Section 31: Unintended Consequences
Unexpected Action
“What are you doing here anyway, Starfleet?” asked Phillipa Georgiou in the briefing room of her team’s Cloakship.
“Excuse me?” asked Commander Rachel Garrett of Starfleet, looking up from her mission briefing.
“What are doing here, with us?”
“I’ve explained that I’ve been assigned to…” Garrett began.
“Yes, yes, yes,” Georgiou cut her off, “You’re here to make sure that we ‘color within the lines’ and protect Starfleet’s precious ideals, but that defeats the purpose for a unit like ours, so I want the real reason that you’re with us.” Garrett had become Georgiou’s pet project, and she was determined to unlock what she saw as the “chaos demon” lurking beneath the surface of the by-the-book Starfleet officer.
Garrett sighed, “Well, Starfleet and the Federation really would like a little more accountability from Section 31, but…”
“That’s not the only reason that you’re with us?” Georgiou prompted.
“No,” Garrett admitted, “The Cardassian Empire is on the rise, and Starfleet really knows next to nothing about them or what they’re doing out here. Starfleet felt that it would be prudent to have a set of eyes in the sector that actually did report directly to Starfleet Command. Control agreed.”
“And if the day comes where we do ‘color outside of the lines’?” Georgiou asked.
“Then I’ll have to do my duty,” Garrett answered.
The conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the rest of the team, the human augment Alok Sahar, The Chameloid Quasi and the microscopic nanokin Wisp piloting her robotic Vulcan conveyance, to the Cloakship’s briefing room.
“All right,” said Alok Sahar, who Georgiou let believe that he was team leader, “We have arrived in the orbit of the planet Bajor. Our cloak is fully functional. Let’s get down to it.”
“We know that the Bajoran people are a star fairing race going back millennia.” Sahar began, “A peaceful and deeply spiritual people whose greatest achievements were in the areas of art, literature and philosophy. We know that the Cardassian Empire has been in occupation of the planet for five years since 2318. In that time, there's been very little contact from the Bajoran sector. The whispers and rumors that did manage to get through the Cardassian information blocks spoke to a pretty grim situation for the Bajoran people.”
Sahar paused and looked at Georgiou before continuing. The two of them both had experience with this sort of thing, “It's even worse than most of us could have imagined.”
Sahar continued, “Now that we are in orbit and able to take a closer look, we see evidence of Cardassian strip mining using the local Bajoran population as slave labor. Intercepted transmissions point to martial law and mass executions.”
“Remind you of home?” asked Quasi, the team’s resident Chameloid/physicist of Georgiou.
“Hardly,” responded Georgiou with a sneer. “Cardassians have no style and this operation reeks of inefficiency,” Georgiou said. “In the Empire, after a population is pacified, we would at least allow them the illusion of self-determination.”
“How so?”, inquired Wisp.
Georgiou sighed. This was stuff that she hadn’t thought of in a long time. “Well, it varied from planet and culture,” Georgiou began, “but in Bajor's case I believe I would publicly execute the entire religious order and put all vital planetary functions under the control of hand-picked puppet leaders among the local population. Give them money, power, sex, chemical stimulation, whatever their vice is, and they will happily rape their own planet without hesitation or regret.”
“That works?”, asked Garrett.
“Usually,” said Georgiou. “And if people rise up, they rise up against their own government first before they rise against the Empire. That would give us advance warning, and if the situation were to escalate out of control, we would simply eliminate them.”
“Of course…”, said Quasi.
Georgiou continued, “The Cardassian method only breeds discontent and gives the people a target for their discontent. I give this occupation 50 years tops before it becomes unsustainable. The problem with Cardassians is that they're bloating, idiotic egomaniacs who love the sound of their own voices too much and expect everyone else to bow down to their supposed greatness. Back in the day, I would eat them for lunch.”
Georgiou noticed everyone staring at her.
“Not literally,” she said. “Too chewy”.
“Right…”, said Sahar. “Moving on. Intel gathering is not our primary purpose here. There is an active resistance among the local Bajoran people. One of the cells was led by a man named Poll Edin who had spent time off world before the occupation. Using Federation tech that he had brought home with him, Edin managed to get a message out. The Cardassians traced the unauthorized signal from his location and immediately sent in troops to execute all present. Edin was among the lost, but his message got out.”
“The Cardassians are developing a biological weapon with the intent of using it to pacify local populations,” Sahar continued, “making it easier for them to conquer. The weapon suppresses higher brain functions, making the victims highly susceptible to suggestion. They would be entirely under the thrall of their occupiers. Willing drones who wouldn’t even think of disobeying their masters. If successful, the Cardassians would be able to tame entire planetary populations without firing a shot. And Bajor would only be the first target.”
