11-26-2025, 07:14 PM
Listening very closely there should be something he observed that she could use, his abilities could add a little more too it. "Well, you didn't miss a great deal. I can say that the entire planet seems to be deeply paranoid and conducting themselves in secret felt very common. They were able to defeat some communication devices, but I detected lots of listening and monitoring devices in most places. I allowed them to use their own jamming techniques and kept mine in reserve, not wishing to tip our hand in the event that I needed to depend on it later." At this point Beno understood a little more about the Presidents reaction, it wasn't every day that she would hear the truth from anyone. In this case Beno had the feeling that she should give it to her strait, and leave the coded talk for a different day.
"Cindy assisted the surgical team and Jonas now has an artificial heart of my design. If she's discovered anything else through her conversations with him, she's not said so. I was a little surprised that the President decided to come to the ship, but that could be a good thing. It is a decisive sort of move that might keep momentum on her side in dealing with the other factions. It will attract allies who are looking for strength while it will anger those in favor of isolationism."
When Cindy's name was mentioned there was still a bit of paranoia when it came to her, Beno had a bit of a fear that she would be targeted for her technology. There was information from the President that would suggest it was still a possibility, but the motive would be out of fear and not gain.
He made a point to locking eye contact with the FO, "You did very well down there. These people are quite the minefield, so I don't envy your position in this. Their atmosphere of secrecy and subterfuge is so prevalent that it is hard to trust anyone at any given moment, yet I didn't pick up on any overt efforts to lie or manipulate us. It seems that they are more the sort to do so through what is NOT said, thus not actually lying while remaining allowing presumptions through omission." He had some valid points in hind sight she did feel like the minefield was present, at the time she was doing it Beno wasn't thinking about it.
Alex paused and then added, "Something does bother me though. The ship that was shot down. It should have been on an approved approach vector that aligned with a landing area. It is common enough to have emergencies and malfunctions, even possible failures of flight control. Had the ship lost control, it would have still been on a trajectory that instead of allowing an emergency landing, it would have fallen where it did, into what was considered hostile territory. THAT doesn't feel like an accident. We can dismiss the communication failure, which may or may not have been natural causes. We can forgive an overly trigger-happy military for firing on a diplomatic ship. What remains is that they were heading in a known unsafe direction where these unfortunate events caused such a valuable ship to crash. Someone made a choice that they should be approaching on that course, heading and speed. That decision was either incompetent or on purpose. For them to be incompetent, in conjunction with the other factors...it just doesn't feel right. Given how paranoid they are about everything else, why wouldn't they have been just as paranoid about this? The problem is that there are so many players and so much distrust, we can't know who to point a finger at. If I were to begin speculating, I would ask, who benefited? The people with the technology are the first suspects. Beyond that, I don't know what breadcrumbs to follow. Why was Jonas as deep into association with crime families as he was? Why was the new Ambassador coming across as almost passionate about all of this, when Vulcans are rarely passionate about anything and especially a trained Ambassador?" Those were more valid points that Beno also thought of, if they were to have followed proper instructions they wouldn't be in this situation. It would also add more to her report, the Admiral will have a lot of information when she was done with the report.
He shook his head slowly, "This is exactly why I went into science instead of getting into the political arena that my parents wanted me to follow them into. These people seem to view the Federation as one step shy of an empire, so I think we should be prepared to be the opposite. We should be prepared to walk away from this. The federation has little to gain by them joining, but they have much to gain from the Federation. Unfortunately, some will gain more than others, so those looking to lose their grip on power are most threatened by us."
Again with the valid points Science by comparison was easier, there was no grey areas just black and white. If it was going to work they would know right away, or it would explode in one way or another. "That was very insightful, and I agree with all of it. This is long over due, he should have been replaced years before now." Beno took a second to think things through a little more.
"Star Fleet finally got him to rotate out because they were made aware of his activities, and promised not to look too closely at his activities or he could be up for criminal charges. I am certain that if we were to transport his family up here, next thing we know he is arrested placed into our finest of cells. Being a Federation Ambassador having a family here is illegal, there are certain procedures to go through. As for Jonas that's a picture I can't get out of my brain, I seen people shot before just not when I was that close before."
"I also believe you are right about the shuttle, if this was Earth I am sure that we would be doing the same thing. This is going to be part of my report, I hope it is enough to stop the chain reaction." There was something that Beno was reluctant to share with him, but knew the value of being open to people who might be able to help. "The Admiral I spoke to about our findings she wanted to wage war if the Ambassador was killed, fortunately she wasn't killed and neither was Jonas. It doesn't add fuel to her fire, after all no one wants to be responsible for waging war against someone who isn't the enemy." This strengthened his point about not being in politics.
"As for Cindy I have to admit I was a bit paranoid about her being on the surface, my fear was she would be targeted for her technology. I am glad for her efforts up here, I just hope in the end he will be able to join his family again." It couldn't be easy living there at time, it was almost like living on Cardassia.
She thought about his question about being involved with the Crime family, it might also be part of the investigate. "It is entirely possible that he got involved with them in order to aide in peace talks, they could be an obstacle in the peace process. I am thinking that by making friends with the family, it might be a way to smooth things over and make the peace process easier. You are right as well about another thing, we don't have much to gain from them. Other than possibly being to gain a better position in trade."
"Also thank you for the compliment, it felt more draining than everything I have ever done combined. It feels like I can go to bed for a week." It would be a nice sleep for that long, but the most she ever managed to sleep for was two nights and days in a row. "I think that by talking in a way she wasn't accustom to helped the navigation, she seemed to be shocked by it. Now that we are going to have her up here, we have home field advantage. With the extra added bonus, while we were away there was a guest beamed up here. They are investigating how to make their dilithiam safe, and as you know they are sensitive about this subject. We should figure out how to defuse the future bomb that is going to go off, and bang its all over." Hopefully this was going to be one of those times that fortune favored the bold, right now it just felt like dancing with the Devil in the pale moon light.
