All aboard the Chakotay (Away Team)

[Cadfael Jaco]

"The Blood"

Since that diplomat from the Most Serene Republic of D'medi had been very clearly assassinated on Delta One, Cadfael had been involved from day one at Art's very special request with the investigation being conducted by Commander Woods and Lieutenant Wilson. At the moment, the bartender had left his bar for a multiple-day away mission on the USS Chakotay, one of Delta One's two runabouts. Accompanied by a Security detail, they were to find out who in the planet's complex political framework had seen fit to assassinate the D'medi diplomat.

He looked at Ambassador Mirax, Commander Woods and Lieutenant Wilson, who were in various positions and at various stations on the runabout. "Well, guess we're going to have to chart Planet Machiavelli..." he said pleasantly, giving them a smile. "Good you brought a barkeeper! We'll probably be needing a lot of drinks before we found out what happened to that diplomat..."

Tag: Mirax/Magnus/Jethro

[Gideon Jethro Woods]

Ordinarily Jethro was against being sent on away missions, he was also against going anywhere off station in uniform. After a long conversation with the stations commanding officer he resigned his objections and reported for away team duty in a shiny new star fleet uniform complete with polished boots and com badge, not to mention his duty belt, phaser and tricorder...

He took a seat near the back of the runabout, he didn't say anything to anyone when he had arrived, but he had given Cadfael a nod in way of greeting. He knew the bartender and former diplomat had a penchant for mysteries and thought having him along would give him someone else to bounce ideas off of. He found himself wishing he had been assigned an investigations team, but even if he had they would not have arrived yet anyway. He looked at Magnus and hoped he had overcome his issues with his eye, knowing what he knew of the man he was confident that the three of them with their security detail could easily handle this investigation.

He pulled up a readout on the screen at his station and began reviewing the crime scene images, he then pulled up a brief history of the Republic of D'medi. It had been a diplomat of lesser position that had been killed, assassination was the current theory. Jethro did not believe in coincidences so he was keeping his eyes and ears open for the next link in the investigation, he was hoping for anything that would allow him to remain on the station. He was not looking forward to this at all and was fairly certain the others going were well aware of this by now. The files were few and far between, contact with the Republic of D'medi had been scarce, as they were only one of many diplomatic delegations currently visiting the station.

"Does anyone have an updated file on these people? This system doesn't seem to have anything useful."

He looked to one of the young security crewman that had been assigned to the detail, he kept watching Jethro at the terminal.

"Sir." The young man said with a shaky voice. "...I think I might be able to help."

Jethro just looked at him for a minute.

"What's your name son?"

"Devon sir, Leonard Devon. Crewman First Class..." He was going to give more when Jethro cut him off.

"Okay Leo..." He said as he stood from the terminal. "...Let's see what you can do. I need all the files on them, even the sealed ones that haven't been released to Star fleet yet."

"Sir, it's a serious crime to hack into the database for those files."

"Are you telling me you can't do it?"

"No sir, I can do it, I just wanted you to be aware of the enormous amount of star fleet regulations I'll be violating, breaking and bending completely out of shape."

Jethro leaned down to whisper in his ear. "Leo, if you get me what I want I will have you permanently reassigned to my team, and I'm pretty sure my clearance will cover your actions today."

Apparently that had given Leo all the boost he had needed because his fingers began dancing across the console and in only a few moments the encrypted files that star fleet had not shared with the DS1 crew were sitting in the open on the console.

"Well done Leo, welcome to Star fleet Intelligence."

And Jethro meant that too, he was never very god at the computer hacking stuff and now he had an assistant that knew what he was doing, all he needed now was for his apprentice, Samuel 'Sam' Potter, to arrive. He still liked having four team members but with the disappearance of Sam's partner they had been left short handed to begin with. When Jethro had transferred to Ops on the Orion Sam had taken over the team and lost the other two members of the team in a mission on Romulus. Now that Jethro was back Sam had requested to be reassigned with his old boss, although he would never tell Woods that he requested it. They had just picked up number three and he was looking for number four, he preferred to have at least one female working with them, but he also needed someone that was a security veteran and an expert in various fields... he was going to keep his feelers out for someone with those talents.

