Pre-Brief

Posted on Mon Jul 29th, 2019 @ 2:41am by Lieutenant Aleksander Voroshilov

Mission: War and Peacekeeping
Location: CIO Office

R’Mular drummed his digits on the desk, not exactly pleased with the lack of punctuality anyone in the intel office had. Scrolling through the morning intelligence updates it was more bad news, as was typical. The Romulans were developing a new warp capable system to system torpedo, capable of leveling cities. Political turmoil was rocking the Klingon Empire, a third potential civil war loomed. Rumors of a Dominion resurgence, somewhere out near Ferengi space. Overall, the situation was normal, “Crewman Delle, where is your boss?”

“Our boss you mean?” Tebiza was bouncing a ball against the wall, nearly out of her mind with boredom. How Aleksi had managed to stay sane was beyond her, she was about ready to cause some mischief just to entertain herself, “And if he’s lucky, waking up with a slight hangover and a beautiful woman by his side.”

Tebiza tossed the ball again, a hand grabbing it before it hit the wall. Aleksi tossed it into the empty coffee mug on the deputy’s desk. He looked back at the Bajoran with a wink, “How I woke up isn’t your concern Ensign,” Tossing a package on her desk he continued towards R’Mular’s desk, “Nor will it ever be yours,” He waved another package, “Petty Officer.”

R’Mular took the bag and opened it, revealing an engineer’s uniform. Looking at the human who was now giving him a smirk, “And let me guess, you’ll be the Officer in Charge of our little charade?”

“More importantly,” Tebiza had already unpacked the uniform, holding it up to her, “How did you guess my size?”

“I’m great with women’s sizes,” Aleksi pointed to the Caitian, “I had to guess yours. Sorry if it’s a bit tight,” His voice told him he was anything but that, “And you are looking at Crewman Danjou. No one questions the presence of lower ranks, in fact they do their best to ignore them,” Taking an empty desk he looked back to the Bajoran who was changing blouses, “Role reversal, not just for Boxing Day or the bedroom anymore.”

“Did you get Lieutenant Tudor’s permission?” R’Mular pulled out the uniform jacket. He was well aware of the man’s reputation for unorthodox tactics, “Or did you just steal these like you did with the bottle of 50-year-old Macallan in you weapon’s locker?”

“That’s a hell of an accusation and almost insulting,” The fact R’Mular found his stash of exotic alcohol didn’t surprise him, in fact he was expecting it. He’d have to get a better hiding spot, “The man would do damn near anything to solve this mystery, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind us impersonating his team if it meant an answer,” He looked at the Caitian with a grin on his face, “So I suppose you should brush up on your engineer’s lingo. If you’re at a loss for words just throw tachyon in the mix, it means nothing but they seem to love it.”

Without waiting for a response he stood up, “This may be surprising but I was actually doing work earlier this morning, talking with Mr. Tudor about the problem. While most of what he said was incomprehensible flailing I could at least glean that he agrees this is some sort of sabotage,” Taking a PADD he brought up the schematics of the Zendaya, “I couldn’t get anything more out of him beyond his obsession with deck 13 I think I’ve narrowed down the search areas.”

Two areas in particular were highlighted along with the Jefferies Tubes leading to the deck and the delegates quarters, “Tebiza, you’ll be getting into the terminal. I’m looking for anything that could kill the cooling systems,” He looked at his watch, “We have three hours so in the meantime I want you to see if you have anything in your bag of tricks that could replicate that.”

The model’s focus shifted to the main power relay, “R’Mular, while it would be poetic to have you crawl into the Jefferies Tube I need as much analysis and evidence you can give me about the source of the fire. I know this isn’t your strong suit, but your attention to detail is strong,” As much as he chafed at the idea of having the professor, he had to admit R’Mular’s keen eye for detail, “As for me, I will traipsing me way through the various tubes seeing if it’s possible and if it is if they got sloppy.”

“I negotiated with the Captain to give us an hour on board before the TLF are brought on. It’s not a lot of time, it never really is, but we’re only there to gather data, the analysis can be done here. I want to be able to brief the boss within three hours after our return and I don’t want that answer to be ‘I don’t know’,” That being said he wasn’t exactly ready to crucify the insurgents either like the other senior crew was itching to do, consequences be damned, “Be discreet about it, the last thing we need is for someone to think we’re pissing in their borscht nor do we want Bolivar to notice anything odd. As far as he knows we see this as simply an accident. Any questions?”

Tebiza raised her hand, a shiny pip on her collar. Both men looked at her with an expression that told her they weren’t in grade school, “So do I bark orders or what?”

Rolling his eyes playfully, Aleksi chuckled, “Not while I still have my two pips sweetheart. Anything else?”

“What do we do if the evidence points to this being sabotage?” The civilian’s voice was serious, more so than usual, “Do we plan on having security slap the irons on the insurgents and drag them away? Possibly winning the fight but creating martyrs in the process?”

“My official answer is that we’re only here to provide intelligence, what Commander Laurens does with it is up to her,” Aleksi knew that the Caitian was informed of his dislike of anything official, “We’ll play it by ear. I don’t really trust the senior crew, outside of maybe Laurens and Gail, to make any long term rational choices, preferring the cathartic release of jailing the next potential rulers of Trion 8 and giving them every reason to spread the revolution into the Federation. I mean they were talking about locking them in a cargo hold or even the holodeck, very cliche Starfleet that last one, so they already have very little interest in the whole concept of Innocent until proven guilty, which I’ve experienced first hand,” The last jab was to the system as a whole.

For the first time since coming on board R’Mular laughed, “I should have expected that answer. I agree that we need to exercise caution, that last thing we need is a dangerous man on board with nothing to lose and everything to gain.”

The CIO grinned, wondering if the Deputy got the irony of that statement, “Now that we’re in agreement we should suit up and get to work. We only have a few hours until rendezvous and I don’t want to waste any time.”