The Next Target
Posted on Sun Apr 24th, 2016 @ 5:18pm by Aros & Lieutenant Commander Michael Darwin
Mission:
Further Challenges
Location: Krenim Homeworld
Krenim Homeworld - The Present *
Lortan was seated behind his desk, not so patiently waiting. The same image showed on his viewscreen, that of the Brenari, and he glanced at it from time to time. His fingers tapped out a steady rhythm on the desktop as he checked the time. Surely any minute now….
A voice came through his control panel, interrupting that thought. “Sir, I’ve just received word that Nevros has arrived.”
“Excellent,” he replied. Send him in as soon as he gets here.” He closed the channel and this time, as he studied the Brenari’s face, he smiled.
Several minutes, nearly an hour, later, Nevros entered the man’s office and glanced about, casually looking anywhere but at the man in charge. Finally, options for where to put his eyes ran out and he looked at Lortan. “You summoned?”
“I did. Welcome back to 2388. You don’t look like you’ve aged a day,” Lortan joked. “Sit.”
“You’re hilarious,” he said, taking a seat. “Things went just fine. Bren is in 2391. The sphere will destabilize and take out a part of the station.”
“Well done. How do things look there? Everything under control so that we can get our people off before the whole thing blows?” Lortan asked.
“Several of the higher ranked officers were taken off to be interrogated later. Every member of the engineering staff was executed to prevent them from stopping us or interfering in the station’s systems. There are random clutches of Security staff who are troubling the incoming Krenim, but the majority of those will be quashed easily. None of them have any idea that the station is going to be destroyed.” Nevros shrugged and smiled slightly. “It’s interesting to watch the Security staff attempt to maintain their hold on small pockets of the station. They have no idea that’s it’s pointless.”
Lortan nodded. “Those officers have arrived...well, in 2391 they have and have been secured. It’s interesting to note, however, that there was a baby with one of them, a Klingon officer. We are still considering what to do with it.” Lortan shrugged. “But it’s a Klingon, it doesn’t matter really. Anyway, now that you are back here, I am sending you to that station in the present time. There is a possibility that we can avoid all this trouble if you are successful.”
“Who’s the next target?”
Lortan turned his viewscreen so that Nevros had a good view. “This is the creature who started this whole mess. It was he who stole that sphere on orders of an alliance of planets that didn’t care for our technological advances, shall we say? His name is Aros and he is Brenari, currently on SB900.”
“One of my brethren. This shouldn’t be difficult. Didn’t he have an accomplice? A Betazoid?”
“Yes, that seems to have vanished, strangely enough. I’m having a little trouble tracking him at the moment,” Lortan admitted. “But I expect to place him soon enough and when I do, you will be contacted.”
“Good. Perhaps if we don’t reach him, we could go after his family. I understand he has quite a few on SB900.” Nevros slowly ran a fingernail along the seam of his pants.
Lortan’s eyebrow crep up several millimeters. “All very high profile and too hard to get close to for us. Although……” He paused and consulted a padd lying on his desk. Moments later, he smiled. “You’ll find this interesting. It seems our target is linked to that family.” He passed the padd across to Nevros, the screen showing a woman with red hair.
“Huh. I can understand why he’d link up with that,” Nevros commented, leering at the photo. “That’ll make him vulnerable.”
“The wife of Admiral Hawke, father of his accomplice. For your information, though, shift to the next image. That woman is his sister, and the one after that is the daughter of the redhead and the Admiral.” Lortan paused as Nevros perused the pictures.
“Cute baby,” he commented. “The sister is good looking, too. I’ll work out a way to get close. What are we doing with Aros? Time shift or death?”
“Well, if he simply vanishes, given they likely are aware of his activities, it will raise an alarm and trigger an investigation. Starfleet is not without temporal resources of their own so...kill him. If it appears to be an accident of some sort, no questions should be asked. Just make it believable.” He motioned to the padd Nevros held. “Take that with you.”
He nodded. “Understood.” He stood then and moved toward the door. “I’ll report back when it’s done.”
“Good.” Lortan nodded with satisfaction. “Then check up on Mr. Bren. I want to make sure he’s making himself at home there and not looking for an exit strategy.”
“Oh, please, he’d need a team of engineers and scientists to build himself a way out. Besides, he doesn’t have that much time,” Nevros dismissed Lortan’s concerns. Seeing the man’s jaw clench, though, he relented, “Fine, I’ll go back and check on him.”
“Of course you will. Once you’ve found Aros, inform me and we will proceed from there. Any questions?”
“None.” He had paused by the door and now let himself out without waiting for Lortan to dismiss him.
***************
Lortan
Nevros
Krenim Empire
