do you really want to know?

Posted on Tue Sep 19th, 2023 @ 9:54pm by Ensign Annika Wiseman

1,886 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: Campor III - Resupply
Location: Chief intel officers office.
Timeline: 0710 MC3

On:

Annika raced back to deck 8, she'd promised to meet with Lissa and who ever else was coming too help her, the conversation with the captain was helpful, but it was also a heavy conversation, she'd found herself in a position she was very unprepared for, as the lift slowed to it's final destination she looked up, things were about to be weird, and she felt it.

The doors opened and she stepped off, "Sorry" she exclaimed as she exited, "Meeting with the captain took too long."

"How did it go?" Lissa asked as her friend stepped off the turbo lift.

"The Captain gave on of those do what needed to be done speeches, so I'm doing just that, he made me acting intel chief until the Lieutenant is at least out of sick bay and able too do the desk work and hinted at some additional staffing finally, the revolving door of night time comm guys is kind of irritating." Annika said as she entered the bullpen, the smell of boiled off coffee, sweat and various other bodily emissions filled the air, "Engineering really needs to fix the air handling in here."

"I mean, engineering can only do so much," Lissa commented, looking at the clutter and stained coffee cups. "The recycler really is just right there. He's such a man," Lissa commented. "So what are we looking for?" Lissa asked, taking in the piles and wondering where to start.

Annika unzipped her uniform jacket and tossed it on her desk, "those aren't all his, and I think the other smell in my gym bag, maybe the food in the comms bay."

"We'll start in his office, it's probably somewhere easy too find." Annika said making her way too the left, "I know he only locks this door when he's on subspace or visiting with chief engineer F'Rar, I didn't know they were a thing."

"Really? We hear a lot in Sickbay, but not that one yet," Lissa commented. "So what are we looking for? Do you think it might be encrypted or anything?"

"I'm not sure, I had the impression it was in like a special envelope or box, in his desk, he said it would be easy to find so we'll start with his.....desk.....what the...." Annika was stopped hard as the office door opened.

She'd never been in his office, mostly because they always met in the bullpen, she was floored "Must be nice being a full officer."

"So, like we have permission to be in here and look through his stuff then?" Lissa asked carefully as she looked around the office. "Do you want me to start somewhere?"

Annika looked around, "You start in the desk drawers, I'll open the safe, I've got clearance to open it, and avoid the couch..." pointing at the couch with a blanket and two pillows and what looked like a pair of women's undergarments. just visible under the blanket.

"You've been holding out on us at girl's night," Lissa said, glancing at the couch with amusement as she started looking through the drawers.

Annika put her thumb on the reader for the safe, hearing a click, "Those aren't mine." followed by a giggle.

She opened the safe and saw a pad, one of the note books Jason kept and an isolinear chip, "This might be it."

"What do we got?" Lissa asked, walking over to see what Annika had found.

Annika held it up, "It was with a journal in the safe, it looks like a key lock chip, versus a data file." she paused, "It was the only one in the safe too."

Annika walked behind the desk and slid the chip into the reader after a few seconds and some strange computer noises Jason's image appeared on screen.

"Hello Annika." The message began.

"If your seeing this things went to hell fast, it's very likely I'm incapacitated and the situation has become serious. Stay calm, from that moment in time where you walked into my office scared and unsure, I knew you would be the one person I could count on when the time came, trust your instincts, don't be afraid to speak your mind too, the captain will likely have told you how I think your quite capable, trust what I've taught you. If it comes too it go to your friends to hell with security in this moment."

"The journal you found with the key is my notes up to the beginning of this mission, including possible contact you might need, be careful and stay safe."

"Elliot out."

The message ended and Annika found herself sitting in Jason's chair, "As in over my head as I feel right now, I could use your help."

"It would have been nice if he had been telling you what he'd been working on all along," Lissa commented. "But we can figure this out. Let's take a look at the journal."

Annika looked up at Lissa, "There's been incidents of sabotage of infrastructure around the various settlements, a few other things going on from what I saw, there was also a report, something about stolen supplies and weapons from a supply base." She paused "During the away mission yesterday a fighter exploded killing the pilot, then during the night Lieutenant Elliot and I discovered a weather station that monitors conditions around settlement they were at, it missed a severe storm that caused crop losses and some damage to housing."

"Is that where you were when was stabbed?" Lissa asked. "Did you get a good look at who did it?"

Annika gulped, "We found evidence, their on the body cameras in the lock up, I found one of the sensor modules had been phasered, and bypassed in a way that gave false readings, the Lieutenant found something and got knifed for it." she started to sob a little, "I panicked I fired my phaser four times, I missed."

