Subject: FRONTIER: A brief briefing

SD 70802

Once again the senior officers met in the conference room, this time 
with the addition of Kesrick Terulus and Captain Anne Festore.  Ramsay
began by assessing the ship's state of repair, "I've been looking 
carefully over all the damage and I've come to the conclusion that 
three days is an optimistic estimate.  I am now projecting that it may
take up to six days to effect full repairs."

Houston decided to put forward her idea, "Captain, if I may make a 
suggestion, the shipyard on the planet has full facilities for 
repairing spacecraft and if we could take control of the base we could
use those facilities and that would significantly reduce the time 
needed."

Ramsay seemed surprised by the idea, "Houston, that may be a viable 
solution but don't you think it may be too dangerous to implement?  
The Kzinti have a numerical advantage after all."

"This is true Captain, but I am unable to think of a better 
alternative," Houston responded.

Ramsay turned to Angus, "You're the tactical officer here, what do you
think of this?"

Angus thought for a moment and then replied, "Personally I think it's 
suicidal, but Houston has a point - there's nothing else we can do."

Determined to speak, Keanu also voiced his opinion, "It's dangerous 
alright, but if there's nothing else to do I say we go for it."

There was a murmur of agreement and then Ramsay spoke again, "If this 
is our only course of action then how do we go about implementing it? 
You're suggesting that we try to take over a base that we know 
nothing about with a heavily outnumbered force."  

Anne, who had also been quiet, then said to Ramsay, "My people on the 
planet would be willing to help in any raid. If we succeed we would be
able to take our own ships back into Federation space."

"Do you know anything about what the Kzinti plan to do with the 
ships?"  asked Ramsay.

"No," Anne replied. "I haven't been able to find out anything, at least
six ships have been captured and only two of them are being held here,
the Intrepid and the Scharnhorst.  I assumed that they were just 
examining the ships to steal any useful technology, I've only recently
began to speculate that there may be more to it."

"I'm quite positive that there is more to it than that, we've already 
uncovered a saboteur on board our ship but she managed to escape," 
said Ramsay.  "But now, back to the subject, how do we go about 
capturing this base without the Kzinti managing to hold us off long
enough to communicate to their friends?  K'Ich Pa, what do you know 
about their standard communications procedures?"

"I think a facility such as this would be expected to send a full 
report to the Patriarchy every two days, but that does depend on 
military importance."

Angus then spoke, "So we could hide somewhere until they make their 
next report and then we can make our move," he paused for a moment, 
"We could try and make them think that the FRONTIER is another 
captured ship that's been sent here for repairs and once we're inside 
their field we could probably overrun the Kzinti in the hanger bay.  
If we get the lie of the base beforehand we could fortify ourselves in
the bay and find our way to the prisoners at will.  We could repair 
our ship and get the prisoners to their own ships, leaving would be 
simplicity itself."

"That idea is workable, although it needs some fine tuning, we'd have 
to disable their subspace link and get our hands on an accurate plan 
of the base,"  said Kesrick, looking up from his terminal for the 
first time, "We could hide behind the planets moon, and they won't be 
able to scan us once their field is down."

Suddenly Leana's voice came urgently over the comm, [Captain, the 
subspace field over the base has been dropped.]

Ramsay, followed by a few of the others, rushed onto the bridge, Leana
turned to face him, "They've raised the field again, they did a full 
long range sensor sweep, but I was able to disguise our signature, I 
don't think they'll have detected us."

"Good work Lieutenant," Ramsay turned to the officers, "that must have
been their report, that gives us two days.  I think we could all use 
some down time, we'll try to get into the complex tomorrow morning, 
we'll brief at 0600 hours." He then turned to Anne and handed her a 
wrist-comm, "Take this, we'll beam you down to the surface and just 
tap if you need anything." He then accompanied her to the transporter 
room where he sent her down to the surface.


Respectfully submitted
        Allan MacLennan
        [Lt.] Angus Murray

"Put your faith in God and keep your powder dry"
        Oliver Cromwell