The Covert Shroud Gambit

Posted on Mon Mar 16th, 2020 @ 7:57am by Commander Victoria 'Enyo' Yamaguchi & Post Captain Vasily Borodin

Mission: Mission 98: Building Our New Home
Location: Special Forces Offices - Starbase Vanguard
Timeline: 1000Hrs - May 30th, 2393

Captain Vassily Borodin was sitting in his office, he had almost a thousand personnel from Starfleet Special Forces Command, otherwise known as SFSOCOM, or whatever people liked to call it from day to day. He sipped his drink that he had replicated ten minutes earlier as he waited for his ten o'clock appointment to arrive when the doorbell suddenly beeped at him.

"Enter" Borodin commented, the door opened and in walked a woman who had the physique of a figure skater or a model rather than the Master Chief of the Enlisted people who would populate his department. "Master Chief Petty Officer Victoria Yamaguchi, reporting for duty sir."

"Oh?" Borodin remarked as he took off the cowboy hat and placed it on the small globe of Alpha Centauri that was the dominating feature on his desk. "I miss home and my spouse. I am told she will be joining me soon, but you did not come by to hear me complain about the obvious villany of others Master Chief." as he indicated the chairs across from him. "Have a seat Master Chief," Borodin added a moment later.

Yamaguchi found she could say little on the topic so she opted instead to say nothing, knowing it would work itself out sooner or later, and if it did not then that was not her issue to resolve.

"Anyway, I requested someone who could handle looking after the enlisted personnel for me, they sent me one of the most unusual cases of a Starfleet officer in a very long time, I read your file, what little I could see that was not covered in black ink anyway." he then slowly sat back in his chair as he regarded her figure. "You do not look like a master of combat, you look more like a model which I am going to assume is a good thing as you had hidden talents." Borodin did not look impressed or sound impressed either. "Well, I hope you do anyway, or this will be a real short assignment for you."

"What do you wish to know about me, Captain?" Yamaguchi inquired in a simple tone, his annoyance and displeasure had clearly not rattled her in the least.

"For a start, you are an enigma to me Master Chief. I don't like surprises or enigmas." Borodin explained. "I find that they tend to be a distraction from what needs to be done but since Starfleet Command has permitted you to serve here, I'll make do." he sighed softly.

"My file was mostly classified as I am a refugee from another reality," Yamaguchi explained.

"Yes. I know that part. Captain Celeste Yamaguchi had already explained the details to me and she revealed some of which I did not know about you. Something about how you were the one who caused their mission to fail and now many of those people are wanting to serve in our Starfleet, many are presently undergoing training for various fields." he paused. "Still, you did bring a wealth of intelligence data with you on that reality and I highly suspect that we'll be dealing with them again at some point. That's why I'm going to ignore my better judgment and keep you around. Also because Celeste, for reasons I simply cannot fathom, she also wants to keep you around."

Yamaguchi raised an eyebrow, it was something of a surprise that Celeste wanted her present but she had not been given leave to speak so she continued to say nothing at all.

"So what I will do is this. I'm gonna kick you out of here and let you get on with what you need to take care of before you start work tomorrow, I'm going to let you take over the assignment that you were posted here to do and see how you do with the job." Borodin commented in a light tone of voice. "Also thanks to you, we have the location for all the incursions from that alternate reality and apparently someone is sending an expedition through the rift to see whats on the other side. I have been asked to send someone from my department as part of this assignment." Borodin explained. "Any questions?"

Yamaguchi regarded Borodin in silence. "Who are you going to send?"

"You," Borodin answered. "You are from there so you'll be able to assist in a unique manner, helping the mission succeed and avoiding various pitfalls and issues. I do not yet know what ship is going to draw that assignment but they will be here within two weeks to stage for the mission, you'll join them at that time to assist with whatever they need doing."

"Whatever it takes. The Empire will pay for what they did to my family, for what they did to me."

"This isn't about revenge Victoria." Borodin saw a glimpse of the real woman beneath her facade of a persona and he seized his chance. "Vengence cannot be a part of what we must do, if we allow our passions to turn to bloodlust, we'll become as vile as the Empire you want to destroy," Borodin explained in a quiet tone.

"Yessir. I'll keep that in mind." Yamaguchi answered. "I have my own additions I'd like to make to that mission, if I'm going," Yamaguchi commented. "They are personal, I'd like to see if there are any survivors from the ISS Shield of Vega and my own children, two of them," she explained. "As I said, my reasons are personal."

"I'll see what I can do for you." Borodin paused. "Would you happen to know where the Empire would hold them?"

Yamaguchi nodded. "It'll be one of four locations in that area, two of them are slave camps, one is a re-education center and the last is a comfort camp," she explained. "The empire has much to answer for," she added. "My children would have ended up in the re-education center or the comfort camp and my crew would have ended up at the slave camp or the comfort camp as well." she paused. "I will only require ten men for this effort, I will not need much to deal with things."

"As I said, I'll make an effort to get these list of objectives added to the mission but I'll make no promises Master Chief." Borodin paused. "It'll depend on who the mission commander will be."

"I understand," Yamaguchi answered. "Thank you, sir."

"Alright. Unless there is nothing further. You are Dismissed Master Chief." Borodin said in a flat tone of voice.

Yamaguchi rose to her feet and went out the door. Borodin raised an eyebrow as he realized he needed to give her file another look, only this time without all the black ink on it as he picked up a PADD and went to work looking for the information he sought. After ten minutes of effort, what he learned about the young woman who had just left was extremely eye-opening, she was indeed a master of combat and she was highly trained but he had more concerns than ever.

"Maybe, she will impress me and maybe she'll get herself killed. Either way, there is no downside and either way, I'll make it work." Borodin said aloud, to himself.