Jethro finished reading the file that Leo had produced and then tapped Leo on the shoulder, a signal to kill the illegal link, which Leo did rather quickly.

"No one should know we were ever there sir."

"Stop calling me sir and get back to your post, we'll talk later."

He sat back down and typed up a quick memo to the director of Star fleet Intelligence requesting the transfer of Leonard Devon to his team effective immediately. Even with the wormhole it would be a week or so before he got a response, so he let Leo continue his assigned task, he figured he had time to kill before making him an official probationary agent.

He sat back and spun his seat around to see everyone else on board, it was getting close to show time, he was ready for this investigation. The question remained, was the investigation ready for him?



TAG: Any

[possum3]

Mirax was always wary on these sorts of missions. She had handled very delicate, assassination-related diplomacy before, and everybody always expected her to root out the killer with her telepathic abilities. She was often left wanting to scream that guilt was very subjective. Whoever was supposed to be protecting that man probably felt entirely responsible whether he was holding the smoking gun or not.

Yes, she could go looking in people's memories -- and yes, she could find the fatal act itself, but doing so was never proof enough. People always thought she was planting evidence. People wanted to protect their own, and they didn't trust a telepath either.

She wasn't sure what she made of this little team yet. Tension was high aboard the shuttle -- nobody was ever relaxed en route to investigate a murder. Cadfael was himself, as ever, she sensed him and found it a comfort that he was there to anchor them -- she was young, if not inexperienced in her role, and often found herself working against her abilities to try to fit in to a team. With him there, there would be another voice of reason. She was beginning to think they needed one -- certainly Woods was giving her pause.

"These people have to trust us to investigate this crime effectively without resorting to underhanded measures," she pointed out, her tone mild, but her expression quite serious. "That seems an excessive amount of probing to do before we've so much as spoken to anybody, don't you think? We ought to just ask them for the information."

Mirax was honest. She wasn't a jobsworth and she had little mind to sticking robotically to protocol when there was another option, but she did know people, and she knew how important it was to be trusted, especially in delicate situations like this one. Her first impression of Woods was that he was the sort of person who was more interested in results than finesse, which was fine... if the situation wasn't so politically charged.

She inclined her head slightly and looked at Woods, one fingernail drumming nervously against her PaDD. It was the only outward indication that she wasn't entirely comfortable: she'd been looking at crime scene photographs, too.

Tag Jethro/any!

[Gideon Jethro Woods]

"These people have to trust us to investigate this crime effectively without resorting to underhanded measures. That seems an excessive amount of probing to do before we've so much as spoken to anybody, don't you think? We ought to just ask them for the information."

Typical diplomat, and he wasn't to keen on her being a telepath either. There had been more than one occasion in his past where a telepath of some form or another had either blown his cover or made his agents in the field and it had cost some their lives. He liked his secrets, especially the one that had the ability to end his career in star fleet, but he shoved it to the back of his mind so she wouldn't get a glimpse of it... he hoped it had worked...

"I don't like asking questions without having a good idea of what the answer is going to be."

It was a simple statement, but the truth. Whenever he had run an interrogation he usually had something to back up his theory and was almost always right, based on his famous 'gut' instincts. There had been a rash of murders on Earth back when he had first become a Senior Agent and his gut had led to the killers involved, it was some sort of ancient cult but that was years ago and had no relevance here...

He had a job to do, and so did everyone else on the ship and he preferred to leave the diplomacy and politics to those in that field, he was simply going to conduct his investigation his way and try not to step on too many toes in the process. He hoped that would be easier out here than it had been at other posts.

"I'm certain everyone here has seen the crime scene photos taken by Mr. Wilson's team. This is not your typical diplomatic meeting, this is a murder investigation. You handle the politics, I'll catch the bad guy and then we can all relax over a stiff drink at Cadfael's"

He hated when he had to explain himself and found himself wishing that Sam's transfer had been completed before they had to leave, it would be nice to have his apprentice along, someone that knew what he was thinking without having to read his mind first. He missed his team, but he'd never tell any of them that. Sam only knew he was appreciated when Jethro remembered to smack him in the back of the head for saying something dumb.

