We All Fall Down – You cant make this up...
by Arrival Wolfgang Steiner
Post Details
[ON]
[Bentar II - Freeport Station - Orbital Space Dock]
Steiner dumped his travel bag on the floor and slumped down into a seat of a small side-walk cafe in the Freeport Khasbar, the hustle and bustle of the market continued as dozens of merchants, traders, dealers and customers bargained, haggled and exchanged goods and merchandise. He lifted a chair leg and dropped it down over the strap of his bag, last thing he needed was some petty thief to make off with his evidence files. An orange skinned humanoid waitress arrived, he ordered a large raktajino and what passed for breakfast on Bentar II.
He'd signed off the Hentar an hour earlier, blaming his gambling losses on finishing his contract early. "Just no point in staying on if I'm going to gambling my wages away every night" He'd told Joj, the Ferengi Purser. Even then the little weasel had tried to cheat him out of some pay, claiming a ten percent deduction for him leaving early. Steiner had made a fuss, it would have been seemed odd if he hadn't and they had settled on five percent.
After breakfast he sat sipping the klingon coffee and thinking over his next moves, he needed to get in contact with some kind of Federation representative, here it was either going to be some kind of Consulate or a passing Starfleet ship.
His thoughts were interrupted when he recognized Abarantar and Cradek walking through the throng of market goers. That a merchant ship's Captain and First Mate were out in the crowded Kasbar was not unusual, but Abarantar and Cradek's companions were surprising. An elderly Klingon warrior and a tall Vulcan or possibly Romulan woman accompanied the pair.
They passed fairly close to Steiner's table, he leaned back behind a potted plant of some kind, so as not to catch their eye. He heard a just a smattering of the group's conversation as they walked past.
"- doubled the price and they still paid it!" Abaratar was saying "And I've got three more shipments already lined up!"
The Klingon laughed "So much for a few phasers? I wonder what Starfleet will think when they start getting shot by their own weapons!"
"Not to mention what's going to happen with those Defense platforms!" Cradek added with a nasty smile.
"Be quiet!" The woman snapped "Do not talk of such matters! As for raising prices, that was a foolish and unnecessary action" The woman continued "Prices are set in advance, we will loose customers if they think we will extort more payment than agreed"
"Pah!" Cradek waved his hand dismissively "There are always customers who will pay!"
The group continued on past the cafe, Steiner watched them until they disappeared in the throng of market goers. He was tempted to follow them to see where they went, but the risk of being seen was too much.
They might not think too much of a crewman who left the ship, but they might start wondering if that crewman then began following them about...
[Bentar II - Planetary Capital]
A couple of hours later Steiner walked into the Federation Consulate in the planet's capital city. He had brought a ticket on a shuttle down from Freeport Station and then taken ground transport to the Consulate.
It had been too dangerous to carry his Marshal's credentials while undercover and it took a while to convince the receptionist to let him speak with the Consulate's Legal Attaché. Once he was finally shown to the Attaché's Office it took only a few moments to positive identify himself via retinal scan and the Federation Marshal's Service database.
"So Chief Deputy Steiner" The Attaché asked, once Steiner had been identified "How can I help?"
"I need access to a secure communications terminal and er.... some privacy..."
The Attaché got the hint and found Steiner an empty office. "Let me know if there is anything else you need" he offered as he left.
"Thank you, I will"
Steiner activated the communications terminal, it had a diplomatic encryption level. Within a few minutes he had established a subspace link to the Marshal's Service Sector Office and Senior Chief Richard Lanson his operational supervisor for this investigation.
"Wolfgang!" Lanson smiled "Nice decor" he said noticing Steiner's backdrop "I didn't know tramp merchant ships smuggling illegal cargos came with plush executive suites!"
Steiner quickly gave his boss an update, and his suspicion that Deep Space Five was being used as some kind of distribution hub for smuggled goods.
'Ok, I most certainly don't like the sound of Starfleet weaponry being stolen and sold off. I'm sure 'Fleet Security won't be too happy about it either!" Lanson replied "I also guess you haven't heard about the tragedy at Deep Space Five?" He gave Steiner the details on the Guardian defense platform malfunctions and the loss of life.
