Case file Wilberforce. Investigations.
Posted on Wed Jun 23rd, 2021 @ 7:01pm by Lieutenant Fulvia & Lieutenant Xalanth & Lieutenant JG Miaxi Etaalu
2,310 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission: Episode 110 - An Endeavor in Discovery
" Two months..." Xalanth said as he typed the info on the padd. " Okay thank you for the info. I hope the admiral surgery goes well." He said before he let out a slight sigh.
Stepping up from his desk he walked over to the holo board and scratched admiral Jarnesha Mathisname off the list.
He now had the list down to ten suspects. That was if this lead of a federation admiral being involved in a slave-trading operation was true, but given more of the Ferengi's crew had squealed it likely was.
Looking over the board he made note of some information that had been added.
Fulvia had added a note to one of the names. Turns out the admiral Keandra Wood had been under investigation for corruption before her disappearance in the war.
" Well, we have a leading suspect," he said out loud to himself as he heard his office door open. " Hello Miaxi you sleep well?" he asked looking over at his second in command.
"Very well. Too many extra hours put in while you were gone, it all adds up." Miaxi replied as she walked into his office. "I've had some calls back from messages I left earlier. A few new leads. Looks like you've made progress." she eyed the board.
The lizard nodded as he handed her a coffee. " Down to ten suspects now. Just got off the comms with admiral Jarnesha Mathisname daughter. Her mothers in for full spinal replacement surgery on new Cairo and she's been there for the past two months so she's cleared. " He said sipping his own coffee in his people's odd way of drinking from human cups.
"Right. Need me to make some calls while I wait for more calls backs?" Miaxi asked. "I realize you've done the bulk of the work, but I want to give it a little more time before I get back on the comms to people who haven't returned mine. Time's a funny thing."
" We have eight more admirals to located or try and located. Most of the ones left on the list are MIA. Any info you could dig up would be a great help. " He said letting out a sigh. This was a hard one.
"Missing admirals." Miaxi said. "That's going to be fun." her tone was extremely sarcastic. "I'd be happy to help, though. I don't suppose you've told the captain anything?" She was already thinking of people she could call. It was a short list, but it was better than nothing.
" I'm keeping him informed. Can't exactly keep this quiet can we." The lizard said as he looked at the screen and the info upon it. The fact of one of their own being involved in this was revolting to him.
"No." Miaxi said. "I had to investigate a senior officer once. On my own ship. It was dreadful. It crushed morale. We proved him innocent, but he still transferred off. I guess I'm just trying to say that it least it's not someone we work with day in and day out." she shook her head. "Give me some of those names and I'll get back to work."
" Here you go." The lizard said handing over a padd with the names on it.
Miaxi took it. "Thank you. Have you got a suspect that stands out, or all ten of these equally suspect at this point?" she took a swig of the coffee.
" This one. " he said bringing up admiral Keandra Wood profile. " Was under investigation for some heavy corruption charges before she vanished a few months into the war. The body was never recovered and we only found part of the ship she was commanding." The lizard explained.
"All right." The Betazoid replied. "I'd best get stuck in. If I happen to turn up anything about her in my hunt for the others, I'll let you know."
" Thanks i'l....." Xalanth began before his comabdge beeped. " Cheif we need you down in cargo bay fight broke out between two freighter crews. " Letting out a sigh the lizard looked at his second in command. " I'll be back as soon as i can."
"I'll be in my office." she said. "Let me know when you get back." She watched him head off, and turned to go back to work.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Many hours later the tired lizard stepped back into security. The stab vest he was wearing was battered and torn and grim ran over his red face. Grabbing a water he drank it down before remembering he had his second to see to. " Sorry, I'm late. " He said stepping into his office. " Been doing my part to uphold inter-species diplomacy with as minimal amount of force as possible. Found anything?" He inquired.
"Yes." Miaxi looked up from a PaDD she was making notes on. "I have heard back from several worlds. Beta Ursae Majoris has been the most on the ball - they knew before I even called them about slaves on their world that they had a problem. They had the slavers in custody, and the former slaves, three of them, were getting medical help. I guess they were pretty beat up. They're looking for next of kin now, and trying to find their former COs to get them reintegrated back into the system. I've talked to over half the systems where we were told slaves were taken, in addition to finding the slaves that second mate dropped." she handed him a PaDD. "We're still waiting to hear from Antos, Dramia, Kaferia, Pandril, Mantilles and Vico V. I've not been able to find anything on these Admirals, though. Beta Ursae Majoris is the only world to have people in custody. The rest are co-operating, but still looking."
Finally some good news Xalanth thought to himself. " That's good at least. Have we've got the police reports on the slavers sent over. " The lizard replied though he knowed she'd already have asked for them.
"Yes. The information is on that PaDD. They're mid level thugs that have managed to avoid charges so far. They've been charged with things like theft and bribery, but there's never been any solid evidence. Federation security there are doing a thorough background search, but it's going to take time."
Xalanth nodded as he looked over the padd. With the last one, he paused as the face looked familiar very familiar actually. " I can save them some time with this last one. He's former cadet Rajab al-Kazi. Got kicked out of starfleet academy for violent assault of a female cadet. Guess he got a new identity."
"So, from cadet to slave owner." Miaxi looked at her own notes. "One of the MIAs he had was a woman. I'd better let them know. Gods, what he must have done to her." she felt sick. "It just gets worse and worse. I'm going to call back those I haven't heard from yet. I thought giving them the benefit of the doubt on being busy or being at the complete opposite end of the clock as us was fair, but it's been long enough."
