State of Panic

Posted on 21 Jul 2025 @ 10:04pm by Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler & Commodore Harvey Geisler

2,178 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Imposters Among Us
Location: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: July 7, 2390 || 1200 hours

The door slid open with a hiss, and Clone Joey stepped inside like a tornado wrapped in boots and nerves. She whipped around, slapped the manual override, and the door sealed shut behind her with a low clunk that sounded far too final. How did they come so far only to have things come to this?

She exhaled, then leaned in, breath shallow and tight.

“He knows,” she whispered, eyes wide like she’d seen a ghost. “Ronin knows. Too much. It's all here." Which had her dumping the padd and other equipment on his desk.

"He's not the only one," Harvey remarked, tapping a key on his desktop to activate the local holoprojector. A system map flickered to life above the desktop. "They found the refinery. And, from the looks of things, they knocked out the ship that the Valcour scarred."

Joey let out a curse. Something she didn't do often, but this disaster warranted that and so much more. "They know far too much, and now it's up to us to clean up this mess. I blame D'rimo. He came in far too soon and drew way too much attention," she said with a frown. What else could possibly go wrong, and how in the hell were they going to fix this?

Harvey narrowed his eyes. "You might be close to the Overseer, but I doubt he would let it slide how little you respect him, especially this far behind the line. "Regardless, Gavara is out of the question now. We cannot let Di Pasquale run amok with this information."

"I have a great deal of respect for him, but given our current position, you'll have to forgive me if I'm feeling just a bit paranoid with the way things are currently going," Joey said before she shoved her hands through her hair in frustration. "It's not just her we have to worry about. It's also the other three that were with her. At this point, our only option is to get rid of them all. We can't necessarily kill them. That would draw way too much attention. Perhaps, we can find a way to send them on a wild goose chase? Provide a bogus lead?"

"She wants to act," Harvey stated. "You know her as well as I do, and she's not going to be simply or easily deterred. We let her off this ship, and she'll go rogue. The last thing you and I both need is O'Connell breathing down our necks. Besides, there's too many wild cards around us with Captain Graham and the Endurance. We need to be careful." He gritted his teeth and sighed. "And fast."

Joey frowned and shoved her hands through her hair again. She expected the Chief of Security to be trouble, but not necessarily at this level. "We're going to be more careful than we have been, but I might be able to buy us some time," she said. "What if I were to provide some bogus logs, or something, and point the finger at some of the more expendable crew?"

"Expendable?" Harvey asked, his brow a bit furled. "What do you mean? Are you suggesting we frame a couple crewmembers as spies?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying. My security clearance is higher than Di Pasquale's. I can fake a trail that she can't trace," Joey stated.

Harvey considered it for a moment, then shook his head. "No, it's too risky. You and I both know from our memories that she's a fireball, someone who won't stop when she's set on something. We stick her in the brig and the crew will start asking questions. No, the best place for her right now is right by our side as we prepare to strike the menacing G90B."

"Consider it done. If she starts to become too much of a thorn, we might have to consider other avenues. Accidents happen all the time."

"Start cooking up some ideas," Harvey stated. "We're going to need to have options." He rose from the desk, walked out from behind it, and wound up leaning against it just a foot or two from Joey. "But here's the thing. Since we know she can't be deterred, and she would most certainly jump the chain of command and go straight for O'Connell, I didn't have much choice but to take her suggestion. We're going to take a strike force to the refinery they were just at."

Joey stiffened at the words, her mind instantly kicking into overdrive. Plans, contingencies, worst-case scenarios—her brain scrambled to sketch them all at once. “It doesn't seem like we have much of a choice,” she said, trying to ground herself. Her gaze flicked up to Harvey’s. "This could work in our favor, or it could go really bad, really fast."

He nodded, albeit slowly. With a sigh, he spoke, "Chances are fifty-fifty. But there are bright sides. The refinery will be abandoned when we get there. It is an asteroid field, and the natural magnetism will disrupt sensors." Harvey smiled. "And, it's a great opportunity to take out more Starfleet vessels. It'll keep weakening them and keep giving our compatriots a chance to probe the Dominion."

Joey’s eyes narrowed, a flicker of tension tightening her brow. She didn’t like fifty-fifty odds—she liked control, certainty, a clear path to the end. That wasn't going to happen, and only a fool would think it would. She was no fool. But Harvey’s smile carried weight, the kind that put her at ease. If only slightly.

"There are still risks. What was left behind that might give more of the Confederation away?" She asked, hating her own cynicism. “The sensor disruption? That could work both ways. Starfleet won’t have sensors—but we’ll be flying blind, too. We need to prepare to the best of our ability for what might lie ahead.”

She paused, considering the last part. “Taking out more of their ships is a win, sure. But if we overreach and they catch wind, we might just give the Dominion a reason to tighten their leash on the quadrant.”

A beat.

“But I like it. We go in fast, let Camila do whatever she feels she needs to do, then move on to the next.”

