In the end, there was only one real course of action.

Captain Robert Carrington frowned deeply, his snowy brows coming together to contrive the keystone to the steepled arch formed by his fingers, as the CO of the USS Albion regarded his new Executive Officer with some hint of consternation betrayed in his keen grey eyes.

For her part, Sam Hyland shifted uncomfortably in her own seat aboard the Inquiry – Class’s Main Briefing Room, keenly aware of the criminal conundrum that she had laid at the feet of her CO and equally perturbed that the compromised position that the malfeasant D’Taani Varada had entrapped her in – could conceivably herald the end of her own promising career in Starfleet.

Long pregnant moments passed, the two senior officers the only persons alone in the room, the air between them redolent with tension as Commander Hyland had chosen the path of honor over loyalty and regretfully unburdened herself to Captain Carrington.

With all her cards on the table, Samantha had a terrible feeling in her gut that, by divulging her complicity –  in doing so she had betrayed Kennedy Zhao to a lifetime of incarceration in a Federation Penal Colony – all for a crime that she did not commit, in an attempt to right a wrong that (by rights) Sam should have shouldered as the former CO of the USS Savannah.

Robert Carrington sighed, an exhalation that Sam was sure signaled her court – martial, and nodded, as if inwardly reaching a point of decision.

“Well Sam,” Robert held Hyland’s gaze steadily, “Whilst I can’t say that I’m glad that you brought this to my door, you did the right thing in doing so.”

THAT – was not the response Samantha had been expected.

“Sir, I …” Sam began uncomfortably, by Captain Carrington held up a weathered hand to indicate that he had not finished.

“I appreciate how difficult a decision it must have been to come forward and tell the truth.” The veteran Starfleet Captain remonstrated, “A lesser officer may have put their own interests and reputation first, but you have chosen the path of accountability and principle. For that I commend your judgement. Those are exactly the qualities that I value in an officer and would expect nothing less from my own XO.”

Slightly taken aback, Sam managed to respond with a flush of shame.

“Thank you, Sir.”

Robert Carrington sat back in his chair and blew out his cheeks as, he absently smoothed back his greying hair and regarded the hologram that revolved slowly on the table between them. The metaphoric and literal pink elephant in the room.

“I don’t know who this D’Taani Varada is, but you have to admire the sheer bloody gall of the woman.” The CO shook his head slowly as he considered the implications of the crime that the shadowy Orion criminal had entrapped Samantha into performing, on her behalf.

Sam nodded in assent, she had been sat on the knowledge of Varada’s insane scheme for a full half hour longer than her CO and still she couldn’t quite fathom that the Orion was actually serious in this audacious gambit.

“Clearly Sir.” Samantha agreed as she watched the Holo of the object revolve hypnotically in the air between them. “Of course, what she proposes is absolutely out of the question.” She added with finality.

Captain Robert Carrington slowly raised a finger, his face thoughtful.

“I’m not so sure that it is Sam.”

Sam’s eyes widened with incredulity.

“Captain! You cannot be serious! She wants to steal a Genesis Device!”

Once said out in the open, it seemed both more preposterous a notion and somehow even more terrible a reality to consider in seriousness.

Robert made a face with a twist of his lips and allowed, “If my understanding of this Criminal’s intent is correct, she wants you to break into one of the most secure Federation research facilities and steal the original design specifications for the Genesis Particle, a technology restricted with prudent good reason for its morbid history and potential as one of the most awful weapons of mass destruction ever accidentally developed and turn this proscribed technology over to unspecified criminal actors for profit and gain.”

No, when the Captain said it out – loud, it sounded infinitely worse, Sam decided.

“It’s insane Sir!” Sam protested, “To perpetrate a crime of this magnitude against our own people and, worse still, hand such a potentially – destructive weapon into the unprincipled hands of criminals is tantamount to high treason. It’s unthinkable!”

Robert Carington’s warm grey – eyes were gimlet with studied calculation.

“You state the obvious, of course Commander.” Carrington waved a dismissive hand, “But consider this, Starfleet has tasked us to this quadrant with the expressed intent to locate and stamp out the operation & influence of the Orion Syndicate and the criminal transfer of illegal technology.”

Carrington smiled a wiley smile.

“Now, I don’t know about you Sam, but to my thinking – why should we spend our time cruising aimlessly along the former DMZ – hoping that happenchance hands us such an opportunity to do so – when fate seems to have intervened and handed us an unparalleled opportunity to do just that?”

Sam just stared at the Captain, dumbfounded. After a while, she regained composure enough to close her open mouth.

“So, you are saying that we should proceed with D’Taani Varada’s plan and actually stage a heist of Genesis from the High Security wing of the Daystrom Institute?” Sam could barely fathom the words departing her lips.

