An Unseen Briefing
Posted on 07/26/2024 @ 4:18pm by Commander Tatiana Dragos & Lieutenant JG Stefan Zamfir & Commander Aer Feshau-Patton & Lieutenant Commander Kailu von Grekas & Petty Officer 1st Class Kaylara Loran
2,122 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Mini Mission: Lighting Up Shadows
Location: Briefing Room, Intelligence Suite
Timeline: MD001 0800 hours
It was time for the gathering of Aer's team, to help her look for more information on the Unseen. Tatiana arrived carrying a mug of tea week her hand wondering if she were the first to arrive in the briefing room, then she spotted Aer.
"Good morning Aer how are you doing?"
Aer smiled, "I'm well thank you." she replied. "Did you sleep well?" she asked.
"I did for the most part." Tatiana answered.
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Stefan looked at Kaylara as they were on their way to the meeting with Aer, having a little bit of a worried smile. "This is going to be the first to be the first time that you will be meeting my Aunt Tatiana. Hope you are ready for that."
"I'm more concerned that it's my second meeting with your intel department," she replied. "My first wasn't so great." She'd been furious with Stefan at the time and stormed out of a getting-to-know-you activity. She hoped they wouldn't hold that against her.
"Ah well, I think the blame can be placed more on me for being such a moron. Other than that, I say this will be a clean slate. Aer is a wonderful leader in the intelligence department.
They reached the doors which led into the Intelligence section Stefan showing his ID to the man stationed there. "We are expected inside." he stated.
The man gave a nod and allowed Kaylara and Stefan to enter.
"Security has been a bit tight. It had been tight before but it is even more so." Stefan commented.
"Understandable. So, anything I need to know before we walk in there?"
"It will be better for Aer to tell us herself." Was Stefan's answer as he led Kaylara to where they will be meeting.
"Fair enough." As long as she wasn't the only one who didn't know, she was fine.
As people began to form in the distance there was a heated exchange happening between Kailu and Aer. From a distance there looked to be history there, a familiarity that went beyond their first meeting on board a day or so before. With a smirk Kailu had walked off leaving Aer stewing for a moment before she calmed herself down and approached the group. "If you'll all follow me into the briefing room." she gestured to them to follow.
Aer placed her thumbprint on the scanner and then moved her head forward for a retinal scan. She often kept this room under lock and key so to speak from most of her staff. Only a few had access, and that didn't include captain Letsul or Jack.
The room itself was large with a table in the middle for obvious reasons and a large screen on the back wall with smaller screens littered around it. On the wall behind the long side of the table were bits of paper, sightings of alleged Unseen members, activities they had been involved in and worlds said to have been either where bases were or sightings had been made.
"Please take a seat." Aer gestured to the chairs as they began to shuffle in. Catching a glimpse of Stefan made her involuntarily smile. It had been a long time since she'd seen him, or so she felt.
As bums began to fill seats she brought up what looked like a holo flowchart. It showed a figure at the top bathed in shadow then below a line of 'lieutenants' and then 'pawns'. Each lieutenant had attributed to them a certain 'specialised' area such as an arms dealer arc, scientific arc, financial arc etc. Most of which were unfortunately blacked out where a holo of an avatar of a person would be as still they didn't know much about the organisation. The only images were of Dr Rik, now deceased, at the top of the scientific part alongside a new dark figure as he would have been replaced by now, and in the arms dealer section was an image of the Klingon who stabbed Aer a couple of months ago.
"So, this is the organisation labelled The Unseen. This is majorly due to its leader, the Shadow Man, who has never been seen and that the organisation mainly works in the shadows where no-one can see them." Aer said involuntarily shrugging. The name was a bit on the nose but it served its purpose.
"Below Shadow Man, he has his trusted Lieutenants, named after chess pieces. So Dr Rik was a bishop before we captured him." she gestured to the picture of the Breen with an X through his avatar image. "This is an unknown Klingon." she pointed at the image and enlarged it. "They were on the station not so long ago obtaining quantum torpedoes from an insider source who sadly was incinerated on completion of their deal." she sighed. "He's been dubbed a Rook I believe." the image then got smaller and reverted back to the holo flow chart.
"As it stands we don't know much about the rest of the arms of their organisation. We do know they have their hands in everything. Arms dealing, slavery, scientific research with no moral or ethical safeguards, they even have people in strong positions in governments across the quadrant. Their leader, Shadow Man, has never been seen and we're not even sure if they are male or what species they may be. They communicate via holo projection and have always masked their identity and voice." she paused and looked out at the room. "I know this is a lot, so please feel free to ask any questions you may have. Me talking at you for this whole thing would get very boring very quickly."
Kailu grunted, maybe a smirked a little at the comment but at this time said nothing.
"So, how do you know what the basic organization is?" Kaylara asked. "You don't know specific people, but that looks like a fairly detailed description of what the chess pieces are."
