Seeing Red, Grey and Green

Posted on Sun Dec 11, 2016 @ 9:34pm by Captain Madelina Weisz & Lieutenant Commander Alex Rho

Mission: An Orion to Die For
Location: Various
Timeline: MD 3 || 1050 hours

Alex had been reviewing some information that Starfleet Intelligence had on the Orion Sector. In particular, Raimus, Invernia II, New Sydney, and Stameris; the names that Captain Aravan had mentioned earlier. He was busy compiling some of the more current information when he turned and noticed that the Captain had gone. It was a huge Bridge, after all. Alex then waved a nearby Intelligence officer over to man the station for the moment. He got up and walked over to where the Commander sat in the center chair. "Pardon me, Commander Weisz?"

Maddy looked up to Alex when he approached her. "What can I do for you, Mister Rho?"

"This is regarding the information and report I brought to you on the PADD earlier," he stated. "It's from Orion Sector Tactical Command and was orginally corrupted as someone was trying to remove it from the station's computer. It is rather revealing and I request a few moments to go over it with you, ma'am."

"Let's go to my office," she said, rising to her feet. "Call me if anything happens." She wasn't speaking to anyone in particular, but more to everyone on thr bridge. With that, she gestured with her hand for him to follow, then began to make her way to her office.

Alex nodded and followed the tall redhead into her office. He took a seat in one of the chairs across from her desk. Making himself comfortable wasn't an option. This was business.

Maddy moved over to her desk once they were inside the office and settled down. She had no idea what kind of information Lieutenant Rho had, but she was about to find out shortly. This was going to be an interesting meeting... at least that was the vibe she was getting. "What do you have for me?"

Alex removed a PADD he'd been carrying and brought up his report. "A lot of oddities which have given way to many questions and my own opinions. But I'll start with that explanation as to why Starfleet received no communications from Tactical Command. According to the operational logs, there was a joint decision of the senior officers to leave the station on day thirty. And it all revolves around an unknown Cardassian female named Illiana who requested asylum." Alex didn't want to overload the Commander all at once. He let that sink in and see if there were any questions.

"She requested asylum?" Maddy asked, thinking about the Orion woman currently in residence inside their brig. Did she not ask for the same thing? Was any of this connected? The Commander had her suspicions before, and this was doing absolutely nothing to lay those to rest. "What else did you find?"

"Yes, asylum," said Alex. "They did a background check and found nothing, so it was granted. In short, over the next several days, Illiana was seen with the Operations Officer, two security officer to include the Chief, the Executive Officer, and eventually the Commanding Officer. The only one to make any objections about her was the Chief Medical Officer, who was subsequently arrested and thrown in the Brig. All of the personal logs seem to revolve around Illiana in some way or another after her arrival. Some of them reference her by name, while others call her a mysterious woman that no male could reject. But when they all left, it was on a ship that she called for." He paused a moment before continuing. "Commander, in my opinion as a Starfleet Intelligence officer, that Cardassian woman was a plant, and a damn good one, too. Someone was taking down OSTC from the inside."

Maddy arched a brow. There were just too many similarities for her liking. Was that the Orion woman's plan? Did she want to take over their ship for some reason? Did she have something to do with thr OSTC? There were just too many questions and no answers. The uncertainty didn't sit well with her, but the one thing that did was the fact she didn't trust Vash. Not even a little. "This sounds a lot like what we're dealing with with a certain Orion woman that's currently in our brig. I don't like any of this. You can continue," she said, making a mental note to have Rho talk to Vash. He had a ton of experience interrogating people.

"That's the summary of the data we recovered." said Alex. "As far as the infiltration teams on the station, they encountered pirates. We have no idea what they were doing there. Other than accessing consoles. At any rate, the station was destroyed, Commander. It was hit quickly. We don't know why it was destroyed or by who. What keeps turning in my mind is why were senior Starfleet personnel 'evacuated,' for lack of a better term, before the self-destruct? Why not just blow them all up with the station?"

