Aftershocks
Posted on Fri Mar 29th, 2024 @ 12:12pm by Commander Steven Greco & Lieutenant Evelyn Stewart & Captain Stryvek & Lieutenant Commander Keishara Davaris & Lieutenant Dashku Zhevou & Lieutenant JG Baaru Liana & 1st Lieutenant Kes Th’relnal & Lieutenant Amarok s'Lovok & Ensign Sophie Bishop & Petty Officer 3rd Class Chiharu Hirano
Edited on on Fri Mar 29th, 2024 @ 12:18pm
0 words; about a 1 minute read
Mission:
Year One: Whispers in the Wind
Location: USS Moore - Conference Room
Timeline: MD 018: 0800 hrs
Commander Greco headed right for the conference room, bypassing the bridge by using the side entrance from the auxiliary turbolift to the bridge. The shock of the bombing, and news of attacks throughout Federation space, had finally worked its way through his system after two days. It had left him exhausted and emotionally gutted. He needed a few minutes to himself before the senior staff convened to be briefed on everything that has happened.
Walking into the room, only the sounds of the doors hissing behind Steve broke the silence for a moment. Slowly, he walked along the length of the table, running his hand along it to help him ground himself. Eventually he made his way to his usual seat and plopped down in it unceremoniously. Glancing at the PaDD in his hand with the latest FNN news report caused him to rest his face in his hand for a moment as he collected himself. He was relieved to hear none of his family were in the attacks, but it was fleeting when he saw the total death toll in the hundreds. The precision of the attack brought his mind back to war and the brilliance of the Dominion's strategic victories.
Taking a breath, Greco coughed and stood when he heard the hiss of the doors opening and he wasn't alone.
Even though he probably should still be giving himself a little more rest for his back, Amarok entered the Conference Room, movement was slightly tender but he only grimaced a little whenever it was sudden. He went to a chair and sat down, gently. Of course all the treatments and healing was done, its just the scarring and such that burns leave behind that was his current discomfort.
"Morning Commander," Amarok greeted as he placed a padd he'd been holding on the table. It had several Sciences reports and department happenings listed.
It had been a terrible week so far and Keishara was looking forward to the next one. Hopefully there would be less death and destruction in it. PaDDs in hand she entered the briefing room with her usual quiet feet and noticed the XO and Amarok present. "Morning." she said simply before moving to sit down in her usual seat just off the Captain.
Sophie had been walking with Lieutenant Zhevou towards the conference room. She wasn't quite sure why she was needed there but she had been requested, maybe ordered, to attend and she would not disappoint. Part of her wanted to cling on to Dashku for support but she knew that wasn't a good look.
Dashku was dressed in a fresh uniform, it was crisp and fit her well. Her hair was in it's usual tight pony tail braid to keep it out of the way while she was one duty. She looked the part of one in the military and there was always some mild amusement when one of her mother's lessons seems to aid her in her life in Starfleet. When she met up with Bishop she gave her a slight nod.
"Don't look so nervous Bishop. The worst thing that could happen is they absolutely hate what we present and we both get tossed in the brig pending a court martial hearing," She said it was a kind of dead pan seriousness that one couldn't tell if she was joking or not.
"Wait what?" Sophie blurted out. The delivery of that last line was so flawless, so perfect that it gave her simultaneous chills and produced a cold sweat at the same time. Sophie was dressed to impress, perfect uniform, perfect hair, shined shoes. She was more worried about how she'd sound in front of the more senior of the crew, not so much about what they would say.
Finally she cracked and turned her lip up in a smirk, "Relax, it's a joke. You'll be fine."
Dashku finally lead Bishop into the ready room and only paused to get a cup of coffee before heading for the seat she'd started occupying during briefings and settled down into it. She took a sip and started to review the data padd she'd brought with her, just to make sure things were fresh in her mind.
Following the Operations officers, Stewart quietly made her way into the room. She nodded briefly to the assembled staff before taking her own seat. Her attention was still on her exchange with Remy and she did her best to hide her distraction and avoiding looking at Stryvek all together.
Liana entered the room with an expression of confusion mixed with concern playing across her face. She'd heard about the bombing through the grapevine and was really curious about what was going on. Quickly taking her seat, she sat patiently waiting for the start.
Kes entered the conference room and looked around at the gathered crew. At least some star fleet knew to be early to a meeting. He gave them all a curt nod as greetings and simply took his seat at the table. Someone else might have been bothered at being such an obvious outsider, but Kes reveled in it. His uniform was different, his training was different, and in the end he wasn't even Starfleet. But he still had a spot at the table.
