The Signal
Posted on Sun Oct 11th, 2026 @ 6:21pm by Lieutenant Grace Sternwood PhD & Captain Connor Nolan & Lieutenant Talia Renn
1,738 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
Rekantha
Location: Ready Room, USS Venture
Timeline: Stardate at 00:00
The briefing aboard the *San Jose* had given Nolan more questions than answers. To the eye, the Batos looked healthy. The tricorder readings agreed. Good weight. No obvious distress. Nothing that explained the strange fluctuations in their stasis fields.
Nolan had spent enough of his career around machines to know when the numbers were telling him something was wrong. He also knew when he'd reached the edge of his own expertise. After all, that was what Chief Scientists were for and was why he was glad for such an accomplished one onboard the Venture.
He'd left the cargo pod before the briefing was finished. Captain Barrett had called from Outpost Rekantha, and whatever she had to say had been urgent enough that Nolan hadn't argued. The rest of the team could fill in the gaps when they returned.
Now Barrett's hologram vanished from the Ready Room in a shimmer of broken light. Almost at the same moment, the doors opened and Lieutenant Renn stepped through.
Nolan was already moving, his pacing during the briefing with Barrett leading him to have gathered a certain amount of inertia as he did laps of the small Ready Room.. He snatched a PADD from his desk and tossed it toward her.
"We've got an operative aboard the *San Jose* who's pulled the extraction cord."
Talia caught the PADD, her expression tightening slightly as she looked back to Nolan.
“Does anyone aboard know she’s been made?”
"I want you over there. Quietly. Get her off the ship without anyone realising that's what you're doing."
He moved around the desk as he spoke.
"I don't have the whole picture yet, but she's running a nested cover. The crew know her as Tessa Nahl. Bajoran. Veterinarian."
He stopped, putting the pieces together in his head.
"Specialises in Batos."
For a moment, neither of them said anything. Nolan glanced toward the empty space where Barrett's hologram had been.
"Apparently that's not a coincidence."
Talia’s gaze narrowed slightly.
“Then this isn’t just an extraction. She found something.”
"Bring her to the Observation Lounge." he nodded as his signal for Renn to begin.
Talia gave Nolan a short nod and turned for the door.
She had expected to be returning to the *San Jose* to continue looking into the Batos. Instead, she was going back to extract an intelligence operative she had never met, under a cover she knew almost nothing about, without anyone realizing that was what she was doing.
By the time she reached the transporter room, Talia had stopped trying to invent the entire solution before she saw the problem.
The Batos gave her a legitimate reason to return. Tessa Nahl's involvement with them gave Talia a legitimate reason to speak with her. Beyond that, she would have to see who was watching, how much freedom Nahl actually had, and whether the woman had already drawn suspicion.
Quietly, Nolan had said.
Talia stepped onto the transporter pad.
She would see how realistic that was once she got there.
Life had not gotten better since she activated her emergency beacon the deafening silence of the two together since then had been enough to keep her worried about being murdered at his first whim. She did all she could to keep up reasons to be away from each other but it felt more and more difficult. Luckily, her cover, worked in her favor and she kept coming up with reasons to be with the Batos. She currently, however, was in the mess on the San Jose waiting, waiting and hoping that whatever Starfleet Intelligence had planned for her happened before whatever Remer had planned for her happened.
She settled into a table in the mess with a tray of food that was meant to be Bajoran sans the spices that she knew that she couldn't handle but would pass. She fingered the earring that'd replaced the beacon though had no actual use other than being part of her cover at this point. She glanced at her tray knowing she needed to eat but not feeling hungry enough to actually try.
The mess was not where Talia would have chosen to make contact, but it gave her cover. She found Tessa quickly, sitting alone with a tray she had barely touched. The Bajoran looked composed enough, though the emotion underneath it was harder to miss. Fear, tightly controlled, but present all the same.
Talia let her attention pass around the room before approaching, noting who was nearby and whether anyone seemed too interested in the woman sitting alone. “Doctor Nahl?” she asked as she stopped beside the table. “Lieutenant Talia Renn, USS Venture. I need to ask you a few questions about the Batos.”
Her eyes met Tessa’s briefly. “Captain Nolan asked me to follow up personally.” Then Talia pulled out the chair opposite her and sat, watching for the reaction that would tell her whether Tessa understood why she was really there.
