STF

Defend by any Means Necessary

Posted Feb. 6, 2021, 5:57 p.m. by Lieutenant Casela Synthi-er (Counsellor / RTF) (Jennifer Ward)

It was the middle of the night, the anti-inflammatories Dr. Knox gave her, also had the nasty habit of making her sleep. Probably planned that way. But Casela was suddenly wide awake, every nerve was on alert and out of long habit her breath stayed slow, even and deep as if she was still asleep. She listened carefully, she could hear Ryder breathing next to her and across their quarters she could hear the hum of Fenrir on his charger, but she couldn’t hear Gen. She reached out carefully, telepathically and found Gen easily enough, sleeping. So what had woken her up? Laying still she shifted as if asleep, there was no one else in here, she was sure of that. No scents of unknown soaps or shampoos, no sound of breaths that didn’t belong, no shadows that had strange origins. There…she closed her eyes, willing the sound to disappear, to simply be a remnant of a bad dream. The sound came again, and there was a strange sudden weight in her stomach, making her sick. She pulled herself, stiffly out of bed and opened the drawer of the bedside table. She pulled the space aged pager out of the drawer and turned it off.

She had 5 minutes to answer, or in the next 3 days they would be here, looking for her - SOP. It still took effort to stand without wincing, and that was not good for her now. 4 minutes. She paced slowly into the living area, closing the door to the bedroom and then slowly making her way over to Gen’s room and doing the same. She sat down at the desk, twirling the small cylindrical device around and around in her hand. 3 minutes. It could be nothing, but why the pager? Why not just an encrypted message? She set it on the desk and stared at the blinking red flash on it, the dread growing. Why her? What could they possibly need her for. She hadn’t done anything requiring this kind of contact since before Triton. 2 minutes. It was still flashing, waiting for her to connect. She had a brief flash of relief, she was on medical leave, they couldn’t send her anywhere. But it was short lived. Section didn’t care about things like that. She was assigned to Leviathan, what else could they want from her? Maybe they realized she’d been holding out on them, but then what agent didn’t? 1 minute, and the light flashed faster, warning, check in or get picked up. To not answer indicated an agent in distress, she didn’t want them coming here.

She picked up the small device, flipped open the back end, pulled out a connecting cable and plugged it into the LCARs display. A small door on the side opened, a very small ocular scanner. She held it up and let it scan her eye. On the screen the display changed, “PLEASE ENTER IDENTIFICATION.” Always so polite, the S31 programming. “Valkyrie 88259” “PLEASE ENTER DELTA AUTHORIZATION” “Delta 4439 a j f 97” “AUTHORIZATION ACCEPTED.” And the files began to populate.

There are dozens of files that she then transferred directly to a PaDD. Minutes later, there was no record of her having accessed the terminal, any transmission, or files downloaded. She removed the ‘pager’, the screen went blank, and the room dark, but only for a moment.

The first file was a copy of orders placing her on temporary detached duty from Leviathan, sent to Cpt Zachariah Cobb. Signed by the Admiral himself. Casela wondered briefly if it really was Roebuck’s signature or a very good fake. Probably real, if Cobb called to ask Roebuck there was no way the Section would risk Roebuck screwing this up. The second file, was a very snarky video of her orders, from her S31 CO. “Hello Valkyrie. Are you enjoying that cushy position out there for the ARU? Well we more pressing matters for you to take care of. All the basic SOP for this. Quiet and mouselike. You can manage that can’t you? You know the Romulan border better than anyone. I understand you’ve recently had surgery. Don’t worry by the time you arrive at your destination, you’ll be off light duty restriction. Convalesce on your transport. You leave right now.” And then the S31 seal appeared on the PaDD’s screen and then went blank.
Operative Valkyrie, S31


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