Unearthed Concerns

Posted on Mon Mar 16th, 2020 @ 1:13pm by Fleet Admiral Heather Duval & Enrique Duval & Vice Admiral Valerie Dessaix

Mission: Mission 98: Building Our New Home
Location: Starbase Vanguard
Timeline: 1000Hrs - June 3rd, 2393

Dessaix chimed the door and after receiving permission entered. She entered the commander's office and stopped in front of Deval's desk. "Hello, Admiral. I hope you're enjoying command." She politely addressed Heather.

Duval smiled before she sat back in her chair. "I can't really complain too loudly." the older female responded as she stretched out to her sides. "Ahh... I get low blood sugar at times." she paused. "What may I be doing for you Valerie.?" she inquired.

"Sadly my meeting isn't an informal welcome." Valerie put a PADD on Heather's desk. "These are the names of forty-two personnel that are deceased. They were lost in three different places. Twelve of them on the USS Spruance when the ship went missing on the Federation's western fringe. Sixteen of them were lost on the USS Vienna in a confrontation with a Klingon D-7. The last fourteen were lost on the USS Hawk near Tellar when the warp core accidentally exploded. They were all lost in the same year, 2268."

Duval narrowed her eyes before she sat forward, suddenly all business. "Twenty-two sixty-eight," she responded. "I'm guessing there is a story to this... Can I get you anything to drink?" she inquired before she indicated the chairs before her. "Have a seat before I strain my neck from looking up," she added, the last sentence was something of a joke.

Valerie sat down. "The issue is those forty-two missing people are in our morgue," Valerie told her. "I will have that drink, thank you. What are you drinking?"

"Oh I'm drinking-" Duval spoke as she polished off her drink. "Mmmm. Well, I was drinking a glass of soda," she explained. "So.. why are there forty-two Starfleet personnel that have been dead for well over a hundred years in our morgue?" Duval answered with a smile.

"Because there has been a cover-up. All those people died on Star Base 47. Then Star Fleet lied about it." Valerie told Heather. "I did tell you that we found the original Star Base 47, didn't I?"

"No," Duval answered, a wide grin on her face. "This is the first that I'm hearing of all of this." the older female answered.

"The bodies were found in one chamber. A chamber marked with a crude skull. The rest of what we found of the old starbase was just an empty hulk. For some reason, the chamber was used as a tomb." Valerie told Heather.

Duval raised an eyebrow. "What do you think it all means?" she inquired. "I've never liked mysteries. Especially not when they revolve around something that happened or was ignored."

"I think we have a cover-up. Star Fleet tried to hide something. The question is, how will Star Fleet react now? No matter how you cut it, Star Fleet will have egg on its face." Valerie explained.

Duval nodded. "A cover-up. Lovely." the older female sighed. "So.. what was so important that they felt they had to hide forty-two Starfleet officers for over a hundred and twenty years?" Duval inquired. "I'll have to mention this report to Enrique, he'll love it."

"I could only guess at what they were doing or hiding. All the computers we found were destroyed. Besides the bodies in the tomb, nothing is really out of place." Valerie told her.

Duval narrowed her eyes. "I hate mysteries." she paused. "Mind if I ask my husband to come up here?. I'd like to hear his thoughts on this matter." Duval explained.

Valerie raised her eyebrows. "Why would I mind? This is your flag."

"Well, he's a civilian and I'm a little different than the average Admiral" Duval answered before she sat back and put up her feet on the table, her boots making a soft clunking sound as they made contact with the desk. "Sometimes, I love my job. Other times, it can be a right pain in various body parts." and with that, the older woman giggled at her own joke. Before she tapped her combadge. "Duval to Duval. Honey, you decent?"

"Of course I'm decent." Enrique Duval answered. "Whats up Heather?"

"Could you come up to Operations?," Duval inquired of her husband "I have a little something I, that is, we would like to run past you."

There was silence for a moment. "Okay, I'm on my way. seeya in five, out."

Duval smiled as she made herself comfortable. "Sometimes I like being in charge, it means I get to be lazy, most of the time."

"Depends on what kind of problem children you have in your command," Valerie replied. "If we're lucky we will have none."

Duval laughed. "I get lucky with my husband," she answered. "The problem children can't be any worse than my youngest grandchild," she added. "Do I get to flog them?" she added with a grin, she also sounded overly eager. Valerie was saved from a response as the doorbell rang at the two women.

"It's open!" Duval responded. The door opened and in walked a well built older human male with light brown skin and pale blue eyes. "Hey ladies, whats going on?"

"Enrique, meet Valerie, my chef, cook and bottle washer." Duval grinned. "Valerie, this is Enrique. My husband and the man who abuses me often."

