皮影戏,Shadow Puppetry
Posted on Thu Apr 4th, 2019 @ 7:50pm by XiaoLi Zhan
451 words; about a 2 minute read
Mission:
S1E3: Barbarians at the Gates
Location: Lagashi Arcology Song of Stars
Timeline: MD2
With an exasperated sigh, Admiral Huang watched Lieutenant Commander Qiao leave her operations centre. Why did the Jade Emperor see fit to make her life difficult? Or more accurately, why couldn’t the stupid little Vulcan keep his gou cao de mouth shut and his singularity-waiting-to-happen on a leash. She wanted answers, and thanks to politics, the Starfleet team had been the best hope for getting good ones. She had a suspect she really needed offloaded and now had no way of getting it officially. Oh well, perhaps there was more than one way to achieve the same. She turned to her aide, “Please put in a request to the junior receptionist of foreign affairs to cancel the mesh security access for the Starfleet intelligence team,” she said, doing a quick calculation in her head. That should give them a good 36 hours, possibly longer, before the access was actually revoked, because bureaucracy was bureaucracy no matter what century or government.
Her brain continued to turn as she thought things through. Her muse helpfully pinged some information to her, causing her to smile. She caught the attention of another aide. “I need you to locate someone for me. Former intelligence agent Zhang XiaoLi is in this arcology. I want her here thirty minutes ago.” The aide nodded and moved off to locate the woman. Huang glared at the aides back. “That means quickly, attaché, if you value your job.”
Thirty minutes later Huang found her desired woman across from her in a small office off the main room. She gestured to a chair. “Please sit, former agent Zhang,” she said, sitting herself. “I find myself with a problem, and you can solve it for me,” she said, giving the woman a level stare.
For her part, XiaoLi sat politely as she listened and considered. This woman was in command of the home defense, and had demanded her presence specifically, and apparently needed something from her, though what she could not imagine. She shrugged and gave the woman a look. “Admiral, while I do not doubt that you owing me a favor would be good for me, perhaps we can skip ahead to telling me what it is you want me to do?”
Huang laughed lightly. The woman’s reputation was well deserved it seemed. “Very well, Miss Zhang,” she said. “There are a group of Starfleet officers here to investigate the recent attack, including, if I am not much mistaken, your fiancé. Unfortunately, the Vulcan who leads them has the political acumen of early 21st century American president Donald Trump. To be short, I want you to help them find what they need to find, if you follow me.”
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