"Fargo" Part One

Posted on 25 Oct 2023 @ 11:27am by Lieutenant JG Zara Ghemora

2,010 words; about a 10 minute read

[ON]

Day 1.

Materializing in the main cargo bay, Ghemora appeared with a group of others all standing next to their single crate of personal effects. Having barely had time to get their bearings, the cargo chief was calling out orders, directing the oncoming personnel to inventory their effects, take what they would be carrying on board, and then sealing the crates back up to be stowed. Given only ten minutes to decide, the Cardassian treated it as if she were living as a teenager again, packing up the bare essentials to survive, and leaving the rest to wait.

Her first stop after was reporting to the quarters she was assigned for her lengthy travel. Apparently being the last to arrive, when the door opened, the five others who had been assigned all stopped their stowing of effects to take particular notice of the Cardassian, but also of her rank. Suddenly all standing in a respectful posture, Ghemora's eyes swept across the five, taking note of the fact that she was apparently the only commissioned officer, before waving their formality off and moving towards the lone unclaimed bunk. "Ignore the pips on my collar. We're all just here as passengers, correct?"

There was a moment of silence, one in which the officer opened her lone storage drawer and began to unpack her duffel before one of the five answered, "Yes, sir," with a cacophony of either similar sentiments or grunts to the affirmative coming from the rest.

Still putting away her things, she didn't turn to look at them as she suggested, "I don't know about the rest of you, but it's a three-month journey to my departure place. If we are all going to be crammed in here, we should do whatever we can to make it comfortable, which includes ignoring rank and behavioral regulations when in here. I don't care if you are a fresh crewman or a twenty-year master chief: there's no rank in this room. We all made the choice to enlist and all swore the same oath. That makes us all the same."

Turning to face the others, looking to the faces of each, the lieutenant asked, "Can we agree on this?" It only took a few moments before each seemed to finally agree, clearly a little surprised by the woman's candor. Once all had done so, Ghemore turned back to continue unpacking, simply saying, "Good. Now, let's get settled in and then hit the mess. I don't know about you all, but I could really go for something to eat, and we might as well make introductions over food before we get split up for our supplementary duties aboard the Fargo..."

Day 21.

Having been assigned to the Security department as expected, while not required to perform actual shift duties, Ghemora had offered and become expected to aid in the numerous security and intelligence reports that were constantly flowing into the warship. It seemed to be the most natural use of her skills given her previous assignment at SFHQ. While it allowed the officer to be productive, the lack of recreational facilities aboard the Defiant-class vessel resulted in her spending the majority of her free time reading up on the ship and the crew she would be joining in several weeks.

While this may have continued to be the woman's course of action throughout the three-month-long journey to Regula I, that all changed when a chief petty officer's body was discovered in a remote Jefferies tube corridor by an engineer doing routine maintenance. While accidents occasionally happened, between the location where the man had been found, his assignment to the security department, and the suspicion of foul play apparent in his death, the Fargo was put on official lockdown to pursue an official investigation.

Normally, the Chief Security Officer and the victim's NCOIC would handle such, but the ship's captain had decided to summon the Ghemora to his ready room. Arriving promptly, she was surprised to see a Vulcan science officer standing there in front of the captain's desk; both seemingly waiting for the Cardassian to arrive. The man behind the desk didn't move from his seated position as he called out, "Come, lieutenant. Your expertise is needed." Moving swiftly to come to a formal position next to the Vulcan, Ghemora only gave a curt nod before waiting for the captain to begin his brief.

"I don't believe we've formally met, Lieutenant Ghemora, but I am Captain Marshall Yanagita, and I have commanded the Fargo for the past six years. We boast one of the highest retention rates in the fleet, with about eighty percent of the crew having been here the entire time, becoming a family of sorts. With the recent development, which I'm sure you heard of, I'm sure you can understand why this is a truly unprecedented and unexpected development.

"Because of the emotions involved, I have decided it best not to utilize the usual procedures, and, instead, call upon your wealth of expertise to conduct the formal investigation into this suspicious death. While I have no doubt in the ability of my security officers, none of them boast the unique investigative pedigree that you have, and, as an outsider, you lack any bias towards the crew that could negatively impact the investigation.

"As such, I'm assigning you to lead this investigation in tandem with Lieutenant Turok, here," Captain Yanagita said motioning to the Vulcan science officer. "He is the newly assigned Deputy Science Officer and should prove to be a valuable, logical partner in the investigation. You two have been granted the clearances to move about the ship and examine its systems as you need, as well as question whomever you feel you must. If you run into any interference, report it to me right away. As I shouldn't have to state, you will be reporting directly to me in regard to this investigation. If this death is something more than an accident, then it must be handled quickly. The Fargo is on lockdown until the case is closed. Any questions?"

