Name That Queen

Posted on Tue Dec 4th, 2012 @ 9:26pm by Lieutenant Commander Leto & Lieutenant Nick Marcinko

Mission: The Struggle Within
Location: Archadia III

“Raggety piece of shit!”

Nick threw the modified PADD he’d been working with across the small apartment that he and Nenita were sharing while on assignment down on the planet. It exploded into several pieces and fell to the ground, leaving a partial hole in the wall.

With a huff he said, “Well, there goes the deposit for this place.”

He’d been using that particular PADD to access the Archadian Government’s computers, primarily into files that were hidden away from the regular employees that may be browsing around in there. But he’d only needed the stolen credentials he’d obtained to access the computers, the rest was up to him or Nenita to hack away and find hidden files and anything potentially related to Maline, now known as Queen Melanippe, and remnants of Section 31 and what they’d had their hand in.

The two had been the only ones assigned to this particular investigation because of their special set of skills. Nick, arguably the best infiltration specialist on 900, could get into anywhere with or without help. He could also disguise himself quickly to make an escape or blend into the crowd to make an entry. Nenita, on the other hand, was quite the undercover operative herself. Despite her breathtaking looks, Nenita could also blend into a crowd easily, seduce many an unwitting subject into doing what she wanted, turn spies into double-agents and her technological skills, when it came to hacking supposedly secure systems, were better than anyone around--a sore subject for Nick, indeed, who thought himself the ultimate hacker.

Between them both, they had found out about the goings-on of Section 31 on Archadia prior to Admiral Wegener’s arrival as 900’s new Commanding Officer, and had helped put a stop to it thus far. They even had a hand in flushing out Jonas Levin with Nick having the honor of putting an end to the miserable traitor’s life. Now they were setting out to close up any loose ends left by the Section 31 unit and their attempts at disrupting Starfleet’s presence in the Delta Quadrant as well as outing the last of those involved with Levin and his attempts at taking out Melanippe.

It just seemed that Nick’s hardware wasn’t cooperating with him as well as he would have hoped. His means of fixing it? Beating the shit out of the offending hardware until it submitted, or in this case, was destroyed.

The door of the apartment opened as Nick tried to clean up the mess. His hand instinctively went for the phaser on his belt.

“That a phaser in your hand or are you just happy to see me?” Nenita strolled in, and once the door closed behind her, she locked it. Her gaze fell on the bits and pieces of hardware and she smirked. “Do I need to go shopping again? I found this guy over in Naran province...he has all sorts of goodies and he’ll give me anything I want.”

"Do I want to know what his asking price is?" Nick asked, squinting his eyes playfully at her. "And...yes, it may be time to go shopping for a few more things. This one disagreed with me."

Nenita nodded as she crossed to drop down into the sofa. “We can go out later this evening. I’d rather it be later, less noticeable that way.” She glanced at the small pile of wreckage. “And this time maybe let me have a crack at it?”

"Fiiiinnnne," he droned as he finished picking up the last few pieces. He'd not be able to just toss them in the trash lest someone reconstruct it and try to decipher what he had been doing. He'd have to incinerate it, which he could do later outside somewhere.

Flopping down on the sofa beside Nenita, then lying down with his head in her lap, like he was there for counseling, he said, "I found a few more files that may have some significance from Levin. Had a few names in it that I looked into in the database--they're now dead, assorted accidents." The last part he said with air quotes. "Oh!" he sat up and turned to face her. "Remember that idiot Captain of the guard, whatsherface? They found her dead out on some island owned by her aunt and uncle."

“That’s awfully convenient.” Nenita frowned. “ Those other accidents, what positions did they serve here?”

"There was a government construction worker, a secretary in one of the Cabinet offices, another security forces chick and a low-level scientist with the Science Ministry," Nick rattled off. "They were all tied together with Levin's cover down here and now that he's been taken out, so have they. So it seems that there is still someone running this game down here."

He turned and lay back down on her lap. He loved it there. And she always smelled so nice!

“Makes sense. In any conspiracy, once they are successful, you take out your fellow conspirators to remove all witnesses. No one left to point the finger at the one responsible. The next thing is to stage an attempt on themselves, thus making them look like a victim as well and therefore cannot be the guilty party.” Nenita reached down, running her fingertips over the ends of his very short hair. “I’m surprised Queen Malaise is still alive. If whoever’s behind this could figure out a way to remove her without upsetting anything, she might very well be gone too. I want to know more about the new Prime MInister.”

"I know that she and Queen Masculine don't exactly get along, even though they pretend to in public," Nick said, snuggling down into her lap. "And first one to run out of names for Queen Millenia loses. You lose, I get a lap dance. On a shuttle doing barrel rolls. With you starting out dressed like a nun. And carrying a briefcase. Don’t ask, just go."

“Queen Mantaray. And you’re on, Nick.” She gave him a sly smile. “And what if I win?”

"What do you want?" he asked, looking up at her then adding, "Queen Mundane."

“Dancing. You are taking me dancing. And dinner, and you better know what all the forks and glasses are for too. Queen Malcontent.”

