Star Trek: The Ranger, Part 3: Showdown

Chapter 2

II

Captain T'revva left work that day unusually excited for a Vulcan. Someone like Spock or Tuvok would have thought she was literally jumping with joy, although to the everyday human being, she looked as any Vulcan that had ever lived.

Yet she knew, this day, at work, she had learned something important. She wasn't sure what it was, or what it might mean, but her instincts told her that something important had taken place.

Earlier in the day, Necheyav had stopped in, and called a meeting with her Chief-of-Staff, Captain Quinones, and others in the Ops Center. T'revva had been included.

"This meeting won't take long, people", Necheyav had begun. "I wanted to give you an update on Operation Lancet. I will pass out a PADD to each of you, and, as usual, the information cannot leave that PADD."

The Admiral went over the information. "We will be adding a diplomatic mission to Lancet within the next ten days, and what I need from all of you is to keep your ears and eyes open for any comm traffic that might indicate someone else knowing about it, outside of The Federation. The situation involved Fenris, and The Rangers that are based there. I cannot go into more detail than that. The rest of the information is on the PADD's."

"Admiral", one of the other Ops members spoke up, "will we get a fill-in later on the diplomatic mission, in case we need to do a follow up?"

"That hasn't been decided yet", Necheyav said evenly. "A lot of that will depend on what the diplomatic mission discovers. But at the very least, you will get a synopsis, or a broad outline, on the diplomacy that will take place."

A few other questions were asked, but nothing of great importance. As the meeting in the Chief-of-Staff's office was breaking up, just before T'revva closed the door behind her, she heard Quinones say something softly to the Admiral.

"Admiral, I don't know how happy Sloan is going to be with him finding out he's not going on the mission."

T'revva continued to close the door, as if she didn't hear anything, and only caught a, "On this one, Sloan will....", before she had closed the door.

She had never heard, nor seen the name Sloan in anything that had crossed her desk. She couldn't simply pull up that name at her work station, or on a PADD, as that would be tracked. What she could do is tuck the name away in her memory, and, at the next rendezvous with the intermediary between herself and Jellico, would include that name for analysis.

The four Admirals who were covertly working in opposition to Necheyav met again in San Francisco, under the cover of another in what always seemed to be an endless set of parties for Federation brass every weekend. They met, this time, at Admiral Patterson's home, far north of the city.

"Sloan?"

That was the response when hearing the name from the other three, when Jellico had mentioned it. It didn't ring a bell.

"That's what T'revva's information said. The name is Sloan. No first or last name, just Sloan."

"Could be anyone", Owen Paris stated for all of them. "I doubt it's a real name. It could even be a code name for all we know. Is there anything we can do with this information?"

Admiral Patterson sat back in his chair, and took a hefty sip of the bourbon that he had poured for all of them. "Has to be a code name. But who or what it stands for, is anyone's guess."

Will Riker hadn't heard the name, either, but he knew if anyone had...

"Gentleman, might I suggest we find a way to contact Admiral Picard?"