Fallout

Posted on Thu Apr 6th, 2017 @ 7:22pm by Captain Elijah Michaels & Commander Bertrand Cuprum & Commander Cor Cordale & Lieutenant Ishan Satele & Lieutenant Commander Ziyal Tajor & Lieutenant Sara'draphia T'eseri & Captain Allen Jones & Lieutenant Jarax

Mission: All the Kings Men: Wargames
Location: Starbase 117
Tags: starfleet

Starbase 117 was a military facility. It had been recently refitted in preparation for the Jenarri conflict and had a very good holding facility.

After docking the crew of the USS Cosmos was taken into custody and debriefed, including Capt Rehnault. The Command team of the USS Victory was gathered for a group debriefing in one of the Operations rooms. The mood was dark. Many were angry with what had happened and how it had been handled. Many others were waiting for criminal charges to be leveled.

When the door finally opened to reveal Agent Smith he was wearing Command read and Admiral pins on his dress uniform. He moved to the front of the room and turned to face the assembly.

"Have a seat please," he began. "I will try and make this as quick as possible and then respond to as many questions as I can. First of all, I have been speaking with the President and he has agreed with SFI recommendations. Because of the need for secrecy surrounding the facility archives, we cannot afford for a public court martial or criminal hearing."

"So the good news is, no one on the USS Victory who took part in this action will face any disciplinary action. You are free to return to duty. The official story is that there was an accident in the simulation and there were deaths as a result."

"The bad news is, no one in the Undaunted, Tasmania or Cosmos will face charges either."

He held his hand up to stem the cries of rebuke from the assembled.

"Admiral Gates will be held indefinitely at this facility. He is effectively in house arrest under the direct supervision of the 2IC of Federation Intelligence."

"Now, I understand that there have been losses in the Marines Department of the USS Victory, most notably the loss of two senior officers to medical conditions. Because of his actions I am reassigning Captain Jones as the new Marine CO on the Victory. No doubt he will be bringing some of his team as well. With the growing Jenarri threat that is understandable."

"I am also transferring Lt Tajor to the Victory. I recognize with Lt Kilbane moving to Tactical there is an opening and... well, I doubt she will be welcome on the Cosmos again. She was their at my request at any rate, so that role is now completed."

He took a deep breath, "No doubt you will have a myriad of questions. I will do my best to answer them as much as I am able. The people in this room have all been given... special security clearance."

Ziyal did her best to look smart and competent as she sat at the table. She was still young for her rank and position as department head. She was ready to take the challenge on, but was worried that her crewmates might feel differently. That she had been a member of the 'enemy' crew just a short while ago also brought her pause. This first meeting as a member of the Victory crew made her nervous. So she hid her emotions and thoughts even, or perhaps especially, from Commander Cuprum.

Ziyal had few questions, she had been there for most of it on the Cosmos side of things. Her clearances were already quite high due to her work at Starfleet Command. Her hacking the computer to get proof for Agent Smith had given her more information. She could fill in the few blanks she still had about the situation. The questions Ziyal had were mostly for the crew of the Victory, would they accept her? Would they give her a chance? What was their next mission?

The Captain looked like he'd gone 10 rounds with a Nausican and lost. "So it's a clear whitewash? A man who by his own admission had betrayed the Federation is allowed to remain out of prison?" Elijah was not happy. "I'm not accepting this course of action."

"Unfortunately Captain, sometimes you have to swallow a bitter pill when working with Starfleet Intelligence" Satele commented, standing to one side of Agent Smith. She was wearing the dark grey uniform of Starfleet Intelligence in place of her old Starfleet Red uniform. "It would be best for everyone to try and put this experience behind you"

Bertrand voiced his support for Satele's position, "We can be police, or Judge, or executioner, never all three. We have brought Gates to the proper authority. If we take matters into our own hands we are doing exactly the same as he did."

Jarax narrowed his ridge topped eyes. The entire situation was deplorable to begin with, and then the outcome.

Valeria spoke up next, "Is there anything in the archive facility that could aid against the Jenarrii?"

Smith hesitated before answering, "Undoubtedly yes. Certainly it was Gate's belief there was. But we believe the cost of using these items, such as the Umbrella project you encountered on that station, are way to high. We can't become monsters to protect ourselves from Monsters."

