A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma: Part 6

Posted on Sat Apr 8th, 2023 @ 11:09pm by Lieutenant Commander Isabelle Savette & Commodore Finchley Kerr

3,532 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: Investigate the Chintoka Shipyard Buildup
Location: Chin'toka shipyard
Timeline: Current

[Old]

"He's late!" someone said.

"He'll be here, relax, you know he said it would take a little time to get what he required" another answered.

"I still don't trust him, why would he take a risk like that?" the first one asked.

"Because..."

At that point Finchley stood up, took out his phaser, and rounded the doorway "Because the risk to gain success far outweighs the consequences of not trying at all and failing" he finished the sentence.

[New]

"KERR!" a Vorta said, rising from his seat, all smiles "You made it. How did it go?"

"Like clockwork, well, clockwork that has a spring unsprang" Finchley said, lowering his phaser and greeting the Vorta with a smile and a big bearhug.

The Vorta groaned a little as he was hugged, saying in a husked tone "Careful there, you might squeeze the life out of me."

Letting go of the Vorta, Finchley took a nearby chair and turned it round and sat down. "We're on track. The two that came with me are infected, they're having reactions...which in themselves are funny to watch. One of them is paranoid that she's seeing and hearing things that aren't there, and the other is slowly getting taken over by nanites...it couldn't be more perfect. I left Athrax with them, saying they should kill him, but I think that's a long shot. Oh, I had to kill the Jem'Hadar soldier, make things look more convincing, sorry about that."

"What's one Jem'Hadar soldier in the grand scheme of things" the Vorta exclaimed "he can simply be replaced."

"Athrax gave up that the virus is in the medical unit, we should head there now" the Vortas compatriot said.

Standing up, Finchley said "Suits me."

Isabelle rounded the doorway hustled along, and pushed to the floor by Athrax just as the conversation was ending. She sat looking up at Finchley. “Captain!? You betrayed us!?”

Shon woke wondering what the hell had hit her, then as she remembered she stood groaning preparing for the onslaught of sounds and visions as before. Then, nothing, she felt perfectly fine, better than fine in fact as she knew now exactly where the virus was stored.She looked around for her phaser then realised that Athrax had taken it from her. On the floor beside the console lay the Varron T disruptor which she had laid down as she had entered the room. Picking it up she decided two things, firstly to pick up the virus from the surgical lab and then rescue Isabelle. She began to jog along the corridors until she came upon the lab. She entered and went straight to the back of the wall. Pressing the plate three times, then twice, then once a small opening appeared with a box. She held her breath and opened it gently. Nestling inside were three small vials one of them being the blue vial herself and Isabelle had encountered broken on the shelf. The other vials were green and clear. Shon reason that one of those two vials must be an antidote, but, which one? She snapped the box shut and placed it in the pouch she carried and exited the room. Her next job was to find Isabelle. She stopped and listened to see if her enhanced Vulcan hearing noted anything but all was silent apart from the creaking of the masonry.

Finchley looked at Isabelle and said "Betray...betray...that's quite an accusation Lieutenant. Can I ask how you've come to this conclusion? Do you know any of the people here, have you met any of them before, or do you know me, have you ever served with me, have you ever been part of any missions I've ever been on or mission briefs I've ever been given?"

“No, Sir!” Isabelle shook he head. “But I heard what you said about Dex being paranoid, and me being taken over by nanites, it all seems like the perfect plan! Are we supposed to die for this to work?”

"Eventually Lieutenant, but not right now" Finchley replied "What I need you to right now is contact Commander Dex and tell her to come here to your location. Oh, and please don't try and warn her off, if you do, you'll die a lot quicker...and more painfully than you can possibly imagine. So, if you'd be so kind."

“No..” Isabelle shook her head. “I won’t do it! I will not call Dex here for you to capture her too! It doesn’t matter what happens to me.”

I thought you might say that" Finchley replied "Tell me, how's your brother Tobias...Doctor isn't he? He might have some difficulty carrying out his work if he doesn't have any hands. Now, shall we get on with this?"

Isabelle scowled as she looked at Finchley, she had sensed Dex approaching and was trying to hold out for her arrival. “I don’t have to.... NOW DEX!!” She hit the deck giving Dex a chance to take a shot if she needed it.

