Caleb Xeod, The Vengeful

Posted on Sun Feb 9, 2020 @ 7:47pm by Captain Maritza Soran & Civilian Jason Haines & Lieutenant JG Natalie Cross

3,506 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: Et In Arcadia Ego
Location: Commander Soran's Office
Timeline: Back post : Doors of Perception, MD62

Previously from "Strange Meeting You Here"...

"Why don't you tell me about Captain Aaron Daniels of the Marseilles?" She was going to find out about him one way or another. She just hoped Rob would tell her so she wouldn't have to cash in some of her favors.

"Lieutenant, right now I am not going to tell you a damn thing", Rob replied. "If you want to have your CO request my presence so we can talk fine, but I am not going to be the one responsible for getting you, your loved ones, and those around you killed, or worse. Walk away or you are putting this station in extreme danger."

His reaction was very telling. Her "what if" was beginning to look more like the reality of the situation. She wasn't going to push questioning him any further, but do exactly what he suggested. "In that case, if you'll accompany me to the COs ready room." She said stepping aside, a lift behind her coming into view.

Rob smiled briefly and stepped in beside her. He just hoped her CO wasn't as stubborn as her.


Rob didn't say anything as the turbolift zipped along. He was already planning what he would need to do, who he would have to contact, and what he was going to have to buy to deal with Daniels. He would have to make a trip to his bar. He was certain that Farq would be heart broken that he wasn't truly dead as that meant he would have to pay Rob his share, which after seven years would be quite a lot.

Natalie lightly tapped the comm badge. "Cross to Commander Soran."

"Soran here."

"Commander, I have located a gentleman that has information on Captain Daniels however he is hesitant in sharing information with us as he believes it will place the station in great danger. " Natalie paused for a moment. She looked over at Robert. "The man in question is Robert Haines. We are on our way to your ready room."

At her desk, Maritza looked up from the orders she was signing in surprise. That was an unexpected turn up. Dr Wells thought the man was alive. And now her new intel officer had found him. Lieutenant Cross was good. "I'll be waiting."

---

Maritza got to her feet as the two intelligence officers walked into her spartan office, "Mr Haines. Welcome to DS5," She held out her hand. "I'm sorry it can't be under better circumstances."

"Thank you Commander", Rob replied. "I would be interested in hearing the history of you crossing paths with Daniels."

They sat, and Maritza described the initial request, and then the direct encounter where Daniels had managed to get Haines off station against her better judgement* "He wanted to go, like he was planning something, but after he went missing we did some digging. He might have bitten off more than he can chew."

"He probably did want to go", Rob said. "He is very determined when he views something as either right or wrong. He also has an extreme dislike for bullies, which it sounds like Daniels being Daniels, was in bullying mode. On top of that, he was doing his job as an Intel officer. When someone takes that much interest into someone out of the blue, something is up. I imagine he wanted to get to the bottom of it."

He paused momentarily before continuing.

"Did he bite off more than he can chew? Definitely.", Rob said. "But you are lucky he did. Daniels is not someone you say no to lightly."

Natalie sat comfortably listening to the conversation. She had questions but preferred to wait and see approach. She wanted to see in which direction Robert would take the conversation.

"What's your history with Daniels? Or whatever his real name is?" Maritza asked. She wanted to know if Jason was the target of Daniels plan, or the bait.

Now, how would he answer? Natalie wondered. She couldn't shake the feeling that this was all related to Robert. She had no proof of course, yet.

"Ok, I am going to give you one chance here", Rob said. "Let me handle this. It is one of the things I've been trained extensively to do. But, I get the sense you are probably going to say no to this, so before I continue, I will give you a warning. Before you use any of the information I give you to start a hunt, look in the mirror. If you can't look in there and see yourself killing this son of a bitch, don't bother. Very few people have seriously tangled with this man and come away unscathed. So, that's my warning, do you still want me to continue?"

"I don't bluff and I don't blink, Mr. Haines. I've already brought down one member of the admiralty, and I'm not afraid of starting wars to get my people back." She fixed him with a black look. "And I never, ever, back down."

