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Cptn Corizon

Interrogatives

Corizon watched as the ‘Rihannsu’ in his brig sat silently. This was, of course, not the Captain’s first experience interviewing a Romulan who’d fallen into his lap, nor, he guessed, would it be his last – assuming he didn’t end up in a Federation penal colony. He inhaled, exhaled and ran a clawed hand through his silver hair. His ears twitched anxiously.

 

His eyes glanced over the man. There was something unusual about him, something Corizon couldn’t entirely place either. It was if he knew him, but why would he know a Romulan defector? There was something strange about this and Corizon would, he promised, get to the bottom of it.

 

“So,” the security guard next to him said. “Are you ready, sir?”

 

“Yeah,” Corizon said, sobering. “He’s had enough time to sweat.”

 

The security officer nodded as Corizon headed out of the monitoring room.

 

--

 

On Earth, a different type of interrogation was occurring.

 

“I assure you Madam President, that I didn’t directly approve this.”

 

Nanietta Bacco crossed her arms and looked directly into the Admiral’s eyes. She’d been in professional politics nearly her entire life, the largest portion of that as a civil servant and governor of a colony who’s existence was predicated on the continued protection of Starfleet; that experience, she’d found, was invaluable as President of the Federation because even though she was, technically, the Commander in Chief, there were plenty of Admirals who felt they didn’t need to explain themselves to her. She eyed him up again before uncrossing her arms and leaning forward on the large desk that had once sat in the American White House.

 

“Directly,” she said sternly. “That seems to be the key word here, doesn’t it.”

 

Thomas Fozzolo smiled, wryly. He was in his mid-sixities, but didn’t look much beyond fifty. His sleek black hair had only started to develop streaks of white hair. He shifted in his seat to line himself up with the President.

 

“You asked if I approved any mission for him, did you not?”

 

Bacco’s glance transformed into a withering glare, “This isn’t my first day on the job, Admiral. It isn’t even my term.”

 

Fozzolo dropped the grin. “I didn’t mean any offense, ma’am.”

 

“No,” she said. “I doubt you did, but what you are doing is being obstinate.”

 

“Ma’…”

 

“Don’t even try to deny it,” she said sternly, her voice remaining even, though commanding. “You intelligence types are all basically the same. I know full well that ATAG has been, in the past, given a fairly free hand, hell I’ve let you get away with somethings I should have called you out on in the past that made my job harder; but this is getting to be more than even I am willing to allow.

“In the past three months, your agent, Captain Corizon, has been nothing but a trouble maker. When I start to know a mere Captain’s file by rote, there’s something seriously wrong.”

 

Fozzolo shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Bacco was formidable, and as the only person with any real ability to affect his unit, he had hoped to avoid incurring her wrath.

 

“Madam President,” he said, moderating his tone. “I assure you…”

 

“Assure me of what? I get that Corizon is a good at what he does, but danmit he’s out of control.”

 

“Madam President,” he said again, more resolutely. “I’ve know the man for nearly his entire Starfleet career. He’s a lot of things, but trust me…”

 

“You’ve been lying to me since you walked into the door,” she said. “You know damned good and well where he is; and even though you might not have directly approved this mission, I’d be willing to wager a large amount of latnium that you did know he was going to do something incredibly stupid.”

 

Fozzolo sighed heavily. “I apologize, Madam President. If you were in my position, with the information I have, you might understand.”

 

She blanched, trying to avoid raising her voice. “Thomas,” she said, “your job is to give me the same information , if you have something I suggest you start talking because at this moment, I am seriously considering if your unit is worth the trouble you make.”

 

He nodded. “Of course. It’s just that we weren’t entirely sure if you or any of your people were involved.”

 

“Involved?”

 

“Yes,” he said soberly. “About five months ago, Starfleet Intelligence and ATAG begun to suspect, independently of each other, that the Dominion uprisings were being fueled by outside sources. From what we were able to glean from the SI’s investigation, they were curious how the uprisings were able to arm themselves so easily, given how tightly the Dominion had controlled weapons – even with the stability issues it’s not as if the Dominion allowed civilians usage of weapons capable of fending off the Jem’Hadar.”

 

“Yes,” she said. “I had read the reports, especially after the Granar Minor incident.”

 

“What you might not know that the Excalibur, and at least two other of our vessels in the Gamma Quadrant found caches of Romulan weapons.”

 

That piece of information had caught her by surprise. “What?”

