Across the Bridge

Posted on Thu May 20, 2021 @ 9:16pm by Admiral Alan Markus & Commander Cullen Walker & Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Lieutenant Arashi Tanaka Mr. & Lieutenant AJ Taggart & Lieutenant JG Aergad Halvor & Lieutenant JG Camille Lévesque PhD & Lieutenant JG Sydney Friedman Jr & Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit

4,039 words; about a 20 minute read

Mission: Archangel
Location: DQ8

Penny looked up from her board. "Captain, we're approaching DQ8. They've cleared us for docking port C."

“Very well. Take us in. Don’t hit the docking support this time.” Kennit answered.

"Aye, Captain," Penny said as they dropped out of warp, angling in towards the station. "We'll be docked in eight-point-six minutes."

The Captain just nodded.

Penny tilted her head but wasn't going to object to less vitriol from the center chair, and continued steering the ship. Eight-point-five-seven minutes later, the ka-chunk of docking clamps sounded and the ship was docked inside the station.

"Moorings secure, ship is on standby," Penny concluded, shutting down the helm and reviewing her Ops boards. She turned in her seat. "Do we go knock?"

“Only if you want to give them a chance to hide their dirties,” Kennit answered. “Besides, they know we’re here. Have our guest from that Starbase prepared for transfer to the station. He is to be charged with attempting to impede an official investigation by deliberately sabotaging a Starfleet installation - that being the base we arrested him at.”

"Aye captain. I'll go get him right now." Arashi said and went to get the man.

“Miss Naroot!” the Captain then said. “If you would be so kind as to open a channel to DQ8 control and advise them that I require a meeting with Admiral Marcus as soon as possible, in a secure location.”

"Aye, Captain," Penny said, plying her board. A moment later, a series of blinking lights scrolled across her board, the pattern seemingly nonsensical, but she tilted her head as if reading something interesting. "He'll see you...in one hour...in his quarters," she said, turning. "Probably the most secure place on the station," she said.

“Secure for who..” Kennit drawled in response. “Send an acknowledgment. XO you have the conn.” With that she exited the bridge, retreating to prepare for her meeting with Admiral Marcus.

Answering, Walker spoke, "Yes, Captain."

"Captain?" Sydney said, standing up from her silent observation at a rear station. "Permission to accompany? After my report, I'm curious to meet this admiral in person."

Pausing a moment to glance toward the counselor, the Captain gave a quick shrug of her shoulders and answered. "Don't be late."


[45 minutes later. Docking port airlock 1]

Because the ship had physically docked with DQ8, instead of transporting over directly Fleet Captain Kennit had opted to utilize the docking arm which connected her ship to the station - thus forcing the stations security to provide proper security and staff to accommodate the docked ship and its crew transiting from the Victory to the station on foot. Arriving at the airlock, her security detail was there waiting.

With a simple nod of acknowledgment to her security, she said simply, “let’s go make some noise.”

Halvor wasn't on the escort team, but he was leaned up against the airlock. He got out of the Captain's way without a word.

AJ checked the equipment on his duty belt, clicking a small button on a 'sick stick' baton to activate the safety mechanism. If Beechwood so much as twitched wrong, all AJ needed to do was jab the baton into the man's abdomen and he'd drop to the deck drooling while he watched cartoons. At this point, there was no need for threats- not with the sheer numbers surrounding the asset.

Arashi arrived to escort the captain with his prisoner in tow. "Sorry I am late but I did have to deal with an uncooperative dog." Arashi said. "Reporting for duty, as ordered." If anyone chose to look, the prisoner had cut above his eye but no serious injuries. He had tried to resist, knowing what was about to happen to him, getting punched for his troubles. He was cuffed and now could not resist, resigned to his fate.

Having been roughed, tumbled, and then duckwalked to the airlock by Lts. Tanaka, King and Taggart, Beechwood was chewing on a few choice thoughts about exactly who was the better man here. However, he didn't fancy being assaulted again and held his tongue. He was counting down the minutes in his head that he still had to endure this, and if he was patient, he'd get out alive.