He sat back in his seat and reviewed the files from the station one last time, then began studying the images of the crime scene again, both before the body was removed and after, he was sure there was something there, staring him in the face... His gut was certain he was missing something, but he might not figure out what until they arrived at the planet.



TAG: Any

[possum3]

"I'm certain everyone here has seen the crime scene photos taken by Mr. Wilson's team. This is not your typical diplomatic meeting, this is a murder investigation. You handle the politics, I'll catch the bad guy and then we can all relax over a stiff drink at Cadfael's"

"This isn't a typical murder investigation either," Mirax replied, almost under her breath. She didn't want to argue with him. She had the sense that it would be the same as trying to argue with a brick -- her immediate, overwhelming reaction to his mental presence was that he was stubborn. She was disinclined to go raking around in people's minds without good cause, however, and so she was only picking up on his reaction to her.

He didn't like telepaths. Mirax was used to that, or at least, she should have been -- but it didn't smart any less, no matter how many times she encountered the resistance. Mentally she was very different, but emotionally she had all the same needs and wants as any human. Even though she knew perfectly well that this would happen, she hoped every time that it wouldn't. There were times when her interest in exploration and meeting new people and races meant she was utterly isolated, and the feeling was only amplified by her squeamishness over the crime.

She pressed her lips together and turned pointedly away from Lt Commander Woods.

TAG: Any

[Gideon Jethro Woods]

"This isn't a typical murder investigation either,"

He learned all he needed to know about her from that one statement...

"There's no such thing as a 'typical' murder investigation. Never will be."

He said as he sat back in his chair and sipped at the coffee he had brought with him, he was hardly ever seen without his trademark cup of black coffee, no sweetener and no cream...

He had been involved in countless investigations over the years and the one thing that remained a constant among them all was that no two were alike and there was never a standard or typical scenario. She would learn that soon enough...

He began reading about the person that had been killed, his personal and professional life, interests and pursuits. he even looked into the man's relationships just to see if he could determine a motive before they arrived. He was not able to locate one, then he thought perhaps the motive was simply to disrupt the inaugural gatherings on the new station, which made it a very high profile case as it was already. He needed more information but he didn't have the proper team to gather exactly what he needed, he'd have to do most of it himself... which was okay with him, but he would have liked to have some better trained back up along just in case.


TAG: Any

[possum3]

You underestimate your behaviour, Mirax projected at Gideon, unable to resist it. She knew he wasn't going to like it, and that was why she had done it. It wasn't like her to be spiteful, but she was feeling just a little displaced at that moment -- he made her feel superfluous to the entire process, and she didn't appreciate it remotely. If she was going to grit her teeth and force herself to be objective on this one when she knew full well she was going to feel every ripple of tension and every ounce of grief that these people were feeling, then the least he could do was -- was -- try to pretend that it was worth something, even if he didn't really think so. Mirax paid no mind to the concept that even if he had pretended, she would have known he was faking it. She would have appreciated his effort in the matter.

She looked at those photos and knew, with a knot of dread in her stomach, that she was going to find people confused, frightened, and upset, and that she was going to feel it all just the same as they were.

Only they weren't expected to be diplomatic about it. Or objective. She didn't think for a moment that Woods appreciated the strength it took to be a telepath in a situation like this one. He might have the autonomy to act without thinking and get away with it -- Mirax was going to see every single side of the fallout from it.

She was already on edge, and he was definitely making it worse.

Tag: Gideon! ((OOC: lol! Touched a nerve there ))

[Gideon Jethro Woods]

He felt a funny tingling in the back of his head and knew it could have only come from one place, he hated that about them, these 'people' that could do things to you without your knowledge, as if his job wasn't going to be hard enough as it was. He set his cup down and slowly stood from his seat, tugging his uniform onto place, a move known affectionately as 'the Picard maneuver'. He immediately shifted his emotions to the back of his mind and cleared all his thoughts, a trick he had picked up on Betazed. He was in full on interrogator mode and approached Mirax slowly and cautiously. He rested his hands on the arms of her chairs and got very close to her, speaking in a tone so low that only Mirax and himself could hear his words. There was nothing coming from him that she could read affectively, only brief flashes that would make no sense at the moment, again part of his extensive training.

