Intel Brief

Posted on 03 Sep 2017 @ 12:18pm by Rear Admiral Azura Ashcart & Lieutenant Commander Magdalena "Maggie" Doyl & Lieutenant Commander Geraldine "Geri" Severide
Edited on on 03 Sep 2017 @ 12:19pm

2,046 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Errand of Mercy
Location: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: ED 6 0600

ON:

A beam of blue light and swirling particles appeared before Ashcart's desk soon replaced by his curvaceous Chief of Intelligence. For this encounter, Geri chose a fitting black jumpsuit which stuck to her body like a second skin. Her hair was tied by conservatively into a ponytail leaving her cold sapphire eyes in full view. As she materialized, she looks down to the CO whom was sitting at his desk. "I have the identity of our attackers." She stated plainly.

As the beam dissipated Azure relaxed the grip he had taken on the phaser under his desk.

"Enter stage center. I assume by your unusual entrance that the information is urgent and or classified?" Before she could respond he continued "PALLAS secure my ready room and initialize anti surveillance routines."

The ai didn't speak but a soft click at the door to his ready room could be heard. Then a half second later the soft snap of a forcefield followed but the tingling buzz across the skin of the additional fields employed by star fleet to counter or destroy listening devices.

"Please Commander, have a seat and continue."

"Classified yes, surprising no." Geri said bluntly strutting over to her seat, gingerly, nearly seductively lowering herself into it. She tossed a PADD onto Ashcart's desk. "The sixth fleet is responsible for the attack. They were after something or someone onboard the ship but at this moment I do not know who or what exactly that is." she continued nonchalantly crossing her left leg over her right as she eased into the chair. Her sapphire gaze locked upon Ashcart awaiting the usual barrage of questions that would follow. The quality of these questions would determine the quality in which Geri's responses would be.

He raised an eyebrow as he looked over the PADD, his mind going automatically to Marshall. From what he had been able to glean from the surveillance of Marshall he was after Sara. He lowered the PADD and looked over the top edge at the woman across from him. "Best guess as to whom he is after?" he said dropping the third person singular as opposed to they to see how she would respond.

Geri smirked as she knew full well Ashcart had a good hunch, she could feel it. "Marshall, for now until they discover exactly whom Cadet Scott really is, or at least his mother." she replied showing no waning concern nor real emotion. Infact, by looking at her it seemed as though she found the entire situation intriguing and if not entertaining.

He nodded and then thought for a moment. "PALLAS please summon Lieutenant Commander Doyl to this meeting. Lower the countermeasures lon enough that she can enter and then reengage them." He stopped speaking until the third person had entered.

Geri pursed her lips together annoyed by the call for the Chief of Security. "Are you absolutely certain you want to bring her into this? These boys don't play by the rules and Doyl doesn't exactly strike me as someone who would get their hands dirty." She scoffed looking out the window to the right of them. "She's security, think's these boys will balk at the site of a yellow uniform."

Azure raised an eyebrow and thought about ignoring the statements before responding "I think it is better to keep my heads appraised of situations that fall within their purview. Last I checked this was the chief security officer's purview. She may be a yellow uniform but she is my right hand when it comes to protecting this ship."

The door chimed.

Azura kept his eyes locked on Geri and called out "Come." which would unlock the door and drop the surveillance countermeasures.

Maggie walked in and waited for the door to close behind her. "You wanted to see me?" she asked Ashcart. She glanced at Geri and her choice of uniform, then focused on the Captain.

"Please Commander, take a seat." As the doors closed behind her the soft click could be heard again as well as the humming snap of the forcefield reasserting it's self. Then the tingle of the surveillance countermeasures coming back online.

Maggie nodded and walked over to the two and sat down.

"Commander, our Chief Intelligence Officer was just briefing me on the attack by the ships and enlightening me as to her theories as to why they were attacking. This spurred me to ask you to join this breifing as I feel we will be needing your services sooner rather than later on two fronts. Please Commander Severide, continue." Azura said simply returning his attention to the intel chief.

Maggie nodded to Geri.

Geri sighed as she would now give a much more abbreviated version of the events. "To get right the point, the attackers targeted the Redemption presumably for information held by our Assistant Chief Science Officer Jon Marshall. The nature of that information is unknown and likely classified. Whatever it may be, it is valuable enough that the sixth fleet has destroyed Federation vessels to obtain our location. I can promise you, this will not be the last time we encounter them."

"Of course not," Maggie said. "That's one of the reasons we've taken extra measures. I spoke to you about them," she said to Geri.

Azura nodded "Commander Doyle, your suggestions to combat this new threat? Is the box up and running now?"

"It is, and it has PALLAS' seal of approval," Maggie replied. "Tests have been positive so far. No breaches."

"Suggestions as to how to handle Mitchell?" he looked between the two.

