Reporting for Duty

Posted on Thu Mar 11th, 2021 @ 6:28pm by Lieutenant JG Miaxi Etaalu & Lieutenant Xalanth

4,219 words; about a 21 minute read

Mission: Episode 109 - The Dust Settles
Location: Security Office/Armory/Freighter/Brig
Timeline: MD3

On:

Miaxi had been on several stations, and the sheer scale of them never failed to take her breath away after months on board ship. She wasn't sure she had gotten it through her mind that she would actually be serving on this one, and that the size of the station meant that the scale of ensuring its security would be that much larger, despite having spent a good majority of her trip here pouring over information on her new home. Thirteen security offices alone, a large civilian population, and a mess of admirals and VIPs who would need special attention - well, it was a big change.

She hefted her bag on her shoulder and headed to Ops. After checking in, getting her quarters assignment, and finding out that her new chief was in the main security office, she headed there. She stepped in the door, dropped her bag by her side, and snapped to attention. "Lt.jg Miaxi Etaalu reporting for duty sir!"

Xalanth was doing what he hated the most in this job. Paperwork. Looking up at the new arrival he gave her the most warming smile that his reptilian face could manage. " Hello Lt.jg Miaxi Etaalu. I'm Xalanth and welcome to the team." He said gesturing to the seat opposite his desk. " Please have a seat."

She took the offered seat. "Thank you Lieutenant Xalanth. I'm very much looking forward to getting to work with you and know you all, although that might take awhile, given the size of the station."

"Please call me Xalanth. You are correct about the station. We have a major city in space with both a civilian, ship, and Starfleet population and we have to keep it all in line. The fleet has thrown you in the deep end here. It's far different to being security on a ship." the lizard said gesturing to the hologram of the station with an active feed of any events that needed looking into. There were ten active at the present.

"You're not kidding." she murmured. "It looks like the best thing for me to do then would be to go dump my bag in my quarters and get to work. I expected it would be different, but this is almost a bad dream. Good thing I like a challenge." she shot him a wicked grin. "If I call you Xalanth, you can call me Miaxi. Is there a place you'd like me to start?"


" Well, Miaxi. We have a freighter just docked and we need it searching. How about we go down there and you can show me what you can do." Xalanth said picking up the golden bracelet that had been sitting on his desk and slipping it on his wrist.

Her eyes followed his movement, but she didn't comment. Later would be time enough. "Very well. Do we have problems with smugglers on board this station?" It wasn't a problem on a ship, of course, but for a station, it could be a huge security risk.

" Not at the moment, but I'd like to make sure we keep it that way. We did only recently take the station back, still fixing her up at the moment. That's what most of what's keeping us busy disarming pact traps. " Xalanth said as he picked up his belt and phaser. Pointing to his wrist he explained. " My bonding bracelet. Been adding another gem as my third pregnant with my next child. "

"Ah, congratulations!" Miaxi said with a wide smile. "I'm going to need a phaser, and then I'll be ready. Won't deny I'm a bit nervous though. This will be my first ship search since the Academy."

" Thank you. Now let's get you a phaser and chest armor. " he said leading the way to the station's main armory.

Miaxi followed him, paying careful attention of the route he was taking. She was expecting she would get lost on a station this size, but she didn't want to get lost between important points that related to her work.

Arriving at the armory Xalanth gave a smile to the blond-haired grey-eyed Magna Roman behind the armory security door. " Miaxi this is Fulvia one of the station's Security Investigations Officer and my third. She'll get you any phaser type and armor you need."


"Hi Fulvia, it's nice to meet you. Just a type two phaser would be great, and whatever armor you can find that fits. I know I'm pretty small, but I'm fast. I don't generally like heavy armor that weighs me down. That said, I'll take what I can get. This is new to me."

Despite being trained in intelligence and the gladiatorial combat the smile Fulvia gave the new arrival was a genuine one. This girl reminded her of Leilani the second she shared Xalanth with. " I'll be back in a second. " she said before despairing into the back before returning with a phaser and phaser resistant vest. " Here we go. The vest is self-adjusting, just need your hand print to sigh it out." She said gesturing to the padd on the other side.


"Thank you." Miaxi replied, putting her hand on the padd and making sure it registered before taking the body armor. She slipped it on and smiled as it adjusted to her torso, then took the phaser and checked the setting before hanging it at her side. "We shouldn't keep that freighter waiting. Can you lead the way please Xalanth?"

The lizard nodded as he headed to the turbolift. After imputing the deck number and the security override he turned to look at the new comer. " Ready " he asked.

She took a deep breath and nodded. "As I'll ever be. Can't learn quicker than on the job, so let's do this."

" The freighter captain is a ferengi with a know recorded. Five years ago she was caught smuggling jewels of sound in fedration space. " Xalanth said reading of the report he'd gotten. " Part of our alliance with the ferengi was to clear records of their free traders, so she may be back to he old tricks. Orion crew mostly which means i need some nose plugs."

