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Curious....Still begs the immediate question of how the vessel managed to evade the Tholians.

I've just thought....wouldn't the Tholians be at least 'Displeased' at having another Federation ship in there territory?

And why would she go with us to investigate a distress call if she's transporting the refugees that we rescued from the slavers?

Curious....Still begs the immediate question of how the vessel managed to evade the Tholians.

Which? The Cardassian one we just picked up? Well, presumably trade is allowed between the Assembly and other powers. It could have been a civilian trader ship that just ran afoul of some hostiles.
Or it may not have been a civilian ship, and that's why it was shot down.

I've just thought....wouldn't the Tholians be at least 'Displeased' at having another Federation ship in there territory?

I thought the ship we met up with was just a civillian craft? It could just be there for trade.

Wait a minute. Here's the impressions that I got:

#1 - the distress call was from a civilian craft (the modded Cardie freighter,) so it would have been allowed in Tholian territory as a free trader or whatever.

#2 - the vessel accompanying us - the USS Bangalore - is a Starfleet vessel, with which we rendezvoused to transfer the refugees we had rescued and which now seems to be joining us to investigate the distress call.

Hmm, I doubt the Tholians will be all too pleased with the Bangalore sticking around with us. And doubtless there's some Tholian ships keeping an eye on what we're doing.

Perhaps I should have thought about that before I invited the Bangalore along....oops...

*shrug*
Well, we don't know how it's going to go. Maybe the Tholians will just sit back and watch, or maybe they'll turn up and tell the Bangalore to bugger off.

And I'm sure we can count on the Cmdr. Informing the tholians of the Bangalore's presence.

I will make an interesting sub-plot. I suppose the Tholians might let the Feds do the job of investigating the crash for them, perhaps identifying the attackers...then if we deal with them, the Tholians may just let us be..


actually...that isn't likely

Perhaps the Tholians have a sympathetic interest in the attackers?

I've got a Solution to the ship problem. What a twist it'll be!

Er that means I'm writing a post right now

That will certainly make for an interesting post....Are we actually gonna fight them....5 battlcruisers...

I can write it up if you want.... can I, can I, can I!!! PWETTY PWEESE!!!!

What just happened in those last few paragraphs?

Hey Monroe - I've still got some stuff that could work from back when Granitehewer's buddies were still around. Do you mind if I do something with the Fifth Column?

What just happened in those last few paragraphs?

We came across the Cardassian freighter, and found that it had been destroyed by Federation weapons. Cue shock and horror from the crew.
While we're gawking at the ship, five Tholian cruisers turned up and reached the conclusion that the Daystrom and the Bangalore blew up the freighter. Naturaly, they did not take kindly to this.

Now, we seem to have some new friends in the area, also. A bunch of Caitans on a modified Freedom class Federaton ship. Given that they're in a Federation ship, I think we can conclude that they blew up the Cardassian freighter. They seem to be hell-bent on taking down the Tholian cruisers, and may have blown the freighter up for bait.
Also, given the Caitain's remarks near the end, I think we can assume that either the Tholian Assembly has been commiting genocide against the Caitan race, or M'Real is about to have a family reunion.

Anyway, on to the more pressing matter of what the hell we're going to do. We have two options: fight, or try resolving this peacefully.
I would strongly suggest taking the diplomatic way out. Assuming these cruisers are of the type that DarkOmen designed for us, then the Daystrom and the Bangalore are going to get horrificaly raped against five of them. Given that the Freedom class' overall strenght is only rated at 423, the Fifth Column is going to be swated out of the sky like a fly. Basicaly, we have no hope in a fight, and the Caitans seem more than willing to let us die if they can take down some of the Tholian ships.

Even asside from the massive disparity in strength here, we have other reasons not to fight. I doubt the Captain wants to start a full-scale war between the Assembly and the Federation, which could very well happen if a small-scale fleet action broke out inside Tholian space.
Then there's the fact that Rochey probably won't be too pleased shooting at his own ships, and he could probably make things very difficult during and after any fight.
Basicaly, any fight would be a diplomatic disaster, as well as getting us all horribly mauled in combat.

My recomendation is to try to convince the Tholians that we didn't do it. The fact that we have authorisation to be in the area, and are investigating such attacks may help persuade them to back down for a moment or to. And really, we only need a moment. Once the Fifth Column decloaks and starts it's rather poorly thought out fight, the Tholians will probably realise that we had nothing to do with it, and go after the Caitans.

I see events progressing like this:
We try to convince the Tholians we didn't do it. They don't believe us at first, but are convinced when the Column appears and starts attacking them. Before the ship is destroyed, we manage to beam the crew over. The Tholians don't realise that, and wander off, happy at having blown something up. Back on the Daystrom M'Real gets the shock of her life.

Should I start writing something along these lines up?