Verification

Posted on Tue Sep 6th, 2011 @ 12:35am by Chief Petty Officer Hugh O'Reily Jr. & Ensign Dar Vox

2,504 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Mission 76 - Home comings
Location: Olympus Mons Armory, Mars
Timeline: current

ON:

The class five shuttle slowed out of warp in to impulse speed. Before it, the red hue of Mars beamed like giant orb of orange topaz. The 'Red Planet' of the Sol System, long the dreamed destination of Earth's earliest space explorers, was now simply a minor distance from its lush terrestrial cousin, and trips to Mars were as mundane as those same early Earth explorers traveling to their local grocery store. All the same the ancient looking planet, with its fields of desert looking expanses, stirred in many a nostalgic empathy for early Human space exploration and the triumphs achieved since first setting foot on Earth's closest cousin.

Had he not been troubled with the information he now held in his hand, Chief O'Reily would have been one of those who would look warmly upon Mars and reflect its significance. Today, the journey to Mars impressed upon him more urgent matters. Only two hours before, he had visited a man who had given O'Reily some startling information about a weapon possibly possessed by a known criminal named Clark. A weapon that, if used with the kind of cunning and planning it was intended for, could spell for more trouble along the newly proposed Romulan Neutral Zone then Starfleet had planned for.

By all rights, Chief Petty Officer Hugh O'Reily Jr. should have given the information strait the Admiral Bremer as soon as he received it. The source, however, needed to be verified. Commander Gunther Vander, a strange fellow Hugh had been directed to from an intelligence analyst in San Francisco, unsettled O'Reily. His cryptic nature and his flamboyancy was something the enlisted man had never seen in all his years in Starfleet. There was something about all of it that just didn't sit right.

Hugh looked across from him, to Ensign Dar Vox. The master of arms agreed to come with O'Reily on short notice after the chief secured transport with a shuttle from Earth that was Mars bound. According to Vander, the mine replicators were supposed to be stored in the Olympus Mons Armory. There was no better person to take then the new master of arms. When it came to weapons, Hugh was simply a novice while Dar Vox was the quintessential martial expert.

"What do you think?" Hugh asked the ensign. "Does any of this make sense to you? Or are we on a wild goose chase?"

"We'll get the truth ether way. I spent some time as a Security Investigator. I was trained that everyone has a secret they wish to hide. Our job here isn't to uncover everyone's secrets just those that will lead to the truth of our investigation. Besides I think I have a friend or two that have been transferred here." He thought on the implications of the weapons grade replicators being in the hands of terrorists.

He just hoped Lt. Com. Rom, a Ferengi, would talk to him or at least had a good price for his information. Lt. Sulla, on the other hand, was a Vulcan and she would be more then willing to part with information she could logically deem necessary to his work if nothing else.

Arriving at their destination Dar had little time to contemplate any further it was time to work. "We should take a look at the supposed empty crates the Replicators where to be stored in. Then we can talk with my old friends to see what they may know. I'd talk to the base CO but I don't want the word to filter to the guilty party if any giving them time to hide the evadence." Dar looked to Hugh for his thoughts.

Hugh nodded. "Yeah, I just hope they recognize the clearance we've been given. The commanding officer is a Tellorite named Commander Falgaar. He's not known to be the most cooperative officer in Starfleet to say the least. But according to the information I found about him, he's only been here for a little over a year. Those replicators supposedly went missing a year ago. I think we can trust him. But I'll leave that up to your investigation."

The shuttle made it's approach, and landed. The cargo doors opened, and both men stepped out.

Hugh looked around the landing pad. Cargo crates were stacked neatly around the perimeter. In the distance, the giant volcano Olympus Mons loomed, overlooking the landscape like a Martian titan. Beyond the landing platform stood eight large domes made of thick, reinforced building material spread out evenly in a circular pattern. In the middle of the dome buildings, which were to Hugh's guess storage facilities, was a flat square four story administrative building.

