Klingons and Conspiracies - Part III

Posted on Saturday April 30th, 2022 @ 10:26pm by Lieutenant Commander Curzon Bennett

'You just dropped the issue?' Bennett asked curiously. 'Or do you still look into it from time to time?'

"I had some leads but those are hard too chase for a number of reasons." Jason paused savoring the taste of the coffee "One of the persons involved is supposed to be dead."

Putting his fruit juice down on the coffee table in front of him, Bennett leaned forward, interest piqued, 'seems to be dead? you have reason to doubt the claims?' He laced his hands together, tapping a finger against a hand as he thought, 'and any other leads?'

Jason thought on which ones would be relevant too the conversation "One tied too the old spacer stories of a group called 'the hunters', a group that chases down the proverbial boogie man." Jason sat back slightly "The stories go back in one form or another as far back as the late 19th century on earth, but they are very sketchy and almost folk tales in nature."

'Would you care to elaborate? You believe there is a folkloric group of people connected to the murder of your wife ... and they travel the galaxy hunting down, shadows? Ghosts?' Bennett struggled to keep his tone on an even keel as he was presented with this theory.

"Unidentified foot prints that are in evidence labeled 'wildlife' that don't match anything except for a single entry in a file from about 130 years ago from a series of deaths at the Laurentian colony, the file itself has wild accounts of a supernatural creature and two persons posing as scientists sent to investigate, the record including anything about these scientists is incomplete and some parts appear to have been deleted, I never put any weight into it until a family friend contacted me saying that he's heard the same stories and had evidence, I've never pursued it since it sounds too outrageous some of the accounts matched stuff that my parents were studying before my father died in a shuttle accident five years ago all of it being nothing more than folklore."

'You're father was studying the Laurentian colony?' Bennett leaned in, intrigued at the story, 'I'm sorry, I'm not too familiar with the tale - would you mind refreshing my memory?'

Jason sat back and began to recall the specifics, "Dad and mom were asked by a friend too look into some slightly mysterious wildlife incidents that had no real pattern, I never really understood why they were asked and I've never gotten a straight answer from the few family I still talk too, I always figured they were there to sift through the facts from fiction on the events that had taken place."

'Did you ever learn of a program or investigation name they could have been involved in? What planet they were on?' Bennett waved his PADD at the younger Intelligence Officer. 'Do you mind if I make some notes as we go along?'

"I rarely left earth back then, I know dad worked for the Columbia wildlife institute, Mom was a botanist, they specialized in cataloging all wildlife on federation worlds but I was maybe 13 when they died on the Laurentian prime colony, I stayed with my older sister until I got accepted to Starfleet, but even then my sister was secretive on their work and rarely spoke of it or what the deal was with my brother." Jason paused "I found a handwritten journal about three or four weeks after they died with piles of cryptic notes about various things from several worlds including multiple notes of creatures from non-Terran folklore, much of the notes don't make much sense but some of the locations always seem too have a similar theme, local law enforcement are stumped or write it off as wildlife attacks or other events, the only person who can fill in the blanks is dad's friend Kengi Takumi but he's impossible too track down, the closest I have come to getting answers was a few days before the station disappeared."

Tapping his notes in as he listened, Bennett nodded his understanding. 'And thus Takumi, you say you were close to him before the station disappeared? How close?'

"The cargo ship he's the Owner operator of has a route that would have brought him too the general area of the station but the general route was erratic and often had multiple diversions, I was supposed too meet him on Betazed about three days before the Oberon departed only to find out he 'picked up' another run too Beta Centauri or something."

'Beta Centauri huh?' Bennett asked replied. 'You know if his routr brings him out near here?'

"I know one of the ships he owns does a scheduled run to Epsilon Merrion system, they do it every three days to a hub they maintain on the habitable moon around the third planet code named 'Midway station'." Jason drained the coffee "Dads notebook had a list of these hubs, I never understood why."

[To be continued ...]

::OFF::

Lieutenant Commander Curzon Bennett
Commanding Officer
USS Oberon

Lieutenant JG Jason Elliot
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Oberon