Miaxi nodded, sympathetic. Orions didn't bother her, but she didn't have Xalanth's sensitive sense of smell. "Jewels of sound, that's good to know. What is the cargo she's carrying this time?"

" Supposedly nothing, but standard civilian cargo for the civilian merchants who are moving back in, but we shall see. " Xalanth said as he pulled out two plugs from his belt and slid them into his nose. " Trust my species to have a near-fatal reaction to Orion pheromones. "

Her eyes widened at this. "I did not realize it was that bad. You're the first Dragonian I have worked with." It occured to her that she would be getting to know many more races here than she had previously, either on Betazed, in the Academy, or on her last postings. She found herself looking forward to that. "I always did enjoy learning about new cultures." she mused aloud. "Although right now my only concern is where Ferengi and Orions might want to hide contraband."

" It's a fact we hope won't get widely known. You can stop by my quarters if you want to learn more about my people, but right now head on straight." The chief replied with a warm smile as the door opened into the docking ring. The freighter in question was easy to spot given it's nature and D'Kora class freighters were hard to miss.

A rather frustrated security team were also dealing with the loudmouth ship's captain who was screaming that the grand negus would hear of this outrage. A pair of Narscan guards flanked here both looking rather bored and obviously wanted to be anywhere else.

" Lead on Lieutenant I'll let you take the lead so you can show me what your made off. " The chief said as the two of them boarded the ship.

Miaxi caught the eyes of one of the security team and gave them a wink. "Thank you sir, I'm sure searching the cargo won't take long." she replied formally. She was tempted to help out the guards dealing with the irate Ferengi, but that wasn't her job - she was here to search. Instead, she headed down to the hold and began to open up the containers held there.

Most were, as the manifest had indicated, an assortment of items for the merchants on the station. Boxes inside crates contained cloth, jewelry, art, and all manner of things that Miaxi could picture being bought or sold. All seemed to line up with the manifest that was with the large containers.

She opened one box and started examining the contents. She was neat but thorough, as she had been with all the others. The fact that she had new chief watching her work was tempered by the fact that this was almost certainly some kind of test to see how his new second did on the job, and she did not want to screw up, especially if it meant letting something dangerous get on board the station. She had taken all the smaller boxes of goods out of the container and was feeling down the sides, making sure there was nothing there. The odd story of hidden rooms had mesmerized her as a girl, and she couldn't help but wish there was a hidden panel. There was nothing.

She started on the last container, going through its boxes, when she felt something hard in amongst a load of clothes. She carefully exposed a small box from within the clothes, and handed it to Xalanth. "I have a feeling she hasn't learned her lesson." she said grimly, and turned back to the container. Soon, she had cleared the rest of the boxes, checked this container as well, and put everything back. "It's always the last one." she said, shaking her head.

Running his scanner over the box the lizard nodded as the results came through. " Yup, enough jewels of sound to buy this ship twice over back in Ferengi space. Wonder what else she could be smuggling."

"Hard to say." Miaxi replied. "All the cargo is accounted for on the manifest, so if they are smuggling anything else, it will be elsewhere in the ship. You know, this is one of the few times I have wished I could use my telepathy on other sentient beings without their permission. It would make the job easy." she shrugged. "Too easy. I think in this instance, the best thing to do would be to question the crew. Those jewels of sound give us reason enough to put them all in the brig. I don't mind tearing the ship apart, but it could take awhile. Someone might actually tell us something."

The dragonian clicked his tongue from side to side as he thought things through. " Four hundred and fifty people in the brig's going to be an annoyance for the brig team, but we can't let this out on to the general population. We should get engineering down here and rip the ship apart to see if they have anything else hiding anyway. "

Miaxi hadn't realized the crew was so large. A new lesson then: question everything. "What if we set up a portable force field emitter and kept most of the crew here? We could put them one place, such as their quarters, then move them when that area needs to be searched."

The lizard nodded with approval. " Sounds like an excellent idea. I'd also separate the officers from the general personnel. "

"Ah yes, that would be a good idea. I think we shouldn't let on that we've found contraband until we separate them - maybe pull the captain aside to chat and then take her to the brig? It would keep them from talking between one another and setting a story." the Betazoid thought aloud.

" Another good idea. I'm glad the academy still keeping its training standards high. " The lizard said with a friendly grin. Something made him pause as he sniffed the air again. "Rather a strong cleaning disinfectant for a sealed cargo bay." he said looking backward and forwards around the room. " They're hiding something else."

She gave him an awkward look. "That's not normal?" she asked. "I just thought they were trying to be clean." she said with a grimace, glancing around the room. "Hmm. What would I try to cover up with a strong smell? Another strong smell? Or blood. So unless someone's died..." she started looking a the panels on the sides of the cargo bay, checking to see if any of them were loose. "I have no idea what it could be, though."

