stockpiling weapons for a war." Logan replied.

"The Dominion have effectively declared war on these rogue Jem'Hadar." James announced. "They are intent on finding and wiping out all these rogue Jem'Hadar and don't care how they manage it or who else gets killed. Yesterday, there was a report of an entire planet that the Dominion effectively turned into an inhabitable wasteland, just because they discovered that a group of Orion pirates had been working with the rogue Jem'Hadar and smuggling 'White'. Ketracel-white is the one thing these raids have not been able provide. Mirisam V is one of only a handful of planets in the Gamma quadrant where a very special plant grows. This plant can be used as one of the raw ingredients that can be used to make ketracel-white and it's the only planet that is not in the hands of the Dominion."

"So you think that these Jem'Hadar could be after a supply of this planet to create more White ?" The Captain enquired.

"It's a logical choice." James replied. "The colony is very remote and the nearest Starfleet vessel would take at least a day to reach. I'd suggest that we travel to Mirisam V as soon as possible and try to prevent this happening."

"Thank you Lieutenant." Aki announced as James shutdown the screen and took his seat once more. "Does anyone have any thoughts ?"

"I agree that we need to get to Mirisam V as soon as possible." Logan stated. "But I think we maybe able to use this information to our advantage. I'd suggest that instead of just trying to prevent the attack, we evacuate the colony and then attempt to hide our presence. When the Jem'Hadar arrive, we should be able to get a very accurate scan of the vessel and then track it back to their base."

"A good plan." James replied. "With one slight flaw. My sources suggest that the attack will occur in about three day's time. It will take us at least that long to reach Mirisam V and even then we might be too late."

"I think it's worth the risk." Aki stated. "We can at least try and reach Mirisam V before the Jem'Hadar. If possible we'll attempt to evacuate the colony, even if we don't manage to evacuate everyone, we'll at least reduce the death toll. The record of these Jem'Hadar is to take what they want and destroy everything else."

"The transwarp drive is fully operational." Rachel Luwall stated. "We can leave whenever you are ready. I might be able to coax a little more speed out of the coils if we monitor the systems carefully."

"Captain, I have another suggestion to make." Logan announced. "This morning, Marine Lieutenant Floten informed me that his Marines were beginning to feel a little restless being onboard ship. I was going to bring this up after the meeting, but I think now would be a good opportunity to consider setting up an ambush. While we're evacuating the colony, the Marines could be preparing for the Jem'Hadar's attack. From what we know they're using hit and run tactics, hitting each target hard, taking what they want and then destroying the rest. If they come up against any sort of resistance, they should run."

"That sounds like a good idea." Aki stated. "We should have a word with Floten and have him prepare the Marines for action. We may not have time to set-up an ambush, but if we can then the Jem'Hadar might just get more than they bargained for."

The rest of the meeting was fairly normal as the service heads reported on the status of the ship. Twenty minutes after the meeting had started, it was finally over. M'eko, Logan and Rachel Luwall were the last to leave."

"Lieutenant J'ross. Set a course for Mirisam V maximum warp." Aki ordered. "Rachel, try and get as much speed as you can out of the engines as you can, but try not to break them. We need to reach Mirisam V in one piece and fully prepared for a battle."

"Understood." The two officers said almost in unison.

"We'll be ready to leave in fifteen minutes." Rachel announced.

M'eko headed back to the Bridge, whilst Rachel headed down to Engineering and the transwarp engines. Which left just the Captain and Logan.

"I guess we should go and see Lieutenant Floten." Aki suggested.