Georgiou frowned.
“You disapprove Emperor?”, asked Sahar.
“Again, no style,” Georgiou said, “That takes all the fun out of it”.
“Hokay…”, said, Quasi.
“Our job is to destroy the Cardassian research at all costs while contacting local resistance.” Sahar said, continuing. “Garrett, the resistance is your job. You’ll beam down first to meet with a resistance leader in Dakhur Province. Your job is intel gathering. The rest of us will handle destroying the pathogens and the research.” He looked at the assembled team, “Alright, let’s move out.”
*******
“I'm sorry, but weapons are absolutely out of the question,” said Garrett to the intense Bajoran resistance leader at the bustling resistance cell base in the Dakhur Province.
“Why?” asked Feeke Asi, a former Bajoran Vedek who joined the resistance after losing her children during the first year of the occupation.
“It's against Federation Prime Directive to offer direct assistance to a faction in what is clearly an internal affair,” Garrett replied.
“Internal?” Feeke asked incredulously, “Cardassians aren't ‘internal’. They don't belong here!”
“What I mean to say is,” Garrett said, “is that your planet falls within the borders of the Cardassian Empire, the Federation has no jurisdiction here.”
“We didn't ask to fall within their borders.” Feeke said angrily, “Tell me, Commander Garrett, why are you here now? Simply to destroy the weapon that Bajoran blood was spilled to inform you of? You could have done that without contacting us at all! Why are you here?”
Garrett considered before replying, “No one within the Federation has any real idea of what is happening here in the Bajoran system,” she said. “The intel that I bring back will be crucial in determining a Federation response. Then the Federation Council can negotiate with...”
“Bureaucracy!”, said Feeke with exasperation, “How does that help us? We are being oppressed now!” Feeke gestured to a young girl, “Apra, come here. Commander Garrett, I'd like you to meet Apra”.
Garrett saw a young girl that could be no more than ten whose face was scarred and burned and was missing her left hand. “Apra's father was taken away to work in the mines over a year ago and has not been seen or heard from since. Her older brother was killed fighting the Cardassians with the resistance. Her mother was taken away to be a comfort woman!”
“Comfort woman?”, asked Garrett with disgust.
“Yes, Commander Garrett,” said Feeke, “They forcibly take women from their homes. Mothers, daughters, sisters, and force us to satiate the carnal desires of our Cardassian overlords and expect us to feel grateful for the privilege. This is what we're up against, and you offer us bureaucracy? We need weapons! We need food! We need help! We need action! Can you tell that to your bureaucrats in their comfortable chairs?”
Garrett found that she had no reply.
****
Glin Enabrin Tain of the Obsidian Order was proud to be where he was today. A rising star in the Cardassian spy organization, currently assigned under Gul Niker Osell. Osell was a legend in the Order and a personal hero of Tain’s. A skilled combatant and interrogator, Tain had studied Osell while at the Academy. Of course, Tain wanted his job.
Today, they were inspecting a biological weapons research center on Bajor under the jurisdiction of the Order. The scientists were ready to demonstrate a new pathogen, a new method of pacification that promised to decrease the rebellious nature of the Bajorans. In an attached medical ward were mutilated, dead and dying Bajoran test subjects, on whom imperfect versions of the pathogen were tested. This all these savages are good for, thought Tain. Gristle to feed the machine of Cardassian industry.
Tain and Osell were present to witness the first test of the pathogen on a civilian population. The launch of a drone that would target the location of a resistance cell in Dakhur Province that the Order had recently uncovered, but the pathogen would quicky spread to the entire region, insurgents and civilians alike.
Without warning, a team of what at first seemed to be three humans and Vulcan beamed into the center and attacked the scientists and Order troops. But Tain almost immediately realized his error. First—that was no Vulcan. He didn’t move like a Vulcan did. It was subtle, and not many would see it, but there was an almost mechanical feel to its movements. A mechanism!
As for the “humans”, one of the males immediately revealed himself to a shapeshifter of some sort. He morphed himself into what seemed to be a web of some sort, effortlessly trapping Order troops as he squeezed them into unconsciousness. A Chameloid? Fascinating!
As for the other male, he clearly possessed strength well beyond the human norm as his punches and kicks sent Order troops flying across the room. Tain understood immediately. It seemed that the Federation’s pretentious moral outrage over the use of genetic engineering is as hollow and fake as the rest of their supposed ideals. How typical of the Federation.