"Admirals are easy pickings", Rob said with a shrug and a been there, done that look. "Don't say I didn't warn you if you find your station starts plummeting towards the planet. Now, some of this is first hand, stamped 100% accurate. Some of us who have tangled with him have had to draw some assumptions on other particulars are based on a fair amount of digging into old records and security footages. This is a touch long story, so pardon me if it seems I am rambling.

So, Daniels was born Caleb Xeod. He was the child of an orion pirate and a slave. At some point between ages 10-13, Caleb's mother tried to escape and was executed. The pirate after that point didn't want anything to do with him, so Caleb was on the streets. We can't say exactly what he did to survive, but he did, managed to get off planet and somehow made it into Starfleet. Although Caleb Xeod no longer exists in any Starfleet database, based on aging models, it is believed he came in right around the start of the Cardassian wars. Starfleet was in need of officers and from what I've researched, recruiting standards were a bit low."

He paused momentarily.

"Caleb works his ways through the ranks, serving on ships assigned to outer regions", Rob continued. "He was promoted to Captain, relatively young at 35. Six months later his ship, the Minerva disappears, reportedly while investigating a newly formed black hole. The ship and crew are reported lost. I didn't realize it at the time, but when I was a junior in academy I had him as a lecturer. I was a bit more interested in non-academic endeavors at the time for him to really stick him in my mind. It was my non-academic endeavors and really low grade point average that had garnered his attention apparently. Another thing I missed was the fact that he was trying to recruit me."

He paused again, looking a bit thoughtful and then resumed, "About three years later, just after the Dominion war, I am a fresh jay-gee in some dark corner of intel. My unit was assigned to investigate an interesting chain of events. We caught wind from a contact that he got a sizeable stash of Federation weaponry. More of the heavy duty stuff you would find in a Marine unit opposed to run of the mill phasers. The contact said, the individual he got the weaponry from was someone calling himself Kumiho and was the Captain of a Starfleet vessel, the Aristotle, an Akira class vessel. If you aren't up on Earth's Asian history, Kumiho is an immortal nine-tailed, flesh-eating, shape-shifting who preyed on people by tempting them using deceit and trickery and if they gave in, it would eat their hearts and livers.

So, we are able to finally triangulate on his position and weren't we all surprised to find Captain Xeod, alive and well, but going under the name of Captain Josh Mitchell. We thought we could get the drop on him, but at the last moment he was warned of our presence, not by humans, Vulcans, nor Trill, etc, but by Romulans. We were lucky to get out of the situation alive. By the time we are able to report in, the USS Aristotle had suffered a warp core breach, all aboard lost.

The next encounter I had with him was total chance. Me and some buddies were on a R&R gambling cruise, when who should appear but Captain George Wentz, CO of the Akira class vessel, Mayfair. They were raiding the ship, knocked out most systems with two shots and boarded. I was doing quite well at the dabo table, so me and my buddies decided to resist. We got into a fire fight, one of my shots hits a panel, which explodes, killing his XO, who also happened to be his wife I later learned. He and his team start to retreat as the cruise Captain had managed to get a distress call out. Before he left, I was quite surprised when he called me out by name, telling me he would get his revenge on me. I realized at that moment, the whole not paying attention in class was biting me in the ass at that time."

He smiled briefly and said, "So, what else do you want to know about him?"

"That level of fraud is unbelievable. He's not just masquerading as a Starfleet Captain, he's getting his identities changed inside the system. How is he doing that?" It was a staggering level of either corruption or blackmail, and Starfleet was better than that.

"Come on now Commander. Are you really that naïve?", Rob asked. "Look around your own station. If you know what you are looking for, you can tell numerous shops on your promenade are fronts for criminal activities. You have a major corporation, Raddon, that has its fingers in questionable interest and has the ear of numerous senior Starfleet members. Lasuma's that has questionable ties has a shop here. And you don't shut them all down because some are useful for getting you information and others you don't shut down because you have superiors who tell you not to. No matter what anyone tells you, once you get away from the core Federation worlds, favors, information, and latinum runs the universe.