 

“About four months ago, while Captain Corizon was recuperating from injuries on an away mission, Excalibur was sent on a mission to map an area of globular clusters under Captain Irae Varen. While on the mission they located a derelict freighter, aboard the freighter they found a cache of Romulan disruptors. I am fairly sure that Varen had been briefed by someone because as soon as they found them, he ordered them locked down the records. The weapons were reportedly turned over to Starfleet Intelligence, but…”

 

“But?”

 

“But my people couldn’t find record of them being part of the official investigation.”

 

Bacco frowned. “Why do I guess that’s not the end of the story.”

 

“I wish it were,” he said. “While Excalibur was en route to Granara Minor, they found a shipment of weapons that had been loaded aboard as medical supplies.”

 

“Oh for the love of…”

 

“Captain Corizon felt the same way.”

 

“So?”

 

“Admiral Abronvonvich reported it back to Command, where he was ordered to have Corizon turn them over to an Intel ship. Corizon and Excalibur had just rendezvoused with said ship when the whole incident with the Eratians and the Al-Ucard happened.”

 

“So Starfleet Intelligence is behind this?”

 

“Yes and no,” he said. “From what we can tell anything that is going on isn’t creeping to the top levels of intelligence, they don’t have any records of getting the weapons.”

 

“I see, and where are they now?”

 

“I don’t know. Corizon and Excalibur encountered weapons with the same serial numbers on another planet, but were unable to recover them. We tried to get Starfleet to officially launch an investigation but he was rebuffed.”

 

She sighed heavily, feeling a headache coming. “So he took matters into his own hands. Lovely.”

 

“Yes,” he said. “He’d arranged to meet with Ambassador tr’Aenikh; the Ambassador had been doing an investigation of his own.”

 

“This gets worse all the time.”

 

“Yes,” Fozzolo admitted. “I’ve know Ah-Windu for a long time, nearly three decades and he’s never been this focused on something.”

 

“In some ways I am thankful,” she said leaning back into her chair. “If word that we were involved with smuggling weapons to the Dominion came out…”

 

“Our resources indicate that the Dominion is aware that insurgents are getting weapons from the Alpha Quadrant, but they’re in no position to start pointing fingers.”

 

“What about the Hundred? Are they involved?”

 

“No.”

“How can you be sure?”

 

He paused for a long moment, taking a deep breath. “Semil contacted Corizon en route to the wormhole.”

 

“And?”

 

“They spoke about that, and Semil asked Corizon to get to the bottom of it, because he wasn’t sure how long Taenix could keep that information from the rest of the Vorta Council and because he wants to avoid further conflict.”

 

“That makes sense,” she said thoughtfully. “The Hundred don’t want to destroy the Dominon, they just want to control it themselves.”

 

“Exactly.”

 

“So you think Corizon is in Romulan space?”

 

“He contacted me before they left Deep Space Nine,” he said. “He told me he was going ‘look into’ the situation, but he didn’t tell me anything else. I give you my word I didn’t know he was going to abandon the Republic and go off on a goose chase into Romulan space.”

 

“Very well,” she said. “If what you think is true and there’s a high level conspiracy within the Federation and the Romulan governments, we’ll need to take great care in action.”

 

“Yes, Madam President, we will. To be honest with you, I think it would be best if you let this play out and we agree this conversation never happened. If we try and act without proof, they’ll just bury it deeper. If you take it public, it could be a major diplomatic and political disaster.”

 

Bacco frowned. She hated that. She’d sworn the day she took the oath not to get involved in back-room, cloak-and-dagger non-sense and to be as open and transparent as possible. Yet, here she was faced with having to do exactly that for the good of the Federation.

 

“I suppose you’re right,” she said. “You do know, of course, that when this does come out – when he’s either caught, or returns, that even if he does have the evidence you need that he won’t be spared. I won’t tolerate that.”

 

“He knew what he was getting himself into, I can assure you of that. Corizon is… well let’s just say he’s been chasing a monsters a long time, and he knows that if you take the laws into your own hands that there are consequences to those actions.”

 

“Very well,” she said. “Next though, don’t keep me in the dark about this. I understand you keeping others out, but don’t keep me out. Who else knows about this… outside of ATAG?”

 

“A few select members of the Admiralty and Diplomatic Corps.”

 

She frowned. “I don’t like anything about this and when this is all over, you and I are going to have a long talk about the role of ATAG and how it operates.”

 

“I suspect,” he said honestly, “when this is all over there will be more than enough hearings about how the intelligence community operates, but of course Madam President.”

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