"Could you see anything? Romulan? Klingon? Were they wearing masks?" Lissa asked, as she moved over to put a comforting hand on her friend. "It's ok, your brain acts this way to protect you from shock. You know this. Maybe something will come back to you. Let's get into the journal - if you're ready."

Annika nodded, "yeah, maybe we can find out something, especially why Jason is so fired up about this mission."

"Do you want me to..." Lissa looked at the journal that Annika seemed to be hesitating to open.

Annika nodded again, she wiped the tears away, "I'm just realizing I haven't slept yet."

"No, I don't imagine you have, in a few days, judging from what you just told me," Lissa said gently as she took the journal and key and opened it. "Looks like Commander Chalan had him looking into pirate activity months ago, this starts back to shortly after we first boarded," Lissa said, looking up at Annika. "Ferengi, Romulans, Klingons, Federation, that's nothing new... of course Orions are always a suspect when pirates are mentioned. That would be my first guess anyway," the Orion nurse commented dryly. "Breen." Lissa stopped at the word, handing the journal back to the Annika.

"Did you guys talk about the Breen?" Lissa asked? She wouldn't admit it, but the thought that they could be involved made her a little anxious. Moreso than the Orions.

Annika stopped, "He'd mentioned Breen activity, being on the rise but hadn't done much follow up, we were waiting on some mission near their space to wrap up."

"We're outside of their space, but the border isn't that far from here," Lissa commented, thinking out loud. "If they are involved this could be bad. We know so little about them, but they've been very destructive. Is there more in the journal, or is that it?" Lissa asked. "I can keep reading if you want."

Annika's eyes flicked up too the book, "We should, he must have kept notes on a few things, there's something tucked in the back cover." she said pointing at the book.

"Can you get it out?" Lissa asked. "Maybe he hid it because it's important."

With a slight tug the item came out, it was a small photo with two people in it, "I don't recognize the Woman with the Lieutenant, this is fairly old too."

Lissa sighed sadly. "I think he used be married."

Annika looked carefully at the photo, "This predates the marriage, he's an ensign in this one and I think the woman is a Romulan." She stopped and looked around, she grabbed a picture frame off the back shelf, "This is his wife." pointing out Jason with Darleen Elliot.

"Weird. Is this the contact you mentioned?" Lissa asked. "How do we figure out who she is?"

"No, he mentioned a smuggler that intelligence ops used to use before the Hobus event for special missions." Annika said "The Lieutenant said he was still helping bringing supplies in and funneling information out, his name might be in the book."

Lissa took the picture and examined it. "Maybe she's here?" Why would have have put this picture here?" Lissa wondered out loud. "Any idea who this smuggler would be affiliated with? Ferengi? Orion? It doesn't really sound like Klingon or Romulan behavior." Lissa paused. "Am I stereotyping? I probably shouldn't do that, huh?"

Annika giggled, "Probably, I think the freighter captain was a Romulan," She took the notebook and flipped through it's pages "Here, Valit he operates a ship called bird of paradise."

"Sounds lovely," Lissa said dryly. She got up and went to Jason's LCARS panel and logged in. "I'm getting a couple of hits, but I'm guessing it will take a deep dive to find anything useful - like where they are now, especially if he's a smuggler. He's not going to want to make it easy for a Starfleet vessel to track him down," Lissa said as she tried to pull from multiple data banks.

Annika looked, "Let me try something." following the simple commands she'd been shown by Jason things began to happen.

Seconds later result shrank, "There." pointing at the screen, "He's on the planet right now."

"Who goes down with you?" Lissa asked. "Special Ops? Marines? This is the real deal, Annika," she said gravely.

Annika looked at Lissa "He's one of the good guys, maybe the people he deals with are scum, but I have a feeling about this, it might be a dead end too,"

"If he is one of the good guys, you both could have targets on your backs. Assume whoever did that to Jason saw you down there. You have to be careful. You need security. You are a great intelligence officer, and a medical officer. But you need security, tactical."

Annika looked at her friend "I'll have to clear this with the captain first, I highly doubt he's just going to allow me to wander off on my own," Annika then smiled "Maybe you can come with."

"Maybe?" Lissa said thoughtfully. "If you don't think I'd be in the way."

"I have to meet with the Captain again shortly, if he lets me go then we'll talk." Annika said as she stood.

"Alright," Lissa said standing up and looking Annika in the eye. "Good luck."

End

Ensign Annika Wiseman

Ensign Daisheliss "Lissa" Kerr

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