A Game of Cluedo

Posted on Wed Apr 15th, 2009 @ 9:44am by Captain Vorn Krace & Commander Acle Walex

Mission: Dark Discoveries
Location: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: MD5 0958hrs

-/-Captain Krace, this is Walex. At your earliest convenience I would like to convene with you sir.-/-

=/=Why not right now?=/= Vorn replied, just as he sat down behind his desk with the first coffee of his on-duty day.

Acle stood from behind his desk, gathering up the padd with the required reports saved onto it. He turned off his desk lamp and locked his console before stepping out of his office, taking care to seal the door and then make sure that it was locked behind him. He then began to walk down the corridor, his long strides taking him to the turbo-lift, returning greetings given to him by fellow crew members along the way.

Upon reaching the turbo-lift, he found it empty and punched in the control to take him to the bridge. He lifted the padd up slightly and woke it from stand-by mode to reveal the reports that he had uploaded to it shortly before. He opened the report that he wanted to show the captain then waited for another moment for the turbo-lift to come to a stop and open the door.

The door whisked open and the sight of the bridge greeted his eyes. Acle enjoyed the quiet bustle of the bridge, as the crew went about the business of operating and maintaining the hugely complex machine they all lived in. He was often kept away from the bridge, as his duty involved a lot of hours in the data areas of the ship and his own office. Still, Acle made it a habit to come up to Deck 1 semi-often, if only just to show his face around.

Acle crossed the deck of the bridge, moving around a pair of crew members leaving, nodding to them as they passed. He made his way to the door of the captain's ready room and entered, not bothering to knock, knowing that he was expected.

Vorn looked up as Acle entered the ready room. "What have you got for me, Acle?"

Acle heard the door whisk shut behind him as he walked forward, forgoing the usual formality that he insisted upon. He sought the nearest chair and sat down in it, facing his captain.

"Well..." Acle drawled before continuing "Not really all that much Sir."

Acle brought the padd up and checked the screen one more time before offering it to the captain "What I do have is summarized in this report. The raw data is underneath in subsequent reports."

Vorn took the offered PADD wordlessly, as he began to skim the report, listening still to his old friend.

"In brief: I searched all Star Fleet, Intelligence and otherwise, databases that I have access to about any type of weapon trafficking or development in this area. As I suspected, my queries turned up nothing. According to Star Fleet, there is not a biological threat in this area due to a weapon or even the means to produce one. So, I searched for any type of criminal activities in the area. Once again, according to Star Fleet, no terrorist, black market, or criminal organizations exist in the area. In all reality, there isn't much activity period that goes on in this sector of space. It is a rather empty area." Acle said.

He paused for a moment, clearly choosing his words with care. "Upon realized that the regular channels were not turning up anything, I felt it necessary to pursue other venues. I got a hold of an... Old friend. He has extensive contacts throughout the black market, and indeed, the entire alpha quadrant. In addition, he can pursue means of gathering information that I cannot."

"Well, that last bit doesn't surprise me in the slightest in your line of work." Vorn replied, setting the padd down on his desk. "What did he give you?"

"He has heard rumors, or rather, rumors of rumors, of an organization operating in this sector of space. This organization calls them self the "Guarded" or the "Guard" and has been dropping very discreet hints of a biological weapon of immense strength on the black market. They are a para-military group with terrorist back-grounds that receives their funding by selling weapons of mass destruction to back-water worlds outside the normal operating sphere of the Federation." Acle continued.

"My contact is seeking more information about this group, but, the prospects are not promising of him finding anything. He did not have any information about finding the group or what exactly the weapon could do if unleashed. I ran the name of the group through the Star Fleet Intelligence database and turned up one record. Apparently, this group has been around for a while, although Intelligence has it that they disbanded due to internal strife nearly four decades ago. Either they did not really disband or some of them got back together for old time's sake. Intelligence is wrong." Acle grinned suddenly "I know... What a shock."

"Well then Intelligence needs to update their records." Vorn said, as he drank out of his coffee. He paused for a moment, thinking. "I think we'd best get what data we've collected so far. Pool it all together, and see if we can make heads or tails of where we need to go with this."

He stood, draining his cup and placing it on his desk before retrieving the padd Acle had given him at the start of their meeting. "Good work. Let's hope we've got something to put it together with."

With that, he lead the way onto the bridge and across it. "Senior staff to the briefing room."


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Captain Vorn Krace
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Commander Acle Walex
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Iapetus