Posted by Lieutenant Commander Peter Sigmundsson (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Undisclosed location- CIO vs. Operative - Who is the better agent? When the past doesn’t match the present…or the future

Posted by Civilian Jessa Novar (Child) in Undisclosed location- CIO vs. Operative - Who is the better agent? When the past doesn’t match the present…or the future

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Peter Sigmundsson (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Undisclosed location- CIO vs. Operative - Who is the better agent? When the past doesn’t match the present…or the future
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Celia opened her eyes and immediately knew things for her were about to get extremely uncomfortable. The room was dark and she felt groggy. The last thing she remembered with the CIO hauling her off the floor by her neck…her shirt....her collar? Normally she had a crystal clear memory for events like this. It helped to be instantly awake when one was an intelligence operative. Right now she felt disoriented.

Taking a second she surveyed the room. It appeared to be barren of any decoration. There seemed to be no real lights: Just black and darkened shadows. She could be in a closet, in a holding cell, or some other secluded place. The one thing she knew was that she was not in the brig. “So is this where we break out the thumbs screws because I know the protocol as well as you?” It was normal for even the most experienced agent to feel trepidation in situations like this. Normally being caught by your own side or that of a Federation member meant you were probably going to have a walk in the park with the interrogation. Civilized people did not do the creative things others did. The wild card was the kid. Universally people became less rational when one involved children but since this mission was about a child, it was hard to exclude that element. Celia never held too much concern about kids. They simply grew up to be adults one day but not all people held this pragmatic view.

Celia Decker, intelligence officer

There was a slight creaking and one of the room’s shadows seemed to shift, a large black mass moving forward barely a foot from her. There was a slight click and a small ball of light, floating maybe six feet above the floor between Celia and the now visible form of Peter, gave a dim light. Enough to show his emotionless wooden expression “Have you ever heard the story of how the Cardassians tortured Admiral Picard back when he was Captain of the Enterprise , this was the Enterprise of my youth, Enterprise D. Galaxy-class, gods what a class of starship” His expression seemed to shift as he spoke, in fact his entire posture seemed to change from rigid man of the uniform to a more relaxed person, he had on a slight smile, a wry smile as if he knew a joke that no one else did “This happened the year before I joined the Academy but the story became somewhat of a legend during the Dominion War, a story of Human resilience, Cardassian brutality and most importantly how ineffective torture really is”

Her eyes immediately snapped to the light and then the voice in the darkened space. She didn’t waste a moment uttering a silent curse that it was the intelligence chief and not some security guard in the room. The simpering brat had made her play a hand from her deck back in sickbay. It was not the last hand in the poker game she was playing but only this turn. A new round of cards had been dealt and now she had to figure out which one she would play. They both had different mission objectives and different methods to achieve them. She remained quiet and continued to let him talk.

He leaned forward “The man was drugged, tortured, humiliated for some classic Cardassian scheme. No one really knows the details of what happened but I’ve read the after-action reports and let me tell, it was not pretty yet he held on, ‘there are four lights’ became a rallying cry”.

There was no training that prepared one for torture or interrogation. Since this was a Federation vessel and she was a Federation member it would be the latter but that did little except give her less hope. If this was an enemy, there was a chance they would just kill her and not care but the security chief wanted answers. This meant he would probably try to tap into her psychological component in an attempt to disrupt her senses and sense of duty.

He leaned back “No this isn’t where I bring out my thumbscrews, I won’t even have to hit you. I’m afraid that if I did you might not wake up” He raised his left hand and made a fist, showing just how large his hands truly were. “We’re just going to play a little game of chicken or better yet a game of faith and duty. Do you believe enough in your cause to die for it” His smile widened showing teeth, a predatory smile “Because I believe enough in my cause, in my duty to kill for it” He said cheerfully “But that’s a bit heavy as a start for a conversation don’t you think?” He asked rhetorically “Instead I’ll ask you this, you’ve clearly been briefed on me or at least my presence on the ship, you have some training in tradecraft although perhaps not very extensive but enough for the layman. What do you know about me?”

CIO

Celia listened to his speech and looking at Peter instantly broke out crying. Whether or not he would buy the dog and pony show she was about to sell him remained to be seen. By now Primrose and the rest of the team would be moving into the extraction phase of the plan with the girl. In the world of intelligence, time was sometimes more important than information. The more time she could buy for herself and the extraction team would increase the chances of success of the mission. “Please I was just trying to help her. It’s not fair what happened to her. I was just trying to help her. She is just a kid.” The tears were real as was the way her face twisted up and her shoulders sagged and caved as she began to sob. What wasn’t genuine was the sentiment. Peter seemed to not be sure of her credential. For now, that was what she would play on and sell the lie as long as she could.

Peter watched the woman, his expression remained the same, and even seemed to be more amused at the reaction. He did lessen his smile, no longer flashing teeth but still had a grin on his face.

