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Whose Gonna Sign For This Package?

Posted Dec. 29, 2021, 10:05 a.m. by Lieutenant Commander Nicholas James (Director, Colonial Intelligence Agency) (Sage Pennington)

Posted by Civilian Eryn Romanov (Colonial Intelligence Agent) in Whose Gonna Sign For This Package?

Posted by Civilian Kodek Vonn (Clandestine Associate) in Whose Gonna Sign For This Package?

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Nicholas James (Director, Colonial Intelligence Agency) in Whose Gonna Sign For This Package?
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
The door slid open unexpectedly. There on the other side was a tall figure, he looked young but he had white hair slicked back. His eyes scanned the room for a moment before he said “Good, you’re both here.”

-Nicholas James

The feel of an approaching unknown person had Eryn walking out of the bedroom and leaning, relaxed and unconcerned, against the wall. The disruptor casually holstered to her side. Her eyes flicked to Vonn before the door opened. “Points for stating ve obvious, but you loose vem for unoriginality in your entrance.”

As the door slid open and the figure spoke, he was speaking into the barrel of a very large and very well charged rifle (at least, according the audible hum that emanated from the platform) the likes of which the stranger had never seen. With the end of the barrel less than a meter from his face, it was still clear that it was held by a member of one of the most unknown and tenacious species ever dealt with by the Federation… a Breen. Wholly encased in the armored suit and helmet of the species, it was also apparent that this suit was heavily modified. The visor glowed a sickly green color and a wholly synthetic voice said “One word is all you get. Why are you here?”

Vonn

Her gaze perused him filing away the details. She was comfortable without the weapon in hand, they served a purpose but other options were more fun. She raised both brows and made a rolling motion toward Vonn with her hand. Encouraging the man to answer Vonn before he got bored and shot the man. Then she wouldn’t get to play with her food.

Eryn Romanov

Nicholas smiled into the barrel of Vonn’s rifle. This was not unexpected. “I’m here to hire the both of you. Your names come to me through the Governor. I’m the Director of Colonial Intelligence.” Nicholas did have high hopes these would be his first staff. Though they did seem a bit jumpy. “In the interest of civility, why don’t you hear out my offer, and then shoot me? What do you say, Mr Vonn, Ms Romanov? Shall we collectively agree to not commit any murders for ten or so minutes?”

-Director Nicholas James

There was a pause and the voice form the helmet said “That is more than one word.” but they didn’t pull the trigger. Instead, the rifle audibly powered down and was lowered, replaced by a Type III dirsuptor… highly effective and very illegal. “I was unaware there was such thing as Colonial Intelligence. Inside.” and they motioned for James to enter before securing the door.

Vonn

The ‘director’ was looking at them like he thought they might be trigger happy. That made Eryn grin mentally to herself. If they were, he’d be dead, no warning, no questions, no hesitation. What she wanted to know was how he got past the very efficient, hard to detect, and all encompassing security system in place. It should have blown them all to kingdom come by now. Was he simply that good, or did he have insider information? Or was it something else. Eryn appeared to shrug as Vonn let the man into the room. Now they knew what the governor was having Vonn audition for. It did not fail her notice he used their names but failed to provide his own. She didn’t move from her spot, but leaned casually against the wall, one leg bent, the flat of her boot resting on the wall. She had no desire to give away her telepathic ability and while this ‘director’ was an unknown she kept tightly locked up and unable to be read. She was eerily quiet and motionless, except her eyes that tracked his movement across the room.

Eryn Romanov

Nicholas moved inside, keeping his eyes on the other two. “Colonial intelligence is new. We have space, funding, and now I’m bringing in qualified staff. You’d get paid, have a place to stay, and relative operational freedom. Right now we don’t even have legislative oversight. When we do, the Governor and I will handle it. We’ll ensure operational freedom. Any questions?”

-Director James

Eryn rolled her eyes. Oh yeah about a 20. “Vith a sales pitch like zhat…” Eyes flicked over the man. “Try again.”

The voice was quiet for a moment and then said “Do sit.” and the disruptor went ‘away’.... but where was anyone’s guess. “So you are recruiting us? Or are you hiring us for a single job?” Vonn said.

Vonn

Eryn stayed where she was, which if the man sat, left her on the very edge of his sight. “Before ve get to zhat, I have a rule about talking work vith an unnamed person.” The prospect was intriguing. Pay, housing, operational freedom…well that was a joke. No one gave total operational freedom. There were always rules and stipulations to the work, but that was expected. But who was this man? Vonn might be inclined to trust the governor and she could go along with that, but he didn’t know this man and that didn’t mean she would trust the governor’s opinion of him. For all they knew the governor didn’t even send the man here.

Eryn Romanov

Nicholas took a seat. “I suppose that’s fair. My name is Nicholas James. A little information. I worked with Starfleet Intelligence and Section 31 for a long time. Some things happened, which you are much better off not knowing about. I disappeared for a while and came back to work for Governor Hyrushi. So let me begin with the fact that I understand the life of a field agent better than most agency directors.”

