Secret Lives, Secret Deals (Part 1)

Posted on Sun Feb 4th, 2024 @ 10:13am by Captain Banri Edasaki & Lieutenant Commander Lurath, Son of Grogori

1,356 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Search
Location: USS Bismarck Brig

The lights in the Brig illuminated from a low twilight to bright daylight setting. Banri had asked their Maquis guard to lower the lighting in the late hours of the night so that they could get some sleep. She stirred and eventually woke up as the bright light flooded the small cell.

She sat up on the small padded bench and looked around whilst rubbing one of her eyes. "Morning..." she yawned.

Zodrac looked over to the force field and smiled. "Morning, Captain." He replied. He didn't sleep. The Cardassian was up all night. His mind racing with thoughts of his family and how to get out of here. Waiting for the Maquis leader to return.

The doors of the brig swished open and one of the Maquis guards walked in carrying two bowls. He tapped on the control console to open a small hole in the forcefield before sliding two bowls of what looked like porridge into the cell. "Breakfast" He said simply before turning to leave without another word.

The Cardassian looked over to the guard before saying softly. "Are you disappointed? We haven't killed each other yet." He said before looking over to the Captain. "You can take mine, Captain. I'm not hungry."

Banri smiled as she accepted the bowl of porridge. She had been given it every morning and in true Starfleet replicator fashion it was rather average and plain.

The guard turned back and looked at the Cardassian. "I couldn't care less," he said simply.

"Surprise... surprise." Zodrac replied softly, looking way from the guard. "I they've lost their edge. Capturing the Bismarck. Raiding a Starfleet Ship. Capturing a Cardassian Gul. They're running out of tricks. Just a matter of time before someone catches up to them. A least Starfleet will toss them in a nice prison. Then.. they can eat the same thing they've been serving you. Isn't that irony, Captain." He chuckled slightly. "At least it will be better than what my people will feed them. Of course, knowing my government, they won't have enough time to be hungry. They'll be put to death. No need for the dead to eat."

The guard shook his head. "You're not going to talk your way out of that cell spoon-head!" he shot back.

"Have it your way." He replied softly, unphased. "I'm offering you a chance to fight another day, but if you prefer death over survival..." He shrugged slightly. "So be it. We'll get out of this brig, one way or another. And you will find yourself in one of your own soon." Zodrac let out a slight chuckle. "I guess you guys are really bad at this whole leading a resistance thing. At the Bajorans knew when to cross the line. You are still thinking like Starfleet Officers. If you weren't... I wouldn't have survived this long." He looked over to Banri and added. "Nothing personal, but you know I'm right."

"What is it you want?" The guard asked. "I gather that from all this chit-chat you want something right?"

Zodrac looked over to the guard and replied. "Figure it out. You're the smart one." Before looking away again.

He gave the Cardassian a brief grunt before leaving the room. A few minutes later, the doors reopened and John walked in. "I hear you've been rather chatty this morning? My men seem to think you want me for something?" He asked. "Tell me Cardassian, why should I waste my time on you?"

"Because you prefer survival over death." Zodrac replied calmly as he looked over to John. "Did you bring the PADD like I asked or do your people not waste their time with you and not bother talking to you?

John pulled a PADD out of one of his pockets. "Writing a letter to home?" he asked with a smirk. "Going to tell your family your final goodbyes?"

Zodrac stood up from the bunk and walked slowly over to the force field as he spoke calmly. "Before, you came in sympathetic and assuring us you didn't want to kill anyone. That all you wanted to do was send a message. Now, you're wondering if I want to send a letting to say 'tell my family my final goodbyes.' Tell me, John. If you've done so much research into being able to find out that I was on the Ermiana. Where in that research does it say I... have a family to say goodbye to?"

"Oh, I don't. I just presume you have a family, most Cardassians do." John replied simply as he tapped the PADD against his chest. "But rest assured I'm not going to kill you, but you might not see any family, if you have them, for a long time if my plan doesn't work." he told him.

"Hold on to that thought, Mister Casey. It will be important later." Zodrac replied with a smirk before crossing his arms over his chest. "No, the PADD isn't for me. It's for you." He said with a smile as continued softly. "The Bismarck has been cut off from the Starfleet information network, so any file you access, has not been updated. It's been closed off so, even if it has been updated, the network hasn't updated it. Meaning, what you are about to access, is new and will carry the official Starfleet codes to verify its true. So, even you can't argue its authenticity." He stared intently at the man, his smile not wavering, as he softly concluded with. "Access an Intelligence file called: Paladin Double Speak. You'll hit a request for a command code authorization which, Captain Edasaki will happily put in for you. You'll then gain access to the file and I implore you to read it thoroughly."

John raised an eyebrow. "Humour me," he said. It seemed like he wasn't truly believing what the Cardassian was saying. He tapped on the PADD and attempted to access the file.

"Please input personal authorisation code" the female voice said from the PADD.

Banri looked up and beckoned for him to bring the PADD closer to the forcefield. John held it out.

"Access Code Edasaki-Alpha-Green-Tango" Banri said. The PADD beeped a few times.

"Code accepted." It said before the screen changed to open the file that had been requested.

The file opened up to a breakdown of everything Zodrac had told Banri before. He wasn't Gul Jalak Rin of the Cardassian Military. He was Lieutenant Commander Zodrac Kosh of Starfleet Intelligence and his mission was to impersonate the Gul and gain information on Cardassian ship deployment, missions, and secret camp locations that he could find. It also talked about his several interactions with the Maquis and how, like on Iocarro II, he managed to find way to divert the Cardassians away to give them more time to escape.

Attached to the file was his profile that spoke about his former work at a Bajoran Occupation Camp and ho he helped free them. Later, becoming close with them and taking one as his wife. It also speaks briefly of his young daughter. So, in a way, Casey was right about him having a family. Only, his family wasn't Cardassian. They were Bajoran and his daughter was a hybrid raised in the Federation.

John took a few moments to skim over the file. "So, you're an undercover Starfleet Intelligence officer..." he said a smile stretching across his face. "And I thought that it was just some bullshit story you made up to try and talk your way out of this..."

He looked up and met the Cardassian's gaze. "I am guessing that the Cardassian government are unaware of this... This could work..." he smirked at Zodrac. "Not only will Starfleet want you back, but we could sell this information to the Cardassian government. Exposing a Starfleet spy could easily derail that treaty which gave them our colonies..."

"Why thank you mister Zodrac. Exposing yourself like this might work more in our favour than our original plan." he smiled.

To be continued...

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