Glasses to the Walls - Part I

Posted on Sunday October 31st, 2021 @ 7:25pm by

Mission: Jeepers Creepers 2: Creepers In Flight
Location: Intelligence Center
Timeline: Backpost

::ON::

Sakaan settled back in the large wing-backed office chair she had had installed for herself. It was a far more comfortable affair than the standard Starfleet chair. The Vulcan didn't mind that it had set her back a fair few replicator ration chips. It was logical that she be comofrtable in order to concentrate on her work She glanced over the two PADDs in front of her on the desk.

She had sent a meeting request to both her deputy, Lieutenant Elliot, and Ensign Grant of Operations and was waiting patiently for the both of them to arrive.

Jason was walking down the halls, large cup of coffee in one hand pad in the other. As he entered the office, he arbitrarily spoke "I'm still working on the half dozen biographical requests for the conference along with the dozen or so other requests I have on my desk, I could use an assistant or a clone but in the mean time what's up?"

Throwing up an eyebrow Sakaan indicated a seat, 'it is permissible to use the junior staff to aide in your endeavours, Lieutenant. You'll need to start delegating your work at this level. Particularly if your new chief begins burdening you with more work.' She shrugged, 'but it is not up to me to order your work day. Particularly the alarming regularity at which you seem to drink coffee.'

Realizing the joke had been missed, "Force of habit, What's going on??"

'I have a quick assignment for yourself and an Operations Officer when they arrive,' replied Sakaan. 'In the meantime, while we wait, it would be remiss of me not to inquire about your adjusting to your new role on the station. Have things been satisfactory since your transfer?'

"I can't complain, it beats being stuck in a research cubical with occasional appearances at some diplomatic event as an 'aide'," Jason replied.

'I'm sure. There's not often a lot of excitement in our work unless we head undercover for long-term assignment,' Sakaan said. 'It is illogical for me to say, but I believe I was at my happiest doing long term covert work for Stafleet Intel rather than manning a desk as I know do. Still. It is all vital work.'

"I did a couple of diplomatic assignments and one field research assignment I've never done any other kind of formal field work until now, I figured if I was out here I could get more field experience and figure out my future." Jason stated factually.

The door chime went off.

Ensign Grant then entered when she was acknowledged.

"Ensign Grant reporting as ordered, You wanted to see me Sir?" Jo asked.

'Yes, Ensign,' replied Sakaan in a tone that was almost kind for a Vulcan. She liked the younger Ensign. 'Please take a seat.'

Once the Ops officer was seated, Sakaan regarded them both and asked coolly, 'how do you feel about bugging an embassy or three?'

Jason couldn't contain his reaction, "when do we start?"

"Is there a plan for how to do that without detection?" Jo asked.

'As soon as you can, if you could,' Sakaan replied evenly, seemingly immune to the younger officer's excitement. 'Both the Romulan Republic and Star Empire's embassies are vacant. The challenge will be to bug the Klingon's embassy. Thoughts?' she looked to both officers.

"We'll need coveralls, tools and I'll need some time too conceal the devices." Jason paused to think "we should use a passive model, they wouldn't be detectable to most scans."

Turning to the Operations officer, Sakaan merely asked, 'any conduits or ventilation tubes we can house the bugs inside so that they're harder to detect?'

"That is a possibility, if I may say though hiding several surveillance devices in Klingon art seems to be the more logical. All their art seems to be 3 dimensional and would seem to me to be easier to conceal." Jo suggested.

"That can be done, We should look at common areas too, what kind of time line do we have too get this done?" Jason queried before taking a massive haul on what he hoped would be his last coffee for the day.

'The Klingon compound is active during their usual waking hours. The Romulan compounds are otherwise unoccupied at this moment. They can be done later.' Sakaan looked to Jason. 'How would you feel about infiltrating the Klingon compound during their night cycle? There are sentries and internal security patrols, but I'm fairly confident we can provide you with the appropriate patrol times and the like.' She nodded in Grant's direction. 'If you can install a few bugs around the compound, in their art, it will go a long way to aiding us. Particularly if we can bug the Ambassador's suite.'

"Most art works and similar trophies will be kept in common areas maybe even offices, far as quarters they're fairly spartan, we'll have to be inventive there, our best bet is to do offices at the beginning of meals and other areas during or after, with the art work we can arrange for delivery of those with the devices embedded in them almost immediately." Jason reported factually.

'So the risk to yourselves will be minimised as much as possible,' Sakaan noted impassive. 'And how do you propose bugging the two Romulan compounds?'

"That's where we have to get inventive, counter measures are part of dealing with Romulans they scan for devices regularly so hiding them in station systems that are connected to the two compounds, now there's a catch, Sienne from the Romulan empire knows me so I can't exactly go walking in without raising suspicion, so that's where you come in ensign Grant," Jason said turning to the ensign.

"Oh? what do you want me to do, pose as part of the cleaning crew?" Jo asked.

"There's no one in the compounds outside of a construction crew so I'll be joining you posing as an engineer, we'll be able too move about freely since I'm new on the station no one will know me from any other engineer and we can install as many devices as we can in the time we have inside." Jason said summarizing his plans for the Romulan compounds.

"Construction crew, huh? I will be able to put some of my skills to good use. Though to be honest I haven't had much experience with Romulan technology. What will my role be exactly?" Jo asked.

Jason handed the ensign a PADD, "the majority of the offices and meeting rooms are organized in a way that they are close too the main power conversion systems, we can hide the data burst device there, and install any other devices where ever we want, they'll be harder to detect by most known Romulan countermeasures, the positive, we have two days, unless something has changed."

"Okay I'll study the specs of the device and try to make it as hard as possible to find, some of those PDU's are real rats nests. Can I also have the specs of the power conversion system to brush up on my knowledge of those systems?" Jo asked.

"I'll give you access to the specs for all the devices, but we're about to end up into a time crunch," Jason said.

"Sounds like we have a solid plan," Sakaan remarked as she regarded both officers. "I hope this goes well. The compounds could yield valuable information to us while we have these bugs in place. If you're confident in your plans, you can execute them as soon as possible."

Jason looked at the ensign, "I can have the devices assembled say in two hours, we can meet and I'll run you through the installation."

"That Sir, would be much appreciated." Jo said with a smile.

"I guess I've got some work too do, if you will excuse me." Jason said trying to leave without premission.

Sakaan nodded her head, 'of course Lieutenant - we'll see you again shortly, I'm sure.'


[To be Continued ...]

::OFF::

Lieutenant JG Jason Elliot
Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer
Deep Space Three

Ensign JoAnne Grant
Operations Officer
Deep Space Three

Lieutenant Sakaan
Mission Adviser
Deep Space Three
[PNPC Lt. Cmdr. Ithahr th'Shrannok]