Lt. Commander Foster - Asking and LIstening

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Jamie LeBlanc

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Oct 17, 2025, 7:22:20 PM (2 days ago) Oct 17
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((Capitol City – High Council Offices))

Wyn preferred to focus on facts. He didn’t want to play to feelings, make accusations or get defensive. If the Federation Trade Commission was lying and Wyn could prove it, he would find some way to make them correct their errors, even if he had to bark up every Starfleet tree he had access to.

Foster: I understand you filed several complaints with the Federation Trade Commission and they did not answer any of them until your most recent complaint.

Zilo: I did not count how many times I filed them, Commander. At some point, one loses track when every message vanishes into the same void.

And Wyn didn’t blame him. Whatever caused it, the effect was damning. 

Zilo: My daughter captained a freighter that ran Federation-protected lanes. The protection did not hold. The pirates came, and the response never did. Since then, I have made it my business to ensure no other family endures that silence again.

And for a moment all the oxygen seemed to drain out of the room. He could hear the emotional undercurrent beneath the professional tone, feel the pain. 

There was no amount of logistics about how Frontier Day decimated the Federation patrol forces that could explain away the pain of losing a child.

Zilo: So yes, Commander. I filed my complaints. And at last, Starfleet has decided to listen. The question is... for how long?

Wyn didn’t interrupt, even though the opportunity was given. He wasn’t the sort to inject himself into someone else’s story.

Zilo: I am aware of the complaint you reference, Commander. It is the only one your Trade Commission acknowledges. The others… vanished. I will speak plainly. My people’s commerce is suffering, our shipping lanes unsafe, and my reports to the Federation were ignored... ::purposeful beat:: or erased. I cannot say which.

Ross: Frankly - We've been wondering the same, Sir. 

S'zurak: We have been looking into thiss topic, and have ssome leadss.

Foster: That said what happened to the messages is far less important than getting Capricalia the help it needs.

That was Wyn’s diplomacy talking. He knew full well from some of the research S’zurak and Ross had been digging up that the reason the messages went astray may play directly into getting Capricalia the help it needed. But he didn’t want Zilo thinking they were focusing on the grains of sand, while the desert swallowed them whole.

Zilo: I will not mince words for politeness. If Starfleet expects Capricalia to remain a member of the Federation, it must act. Words alone are insufficient.

Ross: I am very sorry to hear of your loss, Secretary. We had no idea. 

S'zurak: We will act. And will find out why communicationss have not been received so that we may continue to act in a timely manner. 

Zilo: The question before us is simple. Will you listen to the entirety of my reports and address the threats we face… or will history repeat itself?

Ross: I can assure you, we are here to listen.

Foster: That is exactly the reason we came.

Despite many in the Federation having an abstract, perhaps unaware viewpoint of Starfleet and how it related to the Federation, few if any would state that Starfleet didn’t get things done. In fact Starfleet often got things done when the Federation couldn’t.

S'zurak: ::sounding defeated:: We will… go through the reportss.

Zilo: I am willing to believe in the Federation again. That belief, however, must be earned… not assumed.

Ross: Let us know how we can be of help and we will do our best to make up for recent failures.

S’zurak: Yess. If you require muscle, I am at your ssservice.

Wyn raised one antennae, not outwardly stopping that flow of conversation – Gorn  communication was not overly different from Andorian communication. But Wyn wasn’t raised on Andor. And he had no clue how welcome offers of muscle would be on Capricalia.

But then again he was here to listen and learn.

Zilo: The last time Starfleet promised muscle, Secretary-General Vira’s cargo still burned in orbit. Strength is nothing without follow-through, Commander.

Now his antennae twined together. He was not aware that Starfleet had gotten involved with Capricalia before – or at least within the last year.

Foster: Starfleet made the offer?  Or the Federation?

There was a small significant difference between the two.

Ross: We have gathered reports on recent attacks around Capricalia. Ensign, would you like to share some of our findings?

Wyn nodded towards S’zurak, giving permission for him to share.

S’zurak: ::tapping through the PADD:: We have documented enough cases to esstablish ssome trendss. Multiple vesselss reported communicationss failuress. ::offering Zilo the PADD to review::

Which was the concerning information they had tracked down before beaming down. Ross and S’zurak had done good work. 

Zilo: This aligns with my records. Or it would… if the Federation hadn’t lost half of them. You see the problem, Commander. I have evidence. You have absence.

Foster: We are currently present. And we are currently tracking the source. I can apologize for the absence of the past but cannot change it. I can work forward.

