Intelligent Intel
Posted on Tue Mar 6th, 2018 @ 6:32pm by Petty Officer 1st Class Tobias Beckett & Chief Petty Officer Leslie Calhoun & Staff Warrant Officer Jennifer Masters - Calhoun
Edited on on Thu May 31st, 2018 @ 9:37pm
2,210 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Episode 2 - The Enemy Within
Location: SCIF - Deck 9
Timeline: MD004 1130 hrs
Tags: SD 71378.1130
Leslie "Billy" Calhoun had been sitting at his desk for the past twelve hours straight. His bleary eyes were straining to see the data on the screen. "There is just too much I don't know how he expects us to get this information to him. The amount of data on the Badlands is immense." His gruff voice rang out through the SCIF.
"Just do it... It is not like we have a choice. Malbrooke expects the information by morning." Tobias replied with a little too much attitude in his voice. Tobias had been getting more despondent ever since his chat with Suzie. Perhaps he would have to go see the Chief Counselor. But for right now he had a department to run at least until the CIO could manage to show up.
Jennifer just kept working as she said with a grin, "What's the matter, old man, can keep up with us youngsters?" Jen knew Calhoun wouldn't appreciate her candor, specially not in this mood, but she at the moment didn't care. She tried to focus on her screen.
"Now you listen here, I was sneaking around and working with code-breakers long before your greatest of granddaddies was in diapers. Youth does not make miracles, the sooner you learn that the better off you will be. The best thing that an Intel Officer can hope for is to have the report ready the day after it is needed." Billy smirked and turned back to his screen.
Jenn grinned, raised her eyebrows, "Maybe so, and I never claimed to be a miracle worker. I claimed you were slow." She tapped a few times on her console before continuing reading.
"I like you kid, you got spunk... Moxie." Billy replied. His screen suddenly began scrolling a large file. "Ho, Ho what's this..." He picked up a corn cob pipe and slid it into his mouth unlit. A menu of status reports from an undercover Starfleet Officer came scrolling on his screen. "Masters, I am transferring a data stream to your station. It seems to be about an undercover. Your the human intel see what you can make of it." Billy shouted.
Calhoun transferred the data and on Masters' screen came two words and picture of a Nor Class station. Those words were in Cardassian Breyet Nor.
"Breyet Nor?" Jen said softly. She then opened the file and she scrolled trough it. "Metagenic weapons?" She said out loud while reading. She leaned closer to the screen and seemed to be in trance for a moment. "No kidding, pooh." She went on making exclaiming noises. "Wow, hey Calhoun, come over here, this is huge." She looked at her screen again.
He slid his chair across the room to where Masters was. "Did you say metagenic. They were banned years ago. What do you have? Beckett you may want to see this as well. This may be an all hands on deck." Calhoun was amazed, they might be looking at the mother load.
Breyet Nor, Old Cardassian station, they were experimenting with them. I am not sure if they have succeeded, the file doesn't say." Jen pointed to that part of the file.
"Breyet Nor... That means Kill Station if my Cardassian is correct." Tobias whispered.
Joran Thal quietly walked into the SCIF after punching in his ten digit key code. The doors hissed shut as he overheard "Kill Station". His polished boots made their way to where everyone else was crouched over one particular screen. His calm demeanor didn't show surprise by the information presented as his chrome-colored hand pulled out a small, rectangular paper box from his pocket, opened it and pulled out a black cigarette from Thalon Prime. They truly were unique in that the produced smoke wasn't carcinogenic. He carefully placed it in his lips, put the box back and pulled out an old-fashioned metal lighter. He let out a long, slow sigh as he flipped the top open and thumbed the flame on and pressed it to the cigarette as his other hand cupped around his face. Once the cig was lit, he flipped the lighter closed and placed it back inside his pocket.
"Or 'Killer' Station, depending on the intonation." He took a drag on his cigarette and let the smoke exhale faintly out as he continued, "What's the location?" He spent most of his adult life developing a way of speech that focused on the important bits. He hardly rambled or said things that didn't have a direct purpose.
Jen waved her hand to vent the smoke away a bit. She coughed a bit as she said, "Let me see, the file is somewhat corrupted, I think someone has attempted to delete this information. There are holes in here." She scrolled trough it.
"Well..." Then she noticed she was surrounded by all male presents. She got up. "Wow, tone it down with the testosterone a bit." She waved her hands a bit as if it was hot in the room. "Pff!' She said while she tugged her uniform and walked over to the replicator. "Ice water please." She took a sip. "Ah, that's better." Then she looked to her 3 male colleagues.
"Thal about time your showed up." Tobias said, as he looked at the new arrival. Calhoun for his part puffed on the unlit pipe "Well sir it seems that it is located somewhere in the Badlands according to the last Intel reports. But these reports are about 10 years old. What is more amazing is what these reports are saying that station was for." Calhoun began to tap the stem of his pipe on the screen.
Joran let his narrowed eyes glance over to Tobias briefly, showing just the slightest annoyance. "Excuse me, chief, but I don't recall asking for your permission to arrive at this time. And if I were you, I'd be wondering why the SCIF can't get anything valuable to the captain in a timely manner." He ended his brief rant by taking a slow drag of his cig, exhaling again before turning toward Calhoun. "Mister Calhoun, would it be your opinion that since this information is so old, we should toss it outright?"