"Normally I'd say lies but, not this time. It's good to meet you, Admiral." Enrique nodded to Valerie.

"Hello there." Valerie politely replied.

Enrique nodded as he gently shook her hand in the average greeting. "So, whats on your mind?" he inquired of his wife as he slid into a chair across from his wife. Duval nodded as she explained the particulars to her husband, this toon a couple of minutes. "So what do you think?'

"This is almost certainly a coverup," he explained as he frowned. "Was it one of our guys who was in the wrong place? or was it something the opposition did and we don't want a war with them?" he regarded his spouse. "Forty-odd bodies in the morgue tells me one thing, the wreckage of the original base, also tells me one thing. Someone hid something that did not need to be found. Who are these guys?" he narrowed his eyes. "Was there any technology found with the bodies?" he added.

"The personnel still had their uniforms on. A lot of them also had on their side arms and communicators. Everything we found dated back to the 2260's." Valerie told him.

Duval regarded his wife in silence before he turned back to Dessaix. "What about the wreckage of the base that was found?" he inquired. "Anything odd about it?"

"From what the engineers tell me, the structure suffered battle damage but was destroyed from an internal explosion," Valerie explained.

"We might never be able to explain this," Duval answered in a quiet tone of voice. "That's a shame really." he paused. "Unless Starfleet had something going on regarding the original base. Maybe it was something that was taking place on the original base."

"Not everyone in Star Fleet Command or Federation is ethical. They were obviously trying to do something covert. This just frosts me to know the families of these officers never know the truth. The truth that their loved ones fought a losing battle Star Fleet put them in." Valerie said.

Duval nodded her head, she had her theories on why this was so. "It could be any number of things," she explained. "Starfleet was much smaller and weaker at that point in time." the older female explained in a quiet tone of voice. "Have we made any efforts to locate the descendants of the forty-two personnel we have in our morgue?" she asked.

"Well, no. They are all reported as deceased. To get a record of next of kin that would have to go through Star Fleet Personnel Command. They will probably want to know why we are trying to contact relatives of officers that have been dead for a hundred years." Valerie explained.

Duval regarded the Admiral before him. "It would not be so simple a matter as that, Admiral" Enrique commented as he nodded to Heather who turned and ordered two drinks, obviously she knew what her husband was after. "They will have many questions, especially if the bodies are returned as they are. I'd be willing to bet that these bodies have not aged much," he explained. "Starfleet's left hand will need to explain what the right hand was doing."

Heather Duval smiled as she handed her husband his drink while a rather dirty thought went through her mind. "Enrique, that's just downright dirty."

"My, you have a dirty mind in the morning," Enrique responded as he accepted his drink. "Mmm. thanks. Anyway, someone somewhere will need to explain this little detail of how these bodies came to be here."

"How can we explain it if we don't understand this ourselves?" Valerie asked.

It was Heather Duval who spoke up next. "Then we should go find some answers to the large pile of questions we have," she explained in a quiet tone of voice.

"Alright. I'll talk to the spooks. I'm sure they can find out something." Valerie told Heather.

"Alright," Duval answered softly. "Keep me informed, please. You have my more or less divided attention." the older female added.

Enrique regarded the two women. "Will you guys need me for anything else?"

Duval shook her head. "No, I wanted your thoughts and opinions on this hot mess we have here."

"Fair enough, without more information, all I have are half-baked educated guesses and theories without facts." he paused. "I prefer facts but that's me."

"I'll have a chat with the intelligence head when he makes his way aboard," Valerie stated.

"Alright. But before you go. Do you think its because of what happened on the original base?" Duval inquired. "Regarding the Shedai. You think our old friends could have returned?"

"I'm not sure. If the last we were here did evoke this kind of hostile response than I think we should be on guard." She replied.

"You were never briefed on the Shedai, were you?" Duval inquired in a very soft tone of voice. "Valerie, if these guys have indeed returned, then we are facing a foe that is quite literally as powerful as God himself." she paused. "These guys created the Tholians to be a worker species. The Shedai Meta-Genome was one of the most powerful sources of knowledge the Federation has ever known. But whatever you do, don't go looking it up. You'll set off a hundred kinds of alarms, that is a subject that's not talked about lightly." Duval sighed. "Enrique didn't put together the dots like that because he does not and will not know of their existence. I do not like keeping secrets from my spouse but this one, I make an exception for." Duval explained. "That, however, does not mean I need to like it."

"Alright. I'll talk to intelligence. The only thing more amusing than fighting Tholians is to fight the race that created them as slaves." Valerie stated.

"Well, I believe Captain Borodin is expected soon," Duval explained with a smile. "We can discuss this matter with all the base senior staff when they all arrive," she added.