Shadow Hunters: A Proposal
Posted on 24 Jul 2025 @ 9:49pm by Commander Calliope Zahn & Admiral Zavareh Sepandiyar
Mission:
M4 - Falling Out
Location: Admiral's Office, OC
Timeline: MD29ish
2916 words - 5.8 OF Standard Post Measure
It had been some time, Calliope reflected, since she had approached Admiral Sepandiyar. The last time she had done so was to make her confession. For a moment, the memory of the weight of all of her guilt clouded her eyes. But she exhaled slowly as she continued on through the broad corridors of the station command offices, releasing with her breath the old and returning to the present. Things were different now. She was different. Maybe. In some ways, at least. She smirked to herself and nodded to a passing junior lieutenant from maintenance.
“Mr. Tilmer.”
“Commander Zahn,” he replied, with a note of curiosity on his mustachioed face.
Tilmer, Calliope deduced, would most likely be returning from giving a status report on the repairs of the Pathfinder. Which had taken quite the beating on their last patrol… under her command, no less. On this busy station, his report would have amounted to a minor line item, and he’d be back to his tasks inside of an hour until the next time a senior officer inquired after an update and the junior engineer would be told to tidy up and go upstairs to give an answer.
She was momentarily distracted by the expression Tilmer had let through in their brief exchange.
Was he being regaled by Pathfinder crewers about the events of her last mission, trading blows with her Orion Syndicate cousin? Or was it rumors about the time she was spending in private with the Chief Engineer? Or with the Marshal? Frankly, it was exhausting imagining what rumors were around; she shrugged to herself and continued on her walk. Tilmer was a good egg in her book. Without him overriding Lance during his insubordination, they’d either have become ash over Korix or else been Pyrryx prisoners. What an elementary grade prank Tilmer had used to pull it off, too. She admired his resourcefulness.
Lance had dodged a bullet with the cover-up preventing his being brought up on charges. And Calliope had dodged a bullet, discovering that once the pressure was on, the wide gap between herself and her soon-to-be-ex hadn’t really changed.
She was no longer on the station as an accessory to the work of her brilliant engineer husband. She was no longer here as a favor to a friend. She had a purpose, one she had been trying to gain traction with for a year now. One that was finally starting to come into focus.
All she had to do was convince Admiral Sepandiyar to see it too.
She pressed the chime to his office door.
“Enter,” Admiral Sepandiyar replied.
It seemed to never be a dull moment on this station, leaving him longing for the simple quiet of a long cruise somewhere. Hours at Warp with nothing more exciting happening than being disappointed with the selection in the replicator. These days, it felt like he just went from one issue to the next, constantly on his toes and even a little jumpy, which wasn’t his way at all. I guess a life of relative quiet over the last few years had settled him. He’d certainly never been this way before. So it was no surprise that someone else was here in his office to see him for an unscheduled visit. He did his best to radiate calm, as whoever his next guest was could come in.
Commander Zahn proceeded through the door and stood just inside. “Thank you for seeing me, Admiral,” she said simply. She’d made an appointment, but judging by the way he was squinting, she could tell he hadn’t been especially attuned to his schedule. “I just wanted to ask you if you’d had the chance to read my proposal.” If it had ever made it through the gauntlet all the way to his desk, Calliope would have been shocked. The fact was, she expected this was the first time he was hearing about it, but she planned to couch this visit as a follow-up, even while she knew it would be a pitch…
That didn’t ring a bell for him and he resisted the urge to look at the pile of PaDD’s neatly stacked on his desk to see if one of them was very obviously the one she’d sent. He simply shook his head, “I’m afraid not, Commander,” he replied, glancing to the time on the wall display. “I have a few minutes. Tell me what the proposal is,” he said, waving for her to go on.
“An investigative task force.” She went directly to the headline. “I’m told that Starfleet Security had oversight of the investigation after the attack on the station. But not being party to it, I’ve run a few of my own operations and investigations. I’ve filed the reports with Security and none of them have been taken up. Either I’m way off base, or Starfleet isn’t committing any new intelligence resources to our sector.”
“Starfleet Security has made almost no progress in their investigation,” Sepandiyar replied softly, unhappy to admit that, but having had no say in the matter, he could hardly blame himself. Perhaps if he hadn’t sent Captain Hawthorne away with the Alexander he might have had some additional resources to draw on, but at the moment he was confined to what the station had, and those were already stretched thin.