King followed behind the escort team with the prisoner. On paper, he was currently a Science Officer, but he used to be a Security Medic. A lot of people on this ship were more than their current position. "If you continue to resist, I will bite you." Though he did have a temper, he didn't usually bite people. He played up his animal appearance to the Humanoids that were likely to have an emotional reaction about carnivorous animals.

“He will,” Camille added, having slid into formation behind the large ursinoid under her command. As chief scientist, she had hoped to lend her analytical mind to any conversation about the threats they might be facing, and she was someone on the ship who had met Admiral Markus but did not yet have any biases toward or against him. Even that little bit of familiarity and objectivity might help.

Beechwood fought hard not to roll his eyes and looked at the Captain expectantly as they turned and set off. He followed wordlessly through the ship and kept pace with the group.

Walking down the corridor connecting the ship to the station, Kennit’s body posture changed as they drew close to the airlock access to the station. Every step was controlled, precise. She was alert, calm. Opening the hatch, as she walked through station security stepped toward them. Her attention focused on the first of four security offices and stared through him, assessing him and dismissing him in one icy sweep of her eyes she said, “Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit, commanding officer of the USS Victory. Here to meet with Admiral Alan Markus. Request permission to come aboard.”

"Granted, Captain," a Lieutenant Commander said, saluting smartly. "Lieutenant Commander Westmore reporting as ordered. The Admiral asked us to bring you without delay. If you'll follow us, Ma'am, we'll take you there immediately." The two in front turned and set off down the corridor.

With a shrug, Captain Kennit obligingly followed. Eventually they arrived at the Admiral's office suite. Pressing the chime, she wondered if the man would have the courtesy (or perhaps..courage?) to meet her face to face. She'd already decided, if it was another damn hologram she was going to walk out and Victory would depart DS8 shortly after.

The doors opened and a taught, taupe-haired scrapper stood with his arms folded and a scowl. "Why are you here?" he said, his voice carrying the cocky, unearned confidence of a newly-minted teenager.

"Mikey, be polite," a girl's voice said. A red-headed girl with Vulcan ears and a calm demeanor, who appeared to be approximately the same age as Mikey, walked up, her arms clasped behind her back. "Father invited her."

"Don't call me 'Mikey', Ariel," the boy said under his breath as he turned around. "Come in, then," he said, stepping aside.

Ariel lifted an eyebrow and stepped aside as well, nodding to the Captain and her entourage. "Captain," she said, gesturing to a pair of armchairs and a table off to the side of the large living room.

A moment later, a set of doors in the back of the room opened and Markus stepped out, a blonde-haired girl walking by him. He tapped a PADD he was holding and gave it back to her. "Try the third and fifth problems again, but good attempt," he said, quietly. He looked at Kennit, his eyes tired. "Captain," he said, his voice heavy. "Thank you for coming." He looked over the assembled group with her. "And hello to the spectators." His eyes lingered on Beechwood, then he turned at sat down in the empty chair, crossing his legs. His back straightened and his voice got a bit more energy as he settled into 'work mode.' "What have you found?"

Halvor fell into position outside the door, across from it and to the right. He would be able to slow down Beechwood if he escaped.

King looked at Levesque and Arashi, he changed position and made sure he was between the children and Beechwood. Levesque would know based on previous conversations what he was doing. He even had a disciplinary report on file for protecting Cubs. He would even protect the hairless Cubs.

The blonde girl looked over the ursine crew member with curiosity, then saw the angry woman looking at them. She shrank back immediately. She looked at the others, and paused at one of the men holding the prisoner.

AJ noticed the young woman eyeing him and momentarily returned her gaze and gave her a slight smile before his concentration returned to the prisoner.

The girl smiled at him, and when he made eye contact, she immediately blushed and stepped aside again.

"Really, Gabby?" Mike said, quietly.

Gabby threw him a dirty look then made several hand gestures. Mike rolled his eyes and left the room, as did Ariel. Gabby turned back to the group and watched the others again. She saw the blond woman with the optical lenses and smiled brightly at her.

