I Have a Little List ...

Posted on Fri 23rd Dec, 2022 @ 8:52pm by
Edited on on Sat 24th Dec, 2022 @ 4:46am

1,573 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: A Fresh Perspective
Location: Intelligence Offices, Deck 16
Timeline: MD 4, 1700

"Wow, they sure do like to have it dark in here!" Isabella said to her cohort as she and Riko sat in two chairs inside a nondescript room in the Starbase intelligence office interrogation room. The room itself wasn't dreary from Isabella's memory, but she knew they could play with the lighting setting to make detainees feel like they were deep into an abyss with no way of escaping.

"Ever been in here before?" Isabella asked Riko trying to ease her mind with a little levity.

"Oh, yeah, and places just like it all over the galaxy," McCord responded drily. She was trying not to fidget, since she figured they were being watched. "I guess you're usually on the other side of the mirrors," she nodded to the wall nearby. It didn't look like a mirror or even a window or a holo screen, but she was pretty certain they were being watched all the same.

"Who do you suppose is going to come question us?" she asked, gripping her hands together in her lap.

"Probably a trained interrogator. I don't know who the best person they have on staff is at the moment." Isabella continued to look around to see if they were alone. She, too, had a habit of standing in the room with her suspects and listening to them talk amongst themselves.

"If anyone is here, just come on out and get this party started," Perry said as she watched for any movement. "I think we are alone for the moment, though they are probably recording us now."

"Ah," Riko said, forcing herself to relax back into the chair. "If Grandma could only see me now," she laughed. "And how proud Papa will be when he hears I was arrested." She shook her head, not really in amusement.

"What do you suppose happened out there? That was just so ... sudden. I'm sure it wasn't anything Podkayne did. She's too ... innocent to have caused that kind of mayhem." Riko knew it was Isabella. She hadn't exactly admitted a crime, but she'd said enough that her first officer would have to be stupid not to know.

McCord was trying to ... she didn't know what, exactly. Establish innocence? Was that even possible? She felt a little queasy at the thought of losing her rank and her Starfleet position, even if it were only for a time. She was afraid this was the first step down a long slippery slope, and she could never climb back.

Isabella laughed aloud at Riko, but instantly regretted it. She knew this couldn't be easy for someone who didn't operate in this world often. Isabella was used to playing a role, and going by a narrative she had prepared in her mind. This is when she felt more in control than in many other situations.

"Trust me, your parent would be very proud of the woman you have become and the woman you are going to be in the next few months." Isabella tried to sound sympathetic and understanding to Riko, but before she could follow up, the door to the interrogation room slid open. A slender womanly silhouette appeared from the light in the exterior hallway and made its way into the room, stopping in the darkness where it could not be seen.

"The two of you seem to have gotten yourselves involved in a rather precarious situation." The voice said with a bit of arrogance and confidence.

"Commander McCord, what do you have to say for yourself?" The ominous voice asked with hint of sarcasm.

"Nothing. I don't know why we're here, or what you think we've done, so I have not one thing to say," McCord replied, leaned back and relaxed for the first time since they'd stepped off of Nomad into the hands of two security officers.

She focused on what Perry had said about her father being proud of her. He would be, when he knew the truth, and he'd know that when she could tell him. Until then, she hoped he knew her well enough to know that whatever rumors came his way had an explanation.

"And Lt. Commander Isabella Perry, the former Starfleet Intelligence officer and former Chief of Security of this Starbase. What do you have to say?" the voice asked.

Isabella just shook her head and wondered where this was going. She had thought a trained interrogator was going to come in the room and start throwing his weight around like they normally did.

"Well, I might have something to say if an actual question were asked of me in here." Isabella started to wonder if there was another person who was going to come and join them shortly in the room and start the real interrogation process. She decided to speed this process up a bit.

"I am requesting to know exactly what we're being charged with and ask for an immediate trial." Isabella said, waiting for a reaction from the unknown voice.

Riko tried not to flinch at the idea of a trial, but she didn't know how successful she was. Whoever had entered could see them clearly, but she and Isabella could see little or nothing. She didn't have any idea who the woman could be. Well, she did have one idea, but it was outrageous. Even if they'd done something that broke every Starfleet rule, that woman wouldn't be down here questioning them. This was a lieutenant's job.

The unknown woman scoffed and gave a sarcastic laugh. "Oh, we are way past a trial, but we will get to that in a moment."

Isabella was semi-shocked to hear that Starfleet would forgo a trial for anything that an officer would be charged with. If anything, Starfleet was known for following protocol to the letter. She knew something wasn't right here.

The woman stepped out from the shadows to show her identity. Captain Navarra stood directly in front of her two subordinates and started to pace around them in a circle.

"Since you wanted to know your charges, how about we start with espionage against the Federation, collaborating with the enemy, and destruction of Starfleet property, amongst other things. I am sure, by the end of the day, we could work up some more charges. But the most important charge I want to discuss here is espionage."

Navarra gave a nod to someone in the other room behind the mirror and the service records for McCord and Perry appeared on the view screen that was on a wall directly in front of the two. Multiple lines of citations of merit, honors, and other awards began scrolling the screen of McCord's profile. Not as many for Isabella's as she led more of a secretive career in Starfleet.

"I never took the two of you to be traitors. Granted, I don't know you well, but I am a good judge of character, and your jackets don't suggest that you would be. But the computer code/virus, along with all the encrypted files we found embedded in our security systems and are currently decoding...." Captain Navarra stopped and let her voice trail off.

"Commander McCord, tell me about the encrypted files. What are we going to find in them?" asked Captain Navarra.

Riko looked up in surprise. "You're asking me? How would I know? I'm not a computer programmer. I'm a scientist, specifically xenoentomology ... alien cooties, as my little sister calls it. Not the sort of scientist who discovers something that needs encrypting, so it's a skill I haven't nurtured." She felt a little guilty about the tiny lie. The captain wouldn't know it, but she had encrypted one file ... or gotten someone to do it for her. She wasn't revealing that information if they took hot pokers to her. There was too large a chance of Starfleet or someone else using her discovery as a weapon. She wasn't going to be the like the Butcher of Clarvis.

"Captain Navarra!" Isabella said, interrupting. "Commander McCord and I would be willing to....."

Again, Captain Navarra gave a sarcastic laugh, interrupting Isabella before she could finish speaking. "I don't care about what you are willing to do, Commander Perry. But I tell you what, sign my confession that will be provided to you, and give up your contacts with whom you are colluding, and I will have you drummed out of Starfleet and kicked off my station. I think Admiral Nechayev would agree to that. How does that sound to you, Commander McCord?"

"It sounds to me as if you have no proof and you are fishing. You don't have any bait that will get me to confess to things I didn't do," Riko said, suddenly calm. If she had to spend years inside a detention cell for something she didn't do, then so be it. "Do what you must, Captain, but my opinion of you is rapidly being revised, as you indicated your opinion of me has been. Right now, I'm thinking you're a bully and I'm wondering how -" she broke off as Isabella interrupted.

"Captain Navarra!" Isabella said as she began to see what was happening. Why would Navarra bring up the Admiral in such a way? She had to know that Isabella and the Admiral had a relationship outside the bounds of Starfleet. And again, why was she willing to just throw them off of the station with no trial, unless ... she knew what was going on.

 

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