Captain Robert Carrington shrugged easily and replied.

“I’m suggesting that we appear to be complying to Varada’s blackmail and execute her plan as proposed – to a point.” Robert countered. “I would postulate that a criminal of her stripe would take pains to allow for any subterfuge on our behalf and would know if we attempted to deceive the deceiver.”

“But we can’t allow Genesis to be released on the Black Market to be acquired by the highest bidder Sir, it’s just unconscionable.”

“No Sam, I propose that we perform the operation as directed, but what we release to Varada will not be the technical schematic for the Genesis Particle entire. Rather I propose that we doctor the data and retain key information – what’s more that we let Varada know that we have done so.”

“She’ll be furious Sir!” Sam warned.

“I certainly hope so Sam. “Captain Carrington smiled knowingly. “In my considerable experience, I have found that when people are angry – that is the point when they tend to make mistakes. I intend to capitalize upon Ms. Varada’s greed and anger and turn the tables on her scheme – to our own ends.”

Sam began to wonder if her own CO was not, in fact, more duplicitous & unhinged than the Machiavellian Orion information – peddler, herself?

“You mean to capture D’Taani Varada?” She breathed in admiration.

“No Sam, I mean to arrest not only D’Taani Varada, but also the potential buyers to the Genesis Particle and in doing so – strike a crippling blow to the Orion Syndicate and blacken D’Taani Varada’s already blackened reputation even further and sully it to the extent that her Death Mark will seem like a “I’m – with – Stupid” lapel – badge and no criminal in their right mind will ever want to associate with her again.”

Dumbfounded, Commander Hyland sat back in her own chair, her head reeling from the implications of bluff, counter – bluff ad – infinitum- until she herself felt quite dizzy.

“But how can we possibly access the secure facility at the Daystrom Institute?” Sam wondered aloud. “It would be easier to try and mount an operation against a hostile foreign power – than against our own people.”

The door hissed behind her and as she turned to see who had entered, Captain Carrington’s voice carried over her shoulder.

“Which is why I have taken the liberty of asking Lieutenant – Commander Sonak to join us.”

With an unhurried gait, the Vulcan Chief – Engineer of the USS Albion took a seat and greeted somberly.

“Greetings Captain Carrington, Commander Hyland.”

As Sam looked from the Vulcan to Robert with a questioning look, Captain Carrington expounded.

“In addition to being an alumni of the Sortek Academy of Science, Commander Sonak is also a research – fellow of the Daystrom Institute and, as such, enjoys an open invitation, in – perpetuity, to lecture at the establishment at any time.”

“There has been considerable pressure from the Daystrom Engineering – faculty as to my attendance to deliver a lecture on “Quantum – phase variance in construct models of collective excitations & quasiparticles”. The Vulcan intoned without humor.

“An enthralling prospect to be sure.” Carrington smiled and continued, “I have brought Sonak up to speed on the particulars of this situation and the Commander has agreed to reach out to his contacts at Daystrom to accept a speaking engagement for an upcoming symposium. You will accompany Commander Sonak to Japan, as his guest in a liaison capacity.”

“That’s all well and good Captain.” Samantha shook her head. This morning, the universe had been of a familiar and reassuring composition – the forces of normalcy president. Now it seemed that, with the arrival of the mysterious holoprojector on her desk not an hour ago, that the universe had gone completely, abjectly, screamingly mad and she was the only sane person at the centre of the asylum.

“But the Secure Areas of the Daystrom Institute are not housed in the main campus itself, rather they are located kilometers beneath the surface in an area only accessible by a single transporter room. Access to and from the Secure Areas are rigorously controlled. There is absolutely no way that any unauthorized transport in or out of the area is possible. Even with Sonak and myself permitted access to the Symposium, all eyes will be on us.”

Captain Carrington placed his hands on the table.

“You will be in the public eye and that is where we want you to remain Sam. You need to be able to present a credible presence to support a plausible alibi and provide a means to ensure that the Technical Information for the Genesis Particle can be extracted with you from Daystrom without attracting undue attention.”

“So, I’m not going to be stealing Genesis?” Samantha interjected, confused again.

“No Commander, whilst I have full confidence in you, I think that task is better entrusted to someone with a skillset more optimized to that particular endeavor.”

With that, the door to the briefing room slid back again to reveal a young blonde-haired officer, who loped into the room with a fluid, confident grace and nodded to all assembled as she slid into a spare seat.

“Sirs.”

“Commander Hyland, I don’t think that you’ve yet had the opportunity to meet Lieutenant Clara Hask. Clara is our resident Starfleet Intelligence Liaison Officer and also heads up our Hazard Team operations.”

