Posted by Commander Ardashir “Jack” Creed (Executive Officer / CIO) in Evil Is Skin Deep - Faye’s Quarters

Posted by Lieutenant Faye Calloway (Mission Specialist) in Evil Is Skin Deep - Faye’s Quarters

Posted by Commander Ardashir “Jack” Creed (Executive Officer / CIO) in Evil Is Skin Deep - Faye’s Quarters
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Ardashir had gotten the details back, as he expected Agent Vector wasn’t who they claimed. SI had been wanting to take them into custody, as a life operative could be very important in obtaining new information. This though had left him with some loose ends. Faye had technically worked with an enemy agent, but she had not known the source of the agent and that much his team agreed on. Still, from the past missions Faye had been on, the technology and knowledge she processed, she had become a liability that elements of SI that had been following her felt it might be better to contain than to let roam free.

Contain, those words irritated Jack when he had heard them in his office. Contain could mean many things, but the main thing it would mean was a lack of choice and freedom. Jack didn’t really like that, as Faye seemed far more valuable than that. Luckily for both Jack and Faye, they agreed. Jack hadn’t needed to invoke his right to obtain new members of his team outside of incorporating Celina as an informant. He had used local squads and teams on the raids and missions before he had taken ‘shore’ leave’ on in the past.

That though wasn’t an option as much anymore, he needed a team and he was giving a gift. Faye was talented and smart, someone who knew her way around a phaser and could blend into a crowd. Plus, and perhaps this was more of Jack’s humanity than anything, he had promised Shara he would give her daughter a fair shake. That promise might not have meant a lot to others, but Jack felt a certain obligation to fulfill it.

Coming to Faye’s door, PaDD in hand Ardashir paged as he waited for her to answer. It had been 24 hours since Jack had learned unveiled Agent Vector, he hopped that could be enough to let her process and focus on the things he needed to tell her.

Creed, XO/CIO

“Come in,” came Faye’s voice, sounding calm and yet wary. There were only a handful of people who knew she was here and that they could be here.

Creed entered as he looked around, taking in the room for a minute before searching to see where Faye was.

Faye’s small quarters were neat and tidy, but also fairly bare. She didn’t seem to have a lot of personal effects, save for perhaps a surprising number of plants tucked in nooks and corners of her place. There was a shelving unit with grow lights where trays of tiny seedlings had recently sprouted. In addition to a small sofa and a small dining table, she had a side table in a corner with some sort of cooking implement (a personal oven of some sort), and there was a desk with a small stack of padds. The computer was shut off.

Yoga mat stretched out in the middle of her quarters, Faye stood in in a wide lunge, arms extended out past her sides, her torso and head facing forward to a side wall where the plants were growing. In a fitted tank and leggings, she stretched backwards, tilting her back arm down and turned her head towards the door.

Seeing it was Creed, Faye felt suddenly uncomfortable. “Computer, pause playback.” She stepped out of her warrior pose and stepped forward off the side of the mat. “What can I do for you, Commander?”

~Faye Calloway

“By all means, you can continue, maybe it’ll center you as I deliver cases of good news, bad news,” Creed said as he found a nearby chair as he sat down. He wasn’t really looking to keep her too long but the last 72 hours had been intense as he tossed the PaDD he had in his hand near the floor for Faye to be able to reach. “I am sure you have learned a little from the CMO’s report, if not I can fill you in… our Blue… is not Blue. Not sure on full identity yet but he will be carted from the ship to my team where they will find that tidbit out. For now, we do know his code name is Vector… or Agent Vector they do like to have titles.” Creed said as he waited for Faye to pick up the PaDD before he went further.

Faye tried to hold back the withering glare as she took half a step to pick up the PaDD. Skimming through it, she gave tiny little nods as she saw things she had expected or simply made sense under the circumstances. “I have all sorts of names for him, but I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t like any of them,” she said dryly.

“As you will see on page 3, something I suspected and verified, was the subdermal invisible tattoo. I have one too if you ever wanna see it one time though that’s from another time and mission… undercover can be a real bitch…” he said pausing as he shifted to lean forward, running his hand through his hair before looking back at Faye.

“Yes it can,” she said softly. Especially after this, she had little desire to do so again. Sure, a disguise while on an away mission or something was fine, but deep cover? No thanks.