Steiner baulked at the news. over three hundred dead? This was clearly what the unidentified Klingon had been referring to in the market place. The group had appeared to have prior knowledge of what had happened, was the accident actually a planned attack? That changed the whole game, from smuggling to terrorism...!
Steiner and Lanson discussed their next steps. "This doesn't make much sense, organized criminal groups don't like heightened security, they prefer things quiet and relaxed. If there was a element of terrorism behind those platforms opening fire then they must know that Starfleet will increase security procedures at Deep Space 5 dramatically. That's going to be bad for their business! Who's the Chief Marshal on the station, we should involve them in this."
"There isn't one" Lanson replied "We closed the office a couple of years back, 'Fleet Security were running the place, we were short staffed and there didn't seem much need. That appears to have changed, now we have evidence the station is being used as a hub for smuggling and possibly terrorism, I think it's time we got a team back in there."
"Anyone in mind?" Steiner asked
"Yes, you!" Said Lanson
"Me?" Steiner replied, surprised "I already have a job, an a huge case load at Durham Colony! This little undercover jaunt was only meant to chase down some petty smugglers."
"Except it's a lot bigger than we all thought and the evidence is, evidence that you discovered by the way," Lanson countered "Is that there is some kind of organized criminal group operating out of Deep Space Five. I'm making this case your top priority. I'm reassigning you to DS5 with immediate effect, Run this down, Wolfgang, run it down and if they were involved in those platforms going berserk, nail everyone of the bastards to the wall!"
"Alright, alright" Steiner agreed "But I'm not going in there like a charging rhino! This needs to be low key, if a shipload of Marshals arrive and start tearing the place apart this group will fade away and be gone before we know it!"
"Maybe," Lanson conceded "What do you suggest?"
"A small group, three or four people at most" Steiner explained "Don't make it look like anything more than a reopening of the office, no task forces, investigation squads or high profile teams. We go in, set up, do the routine stuff, but we target this smuggling organization and explore what the link is, if any, to the platform deaths"
"But there's fifty thousand people on DS5!"
"Exactly!" Nobody's going to notice a few more"
Lanson thought about it for a while "Alright, we'll try it that way. But if those platforms were some kind of terrorist action, if they're linked to the smuggling ring and if they get away because we didn't go in there with everything we had, then we're all going to be looking for new careers!"
Steiner nodded "Understood Chief. I'm going to use my cover to go back there and poke around a little. Then I'll call the team in and start work. Who's the CO?"
Lanson tapped his terminal as he spoke " Let's see, it's...... Oh.... well that's interesting. It's a Romulan!"
"A Romulan?" Steiner was a little nonplused "In charge of a Federation starbase?"
"Apparently so" Lanson replied "One Isha T'Vaurek, used to be an ambasador, now given command"
"So the defense platforms of a Federation starbase, which is used by an illegal cargo syndicate and run an actual living breathing Romulan, suddenly go haywire and destroy a couple of civilian ships, killing hundreds....? You can't make this stuff up!"
[Deep Space 5 - Docking plyon 47]
A couple of days later Steiner, back in his guise as civilian crewman William Stone, stepped off a civilian transport ship and walked out on to the Promenade of his new assignment. This is going to be interesting<./i> " he said quietly to himself.
To Be Continued...
How do you
He had not carried his
Merchant Vessel Hentar - Commercial freighter]
Over the thirty minutes three more transport shuttles docked with the ship, off-loading and picking up cargo modules. Chief Deputy Steiner, in his guise as crewman William Stone moved containers around, following the instructions of Credak, the First Mate.
Just as they were loading the last container aboard the last shuttle the turbo lift arrived. When the doors opened out stepped the Hentar's Tellarite Captain, Abarantar, with him were four short humanoids, Steiner wasn't sure of the species, but they appeared to be a family group, the larger two were carrying luggage. They seemed a little unsure of themselves and looked around nervously as they entered the cargo air lock.
