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Posted on Sat Dec 5, 2020 @ 10:01pm by Captain April Dragon & Lieutenant Nicole Anderson & Commander Cullen Walker & Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Lieutenant Arashi Tanaka Mr. & Lieutenant AJ Taggart & Lieutenant JG Aergad Halvor & Lieutenant JG Camille Lévesque PhD & Lieutenant JG Ardal King & Senior Chief Petty Officer Samantha Summers & Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit
4,205 words; about a 21 minute read
Mission:
Archangel
Location: DQ Portal
Timeline: 3 Weeks After the Kidnapping
The aperture of the transwarp conduit spun in space like a large cosmic whirlpool. A void in space, harnessing forces that nature never intended, it was a spot of controlled chaos in an otherwise calm patch of space. And from the center of that swirl of light and color, a small, streamlined spot of power came soaring out of it.
The USS Victory entered the Delta Quadrant with little fanfare. They’d saved the Federation, and the good news was they weren’t going to prosecute. Much to everyone’s surprise, however, there was a welcoming committee. The USS Saint George was sitting in their path, waiting for their arrival.
As the Victory cleared the hub, the Saint George moved towards them and sent out a priority one hail.
On the Bridge, Fleet Captain Kennit was present, seated in her chair as regulations required she be present for the ships exit from trans warp. It was the last gods damned place she wanted to be. After being de-briefed and questioned for hours following the swift end to the attempted coup against the Federation, after they’d presented her with an award she didn’t want or need, and after all the mess had been swept under a rug she’d presented Admiral Bennett once more with her intention to retire and leave Starfleet.
Just how the hell she had wound up back on the Victory’s bridge, wearing the uniform of Starfleet was a question she had mentally been kicking herself over for some time.
She had held to the hope of a quiet return to the Delta Quadrant, and slipping back into the routine here.
Of course not.
Upon being informed of the priority one hail from the Saint George she sighed, muttered a soft and decidedly frustrated/ disgusted “Fuck...” and then said in a louder voice, “On screen.”
Penny brought them to a relative halt in front of the other ship, keeping their back to the portal.
AJ was sitting at an auxiliary station that he had reconfigured to be his link to the Strategic Response Unit when he heard the tail end of the Captain's expletive. It was strange to be back in the Delta Quadrant after the rushed and hushed ceremony where they were handed their lives and the Federation Council had acted as if they had done the crew a favor. AJ had his own thoughts on the matter but elected to keep them quiet throughout the whole thing. Their nearly averting a civil war had to count for something....
The bridge of the Saint George appeared, seemingly only occupied by the bridge crew before the form of its stern-faced Bajoran Captain appeared as she walked into frame from the left and sat back down in her command chair, mirroring Captain Kennit.
"Captain," April Dragon said, with a nod of respect. "Good morning and welcome back. Admiral Markus would like to speak with you and has recalled both of us to DQ8." Her face flushed a bit, making the scar by her eye stand out as she expressed her displeasure over the situation. "I'm not sure what the situation is, but be forewarned, he's a bit cantankerous." She laced her fingers and sat forward as if they were speaking privately in their ready rooms. "However, on a personal note? May I say job well done to you and your crew back home."
“The Delta Quadrant is not my home.” Kennit answered. She made a pointed show of accessing the ships communications system, then said “Odd. We have no message from Admiral Markus expressing a request and authorization to divert from our current orders and make way to DQ8.”
The ship's intercom suddenly sprang to life. "Admiral Markus to Captain Kennit, please report to the briefing room."
"Uh oh," Penny said under her breath.
"Message delivered," Captain Dragon said, dryly. The screen went dark as she cut the channel, the ship hovering in front of them.
Internal sensors confirmed, Marcus had somehow beamed himself aboard Victory without the internal security systems detecting the unauthorized transport. “Taggart! Find out how the hell that son of a bitch got on my ship without our security system alerting us and make damn sure it doesn’t happen again!” Rising from her seat, the Captain said “Security alert! Unauthorized intruder in the briefing room! I want two security officer to meet me there..”
