Informal Briefing

Posted on 17 Dec 2021 @ 4:55pm by Commander Calliope Zahn & Lieutenant Theodore Winslow

Mission: M2 - Sanctuary
Location: Coffee shop, promenade, OC
Timeline: MD10 mid morning (immediately following "Only Forward")
1934 words - 3.9 OF Standard Post Measure

Having passed along her info, A'Koja checked a clock and sucked down the end of her coffee, setting it down with some finality on the saucer, and coming to stand. "Sorry to cut out on you both, but I have a client call shortly. It was nice seeing you again Ms. Zahn. Good luck with the Kalarans, Mr. Winslow. Let me know if you make any progress."

The man nodded his thanks to her before adding quiet words to match his appreciation for the work that she had done so far. Nothing would have been possible without her due diligence and care. The man returned to his coffee letting the silence descend on the duo that remained.

Calliope watched the former Captain leave and then looked down at her tea, still thinking about Theo's talk about feeling low and unsure of himself. She knew she was practically an open book to most people in her life, but guys like Theo looked fine on the outside and no one would know they were hurting. They didn't want anyone knowing mostly, as that just added to the trouble in their estimation. She remained seated side-by-side with Theo, A’Koja’s side of the table now remaining empty. She considered reseating herself, but it felt easier to talk without the pressure to look one another in the eye. Just both observing the passers by through the window visages.

"Not every chief of security would tolerate refugees in their space and work things out.” Calliope pointed out after some silence. “Most would have called up immigration and had them shipped to a holding facility by now. They'd just say 'not my problem.'" Calliope had seen that a number of times, and often been XO of the ship that ferried refugees to such Federation encampments.

“Hmm?” He mumbled having been half somewhere else’s catching up on her words. He had many reasons for doing that but mostly it was because despite what people thought of Starfleet in some quarters of the universe he still wanted to right the wrongs of the universe. “Oh… yeah well maybe I have a soft spot for underdogs and people who are prosecuted without charge or just because.” The man stumbled through side glancing at her before he turned it back on her. “What about you Sir? What have they had you up to?”

“Hurry-up-and-heal.” Calliope had more than a little irritation in her voice over that. She wasn’t sure trying was making the recovery process go any faster than not trying.

Hurry up and heal were not words that belonged together in a sentence at all but he was not going to comment on something that was really not his place too.

“But I’ve been trying to keep occupied with analysis. There’s a lot of loose ends on station and regional security issues that were reassigned or dropped following the Void incident.”

“What kind of loose ends?” He enquired wandering why it was her investigating and not Starfleet Security as it had all been taken from him despite him being eager to work it all.

Calliope leaned in, eager to talk instead of sitting alone, pouring over her reading and her investigations board in the dark. “There’s the Void incident itself, which I can only guess is being investigated further up the chain with Starfleet’s central Security. Likely even with Starfleet Intelligence. Way beyond the paygrade of any of us station officers. I wish I could get security clearance for the evidence and reports being gathered in the past year and half. That has to be a juicy file, especially since the recovery. But—” Calliope waved her hand in the air. “It was already a seal I wasn’t qualified to break last month. Now I just get silence on my security requests, seeing as they have to go through Commander Zayne.” She took a sip of her tea and muttered. “Fairly sure he hates my guts.”

“Would not be my place to even consider how another officer feels about another one.” Theo said brightly trying to offer something other that the likely heard that there were strong emotions involved.

“I shouldn’t complain.” Calliope chided herself for getting too chummy about it. It would be bad form if she were still on the senior staff. It was bad form anyway. “I deserve it.”

“Well other than the security issues that neither of us have the pay grade to look at, really what else are you looking into?”

“There was one event that piqued my curiosity…” Calliope leaned into the table over her tea. “Some hostage event with a group called Penumbra, formerly called The Downfall. The summary just indicated the threat was stopped. The file itself was sealed to me, but you can probably open it with your credentials since it was filed under the last Station Security Chief. I was only able to access a news brief claiming they were a cult opposed to the Romulan resettlements in the former neutral zone and to any Romulan immigration to the UFP. Supposedly they haven’t been heard from since the incident, but with OC’s position on working with Romulan Refugees, I wish we had names and faces of anyone in connection to the group so we could stay vigilant. They sound like the kind of people to justify terrorism for their causes. I’d rather we be ahead of that.” Calliope realized that what she was doing— essentially briefing Theo— ought to have come from Zayne but she didn’t want to sit around waiting for him to bother to read her missives.

