Cardassians Aboard

Posted on Thu Jan 29th, 2015 @ 10:29pm by Captain Tim Williams & Lieutenant Commander Horatio Hawke & Lieutenant Ethan Kessel & Counselor Melony Taylor

Episode: Orphans
Location: USS Highlander - Briefing Room
Timeline: MD30 1020hrs

The rear door into the briefing room was hidden behind a partitioning bulkhead, but the sound of it opening was easily audible just before a security officer lead in the three Cardassian officers who had beamed aboard the Highlander moments ago. Once they were within the room's confines, Tim nodded to the officer to indicate that he wasn't needed, and the man left to take up a post outside the hatchway. "Welcome aboard the Highlander, Gul Brenor," Tim said, playing his part to get the meeting between the two started. Although Cardassians and the Federation were nominally allies following the end of the Dominion War, even after all this time there was still an underlying current of tension between the two cultures; partly left over from that conflict, and partly as a result of the differences between the two, and the Cardassians' more imperialistic tendencies.

"Thank you, Captain," Brenor responded, having dropped some of the brusqueness of his manner that he had over the comm. "This is my first officer, Glinn Reynak and my operations officer, Gil Nelor."

"This is my first officer, Commander Hawke; my counselor, Lieutenant Taylor; and my chief engineer, Lieutenant Kessel." Once everyone was dutifully introduced, everyone took their seats around the table.

"What can you tell us about this Kotan Entek you say you're pursuing?" Tim asked, getting down to business.

"He is a criminal and former affiliate of the Obsidian Order, and considered a terrorist by my people. He has several degrees in biology and associated doctrines, and as a former member of the Order, is to be considered extremely dangerous." Brenor paused, before continuing. "You said that you believe he may have been experimenting on your citizens; what leads you to believe this?"

Hawke leaned forward to address the Cardassians, keeping his voice calm and professional. "Soon after we established the colony here, some of the colonists were attacked by a creature in the forest near the colony site. Now, the reports from the Federation Terraforming and Colonisation Agency and our own scans from orbit and on the surface assured us that there was no hostile fauna on this planet." He paused and looked at each of the Cardassians' stern faces. "Two dead colonists suggest otherwise.

"Post mortem examination of the bodies by our medical staff has found evidence that suggests whatever killed the colonists had been subjected to major genetic manipulation and DNA samples recovered included markers for several Federation species."

"That tallies with what we would expect of Entek's research," the officer identified as Reynak said, speaking up from the left side of her commanding officer. "The last research paper he filed before going on the run focussed on the possibility of merging the genetics of two or more species in order to take the best qualities of each."

"Last research paper, just how long has he been doing this type of research?" Melony bit out, then paused and changed tactic, verbally assaulting Cardassians would get her nowhere, so she continued in a calmer tone "This would of taken a while to get to this stage, do you have a psych evaluation on him, even one from quite early on would be helpful. Although if you have any information you would be willing to share about him I could put one together myself, though I doubt it would be as good without talking to him."

"What use would a 'psych profile' do?" Brenor asked, clearly befuddled by the request. It was obviously not a tool often used by the Cardassians when trying to apprehend a person - they likely only used one when it came to the interrogation after the capture.

"If I had a psych profile I would be able to better predict how he might react to anything we might do, where he might go, and have an understanding of how he thinks" Melony replied not entirely liking why she had to explain why she should have access to this information, what else could she possibly use it for, honestly Cardassians could be so paranoid sometimes.

Brenor considered it for a moment before offering his reply. "We will transmit what data we can release after returning to our ship."

"I can do a Psche Profile for you right here: He's nuts." Kessel said calmly. "I have already felt one creatures concept of biological perfection, and I am not overly enthused at the prospect of experiencing another's." The former Borg commented.

"You said that you had some tools which may assist us in tracking down Entek or his lab," the captain said. "We have been running continual sweeps of the planet's surface from orbit, but we have detected nothing outside of our colony site aside from the flora of the planet. Our tricorders have been unable to detect anything while on the surface either - even when in close proximity to one of these creatures."

Operations officer Nelor looked to his captain for a nod before speaking. "Entek has in the past used a series of specially-configured dampening fields that are able to successfully block the vast majority of scans and shield his lab and everything within it. It is a modification of techniques formerly used by the Obsidian Order; we have a number of handheld scanning devices which are configured to detect the field when they are within range of it. They were used by the Order as a way for operatives to find and enter the hidden bases, which were also often hidden within holographic fields."