With little ceremony Abarantar waved the group towards the waiting shuttle, where Credak stood waiting by the open hatchway. The group shuffled over to the shuttle, looking like they expected to tossed out of an airlock at any moment. Credak hustled them aboard, shut the hatch and waved the pilot off.
As the shuttle's engines wound up the Hentar's crew left the cargo lock and shut the inner door. Credak and Abarantar stood talking quietly together as the shuttle departed. Steiner made a mental note of the craft's identification number.
"Who were they?" He asked one of the other crewmen, trying not to sound too interested
"Passengers” One replied
"Passengers?" Steiner asked
“Yeah Special Passengers but don’t ask Credak about them” Another said
“Oh, why not?”
He doesn’t like people who ask questions, neither does Abarantar...”
Any further discussion was interrupted by a shout from Credak ordering them to secure all containers prior to departure. Twelve minutes later the Hentar went to warp heading for their next destination.
[Crews Quarters ]
Steiner finished out his work shift, ate his evening meal in the crew mess and then spent a couple of hours gambling on a complex game involving three nine-sided dice and a board with randomly illuminated numbers that changed at irregular intervals. He wasn't very good it and had probably lost about half of his wages for the next week. He drank and socialized with the rest of the crew as part of his cover, being careful to keep his ears open for any mention of smuggling or illegal activities. So far, it seemed Abarantar ran a tight ship and Steiner had found no evidence that the majority of the crew had any knowledge of the Hentar's illegal cargos.
That said, there were two crewman who seemed to be cronies of Credak. One, another Cardassian, called Dalhath, was one of the ship's pilots. The other was a weasely little Ferengi, Joj, who was the ship's Purser. The three of them often sat together at meals, occasionally Abarantar joined them although the captain did not spend much time in the crew's mess.
Later Steiner returned to his cabin, making sure the door was shut he brought out two items from his closet. The first was a an ordinary looking, slight battered, personal PaDD and it did indeed function as such, containing various bits of mundane and domestic information for Steiner's cover - William Stone. However, beneath a number of sophisticated encryption levels the device stored evidence and case data from his investigation. The second item was a small holographic image capturing device, the kind of thing a tourist or working crew man might have to take the odd image of their travels. Like the PaDD is functioned exactly as it should, but when specifically triggered this one also emitted a small but powerful dampening field that would overcome most electronic surveillance systems. It also was designed not to draw attention to itself and would bend any eavesdropping systems around it, rather than provide a clearly defined dead-zone centered on the user's cabin that could alert others to it's use.
Sitting on his bunk Steiner turned the dampener on, then began updating the investigation file on the PaDD. Clearly StarBase Five was being used as a transfer point for a number of illegal trading activities. Whatever was going on it appeared to be highly organized. People and narcotics were being delivered and stolen weapons were being dispatched. That meant that there were multiple levels of involvement, including Starfleet personnel, Mk17 Phaser rifles didn't just walk out of an armor and load themselves into wrongly marked cargo containers. Federation bureaucrats had to be on it too, to turn a blind eye to the arrival of smuggled people on cargo shuttles.
He sat back thinking. What had started about two months ago as a simple customs and excise case over unpaid tax on a container of Klingon Blood wine had led to an investigation into an organized network moving illegal goods around the sector, through Starfleet and Federation facilities to boot! The problem was, the closer you looked the more you had to track down. He had followed the shipment of narcotics and refugees to Starbase Five. Now he had a shipment of weapons going somewhere else. Abarantar and the Hentar were just the delivery conduit, arresting the Captain and impounding his ship would not stop the flow. Whoever was behind this operation would just find another tramp merchant ship to take over the runs. Steiner also had to find away to track down the end-users of the illegal goods. So far he just knew that the containers had been offloaded, he would need to find out who was taking delivery.
Steiner had considered bringing along a couple of tracking devices to attach to containers carry contraband, however, the risk that any such device would be discovered was too great. He had to rely on recording the container serial numbers and then use cargo, storage and shipping manifests to follow where they went.