Finchley hit the button on the desk next to him and a shutter slammed down cutting the room off from the corridor.

"Three inch steel plate Lieutenant, the Commanders not coming through that, but thanks for letting me know she was there" Finchley said.

He looked round at the Vorta he'd been speaking with and said "You know how I said to you, before all of this, that it's fun being a double agent?"

"Yeeeees, so you did" the Vorta smiled.

"Well, it's more fun being a double, double agent" Finchley replied, then levelled his phaser at the Vorta and shot him. He then quickly aimed it at his compatriot and shot him to. Lastly, he turned to see the now gawping Athrax, who was staring at the two dead bodies, turn sheet white.

"Athrax.." Finchley said.

Athrax looked at him, stunned and open mouthed.

"Where's the Founder?" Finchley asked.

"What?" Athrax asked finally.

"I'm not playing this game, I'm going to ask one last time, then I'm going to raise that shutter, let Commander Dex in here and allow her to inflict as much pain on you as possible before you pass out. The I'm going to wake you up and let her do it to you all over again. So, let's cut the bullshit sonny, none of this could be set up unless a Founder was still alive and not with 'The Link', so, that means they're either here, or you know where they are. You have five seconds."

Athrax just blinked, "No, no...you can't let her do that to me...you have ethical rules...laws...you can't do any of this to me."

"I'm a level nine StarfIeet Intelligence Officer Athrax, basically, in situations like this, I am the law...four, three, two.."

"OK...OK, just...leave her out there!" he said, pointing at the shuttered door.

"I don't know there exact location, I got my orders through Navis there" he continued, pointing at the dead Vorta "He was the one who really knew where they were. He was the one who helped me set up the lab here, he was the one who had the scientists brought in to help me solve some of the biogenic weapons problems...he was also the one who gave the execution order for all of them being killed once we'd perfected it. I was kept alive just in case anything was needed to expand their yield. The only time I ever got close to knowing where the Founder may be is when I accidently came in here one day and heard him saying 'it takes three days from the Paulis system to get here so they could see the weapon working first hand...but then he saw me and stopped talking to whoever it was...I can only assume it would be the Founder. This was all before we tried it out, I didn't get to see them, I swear it!"

"Paulis system, that's interesting" Finchley said.

"Why?" Athrax asked.

Finchley raised his phaser and shot Athrax dead. Hitting the button on the desk to raise the steel shutter, he walked over to the Vorta and said "Because I say so."

Holding out his hand, he looked down at Isabelle and said "Can I help you up Lieutenant?"

Isabelle gave Finchley a confused look, he’d played his part so well he’d even fooled her senses. “Wait... you...” She looked at him with a frown before suddenly keeling over unconscious.

Finchley sighed and put his hand down. He looked at Shon and said "Can you deal with the Lieutenant please Commander, I need to check on something."

Shon had no idea what was currently going on. There were three dead on the floor plus the unconscious Isabelle and her senses screamed that something was wrong. She kneeled beside the Lieutenant and felt her pulse which was strong. She brought out the box and opened it knowing she was just about to bet with both their lives. Ignoring the vial containing the virus she looked at the other two. One of them was the antidote…..but which one. It would be a guess, albeit an educated one but, still a guess. Looking at the proliferation of implants on the lieutenant’s skin she knew she had to do something.
She had no way of internal application so she took the clear vial and placed a drop first on her own skin and then on Isabelle’s. For what seemed like an age nothing happened but she was cheered by the fact that neither of them were dead. Then, slowly Isabelle’s implants began to deactivate. Shon then realised she had been holding her breath and breathed.

Shon stood, her hand on the disruptor. “The Lieutenant and I will be fine now Captain, but I suggest you let me in on what is going on?”

Isabelle opened her eyes, rubbing the back of her neck as she sat up. “It’s a... long story.” She offered Finchley a professional nod and smile.

Finchley slowly turned around and looked at Shon, seeing her hand on the Klingon disruptor "Or what Commander...you'll shoot me?" he asked.