Camille was trying to take everything in. She and Nicole had been working on a few theories about what was going on, and the wheels in her mind resumed turning when the young teens referred to each other by names which were definitely familiar. But she politely smiled back at young Gabby, adjusting her glasses as she did so.

"Gabrielle," Markus said, turning from Kennit. He made some rapid hand gestures. She returned a few of her own and scurried out of the room.

Taking in the people in the room, their interactions seemed odd to him- especially the hand gestures. It was obvious that the admiral had a soft spot for these children- something that he made sure to make a note of to bring to the Captain for later consideration.

Captain Kennit had quietly observed the goings on about her without comment and now, she simply waited silently. She had no intention of discussing classified data in a room full of children. All she said was, "The information which needs to be discussed is classified."

Markus nodded and looked at Ariel. "Make sure you and the others stay in your rooms," he said. He then looked at the Captain's entourage. "Gentlemen, please have your guest join you in a seat over there," he said, gesturing to a couch for three. "Ladies?" he gestured to two chairs on his other side, giving a polite nod of acknowledgement to Levesque. He looked, finally, at King. "I'm sorry I don't have a seat to offer you that would accommodate."

King nodded, "For the situation at hand, I prefer to be more Mobile. Thank you for the though, Sir."

Markus sat back and looked again at Kennit. "What have you found, Captain?" he said.

After an infinitesimal pause, Captain Kennit walked toward Admiral Markus, withdrawing a data storage chip from her pocket. Tossing it to him with a gentle underhand flip of her wrist, she said, “a cloaked star base sanctioned by Section 31. The kind gentleman, now our guest,” she said, a slight mocking note in her voice as she spoke, “attempted to hide the messages contained on the data chip. They’d been deleted, but not so well that the data could not be retrieved. The transmissions were seemingly sent to empty space. No occupied star systems within at least 7 light years. No ships visible to sensors. Well..not directly. Starfleet's holographic toys seemed to have a glitch. Each message was sent to the Castelnaudary. Their starfield camouflage is in every image.”

"Bullshit!" Beechwood said, leaning forward before being yanked back by his flanks.

The Captain turned toward Beechwood, not bothering to hide her regret at not simply cleansing the universe of his presence.

Markus saw the dagger in Kennit's gaze and held up a hand. "Captain Beechwood," he said, calmly, "I take it you have a different version of events?"

Beechwood looked like he'd rather kiss a Pakled than speak, but he shrugged off the hands on him and stood at attention. "Admiral, their ship arrived unannounced and demanded to dock. I allowed them on board, took them directly without argument to view the data and gave them every courtesy. Captain Kennit," he said, his teeth grinding a bit as he said her name, "decided full cooperation wasn't enough, and attempted to interface directly with the computer using Borg technology. You may not be aware of the protocols--"

"I wrote them," Markus said, flatly.

Beechwood cleared his throat. "The computer assumed a Borg incursion. The systems began to wipe and the self destruct was activated. The crew did their jobs and reported to their escape vessels, and I attempted to do my job and leave to oversee it. The Captain overrode the computer, halted the self-destruct and attempted to repair the computer memory--which shouldn't have been possible--and had her dragoons chase me down, beat me into submission and drag me back. They then took me prisoner and left the station open for anyone to board."

King growled and pushed off his front feet to stand on two legs, "I would prefer if you did not slander myself or my brothers and sisters in uniform. You weren't beaten into submission."

Kennit’s expression turned to a slow, burning smirk. Beechwood was a nothing. His cries of ‘shouldn’t have been possible’ she found quite amusing. Small creatures like him were a favorite of 31. Easy to use, and quite expendable.

"Given dragoons were typically on horseback," Markus quipped, "I'm sorry I wasn't there to see that." He looked at the chip in his hand, then at Beechwood, then at Kennit. She met his gaze without hesitation, she knew why the Admiral chosen to seek her out, because he knew who she was. And she got the job done.

