Newton's Third Law Part 4

Posted on Tue Feb 1st, 2022 @ 8:19am by Lieutenant Aiko Kato

Mission: Respite
Location: Cait

"Mr. Black...are you there? I need to know if we should still press on with the purchase given the high price. We just got word that another buyer has entered the negotiations and they are close to shutting us out of the purchase."


The signs had been there from the beginning and he had glossed over or thought he could mitigate them. There had been too many unknowns and missing information he should have known prior to the start of the mission. Then there was Krussar and his inept team whose incompetence was further magnified by the fact that they believed themselves to be elite professionals.

Quintus had tried. He had tried to guide the amateur fools along. He had been gentle at first, attempting to guide them to strengthening their plan by throwing different scenarios at them so Krussar and his team could adjust their plan. But it was all a futile effort.

When that did not work, Quintus had forced the issue, ordering Krussar to take a less conspicuous approach to the sedative plan he had come up with it. There were many other options, including setting up pattern enhancers on the route of the Starfleet officers and when they were in range, transporting them to a pre-determined location.

In the end, Krussar was a stubborn young fool and did not listen to Quintus or any of his ideas, or even orders. And now the mission had gone sideways.

He should have seen the bad omens for what they were and figured something else out. It was true he could not cancel this mission, but perhaps he could have gone another route, and most importantly done this job alone.

Even as a wanted man on Cait, he was sure he could have pulled off a better outcome than this dismal performance by Krussar.

All of that did not matter now. There was no sense dwelling in the past. What happened had happened, and now the question was what would he do next...how would he react to the turn of events?

His options were limited and it was time to take desperate measures.

Quintus had opted to remain at the safehouse partly because he was worried something like this could happen, but the primary reason he had stayed at the safehouse was to ensure he could tie up loose ends.

He had always intended to erase every trace of his presence...and by extension, the company's presence on Cait. Now that the mission had gone sideways, the need for this erasure was even more poignant.

The moment it was clear the plan had failed, Quintus had stopped responding to Krussar and had began to initiate his plan to cover his tracks, while keeping an eye on just how botched the mission was getting.

His plan to tie up loose ends was simple really. Now that the authorities were on to them, their focal target would be Krussar and his two men. He had no doubt they would be caught in time and so he had to make sure that they could not be traced back to him.

And so he had began planting false evidence at the safehouse to paint a narrative that Krussar and his Nausicaan friends were hell bent on a personal revenge against the Starfleet pilot Aiko Kato, that was part fact, part fiction. Being middle management within the company allowed him access to certain information and resources that allowed him to paint a somewhat compelling narrative.

False bank transactions, forged birth records, doctored photos...it was all part of his false narrative.

It was true that Lieutenant Kato had been a key team member in the tactical engagement in the surrounding space of New Krakow that had led to the capture and death of several Nausicaans. What was false however, was that there were any familial or other relations between the Nausicaans captured and Krussar and his Nausicaan friends.

In short, it was a believable story on the surface but a deeper investigation would yield inconsistencies. But that was all Quintus needed...he needed an appearance that Krussar and his Nausicaan friends were the mastermind and acted alone.

The second phase of his plan to cover his track was regrettable but it had to be done. Just then, the device on his wrist beeped alerting him that someone had triggered the proximity alarm of the safehouse. He called up a holographic visual, which revealed it was Krussar.

"Fascinating," Quintus stated simply. He had not expected Krussar to make it this far, so quickly. In truth, he expected he would have been caught, like his other two Nausicaan friends.

Not that it mattered. Quintus' trap was set. He looked around one last time satisfied that everything was in order and tapped the device on his wrist which began a transporter cycle just as Krussar burst unto the scene.

"Nothing personal Krussar," Quintus stated matter of fact with a shrug, "but see you in hell." And with that Quintus vanished into thin air.

About a few seconds later, the safehouse exploded, instantly killing Krussar and destroying much of the content in the dwelling, yet luckily (or perhaps deliberately) leaving a few items untouched.

These items would paint a false narrative about how Krussar and his comrades had come to Cait with the explicit intent of attempting to kill a Starfleet Officer and how if that plan failed they had intended to destroy a nearby Starfleet installation with several explosive devices, which likely accidently went off due to Krussar's carelessness.

As Quintus materialized several hundreds of kilometers away from the safehouse, he had to admit that the plant was not his best job, but it was the best he could pull out in such a short time, and he hoped it would buy him time.

He pulled up a hood over his head and walked into a busy Caitian street, disappearing into the crowd as he hoped he would be able to lay low for the next little while to figure out how he might yet salvage this mission.