Lieutenant JG John Kendrick - Wanderers (Part 3: Investigations)

[Jon Van Pelt]

((Lightside Station))

The Wanderer's cargo - thousands of jars of exquisite honey from a place called Butterfly City - had been stolen. Hennessy, the grey old skipper of the ship, was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. With the loss of his merchandise, he would be forced to sell his ship to compensate for any expenses made by the Universal Trading Company (UTC). With retirement only a few years away, he'd lose everything he had worked for his entire life.

Although John wasn't part of their crew, being the son of Bill Kendrick – CEO of UTC – made him feel somewhat responsible for the welfare of Captain Hennessy and his crew. They appeared to be honest and hardworking folks who didn't deserve the misfortune of their cargo being stolen from right under their noses.

Starfleet had no jurisdiction to start up an investigation aboard Lightside Station. Starfleet wasn't even involved here. But as a security officer aboard the leading Starfleet vessel in the Aavaro Wilds, John had a few contacts on the station who were willing to provide him with information Hennessy would never have gained access to on his own.

Apparently transport companies or freighters that did business on the station for the first time, were more likely to be filing reports on missing cargo. John was surprised that station authorities referred to it as ‘missing’ instead of ‘stolen’ cargo, but it didn't take a genius to figure out why. The station’s reputation was at stake - or that of the port authority, to be more precise. Only in a handful of cases were the authorities able to locate the so-called missing cargo. Word was that in those cases the freighter captains were blackmailed to pay huge amounts of credits to get their cargo back .

With Hennessy not being in the position to pay anything to get his stolen cargo back, it was up to John to help them get it back.

((Mess Room, The Wanderer))

The mood in the mess room was below zero.

Tears ran down Brikane's face. John had never seen a Cardassian cry. The thought of a Cardassian being able to cry never even occurred to him. But nevertheless, here was the living proof that they could.

Hennessy sat at the head of the dining table, nervously pulling at his cigar, puffing little clouds of smoke up in the air.

Tolena - The Wanderer's Chief Engineer - sat quietly next to Brikane, staring at the wall while Moa - the ship's pilot - was pacing back and forth, apparently lost in her own train of thoughts until she suddenly stopped and pointed her index finger at Brikane.

Moa: This is all your fault, dammit. You had just one job. ::anger building up:: One job! And that was keeping an eye on our cargo.

Brikane started to cry even harder. Tolena laid her hand on his back, gently rubbed it to calm him down.

Tolena: ::annoyed:: We all know what happened, Moa. You don't have to remind us every five minutes. It's not going to get us anywhere.

Hennessy just stared out in front of him. He was an old man, but the last few hours seemed to have added a couple more years extra.

John held a PADD in his hand and went over the information he had just received from his contact.

Kendrick: ::placing the PADD on the table:: I believe one of my contacts has provided us with some interesting intel.

Moa: ::excited:: Did they locate our shipment?

Kendrick: Not exactly.

Moa: ::disappointed:: Then why would you call it interesting?

He pushed the PADD across the table, towards Moa. As she picked it up, John continued.

Kendrick: The company you hired to transfer your cargo off ship often uses a subcontractor to do the work for them when not enough men are available. Apparently the name of this particular subcontractor pops up quite often in cases where cargo has gone ::carefully:: missing.

Tolena: So why hasn't he been arrested yet?

Moa: ::while reading the information on the PADD:: Because apparently no one knows where to look for him.

John: Lightside Station is 10 kilometres long and 3 kilometres wide. This place is big and has enough dark corners for someone who doesn’t want to be found.

As Hennessy carefully put out his cigar.

Hennessy: And you think you'll be able to find them?

John got up from his chair and walked over to one of the windows looking out to the station.

Kendrick: Perhaps. My contact suspects someone at the port authority might be in league with the men who stole your cargo, burying evidence in a pile of paperwork for them. He gave me a name. Apparently he is related to one of the station's administrators, so no one dares to start up an investigation against him, fearing they might lose their job.

Moa: But my guess is you can.

John nodded as his thoughts drifted away realizing that, again, he was reacting on impulses - just like during the mission on Aturn VII. Only this time the course he had set out for himself might end up costing him his career with Starfleet. But he also had a strong sense of justice. And there was no greater injustice than people breaking the law and getting away with it. He could only hope that things wouldn’t run completely out of hand.

((Residential Section, Lightside Station))

As Martuf - a Kalinda, the species that built the station ages ago - stepped out of his quarters, he looked down at his uniform and smiled to himself. Impeccable as always, he thought.

It had been a short night for him, just like every night before. After his shift had ended last night, he had gone back home, changed into something more comfortable and headed out to Leviathan Orchid for his favorite game of Dabo, hoping this time lady luck would be on his side. Unfortunately he ended up losing a substantial amount of credits - again. Still, he was confident that one day he'd hit the jackpot so he kept on playing.

