Intel Meeting (Part II)

Posted on Monday, 30 November 2020 - 2:22pm by Captain Barret Stillwater & Lieutenant Talarn Zilth & Lieutenant T'Lanna Vali & Lieutenant Alex Kingsley & Lieutenant JG Jarin Alexander MD & Lieutenant JG Adrianna Eberhardt & Lieutenant JG Maximus Mackenzie

Mission: Operation: Ouroboros
Location: Earth: San Francisco

While he awaited Grol's arrival, Stillwater excused himself for a moment so that he could round up his crew. He tapped his comm badge "Stillwater to Kingsley," he began. "I want the Casablanca prepped for departure tomorrow morning at 0600 sharp. Please notify Jupiter Station we will be taking the Bear's runabout out and clear your schedule. You'll be accompanying me."

There was a brief pause. "Understood... Kingsley out."

He then proceeded to recruit another member of his crew. "Tal, it's Barret. Take care of that virus before breakfast. You'll be needed aboard the Casablanca at 0600 tomorrow morning."

Talarn smiled. There was something in Barret's tone that told the Cardassian that fun and mayhem were about to ensue. Of course, whatever it was might not be someone else's definition of fun, but Talarn didn't care. "Yes, Sir. 0600. The virus is almost under control now. I have several more buffers to check and then the final sweep..." All of these things could take hours, although, Talarn didn't feel that he needed to explain that to Barret, who had also served as an intelligence officer in his career.

"I'll leave it in your Cardassian hands," Stillwater replied with a chuckle. "Stillwater out," he added.

Barret rested his back against a wall, tapping his combadge. "Stillwater to Mackenzie, 0600 tomorrow morning. Are you available, Lieutenant? There's a little mission to Venus on my agenda."

Mac had just returned from Haru's side. Haru was awake, but there were complications. The doctors had said he needed to leave Haru to them for few days and they'd as good as kicked him out. He was scared, bored, and needed something to do and it came in the form of a call from Stillwater. He tapped his badge. "Yes, Sir. I can be ready,” he said.

Whilst Stillwater was calling round, Adrianna looked to the Admiral. "Sir, what part do you think my family play? I can look in more specific places if I know. But, Sir, Baciami has rarely dealt with the big league politics and whilst I assume that Giovanni is the new Don, further to him contacting me, I don't think he'd be so -“ Who was she kidding? Giovanni would be bold in his initial duties. "Well, he may be stupid enough." Seeing Giovanni, returning to Earth and now about to see her mother, Adrianna was worried that she might slip back into Baciami business or at least old habits. A wave a protective essence washed over her, as if wanting to protect her name.

"I do not suspect that they have any direct involvement," the admiral replied. “However, your family has a tendency to 'know people who know people' and that is what we are looking for, simply information."

T'Lanna looked at the Admiral. "Admiral, I'm going to need as much information as I can possibly get if I'm to provide you with a full profile of this assassin." She looked at Stillwater. "Permission to accompany you, Sir?"

Adrianna nodded, appreciating the non assumption of involvement. She couldn't help but cough to hide entertainment in the question from T'Lanna. She muttered under her breath in her native tongue, "You're sat next to one, though retired to join Starfleet."

T'Lanna looked at Adrianna curiously before looking away again.

Adrianna waved off T'Lanna. "Sorry. I forget. Outside of Earth, my name doesn't mean much."

"It's none of my business anyway." T'Lanna smiled warmly.

Adrianna smiled in appreciation before translating what she'd muttered loosely to make her sound a little more harmless. "I undertook partly in the role until Starfleet."

“Oh... THAT kind of role.” T’Lanna looked at Adrianna in surprise. “I thought you were good, now I know why.”

Adrianna looked back to the admiral. "Lifetime of practice under Don Baciami's rule. I should think she wouldn't need an example. I can take her to Orte if you want. She can meet a few there. I'm heading back after the meeting to see my mother, or rather attempt to."

