Red Tape
Posted on Mon Dec 15th, 2014 @ 7:11pm by Commander Jordan Gunning & Captain Vahn Drayel
Mission:
The Last Hope [Incomplete]
Location: Gunning's Office
Timeline: MD00: 0340hrs.
Drayel could see the surprise in the Commander's face when his office doors snapped open and the entryway was filled with his massive frame. It wasn't that Drayel was so much taller than Gunning; Gunning was hardly a short man, and Drayel guessed he was around six or six foot one, putting Drayel only six inches taller. That wasn't it at all.
"I need to talk to you," Drayel said. His tone was unintentionally threatening. It was a bad habit, but one that he never tried to work on. It got him what he wanted most of the time, and it became an almost natural way of talking to people.
"Is that a fact?" Gunning asked, surprised at both the interruption and its source. He hadn't seen Marine Captain Vahn Drayel since they had returned from Bellatrix II. The Commander took a quick glance at his appointment list for the day and sighed. Drayel wouldn't be here without good reason. "Take a seat, Captain. What do you need?"
Drayel stepped into the room and took a moment to look around. He grunted and looked at Gunning. "Have you ever heard of Elba II?" he asked.
The Commander took a moment to consider the question. Of all the many systems in the region which he was still trying to get his head round, he certainly hadn't heard of Elba II. "Should I have?"
"No," Drayel rumbled. "I don't know." He sighed. "Got anything to drink?"
Jordan motioned over the man's shoulder toward a small crystal decanter on an end table. It contained a really nice bottle of Rioja which he had been given by his uncle but he doubted that Drayel would be interested in its back-story.
Drayel bit his thumb. "Elba II is a dead world. Toxic atmosphere that will kill you in minutes if you step into it. The gases on the planet are so corrosive that most material save the strongest corrode away in days. Not a lot of uses for a planet like that, but it is ideal for one thing."
"Yeah, what's that?" Gunning asked, rocking forward and placing his chin on his hands. The idea of this giant marine, looking like the Berlin Wall, sitting in his office in the middle of the night telling him about a dead planet had captured his incredibly tired imagination.
"A prison," Drayel said. "More specifically, an asylum. Most of the people there are criminally insane," he said, staring at the liquid in the almost comically small glass. "Most people who do something wrong get rehabilitated, but sometimes you just can't save them all, so the worst go to places like Elba II." He realized he was beating around the bush and downed the drink. He savored it for a moment and then held out the glass. "I'm here because I need you to get some information on an inmate at Elba II."
"Your clearance doesn't cover it?" Gunning asked as he poured another glass for his drinking buddy. He knew about the rumours regarding asylums but they were often chalked off official Starfleet records and their use was normally reserved for civilians.
Drayel bit his lip. "It's not that. I... I am not exactly the best at finding things that way. Not to mention, given your job here. The information is... Delicate. The guy I am looking for is dead. I know that because I went there and killed him."
"So a former inmate then?" Gunning asked with a wry smile which was- in his limited experience- the best way to deal with people admitting they'd killed someone.
"Something like that." Drayel didn't offer up anything else about what had happened. The killing had been off the books, unsanctioned, and had it ever come back on him, it would have ended his career, and likely put him in a place very similar to Elba II. "There's a lot of red tape around this guy," Drayel said. "Even the fact that he's dead isn't public knowledge. Thing is... I need to know for a fact that he's dead. The asylum has records, but like I said, accessing them... It isn't easy."
"Okay. Give me the name." Gunning pulled out an old-fashioned notepad and a pen, foregoing a PADD to avoid any records being kept on the system. "I'll see what I can do."
Drayel stared at the glass in his hand. If he was right... If this... this feeling that had begun to bore a deep, dark hole in his gut was right... Again, the thought of how silly the entire thing was crept up. He inhaled through his nostrils, and then downed the drink, setting the glass down on Gunning's desk with a hard clkk! "Amon Hraezla," he said.
"Amon, bloody Hraezla."
Commander Jordan Gunning
Chief Intelligence Officer
Marine Captain Vahn Drayel [NPC: Kamdram]
Fox Company Commander