Grace looked at the Betazoid woman quietly for a moment before she slowly nodded, "about the Batos?" she asked. The approached had initially startled her but other than the potential to blow her coverage she was much better off with a Starfleet Officer than with Remer regardless if she was there to extract her or not.
"Does this Captain Nolan have any specific questions?" Grace asked. She'd almost suggested that he may want to speak with her directly but if this really was just a coincidence and not her extrication it would blow her cover and she'd end up stuck on the station. She also wasn't sure if they planned for her to come back at some point, which, if she had her way would never happen again.
Talia studied her for a moment, then leaned back slightly in the chair. “He does,” she said. “Starting with your qualifications.” Her tone had changed just enough to carry beyond the table now. “You’re listed as a veterinarian with a specialty in Batos, but some of what we’ve found doesn’t line up with the information you provided to the *San Jose*.”
Talia let the words hang there for a moment, her expression settling into something cooler. “So before we go any further, Doctor Nahl, I think you should tell me exactly where you trained.”
"The University of Janir," she responded, flatly. "Unfortunately the Bajoran Science Institute doesn't have a program otherwise I would have picked that first. The Batos specialty is life long, my family has been farming in the Rakantha Province for generations... of course the Cardassians ruined that, didn't they?" The passion in which she finished the statement was purely channeled from her feelings towards Remer and the whole True Way movement.
Talia held her gaze for a moment, catching the genuine anger beneath the answer. That, at least, needed no acting. “Convenient,” she said, just loudly enough for the nearest tables to hear, before glancing down at the PADD in her hand as though checking Tessa’s response against something already there.
“The problem, Doctor Nahl, is that I’m having difficulty verifying some of that.” Talia looked back up at her, her expression hardening. “And given the irregularities surrounding the Batos, I’m starting to wonder whether you were ever supposed to have access to them in the first place.”
"Which part, specifically?" Grace asked, her head tilting to the side as if surprised. "Also, I can assure you that there have been no currently discovered irregularities with this shipment... the first of which I've been involved with."
Talia’s expression barely shifted. “Currently discovered,” she repeated, letting the phrasing sit between them for a moment. “That’s an interesting distinction.”
She glanced down at the PADD again, then pushed back from the table and stood. The movement was deliberate enough to draw a little more attention than the conversation had so far. “What I’m having trouble verifying is you, Doctor Nahl. Your credentials, your history with the Batos, and exactly how you came to be attached to this shipment.”
Her gaze settled firmly on Tessa. “So I’m going to give you another opportunity to explain it before this becomes a security matter.”
"I was contact by Starfleet and asked to provide assistance with my expertise, I wouldn't think that should be too hard for you to verify by your chain of command," Grace said, flatly. "I'm not really sure what you want me to do I don't exactly travel to the mess with my diploma."
Talia’s expression did not soften. “No, I imagine you don’t.”
She closed the PADD and tucked it against her side. By now, enough of the room had gone subtly quieter that she no longer needed to raise her voice. “But Starfleet contacted you, Starfleet placed you aboard this ship, and now I have gaps in the record that are not being explained by your answers.”
Talia stepped back from the table, giving Grace just enough space for the movement to feel official rather than conversational.
“So for the moment, Doctor Nahl, you’re coming with me while I sort out exactly who authorized your access and why.”
Her gaze stayed fixed on Grace.
“I’d strongly suggest you don’t make that more difficult than it needs to be.”
"You make it out like I'm being difficult or that I'd be responsible for the failure of Starfleet to keep a good record," Grace said, standing to comply with her. Either way, she needed to get out of here, and she knew if it surfaced she was under arrest and this person was not in on it then she would be found by those who did and safe from Remer.
Talia watched her rise without comment, the protest doing little to change her expression.
“Whether this is a failure in Starfleet’s records or something else is exactly what I intend to determine.” She reached to the back of her belt and produced a pair of restraints, making no effort to conceal them from the people now paying attention.
“Turn around, Doctor.”
Talia stepped closer, her tone remaining level. “Until I can verify your identity and authorization, you’re being detained on suspicion of falsifying credentials and gaining unauthorized access to restricted cargo.”
Her eyes stayed on Grace. “You can make your case to Captain Nolan.”
"Fantastic," Grace replied, snarkily.
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