Lt Jovenan – Never check your hero's holodeck history
Jovenan
((Holosuites, Quark’s, DS9))
The selection of holosuites were located on the upper floor of the (original) Quark’s. While the team were looking for the one where they would expect to find Misters Tolar and Garak, Jovenan noticed that Doctor Sadar tended to stick as close to her as possible. Sadar, visibly upset from CloQ’s words, seemed to be seeking support from her proximity. Closeness to the other team members brought calmness to Jovenan as well; if the offworlders weren’t so remote, she might have been holding hands with them all the time.
Based on the location data and the information displayed on the panel by the holosuite, the team could find the correct door. It was in use, so Jovenan was rather hesitant to just barging in.
Jovenan: This is the one. Do you think we can just, um, open it?
Dakora: Only one way to find out…
Talos placed his hand on the panel to try and to open the doors, but instead of a typical access or denial, the panel informed the lockout had been overridden – by Captain Sisko.
Sadar: H-How-?
Jovenan exchanged confused looks with each of her teammates before landing her eyes on CloQ.
Silveira: Thank you for the assistance.
CloQ: You’re most welcome.
Sadar: W-Well, it certainly indicates that whatever they’re doing isn’t exactly above-board...
Jovenan frowned a little and nodded as the doors were opening. Then again, locking the holosuite doors was probably not unusual when in a public place. When the doors opened, Jovenan could see that the small room was occupied by Mr Tolar, several Cardassians and a Vorta.
Jovenan: Wha- what is this?
Dakora: I’m not sure what I was expecting, but this wasn’t on the list.
Jovenan walked in with the others and looked around. With a sole exception, likely the tailor, the Cardassians were in military uniforms that would correspond to the Dominion War era. While it was unusual that anyone would have wanted to spend their hour in the holosuite with a group of burly Cardassian soldiers in their leather uniforms, the presence of a Vorta made the scene all the more curious.
Sadar: This would be the Cardassian tailor? I suppose?
Silveira: I don’t know who is who? Is this some negotiation scenario?
CloQ: You all really are soooooo stupid.
Jovenan pouted. CloQ could have left them already for all she cared if it weren’t for all the help they were willing to give to the team – a dubious action in itself.
Jovenan: It does look like a negotiation to me too. ::points:: They have a map and everything.
Talos was circling around the room to check on the frozen holograms.
Dakora: See if you can determine what our friend Mister Tolar is doing to this recording on that control interface.
Sadar: ::looks at Silveira, Jovenan, then back again:: I’m, uhh… Not very good with holo-technology.
Vitor shrugged and walked to the control interface, occupied by the only two real people in the room besides them. Jovenan followed him.
Silveira: Me neither, I admit they all seem real to me. This looks like a planning session. But why would they do this in the holodeck?
CloQ: The million latinum question.
Jovenan tilted her head as she read the contents on the interface. Mr Tolar was obviously inputting parameters for the scene, including a script for the holograms to speak.
Jovenan: They were working on a script, something about, um, discussing war plans. There’s also some seemingly unrelated discussion, petty bickering and such. No interactivity. If it weren’t for the changes they were implementing, I would have assumed this was a recording.
They were creating a hyper-realistic holosuite programme of a non-factual event? Jovenan was struggling to understand why they would do so, and what was Captain Sisko’s role in it all. She was almost afraid to think of the implications.
Dakora: What? Why would he be making a fake scenario look like a real recording… ::He trailed off.:: Unless…
Sadar: ::deadpan:: He needs someone to believe it’s a real recording.
CloQ surprised Jovenan by clapping their hands together as if to celebrate something.
CloQ: Here we go!
Talos walked across the room and joined the others by the controls. Jovenan stepped aside to give him space. Almost immediately, he identified something by just a glance, pointing it out to them.
Dakora: Holy strokes. Do any of you know what that is!?
Silveira: A data rod?
Jovenan looked closer but could only shrug. It did look like a data rod, not Starfleet or any Federation standard she knew, although she didn’t know twenty-year-old technology throughout.
Dakora: That’s an unused Cardassian Optolythic Data rod ::His words pitched up with excitement as he spoke.:: These things were like the holy relics of the Intelligence world. Made with materials and processes that can ONLY be found on Cardassia Prime, they can only be written to once and are used within the Cardassian Union to transfer the most high-level of classified information.
Jovenan raised an eyebrow. Where would a death row prisoner and a tailor get their hands on one?
Sadar: Which means, there’d be little reason to suspect that this recording came from the holosuite on a Starfleet Space Station, rather than Cardassia Prime.
Silveira: Logical.
CloQ: You’re getting there.
Dakora: I don't think I like the way this is starting to look.
Jovenan shook her head. They seemed to have stumbled onto a secret plan, but whatever the perpetrators were doing it for was still a mystery.
Jovenan: They have gone to extreme lengths to make it appear as if the Cardassians have a legitimate intel recording of a fake meeting. But why? And how does this relate to the Romulans?
Sadar: Judging by the date, Romulus hasn’t entered into the war yet, which means it’s the Federation / Klingon Alliance vs the Dominion, and Romulus still has its non-aggression treaty with the Dominion. Something pretty major would have had to sway Romulus to join the war against an enemy that they were assured wouldn’t pose a threat to them… And according to the newscasts we heard on Romulus ::looks to Jovenan:: Senator Vreenak was a supporter of the treaty with the Dominion.