[Bannock Station - Cargo port]
Four days later the Hentar dropped out of warp and entered around a newly colonized world, then landed at an out of the way rural starport called Bannock Station. It was an hour before dawn when they arrived. The port consisted of a couple of shabby warehouses, an automated control tower and the lights of a couple of farmhouses twinkled in the distance.
It was chilly and a stiff wind blew in the pre-dawn light. Had it been Earth Steiner might have expected tumbleweeds to roll across the open expanse of concrete landing pad, instead an slightly odd smelling brownish mist swirled around about a foot off the ground.
Even though it was dreary, a number of the crew took the opportunity to step off the ship for a while and Steiner joined a group huddled besides landing skid out of the wind. Credak turned up a few moments later, the Cardassian stood alone out on the concrete and activated a communicator. He was too far away for Steiner to hear what was said.
Some ten minutes later three sets of headlights appeared off to the west and a convoy of cargo transports rolled down a road towards the landing pad. Cradek came striding back and gave the work crew a list of containers to pull off the ship. The locations he gave included the cargo hold with the two containers of phaser parts.
[Deck 6 - Cargo Bays 8 thru 16]
Steiner made sure to be in the group pulling the containers from Bay 12. He found the two marked as Industrial Replicator Components, something made him double check and he risked a quick scan with his tricorder. The results stopped him in his tracks. The scan came back negative, nothing was in the container except the listed replicator parts! There was no sign of the phaser rifles.
Shoving the tricorder away as two other crewmen came to help him he called out "These the right two? Who's got the list?"
They double checked the container serials numbers against the list, they were the correct two and they loaded them onto the lifter. Steiner examined the seals as they did so, there didn't appear to be any sign of tampering, but somehow the stolen Phaser rifles were no longer inside.
As they emerged from the ship the three large transport vehicles arrived. The transports rolled to a stop and the drivers stepped down. One went to meet Cradek and Abarantar, who had come out to the landing pad. Steiner and the others began loading the containers onto the transports. He kept a surreptitious eye on the Abarantar, Cradek and the driver. there seemed to be an argument gong on. It started getting heated when the driver began poking his finger at Abarantar. The Captain shrugged and walked away. Cradek stepped in, the driver cooled down and went back to his vehicle. A few moments later Steiner saw the driver was talking to somebody on a communicator.
After his conversation finished he went back to Abarantar and they seemed to come to some agreement as Cradek shouted over "Hey, we've got one more container to load! It wasn't on the list"
The First Mate dispatched a couple of crewmen and they returned with the final container, a small one, probably just big enough to hold a couple of cases of rifles Steiner surmised. As he watched it was loaded onto the lead driver's vehicle, the man clambered up and checked inside before closing the transport's doors. He gave Abarantar a curt nod and got back into the cab, moments later the convoy roared away through the swirling mist.
While they had been loading the transports Steiner had tried to spot registration or identification numbers on the vehicles, there did not seem to be any and his one attempt to engage one of the other drivers in conversation had been met with a stony silence. He had no idea who the drivers were or where they had gone.
"Alright, back aboard! Credak shouted "We're leaving!"
[Crews Quarters ]
That evening Steiner reviewed events. The Phasers had been in at least one of the two containers brought aboard at Strabase Five, he had the scan to prove that. But sometime during the trip they had been taken out and placed in another container. The seals had been bypassed or replaced in someway. Then judging from what he had seen Abarantar and Credak had run some kind of a shake-down on the driver, an increased payment probably. The driver had been angry and had to check with somebody else. Whatever Abarantar had wanted was agreed too and the final container had been brought out. Steiner was pretty sure it had held the weapons but he could not prove it, neither did he know where the vehicles had taken them.
As he updated his investigation file Steiner concluded that trying to track each smuggled shipment was not working. He needed work his way up the network, to get information on who was organizing the shipments. That meant going to the place where they had moved the most contraband and that was back at Deep Space Five!