"You need to back off right now."

It was not a threat or a suggestion but the look in his eyes made it an order, it was not merely an order from a Lt. Commander to a Lt. J.G. nor was it an order from a Star fleet Intelligence officer, who had the power to order almost any member of Star fleet around if the situation called for it, but the order of a soldier to a member of an indigenous species with the capability to get him and all his men killed, this was the order of a man who had taken lives on the battlefield as opposed to a man who gave the living closure and justice when he solved a case.

"We are about to walk into a hornets nest of who knows what, and you want to debate semantics?"

He kept his tone even and cool

"Your abilities are about to open you up to a world of hurt and I don't envy you one bit, but you of all people should understand the range of emotions we are walking into."

His tone never changed as he told her things he was certain she already knew, even if she acted like this was her first rodeo.

"You probably have the knot the size of Earth forming in your stomach and I can guarantee these people are going to be confused, frightened, upset, resentful and full of hate directed at all of us for allowing this crime to happen in the first place and I know darn well that you are going to feel everything they feel with every fiber of your being..."

This was his gift, to know how people felt and what they thought just by reading expressions and body language, he didn't need any special telepathic abilities to do his job and he knew how to get under people's skin just as well.

"...You are going to feel all the tension and grief and probably think I should pretend to feel it too. Well let me tell you something, I do feel it. I feel the pain every family feels on every one of these investigations. I know what it's like to lose someone close to you..."

He thought about his first wife and his daughter and forced the emotions back down, hoping she had not gotten a glimpse of it. Knowing that if she did she would probably feel his love for his family, his anger at the one who killed them, the vengeance in his heart, the rage and hatred and finally the satisfaction of his revenge and justice.

"...to you I may seem like I don't care. I may come off as not thinking this mans death is worth something, but let's get one thing straight. I know how much this matters more than you do and I need you to suck it up, turn off your own emotions and do your darn job so we can do ours. let's catch the people responsible, hand them over to our new friends and get our butts back home before we cause another interplanetary incident."

He was well aware of how deeply he had laid into her and felt bad that it had come to this, but he needed her on the top of her game, at her very best and there was only one way he knew how to get people to that point, and he had just done it... the Woods way.

He slowly stood up, let go of her chair arms and took a step back.

"Understand?"

His final word came not in the hushed tone he had been using, it was not the same even coolness he had been snapping at her in. Instead it was his regular everyday tone of voice, Woods the interrogator was gone for now and Woods the man had returned.

He had asked her if she understood, not if she had understood how much he cared, not if she understood how he felt and not if she understood that he needed her at her best, he simply wanted to know if she understood him, where he was coming from and if she understood he was going to do his job with a passion that was unprecedented in an Intelligence Officer. If she said yes then they would never again butt heads, if she didn't then this was going to be the longest journey of their lives...



TAG: Mirax/Any

[possum3]

Mirax understood what he was saying perfectly. It was how he was acting that she objected to -- he was out of the gate before the starting pistol had fired. She objected only to his hacking, not to his other methods -- and even then, only the timing of it. He hadn't given their targets so much as the chance to be secretive, and in doing so had already breached their trust for absolutely no definable gain. This was information they needed to get, yes. If they found there were obstacles in their way on the surface, then so be it, hack the database -- but not before. Not before they'd tried. She knew perfectly well what she was doing -- she was forced by her very nature to be as open with people as they had to be with her. If she turned up on a team that was cavalier about that, her sincerity would be questioned and her own effectiveness considerably lowered.

He may have been advancing under his own power, but he was crippling another leg of the team with his trigger-happy underhandedness. She stiffened as he leaned over her, glancing at Cadfael as if to question that it was really happening, that he was really going to invade her personal space and what, threaten her with his physical size? She didn't flinch or break eye contact with him, but she would have been lying if she'd said she wasn't holding her breath.

"I have to work hard to convince people to trust me, Lietenant Commander," Mirax said, her voice equally low. "You'll have to forgive me that I don't find it especially charming when others do not take similar efforts. I understand perfectly everything that you say, my objection is regarding the manner in which you obtain your information."