Pausing only long enough to retrieve weapons from the security locker on the bridge, Kennit said “Raise shields. No one else gets aboard is that clear? XO you have the conn..” and then she left tucking one firearm into her belt and carrying a phaser in hand as she headed to the briefing room.
[Corridor outside entrance hatch to Briefing Room]
Two security officers, both armed arrived at the same time. “Follow me. Flank the entrance and keep him under close watch. If he so much as looks like he’s going to pull a stunt, shoot him.”
Entering the briefing room, she immediately raised her weapon and flipped it to active. As the whine of the phaser being powered up sounded, she snapped out “Hands where I can see them! You have boarded my ship without authorization and violated security protocols!”
Halvor had been assisting security try to clear his head and studying violent Delta Quadrant species, so he could bounce plans off Security, Tactical, and SRU. He responded to the Security call and arrived as they were entering.
The empty briefing room stared back at her, her stern, yet strong words resonating off the empty chairs around the conference table.
"Looking for someone?" Admiral Markus said, leaning against the bulkhead behind them, PADD in hand.
If he was hoping to startle anyone, it didn’t work. Kennit turned, her weapon unwavering as she stared him down.
"I'm sorry for the abrupt arrival, Captain," Markus said casually, as if he had a phaser in his face on a daily basis, "but there is a matter that cannot wait, and I do not trust subspace channels right now. Shall we?" he gestured to the briefing room.
With his hands dancing across the console, AJ initiated a Level III Tactical Scan of the entire ship and the transporter rooms. The sensors weren't detecting any biosigns from Admiral Markus. Incensed, he began rapidly clicking through the transported logs. Clicking through the history, he noticed a slight power fluctuation but sensors didn't pick up any organisms in the matter stream. Further incensed, he fought the urge to slam his fist into the console and giving the console another series of quick taps and a swipe, he ran a scan powerful enough to make anyone's hair in the room stand on end but didn't detect anything except an isomorphic field and some electromagnetic interference. Swiping his hand again, he sent his results over to Arashi. "Lieutenant, mind taking a look at this?" he asked, deferring to the senior officer.
"Hmmmm...not sure what is but I assume that if it is here, it was either waiting for us or had followed us here. It could be a ship but the interference makes it hard to determine what it is." Arashi said as he looked at the sensor picture. "If it is interfering with our scans then we need to keep our head on a swivel because I sense bad intentions from that thing."
Camille walked across the bridge to the Tactical station to lend her own expertise as well. “What the hell is that?”
"Not sure what it is but then again my expertise is in tactics and such. Sono koto wa watashi o nayama se hajimete imasu. Watashitachi wa sore ga nandearu ka, soshite hayaku shiru hitsuyō ga arimasu. (That thing is beginning to bug me. We need to find out what it is and fast.)" Arashi said slipping in to his Japanese when he got emotional. "Taggart, tell the captain we have an unidentified object off our bow but we do not know its intentions. We are trying to figure out what the hell it is and what the hell it wants but until it makes itself known we cannot do anything."
AJ nodded. "Aye, sir." quickly tapping his commbadge. "Taggart to Kennit. We have an unidentified object off of the starboard bow. Continuing to scan. Taggart out."
The Captain was more inclined to simply shoot the intruder on her ship, and to hell with the ‘reasons why’ which he might spew at her. Without taking her eyes off the Admiral, she gave orders for the two security officers to stand guard, then indicated with a mocking sweep of one hand for the Admiral to proceed into the briefing room before her while stating, “standard protocol dictates that you make contact and request a meeting. You don’t violate ships security by conducting an unauthorized transport and breech of ships security systems.” She still kept her phaser ready, not about to lower her guard.
Markus walked into the briefing room and sat down at one of the seats next to the head of the table. He sat back and crossed his legs casually. "Standard protocols are used when everything is fine and dandy. When we have a potential civil war on our hands, you'll forgive me if I prefer to avoid sending up giant signal flares when I don't know who all my allies are."