[To be continued...]>/b>
by Arrival Wolfgang Steiner
Post Details
| Title | You cant make this up... | |
| Mission | We All Fall Down | |
| Author(s) | Arrival Wolfgang Steiner | |
| Posted | Sat Aug 02, 2014 @ 5:46am |
[Bentar II - Freeport Station - Orbital Space Dock]
Steiner dumped his travel bag on the floor and slumped down into a seat of a small side-walk cafe in the Freeport Khasbar, the hustle and bustle of the market continued as dozens of merchants, traders, dealers and customers bargained, haggled and exchanged goods and merchandise. He lifted a chair leg and dropped it down over the strap of his bag, last thing he needed was some petty thief to make off with his evidence files. An orange skinned humanoid waitress arrived, he ordered a large raktajino and what passed for breakfast on Bentar II.
He'd signed off the Hentar an hour earlier, blaming his gambling losses on finishing his contract early. "Just no point in staying on if I'm going to gambling my wages away every night" He'd told Joj, the Ferengi Purser. Even then the little weasel had tried to cheat him out of some pay, claiming a ten percent deduction for him leaving early. Steiner had made a fuss, it would have been seemed odd if he hadn't and they had settled on five percent.
After breakfast he sat sipping the klingon coffee and thinking over his next moves, he needed to get in contact with some kind of Federation representative, here it was either going to be some kind of Consulate or a passing Starfleet ship.
His thoughts were interrupted when he recognized Abarantar and Cradek walking through the throng of market goers. That a merchant ship's Captain and First Mate were out in the crowded Kasbar was not unusual, but Abarantar and Cradek's companions were surprising. An elderly Klingon warrior and a tall Vulcan or possibly Romulan woman accompanied the pair.
They passed fairly close to Steiner's table, he leaned back behind a potted plant of some kind, so as not to catch their eye. He heard a just a smattering of the group's conversation as they walked past.
"- doubled the price and they still paid it!" Abaratar was saying "And I've got three more shipments already lined up!"
The Klingon laughed "So much for a few phasers? I wonder what Starfleet will think when they start getting shot by their own weapons!"
"Not to mention what's going to happen with those Defense platforms!" Cradek added with a nasty smile.
"Be quiet!" The woman snapped "Do not talk of such matters! As for raising prices, that was a foolish and unnecessary action" The woman continued "Prices are set in advance, we will loose customers if they think we will extort more payment than agreed"
"Pah!" Cradek waved his hand dismissively "There are always customers who will pay!"
The group continued on past the cafe, Steiner watched them until they disappeared in the throng of market goers. He was tempted to follow them to see where they went, but the risk of being seen was too much.
They might not think too much of a crewman who left the ship, but they might start wondering if that crewman then began following them about...
[Bentar II - Planetary Capital]
A couple of hours later Steiner walked into the Federation Consulate in the planet's capital city. He had brought a ticket on a shuttle down from Freeport Station and then taken ground transport to the Consulate.
It had been too dangerous to carry his Marshal's credentials while undercover and it took a while to convince the receptionist to let him speak with the Consulate's Legal Attaché. Once he was finally shown to the Attaché's Office it took only a few moments to positive identify himself via retinal scan and the Federation Marshal's Service database.
"So Chief Deputy Steiner" The Attaché asked, once Steiner had been identified "How can I help?"
"I need access to a secure communications terminal and er.... some privacy..."
The Attaché got the hint and found Steiner an empty office. "Let me know if there is anything else you need" he offered as he left.
"Thank you, I will"
Steiner activated the communications terminal, it had a diplomatic encryption level. Within a few minutes he had established a subspace link to the Marshal's Service Sector Office and Senior Chief Richard Lanson his operational supervisor for this investigation.
"Wolfgang!" Lanson smiled "Nice decor" he said noticing Steiner's backdrop "I didn't know tramp merchant ships smuggling illegal cargos came with plush executive suites!"
Steiner quickly gave his boss an update, and his suspicion that Deep Space Five was being used as some kind of distribution hub for smuggled goods.
