Joint Fleet Log || Cpt Vokar & Tarasov || "Crossing the line."

Posted on 241403.20 @ 1:47pm by Admiral Alexander Hark

=/\= Ready Room, USS Pendragon =/\=

Striding into his ready room,the Vulcan CO was on edge, his intelligence contact had gone silent, any transmission to him simple bounced and refused to connect, contact with Starfleet Command was also spotty at best, the last few orders that had come through were unintelligible and at best confusing.

"Captain, there is a beacon transmitting some sort of coded message, it bears your command codes in its carrier wave," came the voice of his replacement XO, a young Tellarite commander sent to him after Gabarus had been dropped off with Starfleet Medical.

"Put it through to my ready room, if it carries my codes, then I must be able to do something with it," Vokar replied as he bought his hands together before him, activating the console with his elbow as he did so, it barely took a couple of minutes to break the encryption and the screen flashed a few times before showing a face of someone he had encountered several times before.

"Hello, old friend," the deep, weathered human said from within his bushy mane, the beard much whiter now than it had been since they had spoken last.

"I should have known it would be you, who else would be brazen enough to contact me using my own command codes as an identifier," Vokar replied with a slight smile crossing his face as he quickly locked out the signal trace, leaving the transmission untraceable to everyone bar himself.

"It seems that great strife within the Federation continues to bring us together. Odd, as I reflect upon our past, that the once scar-free Vulcan security officer should be the one to realize the truth of the cruelty of the universe. Your former captain broke like brittle iron, the next refused to sully his pristine name, but you, Captain Vokar, have been tempered the forge of reality and come out strong. Are you strong enough, though, for what is yet to come?"

"You speak of great strife Tarasov, but last I heard, the Triad had been broken and forced back by the combined arms of the Klingon Empire and Starfleet," the Vulcan replied, his brow arcing with a hint of questioning in his voice, "I sense that this is more than just a friendly call, you would not risk detection for something as trivial as a quick hello."

A wry grin touched the stark features of the face of Artur Tarasov, once a Starfleet medic turned Vanguard vigilante, who rose to become one of the most feared operatives in the Vanguard for his training of their most dangerous leaders. With Captain Vokar's persuasion, among others, he had since sought to make amends for his crimes by restoring the Vanguard to it's original charter, to fight the battles the Federation would not in order to protect the Federation. It had been a long, brutal affair to bring the extremists within the aptly-named terrorist organization to heel, and though they no longer wielded the brute force of military hardware it still did, the restored Vanguard under Artur's guidance had once again become a vigilante network of sympathetic operatives and friends who believed in doing what must be done to protect the Federation, not treat it as the enemy as they had come to in recent years. There was no true leader of the Vanguard, they were too decentralized for that, but there was little doubt Tarasov's voice was among the most respected of those that remained.

"You're being distracted by what lay directly in front of you. See the dangers behind the pretty pictures being drawn for you, Captain. Has there been anything strange of late, anything that has caused an itch in your impeccable Vulcan sense of logic," Tarasov queried enigmatically. It was his way, to force his students to develop their sense of priorities themselves. This made them sharper weapons to wield against the Federation's enemies, Artur had discovered long ago.

"There have been... rumours," Vokar replied with a tilted head as he began reading through the things he had heard over the past few months, "It would seem that there is some measure of strife, war heroes being taken through the ropes by the politicians, people going missing, things being... altered, it would seem the new Federation Council is not very fond of the previous military regime, despite that regime being the one responsible for holding the Federation together while the diplomats argued."

"The Roman Republic had a healthy fear of their own legions, until Julius Caesar proved them right in their concerns and brought the legions through the city gates to assert his right to rule at the Senate's head," Tarasov replied, "But this is different. This is not a mere matter of dignitaries villainizing their protectors to curry momentary favor on their worlds on the coattails of yet another war Starfleet did not ask for. You read between the lines, see who is saying what or, perhaps more importantly, who is staying silent, and you begin to see patterns beneath the buzzing of the self-important. I don't believe in coincidence, and I tell you there is something more here. What, who, and why, I cannot pinpoint, but the most dangerous of enemies are those wearing the badges of friends, and though they look, move and talk as the rest of the sheep, their eyes are still those of wolves and they are sizing up their prey as we speak."

Thoughts ran through Vokar's mind as the security investigator nature began to run into overdrive, "So you mean to say, that there is something else at work within the Federation Council?" the Vulcan asked as he pulled out a padd from his uniform, "There is something going on, I know that for sure, my intelligence contact has gone silent, while it is known to happen from time to time, it shouldn't be happening at a time like this."

"So you have seen the signs already, but now you begin to see how they are connected. I contacted you just in time, it seems," Tarasov mused softly. "The days to come will be very hard, and your oaths will be strained as they have never been before, but you will not be alone. Tell me, are there any allies you may call upon to share within your council? Vigilance and discretion are of the utmost importance, lest the wolves turn their eyes to us, so have a care before you commit to an answer."

"I do not know who to trust anymore, it has been a long time since I have had any respect for the politicians in the Federation council and for some time Starfleet has never particularly held much love for one like me, I was considered an outsider for wanting to uphold the ideals of the Federation, no matter the cost." Vokar replied as a frown crossed his face, "I sense that there may be something bigger coming up, something is happening, I can feel it."

"The cogs of your Vulcan logic now work to piece things together, and you will start to see what I have seen. There are others, Captain, who have seen the signs. We must find them and share what we know. To move before knowledge is to invite failure, as all now rests in the balance of what we can uncover."

"There is time yet before I find myself being forced to contact Starfleet Command again," the Vulcan replied with a slight nod, "I think that now might be the time I commit to my ideals, the ideals that we both strive for, take this as my answer Tarasov, I will continue to lead my ship in the protection of the Federation, whether it be against the very council that would demand my loyalty or the Fleet Command who are being forced out by the council."

Again, the elder human smiled knowingly. The unspoken words were clear as if said; that included if Vokar decided Tarasov himself was an enemy. The Captain had come far since they had traded being each others captive over the years. Leave no possibility unexplored. Artur was reassured in his faith in Vokar's commitment to the cause. "That will suffice for now. Until you decide your course, Captain Vokar, I will continue to seek answers through my usual back-channel routes and apprise you of anything solid I find."

"I would say that if you needed to contact me again, but if you need to, you will find a way," the Vulcan replied with a slight smile and a tilt of the head, "For now, I will continue my mission, so as to not draw attention but I will also begin gathering information from other sources, there are some deep space relays and telescopes that are within my reach, I can use them with very little chance of being suspected."

Suddenly, Vokar's comm badge went off and the voice of his Tellarite XO came through immediately, "Captain, we're receiving an encrypted message from Starfleet Command, priority and for your eyes only."

"Put it through Commander," Vokar replied as he shut off the link with Tarasov, but he already knew what to expect, it had begun...

(To Be Continued...)

Captain Vokar
Commanding Officer
USS Pendragon
Vanguard Operative

&

Artur Tarasov
Vanguard Cell Leader