“If you are attempting to suggest that I was somehow part and complicit with the recent excitement which transpired in the Sol system, you’re definitely on the wrong ship. And I am quite tired of having baseless accusations thrown at me when I have quite literally given all to the Federation and to Starfleet. My record stands on its own merit and I feel no need to continue to have to defend myself after I just rescued the lives of the President, members of the Council and even Admiral Harv Bennett as well as stopped the hostile takeover of the Federation itself! For what? A Federation which destroyed all I held dear. My husband. My daughter. My own life. If this is what you are here for, respectfully Admiral .. Go fuck yourself.” Kennit replied.
"And that is why I want you," Markus said, pointing a finger at her. "I'm well aware of what went down in the Sol system, and I'm well aware of your role in it, Captain. Your record indeed stands on its own, both on and off it. I know you have little love left for the Federation, Starfleet especially, yet you do what it takes to save them. I'm asking you to give me that honesty now and going forward. You won a battle, but I'm concerned the war has just started. I need someone I can trust to piss off everyone out there enough to get to the bottom of what's going on."
He sat forward and laced his fingers. "Tell me what you know about Project Archangel."
"Taggart keep scanning as much as you can. We have to figure out what it is." Arashi said. "Camille, please help him out, as you are an expert in this kind of thing." He decided to see if it was friendly too. "Also broadcast friendship messages on all frequencies and languages."
“Yes, sir.” Camille returned to her console and made sure that the primary sensor array feeds went to her console and AJ’s too. “This does look vaguely familiar, now that I look more closely. But I can’t put my finger on it.”
Penny turned around to watch them. "Is it possible it's something from the Saint George? Maybe we should ask them since we're hailing their way."
“Do you expect they would answer truthfully?” Camille had met Admiral Markus back on Rigel V, and while he was friendly to her, she also knew he was a man of infinite secrets.
Penny tilted her head as she mulled that over. "No, but if we know they aren't going to tell us the truth then we can just assume they're lying and do the opposite of whatever they say."
Camille snickered. “That does sound like a strategy that the Captain would approve of.”
A slight shake of her head, Kennit answered, “'Project Archangel'? Never heard of it. Should I have?”
Markus finally frowned. "I don't think so, but I had hopes." He put the padd he'd been carrying on the table. "While your people were handling the President, my people were going through 31's files."
One eyebrow rose at that, "And you're still alive...." she said, her tone both questioning and a bit mocking.
"You were exceptionally distracting," he quipped. "We'd been hearing rumors that 31 had a large incident planned. The only thing we could find reference to was a series of classified files. Project Archangel is what they retrieved. Unfortunately, there's very little actual details. We know it's an investigation into another faction within Starfleet, we know they consider this to be highest priority and they're treating it like it's worth its weight in latinum. Whatever it is, they're protecting it heavily and they're worried about what will happen when they launch it."
"Section 31 always has something in planning, that doesn't necessarily mean they intend to follow through with what they're working on, its more like...war games. Trying to come up with every possible event and every possible response and the outcomes," she told him.
"Captain, I'm well aware of Section 31's usual mentality. I'm also aware of the damage they can do when they play their games--as are you." He looked at her implants briefly. "These reports are spanning all four quadrants. This isn't their usual 'what if' back on Earth. Someone is planning to destabilize everything. A civil war that could conceivably topple Federation society completely. Not 31 in charge, just anarchy. Kidnapping the Federation President seems to be the tip of the spear, and unfortunately it doesn't sound like your efforts stopped them, merely delayed them."
He slid the padd over to her. "I need people with experience to investigate, and get me something more concrete on this project, so that we can head it off at the pass." He let her skim through the padd. "The name of the file is what got my attention," he said. "The Archangels were supposed to be the warriors of God. The ultimate weapons in His battle against the forces of Satan. The level of destruction they're describing in that file could come from a force with a super weapon. Do you want 31 finding it?"
“Admiral my entire career could be described as ‘merely delaying the inevitable’,” she answered as she looked at the data on the pad he’d given her. “If this information is accurate, then the adversary you seek has already established a firm threshold with considerable resources at their disposal.”