“Not at all Captain, but you have to understand the scene I entered, firstly I could not gain entry then I discover the Lieutenant on the floor and three dead bodies on the floor. I need to ensure I can protect the Lieutenant and yourself sir, and, of course myself. Hence me asking what is going on?” That was almost the truth she thought. “Isabelle I discovered the antidote and have administered it to you and myself. You should be feeling better and no more ‘implants’ should appear.” Shon walked round the room nudging the bodies with her toe. “I also recovered the virus Sir.”

"Let me have it Commander" Finchley replied, holding out his hand.

She turned it around handing it to him by the stock. “Where is my phaser?” She asked.

"I was actually meaning the virus" Finchley replied, but taking the disruptor as well."

She handed him the box, “be careful with it Captain, if the bottle goes so does every living thing within however many light years.” She picked up the weapon left by the Vorta and turned it over in her palm.

Finchley took the box and gently laid it down on the desk. Sitting down beside it, he looked at Shon and Isabelle saying "Are we sitting comfortably children, then we'll begin. Two years ago, SFI got wind that the Dominion were rebuilding their fleet and their alliances...well, new alliances. HQ knew that in order to get a foothold near our border, they would be looking to rebuild the Chin'Toka shipyard, so they hatched a plan. Yours truly, and Karadis, were chosen to 'steal' plans Starfleet had made to turn the shipyard into a deep space launch yard because we had 'become morally opposed to the idea'. To us 'the war was over', there was more requirement to rebuild out fleet and the worlds that had been affected 'by' the war, not squander resources o a deep space launch yard.
Our cover was that we wanted to stop the Federation and Starfleet from potentially becoming colonists, rather than rebuilding what we already had and almost lost. We went through severe psychological screening and questioning techniques, were taught how to ignore pain and endure prolonged questioning, sleep deprivation, mind probes...you get the gist. A fake court marshal was entered into Starfleet and SFI records, finding us guilty of course, and sentencing us to hard labour in the outer colonies. A fake prison break was set up, and the fake stealing of a ship. We crossed into former Dominion space, 'fake' chased by Starfleet vessels that we managed to outrun.

We 'crash landed' on a Dominion colony, were captured and turned over for interrogation. They of course found the fake Starfleet plans, tortured and questioned us for months, but our stories held up, as did we ourselves...but only just, I was probably two or three days away from cracking, but the finally stopped and took us for what they believed we were, dissidents. Anyway, long story short, we were given new fake Starfleet identities, false documents and smuggled back into Federation space. What the Dominion didn't know was we were already feeding them back false information, but using our 'new' identities. Skip forward to six months ago Karadis and I were sent in to kill Athrax here, but he was gone. I'd managed to get information that Athrax was returning, hence the Blackeagle was chosen to come here when the 3 original ships sent here were soundly defeated. It's no coincidence I got the CO role, this was planned. I 'had' to get back here to make sure we could get the virus, kill Athrax, and learn 'who' was backing this return of the Dominion to this 'yard. I think we've been pretty successful doing this.

“So what now?” Isabelle say rubbing the back of her neck, which was feeling pretty stiff and sore. “Neither Dex or I have been through all this cloak and dagger training that you’ve been through, aren’t we going to be a liability? “

Shon decided to sit down and pushed a chair out with her foot for Isabelle and passed her a flask. “Drink some of this, it’s pretty nasty, Vulcan herbs and zaga juice but it will help.” She looked at both of them wondering if she was doing the right thing. Deciding she was she began. “If I am to be honest with you I know somewhat about secrets.”

“Not you too?” Isabelle offered a wry smile as she opened the flask and took a sip. “Ohh... yuck! You weren’t kidding when you said nasty!” She pulled a funny face then handed the flask back to Dex. “Thank you.”

Shon smiled, “you will feel a little better in few minutes I promise you. Well, back to my story and yes I am sorry Isabelle me too. After my tour on the USS London ended I was headhunted if that is the right word by the V’Shar the Vulcan secret service. Some friends of mine had been executed by the Tal Shiar. I was young and very impressionistic and I made a lot of noise about the way I felt, so when I was offered a place I took it determined to avenge them. Don’t forget I am only half Vulcan. I spent a year learning all about, shall we say ways of interrogation and ways of resisting and the passing of just the right amount of information to keep them coming back for more. The bureau has a special interest in the Romulans, due to the special racial relationship we share. Three quarters of V’Shar’s resources are tasked with gathering intelligence about our ancient sundered cousins. Additionally, the V'Shar also contributed funds to the maintenance of Starfleet Intelligence's long range sensor arrays along the Romulan Neutral Zone, receiving of all the information from that region.