Once the crew had arrived and took their seats Stryvek bounded into the room. Arriving last was a deliberate measure by the Captain. Logic dictated that he allow the crew to blow off steam as it were before the meeting came to order. Without a word he took his seat at the head of the table. As if on cue Petty Officer Hirano placed a hot cup of Vulcan spiced tea in front of the Captain. "Now, Commander Greco if you would begin this debriefing."
With a heavy sigh, Greco nodded at the captain and stood up, making his way to the console on the wall. Not sure what exactly to say, Steve decided again to replay the audio transmission in it's entirety in utter silence. "....The people of the Federation will not be silenced! We are the Whispers of the Federation!" When the clip cut out he looked at the group. "Starfleet has confirmed this transmission was relayed throughout all of Federation space using a Priority One frequency. That means these...Whisperers, were sending a message, not just to those systems with Romulan refugees, but to the entire Federation. True to their word, thirty-six different star systems were attacked the same way that Brighton Colony was. The death tolls are still coming in, but they are coming in at several hundred. Doctor Marlow is in Sickbay now trying to still treat the most critically injured." He explained.
"They say it's the worst terrorist attack in Federation space in history." Stewart offered about the reports of the attack.
Steve only nodded. "By all accounts these were Federation citizens as well. This goes beyond the Romulan refugee crisis. Commander Davaris, maybe you should explain what your investigation has uncovered about the attack on the colony." Greco offered before moving back to his seat and deferring to Keishara.
Stryvek had come to know his crew to be mostly logical but extremely competent. This was no difference, he could see that despite the high emotion they performed their jobs to the utmost of their ability. As for Stryvek he sipped his tea and placed two fingers on his temple and leaned his head upon them. Anyone who knew him would know that this was an affectation when he was paying explicit attention and in deep thought at the same time. The wheels of logic ever turned within his head.
"Thank you Commander." Keishara replied as she stood up to take over at the wall console. She looked a bit tired, a little appearance of bags under her eyes, but that was to be expected given the recent days and her need to be involved in all of it.
She brought up an image of the planet with 4 markers on it. Luckily they were close together and didn't need for a rotating image. "There were four detonations on the planet as you can see on the screen. Three in Brighton, one at the Administration building, one at the open space where the concert was being held and another at the dock. The devices appear to be homemade IED's and after collection of materials seems to be a mixture of different technologies from a few species, much like the listening device found on board the Moore." she paused for a moment and focused on the Romulan site. "The bomb that went off in the Romulan settlement was the largest and we have concluded it was meant to focus on civilian casualties as the death toll has reached 47. Unfortunately we have been unable to investigate further as the Romulan leadership there have refused us entry. I believe they don't trust us and given that message I can't say I blame them." she stopped herself continuing down that line as this was a briefing and no place for her personal feelings on the subject. She had to deliver facts.
"Brighton colony's deceased is now 18 bringing the total to 65 overall. Fortunately the colony had shelters up in the hills where we managed to shepherd them into for their own safety as we gained control of the situation and I believe saved more lives. Naturally we have had some incidents over the past few days with colonists but that's been expected given the nature of what's happened. Most of the colonists have now been released back to the colony for clean up and whatnot. There has also been the loss of Karla, one of the Governors of the colony in the Admin bomb, and Arun is still in critical condition with his injuries."
She kept it quiet at the moment that she'd been investigating Arun. During the clean up and gathering of information there were quite a few fingers being pointed in his direction. His dissent for Romulans and his unhappiness in power sharing with Karla had been voiced by more than a few of the locals. Not to mention the placement of the bomb in the Admin building couldn't have been done without someone of high office's assistance. She also found it odd that his computer had been totally scrubbed of all information, something that wouldn't have happened in a bombing and more so done by a meticulous hand.
"It comes as no surprise then given the message sent by these Whisperers that they are taking credit for the attack and have had contact with people here, or even been amongst us whilst we've been on the planet. Does anyone have any questions, or would you like to add anything Lieutenant Th'relnal?" she asked looking at the marine CO. He'd been on the ground a lot since the bombings had happened.
"Each of the bombs had a purpose." Kes said firmly. "That means these Whispers, or whoever, knew exactly what they were doing and wanted to accomplish." He clasped his hands together on the table and leaned forward. "This wasn't just about killing civilians or crippling a colony, they wanted chaos and fear. Any action taken against the Whispers has to be swift and direct to keep this situation from spiraling out of control any more than it already has."
Stewart looked up at the Andorian and El-Aurian. "This is all well and good, but how do you propose we find them to stop them? Right now, I'm sure Starfleet Command is scrambling just to secure these systems and other key ones."
