240011.13.0800

The governor continued to watch the video feeds, often fast-forwarding and rewinding them. “I know these two,” he went back to the first video feed and zoomed in on the Ferengi’s face. “Her name is Sirarni, she is one of my brothers’ various departmental staff. I recognize her as she was often working as one of my brother’s secretaries.” He looked at the captain. “As you could probably guess, that meant several things to my brother.”

He then went to the second feed and went to a timestamp that he had noted. “Now this one, this one is a bit of an oddity. She is the daughter of one of my department leaders on the processing platform, her name is Zezenna. But I can tell you that her father was always trying to push her onto one of my sons as a potential wife.”

Kr’antren looked at the picture that Rhazpaz had zoomed in on. “Could it be that he moved on to your brother? if your sons were not willing.”

“That’s the thing we had just started discussing the bride price for her as my second oldest had fallen for her ”ways “.” He shook his head. “That’s what I don’t understand. Why would she partake in this vile and completely revolting act?”

Lieutenant Talibah looked between the governor and the captain. “Well, could it be that someone put her up to this, maybe someone trying to curry favor?”

Rhazpaz looked at the Lieutenant and then at the captain. “You don’t think… My son?”

Kr’Anren shrugged. “You know him better than we do, do you think this is something he would push on his future bride? Would he be the type to join your brother in his dealings with the Imperium? And even more, would he condone such acts as those on other Ferengi or other people?”

Rhazpaz looked up at the ceiling for a moment. “No, I don’t believe he would. Last I heard he was smitten with her. I mean he is aggressive when it comes to business, and takes after his grandfather in that regard, but he wouldn’t follow another. He would just bid his time and when it was time for us to expand here in the Delta Quadrant he would push me for his enterprise within the organization.”

“What about her father?” Lieutenant Talibah asked as she sipped from her cup.

“Now, that is another story. If he thought it would curry favor or move him up the pecking order he would do just about anything.” Rhazpaz pulled up the father’s file on his PADD and passed it to the lieutenant. “Here is his file if you want to read through it. If it wasn’t for his knowledge of ore processing, I wouldn’t have even brought him with me as part of this endeavor.”Dumb as a box of rocks, but somehow some way, he sure knows how to find the best rocks out of that box, if you know what I mean.” 

Kr’antren and his number one both nodded.

“So captain, what are your plans now?”

Kr’antren shrugged and looked at the table. “Not sure yet, lots of questions still to be answered. Plus I have a feeling that we may be getting a visit from the Imperium soon. I’m pretty sure, if these folks, “He waved at the empty chairs. “don’t check in soon that the Imperium will be paying a visit. It’ll be interesting to see what Lieutenant Skagath and his crew find in that cave. Plus you will need to get with your fellow governors to fill them in and decide what happens next for your various peoples.”

Rhazpaz let out a long sigh. There is a loud raucous outside as the team that was sent to round up the Ferengi workers as they reported for work this morning brought them into the bunk house.

Rhazpaz looked up from the PADD he was looking at. “What do we have here, captain?”

Kr’Antren stood and approached the group of Ferengi. “Did you get them all, petty officer?”

“Yes, sir. That’s what took us a bit, as these two.” He pointed to two of the group. “Decided it was a good idea to be late this morning.”

Kr’antren turned and looked at Rharpaz. “Well seeing as we knew one Ferengi was guiding the group last night, and we have had reports from our security personnel of there being possibly two or more guides we decided to round up the other Ferengi thinking that there might be a connection between them.”

Rhazpaz stood and joined the captain in front of the small group. “ Yes… I can understand your reasoning. Hmm, so who do we have here? “ As he walked back and forth in front of them, looking each of them over. After several minutes he pointed out three of them. “Not these three, Captain. These are the three that I originally sent to the compound to join the crews.” The three Ferengi he pointed out stepped back and formed a second little group to one side. “Though if you would like to question them I would have no issue with that especially if it helps answer some of those questions you have.”

Kr’antren nodded and looked at the petty officer. “Take these three into the other room and see what they know. Don’t release them till you check with me.” The petty officer nodded and pointed towards the back room as the small group made their way in that direction. 

Rhazpaz stopped in front of the two remaining Ferengi, he carefully looked them over with a sneer of disgust on his face. “Now these two are a different story, I’ve been wondering where they disappeared to.” He looked over at the captain. “Captain Kr’Antren meet Gok and Giss, these two usually follow my brother around like a couple of slobbering idiots. To tell the truth I’m surprised we haven’t had to surgically remove them from his rear end yet if you know what I mean. If he wanted something done these two are the ones he would call on, so ya It would make sense that they show up down here.”

Kr’antren chuckled.   

Rhazpaz looked over his shoulder at Lieutenant Talibah. “Lieutenant, if you had these two working on anything or building anything you may want to have someone double-check that it is still in one piece or standing. Not the brightest bulbs in the ol’ light socket. “ he pointed at his head. “If you know what I mean.”

Lieutenant Talibah started to chuckle and then looked over at some of the engineering crew. They nodded and left the room.

“Captain, you probably won’t get much out of them, but I would suspect that these two plus the one you already have in your brig would probably give you enough information to start understanding what was happening down here.”

Kr’Antren looked at the security crewmen that were standing behind the duo. “ Take them to the brig on the Osiris. The different cell than the one that the son is in.”

“Yes, sir” they each took an arm of one of the Ferengi, tapped their combadges, said something, and were transported away.

“Well captain, I think we have done just about all we can here this morning. I need to go see how much damage has been done by my brother to my business with all of these underhanded dealings that he was part of. Then I need to see how much it is going to cost me to fix everything.”

Kr’antren offered a hand to the governor, “Understood sir, Let us know if there is anything we can do to help before we leave. Also, would you like for us to return the bodies of the five Ferengi once the doctor is finished? That way their families can dispose of them as per your traditions.”

The governor took the offered hand. “Ahh yes, please have her send them to my medical staff, I will have them contact her with the information. I guess some sort of reparations should be made to the families, going to cost me a fortune to fix all of my brother’s errors. Captain, please make sure that you give the Imperium what they deserve and make sure that you let them know that the governor’s council will not be conducting any further business with the Devore Imperium, even if it does go against all of my instincts and the rules.”

“Rule 35, governor. It may hurt but it’s there for some reason, is it not.”

“It is Captain, it is. However, in the Delta Quadrant, Rule 34 is always in play.”

 The governor went and picked up his coffee cup, refilled it, and made his way out of the bunkhouse sipping on the coffee as he went.