There was a sinking feeling for a moment in Theo’s stomach when he realised that there was so much more than he could imagine that he did not know about. He pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment before sighing just taking a large sip of the coffee. He indicated for her to just continue talking. It seemed easier to take it all in.

Cued by the gesture, she continued. “And then there’s those escaped prisoners you had all that brig damage to sort after you arrived. I know you had the guest list from the brig. They probably all have returned to their former lives in the region. And I’d bet more than one of them have ties to organized crime, terrorists, or agents connected to the station attack. Someone needs to task out their tracking and collection. Calliope rubbed her temple. “I wish we had access to more than the old briefs. I wish we had a direct line to the last Senior Staff of this place. It doesn’t make sense trying to piece everything together from scratch instead of calling in someone who was actually here.”

Theo would have done the same before then if he had any kind of inkling that the woman was looking into any of the things he had been done not to look into by people above his pay grade. “I might be able to get into touch with some of them.” He mused.

“Thanks, Theo. It’s been tough feeling shut out of everything. I know what needs doing, but I can’t get in on the briefings, let alone chase things down myself. Well.” She smiled at the exception. “Besides my jaunt with Kensforth. That was exciting. I guess I’m just trying to make myself useful until I can get back into the fray.”

“You could do the research in security? At least that way I am overlooking it to stop some of the repercussions in regards to you not meant to be doing anything around it as I am not even meant to be looking into it.” He said not feeling like he was not being trusted but something in his stomach did not feel right about the turn of events from the refugees to the discussion now and his offer.

“It would be helpful. I can’t promise it will make you any friends if it gets found out. But I can promise I’ll share my findings with you.”

“I am sure I have no friends anyway.” He admitted with a shrug as he confided his own feelings back. “Good I can help better if I know the facts.”

Calliope wanted to reassure Theo that she thought of him as a friend, especially after the kindness of his company in the medical ward and some of their discussions, but being unsure if he preferred the polite distance and still doubting her pheremonal influence, she left it off electing to continue on the subject of her investigative work.

“I've had this sense for a while now.” Calliope picked at the edge of the cap on her cup thoughtfully. “This sense that while these things are not currently Station Security issues, Captain DeHavilland isn’t keen about being left out of them by Starfleet Security. I think she’d rather be aware, even if we have to gather our own intelligence to go on. She keeps leaving me a leash to run out on. It’s her strategic ops background I think. And she knows me. Zayne… doesn’t. That’s not his fault. The way I see it, she’s leaning into Zayne for everything official and willing to let me run unofficially. In a way it feels like I’ve got some kind of blessing to keep going with it, but I have to keep intuiting if she’s still backing me.”

The man was not sure that the Captain would give permission for the woman to run an unofficial investigation but who was he to judge either way. “I do not know any of them well enough to judge whether you have blessings or not. I just want some kind of rein in what is happening and if trouble starts…” he paused to consider what words he was going to use to not upset or alienate the one person he had on his side at the moment. “I am going to be honest here Sir. You are in no way able to handle trouble at the moment.”

Looking to her side now and seeing the note of genuine concern in his eyes, Calliope smiled up at the much bigger fellow. “I’ve taken my licks before,” she assured him. “I’ll be alright.”

Theo looked at her in disbelief. Her taking licks before did not reassure him in the slightest, it made him think that this might be a reoccurring theme for her. “No. I do not believe this time you will be alright.” His words were honest as he tried to form what was in his mind. “There is only so much you can take before it becomes impossible to come back from.”

Absorbing his serious expression, Calliope’s eyes clouded over with the blunt blow of truth. She shifted in her seat and looked back out the window. After an uncertain pause, she whispered a confession. “I’m already afraid I can’t come back, Theo. That if I slow down, I’ll just end up washed out completely.”

“Then how can I help?” He wondered if there was some other way to help her other than what she was already doing. You just could not keep up the pace it was impossible.

"Well," Calliope rested a chin in her hand and said sarcastically, “I guess I’ve just got to figure out a way to go on away missions without going on away missions.”