Xalanth gave another sniff, but with the plugs in his nose, it wasn't easy to smell. His eyes darted around the room as he tried to think what was off. An idea crept into his head as he started running his hand along the wall. " Some old cryo units have a very pungent smell. They may be smuggling something else. See if you can find a temperature difference in the wall or floor."

"Thank you for the tip." Miaxi said. "It's really appreciated, especially given you can't smell very easily." she stopped checking for loose plates and simply ran her hands along the walls, feeling for a difference in temperature. It was quicker than what she had been doing, and a good thing too, because the cargo bay was big. A little way along, she realized she could double up, and paused to take off her shoes and socks. This way, she could feel any temperature difference in the floor at the same time, so if there was a cryo unit in the floor near the wall, she would feel it.

She went all the way around, but felt nothing. It wasn't until she moved away from the wall into the middle of the floor that she noticed a slight change in temperature. She paused, bending over to feel it with her hands as well. "Xalanth, I have something here." she said, her hands moving from room temperature decking to decidedly colder decking. She never would have noticed if she hadn't been looking, and putting it on the floor meant that discovery was immune from a simple brush of a hand against a wall. "Clever." she said grudgingly.

She moved to the edge of the line of cold and started looking for a release mechanism or a panel that could be moved. A little way away, there was the line of a floor panel, so she tried moving that. With a little effort, it moved, revealing a cryo chamber.

" An old dranka model. Old and spits out spare liquid nitrogen like a monster, but very low power which is why the scanners missed it. Handy if your smuggling someone. " Xalanth said wiping the ice from the viewport. The face of a young woman was visible clearly in distress given that she was bound to the pod. " We'd better get a med and engineering team down here. I don't trust myself in getting this open. Meanwhile, we'd better start running through the missing people database to find out who she is while we have a word with the captain."

"I'd like to make sure there's only one pod while I have my shoes off." Miaxi said. "It won't take me long. Once I start a job, I like to finish it." she glanced down a the woman, feeling angry. The captain of this freighter had a lot to answer for.

" Go ahead. Fernegi never pass off the opportunity to earn more money. " The lizard said as he began running the girls face through the recoreds.

"That is certainly true." Miaxi muttered as she began gliding her feet across the floor, feeling for other cooler areas in the floor. On the other side of the bay, she found another pod; she had the panel in the floor open more quickly this time. "Xalanth, there's another one here. I'm going to check the rest of the floor, but judging by the size of these pods, there won't be any more. I don't think they would fit."

" I think your right, but we should check all the same." The lizard said scanning the second pod to get it's occupant scan.

One thing Miaxi had already learned was never to take anything for granted - including a lack of space where something might be hiding. She was slower in checking the last section of the cargo bay, making sure there was nothing in the floor or hidden half in the wall, half in the floor. Her initial guess was correct, however.

"Nothing." she reported. "At least, no more cryo pods. Any ids on those occupants?"

" None on the first occupant, but the seconds one of ours. Ensign Curan Mides reported lost in action seven months ago in combat against the pact." The lizard said feeling rather disturbed by this revelation and it showed in his voice. " If it turns out the pact been selling federation pow's to slavers this could cause ancestors know what damage to the ceasefire. "

Xalanth wasn't the only one who was disturbed. "By the gods." she spat, almost literally. "And of course they're not asking questions. Slavers. Just what we needed." her tone was extremely sarcastic. She felt angry and sick. After all that bloodshed, what if it were to start again? "At least these two are safe." she finished, shaking her head. "We'd better go round up the crew."

The lizard nodded as he called some more personal off duty to come back on. Rounding up 450 crew would take some doing.

"It seems now would be the time to separate the captain from the rest of the crew. With your permission, I'd like to go do that." Miaxi requested.

" Go ahead Miaxi." Xalanth said as he followed behind her to see how she handled this.

They walked up to the bridge of the ship, and the first thing Miaxi noticed is that the Ferengi woman had stopped shouting and was sitting in the captain's chair, her expression flat. Ferengi had always felt funny to her; she could not read them at all, even their emotions, and while she didn't try as a matter of course, the knowledge that she couldn't even if she did try had always made her feel odd around them. Add that to the fact that she knew this one was involved in the slave trade, and trade of Starfleet personnel no less, and it made her feel completely uncharitable to the woman. Still, she didn't want to cause a riot, or alert the crew that there was about to be a mass arrest.

"Captain. I'm Lt. jg Etaalu, the Assistant Chief of Security. I do apologize for keeping you so long. My chief and I would like to have a word with you in private, if you don't mind. There's something you need to be made aware of. Do you have an office?"

