Conundrum

Posted on Fri Jun 30th, 2023 @ 6:43pm by Captain David Hawkins & Commander Raiden Kosugi & Lieutenant Josey Wales
Edited on on Wed Jul 5th, 2023 @ 6:13pm

Mission: The Goddess
Location: The Vault
Timeline: After planet assault
3151 words - 6.3 OF Standard Post Measure

Beep beep beep. The sound of a message coming to where Captain Hawkins was at. The message was from Raiden.

"Captain, we have a situation that needs to be tended to. It is regarding a matter that I am going to need you for. I had to confine Tia to her quarters. Please come to the Intelligence office asap." the message ended.

Raiden turned back to watch the view screen which showed the image of two men both in separate 'interview' rooms. One was a tall blonde with broad shoulders, sitting in a chair, at a table. His hands cuffed in front of him. And in the other was a man who had dark hair and had a slight smirk on his face. He had his feet propped up on the table, his arms folded over his chest, cuffed as well.

Rubbing his neck and yawning, David walked off the turbolift with part of his uniform top open. He had been taking a long walk around the ship as he couldn't fall asleep. Deep down, he wondered if it was almost a good time to take the doctor up on her offer on some meditation once again. He hadn't seen her in a couple days, as they were all trying to get things back in order. He really needed to think twice before going to see her once again.

As he rounded the corner, he saw the main entrance to the top secret section of his ship. He didn't always go to this area, but in this case, this must have been interesting, especially with who was involved. As the door to the area they called "the Vault", an area of the ship that was highly secure and restricted to only the select few of the leadership and those assigned, David looked at the commander and others in the room.

"You summoned me, Commander," the captain asked as he rested his hands in his pockets, with the leather top of his uniform stayed open and relaxed. There was no need for formalities. Unless there was a need, there was "no snapping to attention" order given to his ship. People had jobs to do. They didn't need to worry about such things.

Raiden turned towards his CO, having a disgruntled look on his face. "I would have sent these men to Security but, felt this needed to be taken care of in this area." giving slight grunt. "Smithy wigged out when she caught sight of that man. "Pointing at the blonde man. "And that one as well. "Gesturing towards the dark haired man.

Drawing his attention back to the blonde man, "Captain meet Owen Black formerly of the USS T'sul transporter chief and reassigned to the Gladiator, as Transporter chief, presumably having had died when the ship was taken over. And meet Esra Bordan, who was also on the ship." pausing for the moment as he regarded Hawkins.

Taking a moment to scan over the two men, who had their hands behind their back with cuffs on, the commanding officer was now more curious then he had been when he had gotten the summoning. The four security officers, who where behind the two under arrest, stood casual as well. They nodded to the Captain, nonverbally saying hello to the commanding officer but keeping their focus on keeping the men contained. David nodded in kind to the men before returning his focus on the two men.

"Well... Look pretty spry for a dead guy," he paused and looked at Owen and raised an eyebrow. "What happened to you? Did you wuss out there, chief? Can't fake it?"

"Fake what? My death?" Owen snorted slightly. "I was just doing a job that is all. Hunting that guy down there." gesturing with his head towards Esra. "This guy was among the refugees that were brought in on the Gladiator."

Esra just had a smug look on his face just shaking his head slightly.

Raiden tilted his head at that comment, and looked towards Owen. "So out of the goodness of your heart you decided to hunt this guy, to help us out?"

Quickly looking over at Kosugi, almost wanting to question him for allowing David to smart off like that without that minor detail, the commander sighed before looking back at Esra. "Oh so a bounty hunter?"

Raiden noticed the look but ignored it, was he to call out the captain for a comment he made?

Esra spoke up, "He's not who he claims to be, Captain." a combination of respect and yet partial smugness in his voice. "Look at the part he played in all of this. Transporter Chief both on the T'sul and on the Gladiator?" a slight snort as he glared at Owen.

"You were a spy for those cult bastards!" Owen spouted out.

"Oh and you weren't? I know what you did to that woman. What was her name? Oh yes Smithy something? Tia that is her name." Esra remarked with a sly smile.

"One topic at a time, here, ladies," David raised a hand as he cut them both off. "Who are you two?"

The smile dropped from Esra's face, turning into a rather serious expression. "Sorry Sir I can not tell you who I am even if I've been captured, not in my current and present situation." there was a subtle glance over towards Owen Black then locking eyes with David, then he went silent.

"Right Esra, sucking up to my CO Captain Hawkins." Owen retorted, "He's not going to buy that." looking at Esra, who was just silent.