Calliope didn’t look at all surprised. “These criminal elements are comfortable here. Entrenched. It’s business as usual, for the most part, even with the Loki system under active patrol again. But their networks and alliances are very vulnerable. I believe the organizations involved can be defanged, cut back— if not entirely dismantled in many cases.”
“What is it you are asking for, Commander?” Sepandiyar inquired, taking off his glasses and setting them on the desk.
“I’d like clearance to the existing investigations and access to our own regional intel on all relevant cases. I’ll also need permission to work interdepartmentally with other Federation agencies, and system and border enforcement outfits. There are already resources dedicated to hundreds of these cells and off-shoots in the region. Many of them just need to interface and coordinate. I can find less conventional resources to bring to bear as well.”
“I am uncertain what you are requesting, Commander. Are you asking to investigate this all yourself, or to coordinate the resources already at work?” he pressed. Not that he was particularly inclined to do either, considering her record at the moment, but he could hardly sit there and say that the existing assets were doing their job.
“Sir, I want to command a special task force. I understand there are limited resources, so I’m ready to take anything you can grant me for operational forces. Beyond that— in addition to it— I’m prepared to fashion the task force cooperatively with other agencies and organizations willing to contribute. We’re talking about going after mafias, syndicates, piracy rings, headhunters, and worse. Some of these organizations date back millennia and function as dynasties. Some are new scions. Many are independent contractors taking a pay day, press ganged, or otherwise coerced.” Based on her work so far, Calliope had included profiles and connections in the file she had sent ahead, but she doubted he wanted to get into the mire of it. “I’d be remiss not to involve regional and system law enforcement and integrate operations. I’ll continue to do everything I can to uncover whoever led the attack, whether you allocate me a lighter or a fleet. But I already have a lighter. I’m asking for personnel and security clearance.”
Sepandiyar considered her words quietly as she finished speaking, his eyes on her and his fingers steepled. The moment was hardly enough for him to finish his train of thought but, as his sons frequently reminded him, he liked to make the silences awkward and he was sure that was the case here. But he had a lot to ponder. It wasn’t just the investigative angle that he needed to approve her to access, it was who was approving to access it. Commander Zahn did not exactly have a sparkling track record with him since her arrival and he wasn’t sure if giving her this was a wise decision or not.
The silence was long, but Calliope understood it. Nothing changed about her demeanor. She couldn’t change the past— the history which she suspected made him hesitate— and she wasn’t interested in dragging it out to flog it either. The job was bigger than her problems. “I’ve already run special missions in connection with several of these criminal organizations while working for Admiral Ehstri. I’ve worked in tandem with Border Patrol units, Federal Marshals, the Fenris Rangers, and dozens of system law enforcement agencies. Coming from my latest patrol, I have arrestees in the brig with connections to the attack. I have active queries out on supply lines, communications, and finance trails.” She could have gone on, but as it was, she was resisting the urge to motion all around with her arms to make her point. Instead, she tucked her hands behind her back, letting her feet slide into a stronger stance. “No one wants me working alone. I don’t want to work alone. I joined Starfleet to be part of something bigger. If you check my work, Sir, I’m confident you’ll see I’m ready to lead a proper task force.”
He looked away from her finally, considering the options. If half of what Captain Callum had told him about the Pathfinder’s last mission was true, then maybe it was a wise idea to have Commander Zahn otherwise engaged. There would be less chance of her interfering in whatever he had in motion, and less chance that whoever had instigated this ‘secret’ would be able to use her to continue keeping it. He still didn’t trust her, but it was difficult to argue with the fact that she had shown some successful results since her return to duty - something he had a hand in.
“And if I agree to this. What resources would you require right now?” he asked calmly.
“Thirty people— five six-man teams, experienced security and marines. And access to five small defense vessels. For a start, Sir.” She was certain that within weeks, they’d start delivering arrests and information justifying expanding the operation.
Zavareh tapped his fingers on the edge of his desk softly, staring once more at the young woman in front of him, trying to divine if this was the right course of action. Giving her this kind of authority so fresh off an almost career-ending scandal. On the one hand, she had taken her lump and had performed well, but on the other, there was what Captain Callum had told him. If there really was someone else in play here that was making high-level decisions and operating in secret around them, having her as an aside took her out of play for those machinations and put her firmly under his control. So as much as he thought it best not to give her this reward so soon, the benefits outweighed it.