Any other person would’ve run out of credits a long time ago, or worse, ended up dead in the dark bowls of the station. Fortunately he had a job with the port authorities. Not that the job there earned him enough money to support his current lifestyle, not to mention his hobby, but it did offer him the opportunity to earn him a lot more credits on the side. And he didn’t have to work hard for it either! He just had to keep his agent informed on the comings and goings of freighters with interesting cargo and make sure any complaints of those same freighters got buried in the thousands of reports and files that were entered into the system each day. This little neat arrangement had benefited him for years.

As he walked down the corridor and turned around the corner, he almost bumped into a large crate. A woman - she looked like one of those Starfleet people, but she wasn’t wearing their uniform - turned around, facing him.

Moa: I'm so sorry, Sir. Did you hurt yourself?

Martuf: ::smiling politely:: No, Madam. But it looks like you and your crate took a wrong turn somewhere. This level houses only living quarters.

The woman smiled back at him.

Moa: We're just here to pick something up.

The way the woman smiled at him suddenly made him feel uncomfortable. He couldn’t tell why, but there wasn’t much time to ponder over it as he suddenly felt a hypospray pushed into his neck. The hissing sound of the sedative entering his body was the last thing he felt before he fell unconscious onto the crate.

Stepping up from behind him was John, putting the hypospray back in his jacket.

Kendrick: Guess it’s time to start packing.

((timeskip)

((Cargo Hold 4, The Wanderer))

Captain Hennessy and John stood in front of the transporter platform. Standing at the transporter control system was Moa.

The three of them were watching Martuf tied up to a chair that they had put on one of the transporter pads, as he slowly awakened from his nap.

Martuf: ::still groggy from the sedative:: Where am I?

Kendrick: You're aboard the freighter called The Wanderer. ::pointing to his side:: This is Captain Hennessy and I'm-

He quickly realized it was best not to disclose his true identity in case things went south.

Kendrick: Hood. Robin Hood. ::pauses:: We're looking for some missing cargo. A little bird told us you might help us find it.

Martuf: I don’t know what you're talking about.

Captain Hennessy got angry and stepped up onto the platform, grabbing Martuf by his jacket.

Hennessy: The hell you don't. I may be an old man ::raising his fist up in the air:: but I can still swing a mean punch if I have to.

Now John stepped forward, placing his hand on the Captain’s arm.

Kendrick: Calm down Captain. No need to get your knuckles bruised on that bastard’s ugly face. ::turning to Moa:: We've got a better incentive than the use of brute force.

As Hennessy remembered the plan, he stepped back down from the platform.

Hennessy: You can either tell me where they took our shipment of honey ::tilting his head in Moa’s direction:: or my friend here will beam you straight into space. ::turning back to Martuf:: From what I’ve been told it can be very cold out there.

Martuf started to twist and turn on his chair as he started to panic.

Martuf: Let me go. I swear I don’t know anything!

Tears started to run across his face.

Hennessy gave Moa a nod, giving her the signal to start energizing.

Martuf’s sobbing was now being accompanied by the sound of keys being tapped on the transporter console.

Kendrick: Just tell us where they took our cargo and I swear you'll be leaving this ship unharmed.

Of course John would never allow Moa to beam the man straight into space. Maybe he had crossed a line by kidnapping Martuf, but he wasn’t a cold blooded killer. Right now he desperately hoped the man would break and spill out everything he knew about the missing cargo.

Martuf: ::crying:: I can't!! Don’t you understand? They’ll kill me!

Hennessy: If you don’t tell me where my cargo is, you're dead anyway. If you do tell me, you'll at least get a second chance to live.

John placed one foot on the transporter platform, his hands resting on his knee.

Kendrick: I've been told you like gambling. So let me explain this to you: right now you've got a 50 percent chance to get out of here alive. Now I'm not a gambler myself,  but that's a bet I'd take any day.

The transporter was slowly powering up. The clock was ticking. Realizing he didn’t want to die today, Martuf finally broke.

Martuf: Okay. Okay. I will tell you what you need to know. Please stop!

John smiled inwardly, relieved the man hadn’t called their bluff.

Hennessy nodded at Moa, who immediately took the transporter back offline.

((Short Timeskip))

After Martuf had told them everything they needed to know to find their missing cargo, John had put the man back to sleep with his hypospray and back inside the crate that now stood on the transporter platform.

Moa: How long will he be unconscious?

Kendrick: 12 hours. Long enough for us to do our job.

As he stepped down the transporter platform.

Kendrick: Beam him over to his quarters. He can open up the crate from the inside when he wakes up.

As the crate disappeared in a beam of light, John padded Hennessy on the shoulder.

Kendrick: Let’s get your honey back, Sir.

The Captain smiled as the three of them exited Cargo Hold 4.

TBC in Part 4: The Volcano City

===

Lieutenant JG John Kendrick

Security

USS Juneau, NX-99801

J239801JK3