435 Intriguing Intrigue
It was surprising how quickly the various agencies and departments of Starfleet could mobilize people to congregate on the planet Risa in short order. By the time the male and female agents of Section 31 received their modified orders, there were already eight other teams of people there from the Starfleet Diplomatic Corps, Starfleet Personnel, Starfleet Security, Starfleet R&D, Starfleet Medical, Starfleet Operations, Starfleet Intelligence, and Starfleet Command.
It was downright crowded at the main resort and the locals couldn't have been happier with so many more people to take care of. There was plenty of room for them all and they filled several floors with them, near their targets of course, since the new visitors paid more than the standard rates for the privilege. Not surprisingly, none of them detected the advanced ship in orbit around the planet and assumed Riker and Crusher had been dropped off.
As for the crew of the USS Retaliation, they were all quite amused that their command figures had gained so much attention and they hadn't tried to do so. It was just a consequence of their actions, that just so happened to protect and save as many people as they could.
It was almost funny how the assigned people were almost stumbling over themselves and everyone else that was there for the same reason. There were a lot of glares, quite a few quiet conversations as they discovered who else was there, and a few of them recognized members of other departments. It was a mess and almost none of them managed to achieve what they wanted.
*
The female agent once again managed to find where Riker and Crusher were hiding themselves. It had been a little difficult, since they had been a little more discreet with their public displays of affection after the response to her partner's report back to Starfleet started appearing as many assigned teams from every department.
Even she had been surprised at the reaction to the knowledge that they had been tracked down. Instead of being subtle about things and discreetly contacting them, to try and establish polite communications with them, they were essentially trying to force themselves onto people that were there on vacation.
As an experienced agent, she was not that stupid to think it would work like that. Her own very small and effective efforts had been well received and she hadn't mentioned that to her partner, because he would crow about it and would push things in the same way as the rest would. Forcing things would only push them further away and he was too impatient to let things progress like they needed to.
“It really is working.” A soft female voice said to her right.
The female agent wasn't visibly startled, even if her thoughts had stuttered at being snuck up on so easily. She turned her head to look, only to lock eyes with Lwaxana Troi herself. “Your highness.”
Lwaxana smiled knowingly. “Ah, you do have good training to try and occlude your thoughts. Well done.” She whispered and the female agent nodded. “It doesn't work on someone like me, however.”
“I know. I've been fully briefed.” The female agent said and went back to watching Riker.
“Thomas really is receptive to you, thanks to your efforts to keep the others away and let him have his fun, while also maintaining your distance and surveillance.” Lwaxana informed her.
“I'm glad.” The female agent responded, because she really was. It wasn't easy to cause so many distractions and delays with so many people trying to get the man's attention.
Lwaxana handed her a small card. “Be there alone after midnight and your efforts will be rewarded appropriately.”
The female agent took it without reading it and tucked it into her bikini top. “You don't mean what I hope you mean, do you?”
Lwaxana smiled at her not trying to see where to go right away and then softly laughed at the other woman's question. “Not even I can pry Beverly's hands from his cock long enough to give it a stroke... or a thousand. It's the most perfect one I've ever seen and he doesn't seem to mind showing it off.”
“No, he doesn't.” The female agent said and licked her lips. “It's such a shame she won't share some of the wealth with the excessively needy.”
Lwaxana softly laughed again and patted her shoulder. “I know, dear.” She said as she stood and then walked away. “I know.”
The female agent didn't try to keep her in sight and instead continued to look over at Riker as he flirted with Crusher at the bar inside the wading pool. You would think he wouldn't have to do that, since they were already together, then the agent realized what he was doing. He was making the effort to show the one he was with that she was the only one he would obviously flirt with.
Damn, he's good. The female agent thought and her hand reached up and caressed the card inside her bikini top. She couldn't wait to find out what her appropriate reward was going to be, even if her thoughts were filled with replacing Crusher for an evening, or maybe only for an hour. Would an hour with him be worth throwing my career away as a spy?
Her eyes dropped to Beverly's hand caressing his thigh and he sprang right up for her again.
Perhaps. The female agent thought and waved a male attendant over. Although, the alternatives aren't nearly as disappointing as I thought they would be.
The happy young man took her hand and led her into the next little private area and the agent bent over to show off her ass to him. With a little wiggle, her bikini bottom was on the ground and the attendant's hardness entered her dripping opening.
