— USS Falcon, Flag Bridge —

Captain Radak was deep in thought. The information that he had gotten back from the dinner with the Cardassians was heavy on his mind. It was clear that they had come looking for a chance to make the Federation look bad, and to play the part of the good guys aiding a colony that Starfleet had not paid attention to enough. But it was also clear that the New Maquis were on their mind, but then having Gul Duec Leyit arrive with what appeared to be a security services handler, was another mystery. He wanted to see connections, and right now there were too many threads still missing.

Leyit was notable, but not so much so that he represented a shift in the power balance of the region. A respected Cardassian captain, but not one whose every word shook the government or lead the people. And while the New Maquis were clearly frustrating to the Cardassians they were little more than an annoyance. So what was going on, what their game?

His chair was in the centre of the Flag Bridge, formerly used by commanders during the Dominion War and other conflicts if allowed an admiral to lead a fleet of ships, while not interfering in the operation of the USS Falcon itself. The room was quiet as other than Lieutenant Commander Victoria Hume and she was currently down on the surface of Debelius IV. So where did it all connect, what was the thread that tied all of these events together.

He kept the lights low, it helped both for meditation and because he was becoming more sensitive to bright lights. With little in the way of staff the bridge had the look of an operating room, refitted during the conversation from Excelsior to Excelsior II it now had the shiny clean look of modern Starfleet ships save for a few key places that Captain Like had requested remain as they had been such as the Captain’s Bar The Millennium.

There was a chime and in came Lieutenant Eleanor Dorian who had been the Chief Strategic Officer on the USS Selene. Obviously her job had been in question since he had taken over direct assignment of the ship, as her reports where generally duplicates of the information that he was providing except Radak worked from multiple sources, many of which she did not have access to.

“Lieutenant Dorian,” he said pulling himself to his feet to greet her. 
“Captain,” she said, hesitant, not sure how this was going to go.

“Thank you for joining me on the USS Falcon, where I’ll be basing my office,” Radak said. He studied her, an Irish accent, likely from Earth or one of its colonies. He had read her file, but not retained that information, there was too much to occupy his mind without memorizing the biographical details of every member of two ships. If it was not relevant to his work, it was not relevant to him.

“Lieutenant I apologize, this new division has been rather hastily assembled. I am aware of committing several faux pas, as they say in your French,” Radak said.

“It’s not my French,” Dorian said, her thick accent making it harder than normal to understand her even with translators.

“Well, one of my missteps has been you. I have encroached on your territory, and not included you,” Radak said.

“Aye,” Dorian said, not quite sure where it was going. She did not want to either agree too heartedly or disagree too strongly with the Captain.

Radak continued, “I have two offers to make. I know you and Lieutenant Jara were assigned to the USS Seattle as Strategic Operations Officers together. She moved over to being the ship’s Chief of Security after the poisoning incident. The two disciplines are related, thus if you wish you could become the Chief Security Officer on the USS Falcon. The other is to remain Chief Strategic Operations Officer on the USS Selene, and work as my liaison to the ship, once we diverge our paths. You would be the second officer of Selene Division.”

“So I’d out rank the captain?” Dorian asked, sure that this could not be the case.

“No,” Radak explained, “You would simply be my representative on the ship. We direct the ships, but individual decisions remain with the captain’s of the ships. But there are things that are difficult to learn through reports, and official channels especially when separated by great divides of distance.”

“Can I have some time to think it over?” Dorian asked.
Radak nodded, “After this we will be returning to Starbase 86 to resume the restaffing of the Falcon, let me know by the time we arrive.”
 

— USS Falcon, Astrometrics Lab —

“Nothing from the planet’s sensors?” Captain Paul Aike asked as he watched the replay of the Cardassian ship entering orbit.

His new first officer shook her head, “The quake damaged all planet-wide infrastructure, all we have is long rang scans from neighbouring facilities.”

“Reports are that they sent down shuttles, but how many we don’t know,” Aike said, “nor do we know where they all went, aside from the ones that were sent into the cities to offer aide.”

“Where else would they have gone?” Attwell asked.

With a gesture Aike zoomed out. The USS Selene’s long range sensors caught the Cardassians a few hours before they sensed the incoming Starfleet ships. That offered a better look of shuttles returning to the Galor-class ship, though it was impossible to tell how many and where they had been.

“We have to assume they scoured the planet as much as possible,” Aike said, he leaned in and looked at the topographical map of Debelius IV. The Selene was doing scans to determine the cause of the quake, but that would miss a lot of other things.

“Get the Selene to scan for signs of energy weapon discharge,” Aike said, “try to be subtle about it. We don’t want the Cardassians to know what we’re looking for.”

— USS Falcon, Forward Lounge ‘Alderaan’ —

The prime minister of Debelius IV and various other hangers on entered the lounge. Having escaped the Cardassian dinner the night before Captain Aike was forced to play host, with Commander Attwell as his social assistant. The USS Falcon was still dealing with not having a full complement of staff following the departure of its previous first officer and most of its senior officers. So while he had faith in the venue for the evening, he was not sure if his crew was up to hosting duties.

Large windows two stories high on the forward curve of the saucer section gave a spectacular view of the planet below. Debelius IV had not architecture that was visible from space, and so it was impossible to see the devastation from this far up in orbit. The planet’s prime minister immediately went to the window and looked down upon his world.

“It looks so peaceful from up here,” he said, as if he knew that he should feel guilty about having a peaceful dinner up above the carnage down below, but was unable to show the guilt properly.

“A lot of space is like that, it looks pretty and first,” Aike said, not quite sure if that was the frank observation the delegation from the planet was looking for. The truth was beyond every nebula or quasar was a Borg ship or a Cardassian waiting to kill you. Space was a dangerous place, and even on a planet this far away from the core worlds, you could easily find death.

Attwell looked a little alarmed at his turn of phrase and she smiled trying to reassure the world’s leader. She patted his arm, “We have medical teams from three starships down there. What happened is a tragedy, but we’re working to make it better.”

“It’s too bad it takes a disaster to get this much attention from the Federation,” the Prime Minister said, “The Cardassians were here within a day.”

Aike resisted rolling his eyes. As far as bluffs went the idea that the planet would leave the Federation and join the Cardassian empire was right out. It would be like a tuna petitioning to live with great white sharks.

“We think they were watching your world,” Aike said, “Has there been any New Maquis activity here?”

The Prime Minister was not a convincing liar, and so his put on outrage at the question was seen through by both the captain and commander. He spluttered denying it, “Of course not. You come here and accuse us of being terrorists.”

“Simply an observation. Do you have any idea where three Cardassian shuttles would have been while the rest were aiding you?” Aike asked, leading the group back to the long wooden table that had been set by the Yeomen.

“No idea, are you sure,” he asked.

It was a guess based on their long range scans and modeling, but they had to assume that there was something else for the Cardassians here. So he was left with bluffing, “We have sensor data to confirm it.”

They had been able to retrieve no such sensor data, but maybe the idea that they had more than they actually did would move things along. The Cardassians were here for a reason, and they’d stuck around in Federation space despite it being strongly hinted at that they were no longer welcome for a reason.

The prime minister looked worried, but then smiled, “I’m sure I have no idea.”

“Well let’s eat, and we can discuss the colony’s future and how we can help,” Aike said, realizing that he had probably gotten all that he could out of this.