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Mission: Parallels
Part 1 - Timeline: Day 1 - 1020
- Location: USS Unification
It had been a little over an hour since the briefing with the senior staff. This was going to turn out to be quite a relaxing mission. The crew were obviously still getting used to being on a larger ship, well the original Unification crew obviously. Nearly all of them had elected to stay on board. They were now at Warp 3 heading towards the sensor buoys.
He was going over the latest reports from his department heads with a cup of chiraltan tea in one hand and a PADD in the other. Engineering was finishing its final tests on one of the warp manifolds that had been acting up. He paused, as he heard a noise he was unfamiliar with. It was the sound of an incoming comm signal, but it was different. He heard another noise, this time something he recognised. The door being sealed.
The comm screen rose from his desk. The computer spoke.
"Incoming Transmission. Level 10, classified, Captains eyes only. Room has been sealed. Please enter authorisation code."
Initially stunned by what had just happened, it took him a moment to collect his thoughts and wonder what the hell had just happened.
"Lambert-9-7-8-7-Red, clearance level 10."
"Working the computer replied. "Authorisation Accepted. Please stand by.
A face popped on the screen. It was Rear Admiral Adislo. He looked like he was on a shuttle. He looked scared. Some writing at the bottom indicated it was a recording, not a live message.
"Don't try and trace this message. I sent it out in a drone I got from a friend in Starfleet Intelligence. It will self destruct once the message has been fully transmitted, or if someone tampers with it. Trust no one Jacob. Something is happening, that is out of my control. I can't give you details, but you cant trust anyone. Your crew, other Captains out here. No one. I am sending someone to rendezvous with you. This liaison is one of a handful of people I trust, but he needs to earn your trust. You will understand once you repair the sensor buoy. He has certain information that will prove useful to you in the coming days. Attached to this message are coordinates where he can be located. Dont try and contact me. Mention this message to no one. And Jacob, watch your back."
The transmission ended. The computer began to erase the message, and any record of there ever having been a message. All that was left was a file with the coordinates for the liaison. The room unsealed itself. Jacob sat there and for the first time in so many years, he was actually scared. Whatever was about to happen was so bad that it scared the Admiral. And he had never known the Admiral to be scared of anything.
And thats was terrified Jacob the most.
Part 2 - Timeline: Day 1 - 1020
- Location: Ready Room
"Lambert to Bridge, alter course to heading 129, mark 227. Increase speed to maximum warp. Alert me when you pick something up on sensors."
"Aye Sir, but theres nothing there, its empty space." The bridge office replied.
Jacob, was on a very short fuse right now. "I didn't ask for an opinion. Just tell me when you do. Lambert out."
"Lambert to Colonel Wright and Commander Germond. Report to my ready room on the double, out." He knew he was told not to trust anyone, but of all the officers on the ship, those were the two who he trusted most of all.
Having been at a terminal on the back of the bridge, Aztala simply stood and headed directly to the Captain's ready room. Her joints were still a bit stiff, but at least she could do it without her cane now. Pressing the door entry button, she waited for a response.
"Come in." Jacob called to the room. He watched Aztala walk in, and gestured her to a seat. "We are just waiting for Colonel Wright."
Elena had been busy working with both the Marines and Security to keep both departments coordinating well together. When the hail from Jacob had come in she instantly confirmed and proceeded to the Ready Room. After receiving permission to come in she walked inside and greeted the Captain and the Commander.
Sitting on the couch, Aztala began to speak. "Quite the day, isn't it?"
Jacob held up his hand, cutting her off. "Computer, seal the room, Level 10." There were several clicks and hums as connections were severed and forcefields activated. He could see the look on the two officer's faces before him. He took a few moments to collect himself.
Jacob cleared his throat. "What I am about to tell you both goes no further. We can't risk this getting out. I recieved a message from Rear Admiral Adislo. Something big is happening, or about to happen. He doesn't know what it is, but he was terrified. You could see it in his eyes."
"Do we know if it is related to just the Task Force or the fleet at large?" Elena asked.
"I honestly dont know. With the way the admiral was acting, It may go higher. I really wish I could give you more information, but I just don't have it. We are meeting with someone who may know more." Jacob answered.
Aztala shook her head and looked towards the floor in thought. "So there's an unknown threat that you know about but have no idea what it is. Our only clue is a terrified look in an Admiral's eyes."
"I know exactly how it sounds Aztala. But I have known Vadosia for about 20 years. He was the CO of my first ship. And I can honestly say I have never seen the fear in his eyes like I saw on that message." He replied.
"I don't know him quite as well as you do but I have worked with the Admiral before, if he believes something is significant I do think we can trust that. What do you want us to do Captain?"Elena responded.