Feeling a little nervous, Sara spoke up, "Um, has my Government been contacted about my participation in this non-existent venture?" She asked, worried that she might be recalled because of her choice to leave the ship.

"There have been no reports of any of the crew's activity to the Nissari Government or any other body. Officially, the USS Victory took part in the Fleet training as ordered and encountered a Federation force who were not briefed on the engagement. They fired on the Victory, who was forced to defend herself and, unfortunately, there were deaths as a result."

Kevin waited for a lull in the proceedings, and then spoke up "Admiral, you said that 'because of the need for secrecy surrounding the facility archives we cannot afford for a public court martial or criminal hearing', then don't make it public."

He stood up and continued "In the spirit of what you've just said, we can have the courts marshall behind closed doors and still show that we're putting officers and crew on charges, after all, if you can cover up the situation of the magnitude of the heinous crimes facilitated by Admiral Gates and those who followed his orders, then surely it's a far simpler procedure to cover up the crimes facilitated by those officers and crew on the USS Victory who broke their orders to comply with taking part in the Jennari war games to go after the afore mentioned Admiral Gates under your instruction!"

He paused for a moment before continuing "Cover up's have been used through Starfleet's existence, and there's absolutely no foundation for you 'not' holding closed doors courts marshall against officers and crew of this ship. If you don't mind me saying so Sir, it's most convenient that you're saying there'll be no charges pressed, because that let's you off the hook. Now, regardless of whether you have your Admirals 'hat' on or the SFI 'hat' on, you're still implicated, you still led what amounts to a mutiny to go after Admiral Gates. No Sir, that's not how this works, and I for one shall still be filing my report of this whole sorry incident and sending copies of it to Starfleet HQ and Security HQ."

He sat down again quietly,

"Who is to say he won't sweep that paperwork under the rug like everything else about this incident?" Keller said to Kilbane. "Remember that Station we didn't visit and those Zombies we didn't encounter? It's the same thing because any reports of that were purged from existence."

The young Lieutenant said to Kilbane. "Admiral Smith had the power to get hold of a prototype ship and take us to a facility in the middle of uncharted space, with respect Sir you could launch a protest to the Federation President himself and it would go unanswered."

"That's very true Lt Keller" Kevin replied, looking at the Diplomatic Officer "and yet, the Admiral himself knows that I to was in SFI, and know ways and means to have things delivered to those with who can use them to their fullest effect. The Admiral may have far reaches, but, he does not know everything about everyone, no-one does. SFI are good, don't get me wrong, I've seen what they can do first hand, such as the situations you just mentioned, BUT, they're not perfect so if you know where the cracks are, you can use them to your advantage.....which I've already begun" he finished.

Smith sighed heavily, "Kevin, your passion is excellent; a credit to your commitment to the Federation. Let me give you a few pieces of advice if I may."

"Firstly, the reason you are still a junior officer is that you refuse to adhere to the chain of command and trust senior officers to make decisions without your direct input. Every time you have gone over someone's head and passed on those reports just soured your superiors to you."

"As you have said, you WERE part of SFI. You no longer have the pull that you once did. However, if it would help I can give your report directly to the President of the United Federation of Planets. She is in the next room. The cover up was her idea. Or I can give the report to the 2IC of Federation Intelligence, but as that is me, I doubt you will get much response. In short, there IS no one higher than the people who are making these decisions."

"Also, you are under orders not to discuss this incident with anyone. That means placing reports discussing it is a breach of orders and IS punishable. Not only that but, because of the sensitive political nature of the material being discussed, and depending on the seriousness of the breach you could find yourself under a court-martial for treason."

"I am not expecting people to be happy with this decision. In truth I am less than thrilled," Smith continued, "but it is the resolution we can have for the moment. It may be that we can revisit the issue at a future date."

"If I may Admiral" Kevin replied, "I know I'll never win any popularity prizes with my superiors here on the Victory, but on the contrary, what you perceive as my refusal to adhere to the chain of command and trust senior officers to make decisions without my direct input is in fact my obligation to offer suggestions and alternatives 'to' that chain of command as options. 'We' ", he indicated to those Senior staff from the Victory, "recognize the chain of command make the final decisions for the ship and her crew, but, yet at the same time, we're also encouraged 'by' them to speak up if we have something that we believe can be of help or advantage to them, it's part of our duty."

