Wool Over Our Eyes

Posted on Thu May 2, 2019 @ 11:23pm by Civilian 'Key Holder' Dorian Gabriel & Commander Caleb Ryan

987 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Doors of Perception
Location: USS Nemesis
Timeline: MD07 1830

Dorian walked the doors of the Commodore Pierce's ready room and pressed the chime, waiting for a response.

The bridge security officer escorting Dorian stood by, since a civilian couldn’t be allowed full access to the bridge. When the doors opened, the officer said, “Commodore, Dorian Gabriel to see you.”

“Enter,” Artemis said. He had been looking at a photograph, which he replaced on his desk. Dorian could see it was a picture of three identical young women, one of which was the Chief Tactical Officer he had just passed on the bridge, Eve Three. The other two looked just like her, though one held a violin and the other was in a civilian uniform of the Daystrom Institute of Technology. “That will be all, officer,” Pierce told the security officer, who nodded and stepped back to his post at the turbolift.

“To what do I owe the pleasure, Mr. Gabriel?” Pierce asked as the door closed, gesturing to a seat.

"Cut the shit, Artemis," Dorian said bluntly, no longer using the formalities of rank. "You and I both know that this entire conference was a big smoke-screen and that the Cardassians are planning something significant," he said as he remained standing. "You can drop the diplomat routine with me, I know the other side of your service," he said. Considering the previous mission in which Dorian served under the man's command on a covert mission, it was an honest assessment.

Artemis smiled. “Do you? he asked. “And do you recall that I was drummed out of the service for it? Demoted, dishonorably discharged, and cast into the wilderness?” He sat up straighter. “Those days are behind me. Now I sit behind a desk and eavesdrop over the border, a kid at the door with a cup to his ear. And I count myself lucky to have even that. I have no doubt the Cardassians are planning something. But I have no idea what.”

"You're scared!" Dorian said incredulously. "I can't believe you've allowed the brass to neuter you like this," he continued. "The Federation is facing a serious economic threat! Are you willing to sit here and just twiddle your thumbs while our enemy uses this as an opportunity to get stronger against us?" Dorian asked rhetorically. "You know as well as I do the Spoonheads are using the Xi'Cadians as pawns against us. My employer has just become an unfortunate casualty of this proxy battle," Dorian said excitedly.

“Not scared,” Artemis said. “This is an issue for diplomacy. I am not a diplomat. And certain...optics need to be maintained,” he hinted. “Xi’Cadia is hardly the only source of dilithium in the Federation, and we haven’t lost access to it. There is just a...middleman or two now. It hardly brings Cardassia back to even prewar levels.”

"You can't possibly be that naive, Artemis!" Dorian said as he threw a padd on the captain's desk, waiting for it to skitter to a stop next to him. "That is a satellite scanning report from one of the view assets we have operational in the planet's orbit," Dorian began. "Since the Cardassians moved in there has been a 72% increase in mining of benamite crystal from Xi'Cadia's nearest moon, Zerum. The 127th is a part of the Sixth Order, the research and development arm of the Cardassian military. This isn't some random conspiracy. The Cardassians have found a military advantage and they are exploiting it. Now it's a question of how it will be used against us."

“And just what is the advantage?” Pierce asked, looking at the padd. He had similar reports. It wasn’t as if Starfleet wasn’t paying close attention to what the Cardassians were doing, or didn’t have assets on Xi’Cadia.

"We don't know, and that's the damn problem!" Dorian said emphatically. "Those spoonheads are not devoting such a large amount of resources just for scientific curiosity. More than likely this is being developed for some weapon design, starship, or something even bigger," he said.

"Look how quickly they were able to develop and deploy those damn orbital weapon platforms during the Battle of Chin'toka. It would not be outside the realm of possibility that they had something else quickly deployable within the Xi'Cadian sector," he continued. "We need to take action before they are able to properly secure a foothold within Federation space," he said. Although the Xi'Cadians had formally seceded from the Federation, he still considered this region Federation space and Starfleet's responsibility to defend from all intruders.

“It isn’t Federation space,” Pierce reminded. “Not anymore. We haven’t heard any intel about some new weapon design or anything like that out of Cardassia. But I will put out some feelers to my contacts in the Union, see what turns up, what plans there are for Xi’Cadia. But there isn’t much we can do until we have more intel. Xi’Cadia made it perfectly clear it wants nothing to do with the Federation anymore. Do you want us to go against everything we believe in about planetary sovereignty? We would be no better than the Cardassians then.”

Dorian sighed in frustration as he stood up from the chair. "You've lost more than just your edge, Artemis. You've lost your fight," he said in disgust. "Sit there behind your comfy desk and worry about maintaining certain optics. There are some of us that still understand where the real fight is," he said ruefully.

Artemis shook his head. “If that’s what you believe, then why are you talking to me?” he asked.

Dorian locked eyes with the man for several silent seconds before turning around and departing the Captain's ready room before being met by his Security escort.

FIN

Commodore Artemis Pierce
Commanding Officer
USS Nemesis

Dorian Gabriel
Security Consultant
Raddon Corporation

 

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