"That's a question I don't have an answer to, but I would certainly love to know it. How many of them were men?" the Commander asked. None of this was coincidence as far as she was concerned. She felt rather strongly that Vash had something to do with what happened at the OSTC along with the 'Starfleet' personnel she brought with her. In fact... if she had to guess... the uniforms they showed up in likely belonged to the missing senior staff.

"I don't have that information, Ma'am," replied Alex.

Maddy sighed. Of course he didn't, but she couldn't hold it against Alex. None of this was his fault, but a big part of her believed that they held Illiana in their brig. After all... the very man sitting across from her was Ullian, but appeared to be human. Who was to say an Orion woman couldn't be altered too look like a Cardassian woman? "You tell no one what I'm about to say, Mister Rho, but I have reason to believe the very woman in our brig is Illiana the Cardassian."

She shook her head. "Maybe my paranoia is getting the better of me, but I strongly believe this to be the case. I don't know what her reasons for taking down the OSTC would be, or where the senior officers are, but I believe she knows. I just... I just can't prove any of this." With a frustrated sound, she rose to her feet and moved over to the window to look outside. The redhead woman was clearly more troubled than she'd been before speaking to Alex.

Alex kept his face as stoic as a Vulcan's. "I don't know everything about what's happening, so I can't speculate. But I won't tell anyone, Commander. Though, you should leave the paranoia and suspicions to those of us who are regular visitors to their establishements." He let out a quick smirk, and pulled it back in just as fast. When he saw get up, and the manner in which she did it, he stood and walked to window as well. "Commander, there is no need to fret about this. Let me take care of that, it's what we do in Intelligence. Allow me to speak with the Orion. I may not be able to confirm your suspicions, but at least let me calm the paranoia."

"You may speak with her, Lieutenant, but I don't think anything will put this at ease for me," Maddy stated as she watched the stars streak by them. "She'll never tell the truth. Bring a female Security officer in with you, and make sure she receives her pheromone inhibitor before you go in. That is not up for negotiation. Once you've spoken to her, I expect you to bring that information back to me."

"Thank you for the opportunity, Commander. And I will take a female security officer with me," said Alex. "But as far as the inhibitor shot, I must protest. How will I get to the real person if part of that real person is prohibited from speaking with me? As an Intelligence agent in an interrogation, I need to meet the whole person, not part of her. Besides, I've had the best femme fatales in Starfleet Intelligence try everything on me. And..." He paused a minute. "I can handle it. Trust me."

"Which part of 'not up for negotiation' did you not understand, Lieutenant Rho?" Maddy asked, turning her attention to him. "You might be able to handle yourself in a situation such as this, but I'm thinking of the hundreds of other men on this ship. You have your orders."

The 'not' part, Commander Weisz, he spoke to her mentally as he stood there. You're thinking about the hundreds of men on this ship. I'm thinking about the hundreds that were on that station. I'm thinking of the untold multitudes in this quadrant whose benefit from me speaking with her uninhibited would be their lives.

"Don't think for a second I haven't thought about the many souls that were on that station," the Commander snapped. She didn't want to get angry, but this entire situation didn't sit well with her, and it was going to come back to bite them all in the ass. "I'll grant you your request this time, but don't think for a second you're going to get your way again in the future."

She looked back out the window. "Take Lieutenant Lischka with you," Maddy said, trusting the other German woman to handle business if things got out of hand. "I'll have a female from Medical ready to administer the pheromone inhibitor the second you're done speaking with her, and just in case you aren't as good at keeping those advances at bay like you think you are, I'll inform Lieutenant Lischka myself. I'm sure I will speak with you again shortly, Mister Rho. You're dismissed."

Alex nodded. "Very good, Commander," he said. The Intel Chief turned on heels and headed out the door. He was certain that he'd just made a bit of an enemy of the Executive Officer, but he had gotten quite used to that at his last assignment.