More Questions Than Answers

Posted on Wed May 23rd, 2012 @ 1:53pm by Admiral Lucius Hawke & Ensign Kai Sarkozi & Lieutenant Valkris Edwardson- tSepeS

Mission: Sections of the Delta Quadrant
Location: Archadia III: Various
Timeline: Current: After Walking Among Shadows

The hospital had in Valkris's mind, been a complete waste of time. The personnel who were on staff on the day of the attempted bombing had already gone for the day and those who were still on shift were either too busy, or showed obvious disdain for speaking with an outsider.

She cursed herself for not having done more of her homework before she'd went dirt-side! The Melbourne/Washington? who had investigated the bombing initially had really done a number! She didn't recall seeing any follow up on the actual device nor did she actually remember seeing any references to possible Alien provocateurs being responsible for the attempt either.

"The absence of evidence, isn't evidence of absence!" Valkris said derisively to herself as she made her way out of the hospital. She had just come up against her first Wall in her investigation. She had no one to blame except for herself: Depending on others to have done a more thorough job would get her nowhere, fast!

As she made her way out of the building, she had a brief moment of clarity; The bombers would have spent quite a bit of time surveying the area, mapping routes of escape and possibly even been seen by other civilians. If that was the case then perhaps what she really needed was access to any Archadian eye-witness reports!

"....like Section 31 would be so sloppy as to have been seen by a civilian!" Valkris snorted as she approached the Tram station where she and Agent Lyro had exited from earlier.


As she entered the Tram station, two men brushed past her, both carrying small overnight bags. One ignored her completely, the other called back a hurried apology.

"Sorry, late for our train!" And they hurried on through the crowd.

"Excuse me, miss? I think you dropped this." A local man, older, held his hand out to Valkris. On his palm rested a small PADD. Starfleet issue. "Must have fallen from your pocket when those men bumped into you."

Her reverie broken, she started to curse the two passengers as they disappeared into the crowd but another voice distracted her from her moment of anger. Turning around, she reflexively placed a hand on her jacket pocket, several things instantly raised her ire and alarm; the first being that she had allowed herself to be caught unaware so suddenly! The second was that once again, she had been picked out of the crowd so easily despite her best attempt to blend in. The last and most troubling was the fact that she hadn't dropped her PADD at all!

"Thank you sir, It would have been my head if I had lost this!" Valkris replied appreciatively to the man as she took the device from him. Whatever was on the device needed to be analyzed and quickly before its true owner's discovered it missing.

Just ahead, Valkris could see the two men jumping into the tram just before the doors closed. A warning bell sounded, then the tram slid smoothly away. IN the quiet that followed, her comm badge chirped and Kai's French-accented tones came from it.

=^= Ensign Sarkozi to Lt. Valkris. There's been an emergency. Please report back to the guest quarters at once =^=

Emergency?< She thought to herself she sighed and pocketed the small PADD. =^= "Very well then, I will be there momentarily!" she replied.

She tapped her comm badge again to contact the station =^=" Lieutenant Edwards to Nine- Hundred, requesting site to site transport to Away-Team's planet side guest quarters!"=^=

She thought back to all of her years in service to either the Empire or the Federation, never had she ever thought to do what she was just now making a request to do. It wasn't like the Station didn't have over a hundred transporters just sitting idly by, if it was a real emergency, then requesting a Site to (Site Transport) would solve to problems!

Her answer to her request barely a few seconds later as the tell tale shimmering light enveloped her, and whisked her away from the tram station. The fact that it had happened so quickly told her much about the serious nature of the emergency.

When Valkris materialized in the entrance of the guest quarters, Kai hurried out looking harried. Her nerves were wound up tight and her accent had grown far heavier. She took a moment to look Valkris over and take a deep breath before she spoke.

"Thank God you are alright. There was a.....a bomb. Just outside the window of the restaurant where we were sitting. By some stroke of good luck we were back in the kitchen so that Gilroy could pick out his dinner...whatever. He has strongly suggested that the Admiral return to the station. Kh'ali wanted you brought in in case they intended to strike at you as well. Commander Zeferino will be beaming down a bit later."

Valkris took a moment before making her reply, not that she was overly concerned with someone making an attempt on her life. "There isn't enough time to wait for Zeff!" she replied.

"We need people back at that site gathering evidence immediately! The information we can gather can tell us much about who's behind it as well as who the bomb maker was, or wasn't for that matter!"

Suddenly remembering the PADD in her pocket, that she'd have to get it analyzed as soon as possible as well. "Say, how far away from the Hospital was this recent bombing today?" she asked.

"Quite a ways I believe, It requires the tram to get there. The obvious conclusion is that it was directed at us, mainly Admiral Hawke." Kai rubbed her temple a moment. "Gilroy and his men who are here are there now, investigating. Has anything strange happened while you were out?"

"The hospital was very much an exercise in futility to be honest." Valkris started to say. "I came across this while boarding the tram to come back here." Reaching into her jacket pocket, she withdrew the small PADD, handing it to the Ensign.

"A civilian thought I'd dropped it when two passengers bumped into me, It wasn't mine but several scenarios became apparent to me as I stood there looking at it."

Kai reached out to take the small padd, as cautious as if the thing might bite her. "I'll hand it over to Gilroy." She gave Valkris the address of the restaurant. "Commander Zeferino should be there by now, you might be able to help them."

"Actually, I have another idea I'd like to try out.." Valkris countered. "There's not time to waste waiting for Zeff, if my hunch is correct, that little PADD there may yield more clues than my simply getting into Gilroy's way! Besides, I need to see what's been collected before I can make any assessments of the situation! I still am not convinced as to who is actually behind this situation."

Kai held it out to her and dropped it into her hand. "Very well. If it turns up anything, you can let Commander Zeferino know. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a few things to see to while the Admiral is up on the station. We still have the conferences with the Archadians to get through."

"But of course,..." Valkris replied as she pocketed the device once more. "..Say, with this latest incident, are there any plans to conduct the meetings on the station instead?"

"I believe Kh'ali intends to insist on it, and she is speaking from a very strong bargaining position now. She's meeting with them in the morning, so I'll have an update then."

"I am beginning to wonder if Section 31 is behind this? Think about it, if their mission resulted in the deaths of our delegation, it would indicate that We had nothing to do with any of the other bombings!" Valkris reasoned. "......Of course that would also indicate that we may have an entirely different set of problems on our hands!"

"Or that there is something here they don't want discovered. It's a puzzle indeed." Her comm badge chirped, and Kh'ali's voice came, requesting her presence. "I need to go, Lieutenant. Good luck with Oz and Gilroy."

"Well I guess I'm off to see the wizards then!" Valkris laughed as she turned to leave. "I'll let you know if anything new develops that the boss needs to be aware of." she added

This whole affair was putting a growing distaste in her mouth, how much easier life had been when she was just a Marine Commander, but that time in her life seemed to be a thousand years ago.

***************

Lieutenant Valkris Edwardson- tSepeS
Intelligence Officer

Ensign Kai Sarkozi
Admiral Hawke's Aide