Jacob thought for a moment. "Lets see what this liaison has to say. Speak of this to no one, we have to keep this between us for now. Any questions?"
Aztala shook her head no. "None that would make sense."
Elena shook her head no. "No, sir. None at all"
Jacob looked to both of his officers. "I cant stress enough, this cant get out. Computer, unseal the room. Dismissed."
Part 3 - Timeline: Day 1 - 1225
- Location: Unknown
Jacob was sat in his chair on the bridge, PADD in hand. It had been a little over two hours since he gave the order to head for this area of space.
The ship arrived at the coordinates that Admiral Adislo had sent him. The conn officer looked to him.
"Sir, im not detecting anything on sensors."
"He should be here. Scan every frequency. Hmm." He thought for a moment. "Use a tachyon scan."
"Sir?" She questioned.
"Just do it Ensign." Jacobs temper was getting shorter by the minute. The flustered Ensign put her head down and tapped away on the console.
"Sir Im detecting something, cloaked. The sensor image looks like a Runabout."
"Open a channel, all frequencies." He waited a moment until the officer nodded to him, confirming that the channel was open. "This is Captain Jacob Lambert, of the USS Unification. I was sent here by Rear Admiral Adislo. Identify yourself."
"Captain, please do the following. Overload EPS relays 459 and 462, in your main shuttlebay, then clear a pad for me to come in." Said the mysterious voice.
"That will depressurise the shuttle bay. Who the hell are you?" Jacob asked with a more acerbic tone.
"We dont have time for this Jacob. Adislo said to tell you that Lemma 2 wasn't your fault."
This erased all doubt from his mind. He turned to the operations officer. "Lieutenant, blow the relays now." He said it in such a tone, that there was no chance the Lieutenant would question it. "Bridge to Shuttle bay 1, clear a runabout pad. Once it detects the mass of a runabout, repressurise the bay." An acknowledgement came back.
He stood, turned to the Colonel Wright. "Colonel, you have the bridge." He walked up the ramp, and to the turbolift. He stepped inside and called to the computer Shuttlebay 1.
The trip was short, only around 20 seconds. He stepped out walking towards Shuttle Control, where a Lieutenant Commander was on station. "Report, Commander."
"Given that we had warning, and it wasn't a random blowout, there are no casualties, there was however a roll on effect which blew 3 more relays, along the same circuit. Shouldn't be too hard to replace." There was noise coming from the panel. Both of the officers looked down at the panel, that was indicating a mass on the runabout pad.
"Seal the shuttle bay, and repressurise. Captain do you want security down there?" He asked.
"No, Im going down there, but have some security positioned outside the shuttle bay." Jacob replied.
"Aye Sir" The Commander replied.
Jacob walked over to the weapons locker pulled out a phaser, and hooked it to his belt, hoping he didn't have to use it. He then existed the shuttle control room and climbed down the ladder, the most direct route to their mysterious new guest.
He got to the side of the pad that contained the cloaked vessel. It shimmered into site and jacob couldn't help but feel slightly tense as the side of the runabout opened, revealing a man in Starfleet uniform. His eyes though, were jet black. This man was a Betazoid.
"I am Commander Jaca Trayor, and I believe we need somewhere quiet, for me to tell you what you need to know."
Part 4 - Timeline: Day 1 - 1235
- Location: USS Unification; Shuttlebay, Ready Room
"Of course Commander, we can use my ready room. I already have security protocols set up. Ill inform my XO. She needs to be in on this." Jacob went to tap his badge when the Commander reached over and grabbed his hand.
"Please come into the Runabout Captain. We need a moment. I am here to speak to you, and you alone." The Betazoid replied.
Jacob stepped into the Runabout, a force field activated behind him. "Whats going… I am sick and tired of all this cloak and dagger crap." Jacob’s calm demeanour was gone. "I trust Colonel Wright, why can't you?"
"Because, Captain, right now I trust exactly 1 person within 100 light years. And that is Admiral Adislo."
"And I trust Colonel Wright. I'm bringing her in, if you really don't trust her that much, feel free to use your telepathy, and scan her. With her permission of course."
The Commander thought for a moment. "Very well, but if she refuses a passive scan?"
"I don't think she would." Jacob replied.
"But if she does, Captain?"
Jacob sighed. "I will ask her to leave the room. But I plan to bring it to Admiral Adislo as soon as we are done."
Jaca looked to Jacob, and for the first time, showed real emotion in his eyes. "Thats if he is still alive."
A shocked Jacob started to talk. "Wha…"
Jaca held up his hand. "No, not here. Your ready room, now." Realising it sounded like he was giving Jacob an order, he added "Captain" to the end of his sentence. He tapped a button on the console and the forcefield lowered. Jacob and Jaca stepped outside the runabout, Jacob tapping his Comm Badge.
