Interview One - Lt.Cmdr. Qiao
Posted on Sun Nov 3rd, 2019 @ 1:40am by Lieutenant Commander BaoJun Qiao & Commander Arianna Frost
2,198 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Mission 0: Everybody Has A Story
Location: IA Agent Frost Temporary Office
Internal Affairs interviews were never easy. Not for the person being interviewed, nor for the interviewer themselves. Sympathy for one's plight, especially as dire a plight as the team at Memory Theta had suffered would definitely be a factor in play during the upcoming interviews.
Arianna had been granted swift access to the files on hand, so she had a good grasp on what had happened. As a human being, she sympathised with the ordeal the crew had to go through, especially with such a huge loss of personnel.
It was exactly such a huge loss of personnel and intel that she was here to investigate. Along with her two counterparts, Karna Zsan and Kazyah Linn. No pressure, indeed.
Still, she had a job to do, and so she would. The interview times had been set, and her first interviewee would be arriving shortly.
For his part, Bao was not looking forward to the coming interview. The entire mission was a massive debacle, although, for once, large portions of the mess were only tangentially Vulcan in origin. He'd spent a restless morning preparing anyway, having Sunny arm herself with every legal that could be found to assist him in surviving what was sure to be a most unpleasant interview. With that in mind he entered the interview room precisely on time. "Lieutenant Commander Qiao BaoJun, reporting as requested Commander Frost."
"Ah, Commander Qiao," Arianna stood up from her chair, extending her hand to the Lagshi, "thank you for meeting with me." She could tell that the man was ready for whatever she would throw at him, maybe even over prepared, his micro expressions told her as much. Was it a sign of complicity or nerves? She would soon find out.
Bao shook the woman's hand. No need to be barbaric, or rude after all. He waited for her to sit down before sitting himself. "Commander," he said evenly, "thanking me seems pointless, seeing as my attendance is compelled and I have only limited ability to refuse to answer your questions. For the record, I am being advised by an advanced AI system. It can be instanced through the base's holoemitters if you would like her comments and advice on the record."
Arianna nodded, "I would appreciate that, thank you. As clear cut as possible, the better." Then she sighed, "I read the reports submitted and I know my words can't even begin to mean anything. None the less, I am deeply sorry for the losses suffered by your teams. This is one of the reasons I am here. As much as Memory Theta is a living and working experiment, losses need to be mitigated to as great an extent as possible."
With a brief nod, Bao caused Sunny to materialize next to him, a taller Asian woman with rather severe features, hair pulled into a tight bun, and sporting a well cut skirt suit taken from the pages of the 21st century. Bao bit back his own surprise at her appearance, as his settings were usually for her to appear more classical than that, though he had noticed she had been becoming more independent of late. He shrugged it off as he turned back to Frost, waiting for her to actually ask a question.
Arianna allowed herself a small smirk at the AI's appearance before tapping a few commands. Dictating the stardate first, she began the formalities, "this is first preliminary interview for Internal Affairs Case File Number 457-Delta Eta-39. Investigating Officer, Commander Arianna Chelsea Frost with the Office of Internal Affairs of Starfleet. Officer interviewed is," then she motioned to Bao, "your name, rank and position within Memory Theta please, for the record, please."
"Lieutenant Commander Qiao BaoJun, or BaoJun Qiao according to the English order, Memory Theta Science Team Xenoscience Specialist," he said. He started to say something else, namely his additional roles for the specific mission, but Sunny silenced him with a gesture, not so subtly reminding him to answer only the question asked and no more.
"And your AI Advisor as she now has a physical representation?" Ari motioned over to Sunny.
"Lagashi personal assistant artificial general intelligence system, model 2368 New Chengdu Ubisoft type 23, 2388 update and Extropia Legal Services representation pack, as modified through field events. My moniker is Sunny."
Arianna nodded at the AI, acknowledging her presence in this interview. "Understood." Taking a deep breath, she leaned forward, on her elbows against the desk. "Commander, please describe your first meeting of Lieutenant Karna Zsan."
"The first time I personally met one Karna Zsan was aboard the USS Phantom approximately 2 hours after our arrival to the Song of Stars. For reasons I cannot begin to speculate upon, Lieutenant Zsan insinuated himself with Commander Mrazak during an admittedly very amusing sequence of events that I was not present for, as I was occupied with Lagashi Naval Command trying to mitigate what I have taken to call "Commander Mrazak has no political aucumen moments." Lieutenant Zsan had information that was potentially useful, and was able to provide the location of key pieces of evidence that were required to continue the investigation."
Arianna nodded, "evidence which would eventually lead you to Soukara?"
Bao tilted his head for a moment, while Sunny intervened. "Remember, Bao, to answer truthfully only. No speculation or induction," she said sharply.
Nodding, Bao answered the question. "I do not actually know what piece of evidence led Commander Mrazak to Soukara," he said. "Commander Mrazak had the team pursuing multiple items simultaneously, and we never properly compared notes as to who figured out what or how."
Frost nodded, still mildly amused by the man's perceived need for an advisor at this stage. "I understand. Can you tell me more about the encounter with Zhang XiaoLi, and the pursuing officers? I will re-iterate that this is an interview, you are not under caution, nor arrest nor charged with an offense. At this point I am merely ascertaining if you may possess knowledge that may be of use to my investigation."
Bao frowned, not needing Sunny to tell him to be careful with that topic. He thought for a moment. "Miss Zhang was able to facilitate our entry into Central Dogma to recover the evidence indicated by Lieutenant Zsan. Through her involvement in doing so, she was abducted by Memory Theta. I honestly have no idea how or where Arkady Sjet figures in to any of this. I do not even know his proper rank, though he was impersonating a Lagashi military officer and wanted custody of Lieutenant Zsan. He did not reveal those reasons in my presence."
