In their grubby hands...

Posted on Thu Sep 6th, 2018 @ 7:06pm by Commander Abigail Prescott & Commander M'Mira & Lieutenant JG Cavios Hakin

1,639 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: The Return to Faltan
Location: Captain’s Lounge, Command Deck, Falton Station
Timeline: MD05 - 1130

After meeting with the JAG, Mint received a call from the Deputy Governor of Faltan regarding the assassination of the Governor. After getting her anger out on a piece of machinery, she returned and called their new Investigation's Officer to Refelian's office. There was now something they could investigate from their end. How did a Faltan get their hands on a Starfleet phaser, and did it come from the station. Mint was certain none of their personnel had anything to do with the Governor's assassination, all of her people were accounted for. Though GreyFox was an enigma, but Mint had faith the strange officer would not have assassinated anyone, nor would she have left the murder weapon behind for someone to find. No, this was a setup. She was still deep in thought when she heard the doors swish open.

Cav was still getting his feet under him, and everything was coming at him all at once. He’d barely had time to unpack his things before everything went crazy. He’d never worked an assassination before, and few of the homicides he’d ever worked had been whodunnits. Most of them had been an open-and-shut bar fight or argument over something stupid. This was something else entirely, but then that was why he was here. He was even in uniform, though he wasn’t entirely happy about it. “Commander,” Cav said as he came in, seeing the Orion officer at the desk, looking like she was a million miles away. “Cavios Hakin.”

"Ah, Lieutenant," Mint snapped back into reality. "Glad you are here. I need you to investigate the assassination of the Faltan's Governor, from our end at least. The only information the Deputy Governor has supplied, amid further unfounded accusations, was that a Starfleet phaser was left at the scene. I want to know who, how, and why. You will report directly to me, understood?"

Cav nodded, and drummed his fingers against his thigh to a tune in his head as he thought it over. It was the closest he usually got to standing still when he was thinking. “Do we have the phaser on hand? Should be a simple matter to follow up if it’s from here or was brought from off-world. If it’s from here, I’ll have to look at everybody with access to the armory. If it’s not, then I can trace back where it came from. Starfleet keeps a pretty close eye on their weapons.”

"We don't, and won't, get the phaser back. The Deputy Governor, turned Governor, won't budge on her position," Mint sighed and rubbed her temples. "And she wouldn't say much about the incident, just kept accusing me and the people here of assassinating their Governor, and even of shooting our own Captain! I don't understand what is going on, and I don't like this situation. We're working blind. I only hope we can uncover who did this before the Faltans start tossing blame and persecuting innocent people."

“Well, that sucks,” Cav replied. Without the phaser, the job became exponentially harder. He sat down on the other side of the desk from Prescott. “So, if I understand right, we’ve got our captain shot with an archaic weapon, the governor killed with a Starfleet phaser that we’re not allowed to see, and the Faltans are saying we did it all and they’re not cooperating with anybody?” Cav ran a hand through his hair, messing it up. “Man, this is a rough first day.” He drummed on the armrest of his chair. “What about the captain? It’s too much of a coincidence this all happened one on top of another, right? I mean, obviously, we all know that, we’re not stupid. If we can backtrack that, find who shot the captain, maybe we can trace that to whoever killed the governor. What do we have there?”

M'Mira uncharacteristically stormed into the room. Her green eyes were blazing. "Do I rrreally want to know what this meeting is about? It is not bad enough that I am trrrying to get this station operrrating at any sorrrt of efficiency but I have not had enough time to take a prrroperrr nap! Not to mention a Rrromulan Ambassadorrr's wife up my tail to get theirrr embassy functioning."

"The Faltan Governor was assassinated last night and a Starfleet phaser was left at the scene," Mint brought M'Mira up to speed. Then she turned back to Hakin. "It's a rough time for us all," she sighed and ran her hands through her hair. "The Faltans refuse to do more than throw accusations around like candy. I was accused of orchestrating a plot where we had Refelian shot so we could assassinate the Governor and have it look like retaliation. Where the Deputy Governor got this idea is beyond me, but I digress. Finding who shot the Captain will not be easy, in fact we've been banned from setting foot in the city to investigate this ourselves. Honestly, the only thing we can do is investigate our station to find where that phaser came from."

