Hit The Ground Running, Part Three

Posted on 29 Nov 2015 @ 10:30pm by Lieutenant Benice Gyce Ph.D.
Edited on 01 Dec 2015 @ 2:49am

929 words; about a 5 minute read

Location: 1139 Tongo Ave, Federation Embassy, Capitol City's Sacred Marketplace, Ferenginar
Date: June 17th, 2380
Time: 2000 Hours

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In the seventeenth floor of the Federation Embassy, Gyce and her partner Lieutenant Commander Avok, sat in front of a case board. The young Bajoran was very stressed, visually, for the board had way too many suspects marked off with digitally drawn red exes.

"I keep thinking we've missed something," Gyce sighed as she ran her fingers through her semi-matted hair. "How can you be calm, knowing there's a WMD out there?"

"Do we know for sure that using the terraforming warhead as a WMD is the intended purpose of the theft?" Avok countered coolly in his Vulcan way. "As of yet, we have not seen any demands or terrorist bravado about the warhead being stolen. For all we know, they could very well be using the warhead to terraform another planet."

"I can't see killing all those scientists for a brand new planet," Gyce countered. "It was a well orchestrated attack that took months of planning just to break in to it without alarming anyone until after the attack."

"Agreed... But I am more concerned with the fact there is nothing in the criminal scientists' reports about Marauder Kod himself. The ship is registered to Kod, but there has been no sightings of him in the last year. Upon speaking with several of his former business partners, it is my opinion that he is not the sort of strategist capable of pulling off this attack," Avok pointed out in his typical monotone.

"The problem is..." Gyce sighed with yet more frustration. "We don't know what Marauder Kod did when he left Ferenginar. That's a heavy chunk of years for an entire family to vanish. I mean, if he was motivated, he could of learned to become a soldier from any legit or radical military source. But we don't even have proof that he thought that way prior to his disappearance."

"I am more concerned with the fact a cloak was on his ship, Klingon in nature." Avok stood at the board and calmly looked at all the faces once more.

"Several pirate ships raid old sites of fleet battles from the war," Gyce pointed out none-too-thrilled. "Find a damaged cloak, fix it, put it on your ship. Because no honorable house would get in bed with the Ferengi."

"Fair point," Avok agreed, then tapped his chin a few times while he looked at the board. "I do agree that we are missing vital details. You also make a valid point in that we do not know what happened to him and his family when he left this planet."

"So we figure that out, we likely find the motive of the theft?" Gyce asked her partner.

"Affirmative," Avok agreed. "However, I would suggest we look at close ports that are neutral, that he would have been likely to visit, after leaving Ferenginar."

"You want me to search Orion Syndicate-owned worlds?"

"If you like. I, however, will look at various other ports they could have gone," Avok suggested before he sat at his desk and began to search for their quarry.

And so the painstaking process began of cross-referencing ships matching Kod's. Between the two detectives, they managed to find forty-six Ferenginar ships in a matter of three hours. Only five of them had carbon-scouring from ship battles and old age. Of those, a docking port on Hodorus was the only one that matched Kod's description.

"What's so special about Hodorus?" Gyce asked as Avok pointed out the planet on his screen.

"Hodorus, if I remember correctly, once was a colony of Ferenginar. A failed experiment that became an open black market for any Ferengi male to free enterprise without the watchful eye liquidators or the Ferengi banks," Avok explained.

Gyce supposed a man of his age learned a lot. That, and he was Vulcan. They were bred for being miniature fountains of knowledge by default.

"So we need to go to an even more perverted den of Ferengi business men to find out what Kod did," Gyce spoke unenthusiastically.

"This is the only lead we have not yet searched. But more to the point, they will not talk to a Vulcan. They will, however, most likely open up to you," Avok spoke with a head bob. "As you so freely offered your body for information before, this should not be too different."

"...Did you just insinuate I'm a whore?" Gyce blinked in confusion.

"By definition, one must perform sexual acts for monetary or political gain," Avok answered studiously. "I believe giving Liquidator Noc oo-max on the way to Mister Ick's home, achieved our goal of getting immediate and free entrance to bypass the 4 slip turbolift fee."

"I'll let the embassy know we're headed to Hodorus then," Gyce spoke with an annoyed sigh. Of course the insult hurt, but it was part of her resistance training to use sexual acts for information extraction. More so when time was not of the essence.

"Negative. Registered transports will scare off any contacts we come by. I will call headquarters and requisition a small ship, as well as give them a status report. I need you to go purchase and age clothes that are proper to that of a space garbage hauler crew," Avok told Gyce.

The ensign was about to protest this odd request until she understood his plan. They were about to infiltrate one of the most dangerous black markets in the quadrant... run by Ferengi.

 

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