The need to know.

Posted on Wed Feb 5th, 2025 @ 4:20pm by Commodore Finchley Kerr & Commander Alec Hunter & Lieutenant Commander Isabelle Savette

876 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Voices of the past
Location: Ready Room
Timeline: Three hours after the briefing

Isabelle had spent the better part of the last three hours sitting at a computer pulling in as many favours as she could pull, along with dropping Finchley’s name to stir up some answers. She stifled a yawn as she arrived outside the Ready Room PADD in hand having requested a meeting with Finchley and Alec.

Pressing the chime she waited until she heard a call to enter before walking in, holding out two PADDs one each for Finchley and Alec to take to look at. “I’ve had to pull in a few favours for this Commodore, but it’s answered some questions. It would seem there were only a small handful of augment children left behind, they were supposed to be kept together until their fate could be decided, but somehow some of them ended up in foster care and were adopted. A subsequent explosion and fire in the records office destroyed those records.”

Alec looked at the PaDD and then at Isabelle. "How many children are we talking about Isabelle?" he asked out of curiosity.

“I’m not exactly sure, there was mention of 4, but there could be more.” She shrugged her shoulders.

Taking the Padd, Finchley thanked Isabelle for getting the information and looked it over. He mulled over in his mind the implications of the fact the records were destroyed, had it been an accident, or was it deliberate to hide the children's identities. Never the less, they existed and had been placed in foster care which meant that their genetically enhanced lives went on.

"I wonder if there's an initial manifest of who was supposed to be on the vessel" he asked generally, "and who was onboard when it launched earlier than first determined? That way we'd at least know the name's of the children."

“I managed to call in an old favour to get that one, I have that right here” Isabelle motioned to a section on the PADD. The manifest was vague to say the least, children were mostly listed as a +1 rather than by name. We do have names of some Federation citizens from Betazed on there, they couldn’t have been augments. Other details were saved for the updated manifest that was destroyed."

"That seems awfully convenient" Finchley replied, "As if someone didn't want people to know who was left behind. I know Starfleet kept more than just one copy of crew and additional people on their vessels, I'm going to look into this myself, and I'll get Karadis and Kilbane onto it as well, between us, we should be able to come up with the names of the children left behind and what happened to them through adoption agencies."

He looked between Isabelle and Alec, "What's a more pressing matter to me is the names on the crew manifest. There's a list of Augments that went missing in the early twenty two hundreds, and I know that there's medical records for them and also psych evaluations. I want to know if any of them made it onto that ship, and both of you are going to find out by hook or by crook, am I clear?"

“As glass Sir” Isabelle offered a wry smile. “I’m not sure if I’ve got many favours left to pull in, plus I’d like to try and save some for when we may need them again.” She offered Alec a smile. “I hope you’ve got some favours we can call time on Commander.”

Alec nodded. "Yes sir." He said in response to the captain's question. Turning his head, he looked at Isabelle. 'Oh, I have a few I can call on Counselor. No worries there." He finished with a smile.

Isabelle smiled and nodded. “Then they’d better watch out, because we won’t be taking no for an answer.”

"I'll show you the same courtesy I gave Doctor T'ghann-Dex Counsellor" Finchley replied, "Use my name as the one who's looking for the information. If anyone refuses you access or fobs you off, tell them they'll be getting a personal visit and request from myself, and I won't take no for an answer or be fobbed off. They'll find my way of requesting the information an awful lot tougher, and they'll also find that a turn in a Penal Colony is good for the soul."

“I’ll make sure I tell them that Sir” Isabelle smiled warmly.

"Good, right, the two of you have work to do, I have a matter to take care of myself before we leave Base One, if there's nothing else?" Finchley said, looking at Alec and Isabelle.

Isabelle nodded politely before heading for the door, one way or another they needed to get answers.

Alec returned the nod. "we'll get started on this right away Captain." As he also rose to leave.

Finchley watched them go, then sat back in his chair. There must be some kind of record of the children in that situation, someone would know something, they just had to know what it was. Rising from his seat, he made his way back to his Ready Room, he had ships business to take care of before they departed and he wanted it completed.

 

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