"Lambert to Wright, report to my ready room, immediately. I will be there shortly. Commander Minian can have the bridge.
"Understood, sir" Elena responded before she turned to the Commander "You have the bridge". Admittedly she really was not feeling comfortable about any of this at all but she realized that there was something serious going on and this was the only way they could figure it out. Following the order she proceeded to the Ready Room and took a seat there waiting for the Captain and his guest.
Jacob held out his arm, directing the Commander to the nearest turbolift. The trip there was short, and in complete silence. Apparently Jaca Traylor meant what he said, his ready room and only there would he carry on this conversation. They walked down the side of the bridge, and into the ready room where Colonel Wright was already waiting.
Jacob waited for the door to close. "Computer, activate security protocol Lambert 47." The room seems to hum for just a second as bulkheads sealed, forcefields activated and the room became the most secure area on the whole ship. No Signals in or out, except for a specific coded frequency. "Colonel, this is entirely up to you. You can remain and listen to what Commander Ja….the Commander has to say, but he requests that you submit to a passive scan, he is Betazoid, and wants to make sure my trust in you is not misplaced."
Elena had to consider things for a while, she realized why it needed to be done but admittedly telepathy was not one of the things she liked particularly. "Make it quick and to the point" she responded reluctantly.
The Captain looked to the Betazoid. "Go ahead Commander."
The Commander looked to Elena. She was extremely hesitant to take the scan, but as his mind reached out to hers she lowered her barriers albeit almost under duress. He was satisfied she wasn't one of them. "Your faith in her is not misplaced, Captain. Shall we begin?"
Elena was happy when the scan was over, the uncomfortable feeling was still there but at least they could now proceed. "I would appreciate that"
The Captain nodded to the Commander. "Go ahead Commander."
He cleared his throat. "What I am about to tell you can go no further. I mean NO one outside of the three of us can no what is said in here. I can not stress that enough."
Jacob spoke up. "I can assure you Commander, that will not happen. Now can we please get on with it."
"Captain, you will know some of the following information. Colonel, I believe you were not yet on board the Unification, so I don't know exactly how much you know. As you may or may not be aware, the USS Galavant was MIA for a short time before being listed as destroyed. Captain, you will know this because the USS Unification, the Diligent class one, was lost searching for this ship." Jaca stopped for just a moment, knowing how much that the mention of that ship would give Jacob some hard memories to get through. That ship was lost when the USS Cassiopeia was infected with a virus, created with code from the USS Galavant. What you don't know is what happened to the USS Galavant. It was taken, by a group known as the Consortium."
"Consortium?" Elena asked surprised, the rumours about some kind of group being active somewhere were widespread but the beast had not yet been given a name as far as she knew.
"They are a group, we really don't know a whole lot about. The bits we do know are hit and miss. Alot of it is unconfirmed, but the stuff that isn't...well, it isn't good. This group has been around for a number of years, but have been working in the shadows. They have been using telepathic species to influence people."
"What do you mean ‘influence people’. The Captain asked, suddenly remembered the man in front of him was telepathic.
"They have been influencing people to join their cause, well to join their group. We don't know what their cause is." Jaca noticed the Captain shifting uncomfortably in his chair, and picked up a stray thought. "Im not here to make you join anything. Betazoids appear to be immune to this new form of conditioning. Thats why Admiral Adislo has been positioning Betazoid officers in hot spots. Vulcans too have some form of immunity, which seems to make it next to impossible for them to be conditioned. You remember Commander Tevak, his yeoman? Theres a reason he has been with the Admiral for as long as he has."
This seemed to relax Jacob somewhat. "How bad is it? How many people have been influenced in some way? How high up does it go?"
"As far as Vadosia is aware, it could go above him, right to the top. We honestly don't know. We have been watching personal assignment, ship deployments for the past 2 years. This has allowed us to estimate. Our conservative estimates, and I mean conservative, place their potential numbers at around 3800 people currently active in Starfleet, just on the Gamma side of the wormhole." He paused a moment to let that sink in.
Jacob opened his mouth in shock. Elena spoke before he had the chance to.
"3800?!? That has to be a majority of the Starfleet officers even in this quadrant" Elena said spontaneously, before even thinking everything through.
"No. Not 3800 officers, 3800 Starfleet personnel. There are approximately 35 starships currently under Admiral Adislo. Including bases, and stations there are around 30,000 Starfleet personnel. Only about 8000 of which are officers. The officer estimate is difficult to calculate, because of so much movement, but we believe there are maybe less than 150 officers under the Consortiums influence." Jaca replied to the Colonel.