She let out a needy sound as she imagined it was Riker that was giving her a fairly good time. Although, she somehow knew that he would not disappoint her if he ever did bed her. He just seemed like a man that would always make the effort on her behalf, if the constant smile on Crusher's face was any indication.
With a soft moan, she managed to come and told the virile young man to pull out just before he came, too. She didn't feel like wasting more time by having to clean the mess out and she turned to give the young man a kiss on the cheek in thanks. He looked happy and tucked himself away, then left.
The agent went back to her lounge chair and resumed her surveillance on her target and her anticipation was subdued enough to not bother her. Getting off was a great way to relax and she mentally added this mission to the top of her list of the best ones.
*
I stood there in the shadows as I waited for Agent Keyla of Section 31 to arrive. She was the sixth one to adopt the name as an agent code and I chuckled at the thought of some of the other captains of important starships encountering their own Keylas.
She actually did show up alone, even though she had to argue with her partner about it. He tried to follow her and she shut him down hard, leaving him unconscious in the bushes near their room on the ground floor. At least she didn't leave him in sight to be found by the many other Starfleet personnel skulking around.
I stepped out into sight as soon as she did, making her briefly freeze, then she walked over to me like her hips were on a swivel. I ignored that, of course. The look of disappointment on her face would make Beverly pretty happy when she saw the recording of this meeting in the morning.
“The card said to show up wearing actual clothing and not a bathing suit, so I know this isn't a casual meeting.” Keyla said and she flicked her blonde hair over her shoulder to show that she wasn't wearing anything in her ear that might be a listening device.
“It's not.” I said and reached into my pants pocket and pulled out her reward. I held it out to her and she caught her breath.
“You're joking.” Keyla whispered and reached for it, then paused to only caress the commander rank bar with a fingertip.
“I'm in need of an experienced agent to lead an infiltration team.” I said and waved a hand at the surrounding hedges. A Chappel stepped out and she looked surprised, then chuckled.
“You didn't need the older version of the woman when you have the younger one.” Keyla said, misunderstanding the situation completely.
I smiled and motioned again, giving the 'all approach' hand signal.
Keyla stopped breathing for a moment when five more Chappels stepped out into view. They all wore the same tactical loadout we used to board Lore's ship and to raid the independent Borg base. “Wh-what... what are they?”
“They are Soong type androids that have been reworked to be better than Data.” I told her.
Keyla gasped and stared at each of them, then turned to stare at me. “You... you really...”
I nodded. “If you agree to join my crew, you'll get to train these six Chappels into your own personal guard to take on missions. More can be made available, depending on the situations that come up...”
“Like what?” Keyla asked and she glanced at the advanced phaser rifles. “Those are not standard issue type three rifles.”
“They are on my ship.” I said and she looked back at me. “Now that our vacation is over, we're going to start raiding Borg Cubes to rescue the captured Borg and restore them to human standard.”
“Borg!” Keyla gasped and her eyes widened. “You found actual Borg? The entire federation fleet needs to mobilize and...”
“No, they don't.” I cut her off. “The Borg Collective are not here in federation space. They're in the Delta Quadrant.”
Keyla's mind worked furiously over that information and her eyes narrowed as she came to the right conclusion. “You can get to the Delta Quadrant?”
“Using the same transwarp conduits the Borg use to travel great distances through space.” I said and her eyes widened again. “I'll show you how to open them and traverse them, not that they'll be around for much longer. One of our tasks is to cut off their access to Federation space by closing all but one of those conduits.”
“All but one.” Keyla whispered and she nodded. “One your ship will guard and protect, that you'll use to strike deep into the heart of Borg space to take the fight to them, instead of sitting here and letting them come to us to kill us.”
I nodded. “We start small by transporting over and bringing some Borg back to disconnect from the Collective. Small parties are not considered a threat, so they will ignore us as we start saving their captives from right under their noses.”
“As we save more and more of them from the same ship, there won't be enough of them to operate it or allow it to function at full capacity, making it safer and safer to approach, then the cube would eventually be empty and we can raid it for resources, technology, and information.” Keyla postulated as she thought about it.
“Exactly.” I said and held the commander bars out to her again.
“You know who I really work for.” Keyla said without grabbing them.