He looked at Hawkins, "As for me, I'm just a good ole transporter chief. You can look up my records Captain, its there black and white, just a few burps in my service record. Then again who can say they have a perfect record. Well except for Commander Kosugi there, not one blemish it seems in his record. That to me would make him a suspect instead. To clean in my own opinion." giving a smirk towards Raiden. "Who knows, you may actually be the true culprit here." Owen's eyes narrowing towards Raiden, then flicked over towards Hawkins. "Maybe you need to put him into an interrogation room and put the screws to him and find out who he truly is."

Raiden's face went expressionless, though his eyes had a steely gaze to them.

There was a slight pause before David broke his stance and look at the group as they were now waiting on him. "Why sure, let's do that!" As he shook his head. He looked at his security officers and pointed at his forehead. "Do I have stupid or something else written on my forehead?"

"Not written, sir. But maybe you took a stupid pill," the older security officer smirked as he shifted slightly while he eyed the two in custody.

"Maybe they think it's the crayons you may have ate while you were a marine?" The opposite security officer smirked.

"Oh that was low," the captain smirked but nodded. "Low but a good one."

Raiden just shook his head for a moment, then said to Owen. "You just said the wrong thing, Mister Black."

Josey walked into the vault after being cleared by the intelligence duty officer and sat at the table. " I'm here as requested. Bring me up to speed, I've had a bit of a pre briefing before coming here and from what I've been informed I will say that I am not at all pleased. "

"Well I guess we have a dead man walking with a better service record than our 'perfect' first officer. So perfect and clean, its almost out of a fairy tell. Then we have A bounty hunter for hire." David explained standing straight.

" Well we'll see about that. " Said Josey. " We will get to the bottom of this one way or another. How easy or hard you make this for yourselves depends on you I reckon. But I will find out the truth to this matter and I have all the time in the world to dedicate to this endeavor. That and a friend that I admire was hurt because of one of you no good son of a bitches, So don't think I'm going to take things easy on either one of you. " Growled Josey.

This caught the former marine off guard slightly but shrugged it off as though the security chief using the ol' 'Good cop, Bad Cop' play. "Where you able to escort Tia to her quarters and make sure she is doing well?" David asked as he looked at his Chief of Security.

Josey walked over to where David was and spoke softly enough to where he alone would hear what he had to say. " For the most part, physically she doing well. Emotionally she has been worked over good. She says she had a nanite that was planted in her head by Mr. Owens. That will be easy to corroborate with an examination at sickbay. This is spying on a federation citizen and an invasion of privacy at the very least, bordering on mental torture. With what she was subjected to, it drove her to the brink of wanting to kill both of these men for what's been inflicted on her. She is going to need a lot of help and counseling to get her back to normal again. "

Raiden glanced over towards Josey and Hawkins, barely able to hear what the Chief of Security said, his face darkening as he stared at Owen then at Esra then back to Owen.

Owen just watched for a moment, then remarked to Esra quietly, "I knew I'd catch up to you in the long run."

Josey continued to speak quietly to the Captain. . We also have two Isolinear chips that backup her story, a bottle of Bourbon that has a short term memory blocker and more nanites in it as a backup plan I'm assuming. We need to compare them to the one she had in her. She has suffered enough and I can't blame her for how she feels at this time. " Commented Josey, still glaring towards Owen and Esra from time to time.

Owen had a smirk of confidence, this was going in the direction he planned. Then remarked quietly to Esra. "You know you're going to be sent to Rura Penthe for your collaboration with the Trinity fanatics." he said with great confidence.

"Quiet you, the guard next to Owen said harshly. "Just be quiet."

Esra on the other hand was quietly watching and listening. Not saying a word. Owen seemed to be eager to seal his own fate.

Josey didn't like this situation at all. if they were to hold them for awhile, extra security would be needed to keep them safe. "Once this issue is resolved and all the evidence is gathered and turned over to our JAG officers to try in court, we'll have to protect the prisoners. May I suggest that they be placed in cryostats tube and locked away in a guarded and shielded room to prevent escape or a rescue attempt if they have allies nearby. " Offered Josey as a suggestion to his superior.

"Its not a bad idea. We can get the doctor on board with that when the time comes," the captain remarked, but paused for a moment and sighed. "Maybe. I need her to look into this possible nanite thing." Hawkins paused as he spoke up to the two. "Hey, what's with the nanite? Planting something in a human seems a little evasive and illegal. Wanna share with the rest of the class why you are bugging people or are you just getting your rocks off by messing with a young woman?"

Esra spoke up this time. "I would never do anything like that, unless it was agreed to by said recipient. As for Miss Smithy, I hadn't heard of her name until I came across Owen here, and overheard him talking to someone over a communication device. Unfortunately he caught sight of me, and recognized me from another place."

Owen cut Esra off, "Oh listen to him talk about Smithy. She's just a non essential piece of fluff whom if she were to disappear no one would even care. She's just a petty officer, nothing more nothing less. I don't know what people saw in her or even see in her. She's not that attractive, always dirty from working on whatever she works on. It's too bad that device had been found, otherwise-" Owen stopped, his ego had gotten the best of him.