"Through intelligence gathering." Aer replied with a raised eyebrow. "We've intercepted some information from couriers, data which has led us to storage facilities. In these we've found underlings with little loyalty and looser lips. Sadly it has taken years to get to this stage where we understand the structure of the organisation to a degree, but we do know they have their hands in everything. Reminds me of the vole situation we had a while back..." she shook her head to get back on track as her mind drifted for that small moment. "And truthfully we don't know what the back line of chess pieces represent, what each look after. All we know is we find out their code names when information comes our way. Hence why we found out Dr Rik was a 'Bishop' when an informant gave up that information to us."
Stefan frowned slightly at the mention of that Klingon, the image of finding Aer severely injured still seared into his mind. Putting on an outwardly calm demeanor, Stefan stated, "There was a lead that one of the operations personnel had come across. During a routine inspection of a ship by operations and a security personnel. That led to something else. Such an intricate interweaving where these people are concerned."
Tatiana raised an eyebrow at this sort of news from Stefan. He hadn't told her about this piece of information. In fact he hadn't shared much of anything with her for quite sometime. Personal nor professional. She had found it interesting to see the woman Stefan brought into the meeting.
It sounded like a tight organization, but Kaylara wondered why they found so many pawns willing to give up information. In her experience, that meant someone in the chain was sloppy. That could work in their favor.
"I think the organisation isn't as robust as they think it is. After all, its a group of criminals and scoundrels and even those will dig into things they shouldn't, snoop for information they shouldn't know. The threat of a penal colony can turn some to our side, and even a threat of outing them as helping us even when they aren't, that perception, puts the fear of the Gods in them." Aer glanced around the room. All eyes on her but she felt a pang of emotion from Stefan earlier as he spoke.
"There is normally a few who would rather be paid more than what the current employer wishes to pay so that means the ability to get information from a certain party." Tatiana speaking up. " and having the right sort of currency."
"If this group is as large as you think it is, there may be operatives in the penal colonies. At least, the well-organized groups have them," Kaylara said. She knew of several that were able to use the penal colony as a shield for their various businesses. "The fact that you have found this much information does indicate a lack of concern about security. But as you get closer to the people at the top, that could change. You may want to consider a plan to get informants safely out of sight."
"Sometimes the moving of an informant puts more of a light on them than keeping them in plain view." Kailu said cryptically as he sat looking uninterested in the briefing.
"We can put something into place where potential informants within penal colony systems can be discreetly moved. Whether that be to better accommodations within their current setting or to a safer, more comfortable setting. The latter only being done should their information come to fruition. I'm not about to reward these people." Aer replied. "As to their security, it may be that they are brazen enough not to care. I have heard the organisation has some pretty powerful people in their pockets. That politicians and Starfleet officers alike to be intertwined with them."
"That unfortunately is true on that matter, there are those in Starfleet who are not truly squeaky clean." Tatiana giving a frown. "I have come across a few myself."
Stefan nodded in agreement, he was with Tatiana when that happened. "They can cause some problems on either a large scale or a smaller scale."
Kaylara just nodded in agreement. Dealing with informants was always tricky and they'd been working on this for a while and knew far more about the organization than she did.
"When will this endeavor start up?" Stefan queried. He was wanting to get to hunting the Klingon who stabbed Aer previously. Plus just get back into the field and do some work. "Any area we will be heading out for or be working the under world of Poseidon Station?"
"We've already started an investigation into the Klingon arms dealer." Aer brought up a blurred up image on the holo. "They go by the moniker 'Mauler', poetic in its truth, but we don't know anything about his real name, base of operations or structure of his group." she pushed the holo down. "So, you all start now."
"Mauler" Stefan said quietly, "I wonder if that was the name of the Klingon who you had a run in with. Have you spoken to anyone to get an image drawn up on him? And not all Klingon's look the same." Then it struck him, "I could conceivably do a profile sketch of him and that could help track him down."
Tatiana gave a sidelong glance at her nephew, then turned her gaze back to Aer.
"That is my assumption at this stage." Aer commented to Stefan. "Due to the description of his appearance and of his personality then I believe the Klingon I encountered in the cargo bay to be Mauler." she turned to him. "I know all Klingon's don't look the same." she arched a brow. "But you can speak to those in the files who gave descriptions of him and draw an image up."
Kaylara looked at Stefan. She'd be happy to help him with that task, if he chose.
Stefan's cheeks flushed a little bit, catching the arched eyebrow of Aer. His comment could have been mistaken for him assuming that she didn't know the difference. "Yes Commander, I will do such right away." getting up to leave. He looked at Kaylara, "Care to come with and help out?"
She stood and nodded to the others, then said a quiet "Yes" to Stefan.
"Great. If there is nothing else I'll let you all get started." Aer closed everything down and looked around the room.
Commander Aer Feshau-Patton
Chief Intelligence Officer
Poseidon Station
Commander Tatiana Dragos
Intelligence Officer
Currently assigned to Poseidon
Lieutenant JG Stefan Zamfir
Field Officer Intelligence
Poseidon Station
Petty Officer 1st Class Kaylara Loran
Data Systems Analyst
USS Pioneer (TAD Poseidon Station)
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