-Director James

“Agency Director? What Agency? So far, all you have given us is empty words. Where is the substance behind the vocalizations?” the Voice asked from the helmet.

Vonn

SFI and S31. His name wasn’t familiar to her, and that boded well for him. If she’d never come across his name, that could be good for her and Vonn, but nothing was every absolute. She would do a check to see if he had really cut ties....and that was hard to do, she’d had to die to get out. For now she was content to let James answer Vonn’s questions. But she was already planning several ways off the planet.

Eryn Romanov

Nicholas inhaled deeply. “There has recently been founded a Colonial intelligence agency for OED. Founded by Governor Hyrushi and myself. In the process of staffing it, he told me of you. And provided me with dockets. You want substance? I learned where to find you, where all your sensors and traps were and I stared down the barrel of your ridiculous rifle to offer you this job. You want substance.” He laughed. “If you’re not interested Kodek I’m sure our mutual acquaintance Mr Marshall can find you work. Your services will be highly in demand once again Major. and as for you” he turned to Eryn. “You spent an alarming amount of time in the service of a family wealthy under suspicious circumstances, and then you’re a ‘spy For hire?’ And now here you are… hiding. All I will say to you is this. Don’t think me a fool Eryn. I can help the both of you. We can help each other. You want substance Kodek? I didn’t bring a phaser to confront a Breen and a Spy in their hidey hole. That’s either a shocking miscalculation, or I came prepared to deal.”

-Director James

The Breen didn’t move… but the voice spoke after a fashion. “For someone recruiting a staff, I would recommend less stick and more carrot… as you humans say. So try again… Director… before the Governor needs to do some recruiting of his own. Because you came to see us, not the other way around. We are not averse to discussion… but threats are the tools of the desperate. And you don’t strike me as the ‘desperate’ type… but I have been wrong before.”

Vonn

“Enough.” Eryn’s voice wasn’t loud but it struck like a gong in the room. “First Nicholas, do not take me for someone that considers others a fool. You are not, and I vould never make zhat mistake.” Then she shrugged one shoulder, “I vas not aware zhat couples needed a reason for privacy.” Let James make of that as he would. Eryn liked to keep people guessing. Hell people already thought she was nothing more than Vonn’s trained pet, why not confuse everyone. Her cover was solid, or appeared to be for the moment, but there would be time for relief later.

She let her mental shields thin slightly. She wasn’t actively seeking but if he let his intentions slip she would be able to tell if he was being honest or deceitful. “Zhere is no need for threats. Perhaps you fear you are not as free as you vish, or as a former field agent, you are not sure you have vhat it takes to lead. But your skill as an operative is no in question here. As for a job offer, iz that vhat this iz? I am not sure if you are offering a job or warning us of vhat you are doing.” Again she shrugged and moved across the room and turned a chair around to straddle it backwards, arms across the back and leaned forward.

“So you do not come vith weapons, noticable ones. I do not believe you are incapable of defending yourself. We agreed to listen to zhis job offer. But so far all we have done is dance around the purpose of your visit. Now we have come to an impasse. We do not know if we can trust you and we have no information vhich to guide us. You have nothing but reports, that you know can be filled with skewed perception and misinformation. You have no personal observations in vhich to help guide you. So in the end you vill offer us a trial job of sorts. You vill base your decision on how we perform, and we vill base ours on how well you prep and lead us in said job.” She looked from James to Vonn. “Do we agree zhis is vhere we sit? Can we move forward now?”

Eryn

“She does have a voice.” Nicholas said somewhat coyly. “Here’s the deal. You will be paid, and legally protected for your work if you agree to work for our agency. You know I can’t tell you much about what you would be doing, that’s the game. If I tell you now everything that’s on the field and you decline you may prove to be liabilities more than assets. This I’m sure you can understand, isn’t personal, it’s risk management. I can give you one job, on a mercenary basis. See how you like the base, working with me, the whole thing. Compensation would be low for this, but enough if you decide to get the hell off this rock that you can get yourselves a couple of one way shuttle passes to anywhere but here. It didn’t used to be this hard to hire a spy. When did we all get so paranoid?”

-Nicholas James

A single raised brow was his only reward for his coy statement. Eryn waved away his explanation of risk management. It was part of the whole ‘spy’ thing. If he had spilled all the beans, as the humans say, Eryn would have physically thrown him out of the apartment. She found it amusing he thought they would need to the pay to get off of Oed. But pay was pay. She had to admit she was intrigued by the prospect. It was a useful application of her skills, and it didn’t require running around the quadrant.

“When Section 31 decided they wanted to be their own shadow government and not play by the rules.” Vonn said flatly. “And she is the spy. I’m the blunt object.”

Vonn

“I’m aware of your utilities.” Nicholas said.

She bit back a sassy retort to Vonn about not giving himself enough credit. “Paranoia keeps us alive vhen those who vere supposed to protect our backs stab them instead.”

Eryn

“So. Test job. Simple, low risk objective. Search and retrieve. Details beyond that when you agree to do it. If you like the job, working with me, then you get long-term offers and more information about what we’re doing here. If you’re interested, tell me now or find me later.”

-Nicholas James


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