'Ok, I most certainly don't like the sound of Starfleet weaponry being stolen and sold off. I'm sure 'Fleet Security won't be too happy about it either!" Lanson replied "I also guess you haven't heard about the tragedy at Deep Space Five?" He gave Steiner the details on the Guardian defense platform malfunctions and the loss of life.
Steiner baulked at the news. over three hundred dead? This was clearly what the unidentified Klingon had been referring to in the market place. The group had appeared to have prior knowledge of what had happened, was the accident actually a planned attack? That changed the whole game, from smuggling to terrorism...!
Steiner and Lanson discussed their next steps. "This doesn't make much sense, organized criminal groups don't like heightened security, they prefer things quiet and relaxed. If there was a element of terrorism behind those platforms opening fire then they must know that Starfleet will increase security procedures at Deep Space 5 dramatically. That's going to be bad for their business! Who's the Chief Marshal on the station, we should involve them in this."
"There isn't one" Lanson replied "We closed the office a couple of years back, 'Fleet Security were running the place, we were short staffed and there didn't seem much need. That appears to have changed, now we have evidence the station is being used as a hub for smuggling and possibly terrorism, I think it's time we got a team back in there."
"Anyone in mind?" Steiner asked
"Yes, you!" Said Lanson
"Me?" Steiner replied, surprised "I already have a job, an a huge case load at Durham Colony! This little undercover jaunt was only meant to chase down some petty smugglers."
"Except it's a lot bigger than we all thought and the evidence is, evidence that you discovered by the way," Lanson countered "Is that there is some kind of organized criminal group operating out of Deep Space Five. I'm making this case your top priority. I'm reassigning you to DS5 with immediate effect, Run this down, Wolfgang, run it down and if they were involved in those platforms going berserk, nail everyone of the bastards to the wall!"
"Alright, alright" Steiner agreed "But I'm not going in there like a charging rhino! This needs to be low key, if a shipload of Marshals arrive and start tearing the place apart this group will fade away and be gone before we know it!"
"Maybe," Lanson conceded "What do you suggest?"
"A small group, three or four people at most" Steiner explained "Don't make it look like anything more than a reopening of the office, no task forces, investigation squads or high profile teams. We go in, set up, do the routine stuff, but we target this smuggling organization and explore what the link is, if any, to the platform deaths"
"But there's fifty thousand people on DS5!"
"Exactly!" Nobody's going to notice a few more"
Lanson thought about it for a while "Alright, we'll try it that way. But if those platforms were some kind of terrorist action, if they're linked to the smuggling ring and if they get away because we didn't go in there with everything we had, then we're all going to be looking for new careers!"
Steiner nodded "Understood Chief. I'm going to use my cover to go back there and poke around a little. Then I'll call the team in and start work. Who's the CO?"
Lanson tapped his terminal as he spoke " Let's see, it's...... Oh.... well that's interesting. It's a Romulan!"
"A Romulan?" Steiner was a little nonplused "In charge of a Federation starbase?"
"Apparently so" Lanson replied "One Isha T'Vaurek, used to be an ambasador, now given command"
"So the defense platforms of a Federation starbase, which is used by an illegal cargo syndicate and run an actual living breathing Romulan, suddenly go haywire and destroy a couple of civilian ships, killing hundreds....? You can't make this stuff up!"
[Deep Space 5 - Docking plyon 47]
A couple of days later Steiner, back in his guise as civilian crewman William Stone, stepped off a civilian transport ship and walked out on to the Promenade of his new assignment. This is going to be interesting<./i> " he said quietly to himself.
To Be Continued...
How do you
He had not carried his
Merchant Vessel Hentar - Commercial freighter]
Over the thirty minutes three more transport shuttles docked with the ship, off-loading and picking up cargo modules. Chief Deputy Steiner, in his guise as crewman William Stone moved containers around, following the instructions of Credak, the First Mate.
Just as they were loading the last container aboard the last shuttle the turbo lift arrived. When the doors opened out stepped the Hentar's Tellarite Captain, Abarantar, with him were four short humanoids, Steiner wasn't sure of the species, but they appeared to be a family group, the larger two were carrying luggage. They seemed a little unsure of themselves and looked around nervously as they entered the cargo air lock.
