The Bolian's Being Spied On!!

Posted on Tue Mar 6th, 2012 @ 3:55am by Lieutenant Commander Zim Drex & Captain Vorn Krace & Commander Jordan Gunning & Lieutenant Commander Sara Archer

Mission: Heart of an Explorer
Location: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: MD21 1000hrs

[ON]

Drex stepped off of the turbolift and looked around the bridge, as if half-expecting to see Stikes sitting at one of the bridge stations. Yet he did not. The coast was clear, he guessed, as he headed for the Captain's door and pressed the chime.

"Come!" the captain called, the pre-determined voice command setting off a subroutine in the door's control processor which unlocked it, and operated the mechanism to slide the doors open before the visitor. "Commander," Krace continued upon seeing the chief engineer. "Come in. What can I do for you?"

Drex stepped inside, and crossed the captain's ready room. He didn't move toward the desk, but instead walked briskly toward the window, and looked out of it. Though not seeming to search for the answers to his current predicament, but instead trying to peer around the outside of the porthole, along the hull.

The human's face had donned an expression of complete puzzlement as he watched the bolian's odd behaviour, silently for the most part, until he eventually asked; "Commander? Is there something I can do for you?"

Drex held up a finger and then turned back into the room. "One second, Captain." And he pulled a tricorder out of its holster. He began scanning the room in broad, general sweeps, hinging the scanning equipment back and forth at the elbow.

"I can assure you my bottle of Bolian wine is locked away in my quarters, not my ready room, Commander," Krace quipped, continuing to watch his engineer. After a few more moment's silence, exasperatedly he said; "Commander, tell me what's going on before I ask Counsellor Lynn to take a look at that head of yours."

Drex closed his tricorder when he was finally sure the room wasn't bugged. "Well...that's very interesting sir..but I was just making sure there weren't any listening devices surreptitiously planted in this room. I think we should probably bring in Commander Archer for this discussion, sir. And probably Commander Gunning as well. It's something to do with the project."

Suddenly understanding the reason for the engineer's strange - and, in his mind, ever so slightly paranoid - behaviour, the captain simply nodded before tapping his com-badge. "Captain Krace to Commanders Archer and Gunning. Please report to my ready room."

Gunning was the first to step through the door. Having not noticed Sara on the bridge, he had decided to head in himself. After all, she would be along soon enough. She usually was. As he reached the Captain's desk, he noticed the expression on the mens' faces. Captain Krace wore an expression of stunned disbelief while Drex, well Gunning had never seen Drex looking so devoid of colour.

"Is something the matter?" He asked.

Sara wasn't far behind. Entering the Ready-Room, she too noticed how pale the bolian's normally blue face was. "What's going on?" She didn't like it when things were happening on the ship without her knowledge.

The bolian pensively folded his hands in front of him and took a deep breath. "I should probably start at the beginning. Just before we left for the Delta Quadrant, we took on engineering cargo from Starfleet Intelligence intended for testing away from the prying eyes of the Romulans and Klingons. Cutting edge stuff." He turned to face the captain. "However, we also delivered some cargo as well. The human kind."

Jordan stood silently in the corner, taking in the tale of the Bolian. He grimaced as the truth of the cargo they had taken on came out. He had not been deemed important enough to learn of the consignments contents but a quick glance at both Sara and the Captain told him that they knew more than they were letting on.

"Why hadn't I been notified about this? All classified items are supposed to go through me," Sara stated, crossing her arms and glaring at the engineer. "Last time I checked, I was the ship's intelligence officer."

"This is the first I've head of this," the captain said, looking towards his chief engineer. "You told me we would be taking onboard the materials required to perform the tests on our own."

"We did, sir. And I thought that was the plan too. Nothing makes sense anymore. And I'm sorry Commander. I really should have told you about all of this sooner. I sort of let the whole thing get out of hand..."

Drex slowly paced over toward the viewport and continued.

"I received orders from a man named 'Stikes' of Starfleet Intelligence, that one of those Romulans we were dropping off at Starbase 911, was actually a Federation intelligence officer working to collect information on the new class of warbird. On the pad were four people. Two security escorts, and two Romulans. But I was given two sets of coordinates to beam them to. One security went with the true Romulan. The other two went someplace into as far as I know, dead space. I assume either they bridged signals to beam them aboard another ship near the starbase" A pause. "..or maybe a vessel under cloak.

"What does this have to do with us?" Jordan asked from the rear of the compartment.

"Stikes hasn't been in contact with me since we left Starbase 911...until recently. He appeared in my quarters while I was sleeping. I checked the sensor logs, too... and they didn't show any transport activity."

"If you were asleep, how do you know he was there, Drex?" The Security officer asked with a heaped spoonful of skepticism. He'd heard stories like this before and never believed them- it hardly mattered to him that he considered the latest storyteller a friend.

"I wasn't asleep the entire time, sir." He explained. "I woke up in the middle of the night, and he was there." He drew another breath and sighed. Now for the part Drex wasn't looking forward to. "I'm not sure anymore that Stikes really is working with Starfleet Intelligence, sir. He's doing very weird things. For example, why wouldn't he coordinate with the intelligence officers on this ship?" He asked, rhetorically, his hand gesturing toward Sara. Why sneak into my quarters in the middle of the night to get a report? He sounded particularly concerned with anyone, even you sir..." He nodded to Gunning. "...getting wind of any of this. Something feels wrong about the whole thing."

"Yeah, that always rings my alarm bells." The Security Officer said. "Usually people don't want me to find things out because they're doing something illegal."

"And there's something more. Where did he come from? Where is he now? Where did he go? I know intelligence officers are supposed to be pretty slippery..." He paused a beat. "But people aren't supposed to just appear and disappear without a trace. Even transporters leave a trace subspace and energy signature."

"Is there any kind of technology that would allow him to do it, Drex?" Jordan paused and glanced at Sara. Despite not asking her the question directly, he wanted to see if she'd offer anything. "That you know of."

Sara hesitated, clearly not wanting to respond. Her duties meant that she had to reveal information only as needed for the mission, or the safety of the ship, and even then it depended on the level of classification. She chose to go with a vague answer, which was as accurate as she could really be anyhow. "It is possible that the technology exists, but not necessarily. probable."

"Do you believe that this 'Stikes' will be aware of it if we halt work on the systems?" the captain asked, looking towards he Bolian.

The engineer nodded. "Absolutely. He said he was only able to perform passive scans on the Iapetus, though. That might suggest he has a ship somewhere nearby."

"Yes, I thought as much." The captain paused for a few moments. "Continue your work, Commander, but I want you and Gunning to find out how Stikes is here, and where on the ship he is. Commander Archer," there was just a slight pause as Krace moved his gaze to the female intelligence officer. "I want you go through all of the material Mister Drex has been given on this prototype. I want to ensure that it is genuinely from Starfleet Intelligence, and we're not being duped into doing something for an unofficial group." He nodded. "Dismissed."

[OFF]

----------------------------
Captain Vorn Krace
Commanding Officer

Commander Jordan Gunning
Chief of Security

Lt. Commander Sara Archer
Chief Intelligence Officer

&

Lt. Commander Zim Drex
Chief Engineer
USS Iapetus