= SB Unity, 1st Task Force Section - Situation Room 2 =
Trent entered the situation room to find the marines already seated at the table. With acting command of the task force being thrusted upon him during such a short time since his arrival to UNITY, he found himself dealing with a wide scope of things when the meeting was requested.
As Trent approached the table, the two others stood as Giella greeted him.
"Captain Rodgers, I'm Major Kinn," she said as she introduced herself, extending her hand towards him in greeting.
"Yes, Major, it is good to meet you," Trent said, accepting the offered hand, then motioned for Kinn and Chisulo to take a seat. "Now, please tell me why you have asked for this meeting."
"I'm sorry for the urgency of this meeting, but it could not wait," Giella said. "I'm aware that Commodore Guzman has left on the Qashqai for Romulan space. He requested that Commander Terek send him the location of Commander Summers as soon as he extrapolated it from the message she sent, but I've asked Terek to withhold until I've spoken with you both. I believe that sending the information to the Commodore would jeopardise Commander Summers if her captors learn that we know of her location."
"A wise precaution, all things considered," Trent said, holding back the fact that he was still not comfortable having the commodore going off on this mission. "Tell me about this message."
"Commander Terek says the message originated from an outpost or station of some sort in the Padassa System in Quorum space. Our intel is very limited on the Quorum, but from we do know it's a rather large are of space that has been annexed by the Romulans for some time," Giella replied. "I would like to request that we send an extraction team to infiltrate the station and find Commander Summers. If I'm not mistaken, the USS Detector has the most advanced cloaking system in Starfleet and it would pass undetected through Romulan space."
"As I'm sure you know, from what I've read, the Detector is not well armed. If she's caught, she wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell," Trent said. "Even so, if there's any ship that can sneak into Quorum space ..."
Trent sat back in his chair.
"Why is our intel on that area of space so limited?" the task force XO asked. "From the last report I saw, we should have a few of our people in that region."
"I've just returned from an SSFI Committee meeting with some disturbing results. It's been discovered that the majority of our operatives in the Romulan Empire have been discovered by the Romulans months ago. Since then, the Tal'Shiar has been submitting fake reports under the names of these agents, making us believe they are still active when in fact they're not. This brings into question every piece of intelligence we've received recently and in effect we cannot trust our own agents anymore. That's why I would rather do this myself than have someone on the inside take care of it... we don't know if we would only be making things worse," she said, looking at Rodgers.
Trent looked across the table at the major for a moment before focusing on Chisulo.
"Captain, you commanded the Detector during the liberation of V'Tar. Do you think she's ready for such a mission?"
Trent thought for a long moment, taking glances at both marines.
"All right, major. This is your show," Trent said. "Take the Detector and do what you need to do. But I want you to avoid any contact with enemy ships. Understood."
"Understood, sir. Thank you," Giella replied before Captain Rodgers dismissed them.