She looked back to M'Mira now, hope filling her eyes. "Please tell me you've found something about the missing administrative team? Or even the equipment that should have been here when they arrived?"

"All equipment appears to be accounted for," M'Mira responded. "As to the team itself," she shook her head slowly from side to side, indicating the negative. "It has not helped to have had ourrr Captain shot and the station breaking down everrry few minutes."

"Fair enough," Mint shook her head. "So everything was there, phasers included? This does not bode well." She sighed and crossed her arms over her chest, trying unsuccessfully to think of how this could have happened and why. "Alright, we need to do a thorough search of our armory and inspect cargo rosters for any personal weaponry brought to the station." She paused and looked down at the desk. "Oh, M'Mira, I've been given word that we have a Chief Engineer coming, so that will take some work of both our plates. For now, Hakin, you'll head up this investigation. M'Mira you will assist where you can, but remember you don't have to do the dirty work yourself, assign any juniors you can spare. I will make an Engineering team available to you for any work that needs to be done for the station in the meantime."

M'Mira reported, "Yesterday, I alrrready had put Lieutenant Kahala in charge of doing an investigation on the powerrr cells. I suspect that she will take that nerrrvous Ensign Turrrnerrr with her. I hope that they can handle it. As to the Chief Engineerrrr, who?" M'Mira was not certain whether she should be grateful or upset that she would not be as busy. "And why has this engineerrrr been delayed? My nails have been a mess because of all of this." She took out her left paw and inspected her nails carefully. No designs were present but they were coated a plain red. "In any case, if Hakin is heading this investigation, what would you prrreferrr that Kahala do?"

“Call me Cav,” he replied, unzipping his duty jacket a bit. “And I wouldn’t mind having the extra hands. Especially somebody who’s already started while I’m still at square one.” He looked at M’Mira. “If you don’t mind sparing her, Commander?”

Mint smiled as the two officers began discussing coordination efforts. This was going to work out better than she'd hoped. "All I know about the new Chief Engineer is her name is Lieutenant Catrina Tendai," she interjected to answer M'Mira's question. "Don't know why she was delayed. But I'll be glad to have her. Now, as for Kahala and Turner, they are yours for use between the two of you. I may be able to spare another engineer, but I suggest also recruiting a security officer to assist as well."

M'Mira answered, "I think it would be best if he took Turrrnerrrr. I'll let Kahala continue investigating the powerrr cells. Besides, Ensign Turrrnerrr seems to have issues when there are women prrresent. This may be forrr the best."

“Fine with me,” Cav said. “I’ll keep him too busy to worry about who he’s working with.” He looked at Prescott then. “I’ll get with the chief and see who I can get on a team and we’ll do a survey of the phasers on the station. If there’s a stray one, I’ll run it down. Maybe we can even convince the Faltans this is all one big misunderstanding.”

"I hope so, Cav, I really hope so," Mint said with a sigh. "Ok, off you two go, we all have a lot to do. Dismissed. And do keep me in the loop, please."

M'Mira started to leave the Captain's lounge when the station was rocked with enormous explosions. M'Mira immediately covered her head and ears and looked at Mint helplessly. Finally she told Mint, "Sound rrred alerrrt! We need to find that sourrrrce!"

Mint stood there stunned at the explosions until M'Mira's voice cut through her stupor. She slapped her comm badge and called for the red alert. She then took off, heading for the entrance to the command hub, only to be stopped by security who wouldn't let her leave the building. Huffing she returned to Refelian's office.

Cav was coming out of the lounge. They weren’t dead yet, which he took as a win, but he didn’t know what might have been damaged in the explosion. Security would have the place locked down until they could find out what exactly happened. “They sure keep you busy here,” he said. “I’m gonna find out if anybody saw anything.”

 

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