FADm Cerywyn and Col. Nick O'Bannon - Reconnaisance: Part 1

Posted on 241708.04 @ 12:42am by Fleet Admiral Cerywyn
Edited on on 241708.04 @ 4:01am

Mission: http://www.starfleet.ucip.org/index.php/sim/missions/id/9
Location: SB Versailles
Timeline: SD 241708.03

“Now that’s all out of the way...” smirked O’Bannon.

Cerywyn narrowed her eyes and glared at him. “That’ll be quite enough, thank you.”

She leaned back in her chair, resisting the urge to put her head in her hands. Later, there’d be time enough for that later. She looked at the data on her screen and then lifted her gaze to his. “Let’s get one thing straight. You will either follow orders or I’ll make sure that the black-hole in which you are dropped will be infinitely more enjoyable than what I’ll do to you personally. Understood?”

He swallowed hard and nodded, fearing his words might betray a sudden sense of unease. He knew she meant it. The petite, some might say elegant, and others might say aloof, even cold woman walked a thin line between being moral and just and sometimes inhumanely calculating and expedient if the ends justified the means of some ‘greater good.’ Nick, however, was a bit more realistic and he’d stopped believing in such noble ideas, and yet, the one thing he wouldn’t do would be to cross her. He might have survived her wrath the first time, but he knew there would be no other chance than the one she handed him now. He knew this, and yet, there was a part of him that couldn’t help but think of possible ways he could work this to a more profitable advantage. He’d learned years before that information could be sold to the highest bidder. He felt the muscles in his face start to tighten as his lips threatened to turn into a deep scowl and lifting his half empty whiskey sour to his lips he swallowed the last bit using the glass to buy him time while he schooled his expression and paid attention to what he was being told.

“There isn’t much more to say than what I told Admiral Korin.” She frowned. “While he’d like to believe that the OMEGA threat was dealt with when RAdm. Za’kal and the OMEGA base he operated from was destroyed, I’m not sure we can make that assumption. At the same time my gut is telling me that’s what we’re facing and we don’t really have a lot to go on.”

“They’ve been quiet if that is who we’re dealing with” replied Nick. “One question we have to ask ourselves is what is it about now that makes them confident enough to attack?”

Cerywyn shrugged. “A valid question. I don’t have an answer. But, we need the answer whether it is or is not a threat from OMEGA – needs to confirmation one way or the other. Information – we’re at a serious disadvantage and have been for some time.” Nick sputtered a cough as the woman’s words echoed his earlier thoughts. Surely, she’d not...

“Are you listening, Colonel?” she asked.

“Yes, yes, I am. I was thinking that you might not want to get your thinking set in stone. That’s never a good way to go about sniffing out your enemy. I recall a certain teacher drilling into all of her thick-headed, naïve operatives, something about leaping to conclusions and assumptions making an....”

She held up her hand “Don’t say it . . .” She paused. “You’re right. We cannot make the mistake of thinking we know who it is exactly that we face. Data is just too inconclusive.”

“So why me?” asked Nick?

“Well, for one – it’s not just you.” She shook her head. “I might need your skills but don’t mistake that for me placing all my eggs in one basket.”

He raised an eyebrow at the thought of the woman in front of him actually putting her hand under a chicken to collect eggs. “No,” he sighed, “I should think not. Besides, you need someone to keep tabs on me, right? So, come on, who is it?” He was suddenly growing worried. “Don’t tell me you’re going to assign that gelatinous glob of goo” he said referring to Commander Beldin, “as my conscience.”

“It’d serve you both right, so don’t tempt me” she snapped. She narrowed her eyes. “You forget, I don’t need anyone to keep tabs on you. I can manage that and never break a sweat, Nick.”

He paled slightly as he recalled how true those words were. Eighteen years later and she still gave him nightmares that made his blood run cold. She picked up the PADD on her desk and handed it to him. “As for why you, of the ones being used for this mission, you’re the only one that’s been to the Delta Quadrant via Chloran wormhole and your ship is the only one that safely navigate that particular beast.”

He took a step back. “You’re joking, right? That wormhole has been unstable . . .”

Cerywyn shook her head. “The stability is something your ship has been equipped to deal with.” She reached up and rubbed her temple. “That and you of all people should know how easily misinformation can be a simple case of misdirection.” She continued pacing. “You know where the opening is on this side (Beta Quadrant side) and you know what to expect on the other.”

“Hostile territory” he murmured half to himself without thinking.

Her eyes narrowed. “And you think my office isn’t?” She shook her head. “You have your orders. I still have contacts in the region of space closes to the wormhole and Space Station Cyrga along with a few others but at present, you get only what you need. Should something happen you can’t give away what you don’t possess.”

She paced slightly as she talked “Once things between the Federation and Romulans came to a head, both sides became focused on their own efforts. The events I along the neutral zone and with the non-aligned worlds mean we have to consider that it is happening elsewhere.” She paused “’IF’ it turns out to be OMEGA similar the non-aligned worlds in the Delta Quadrant and elsewhere become plausible targets.” She sighed quietly. “It would be an unwise tactical move to not investigate whether there have been similar disturbances elsewhere and that if there have been, why haven’t we heard?”

She shook her head. “Without the concrete details to compare apples to apples and space dust to space dust, we can’t know for certain. It could be totally unrelated or it could be pivotal.”

“You don’t ask for much, Admiral” he said. “What happens if I run into trouble?”
Cerywyn stopped, looked over her shoulder “That particular risk is the same as it’s always been and this conversation never happened.”