Ari nodded, looking down to one of the side PADDs on her desk, then reached out to the one on the right, tapping at it briefly. "So, the encounter with the former Starfleet Lieutenant Zhang, Lieutenant Zsan, Commander Lhinn, Sergeant Kos, yourself and Mister Sjet, went smoothly, other than the...kidnap?" She asked, only looking up at the word 'kidnap'.
Bao gave the woman a look that clearly said "are you fucking nuts?" However, his reply was measured. "Former Lagashi Naval Intelligence Specialist Zhang's involvement," he said, carefully stressing the correct association to correct Frost's record, "can be said to have gone smoothly, as far as it goes. She was able to secure our access to Central Dogma and provide access to systems necessary to hide our presence therein. I cannot state for certain, but I believe she may have been acting as a government proxy in that respect, as she was able to provide these services without noticeable suborning any systems." He paused for a moment, though the AI gave him a nod to continue with a full response. "The same cannot be said of the participation of Zsan or Sjet. Sjet was insistent on trading the content of Zsan's bag for Zsan himself. This resulted in an altercation between the two, which was ended by Sergeant Kos shooting both men. We were then transported out, effectively, as you said, kidnapping Miss Zhang, Lieutenant Zsan, and," he paused briefly as Sunny cut in to provide that Arkady Sjet was properly Lieutenant Arkady Sjet, ostensibly a doctor of medicine.
Arianna had gone back to tapping on her PADD as he kept talking, occasionally looking up.
"Mhm!" She kept her comments vague, before launching into a series of questions relating to the mission from that point onward and kept taking notes as Qiao replied.
Bao kept his comments mostly brief and narrative as they continued. Frost's vague and non-committal commentary was obvious, and while she did not speak outright, Sunny gave him a few instructions non-verbally through his implants, especially as it came to his conversation with Admiral Huang and the information that had been in the data they had taken from Central Dogma. Of course, the biggest was yet to come. It could only be a matter of time before she got around to the events inside Soukara itself. He was bracing himself for that.
"Tell me about the encounter Groundskeepers." Arianna went on to ask.
Bao sighed. "It did not go well," he said blandly. "At least note at first. We infiltrated Soukara without any real difficulty. It was evident the terrorists were leaving in great haste. Inside, however, we encountered two members of Species 8472, or groundskeepers as I suppose we should call them. The marine team killed one before the other engaged us in close quarters combat. It dispatched the marines with relative ease, knocking Sergeant Kos unconscious and killing or severely injuring the others in very short order. I attempted to engage it to provide cover for Commander Garai to withdraw. Apparently, however, she had been injured, and could not do so. Instead she used her overloaded phaser as a grenade. When I regained consciousness, Soukara had been transported to fluidic space."
Arianna nodded, "go on. I understand from reports what transpired immediately after with the surviving officers, so you needn't go into it." She knew it would be difficult to relieve certain things, especially such a thing as having to end a life to save it, as was the case of Sergeant Kos and Commander Garai. Things like that...mess people up, to put it mildly.
"Other than that, please..." she motioned for him to continue.
Bao internally raised a brow. Surely Rodi had not been crazy enough to include that information in his official report. Bao had lied, and said Garai had succumbed to her injuries while he had been unconscious. "Right, so after establishing Commander Garai had died in the interim, there really was not time for much beyond getting Sergeant Kos up before we were surrounded by 8472. Two representatives came forwards to converse. In relevant part, we established they were rather upset at the actions of the Cardassians. There original intent seemed to be to renew their invasion of our realm as a preventative measure to prevent further tampering with their own. However, the representatives seemed to represent two different broad groups within their group consensus. The 'male' groundkeeper, for lack of a better term was considerably more bellicose and eager to pursue a violent solution. The 'female' representative agreed that Soukara had to be eliminated, along with the Cardassian technology, but seemed more inclined to find a non-violent solution to the larger issue," he continued. "On that basis I attempted negotiation with them. Ultimately, I believe I engaged with the singular over-arching consciousness that directs them. I believe Lieutenant Garlake would be a better source of information as to the nature of the entity I was speaking with," he said with a slight wince. "I was able to convince the entity that the Cardassians were solely responsible for the recent incursions, and that the Federation had no interest in the assimilation of their species, or future incursions into their realm. I was able to secure an agreement allowing the Phantom to leave safely in exchange for all of the Cardassian beacons." He winced again. "I may also have committed the Federation to not developing such things itself or attempting to enter fluidic space. I am not entirely sure how they would have interpreted my assurances, as I am neither telepathic, nor a trained diplomat."
Arianna nodded, "they have allowed the Phantom to return to our space and so far there have been no recorded further incidents, so something must have been done right." She offered. "How did Commander Mrazak react?"
"Better than anticipated," came the reply. "Questioning their sincerity was, frankly, not obviously wrong, even if pointless. Fortunately for our agreement, we were unable to recover any schematics for the 'death beacons' as I believe he wishes them called. All we have are our sensor scans of the devices," he continued. "Our extremely not-detailed, missing vital information according to the official report, sensor scans."
Arianna nodded, tapping another note on her PADD. "I understand. Is there anything you wish to add before we conclude this session, Commander Qiao?"
"No."
Ari observed him for a bit before taping in a final note, then nodded. Very well, Commander. We will speak again later. Interview terminated." She said, then dictated the time and date.
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