A Puzzling Picture

Posted on Wed Feb 1, 2017 @ 7:05am by Commodore Michael Aravan & Captain Madelina Weisz & Lieutenant Xylia Lischka
Edited on on Wed Feb 1, 2017 @ 7:07am

Mission: An Orion to Die For
Location: Ready Room
Timeline: MD 4 0800 Hours

Michael had just finished entering the restrictions for Vash and had sent a notice to Medical to ensure that she got her daily shot of pheromone inhibitor and norepinephrine. He had set the three pips that Maddy had given him in a small tray by the coffee pot and still hadn't replicated a new cup to replace the one that he had smashed.

He regretted the harsh actions between himself and the fiery redhead, but felt that she had gone too far and driven him to go too far as well. There was also the unwanted thoughts that had led him to a brief but erotic daydream, but he drove those from his mind.

Now that he had a minute, he sat down at the conference table and played back the brief conversation that Lieutenant Lischka had had with Vashkele after he changed his Command access code. It seemed the Orion woman didn't want to speak while being recorded, but she had to know that everything that happened in the office was recorded. He shook his head and wondered if the brash young Lieutenant would ask him to leave his office again in the future and what he would say if she did.

Maddy walked into Michael's office shortly after Xylia and Vashkele left. She didn't like deceiving the Captain, but it was for the best. Now, she'd be able to explain. Oh, he'd probably be incredibly angry, but he'd get over it in time. Especially when he realized the genius behind it all.

She cleared her throat and moved toward his desk, placing her hands against the chair back again. "I owe you an apology for earlier, Michael, and I owe you an even bigger one for deceiving you. You see," she began. "I concocted a plan and purposely left you out of the loop for fear your acting skills might not be up to par."

Taking a deep breath, she continued. "It's no secret Vashkele and I don't like each other. In fact, I'd use the word loathe, but that doesn't matter. As long as I was the XO, she was less likely to cooperate, so I had to do what I did so you'd temporarily assign my position to someone she trusts. Let's face it... aside from me or Spencer, Xylia is well qualified. This was all necessary so Vashkele would be comfortable enough to talk. As long as I was around, that wasn't going to happen. She needs to think there's been a shake up."

Michael looked up as Maddy came into his office and began speaking. He waited until she was done and was silent for another minute. He didn't trust himself to speak immediately and thought about what he wanted to say. Finally, he nodded and chose to address the issues one at a time. "So you wanted the decision to be as volatile as possible. You do realize that I could have thrown you in the brig for your insubordination, right?"

Maddy nodded. "It was a risk I was willing to take. In fact, it might have looked better."

"Secondly, you're right about Lieutenant Lischka's relationship with Vashkele," he said. "And it's one that I'm concerned about. She's a good officer and a loyal one, but I think she may get too close. I seriously doubt that Vashkele will be able to corrupt her, but Lischka's sense of morale right may obstruct her view to some degree. Tell me if you think I'm wrong."

"I think you're wrong," the redhead stated. "Xylia is in just the right position we need her to be in. Vashkele isn't going to disclose anything to the rest of us due to a serious lack of trust. Xylia, on the other hand, will get more than any of us. I'm willing to bet she got more once they left here. Do I think the two women genuinely care for one another? Yes. Do I think Xylia will allow that to come between her duties? No. Trust her. She's in the right position right now to get what we need."

Maddy ran a hand over the back of her neck. "In the meantime, I'm just going to be plain old Maddy. We need everyone to think things went bad, and I resigned. Since you know the truth now, keep up the pretense. Please?" She moved over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You can even call me every dirty name in the book and mean them if it helps."

Michael smiled at her assessment of Xylia and knew he had made the right choice. "I think you're right about Lieutenant Lischka," he said. "I just wanted to play the opposite side of the fence for once. As for your resignation, I told Lischka that you were on a temporary Leave of Absence for personal reasons."

He gestured towards the coffee tray. "Your pips are over there if you want to take them with you. I'm not in the habit of keeping things that aren't mine. I'll maintain the air between us, but it'll be a bit harder since I know your reasoning behind what you did. Next time, though....don't take it to such an extreme or I'll put my boot up your ass instead of a coffee cup past your head."

"I needed you angry," she commented as she moved to grab her pips and place them in her pocket. "I'm going to leave for now, but I'll be in touch. We'll stick with the leave of absence thing. Replicate some new pips and keep them on your desk. Appearances." With that, she offered a smile and exited his office.

Michael smiled at her assessment of Xylia and knew he had made the right choice. "I think you're right about Lieutenant Lischka," he said. "I just wanted to play the opposite side of the fence for once. As for your resignation, I told Lischka that you were on a temporary Leave of Absence for personal reasons."

He gestured towards the coffee tray. "Your pips are over there if you want to take them with you. I'm not in the habit of keeping things that aren't mine. I'll maintain the air between us, but it'll be a bit harder since I know your reasoning behind what you did. Next time, though....don't take it to such an extreme or I'll put my boot up your ass instead of a coffee cup past your head."

With that, an idea struck him and he went to the replicator. "Computer, three sugar cubes, gold tint, in the shape of Starfleet pips." He waited until they materialized, then took them and set them on the tray beside the coffee where the originals had been.

****

Twenty minutes later, Xylia stepped up to the door and touched the chime the alert the Captain of her presence. She had no idea how this conversation was going to go, and hoped he wouldn't be too angry with her for asking him to step out. It was for a good cause, though she didn't get anything useful. Not until after they'd left.

