Chasing The Turncoat Part IV
Posted on Sat May 9th, 2026 @ 6:59pm by Lieutenant Commander Calvin Quaid & Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius Tremble & Major Edmund Merrick & Sergeant Audie Fitch & Warrant Officer Mercy Ryan & Sergeant Major Lachlan Barr
1,667 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
The Cure: Operation Kakori
Location: Breyet Nor - The Badlands
Timeline: MD004 1630 hrs
"Breaching that brig will get loud, no matter how we do it," Shy said as he rolled his shoulders and touched his push-knives handle. "And messy. Quiet is going to be a relative term. But it should be fun..." He said the last with a grin.
A quiet smile from Edmund, as he looked at those he chose to do this rescue.
"I'll see you on the flipside, and when we get back, drinks are on me" Edmund stated. He hoped that he will see them after this.
Having had watched the second team he sent after Jayna and Marley, disappear from view, Edmund hustled to catch up with the first team.
"I see you did a slight bit of sauntering to allow me to catch up." Edmund quipped when he caught up with the first team.
He moved to take the lead, squeezing past the ones who were in front of him. A quiet encouraging word, as he passed by his people.
"Okay, our target is in the Central Core, Deck Three." Edmund stated. "Don't know what we will be facing just be prepared."
Mercy smiled. "Sapper gave me some gear that might help." She said.
Lachlan turned his shoulders to let Merrick push through the file, shifting in the narrow crawlspace without a word before falling back in behind him. As the line settled again, he took a quick count without thinking.
Four.
It landed heavy, not dramatic, just… there. Three bodies gone before they’d even reached the primary. Three sets of eyes, three rifles, three angles they no longer had. He didn’t like it. Not for a target they hadn’t even seen yet.
He let the thought sit for half a heartbeat, then shut it down. Merrick had made the call. That was it. No point chewing it over now.
His grip adjusted slightly on his weapon as he leaned forward a fraction, eyes tracking the line ahead, then back over the others by reflex. The space felt tighter now, not physically, but in how little room they had left for mistakes.
“Copy. Deck Three. Central Core,” he said quietly, tone even.
A beat passed before he added, voice a touch rougher, more grounded.
“We’re light now, sir.”
Not a challenge. Just fact.
He shifted his weight, settling himself properly in the file, then went on.
“Means we keep this clean as long as we can. Less noise we make getting in, more options we’ve got when we find him.”
It wasn’t said as advice, not outright. Just placed there.
His eyes flicked briefly to Mercy at the mention of Sapper’s gear, giving a small nod.
“We use what we’ve got. Smart. No rushin’ it unless we have to.”
He glanced once toward Audie, then back to Merrick, checking they were all reading from the same page.
“If it goes loud, it goes loud,” he added, almost offhand. “But better if it’s on our terms.”
That was as far as he’d take it.
Lachlan rolled one shoulder against the bulkhead, settling in, then gave a short nod forward.
“Ready when you are.”
Interrogation Room 4 - Central Core - Deck 3
Calvin had been kept latched to a chair in a dark room. There were a number of bright lights aimed into his face. He was unsure of how many there were but they were placed so that he could not see anyone who was in the room. No food had been given to him, just enough water to make sure that he did not die.
All of that was not the worst part. The worst part was that he had been informed that he betrayed Starfleet and the Federation. He had given them access to Empok Nor, and he had done it willingly. However, he had no true memory of any of that. "Frak I wish this headache would simply clear up. Maybe then I can remember something." He mumbled unaware of anyone who may or may not be in the room.
A voice through the darkness responded. It was a voice that Calvin recognized, and yet could not place. "You remember, you choose to forget. Don't want to come to terms with what you did. The blood that is on your hands." A large Cardassian stepped into the light. He was broad shouldered with salt and pepper hair. A smile played across his face. It was a menacing smile, one that told of the torture that had passed and was to come.
