12 Star Trek SID Cat & Mouse

The following three weeks were ones of dismay. The Enforcers had butchered Shar's forces wholesale, even going so far as to destroy the Shatterstar with Gaston still aboard. Their apparent contempt for his weakness extending to the termination of his life. They destroyed the Obsidian's sensor probes but did not pursue the Federation ship.

Before they were destroyed, the probes indicated that the Enforcers were moving in a vast amount of military hardware. The reasons for that became obvious as the Enforcer ships spent the next few weeks overtaking all of the unclaimed systems surrounding Conglomerate space. They reached the borders with the Federation, the Breen Confederacy, and the Romulan Star Empire and halted their advance.

Starfleet's exploratory vessels had been expelled from the newly conquered territories but commercial traffic remained unhindered. The Iridians sent diplomatic envoys to the Khitomer Accords and Typhon Pact nations. The Typhon Pact nations, particularly the Breen and the Romulans, were especially skittish of the advancing Iridian forces.

Like their opposite numbers in the Typhon Pact, the Federation drew a line in the sand regarding Iridian advancement. The Iridians found this amusing. It was clear to everyone that the Enforcers would resume their march when they'd reinforced and consolidated their hold on their latest acquisitions. The Cold War between the Khitomer Accords states and the Typhon Pact nations now extended itself to the Iridian Enforcers holdings.

The territory controlled by the Iridian Enforcers had been discovered after the Dominion War. The Enforcers themselves had first been encountered 10 years ago. The 3 years prior to that encounter had found a single Starfleet starship exploring relatively unknown space. No Federation presence had ever entered that territory and remote imagery and long range scans had revealed very little.

The Galaxy-class USS Andreas Vesalius had been turned away by an Enforcer flotilla. The instructions to the crew, and the Federation, were clear: do not enter our space again. Trading vessels had found the way open to them and they conducted discreet scouting missions for Starfleet.

What the merchants discovered was that the Iridians were not the masterminds behind the Territories. The Iridians were a highly militant people. They specialized in policing and territorial control. They were as remorseless as the Jem'Hadar, as cunning as the Romulans and as relentless as the Tzenkethi. Because of their gray skin, the Iridians were known as the "Ghost People". A side note of the cultural observations recalled that Iridian males uniformly had stark white hair and the females consistently had jet black hair. No exceptions to this trend had ever been noted. Because of these evolutionary adaptation transsexuals were unheard of in their culture. It was unknown how many sexual orientations that they enjoyed.

What was known is that they had a compulsory breeding program to constantly replenish their ranks. Both men and women could carry children to term thanks to some creative genetic engineering. The males had to deliver via cesarean. Both males and females were compelled to bear at least one child during their lifespan.

Once the Iridians had reached out for the stars in the service of their mysterious masters, they abandoned such pursuits as farming, medicine, and scientific endeavors. They had client races for that sort of thing. All non-Iridians were 3rd class citizens, even on their own home planets. The Iridians feared cultural contamination so even their subject workers aboard their warships and in their bases and space stations were carefully monitored. The tech class of Iridian workers were also monitored. Considered suspect because of their non-combat roles, the techs were the 2nd class citizens within the Territories.

The typical Iridian was a soldier, born and bred. Raised in communal crèches they learned military science literally from birth. A series of tests throughout childhood established which candidates would be enlisted and which would be trained as officers. Both received compulsory basic training courses.

Officers and enlisted were specially selected to serve in the Enforcer fleet as ratings and junior officers and they were culled from the combat regiments. Promotion through the ranks generally occurred slowly unless there was attrition from combat losses and the candidates displayed abnormal ability. It was the goal of every Enforcer to die in service to the Fleet.

Even units stationed on planets were part of the Fleet. An attribute shared by the Enforcers and Starfleet. While Starfleet also has law enforcement and military duties, that's where the resemblance ended. The Enforcers were solely designed for the acquisition, command, control, and consolidation of territory. They were hired by stellar nations to "invade" their systems and pacify them. Those client nations then supported the Enforcers in their goals to quell all resistance…all in the name of the local ruler.

The true masters of the Enforcers had never been seen. As reclusive as the Founders, it was theorized that the "Masters" had genetically bred the Iridians from a lesser species into the virtually unkillable one that now existed.

