The Meeting

Posted on Sat Dec 25th, 2021 @ 8:34pm by Captain Shran dh'Klar & Commander Jonathan Grayson & Lieutenant Commander Callie Raven-Grayson & Lieutenant Commander Shoniara T’ghann-Travis Dr

Mission: Sinister Intentions
Location: USS Washington

Shran sat in the conference room with Callie and Dex as they awaited the arrival of Jon and T'Vall. Shran assumed that T'Vall might not be very cooperative and it appeared he was correct as Jon entered with T'Vall being carried in by security. Shran looked at Jon, "I assume he was being less than cooperative?"

Jon looked at the still stunned T'vall as security dropped him into a seat and then back to Shran. "He refused our invitation to join us for a meeting and he assaulted Ayana. So I shot him." Jon finished matter of factly. "And if he acts up, I'll shoot him again."

Shran nodded his understanding. "Very well. Doctor, perhaps you'd like to see to our guest, make sure he is alright before we actually begin this little meeting."

Lieutenant Commander Moric T’Vall felt as though his body had been invaded by a ship full of electric spiders running up and down his nervous system. The ship had hit him squarely in his back and it felt as though it had. He tried to focus on where he was.

Dex moved over to him opening her med scanner and sensor checking that their guest was not badly injured enough to answer questions. She turned to the Captain. “He will be fine in a few minutes sir, although I would not ask him to perform any vigorous exercise for a while.”

She turned to Jon and Ayana while snapping her med sensor shut. “was it necessary to stun him to this degree?”

"I believe it was" replied Ayana. "He did attack me, and Vulcans do have considerable strength" she quipped.

Shran was aware of the sarcasm, but tried to keep things professional. "Very well. Thank you for checking on him doctor. I'm of the mind that they did what needed to be done. I'm more concerned with the fact that he resisted and apparently attempted to assault a fellow officer. That is just another concerning matter atop a list that already is quite extensive."

"Ayana is correct. He did attack her and as ranking officer, I made the decision to shoot him." Jon replied crisply.

T’Vall began to react to Jon’s voice. He stood if a little unsteady and drew himself up to his full height. He looked around and spoke in a cold sonorous voice full of venom.

“I presume I am on board the Washington. I protest at my abduction in this way. I will take this to…the…” his voice died away as he saw her. “Callie?” He whispered. He steadied himself against the table as he looked at her.

Callie entered the Conference room, she paused as she set eyes on T’Vall, before walking forward. “You remember me?” She smiled warmly as she approached him. “It’s nice to see you again T’Vall.”

“Callie, it has been such a long time” he said. He looked at her in disbelief. “What are you doing on board THIS ship?”

“I’m assigned here now, I’m the Chief Counsellor.” Callie smiled warmly. “I hope I’ll be able to patch things up between you and my husband.”

T’Vall looked at her and then at Jon in disbelief. “That ignorant oaf is your husband!”

Callie looked towards Jon then back at T’Vall. “Yes, Jon is my husband.” She frowned and stepped back a little towards Jon. “You’ve certainly changed.”

He collected himself and turned towards Jon, he bowed a little “I apologise but when one is stunned and appears somewhere other than where they were it is…disconcerting.” He looked directly at her. “I remember our time together.”

Callie’s expression changed to one of a soft smile. “I’m glad, it would be nice to have a chance to catch up. Perhaps we could get together after the Captain has finished here? I’d like to show you around the ship.”

“That would be wonderful Callie, I would like to share old times with you, if of course your Captain and husband allows?”

He looked at Shran and Jon with extreme disfavor. “I believe you have brought me here against my will to ask me some questions Captain?”

Jon was quiet, not because he was at a loss for words but rather he was studying the exchange between Callie and T'vall. not to mention he didn't want Callie spending anytime alone with T'vall. He also made a note to ask Callie about T'vall's statement of their time together. As far as he knew, they never spent anytime together.

Shran had a stone face, but if he was expressing any emotion at this moment, it was disdain. "You were ordered to report up here commander. You chose to disobey that order and then assaulted a member of my crew. I'm sure you felt justified, and I'm sure it was all very logical to you, but you need to understand something..." Shran stood and looked like quite the imposing figure as his voice grew quite stern, "orders are given and followed when wearing that uniform. If you can't piece that together, I'm afraid the rest of this conversation will be even less comfortable than your trip up here."

Ayana remained quite and reserved. She had seen Shran like this only once, and it didn't end well for the person on the other end of the conversation. It was a battle of wills now, Shran versus T'Vall, and she was putting her latinum on Shran to come out on top.

T’Vall looked equally disdainful of the Captain. “I did not assault your crew member, I removed her hand from my sleeve. Your team acted in an extremely aggressive way and my wife was scared for our safety as was I. As for not reporting as ordered I have been advised that I take all my orders from Admiral Nakamoto and the Council at StarFleet Command.

