Temporal Trolling

Posted on Tue May 5th, 2015 @ 11:40pm by Stephen Jenkins & Captain Enalia Telvan

Mission: The New Sydney Fiasco
Location: Conference Room 3

Stephen hadn't liked how Alden had handled Angel's questioning. He had to admit that the other man did get details from her that would be considered difficult to retrieve, but intentionally antagonizing a woman known to carry hidden weapons was foolhardy. At least, that was Stephen's opinion. Deciding that Alden's methods were a bit too aggressive, Stephen had opted to do Enalia's interview by himself, hoping to eliminate that friction. He had paged her to join him, and now he waited patiently in their reserved conference room for her to arrive.

Slipping in through the back door, Enalia plopped her spotted butt down in a seat across from Stephen, a cup of tea in hand. "Good morning, Agent... Jenkins, was it? Ready when you are."

"I didn't think you'd want to deal with Agent Engstrom. He wasn't very nice to your first officer, and for that I apologize." Stephen pulled up his notes on a PaDD and set it on the table in front of him. "I understand both you and Commander Fairchild filed reports on the time travel incident. Is there anything you wish to elaborate on?"

"I tried to make it as concise as I could without making it bloated. There's a lot more extraneous information I could have added..." Enalia said with a hint of a grin as she sipped from her tea, her eyes focused on the agent's.

"Is any of it something we should be aware of?" Having been warned that Enalia had a bit of a mischievous personality, Stephen just smiled a bit.

Setting her teacup down, Enalia became serious as she replied. "In the approximately six hours that we were in the past, I learned more about temporal bullshit than I did at the academy, most of which originated from your office. If you'd like me to go over it all with you, it might take some time."

"That won't be necessary." Still smiling just a bit, Stephen added a tidbit to his notes about Enalia's love of being a prankster troll. "What can you tell me about the Borg probe?"

"As I put in my report, we came across things very suddenly. it was in the middle of a temporal anomaly, we got sucked into it with it, and when we came out the other side, we fired and destroyed it a bit too easily. It didn't show up on sensors until it was too late." Enalia said, summarizing her report. "Would you like me to elaborate on what happened, or is there something specific you had in mind?"

"Did you get any scans of the interior?" Still, Stephen's tone was mild and unobtrusive.

"Some. There was a lot of temporal distortion and as good as the Hera's sensors are, we didn't have the time to scan the whole thing. The logs of the scans were filed with my report. As I mentioned, though it seemed the origin point for the temporal distortion at the time, there was no sign of an originating point for the anomaly within or near the probe." Enalia recited.

Stephen nodded slightly, adding that to his notes. "Then you were not aware that it did not carry a Borg crew."

Enalia had not noticed this fact and was slightly taken aback, her trickster and troll nature falling away. "What? If it didn't have a Borg crew... There were lifesigns, weren't there? It did blow up when we disabled it. It should have regenerated but instead it was like it self destructed."

"That's because it did. We have reason to believe that it wasn't a Borg probe at all. Rather, it was a ship illegally operated by Section 31 and one Franklin Drake. I assume you've heard of him?"

Enalia had indeed heard of him and that recognition showed on her face. She knew him as a troublemaker and a rogue agent claiming to be holding true to the ideals of the old Section 31. There was no point hiding her knowledge of him though. Besides, she knew very little about him other than his name. "I have."

"Do you believe any of your crew to be in contact with him?" Stephen knew the answer already; Angel had given them so much to work with. He just wanted to see if Enalia had any suspicions.

So that's what this was about. Enalia had known that dilapidated closet of an office had put an agent on her ship. She even knew who it was. Hell, it was Starfleet Intelligence that talked her into it, just so they could keep an eye on things. She wasn't aware of any communications, though. "I have no knowledge of any members of my crew having contact with the agent known as Franklin Drake." It wasn't a lie - to her knowledge, neither her XO nor the ship's chef had been able to contact anyone from their home office.

"Perhaps a different question would be better." Stephen laid his notes aside, looking at her directly. "Are you aware of any Section 31 agents embedded within your crew?"

That was a question she couldn't lie about either... and asked directly like that... "Yes, I was officially notified by Starfleet Intelligence of agents aboard my ship." That's the official answer. No mention of how many or who they were... yet... Enalia didn't like where these questions were leading and she knew that she'd have to tell the rest of the story anyway.