"Damn," he whispered clenching his fist for theatrics. He hadn't danced in ages and didn't know much about multiple utensils, but for her...he'd learn how to crochet or sprout wings and fly if she asked him to. "Okay, deal." He turned over and kissed her stomach. "So, Queen Mahjongg and Aegina have apparently been at it for a while. When she was PM, Maline and Aegina were constantly butting heads in Parliament. Honestly, I'm surprised that Aegina made PM now that Maline is Queen. But I would not be surprised if Aegina had something up her sleeve. Maline's a bit too dense to plan anything devious."

“You can say that again. From what I’ve seen? I don’t think Queen Marshmallow has anything but fluff between her ears.” Nita stopped to laugh uproariously. “See what I did there?”

Nick groaned. "Two demerits for bad puns, which puts me in the lead. Better get that nun costume and briefcase ready." he said. "Anyway, I'm going to be focusing on Aegina and her staff as well as Queen Marmaduke's personnel, since we've already checked her up, down and sideways. Besides being a dunce," he looked at her with a cocked brow, "with fluff between her ears," he said then settled back into her lap, "she's harmless." He turned back to her. "Didn't Admiral Li's Dad hold a seance with some of her people a while back? I think you'd told me about that."

“He did. They wanted to make sure that those closest to Queen Melodrama were loyal. There aren’t many of them, but at the time, none were hiding anything. I still want to watch though, since they can be compromised at any time.”

"Yeah, well, it looks like one of her playthings is already making a name for himself." He reached for the PADD he was using then rolled his eyes when he remembered it was in pieces. "Shit. Well, anyway, Dumbass, Idiot, Moron...something like that, I found two entries for him in there that weren't there before. I can't recall what they were for, but they didn't seem very interesting. Just odd that one of Queen Megalomaniac's people started showing up suddenly." He smirked. "I think that one's a slam dunk, by the way."

“Oh you wish.” But now he had her curious. “What do you mean, one of Queen Marmalade's people showing up? Doing what?”

"Well, none of her people had a single entry in the database, other than their work registrations and identification as Palace employees." He sat up and leaned against her. Had he turned into a cat or something? He rubbed and laid on her more than a Domestic Shorthair! At least he didn't purr...much. Ignoring his own thoughts he continued. "But Mr. Schmuck has two entries now. I think one was for being stopped and questioned by Security Forces for being near a restricted area at one of the power plants. The other was for loitering in front of the main Cabinet building. But both times he was let go because he's Queen Metatarsal's lackey. They still had to enter it as activity, though, when the dispatching center ran his identification." He sniffed her again. "Goddamn you smell good."

‘Why yes, yes I do.” His news didn’t please her though. “Which means either he’s up to something, or Queen Metronome has him snooping and he’s not very good at it. She should be more careful.”

"Ha! Metronome," he said. "Good one."

She looked at him. "That was better than Marshmallow?"

He shrugged. "Don't judge me." With a quick peck on her cheek he stood. "Well, if Queen Monosyllabic has her little bitch doing some snooping, I'll have to tail him some. Find out what he's up to, or what she's looking for."

He bagged the destroyed PADD for later destruction. "What's the score?"

“Tied so far. We have a little time before we need to go shopping but that might be enough time to go follow Queen Meaningless’ lap dog around.” She grinned up at Nick. “And that, my darling, was a slam dunk. The perfect name.”

He huffed. "Queen Meaningless. Multimillionaire. Micrometer!" With a large inhale of breath he spat out the one he'd been holding onto--a word he heard in one of the science labs. "Microradiographically!"

He desperately wanted a win. Just thinking of her in the nun costume with the briefcase got him a little twitchy.

Nenita laughed and held up her hands. “I give in. You’ve got your lapdance in...”

"...a barrel rolling shuttle, dressed like a nun with a briefcase..."

“...whatever...now go if you’re going to spy on the tadpole. He’ll be in the kitchens overseeing the preparation of her dinner right about now.”

"Oh, by the way, I put a note on your personal PADD’s calendar," he said as he stood and danced around a bit. "I've already scheduled us a date for this Friday."

He took off to the bedroom and found a change of clothes while she checked her PADD.

“Good thing I don’t have a date already!” she called out, just to poke at him. But Nenita was smiling. “You’re the best, Nick.”

He had taken the liberty of making a reservation at De Sha's, one of 900's newest and most exquisite dining experiences, if you believed the hype they pushed out. But it was supposed to be fine dining at its best--suits, dresses, shaved men, great smelling and breathtaking women...it was what she had been wanting anyway. But the dancing was something he hadn't planned on. He'd have to work on that one somehow when she wasn't watching.

Pleased with her response he popped out into the doorway, and said, "You'd been dropping hints about something like that anyway, so I thought I'd surprise you." Pulling on a shirt a la the Archadian wimps--er, men, he walked over to her and pulled her up. "I told you that I loved you, woman. I gotta' keep you happy so you don't get bored with me."

He gave her a soft, lingering kiss then stepped back and smiled. "Okay, Big Papa's goin' huntin'. I'll be back in a bit."

“Be careful Nick.” This time her tone was serious. “Whoever it is isn’t playing around.”

"Don't worry about me, babe," he winked. "I have a hot date with a nun." But he turned back and put his hand gently on her cheek, smiling. "I'll be careful."

“Good.” She shooed him out the door, waited exactly three minutes, then slipped out to follow him.

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

Lt. (jg) Nenita Quidley
So Very Punny

Master Chief Nick Marcinko
Seriously...what's up with the briefcase??