With little ceremony Abarantar waved the group towards the waiting shuttle, where Credak stood waiting by the open hatchway. The group shuffled over to the shuttle, looking like they expected to tossed out of an airlock at any moment. Credak hustled them aboard, shut the hatch and waved the pilot off.
As the shuttle's engines wound up the Hentar's crew left the cargo lock and shut the inner door. Credak and Abarantar stood talking quietly together as the shuttle departed. Steiner made a mental note of the craft's identification number.
"Who were they?" He asked one of the other crewmen, trying not to sound too interested
"Passengers” One replied
"Passengers?" Steiner asked
“Yeah Special Passengers but don’t ask Credak about them” Another said
“Oh, why not?”
He doesn’t like people who ask questions, neither does Abarantar...”
Any further discussion was interrupted by a shout from Credak ordering them to secure all containers prior to departure. Twelve minutes later the Hentar went to warp heading for their next destination.
[Crews Quarters ]
Steiner finished out his work shift, ate his evening meal in the crew mess and then spent a couple of hours gambling on a complex game involving three nine-sided dice and a board with randomly illuminated numbers that changed at irregular intervals. He wasn't very good it and had probably lost about half of his wages for the next week. He drank and socialized with the rest of the crew as part of his cover, being careful to keep his ears open for any mention of smuggling or illegal activities. So far, it seemed Abarantar ran a tight ship and Steiner had found no evidence that the majority of the crew had any knowledge of the Hentar's illegal cargos.
That said, there were two crewman who seemed to be cronies of Credak. One, another Cardassian, called Dalhath, was one of the ship's pilots. The other was a weasely little Ferengi, Joj, who was the ship's Purser. The three of them often sat together at meals, occasionally Abarantar joined them although the captain did not spend much time in the crew's mess.
Later Steiner returned to his cabin, making sure the door was shut he brought out two items from his closet. The first was a an ordinary looking, slight battered, personal PaDD and it did indeed function as such, containing various bits of mundane and domestic information for Steiner's cover - William Stone. However, beneath a number of sophisticated encryption levels the device stored evidence and case data from his investigation. The second item was a small holographic image capturing device, the kind of thing a tourist or working crew man might have to take the odd image of their travels. Like the PaDD is functioned exactly as it should, but when specifically triggered this one also emitted a small but powerful dampening field that would overcome most electronic surveillance systems. It also was designed not to draw attention to itself and would bend any eavesdropping systems around it, rather than provide a clearly defined dead-zone centered on the user's cabin that could alert others to it's use.
Sitting on his bunk Steiner turned the dampener on, then began updating the investigation file on the PaDD. Clearly StarBase Five was being used as a transfer point for a number of illegal trading activities. Whatever was going on it appeared to be highly organized. People and narcotics were being delivered and stolen weapons were being dispatched. That meant that there were multiple levels of involvement, including Starfleet personnel, Mk17 Phaser rifles didn't just walk out of an armor and load themselves into wrongly marked cargo containers. Federation bureaucrats had to be on it too, to turn a blind eye to the arrival of smuggled people on cargo shuttles.
He sat back thinking. What had started about two months ago as a simple customs and excise case over unpaid tax on a container of Klingon Blood wine had led to an investigation into an organized network moving illegal goods around the sector, through Starfleet and Federation facilities to boot! The problem was, the closer you looked the more you had to track down. He had followed the shipment of narcotics and refugees to Starbase Five. Now he had a shipment of weapons going somewhere else. Abarantar and the Hentar were just the delivery conduit, arresting the Captain and impounding his ship would not stop the flow. Whoever was behind this operation would just find another tramp merchant ship to take over the runs. Steiner also had to find away to track down the end-users of the illegal goods. So far he just knew that the containers had been offloaded, he would need to find out who was taking delivery.
Steiner had considered bringing along a couple of tracking devices to attach to containers carry contraband, however, the risk that any such device would be discovered was too great. He had to rely on recording the container serial numbers and then use cargo, storage and shipping manifests to follow where they went.
