Brass Tacks (Part 3)

Posted on Mon Mar 16th, 2015 @ 6:51am by Jethro Vance & Lieutenant Rembrandt 'Remy' Batiste & Lieutenant Mira Jayna & Lieutenant JG Teenah Spartacus & Logan
Edited on on Mon Mar 16th, 2015 @ 8:06am

1,447 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Deadly Diplomacy
Location: VIP Quarters

[CONTINUED]

[OLD]

He leaned forward placing his elbows on his knees glaring at the two young upstarts. "So let me put this in a language you all can understand. I respect Max, Damion and all officers under my branch, yeah that's right you never get out and maybe if you two hadn't just got out of your diapers you may know this. The only reason I haven't knocked you both out is because of my respect for Max. But my daughter is dead. She's dead because I chose loyalty to this branch over her. She's dead because I was young and foolish just like the two of you and now she's paid for it. So right now, my priorities are to her and finding her killer. If you want my help, i'll give it. If you don't, then get the hell out."

[NEW]


Jayna slowly applauded. "You know, some people would pay for a performance like that." Then she stood and glared at Vance and LeBeau. "I think the two of you need to learn to play nice and pretend we're on the same side here. One," she began, ticking off each item by holding up her hand and touching one finger at a time. "We are here to find the killer of the Panerian Delegation, who happens to be a member of Stryfe's crew. Two, we have two Starfleet officers under cover there." Her glare grew coldly Vulcan as she focused on Vance and LeBeau, "By all I've read, Lancaster and Wolfe are linked at the hip. Her relationship with Wolfe should be enough to persuade anyone -- even Stryfe -- of her loyalty. Three, We're not here to capture Stryfe, Wolfe is. If we can distract him long enough to give Wolfe an edge, all the better. Four, I'm not convinced Commander Vance is dead. It was too...pat. Either she got really sloppy between the time Wolfe went undercover and she died, or she's still alive. That's something for another day. Right now, or focus is the peace talks and the murders. And five," she turned to Logan and grinned, "After this I need to blow off some serious steam or I'm going to start throwing things -- probably people."

Logan looked around the room and softly cleared his throat before he looked to Jayna and replying. "Right here? Right now?" He let out a shrug a continued. "I'm not sure I can perform with an audience but, if you really want to, I can try. Can't make any promises."

That made Jayna laugh, which eased much of her anger. "You're right. I don't think these two could handle it. We'll have to meet somewhere more private. I'm pretty sure Horus can be trusted."

Jethro sighed taking another sip of his drink placing his hand on his forehead and rubbing it. "And how exactly do you plan on distracting someone you don't even have a location on? If it was that easy don't you think we would have done this already? Good luck."

"I don't need luck," Jayna replied. "I have Lancaster."

He rose from his chair, drink still in hand walking over to the window looking out at the stars. He took another sip from his glass as his eyes followed the stars. "Alexandra's dead. She got sloppy. The sooner you guys accept that, the sooner we can get move forward."

"I think you're the one who needs to accept that, Mr. Vance," Jayna replied quietly. "I deal in Intel. I have to explore all the possibilities. Now, do any of you have any useful ideas as to how we can rattle Stryfe, or should I simply steal Horus and make a run for it?"

"There is no way... in hell.... you will take my shuttle. You may be a member of my team, but you haven't been with us long enough to be able to take the Horus. Being in that shuttle is a privilege, not a right?" Remy replied quickly, looking over to Jayna. "If you even dream of stealing my shuttle you better wake up and apologize. If you even try, I am going to-"

"I have an idea." Logan interjected, raising his voice slightly.

Remy sat back down in his chair and looked over to Logan.

"Not to interrupt this verbal pissing contest the three of you seem to have found yourselves in, but while all of you were sleeping, drinking, and trying to figure the meaning if life, I took the liberty of spending the entire night on board the Horus and reviewing several old files in particular to Captain Gregory Stryfe and this Night Star project." Logan looked around the room before pulling out a PADD from inside his cloak opening up a file on it as he continued.

"The Night Star is a modified Defiant Class. She is rigged with a cloak, sensor jammers," He paused and looked around a second before looking back down to continue. "Well you guys all read the file so there is no need to remind you. But anyway, the cloak and all its stealth technology is all rigged to a secondary power source. You see as a redundancy, the Night Star can going into cloak and stealth itself from its enemies while damaged and not worry about draining power from the ships original core. This is good, but also bad. You see, in a single stroke, Lancaster or Wolfe, can force the ship to decloak and expose itself. The secondary power core is not in its original plan, however, I contacted its original designer and convinced him to send me the original specs." Logan said as he held up the PADD to show the plans.

"I know you guys are probably wondering how do we relay the message to the team on board? And normally you would be right to think there is no way." He paused slightly before tapping on his PADD and holding it up again revealing a signal pattern. "But you would be wrong. You see, deleting a transporter signal seems easy, but its far more complicated than you think. What the computer does is dump the records into a file that deteriorates in time. Some ships systems are updated to speed up the process, however some of the systems on the Calypso are still playing catch-up due to its long missions away a Federation port. What I found was a signal that was partially deteriorated moments after the murder was said to have taken place. Now I have pieced together the signal, matching it with what I know from the files on the Night Star and determined that, our murder, transported there. Using that knowledge and information from Jayna's message from Lancaster I can triangulate what area precisely that ship is. Which will help us get our people home."

Logan paused, placing his PADD on the table and looking around at everyone present in the room. He crossed his arms back over his chest and couldn't help but smirk. It didn't take him long to do all this. He never slept. Too many bad dreams and nightmares almost made it impossible for him to get some good rest, so Logan developed a nasty habit of working through the night. That's why he knew the Horus in and out, because not only did he put it together, he spent the most of his time there. Working at the consoles. Upgrading the systems. Improving the shuttle. Logan spent more time working and with a case like this on their plate, it was all he decided to focus on.

"You, my friend are brilliant," Jayna said, grinning. "Remind me to show you how much I appreciate that brilliance." She glanced at the others in the room. "Later."

"It looks like you didn't need this civilian after all. You all have some work to do, see yourselves out." Jethro said calmly not turning to face the now unwanted guests.

Jayna was the last one out. She paused in the doorway to look at Vance. "You said yourself that you never leave Intel. I'm sorry you can't, or won't, help us." Before he could respond, she walked out.

The door slid closed leaving Jethro as the only occupant. Or so he thought.

"Hello Jethro." Came a nefarious feminine voice from the corner of the room.

OFF

Lieutenant JG Mira Jayna
Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer

Lieutenant Rembrandt "Remy" Batiste
Chief Intelligence Officer

Logan
Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer

Jethro Vance
Father of Alexandra

Ensign Teenah Spartacus
Counselor

 

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