"That's what worries me," Markus said. "How could they have, without anyone in my intelligence network finding out? Without 31 finding out? There are too many unknowns, and I don't like unknowns. I don't want a new player on the board I haven't met. That's where you come in."
Halvor having never been dismissed stood there silently, watching. He had an answer to the Admiral's question. This wasn't the time or place.
From her post, Summers looked at her board and shook her head. " What in the..." She looked up and continued at a much louder voice. " My board is going 'bonkers,' trying to compensate... "
Since they were at relative rest, Penny motioned for her backup and stood up from her station, heading towards the back of the bridge. She immediately switched to Ops Officer mode and looked over Summers' console. She flicked her wrist, pulling out her silver wand and scanning the console quickly, watching the blinking lights. "You're overcompensating," she said. "The console's still displaying contrary operational effects, however. You should switch to an aux station for now. I'll mark this for repair once my helm duties are finished."
Summers shook her head in agreement. " Right. I'll sign off from here and head to another station to reboot."
“I’ve got something,” called Camille to the other bridge officers. “There’s definitely an object off our bow, just port of the centreline. There’s a dead zone, thirty meters long, ten across and ten tall, which some of our electromagnetic probes are entering but not leaving. I’m also detecting an extremely faint isomorphic signal coming from this dead zone. It’s faint, but it’s there.” She looked away from her console to Arashi, Penny, AJ, and Samantha. “My assessment is that it’s a cloaking field covering something runabout-sized. Best I can give you for now though. And that signal it’s transmitting...I don’t know.”
Summers walked over to Camille's station an peered over her shoulder. " Can you adjust to see if there are any life forms in that run about in that 'zone?'
"We're barely getting any readings from inside the dead zone at all," Camille answered. "But maybe...Penny, increase power to the ventral starboard array. I need a bit more gain."
"Ventral starboard array. Transferring power, aye," Penny said, rerouting on her board. "Cutting hailing frequencies. Let me see if I can screen out some of the background noise too so we can see clearly."
Again, Kennit remained silent. It was there on the tip of her tongue to comment on his assumptions that ‘his’ intelligence network should have known about this Project Archangel. There were so many little things which she knew with 100% certainty that he thought he was fully knowledgeable about - and was wrong. She kept it to herself however, and instead just leaned back in her chair slightly, crossing her arms over her chest as she gazed across the briefing room table at him.
"I want you to investigate Project Archangel. I want to know who is behind it, what they are planning, and how deep this rabbit hole goes. If this is 31's next step in a coup, I want to head them off. If this is an outside threat, I want to know everything about them, whatever it takes. All other orders are rescinded until further notice."
“What makes you think I can gain access to this?” she replied. “Generally speaking, I make a great many people...nervous. Especially when they have something to hide.”
The Admiral sat back and smiled. "I love it when people answer their own questions." A beep went off and he glanced over to the side. "And besides: if your crew can triangulate the position from where I'm transmitting this fast, I'm sure with your guidance they'll have this investigated before the weekend."
He sat up straight and gave the Captain a more serious look. "I'll check back with you in a few days, Captain," he said. "Good hunting." His image flickered and his isomorphic projection vanished.
When Marcus’ projected image disappeared, the Captain shook her head slightly in disgust. Her gaze returned to the padd containing what little information Marcus had provided, she was certain the son of a bitch was holding back and had not given her all he knew. Creatures like that one never did.
The first section dealt with a report from the crew of the USS Castelnaudary (of course it was). Apparently they had raided a Section 31 station & came across a report which had raised some concern. Most of the information had been deemed to be fragmented but whoever the ‘genius’ behind this interpretation of the report was had laid down a few ‘facts’ based on the information they had at hand.
The information was focused on a Project Archangel. The facts were bare bones and dry. Whoever Marcus had working for him was a mindless sheep incapable of seeing deeper into the data he’d had, that seemed screamingly obvious to her as she read.
