New mission brief.

Posted on Tue Jan 30th, 2024 @ 11:14pm by Commodore Finchley Kerr & Lieutenant Commander Kevin Kilbane & Commander Shr'Nesh Karadis & Lieutenant Commander Jaal Jaxom & Lieutenant Kell Asaa Dr & Lieutenant Commander Isabelle Savette & Lieutenant JG Scott Kayne

3,244 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Investigate the Chintoka Shipyard Buildup
Location: Conference Room
Timeline: Current

The transporter beam dissipated as Finchley, Karadis and Kilbane returned from their meeting with the Federated Brigade. Stepping down from the platform, Finchley turned to his companions and said, “We’ll start the briefing immediately.”

Karadis and Kilbane nodded, neither of them replying, but knowing that given the gravity of the situation, time was of the essence. Finchley turned back towards the exit and set off at pace.

As he did so, he tapped his COMM badge and said, “Captain Kerr to all Senior staff, report to the Conference Room now.”

Kell paused her log and nodded at her staff as she left sickbay...

Isabelle finished off her latest Counseling session, putting the notes away she headed for the Conference Room.

Having had the transporter chief notify him when Captain Kerr beamed back aboard, Jaal was already headed to the conference room suspecting Kerr would want a staff meeting upon his return.

Given Kerr had called a staff meeting the moment he set foot back on the Blackeagle, something was urgent. He entered and greeted all present and took the seat to the captain’s right.

Arriving at the Conference Room Isabelle nodded politely to all present and took a seat.

Before the briefing began, Finchley indicated to Jaal and Isabelle that he wanted a word in private. Walking to the far end, he turned to face them.

“There’s a change of plan” he began, “Commander Jaxom, Karadis is no longer going to pretend harass you, you have bigger fish to fry in narrowing down the mole’s hideout, and Lieutenant Savette, you’re no longer having Karadis tail you all day, again, there’s bigger fish to fry.”

Scott entered the room, and walked over to one of the empty chairs. He sat down and straightened his uniform.

Isabelle nodded as Finchley spoke. “Understood Sir. I’ll do my best to prove that it wouldn’t have been needed anyway.”

"Great," Jaal replied, obviously relieved. "Let's start cookin'."

Nodding to them both their discussion was finished, Finchley turned and took his seat at the head of the table. He gathered his thoughts, this was going to be a little bit of an eye opener.

Kilbane took his usual place, off to one side, leaning casually against the wall, but looking at everyone gathered, taking in reactions.

Finchley slowly got to his feet, “Commander Kilbane, CWO Karadis and myself have just returned from a meeting of the Federated Brigade. For those of you unfamiliar with them, it’s a gathering of all the Senior Federation Intelligence Operatives, level nine and above.
Our last mission was to try to find out if the Dominion were rebuilding their forces in order to mount a second war on the Federation. We successfully concluded they were, however, what we didn’t know until it was to late was that the Founders were involved once again. Couple that with discovering they also had a time ship, and we had a serious problem. However, information has come to light that our team was compromised, we had a mole feeding back our every move. They were clever though, and this is where it gets complicated, they had to sacrifice a little of themselves in order to remain above suspicion. That sacrifice came in the shape of them allowing Borg nanites to be introduced to their body. It also caused another of our crew to become infected as well, said crew member being Lieutenant Savette .”

He stopped for a moment, then started again, “Commander Dex, formerly Executive Officer on this ship, was the mole in the crew. I, along with everyone else, was taken in by their deception, something I’m not proud of, however, one thing has come to light from this, the Brigade has managed to piece together part of the bigger story, the Dominion’s drive for another war, and who’s involved.
The Cardassians obviously, the Founders, the Breen, but now we also know that a rogue element of a fourth group…the Borg.”

He stopped again so that this piece of news could sink in, even he still found it difficult to believe.

“Our goal, our objective, now, is to try to find out who helped plant that mole on our ship, how high does this go up the Intelligence hierarchy, and what’s their ultimate end game.”

He looked at each person in turn, how would they react?