At least that was somewhat comforting. "Has the Task Force Senior Staff been cleared at least?"
"Not all. Thats why there are more Betazoids and Vulcans around. A majority of the Admirals personal staff are Betazoid or Vulcan so he is insulated for the time being. As mentioned, Vulcan and Betazoids are mostly immune. As are Ullians. Captain Tarmin Mavroidis is the Ullian commander of the Compound. Captain Juliana Terlexa is the commanding officer of Gamma Command. We haven't had a chance to get near her and check. Though there have been a lot of personnel movements on Gamma Command. She is a potential issue."
Elena realized she by now probably was speaking too much whereas Jacob probably wanted to say something as well but there was one more thing she needed to address. "Is there any plan in place to counter these operatives?"
"Not until we can devise a way actually work out who the operatives actually are." Jaca replied.
Jacob looked to the Colonel, then back to the Commander. "What about when you scanned Elena. Wasn't that a way to check if she was an operative?"
"Yes, but had she been an operative, she would have detected the scan. Something in the conditioning leaves them able to detect telepathic scans." He replied. We have only scanned about 30 people, and they have disappeared soon after being scanned.
"I presume by your presence that the Admiral has an assignment for us?" Elena asked.
Jaca nodded. "Yes. The sensor buoy you are going to repair isn't broken."
Jacobs mouth started to open in surprise, before he spoke. "What? Then what are doing, going this far out of the area."
"There is a base, on a planet about 10 light years from the buoy. Once we get to the buoy, I have to send it a command, and it was remove the Unification from its sensor logs, and mask its presence. This will then be uploaded to all the sensor buoys out here, and keep the Unification hidden. Not from other Starships, but from Gamma Command, they can't see us." Jaca replied.
Elena nodded. "Is there any indication of when they plan to make their move?"
"We can't be certain. All we know for sure is its soon. Very soon. Alot of the chatter we have monitored has trailed off, and the chatter that remains is on about something called 'pity'."
"Captain what do you think of all of this?" Elena asked as she had noticed the silence from Jacob’s side. "Honestly? If it wasnt the three of us here, I would think it was a holonovel. I'm having such a hard time comprehending something to large happening right under on noses, literally under our noses." He paused, for a second as a horrific thought flashed through his mind, the Betazoid evidently picking it up too. "Are there any operatives on the Unification?"
"Truthfully, we can't be 100% sure one way or the other. There may, or there may not." Jaca said.
That thought was quite scary indeed. "Are there any security precautions you recommend we should take?"
"Not knowing how many there could be, no. Look what happened to the Galavant. They just went MIA. We think thats why they disappeared first, they discovered something. But we will never be sure. No one will ever know for sure. As I mentioned Vulcans and Betazoids seem to be somewhat resistant to the conditioning, so you can almost certainly rule them out as operatives."
After listening Elena turned to Jacob again. "Captain we should have the entire crew, starting from the top and going to the bottom investigated. If there is even a single operative on the crew we may all be in danger"
"I think it needs to be done, but we have to be careful." Jacob turned to Jaca. "Can you do it?"
"There are around 1500 people on this ship. That will take a long time. I would recommend starting with the department heads, and bridge officers." Jaca replied.
"Of course, that is what I meant with starting at the top. We also have multiple telepaths among our own crew" Elena responded.
"Thats true. Could you talk to the other telepaths among the crew, and enlist their help? We can try and keep it limited, obviously this needs to be kept quiet."
"I suppose I could. And them being telepathic would definitely speed it along. It would be nice to insulate the bridge though. Can you subtly add any telepathic races to key areas?" Jaca looked to Elena.
Elena had to consider the options for a second. "Perhaps for a shift or two but any longer than that and the Senior Staff will get suspicious that I am not scheduling them to man their own stations"
Jaca thought for a moment. "Could you alternate between shifts then? Spread them throughout? Once they are scanned, if they are clear, you can schedule them as normal?"
Jacob tapped on the PADD he picked up from his desk. "That could work Elena. Once they are scanned, they are in the clear yes?" He looked to Jaca who nodded. "So we concentrate on scanning the senior staff first. Then we can schedule them in key areas. I think we need senior staff first, then any other crew that work the bridge then security and tactical departments. Then we need to reinforce strategic areas of the ship, engineering, bridge, tactical control and the like."
"I can probably make that work yes" Elena said.
"Get it done then please. Lets get these scans done. Commander, get with Elena to get you a list of telepaths on the crew who can help you. Elena, get our guest some quarters. Secluded if you can, close to the bridge. If theres nothing else?" He looked to Jaca who shook his head. "Dismissed."