What We Know So Far Part II
Posted on Sat Oct 14th, 2023 @ 9:07pm by Lieutenant Commander Keishara Davaris & Commander Steven Greco & Lieutenant Evelyn Stewart & Lieutenant Dashku Zhevou & Remy Naal
Edited on on Thu Nov 9th, 2023 @ 1:53am
2,099 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Year One: Whispers in the Wind
Location: USS Moore - War Room
Timeline: MD 015 - 0800 hours
Keishara had decided that The Whispers of the Federation, or more commonly known now as The Whispers, had became too much of a threat to everyone. Their growing dissent, discontentment with Federation rulings and procedures had led to a lot of resignations, AWOL's and the like and the threat of them was growing even more now since the Romulan displacement.
She had called the senior staff to inform them, keep them on the right side of things and let them know to be on their guard. Remy Naal, he was a courtesy. She didn't usually do courtesy but she was feeling more generous of late and was trying to be more of a team player since her second officer placement.
"Commander Davaris I appreciate you calling this meeting and sharing the data you have. Please proceed." Captian Stryvek said as he took his seat and paid a lot of interest to what his Security Chief was about to say.
"Now that everyone has decided to grace themselves with their presence I can begin." she turned to the screen.
"Recently there has been a discovery made on board of a communications device planted within our ship." she brought up a schematic on screen. It was oval, palm sized and uninteresting. "This was placed on a conduit assigned to our comms array and was found by Ensign Bishop and PO Coleman during a repair. During an investigation by Commander Akimon, Lt. s'Lovok and Ensign Bishop they have found it to be a mass of many technologies which I believe to be an attempt to make it hard to pinpoint who is the culprit. There were many messages found, most seemingly rhetoric of anti-Starfleet views, how the Federation would be much stronger if we stopped helping everyone and pointedly aimed at the Romulans. Hate speech, threats and the like are highlighted in many messages and mention of an emerging extremist group called The Whisperers of the Federation. They also seem to be catalysts for many recent attacks on outlying colonies, and on the attack on Lt. s'Lovok here recently. Clearly they have a lot of sympathizers and at the moment we have a set of initials, JD, which we are running through intelligence channels and search algorithms to find if it matches anything of relevance. It could just be a fake sign off but I'm not taking that risk at this point." Kei looked out at the group of bored looking faces. "Questions?"
Stewart glanced around the table at everyone before turning her attention back to Keishara. "What exactly do we know about these...Whisperers? Are they the ones behind the looting and rioting on the colonies?"
"They are a group made up of former Starfleet officers, Federation citizens and have known ties with other extremist groups, terror cells etc. As I have already said their mandate seems to be hate speech, threats and at the moment their attention seems to be fixated on the Romulans. Recently they have escalated to citing riots and looting yes. So far we have reports of half a dozen colonies stating some unrest which has been my concern for Brighton Colony here and their upcoming festival." Kei replied to Evelyn but also the group. It was then she noticed the Captain's eyebrow arch.
"Commander Davaris give the device to Lieutenant Marlow. Using the medical scanners it may be possible to scan the device for residual DNA. Which would tell us who handled it. We can use the Moore's computers to eliminate people one by one. Anyone that you do not know personally who handled this device can be a suspect." Stryvek would not stand for saboteurs and perspective assassins aboard his ship. Politics remained with the politicians and he knew it.
"I have already arranged for its transfer Captain, or Lt, Marlow's presence in the science lab." Kei replied. She knew what she was doing even if he did he had to spell it out for her. That was Vulcans for you. If they didn't know step by step what was going on they'd micromanage you. "If it was me I'd have used gloves to place it, but if there is a small skin cell or anything that would point us to potential handlers it would be a good break."
"I don't want to step on your toes Lt," Dashku spoke up, nodding to the ship's engineer. "But I do have some experience with non Federation tech. I would like a chance to take a look at the device if it's available."
Keishara looked the Orion woman over. It was still a rare sight to see many Orions within the fleet but she held no particular grudges against them specifically. She'd been in a couple of skirmishes with the Syndicate in her earlier career but nothing too strenuous.
"Lt. Zhevou, is it?" she asked quickly looking her up. A bunch of new faces on the colony for arrival on the Moore had taken an uptake for sure. "I'll add you to the list of permitted personnel." Kei remarked. "If you find anything interesting let me know." she added before looking back out at the room.
"I accidently broke the device, apologies, but that was somewhat helpful." Amarok said and turned to the Orion. "Welcome aboard." He smiled as many thoughts about pheromones, Starfleet's regulations regarding Orion women, his past on Nimbus 3 and both the Tal Shiar and Syndicate schemes using the pheromones. He wondered since he left what became of all that.
"Lt. Zhevou, yes," She confirmed to the chief of security, before turning her eyes to the science officer. The way she wanted to respond would likely not have gone over well, but the way she was raised made her paranoid and there was a doubt in her mind about how accidental that was. Of course how many would look at her with some suspicion in their mind? "Even broken, it wouldn't hurt to look. Who knows what I could learn?"
