Venomous Problems

[Jonathan Price]

Jonathan Price had assembled some of his advisors, his wife, his Veep, among others to join him in the Compound's 'War Room' to discuss the Pythus Sector. Kassie had sent a message they had found Dominus' Starbase and the mission was proceeding, but they had also found a number of children and young adults who were about to be sold into slavery, the ones that survived.

"So... what we have here, is another reason why we're at war with the Pythus Sector." Jon said as he projected a few of the images that Kassie had sent of the kids that Khan and Kinsey had found. "Kaine sent these, Singh and Calhoun found them on a glorified slave ship, heading for either sale or work on what was once Starbase Python... we also now know that they still have a number of Starfleet officers aboard, from the days when the Federation still controlled that sector." he shook his head. "It's clear that there are a lot of missions at play, beyond simply rescuing Professor Ryder." he turned to his wife. "Bella, do you think the Orphan Affairs Department could deploy a team to help with finding the families and getting them into homes or the Colony?"

[Kinsey Calhoun]

"They'll be more then willing to help." Bella said with a nod of her head. The moment she found out about the children her grandfather and Kinsey had discovered she'd been beyond pissed. Her words alone were going to fund the colony were another year. She wasn't naive slavery was still very much a part of many cultures but why did it always have to involve children? "April is already making room for them."

[Noella St. James]

"Good... although we do need to quarantine them before we simply let them into the general population, who knows what they may be carrying." Noella said. "Or if they're somehow moles for Dominus. And some of those officers have been stuck in there for decades now... longer than you've been alive Mr and Mrs President... last thing we need is a repeat of what happened with Terra Pax and the Imperium. Honestly, I don't like the fact that entire sector still exists, I thought it was just gone and the poor souls inside were either dead or simply in another reality and not held by a madman."

[Malcolm Foster]

"Yuir not exactly bein' very compassionate Miz St. James." Malcolm said with a raised eyebrow. "Y'act like everything to come out of that sector is a threat."

"And what if it is?" Noella replied. "Respectfully... I'm who I am because of that bloody sector. And bloody in both the Aussie/Brit sense and the actual bloody blood sense! Y'never served Malcolm. An'not there."

"We'll of course, take it under advisement." Jon said and gave Julie, who was sitting toward the back a look. "Thoughts Lei?"

"St. James is right, to a point. It would be classic Dominus to use children but it would also be classic Dominus to simply underestimate the children." Julie replied and sighed. "We ARE talking about a man who's idea of fun is electrocuting people, branding them, and otherwise being a complete and utter bastard."

"Alright... so HE'S a bastard, but where do these kids fit in? They're dozens of them dead in those holds they found." Malcolm said and clenched his fist. "If there's one thing I AM damn well passionate about it's children."

[Julie Lei]

"They are just... things to him. He places no value on life like you do Mister Vice President." Julie said as she loaded up an image on a padd. "This is what he did to me in one of his rages and this WAS way before I turned into the... what was it that Nicholas once called me? Raging psycho queen bitch? This was before I merged with this reality's Julie Lei." she displayed an image of her naked, massive scars and burn marks over most of her body, brands similar to what he tried to do with Solara. Her breasts wrapped in barbed wire, which also had marks around her wrists and ankles. "He did this because he wanted to send a message to his slaves that no one was exempt, not even me. Look at that smug look on my face. I was barely conscious and I needed a blood transfusion and a solid month of recovery. This was not too long before he did the same thing to K'n'zy, the other Kinsey... before he killed his Marcus. Before he did a lot of things that lead to me coming here." she shook her head. "If it were up to me and it isn't... I would nuke the entire sector... but there are innocents, although... I wouldn't count on anyone being 'innocent' under his rule. It took him three months to subjugate an entire star system, turned everyone to their baser instincts. He's had Pythus for decades now. No one is innocent there. Everyone will have had blood on their hands and hate in their hearts."

"Wait a tick... did you just... agree with me?" Noella looked at Julie in shock. "Are we on the same page?"

"Is that such a shock Noella?" Julie said and looked at Jon and Bella. "I would suggest... everyone that returns, be held in detention until you're sure they're not moles. Even Jack."

[Cece Ryder]

"Or we could simply telepathically scan them." Cece suggested. "We DO have skilled telepaths you know." she gave her a dirty look. "And as if I don't know what Dominus is capable of? Of course, for some reason he's come to power now, he never did in my timeline so something happened."

"Probably you lot coming back." Malcolm replied.

"I was thinking the same." Jon agreed and winced as he looked at Bella. "None of you remember there being this influx of future time traveling folk in your respective timelines, it could be that he's a response to all that."

"I have thought the same." Cece said in agreement and sighed. "Now we have to deal with it. As we always have. Of course, Dominus... doesn't belong at this table. And I'll be blunt... neither does she." she pointed to Julie. "But... I have no energy to hold onto the hate I have for her, I have far too much to worry about as it is."

"That's very mag..." Julie started to say before she was suddenly silenced.

"Just because I have let go of it, doesn't mean I like you." Cece said and snapped her fingers. "You're here because Malcolm thinks you're an asset. I would remove the last two letters."

[Kinsey Calhoun]

“At this point we could use any and all intelligence on Dominus. Solara still has been forthcoming in regards to him.” Isabella stated as she glanced around at those assembled. “And I agree. Everyone is detained when they return.”

[Jonathan Price]

"I think if Dominus is not killed or captured when they return, we have to make sure that we're putting him on the top of our hunt list." Jon replied. "Given that we've been increasing our Naval and Marine resources, we're going to need to show results."

[Claire McKenzie]

"You should..." Claire glanced a Julie to give her a chance to stop her. "We should coordinate with other powers in the quadrant. For one they need to know the threat, but two make it so there are few places he can hide."

[Jonathan Price]

Jon nodded his head. "I also know that Dominus has moles all over, they need to know we're not going to just let them do what they want. We're watching, we're onto them and we're ready. Besides, if they do succeed in taking Dominus out, that doesn't mean that the Brethren and whoever they are allied with will just stand down. And... there are plenty of break away Imperium factions, former Starfleet that went mercenary or simply terrorist that are lurking. Latest intel from the Cardassian side of the quadrant, there've been small attacks on freight and trade routes, not even stealing the goods, just causing mayhem. Hasn't come to the core worlds, but it will."

"We never should have stood down as much after the peace accords." Malcolm said with a sigh. "Although we had to."

"Couldn't keep up at the pace we were." Jon said with a nod of his head. "Bella and I saved where we could, had to stand down and pull back, and it wasn't like they were really needed at the time, beyond hunting Jackson and now Dominus. As long as we can count on the Imperium to continue to play nice, I may even be... persuaded to reduce our presence along our borders."

"I am pretty sure Kaikoa will." Julie replied. "He's trying his best to smooth things over. Part of the reason why I am here and not on an Imperium colony. I can be the Imperium's voice here, but I suspect my former subjects would rather see me dangle from a rope. Not that I don't deserve it. Jonathan, Isabella... you have my word, for whatever it is worth to you, that the Imperium will not continue its aggression against the Alliance and her allies. I told Kai that he should rule as a good man. That's why I made him my heir and put myself at your mercy."

"You only did that because of Isabella, I had nothing to do with it. We all know that." Jon said as he looked at his wife. "So please, don't give me credit for this, this is Bella's win and I will not take that from her. No matter how it embarrasses her to admit, she ended the war."