Arts and Crafts of Espionage

Posted on Fri Jan 18th, 2019 @ 7:38pm by Lieutenant JG Gallia Norris
Edited on on Fri Jan 18th, 2019 @ 7:49pm

Mission: Season 2: Episode 3: Determination is not always a good thing
Location: Base Camp
Timeline: after "Getting Approval"
2128 words - 4.3 OF Standard Post Measure

Estelle joined Gallia, as the engineer had requested, which had probably been a wise move on the engineer’s part. She was entitled to a break, and this time she took full advantage of it. She was too nervous, too shaky to be any good anyway, and she didn’t want to risk her licence and join Julia in some lab, as much as her friend seemed to enjoy her new station in life. As such, she joined Gallia for the construction of the transponder. At least she could supply her with tea, which she promptly did in the shape of a strong Assam blend.

“Aww, bless ya.” Gallia said without turning to face Estelle; being busy with this transponder was a convenient excuse, right now she really couldn’t face her. She was soldering a wire into place, one that would provide a relay uplink back to the ship, giving intel and security real time video of what was going on below, and it required massive amounts of attention, attention she really couldn’t pay right now in her exhausted state.

Estelle sat down and watched. It looked like one surgeon watching another. She didn’t want to get in the way. She just waited, sipping her own tea. She’d only had herbal tea for the best part of the past 24 hours, at least her stomach had calmed.

“Really wish you’d eat something.” Gallia sighed, still focused nearly completely on her work, though her worry for Estelle would and, as far as she was concerned, could interfere any time it wished, “I mean, you starving won’t fix this mess any faster.” The wiring was now complete, the only thing left now was to create a frame around the device, which was roughly the size of an old Earth quarter, to disguise it from detection, then mount it on Mona Lott. Should still be me going, she lamented internally, my bloody fault anyway. I never should’ve let her go.

“I’ll be fine”, Estelle said. “I’ve got some reserves to work off, anyway.” Not that a day or two without significant food intake would make a large dent in them, but it wouldn’t hurt her either. “Tea is all I need at the moment. Securi-tea, Stabili-tea, Superiori-tea.” Those three and Liorga should be all but home.

“Aye.” Gallia nodded, “Then we go back to our regularly scheduled insani-tea.”

Estelle debated telling Gallia what had transpired with Kara earlier, now that they were along and she had a chance. But then, she knew this would upset Gallia a great deal, and rightly so. There was nothing to it, she’d have to tell her friend eventually. But maybe not now, not while she was doing such delicate work. Maybe something light instead? But what? Estelle usually had an anecdote for every situation, most of them completely fictional, but always told with enough realism that one never knew. But she couldn’t think of one. “That will be a relief”, she said instead.

“Won’t it though?” Gallia laughed, nothing was funny, but it was a relief of its own to laugh, “Still think we’re wasting time, sitting around like this is rubbish.”

“But if they go in without accurate information, those bastards might hurt her”, Estelle reasoned. “We have got only one shot at this and we can’t ruin it with bad intel.”

“I shouldnae have let her go.” Gallia said, her voice low enough she didn’t expect Estelle to have heard her, “Damn it all…”

“There’s nothing for it”, Estelle said. At least in this regard, she was still her usual, practical self. “I just wish it hadn’t been her getting caught in this. But she had to go. We can’t hide from the world, none of us can.”

“I shouldnae have allowed her to leave in that damn worthless jeep.” Gallia swore, “Should’ve made her wait until we got comms back up to speed. Would’ve lost less time for Dorso by waitin’ than we did be lettin’ her go and get captured. Didnae need that replicator that bad anyway, it could’ve waited. All this and the bloody damn water reclaimer’s unsalvageable anyway!” She leaned back and began to cry, knowing now that Estelle had definitely heard her, that she now knew it was Gallia’s fault.

Estelle took Gallia by the shoulders and shook her, trying to snap her out of it. Now wasn’t the time for that. That transponder needed to get finished, and fast. “Gallia, you couldn’t have known. And wondering what could have happened differently, all things beyond your control, doesn’t help!”

“And maybe I couldnae, but I need to be doin’ something to fix my own mess, don’t I” Gallia asked, she needed to take care of this Quinton Dunphy personally.

“I need you here, with me”, Estelle said. “Please.”

“Right.” Gallia nodded, it was frustrating but it was true. She picked up the transponder and gave it the once over, “If you were gonna wear this, what would you disguise it as? I mean, as far as angle of view, chance of being detected goes?”

“For Mona?” Estelle wondered. “They’re probably going to search her hair? Inside her boot, maybe? But what if she has to take it off…” She thought a moment, then it hit her. “A suppository!” She snapped her fingers. “They’ll never look *there*!”

“Okay, Estelle, while that’s great for security purposes, it’s not gonna give us much of a picture is it?” Gallia sighed, “Got to look at it from that angle, too.”

“Oh, I thought it was just for location”, Estelle said. “Hmm, with a camera? Maybe make a few of the same design, paste them on her forehead like a decorative pattern, only one’s got a little extra?”

“That isnae bad actually.” Gallia smiled, “I mean, she’s an Orion, they decorate themselves all the time like they’re afraid they don’t have enough appeal or something… I bet we can do it.”

“I’ll paint them”, Estelle said. “Just tell me where the camera is, so I won’t paint it over.” She’d painted mallards, she could paint tokens.