"If you send us the frequencies, I'm sure we could reconfigure our own scanners to help us find this guy," Hawke said, doing his best to sound like he'd be doing them a favour.

"I'm afraid we would not be willing to part with that information," Gul Brenor said, cutting off any further response from Nelor. He looked back over to Captain Williams. "As I'm sure you can understand Captain, the specifications of these scanners remain classified property of the Cardassian Union. A version of these technologies is still used by our own, legitimate intelligence services. I would however be willing to send personnel from my ship down equipped with the scanners in order to locate the laboratory."

"I think we can agree to that," Tim said. "On the condition that your personnel are accompanied by officers from Highlander. This is a Federation world, and as such your officers would take no action other than assisting with the search. If we find Entek, our officers will detain him, and we can then discuss how best to handle jurisdiction from there."

Brenor paused for a moment, displeasure clearly registering across his face. In the end, he knew that he had no way to operate this search without Tim's cooperation unless he wanted to instigate a major diplomatic incident. "Agreed," he finally said gruffly.

"For a Cardassian, that's unusually forthcoming of them... They must really be nervous... Or they must really want this guy dead. Wonder what he did. Specifically I mean." Kessel asked.

"As I have already informed your captain," Brenor said, tersely. "Entek has been accused of carrying out illegal genetic experiments on Cardassian subjects. That alone is enough to earn him a death warrant on Cardassia."

Another thought occurred to Hawke and he mentally kicked himself for not thinking of it sooner. "What about these creatures that attacked our people," he began, remembering the gruesome damage they inflicted. "Can your scanners detect them as well?"

"The Order had many technological ways of hiding an individual from sensors, as I am sure your Federation does also," Reynak said. "However it is unlikely that Entek would equip mere creatures with this technology, if indeed he had multiple units to use. It is more likely that he has somehow engineered these creatures to be naturally masked from scans; but there is no way to know how we can compensate for that unless we can figure out how the effect was achieved."

Hawke leaned back in his chair and sighed, "Maybe we'll find some useful information in Entek's lab when we get there."

Brenor looked as though he was about to raise another objection about the proprietary nature of the technology in the lab, but thought better of it, likely realizing that on a Federation world, he would find it extremely difficult to try and prevent the Starfleet officers from taking anything that they found there.

"Gul Brenor, I suggest you beam back to your own ship and prepare your away team. We'll begin the search in thirty minutes, if there are no objections," Tim said, standing as he signaled that, for the Cardassians at least, the meeting was over. As Brenor nodded at the captain, he and his two officers rose and headed towards the door, where they were greeted again by the security personnel who would escort them back towards the transporter room. Once the door sealed shut again, Tim sat back down.

"While we have the room to ourselves, is there anything else that anyone wants to raise before we begin search operations?"

"I don't trust them," Hawke muttered, his eyes still watching the closed door through which the Cardassians exited.

"Neither do I," Tim agreed. "But we're going to have to work with them if we're going to find this lab. I don't want any one of the search parties actually entering the lab on their own," Tim said, issuing his standing orders for the search. "If any of you find it, you are to rendezvous with the other teams before proceeding. Commander; you will be in charge on the surface; if any of Brenor's people give you trouble, feel free to order them to be beamed back up; I'll have your back on that one, whatever you feel you need to do."

The first officer nodded, "Aye, sir." Knowing that the captain had his back if he had to assert his authority down there helped him feel better about working with them.

"And keep your eyes on the Cardassians when you actually get into the lab," Tim advised. "I wouldn't put it past Brenor to have ordered his people to try to confiscate anything that he doesn't want us to see once they get into the lab. This is a Federation world, so anything we find down there is the property of Starfleet unless I decide otherwise."

"I'll have my eye on them, sir," Hawke replied, nodding slowly. "Like I said, I don't trust them."

"Nobody trusts the Cardassians. Only fools. Dead fools." Kessel warned grimly.

"I am not overly keen on this "scientist" though. I don't like the sound of... meddling like. We have a mad scientist, obsessed with deadly creatures, who performs unethical experiments, and we have two butchered corpses in sickbay. Nothing about this sits well with me. It all feels a but too Frankenstein for my tastes." He said.

"I know what you mean," Tim agreed grimly. "Dismissed. Good hunting."