SB118Ops Mission Logs/Sal Taybrim/Never Mix Your Drinks
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"Rixx. A Rodulan crimelord, and a smooth operator in the Orion Syndicate. Notorious for living by the rules of profit and murder. He was supposedly killed when the Syndicate was targeted by Starfleet years ago. But the body was never found, and Rixx was never confirmed as arrested or dead."
Mission Summary
Act I: It's Never a Simple Drink
| After a series of harrowing missions, the crew of StarBase 118 enjoys an extended shore leave while Captain Leo Handley-Page takes a sabbatical to look into the bizarre mutations affecting his family and Byzallian friends. Executive officer Lt. Commander Sal Taybrim is relaxing off duty in Keal's Pub with Lt Commander Kaitlyn Falcon and Lieutenant JG Rocko Stevens when they are introduced to Gold Dew - an unusual and expensive new liquor that has the unique property of enhancing any flavor it is paired with. The bartender at the pub says that the liquor is a hot commodity and it's hard for him to get shipments in because so many people are buying it up.
What starts as a simple drink becomes a major conspiracy when the Federation freighter SS Annabelle's Lament explodes just out of the Geneva VI Cargobase killing all 65 passengers and crew onboard. It was carrying a full shipment of Gold Dew, as well as various terraforming chemicals. Meanwhile, the merchant freighter NGV Fortune's Determination docks at StarBase 118, and immediately sets off an unauthorized lifeform alert. The Fortune's Determination's Captain Darold Tashina denies any knowledge of an illicit passenger while cargo control hunts for a stowaway. They find Zel Rohan, a battered Cardassian/Bajoran drifter hiding in a silk crate. The bedraggled hybrid collapses from dehydration and malnutrition shortly after being uncovered, and is taken to security. The mystery quickly deepens as Starbase crew discover that Zel Rohan was the last person to deliver cargo to the SS Annabelle's Lament before the ship took off on it's delivery route; meeting with the ship at the Miranda VII Spaceport. When Zel wakes, he quickly denies that he had anything to do with the explosion of the Lament - that he merely delivered a load of the valuable alcohol Gold Dew. Security suspects that Zel knows far more than he is letting on, but the hybrid refuses to talk, insisting that he'll be hunted down and shot if he does.
ActII: An Explosive Combination
Science and Engineering teams are finding their own mysteries. After Commander Taybrim meets with Professor Nathanius Strekk to discuss the apparent evils of Gold Dew, he finds that the alcohol can be combined with certain chemicals for an explosive reaction. Turning over this information to the science and engineering teams, they quickly find that Gold Dew could be combined with one of the terraforming fertilizers - calcium trisulfanese - the Annabelle's Lament was carrying to form 'sticky bombs' - a form of plastic explosive that can be detonated by a phaser beam, disruptor blast or energy surge. Further investigation reveals the sabotage was intentional, as the Gold Dew and the calcium trisulfanese would not have been able to freely mix with standard cargo containment (and even if it did the explosion would have been debilitating but not total destruction). Chief Engineer Kellan Joran theorizes that some of the sticky bombs were planted on critical engineering junctions which would activate as soon as the Lament cleared the cargobase and jumped to warp. Intelligence immediately starts to investigate the evidence found on the Lament, and what they find spells danger for both StarBase 118 and the Trinity sector. A corporation called Emerald Dragon Enterprises has been buying large quantities of both calcium trisulfanese and Gold Dew. Emerald Dragon Enterprises is run by a wealthy Romulan merchant named Lhara Khota. At first glance it appears to be a completely legitimate company, but with deeper digging the crew finds that Khota and Emerald Dragon Enterprises have ties to the Ralaaram Ocala. An immediate plan is put into place to dig out this weapons dealing, before it puts tons of hard to track explosives into the hands of Romulan terrorists. All evidence point to the Miranda VII Spaceport being the site of the next trade. Lt Commander Falcon decides to head to the brig where Counselor Ashley Yael, Dr [{Pon Pon]] and Ensign Lucien Landau are questioning Zel Rohan to little avail when an unexpected power surge rips through the security section and all power fails. Zel immediately mobilizes, but instead of trying to flee he dives for cover as several deadly disruptor shots tear through the darkness and the security guards try to locate the assassin. They are hampered by panic in the civilian section outside of security where an entire zoo full of animals have gotten out of their cages at the exact same time the power surge went off. Finding themselves dealing with an experienced - and well planned - assassin, security forces connect with Lt Commander Falcon and try for a pincer attack. It works, and the assassin - a human named Seth Ralston - is seriously injured and taken to sickbay. Power is quickly restored and security moves out to do animal containment while Falcon tries to press information out of the shaken Zel Rohan. The two have a history together - before Falcon joined Starfleet both were 'suicide runners' - pilots that specialized in making dangerous runs to deliver profitable cargo, frequently through restricted airspace. After a bit of bantering and gentle threats Zel reveals that Drin Jerol, the first officer of the Annabelle's Lament is not only alive (Zel saw him on the MIranda VII Spaceport several days after the destruction of the Lament) but Zel firmly believes Jerol is actually Nacien Rixx, an ex-Orion Syndicate crimelord, and head of the criminal Jenatris Confederation. It seems Rixx has been putting out assassin's contracts on anyone who had information about the Annabelle's Lament and Zel was the only one to make it off Miranda VII alive. Falcon leaves after giving Zel concessions to help him recuperate in a far more comfortable arrangement than his former cell before making a beeline for the Ops hub. If Nacien Rixx is involved, the weapons deals need to be stopped quickly.
ActIII: Let's Blow This Joint
Meanwhile Engineer Cadfael Peters and Dr. Pon Pon struggled to clear the last of the escaped zoo animals from the Starbase, fending off a groups of enraged wildcats, and sickbay had its own struggles as a wounded Lieutenant Trel'lis was delivered to sickbay after her own investigation into the Jenatris Confederation went horribly awry, and Ambassador Nia Calderan had to make the difficult call on whether or not to spare Seth Ralston's life knowing the assassin suffered brain damage from close range phaser fire and disruptor overload in his attempt to escape or to let him pass away. In the end she ordered Dr. Theran Jos to complete brain surgery and spare Ralston, pending psychiatric incarceration and review. While the crew at the Ops hub worried about the state of the away team, Lieutenant Peters cut through with a disturbing discovery - someone had planted sticky bombs in the maintenance conduits in Ops. They would have never found them if they hadn't been chasing escaped zoo animals. Ops went on yellow alert, assembling bomb teams led by newly stationed marine {{nQuintus|Lucius|Raisillius]] and returning officer Lt. Commander Ian West. Security, including newly arrived Ensign Freya Andersen set out to find out who had planted the bombs, but the undercover agent T'Val showed her hand when she tried to take sickbay hostage. Quick action by the bomb teams and Lieutenant Trel'lis liberated sickbay and saved the station from any undue explosions. Commander West was able to synthesize a material that would render the sticky bombs inert, allowing secondary teams to sweep the station, deactivating any further traces of the sticky bombs. On Miranda VII Spaceport Commander Falcon's team was successful in busting a major bomb materials deal between the Jenatris Confederation and Emerald Dragon Enterprises, resulting in almost a dozen arrests, including Lhara Khota. They also captured a Flaxian calling himself Drin Jerol; but investigation quickly proved he was Dakra Ledds, an underling of Jerol's who had been set up. The team returned home with all of the impounded cargo and arrested criminals as station security confirmed the end of the bomb threat and returned the last of the wild animals to their cages.
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