Glancing at the Vulcan for a brief moment, who certainly seemed much more stoic and confident about the situation than her, Ghemora only gave a brief shake of her head to the captain before the man ordered them, "Dismissed." Turning on her heel and leading the duo out of the ready room, the Cardassian paused to take in a deep breath she had certainly needed once the doors had whooshed closed behind them.

Besides sharing a silent look outside of the captain's ready room, no words were exchanged between the two officers as they made the short walk to the port Engineering section. Curious crewmembers had already started to rubber-neck and make obvious detours to try to get a glimpse at what all the murmurs were about, but between the Engineering and Security personnel, none would make it close enough to truly interfere. While the discovery was less than an hour old, it was no small miracle that the scene had been so quickly maintained.

Though the Vulcan seemed ready to step up to the task, he stepped to the side as they approached the clearly disgruntled Security chief, allowing Ghemora to take the lead. Stopping on the opposing side of the holo-projected yellow Security tape, she'd only just started to report, "Chief Gunderson, the captain..," when the lieutenant commander cut her off.

"...You don't have to tell me what the captain said. I got the same orders you did, lieutenant junior grade," the man said, treating Ghemora's rank as if were a slur. The older human man continued, "I don't know why he sees it fit that I can't handle the investigation, but if the captain said he wanted you to do it, then you better not mess it up. Whatever you find you report to me before running off to tell the captain."

"But, sir..," is all Ghemora was able to get out before the bullying chief cut her off again.

"I Said you report to Me, first. Understand?" Realizing it better than to argue with the man, the Cardassian blinked before gently nodding at him, which seemed to appease the Security chief, "Good. Now get to it. We don't have time for all of this…" Staring at her as he inched forward, Ghemora was made to step aside before the man would leave his post.

Exchanging a glance with the Vulcan Science officer, Ghemora's gaze naturally came to the aging Ferengi chief engineer who had been pacing in the background until the Security chief had finally excused himself. Stepping forward the Cardassian greeted the man, "Commander Lugo," having met him several times in passing but not exchanged much more than a formal introduction since her boarding.

Glancing up to her and waving off the formality, the Engineering chief gave a look to the Science deputy, "Lieutenant Turok," before focusing his attention on the Security lieutenant. Emoting vividly as he spoke with clear frustration and anxiety, "I don't care what you have to do or what you need from me, but whatever it takes to get that man outta there so we can get back to work; the faster, the better."

Turok's eyebrow raised with slight alarm. "Do you not have sympathy for the fallen man, sir?" he asked, putting the engineer in a clearly uncomfortable spot.

"...Of course I do," Lugo replied with feigned offense at the insinuation, "We just run the risk of having to shut down the warp core if we don't get to those repairs in time. Captain wouldn't be happy if we were late for our arrival to Regula I. Don't see why this is such a big deal. Not the first time a young crewman crawled into somewhere he shouldn't and found out the hard way why there's safety procedures in place for a reason."

At the mention, Ghemora spoke up, "And how is it that he, a Security crewman, if I'm not mistaken, was able to bypass the safety protocols to reach that area, if it was just an accident as you believe?"

The Ferengi had been frozen in place from the question, letting out a long hum of thought before finally huffing out, "I don't know. He… He must've done it somehow because we didn't get any abnormalities until one of the techs went to check on a fault in the warp coil cooling manifold control unit and found him tucked back there."

"It's alright, commander. We will get things moving as quickly as we can, but we must take things one step at a time," Ghemora said in an attempt to calm the engineer before turning to her investigative partner to ask, "Turok, do you want to get started on initial scans? Maybe Commander Lugo can show you how one might reach that particular section," she hinted as she turned back to the Ferengi. There was a small, silent look exchanged between the three before the Vulcan nodded, leaving the Security officer only to ask, "This crewman that found the deceased, where are they? I will need to interview them."

Commander Lugo spoke up, "Kid was shaken up after, so I excused him back to his quarters. Told him he should go directly there and wait for someone to come and question him. Not the first time I've gone through these post-accident procedures." Ghemora gave the Ferengi a nod of acknowledgment before the engineer sent a note to her PADD as to where she could find the crewman. With their separate duties in order, Turok and the Cardassian shared a glance before splitting off to handle their individual, initial assignments...

[TBC]

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LTJG Zara Ghemora
Temporary Security Officer
USS Fargo

Lieutenant Turok
Deputy Science Officer
USS Fargo
[NPC]

Captain Marshall Yanagita
Commanding Officer
USS Fargo
[NPC]

Lieutenant Commander Marcus Gunderson
Chief Security Officer
USS Fargo
[NPC]

Commander Lugo
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Fargo
[NPC]

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