But it was the woman who immediately demanded his attention. Her movements were a graceful ballet of destruction. She appeared to be no stronger than the human norm, but she effortlessly took out trained Order troops with an ease that seemed unheard of. Extraordinary!
As this was happening, Osell turned to the launch controls and activated the drone. The woman was on Osell with breath-taking speed, incapacitating him with a brutal combination of kicks to the abdomen and face that knocked him to the floor. Tain merely raised his hands before the woman could render him unconscious. “I surrender.”, Tain said. The enhanced human quickly took Tain and bound him to a chair.
“You’re too late!’ said Osell, “No matter what you do to us here, the pathogen has been launched and the drone will reach target in five minutes. So even if you destroy our research here, the Order will still be able to recover the virus from the blood of the Bajorans in the Dakhur Province. All glory to Cardassia!” Always putting the Empire ahead of all other interests, Tain thought. Always the hero.
“Dakhur?”, the woman said activating her communicator, “Rachel, you're being targeted! Get out of there!” There was no reply. “Quasi, beam her out!”
“Communications are being scrambled.” Quasi said furiously manipulating his PADD, “The Cloakship can't get a lock on her badge. I can't get her out of there.”
Cloakship? thought Tain. So much for Federation adherence to treaty. I wonder what the Romulans would think about that?
“Can you access the drone?” asked the enhanced human.
“Not without a clearance code,” Quasi said examining the Cardassian computers monitors and displays.”
“Which I will never give you, human.” said Osell.
“Oh, that's your mistake, Gul.” the woman said turning toward Osell in way that sent a chill down even Tain’s spine. “I'm not human," she said. “I'm Terran. And you've never encountered anything like me before.” Terran? thought Tain.
Osell began to chuckle arrogantly but was cut off by Georgiou’s brutal kick to the face. Tain had seen Osell take on a Klingon in hand-to hand combat but here he was clearly outmatched. The 'Terran' woman moved like lightning, easily avoiding Osell’s attacks, while viscously responding with her own. With a final sprawling kick, she launched Osell off his feet, where he stumbled to the ground, behind and beyond the sight of the bound Tain. Tain was almost smitten.
Tain listened to what transpired behind him. “You think you know pain?” The woman asked, “You know sadism, but you don’t know pain. I know both. Allow me to introduce you.” Tain heard a cracking sound and a sharp gasp of pain from Osell. Another crack. A more pronounced exclamation of pain from Osell.
“I normally wait days before getting to this part, but we’re on a ticking clock.” The woman said. Then Tain heard… a mechanical whirring sound? What the…? Osell screamed with the kind of agony that he had only heard from Bajorans and other lessers. The woman repeated this twice more, with Osell’s screams becoming louder with each repetition. The woman’s companions began to look uncomfortable.
“The code!” the woman demanded.
“N-never.” Osell said with a weakness that startled Tain.
“You want more?”
The whirring sound again. What was that device? What did it do? “Let’s move down to more… sensitive parts of the body,” the woman said. More blood-curdling screams from Osell. “I can do this all day, and if you don’t give me that code right now, I will…” Tain heard the whirring again.
“N-no, please don’t.” Osell said, clearly broken. He provided the code. Tain saw all of his illusions about Osell, his hero, shattering like fragile glass. How disappointing, he thought. Who was this woman?
****
“Quasi, does the code check out?” Georgiou asked.
“Affirmative,” said the Chameloid. “Accessing the probe and activating destruct sequence now.” The computer confirmed total destruction of the probe and its payload just 27 seconds away from delivery. “Dropping transporter scattering field.”
Quasi then turned his attention back to his PADD, “Activating Cloakship transporter. “Beaming Garrett directly here.”
Garrett appeared in the lab with the shimmer of the transporter effect. She surveyed her surroundings and took in the scene.
“What happened here?" Garrett asked, indicating Osell, who was a wheezing lump of flesh on the floor.
“She saved your life.” said Sahar.
There was an awkward moment. “What did you do to him?”, asked Garrett of Georgiou.
“No less than what his people are doing to the Bajorans. No less than he deserved.” Georgiou said.
“Philippa,” Garrett said, “We have to be better than this.”
“No, you have to be better than this,” Georgiou countered.
“I'm willing to die for Starfleet and the Prime Directive states...” Garrett started, but Georgiou cut her off.
“Well, I wasn't willing to let you die, and I don't care about the Prime Directive. I was not going to allow you to die. And what of the Bajorans?” Georgiou asked. “Wouldn’t you do whatever it took to save them?”
