Plot Log | "Depreciating Expectations" | aCO, NPCs | Capt Olan Dar, Cmdr Neyes, Operative
Posted on Wed May 22nd, 2013 @ 7:34pm by Captain Landon Neyes
1,086 words; about a 5 minute read
Mission:
Secret Meetings
Location: Captain's Readyroom
=/\= Captain’s Ready Room =/\=
“What do you MEAN he’s not the President, Olan.” Neyes pointed, full-on, at the man sitting across the opulent ready room, clad in the traditional garb of the President. He was lounging comfortably, sipping on tea in a fashion almost deserving of praise. It was truly enraging to behold for Neyes, seeing the man he thought of as the leader of his government not just an hour ago… taking in the sights as Landon’s world slowly seemed to unravel. Who was he really? Why the deceit and the misleading trek through space? What possible use could there be to create such an intricate lie, which effectively pulled the wool over Landon and the rest crews’ eyes.
“Not only have you lied to me,” Landon continued, “you brought a fake, for a reason I can only assume will lead us into some unavoidable danger, onto this ship. Why.” The question was hard as a brick. A faint thread of hurt entered the Trill’s voice as he barely managed to contain his outrage. If Dar was willing to put his crew on the line for a trick, lie to his first officer, and exclude the senior staff in a serious operation dictated from the top.
Landon wasn’t sure he could trust him. It seemed a dramatic line of reasoning, but he found himself
Olan sat in his chair, thoughtfully rubbing the edge of his desk as he listened to his first officer berate him for keeping everyone in the dark. Rightfully so, he knew, and Landon would likely never recover from that break of trust. Time would inevitable heal the wound, but Olan knew what he was doing when he signed on for this mission. “It was how this needed to be done, Commander. You should know even I’m not privy to every bit of information that comes from Starfleet HQ.”
Neyes eyed the false President once more time. It was just the three of them now, having dismissed Williams and King back to manage the ship. Aside from the current fiasco, Landon was in the uncomfortable position of juggling the command of the ship. He’d enlisted Williams to help him with the duties Neyes himself would normally carry if he wasn’t busy running the ship for Dar, yet it didn’t quite ring out the many odds and ends necessary. The ship was a complex machine, community and home to many people. Simply handing it over to a new XO had ridden the previously assigned helmsman a bit haggard.
“So who are you then?” Landon asked the man who still kept up the façade of the Government Cabinet Head.
He set down his tea delicately, a strong and graceful movement as he did so. Landon could clearly tell he was more than just an ordinary substitution. “I am the President, and that’s all you need to know.” His voice rang with a fluid and clean Human accent, English probably. A slip of domineering arrogance spat from his words at Neyes, who was already fuming in response.
Landon held in his rage, “That is NOT good enough.”
The man smiled a little, seemingly unaffected by the XO’s negative impression of him and responding in kind, “Too bad.”
A fire lit in Landon’s eyes and before he could cross the room and grab the imposter by the jacket, Dar spoke up, “He’s an intelligence officer, chosen from Intelligence headquarters on Earth. His specialty is apparently Romulan encounters and cultural politics, but I don’t even know his real name, so there’s no telling for sure.”
Neyes nodded to Dar, who appeared to be just as upset as Landon. A tinge of flushed red had appeared on his face. He was silently thankful the Captain stepped in to finally give up some truthful information. At least Landon hoped so, for both their sakes.
“Captain you are not authorized to-,” the intelligence officer started.
“To what?! Inform my first officer of a potentially dangerous mission involving the entirety of my crew? I’ll be damned if I’m going to pretend your little games are still going to fool anyone on this ship. Perhaps we can still salvage the secondary mission.” Dar said aggressively, a little sweat appearing on his brow.
“And what would that be, Cap?” Landon asked, still giving the intelligence officer a glare. The man made Neyes uncomfortable, to say the least. He wasn’t overly fond of intelligence in general. It was a natural response to the fact he more or less knew what they were capable of. Men and Women in intelligence or operations like it were crass and megalomaniacal. Neyes could barely recall all the times he’d counted a mission gone badly in his lifetimes because some operative somewhere got a big head. They liked to think they were above the rules, and that laws didn’t apply to their job in the shadows of the real world. It was a isolationist mentality, which usually resulted in the deaths of the people willing to take the hits to protect others, not just themselves.
“The Vindicator has been tasked to clean up the remnants of the Vanguard still clinging to their zealous ideals,” he held up a hand, stopping Neyes from interrupting, “yes I know, we thought we’d dealt with them already.”
The intelligence officer spoke up, “So did Starfleet and the rest of the Federation, but recent reports indicate there may be a saboteur and Vanguard informant on your ship, hiding in plain sight. We’ve intercepted a number of hidden transmissions coming from areas of space you were recently in. I was sent here to weed this traitor out, for they’d probably want to take advantage of the situation.”
“You here to lure out a Vanguard spy? Captain wha-.. Captain?” Neyes looked over at Dar.
Dar was bent over his desk, his face softly coming to rest as large beads of sweat had appeared all across his features. He looked like he’d fallen asleep, but they both knew better.
“Captain!” Neyes was at his side in a moment, taking the man up by the shoulders in his chair, giving him a quick shake. Dar didn’t even twitch or moan. A sinking depth of worry surged up inside Landon.
“Neyes to Sickbay! Medical emergency!”
=/\= END LOG =/\=
Commander Landon Neyes
Acting Commanding Officer
USS VINDICATOR
Captain Olan Dar
Intelligence Operative (apb Landon)
USS Vindicator
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