"Come in," Michael called as he carefully pruned a Rock Juniper Bonsai tree that had grown a bit wild since he had last checked on them. He found that the precise nurturing and shaping of the miniature trees helped keep his migraines at bay and needed every bit of help he could get with the way things had been going.

"Captain," Xylia said as she walked back into the office and crossed the floor to his desk. "Our guest is currently getting settled into her quarters. I've set up her account and transferred credits over. Her guard is also post. I handpicked Ensign Danica Fischer for first shift."

"Excellent choice," Michael said, having familiarized himself with the Security officers since it was his former department. "What did she want to tell you that she wouldn't say in here?"

"She told me I was right that a piece of property wouldn't know what she knows. She said meetings took place, and that she was passed around. That they thought they could resist her, but few could. She said we couldn't give her what she wanted, and that she wouldn't put us in more danger than we could handle," the Lieutenant replied. "That was all off record, of course."

"That still doesn't account for what she knows," Michael mused. "In fact, it doesn't tell a lot at all. All we do know is that she's provided us with good Intelligence so far and you seem to be the only one she'll talk to."

"That's because she trusts me," Xylia said, taking a seat. "I'm just about the only one who showed her any kind of compassion and didn't treat her like a hardened criminal. She may know things we need, but we obviously can't give her what she needs. I have my theories on what that is, but she hasn't actually told me."

"What did you manage to learn?" he asked as he took a drink of his coffee and wondered what the Orion woman's game was. It wasn't making sense that she would come on and help out immediately, then give up Raimus, then play hard to get on more information. Either she didn't know more and was milking them for all she could get, or she was hedging against something else.

Xylia sighed, gripping the bridge of her nose. "I'm pretty sure she gave me a code. There was something in the way she said it, then she told me to remember what she said."

"A code for what, though?" Michael asked her, feeling as if he were taking a slow road to a conclusion that might be a guess. He didn't like feeling that way, but he wasn't going to yell at the woman who he had just made his acting Executive Officer.

"I think it's to access the subspace frequency at the hub. I'm not certain about that, but I'm going to try and see what happens," she replied, knowing the Captain was getting frustrated the further this carried on. She wasn't exactly a fan, but she couldn't hold it against the Orion woman. "All I can do at this point is keep trying to talk to her and see if can finally get her to see reason. It's not going to work, though, because we can't give her what she needs. Are you even curious to know what I think that is?"

"What do you think it is, Lieutenant?" Michael asked as he took another drink of his coffee. "And before we go further, you're hereby authorized to give her nearly anything she wants that won't jeopardize the safety of the ship and crew. Don't offer it to her carte blanche, though. Make small gestures towards her and see how much more she wants. I'm going to authorize a spending account for you so you won't have to use your own credits."

"She's already got three quarters of my credits in her account just so she'll be comfortable," Xylia sighed. It wasn't that she minded doing it, but it was a small gesture she hoped Vash would notice. She hadn't. "I think she wants a guarantee to a fresh start. That's about one of the few things we can't give her."

"A fresh start from what, though?" he asked. "She hasn't exactly divulged much of a background other than saying she was passed around like a piece of property. What exactly is her past and why is she running from it? If she's Syndicate, she's a dead woman walking for giving us everything she has so far."

Xylia just stared at him for a long moment. It could have been a bit unnerving to him, or anyone, for that matter. He was former Security, and yet he couldn't seem to put the pieces together. "I think she is part of the Syndicate, and not just a piece of property that's been passed around. She knows far too much for that to be possible. The pieces are all there, but the puzzle hasn't come together yet. I mean... Think about it. She gave me a code to access something regarding the Syndicate, but she doesn't want to provide us with more information than what she has for fear that we'll get in way over our heads. Let's not forget the fact that she wants things that you or the crew can provide her."

She paused, then took a breath before continuing. "Vashkele's place within the Syndicate had to have been a high one if she's come to the Federation for asylum. This goes beyond the slavers she turned over to us. Far beyond. Like you said... she's as good as dead, but we can't allow that to happen. She''s helped us tho much, and I think she's willing to go farther if we can find a way to protect her permanently."

While her stare may have been a tiny bit uncomfortable, Michael wrote it off and thought about what she was saying. "She wants to protect us from what, though? She already gave us an idea of what we'd be facing, then she gives you what could be the pass code to the hub. Even if she is higher up in the Syndicate than she claims, why is she giving us this information in the first place? She seems docile as a newly minted Ensign who's eager to please their new Chief."

"Captain... you're missing the big picture. She wants out. Taking them down is her ticket to that," the young woman stated. "She wants to protect us from the entire Syndicate coming down on us in a shitstorm we have zero chance of faring."

Michael shook his head. "If she wanted out, as you say, then she wouldn't need to take the Syndicate down. All she'd have to do is simply fake her own death or use her pheromones on some male to hide and protect her. Orion space is a big place, but the Alpha and Beta Quadrants are even larger. There's a hundred and fifty worlds in the Federation alone she can hide in and a lot more worlds that aren't Federation who wouldn't mind harboring someone just so they can thumb their noses at us."

He got up and paced the length of the conference table and came back around the other side. "Find out, Xylia. Find out who or what she's running from. Get Lieutenant Rho to help you in any way he can. He has two hundred people in his department and a lot of Intelligence tools at his command. Get answers."

"I'll do what I can, Captain," she said. "In the meantime, I think a senior staff briefing is in order to pass on what we do know. Not to mention what we're about to do."

"That sounds like a good idea," Michael said as he finished his coffee and felt a headache coming on. The bonsai would have to wait. He had business to attend to.