The situation here on New Krakow is very fluid and dangerous. We have information regarding members of the Federation and possibly even StarFleet being affiliated with the gangs down on the planet and the Orion Syndicate.” He looked at his nails and brushed an imaginary piece of lint from his uniform. “So you can see Captain I was unable to trust your party.”
His eyes flicked to Callie momentarily and then back to Shran.

Jon gave a sharp bitter, humorless laugh, "Oh, what a crock of shit. You sit there looking smug and honestly expect us to believe this? That you can ignore or put off and order from a starship Captain?" Jon caught the look T'vall gave Callie and he didn't like it in the least but he kept his mouth shut for now.

Callie was sitting at the conference table uncharacteristically quiet. Her eyes flicked between T’Vall, Shran and Jon before moving back to T’Vall. She was feeling strangely drawn towards T’Vall not that she was realizing it, the feelings were buried deep inside her psyche.

Shran sat in his chair, an amused smile on his face. "You were scared commander? That is an emotion, and Vulcans repress those. Unless you misspoke, which is also something Vulcans don't do. Your race has a reputation for conciseness. You say you didn't assault my officer, my XO disagrees. I'm inclined to believe him. You also say you report to an admiral. I know the man you speak of. I can assure you, you don't report to him. At best, you are a pet, a tool for his bidding. I can also assure you that should you believe he will somehow come to your rescue, you'll find him quite indisposed. You see, after your initial meeting with my officers I had a look into your file and saw that you were close to Admiral Nakamoto, so I decided to play the game that I knew would be played, but you see, in this game of chess, your best piece doesn't outrank my best piece. You see commander, before I was captain of this ship I was in intelligence. You'd be amazed at what we learned but never spoke of, and what we did but never admitted. Section 31 liked to play shadow games, but ultimately with the help of a few good officers, we destroyed them, though we did adopt certain ruthless qualities doing that work. I look at you and what has been described to me of this colony and I understand it all oh so well. Human history is filled with tyrants and groups like you. The two you remind me most of from my Earth history course are the German Nazi's and the Communists from Russia. You also remind me a bit of the Augments in their pursuit of doing whatever they please without a care for others." Shran sat quietly for a moment. "Forgive me for the speech. I don't mean to be so longwinded. I know you won't willingly say anything of note to me, at least not purposely. I'm fine with that. You've already told me so much without realizing it. I'm sure the Orions will be quite cross with you."

“I am afraid Captain that nothing you have advised me of, in what I may contradict you WAS a long winded speech. You would support your officer, what Captain would not. But, I will try to be brief. I spoke to Admiral Nakamoto this afternoon and then to Federation Councilwoman DeGrasso, then to the Federation Presidents office to inform them of this harassment.
If we are playing this frankly distasteful game of brinkmanship I advise you to contact Thon SharAzra the Head of Starfleet Intelligence for a current update on what is happening here. I advised him immediately your officers contacted me. Of course I had the information you required to hand but I was not about to allow sensitive information out of my office to anyone. He however, warned me about you and your previous obsession with Section 31. Andorians are known for their aggressive traits and have known contacts with Orion pirates so he advised me to say nothing and to see how this played out. I can see his information was true."

Shran smiled. "A well thought out response, and I give you points for trying to go up the chain of command above me in hopes that you would be able to have an upper hand. However, Thon SharAzra isn't the head of StarFleet Intelligence, and Councilwoman DeGrasso will be of no help to you either. You are very much alone here commander. Your arrogance I can understand, but at some point you will have to see the reality that you are not in control of this situation, and you most certainly will not win." Shran looked at his officers in the room as he sat back in his chair, his fingers perched against his lips. "I could detain you indefinitely, though I think your time in our brig would do very little. I could also let Cmdr Grayson show you a few things he learned recently from a rather complex reflection. But to be honest I'd just like an honest answer from you, one without all that innuendo and subterfuge. Why are you trying so hard to be obtuse?"

T’Vall remained standing. His arrogance pouring from him. “I am not trying to be obtuse, what do you want to know so we can end this little charade?”

Callie was watching with interest, the T’Vall she remembered from the Academy was almost a recluse, a Vulcan who kept very much to himself, one who didn’t project so much confidence. “I believe the Captain wants to know if you have knowledge of the slavery trade that seems to be at work here?”

Once again Jon watched both Callie and T'vall the eye contact, the familiarity something was going on and he didn't like it.

T’Vall’s eyes looked into Callie’s from across the table, what he was saying with his mouth was different to what he was saying with his mind into Callie’s receptive one. “Yes I do Callie, what do you want to know?”

"Everything" blurted Ayana.

