Eyes only

Posted on Sat Jan 16, 2021 @ 1:06am by Lieutenant Commander Ethan Brash & Commander Ajani Carter

Mission: Episode 2: Rising Tides
Location: Captain's Readyroom
Timeline: MD 05
1385 words - 2.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Ethan had come to her with the data recorder and fill her in on the mission. It seems it had been a bit of a full day for him and Karr. He was sat across from her, her desk more or less empty of screens but as she lay the data recorder on her reactive desk a holo overlay wrapped the recorder. She lifted the holo up and took hold twisting it to look at it.

"The shell is new but the insides are old technology. Dominion War age kinda old" she said putting the holo copy back down. Instead, she pulled up the access program. "Well, would you look at that" she continued "That is eyes only level encryption that is"

"Oh?" Ethan replied, curious, "sounds like you're familiar with it. Got any tricks up your sleeve?"

She sighed "Well, I was an officer during the war. So let's see if my modern codes will work on 20-year-old data." She manipulated the screens before he and input her command codes. To no avail it would seem, her screen flashed 'access denied'.

Ethan frowned, compressing his lips, the blinking holographic light shimmering off his skin as he leaned closer, "So much for the easy way," He huffed, "knocking politely didn't work."

"It would seem so" she crewed her lip and tapped her fingers on the table"

"So!" Ethan exclaimed, slapping his knees with his palms, "Should we keep trying on our end or do we send this back to Starfleet?"

"Not just yet," she said thinking, she entered her access code from when she was XO on Hood. "It is possible that my access codes from the Hood would work, the Hood is an old ship." It took much longer than it should have taken but after a few more seconds she was granted access to the data within.

"Well, I'll be vaporized..." Ethan stared at the unlocked interface, his mouth slightly agape, "That actually worked?"

To her surprise the data started to unfold and access holo screens, opening screen after screen with star charts, manifests and a whole host of other information. She shook her head in disbelieve. "It's all a few years old, well just under two" she was pulling screens into the foreground, scanning them and then throwing them to one side. "Damn." She enlarged the screen and pushed it towards Ethan.

His eyebrows perked up as the floating holographic display was moved so close, it almost moved through and past his head. "Uh..." He knew it was harmless, but his natural instinct was to raise his hands as a single string of alphanumeric characters invaded his face-space. He smiled, nervously, "So, uh, what am I looking at, here?" He said as he looked back and forth between the data and his Captain.

"That, that is the ID code of a Romulan General who rose through the ranks during the Borg invasion." Ajani frowned "She became the Director of 4th Fleet operations and was very vocal about Romulan Independence from the Pact. General Ael was reported to have been assassinated just under two years ago."

"She wanted independence." Ethan mused, tilting his head back as he visualized the connections, "and then she got offed." He perched his lips, tapping a finger on his chin. "Natural selection? Bad luck? Coincidence?"

"I do not believe in coincidences. As part of this mission I was granted clearance to read... well a lot. One of those files suggested that General Ael was killed by a Federation sponsor, it was never confirmed and frankly, I think it is more likely to have been a Pact order." She was not happy about this, not even a little.

"Federation? Assassinations?" Ethan shook his head, more than a little skeptical. "I thought that the whole cloak and dagger murder thing was dealt with after Section 31 got ousted. You think this was their doing?" He posed the thought to his Captain, looking her in the eye, "that this was their last hurrah, maybe?"

She shook her head. "No, I think it was more likely to have been someone in the Pact. General Ael had been gaining support, given time it's possible that the RSE might have left the Pact completely. I think that whoever is funding these pirates is under the impression that the Federation did murder the general, and is doing so as a form of revenge."

"I met her once" she continued with a sad smile, "I was XO on the Hood at the time, we were guarding a Romulan colony. We had Intel that suggested a Borg attack. As the Borg came at us, three tactical cubes" she let out a snort "Facing our 4 ships. Only we have Transphasic Torpedoes, but we had undergone the weapons refit but we were little more than a holding action. The Hood had taken massive damage but somehow we were still in the fight. That's when a dozen Romulan warbirds dropped cloak and turned the tide. We'd been ordered only to use the torpedoes as a last. I lost a lot of good friends that day. The General saved our asses, and she was the most un-romulan Romulan I had ever met."

The story had taken all of Ethan's attention, bringing him to sit up straight as his Captain told her tale. As she finished, he nodded, solemnly. His jovial norm was abandoned as he leaned onto his right elbow, tapping a finger on the armrest as his gaze was distant.

"Six suspects, one pact, one common enemy." He uttered under his breath. He looked back up at Ajani, "I think we can axe the Breen from the suspect list. They were looking to control the Romulan Empire back when they thought the Dominion alliance was a sure thing. They can't move against the Romulans if the Romulans are still apart of the Typhon Pact. They would've wanted the Romulans out, which makes them General Ael's natural allies."

She smiled "The Tzenkethi would be my bet. They share a border with the Cardassians and have no love for the Federation." he pointed at the data core screens "This, now this is something which could point us in the right direction. But there is just so much data here." She resumed the tapping of her fingers. Using her other hand to swipe through more of the files, it seemed to be a central data core rather than a backup. Or rather it looked like it was a backup of a central core.

"Should make for an interesting read, then." He commented dryly.

"Oh, I almost forgot. Fleet Personal has made it clear that they do not approve of Lise as my XO." she held up a hand to forestall whatever Ethan was about to say. "There were a number of very valid reasons and they threatened to take her away from the Eagle. So I have stepped her back to Chief of Sciences, Captain Hawkins has been kind enough to attach one of his junior officers. Lieutenant Skot Ryder has boarded and I've brought them up to speed on what's happening. Go see if you two can find anything helpful from all of this" she collapsed it all into a virtual ball and throw it to him. "I am going to run it through a few of my personal programs, but the more people on this the better. Grab Kerr as well. He might have information or sources we don't"

Ethan held the spherically-shaped data hologram in his hand, like a baseball, and curiously looked at it before applying his right index finger to the ball. It lit up as it was selected, then dimmed and disappeared altogether with a downward gesture of his finger. The data was now tagged to his ID and could be pulled up more quickly when he got to the lab, later.

"I understand, Captain." Ethan nodded, then turned about. As he left the ready room, his poise faltered a little. Once the doors fully closed behind him, he looked down at his shoulder, a hand tentatively hovering over it. He could almost swear the heat of the plasma blast was still there, moving over the wound with all the slowness of lava. He straightened himself, clearing his throat, and moved on. There was a job to do.