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"Finding Friends or Fighting Foes"
[previous post was "Only Fools are Fearless" by our great leader Francois]

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Setting: MASQUERADE DREAMS, Deck 23, Corridor

Stardate: 30153.0510


Shadow Protocol. A seldom used set of procedures called upon only in the direst of situations, namely when a security breach is threatening the security not only of a ship, but of the Federation as a whole.  The Acting ExO / ILO had been hesitant to make such a call and she had been relieved that the decision had fallen upon the Captain. The reason for Shar'El misgivings had not been about the scrambled encoded communications or the fact that the ANUBIS now stood at full combat readiness, those had been normal day occurrences. The problem had been that under this special protocol, all measures were deemed acceptable to contain the situation.

 

When speaking about captured undercover operatives this meant that an action plan had to be enacted upon with the greatest possible haste. The goal, to either rescue the operatives and gage the extent of the security breach, or to terminate everyone involved so as to insure that no vital and classified information would slip out.

 

Under the watchful eye of the USS ANUBIS, the MASQUERADE DREAMS now stood isolated from the rest of the universe, no communications being able to be made to or from the luxury Risian cruise ship.  The undercover team now needed to act as quickly as possible to contain he situation and insure that none of the secrets held by either Doctor Doyanne or Ensign Stark would walk off the ship in someone else's possession.

 

The idea that the lives of both officers partially rested in her hands insured that the acting ExO / ILO moved with the greatest of speed as she made her way to join Commander Maya. Their task, to find a way to locate the missing shipmates, and the speed with which it would be accomplished would dictate the extent of the shadow protocol's provisions.

 

Without any undue social convenience, Shar'El stepped into the room where the Shillian had been waiting, several PADDs scattered about her bed.

 

"What do we have?" the acting ExO / ILO asked, all too aware that Maya had already been very much at work in finding the missing CMO and OPS.

 

"The task may be more difficult than it appears," Maya said as she grabbed another PADD and tossed it towards the dark haired woman who had just arrived.  "Being Terran will be very difficult to isolate Doctor Doyanne and Ensign Stark from the almost 2000 other humanoids currently on board the MASQUERADE DREAMS who share a great deal of similar genetic markers. Without their subdermal communicators, they are now nothing more than a faceless figure.  As great as the sensors of the ANUBIS may be, we would still need something specific to either one of them to be able to identify who it is we are looking at."

 

Shar'El paused as she considered the problem at hand as well as the guidelines set by the protocol Captain Morningstar had called into play.  Time had been of the greatest importance, each second that passed moving the need for action from simple rescue to complete containment.  In the world of Intel knowledge had always been the most precious of commodity, able to protect a single man from any and all harm or capable of bringing an entire civilization down in matters of days if not hours.

 

In this particular case, the acting ExO / ILO possessed one such piece of knowledge forcing Shar'El to silently debate the need to share the information with Maya.  Doing so would betray the trust that she had been given, but it would also help move things along much faster and increase the odds of finding and returning both missing officers safely.

 

"Maya," the acting ExO / ILO began, knowing that her words would not only betray one person's confidence but would do so to the entire ship in one swift and possibly devastating move.  "Doctor Doyanne is not Terran."

 

"Not Terran?" the Chief Science Officer repeated with confusion as she reached for yet another PADD.  "According to Starfleet records and the medical reports from Starfleet Academy and NEW ALEXANDRIA, Doctor Lillie Doyanne is shown to be Terran. Are you suggesting that there is some sort of mistake on the official records?"

 

Shar'El hesitated once more, knowing all that had been at stake. Had revealing Lillie's secret and possibly saving her life been worth the entire crew knowing about her true origins and the illness that she carried within her? Had this been one of the rare cases where death would prove to be a better option?  As much as the acting ExO / ILO tried to fall in line with that way of thinking, the Ullian could not bring herself to agree.  Through all of her memories, be then from her own past or from worlds and dimensions away, life in whatever its capacity had always been preferable to death.

 

=/\= Commander Shar'El is referring one specific detail about our CMO, a detail that was classified at the highest levels to avoid the spread of panic,=/\= Captain Morningstar said, once again leaving the acting ExO / ILO to feel a great deal of relief. =/\= Doctor Doyanne is Tarellian. =/\=

 

Complete and absolute silence followed the announcement as each member of the away team processed the significance of the information they had just been granted access to.  As a member of a plagued race doomed to never have a world of their own, the Tarellians had been driven to the very edge of extinction more than a few times over the last century.

 

"That will make a difference," Maya said, shattering the silence that had established itself as appearing unbreakable.  "I suspect that there are not too many Tarellians on board the MASQUERADE DREAMS.  A simple reconfiguration of the biosensors should allow us to scan the entire ship and find Doctor Doyann, from there we can only hope that Ensign Stark will be there with her."

 

"ANI?" Shar'El called out.

 

=/\= Modifications to the sensor array are already underway, =/\= the Avatar replied. =/\= We will be able to scan for specific Tarellian life-signs in just a few minutes. =/\=

 

"I'm sorry," the dark haired Ullian said tearfully to no one in particular, her thoughts and memories solely focus on the woman that she believed she had so completely betrayed for no other reason than to save her life as well as that of Ensign Stark.


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Tiffany Reeve


Lieutenant Commander Shar'El
Acting Executive Officer / Intel Liaison Officer
USS ANUBIS