Jovenan nodded. As they had heard from on Romulus, the Senator was returning from a meeting with the Dominion authorities.
CloQ: Bit by bit the pieces fit.
Dakora::To Gila.:: Something major like, say, compelling evidence that the Dominion was plotting an imminent attack on the Romulan Star Empire?
Pursing her lips together, Jovenan shrugged. The War had been a complicated web of detailed battle plans and secretive intelligence operations. It was difficult to try and predict what changes could such an information cause.
Dakora: The only problem is that we've checked the docking schedule and saw no mention of Senator Vreenak’s arrival, now or in the next several days.
Jovenan: Absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence. He could still be coming.
Sadar: I have to agree. Just because the Senator isn’t slated to dock with the station, doesn’t mean he won’t. During wartime especially, information is as valuable a weapon as a photon warhead, so it wouldn’t be out-of-order to keep such information on a need-to-know basis.
Silveira: Maybe…
Vitor had responded with a single word, and Talos was pacing around the room once more. Jovenan was getting worried they might be reaching the end of how much they can find out here. Everything so far had only raised more questions, not the kind, interesting ones.
Dakora: There aren't all that many above-board reasons for hiding the Romulan’s arrival…
Sadar: … Likely because what happened when he docked was something someone didn’t want anyone to know, even after the war was over.
CloQ: Oh you’re bright as a button… ::they considered the Mizarian:: I might considered saving you from your fate.
Jovenan crossed her arms over her chest. She couldn’t understand why CloQ kept blistering Sadar specifically. Even their compliments to her were cruel. Luckily, Vitor kept the conversation going.
Silveira: Anyway, what is so relevant here? Why are we supposed to figure this out CloQ?
CloQ straightened themselves. It seemed to Jovenan that they had finally asked the right question and made them answer is as well, though she was afraid of what the answer might be.
CloQ: Because, I want you to know what was done to keep your precious Federation alive, and what that cost.
Jovenan brought her eyebrows together. She had to admit, even if for herself, that CloQ had succeeded in their objective. Should this all be real and not just one of CloQ’s illusions, they had revealed the team one of the most important secrets of the century. Sisko’s actions – and who knows how high up the conspiracy went – were illegal and vile, and it all made her sick… but she couldn’t say it out loud to CloQ.
Jovenan: For what? To make us feel bad, because if so, you’ve already succeeded. All these people are old or dead, Sisko’s with the Bajoran Prophets and even the Romulan Empire’s gone. Who do you want us to track and execute? The tailor?
Sadar: Response
Dakora: Since, looking back, we know it must have worked and brought the Romulans into the war, then it had to have been worth the cost…
Silveira: We don’t take moral lessons from you CloQ, no matter how powerful you are.
CloQ: Moral lessons? Not at all. I am merely reminding you that sometimes tough decisions have to be made in order for the whole to survive.
Jovenan raised an eyebrow. She knew it had been a Q who had introduced the Federation to the Borg ahead of their time, which had apparently been also a blessing, forcing Starfleet to prepare to the era of large wars once more. However, whatever CloQ was doing didn’t seem to have any particular purpose, unless the team were to be needing to make a tough decision one day in the future.
Talos turned suddenly to Jovenan and Sadar. He looked like he had just realised something, which, considering the circumstance, made Jovenan rather worried.
Dakora: There is one thing I don't get.:: Beat ::You two said you looked it up and Vreenak was killed in our timeline and that somehow led to the Romulans joining the war…
Jovenan: Yes, he was assassinated by the Dominion, leading to the Romulan joining the alliance. ::looks around:: If he received the datarod with the false intel and believed it, he might have been persuaded to lead the Romulans to the war.
Silveira/Sadar: Response
Jovenan covered her mouth. Forging intelligence documents to pull another country to a war was heinous, but she couldn’t believe Starfleet officers could… It would have been much more devastating to her had she not tried to assassinate Senator Vreenak just some hours ago.
CloQ: What is it that Vulcans say? The needs of the many?
Vulcans might have disagreed with her, but Jovenan had always thought that their best-known proverb was a good personal guideline but shouldn’t have been applied in larger, unconsenting populations.
Dakora: Seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through if Sisko's ultimate plan was just to assassinate the Senator. Why go through all the trouble of creating this forged Holo recording?
Jovenan: To lure him in? To keep him occupied so they could land the strike?
Silveira/Sadar/CloQ: Response
Jovenan shook her head slowly. She had hard time believing that such a worshipped figure such as Sisko could go to such lengths. There had always been some level of controversy surrounding him, like his actions against the Maquis and using his status as a religious figure on Bajor, hardly a perfect hero and a saint, but a political assassination was something she wouldn’t have believed of him.
Dakora: I think we've seen all there is to see here. If Vreenak was ever present on the Station, can you take us to that time?
Jovenan sure hoped CloQ would just snap them to the right time instead of forcing them to actually wait for it.
CloQ: Response
Hastily, Jovenan spoke out.
Jovenan: Before we go anywhere… What are we supposed to do there? The timeline is still broken, how do we try to fix it?
Silveira/Sadar/Dakora/CloQ: Response
Jovenan: So, we might end up having to assassinate the Senator. ::exchanges looks with Sadar, quietly:: Again.
Silveira/Sadar/Dakora/CloQ: Response
((OOC: Sorry for the delay (and poor quality), I’ve been a bit sick for the last couple of days.))
TAG/TBC
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Lieutenant Jovenan
Chief Science Officer
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11