Already the mental games were afoot. Had she mentioned she knew him in sickbay? Did she call him by name or even department? His arrival was unexpected. The man breezed in like a wraith in the commotion and seemed to be there before she even knew it. How much had he heard or was aware of? She had to keep her responses vague or get twisted up in her own lies. Looking up at him with tear-stained cheeks she shook her head with all the emotion of an OMAP award-winning actress. “That is his kid. Who would do that to your own child? Lock them up? Treat them like a criminal. Someone has to help her even if her own father won’t.”

The tango between the operative and the chief had begun. Celia could not admit she knew the man and continue with the ruse that she was an unassuming doctor. Men like Peter would not give up when they posed a question so the only thing Celia could do was try and introduce new information. If it was new information, then it would give her a chance to control the narrative and buy more time.

Celia Decker intelligence operative

Peter leaned forward, hands on his knees and his ever-present smile widening “That was fairly good Celia, you might have even been able to move me a few hours ago but you made a catastrophic error earlier, you tried to pressure that child you speak so movingly about” He clapped his hands together a few times in mock congratulations “Now stop that sniffling before you have something real to cry about” He said ever so casually “Since you don’t want to engage in idle conversation I won’t force you.”

Her face dropped the pretense of emotional distress as she leaned back in her chair. The posture would be one Peter would notice. It was the projection of a laisse-faire attitude; however, in her mind, Celia was running possibility after possibility of what would come next. Peter planned on not making it easy even though his manner and verbiage presented that if she played ball things would be fine. Celina causally glanced down at her wrist and grimaced internally. She had no idea if is had been ten minutes or three hours since she had been in sick bay. She cursed the man for inducing unconsciousness. It was disorienting and gave him the advantage. Celia had been trained to try and maintain a sense of time yet Peter, just like her, had been trained to erase this advantage. Without a reliable passage of time, Celia would have to rely on things like hunger or thirst to figure out how long time had passed and she was not hungry.

He leaned back “Now let’s start this for real, I’ll explain what I am going to do, I am going to ask you about how many operatives are in your cell on the Atlantis and if you have any other backup and of course, if you have any other assets. Then when we’re done I will put you in a cell somewhere.”

Celia took a deep breath. “My name is Celia Decker. I am a doctor for the Starfleet but…even if you were right…But Peter, me telling you who, where, and why won’t make much of a difference so why should I betray my comrades’?” Settling back in her chair, she let out a small laugh. “You and I both know that I am bound for the brig so do your due diligence and get me a lawyer and a call.” She would continue to use the innocent until proven guilty plan for now.

He gave her a moment to digest his words before resuming “Now usually when I deal with Section 34 I give you the benefit of the doubt, I’ve worked with your people in the past and will likely do so in the future but I’ve also opposed you in the past as well. But I have a soft spot for children and am wholly against them being used to gain advantage for anyone” He shrugged “It’s one of my few flaws” He said with a chuckle “So since there is a child involved I am drawing a line, if you share information that leads to me stopping your allies things will go as they should, you’ll be detained and then someone high up the chain of command will order your release in a few weeks and you will continue your work for your organization as will the rest of your cell.” He paused for effect “If you don’t I will find them anyway, it’ll be messier that way but still it’ll be dealt with.”

*You are good,” she thought and let a small smile twitch the edges of her lip. Peter was running this by the standard playbook so far.
That did not mean he would continue as she resisted. She opened her mouth but was silenced by a hand the size of a dinner plate before she could protest.

He put his hands up “‘But Peter, me telling you who, where, and why won’t make much of a difference so why should I betray my comrades’?” He said in a high-pitched voice, the voice was comical but he seemed to perfectly mimic her accent and vocal pattern.

Celia sat up far straighter now that in the past. While the man placed the sentence in a humorous way, it was verbatim to what she had said. The man seemed to have an exact memory. She would have to be far more careful in what she said. He would twist the story using her own words back on her if she was not careful. “Neat trick,” she complimented him with an acid-like sarcasm however if you think you are smarter than me I need to tell you,” Celia let her tone turn hard but was cut off by Peter.

“Well little lady let me tell you why” He continued in his normal voice “Because if you don’t your side will suffer severe casualties. I haven’t decided yet if it’d be better to let you live or not. Still, I can promise you that no one else will” He again spoke very casually, normally he might have spent some time building rapport, trust, or an intimidation factor. Still, something about this whole thing nagged at him, his gut told him that he didn’t have that sort of time so he would simply bludgeon cooperation.

CIO

“Peter,” Celia used his name and spoke in a neutral tone. “Do you know what children are? I am not sure you do so let me harden that soft spot you have for them. Children are nothing more than living breathing ideologies. We take the tabla rasa that is their brain and imprint our culture on it. We make them think and breath and live our ideologies. Then we set them loose on the galaxy. That child,” Celia’s voice held nothing but contempt, “is our enemy. She is all that we hate and despise. Our,” she stressed the word, “job is to stop her before she and her kind bring about an ideology we have to fight with words, blood, and lives.” Celia hoped that by slowly inserting the words like “our” it would slowly make Peter come to see the facts. “You are right. Someone needs to be in the brig and it is not me.”

Celia Decker intelligence agent.