A Shadowy Start
Posted on 23 Apr 2024 @ 9:22pm by Commander Thaddeus Zayne & Lieutenant Tobias Hirsh
Mission:
M4 - Falling Out
Location: Tactical / Security Offices - Bay Alpha 9
Timeline: MD24 - 1142HRS
3203 words - 6.4 OF Standard Post Measure
The First Officer’s posting on Obsidian Command was a dream posting. The Fleet flagstation right under the eyes of the Joint Fleet Command. Regardless of the duties and responsibilities, the billet alone was as prestigious as they came and it was a prestige that would follow him the rest of his career. Captain DeHavilland had chosen him for this position and he would be forever grateful to her for that, which meant that it came with a certain level of loyalty to her. He wanted to do right by her and by the station and those under his command so it was hard as hell for him to admit something that had been nagging him since she’d returned from the Pathfinder’s mission with the Theseus.
Thad had never intended to go down that path, but his career had careened rather uncontrollably into an undercover operation that put him in the hot seat. He’d spent several years in that position, having to rely on his wits and his ability to read people to stay one step ahead of the syndicate he was working for (and against) lest he be caught and ended. That meant that he’d developed a knack for reading people. For finding the lie in the truth and anywhere between. That skill proved useful as a standard Starfleet Officer now returned to regular duty but now those instincts were screaming at him. They were screaming as loud as they could and begging him to take the blinders off. To see past the loyalty he felt for Captain DeHavilland and admit the truth to himself.
She was lying to him.
He didn’t want to believe it. He didn’t want to think that she was keeping something from him, but all the evidence of it was staring him in the face. Thad had to know the truth and if she wasn’t going to share with him freely then he was going to collect every bit of evidence that he could and confront her with it. He hoped it was paranoia running wild, but he was too well experienced in the arena to believe that was true. He was right, he just had to unwind it. He knew that truth started and ended with the Pyrryx and so here on the station it would too.
Captain DeHavilland had parted ways with him after the meeting and gone on her own path back up to the CIC but Thad had remained behind, saying he had a few other errands to see to before returning and so he did. He knew that lying outright himself was never going to work out in his favor. The best way to lie was to tell the truth, simply bending that truth a bit so that it appeared perfectly plausible. He did have another errand to see to, that one just happened to be in the Tactical and Security officers in Bay Alpha-Nine overseeing the Pyrryx wreckage. He wanted a word with Lieutenant Hirsch and he knew exactly where to find him.
Bay Alpha-Nine had changed a lot in a week. It had been a highly secured location for a couple of months, but the temporary additional airlocks and additional security check stations had been deconstructed. Everything that remained was packaged, crated, and labeled and there was a steady stream of gold overall wearing personnel, dotted with security escorts, organizing and moving the crates of all sizes. The bay was mostly empty as the activity was going on along the perimeters. Only the painted outlines remained on the deck, marking out the previous pattern of the action in the bay during the testing and analysis of the Pyrryx wreckage.
The project had initially been overseen by Commander Calliope Zahn, but handed off to Lieutenant Tobias Hirsh when Zahn had been called up to the Pathfinder’s mission. Obviously now to everyone, the two things had been closely connected. At the time, Tobias had not known what the Pathfinder had been called to.
His supervision was not actually needed in the bay, it was just that he found himself there, arms crossed and chin in hand, considering as he watched the personnel breaking down the last of the materials.
His practiced and sensitive peripheral vision caught sight of the station’s executive officer on approach and Tobias straightened up more attentively, half turning to demonstrate he had noticed him.
“Commander Zayne,” he greeted, as the distance closed. His low voice could be heard well enough through the echoing working cacophony of voices and lifts and laser cutters as the packaging crew custom fit some of the crates and built hover skis for the largest of the remaining artifacts.
“Lieutenant,” Thaddeus nodded as he joined him in watching the crew work. He stood silently there for a moment, then said softly. “Is there somewhere we can speak without being overheard?” he asked, not looking at Tobias until he was done talking, offering as close to a smile as Thad mustered with anyone as if to make it clear this was do be done quietly.
With a nod, Tobias lead Commander Zayne to the back of the bay, and up a stairwell, where an observation and control deck was built in, sealed off entirely from the bay. There was one way viewing glass in mirror mode. He double checked that the communications and recording controls were all in shut down status, and noticed Commander Zayne latching the door behind him as he followed inside.
Thad glanced out of the viewport window, seeing sheer drop down into the docking bay and no way for anyone to be near enough to hear what they were saying. He felt suddenly as if he were back with Dark Moon, watching over his shoulder every step he took.
“I’ve been following your progress on this, as well as the after-action details of the Pathfinder’s return,” Thad said quietly and slowly. “I have also found inconsistencies in the reporting. What I’ve seen versus what I’m being told,” he said, turning his eyes up to him. “Am I correct in assuming that you have come to the same conclusions?”
For a moment Tobias had to wonder if this was some sort of test. When he had raised concerns in the meeting, the executive officer had essentially waved him off of further inquiry. Now he not only seemed interested, but expressed that he’d been aware the entire time? “I have unanswered questions. Or at least… inadequately answered questions,” Tobias said, cautiously. “Sir.”
