I've Got Little Devil Horns, and a Little Goatee

Posted on Wed Dec 21st, 2022 @ 7:47pm by Commander Arianna Frost & Gregorio Emanuel de Castillo-Bartres

2,391 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Mission 0: Everybody Has A Story
Location: Overwatch Station
Timeline: ID 1 Prior to Departure

Gregorio was reasonably properly settled in and was gaining access to everything necessary to do his job. He was pretty sure Mrazak had left instructions to make the process as annoying as possible. Actually, it still wasn't fully done, since his computer access was still behaving badly and refused to believe he was authorized to access the system. Since it was a classified faciity, there wasn't a public access system either, so he'd had an interesting time filing all his reports following up from what had happened on Corvus. His boss wasn't exactly thrilled with him over it, it had pissed Mrazak off and resolved the issue and pushed the rest of the resolution off into the courts that would take years before the council had to be concerned with it again. All things considered, he doubted any of the current council would be around to care, since the were all emergency appointments of one kind or another just to have a working government in the aftermath of the Venus incident, so, to quote an ancient politician "après moi le déluge." Still, with things finally settled down, at least somewhat, and the harbingers of doom field team safely sent off to the least controversial and troublesome spots in the Federation, it was time for him to speak with the new assistant administrator. The files said Commander Frost had also originally investigated Theta as an internal affairs oficer. That was, itself, pretty interesting and warranted a conversation. With that in mind, he'd managed to get her calendar and find some time where they could chat for a bit, hopefully without too much interruption. He collected a padd and pinned the commbadge he had been, grudgingly, issued as a sort of pass or key card to his shirt and made his way to Frost's office, politely ringing the bell.

Frost looked up from her desktop display and tapped a few commands. "Come in!" She called to her morning usurper.

The last few days had been such a headfuck that she was actually enjoying mountains of paperwork she needed to go through before the mandatory shore-leave to Risa. Well mandatory wasn't in the mandate, but reading between the lines was second nature to people in this line of work. People didn't have to say things to say things.

She looked over as the person entered. "Ah, Mister de Castillo-Bartres, please, come in." Frost motioned as she stood up and extended her hand, "apologies for not meeting with you sooner." Ari said in a well-practiced, amiable tone. "Have a seat, how can I help?"

The hispanic man moved into the office and managed to resist the urge to correct her use of only a portion of his surname. It was a common mistake. Had it been Mrazak, he'd have insisted on the correction, but Commander Frost was a potential ally, and likely hadn't meant any offense by it. Instead, he took her hand and shook it briefly before gently kissing the back of it. "Think nothing of it, Commander," he said breezily. "I imagine we have both been busy, and if your welcome was anything like mine, also quite possibly frustrating in the extreme. " He paused for a moment and waited for the lady to seat herself before taking his own. "As for how you can help, I am not yet certain, and I hope that I may also be of help to you. We have both been imposed upon the Memory Theta organization from outside, you by Starfleet, and myself by the Federation Council. From what I gather, this was not a coordinated decision to send us both, though I suspect both parties have the same goal. I know that I have already, as one might say, pissed in Captain Mrazak's Cheerios at least once, possibly twice."

"Well aren't you a curious one?" Arianna thought to herself as she observed the politician. She knew exactly why she had been here initially, she knew all too well why she was here now. As he mentioned Mrazak, she chuckled in earnest. "Don't stress about Mrazak. He gets pissed off by people he thinks are less intelligent than him every hour of every day. As for the likes of us getting saddled with these gigs..."

She left that hanging in the air as she stood up and walked over to the replicator, "I need another cuppa, can I get you anything?"

She counted silently in her head. Would he offer more information without realizing it? Or would he wait for her to continue. This politchik could be dangerous, or he could potentially be the ally in the dark that they would need against Taskmaster and whoever was pulling the strings for real.

The civil servant observed closely. She was no politician, but he'd often found that intelligence officers shared a great deal in common with them. He also had found that far too many people failed to understand the distinction between a politician and a career civil servant. With any luck, most of Memory Theta would make that mistake. Captains ben-Avram and Mrazak already had, though there might be some hope for the Hebron. Regardless he was no stranger to the invitation to speak more than he should. Instead, he decided to answer the banal question, "I would not be averse to a cup of coffee, blacker than the heart of a Breen slaver, if the replicator is up to the task. Whichever sick soul programmed the one in my quarters and office only provided it with a recipe for some horrific abomination called a pumpkin-pie spiced unicorn cup for coffee and some ridiculous caramel machiatto raktajino concoction. I've been going to the mess hall just to have decent caffeination." He paused, and sighed, since inwardly, his patience already muched abused by dealing with this nightmare, but settled in to wait and force the woman to outright ask what is was she wanted to know. Chances were, whatever it was, he'd have no reason to hide it from her, but better to establish early on what type of player he was in the game.

"Alright then..." Arianna thought to herself as she threw on a smile, "I think you might like this, it's more than just a flavor, it's the experience." She said as she turned back to the replicator, "bosnian coffee - two person set, with a side of turkish delight."

A moment later she was turning with a small tray that held a small copper pot with a high neck with steaming liquid, two cups, a cup of sugar cubes and a cup of turkish delight.

"Now this one, you can choose how much sugar, if any you want to put in there. Pour some coffee, chuck on some cubes, dissolve then pour on more coffee," She said as she gingerly put the tray equidistant between them on her desk. "And of course, the guest goes first."