"Here goes nothing." O'Reily said.

"If anyone asks we're here to inspect the facility for Adm. Bremer. Tell them that based on our recommendations after our inspection he may send some sensitive equipment here for storage. It sets a trap and keeps unwanted questions to a minimum." Dar walked just behind Hugh to give the appearance he was in charge. Though in truth Dar felt they where on equal ground when working on this task. Hugh gathered the intel and Dar had the experience with weapon's tech.

They walked up to the facility's security check in and reported their landing with the Guard there.

Guard, "Picking up or dropping off gentlemen? And how long will you be?"

"Neither," O'Reily looked at the guards rank, "Petty officer. We're here on orders from Admiral Bremer. Surprise inspection of the facilities."

"You weren't on any schedule I've seen today, Chief. Do you have orders?" said the guard.

Hugh shook his head. "What's the point of a surprise inspection if there's no surprise." Hugh crossed his arms. "Look, call for the staff NCO in charge. Give us an escort. I really don't care. The Admiral may or may not be thinking of using this armory for storage in the future. Time is wasting."

"You'll have to have an escort." The petty officer said. " And I will have to alert the officer on duty."

Hugh unfolded his arms, and gave the guard a smile. "Fine by me."

*****

Twenty minutes later, Chief Petty Officer O'Reily, Ensign Vox, and two security officers were touring the facilities. Each of the eight domes was given an alphabetical designation , A-H. According to the information Commander Vander had given, the replicator devices were supposed to be stored in building C. When the four men reached that building, Hugh pulled Ensign Vox aside.

"This is the building we're looking for. We'll see if we can split up. The faster we find what we're looking for and get the hell out of here, the better."

"Not a problem I'll talk to our escorts stay here for a second."Dar then walked back to the Guards. "Hay any of you know Lt. Sulla or Lt. Com. Rom?"

Escort 1-"I know Lt. Com. Rom I owe him thirty bars of Latinum."

Escort 2-"Me too I only owe him four bars though."

Dar-"Well then I got a deal for you as he is a friend of mine. I'll square your debt with him if you'll stay here by the door. Before you try to say no, the door is the only way in or out and everything in here is way to big to fit in our pants. What do you say?"

Both escorts looked eager but defensive. Escort 1-"I don't know we could get in trouble for letting you out of our sight."

Escort 2-"Ya and what if you don't square our debt like you said? Then where out that too."

Dar-"You can watch me talk to him yourselves. I want to see him before we leave."

That seamed to make both escorts happy. Dar motioned for Hugh to take the left side of the room as he took the right. A few minutes into the search Dar found three crates marked to house the replicators. A quick scan showed everything to be normal. Not happy with that Dar used a special security card he had to open the crates, and sure enough they were empty. Thinking to himself (Great this has to be a master thief or an inside job.) Dar walked back to their escorts and passed the time talking about how they lost their pay to Rom, as Dar waited on Hugh to rejoin them.

Hugh came around moments after later. On his side, he was unable to see the crates. He hoped Ensign Vox had found what they were looking for. "I think the Admiral is going to be pleased with what we've found, don't you think sir?"

"You're done with your inspection already?" asked one of the escorts.

Hugh nodded. "I think so." He looked over at Ensign Vox. "I understand you have some old friends here, sir. I think we might have some spare time to catch up, don't you?"

Dar smiled at Hugh as he asked the escorts."Where can we find Lt. Com. Rom? We'll see him first."

********

A few minutes later they where talking with the Ferengi in the Lounge."Hi Rom long time you remember." Dar said as a greeting.

Rom's face screwed up at the sight of Dar. "Yes and I still think you cheated. What do you want?"

Dar"Business as usual I see first everything you owe me we'll can square if you clear these men of their debt to you. And second this is CPO Hugh O'Reily. We need to speak with you privately." Dar accentuated his point by jingling a bag from his pocket.

