The Archadian Difficulties

Posted on Fri Aug 31st, 2012 @ 9:48am by Lieutenant Commander Kh'ali & Commander Oralia Zeferino & Lieutenant Commander Michael Darwin & Lieutenant Commander Gilroy

Mission: Sections of the Delta Quadrant
Location: Security Conference Room

Five-thirty in the morning came early. Very early. Particularly when one’s sleep started on the couch, was then interrupted by an interlude both unpleasant and very pleasant (as well as athletic) and then ended with abruptness thanks to an eight-legged alarm clock.

Oralia, Iggy was doing her version of ‘whispering’; she was touching Oz’s hand, poking at it and keeping her focus solely on the female. You told me to wake you. Now wake up!

Yanking her hand away from Iggy’s reach, Oralia blearily glanced at the arachnid then muttered, “G’way,” and snuggled closer to the warm and naked body next to her.

Iggy was persistent, though. She’d been given a task and she was going to get it done. Oralia, it is time to get up.

Oz’s head popped up and she muttered, “You know, in the old days, alarm clocks had snooze bars that people would hit to make the alarm shut up.”

I have no snooze bar.

“No shit, Sherlock.” Oz gently disengaged herself from Jackson’s appendages and eased out of the bed, nearly crawling her way to the shower. It was going to be a rough morning.

* * *

Not exactly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, Oralia wandered into the Security conference room. A steaming coffee mug was in one hand, her other was covering her yawn. “G’Morning.”

All she got back from the two bodies in the room were grunted greetings, which caused her to laugh. “You two sound worse than I do! What kind of night did you have?” Then she looked closer at Darwin... “Is that... do you have lipstick on your neck? Or did she bite you?”

“What?” Darwin snapped upright and slapped a hand to his neck, rubbing both sides. “Where? Did I get it?”

Both Oralia and Gilroy laughed and Oz shook her head, “There wasn’t anything there to begin with. But thanks for confirming my suspicion.”

“Oh, now that is just not nice, Oz,” Darwin complained.

“Get yourselves some coffee and perk up. Commander Kh’ali should be here in a minute or three,” Oz took a seat at the head of the table and paged through the latest reports on her PADD. “And, Gilroy?” She didn’t look up when he looked over at her. “You really do have lipstick on your neck.”

When Kh’ali arrived, Darwin was still laughing so hard he had to wipe his eyes, Oz looked amused, and Gilroy looked downright mortified. She stopped just inside, looking from one to the other.

“Must have been a good one.” Her gaze moved back to her fellow Klingon. “For everyone but you. Good morning.” Moving over to the replicator, she ordered a large mug of raktajino, then amended her order to double strength.

“Good morning, Commander Kh’ali,” Oz formally greeted the diplomatic officer, still smiling from having zinged Gilroy. “Please have a seat, there are a few issues we wanted to brief you on.”

“Thank you.” Kh’ali took a seat and had a sip of her coffee. “This is just the start of a busy day, thank goodness. Patrick’s parents are here on the station. He and I may both need a vacation by the time they leave.”

“That must be a joy,” Oralia commiserated with Kh’ali. “If you decide to vacation on Archadia, check in with us first.”

Gilroy had taken a seat to Kh’ali’s left, as he’d rubbed a red spot on the left side of his neck, trying to get Kai’s pale pink lip mark off his skin. “As you know, the evidence in the bombing seemed to point to the Archadian military but now we have information that calls that conclusion into question.” He nodded ever so slightly at Darwin.

“Indeed. In the investigation of the kidnapping and attempted murders of Jackson Banning and Cassidy Wilde, we’ve uncovered a plot to discredit the Archadian military. The plan was to murder Banning and Wilde using Archadian military weapons, leading us to the obvious conclusion. Fortunately, the plot failed, thanks in large part to a civilian,” that was Darwin’s nod to what Cassidy had done in protecting Jackson and herself, “and we know that at least one actor in that scheme is still unaccounted for.”

“We do?” Oz hadn’t gotten to Darwin’s report... mostly because Darwin hadn’t written it yet.

“Um... yes, Ma’am,” Darwin nodded. “Last night, Miss Wilde informed us that she sensed another person in the warehouse, someone who was watching and waiting. She sensed him again last night in the Nexus, still watching.”

Oz’s look grew sharp. “Get the id of every person that was in Nexus last night. We’ll cull the list, then have Wilde do a line up. It’ll be a little unusual, but there’s case law setting precedence for a Betazoid’s mental impression of a culprit.” Darwin nodded.

