Intrigue in the Romulan Settlement, Part 2

Posted on Mon Dec 11th, 2023 @ 9:08pm by Commander Chalan Kendri & Lieutenant Commander Jorel Torin II & Ensign Dramin & Lieutenant JG Annika Wiseman
Edited on on Sat Dec 16th, 2023 @ 11:38pm

1,860 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: Campor III - Resupply
Location: Campor III - Duveek Settlement
Timeline: MD C20 0900 Hours, after Part 1

We have a few redundant control stations around the city," Kekana stated, her demeanor much more friendly and accommodating than Naleema's. "I thought you'd be most comfortable in our government building. It's actually the building just behind you. I can show you the layout, and if you like we can tour the city after.

Annika looked around, anything was a step up from sleeping in the woods or a shack, "So let's do the grand tour of our temporary digs I guess."

Vevi spoke up. "Not so fast, kid. I'll go ahead first, make sure it's safe. Miss Kekana, lead the way." Vevi slung her rifle over the other shoulder and started out. She trusted no one yet and these people even less.

Annika gave a mock salute, she again tried to refrain from any kind of remark. She'd tried to be civil, but it was reaching ridiculous the level of almost babysitting she'd had to put up with, the boogeyman wasn't out to get her, let alone some escaped psych patient, she picked up her pack the one side pouch wasn't quite zipped up quite right, let alone how she remembered packing it. She paused to check it, someone had slipped a pad into it along with two isolinear chips, 'What the hell is this about?'

Vevi noticed the other woman's surprise, and thrust her head towards Tomm. "You should probably tell him," she said, in a stage-whisper-just loud enough for Annika to hear, but not so loud as to be a distraction. Once it was silent, she spoke up. "Commander Tomm, can I see you a moment, with Ensign Wiseman here?" She looked pointedly at Annika.

“I’m listening. Report. What’s going on?”, Tomm asked anxiously.

Kendri and Jorel were following their Romulan hosts up the short set of stairs into the government building with Dramin and Shan when they noticed that Tomm had paused to talk to the two intelligence officers. Vevi was part of the marine detachment and liked to flex herself as more muscle than brain, but Kendri was reserving judgment. What someone projected often wasn't the full picture. Annika was new to the field, and had good investigative instincts, but took too many risks. She needed to learn to work with a team and let others watch her back.

Kendri and the others paused at the top of the stairs. "Is there a problem?"

Jorel stopped right behind Kendri and waited to see what happened as they stopped atop of the stairs. He instinctually placed his hands behind his back, but one of his hands was within reach of his phaser, just in case something went a bit sideways.

Annika slightly embarrassed spoke up, "sorry I had an issue with my pack." Annika shoved the padd and data storage back in her pack quickly. She quickly raced to catch up with the group.

Vevi stayed a bit behind. "She had some kind of..PADD but it had been modified. I don't think it's hers," Vevi said to Kobi Tomm. She shrugged, and continued up the stairs.

Annika made a gesture toward Vevi, "I think Strock put it in my pack before I left, it's nothing."

“How can you be so sure? Keep an eye on it. He may expect us to try to access it. I have a trick up my sleeve, so it doesn’t backfire on us. Let’s just keep walking. Stay alert,” Tomm said.

Vevi nodded. "Alright. I just felt it was the right call to tell you," she said. "I don't think Strock would do that, though. Isn't he one of us?" She wrinkled a blonde/blue eyebrow. She shrugged, though, and went on ahead.

Annika resisted the urge to do something uncalled for, "Whatever..." she walked away to keep up with the group.

“Don’t worry about Wiseman, Lieutenant. You did the right thing by telling me. We’re going your talents here, Vevi. Trust your instincts. I trust you’ll tell me if anything seems off,” Tomm said.

Vevi nodded. "I don't worry, our boss handles it," she said. "Lead the way.." she indicated the doorway to the man.

As the group entered the lobby of the government building, Naleema discreetly positioned herself away from the group to better observe and assess the Starfleet away team that was to occupy their space for the foreseeable future. Kekana spoke as they walked, pointing out different things as they went along.

"Down here is the primary reception center. Our citizen can come here to do business or request assistance with various matters. Should you have any basic needs or questions you can come to one of these desks or comm one of the stations."

The group walked through the center of a large oval shaped room, Each side of the room was neatly lined with one long row of multiple work stations. Though behind the people manning the workstations, other individuals seemed to be busy at work as well. The floors were made of polished stone with an amber hue. The walls were plain, a dull gray color. No art hung on the walls, and no one seemed to have any personal items around their work stations making the room seem functional, but sterile.

The control center is on the sixth floor, the lift is to the back, I'll take you there," Kekana continued after giving the group a moment to look around.