Besides which, two can play at guessing games, Mr. Woods, she added, talking to him telepathically. She could feel that he had suffered a tragedy like this before, certainly. She could sense too, an urgency to keep her from those thoughts -- she did not deny him his grief, but she wondered if he knew how skewed by it he was. His empathy didn't afford him rights he did not have. She didn't pry any further than the surface, though the urge was strong to do it out of spite.

She did not consider him untalented, or lacking in expertise. What she wanted to deliver to him was patience and resolve.

Perhaps it's lucky that you can trust me. You need not concern yourself with how I feel, but I think you may want to consider how your own feelings effect you.

Tag: Gideon/Any

[Gideon Jethro Woods]

"I have to work hard to convince people to trust me, Lieutenant Commander. You'll have to forgive me that I don't find it especially charming when others do not take similar efforts. I understand perfectly everything that you say, my objection is regarding the manner in which you obtain your information."

He leaned back as he thought 'this is going to be a very long trip.' and then turned to look at her, speaking in a normal tone, although lower so as not to disturb everyone else on the ship he replied...

"We all have to work hard to convince people to trust us, some of us have simply stopped trying. Your objection is noted but I can not run an investigation without proper information. Now that I have gathered as much as I can from the computers when you speak to them and they give us information that doesn't match what I've read I'll be one step closer to solving the problem..."

He sighed heavily

"...I needed a point of reference, otherwise they can stand there and lie to us all day and we'll never know the difference."


TAG: Any

[possum3]

"Then what do you do on cases where there are no files to rake through in advance?" Mirax raised her eyebrows. "Surely you know how to cross-examine a suspect so that he is trapped by his own lies. Besides which -- I would know the difference. Moreover, they know that I know the difference. In fact, a forged file would be less easy to catch out than a lying suspect."

He might have found it easier to extract information this way, but she wasn't going to let him tell her he had been forced to do it. Mirax thought she detected a hint of a sulk in him then, and she was amused. It was done now -- they were just arguing semantics, but she couldn't let it drop.

Tag: Any

[Gideon Jethro Woods]

"Then what do you do on cases where there are no files to rake through in advance?"

He was starting to get a headache...

"Surely you know how to cross-examine a suspect so that he is trapped by his own lies. Besides which -- I would know the difference. Moreover, they know that I know the difference. In fact, a forged file would be less easy to catch out than a lying suspect."

...and his cup was empty, now she wanted to play the semantics game with him, he hated arguing for the sake of arguing, he preferred to argue only when it got him somewhere in the long run, this however was going to get nobody anyway...

"When there aren't files to go through first..." He began in a low but even tone

"...then we don't have much of a crime now do we?" he was being cynical now, and it was getting harder for him to relax. He needed more coffee and even the non telepathic crew members could tell that already.

"...cases like this require a body and that body has a name and a history, therefor we have files to look through for clues..." and I hate waiting for some bureaucrat to take his sweet time cutting through the red tape, he thought angrily as he looked around for a replicator to get more coffee from.

"...and examining and cross examining only work on races with an inability to keep their stories straight, who knows how much time these people have had to prepare. They may certainly know that you would know if they were lying, but if they believed the lie was the truth how would you discern it? Not to mention that the person who committed this crime will most certainly have a target painted on your head now as well, because you'd be able to spot them in a crowd better than the rest of us..."

He wondered if she was getting his point yet, that they could have concocted such an elaborate deception that even she would be unable to see through it, or if she realized that by being able to see through it she would most certainly be marked for death as well, he tried to illustrate that point to her without coming out and saying she was a liability, a security risk and a potential target, but he was sure she would understand how he felt on that matter soon enough.

He got up and made his way to the replicator...

"Coffee, dark French roast, black, make it room temperature."

It was his usual flavor and the computer filled his cup as requested. He took the cup and sipping slightly retook his seat, leaning his head back against the headrest. He said nothing further to her, figuring there was no need to at the moment, but then again she may want to get in the last word and this futile conversation would resume once more in their petty squabbling. Several times he'd had to look at her just to make sure she wasn't one of his ex-wives, he thought only women he had been married to could get under his skin like this...