It basically took beheading to kill an Iridian. Their natural regenerative abilities shrugged off phaser and disruptor shots. Loss of a limb or two would place the body in a coma for a few weeks while the lost members were regrown. Artificial aids were unnecessary but their application could speed the process into one that lasted mere hours instead of weeks.

Conformity was a huge influencing factor in Iridian society. The desire to belong to a squad, a unit, or a crew was another. Those that rebelled from the mandated norms faced disciplinary action, exile, or execution. Those that expressed the belief that other cultures or races were equal to the Iridians themselves were castigated and declared "contaminated". Contaminated Iridians were subject to execution. Those that fled were hunted down and their demise was then drawn out in a public spectacle. The pursuit being broadcast across the Iridian InfoNet.

Federation listening posts had tapped into the InfoNet and that was where they'd learned the most about the Iridians. Like the Romulan CommNet, it contained classified and public areas. Federation sociologists and anthropologists had studied Iridian society through the public areas. Starfleet Intelligence had accessed the classified areas on occasion but they were quickly discovered and blocked from accessing the Net from those terminals. SI would purge their computers of all foreign scripts and begin again but it was only a matter of time before they were stymied again.

Starfleet Admiral Amanda Forger, Director of the Starfleet Special Investigations Division, sat across the briefing room table from Macen, Rockford, Riker, and her own sister. Her aide, Lt. Commander Ambril Delori, was there to support the admiral. Ambril was nearing the terminal phase of her career. She was going to reach the rank of Commander but she would probably never rise above that grade.

The Bajoran would be eligible to run an entire administrative department in BuPers, SOCOMM, or SI but because of her elite security clearance and familiarity with the SID she would not be transferred unless she specifically requested one. Forger knew that the younger woman was weighing her options carefully and had promised to get back to her after they'd concluded this trip.

Forger had announced her impending visit and strict instructions for the team to refrain from any contracts that could interfere with the mission proposal that the admiral would present. Thanks to the vagaries at Starfleet Command and Forger's immediate superior, Admiral Alynna Nechayev, wanting her to consult on the Enforcer debacle, Forger's visit had taken almost three weeks to commence.

If she knew Macen and his team, and she did far better than any of them would have liked to acknowledge, she knew that sitting still while political events on a galactic scale were occurring in their backyard had to have been murder. As much as she hated to be throwing them into the thick of things, that's exactly what she was here to do.

"How many of you have kept abreast of what's been going on in Enforcer territory and in turn their actions regarding the known sovereign stellar nations in and around the Federation?" Forger asked.

Everyone but Macen said that they'd kept up with the news through civilian news services but Macen remained strangely silent so Forger called him out, "Brin?"

"I've been following Starfleet Intelligence's ongoing feeds. Other than the material taken from the InfoNet, there isn't a lot to go on. The border patrol vessels assigned to the region have found their sensors jammed at every turn," Macen recalled.

"The Iridians don't want us seeing what they're up to," Forger griped, "The Klingons and the Romulans used to pull the same BS."

"Only now the Klingons are our allies and the Romulans are employing a transphasic cloak and once again, we can't detect them," Macen summarized.

Forger's eyes narrowed, "There are times when I really hate you."

Macen held his hands up in surrender, "Hey, don't shoot the messenger."

Because of the light tone of the banter, no one was taking it very seriously. It was Forger's younger sister, Shannon, that redirected the conversation, "It seems you came a long way to ask us more than that, Amanda"

Forger felt a swell of pride over her sister. Shannon had overcome many things in her life. Gender identity conflicts, drug addiction, and frustration within Starfleet's ranks until she branched out into Outbound Ventures, and of course, finding a potential Long Term Relationship. A LTR had eluded Shannon throughout her time in Starfleet and even up until recently in Outbound Ventures employ.

"Precisely," the elder Forger agreed. She turned to Ambril, "You have the files uploaded into their display system?"

"Of course," Ambril replied with a mischievous glimmer in her eye.

"Call up the files," Forger instructed.

Ambril's hands flitted across the surface of the briefing room table. Its interface display put up the files and images she'd loaded. She arranged the folders and then parsed duplicates out to each location where a participant sat.

"If you'll take note of the cartographical map, you'll see that the Enforcers have absorbed more than thirty sectors. That completely ate up the buffer zones between the UFP and the Enforcer Territories. The Romulan Star Empire and the Breen Confederacy are also in the same straits," Forger began with. The rest of the room studied their star maps.