Shran waited to see if T'Vall would respond. It was obvious that he was very disciplined and that any form of torture wouldn't yield much. Besides, for good or bad, he was still a StarFleet officer, and that meant something to Shran. Plus, he could see that something was between him and Callie, and while he didn't want her getting hurt, he was interested in determining what that might be.

T’Vall nodded. “New Krakow has always been a lawless place and with the thousands of people that pass through every few days it is difficult to count and advise them all. There are a number of ships that do not file flight plans and land in unsupervised places on the planet . There…are….I am sorry I must sit down.” The color drained from T’Valls face and he slumped forward seemingly unconscious.

Dex rushed to his side med scanner out. “I am sorry Captain but we must get him to sickbay, the stun...” she looked at Jon ”...has disrupted his neural pathways. I need to be able to perform more invasive scans and I can only do that in sickbay. Put whatever security you need to in place but do it quickly.”

Jon was completely unfazed by Dex's look. He'd stun T'vall again if he had to. He didn't trust the Vulcan in the slightest. even as Dex spoke, Jon felt T'vall was faking. "Any chance he's faking Doctor?" Jon asked in a carefully neutral voice.

Dex looked at him knowing what he was thinking for a moment. “No, I am sorry Commander this is not faked as far as my instruments can tell. I will be able to make a fuller diagnosis in sickbay.”

"Hmmm." Was Jon's reply. He wasn't buying T'vall's act for a second.

“This is a medical emergency Commander” Dex said in a firm voice. "In my opinion currently this man is unconscious and I cannot guarantee his neural survival if I do not get him to sickbay NOW.” She looked at Shran “I repeat put whatever security measures you need in place but get him to sickbay!”

Shran hit his comm badge, =^=Transporter room, beam Dex, Ayana, and Lt Cmdr T'Vall to sickbay immediately.=^= Seconds later the three dematerialized in a blue hue. Shran looked at Jon, "I don't trust that Vulcan as far as I could throw him. He is playing at something, and I am certain it is going to get messy. I want the crew ready for it all. Yellow alert until further notice. I'm going to follow up with Admiral Carroll, see what else he can tell me about the goings on back at Command. He was looking into T'Vall's contacts when I spoke to him earlier. I suspect he may have a few of them under lock and key by now."

"Yes sir. Yellow alert." Jon replied and looked to where Dex, Ayana and T'vall had been. "He's dirty sir. I know it and he's up to something. Good idea sending Ayana to Sickbay. Hopefully Admiral Carroll can give you more information on T'vall's contacts and T'vall himself."

Shran nodded. He looked at Callie, "I'm sorry if we were a little rough with your old Academy acquaintance counselor. I suspect something treacherous with him, and I have a hunch it may be connected to you. I'd advise caution."

“Something to do with me?” Callie looked at Shran with a frown. “I can’t see how that’s true I haven’t seen T’Vall in years.” She sighed. “I’ll be cautious nonetheless Sir.”

Shran nodded in agreement. "Get some rest counselor. I think you could use it." Shran stood as they all prepared to leave and reached over a lightly took Jon's arm before leaning in to whisper into his ear, "Keep an eye on Callie. T'Vall has a connection to her, I'm certain of it."

"I am of the same opinion sir. There is definitely a deeper connection between them and I'm not sure Callie is even aware of it. Beyond the surface connection they share." Jon replied, his mind already coming to some nasty conclusions. "I will sir, you can count on it."

In sickbay Dex got T’Vall up onto the diagnostic bio bed and commenced basic cardiovascular monitoring and neural investigations. His nervous system had taken a massive shock from the ‘heavy stun’ he had sustained on New Krakow. His Vulcan neural system had compensated for a few minutes then collapsed on itself. His neurons had decompensated although there appeared to be a part of his mind that was untouched. This was not unknown for pure bred Vulcans though. She set up cortical monitoring and placed an invasive probe into his brain stem. She gave him some delactovine to support his neural functions. There was something about him that disturbed her but she felt that he had not deserved the level of stun that had been used but then she had not been a member of the away team.

She stepped away from her patient to speak to Ayana. “He is definitely unconscious and his brain has taken some sort of ‘insult’ but, there is a part of his mind that is closed off to me and I am unable to take any readings from that part of him. What security systems do you have in place?”

"All standard security protocols are in place as usual doctor. The captain has a dozen security officers here to keep an eye on all these women that were found on the Nausicaan ship, and I won't be taking my eyes off of T'Vall. I don't mean to be indelicate doctor as I don't have issues with Vulcans, but T'Vall is something different. He has a dark presence is the only way I can explain it. I'd be careful around him doctor." The yellow alert lights came up at just that moment. "It would seem the captain isn't taking any chances."

Meanwhile Callie was ready to head home, “I’ll head back home, see you there when you finish your shift” She gently kissed Jon on the cheek before heading for their quarters. As she walked she couldn't help but feel a tug that was drawing her back towards T’Vall, though she put it down to concern for an old friend.