The Interview
Posted on Wed Jun 26th, 2024 @ 4:16pm by Lieutenant Rufus Marocain
Mission:
Back Post
Location: USS Nelso - Intel Office, Temp.
1670 words - 3.3 OF Standard Post Measure
Despite the fact that his job regularly involved sitting, Rufus fidgeted in the chair. He was good at operating a helm; he wasn't great at waiting with little to focus on. Other than why anyone wanted to talk to him - he'd done nothing but try to keep the ship from left in the hands of a scentless drone of a hologram as much as possible.
Quentin walked into the office where Lieutenant Marocain was waiting for him. He sat behind his desk and opened the files he had been reading on the Ziapteryx threat. The young intelligence officer also had several other files about Voyager open. "Good Morning, Sir. I'm Lieutenant Jay-Gee Quentin Th'ziakres. I hope you don't mind the clutter.", he said looking around the room, "I'm just going to ask a few questions about the Ziapteryx incident you encountered for our records and so I can put together an intelligence report for starfleet command."
"Ah, okay," he said, ears perking now that it made sense. "Yes. I was on the bridge when that 'Director' faked us out to take the ship. The records are all there," he nodded at the pile of files, "and in a lot of detail as I recall, but I'm happy to answer any questions I can."
"Unfortunately, some of the files from our department did not survive the melting of the Vesta. We lost a few encryption keys from what I understand. I'm trying my best to rebuild them, so I can turn in an intelligence report on this incident that appears overdue. I also just want to make sure everything we have is correct.", he said moving his antennae back, "How did the Vesta first make contact with the Ziaptreyx and who is this 'director'?"
Huh, that's a lot lost if it doesn't have those details. Rufus thought, ears rotating back in surprise. "Okay, our contact came about because a First Republic mining facility was badly damaged in a plasma storm. Command told us to go offer assistance - friendly outreach gesture, you know? But the guy in charge of the facility, Director K'Varix, was not at all friendly."
Quentin typed on his PADD. "Tell me more about the facility, and specifically, what technology level the Ziapteryx have attained. We'll circle back to the Director in a moment.", Quentin said. He was desperately trying to reconstruct the lost files while the two talked, with little luck.
"We never really got to see the mining facility. As soon as we docked, they boarded us," Rufus explained. "The Admiral - Captain then - turned the tables on them, but it came down to someone higher up in their food chain stepping in to resolve things. In the end they accepted help from Starfleet, but only if it came from another ship. We had to leave." He paused, head tipping in thought. "As to level of technology, I'd put them a several decades behind us, though that's purely impression from scans of what was in front of us. The mining facility was clearly not top of the line, and it's possible that the tech is more advanced toward their core worlds."
"Can you give an estimate of their military capability in comparison to the Federation?", Quentin asked. Quentin was trying to ascertain a rough threat level for the Ziapteryx for his report. He quickly put his hand up in a "stop" motion before Rufus could respond. "Sorry, I'm going to get some The, would you like anything?", he asked before starting towards the replicator.
Rufus had just opened his mouth to answer, but at the next question that led naturally to a quick lick of lips. "Yes. A cup of bone broth, thank you."
Quentin reached the replicator and moved his antennae back. "Andorian The, hot. Bone Broth, hot.", he said towards the replicator in the makeshift office. He waited a few minutes, then realized the replicator was not fully powered. He opened a panel below it and reset the power supply while visually checking the gel pack. "Let's try that again, Andorian The, hot. Bone Broth, hot.", he said once more to the replicator. This time, it produced the requested drinks.