The woman sniffed. "Of course I have an office. I hope you're offering me an apology." her voice was high pitched, almost screeching. Miaxi merely smiled and inclined her head, as if she was prepared to conceed. The captain shrugged. "Follow me." she replied, and moved to a door directly off the bridge. Miaxi followed close behind, making sure Xalanth was behind her before closing the door to what turned out to be a fairly spacious office.

Once the door was closed, she wasted no time. "Captain, I must inform you that not only have we found illegal contraband in the form of jewels of sound, but we have found two people in cryo sleep. I am placing you under arrest for smuggling illegal goods and the trade of sentient beings." Her tone was flat, unemotional. She didn't want her emotions about the slaves to overcome her; while she didn't normally have a temper when it came to crimes, finding those people had shaken her to her core. "We will be holding you in the station's brig until these charges can be addressed." she finished.

The Ferengi began to let out an angry yell that only female Ferengi were capable of making. " How dare you insult me with such slanderous lies. The grand negus will hear of this outrage as will the federation president. "

"No doubt they can hear you from here." Miaxi agreed cheerfully. "Xalanth, I don't suppose we have any handcuffs handy." she added.

" Always." The lizard said as he pulled a pair from his belt and tossed them to her.

Miaxi grabbed them mid toss and approached the freighter captain. Before the woman could stop her, she fastened the cuffs to her wrists. "I'm sure we have a nice cell in the brig for you. I was going to wait until the bridge was clear, but given what we've found, that doesn't seem quite as necessary. You can keep screeching, but you'll only embarrass yourself."

She looked over at Xalanth. "Permission to take her to the brig, sir?"

" Go ahead, Lieutenant." the lizard replied with a grin.

Miaxi nodded and put her hand on the Ferengi's shoulder. "Let's go." she said, giving her the slightest of nudges to propel her towards the door. The captain shrieked, but walked, perhaps simply because the person behind and slightly to the side of her was walking. As the two of them entered the main bridge and then exited, the captain stopped making so much noise, and Miaxi wondered if she had decided not to make a fool of herself after all.

Although Miaxi was on high alert for the captain to try and cause trouble or run, the journey to the brig was uneventful. Walking in and seeing the vague confusion on the brig officer's face, though, made her wish she'd gotten to meet at least some of the security staff before she had started on duty. "Good day Ensign, I'm Lt. Etaalu, your new assistant chief. This is Daimon," she was almost sarcastic in using the Ferengi captain title, "Olese of the Freighter Vidar. She and the rest of her crew are charged with smuggling illegal goods and the trade of sentient beings. I need a cell for her please." she glanced at the other woman. "And she's been known to scream. A lot." The manifest form she had looked at to get the list of what should have been in the hold had provided the names, for which she was grateful.

The Andorian nodded. "I'll take her from here, Lieutenant Etaalu. I'm Ensign th'Qaonit."

"Thank you Ensign th'Qaonit." Miaxi replied, conducting the handover and standing there for a moment, watching as other brig officers moved around the space. She couldn't see into the space, of course, but she was sure it must be bigger than the one on the Independence. Mentally shaking herself, she turned to head back to the freighter.


The lizard himself was currently jotting down the list the teams had found on the freighter. Moe drug, smuggled items, and a few illegal weapons, but thankfully no more people. The woman they'd found was an odd one having no record on any system he could find. It was rare to find a ghost in this universe, but maybe when she woke up she could explain things. " Ah Miaxi how did it go." he said as his second returned.

"No problems. She actually shut up, so she must have some sort of self preservation instinct." Miaxi reported. "Ensign th'Qaonit took custody. What do you need me to do?" she eyed the bustle around her.

Xalanth pulled out a padd. " Now comes the worst part. The paperwork. We need to log all the cargo and illegal goods we find before we can dispose of them."

She smiled. "No problem. I don't mind paperwork. You can leave this with me." She held out her hand for the padd.

" Okay, Miaxi. If you keep this up your going to be a great addition to the team." The lizard said warmly.

Miaxi laughed. "I don't think one chief I've had has liked doing paperwork, because I've always been encouraged to do my own, plus extra - for the good of the team. I've gotten very efficient at it, enough so that I don't mind it. This will give me a chance to go talk to people, learn their names, and make sure everything is taken care of. I like to see what I start get finished, if at all possible." she took the padd from him. "The manifest in the hold has all the legal cargo on it. I double checked it when I was going through that. I take it anything that's not on the manifest needs to be logged here?"

The lizard nooded. " Checked, logged, and moved for storage. Make sure to check everything they've probably hidden more illegal goods."

"Very well." she replied. "Thank you for your advice. I best get started."

" Keep me informed and don't hesitate to call me if you need help. I need to try and find out who our jane doe is." The lizard said as he headed for the turbolift.

"Will do, Xalanth." Miaxi replied, and headed off to get started.

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