It was late evening, both on the USS Grus and for the residents of the planet Skoni’s second city; who’s name reflected that.   Lieutenant Lyanna Stuart crossed her left leg over her right and clasped her hands together.  She’d just finished going through the details of what she knew so far, about what had happened down on the planet, and why three members of the USS Grus’s crew were currently helping the police with their enquires; after a man they’d apprehended, had been shot dead.

“Do we have any idea who this man was?” Lieutenant-Commander            Chance Vought asked; his posture almost mirroring that of the Orion Chief Helm Officer sat opposite in his Ready Room.

“At the moment; no.” Stuart replied. “Or for that matter why he chose to run.”

“What about the generator.” Vought enquired.

“Someone had connected up additional cabling and had been diverting power.” Stuart answered.

“Do we know where the power was being sent?” Vought asked, uncrossing his legs, and the Lieutenant shook her head in response to the question.  “We’ll conduct scans to see if we can pick up whatever it is the cable is helping to power.”

“Anything else you want me to do, Captain?”

“For now, there isn’t.  But I’m going to be having polite words with whoever is in charge down there.” Chance thumped the arm of his chair before standing. “There is something rotten in the state of Denmark”

Lyanna looked at her Captain; not sure what he meant by that last comment, but understanding things weren’t exactly right, down on the planet Skoni.  She made her leave, and left The Captain to contact the authorities down on the planet, and find out what was happening to his crew.

**********

It was early the following morning when Lieutenant-Commander Chance Vought, beamed down to the planet’s surface; having left Lieutenant Stuart in charge of the ship.  He found himself at the bottom of a small, wide set of steps, with a large imposing looking building at the top.  The Second City’s Police Headquarters looked far too large for the city or the number of inhabitant the place was there to protect.

Apparently the building was fitted with transporter inhibitors; which was why he’d arrived outside its main entrance.  The two police officers on guard duty, came swiftly to attention; not because of the Lieutenant-Commander’s arrival, but because Chief Constable was coming out to great him.

“You must be the Captain on that ship we currently have in orbit!” The Chief Constable held out his hand even before he’d reached the top step and hovered at the edge waiting for Vought to approach him. A tactic that Chance assumed was to show who was in charge here.

The handshake was firm; but a little clammy and far too long, at least in Vought’s opinion.  “I’m Chief Constable Lemeer.”

“Lieutenant-Commander Vought, Captain of, as you say ‘that ship’.” Vought hope he sounded sufficiently annoyed without being too disrespectful.  “So where are my crew?”

“All good time Mister Vought, all in good time.” The Chief Constable led the way back into the building; passing through what the Captain had to assume were scanning arches, to prevent any unauthorised weapons and such, being taken into the building.

Along one wall of the spacious imitation marble floor foyer; a long wooden desk with police officers sat at computer screens, ready to deal with any member of the public that might enter the building, needing help or to report a crime in person; whilst on the opposite side, four elevators, waiting to take people to other floor in the building.  The far wall had a seating area and doors leading to rest rooms and a coffee shop.  Dotted around, copper looking pots of varying sizes held small trees and shrubs.

The two of them stepped into the closest of the lifts, once the double doors had silently opened at the touch of an illuminated button.  Vought noted that there were 3 levels below where they’d just entered, as well as four above.  The elevator; big enough to easily accommodate a dozen averagely sized humans, ascended, with a gentle hum.

When the doors opened they reveal another wide open space, but the ceiling was much lower; corridors branched out with offices flanking corridors in two directions and a row of windows looking out on the street below.

Police in their uniforms and a small number of people dressed more casually, passed by, as they went about their tasks; each one of them acknowledging the arrival of the Chief Constable on the floor.  Lemeer had a brief word with a middle aged woman in a white turtle necked sweat and long black shirt.  But Vought was unable to catch any part of the conversation.  She nodded her understanding of what had been said and heading back in the direction she’d originally come.

Along one of the seemingly identical corridors, the Chief Constable opened a door which looked no different from any of the other; apart from a small plaque with a set of numbers and letters, supposedly unique to that room. “Your crew are in here, quite safe and well.”

Lieutenant Devron and crewman N’Quith, both rose out of the chairs they were sat in, on one side of a seven seat conference table, as Ensign Tholakath, who’d been standing by the window, hands clasped behind his back turned at the sound of the door opening.

“It’s good to see you Sir.” Devron chimed in the sort of way that told Vought that these three men were fed up of being messed around with.

“Where is Doctor de Havilland?” Vought asked looking back over his shoulder.

“I’ve sent someone to fetch him, so if you’ll just wait her a moment.” Lemeer answered. “Grab yourself a drink.”

Once the Chief Constable had left, Chance took a seat at the table and the others joined him.  “So go on, what’s going on?”

“Lots of questions; basically.” Jason replied.  “In some cases the same question, just asked in a different way.”

“And were you of any help to them, or learned more about what’s actually going on?” The CO enquired.

“We could hardly tell them anything they didn’t either already know or wouldn’t be able to figure out any way.” Devron informed him.

“Considering the size of this city and its estimated population, there are rather too many members of law enforcement around.” Tholakath commented.

The Cardassian ensign was right: Vought had gotten that impression himself.  There were way too many police and hardly any crimes taking place.  The officers sitting at their desks in the foyer, were doing a good job of looking busy; Chance had seen that sort of thing before; usually someone at a desk outside an Admirals office, watching you discretely whilst pretending to be working hard and ignoring your presence entirely.

They continued to talk about what had happened since the shooting for a short while, until Doctor de Havilland walked into the room.

“Ah, Frank; how did everything go?” Chance asked with a warm friendly tone.

The doctor titled his head slightly and rolled his eye in the direction of the door, where Lemeer and the woman in the turtle necked sweat were standing.  Vought took that as an indication the Doctor felt it unsafe to say too much publicly.  His response was. “They have a very efficient team here; it was interesting to watch them perform the autopsy.”

“I had that impression myself.” The Captain smiled back, but it was a smile that hid his true thoughts and feelings.  “Everything is efficient and well organised here.”

Vought then looked in the direction of the Chief Constable. “I take we can all go now?”

“Yes by all means.” Lemeer positively beamed with enthusiasm as he clapped his hands together. “I’m sure you and your ship will want to head off.”

It was a statement and not a question, and Vought didn’t like that at all.  The Chief Constable was hiding something and wanted the crew of the USS Grus out of his hair as quickly as possible.