Buzzing in the wires

Posted on Sun Nov 22, 2020 @ 7:17am by Lieutenant Yukiko Winters & Captain Maritza Soran

986 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Si vis pacem, para bellum
Location: Captains officer DS5
Timeline: MD 01 8000

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Silk knew there was a bunch of things still cleaning up after the Cardassians had left. As expected things in the embassy had pretty well been erased and there was not much intel to handle there. While some had departed for Cardassia, the rest had decamped to the planet. Of course transmissions were recorded and monitored. There had been an uptick in the traffic which was to be expected but there was something else, a big uptick in the diplomatic channels and as near as she could see it seemed mostly gibberish which meant it was encoded. She had already put in a request to get decoders on the messages. There were bits and pieces that seemed to pop up and concerned her, concerned her enough to go see the captain.

She bypassed the front area and went straight to the office door which was open. "Captain, sorry, but a moment if I may."

Soran looked up from the engineering report she was reading. "Come in. How is life in Intelligence?"


"Interesting, but not the reason of my visit captain. There has been a big pick up in the amount of messaging going on from the planet. Some is on the regular channels going to Cardassia, some on the diplomatic channels and obviously encoded. What worries me is some of those messages going out do not seem to be necessarily aimed at Cardassia. The regular channels and some of what we can pick up in the coded ones is the usual complaints and demands but the others, well it would to imply something else is going on. I am thinking that there is more going on and much of the other chatter is just cover up, a diversion perhaps. I hate to say it captain, but Fleet intel has been less than helpful. They consider it low priority."

"The trouble Turvan has caused here over the last year, and they think its low priority." For the love of... What were Fleet up to? "What have you got? What do you think that man is up to?"

Silk made a half smile and shook her head. "They believe that diplomacy is the best course of action. Thus, the actions of one individual or even a few are lessor priority than keeping peace with a galactic neighbor. Again, captain, I am concerned that the amount of traffic going out is mostly a diversion. There are some bits that seem to be aimed more at Xi'Cadia. What bits can be decoded seem to point toward logistics if we have things correct. Also, I have asked that ship's docked especially traders departing be recorded. Sometimes they seem to know things. Right now nothing unusual that way. Maybe nothing but just call me suspicious. While I did not read any minds as per the rules, the emotions coming off while angry also had a strong feeling of wanting revenge."

Maritza nodded. "I'm not surprised. Between you and me, I think they've all caught Turvan's delusion. They've got a group hysteria because they were defeated so many times in a short time. Its only going to end in the same thing happening again."

"Probably and it maybe nothing more than just a bunch of exactly what it is. However, there might be a bit more weight to push Fleet along if it came from you captain. I will put together as much as I can and my suspicions. I know I might just be whistling past the graveyard but my gut is telling me keep an eye on things. Stupid maybe, but better safe than sorry. I may need to request more computer time with priority as well to try to get around the coding."

Martiza nodded. "Mr Kivan should give you what you need. Let him know I consider this a priority. And I'd rather be prepared and not need it, than get caught with our pants down." A thought occured to her. "Has anyone taken a stroll around the cardassian section of the colony recently, do you know?"

"Not that I am aware of, things as you can suspect are more than a little touchy right now. I could see if I could bribe some trader with a bit of latinum to go though but that would be strictly off the books. Getting permission to do anything like that is going to take way longer than it is worth." Silk gave her assessment of the situation.

Maritza sucked her teeth. She didn't like cutting corners. But Yukiko was the one who had the expertise here. "Okay. Do it. We may not get anything more than going down ourselves, but there's not been anything out of Cardassia since we expelled them, and I'm starting to worry. "

"I do not suppose you would let me hitch a ride. I can colour my hair and trust me I can look exotic or grungy as any trader bilge rat. It is technically not to code but there are other ways to 'spy' on people." She said and tapped her head for a moment. "I know paranoid as heck but I have learned it was always wise to suspect everything and everyone."

"Dealing with Cardassians, its probably just good practice, not paranoia." She drummed her fingers on the table, weighing the options. Then she sighed. "You know I can't authorise invasive telepathy, even for our bad neighbours. Do what you can with other means." She leat back and glared at her ceiling. "So much we don't know."

"Very well, I will see what I can parse out. I will keep you informed if I find anything that remotely looks interesting captain." Silk noted that the captain had not absolutely forbidden her to go, but she thought it best not to. If something went sideways it was easier to deny everything with a non-Fleet personnel and she figured the Cardassians would be suspicious of anybody.

 

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