"Who said anything about me going over my superiors heads? I said I'd still 'be' filing, I didn't say I had filed, my report, but thank you for the heads up. Sir, I don't, and never have been, so presumptuous as to believe I had 'any' pull with anyone, it's not in my nature to think in that manner, I leave that to others who think they're morally, or rank driven, superior. My gut instinct is that what's happened here 'will' get out, maybe not from the Senior staff here on the Victory, but there are five ships worth of crew who know what's happened and one day, who knows if or when, one of them may let it slip accidently. On a personal note, though I have no intention to speak out formally about what happened, it's always appreciated when a superior officer threatens you with a court Marshall."

"So do you recommend than Lieutenant that we make all SFI Operations public knowledge? If it's going to get out anyway, why keep it a secret?" Satele asked rhetorically, "let me answer that for you. We keep it secret because we don't only gather intelligence, we respond to threats before they become a problem for the rest of Starfleet to deal with. Our actions may not entirely be moral or ethical, but who else will do it? People like you? I don't think so"

Kevin looked at the Intel officer and replied "It certainly won't be a stool pigeon like you, that's for sure. I've already been where you 'think' you are Lieutenant Satele, I know how SFI works, I've already served on those types of missions, it gives me the right to make such statements. Please don't try and think you're morally superior, it doesn't become your station, in fact, please don't try and think full stop, you may hurt yourself. To answer your question though, no, I don't think that we make all SFI operations public knowledge, and you're simply making a fool of yourself even sarcastically suggesting that, however, a modicum of truth can be gleaned and used to satisfy the public domain so that the citizens of the Federation feel safe, unless of course, you don't wish them to be safe, you want things to be totally cold and unfeeling and you want to allow those Federation citizens to live in fear, is it Lieutenant Satele, is that what you want?"

"What I'd want..." Cordale started, quiet but fuming in his chair, "...is for us to stop with the witch hunts and pitchforks at anyone under the rank of Admiral at the moment. What I want is to know that everything we did mattered, and that we did it for something approaching the shadow of the right reason." he paused to take an angry breath, "Because right now, the only thing I'm getting out of all of this, aside from pissed off, is that we did something so great that no one gets to hear about it, and we stopped a man so evil that he's not going to be punished."

Ziyal had been listening carefully to the conversation. She thought a long moment before answering. "The Archives are filled with technology that is dangerous, illegal, or that we don't understand well enough to properly examine. They are weapons that the Federation has chosen not to use. While I'm not privy to the exact contents of the archive or what exactly the Admiral was after, we know that he was after some kind of weapon or technology to give us an edge against the Jenarri." She contemplated.

"In a war, like the one we are engaged with the Jennari, we must ask ourselves how far are we willing to go for victory? What is the victory over the Jennari worth to us? Is it worth using, say, biomemetic weapons? Is it worth endangering or killing civilians?" Ziyal continued, starting to become more passionate, her emotions starting to leak through the barriers she had erected.

"The Constitution of the Federation is not a suicide pact. What the archive represents, what it is for, is the day that we decide that survival is more important than our values. The day that we choose to pull out all of the stops and defend our way life in ways that we usually consider unthinkable or unforgivable. For the day that our lives are more important than our values." The emotional dam was gone now, washed away by the deep love that she held for the Federation.

"I see the threat that the Jennari represent. How they have attacked us, how they threaten not just this sector, but the federation as a whole. Defeating them, ensuring that they can't destroy all that we stand for is important. However, it's not worth sacrificing our values to defeat them. If we were to use say biomemetic weapons, wipe every Jennari from the face of the galaxy with a virus so devastating that they were to all die. They would be defeated, yes, but we also would have betrayed a core principle of what makes the Federation." She said, rising unconsciously.

"Those above the Admrial agreed, this is not the time to betray our values to defeat the Jennari. Hopefully, it will never be the time. The fight for the archive was more than just a battle if we should use some technology, but a battle for the heart of the Federation. I don't know about you, but that's a hill I'm more than happy to die on. So was the battle we fought important? was it worth the lives on both sides? I think the answer is clear." Ziyal fervently elucidated.