It was true that the Enforcers had devoured huge swathes of territory in short order and it seemed the territorial ambitions were voracious. They'd already sent angry messengers to the mentioned parties and demanded that border systems be ceded to them. President Bacco and the Federation Council were resisting. The Breen leadership was also refusing to reply. Meanwhile, Empress Donatra had dispatched Proconsul Sela to the space station Typhon I to discuss matters with representatives of the other founding Pact members.

The station was a central hub with six spiral arms. Each arm was habituated by staff members from an individual member state. Each arm also maintained environments suited to each species, or in the Breens' case, each individual species. The central hub's environmental controls were kept in a neutral middle ground where the members could meet. While it was slightly cold for Gorn and Romulans, the Tzenkethi and Kinshaya found it hospitable. The Tholians and the Breen always wore their environmental suits. The Tholians because no one else could survive in their Class Y planetary environment and the Breen because their cultural imperative to disguise which native species they belonged to.

SI had learned through contacts in the Imperial Senate that Sela had been ordered to ask the Pact members to assist them in the advent of an invasion. The Breen envoy was there to do the same. Expecting these requests, Sela and the Breen rep, Ansar, spoke first. Afterwards, the others debated the best course of action. They were bound to by their mutual defense treaty that underlined the Typhon Pact itself.

What had been decided was to send allied fleets to the Breen and Romulan borders with the Enforcers with the Imperial Senate and the Breen Domo in charge. Domo Brekk was the designated leader of the Confederacy. Despite his elevated position, no Breen knew his species or his planet of origin. Such things were status quo in the Confederacy in order to prevent discrimination between the assorted species. Even the electronic modulation applied to their voices prevented individual Breen from identifying the native language or dialect of another Breen.

Forger relayed most that to the Obsidian CO and XO as well as the SID team's Commander and Deputy. She then moved to the next item of business. All 5 serving Tenochtitlan-class research ships had been put into Enforcer territory. Of course, they'd all been reflagged as having been decommissioned by Starfleet and were now ostensibly operated by a shell company created by Starfleet Intelligence.

"What's a Tenochtitlan-survey ship?" Rockford had to ask.

Macen fielded the question, "That class came after the Newton-class, or to put it in better terms, they came after ships like the Copernicus."

"So these new ships replaced the Copernicus?" Rockford sought greater clarification.

"More like supplemented them. The Newtons didn't get decommissioned until the Nova-class began rolling out of the shipyards," Macen explained.

"And the Obsidian is a Nova-class ship," Rockford stated rather than asked.

"Exactly, Macen smiled.

"If I can interrupt you love birds, I have a briefing to finish," Forger remarked.

"Carry on, my dear Admiral. Carry on," Macen said.

"The problem in our deployment came when the 5 ships went missing," Forger divulged, "You'll find profiles on each vessel and their crews. The ships are the Zimbabwe, the Troy, the Carthage, the Persepolis, and the Karakorum. The ships were scattered across the newly acquired territory when they, and their 116 crewmen, suddenly vanished."

"Is there anything, or anyone, aboard that could possibly provoke the Enforcers?" Macen asked.

Forger sat perfectly still, unwilling to budge. Macen gave her a stern glare, "What's the secret, Amanda?"

"Each starship has 2 squads of SOCOMM personnel. The entire SOCOMM operation was being coordinated from the Troy by Commander Stan Guthrie," Forger relented.

"Stan Guthrie as in Joachim's Stan Guthrie?" Macen wondered.

"The very same," Forger confirmed it.

"Let me see if I heard you correctly," Riker interjected, "You put Special Operations forces on undercover ships posing as civilians?"

"Those are the essential facts," Forger stiffly replied.

"And what were they supposed to do?" Riker wanted to know.

Forger said nothing so her sister intervened, "They would most likely be tasked with sabotaging key defense installation sites."

"And why would they need to do this?" Riker asked, already dreading the answer he knew was coming.

"In order to facilitate a Starfleet entrance into the system," the younger Forger delivered the expected news.

Riker stared at Admiral Forger in shock and horror, "Haven't Federation forces lost enough lives and materiel over the last 4 years?"

"Of course we have!" Forger snapped. She took a deep breath and visibly quashed her anger, "It is felt by some in Starfleet that a preemptive strike might convince the Enforcers to hold the territorial line.

"And who thought of that idiocy?" Rockford snorted.