He stood up, giving a small grunt of annoyance that those of a certain age adopt, and walked over to a cabinet. He pulled out an old-style science viewer that looked like it was close to a century old. He placed it on the coffee table between his and Kennit's chair and angled the viewing port towards him. He plugged the chip into an attached interface and activated the machine. He looked at the readings for a moment, tweaking a few knobs, and finally looked up and to his left. "Lieutenant, while this tech is a bit before your time, would you be so kind as to give me a second opinion? Does the cluster formation I've highlighted match on each image?"

Camille leaned close, adjusted her glasses, and examined the images of two star clusters.

He turned the antique viewing column towards Camille and sat back again, crossing his legs. "Who are you?" he said, looking at the other Lady Lieutenant.

"Sydney blinked, surprised at being acknowledged. "Doctor Sydney Friedman, Sir," she said. "Ship's Counselor."

"I see," he said. "Were you on the away team?"

"No, Sir. I was back aboard the ship, so my opinion on the situation may be slightly biased by circumstances."

"Well then," Markus said. "In your slightly biased, professional opinion, is Captain Beechwood being honest with me?"

Sydney glanced at Beechwood. "He believes he is," she said. "His cadence, body language and tone all point to him telling the truth, at least how he sees it."

"I see," Markus said. He looked to Camille for her analysis.

“Yes, Admiral,” Camille replied. “These two clusters appear to match, but I don’t understa—.” She could not finish the thought before being cut off.

"Well then, Captain," he said, looking at Kennit, "you'll forgive me, but I believe his interpretation of events." Kennit merely rolled her eyes, she didn’t give a rat's ass what he believed.

"Thank you," said Beechwood, cautiously, anticipating a twist.

He wasn't disappointed. "But I believe her interpretation of your motivations," Markus said. "You were sending signals into the void, knowing they were being intercepted, and then attempted to obfuscate by showing her pictures of what you assumed were nothing, and not giving her a chance to draw her own conclusions." He watched Beechwood deflate. "So," he concluded, "we've all been engaged in a giant caucus race. 31 obtained information raiding the Federation, and tried to lure my people with messages. My people were investigating the Federation and the Federation was attempting to get information from 31. We've now walked over each other's footprints to the point we may never know who started this, nor do either of you know what Archangel even is."

He rubbed his lip. "Roger," he said to the room. A holographic human appeared a respectful distance from the group. "Yes, Admiral?"

"Contact the Castelnaudary. Tell them I want them back here as soon as possible. The Saint George as well."

"Yes Admiral," Roger said, vanishing. A few seconds of silence passed and he reappeared. "Sir, the Saint George will be here in four hours, however the Castelnaudary will not be here until tomorrow morning."

"All right, we'll get to the bottom of this tomorrow morning, then," Markus said. "Captain Kennit, thank you for your work. Please avail yourself of the station amenities for as long as you're here and we'll reconvene when the Castel arrives to explain themselves." He started to stand up.

Her voice soft, Kennit spoke. “Gabriel. Raphael. Michael. Uriel. Ariel. Ragiel. Zadkiel. Jophiel. Ramiel. Camael. Azrael. Raziel. Sariel. Selaphiel. Handel. Jarahmeel. Barachiel. Virgil, and he’s an interesting one. Weapons Keeper of Heaven. Charged with maintaining the weapons of the Archangels, each one capable of terrible destruction according to ancient myth and legends. Interestingly enough, nearly all civilizations have some form of legend regarding them.” She looked then at Markus, dark eyes filled with fire. She knew more than he was giving her credit for.

Markus slowly let out a breath and sat back down, recrossing his legs. "Ladies, gentlemen," he said, glancing between the others in the room, "you are dismissed."

King followed Tanaka and Taggert as Beechwood was escorted. Camille was not far behind,

(Everybody out. put Beechwood away where you got him)

When the doors to his quarters closed, he looked back at Kennit. "Well done," he said. "I've been thinking along the same lines. Although, I was hoping you'd have more along the lines of where this circular cluster fuck began."

