Snippet #2444806

Hannam felt herself being beamed up to the bridge, interrupting her conversation with the Chief Engineer. She immediately went over to her station, assuming her duty. She perked up with interest once the Captain mentioned what the problem was.

"Can the ship's sensors determine what type of vessel it is? I find it hard to believe that a regular warbird could be run by just one person." Hannam inquired, her mind already running through the possibilities. The warbirds of the Romulan Fleet had an artificial intelligence, of course, and the capacity for auto-pilot, but neither could keep a ship running by themselves, especially for critical systems like engineering. It led her to believe that the Romulan vessel approaching the Starbase might be a smaller model of ship, with a greater capacity for self-running; perhaps one of those new line of interceptors that the Fleet had just put into action before the destruction of the Star Empire.

Alternatively, someone who was savvy and desperate enough could have jury-rigged a warbird to run virtually by itself. That seemed likely too. At the end of the Klingon-Romulan War, Hannam had to make quite a few unorthodox repairs and modifications for the Belak, due to the fact that she hadn't had a starbase to report into for repairs. Still, that would take a lot of technical skill to accomplish...

Whatever was going on, they would find out soon enough. Commander Letant just hoped that the Romulan vessel didn't have any Klingon pursuers on its tracks.

"Captain." Hannam called Kell aside, and gave the human a curious stare. "If the vessel is piloted by a Romulan, and if he or she requests asylum...will you grant it?"

She knew enough about the Starfleeters to know that almost all of them would say yes to such a question....but the reality of their current situation would interfere with such noble notions. After the formal surrender of the Romulan Star Empire, the Klingons harshly cracked down on anyone in Romulan space seeking asylum in the Federation. A few incidents since the fall of Romulus had sparked a great deal of anger and ire from the Klingons, and Hannam knew that Starfleet Command would be reluctant to tick off the Klingons any more than they were. Especially if it ended up being the spark to a Klingon-Federation War.

How Captain Kell handled this situation would no doubt affect the things to come for the Albion and her crew. Hannam just hoped that whatever the outcome, it would be...satisfactory.

She herself was in favor of granting asylum to any Romulans seeking refuge in the Federation. But, Hannam had enough political savvy to recognize that it wouldn't be as easy as that. She saw a war between the Klingons and Federation as inevitable, of course, but sparking a war here and now would not be the best move for the Federation to take.

Still, perhaps this would be easier than she thought. Maybe the vessel was not being pursued by a Klingon task force, and they could grant its pilot asylum quietly and without incident, with the Klingons ignorant of all that transpired.

Of course, things were never that easy...