“Such as?” Thaddeus asked. He wanted of course to tell him all of his own concerns, but he was still trying to ascertain if he was reading the man correctly. If he was, he may have found support in his theories. Someone that could maybe assist him in uncovering the truth. But for now, baby steps. Hopefully he wasn’t misreading the man but then, he had been out of the subterranean world of shadow games for a while, so he could have been wrong.
Tobias sighed, the noise producing a gunt in his throat. “Pyrryx technology and tactics has been a special study of mine for a couple of years now. I’ve had to accept that the closer I’ve been allowed to work with the fleet’s analysis, the more limited collaboration could be. The research has been compartmentalized under several levels of security and…” Tobias felt himself perhaps over explaining. It was a habit of his Grazerite security training to be thorough, but he had also grown accustomed to other races’ need to ‘come to the point’; when he regarded the Executive Officer now, he seemed far less in a rush than Tobias typically thought him to be. He actually had his attention. “I’m not used to having this many concurrent situations, reports, and artifacts to compare. It’s possible as the captain implies, that I am overthinking the seeming incongruencies. But the ones that give me the most pause for concern surround the Pathfinder and Thesus’s most recent mission. Meaning that…” It was obvious the big grazer was uncomfortable in saying outright what he thought.
“I want to hear your unfiltered opinion, Lieutenant,” Thad cocked his head for him to go.
“That Captain DeHavilland might have an interest in downplaying the incongruencies if she were to have been party to the….” He didn’t want to outright accuse the captain of the station of falsifying reports. “The content of the mission reports.”
“Are you suggesting that the detail of the mission reports we’ve received are not entirely accurate?” Commander Zayne asked, doing his best not to frame it as an accusation, but hoping it would be of an affirmation once Hirsch answered. It would have resolved the nagging question in his mind that he was overthinking it, or letting shadows spook him into a darker line of thought.
“I am saying that the facts of the forces and radiation on the Pathfinder’s structure don’t match the events outlined in the ships’ recordings of the confrontation. And that there are very conspicuously inconvenient explanations of data lost on the recordings. Of both vessels. Not implausible…. However,” he admitted.
“Not implausible, but not exactly matching the standard of care expected of two line Captain’s, and the tenured senior Officer’s involved,” Thad offered solemnly, feeling as if a weight were being slowly lifted from his shoulder. He wasn’t jumping at shadows. He wasn’t the only one that saw it, and if the Captain was hiding it that meant that something else was afoot. Considering the level of threat the Pyrryx represented, he didn’t think he could just stand back and let it play out. The Admiral would want to be involved, but he couldn’t report to him a hunch. He had to have something… quantifiable.
He hesitated to think that Captain DeHavilland was doing something antagonistic to Starfleet, but he couldn’t rule it out. It was a good play on her part to try and use his sense of loyalty to her in giving him this position to use him as a fence against the truth. But, as this involved the Pyrryx, he felt he had no choice. Maybe it was all justified and he was just unraveling the veil she’d been ordered to put in place by the Admiral, but considering the risks, he couldn’t show his hand.
“I too have mentioned inconsistencies in the Captain’s reporting. All casually brushed aside. Most specifically the business with Lieutenant Commander Quinn…” he trailed off thoughtfully, staring out the window and then back to Tobias. “My suspicion is that we find ourselves looking at some kind of subterfuge, though the reason why I can’t assess,” he went on. “I think… It is in the best interest of Starfleet that we figure out just what’s going on here. Quietly,” he said, approaching the Lieutenant a little closer. “The threat that the Pyryx represents is so significant, I don’t believe that we can stand by and allow… whatever this is… to simply drift into the shadows. We need to ascertain the truth, and report it to Admiral Sepandiyar,” he declared solemnly. “Are you willing to do this with me? To operate between the lines? Knowing that… what we find could be… profound?”
Solemn, Tobias once again was slow to answer. Layers of security he had come to understand and to accept or to find necessary workarounds in obtaining information. But as time went on and Starfleet had even forced him into silence about the loss of Fieldmont colony, he felt a growing indignation. And now that the cover seemed off as the Korinn were given audience, the layers counterintuitively only seemed deeper. Tobias nodded, once. “I think it would be better to know the truth. In this you have my support and closest confidence, Commander.”
“Thank you,” Thad replied, acutely aware of how much of an ask it was for the standard officer to agree to operate this way. He had the luxury of experience, he knew Lieutenant Hirsch didn’t. They’d not only have to proceed carefully, but he’d need to make sure he was cautious in how the Lieutenant operated as well. Preparing him for the obvious ways that this might unravel on them.
“We have to make a few assumptions in this,” Thad began, now pacing. “The most obvious assumption is that this… truth… has been directed at a high level. That means that we need to proceed with the utmost caution and that our theories and evidence stay between the two of us,” he explained. “We also have to assume that, should Captain DeHavilland discover our work on this, that we will both be looking at removal from duty or even confinement. If this truth is so powerful that they’ve hidden it this well, it will be nothing for them to silence us,” he said darkly.