Stillwater emerged, back from making the necessary calls, orchestrating his away team. "A new life for yourself is something you have going for you on the Standing Bear, Petty Officer, and I would rather have you helping us put criminals behind forcefields than have you behind one yourself," commented Commander Stillwater.

"In Starfleet in general, Sir, but I agree on this ship I have found a bit more peace. My offer still stands. An extra set of eyes may be helpful. I don't want to miss something due to habit," Adrianna offered.

Stillwater contemplated it for a moment before weighing in with his decision. "I think you should go about meeting your mother as pre-planned, don't deviate from your original plans. She may not know anything. She may know something, either way, I do not want to spook anyone yet. Casually discuss things and probe her gently if you can. If you are getting a sense that she knows nothing, then so be it."

Grol arrived at the Admiral's office and was ushered in by the yeoman at her front door. "Sir. The wine sir." He stood at attention as much as he could and saluted.

"Ah perfect timing," Stillwater announced as his yeoman arrived with the bottle that Stillwater had requested. Stillwater approached the man and took the bottle himself to hand over to the admiral. He thanked his yeoman with a friendly, "Thank you," and a quick smile.

Grol nodded gratefully and excused himself to go find Soral.

He approached the admiral's desk and chuckled. "Admiral," he said to the woman. "Today, we drink and toast to your marriage. Tomorrow, we toast again to restabilizing the Federation."

Begrudgingly the Vulcan Admiral entertained Commander Stillwater, heading to a small cabinet in the corner of the room and grabbing two wine glasses, one for her and one for Stillwater. "You remembered," she said, removing the cork from the bottle.

"That I owed you a bottle for saving my ass at Chin'toka, not a chance that I'd forget that, Admiral," Stillwater said with a smirk. The admiral poured two glasses and handed one to Stillwater. The two looked at one another, the eye's locked, and raised their glasses. "Live long and prosper, Admiral," Commander Stillwater said and the two completed the toast with a sip of wine.

Only a few moments later the room started to spin for Commander Stillwater and he staggered towards the conference table where Vali and Baciami were seated, but he watched them stand. He quickly slapped his hand across his chest to his combadge "Doctor Alexander, medical emer-" was all he could get out before collapsing to the floor.

Admiral T'Arev had fallen nearby, her body convulsing on the floor as greenish foam formed around her mouth.

T’Lanna had gotten to her feet as fast as she could. “Dammit! We need Doctor Alexander in here fast!!” She moved across to Stillwater glancing at Adrianna. “Check on the admiral.” She looked back at Stillwater. “Hold on Commander! Just hold on!”

Adrianna was already heading that way. She tried to ensure the admiral was safe. "Nobody touch their drinks and drag the admiral's secretary in here."

Jarin entered the room in a haste and took a second to assess the situation, both of the patients looked like they needed him. However, Doctor Alexander went to the nearest patient who happened to be his Commanding Officer. "Hold on, Sir," he said as he pulled out his medical tircorder and started scanning.

"Let's get them to medical," Adrianna commanded.

“Agreed” T’Lanna nodded and looked to Jarin with the sudden realisation that she was the ranking Officer in the room with Stillwater out of action. “Doctor, get your patients to Sickbay.” She looked to Adrianna. “Let’s find out who in the hell did this.”

"Wait," Adrianna looked around the room, "Don't touch that bottle of Wine. Did anyone else drink it?" Adrianna picked up the bottle and sniffed it, "that's not a 2020 Merlot. Not by itself. 2020 was a bad year in Earth's history of memory serves."

T’Lanna shook her head. “There’s something to be said for not drinking whilst pregnant.” She offered a brief smile.

The two victims of this tragedy were taken away quickly in a shimmering light, no work of any diety, just the work of quick thinking and advanced Federation transporter technology. Being on Earth had its benefits. The Sickbay of Standing Bear was small, its medical staff limited, but Starfleet Medical was close by, an extension of Starfleet Academy and home to the best and brightest that Starfleet had to offer, specialists in every aspect of medicine, cutting edge techniques, medications that were not publically used. If there was any chance of saving either Stillwater or Admiral T'Arev, it would be at Starfleet Medical.