Sighing, she continued her statement, no longer in a mood for mischief. "They requested that I take aboard two agents to get them away from the Section 31 office. Our missions at the time involved a lot of stealth and comm blackouts." Chuckling, Enalia thought back over the first mission. "We didn't even officially go on that first mission until it was over. We rescued Aewia, whom I suspected was a third agent, but the Romulans practically lobotomized her so if she were, I'm sure we all would have heard about it by now. As for my XO and the ship's chef... I was to keep them out of contact with Starfleet Headquarters in general until I could assess their overall goals and gauge their loyalty to that office. I prefer to think that neither of them has any interest in continuing their relations with the remaining rogue agents of Section 31. Starfleet Intel gave me a set of algorithms to use in the main computer to detect and monitor comm traffic to and from that office and the one communication I've seen, Angel yelled at them for contacting her." Taking a deep breath, Enalia leaned back in her chair, poking at the handle of her teacup absent mindedly.

Surprised by Enalia's knowledge of both operatives, Stephen sat back in his chair and blinked at her. "Captain Telvan, you are quite the surprise. Even Commander Fairchild couldn't identify the second operative... and really? The chef? Isn't your ship's chef a Vulcan?"

"She is," Enalia nodded, no longer interested in the interview but willing to continue. "Though if you've ever had her redbat stew, you'd wonder. Towards the end of the refit, all the power systems were offline and the replicators had to all be reloaded so she cooked for the 50 or so of us that were working and living on the Hera just on a backup generator. She cooked more meat than anything else, stating that it was only logical so as to keep up everyone's strength."

"Your Vulcan chef cooks meat?" Stephen found that both puzzling and troubling. Vulcans had a moral apprehension toward handling meat, regardless of whether those they were feeding liked to eat it. "I find that rather suspect."

"Yeah, I found that rather suspect too, but it's part of her 'honor of logic' or somesuch to perform to the utmost of her abilities, expanding her horizons or what not. You'd have to ask her to explain it." Enalia said as she picked up her teacup and swirled the last of the tea around in it a bit. Finishing her tea, she set the teacup back on the table.

"I think we will. In any case, someone did contact Drake. Perhaps not from this ship... a shuttle craft maybe. Commander Fairchild insists she didn't do it. Would you believe her on that?" Stephen didn't want to create friction within this crew, but he needed to know Enalia's opinion of Angel.

"I trust her with my life," Enalia said as she poked her teacup hard enough to tip the empty container on its side. "My chief engineer was escorted to his parents' funeral by the ship's chef, if I remember correctly. She was out of my reach for a while before the incident."

Stephen raised an eyebrow at that information. "Then it is possible that she contacted Drake during that time. If she's smart, she wiped the comm logs from the shuttle."

"And it's also standard procedure for this ship. We do report to Starfleet Intel." Enalia said as she righted her downed teacup.

"You see the dilemma then. We'll need to find proof if we are to do anything about your chef." Stephen picked up the PaDD and scribbled a few more notes on it. "My suggestion to you is to use your first officer's skills to uncover whatever you can. If there's enough, we can assist you in dealing with the chef if you choose."

"That sounds fun, I guess." Enalia said distractedly. "I have a question for you, If I may. If you had to write a speech for a memorial service for twenty nine crewmembers, would you name them all individually or try to keep it short?"

"Twenty-nine..." Stephen paused, not being previously aware of the exact number of lost souls. "Naming them all individually is more personal. However, it lengthens the amount of time during which your crew has to maintain some semblance of decorum. I believe it would be better to have a list available for those who wish to view it in its entirety and keep the ceremony itself short."

"Thank you. That does help." Enalia replied softly. "If you and your companion would like to attend, you're both welcome."

"I will extend the invitation, but he is not a people person." Stephen smiled just a bit. "I will try to convince him to show some respect. This is your home, after all."

"That it is," Enalia said, looking up at the agent and finally smiling. "Did you have any other questions for me?"

"No. But I think we'd like to talk to your chef, once we have some evidence to work with. Do you think you can convince her?"

Enalia spread her hands as if offering him everything. "You have full reign of the ship and as long as you don't interfere with the memorial service or the court martial, anything you want is yours."

"Thank you, Captain." Stephen smiled at her, collecting his notes. "If you have nothing further to discuss, you are free to leave."

Standing with her teacup, Enalia offered him a warm smile. "Thank you Agent Jenkins. Good luck in the rest of your interviews." Heading towards the back way she had come in, she left him to his notes.