“Interesting.” Kennit answered in a slow voice. “The Archangel Virgil, said to be the Weapons Master of Heaven. There’s another Virgil in religious writings, Saint Virgil. On Earth, born in the year 530 CE in the French region of Gascony, Virgil was a monk of the island abbey of Lerins near Cannes, France. It was written that one night, as Virgil was walking along the shore, he spotted a ship moored along the beach, with its sailors manning the deck. Two of the ships crew disembarked and approached him, saying, "Reverend Father, we know who you are, and greatly esteem your incomparable virtue...And now we are bound for Jerusalem; come, therefore, with us...and your name will be praised by all men." Perceiving in these flattering words the smoke of Satan, Virgil immediately made the sign of the cross and said, "The wicked wiles of the deceiver cannot beguile the soldiers of Christ, nor can you entrap those whom God forewarns." When Virgil had spoken, the ship and its sailors instantly vanished, leaving only the calm of a starlit night.”

She paused, appeared to study her fingernail for a moment before added, “Interesting side note, there is also a region in the south of France which is called Castelnaudary. It’s interesting is it not?” Kennit asked. “The way things tend to blend together. An archangel named Virgil, said to control the weapons of Heaven itself. A French Saint named Virgil, who encountered a ship which vanished into starlight. A starship which carries the name of a region in France, crewed by holograms. Follow the threads, pull gently to unravel the mystery - one silken thread at a time. Such as, who has ties to this region of Earth perhaps?”

"Je ne pouvais pas commencer à deviner," Markus said, wryly. "You do make a good point regarding how things tend to blend together. As Mark Twain once noted, 'history doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.' And you give Virgil a bit more credit and stature than he actually had back then."

“Just stating the facts which have been recorded, I made no assertion as to the veracity of the claims regarding Virgil.” Kennit replied.

Markus gave a single-shoulder shrug. "Fair enough. History's often full of minor details wrong. Eventually though, if enough details are changed, the bigger picture alters. That's why the devil is in them." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Our devil, it seems, is playing with us. We have a slew of details, but no clear vision of the bigger picture yet. When the Castel arrives tomorrow, I'm going to sit everyone involved down, have a little chat, and we're going to compare notes until we can distill a kernel of objective truth out of this. Join me?"

“How do you expect to garner truth from holograms?” Kennit asked. “They will respond based on programming, standard means of detecting a lie which may work with a biological entity will not work with a program. I would suggest having an anti-proton emitter set up which can destabilize them as a precaution.”

"Shall I hold a gun to your head as well?" Markus said, somewhat amused. "You've quite the poker face, yourself." He drummed his fingers on his knee. "When I met Tiffany, she was posing as a Lieutenant. Head Nurse to my Chief Medical Officer. She was programmed to be shy, nervous, and, above all, innocent. Her job was to abscond with another hologram in my crew, a former organic. Evidently Baines wanted to use her as a template to create better sleeper agents. Once she got the other crew member's program, she was to kill me so I would stop interfering, and make a run for it. Thankfully, I have a very good CMO who sniffed her out rather quickly."

At his comment regard her 'poker face', she just allowed a small, knowing smile to briefly flash across her lips. "You should have deleted it." Kennit responded.

Markus smiled. "Perhaps. But I thought it more prudent to let her live In fact, I went so far as to promote her to Commander and make her my First Officer. 'Keep your friends close...' and so forth. If you've never seen a terrified hologram, I can assure you it's very similar to a terrified organic. All the things she'd been programmed for suddenly became irrelevant. I held her life in my hands, and she had to fit in and learn who she was organically, same as everyone else." A tinge of pride colored his voice, and made his smile a bit warmer. "She's grown so much since then." He shook his head. "She may not have a 'tell' as a normal person does, but there is enough personality in there that those who know her can see when she's holding back. I have people on that ship I can trust. They'll be watching as well."

Still with that hint of a smile on her lips, Kennit said. "You trust too much Admiral. In the game you're playing, that isn't wise. It's a lesson I would have thought you'd have learned already. The one time I made that mistake, it cost me everything. It's a mistake I won't make again."

"I'm trusting that you won't," he said with no trace of irony. He stood up and walked to the door, clasping his hands behind his back. "Thank you for your time, Captain. It's been insightful. I look forward to seeing how tomorrow shapes up."

Following him to the door, she answered "Yes sir."

 

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