New Day, New Job

Posted on Thu 29th Jul, 2021 @ 4:57am by Lieutenant Damion Ildaran
Edited on on Fri 27th Aug, 2021 @ 5:15am

1,032 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Waging Peace
Location: SCIS Branch Office, Starbase 109
Timeline: MD-14, 0740 hours

Damion Ildaran entered the lobby of the SCIS branch office and rang the chime at the front desk. He didn't have to wait long before a female Trill wearing civilian clothing and a photo ID badge appeared and slid aside the glass window at the front desk. "Yes?"

"I'm Lt. Damion Ildaran. I'm here to start as a liaison officer with you,"

"Ah, you're the new ILO. SAIC Pantoufle told me to expect you. Welcome to SCIS. I'm Supervisory Special Agent Ori Nol. Pleased to meet you, Lieutenant. Come on back."

Damion heard a buzzer, and the door to the office area hissed open. He stepped past it to find Special Agent Nol waiting for him. She shook his hand briefly and gestured for him to turn left down a long hallway. "Daisy's in training, so I'm in charge for the week. We can sit in my office and get acquainted. As a liaison officer you'll report to Daisy, but you've been assigned to work with me day to day."

The two of them approached an office, and Nol ushered Damion in. The door slid shut as she entered behind him and went to her desk. Damion took a guest chair as SSA Nol sat down.

"I'll wait until after eight o'clock to take you on the tour; people are still coming in," Nol said. "So tell me about yourself, Lieutenant. What brings you to our neck of the woods?"

Damion considered how to answer for a moment. "I was recruited," he said. "I've been in Starfleet Intelligence for about 15 years. I came to 109 when they needed an additional infiltration specialist to look into the pirate problem the base was having--still is having--though not as blatantly, now. Aside from that, I've primarily been monitoring chatter picked up in the Triangle and working on an extensive kidnapping case. A Knowledge and Nerve kind of thing."

"That's a discreet way of putting it," Agent Nol said with a raised eyebrow. "Daisy told me that you'd been working the Dobbs case. So have I. I'm glad Daisy recruited you. It's time our organizations collaborated, and your department has done some excellent work. You've learned things about Dobbs that my people haven't been able to learn."

"Only through the great kindness of the CMO here," Damion said. "I would not have a clue about the true extent of Dobbs' perfidy, except for what she revealed to me." He looked back at Agent Nol. "I have to admit, I'm surprised at this assignment. Ms. Pantouffle asked me if not being able to work on the Dobbs case would be a deal breaker, and I said it wouldn't be. I presumed she was hinting that she considered me too emotionally involved in the case. It's a valid concern."

"I gather that's why Daisy wanted you. Your record is good; we like your qualifications. We want you on this case precisely because your emotions are engaged, but you're still a realist. You won't give up when it gets dicey, and you haven't let it consume you."

"That would be a nightmare I'd never wake up from," Damion said. "I'm interested in working hard, but I'm not interested in losing myself to the likes of Dobbs."

"Good, because that would be a waste of your talents," Nol said with a slight smile. "Well, then--Our staff are usually informal with each other. Most people here will call you Damion, not Lieutenant. We're family; we don't stand on titles here. We're also civilian, for the most part. As for the Dobbs case--Don't discuss it except with other members of our specific unit. There's a reason why Col. Drake kept so quiet about it and swore certain senior officers of 109 to secrecy when he first became aware of Dobbs' crimes. It would be a political powder keg, if word got out."

"Would it?" Damion questioned. "Seems to me the cover-up could become as bad as the crimes."

"That is a risk. It will be bad enough once it goes to trial."

Damion gave her a startled look. "You seriously expect it will get to a trial?"

"Even Adrian Dobbs can't get out of duralloy handcuffs."

Damian snorted. "The man is good at hiding and seems to be as slippery as olive oil."

"Not as slippery as you might think, Damion. He can't do his experiments without a well-equipped research lab. Those cost money, and they take time to build and dismantle. As you will have noticed, our Admiral doesn't waste time with dismantling them. He hides them very well, puts self-destruct mechanisms in place, and then leaves for his next project."

"It's hardly a self-destruct mechanism if it leaves most of your lab intact," Damion retorted. "If you know about the 49-Alpha lab--"

"Oh, yes. Well, no one ever claimed Dobbs was a demolitions expert," Agent Nol said.

Damion gave her a withering look. "A child from my homeworld could have made a more destructive explosive than the one Dobbs left at that lab."

Nol eyed Damion with interest. "You must tell me about your homeworld someday. Preferably over a few beers and some nachos. In the meantime, study this. Learn it like it's your new home. It will be the destination of our case." She slid a finger over her computer screen and transferred data to Damion's PADD.

He tapped his PADD and opened the file. The first page of the file was an image of an oblong structure floating in space, to which an inordinate number of starships, looking more like salvage from a shipyard than spaceworthy vessels, were docked. "Oblivion," Damion read aloud. He shot a look at Nol. "He's here? In a chunk of the USS Cairo?"

"Ah! Which ship he was in, we did not know. The Cairo remnant was on our shortlist only because enough of it is there to house a decent-sized lab, and it's shielded. But then, at least a quarter of the vessels docked to Oblivion are shielded in various ways. Thank you, Lieutenant. You've enabled us to focus our search. Now, I think we can move."

Damion had never seen a Trill look so predatory.

 

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