The Pendulum Consideration
Posted on Sat Sep 17th, 2016 @ 5:10pm by Marine Captain Quentin Harrison
Mission: Further Challenges
STARFLEET BRIG
Quentin Harrison, the big Marine XO, was in a foul mood. John Franklin had been captured and was no longer a threat, rather an asset to be utilized, and Quentin wanted answers to his questions. He nodded to the Security guard, who admitted the big man to the cell block. Quentin walked over to Franklin's cell and stopped by the force-field entrance.
“On yer feet, you!” Harrison ordered the still form of Franklin, who was laying on his bunk. Franklin stirred, lifted his left hand and gave Harrison his middle finger.
“I say one word to the turnkey, and I'll break that finger clean off, then your old lady will weep bucket's o' tears!” Harrison growled. “Get on your goddamned feet!”
“What for?” Franklin rasped, his throat having been damaged by Harrison's death grip earlier in the interview room. “You wanna beat on me some more? Maybe this time shatter my spine, or maybe you just want to save the Federation the time and execute me in cold blood?”
“Come off it, you bloody idiot! Yer no victim, you're a cold-blooded, psychotic killing machine the Cardassians made, and you became too much for them to stomach so they cut ya loose. You killed your own brother, for God's sake!”
“I did what I had to do!” Franklin shouted hoarsely. “The Cardassians captured me again and offered to undo what they did to me if I targeted James Holbridge and his family in this quadrant. I agreed,, naturally. That Boroca guy was insane, but his father was the one who was really pissed off at Jimbo. It seems he was the commanding officer of the shipyard-slash-prison that your CO and Jimmy busted out of; way I hear it, the crazy sonsofbitches even managed to steal a Galor-class warship prototype! That took some doing. Naturally, the Cardies disgraced the CO of the camp and turned him into a non-person and had him exiled. The old bastard was tough and survived, rallied a few friends and his own family, and bango-tango, a new Obsidian Order.”
Franklin paused and coughed, spitting out a wad of bloody phlegm, then continued. “Boroca was just as twisted as his old man. He concocted a scheme to unite the Romulans and the Obsidian Order-led Cardassian Union, breaking away from the Federation and their relief efforts. The plan went south and Boroca had all of the key participants killed. I did some, a couple others did the ones here. It was Providence that dropped my old Academy roomie on Cardassia, but the bastard got away again, just like he always does. Not this time.”
Quentin studied the battered man closely. “What do ye mean?”
“That's the best part. We couldn't get our unified government, but we get a swell consolation prize; James Holbridge, humiliated, alone, and nearly insane!” Franklin started to laugh, but was caught up in a coughing fit. “Doesn't hurt my feelings one lil' bit! I wonder who Starfleet will send to draw and quarter the dumb sonofabitch...hey, where you goin?”
Harrison had left the cell and was stalking towards the entrance. Franklin's words were echoing in his ears, and from what Dave had said, Holbridge was indeed coming apart at the seams, again. There was no way Quentin could allow that to happen.
HOLBRIDGE QUARTERS
10 MINUTES LATER
Two Starfleet sentries were posted at the entrance to Jim's house. “What's goin on?” Quentin demanded, using his command voice.
“Mr. Holbridge has been placed under house arrest and isn't allowed to have visitors except for his family. Please vacate the area, sir.” the lead chief said, looking nervously at Quentin's sidearm.
“Chief, I am a Marine officer and I am going in. If you want to stop me, shoot me....” Quentin stopped as Rhona appeared at the door and took his hand, leading him away from the sentries.
“These men showed up while you and David were beating on Franklin. Whatever is happening, it's bad.”
“What's goin on?”
Rhona took Quentin down a corridor, then stopped. “The Federation Commerce Guild froze Jim's assets and holdings, except for what he was able to cache. Starfleet sent an investigator out here, a real good one by the name of Frost,” she said quietly. “Quentin, they said they found more than fifteen deep-cover Cardassian operatives in the shipyard.”
“We caught their handler, darlin. The data was never sent. Commander Nalas has the information safely stored.” Quentin didn't tell Rhona that the information the Cardassians were able to access was all bogus. “How is Jim holding up?”
Rhona looked up at Quentin, worry clouding her eyes. “He is obsessed with someone called Sybok and something called the Nexus. He was combing the databases looking for information until they froze his access.”
“Did that stop him?” Quentin grinned.
“No, he's accessed the networks thanks to his friends Sam and Matthew. He has them working on something in a covert facility, something related to TAPDANCE, but won't say what it is.”
Quentin snapped his fingers. “I know what he's gonna do! Not to worry, lassie, your man isnae daft by a long shot. Keep him fed and rested and make sure he isn't bothered. I need to so some things.” Quentin whirled around and quickly left, passing by the two sentries and flipping them the birds. “Bastards!” he breathed, hoping that they were convinced he hated them.
Jimmy is pullin' out and tryin' to shield his loved ones from the fallout. It was a Team One/NGSC evac protocol that had been established in the early days' TAPDANCE would erase classified information, but also sterilize any information on Jim, Team One, NGSC and Holbridge Shipyard from the databases in the Delta Quadrant. The shipyards would self-destruct after being towed to a safe distance from Archadia Prime, along with the partially built space-frames.
Quentin knew he was going to have to make a choice, but he already knew what he was going to do. Squaring his shoulders, he got into the turobolift and spoke, “Marine Command Center,” It was time to do the right thing.
MCPT Quentin Harrison
Man On A Mission...For??