It's a process. He first started by trying to be the best officer possible. As he moved up, he would offer to 'mentor' certain problematic officers who were in danger of discharge or imprisonment. This established a loyalty to him. By the time he got his first command, he had the worst of the worst, who were loyal to him serving on his ship. Then you start the game of quid pro quo. He does a few favors here, a few there and before you know it, he has numerous chips he can cash in. And here where the relevance of his childhood comes into play. He grew up amongst a whole set of morals that are different than the ones that most Federation worlds have. When Caleb comes to collect, you pay or bad things happen. He has strong ties amongst Orions and all the different criminals that come with it. Not only that, working along the outlying areas, he has made contact with Romulan, Klingons, Cardassians, Breen, Tholians, all on the down low without Starfleet approval. He collects information about those who owe him, especially the really embarrassing and/or incriminating stuff. If he can't find any, he creates it. You know that stray love letter to an Admiral's wife, crap like that. "

He paused.

"Don't get me wrong, this hasn't happened overnight", Rob continued after thinking a moment. "It has taken patience, courting the right people, and some strokes of luck and events, such as the Dominion war and the Romulan's situation with the rogue Shizon, those types of things. Believe me or not Commander, I don't care. But this is the web you face in taking on Caleb. Tread lightly or you will get stuck in it."

He sighed and then smiled, "Well, at least we know that the chances that Jason is alive are higher and we have a little bit of time to find out Caleb's new name and ship."

"That's quite a story." Natalie looked out the window at the stars. Her feeling that this had something to do with Rob was on point. She wanted to pat herself on the back but the realization of the situation held it back. A man that has spent all his life carefully planning and executing each of his steps would be nearly impossible to take down but on several occasions Rob had asked for them to stay out him handle it. He must have a plan, of some sort. Even if it was just a beginning of a plan it was more than what they had. Natalie looked over to Rob. "So, how do we get Lt. Haines back?"

"Worst case, you don't", Rob said, sighing heavily. "We can't discount that my son may be dead. Best case, he'll make contact. If we go with the best case, Jason escaped, perhaps even has information. Caleb wouldn't have run to hide. The question is, who would Jason feel comfortable revealing himself to at this point in time."

"Doctor Wells," Soran said without hesitation. "They are...intimate."

A 'hmm escaped Rob.

"I don't think he has at this point", Rob replied. "I actually ran into Doctor Wells. She still seems distraught over the mention of his name."

"I'm not sure there are any other options here that stand out. Any of the senior staff is possible. Maybe the Klingon Ambassador." But Maritza was doubtful he'd reach out to anyone here if Xeod was that dangerous. He'd not want to put Alanna in danger.

Natalie continued to look in direction of Rob. She was growing frustrated with him but hid it well. "Sir, you make the situation seem black and white; either he finds his own way home or he is dead." Natalie paused for a moment. She allowed her mind to wonder to her own situation. She wondered if people in charge had similar conversations as this. She managed to push those thoughts and feelings to the side for now, and focus on this conversation, this situation and best way to handle it. "Are you able to give us anything that would help us track this Caleb Xeod? Favorite hangout spots? Individuals he might have contact with?"

"I can give you the name of a couple of locations that might not kill you on sight for asking about Kumiho", Rob said. "One's a place in the Orion sector. The other is a resort on Risa. At both places be prepared to take it slow and spend a fair amount of latinum. And if you want to start getting an idea where his new ship might be, being deployed, start looking for remote sectors of the Federation where Starfleet is coming to the rescue a lot. He'll try to build a reputation for his new persona."

Maritza folded her arms. "What this man wants, at least as far as it pertains to my officer, is you. And he has your son. Do you have any suggestions?" Because I have one, and you won't like it.

"Commander", Rob said. "with all due respect, I've given you the information you asked for. I am telling you, until Jason surfaces or Caleb is satisfied that Jason won't be a factor, his focus is going to be re-establishing his new identity, not me. Caleb doesn't withdraw like that unless he is truly worried. You wanted to handle this, so I am going to let you handle this."

