Smugglers Haven

Posted on Tue 12th Jun, 2018 @ 6:00pm by Lieutenant JG Kellian Michaels
Edited on on Wed 13th Jun, 2018 @ 12:03am

803 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Brushfires
Location: Security, Michaels' Office
Timeline: MD 9, 1014

In his office in the Security department, Kellian Michaels read the brief message from Lt. Perry with some surprise. His job up until becoming her second had consisted of investigating crimes after they had occurred. Now, it sounded as if Isabella wanted him to assist her in heading them off before they ever took place. Which I have to admit is much more efficient than the other way, he told himself as he walked the short path to her office and knocked at the open doorway. "You wanted to see me, Lieutenant?" he asked.

"Kellian, come in and have seat," Isabella invited as she continued looking at a file on her desk terminal. She wrapped up what she was reading, looked at her second-in-command and started the briefing.

"OK, this is what we have so far. " she stated as she left her desk and walked over to the wall terminal and tapped a sequence of keystrokes. Pictures of various illegal items appeared on the screen. A tribble, Romulan Ale, a Remat detonator.

"How are these items getting aboard our station?" she asked him.

"We have a source for Romulan Ale on Vanguard? I've obviously been hanging out at the wrong bars," Kellian said. He sighed at the tribble and frowned at the detonator. "Good question how these are getting onboard. I'm curious to figure out if we're dealing with just one smuggling operation or three. Where's the tribble being kept?"

"A reliable source of mine says this man has it somewhere on deck 45 of Vanguard." As she spoke, Isabella brought another image up on the monitor.

"This is Qunten Mudd. And before you ask, the only relation to Harry Mudd is through name only. Qunten Mudd was formerly known as Qunten Thorson of the New Vega colony." Perry tapped the panel again and brought up a booking photo of Qunten along with hundreds of previous charges of smuggling various and exotic items.

"I've seen Mudd only in passing back in my intelligence days, but he has a reputation for being the guy who can get you anything you want." Isabella made her way back to her seat behind her desk as she let Kellian read Mudd's file.

"Hm. So he could be the only person behind it all...." Kellian frowned at the screen. "But tribbles and Romulan ale; those are relatively benign, especially if you're careful with the tribbles. Never met a non-Klingon who didn't love a tribble. Remat detonators, though--It takes a special kind of sick jerk to deal in those." He grimaced, collected himself, and went on. "And they can be hidden inside bottles of Romulan Ale, even inside the glass itself."

"I agree!" Isabella commented. "Mudd usually isn't anywhere near his deals unless something big is going down, or if he doesn't want to leave the details of a deal to his little minions. Or, if he wants to make Vanguard his main base of operations. We are kind of in the middle of nowhere out here."

"So we're going to have to make Vanguard unattractive to him," Kellian said. "Any open warrants we can apprehend him for, or is he smarter than that?"

"Smarter than that." She replied as she looked directly into her friend's eyes. "No one can ever actually tie him to any of his dealings or subordinates. It is rumored that they would rather face death than betray him, but it wouldn't be for the reasons you think. The word is, Mudd actually takes care of his people. If one of them dies on a run or dies as a result of not giving anyone up, their family is taken care of."

An odd, haunted expression crossed Kellian's face at that information and then vanished. "He's a rarity," was all Kellian said. "It's possible that he's not behind the detonators, then. I wouldn't entirely bet on it, but it's more possible with him than most."

Isabella nodded her head in agreement. "So what are you thinking for next steps?" she asked.

"The worst problem is the detonators, followed by the tribble," Kellian said. "I'd like to meet this guy. Do we have a psych profile on him, and do we know what contraband he's smuggled in the past? It would help if we had an idea of how likely it is he's behind the detonators, going in. If he's the type to deal in mostly harmless goods, I wonder if it might be possible for us to enlist his help in finding out who's behind the detonators." He sighed. "But I don't think we can meet him as security unless we bring him into custody--which you've already said he's very good at avoiding."

Isabella smiled a big Cheshire grin across her face. "I actually might have a plan for that." She stated.

 

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