“I didn't say you had to quit, did I?” I asked and she caught her breath. “I will limit how much you can leak to them while you work for me, though.”
“Limit how?” Keyla asked and took the bars and snapped them onto her collar.
“You'll be briefed properly and certain things have to be kept secret.” I said and nodded at the Chappels. “That knowledge alone would shock Starfleet.”
“It shocked the hell out of me, so I agree.” Keyla said and smiled. “When is your fancy little ship going to show up in orbit and pick us up?”
“Show up? It's always been here.” I said and pointed up.
Keyla really didn't want to look up. She did not. She couldn't stop herself and did look up and gasped. Barely a few hundred feet above the resort was the USS Retaliation. It was also kind of see-through.
“What... what the hell?” Keyla whispered in shock.
“It's a device we picked up from the USS Pegasus.” I said and she snapped her eyes from the ship to stare at me. “You know about that?”
“We've been looking for the ship for years. That technology could have helped us save so many ships and people.” Keyla said.
“Yes, it could.” I said and tapped my comm badge. “Riker to transporter room. Beam us up.”
“You can't beam onto an insubstantial ship! We'll be scattered into...” Keyla shouted and I stepped from there to the transporter room as she and the Chappels were beamed up. “...our component atoms!”
“We fixed that flaw.” Chief Chappel said and put the transporter console back into standby mode. “Welcome back aboard, Admiral. Captain Crusher is waiting for you on the bridge.”
“I'm on my way.” I said and nodded at Keyla. “Chappel will show you to your quarters, commander. Settle in and try to relax. The adventure of your life is about to start as everything you have been working towards in Section 31 comes true.”
Keyla watched me leave the room and I heard a Chappel tell her that her things were already in her room and she would enjoy the theme they chose for her. I chuckled as the door hissed closed behind me and I made my way to the turbolift.
A short ride later, I met Beverly on the bridge and a younger Lwaxana Troi sat in Commander Chappel's seat and wore her uniform. I had to laugh at that and Lwaxana beamed a smile at me. I patted her shoulder and sat in the middle seat.
“We're all aboard, even the stragglers that didn't want to leave.” Beverly said.
“Silva managed to convince them to come back?” I asked.
“No, she stunned them and teleported them back.” Beverly answered.
I laughed again and shook my head. “Give them access to one of the advanced labs. That should keep them busy as they lament over their vacation being over.”
“A week really isn't long enough to see everything on the planet.” Lwaxana said.
“That's kind of the point of only staying for a week. There will always be more for us to enjoy every time we go back.” I told her and her face lit up.
“We can go back?!?” Wesley asked, excitedly.
“Not right now.” I said with a chuckle. “After a few more missions of picking up a few people that won't be missed, an excursion or two through a transwarp conduit to liberate a few hundred Borg, and we'll all want to take some time off to relax again.”
“I'll let the crew know.” Ops said and Chappel typed a few things and sent it. Her console beeped so many times that it sounded like an old fashioned telephone was ringing. “The response is slightly positive.”
Everyone on the bridge laughed at her joke.
“With everyone onboard, we can go.” Beverly said and sat back in her chair. “Wesley, set course for the Cairn homeworld to pick up the Ambassador and his daughter. Lwaxana has a visit to the Enterprise she needs to get to and report on her progress with the Cairn people.”
“Aye, captain. Setting course.” Wesley said and the ship flew up and out of the atmosphere.
“I can't wait to visit my idiot daughter to tell her how stupid she was to give up on you without even trying to recapture what she had before.” Lwaxana said with amusement.
“I'm pretty sure she knows that.” Beverly said and was amused, too. “She was right there on the bridge when I had my little meltdown with Picard.”
Lwaxana raised her eyebrows at her using his last name. “That friendship has been fully burned?”
“To the ground and past the foundation.” Beverly said with finality.
Lwaxana nodded and didn't comment about how sad that was. She had seen the bridge recording and knew there was no way to recover from a fight like that. Forgiveness could only take you so far and there was no way that Beverly was going to forgive the stubborn man for the things he had said to her.
I reached over and took Beverly's hand and she gave me a sad smile. We sat there as the ship flew out into open space and then we jumped to warp. We had a flagship to catch and an ambassador to deliver back to her job after her week having a lot of fun with a very proud Wesley and several happy Chappels.