Raiden was ready to go deck the man, and even took a step, he stopped, holding himself in check. Hot anger wasn't going to be the answer here. Not for him.

Catching his first officer's response and ability to stop himself was admirable, but this tactic from Owen didn't phase the former marine. Instead he just nodded in agreement. "Yeah I could see how you could think that, but then again. As you aren't really a decorated officer, and no real proof of identity, at least she has a leg up on you. She is kind of cute as well. But, I'm a little old for her and for you."

"Woah, woah, woah, I never said I was attracted to you." Owen reponded heatedly, "And I am part of the Federation, I am an ensign so I outrank her."

"Captain, I do have information you may want to have, its in a spot I can not reach." Esra raising his shoulders slightly, as his hands were cuffed behind him. "Look, I do request to speak to you, or your chief of security or both, out of earshot of anyone else."

Josey turned to Hawkins. " So do you have another room nearby that we might interrogate the prisoner and see if the information offered has any value? " He asked.

"Typically that would be the case," David replied before looking over at his first officer. "But Raiden brought them here, and we don't have multiple offices or interrogation rooms set up in our Vault. So what is the plan here, Commander?" He called Raiden out over to the captain and Chief of Security. David ignored the fact that the chief didn't know the complete layout of Gladiator just yet, but knew at some point, he would know his areas to work with, the Gladiator's Vault.

Raiden walked over, "Yes, lets get them to security and in separate rooms. I figured I'd isolate them here first just to gather my thoughts. And see if things could be sorted out. Plus this is isolated from any central computers currently from what I was thinking. However, we're now at the point that precautions have been made and now time for questioning. In security."

"Then let's do that. While we get them transferred, let's get Smithy down to Medical and figure out what this nanite. I want to know what it is, and if she is in danger," David answered as he crossed his arms. "If this is aligned with Trinity, then it isn't all over after all."

"Oh I hope it will be over, or be the thing that will end it once and for all." Raiden intoned. "Though I did hear Josey saying she had one removed. I can see your point, in taking her to medical, just in case she has more, that hadn't been triggered."

Raiden looked over at the two men, and most importantly Owen, there seemed to be more to him, maybe even some answers as to just what the man had done.

Josey tapped his combadge. " I need a four man escort squad to the vault asap to escort two prisoners to security. "

Acknowledged Chief. Came the reply. A few minutes later the squad arrived at the vault.

Josey pointed to Owens and Esra. "Check their restraints."

" Aye Sir. " Responded the Ensign in charge of the escort, and went to check. "All secure sir"

Josey looked to the Captain and Executive Officer. " We're ready to move at your discretion sir. " He was looking forward to gathering the information that they could and get to the bottom of this situation.

"Lets get them there." Raiden remarked.

Since it wasn't too far to get to Security, The Vault being on the same level as security both men were placed into seperate rooms once
they entered. There they were being watched by security personnel. Raiden looked at Hawkins and Wales.

"That Esra Bordan requested that you, Lieutenant Wales, and Captain Hawkins both be there for his questioning. I'll be watching from the room behind the glass."

" Yes Commander, We'll get the job done Sir.. " to Raiden

Wales looked to Captain Hawkins. "You're the ranking officer here sir during the interview, Your call on who to begin with first. " Yes , he was in his own department, But protocol demanded he give the ranking officer the first choice in the matter. That and the chain of command was something that he had always strictly followed.

Owen could be seen talking away at the guards that were with him. His voice carrying over the comms. "Say can't a guy get some water please? I'm a bit thirsty"

While Esra was seated in his seat in the other room, calm and quiet.

" Alright Captain Hawkins, Who shall we start with first? This Mr. Borden said he has some information and wanted the both of us present during his questioning. Shall we begin with him first? "

Raiden remarked, "Lieutenant Wales why not you start the interrogation, show what you can bring to this." Raiden's comment was not a slight as to what Wales could do, he was actually curious to see the man in action as well as the CO.

"Agreed. It can be your official first investigation as assigned as full time chief on Gladiator. It falls under your department," David responded as he looked at the two in question before his executive officer. "Assist here as needed, I need to go deal with a final report, and we can all reconvene in security land. But don't wait up for me. Find out what these love birds have to say. I love story time."

Josey gave a slight nod of the head. " As you wish, I can set up a direct feed to your ready room if you'd like. Then I shall start with Mr. Borden first, as I am curious to see what he has to say. Mr. Owen is acting like a nervous chatterbox and won't shut up, While Mr. Borden is sitting calm and quiet and like he doesn't have a care in the world. I think that will be an interesting story. to hear first. "

Raiden gave a nod in agreement and watched as Captain Hawkins left. "Shall we begin?" taking a good long look at the two in question.