Bearer of Bad News
Posted on Fri Jun 28th, 2019 @ 2:00pm by Commodore Tyler Malbrooke & Staff Warrant Officer Jennifer Masters - Calhoun & Petty Officer 2nd Class Sofia Cipriani
Edited on on Fri Jun 28th, 2019 @ 2:09pm
2,475 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
Episode 7 - Home Again
Location: Ready room Deck 1 USS Pioneer
Timeline: MD003 1500 hrs
Richard had made it to the Ready Room door. He had ditched the crutches and was walking much more normally but still was wearing the brace, just in case. He didn't fully trust the newest technologies and from time to time the leg still let him know it wasn't quite back to normal. His hair and uniform though were neat and propper as usual with shoes that one could see their reflection in. What was different was the smile he typically wore was replaced by one of determination and concern.
He was to meet with the head of Intel and the Captain regarding the information taken from the Azzian board of health. It wasn't going to be easy nor pleasant to lay out the Empire's dirty laundry for them to see but it needed to be done before things grew worse.
In his hand was three PaDDs, all slightly different. Braille lettering on the edge let him know which was which and the color as well, One had a red case, another grey, and the last blue. They stacked neatly on top of each other through the blue one was slightly thicker than the rest.
As Richard stood there the door opened on its own as if it was expecting him and he glanced around and then inside trying to figure out exactly what had triggered the opening, "that is a little odd."
Jenn walked in behind Richard. "Hello again, doctor. How are you doing? You summoned me here. Was there something else?"
Richard turned at the sudden voice through his expression remained that of concern. He spotted Jenn, nodded and looked down slightly trying to avoid eye contact, at least for that moment. His eyes then fixed on her and he took a deep breath, "I haven't contacted the Emperor, I, I thought it best if I discuss what I found with you and the Captain before I do anything."
Removing the Grey PaDD from the stack he was carrying he offered it to her and then began placing the Red one at the head of the table, "it's worse, a lot worse than I thought."
Tyler sat behind his desk and sipped his coffee. He smiled as he watched his Chief Medical Officer, and his Chief Intelligence Officer discuss something in his open door. It amused Tyler to no end, either this situation was huge or the stress was getting to both officers. "Doctor, Warrant why don't you both come on in? Have a seat and fill me in on what's what."
Sofia was to the Captains right, kind of tucked away into that little corner behind him trying to be unseen for the sake of her duties. She was sure she was there to take notes, listen in and offer anything if asked. "Would anyone like a drink before you all start?" she asked. She thought it would be best if everyone was comfortable, or at the very least the appearance of comfort.
Richard looked over at the captain nodded, "yes Captain, I apologize Sir."
The physician moved in a little and offered the CO the Red pad and then looked over at Sofia, "just water, room temperature, please." He took a seat and drew in a deep breath, "thank you for seeing me on such short notice Captain."
"Not problem Doc. I hope you are doing well after recuperating from your injury. You too Jennifer. Allow me to introduce Crewman Cipriani my Yeoman." Tyler paused and sipped his coffee as he motioned toward Sofia. "Now with the introductions out of the way what seems to be on your collective minds."
"Azzia," Richard said with a nod and a concerned look as he spoke to the Captain, "The Board of Health is involved in genetic research."
He looked over at Jenn and continued, "I had received a subspace transmission from Lie'halla, one of the women I am bonded to and the Azzian Ambassador on Empok-Nor that she had heard that the board was conducting research to split the DNA structure of the Azzians essentially removing half of it to make it a double helix rather than quad helix."
Looking back at Tyler he added, "that in and of itself is not so alarming, I myself had thought this might work and would provide an opportunity for Azzians and other Species to have children together, but I am afraid their intent is for something far more sinister."
Tyler cocked an eyebrow as he took one of the PADDs and began to look it over. "What makes you think that there is some sort of plot here? At least on the surface it seems to be exactly as you say. The Azzian government looking for a way to allow inter-species mating." It sounded so clinical as he said it. How do you boil love down to genetic makeup is beyond me. Tyler thought.
"What do you know about the Kov’avic Brikto’ Captain?" Richard tilted his head as he responded, "their not a widely known group outside of the Azzian Empire."
"I must confess not much Doctor..." Tyler's voice trailed off as part of his thoughts wandered. A Captain's work is never done. This on top of all that is transpiring on Cardassia.
Richard nodded, "the Kov’avic Brikto’ were involved in an attack on the U.S.S. Elysium while I was serving there." "The classified information regarding it is included on the PaDDs." He took in a breath and continued, "they are an outlawed radical organization bent on forcing the empire to become a more militant power again and they don't seem to have any scruples as to how that would happen."
He looked between the Jenn and Tyler again then continued, "in this attack, the agents posed as enlisted crew members and detonated an ancient temporal device stolen from Azzia." There was a pause and then he continued, "they were working in conjunction with another group known as the Humans for genetically Purity, or HGP. It did severe damage to the ship itself and knocked the it into the mirror universe." "The Azzians assisted our return to this dimension."
Ballston, with his perfect memory, remembered well the events, how they had warned the crew to turn him over to them for purification or face the consequences, this was the consequences."
"They also worked with, a portion of the Federation, to create an Azzian child in a laboratory setting, that child is my daughter, Abigail." Richard pressed his lips together as he thought about those darker days before he had been accepted as being something other than a freak. "Then later they worked with the Klingons and Romulans to attack an Azzian ship coming out of the Temporal Anomaly, "The Azzian ship was too powerful for the group of attackers and all of them were destroyed, this was before I had custody." I barely knew that I was a father and Abigail was aboard one of those ships.