"The who is unimportant. All that matters is that it is felt at the highest levels," Forger confided, "Including a near majority in the Council of 5."

Macen and Rockford exchanged a rueful look and said in stereo, "Jellico."

While Forger was heartened to see they knew where the true blame lay, it was also disheartening to see Rockford sharing in Macen's antipathy for the Starfleet Commander-in-Chief, "As I said, The Powers That Be have the ear of the President and they are wearing her down."

"I can't say I'm Nanietta Bacco's biggest fan, but why would she go along with such a scheme? Starfleet is now at 40% of its strength from four years ago and that's with re-commissioning fifty year old cruisers and crewing them with hordes of enlisted personnel and a handful of officers," Macen summarized, "To be frank, we may have numbers but the quality is long gone and may never return."

"Starfleet would be committing newest ships to the offensive while leaving the older ships behind as an internal defense force," Forger revealed.

"In case they hand you your ass and invade," Riker sniped.

Forger had the grace to merely sigh, "Essentially."

"What classes of ships are available for an incursion?" Forger's sister asked, "I thought the fleet was returning newer ships to exploration duties."

"That's true," Forger confirmed, "The entire series of Luna-class ships are exploring the Beta Quadrant. The entire run of Vespa-class ships are in the Gamma Quadrant. The surviving Galaxy- and Sovereign-class ships are beyond the Cardassian borders reaching into the heart of the Alpha Quadrant."

Forger called up a file and it boasted pictures of ships and their particulars, "That leaves us with the bulk of the Akira-, Centaur-, Challenger-, Cheyenne-, Freedom-, Intrepid-, Yeager-, Saber-, Steamrunner-, Nebula-, and Norway-classes to throw at the Enforcers. Of course, particular units would remain behind for special missions."

"I take it the Defiant, the Intrepid, the Monitor, the Merrimack, and the Hood would be among those," Macen surmised.

Forger was pleased, "Precisely. We would also retain every Defiant-class ship for any counterassault we would have to make. And this also excludes Voyager's mission to the Delta Quadrant and all of her escorts."

"I suppose you want us to discover the fate of the missing ships and their crews and to affect a rescue of the same," Macen finally brought everything back to the topic at hand.

Forger nodded, "Precisely."

"You do know that may prove impossible," Macen warned, "While the Enforcers may not have had time to construct proper military facilities they will have had to suborn the native facilities on every world they conquered. We have no access to military compounds in those territories and we have no means by which to penetrate them."

"You'll think of something," Forger countered. Seeing Macen's pained expression she added, "We don't actually expect you to get them out but we do want to know what happened to them. If we can keep Starfleet from invading, we stand a good chance of extracting them through diplomatic channels."

"You seem awfully confident of that outcome," Macen observed.

"Bob and Picard have concluded talks with the Andorians. The Andorians now understand our reasoning for withholding the Taurus Reach meta-genome data with them. They still don't agree with it but they say they understand," Forger shared, "Of course, keeping the trade routes open went a long way towards pacifying them."

Forger seemed to rouse herself, "Anyway, the point being, the Intrepid is en route to Mityr. They should be arriving at the same time you reach Atrocitus."

"Atrocitus?" Riker repeated, "You do realize that the planet was given that name for a reason?"

Forger was amused, "Brin survived on Corvat for a few days. He can withstand Atrocitus for a couple of days."

"I take it one of the ships went missing there," Macen surmised.

"Yes, the Troy arrived and was never heard from again," Forger divulged.

"And who's to say the same won't happen to us?" Riker demanded to know.

"Because there are profound differences between your mission and theirs," Forger argued, "The first is that they pretended to be civilians and you truly are civilians."

"You hope they'll know that," Riker protested.

"Captain, we're tapping their InfoNet. It's logical to assume they've been tapping our DataNet as well. Don't you think?" Forger reversed the question, "Since they have access to the DataNet, it's also logical they have information on Outbound Ventures."

"They'd at least know that Sindis hired Solarian Security Systems to kill us because he saw us as a threat," Macen remarked.

"That does little to reassure me," Riker dryly quipped.

"Take heart Captain, what the Iridians suspect they can never prove," Forger assured him.

"How can you be so certain?" he inquired.

"Because they'll probably board you as part of a border inspection," Forger related to him, "The Enforcers have instituted all petitioners to cross the border to submit to inspections."