“You will provide me with an exact listing of the personnel and vessels you are requesting. All of your investigations and reporting will flow through me, not Captain DeHavilland. If you accept these terms, I will permit you to proceed,” he ordered finally, speaking slowly to make sure she understood it all as well as because he didn’t want to give her this. He was simply making the most strategic decision.
Calliope froze. She realized that she had gone to the Admiral because the scope of what she was asking to do went beyond station business. Still, she hadn’t expected a complete closeout of Corvus. If anything, she had been hoping for the chance to work more closely with sector and station security. She clenched and unclenched her jaw. “All of my reports, Sir?”
“You wish to take a role that coordinates with all of the relevant assets in this sector of space. A sector under my command; this means that you will report to me directly,” he replied, well aware of what he was asking her to do and whom he was cutting out of the equation. It was perfectly within his remit - Captain DeHavilland was responsible for the station and the operations of it, not for the strategic and operational tasks of the 9th Fleet’s area of operations. That task fell to the Joint Fleet Command, which he represented here. If she wanted this job, she stepped free of Obsidian Command’s structure into the 9th Fleet’s.
“Of course, Admiral.” In spite of sensing that he wanted only conformity, she felt a twinge of something wrong. She knew that all the strategic reports in the sector routinely went through the station command team for coordination, many of them— though obviously not all— in real time. Her brow knit with a frustrated thought. Why was the Admiral so clearly intent on not involving Corvus in an investigation primarily concerned with the attack on the station and its own security? Why did he feel the need to preview any such investigation and add the step of his own office between the proposed Taskforce and Station command? “Sir, I understand the Taskforce would be under your direction, and be working at your own discretion.” She felt a nervous warmth rise in her chest as she instinctively repeated back his own dictate, although her voice betrayed unspoken questions. “May I speak more freely, Admiral?”
The Admiral simply grunted his assent, leaning back a bit in his chair.
“I had anticipated that the station commander would be privy to security updates related to the attack on the Station. Much direct coordination with the station would be required to carry out further investigation— in research, preparation, and operational support. Forgive me if I’m having trouble imagining how to manage not incorporating Station Command at all without being a regular burden on your office for communications and arrangements.”
“How to do this without incorporating Station Command, or without including your friend?” he asked quietly, almost icily. He would get to the bottom of whatever shadow games were being played under his nose; he had more than enough to go on from Captain Callum he just needed to pull on the right threads a little more to get to his answer.
Calliope looked surprised at the comment, sensing an accusation of some stripe behind it. She felt herself actively managing her cool. “Sir, DeHavilland and I have worked together for years. Team building, trust, and camaraderie are informal Starfleet principles. You already know we live and die by them. I’m not going to pretend that my friendship with DeHavilland doesn’t factor here. If anything, our working relationship benefits the proposal. Just because we go back a ways doesn’t change the fact that if it were any other Captain at her post, I would still hope to coordinate operations together.” As she made the case, Calliope was intuiting that were it any other captain, he wouldn’t have this strict stipulation to apply. He was naming Corvus specifically and pushing on the fact of their friendship, no matter how rocky or cool it had turned recently.
“Coordination will be required, of course,” Sepandiyar nodded slowly. “What I am trying to determine is if you will be capable of limiting that discourse to coordination only, and not into sharing all the information that you are gathering at my command. To impress upon you the expectation that I will have for you to compartmentalize information and only share, for coordination purposes, that which needs to be shared,” he explained. “And to ensure that you will keep these matters… secret,” he all but breathed at the end.
His quiet delivery practically gave her goosebumps. And told her he wasn’t going to broker an exception. “Of course, Admiral. If there’s something deemed sensitive for any of our operations, I’ll keep the utmost discretion.Everything will go through your office first.” It was hard to imagine how such information would be compromised by sharing it with Corvus. She doubted it would reach the same black ops levels she and Corvus were currently trying to keep under wraps. But then, she also had to admit to herself that the investigation she already had built on her own included implications involving moles and saboteurs among station personnel, so it was entirely possible it would come to such games.
He surveyed her quietly for a moment longer and then gave a shallow nod, “Very well, Commander Zahn. Provide me the list of assets and personnel for my authorization. I will give you the opportunity you seek,” he offered quietly, still uncertain of his opinion of her. He had been trending towards approval, but after Captain Callum’s revelations, he was leaning away from it. Perhaps this little adventure would solidify the answer.
“Thank you, Sir.”
Sensing a dismissal in the Admiral's decision, she turned to go. An eagerness reached her eyes. At last, she was going to get off the bench and put some devils on their heels.