Yet another glitch... Rufus thought. It was why you had shakedown cruises, but a lot of what they'd seen really should have been caught before shakedown. "Thank you," he said, taking the cup, but sniffed before sipping, just to be sure it really was bone broth in the cup. "As far as military capabilities, I'd say Vesta outmatched both the station and the ship that showed up with their Regional Director. However, the station was support for a backwater mining operation, and the other ship seemed more ...for ferrying high officials. There were arms for sure, but it wasn't a warship." An ear rotated back as he thought more on the question. "When K'Varix originally tried to take us, he claimed it was as compensation for something Janeway did - of course it was really someone impersonating Janeway - and that she'd left one of their stations vulnerable to attack by the Hirogen. To me, that implies they'd normally have the capability to fight them off or keep them at bay. That suggests military capability at least on a par with the Hirogen."
"That's the filth time this week I've had to reset the power supply on it. Engineering can't figure it out either.", Quentin said while taking a drink of his The. The intelligence officer turned his attention back to Rufus and listened to his reply. He had actually written a report about the Janeway imposter incident while in the Academy and knew much about it. "I agree. Let's circle back to the Director and your experience with him.", he said while noting down the estimate, adding his own note that their intelligence capabilities may be limited if easily fooled by an imposter or alternatively that they aren't very good selecting their own marks for scams.
Rufus puffed a breath. "My experience with him was that he was a complete arrogant jerk. Still, at first you could almost sympathize when he ranted about how that fake Janeway conned his people and left them easy pickings for Hirogen. We tried to explain that Voyager had never been in this sector, but if your image of Starfleet is based on a scam artist, no surprise you're not likely to believe us," he said equitably. "BUT he clearly had no concern for his people in the mines and it became clear that he wasn't going to listen any evidence - even from his own people - if it meant losing his 'prize'. One of them even comm'd us secretly to tell us they knew our ship was too different from the fake Janeway's for it to make any sense that we were from the same organization, and kinda hinted at how we could get out from under him, hoping we'd still help the rest of them then."
"His prize? Tell me more about this 'prize', please.", Quentin asked. He revised his earlier note to reflect that the Ziapteryx are not very good con artists while drinking more of his The. He rested his chin on his hand while waiting for an answer.
"The prize was Vesta." Rufus dipped his head apologetically. "Sorry, that wasn't clear. He spoke of the ship as a prize to be taken and displayed back at the homeworld when he hauled us there for what certainly sounded like a show trial. I definitely got the impression that it would a major boost for his status to have captured us."
"It's fine. Could he perhaps have been granted a letter of marque and reprisal? The term prize is sometimes used to refer to the ship and its cargo when sized under such an arrangement. You mention a trial? Did he give any more information about that?", he asked in a professional tone.
Rufus shook his head. "He didn't go into details, really. Just gloated about having tricked us so he could take the ship and seemed to expect that it would make him some sort of big shot back in their core worlds."
"Big shot, eh? Well that clearly didn't pan out. Mind telling me of how you got out of this bind?", Quentin asked. He looked around the room, waiting for a response.
A broad canid grin spread on Rufus' face. "Minawara played 'chicken' with them and the birds backed down. He told the computer it was a simulation and to ignore docking status and start warp core field test procedures. The director was all 'You are bluffing!' and 'You wouldn't' but once the plasma injectors warmed up and got some real vibration going he backed right down and ordered docking clamps released." The helmshound shook his head at the memory. "I was never so happy be ordered to move to safe distance. AND the director was still aboard so then we had him to hold for leverage to make them actually look at our evidence."
"That's priceless. To tell you the truth, I rarely like writing these long reports, but I think this one may turn out to be one of the better ones I've done. I also have no more questions for you. Do you have anything else you'd like me to put down?", he asked. Quentin started getting his laptop ready to write the report on.
"Just that after the Director's superiors arrived, they were a lot more willing to listen to reason, but they still wouldn't let us help the people in the mines - another Starfleet ship enroute could, but not us." An ear flipped back with something like a smirk. "Seems we offended them too much by not rolling over. Anyway, that's all I have. Glad to be of help."
"I'll note down that they seem very concerned with saving face.", Quentin said. He stood to allow the Lieutenant to leave.