"I believe that's were Operations and Engineering come in," Dashku leaned forward in her seat slightly. "We put our collective heads together and got to work on the problem. We forwarded a list of potential suspects to security after looking into who could have planted the device, but we were also able to trace the signal through a series of relay stations."
She tapped a couple of the controls on the table itself and a holo image of the fourth planet in the system surrounded by three moons. "The signal was bounced from the planet to one of these three moons, we're not entirely sure which as there was some interference, which I believe intentional, to scatter the signal. We could send a probe to try and minimize being detected in our search or we could separate the ship and search all three moons at once and strike once we find them."
Greco looked down at the holo-display of the star system and furrowed his brow in thought. "That's certainly interesting, but we need to corroborate the signal is related to the attacks. Did your analysis turn anything up that would links the device to the Whisperers definitively?"
"The corroboration is in the listening device." Sophie blurted out.
There was what felt like hours as silence descended on the room and everyone turned to look at Sophie. "Ehm I mean that when we were investigating the information held on the listening device we found correlating signals and communication between the relay stations to the ship, then the planet and vice versa. As Lieutenant Zhevou said we've send some findings to security as we found partial serial numbers used to access our own communications array and we've got a few names from that... but..." she hesitated as the bombshell that was going to be the epitome of her spiel. She felt like she was babbling even though she was speaking quite clearly and relatively well. "the reason that is went undetected, aside from the mix of technology used and the minor cloaking field, and the ease of which messages were able to be sent whilst we were here was not because of the people on this ship but that there was a high security clearance code that only someone of an Admiral rank could have."
Kes couldn't keep the scowl off his face. So many questions they had were answered, and so many more now opened up. He tossed his PaDD down in front of him. "For Fenda..." He muttered under his breath.
Greco looked up this information, his gaze looking at everyone before resting on the captain. This was unexpected. “And this is an active security code? You’re certain?” He asked the Ops officers.
Stryvek had been silent during this debriefing. Most of what was said he already knew, and this served merely to bring the rest of the crew up to speed. However, when the news of the use of an Admiral's security code was shared, that was new for him. His left eyebrow raised so high that it might as well have been on the back of his head. This was the closest that Stryvek ever came to conveying surprise. "Well since every code is linked to a name in our system. Who's code was used in this instance?" He asked, logic dictated that they should be able to learn who used the code.
"It was Vice Admiral John Dorian's authorization code," Dashku arched one of her brows in a very Vulcan like manner. "While it is unlikely that someone learned his code and used it in his name, there is a chance that happened. We do not have enough evidence to directly implicate him beyond his code being used, which is why I hesitated to bring it up in an open setting but it was in the report."
When Lieutenant Zhevou mentioned the name out loud it sparked something in her mind. "Wait, isn't he a big name? Like a war hero?" she asked somewhat rhetorically. "I'm sure I learned about him in the Academy. Fought in every fight there has been from the Cardassian War up to the Dominion War... he's been Starfleet's go to guy..."
Stewart turned her chair towards the young ensign. "Admiral Dorian is the Starfleet war hero, kid," She explained to Sophie. "He's now the head of strategic operations for the entire fleet at Starfleet Command." She turned her attention to the entire table. "Admiral Dorian is an honorable man. There is no way he would be involved in a terrorist attack, much less against Federation citizens." She passionately argued. Evelyn met the man a handful of times when she worked under Captain Naal at the academy. He was someone she respected greatly. While himself not a diplomat, his love on the Federation and Starfleet couldn't be denied.
"Kid? You're like 4 years older than me..." Sophie grumbled under her breath. So much so that no-one could hear her but herself. She began to fall back into herself feeling a bit embarrassed being called a kid but leaned forward. "Well, its still his clearance code." she said in her normal speaking voice and sat back in a little mood.
"I served on a ship under Dorians fleet during the Dominion war." Kes muttered. His thoughts swirled. "I didn't have any interactions with him directly, but it was a successful campaign." His antenna leaned forward, expressing deep thought. There had to be the chance someone took the Admiral's code. But what if they hadn't?
"There is a simple and logical solution to this." Stryvek began. "Computer open a channel to Vice Admiral John Dorial. Priority one. Authorization Stryvek-5-9-9-1-Alpha." Within seconds a chime was heard and the computer informed that the channel was open. "Admiral, we have never met however, I am Captain Stryvek of the USS Moore. Do you have a moment? There is something that must be discussed."
At her small little desk in the corner beside the office of Admiral Dorian sat Chief Petty Officer Shay Hoolk, his yeoman. Whilst working her way through the mornings workload, it always pilled up over night for some reason, she noticed an incoming call from out in deep space. Opening the channel she heard a rather emotionless voice and alongside the name given attributed it to a Vulcan.
