Apparent Crimes Part 1

Posted on Fri Apr 13th, 2018 @ 4:53pm by Captain Rueben Gregnol & Dodian Carli & Johnathen Anderson Jr

Mission: Mission 6 - Azzia
Location: Bridge of the Mary Rose
Timeline: MD 8 10:00
2898 words - 5.8 OF Standard Post Measure

As the Police DIVVIE broke atmo and headed for the Rose most of the special operations officers slouched against the walls of the looking bored. A few talked with one another, but most were silent being fairly hungover from the opening days of festival. All were in a bad mood because they all knew this was a punishment detail for some past wrongs, real or otherwise, that some higher-up felt they had committed. Worse still this detail was being run by one of the biggest ‘Ayna’s in the department, D.I. Ojha one of the most bent and corrupt officers that ever beat a confession out of a skel. The department tolerated her because of ability to clear cases quickly, whether the accused was actually guilty always seemed secondary.

The proximity alarm chimed, warning Ojha that they were about ten minutes out, turning off the alarm she turned to her detail and said, “All right, you apes listen up, we are about to serve a warrant on a foreign flag vessel. A FEDERATION vessel” she added for emphasis then to remind them of the briefing she had given them planet-side, “We are looking for two people of interest, a Trill female, Dixoho Saa and a human male, Michael Robertson in connection with a homicide of a mother of three. Expect some resistance from the rest of the crew. While I won’t cry if any of these fascists trip and fall down, remember stun settings only.”

Eight minutes later the DIVVIE transmitted the warrant to the vessel just as the mass transported delivered the Operations group to the Rose’s bridge.

“AZZIA AUTHORITY, SHOW ME YOUR HANDS!!” They yelled, “AZZIA AUTHORITY, SHOW ME YOUR HANDS!!!”

The sudden appearance of an armed group on the bridge startled Johnathen at first. Then his training kicked in. Reaching under the helm station, he went for the phaser that he remembered was always left there, only to pause when he found nothing. It was then that he remembered that he wasn't on the Ishimura, a Starfleet vessel. Slowly, he turned back to face the arrivals, his hands slowly raising above his head.

“Everyone, Please get up and pack away from your workstations, Now.” Special Officer Ambika Marwah directed in a precise polite manner as she holstered her weapon. She did so knowing the special operational ‘Apes’ in their tactical armor would light-up any of the crewmen that was stupid enough to try and make a move on her. She tried to look as confident as the Inspector standing in the middle of the bridge with her arms folded, but she was still felt unsure about the ‘shock and awe’ method they used in breaching the vessel.

Ojda waited for the chaos to subside before sitting in ‘the Chair’ and switching on ‘shipwide’ “Attention crew of the ‘Mary Rose’” She said her voice echoing throughout the ship, “This is Detective Inspector Kumari Ojha of the Azzia Regional Garda, informing you that a search warrant has just been issued for this vessel. All crew members are hereby ordered to report to the mess hall.” Ojah then nodded to five of her ‘Apes’ who smiled as they readied their stun-batons, “A comprehensive multiphasic Bioscan is currently being made, any crew member found not in compliance with this order will be subdued by my officers and dragged to the mess hall by their ears.”

As if on cue one of the “Apes’ smashed her stun baton into the crotch of the comms officer making them double over in pain. Ojda glanced at Marwah, a glance that quickly turned into a glare as she saw the look of horror on her own subordinate’s face. Marwah seeing the look on her superior, snapped out of her stupor, “All right you lot, you heard the Inspector.” She yelled, “Clear the bridge, Now!”

Ojda nodded to Marwah to cut Johnathen out of the herd. Bringing the helmsmen in front of her she said, “Go find your Captain and got tell he’s to report to me in his ready room immediately, unless he’s passed out in some whorehouse planet side, in that case find me the next best thing.” She then rose from the Captain’s chair indicating for Marwah to take her place with a look that said refusal was not an option. “Take over here. Have the techs download all the comm logs for the past six days,” she ordered, “”I’ll be in the Captain’s office eating my breakfast.”

Dodian almost jumped out of her skin as she sat at her newly presented science station, it was strange to be part of a crew even if she had barely spoken to any of them yet. The arrival of loud mouthed Azzians reminded her of Orion boarding parties, or enemies of her 'Boss' infiltrating their base. As soon as they had arrived, blocking out the yelling, she began to lock her station. No-one would be getting into that any time soon, whether they were there for her data or not she was protective of what was hers... she'd never had a lot. She had turned her back on the proceedings and quickly managed a lockdown of all computer related functions she had permission to.