Harvey nodded, thankful that they'd come to an agreement. "I've asked Di Pasquale to give me a copy of her plan before the briefing. That'll give us a chance to review it before it's disseminated to other ships and this crew."

He reached over to the desk and picked up a padd, not the same one he'd been given by Camila, but one he already copied her report to. Without hesitation, he handed the device to Joey. "This is everything she provided to me so far. I'm sure Tetnel already gave you his analysis, but I'm sure it doesn't contain what this woman was thinking. The only thing she doesn't know is how much presence the Confederation has in this universe. Oh, and the fact that you and I are you and I."

He paused for a beat, then added, "I will also be contacting Admiral O'Connell to request ships from the other task forces. I'm not going to ask for much, and I don't expect him to give me much either. But, if we can serve up some of his heavy hitters now, then it could help smooth out the already bumpy road in front of us. But there's just one problem."

Harvey reached over to the desk and pulled up another padd, this one a crew dossier. "Camila brought back a friend. Rather, one of the real Harvey's former associates."

Joey’s fingers curled around the padd, the weight of the entire situation much heavier than the device itself. She didn’t respond right away—her eyes closed as she processed everything she'd just been told, her thoughts a moment away from spiraling.

“A former associate?” she said slowly, the words edged in suspicion. She searched the memories she'd been given, but the name hadn't come up from anywhere. “She must be from before Joey's time on board the ship. Or, I haven't been given any memories of her.”

She opened her eyes and began to pace the floor, bracing herself mentally before she began to look at Emily's file. “If she served under the real Harvey, she's either a potential asset… or a walking liability. My money happens to be on walking liability, and that means she could blow things wide open. Where is this former associate now? If I should like to talk to her, that information might come in handy.” Of course, she could find out easily enough.

"She was last with Di Pasquale," Harvey explained. "Just so happens, she and family were living on Mellon when D'rimo arrived. What remains of her family is now mining birythium."

Harvey sighed and continued, "I haven't been able to fully review her time on the Black Hawk. But I do know that she was my--his--yeoman, and that she betrayed Harvey while trying to save her own family. I still need to review more logs and whatever information is available, but it's safe to say that she's going to be a wild card."

"I don't like her being on board the ship. Especially with you having no memories of her," Joey stated with a frown. "I'll see to it that those memories are included in the next round of downloads."

For a change, Harvey smirked and offered a soft chuckle. "As crazy as this all sounds, it is a good opportunity to get close enough to home for a download to not look suspicious."

Joey’s lips twitched at the edge, almost betraying a grin—almost. “Close enough for a clean tap into without the alarms going off.”

She glanced toward the ready room’s sealed door, her voice lowering to a conspiratorial tone. “We keep our heads down for now. No red flags, no sudden shifts in protocol. We mingle like good little grunts, nod when we're supposed to, joke about ration packs, and act like we're letting the crew get their wins.”

She stepped back, tapping the padd absently against her thigh. “In the meantime, I'm going to review this stuff. I think I should also alert our people and see if they're willing to sacrifice G90B. It would be for the greater good and help our cause in the long run."

Harvey listened intently to every word, considering the weight of what they were asking of each other. "You've got the way to communicate with D'rimo," he calmly said while remaining at the desk. After all, he knew that he was here entirely at Joey's request, needing someone to take advantage of the real Harvey's position in order for her to operate more discreetly.

"And in the meantime, yes," he confirmed, pushing himself off his desk and moving around back to the backside. He did not sit down, but he did cross his arms as he looked at Joey. "We'll do our parts. With any luck, there won't be much of a Task Group left in the next couple of days. And we can finally move deeper inward."

"Then, we know what needs to be done. If you need me in the meantime, you know where to find me," Joey stated, mentally preparing herself for a conversation with D'rimo. It would be easy enough for her to cover the communication as something Starfleet official, which is how she'd managed to cover her tracks this far. Of course now, she could also connect to another console anywhere on the ship remotely to also cover things. There were always options. "It's time to put on our Starfleet faces."

"And drink the sludge," Harvey remarked, picking up a cup of lukewarm coffee from his desk. "Seriously, do you have any idea how to drink this... this... bean flavored water? Is this an acquired taste or something?"

Hers eyes moved to the cup in his hand. She had grown rather fond of the caffeinated beverage since arriving on board the ship, but knew the real Joey was not a fan. "It's definitely an acquired taste. Some people, like Harvey, drink it black. Straight from the pot. Others add milk or cream and sugar. I'm partial to light cream and light sugar," she answered. "I have to be careful, though. My counterpart wasn't a fan."

"Milk. Cream. Sugar," repeated a frowning Harvey, making mental notes. "I'm sure I can figure out a combination that will work. From what I hear, the real Harvey is seldom without a mug of this... this sludge."

"What you hear would be true. The only time he's ever really without one is when he's asleep," she stated. "Now, it's time for us to get back to it. I'll see you later." And after she gathered up what she'd brought to his office, she made her way out of the ready room to move forward with other tasks.

RSS Feed