Cross-Departmental Co-Operation

Posted on Sun 25th Aug, 2019 @ 6:47am by Lieutenant Commander Andrew Eberstark

826 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: A Diplomatic Affair
Location: Intelligence Department
Timeline: MD-03: 1600 hours

As the turbolift doors opened, Andrew followed the other two occupants out and onto the deck. He didn't know much about the new Intelligence officers coming aboard recently, other than the standard bios, but that needed to change to coordinate his and Starfleet's efforts against the frustratingly increasing pirate activity in the sector. After a few more paces, he walked up to the door of the Senior Intelligence Officer and rang the chime.

Jason Fisher turned from the terminal that he was working on. Feeling that he had been sat down for some time, he had elected to read the latest set of reports he had received standing up, at one of the larger displays on the far wall of his office. "Come in," he called loudly. He tapped at the interface a couple of times, closing the report he was reading and resetting the terminal to its generic Starfleet logo display.

The doors opened as Andrew walked in seeing the man he was intended to officially meet standing by a computer station on the opposite side of the room. Andrew spoke out as he crossed the room in Commander Fisher's direction, "Commander. Andrew Eberstark. I don't think we've officially met yet. Do you have a few minutes?"

“I do indeed, Mister Eberstark,” Fisher responded with a warm smile, “Please take a seat.” He indicated to one of the two chairs in front of his desk, even as he rose and headed towards the replicator. “Can I get you something?” he asked, motioning towards the cavity in the wall with its associated controls.

Andrew waved his hand and shook his head, "No, thank you. If I have another coffee, my head will explode. I wanted to come and talk about the pirate activity around Starbase 109. I assume you have been briefed?"

"I have," Fisher replied, before turning to the replicator. "Coffee, black, double sweet." The drink materialised in the aperture and he took it and returned to his desk and sat down, placing the hot beverage in front of him, next to his console. "I must admit though," he continued, "I'm finding it difficult to make sense of it all."

Andrew shrugged, "So is most of Starfleet. Their ease of access to cloaking devices has been making efforts to pin down their numbers and locations exceedingly difficult. Not to mention they have seem to come out of almost nowhere which suggests they have an agenda much more sinister than simply attacking nearby ships for resources," shaking his head, "It's been frustrating honestly."

"That would be my assessment as well," Fisher replied. "From what I've seen so far, there is certainly a bigger scheme at play here." He took a sip from his coffee cup. "Somehow though," he continued, "we need to start getting a handle on this." He paused and thought for a moment. "Could you take a look at all the attacks that we have on record?" he asked. "Look for any discernible patterns, places of appearance and disappearance, try and triangulate anything that you can to try and start getting some idea of a base of operations?"

Nodding in agreement, "I've been in the process of gathering that data for the past couple weeks. Unfortunately I can't focus on compiling and analyzing the data beyond a cursory glance," folding his arms, Andrew continued, "First glance, there wasn't much there beyond the obvious, but I suspect you're right. There has to be something there to indicate a pattern. I've been preoccupied with helping out with all that's been happening on the Starbase itself. Seems like when it rains it pours."

"That is definitely true," Fisher replied with a half-smile, thinking about the investigation with Alegari, "But if you do get a few minutes, I'd really appreciate your help."

"You got it," Andrew answered, musing just where those minutes were going to come from, "I think it's safe to say the quicker we can resolve this, the safer everyone will feel in the area. May I suggest some sort of weekly or monthly meeting of the minds with our departments outside of the normal senior staff meetings to compare notes?"

“Of course,” Fisher agreed at once. “I’ll talk to Captain Grax - he may well be happy for you to sit in on the relevant intel. briefings, but, if not, I’d be more than happy to arrange a regular one-to-one.” He stood and extended his hand; a kind, but professional smile on his face. “That you, lieutenant,” he said, “I’m very grateful for your time.”

Andrew shook the man's hand as he rose to leave, "Good idea. Let me know his response and what times work best for you. I'm sure we can find an overlap in our schedules. In the meantime, I'll let you know if I dig up anything of value."

“Thank you, Commander,” Fisher replied with genuine warmth. “Hopefully, it won’t be too long before we can find something.”

 

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