TAG: Any

[Cadfael Jaco]

Cadfael had been listening to the discussion unfolding, slightly bemused at the animosity between the diplomat and the intelligence officer. They were more alike than they realised or perhaps cared to admit, Cadfael thought with a smile and a nod: both dealed in information, and both had to keep it secret to make it count. But somehow, he didn't think that breaking these things to Mirax wouldn't help. Nor would Woods, now irritably getting coffee to get away from the diplomat. Oh, the joy of being a simple bartender...

He decided to keep it at that and act as if he were absorbed in the report on the three or four dozen city-states that dominated the planet they were going to. It was a puzzle: a complex, political puzzle. He liked that, and although he didn't like the murder, being an Angosian who despised violence, he did much like the implications. Oh, the old fool that I am at times... Cadfael got up and walked over to the replicator. "Angosian Cream Tea, Hot," he ordered. The soothing beverage in his hand, he went over to where Mirax was sitting.

"Well, Mirax," he said to her. "I've got some time to read over the report. I must say, we're really up for a puzzle. To take all the 49 other city-states on the planet and search them one by one, we'd be needing a lot of time!" He chuckled.

Tag: Mirax/Jethro

[possum3]

Mirax was beginning to wonder if the entire team they had assembled was insane.

"You've never had a John Doe? Never." Mirax was sceptical on that score, but supposed as he was Starfleet, he was correct: they had files on everybody, more detailed than anything Mirax had ever had to look for before. She wasn't from a military background, and sometimes, it showed. She wasn't going to give him it that easily, though.

"Besides which," she said nonchalantly, "I didn't say you couldn't have your files, Lieutenant Commander. I simply don't agree with your snatching them like a greedy little boy."

Her expression was arch as she regarded him ordering his coffee -- room temperature! Awful. She didn't respond to the accusation that she was a liability. She knew she was at risk -- she always was in situations such as this one. She made an effort not to be paranoid over it, it was hard for her to allow people their suspicions without taking it so personally that she couldn't connect with them. She was by no means perfect, but she put in a good effort to be open. She did not like to feel marginalised and excluded from her own team, however, and he had certainly put her back up with his outward and inward assertions on the subject.

Mirax was glad when Cadfael chimed in, although she wasn't entirely sure what he meant when he spoke.

"Surely we'd begin with the capital," she said, and wrinkled her brow. "There's nothing to say the killer hasn't left the planet entirely. I'm assuming that all transport to and from the surface has been halted, but even so, it may not have been in time. Even if we had no files, we'd start where the man died and interview his staff and acquaintances to discover if he had any enemies with a motive."

She didn't say it, but she wanted to: don't think I don't understand the process of investigating crime. Jethro had made her prickly, and Cadfael's friendly banter was just a hair too late to be comforting. She didn't appreciate the intelligence officer's somewhat threatening admission that he thought she was next, and as tensions in the shuttle rose she could only be more and more effected by the atmosphere in it.

[Gideon Jethro Woods]

"You've never had a John Doe? Never."

"Besides which I didn't say you couldn't have your files, Lieutenant Commander. I simply don't agree with your snatching them like a greedy little boy."

Sitting in his seat and sipping his coffee he listened to her still, he had little choice anyway.

"I've had several John Does, but they always have a name and I always find it." Or my medical examiner and coroner do, but he didn't say that part.

"And I do not snatch them like a greedy little boy, I simply gather as much information as I can. It's in my job description... and if possible, please stop calling me by my rank, you can call me Jethro, besides on this mission it might be better if only those in uniform were addressed by their ranks. My cover is going to be your diplomatic assistant, so lets try and keep the rank thing under our hat so to speak."

He did not move from his slightly reclined position, he was trying to figure out exactly how he was going to run this investigation without drawing attention to himself as the lead investigator, that's why he asked for so many security officers to be present on this trip. he had also hoped to enlist Cadfael's services in unraveling this puzzle for he knew the man had an interest in solving problems and fancied private eye holonovels.

Cadfael then engaged Mirax in conversation and he listened, but not to closely...

TAG: Any