There is a rift in the Venasian
government. There is a militant
sepratist movement that distrusts
the Federation and will do anything to
break the treaty. Even frame
innocents or worse kill them. I assume that
they are not above
making friends within the Federation to do their dirty
work. Friends
who would do their killing for them so they do not get their
hands
dirty. Friends that are not nearly as careful at the Venasians are,
if you know my meaning. The other faction in Venasian is friendly
towards the
Federation, but they are losing their numbers to the other
side.
Solving these cases will help us win support in that key
faction. So, I am
just saying that I have confidence in your
abilities....." he replied
hinting heavily about what he wanted and
providing a little extra info along
the way...
Somehow Audra was
not completely surprised by the comments and this was
evident on her
face. "Sir, Amdiral Izata and I have come up with some
evidence that
seems to indicate that the Venasians were involved in the
bombing of the
shuttle bringing the Venasian delegation to Earth a few
months back.
That would seem to support your comment."
"I had
suspected as much. Be careful how you proceed. They are
secretive people, and people that we will need as allies one day. We
must
take steps to enure that we do not offend them necessarily."
Lasiter said
dissapointed a bit. He was hoping that his thoughts on
the matter were
wrong.
"Well, we spoke with Ambassador D'amondra
about what we found in order to
get some advice about how to
proceed. She seemed to indicate that it was
against their belief
system to attack one of their own."
"That would be why
they would involve others, such as those in the
Federation. I would
assume that they would seek out those that wanted to
disrupt the treaty as
much as they do. Either someone with connections, or
they may go
right to those connections themselves. Do you have any thoughts
as
to who may be working with them.?"
Audra almost blanched at the
question. Her talks with K'Tael had indicated
that
there were
some questionable behavior surrounding Admiral Garibaldi and the
Bajoran
Ambassador. She also know how close Lasiter was to Garibaldi. She
did not want to be the one to break the news to him. Unfortunately,
she
seemed
not to have much choice.
"Well, sir, there seems to
be some evidence that the Bajoran Ambassador is
somehow involved in a
number of the crimes being investigated on the station.
He has been
cloesely tied with Admiral Garibaldi."
Lasiter sighed.
"Commander, Admiral Garibaldi and I are old friends. We go back longer
than you have been in this universe. There is not much that we
would not do for each other. Now, that being said Markus also knows
how much I am devoted to Starfleet. If he is on the wrong side,
then so be it. His involvement only means that the an old friend of the
CinC is involved. You do your job. If he is dirty then I will go
with you and arrest him. If he is not dirty, I will be
releaved. Either way you will not have a thing to worry about from
me interferring in your investigation. Just do your duty." he said
after a moment of thought.
"Back to this Starfleet
question..... How would you go about fixing the
problem? If
you were in my place just how would you address the issue that
officers
are self serving and not looking after their flock....."
"I think what
you are doing on Spacedock is a good example of what should be
done,
sir. I am talking about making the crew a family. It is hard to be
ruthless and self-serving when you care a great deal about those around
you.
Longer assignments together promote such relationships."
"Good thinking, Ms. Firehawk. What else would you
suggest, perhaps on
the line of removing the bad element or at least
slowing its progress." he
asked.
Audra considered the
question before answering. "Well, sir. From what I
have seen,
the biggest problem lays in the fact that good quality is not
necessarily
being rewarded properly and that negative performance is not
being dealt
with. We are consistently underfunding and not providing
adequate
resources for assignments, which seems to help breed the element. I
think that if you remove the distrust in the fact that good performance
leads
to reward than a lot of our problems will start to fade. With
that said,
there must be a clear route of discipline for those who do not
work as the
system requires. To not do so not only endangers
performance, but also
endangers our people."
"Well said. Are
you sure that you do not deserve to stay at your brevit rank
perminantly? You have done quite well in your listening and
learning. "
