Meetings

Posted on Tue Oct 27th, 2015 @ 1:32am by Commander Bertrand Cuprum & Captain Elijah Michaels

Mission: If I told you...
Location: Starbase replimat

The habitat areas of the station was no longer peaceful. There were crowds of Bajorans and Vulcans filling the shopping district, examining everything that was on offer. While many were still in medical or counselling, or with Commander Brightman trying to work out the next step for the displaced colonists, Most of them were here, mingling with the Starfleet crew. There was sadness there, certainly. Many had been lost, and many were still unaccounted for, including Ensign Moriloth, but Colonists were Hardy Pioneers, and Starfleet knew the risks fo the job.

Elijah had managed to find a table at a small dispensary that did hand made cakes and buns. The Victory had been back by the time they got into port, and that had been three days ago. Life on the Sovreign class seemed to have got back to normal. His crew had been making the most of the down time, as had he. Most of the away teams had slept for a full day after getting back to the station. Elijah stifled a yawn, not completely recovered yet from the sleep deficit.

As if in answer, a warm mug was placed on the table by a many in grey Starfleet uniform.

"Coffee, weak, no sugar," said the man before taking a seat opposite him. "Good afternoon, Commander. My name is Smith, and I work for Starfleet intelligence. I wonder if you have some time to talk?"

Elijah looked at the Intelligence Officer curiously at first. With Victory docked at Kingston Station it gave time to relax and unwind following the mission to Haven. "I do not see why not Commander, please have a seat."

There was no preamble or exchanging of pleasantries. "We have a delicate situation that has developed and we are keen to resolve it with a minimum of traceable red tape," Smith said, watching those moving around him with a critical eye. "Your service record suggests you would be open to take informal action for the sake of Federation security."

Those words made him sit wide eyed. "If this is recruitment for a certain Covert Unit linked to Julian Bashir and William Ross, then I have two words for you.." He said simply and to the point, he had heard of the actions of Section 31 and he was not about to become a spy.

Smith smiled, "Don't worry, Commander, this is not Section 31 or whatever they call themselves. It is a standard SFI operation. You can look me up and find all of my record and credentials are accurate. The thing is that we want to act without risking having a paper trail that other operatives could follow. You see we have a research installation, working on some very important data. If its location, or the data it works with, were to become known to the Romulans, Cardasians, or even Klingons, it would become a potential target. So we have maintained it, in secret, without any formal trail for a number of years now. It maintains a communication blackout, obviously, but we suspect something may have happened."

"The regular supply ship self destructed three hours after leaving the Station's last known location and we have not been able to ascertain why. It may be nothing, but if it is a significant issue, such as Borg or Nausicans, We would like the fire power needed to make sure we recover some data and prevent the rest falling into enemy hands. Can the Victory help us?"

Elijah pondered the thought for a second and with a nod. "Very well, I think we can help you." He then looked at his PADD. "Have all relevant information and Schematics uploaded to the Victory's computer and we can begin."

"I am pleased to see I chose well," Smith congratulated himself. "I will, of course, accompany you, and I know you will need to brief your senior staff and any away team, but I would prefer we kept as few people in the picture as possible. Need-to-know basis, you understand. Would you like to nominate a time for a staff briefing and I will fill everyone in on as much detail as I can give. I believe everyone is due back from Shore leave at 0800 tomorrow morning."

The Commander nodded. "Understood, but I will reiterate that I will not put my Crew in Jeopardy for a Suicide mission Commander."

Smith looked at him carefully, "If this was a suicide mission, would I be accompanying you, Commander? It is a recon mission, nothing more. We want to confirm the station is safe. If it is compromised we are to recover some experimental data. To do that, we need to return. I will see you at 0800."