Without going into lots of unnecessary information I ended Up embedded on Romulus acting as a double agent, feeding information to the Tal Shiar and, conversely to the Vulcans.” She sighed. “It was a…..difficult time, I took part in many things I am not proud of but, eventually my cover was broken and I spent three months as a guest of the Tal Shiar. It made no difference what I told them, they just enjoyed torture and, there were times I begged them to kill me and having realised that I had used the techniques they had used on me on others nearly broke me. The thoughts of returning to my husband and child kept me alive and I was returned to Vulcan a year later in a prisoner swap……anyway all this is to let you know not all the information you have spoken of is alien to me.” She took a drink of the herbal concoction, grimaced, restoppered the flask and placed it in her pack. Sitting back she stretched her legs out over the dead Vorta and was silent.

Isabelle didn’t say anything for a moment before she finally spoke up. “Then perhaps I’d best come clean as well. I don’t have a history as colourful as the two of you, but I do work for my home world's Intelligence bureau. It’s not one that’s well known, but it does exist. Before you ask, who would suspect a ship’s Counsellor?”

"I suspect everybody, that way there are no surprises. Do you think you're both here by chance or promoted design?" Finchley replied.

Isabelle gave Finchley a curious look. “I would have said coincidence, but given the current situation I’ve got a feeling we’ve all been brought together by design. Good or bad remains to be seen.”

“Right then!” exclaimed Shon beginning to get impatient. “Whatever I believe in is of no importance. We need to move on from here, where next sir?” She asked.

"That's easy" Finchley replied "download all outgoing and incoming messages to this office, then back to the ship. Set course for the Paulis system, meanwhile, we analyse the messages to see if there's any clues as to a location for this Founder. Any questions?"

“No questions Sir” Isabelle offered a smile, glad that secret identities were out in the open between them.

Finchley was somewhat surprised "A Counsellor not asking questions, that must be a first!" he laughed as he looked at both Isabelle and Shon.

Shon just looked serious and nodded. If we are returning to the ship medical May want to get their claws into us and that frightens me more than all of this. “Lieutenant use this console and download everything you can so we can go home.

Isabelle nodded and smiled. “Aye Commander, I’ll be glad to lose these implants once the Doctor has chance to remove them. Besides quarantine seems a good idea after all this.”

Pretty soon all the information was downloaded and they were set to return.

"For the moment, we keep what's happened here to ourselves" Finchley said "there's to be no mention of the Founder till I decide otherwise. If anyone asks, we're following a lead on this Dominion force that we've encountered. Right, lets get back to the Blackeagle, Commander, lead the way plase."

Shon nodded, “before we leave sir May I ask what you will be doing with the virus? I advise it should be kept in a negative environment in medical, our CMO should be working on an antidote, in fact there may be something in the papers that the Lieutenant has garnered from the console?”

“Hopefully Dr Asaa should be able to use the antidote you gave both of us to synthesise more.” Isabelle smiled. “It seems to have worked on getting rid of my rash and the implants have stopped multiplying, I can only guess they’re offline.”

Finchley looked at Shon "Oh no, I have something special in mind for that Commander and believe me, it'll be fully justified."

Shon picked up a phaser from the floor and set off once again following the way they came in. Once they came to the room where the three goons were Shon stepped in. All three were awake so she stunned them again. They arrived at the surgical lab and Shon picked up the bones she had promised herself hoping the CMO would be interested. The dust floated around swirling by the hatch of the shuttle. She noted that there were no footsteps in the dust but to be sure she drew her phaser as she entered. It was as they had left it. She stowed the bones away and waited for the other members of the team.

Finchley entered and took a seat. His mind was already on the next step, finding the Founder.

Isabelle wasn’t far behind, offering a smile to her companions she took a seat glad to be heading back to the ship.

{OFF}

 

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