====== CO's ready room, TF Operations centre,
SB 234: UNITY ======
Unlike his habit, Shane was spending his time in the CO's
ready room in the TF operations area – instead of his own
office in the TF Command area. The reason was simple, Terek
and his investigation in the matter of Rangi&Martin
kidnapping. Shane wanted to be near when any discovery will
be made …just in case a 'speedy' decision will be
required.
When Major Kinn requested a meeting, Shane was half decided
to refuse it for the moment, but TF's acting intel advisor
wasn't someone to be ignored, so Shane reluctantly agreed.
====== Some laters ======
"Commodore," Major Kinn said as she approached the 1st Task
Force Commander. "I'm sorry to interrupt you sir, but I've
discovered something you might find interesting."
Shane nodded in greeting and asked: "What's the matter,
Major?"
"I was studying the information we recovered from the R-12
communications beacon. I cross-referenced it with all Task
Force officers to see if there was any connection, in an
attempt to find some more concrete evidence that we might
have a mole," she explained. "And I think I found him."
"Mole?" Shane asked, "are you sure you know what about
you talk? All TF officers have been cleared by SSFI" he
said, but then his voice trailed off as he remembered that
Tal'shiar was FAR advanced to any Intel Starfleet could
offer. "Whom do you have in mind, Major?"
"Major Varis Liev," Giella said. "He has access to the
communications network, which in itself is not suspicious
given his clearance level, but what I did find suspicious is
his routine access to discarded files. Unity's system
automatically discards sensor ghost information received by
comm relays and he accessed those files, specifically the
ones received by R-12. He also transmitted information on
three occasions to the R-12 beacon, disguised as a routine
identification request from Unity."
"Varis Liev?" Shane asked surprised. It was for the
second time today that the Major's name appeared in
connection to criminal behavior. It was most probably just
mere coincidence, but slowly, Shane began to doubt the
coincidence. "Do you have the details here?" he asked.
She showed him a padd containing the information and the
specific dates Varis accessed the R-12 files. "I know it
gets rather complicated. What it comes down to is that
there's evidence of three people accessing the Tarangor R-12
communications outpost, which was supposed to be inactive;
Major Varis, his accomplice and a third party who's sent us
the repeated Federation news logs. Varis was getting orders
from R-12 and transmitting it back to his accomplice... I
suspect that when Varis found out you were sending Ohmsford
and Rodgers to Tarangor, he sent word and had the bomb
planted to destroy the relay. As for the third party, I
don't think they're directly connected, and I don't think
Varis realised someone else was sending disguised
information to Unity, but I don't think it's a coincidence
they were using the same comm beacon either."
Shane shook his head: "That's really too much
information at once, Major. I really don't see why a JAG
major should access such information and your other points
are rather suspicious, but what is your point?"
"I'd like to request permission to search Varis' quarters
and to access all his files for a full-scale investigation,"
she requested.
"Hmmm" Shane said, "we are here talking about a high
ranking JAG officer with a service record of excellence.
Such an investigation could ruin the man's career" HE
smiled a bit: "But considering the fact that the Major is
possibly kidnapped, such an investigation might bring light
in the whole matter. You have my permission to do so, Major
… start the investigation at once.
"Thank you, sir," the Intel advisor nodded, then braced
herself to raise a sensitive topic.
"Commodore, there's something else... I thought it was
related to something else at the time, sir, but one of the
logs was an article about the kidnapping of an Admiral's
wife and son by Orion pirates. Since the other logs turned
out to be warnings about the attacks on New Geneva and V'Tar
II, I think that was a warning about the kidnapping," Giella
said. "Someone's got inside information about the Romulan
plans, and they're sending it to us."
Shane was a bit shocked. If Giella was right, he had a
warning just under his very nose for a week or so … but
was too silly to understand it. He would yell at himself …
would he be alone, but had to calm down in the Intel
Major's presence. "Do you think someone is warning us
ahead of Romulan plans? Assuming that the kidnapping of
Rangi, Martin and Liev is a plan of Romulan origin?"
"It seems very likely, sir," she replied. "Though the method
is unorthodox, the information we received is more valid
than anything our own agents in the Empire have been able to
come up with recently."
Shane sighed. "I don't suppose there is any more of this
warning messages on R-12, isn't it?"
"There are, sir, we're still studying them, trying to make
sense of it all. There were two names which were repeated
that could be important. You should be familiar with them...
Nicolas Harker and Samantha Palmer?"
SB 234: UNITY ======
Unlike his habit, Shane was spending his time in the CO's
ready room in the TF operations area – instead of his own
office in the TF Command area. The reason was simple, Terek
and his investigation in the matter of Rangi&Martin
kidnapping. Shane wanted to be near when any discovery will
be made …just in case a 'speedy' decision will be
required.
When Major Kinn requested a meeting, Shane was half decided
to refuse it for the moment, but TF's acting intel advisor
wasn't someone to be ignored, so Shane reluctantly agreed.
