Pirates of Starbase 109: Curse of the Black Void Part 1

Posted on Sat 30th Mar, 2024 @ 2:12pm by Captain Gordon Francis & Mindo & Commander Geraldine "Geri" Severide

1,490 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: O' the Cardiff Rose
Location: Brig
Timeline: MD 2, 1300hrs

-Start-

{SB109- Brig; 1300hrs}


Of all the places to end up, Mindo just had to be captive in a Starfleet brig, almost a year to the day he left Starfleet and became what he liked to be called as a "free agent." The days of repairing warp cores, crawling through Jefferies tubes, and reversing polarities to fix a clogged toilet were past him. After the charges had been dropped from that court martial, Mindo was done with Starfleet. True, it had been hard to find work, especially honest work.

But the three-foot, nine-inch Fesarian was nothing if not crafty. A difficult situation for Mindo was like another day at the office. This particular situation didn't seem very difficult. But he had to admit to himself that he had no idea what was about to happen.

He looked over at his two cellmates. Sutall, the Arkenite, was sitting on his cot with one leg drawn up to his chest. He was looking at his hands, and appeared to be playing some sort of counting game with his fingers.

The other prisoner, Rane, was also sitting on his cot, although he had both feet on the floor, his hands in his lap, and his eyes fixed on the wall across from him. He did not budge. Perhaps he was meditating? Rane was from a reptilian species. He never said much about himself. He never said much at all. He had been sitting that way the whole time they had been in this brig.

Three Starfleet security officers appeared at the entrance to the cell. Each one wearing a phaser on his hip and a serious expression on his face. The bluish glow of the force field separating them disappeared. "Let's go," the one in charge said.

"Are you guys buying us lunch first?" Mindo asked as he slowly got up. "Or have you already condemned us to the chair?"

"Interview time," the security man replied. "Then you can have lunch." He motioned for them to come forth.

Sutall stood, muttering a curse under his breath. With a defiant gait he exited the cell. Once outside his hands were cuffed behind his back.

Rane also stood and exited. He was the big, strong type, so the guards kept a careful eye on him. One kept his hand near his phaser. He offered no resistance, however, and was cuffed.

"C'mon, tiny," the last guard said as Mindo sauntered out. They tied his hands with a rubber cord, given that they didn't have cuffs that small.

They were led into an inquiry room, and empty and unflattering room with three chairs placed in the center. Mindo wondered how many people would be involved in their "interview." Mindo was smart enough to not have tried to come up with a corroborative story with his two fellow captives. No doubt Mindo was thinking the same thing they were... say anything to get out of there, even if it means throwing the other two under the bus.

"Courage, brothers." Sutall said as he shifted nervously in his seat.

Rane said nothing. Head and eyes straight forward.

Just feet away from him an invisible portion of the wall was in fact a well disguised window shaped cutout holowall. From here the vantage provided the optimal view for Geri Severide as she setup the biometric analysis. Her monitor feed lit up with their data, comparing every bit of data from them moment they took custody.

Captain Francis entered the room. "Good afternoon, Commander," he said as he entered the anteroom.

"Interrogation room is ready," Geri reported. "I am establishing baselines now, comparing to records, their arrest et al..., we are ready to begin."

There was no chance for sound to escape and get into that room. It was totally isolated, and to begin the uncomfortable process she made the room anechoic, adding a flutter to the lights as well. The small things helped in big ways. Plus those chairs were hell on the lower back, all around an uncomfortable room.

Francis took his seat next to Geri and took his first look at the prisoners. His eyes went wide. "Who's the Fesarian?" he asked Commander Severide.

"Names are elusive, we will need more to go on. DNA is inconclusive as well, I smell a buried ID profile. Care to take point sir? I can work the console here while we search the databases."

Francis used the terminal and cross-checked the Fesarian's DNA with Starfleet records. It was as he feared.

The profile for a Lieutenant-Commander Mindo appeared on the screen. Current status: retired, whereabouts unknown.

"Fiddlesticks," Francis said, sinking back into his seat. "Commander, I think it would be prudent if you conducted the interrogation instead of me." The Captain sighed. "The Fesarian's name is Mindo, and he and I are familiar with each other."

"Oh?" Geri's page updated with Francis targeted searches bypassing the massive DNA table. Iconn Expanse came up in a classified file attached to the last logs around the time of his departure from the Pandora. She tapped it but it required permission to view from the Sector Intel Chief or equivalent. That'd take an hour to arrange at least. Mindo had been court martialed but those records and the reasons which likely would have explained his resignation sat there requiring a second approval.

"Glad to take point, can you free up the mystery here, or am I going in cold?"

Captain Francis sighed. "Technically I can't free up anything other than what you see there," he said, and added, "...but I'll do it anyway."

Francis cleared his throat. "A high-ranking Admiral working for Section 31 was using a planet in the Iconn Expanse for developing a biological weapon, using the planet's unique atmosphere as a Guinea pig. The planet was already inhabited, and the indigenous people there were were a pre-warp tribal race. It was Lieutenant-Commander Mindo, first officer of the USS Pandora, who led the away team who broke the prime directive and made first contact with the only remaining tribe. The rest of the people had been killed as a result of the experiments. The tribe was relocated and the Admiral was apprehended. Originally, I was assigned to approve or deny Starfleet funding for the project. Section 31 stood to gain a lot from these experiments and didn't want to take the chance of me saying no... which was exactly what I was going to do. On my way there, I was exiled on a remote planet called Delavi and my identity was stolen. The USS Pandora was the ship that found me on Delavi. The whole mess led to court-martials for both of us and a lot of other people, and it was a nasty ordeal that got swept under the rug, leading to my own demotion and apparently Mr. Mindo's retirement."

Francis looked out of the two-way mirror at Mindo and sighed. "Mr. Mindo is trustworthy, but isn't a very trusting person. I'm afraid I'm one of the few people left in Starfleet who has Mr. Mindo's full trust," he said. "It was my testimony that cleared his name during his court martial." He turned and looked back at Geri. "This time I might not be able to clear his name. I might not want to. I don't want to look him in the eye and tell him that."

His explanation helped a great deal. She had been prepared to scorch the earth but the nuanced route would play better.

"Aye sir," she said diplomatically. Her peek into Francis' file had revealed some of this, his candor had filled in the rest. She handed him the ear piece, putting the smaller receiver in her ear.

"I still haven't found a match to the reptile, a few leads and look alikes, false identities on the center seat." She left her seat and moved to leave, "No connection to tracked assets, Star Remnants Vash, shiar, even the defunct outfits, Crimson Shore, L'ath Ko, Second sons or any of the other defunct groups out there. contacts in the Syndicate haven't replied yet." At the door she turned to make sure Francis didnt have anything else to say.

"I felt like fishing anyway so I'm just lucky today," she said.

Francis watched as Severide entered the interrogation room. He'd dropped a lot of information on his former situation onto her, but Francis didn't become an Admiral in Intelligence without knowing what to disclose and to whom. Fact was, he wanted her as fully informed as possible. Francis couldn't fathom how an officer as loyal to the uniform as Mindo could end up in a spot like this. Looking at Mindo, he saw an emptiness in his eyes. That fire he had within him as an officer seemed to have gone out completely. But why? Francis wondered as he leaned forward onto the console in front of him and watched as the interrogation started.

To be continued...

 

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