Aftermath

Posted on Thu Aug 16, 2018 @ 2:45am by Civilian Hydel Turvan & Captain Maritza Soran

1,423 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Victory Conditions
Location: Conference room III, deck 58
Timeline: MD10 1500

[ON]

This was going to be the hardest part of the job. She was not going to the Cardassian embassy as a supplicant. She doubted Turvan would appreciate a summons to OPS. So this was the closest she could do to neutral territory. She had scant details after forty eight hours investigations. All but two of the confirmed mutineers were dead, but had called in lawyers from earth who wouldnt arrive for physically for some time, and questioning via conference call was limited. The rest of the svikari crew were confined, but considered witnesses rather than conspiritors. Many were sick with radiation poisoning and completing all of them was going to take more time.

There was a hiss as the door opened. Here we go, she thought, getting to her feet to welcome the Cardassian Ambassador

Ambassador Hydel Turvan allowed the doors to fully open before he broke the barrier of the doorway and entered. Normally, he would have stroe into the room as if he owned it, but today his demeanor was much darker. The look on his face was mixed with anger, despair, confusion, but more importantly regret.

Regret that he had not seen this blatant attack coming sooner. Regret that he had allowed Gul Nivall and Legate Umar to play him like a Regalian Fiddle. This entire time, they were planning behind his back to go back in time and disrupt the timeline by giving Cardassia the Founder's morphogenic virus. His government had not completed a thorough investigation, but enough was known to realize that the entire mission was a colossal failure.

And then there was the Federation. . .

Ambassador Turvan knew this meeting was going to happen. He knew that someone would have to answer for the cowardice of the Federation. However, he was at a crossroads as to the best way forward.

He stopped several feet from the conference table and merely maintained eye-contact with the woman as he unceremoniously dropped a padd onto the table.

"927. . .927 Cardassian lives stolen by murderous terrorists." He said initially. "Murderous terrorists that your government equipped, trained, and let loose on the galaxy." He said in an uncharacteristically somber and low tone.

"Yes." Martiza agreed. "The federation trained those people. Yes, they eqipped them. But we did not turn them loose. They spat on every principal the Federation and Starfleet holds. Not only will the survivors face the full force of the law, but we will find who organised them, funded them, and brought them together, and bring that force of law down upon their heads as well."

"Believe when I tell you that my government shares in my absolute lack of confidence in your full force of law." He said dismissively, but still much more demurred than he normally would be. "The full force of your law resulted in a criminal being elevated in status and power." He said, referring to the sham-Tribunal of Commander Ryan.

Maritza ground her teeth. "We abided by every rule of the treaty, and let you put my officers on trial. Don't blame the Federation because you still couldn't fix the result with a stacked deck, loaded dice and the Lissepians in your pocket."

"Oh yes, we all should feel grateful that the Federation allowed us to hold their Soldiers accountable for war crimes." Turvan replied. "How very Dominion of you." He said pointedly.

"Since your government is feeling so generous, then I expect you to turn over each and every crew member of the USS Svikiri for the ongoing investigation." He asked in a clearly rhetorical tone.

"You know I can't do that. There are sympathisers here who would make them into martyrs. I will not feed the rabid mob at the Dilithium Chamber to assuage your need for vengeance, even if I wanted to gift wrap those men for you. The crime was in our space, against our laws. They will be tried, and punished, here." Maritza knew he would hate that, and she sympathised. She still had a knee jerk reaction of an eye for an eye on certain things. "Naturally, we will share any intelligence that indicates any follow up attacks, and liaise with you to ensure full representation for the victims families within the system."

"Your promise of sharing intelligence is as empty and worthless as your apparent Command Authority on this station. It is one thing to allow an insurgency to breed on your promenade under the civilian guise of the Raddon Corporation, but it requires a certain level of incompetence to allow the same virulent strain of terrorists to hi-jack your own vessel right underneath your nose!" He said, his voice rising.

"If I wasn't already so familiar with your incompetency, I'd swear that you had planned the attack." He said, taking a deep breathe, attempting to control his mounting anger. Part of his anger was properly directed towards the Federation Soldier and her inability to control the growing threat within her command. However, another significant part of his anger was due to his own failure in putting a stop to Gul Nivall before he and Legate Umar launched their catastrophically dangerous mission. He was loosing the firm grip and control that he always sought to maintain.

"The Cardassian Government will conduct its own investigation and once the appropriate individuals are identified we will take necessary and appropriate steps to ensure that justice is served." He said more solemnly.

Martiza had been running on adrenaline and all the caffeine and taurine she could squeeze out a replicator for the last forty eight hours. She was tired of the Cardassian Ambassador. Yes, she could throw the fact that the expedition to return the boy to his own place and time had escaped his control right back in his face, but she was sure it would produce exactly nothing. "Does this work for you a lot, Ambassador Turvan?" she asked, exhausted. "The insults, the bullying? The threats? Because I want to help you. But you don't make it easy. And you go about asking for what you want in a way guaranteed to make everyone decide not to give it to you."

"Give?" He asked in a more startled than angry tone. "Did you say give?" He repeated again. "You silly little girl. . .The Cardassian Empire does not sit around and wait for other governments to give them anything like they were a bajoran orphan." He said incredulously.

"The only thing that your people have given the Cardassian Government has been 927 funerals that will need to be conducted." He said bitterly.

She had had enough. She'd tried patience and openness, but Turvan was nothing but a bully. He'd nearly got one of her people killed because he couldn't vet his own staff, and for a diplomat he didn't have an ounce of diplomacy in his body. She looked at him calmly. "Get off my station. You have twenty minutes to return to the consulate. If you put a foot outside it I will have you arrested for tresspass. After that I will speak to the State Department and ask them to contact Cardassia Prime. Maybe this time the Detapa Council can send an actual diplomat who wants to work with me, not someone who just wants to harangue, gaslight and threaten."

Turvan smirked as the younger officer unleashed her anger onto him. Turvan had always believed that you could never trust a person who remained calm. It was not honest, it was a facade, people were prone to give into their emotions. They were easier to understand and perhaps manipulate if you knew which buttons caused which response.

"Mark my words, and mark them well Maritza: I have outlasted your predecessors and I will outlast you." He said spitefully as he turned and exited the conference room.

Only because cockroaches are impossible to kill,Maritza added to herself silently, watching him leave with a sense of relief. If only she could kick every troublesome individual off the station. Do that and you'd depopulate the station by three quarters. For now, the obstructive and argumentative Cardassian would have to suffice. She could only hope his replacement would be more mature. SHe sighed and reached for her current padd. She'd better get the UFP's diplomatic corps onto this before it went even more sideways.

[OFF]

Commander Martiza Soran
CO
DS5

Hydel Turvan
Ambassador
Cardassian Empire

 

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