[Bannock Station - Cargo port]
Four days later the Hentar dropped out of warp and entered around a newly colonized world, then landed at an out of the way rural starport called Bannock Station. It was an hour before dawn when they arrived. The port consisted of a couple of shabby warehouses, an automated control tower and the lights of a couple of farmhouses twinkled in the distance.
It was chilly and a stiff wind blew in the pre-dawn light. Had it been Earth Steiner might have expected tumbleweeds to roll across the open expanse of concrete landing pad, instead an slightly odd smelling brownish mist swirled around about a foot off the ground.
Even though it was dreary, a number of the crew took the opportunity to step off the ship for a while and Steiner joined a group huddled besides landing skid out of the wind. Credak turned up a few moments later, the Cardassian stood alone out on the concrete and activated a communicator. He was too far away for Steiner to hear what was said.
Some ten minutes later three sets of headlights appeared off to the west and a convoy of cargo transports rolled down a road towards the landing pad. Cradek came striding back and gave the work crew a list of containers to pull off the ship. The locations he gave included the cargo hold with the two containers of phaser parts.
[Deck 6 - Cargo Bays 8 thru 16]
Steiner made sure to be in the group pulling the containers from Bay 12. He found the two marked as Industrial Replicator Components, something made him double check and he risked a quick scan with his tricorder. The results stopped him in his tracks. The scan came back negative, nothing was in the container except the listed replicator parts! There was no sign of the phaser rifles.
Shoving the tricorder away as two other crewmen came to help him he called out "These the right two? Who's got the list?"
They double checked the container serials numbers against the list, they were the correct two and they loaded them onto the lifter. Steiner examined the seals as they did so, there didn't appear to be any sign of tampering, but somehow the stolen Phaser rifles were no longer inside.
As they emerged from the ship the three large transport vehicles arrived. The transports rolled to a stop and the drivers stepped down. One went to meet Cradek and Abarantar, who had come out to the landing pad. Steiner and the others began loading the containers onto the transports. He kept a surreptitious eye on the Abarantar, Cradek and the driver. there seemed to be an argument gong on. It started getting heated when the driver began poking his finger at Abarantar. The Captain shrugged and walked away. Cradek stepped in, the driver cooled down and went back to his vehicle. A few moments later Steiner saw the driver was talking to somebody on a communicator.
After his conversation finished he went back to Abarantar and they seemed to come to some agreement as Cradek shouted over "Hey, we've got one more container to load! It wasn't on the list"
The First Mate dispatched a couple of crewmen and they returned with the final container, a small one, probably just big enough to hold a couple of cases of rifles Steiner surmised. As he watched it was loaded onto the lead driver's vehicle, the man clambered up and checked inside before closing the transport's doors. He gave Abarantar a curt nod and got back into the cab, moments later the convoy roared away through the swirling mist.
While they had been loading the transports Steiner had tried to spot registration or identification numbers on the vehicles, there did not seem to be any and his one attempt to engage one of the other drivers in conversation had been met with a stony silence. He had no idea who the drivers were or where they had gone.
"Alright, back aboard! Credak shouted "We're leaving!"
[Crews Quarters ]
That evening Steiner reviewed events. The Phasers had been in at least one of the two containers brought aboard at Strabase Five, he had the scan to prove that. But sometime during the trip they had been taken out and placed in another container. The seals had been bypassed or replaced in someway. Then judging from what he had seen Abarantar and Credak had run some kind of a shake-down on the driver, an increased payment probably. The driver had been angry and had to check with somebody else. Whatever Abarantar had wanted was agreed too and the final container had been brought out. Steiner was pretty sure it had held the weapons but he could not prove it, neither did he know where the vehicles had taken them.
As he updated his investigation file Steiner concluded that trying to track each smuggled shipment was not working. He needed work his way up the network, to get information on who was organizing the shipments. That meant going to the place where they had moved the most contraband and that was back at Deep Space Five!
[To be continued...]>/b>