Garrett suddenly remembered Feeke and her people. “Are they safe?” she asked. “There was an incoming drone! Feeke had ordered an evacuation…”
“The drone was completely destroyed before impact”, Sahar said. “They should be safe.”
Garrett nodded, and turned back to Georgiou, not allowing her to change the subject. “Why?” she asked. “You’re her most Imperial Majesty, Mother of the Fatherland, Overlord of Vulcan, Dominus of Kronos, Regina Andor, Philippa Georgiou, Augustus Iaponius Centarius. Death is your best friend. Why do you care if I die?”
Georgiou paused momentarily. “Because you’re my project,” she finally replied. “I haven’t fully succeeded in unleashing that chaos goblin in you yet. I know it’s in there.”
That elicited a chuckle from Garrett. After a moment she said, “Well, maybe I’ll make you my project. ‘Turn the Terran into a human?’”
“Ha!” Georgiou laughed, “Good luck with that! So, are you not going to unleash the full weight of Starfleet upon me?”
Garrett reflected on what she had seen and learned on Bajor. “I will only report on events that I saw and heard with my own eyes and ears,” Garrett decided, “But this cannot be who we are, Phillipa.”
Quasi emerged from the ward. “Is there anything we can do for them?”, Sahar asked of the Bajorans that the Cardassians used as test subjects.
Quasi was visibly shaken. “N-no. They’re all dead or soon will be. It’s…” he trailed off. “I-I destroyed all research samples. There’s nothing for them to recover.”
Wisp emerged from the lab’s computer saying from her microship, “What an unforgivable abuse of microscopic life! They think they can control us, manipulate us, weaponize us? We’ll show them what happens when they mess with the delicate balance of nature. Microscopic life is the foundation for everything!”, she said as she piloted her micro-ship back to the control center of her Vulcan conveyance.
“Research scrambled?” asked Sahar?
“You better believe it, darlin’”, replied Wisp.
“There’s nothing more for us to do here.” Sahar said, “Let’s get out of here.”
Moments later, the Cloakship received the recall signal, and the team returned to their ship, leaving the Cardassians behind and Tain with his thoughts.
*
Back at Dakhur Province, Feeke was directing the final stage of her cell’s evacuation into the caves, after all if they had been targeted, they were no longer safe here. Suddenly, she saw a bright light appear about 10 meters away from her, accompanied by a shimmering sound. A transporter? As the transporter effect faded, Feeke saw a large crate materialize in its place. Opening it cautiously, Feeke was amazed by what she saw. Weapons. An eclectic collection of hand and long-range phasers of various make and type. And food ration packs! Enough for her entire cell. Feeke looked up to the sky…
*
The Cloakship had a large assortment of untraceable non-Federation weapons, Garrett thought to herself, acquired for undercover ops through raids, recoveries and the black market. Section 31 will never miss them. Garrett exited the transporter room. “Chaos, chaos, chaos!” she said to herself with a smile, and went to her quarters as the Cloakship warped away from Bajor back to Barram Station.
*
Epilogue: Unintended Consequences
Gul Osell accepted his fate as a Cardassian should. He kept his gaze stoic and steady as the newly promoted Gul Tain delivered the testimony the resulted in Osell’s execution. He knew what he had done, and he knew that an example must be set. As for Tain himself, he was settling into Osell’s former office, rank and position within the Order, now his.
Upon returning to Cardassia, Tain expended considerable Obsidian Order resources in obtaining a highly classified Federation file. One Phillipa Georgiou, most Imperial Majesty, Mother of the Fatherland, Overlord of Vulcan, Dominus of Kronos, Regina Andor, Emperor of the Terran Empire. Fascinating! An alternate universe. It all made sense to Tain; the humans of this universe could never aspire to be what Georgiou was.
There were gaps in her history— no word on how she arrived from the “Mirror Universe”, only that she had been de-briefed by Starfleet in 2256—and then disappeared, only to reappear in the early 2320s. The missing sections of her history were irrelevant. What he wanted was here in her Starfleet debrief- “Imperial Interrogation Tactics”. In fact, Georgiou had been quite boastful in describing how she would break prisoners and obtain confessions. She had a talent for inflicting pain that was almost unheard of. Magnificent woman!
Some of this information could be integrated with the Obsidian Orders’ training curriculum, but Tain decided to keep some of it for himself. 'Trade secrets', as it were. To be passed down from Master to Apprentice. Young Elim had only just turned four, this information could be very useful to him some day.
Yes, thought Enabrin Tain, this was a good day…
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