As the doors opened Reuben walked out making most of his crew smile as he walked out not a care in the world. Some of the officers stopped not having expected him to be so young."No need to use the words whorehouse on my ship when I don't partake in things like that." He said indicating the door to the corridor and his Office. "Customary to ask to use someone's office for breakfast."

It amazed Ambika Marwah how with a simple smile and by using the right words the Captain drew the air out of the room and restored confidence to his crew. The Special Officer found herself standing up from 'the chair' out of respect for the ship's master. She bowed her head slightly to Gregnol, only to meet the withering gaze of the Inspector. As Ojha raise her eyebrow, Ambika simply went to parade rest. A move of independence that would undoubtedly draw her more shit assignments, but she found she didn't really care as the move restore some shreads of pride.

"Well, it seems some of my squad is easily impressed Captain ." Ojha said returning to look at Reuben, "I believe we have some things to talk about in term of two of your crewmen and the murder of an Azzia national. Shall we?" she tried to command as she walked a head of Reuben into his office.

"That is because I am handsome and a devil in disguise." The Captain said with a wink before he followed. He moved and sat at his desk, it was his office, his ship and he wasn't allowing this Officer take control of anything at all. "So you say two of my crewmen are involved in a murder of someone?" Reuben said firmly as Reessem came in carrying a tray with some food and drinks.

“We shall get to that presently my dear Captain.” the Detective Inspector replied as she placed a bundle of official paperwork on Reuben’s desk, “What you now have in front of you is copy of the warrant my people and I are currently in the process of executing on this,,,Craft.” Ojha had to stop herself from sing the dozen or so terms she wished to use for this foul-smelling ship and its crew of mlecchas. “In short it allows me to confiscate and computer records, logs along with any physical evidence associated with my investigation as well as search your vessel for people of interest in connection with two capital crimes, namely a female trill, Ms. Dixoho Saa, bounty on her, and a human male, Michael Robertson, bounty hunter.” The amount of bile Ojha used in describing Michael’s profession left no doubt in her opinion of such a man.

Ojha accepted the drink from Reessem without acknowledgement, which was, for her, the appropriate response to any servant, as she allow the captain time to review the legal document, “Tell me Captain, a 'venerable girl' and an unsavory mercenary who held something over her. What is the exact nature of their relationship?” she asked as she sipped her tea, unwilling to give up trying to intimidate the arrogant gora sitting across from her,

"Thank you Reessem." The man said with an easy smile. If the woman in front of him was going to be rude to a young member of his crew especially another woman. He firmly believed there was a special place in hell for women who treated other women like that. "Detective Inspector... we both work in the same line of work. I was a Police Officer for Starfleet so let us both level here. You cannot do that to a foreign ship especially one brought here under treaty from your government to bring medical supplies that you need." Reuben knew what they could and couldn't do. It had been explained to him. "Now talking about my two Department Heads." He said softly. "Don't you believe in people getting second chances?" He wondered.

Ojha could not believe the arrogance of this smiling monkey-face Gora, “What I believe, Mr. Gregnol is that I have a dead woman on a slab in a morgue, whose been viciously tortured and murdered.” Ojha said narrowing her eyes, “I believe that I have the blood-soaked clothing of your beloved department heads that were found in the dumpster next to the woman’s body! Clothes that were bagged along with torn bloody remains of a little girl’s dress belonging to my victim’s daughter!” She added standing up and slamming her fist on Rueben’s desk, “So I believe I also have, at least a kidnapping victim whose possibly also been the victim of assault!” Ojha then sighed, placing her hands the desk, trying to 'collect' herself, “I know my homicide victim was killed over twelve hours ago.” Bringing her tired eyes up to meet Ruben’s, “And I know if you were really were a police officer then you know what every hour that goes by means to possibility of finding that little girl alive.”

Sinking back into the seat all her arrogance apparently gone, she said, “Now if your ship is truly carrying an Imperial Mandate, then you are correct, it trumps my Regional Warrant as long as you are not harboring those two.” Looking sympathetically into his eyes she added, “I understand to want to protect your people. Right now, I want to protect a little girl and bring her home to her family. If you kick me off our ship without everything I need to bring your people in alive, you are going to force me to issue a region wide BOLO for them as being armed and dangerous, that will not end well”

Ojha knew she just gave one of her better performances to this human and the servant girl. But inwardly she scowled seeing the uncertainty the Captain's eyes. The stupid cow Mawah was correct in advising them to take a softer approach, damn her eyes. Ojha knew she'd need something else to convince this Gora of her 'sincerity.'

