Tracking Party: Huddle Up

Posted on 28 Jul 2021 @ 9:13pm by Commander Calliope Zahn & Lieutenant Theodore Winslow

Mission: M2 - Sanctuary
Location: Monsoon Casino, Stardust City, Freecloud
Timeline: BACKSTORY ~four months before the recovery of OC Immediately Following Tracking Party: Mermaids and Fairies
927 words - 1.9 OF Standard Post Measure

Indigo could not believe how hard it had been to rate the security officer away from the Klingons. It had been like they were long lost friends or something. Indigo looked up as she saw the other two working through the crowd towards her. She let go of the man she had stolen from the Klingons and pushed him towards the other two. “Your lost sheep.” She muttered before stopping looking at the pair. “What is wrong? What has changed?” She wondered, seeing Calli and Ryder glancing at each other.

Calliope huddled up to speak low. “I found Brinn, Crewman Messier’s friend from Daucina. She tells me Messier met Hadley Graves, from the Graves crime family, and he went on the run because of something from that encounter. It’s possible the Orion woman who talked to the Noodle sellers is hired by the Graves for a hit on Messier. Messier had an arrangement to get on a ‘Ferry to Freedom’. She also mentioned that a rival organization working for a ‘Wexler’ is after him, supposedly to sign him on with them. Probably whatever he witnessed, they’d also like to know.”

“Well that is….” Indigo started.

“Wexler’s men,” Dr Ryder interjected “Those must have been the hirelings that the good man with the mustache mentioned as speaking of an ice ferry and a gree worm shipment…” Ryder prompted Indigo’s recollection.
Meanwhile Calliope pulled up the message that Dea had sent as a follow on. “My translator came back with something interesting. It seems like a series of shapes and colors and numbers. Maybe hints, or a code, or a reference — some way to track along this supposed underground?” Calliope gave Indigo the code.

Indigo frowned a little as she looked at the code. “What do you guys know about the underground?” She quickly wondered looking around. The code was something that she knew far too well but she needed to know that she could trust these people. They seemed to be the kind of starfleet officers that she wished everyone was but looks could be deceiving.

Calliope looked between Bear who seemed a bit punch drunk, the way he smiled back contented but clueless while offering a shrug, and Dr. Ryder who gave a forced grin. Neither was any help. Calliope sighed. “Only that Messier must have found out about it on Daucina, looking for a way to save his skin. Obviously, the Reman lounge singer is part of it. So. I think that’s the entire extent of our knowledge.”

“We are new in Freecloud town,” Bear said, shaking a blocky finger as if he had some kind of insight. “But Blue— Blue look like she know something.”

Indigo looked at Bear and rolled her eyes. For someone who looked and sounded drunk he seemed to be the one who could see things for what they were. “I cannot speak for the Reman lounge singer but I can speak for my part of the underground.” She finally whispered. “These codes are known to be an ice ferry that leaves tonight. It’s the blue ice ferry that will take its passengers to another part of Freecloud. Most people do not know that most of Freecloud’s population of a hundred and twenty million live outside the cities, in rural or semi-rural “cohabs” it is easy to disappear into them.” It was why she moved people out into them.

“Messier’s changing identity and joining a cohab?” Calliope clarified.
“I do not know. I did not know anyone was needing help. I am in the dark just like you.” Indigo assured the older woman as she moved to tie up her hair. It was bugging her and now was the time to be distracted.

“You know where this Ferry is? Do we still have time to get there before it leaves?” More importantly, Calliope wondered, before all of these hired thugs and assassins beat them to it.

“Yeah. Come on.” The woman glanced at her wrist. They had forty minutes or so. “We have about forty minutes and it is not far from here at all.” The docks would be pretty quiet about now and with her credentials so issue to get around.

“We’re not prepared.” Calliope looked torn. “But the sooner we go, the better. We might be able to intercept him before anyone else does.”
Bear looked very serious. “You are no going to a shootout dressed like that, Commander.”

“He’s right.” Ryder echoed. “We know several of these parties are coming armed. We’d best be prepared.”

Calliope rubbed her bottom lip with her thumb. Leave now and get ahead of the problem, or take the time and go ready. Chances were the hirelings already knew when and where to nab Messier and were already set up on the scene anyway. They’d already lost the advantage. “Right, let's get our gear. But stay in plain-clothes overall. No scary swat team business. We can use the shuttle’s site-to-site to get us back to the hotel for our gear and then to meet up with Indigo at the coordinates of this Blue Ice Ferry. Ten minutes.”

“I will just get myself sorted then.” Indigo said, looking at her own clothes. She would have something less clubland happy in the car. She nodded at the trio as she disappeared off to sort herself out wondering just what swat team business meant to the Fenris Rangers and Freecloud Defense Network but were the Starfleet Officers going to come as prepared.