"Good morning Captain, Chief Petty Officer Hoolk here. I'm sorry but the Admiral is unavailable at the moment. He has taken some personal leave and has been out of office for some time. I could take a message for you? Although I'm not sure when he'll be back." she replied but added at the end. "Unless it is something I can help with?"
There was a moment where Stryvek considered telling the Petty Officer what went on. However, he thought the less anyone knew the better. "Chief if you can tell the Admiral that I would like to speak with him when he returns. That would be a sufficient."
"I will do that for you Captain. Not a problem, but he might be some time in replying to you." Hoolk replied.
"Thank you Chief Petty Officer. Stryvek out." The channel closed.
"Oh." Shay said with surprise as the channel closed abruptly. "Rude." and went back about her business.
Stryvek turned to the crew gathered. "Well it would seem that if the Admiral has gone on leave then it may not be too hard to steal his access codes. I think the question now is why would someone want to frame the Admiral."
"Or it could just be him using them." Kei said out loud. The room turned to look at her. "What? Don't tell me you haven't thought it too? The man is hardly all sunshine and rainbows, and frankly I found him pompous, arrogant and overbearing whenever we fought alongside him and when we had drin... well when I'd spend time with him." Kei said a little harshly. She fully believed he was capable of what had happened, but she often had a dark outlook on people.
"Pompous and arrogant maybe, but stupid enough to use his own codes?" Dashku questioned with a half raised brow, she was going to ignore Kei's comment but had noted it. She was also surprised at the Captain's move to just call the Admiral. "At any rate this is all conjecture, perhaps we should try to find stronger evidence either way before we question him."
As it was revealed that an Admiral could be involved in the bombing was disturbing to Amarok, Starfleet seemed to be less and less the sacred organization that he'd thought it was almost more and more. He did have a strange question. "If the Moore was not here would the bombs have happened anyway? It feels like our presence here may have been an asset to the Whispers considering the listening device."
"He might be gallous enough to use his own codes yes." Keishara replied to Dashku. The Admiral wasn't perfect by any imagination but it crossed her mind that he may not care anymore and given his leave of absence the odds weren't stacking in his favour. Kei turned to Amarok. "The bombs would still have happened and to be honest Brighton isn't special in that. Lots of colonies and installations were targeted as we've said and after finding our listening device I had the captain send out a private message to ship CO's to have their ships searched and many others were found."
Stewart glared at Kei and shook her head at the presumption of the group about the admiral. "His being on leave proves nothing. Admiral Dorian is a man of honor. He would never do anything like this." She said stubbornly at the group in disapproval, her eyes catching Stryvek's before turning glaring at the security chief. Of all people, Stewart thought Davaris would hold respect for Dorian.
Kes tried hard to keep from rolling his eyes. Stryvek was a Vulcan and while they spread the falsity that they didn't lie, it seemed he thought others couldn't lie either. "How many honourable soldiers went to the Maquis during the war?" Kes asked, half to himself.
"No-one has said his leave is anything beyond coincidental." Kei responded. "And honour is subjective. A man with war in his heart will always seek it out." she paraphrased an old El Aurian phrase. "I respect what he has done in his career, but if this proves to be his 'swan song' then it will wipe all that good he has done and this is how he will be remembered."
Greco had mixed feelings when it came to Dorian. The admiral was indeed a war hero and deserved much praise for his bravery and battle tactics, but that's not what Starfleet was about. Still, Steve understood that while the whole of Starfleet was about exploration and diplomacy, it still needed people like John Dorian, as few as possible.
Taking a breath, Steve tried to cool the emotions of the room. "That maybe, Lieutenant, but the fact of the matter is we have no idea what Admiral Dorian has been doing or how his access code could have gotten mixed up in this. For now, we need to follow the source to the Telnov system," He said calmly and rationally about system that is signal originated from.
Amarok nodded at the Security Chief as he agreed with her assessment of Brighton. "Any word as to if any of the other ships had devices or not?" He asked, though he was willing to bet that they wouldn't broadcast such info over subspace.
Kei looked at Amarok, "Latest figures have shown over a dozen so far with those ships being closest to the worlds that were also hit by the terror attacks. The sooner we get to the Telnov system and put these people in a box the better."
Stewart grabbed a PaDD and reviewed the information on the star system. "Telnov is two weeks from here, at least."
"Then we better get moving. I've checked reports of that sector, there has been no movement in that region for weeks. If we are lucky, they don't know what we know." Greco countered, looking to towards the captain to see if he had anything to add before dismissing the crew.
RSS Feed