Vevi's brown eyes scanned the room. The one Romulan was acting weird, but...she WAS Romulan, so it was hard to tell. Still, she did a quick sweep of the place. "It's fine..." she said.

Dramin's ganglia were quivering in the back of his head. Maybe it was the utilitarian design of the workroom itself - it reminded him far too much of his Academy days spent working for hours and hours in the legal labs doing research... nothing very much different from what he did now, anyway. At least the Columbia's legal labs had color, and a few motivational phrases stickered onto the wall.

Or maybe it was the Romulan woman that was constantly hanging behind them, watching, observing, never quite engaging with the conversation. Naleema was her name, wasn't it? Something about her rubbed him the wrong way. Everything about her body language suggested that she did not want attention drawn to her. Why was that, he wondered. She certainly did not seem lacking in confidence or ability to speak to them about this place - so why was she drying to draw attention away from herself? Dramin decided to keep her in his peripheral vision as he walked with the rest. He'd learned to trust his senses, most notably his threat ganglia, to tell him when something was just around the corner.

Jorel was looking around and taking everything in, including the young officer's reaction with the ganglia. Jorel knew what it meant and he got into line with Dramin and whispered where only the two men could hear, "Is everything okay? I've noticed the ganglia coming about and just wanted to make sure that you were okay?"

Dramin's cheeks warmed. Was it really that obvious? A quick feel of the back of his head told him what he needed to know. Oh, dear. If the diplomatic officer could see his ganglia squirming, that meant the other Romulans too.

Good thing a common misconception (in his experience, at least) was that Kelpiens were perpetually nervous and had their ganglia constantly wiggling anyway - Dramin hoped that the Romulans would think so too, for his own safety.

Nonetheless. In present company voicing his suspicions was a terrible, terrible idea if they wanted to keep things cordial. The Kelpien gave the Trill a sideways look that he hoped seemed 'not now' enough, pulled out his PADD and typed a message to the man instead:

NALEEMA MAKES ME UNEASY.

Jorel nodded gently, wanting to keep everything as unnoticeable as humanly possible.

Kendri saw Jorel and Dramin looking at something, and noticed that Naleema was watching them as well. She cleared her throat to get their attention as Kekana led them down the hall to a turbolift.

When the group got to the sixth floor the turbolift doors opened to a narrow hallway, the area was not as open as it was on the ground level. Kekana took them a door and waved her hand over a side panel and the door opened to reveal a large control room with numerous work stations, not unlike the operations center of a large space station.

"We have access codes for the away team members whose information that you provided. When each of you log in for the first time, the computer will scan your bio-metric data, and Commander Naleema or myself will approve your access. After that you should be able to open doors to access the areas that you need to," Kekana explained.

Annika felt that sounded reasonable, "I'll go first."

"Scan it first," Vevi piped up. She actually did like Annika, and it would be terrible if something happened to her. "Just in case..."

"I don't think that's necessary," Kendri responded, trying to maintain trust between the parties.

"Go right ahead," Naleema said smugly as she stepped forward, a smirk showing her amusement.

Vevi smiled. "Sorry, Commander, Naleema. Habit. I trust there's no one lying in wait, just in case Starfleet happened to show up right this minute," she said. Oops.

Annika walked up, "Okay let's do this." she said standing waiting.

Jorel shrugged his shoulders and stepped forward, putting the command codes that were given to him by the Romulans, to allow everyone access to whatever information that they might've needed. Once input, the computer scanned him and gathered the biometric information that the Romulans said the computer would. It was rather painless, but it left Jorel feeling a bit uneasy because now, the Romulans could find the members of the away team a bit better than they did beforehand. There was just something that made Jorel feel a bit uneasy about this whole trip after talking to Ensign Dramin.

"Commander Tomm, Lieutenant Jorel, did you need anything before I beam back to the Columbia?" Kendri asked.

"I think I'm good at the moment, but if we need anything, I'll give you guys a ring up there," Jorel replied with a smile. He wasn't entirely confident in his reply, but as a trained diplomat, he knew how to cover any emotions up behind a diplomatic smile.

"Sounds good. I'll have beta shift prepared to relieve your team in eight hours or so unless I hear otherwise," Kendri replied. "Commander Naleema, Chairman Kekana, thank you for your hospitality. I'm sure we will speak again soon."

Annika looked around, something wasn't right, she couldn't put a finger on it.


>> to part three >>


Commander Chalan Kendri
First Officer
USS Columbia

Lt. Commander Kobi Tomm
Chief Security Officer
USS Columbia

Lieutenant Jorel Toren II
Chief Diplomatic Officer
USS Columbia

1st Lieutenant Vevi Zh'kahlol
Intelligence Officer
USS Columbia

Ensign Dramin
JAG Officer
USS Columbia

Ensign Annika Wiseman
Intelligence Officer
USS Columbia

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