All at once Calvin knew who he was dealing with. He recognized the face from the reports. But Gul Typhon Prenar was dead. "You... you're dead. We watched you die." Calvin stammered and he saw another figure in the darkness, slender and lithe. Definitely female although he could not see a face. Typhon laughed heartily. "My dear man, the Order always has a plan."
Lachlan's words resonated with Edmund, and he knew the numbers were tight. It was needed.
They still had their job to do.
"I'd rather it be not be noisy at first." Edmund commented looking towards his people.
Edmund called to mind how interrogation rooms were set up, there wasn't any direct way to get inside, as it was made for interrogations being made without interruptions.His skin crawled of what could be happening in a Cardassian Interrogation room, it wasn't pretty from what he had heard.
Checking the information that Makeba and Gage had given them, Edmund came to the conclusion the best way into where they needed to go was through a maintenance hatch.
From being married to an engineer, he had picked up some things.
He led his people to a junction, climbing down a short ladder to where a small hatchway was.
He moved to one side looking at Mercy.
"Mercy unlock the hatch." Edmund uttered.
Once the hatch was unlocked, and the hatch door cycled open, Edmund crawled out, moving to one side to let the others come out. crouching low and close to the wall.
Coming in this way was risky, Edmund could feel his nerves key up, one never knew when someone would come down the corridor where they were at.
The hall was eerily quiet, and they just needed to find interrogation room four. They weren't near any doors, there were some down either side from the hatch way.
"We need to find interrogation room 4." Edmund softly said, making a decision.
"Lachlan, you and Audie head for the right, Mercy and I will take the left, we need to see what door number we're at."
As they moved down the corridor, Mercy said. "If I remember my Cardassian numbers correctly, that says 7."
Audie nodded to Lachlan, then started moving slowly down the right side of the corridor. Of course, they couldn't see through the doors, so they had to listen closely and hope for the best.
Or...
Taking out her tricorder, Audie set it to silent, then switched it on, not sure if it would penetrate the barriers of walls and doors.
Lachlan moved with Audie, keeping close enough to cover her but far enough not to crowd her. The corridor had that Cardassian feel to it, all hard angles and ugly confidence, like the walls themselves had been built to judge anyone walking between them.
When Audie brought out the tricorder, his eyes flicked down to it, then back along the corridor.
“Careful with that,” he murmured. “Order station like this, they may have passive sniffers lookin’ for active scans.”
He didn’t tell her not to use it. They needed answers more than they needed comfort. Instead, he shifted half a step ahead, angling his body between her and the nearest bend in the corridor, sidearm low but ready.
“Quick pulse if you can. Short and dirty. Then kill it.”
He eased forward to the next door, leaning in just enough to catch the markings without putting his face into the open longer than necessary. Cardassian numerals were not his favourite thing in the galaxy, but he’d seen enough of them during darker tours to recognise a pattern.
His thumb came up in a small signal to Audie.
“Six,” he breathed.
His gaze moved further down the corridor, where the next door waited in the gloom.
“Means four’s likely further along this side, unless the grey-necked bastards numbered this place drunk.”
A faint pause, then quieter still.
“Keep ears open. Interrogation rooms are never as quiet as folk pretend.”
Audie nodded silently, hoping not to hear any sounds of torture. On many levels, screaming coming from one of the rooms was just bad!
Quickly, she switched on the tircorder long enough to let it get a reading, she turned it off again. "Room six's clear," she murmured.
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Commander Calvin Quaid
Suspected Traitor
Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius Tremble
Executive Officer, USS Pioneer
Battalion Commander, The Cure
Major Edmund Merrick
Company Commanding Officer Officer, The Cure
USS Pioneer
Sergeant Audie Fitch
Corpsman Team 2, The Cure
USS Pioneer
Warrant Officer Mercy Ryan
Sniper, Team 1, The Cure
USS Pioneer
Sergeant Major Lachlan Barr
Chief of The Boat, USS Pioneer
First Sergeant, The Cure
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