= USS Rapier - Romulan Neutral Zone =
Pazla Dacour sat in the command chair of the USS Rapier, reviewing the latest statistics and reports of the ship's mission: to deploy the covert Starfleet outposts along the Neutral Zone. The mission was painstakingly slow and required a lot of patience, something which Pazla wasn't exactly known for but had to learn very quickly when she was assigned as the Rapier's Acting XO almost 6 months ago.
The assignment had come quickly, shortly after the Battle of Aeran III. So quickly, in fact, that she had shipped out not three weeks later. Starfleet wanted to get the outposts deployed as quickly as possible, not having any time to waste while the Romulans managed to regroup themselves with the Federation's knowledge. The Rapier was cloaked and under communications silence as well during the its time in the NZ, and continuously on Yellow Alert. She returned once a month to Unity to fetch a new batch of outposts as well as new crew and give a status update of the project.
The Cargo Bays and some of the non-essential deck space had been converted to accommodate the small outposts, which were stacked onboard the ship like sardines in a can and assembled just before their deployment in space. The outposts were based on hulls that were used for captain's yachts for older Nebula class and Galaxy class ships, of which there seemed to be a surpluss. The yachts were overhauled, their warp capabilities removed and their internal configuration optimised to contain accommodations for six crew and the technology necessary to serve as a listening post.
The small, saucer-shaped outposts were cloaked so deployment happened undercover, with no one being any the wiser. But still it was a painstaking and nerve wrecking process. The outposts barely fit through the Saber class ship's small shuttle bay doors and the activation of their cloak had to be perfectly timed when they were released. One wrong move and the Rapier's cloak could be disrupted, revealing their presence to any Romulan spy satellites or similarly cloaked ships that were nearby.
But the mission was almost coming to an end after several months and Pazla was very grateful for it. The ship's resources were being stretched to the limit with maintaining the cloak for weeks at a time, and there had been a few close calls. They needed to return to Unity to refuel and refit the ship again, as well as replenish personnel. The Rapier herself was operating only on skeleton staff, but had been full of officers on departure every time who were going to serve as crew for the outposts.
She was busy reading the status of the cloaking device when she was interupted by a call from the Shuttlebay.
"Shuttlebay to Bridge; we are ready to deploy 159," the voice of the acting CO said. "Just one more to go after this, then we're done."
And not a moment too soon, she thought. "Confirm Shuttlebay, you are clear to deploy. Go ahead."
= End Log =
Act. Lieutenant Pazla Dacour
Acting Executive Officer
USS Rapier NCC 61582