Rom "Very well you heard the man your good so be gone." he waited a few seconds before returning a big smile to Dar and Hugh. "So lets get to business. I'm looking at making a good profit already today with your first deal."

Dar went very serious as he continued. "We're looking into a theft here. I think it was an inside job."

Rom's expression didn't change. "An naturally you think I know something or have a hand in it."

Dar"Well on our last post together you knew everything that happened on the ship, and would tell for the right price. So, ya, I naturally assumed you have what we need. Also I hear Salla is on base. Lets continue our business in the privacy of her room or office. I'd like to speak to her on this too."

Rom" Of course she is the resident Investigations officer. Follow me we'll head to her office."

The trip to Lt. Salla's office was short. the room was small, more like a closet with a security desk in it. After a few introductions and Dar explaining the situation to both Salla and Rom as he knew it."CPO O'Reily got the intel from SFI. We came to check it out. I found three of the crates. Scans showed them all in order but using my old clearance card I opened the crates to find them empty, save the device used to fool the scanners."

Salla "You think it an inside job that's why you didn't consult us first?"

Dar "Yes I didn't want to tip anyone off if it was. And I didn't think you'd mind me doing your job if I was right."

Salla "I'll launch a full investigation and look into the other crates." She then looked at Rom as he sat their.

Rom "What? I didn't profit from this one yet anyway's. Those crates came in about two months before I did. And from the logs hasn't moves a bit sense being placed into storage."

Dar looked to Hugh then grabbed the pouch in his pocket and tossed it to Rom. "That better get me and Salla a good lead to follow or the next time I report to SF I'll mention your off the book's dealings with the enlisted."

Rom felt the bag and looked inside a huge smile on his face he grabbed a Padd from inside his shirt. and tossed it to Dar. "There's the logs for the crates in question. If you look at the signature It's Comm. Falgaar's. Now whats wrong with that is Our MAA should have signed for them and given a report on their condition. The condition report was never filed. In my Expert opinion the replicators were never in those crates and the Commander was trying to cover it up for someone."

Dar looked at Salla then to Hugh. "We'll have to look into Falgaar's background he may have a conection to one of the former SF Officers now working for the Terrorists. Salla go ahead a and look into the matter here but wait tell we bring Adm. Bremer up to speed, he may wish us to arrest him for suspicion of terrorist involvement and if he is innocent it would look worse on your record then mine as you know. We'll check back in with you when we come back, hopefully with the Admiral leading us to Falgaar's office." Dar then turned to Hugh. Anything else before we report our findings and recommendations to Adm. Bremer?"

"I think we have all we need." Answered Hugh. "We need to notify the Admiral as fast as we can of our findings. Besides, our ride back is going to leave in about five minutes. We better get going, sir."

Hugh hated the thought of a Starfleet officer going rogue. If the commanding officer of the armory had indeed been involved, Admiral Bremer could just as well notify Starfleet Security of the issue to pick up the investigation and bring charges rather then handle it himself. More pressing to the crew of Starbase 400 was the other end of the scheme. What was Clark and the renegade Starfleet officers up to? What was the end game?

The flight back to Admiral Bremer's small fleet of ships took less than forty minutes. During that time, both men had plenty to think about.

As their shuttle touched down Dar looked at Hugh."This was your find, I'll add what little I helped you with if needed. But you should take the credit for the Intel you gathered that sent use to Investigate the matter. I've been in to many commands where an officer took advantage of another person's work to further their career. I'm not about to start that now. When we get to Adm. Bremer's office I'll let you lead." Dar had not mentioned it but he was the victim of such an officer which was why he was lowered to Ensign. He decked the officer in front of the senior staff and was offered a reassignment as Ensign or Court Marshal Dar just hoped he chose wisely. Only time would tell if he could control his temper and rise to his ultimate goal in SF to Captain his own ship.

Hugh nodded. "Thanks, Ensign Vox. It was a pleasure working with you. Now on to business. Computer, location of Admiral Bremer."

OFF: tags to the Admiral!

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