"Looking for Starfleet personnel and equipment," Riker said sourly.

"Precisely," Forger said cheerily.

"With all due respect, Admiral, our damn ship is Starfleet equipment," Riker growled.

"Nonsense," Forger pooh pahhed his argument, "The Obsidian was a civilian build of the ship type. She was never registered in Starfleet and she never served in Starfleet. She's only been the property of one entity and that is Outbound Ventures."

"Oh, I feel so much better," Riker dryly groused.

"We'll take the job," Macen suddenly decided.

"What?!" Riker yelped.

Macen ignored him, "When do we get underway?"

"It would be best if you could leave tomorrow. The Intrepid can slow her approach to allow you to reach the border as she does," Forger instructed.

Forger looked around and saw no further questions in anyone's eyes. Riker was miffed but Macen could handle that. Forger turned to Shannon, "Ready to show me the sights?"

The younger Forger patted her Captain on the shoulder as she left, "First stop, my quarters so I can get changed."

"But you look good in a uniform," Forger complained.

Shannon laughed, "So do you but we're going dancing at Quark's so we need to look better than 'good'."

The sisters' comments could be heard as they exited. Rockford kissed Macen on the cheek and she whispered, "More to come later. Just leave Tom alive."

He gave her a wry smirk and she exited as well. Riker studied the El-Aurian for several seconds before blurting, "'We're taking the contract'? Just like that?"

"It was an easy call," Macen replied, "If you weren't bogged down by being Captain, you'd see that. As my 1st Officer you would have been leading the charge. Responsibility has been good for you, Tom. You've grown and matured into it but it's also dulled some of your considerations. The crew won't be in anymore danger here than going into Mityr 3 weeks ago."

Riker wanted to argue. Macen could see that but the human was also wrestling with what Macen had said and it was a losing fight.

"Damn you, you're right," Riker complained, "The Tom Riker that stole the Defiant and tore across Cardassian space looking for a secret shipyard wouldn't have blinked twice. The Tom Riker that captained the Eclipse for you wouldn't have either. Even as XO aboard the Solstice and then the Obsidian I wouldn't have thought twice about it."

He looked pained as he went on, "But after my stint as CO of the George Kelly I've been more cautious. My time aboard the Indomitable was spent trying to keep my crew out of danger. When I returned to the Obsidian as Captain, I did the same only worse. It was no wonder Celeste hated me. I wouldn't let the SID team under her do anything."

"There's an important difference between now and then and that's me," Macen offered.

"That sounds kind of arrogant," Riker feebly joked.

"But it's the truth. Celeste relied upon your approval to accept a contract. I don't and I won't," Macen explained, "The side effect of our arrangement is that where our team goes, your ship goes as well."

"It's still weird to hear you refer to her as my ship," Riker admitted.

"Well, she is in every sense of the word," Macen assured him and then he dropped the bomb, "However, if you can't maintain the support role to the SID team, we'll drop you. The Solstice is sitting in a hangar waiting for a crew. Hannah can fly her. Eric can man Engineering. Radil has the Tactical systems. Rab would probably stay with you because of Parva but the rest of the stations would be covered between Celeste, P'ris, and I."

"You're serious," Riker suddenly realized with a cold chill running down his spine.

"Deadly serious," Macen confirmed for him.

Riker suddenly started backpedalling, "There's no cause for that. I just didn't like that I wasn't consulted. We've taken to discussing contracts. It just rubbed me wrong that we didn't confer this time. The ship and crew are there for you, Brin. So is her captain. 100%."

"I just needed to be sure," Macen soothed Riker's feathers, "I won't always have the luxury of having time to consult with you. Amanda wanted an answer and she wanted one now."

"Okay, I'll learn to cope," Riker promised.

Macen eyed him skeptically and Riker became insistent, "This never would have been an issue if you hadn't spoiled me since you got back."

Macen wore a lopsided grin, "Good to know."

"So, you want to tell Bryce the bad news and start alerting everyone that we're deploying tomorrow?" Riker wondered.

"No, Captain. I think you can handle it," Macen's grin grew more mirthful.

"I hate you," Riker jested.

"I know and you know what? I can live with that," Macen said as he exited the briefing room.

Riker mulled over what had been discussed and then headed for the Obsidian Captain's station-side office. There, Bryce Fanning waited for the outcome of the meeting. Totally unsurprised by the outcome, she began the recall process.