Who Is Nick Bolero? (Part 3, Conclusion)

Posted on Mon Nov 5, 2018 @ 3:09pm by Commander Caleb Ryan & Lieutenant Annora Tessaro
Edited on on Tue Dec 4, 2018 @ 9:28am

874 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Victory Conditions
Location: Security Office/Interrogation Room
Timeline: MD 9 1430

Listening to the two go back and forth reminded her of overhearing a couple of engineers discuss the events of their shift. Most of it was over Annora’s head, but bits and pieces were understandable. In this case though, the stakes were potentially higher. If the Commander sealed the room, then he obviously felt it was important enough to share.

"Takes one to know one. Now with all due respect, one of you either release the lockout or give the scoop."

Ash sighed. “Yes,” he told Caleb. “Phase 2 is in play. Torm’s death was too good an opportunity to pass up,” he said with a sigh. He looked to Annora. “Have you ever heard of Moia Ilmater?” he asked. He didn’t know about Annora’s temporal jaunt to end up here as security chief, so was unlikely to know the name. “She’s former Obsidian Order,” Ash explained. “When the Order fell, and after the war, she took up arms dealing, mostly Cardassian war surplus, but especially left behind Dominion tech, including gene-tech. She was one of four big players in the arms game that basically controlled everything. When I was just starting out in field ops, Commodore Pierce decided he was going to start dismantling their operations. Moia was the largest at the time, since the war had flooded the market after the fall of Cardassia, so we started with her. I worked my way up her operations and we finally managed to figure out where she was. She was too valuable to just kill, with her knowledge of caches of Dominion tech and weapons, and her connections with the rest of the arms underworld, so we managed to make her...disappear. We let the rumor mill operate, so no one knows if she is dead, or if she made a big score and retired.”

“What actually happened,” Caleb picked up, “is we stuck her on a planet by herself, out of contact with the galaxy, to use as a resource for her knowledge. That left the Romulan Enrily Graeca, the Ferengi Daimon Dys, and the Boslic Torm.”

“Caleb took down Daimon Dys next,” Ash said.

“Temporarily,” Caleb said darkly.

Ash nodded and looked to Annora. “Dys spent some time in prison, but he got some expensive lawyers and got off on a technicality,” he explained.

“And then he tried to kill me,” Caleb said. “He killed my wife and nearly killed my daughter.”

“Enrily Graeca was my next target,” Ash said. “That...did not go well.” There was a haunted look in Ash’s eyes. “So we never took him off the board. Then someone else took out Torm and his son took over. We were about to take Junior down when someone else beat us to it.”

“So now the board is clear,” Caleb said. “Everyone is scrambling for scraps, for a place at the table. The field is wide open.”

“Which is where Phase 2 comes in. We’re starting to put Moia back in play,” Ash said. “But not the real Moia. Her disappearance a decade ago made her a kind of legend, but there aren’t too many people who knew her well left in the game. She always did play things close anyway. So we got a stand in for her.”

“The plan,” Caleb said, “is she takes over the trade, organizes all the scattered pieces under her organization, and controls it.”

“And we control her,” Ash said with a smile. “Starfleet Intelligence will control the arms trade in this sector, which will give them opportunities to better monitor threats and make inroads into other organizations.”

"I knew there was a reason I declined to get involved in the spook business after the war. I've read about the Obsidian Order, but none of the people you mentioned. If Intel is running this operation, how does it involve DS5?"

She had an inkling as to how the station was involved, but there was a chance she was wrong. Either way, she needed an answer.

Caleb and Ash looked at each other. Ash looked back at Annora. “Intel isn’t running the op,” he said. “This is a...private affair.”

“Which Ah’m hopin’ stays clear of DS5,” Caleb added, giving Ash a look.

Ash shrugged. “The station is a convenient place to stage things, but nothing should directly involve you,” he said. “Nemesis will still be running point, and our normal stopovers here.”

The idea of using the station even indirectly wasn't something she liked, but this operation was way above her pay grade. "Sounds like you've got it all planned out. Just don't compromise station security."

Ash smiled. “If you even know we’re here, we aren’t doing our job properly,” he teased Annora. Ash looked to Caleb. “So we done?”

Caleb sighed. “For now,” he said. “Computer, unsecure the room.”

There was a beep of acknowledgement and the lighting came back up. Caleb glanced between Annora and Ash. “Ah guess Ah’ll leave you two ta enjoy your date.”

FIN

Cdr. Caleb Ryan
Executive Officer

Ens. Nick Bolero/Ltcdr. Ash Danrisa
Svikari Security Officer/Nemesis Undercover Intelligence Officer
NPC Caleb Ryan

Lt. Annora Tessaro
Chief Security Officer

 

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