" We'll find her Miaxi and make sure he enjoys several hundred years at zero one. " Xalanth said as he looked through the reports before placing them down on the table. " Which one is taking the longest?"
"Vico V. I've left two messages for them, and not a peep. I've gotten a message back from all the others, we just haven't been able to connect." Miaxi said.
" Maybe their something wrong with the coms station in the area?" The lizard suggested.
"That is possible." she replied. "But if there's something wrong with the comms systems, we have no way of getting through to them except to visit."
" How far away is it?" Xalanth inquired
She pulled it up on a map. "Pretty far. It's down between Omicron Theta and New Xindus. But there's two starbases down there which should ensure comms stay open, not to mention the fleetyard."
" Let's try and get someone from the two starbases on the line to see if they know what's happened." Xalanth said moving over to his console.
"Why didn't I think of that?" Miaxi mumbled, shaking her head. "Starbase 67 is closer."
" Call her up. Xalanth said realising he was still wearing his stab vest and quickly unzipping it.
Miaxi did, once she realized that Xalanth was unzipping his vest and wasn't going to make the call: both of them calling would have been embarrassing at best in her eyes. Once she was through to the station security, she introduced herself and explained why she was calling.
"That's interesting. We haven't heard from them in 24 hours, which is odd. We were supposed to be hosting a trade summit with several planets including Vico V. We've sent a ship to investigate." the officer on the other line, a Bajoran named Poko told her.
"Please let us know what you find." Miaxi urged him.
"Of course." he replied with a nod. "I'll have the ship call you. They should be there in five hours."
"Thank you very much." Miaxi said. "Starbase 400 out." she closed the comm line. "You heard that?" she asked Xalanth.
" Indeed. Somethings going on here. " the lizard said as he clicked his tongue against the side of his mouth. " Can you bring up any ships that were recorded in the area," he asked an idea forming in his head.
"I can. You want to narrow it down?" Miaxi asked. "How far away from the planet, Federation ships only..." she looked over at him. "That's near Gorn, Klingon, and Tholian space. There's likely to be Ferengi vessels going through there too...uh huh." she was pulling the list up. "I'm getting over 50 vessels passing through the sector in the past week, but I'm sure I can narrow it down."
" Any that have been near the planet in the last week and any federation built freighter in the last ten years. " The lizard said a horrid thought getting in his head.
"Right." Miaxi was quiet for a long moment as she put in the new search parameters and "That's a much more manageable list. I see two Federation freighters which were there in the past week, and a few others. Would you like the list?" she was already downloading it to her own PaDD.
" Of course and let's start running their history through the computer. If I'm correct I think something terrible has happened. " He said taking a padd with the two and began to go through all the technical date about the two ships he could find.
'You think our unknown admiral has taken her ship there?" Miaxi asked, although the answer to that question was fairly obvious. "More to the point, what has she done to cut off the planet from communications or anyone leaving? I've never heard of that happening, or was aware it was possible."
" I think she has. As for the coms, it may be possible to jam the local coms buoy if you have a powerful enough jammer. If they'd blown it up it would have triggered an SOS signal." the lizard added
"Ah, the buoy." Miaxi shook her head. "Okay, let's see where this freighter has been. That's hoping I've picked the right one..." her eyes scanned down through the list of ports the first freighter on her list had stopped at. "It looks like a pretty standard list of places a trader would stop at." she murmured. "I need to look up the other one."
She pulled up the information on the other freighter. "Thank the gods for Federation burocreacy." she said. "I won't complain about paperwork for a month. This ship reports being at Starbase 123 recently."
" Now let's see if they got a crew manifest. " Xalanth said as he typed away at his console. A grin formed on his face as he got the results. " And look who's her captain," he said bringing up a hologram. She received some surgery to hide her appearance but the face of Admiral Keandra Wood was clearly visible.
"Son of a..." Miaxi didn't finish the phrase. "I should have gotten the frequency of that ship going to Vico V. I'll need to call the Starbase back and get it. We should warn them."
" They've probably changed the frequency multiple times. " Xalanth said already reopening the coms to starbase 67 imputing his security code to be put straight through. " Starbase 67 this is Xalanth chief of security of starbase 400 I need you to scramble a ship to Vico V." He half yelled to the confused ensign. After explain the ensign nodded as they furiously began typing out their own commands. " The USS Nevada is already on route sir. They'll be there in five hours."
" Thank you keep us informed. " Xalanth said as he closed the com. Looking over at his second he gave her a reassuring look. " We've done all we can Miaxi."
She nodded. "I'd better start writing this up." she said.
" I can manage if you want to. We'll need someone in astrometric to start plotting out a possible base for their ship something that big needs somewhere to hide." Xalanth said looking at the data again. " By my name founders' third testicle how can one of our own stoop so low. " he said out loud not bothering to hide his anger.
She could feel his anger. "I don't know." she said sadly. "Why don't I go down to science? I haven't stretched my legs all day and could do with a walk."
Breathing in the lizard nodded. " Good idea. I'll write up the reports and take them straight to the captain." he said as he slowed his breathing to calm down
"All right. I'll talk to you when I know more." Miaxi said.
OFF:
Lt. jg Miaxi Etaalu
Assistant Chief of Security
Starbase 400
Lieutenant Xalanth
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
Starbase 400
RSS Feed