Sofia could do nothing but stare in amazement and shock. She had no idea these kind of things happened out here but then her youthful naivety often got the better of her. "I thought genetic manipulation was banned in the Federation?" Sofia asked.
Richard let a faint smile cross his face and he nodded in Sofia's direction, "it is supposed to be but there are certain groups that for the sake of the Federation will do unscrupulous things to protect it, in this case help cover up what they did to an orphaned child, delay the discovery of a new species as long as possible in order to try and procure advance temporal technology." He drew in a deep breath, in this case, it was the starship my parents were on that they were trying to get the technology from, I was considered a genetically altered human to help cover up the events and then later worked with a terrorist organization to try and get help to both cover their tracks and gain whatever information they could."
He shook his head, "but I am getting sidetracked a bit, I believe the Captain was aware of those events that concerned my birth and what was done following my discovery."
Richard pressed his lips together and began again, "on the PaDDs I have put the names of individuals that are known and suspected members of the Kov’avic Brikto’. I have linked some of them to individuals mentioned in the data The Warrant officer was able to retrieve for me from the Azzian Board of Heath. "
Ballston looked over at Masters and smiled, "but she got more than what she thought, there are three audio recordings that when translated from Azzian into Federation common reveal much more than I had even suspected."
Jenn had only started to plow through the intell she downloaded on her computer. And it was more than she expected, indeed. And the part she did read, was chilling enough. She hadn't even discussed it with her department yet. She just nodded to the doctor.
"The recordings are evidence that my conclusion is accurate and specifically mention their first attempt will be to create a Klingon hybrid, to infiltrate their Empire and begin what they refer to as the final war."
Tyler sat back and ran his hand through hair. He had heard about the mishaps involving the doctor's past but he had no idea things were coming back to haunt. "So what you are saying is the Azzians are attempting to use genetic manipulation to take over the galaxy, and they are going to start with the Klingons." He turned toward Jenn. "Masters do we have anything on this. I know Starfleet Intel has kept their eyes on Azzia since the initial application. So you have to have something." He sipped the dregs of the coffee cup and simply held it aloft without turning. "Please..." the please more of a request then an order.
Sofia picked herself up and took the cup off the Captain. He sure did love his coffee and if this conversation was going to continue he would need his attention at its peak. A clean cup was grabbed and she filled it with the hot coffee she always kept nearby and placed it back in front of the Captain. She continued to take some notes as to what had been said and tried not to shift in her seat too much as to the uncomfortable conversation being said in front of her.
Jenn shook her head. "No, captain, this has been kept under wrap. When the doctor came to me, I had to dig deeper. I had to go though many layers of security. The information the doctor has, I have added to the database. It was information we didn't have at the time."
Tyler sat with his head on his hand. He was of two minds on this subject on the one hand he wanted to investigate this more, and on the other it was not a Federation issue, at least not yet. "So on one side of the equation we have a planet performing questionable experiments outside the purview of the Federation. However, they are not Federation citizens. On the other side of the equation you are telling me that they may be threatening one of our most potent allies." He leaned back and sipped the fresh coffee, and thought what would his idol Katherine Janeway do. He let the warmth of the beverage fill his inner being and realized that Janeway was right, coffee solved all problems. He instantly had an idea and though he would make it a learning opportunity. "Yeoman Cipriani, what do you think about this situation?"
She thought for a moment, nothing came to mind but at the same time it all came to mind. Was there a right answer however? Probably not.
"What about pressing the Azzian government to investigate this issue themselves? Express our concern that their entrance into the Federation may not be as smooth or expedient as once expected." She offered knowing it to be slightly underhand. "However if they do nothing, or fail. Then a Klingon hybrid is made then the Klingons find out we knew about it we risk angering them and causing a fallout... putting the quadrant at possible risk."
She loved the Intrepid class, Kathryn Janeway and everything about her story, her career and built herself on that. Or at least tried too.
"Kathryn Janeway once said "Fear exists for one purpose: to be conquered." and I believe that as strongly as I always have. We cannot be scared to act, otherwise we lose... sirs." she said noting she had gone on a bit longer than she was required too. That she had gone above her rank and station but she tended to get carried away when talking about Janeway.
Tyler nodded and asked for Jennifer's and Richard's thoughts as well.
"I think we need to keep an eye on this," Richard said in a serious tone, "gather information and perhaps work back channels to see if we can either get more information or get them to stop altogether" He pressed his lips together then added, "I don't think the Emperor is aware of exactly what's going on, probably just thinks it's research on peaceful propagation with other species, but if he does know then there's no way I can see them joining the Federation at any time."
Tyler leaned forward in his desk, an affectation he did when he was about to hand out an order. "Right, Doctor keep an eye on it, but keep it under your hat. I do not want the official diplomatic channels catching word of this. Masters see what you can drag up through your contacts. Right now this is a whistling kettle, let's make sure it does not boil over. As always keep me informed."
When his two officers left, Tyler sighed and slunk into his chair. He did this when in private and did not have to be Captain for the moment. Then he realized taht he was not alone, yet something else he was going to have to get used to. "Well Sof it looks like the kettle is on and it's boiling. I really hope you did not come here for nothing."
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Commander Richard Ballston M.D. PsyD
Chief Medical Officer, USS Pioneer
Captain Tyler Malbrooke
Commanding Officer, USS Pioneer
Crewman Sofia Cipriani
Yeoman, USS Pioneer
Staff Warrant Officer Jennifer Masters
Chief Intelligence Officer, USS Pioneer
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