"Well sir, it is old but..." Calhoun began to respond and was interrupted by Tobias.
"Even though you outrank me, last time I checked I was the Chief down here and you do need to check with me." Beckett replied with a little bit of anger boiling in him.
Jen took another sip and looked over to the screen again. She put the glass back in to the replicator. "Hang on." She walked to the computer. She gently pushed Joran aside and tapped on the console. "Look, an old access code." She looked to her male colleagues and then said, "Computer, identify, whose code is that?"
The computer replied: "The code belongs to Ensign Bernadette Freise."
Calhoun plopped into his chair and slid over to his station. "Why does that name ring a bell? Hang on... Hang on... Here it is... That is the name of a Security Officer that was placed under deep cover. Last known rank was Lieutenant Commander and she lost touch with her handler two months ago. It is believed that she may have defected." Billy shouted over his shoulder.
Tobias for his part stood and stewed as anger roiled within him.
Joran took another slow drag of his cigarette and appeared to ignore Tobias' rant, instead turning to look at the others working to decipher what information was becoming available. "It's also possible that she's simply been unable to contact us without exposing herself. What do we know about Freise?"
Jen opened up her bio. Freise, Bernadette, planet of origin Bajor, rank lieutenant commander, security officer." She scrolled on. "Well, for one thing she has a short fuse, she is stubborn and impatient. Wow that's me on a bad day. Oh and both her parents were killed during the occupation when she was very young. She was raised on earth."
Calhoun spoke up as he puffed on the unlit pipe. "Sir her service record is classified level 10 clearance and above. Starfleet has not made a decision on her status yet. So she is to be treated like both an officer and a traitor. Since she is still undercover no official record remains open. However, in my opinion a Bajoran whose parents were killed by Cardassians is reason enough for her to be anti Cardassian. Since we are helping them it would be anti-Federation by extension. Would it not?"
Jen cracked her hands and said, "Well, should we go and crack it open then? I think we have enough merits to go check her service record now. I am kind of curious myself what she is hiding."
Joran nodded as he considered his next move. Careful planning was needed in all cases, especially an extremely sensitive one like this. "Mister Calhoun, would it be possible to access her sealed records with the help of Miss Masters?"
"Possible yes... But she would have to have hacking skills that the Federation has not seen yet. I mean the record is for Admiral's eyes only. What is worse is if she gets in and gets caught that is a court martial for sure." Billy leaned back in his chair and puffed the pipe some more. He knew to things at that moment the first was that he liked this knew boss and the second was that something was amiss in the data.
Tobias spoke up. "Well sir why don't we simply go to Malbrooke with what we have and let him crack the file." The sir was said with a little too much stress on the r sound. It was added for rank purposes only.
Jen leaned back in her chair. "The problem is not getting in without detection, the problem is if you can all keep your mouths shut. Cause I don't trust the senior chief 'do good' officer over here." She looked over to Tobias.
Thal's eyes slid from Jen to Tobias, watching for his reaction. Before he got one, Joren spoke up, "Get to work, Masters. Let me deal with any potential leaks." His eyes stayed focused on Tobias. "I'm quite skilled at fixing... incidents that may arise."
Calhoun smirked at the new CIO "Anyone have a light, I may have to light this pipe. It looks like it is going to be a long day." His hands began to dance across the console in front of him. "Spoofing network now, Masters she is all yours..."
Beckett knew what was happening was entirely wrong and could get everyone involved court martialed. He decided that it would be best to keep his mouth shut and just let it happen. His day went from bad to worse when he looked at his screen and he saw the order from Malbrooke. The order that made Thal the new chief of the SCIF.
"Thank you," Jen said to Calhoun and started several of her installed programs and subroutines. Then she called up starfleet command intelligence. She called up the profile of Commander Freise. Her hands went so fast she wasn't sure if her colleagues were keeping up with her. "Oh wow, my old back route is still in place, looks like the geniuses at star fleet command haven't found it yet." She grinned and just said, "Don't ask, I hacked in to classified files back in the academy. It's why I got expelled really. They asked me how I did it, but a good spoof doesn't reveal their secrets." She looked up to Calhoun and Joran. "I could access more secret intell if you want. Just kidding," she said laughing. "And here we go, service record of Commander Bernadette Freise." She looked to her other screens with her programs. "We got about ten minutes, starting count down now. Then I have to lock out or else my back route will be discovered."
Joran almost smirked at Masters, respecting her sassy personality and determination to simply get the job done. He'd have to note that in his crew dossier files. He quickly stuck another black cigarette into his mouth and nodded at her. "Proceed as planned, petty officer. If you're detected, please inform me so that I may distribute cyanide tablets immediately. He turned on his heels and headed out to the corridor to light up again, slowly eyeing Tobias on the way out.
"Don't mind if I do," She said. "How about we have some drinks together tonight? I have been eager to try the bar on this ship." It was an open invitation, she didn't expect a real answer, she would just have to see who would show up.
A Joint Post By
Warrant Officer Joran Thal
Chief Intelligence Officer, USS Pioneer
Senior Chief Petty Officer Tobias Beckett
Intelligence Specialist, USS Pioneer
Senior Chief Petty Officer Leslie Calhoun
Data Systems Analyst, USS Pioneer
Petty Officer First Class Jennifer Masters
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