"Protect him as you would any member of your crew. If the man truly has information so valuable to the sixth fleet that they would kill for, we must observe him and figure out exactly what that is." Geri replied knowing she could not allow Ashcart or Doyl to directly confront Marshall.

"He's already being protected, like every other member of the crew," Maggie said. "And he's under discreet observation. We don't know if the attack was meant to kill him, or someone else on the ship. Unless you have intel that says he was the target, we have to assume it could be anyone."

"Commander Doyl is right, sir." She said with relief. "Right now all we have is theories and hunches. Until we know more, we must utilize our assets efficiently." The mention of discreet observation intrigued Geri. She wondered what Maggie may have seen or what additional protocols she put in place since the last time they spoke.

Maggie had been trained to be observant without appearing so. She noticed Geri's relief and wondered how much she knew about the attack that she wasn't sharing. She would have to do some research when she got back to her office.

Azura nodded "Very well, I know it's likely useless but I want a 24 hour a day lock on the Ensign so we can transport him to a maximum security holding cell. As soon as he's in there, if he ever gets there I want so much security that a god couldn't break out. He is a slippery one and there's no telling what kind of catastrophe he could cause on the ship." he paused "Also what do we know about how Major Blackburn made her way back to the ship?"

"I'll have it set up by tonight," Maggie said. An idea began to form about how she could create a human mousetrap so that if the ensign were to escape the cell, he would find himself continually back where he started. "As for Major Blackburn, I don't know." She turned to Geri for the answer.

"I'm afraid I don't have those answers either, but I will look into the matter." Geri replied feigning assurances.

Aura eyed his Chief Spy and leaned back in his chair his eyebrow raising as he moved backwards. He didn't speak for a long moment then said simply. "We have a tail. Likely here..." he paused as trail piece of the puzzle fell into place.

"I see." He turned his eyes to his security chief "Commander thank you for your presence and I look forward to your report on the new upgrades to the brig." His tone implied she was dismissed.

The unspoken communication wasn't lost on Maggie. She stood and nodded to the other two. "Yes, sir," she said. Then she headed back to her office.

After Maggie had exited and the countermeasures had gone back online Azura spoke again "How bad are things in SFI?"

"This Marshall thing is getting out of hand. My concern now lies in how the sixth fleet became aware of him and the information he holds." She replied taking a more relaxed posture in her seat.

"That is not an answer to my question. West would not have dispatched a shadow ship to tail us if things were not bad. Marshall who is part of Intel would not have been assigned to any ship if West had a firm hand on the department. Something is up and it's spilling over onto my ship. Now how bad is it at SFI?"

Geri seethed inside at the outward aggression shown to her. The sheer arrogance of the man was astonishing, for him to think Geri would simply divulge the inner secrets of Fleet Intelligence even if she did not hold true loyalty to them. "Your concerns are not unfounded. If I was to use a word to describe Fleet Intelligence then shitshow would be the first that comes to mind. The forces seeking to harm the Redemption also are attempting to infiltrate Fleet Intelligence."

He nodded knowingly and eyed the woman across from him. "I appreciate your candidness, allow me to tell you that I will not step on your toes and demand that you inform me of things that are SFI secrets. But I do expect you to share with me your knowledge of events in a way that will allow me to make the most well informed decisions when it comes to the ship and her crew, you among them. Having said that I respect what your duties are and will do my best to help keep the secrets your entrusted with. I take it from the 'shitshow' that Marshall is part of the forces you were describing earlier and the reason you subtly moved to have us just surveil him was because your trying to find out who his controller is." it wasn't a question but rather he was following the logic trail and speaking out loud as he did so. "Very well I will leave it in your, and your shadowy friends capable hands. Just know, if he moves to harm the ship or crew I will not hesitate to 'use what ever force necessary to control and deescalate the situation'."

"I would expect nothing less , sir." Geri smiled wryly.

He nodded "Was there anything else Commander?"

"No sir, my primary goal now is to find the origin of the attackers." she replied.

The truth was Geri knew exactly whom had sent the attacking vessels and why, she now needed to determine the whereabouts of her father. Her quandary was finding a means to use Redemption in this goal with ever revealing to anyone the identity of her father. Her window was beginning to rapidly close and she knew finding out what exactly Marshall was up to and to whom he was employed under would soon become an impossible task. Soon, she would need to become more aggressive in her tactics.

"Very well, thank you for your candor and the brief. Dismissed." Azura said as he leaned back in his chair thinking over everything that had been going on. He knew Geri wasn't telling him everything but that was to be expected from an Intell Officer. This was getting complicated and he just really wanted to get Marshall off his ship. He felt the uneasy feeling of having a target painted on his back and the people who would be aiming at it didnt like to take prisoners.

OFF:

Azura Ashcart
Captain
Commanding Officer
USS Redemption

&

Geraldine "Geri" Severide
Lieutenant Commander
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Redemption

&

Magdalena "Maggie" Doyl
Lieutenant Commander
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Redemption

 

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