Kell couldn't help thinking, 'By Kritus' three beards!' Her uncle had told her once he'd tell her what that meant one day... She still didn't know, but it was as frustrating as what the Captain had just relayed to them. "Borg??? I really don't like that. I know the Founders are pretty egotistical but they think they'll get a deal with the Borg? I'll have to order some extra medical equipment, and maybe see if we can assign a specialist or two, then there's the..." Her voice trailed off as she frantically jotted down notes on her PADD.

Jaal's brow knitted in thought. This revelation was definitely a surprise. "I'm finding it hard to believe anyone can make a deal with the Borg. That would indicate a serious paradigm shift in their tactics. Is it possible they're dealing with a group that's been cut off from the collective? That would make some sense... but the collective itself? They'll end up taking over the entire quadrant no matter who've they allied with now."

Isabelle was just as shocked and surprised as everyone else, how come she hadn't picked up on Dex's intentions when they were both working together she wasn't sure. "The Borg..." she shook her head. "Captain, I respectfully suggest that you have security monitor my movements. If the Borg are involved with this, I'm a huge risk. I may not be an ex-b but you said it yourself, I'm infected with nanites."

Finchley looked across to Scott, “Lieutenant Kayne, when we’re done here, meet with Lieutenant Savette here to set that up. If you have any other protocol suggestions, I’ll gladly hear them.”

"I'd recommend any terminal the lieutenant is working be isolated before she's allowed to interact with it, if those nanites take control, there's no telling what data we might lose or what critical systems we'll be locked out of." Kayne said

The door to the conference room opened and Karadis came in, PADD on hand.

“Bird, I’ve got the preliminary test results on the nanites from Dr Phillipson” she said, handing the PADD over. Finchley took his time reading what had been presented thus far, and though outside his field of expertise, the basics he could grasp.

Turning to face the room again, he said “It’s Dr Phillipson’s understanding that the nanite technology from former Commander Dex and Lieutenant Savette are a hybrid and I’ll come to that in a moment. Comparison of captured Borg nanites, and the nanites here show that the newer nanites have had the normal tubule sequence removed, that’s why former Commander Dex and Lieutenant Savette haven’t tried to assimilate anyone. However, it does appear that these newer nanites have had gene splicing technology integrated. In his opinion, these nanites are still in the testing phase. His best ‘guess’ at the moment is that, if perfected, anyone having them introduced to their system could potentially have the ability to not only change appearance, but be genetically stronger.”

Kell's eyes narrowed, then wandered the room out of focus, then another flurry of tapping her PADD.

This was a lot to take in, the implications were…there probably wasn’t a scale big enough to describe it.

Isabelle gave Finchley a surprised look. "That's a fascinating thought, so in theory I'd be stronger than normal and I'd be able to shape shift?" she shook her head. "I'm not entirely sure I like that idea. Strength yes, shape shift, definitely not!"

"Bearing in mind though Lieutenant, Dr Phillipson does believe that the nanites you have within your system are still in the testing phase, that part may not work," Finchley replied.

Isabelle nodded. "Trust me Sir, I have no wish for it to work anyway." she offered a smile. "When Dex was infected she claimed that her nanites talked to her, I've had no such experience with mine."

“I doubt it was the nanites talking to her, more likely her co-conspirators” Finchley replied, “She was probably trying to throw you off the scent of their deception.”

Jaal was watching and listening the whole time. Anyone who knew him recognized the look on his face indicated he was assessing information. There seemed to be a lull in the conversation so he spoke up.

“The Borg collective works because it uses every drone’s brain as a networked processor. In the early days of computing, it was found that networked processors could do exponentially more than a single one. The Borg have exploited that to the Nth degree. One of their cubes probably has the processing power of…” he shrugged and held his hands up, “I dunno, an entire quadrant? Half the galaxy? Probably more…” He folded his arms across his chest, “At any rate, that’s the reason they can react and evolve so fast. That’s why any attack tried is only successful once. None of that is news, but, if a way can be found to stop the nanites, and the collective as a whole, from networking,” he held up one forefinger, “That is the way to beating the Borg. Of all those enemies the Captain mentioned, I think the Borg are the worst. That’s who I think we should start with.”