Remy decided now was the time to speak up. “The Federation Council is reluctant to call their own extremists citizens actual terrorists, but I can assure you that they are. More than a dozen URC convoys have been driven off sanctioned worlds for Romulan refugees. Often they are being met with threats and there have been more than once instances of violence against my people. Thankfully so far we have gotten everyone out safely, especially the Romulans, but I don’t know how much longer that can last.”
Stewart looked at Naal. “What about the local law enforcement agencies on the planets, in systems? They surely should be able to step in and maintain the peace.”
Remy ran his palm over his cheek and shook his head. “They are either unable to keep the peace or unwilling. Most are hiding behind the Federation Council and laws, saying this is Federation issue and to impose their individual laws would violate these citizens rights of speech and assembly. By the time their enforcement can step in, the damage has been done.”
Steve nodded in grim agreement at the assessment. “That says nothing of the fragile political situation throughout Federation space. Millions of Romulans are centralized in key core worlds, like Earth. The wrong political move can set off a firestorm of uprising by the refugees and affect the political stability of both quadrants.
Nahe looked up from her PaDD. " As we all well know, when Praxis explode, the federation stepped in and helped the Klingons get back on their feet and they became strong allies to the federation. But there was even opposition to that. There were factions trying to stop even that peaceful plan, so much so that they even tried to assassinate the president of the federation. " She shook her head sadly.
Nahe continued, "The main difference is that the Klingons stayed in their own territory, and there was still trouble. The Romulan people don't have that option. So they are scattered throughout many core worlds and that scares some people. The idea of having your former enemy living in your neighborhood is terrifying to some I suppose. And as we all know, people lash out at what they fear and don't understand. We need to get the message out to the population and educate them of the facts and show them there is nothing to be afraid of. "
Sitting at the table, Liana couldn’t help but recognize the similarities between what these Federation Extremists were doing and the tactics used by the Bajoran Resistance and the Maquis. From what she remembered about the Occupation, the Cardassians would deal with such instances of unrest harshly by rounding up a dozen Bajorans and ether executing them or sending them to work camps. In a small way, Liana could understand why the Federation Council didn’t want to call these people terrorists.
It was right then that a question came to her mind, “Who is supplying these whisperers? Military grade equipment can’t be made at just any replicator” Liana asked, thinking of the coup attempt on her homeworld by a Bajoran group known as the circle.
"Easy enough to acquire if you know where to look and have the latinum to purchase them," Dashku spoke up, pausing for a moment, before continuing. "Arms dealers might have even contacted them, knowing they could make some sales."
"Not to mention the many organizations and galactic powers that wish to see the Federation lose stability would jump at the chance to help these Whispers." Amarok piped in. "Might as well investigate all avenues."
Lily was quietly listening, only looking over when her name was mentioned. She did ponder just how badly the device was broken. She raised her hand. "I do want to know, how long ago was this device broken? And is it in a sealed bag to make certain any sort of DNA traces that might be there not be lost?"
"I put the broken pieces in a sealed pouch Doctor." Sophie blurted out not knowing when was the best time to try and speak. Instead it was more of a shout than a report like tone.
"Thank you" Lily quietly remarked, "I will be looking forward in taking a look at with the others. She looked back down to make some more notes upon her notepad.
Stewart's eyes caught Stryvek's for a second as she listened to the explanation regarding the state of the device and what was found before it was destroyed. She was still getting used to this bond with the Vulcan and this disturbing turn of events caused her to look towards Stryvek, any stress from the discussion fading when their eyes met. She noticed Remy catching her looking towards the captain and she blushed slightly when she turned her attention back to Keishara.
"I believe Lieutenant Zhevou has the correct idea. If we can discover who is supplying the weapons. We can cut off the supply. Once the supply is cut off these Whispers should come to heel." Stryvek stated with a finality to his voice. "So, I believe our next step is to work on the supplier. Is it possible to have someone undercover to learn this?" Stryvek directed his question primarily to Commanders Davaris and Akimon.
"Or be forced to accelerate their plans because they are cut off, that could make them far more dangerous." Amarok chimed in, though not directly spoken to, he thought he should point out a cornered animal analogy.
"Lieutenant s'Lovok you are of course correct. However, even if we accelerate their plans it forces them into the open and allows us to spring a trap..." Stryvek began as a way to show that he had considered what his Romulan officer brought up. "...So, we return to the question at hand. Is it possible to have someone undercover to learn who the supplier is?" Again this question was directed more toward Davaris & Akimon.
Dashku couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy at the suggestion of someone going undercover. She knew her background would probably get her on the list of possible candidates but she didn't want to do it. She also remembered how easily her mother could figure out someone was a cop.
"Not only accelerate their plans, but keep them off balance," Dashku said. "We need them to make a mistake."
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