“Camera’s here..” Gallia pointed, “In this bit. Maybe we put some decoration around it?”

“I can do that”, Estelle said, glad to finally be able to contribute something. She replicated resin, metallic paints and a precision grinder on a stick, to add texture. “Can you make four more that look just like it? Dummies?”

Gallia looked over her remaining materials for a second before nodding, “Aye, easily.”

“Good.” Estelle pasted a tiny bit of coating on the camera lens and then the entire device in the resin, which quickly hardened into a half centimetre thick layer. She then went to work carving a three-dimensional Orion charm symbol, working off of instructions she had called up on her PADD. “This should only take a few minutes. Gotta be careful not to damage the lens.”

“Right.” Gallia said, then laughed, “Let the ground pounders use their weapons and martial arts, we’ll win the day with arts and crafts!”

Estelle quickly coated the resin in silver paint, then added some gold accents to it. It had to be good enough to look convincing, though she figured it wasn’t good enough to not look tacky. She scanned the finished product, then had the computer make another coating just like it, and she then removed the lens cover. “See if this still works?”

Gallia punched a few commands into her console and saw her own face pop up on the screen where Estelle had the camera pointed at her, “Like a charm it does.” She smiled, “Now we’re gonna have to get these on Mona.”

“Wait, I’m not done”, Estelle said. She was working on a third, this one a different symbol. “I hope Mona doesn’t mind being typecast, these are for exotic dancers.” She wasn’t as careful with the second symbol, as there was no camera to damage. But she added a few specks of red on top of the gold, for contrast. Once the model was done, the two others were made by the replicator. “I’m thinking one of these above the bridge of the nose, and two more to the temples. And the real one slightly off-centre, on the brow, with its dummy mirror on the other side.”

“I’ll let you make that call.” Gallia stated, “After the clothes you bought my baby I know you’ve got the better fashion sense of the two of us.”

“Find Mona and get her in here? I’ll have to glue them on”, Estelle said. “They’ll look like they’ve been there for years, not suspicious at all.”

“Right.” Gallia nodded, bolting from the tent to find the Marine, “Mona! Mona!”

“I’m here, ma’am”, Mona said. She and Anya were still watching over their prisoners. Only now, they had been tied down and wouldn’t be trouble anybody, should they wake up.

“We need ya.” Gallia said simply, motioning for the Orion to follow her into the tent.

Mona followed. “Have you made a breakthrough?” she wondered.

“Of a sort.” Gallia answered, pointing to the ‘baubles’ on her desk, “Now we need to give ya a makeover of sorts. Doctor, if you will…”

“If you’ll have them, I wanted to decorate your forehead with these”, Estelle said, pointing at the improvised jewellery. “I’ve made them to fit you.”

Mona looked at them, eyes wide. “Wow, those are beautiful. You shouldn’t have. Not until I come back successful, anyway. I can’t possibly accept them until then.”

“Actually, these jewels are more than just beautiful.” Gallia began, going into a fairly cheesy impression of ‘Q’ from the James Bond series, “Now, pay attention 007, these lovely decorations that we’re adorning your face with will help ensure you do come back successful. As soon as the doctor mounts them on your face, I’ll show you how.”

“Okay, now you’ve got me curious”, Mona said.

“Well, let me first give you a local anaesthetic”, Estelle said. “I will then puncture your skin, and fuse it with the back of these. They’re coated in a resin that will bind to your regenerating skin tissue. They’ll essentially become part of your forehead, look like they’ve been there all along.”

“Implants?” Mona wondered.

“Yes. But don’t worry, they’re easily removed afterwards.” Especially since they were small and only needed to appear to be implanted. “Sit down and hold still?”

Mona nodded and did as asked, closing her eyes for the procedure. Putting them on was a quick affair, some skin shaved off, some regenerated, and soon there were five small little pieces of jewellery on Mona’s forehead, with the one on the top right the live one, the useful one.

“Now look at me.” Gallia instructed, then pointed to the screen when Mona did so, “You’re live and in color, Mona. Say something, see if they’re picking us up.”

“Very nice”, Mona judged, looking at her feed on the monitor, which thus quickly turned into a picture of a monitor, inside a picture of a monitor, inside a picture of a monitor… and so on. “Will you let me keep those? This could be so useful in so many ways.”

“Well, they technically aren’t Starfleet issue, so I guess there’s no requirement to turn ‘em in.” Gallia surmised, “So, I mean, you want to keep ‘em, far as I’m concerned they’re yours.”

“Sweet!” Mona smiled. “I’m ready to go, whenever we’re set to start this.” Truth was, she’d never met Liorga outside of the tanking experience, and they had been fighting in opposing tanks. But she wanted them back just like anyone else on the crew, with the exception of Estelle, Gallia and probably Anya. Maybe Sami, too, if she was awake, but definitely as much as everyone else.

“We’re just waitin’ for the order.” Gallia replied, lowering her head as she realized that now there was nothing to do but wait.

“Do you mind if I get some tea while we’re waiting?” Mona asked.

“No, go ahead. Let’s hope you won’t get to finish it, though”, Estelle said.

“Yes, I’d rather start now, too.” All the same, the Orion got some strawberry-flavoured rooibos from the replicator.

“Right.” Gallia nodded, feeling somewhat defeated, and drained her tea. She felt herself about to crash, but had to stay awake, she might be needed….