He shrugged again hoping he didn’t sound like an idiot. Staff meetings were still a new experience for him. For all he knew, everyone else in the room knew all that already.

Kell pondered that as he spoke. "You mean like reverse-engineering the nanites and using the inter-networking against them. Cause a catastrophic amount of damage before they can stop it, and they'd have to retreat, again...? Without the Borg, the others wouldn't have the power base to continue..."

“Yes,” Jaal answered leaning forward motioning towards Kell with his open hand, “Exactly.”

“Have either of you considered this could be a rogue element of the Borg?” Kilbane asked, “There are documented instances that not every Borg is in tow with the queen and her mad desire to assimilate everyone.”

"It's not unheard of," Jaal replied, "I'd say the possibility is almost fifty fifty. Typically the Borg will not ally themselves with anyone. They just assimilate and take what they want. Again, this is not news. The Borg allying with another group, now that's odd... unless they've planned some kind of long game to get a solid foothold in the alpha or beta quadrant. Either way, it's bad news."

Kell considered... "a splinter of Borg is more likely given the abnormalities. We'll have to deal with them in much the same way though, so no need worry about this long game until we have more to go on anyway."

Isabelle moved ready to stand up. “I don’t think I should be hearing any plans regarding the Borg, considering the situation.” She offered a wry smile as she looked towards Finchley. “Would you prefer I waited outside Sir, while you all discuss matters?”

Jaal said nothing to answer Isabelle, although, he thought, it made sense considering the situation. He left it up to Captain Kerr.

“Park your arse back in your chair Lieutenant, you’re not trying to assimilate anyone right now, so I think you can be trusted,” Finchley said.

“Besides, if you do try, I’ll kill you where you stand,” Kilbane added, not looking up from examining his nails.

“Really, I mean…REALLY!!!” Karadis shouted, whipping round and looking at Kilbane. “Like she’s not frightened enough by all this stuff going on, you have to say that?”

“You know the rules Karadis,” Kilbane answered, looking back at her, “Kill assimilating Borg first, ask questions later.”

Finchley could see Karadis reaching for her D’k TagH so acted quickly, “OK, ENOUGH!!!!”

Looking at Kilbane he said, “You, I’ll deal with later,” then turning to Karadis he said, “You, SIT DOWN!”

He drew a breath, “Commander Kilbane does have a point, I don’t think we’re dealing with the Borg Collective in this, this has to be a rogue element. Right now though, our main focus is on the mole situation.”

He looked at Jaal, “Commander Jaxom, give us an update on your findings on this so far.”

Jaal turned in his chair to face Kerr, "I've managed to narrow down the where the transmissions were coming from on Earth. I couldn't get an exact location, whoever sent them really knew how to hide that coding well... but they were coming from Paris, France. I know that's not where Starfleet HQ is, but the Federation President's office and some other UFP government buildings are there." he shrugged, "It might be possible there's an unadvertised intelligence facility there. It would make sense if there was."

Isabelle had sat when told to do so, taking her seat she’d given Kilbane a look that, if looks could kill, would have dropped him where he sat. Though on reflection she couldn’t really blame him for his answer, she looked across at Karadis as Jaal gave his report, giving Karadis a thank you nod for jumping to her defence.

Karadis nodded back to Isabelle, then smiled as she drew a finger across her throat, indicating towards Kilbane as to how she felt about what he said.

“Paris…the FPO…” Finchley parroted back, then his eyes widened. “Wait a minute, there was an Intelligence training ground there at one point, but it was closed down when SFI centralised everything. What if…what if that’s where the transmission’s were coming from and going to?”

Jaal scratched the stubble on his chin. "It's also entirely possible it was never shut down at all," he opined as his head tilted while considering the possibility.