Tobias had committed his whole life and career to the Pyrryx threat since his complete inadequacy to do anything to defend the colonists of Fieldmont. He knew he was just another analyst as far as Starfleet was concerned. Removal he could endure, although it would take him out of the picture in his personal mission to make certain that Fieldmont’s devastation wasn’t meaningless. The possibility of confinement gave him pause. His life was generally solitary, but he’d been delighting in moments of connection of late and it hurt to think he might lose that so quickly. “If it comes to that… so be it.”
“Ok…” he trailed off thoughtfully. “Ok…” he said, drawing in a slow breath. “I think… we start with Lieutenant Commander Quinn’s removal,” he said, folding his arms over chest. “Do you agree?” His thought was that it would be easier to hide a routine inquiry into the dismissal of a senior officer aboard a Fleet flagstation. It would broker the least number of questions from outside and could lead them to the bread crumbs they needed to unravel the deeper secrets.
“I do agree. As personnel changes go, I found it singularly odd.”
“Extremely so, after the lengths gone to in order to keep Quinn here after the… issues with my predecessor, his wife,” Thad replied pensively. Hearing someone else agree got the wheels turning in his mind. Confident now that he wasn’t seeing shadows. At least not fully.
“Before the reconnaissance mission, he was in the highest esteem to the degree that DeHavilland had personally requested him to serve as Engineering Chief. By contrast, it seemed following her return from the mission, Quinn’s replacement must have been chosen before his resignation was even officially tendered. There’s no other way to explain the ready arrival of LeBlanc. What could have transpired that she would have such an apparently completely changed opinion of Lieutenant Commander Quinn, and yet made no note of it?”
“She reported that he was injured as the justification for the Ensign to retain command on the return home,” Thad mused out loud.
“He had sustained a mild injury, but was not medically removed from duty, and yet was not in command of Engineering on the Pathfinder’s return trip… Not to mention that he was transferred off station via the brig over a seemingly petty matter of one of his research projects. Whether it was a cover reason for his arrest or just a convenient situation to leverage, speculatively speaking, it’s possible Quinn knows very well how the Pathfinder was damaged in the way it was and how the records came to be corrupted.”
Thad raised an eyebrow, “As in whatever secret being obscured would have been revealed if he were to remain. He was transferred to keep the secret intact,” Thad replied with a long, slow sigh. They did a good job of sealing up Quinn though. A brig transfer would take some time and would make him nearly impossible to reach unless he went to Sol himself and arranged it with the Lieutenant Commander’s Starfleet assigned council.
“It could well be.”
“An officer removed rapidly like that, effectively disgraced… even if he told us all that we wanted to know. Who would believe his testimony?” Thad groaned.
“Perhaps some of the junior officers assigned to the Pathfinder know of what transpired, in part if not entirely. It seems one young engineer, Maxwell Tilmer, was given responsibility of the department, and promoted shortly after. The bull ensign, by comparison, has been removed from duties and assigned medical leave on account of mental health. Already, I had hesitated to approach any of them. Now I am even less so inclined, knowing it might endanger any of their careers.”
Commander Zayne, paced for a moment, nodding to himself. “Maybe that’s the angle,” he said thoughtfully. “I’m the station’s XO. It isn’t unusual for someone like me to check on the junior officers,” he explained, talking more to himself than to Tobias. He wasn’t generally in the habit of thinking out loud, but given the circumstances, it was warranted. “I assign the duty rotations. I could easily retask them in a way that suits either of us to… gently inquire…” he postulated. “Thoughts?” he asked, looking to him warily. Hopefully even, rare as that expression was on him.
Tobias nodded slowly, reluctantly, but convinced himself that it might actually be to their advantage if they talked to himself or Commander Zayne… “It may be that we can glean something from the junior officers and at the same time prevent them from being known as the source of the information.” They could, in fact, protect them.
“That’s where we’ll start then. Our goal is information, but like you said… we can’t compromise them in any way. If there’s something being hidden here as we think, anyone that jeopardizes those secrets could be at risk. We need to tread carefully. I’ll start on the rotation adjustments. In the meantime, see what you can gain from any logs you can find regarding Commander Quinn. Between our questions and research, hopefully we can find a thread to pull on and unravel this whole thing,” Thad said, heaving a slow breath. “Until we have more… this stays between us, ok?”
“Absolutely, commander,” Tobias said, already relieved that he would not be making inquiries to deaf ears as he would redirect all of his questions to this effort instead.
“Alright,” Thad nodded. “Turn in what the Captain asked for, and let’s proceed as if nothing were amiss. Status quo,” he declared. “We can’t risk comm’s on this or any other record. So for now, we’ll meet in the Environmental Ring. Tomorrow at nineteen-thirty. Meet me by the trail Northeast of the Trout Pond. Do you follow?”
“Nineteen-thirty.” Tobias-Hirsh nodded intently, knowing the trail. He moved to the door to unseal it and return to his final report on Bay Alpha-Nine.