“These tattoos are their… calling card… or ID? It comes from their motto ‘Verum Caeca’ or Truth Is Skin Deep, or at least that was the yarn I was spun. The truth is we know very little, they are a criminal syndicate that delves in stollen technology and caters to forms of cohesion, terrorism, and sedition to meet their goals on various planets and sectors. We have long suspected they are part of something more to them but little is known outside of their using stollen technology my parents created.” Jack said as he paused, wanting Faye to catch up before they went into some deeper areas they might need to go to.

Creed, XO

She inhaled deeply, before exhaling audibly. “I get why they chose to replace Strickland. My experimental work here meant that if they could get someone close to me, they could influence others around me. And they did a fabulous job of setting things up for me to take the blame. Good thing we were willing to push the timeline past where they were at. But the thing I don’t get is why? The danger to the Manhattan is real. As real as it was to the Odyssey. Do they just want to be able to replicate it for their own uses? I mean, I’ve got our system up and running, but I can’t just take the design and slap it on to another ship. It had to be tweaked to deal with the peculiarities of each ship. So… then is it me? Because they can attempt to get to the info the Tal Shiar dropped into my brain, but they’d kill me trying. So what’s the deal here?”

~Faye Calloway

“Well that comes back to me… my departure from Cestus III left an impression. I had been tracking them down for the last two years, a year ago I went undercover, and after I dismantled and uprooted I fear it left a mark on the Manhattan. My identity stayed secret, but I later found that a departure to Manhattan was sent back to them. They knew someone was here, and that technology they knew was something I would track down… as I had everything. If you dangled anything that has to do with them or my parents. work that becomes a priority.” Ardashir said as he stood up as he walked over to her replicator as he paused as he looked back, “You want anything?” he asked, as he pressed for the drink he wanted.

“Cold water, please,” Faye said as she moved to her dining table and pulled out the other chair to sit with him. While the thought of doing yoga while they chatted was amusing, it was counterproductive. He actually needed her to be thinking, not calming her brain.

“Don’t get me wrong, we have other missions we often take… but one of the reasons Manhattan got redirected here was Syndicate seemed to be selling weaponry here, as well as influencing people of these regions. This is hard, as we control the only way to here but somehow they are getting through and the results, as you mentioned with the Odyssey were disastrous. I am not even certain that virus wasn’t released just to lull you out here… someone they could plant and use. Someone was disrupting them from this ship, and you became the perfect one to do that job. I am not certain they really care how out of control the virus even gets, wouldn’t be surprised if they even had a killswitch for it… weapons are not useful if you can’t turn them off.” Jack said as he took a sip of the drink, which was doogh a Persian soft drink.

“That makes a lot of sense, even if it’s a chilling thought. Then again, after the last few days I really shouldn’t be too surprised,” she said, clearly disgruntled. Faye had ever right to be though.

“Problem I see is we can’t rely on them just shutting it off once they realize they failed, which comes to you… or what I would like to offer. We need someone to help where we can and I can’t do everything on my own. SI wants you under control… that could have several meanings but I like my meaning better. I can offer you a position under my team. Officially, while I am XO I am unofficially CIO. My title is a little known to many of the crew… the only two that know much would be the Captain and the CTO as she is my bride to be and I opted to offer her to be told… more or less informant level of information. Don’t be confused, she isn’t an agent and you would be the only one fully under my supervision for missions and briefings with SI. You would for all others, still just be Faye, the plucky science officer who had to shoot the command staff.” Jack said, hoping she would want this chance on the Manhattan, as it would help smooth a lot of things over.

Creed, XO/CIO

Huh, of all the permutations of this conversation, she did not see that coming. Again, it made a certain amount of sense. Her mind circled back to the phrase ‘under control’. Yikes. But she had always understood that she was as much a liability as she was an asset and Intelligence wasn’t stupid in that regard. “I always knew that no matter what I did I’d still be tied to Intelligence. I could retire from Starfleet today and if I did anything but disappear entirely, someone would always be watching me, making sure I wasn’t putting anyone at risk.” Faye shrugged. “A sucky reality but the card I’ve been dealt.”

Faye looked at Creed and smirked as she shrugged. “What the hell. I already have Senior Field Agent status, might as well put it to proper use. I’m done with skulking about the ship. Besides, you need me to keep working the data security side. But…” She leaned in towards me. “Please tell me we’re going to try and take those bastards down.”

~Faye Calloway