[Shadowdancer] "Converging Altruism and Self-Interest" by Ashari
- From: "Alan Baker" <alan_e_baker@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: shadowdancer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 02 Jun 2005 08:16:09 +0000
Converging Altruism and Self-Interest
By Ashari
Ashari looked down at the tactical console once again. For the third time
the bulk of the display was taken up by a scan of the surface of Ferenginar,
and for the third time there was no trace of Sianar. Ashari rubbed his eyes
and stretch his antennae as far back as they would go. It had been a long
shot, he admitted to himself. If they had been orbiting Andoria or Earth he
might have had more luck, but trying to pick one Ferengi biosign out of
several billion from orbital distances was much more of a challenge. It
looked like they'd have to rely on whatever scheme Bella and Oridian came up
with for tracking her down
The difficulty in filtering for individuals had been compounded by the fact
that the scan was reporting that individual biosigns kept winking in and out
of visibility. This had puzzled Ashari for a while until he worked out that
the effect was being caused by millions of individual transport-inhibitor
generators on the surface, probably used by the avaricious locals to make
sure no-one could beam away their carefully-horded latinum.
It would also make extracting Sianar much more difficult. With transport
inhibitors in such widespread use on Ferenginar it seemed unlikely that any
self-respecting jail would be without one. They wouldn't be able to simply
beam her up to the ship. They'd have to actually go down there, fight their
way in to wherever she was being held, then fight their way back out again,
possibly with an injured Sianar slowing them down.
Ashari stretched again. Whilst he took a certain pride in the fact that Nate
had asked him to plan the retrieval, Ashari had to admit to himself that he
didn't relish the prospect of getting into a firefight on the surface. His
expertise was more in ship-to-ship operations than ground actions. Oridian
had claimed to have some marine experience, but Ashari was reluctant to ask
his advice and display his own lack of knowledge to the rest of the crew.
But if they were to successfully rescue Sianar, he might have to swallow his
pride. If Oridian could think of a way to get them in and out...
Out? Maybe they wouldn't have to fight their way out again. What if they
took a bunch of transport enhancers with them? They were standard issue on
Starfleet ships - indeed, 'Fleet crews seemed determined to use the
sophisticated devices at every possible opportunity. Shadowdancer would
probably have some aboard. They should be enough to cut through any
transport inhibitors, so all they'd have to do would be to sneak in to
wherever Sianar was being held, set up the enhancers, then beam back to the
ship. And then go to high-warp before the FCA requisitioned a fleet to go
after them.
And that threw up another, more personal problem. Ashari still had to meet
his contact on the surface to pick up payment for the smuggled Romulan
gadget. There would be no time after the rescue, and it seemed likely that
the whole crew would be declared outlaws if they succeeded, so coming back
later was probably not an option. If he was going to make the deal, it would
have to be before they went in for Sianar. Maybe he should go down for a
recon before they committed to an operation...
First things first. He had to know where Sianar was before he could fully
plan an extraction, let alone arrange for a recon mission. Leaving the
console and its useless scan, Ashari went looking for Oridian to see if he'd
had any luck in finding their missing Ferengi.
Other related posts:
- » [Shadowdancer] "Converging Altruism and Self-Interest" by Ashari