==Tag and I loved the ending of your post.==
"Cindy assisted the surgical team and Jonas now has an artificial heart of my design. If she's discovered anything else through her conversations with him, she's not said so. I was a little surprised that the President decided to come to the ship, but that could be a good thing. It is a decisive sort of move that might keep momentum on her side in dealing with the other factions. It will attract allies who are looking for strength while it will anger those in favor of isolationism."
When Cindy's name was mentioned there was still a bit of paranoia when it came to her, Beno had a bit of a fear that she would be targeted for her technology. There was information from the President that would suggest it was still a possibility, but the motive would be out of fear and not gain.
He made a point to locking eye contact with the FO, "You did very well down there. These people are quite the minefield, so I don't envy your position in this. Their atmosphere of secrecy and subterfuge is so prevalent that it is hard to trust anyone at any given moment, yet I didn't pick up on any overt efforts to lie or manipulate us. It seems that they are more the sort to do so through what is NOT said, thus not actually lying while remaining allowing presumptions through omission." He had some valid points in hind sight she did feel like the minefield was present, at the time she was doing it Beno wasn't thinking about it.
Alex paused and then added, "Something does bother me though. The ship that was shot down. It should have been on an approved approach vector that aligned with a landing area. It is common enough to have emergencies and malfunctions, even possible failures of flight control. Had the ship lost control, it would have still been on a trajectory that instead of allowing an emergency landing, it would have fallen where it did, into what was considered hostile territory. THAT doesn't feel like an accident. We can dismiss the communication failure, which may or may not have been natural causes. We can forgive an overly trigger-happy military for firing on a diplomatic ship. What remains is that they were heading in a known unsafe direction where these unfortunate events caused such a valuable ship to crash. Someone made a choice that they should be approaching on that course, heading and speed. That decision was either incompetent or on purpose. For them to be incompetent, in conjunction with the other factors...it just doesn't feel right. Given how paranoid they are about everything else, why wouldn't they have been just as paranoid about this? The problem is that there are so many players and so much distrust, we can't know who to point a finger at. If I were to begin speculating, I would ask, who benefited? The people with the technology are the first suspects. Beyond that, I don't know what breadcrumbs to follow. Why was Jonas as deep into association with crime families as he was? Why was the new Ambassador coming across as almost passionate about all of this, when Vulcans are rarely passionate about anything and especially a trained Ambassador?" Those were more valid points that Beno also thought of, if they were to have followed proper instructions they wouldn't be in this situation. It would also add more to her report, the Admiral will have a lot of information when she was done with the report.
He shook his head slowly, "This is exactly why I went into science instead of getting into the political arena that my parents wanted me to follow them into. These people seem to view the Federation as one step shy of an empire, so I think we should be prepared to be the opposite. We should be prepared to walk away from this. The federation has little to gain by them joining, but they have much to gain from the Federation. Unfortunately, some will gain more than others, so those looking to lose their grip on power are most threatened by us."
Again with the valid points Science by comparison was easier, there was no grey areas just black and white. If it was going to work they would know right away, or it would explode in one way or another. "That was very insightful, and I agree with all of it. This is long over due, he should have been replaced years before now." Beno took a second to think things through a little more.
"Star Fleet finally got him to rotate out because they were made aware of his activities, and promised not to look too closely at his activities or he could be up for criminal charges. I am certain that if we were to transport his family up here, next thing we know he is arrested placed into our finest of cells. Being a Federation Ambassador having a family here is illegal, there are certain procedures to go through. As for Jonas that's a picture I can't get out of my brain, I seen people shot before just not when I was that close before."
"I also believe you are right about the shuttle, if this was Earth I am sure that we would be doing the same thing. This is going to be part of my report, I hope it is enough to stop the chain reaction." There was something that Beno was reluctant to share with him, but knew the value of being open to people who might be able to help. "The Admiral I spoke to about our findings she wanted to wage war if the Ambassador was killed, fortunately she wasn't killed and neither was Jonas. It doesn't add fuel to her fire, after all no one wants to be responsible for waging war against someone who isn't the enemy." This strengthened his point about not being in politics.
"As for Cindy I have to admit I was a bit paranoid about her being on the surface, my fear was she would be targeted for her technology. I am glad for her efforts up here, I just hope in the end he will be able to join his family again." It couldn't be easy living there at time, it was almost like living on Cardassia.
She thought about his question about being involved with the Crime family, it might also be part of the investigate. "It is entirely possible that he got involved with them in order to aide in peace talks, they could be an obstacle in the peace process. I am thinking that by making friends with the family, it might be a way to smooth things over and make the peace process easier. You are right as well about another thing, we don't have much to gain from them. Other than possibly being to gain a better position in trade."
"Also thank you for the compliment, it felt more draining than everything I have ever done combined. It feels like I can go to bed for a week." It would be a nice sleep for that long, but the most she ever managed to sleep for was two nights and days in a row. "I think that by talking in a way she wasn't accustom to helped the navigation, she seemed to be shocked by it. Now that we are going to have her up here, we have home field advantage. With the extra added bonus, while we were away there was a guest beamed up here. They are investigating how to make their dilithiam safe, and as you know they are sensitive about this subject. We should figure out how to defuse the future bomb that is going to go off, and bang its all over." Hopefully this was going to be one of those times that fortune favored the bold, right now it just felt like dancing with the Devil in the pale moon light.
==Tag and I loved the ending of your post.==