SEASON 2: EPISODE 03

A ROUGH TIME: Epilogue

  More ships from Task Force 59 arrived and secured the system.  Starfleet crews then started to fully process the base and the captured crew.  Personnel from Starfleet Intelligence started to go through the bases systems for anything of value, while Starfleet technicians went through the base’s equipment to see if anything was worth taking and assessing whether the pirate’s vessels were worth salvaging.  The captured pirates were split into groups and beamed to a number of ships for transport to the Port Augusta prison facility; because of the number of captured pirates several vessels would transport them to face Federation justice.

  Captain Masters had returned to the Swiftfire and after a brief visit to Doctor Murphy, who assured him that he hadn’t suffered any permanent damage.  He was sitting in his ready room finishing his report when the door chime sounded.

  “Enter.”

  Brendan Patol entered the room and made his way to his desk.  Masters hadn’t met Patol before he left on his mission and stood and shook his hand.

  “It’s good to see you safe and sound, Captain Masters,” expressed Patol.

  “Thank you, it’s good to be back.  Have a seat.  I understand you’ll be transferring off the ship soon.”

  The two men took their seats.

  “Yes, the ship I’m going to has just entered the system and will be Starfleet’s base of operations for the mission of stripping the Rough Neck’s base of anything important.  As I understand it Task Force 59 will be returning to the front for combat duties.”

  Masters nodded.  “I heard that to, it will be good to get back into it.  I was just going over my report and the reports from the senior staff of the Swiftfire and there are some details I don’t quite understand.”

  Patol didn’t show any signs of surprise by this statement.  “Really?”

  “Yes, for instance the fact that the Swiftfire was conveniently close to the spot where the Rough Neck’s ambushed that convoy, which was lucky, any other ship and I wouldn’t have been able to help the Kelly escape and earned the trust I needed from Luckhurst.  Lucky you made that last minute change to patrol zones that day.”

  Patol just smiled.  “I guess it was.”

  “Another thing is the Swiftfire’s computer crash when that raider made a break for it.  I was going over the computer logs and I managed to find that the origin of the virus that crashed our computers came from the terminal in your room.  Now why would you want a raider to escape, especially given that it could have had Luckhurst in it unless you knew it wouldn’t have Luckhurst in it, because you knew a Starfleet Intelligence operative would be piloting the raider, the future leader of the Rough Necks.  There was a weak signal that was close to impossible to detect over the background noise, which was sent from the raider just before the computer crash, in fact it triggered the crash.  After a bit of effort I found that the ship received several of these signals, which are always routed to you.  You’re much more then a civilian consultant, you’re a Starfleet Intelligence operative aren’t you?”

  Patol didn’t look surprised during Masters’ speech.  “I have to say that Intelligence made the right choice with you, Captain.  You are very observant.”

  “Another thing I don’t get is how the Swiftfire knew exactly where to find the base.  I never got the message out with the location and the emergency transmission I sent was sent after the Swiftfire knew where to find the base.”

  “Maybe the other Starfleet operative in the Rough Necks saw that you couldn’t get the message out and sent the coordinates for the base back to Intelligence so that we could get here to save you, that would be my best guess…I’m not an Intelligence expert.”

  Masters smiled at Patol.  “Playing your part to the end I see.”

  Patol just shrugged.  Masters realised he wouldn’t get the answers he want from him.  So he stood up and walked Patol towards the door of his ready room.

  “Anyway, I just want to thank you for whatever you did.”

  “Thank you.”  Then Patol did something Masters didn’t expect, he gave Masters a knowing smile and said, “I’ll see you in the future, Captain Masters.”