Frost sat back down and pulled her chair forward a little, awaiting her turn.

The Latino man took a cup and added a single cube of sugar to it. He usually didn't take any sugar in his coffee but he also recognized the preparation would probably be quite bitter without at least some sugar added. He poured a touch of coffee over the sugar and swirled the cup to dissolve it before topping off his serving and sipping it gently as he waited for Ari to make her own cup. It was actually, if not really what he intended at least drinkable and better than what was coming out of the replicators. He sipped again and set the cup down. "So the file mentions you once investigated Memory Theta, but the outcome of that is, surprisingly, entirely absent from the official record."

"Really now?" Frost hid her surprise. She had filed an official report with the outcome of her investigation. "Oh thank god, I was starting to think we'd do this polite dance forever." She said with a chuckle and a sip of here coffee. "Now, what do you mean the outcome is absent from the official record? I filed my reports to Internal Affairs, with the actual outcome."

"Is this why the fleet is still going after Joriel?" She wondered as she waited for his reply. "Who burried it? Taskmaster or his new Masters?"

The civil servant shrugged. "I mean, officially, your report doesn't exist. Of course, it actually does exist, but not even the Secretary of State was able to convince Starfleet to part with the original. I'm not sure what Starfleet thinks it's playing out refusing accountability that way. I was rather hoping you might tell me what, precisely, you said in such a report that would cause such an overreaction. Someone, somewhere, really, really doesn't want it getting out."

Arianna observed Gregorio as he spoke, then took a sip again, then paused again, "what is it you're hoping to find, Gregorio? May I call you Gregorio?"

Did he genuinely want to know? Or was he digging for another reason? If so, why?

He shrugged. "Gregorio is better than Mr. Emanuel de Castillo-Bartres," he said. "At least it doesn't take 12 syllables and multiple seconds to say." He paused for a moment considering the other question. "For you other question, Commander, I'm afraid the problem is I am not quite sure what it is I need to find, so I have no idea what to hope for. The council sent me here to try and contain the damage that this institution causes. However, I find myself curious as to how and WHY Starfleet has not done so itself. Akiva is unprofessional, but not an idiot. My impression of Garlake is that he's competent. There was your review, and the recent inquisition at Deep Space 9, and, yet, no disciplinary action of any import has been registered against any of the senior staff. No, instead, someone, somewhere, seems to be going out of their way to ensure the opposite."

Arianna nodded, "Arianna." She said, took another sip, and continued. "You do know what the remit of this institution is, right?"

As she asked the question she tapped on a few commands on her desktop display, unlocking the official file she had submitted to Internal Affairs and sent it to Gregorio's PADD. The report that had cleared Theta of wrongdoing and influence by the renegade parties Linn and Zsan, and clearing Zsan and Linn from wrongdoing as well. The report that highlighted the importance of continued vigilance against intrusion of external and internal factors - such as the Black Nagus.

The report that she was really sent to do, for Project Castermer would remain under lock and key for a while yet. Until Gregorio had been vetted and his loyalties determined.

The man nodded at his padd. "Thank you. I will read it in its entirety whilst you are on Risa. I apologize, but I make no promises about not asking a number of questions on your return, but needs must. As for your other question, Memory Theta is the repository and storage space of all technologies, artifacts, and knowledge deemed too dangerous to exist in public. I am aware that the Memory Theta field team rarely gets involved unless some sort of calamity is imminent or has already happened."

Another sip of the coffee, "you can ask me questions, of course, Gregorio. Whether I can answer them or not is another matter. If I can, I will, that's as much as I can promise." Arianna said, "I will tell you what I've told the inquiry on DS9 before it went to shit - we need more support from the patrons. We are understaffed and under-equipped and expected to perform miracles with minimal to no damage or loss of life. That..." Frost sighed, "is not always possible. People forget the other guy is just as smart as we are, or even more so, and oftentimes has more resources than us. As much as the bureaucratic machine wants to believe that this is a numbers game - and in the end, that's what they look at, numbers and statistics - it's also a very big mind game - a stone in hand for you to focus on while the knife in your back twists and twists for as long as it can before you notice it. We do it to them, they do it to us. Its never going to be perfect, or foolproof. That doesn't exist. They need to realize it and back us up so we can do the job they tasked us with doing."

Gregorio shrugged. "Just looking at it, there does seem to be some interesting choices in resources and the use thereof," he said non-comital. Everyone always said more resources was the answer. That still could not excuse incompetency or a manifest lack of the proper demeanor and attitude of a Starfleet officer and representative of the Federation. "I know you have paperwork and a vacation to be getting to, but if you think of anything else you believe I should know, or anything I can do for you, for that matter, let me know. Presumably, the computer will eventually accept I belong here."

"I'll make sure the inputs take and that you have required access," Ari said with a nod as she finished her coffee and made herself another one. "I do have one request of you, Gregorio."

The Latino man paused and nodded. "I make no promises to acquiesce to your request, but by all means, make it," he said, internally wondering what the woman could want. Whatever it was, he'd have to consider it carefully for hidden motives and agendas, but politeness and consideration seemed unlikely to hurt in this case.

Arianna nodded, "keep an open mind and try to see this place for what it is, rather than whatever distorted image those who aren't tasked with doing this job have. That's all."

The latino man shrugged. "I will endeavour to make sure my opinions are my own."

Arianna nodded as he stood up, "that's all I ask," she said as she got up too. With a handshake the two parted ways, leaving many thoughts in the wake of this meeting.

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