'To a degree', Rob thought.

Maritza gave serious consideration to having him arrested then and there and trading him in for Jason. Though she doubted Jason would thank her for that. "Handle what? I have nothing to go on. A possibility of not getting an operative killed? That's hardly good enough. You're showing surprising disregard for the wellbeing off your son. Surely you have more than that?"

Natalie continued to listen to the conversation. The idea of using Robert as bait had crossed her mind but she worried that even if Caleb knew that Robert was alive that it would not stop him from completing whatever his plan was. Natalie linked the motive behind Caleb taking Jason to the incident where the XO was killed; Caleb's taking Jason was defiantly revenge. Even if he knew that Robert was alive he could use this opportunity to hurt or kill Jason and have Robert watch just like he had watched his wife die. "We should proceed with caution. We don't want to make any rash actions that could tip the scale in either direction. I'd like to reach out to number of contacts and see if anyone knows anything. A man like him can't just go rouge and be left alone. Someone has to know something. Someone has to be hiding him."

Rob ignored Cross and looked at Soran with a scowl and then let out a 'hmmph'.

"With all due respect Commander for a few minutes you had me thinking you were more than an administrative desk jockey", Rob said with a growl. "Now, first if I have to map this out for you, perhaps you've been promoted beyond your capabilities. Yeah damn it, your operatives will be in danger trying to hunt this man down. I told you as such. Yes, they will need to make contact with people who will be considering if they should ignore your people, help them, or shoot them. Deal with it, it's a dangerous situation.

Second, if I ever hear you question my dedication and loyalty to my son and fellow officer again, those will be the last words you ever speak. Just because I am not wringing my hands like some frightened wet-nurse and sobbing my eyes out, doesn't mean I am not thinking and worried about my son and his well-being. You don't even know me. How dare you presume that? Now, I've given you everything I know and steps you can take to track this man down. If you don't have the spine to send your people into this, get out of my way and I will do your job for you."

Natalie sat there watching this outburst from Robert. She wanted to smile. A younger version of her wanted to crawl out and giving Robert a high five. For a moment there she had her doubts about his resolve but seeing this reaction defiantly showed that the old man still had a fire in him, a will to fight and pursue this.

Soran looked at the older man coldly. "Its been six weeks since your son was taken. In that time I've been turning over every rock I can find, called in every favour that might be fruitful and, might I add, been looking for you. Its taken you six weeks for you to turn up here. Six weeks that I could have used to move a damn sight quicker. I've been in charge of this station for the best part of a year. I'm not hard to find."

She took a step forward into his personal space, bubbling with anger. She had a missing crewman. She was not having this childish outburst. "So yes. I do question your loyalty to your son. Its been Six weeks. Five days, six days and twenty hours to be exact. Six weeks in, at best, hostile territory, if not outright imprisonment and possibly a shallow grave. Six weeks to get further away, six weeks of a cooling trail. Six weeks of wasting time, and you come strutting into my office trying to frighten me with a boogie man. I'm not the cowardly desk jockey in this equation. If you can't pull your ego out of your arse and do something useful, then I suggest you remove yourself from this station and carry on as you have. Doing nothing!"

"Doing nothing?", Rob said with a snort and sarcastic chuckle. It wasn't like he could tell her that he had been sowing the seeds of discontent on Xi'cadia. "Very well Commander, have fun."

With that he turned and walked out of her office.

"I want him followed." Martiza said promptly I want to know where he goes, and who he contacts." She crossed his arm. "And follow up on his tips, just in case he's not talking bullshit."

Natalie stood up from her seat and nodded. "Yes ma'am. I'll keep a close on him, and keep you updated." Natalie said.

[OFF]

Commander Maritza Soran
CO
DS5

Lieutenant Commander (ret.) Robert Haines
Spook and General Pain in the Rear
NPC'ed by Ensign Jason Haines

Lieutenant JG Natalie Cross
Chief Intelligence Officer
Deep Space 5

 

RSS Feed