Covering Tracks

Posted on 12 Oct 2025 @ 1:11pm by Commodore Harvey Geisler

727 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Imposters Among Us
Location: USS Black Hawk
Timeline: July 8, 2390 || 1315 hours

The cloned Harvey had again changed ready rooms, having left his primary unit on deck three and now occupying the one next to Auxiliary Control. It seemed like hours ago that he and the clone of Joey had met and formulated a hasty plan to kill the Chief Engineer and sabotage the ship in order to make their escape. After all, at this point, the only way to keep the crew from discovering the truth would be to eliminate all evidence.

And in this case, all of the evidence saturated the little ship known as the Black Hawk.

Executing the plan itself would be challenging, especially since it had to be performed ever so quietly. Harvey had set a related plan in motion, something that would help add to the chaos. Since their objective had been completed in this asteroid field, Harvey elected to employ his position as Task Group Commander to disperse the gathered ships. All surviving members of Belvedere and Sentinel would be redeployed along the Gavara line, spread out across three sectors. This would keep plenty of external sensors pointed away from the Black Hawk right as the situation aboard plunged into a hellish landscape.

Harvey's eyes remained fixed on the holographic display, carefully reviewing a message he'd dictated for Admiral O'Connell. In it, he shared the details of the mission, how they had been successful in eliminating the G90B threat. It was refreshing to the clone, knowing that the report was filled with hollow truths, and yet all the more deceptive. The clone knew that the Confederation's work was not complete, and while Harvey possessed no knowledge of D'rimo's true plan and actions, enough destroyed ships existed to falsely declare that there was no more to worry about. The Federation could return to their slumber, only to be surprised when a large fleet darkened their doorstep.

Or so Harvey hoped.

Hope. It was a funny word, a sensation foreign to the clone. His hope was not in the Confederation, but in the woman posing as his wife. The clone of Joey was scurrying deep inside the Black Hawk quietly putting pieces into place that would send everything into chaos. Harvey had already repositioned the real children and their nanny holo in one of the Holodecks, perfectly positioned near the Flight Deck so they would have easy access to a shuttle. All that mattered now was that he, Joey, and the children would get to a shuttle in the middle of the chaos and escape as all of the evidence went up in flames.

But the clock was ticking. Harvey glanced at the nearby chronometer. By now, Chief Engineer Frex was the only suspect in custody, and Commander Di Pasquale was deep into her investigation and interrogation. The last tricobalt was still being studied, and the evidence would likely soon be found.

Harvey reached up, and with his right index finger tugged at his collar. He could feel the stress swelling his neck as his blood pressure--

"Auxiliary Control to Commodore Geisler" came the voice of the helmsman from the other side of the ready room door.

"Go ahead," Harvey quickly replied, his voice constrained by the swelling.

"Sir, you wanted to know when we cleared the field and went to warp," replied the helmsman. "We're now heading to Gavara at Warp Six."

"Thank you, Ensign," Harvey acknowledged. "Geisler out."

The swelling subsided, even if it was just a minute amount. He needed a distraction. More importantly, the crew needed a distraction. After all, idle hands would be enough to disrupt everything. A smile appeared on Harvey's face as he realized he had just the thing.

He rose from the desk and tugged at his uniform to straighten it out. It was time to shut down Auxiliary Control and move back to the bridge. "Perfect!" he admitted to himself. That one action would be enough to keep efforts focused in a different direction and only add more to the chaos when everything fell apart.

Harvey wiped the smile from his face. "Computer, send the communique to Admiral O'Connell." Without waiting, he marched out the door to set the crew in motion.

Just a little bit longer, Harvey thought to himself, and this entire masquerade will be over.

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