Suddenly the doors to the office parted allowing SO Mawah to enter with Science Chief Carli in tow. "My apologies, Detective Inspector." Ambika said, "This individual's refusing to allow us access to the computer

Dodian stood there, her eyes looking away like a child that had been scolded, but she still wouldn't cow tow to a request from people who had just materialised on the bridge. She had information that was precious to her, in fact nearly all information was, but her analysis and research into the anomaly of Azzia was more so... even if they weren't even aware of it. She was stubborn when it came to protecting what was hers, decades of abuse and neglect will do that to a person.

Before anyone could respond, Reuben's communicator began to chirp.

"Captain Gregnol, this is Rebecca, the A.I. for Micheal's shuttle," the A.I. sounded worried as she spoke. "Sir, I apologize for the interruption, however, a pair of Azzian law enforcers are attempting to force my hatch open. If they do not desist immediately, I will be forced to defend myself." Her voice lightened slightly as she continued. "And I would really hate to damage your nice shuttlebay in any way, Sir."

Without another word Oja tapped the communicator on her wrist, "Attention Special Operation Group, The officers attempting to enter Micheal Robertson's shuttle, you are ordered to stand down." She then turned her sympathetic eyes towards the captain as if to say 'I can be reasonable, why can't you?'

"Don't play me." The Captain said standing to his full height and leant across the desk, leaning close to the woman. "I'll help you but don't play me. I can be nice or I can be very nasty and play my own game...yes I do have an Imperial Mandate from your empire and I will call up the nice people who gave it to me." He threatened.

Ojha felt her wrist comm vibrate three times, bringing a sense of relief to her face, "Of course Captain, " she said smiling at his pompous attitude. "I see now how wrong I was in my approach to you." then turning to Ambika added, "You were right Officer Marwah. Whe should have just beamed aboard and asked to interview the good Captain." she turned back to Rueben and said, "In fact, I think I will allow SO Marwah to conduct the interview from here Captain, she is far more familiar with the case than I am."

"Very well Ma'am" Ambika replied feeling thoroughly confused, taking the DI's seat

Ojha stood up and demurely headed for the door, Before leaving she turned and with her best saccharine smile said, "Again I must apologise for my heavy handedness Captain."

The Captain smiled sitting back in his chair giving the woman a charming smile. "Wasn't so hard to admit that we could work together now, was it? My crew are missing and I was about to come to you about them being missing. Micheal is trouble but he is loyal to this ship and to Dixoho. And my Chief Navigator would never disappear we've been her lifeline to save her from the bad people. " He wasn't going to suffer fools with this woman, he had met bigger, badder and scarier people.

As the Detective Inspector left the office Ambika cleared her throat knowing her interview with Reuben was going to be nigh on impossible still she had a job to do, "Very well Captain, I' like to request you one thing before we begin," she said glancing over to Dodian, "If you could please tell your science officer to release the computers for our techs. We will only look for and copy the files specified in our warrant." she explained, "Under the law, you can have this processed monitored."

Looking at the apparent officer in charge Dodian shrugged and walked back out on to the bridge. She did as she had been asked but would monitor all access whilst the Azzian techs looked things over. She would, however, keep her own research locked, there was nothing in there for them to see.

"STAND DOWN! STAND DOWN! I REPEAT! EVERYONE! STAND DOWN!" Reuben stopped dead as he heard that tone from the communicators they had. He had heard many times panic tones like that. Men who didn't have enough wit about them to keep there call. "This is breach team 2, I repeat this is breach team 2, Medical Emergency crew deck, civilian down!"

Reuben turned on the Officer in Charge. "Who the hell have your people shot!" He demanded already running for the turbolift. He would deal with his new Chief Scientist later on and congratulate her on being a thorn in people overreaching there mandate but for now, he needed to find who had been shot.

Ambika followed the Captain out of his office but stopped short of the lift. A look of confusion and distress hung on her face, I look that was compounded by the word of DI Ojha. "DIVVIE-365, this it Breach-Actual, two to be,"

"Ma'am we can't!" Ambika protested, "The case! The girl! For the love of all Azzain! It sounded like one of our teams SHOT someone" she screamed, actually finally screamed at this witch, "We can't leave!"

"OFFICER MARWAH!" Ojha growled, "YOU FORGET YOURSELF! Now I can leave you here too, liason with that Captain, or should I request to beam back over to the DIVVIE?"

Much to Ambika's disgrace, she turned her eyes to the deck as the transporter field surrounded her. As the bridge faded she glanced over to the science officer an inwardly recoiled at the look on her face.


OFF::

Reuben Gregnol
Captain
SS Mary Rose

Dodian Carli
Science Chief
SS Mary Rose

Reessem Nubohn
Secretary
SS Mary Rose
(PNPC Gregnol)

S.I. Ambika Marwah
Azzia Regional Guarda
(NPC Kane)

D.I. Ojha
Azzia Regional Guarda
(NPC Kane)