====== Some laters ======
"Commodore," Major Kinn said as she approached the 1st Task
Force Commander. "I'm sorry to interrupt you sir, but I've
discovered something you might find interesting."
Shane nodded in greeting and asked: "What's the matter,
Major?"
"I was studying the information we recovered from the R-12
communications beacon. I cross-referenced it with all Task
Force officers to see if there was any connection, in an
attempt to find some more concrete evidence that we might
have a mole," she explained. "And I think I found him."
"Mole?" Shane asked, "are you sure you know what about
you talk? All TF officers have been cleared by SSFI" he
said, but then his voice trailed off as he remembered that
Tal'shiar was FAR advanced to any Intel Starfleet could
offer. "Whom do you have in mind, Major?"
"Major Varis Liev," Giella said. "He has access to the
communications network, which in itself is not suspicious
given his clearance level, but what I did find suspicious is
his routine access to discarded files. Unity's system
automatically discards sensor ghost information received by
comm relays and he accessed those files, specifically the
ones received by R-12. He also transmitted information on
three occasions to the R-12 beacon, disguised as a routine
identification request from Unity."
"Varis Liev?" Shane asked surprised. It was for the
second time today that the Major's name appeared in
connection to criminal behavior. It was most probably just
mere coincidence, but slowly, Shane began to doubt the
coincidence. "Do you have the details here?" he asked.
She showed him a padd containing the information and the
specific dates Varis accessed the R-12 files. "I know it
gets rather complicated. What it comes down to is that
there's evidence of three people accessing the Tarangor R-12
communications outpost, which was supposed to be inactive;
Major Varis, his accomplice and a third party who's sent us
the repeated Federation news logs. Varis was getting orders
from R-12 and transmitting it back to his accomplice... I
suspect that when Varis found out you were sending Ohmsford
and Rodgers to Tarangor, he sent word and had the bomb
planted to destroy the relay. As for the third party, I
don't think they're directly connected, and I don't think
Varis realised someone else was sending disguised
information to Unity, but I don't think it's a coincidence
they were using the same comm beacon either."
Shane shook his head: "That's really too much
information at once, Major. I really don't see why a JAG
major should access such information and your other points
are rather suspicious, but what is your point?"
"I'd like to request permission to search Varis' quarters
and to access all his files for a full-scale investigation,"
she requested.
"Hmmm" Shane said, "we are here talking about a high
ranking JAG officer with a service record of excellence.
Such an investigation could ruin the man's career" HE
smiled a bit: "But considering the fact that the Major is
possibly kidnapped, such an investigation might bring light
in the whole matter. You have my permission to do so, Major
… start the investigation at once.
"Thank you, sir," the Intel advisor nodded, then braced
herself to raise a sensitive topic.
"Commodore, there's something else... I thought it was
related to something else at the time, sir, but one of the
logs was an article about the kidnapping of an Admiral's
wife and son by Orion pirates. Since the other logs turned
out to be warnings about the attacks on New Geneva and V'Tar
II, I think that was a warning about the kidnapping," Giella
said. "Someone's got inside information about the Romulan
plans, and they're sending it to us."
Shane was a bit shocked. If Giella was right, he had a
warning just under his very nose for a week or so … but
was too silly to understand it. He would yell at himself …
would he be alone, but had to calm down in the Intel
Major's presence. "Do you think someone is warning us
ahead of Romulan plans? Assuming that the kidnapping of
Rangi, Martin and Liev is a plan of Romulan origin?"
"It seems very likely, sir," she replied. "Though the method
is unorthodox, the information we received is more valid
than anything our own agents in the Empire have been able to
come up with recently."
Shane sighed. "I don't suppose there is any more of this
warning messages on R-12, isn't it?"
"There are, sir, we're still studying them, trying to make
sense of it all. There were two names which were repeated
that could be important. You should be familiar with them...
Nicolas Harker and Samantha Palmer?"
Harker is an ex- Black Ops agent and defected to the Romulan
Empire. Miss Palmer was an ex- agent as well, but she's
dead. Both of them served for a time on board the Chimera
when I was her CO." He looked at Giela and said :
"Major, I'd like you to assign all available sources to
this project. The personal side of Rangi and Martin is one
thing, but those messages warned us of disasters that cost
millions of innocent lives. I want those messages having
sense as soon as possible. If you should require any
additional resources or help, just ask … all will be ready
for you."
"Of course, sir," Giella nodded, understanding the severity of the situation.
"One more things, Major. DO you have any clues about the
current position of the kidnappers?"
"None at the moment, sir," she responded. "We're currently scanning all energy and warp signatures in the vicinity and will hopefully have a more clear indication shortly."
Shane nodded saying nothing. He remained silent for a
moment. What went through his head … one could only guess.
But from the look of his face, it wasn't anything
pleasant.
"Dismissed, Major" he said at last.
Giella nodded with respect to the Commodore before leaving him to his thoughts.
= End Log =
Commodore Shane Guzman
Fleet Commander
1st Task Force, SSF
-
Major Giellera Kinn
Adjunct Intelligence Advisor
1st Task Force, SSF
[NPC by Bren]
