—- USS Selene, Captain’s Ready Room —-

Captain Olivia Carrillo and Lieutenant Commander Gabriella Miller looked at the Klingon officer. Carillo had not realized that they had a half-Klingon officer, a fact that had just been brought to her attention after their trip to the Klingon fleet yards. Though the woman was a half Klingon half Vulcan and her distinctive ears would not have allowed her to pass as a Klingon. Further she was a science officer, a job not suited to a mission in a potential battle zone.

“So Lieutenant Junior Grade Bran’nea, do you have family in the Klingon Empire?” Carrillo asked, trying to gauge if the officer would be useful.

“I was raised Vulcan, and while I have family in the Empire, I would hesitate to believe that I am a cultural expert on the Empire. My family there are farmers, not warriors,” the woman said, her pacing of language and vocal intonations quite Vulcan. Given that she looked like the could rip both of Carrillo’s arms off it was quite odd.

Of course, the captain reminded herself, so could a Vulcan.

“And what do you think of the footage?” Miller asked. She was the woman’s direct commanding officer, which was why she was here.

“Given Starfleet has shared its changling finding technology with the Empire, among other powers, I would posit that the Emperor has not been replaced by changlings. However it is possible that this technology has not been shared throughout the Empire. Hence it would be possible to impersonate the Emperor for a limited time,” Bran’nea said.

This matched both what Captain Radak had said when they had shared the footage with him back on the USS Falcon, and Carrillo’s own guess at what was gong on. One of the powers not gifted the technology was the Orion Syndicate, and that was who it was assumed was behind the attacks.

“Would the Klingons allow two destroyers to be stolen on purpose?” Carrillo asked.

The half-Vulcan and half-Klingon blinked, “I would answer again that I am not an expert on current Klingon political situations. It could be justified under the code of honor, but nearly anything could.”

“Thank you Lieutenant Junior Grade, Lieutenant Commander,” Carrillo said as she gestured towards the door. The pair exited. The blue of their uniforms pointing out a weakness the Selene had in its current role. It was a science ship, staffed by scientists and cadets. It was not adapt at solving mysteries like stolen destroyers.

Her terminal beeped with an incoming message. Being in Klingon space they had opted for sending encrypted messages rather than real time conversations. The Klingons might be allies, but that was seeming increasingly temporary.

After the message was unencrypted it played on the terminal as Carrillo sipped from a thermal bottle of water.

Captain Radak’s face appeared, “We concur that it is unlikely that the Klingon Emperor has been compromised. However this incident is being shared with the High Command by the Federation diplomats anyway. Your next job is to go to Jaressi Centre and locate the stolen materials from the raided colonies. Obviously you won’t be able to repossess them, but if we can show the goods are in pirate hands, it will also us to more directly take this conflict to those behind it. Obviously a Starfleet Vessel showing up at Jaressi Centre will be difficult to manage so take a Runabout and send a team. Radak out.”

The video died off, as the Vulcan’s message ended. Carrillo glanced at the terminal and sighed, standing she exited her ready room to put the order in motion.

—- USS Selene, Main Shuttle Bay —-

The runabout Zeus left the Selene three days later once the ship was near enough to Jaressi Centre to send it off, but not near enough to be located on sensors. The team consisted of Lieutenant Jara, Lieutenant Rebecca Avila, Crewwoman Vanuoma Vedda, and Lieutenant Maria Cortez.

The inclusion of the Orion Vanuoma had been done so that they had some local expertise. Her mother was a high ranking pirate and perhaps that would payoff for the away team.

On the bridge Carrillo watched them go, nervous that she was not joining them. While she trusted most of the crew, she did not trust the residents of Jaressi Centre. The old Romulan station was now a hub of privacy and the last time they had sent crew there the Chief Councelor and the USS Seattle’s First Officer were taken control of by an evil god, and and their chiefs of security and science had been taken hostage in a shipping crate.

This was before Carrillo’s time, but it was enough to make her nervous. She was not that far away from being a hands on First Officer, and allowing her officers to go into a situation where they’d had officers taken hostage and lost before was not something that sat well with her.

She watched the shuttle depart, her husband Lieutenant Lambert behind her. As it winked off into the distance he said, “Relax. They are all competent.”

“I know,” Carrillo said as the hanger doors closed.

—- Jaressi Centre —-

This time there was no attempt to disguise the fact that they were Starfleet. Granted they did not fly the USS Selene into dock, but there was no pretending they were pirates, or smugglers. They did not arrive armed to the teeth, hoping to take the station, but they were unapologetic in being Starfleet. There was some reluctance to let them onboard, but the calculation must have been made that either you let one shuttle dock at the station or a full ship shows up and makes things difficult for everyone. Given the makeup of the statin’s normal clientele, a Starfleet vessel docked was a sure way to scare off the locals.
Whereas before they had taken the Captain’s Yacht and beaten it up, stripping it of all Starfleet insignia they did not do so this time. There was no hiding they were Starfleet, and no pretending they were just traders. While the station was well beyond Federation space, and not controlled by any of the major powers of the region, it was also not entirely free to operate without their influence. If they so desired either the Klingons, Romulans, or Federation could have shut this down long ago and while nobody admitted it it was clear that the reality was known to the station’s leadership.

As the Chief of Security Lieutenant Claudia Jara took command of the mission. They left phasers on the shuttle, as the station had its own better armed security forces and there was little the small Starfleet team could do on their own. Granted Jaressi Centre’s forces were more akin to a street gang, but for the moment they’d have to rely on the street gang for what little protection they were going to have.

The only one of the group that seemed at home was Crewwoman Vanuoma Vedda. The Orion had grown up visiting starbases like this, and if anything this was more civilized then some that she had been on.

“You act like nobody is going to touch you,” Lieutenant Cortez observed as she ran a scan of some food supplies to see if it could be traced back to any of the raided colonies. The vendor watched her, eyeing her using a tricorder on their wares.

“Nobody would dare, given who my mother is,” Vedda said smiling, “You lot though might not make it out alive.”

Jara rolled her eyes, “Given that we took you on as a favor to your mother, because she was worried you were going to get yourself killed I wouldn’t feel quite so comfortable.”

Vedda laughed, and pretended not to care. They were safe enough on the main promenade, or so they had factored. While Jaressi Centra was not Starfleet having a Starfleet team killed in open would draw too much attention. If they got cornered somewhere more private, well who was to say what had happened.

They moved from storefront to storefront, scanning, trying to be subtle about it but aware that their every move was being watched. Not only would the station authorities know about their every move, but so would other factions.

After a study Cortez pulled the group to the side, the Science Officer being in charge of scanning.

“I’m getting results on a few items around here,” Cortez said nodding towards a vendor that was selling cheap construction materials.

“No weapons?” Jara asked, weapons tended to be easier to sell and always in demand.

“No but these are definitely not only Starfleet issue, but from the colonies attacked,” Cortez said.

Jara nodded, “Now we trance them to the seller.”

It was obvious, dealing with stolen matierals that the end point seller probably knew they were stolen but not a lot else that would be useful. What they would need to find was the individual, or individuals in the middle of this. The ones who got the materials from the pirates and then moved them on after a tidy profit of their own.