“A pleasure, Lieutenant.” Hask nodded. Despite her relatively young age, it was evident to Sam that the young officer possessed a wealth of surety.

“Likewise, Ma’am.” Lieutenant Hask smiled politely.

“I have asked the Lieutenant to work up a basic mission profile for Hazard for ‘acquiring’ “The Package.” Captain Carrington explained and prompted the Hazard Team Leader, “Please proceed Lieutenant.”

Clara Hask nodded efficiently and keyed the holo-display.

The holographic representation of the Genesis Device de-pixelated and the image swam and panned – reforming as a representation of the planet Earth, that zoomed with slightly disorientating effect, down to the landmass of Japan and further down to the Nipponese Island of Okinawa and the main Daystrom Institute Campus.

“Whilst some of the mission elements are still under development Captain, I have constructed the following mission profile, based upon the available parameters and have formulated a preliminary strategic assessment of insertion and extraction, likely to yield the highest likelihood of success in the securement and extraction of the target package.”

The Holomap swung on its axis to the perpendicular, with the Daystrom Campus on the surface and the Secure Facility shown as a glowing blue hive of different subterranean levels, separated by a vast, impenetrable swathe of rock, massed between the two locations.

“As the Commander correctly surmises, the only mode of access to the Secure Access Area is controlled from this Transporter Room here.” Lieutenant Hask explained as the holo highlighted the relevant areas as she spoke.

“Only approved personnel, issued with a biometric tag – specified to the user, are permitted to enter the Transporter Room. Once granted access to the room, their biometric data is compared against that of the user – data protected at the highest level by a contra – rotating quantum bit encryption algorithm. This quantum security system, capable of quadrillion – per – second change – variables, cannot be measured without being altered, detected and triggering an intrusion alarm. Full lockdown of the facility is the outcome.”

Sam’s head began to ache.

“So how do you propose to overcome these security measures?” Samantha wondered forlornly.

All business, Clara Hask shook her head.

“I don’t, Commander.” The Intel Officer explained without humor. “That would be impossible. To beat High – Tech, we go Low – Tech.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, whilst at the Symposium, you will be injected with a hypospray prepared by our team Medical Specialist. The contents will cause you to present with the very compelling symptoms of a Cardiac-episode and in the confusion, a member of my team will acquire the necessary biometric – tag from one of the attendees.”

“How will your team gain access to Daystrom?” Sam enquired.

“Need to know. For the purposes of compartmentalization & plausible deniability, it’s better that you don’t Ma’am.” Hask stated flatly, irking Samantha slightly at the prosect of being left in the dark…

“So, say that that gets you access to the Transporter room – how does that help you overcome the quantum safeguards?”

Lieutenant Hask nodded confidently.

“It doesn’t. As I said, we are taking an Analog – approach. Once able to access the Transporter room – we incapacitate the operators by non-lethal means and take control of the facility.”

“Control the Transporter room – control access to and from the Secure Access Area. From there my team infiltrates the vaults, locates the Target Package and exfil back to the Transporter room. At this juncture, we pass the Target Package to you and – it and you are medically evacuated from Okinawa to the USS Albion in orbit.”

Hask sat back, satisfied.

Samantha wasn’t.

“That’s your plan?”

“That’s the plan as it stands.” Lieutenant Hask shrugged noncommittally. “As I said, with such a short lead – time to prepare, several tactical details are still under development – but the basic mission profile is sound.”

“You want to intentionally give me a heart – attack and you call that sound?!” Sam protested.

At this point Captain Carrington interjected.

“Commander, you brought this party to us and if you want us to party, then you are going to have to dance.” Robert confirmed.

“To say that this mission is not without huge attendant risk is a chronic understatement – but the prize is accordingly compelling. A chance to beat the Orion Syndicate at their own game and deal them a defeat that they will find hard to recover from. The mission is high – risk, but it presents us an unparalleled opportunity to fulfill our primary mission objectives – without firing a shot.”

Samantha had to concede. The situation that she had placed her crew in (even by association) was nigh impossible and maybe only an impossible mission was the only way to confound the criminal intentions of D’Taani Varada and see a way to winning freedom for Kennedy Zhao.

Still, she had misgivings and remained skeptical of this audacious scheme’s material – chances of success.

“There’s no way that you’d ever get Starfleet Command to sanction a scheme like this.” Samantha made a last – ditch attempt to restore reason to the room.

Captain Robert Carrington nodded his greying head knowingly and simply stated.

“That’s why we won’t be telling them; this mission will be disavowed in every sense of the word.”

And that’s how it happened.