"This Individual"

[Cmdr JFarrington 0]

Second Officer's Log, Stardate 500503.27

Cmdr Jami Farrington, MD

USS Manticore, NCC 5852

 

"This Individual"

 

Two images filled Manticore's viewscreen. The first, an unimaginably large, complex, heavily armed Sovereign class dreadnought, the USS Liberator, commanded by Commodore Xavier Lenscher, a man of dubious reputation and loyalties and responsible for the destruction of Federation Starship USS Hawk. The second, a Federation freighter with which Liberator rendezvoused, supposedly its partner in crime. Both ships posed an immediate threat to the secret meeting of the Federation Council on Starbase One, within easy reach of their rendezvous point.

 

Manticore sat cloaked, silent, and within striking distance, waiting for the order to fire on the freighter. Tactical officer McFly had acquired firing solution, his finger poised above the console. A blood-red aura stained the air, a harbinger of events about to unfold.

 

"Would you describe this individual on the Liberator as tactically sound, or just a man with a big ship?" Lt. Commander Precip's question came like a shot across the bridge, startling Jami Farrington. She and Colonel Eason, Manticore's OPS and Intel liaison officer, had identified the person behind the voice heard from Liberator just before the USS Hawk had been vaporized.

 

Jami glanced at Col. Eason, knowing Claire could answer that question better than she. Lenscher was always on Intel's radar scope. How many times had he been accused of duplicity, of conflict of interest, of treason? And every time he had been mysteriously cleared of all charges.

 

"Both, and more," came Jami's answer to Precip's query. "Our greatest danger from Lenscher is to underestimate him." She wanted to elaborate, to say that of a handful of Black OPS higher command, Lenscher was perhaps the most conniving, cunning, and devious, with former Consul General Melville as his closest rival. Not long ago Melville had staged his own suicide to appear as though Admiral Atragon had murdered him. Only by the intervention of Consul General Jaffe had Atragon escaped conviction.

 

Atragon stood suddenly and swung his gaze around the bridge, as if in challenge. "Alright crew, vital question time," he said. "Once before I stood on the brink and was called crazy and removed from command. I'm about to order us to destroy a Federation freighter right where it sits. Is someone about to start screaming at me again?"

 

Was this the wrong decision? USS Manticore taking out a Federation ship firing on the pretext that it might threaten the Federation Council? Had Lenscher destroyed the Hawk with the blessing of the Federation Council, under the direct orders of Consul General Jaffe, as Avani and McFly had suggested? Or, was something else at work here?

 

Moments before, Counselor Roget had said, "That ship made itself quite obvious to us, and I can't believe that our scans went unnoticed. They stomped around, making it very obvious and the just turned and went away. After what we witnessed? Oh, they know we're going to follow." Many had expressed reservations about our present course of action, including Jami. And what gnawed at her conscience the most was a comment from science officer Avani Jorel. "They must have a good reason why we weren't destroyed. Perhaps they'll need us in the future. Perhaps we will soon find out we play a role in this plan."

 

What possible role could we be slated to play?