-Project Archangel, whatever it was, was apparently a plot orchestrated against Federation interests.
-The word “archangels” had been found in 47 intercepted communiques in three quadrants, only 15% of them were on Federation channels, & almost always to unidentified locations.
-Several alliances of hostile races on the fringes of the galaxy have been reported, some of which are reported to have been brokered by a 3rd party.
-Each time the search for “archangel” had a hit, there was a discussion of ancient weapons.
-30% of the time, there was discussion of “a ship” or “a captain.”
-Research into the history of the word archangel & possible interpretations of what it represents as a security threat.
-Three agents sent to find the source of the project archangel discussion were lost.
The loss of three agents came as no surprise. Not really. Based on what she’d seen of Section 31’s available stable of personnel, not one of them would have survived the training she endured. The real operatives, people like her.. They didn’t waste talent sending them into meat grinder operations.
Closing the display screen, the Captain picked up the padd and rose from her seat and exited the conference room without a backward glance.
Tapping her comm badge, she said “Number One. I will be in my quarters for a time, I need to make a private communique on a secure channel. Maintain ship’s current status on the Bridge. “
Responding over comm, "This is Walker. I copy Direct."
"Parfait, merci! Ah, there they are." Camille sent what she was seeing to the main viewscreen, so everyone could see it. "With that boost, we're able to follow that isomorphic signal back to its source. It's not perfect, but I'm getting readings consistent with a runabout-sized craft, probably Federation in origin, under a cloaking field. I don't think it's new. I assess it's either a Danube-class or older, possibly much older. I'm detect two lifeforms aboard. My guess is one is at the helm and the other is controlling that signal."
AJ looked over to Arashi. "Sir, requesting permission to send a team to the runabout? I'd like to investigate and capture the source of the signal. If someone is screwing with us, I'd like to make them regret it." he said.
Summers sightly smiled. "Request permission to be a part of the team; it might be interesting to possibly find some male that doesn't stop growing at my chest area."
"Um...problem," Penny said, checking her board. "The signal's gone." She looked up at the spot on the viewscreen they'd been scanning. "And so is the runabout."
On the viewscreen, the other starship banked around and leaped into warp. "And so is the Saint George," Penny said.
"Kuso! (Damn!) " Arashi said and slammed his hand on the console that he was next to. "Damn it all to hell!" After calming down he stood up and sighed. "I need some tea. Son of a bitch, this has turned out to be a bad day. Make sure that the computers are made to resist viruses and what not. We'll get whoever did this next time, I swear it!" He said angrily.
"But we have more information now," Camille observed. "We know what to look for when we pick up signals like that. We can react more quickly next time."
"I guess you are right. I am going to my quarters and grabbing some tea." Arashi said and left the bridge. "Be back soon. Keep the station warm for me." With that he headed to his quarters.
AJ nodded and moved over to the primary Security and Tactical station and punched in his passcode. Whoever was out there knew all of the tricks and had caught them totally unawares, much to his ire- and then simply vanished. There was no doubt that there was something bigger going on here but for the first time in ages, AJ didn't know where to begin.
After Walker's Exchange on his comm, "You heard the Captain. Maintain course and speed." It was procedure to verbalize it. He didn't have to relay it, this crew was very capable.
[Captain’s Quarters]
Entering her quarters, Kennit walked to her desk and sat down. Opening the bottom drawer, she said “Computer. Lock access to this space.”
The computer chimed an acknowledgement as the hatch to her quarters was locked and sealed, no one would gain entrance until she lifted the order. Retrieving a bottle from the drawer, she didn’t waste effort on a glass, just drank the whisky straight from the bottle. She closed her eyes a moment, enjoying the slow burn of the alcohol.
Then, setting the bottle on the desk she connected directly to the Victory’s comm system. Absolutely nothing would be able to breech this message, as she established the link through the Borg communication network and sent a one word transmission back to a lone office back in the Sol System.
Waiting until the transmission connected, the moment Admiral Harv Bennett’s face appeared on the holographic display, she said “Archangel.”
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