Scott thought to himself for a moment considering the possibility, "If that's the case, could we potentially have a larger threat on our hands?" He said looking around the room, "How deep could this particular rabbit hole go? Especially if this is a Rogue Borg operation, plenty in the Federation, not to mention half the quadrant could be affected. They could turn our own forces, and many elsewhere, against all of us." Kayne then paused for a breath, "There's no reason to assume they can't, just that they haven't yet, so what could they be waiting for?" Kayne realized that was a lot of unknowns, but he felt it better to get it all out at the very least.

Jaal regarded listened and thought a moment. “If I may,” he looked to Captain Kerr, “We need to find out what’s going on in Paris. I believe we can get some clues there on what we should try and tackle next. The hard part will be staying on the down low so whoever is running this operation doesn’t think we’re onto them.”

Isabelle listened with interest, she didn’t want to volunteer for anything just in case it gave anyone cause to doubt her motives. She was starting to doubt herself now, which in itself wasn’t a good thing.

Looking at Jaal, Finchley said, “Pick your away team Commander, I want you to lead the investigation in Paris. I’m going to contact some old colleagues at SHQ and try to ascertain what, if any, changes have recently come down the pipeline for implementation to the fleet, see if it can help you in any way.”

Jaal nodded, "Anything you can dig up will be good."

Before he could think who he wanted or say anything, the chief science officer spoke up. He'd only led one away team previously so to say he was a bit nervous was an under-statment. He mentally checked off the list of people's skills he wanted to take with him.

Kell looked over at Jaal. "I'll send you some info on medtech that we have on them, you'll need to be careful with physical interactions obviously." She hesitated a moment, then resumed. "And as tenuous as Isabelle's condition may be, you may find her useful if you do encounter any of the Borg tech, at least as an indicator. She is correct, what she has remaining is different than what Dex had, and she'd likely have to have something else introduced to change her current state... probably... to the best of my knowledge." She knew what wasn't exactly encouraging but she knew they might need every edge they could get.

Isabelle looked at Kell and nodded, then looked back at Jaal. “If I can be of any help, then I’d like to go along. Provided you’re willing for me to go Sir.”

Jaal nodded, with his mind made up he stated confidently. "All right then, Lieutenant Kayne, Lieutenant Savette, Lieutenant Asaa and Chief Karadis. Let's get geared up and ready to go."

Kell's eyebrow peaked on her 'O' face...'Well,' she thought. 'Guess I stepped into that one...'

“Marvellous, I get to babysit Mr Green…” Karadis mumbled.

“Play nice now Karadis” Finchley said, barely able to suppress his laughter and grin, but managing to do it a pretend cough.

He looked around the room, “I don’t have to mention the seriousness of what we’re setting out to do. There’s no glory or heroic stories that’ll be celebrated, just know however that I’m proud of you all for being on the front line. Do your duty, honour your comrades, and let’s poke the beast…then kill it!”

Kell looks at Jaal. "How we going? Appearance-wise?"

Good question, he thought while ignoring the Chief's comment. He assumed it was to be a clandestine operation. If he mistepped he hoped Captain Kerr would offer some advice. He rubbed the day old stubble on his chin and said, "We're on the down low, casual clothes with standard equipment. I think that should do the job."

“Casual, got it” Isabelle offered a smile. She was glad that she was being trusted to go along.

Karadis, reminding herself that this was part of what she signed up for, then tried to sound sincere when she said, “Casual…great…”, but she knew it would be disastrous. None of them had the slightest idea what passed for casual back on Earth these days. Besides, what was casual for a human was different to what passed as casual for a Klingon or a Batazoid or any other race.

Kilbane heard the strain in Karadis voice, he was loving it. “Hey Karadis, don’t forget to wear your blue and white hooped t-shirt, blue beret and have a string of onions round your neck.”

“Ok, we’re done here!” Finchley said, rising from his seat, “The briefing’s over. Commander Jaxom, you and your away team assemble in transporter room one in sixty minutes, everyone dismissed.”

As he walked down the room, he passed Kilbane, “YOU, with me, now!”

OFF

 

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