Wyn wanted to keep things on track, moving forward to some sort of positive progression.

Ross: Are you aware of any other cases of pirates interfering with communications?

In the skies beyond them shuttles flew in lazy circles, but no trade ship were launching. It might have been relaxing if it didn’t seem so empty.

Zilo: I am aware that the pirates have grown bolder each season. As for communications… when silence becomes this consistent, it is rarely accidental.

S’zurak: The communicationss failuress may alsso be related to the compmlaintss not reaching the Federation. Though… thiss remainss idle sspeculation.

Zilo: Speculation or not, Ensign, it’s the first reasonable explanation I’ve heard in years. The Federation ombudsman insists they never received my messages. I sent six. Only one was answered... after Capricalia began talks with the Romulans.

Foster: You presented evidence. The facts show the Federation Omsbudsman is wrong.

The only way this would not be true is if Zilo fabricated the evidence. Which Wyn in no way posed. Only that as long as the evidence was true, Zilo was proven right and the Omsbudman wrong.

Even if the messages had gotten through, the Omsbudman insisting that they merely never received the messages did little to help. Further communication should have been initiated far sooner, Wyn could see that. 

But, once again, no good in dwelling on what happened, ony what one could change.

Ross: Is it possible that your communications might have been a target of attacks as well?

Zilo: Possible, yes. Convenient… certainly. Someone wanted my complaints buried. Perhaps pirates. Perhaps someone with more political ambition.

S’zurak: Yess, that iss an important quesstion.

Zilo: If you’re suggesting Federation interference, Commander, I’d remind you that I have no proof. Only patterns. But patterns speak when silence becomes policy.

Foster: At this moment we’re suggesting interference, without casting a finger at who. I would not recommend blame until more facts are present. 

S’zurak: Do you think it’ss posssible that the piratess have an agenda, or are hired by ssome other faction?

Zilo: Everything has an agenda. Profit, power, protection. The pirates are not ideologues—they are tools. The question is whose hand wields them.

Foster: There are several possible connections. Secretary Zilo is correct, pirates rarely operate independently.

Some Romulan factions employed them. The Syndicate surely employed them. The Tholians used them as tools, cults, powermongers and warlords would pay to expand their influence. So many possibilities, none of them good.

Ross: ?

S’zurak: Do you have any intel on these piratess? We have a ship in orbit patrolling the ssystem. Any information you provide could be relayed to them, and any new data we gather can be shared in return.

Zilo: You will find a packet of reports on my console—vessel registries, sensor telemetry, fragments of distress calls. My daughter’s ship was among them. The Mercy’s Run. She never made it home. If you find anything that explains why, I will see to it that Capricalia listens.

There it was again, that painful gut punch.

Foster: We will use this and seek answers immediately. Lieutenant Ross, if you can ensure this information gets to the right hands?

Ross: ?

S’zurak: I ssupposse that bringss another question… the Phaethon Nebula. Do you ssend shipss through it, or avoid it entirely?

Zilo: We avoid it when we can. Those who enter rarely report back. Whatever is in there… it hides its purpose well.

Ross: ?

Foster: It does seem ideal to hide in, which is concerning.

Zilo: You asked for cooperation, and you’ll have it. But understand this... Capricalia’s faith in the Federation is already fragile. I will not have it shattered again by silence.

Foster: Then we will remain until we have answers for you, Secretary.

He didn’t know what those answers would be and he didn’t like how much he didn’t know.

Ross/S’zurak: ?

Zilo: ? 

Wyn thumbed through the data on the holoscreen and frowned lightly, tracing a blue finger across a shipping map.

Foster: Secretary, I see that your main shipping route changed to avoid the Omicrus system in 2398. Was that a choice your government made, or one that was requested that you make from an outside entity?

There could be a completely rational reason for changing a shipping route, but Omicrus was an uninhabited system with two class J planets, a class I planet and a class G planet. It was less than two light years away, but it was close enough to the Phaethon Nebula to assume the change was purely for shipping safety reasons.

Then again, between the nebula and the Omicrus system, there were plenty of places for fast ships to hide and ambush.

Ross/S’zurak: ?

Zilo: ? 

Foster: And are the pirate attacks your only concern for trade shipping or do you have other, smaller concerns that would still hamper your efforts if the pirates were eliminated?

Ross/S’zurak: ?

Zilo: ? 

~*~
tags/tbc
~*~

Lt. Commander Shar’Wyn Foster
Executive Officer
StarBase 118 Ops

 

"Why do we fly? Because we have dreamt of it for so long that we must"

~Julian Beck

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