“A good idea,” Kh’ali commented. She stopped and considered the information just presented. “That initial military connection you reported to me, we suspected then that it might be bogus, but it came in handy. This, however, could blow up in our faces. Granted, we know it was faked, and there’s some intel that came in that supports this. Dobry has picked up some rumours as well, and it points to a means of destabilizing the Archadian government as well as blowing ties with this station. But to what end? There has to be some ultimate reason for all this.”

Oralia had puzzled over this last night, after Jackson and she had talked about Archadia. “If the government is destabilized, there are a few who would benefit, short-term, from selling arms to the Archadians and whatever other factions would crop up. Long-term... wouldn’t the population scream for a recall of the Prime Minister for allowing this?”

Wondering whether Kh’ali had the whole picture yet, Oz asked, “Commander, are you aware that Natalia Bren, the one who organized the kidnapping and attempted murders of two civilians, was a Section 31 agent?”

Kh’ali set her mug down slowly, turning her attention to Oz. “I wasn’t aware that she was behind the kidnappings at all. But you are correct. This could see the Prime minister unseated and that would leave the seat open for anyone. They have a process of course, but who’s to say that the most likely candidate is not already waiting in the wings?”

“And how much would you bet that candidate is a Section 31 puppet?” Oz mused aloud.

“That would be my best guess, yes.” A sudden thought occurred to Kh’ali. “How involved are you with security down there right now? Both the Prime Minister and the Queen?”

“Very,” Oralia nodded. “The Captain of their security forces and I get along well and I’ve been allowed to station a number of our people in various places.” It was good that SB900 had a female Chief of Security, a female Chief Diplomat and, now, a female Executive Officer; those postings made the Archadians much more willing to do business with the Station.

“The Prime Minister is due to return to the planet this morning. My suggestion is to coordinate with their Security forces and increase the watch on both her and the Queen. If Dr. Bren made such a bold move now, things must be near the boiling point.” Kh’ali made a note on her padd, then spoke again. “Intel as well, since they are already involved. They recovered the latest information that was sent on to Gilly and I.”

“Will do,” Oralia was answering even as Gilroy uttered a low growl. She knew what that was about: he hated the moniker ‘Gilly’. “Gilly and Darwin met with Intel last night, didn’t you, Darwin?”

Looking guilty, Darwin glanced at Gilroy then the two women. “Ah, yes. Yes, we did. We had a good debriefing,” he smothered a grin that tried to rise to the surface; Gilroy rolled his eyes, “...with Nenita and went over the Archadian concerns as well as some in-house concerns, such as Suresh.” Since that wasn’t a diplomatic matter, he didn’t expand on it. “Nenita was going to go back and brief Lieutenant Smith.”

“If you need me to go down to the surface to assist, I’ll be more than happy to. Really.” Kh’ali stopped short of saying ‘please’.

Just as Darwin had smothered his grin, Oralia stifled her smile. “Of course, Commander, if that wouldn’t interfere with Commander Leroy’s parental visit. I’m certain the Captain of the Queen’s Guard would be thrilled to have you along on their team.”

“The only problem I can see with interrupting the visit is that Patrick will be sorry he can’t go along. I need to go brief my staff, then I’ll be ready. Don’t be surprised if I show up in native dress, I have an official function down there this afternoon.” Kh’ali finished her raktajino and rose to dispose of the cup.

Darwin and Gilroy shot each other a look and Gilroy turned slightly to regard Kh’ali. Native Archadian dress on that figure.... “Commander Zeferino, I have a few revisions to staffing that I’d like to suggest,” Darwin said just what Gilroy was thinking.

Oz nodded. “In a minute, we’ll get to it,” she assured him as she stood. “Commander Kh’ali, as always, it’s been a pleasure. And Darwin will contact you about the meetup point, where you’ll be, who will be with you. If you need anything, just contact me.”

“I will and thanks. See you all soon.” And in an instant, Kh’ali was gone, hurrying off to the next thing on her list.

With the conference room doors shut, Darwin and Gilroy started in on Oz, trying to get her to agree to assign them to the same team Kh’ali would be on. Refusing, she made them tell her about Suresh and their impromptu meeting with Nenita.

__________________________
Lt.Commander Oralia Zeferino
Lt. Gilroy
Lt. Michael Darwin
The Zinger Team

Lt. Commander Kh’ali
Stirring Up The Ranks