"I happen to agree that not letting the events that happened be wildly known is a wise decision. What would happen if it were to become known that an Admiral thought that the threat of the Jennari was so great that he decided it was time to betray our principles? What kind of fear do you think that would provoke? The kind that is willing to trade the liberty that we stand for, for security. That is a trade that is hard to take back." She continued.

"Admiral Gates will be punished, the fact that we can't do it publically does not mean it won't happen. He turned against not merely those he fought and those he killed, but against the entire federation and it's principles with his actions. It may have to happen in private, but it will happen." Ziyal finished and suddenly seemed to be unsure of why she was standing. "Sirs." She added almost as an afterthought as she sat back down. There was a slight amount of ebarassment that crossed through her emotions before she put her walls back up again. "Does that answer your question, commander Cordale?" She added.

Kevin held his hands up as if in surrender, saying "You know, it really look like it doesn't matter what we say here in this meeting, whether we bitch about who's done what, committed what atrocities against whom, whether it's for the best or not, whether it's recognised or not, it makes not one iota of difference because it's already been decided by the President and Admiral Smith there before we even entered this room, that this is just a ' let them blow off their anger and steam' exercise. With that in mind, and also with those here on this ship who betrayed their Starfleet oath getting off with doing so 'Scott free', perhaps we should just draw a line in the sand and move on?"

Cordale gave Ziyal his full attention as she spoke, as he did to everyone before her. Like dropping a proverbial bomb in a bucket of water, something just took the edge off the Thux. Maybe just hearing an affirmation helped. Maybe not hearing it thrown like a knife helped too. "You know, it does." he said with the ghost of a smile forming on his muzzle. He opted not to speak in turn on Kevin's mention of betrayal and such. He just took a deep breath, held it for a moment or six, then let it go. "I agree, we should move on. I don't like it, but staying here and bickering only makes the situation worse."

"I'm inclined to agree." Valeria spoke up. To Ziyal's speech, she gave a soft smirk and a nod. It was good to hear someone talk about the prospect of losing a war by defeating the enemy. This one thought like a Ts'usugi, the rabbitess thought.

Smith smiled at Ziyal and nodded to Elijah, "Now you see why I chose here for the mission. She will be a huge asset to your crew."

"As for what will happen to Gates," Smith continued, "Ziyal has more or less hit it on the head. We are at war with the Jenarri; a ware we are not sure we can win. There may be a time when we have to resort to the strategies of which Gates is a major supporter. It may be we even need his passion and insight. Like you, I hope that day never comes. But until we are assured of Victory, the President has decided that Gates will remain on a tight leash here, like the items at the Archive, against the day we may need him."

"Kilbane has identified the situation correctly. We are not here to seek your approval or look for your input. You are being informed of the decisions that are being made. However, your actions have not been forgotten, nor can I stress how bad it would have been if Gates had not been stopped."

"To... try... and alleviate some of the strain your crew have been put under I have requested a new set of orders for you. There is a Colony on the border that... well it is very advanced. Their ship yards are amazing. They have some issues with internal civil unrest which means they are not yet ready, by their own admission, for full Federation membership."

"However, they are very keen to support the Federation against the Jenarri on their border. We are sending you and a diplomatic team to negotiate the use of their shipyards and refit facilities as well as what options for R&R would be acceptable to them. You get to go and try their facilities and take some down time for yourselves. I am forwarding the details to you, Captain Michaels."

"If there is nothing more pressing, you are all dismissed."

Elijah looked around at the assembled staff. This group of Officers he had grown accustomed to having at his side he could see the looks of displeasure of the last few hours manifesting themselves. "Time to go be heroes again......"

"In order to be a hero you have to have honour, and in order to have honour you have fulfil your Starfleet oath and do your duty first..." Kevin muttered softly to himself under his breath as he left the operations room.

AJ was relieved that he was being let go. It didn't sit well with him what was going down but after 13 years with SFI he wasn't surprised in the least. He just hoped there would be no hard feelings with his new crew since he was one of "them" from the Cosmos. Either way he figured it would be best to just observe and not give his two cents because no one would care yet anyway.

Cordale had nothing to add, standing in silence and making his way out of the conference room with little more than a grunt as he stood up.