The Deliberate Tourists

 Episode Name:  The Deliberate Tourists

   Written By:  Fortunae

         Cast:  Caeli, Dakin, Fortunae, Havaris, Idrani, Medes, O'Rielly and 

                Turtledove.

  Produced By:  Starfleet

  Directed By:  Fortunae

     Aired On:  Wed Apr 02 22:14:54 2003

     Stardate:  53113.8

Time: Wed Apr 02 18:52:18 2003

Stardate: 53113.5

Dakin has arrived.

Station security on S419 -- Lt Havaris and Lt Medes were stopping by to confer with Lt Dakin when a call came from station customs, conveniently finding both the Chief of Operations and the Chief of Security at the same place. Captain Baird had just recently docked, with him two human passengers -- but when the Identity Cards of the passengers were run they came up irregular against the updated customs processes in place. Oh, they were certainly brilliant forgeries, even the fingerprints had been altered to match for touch padd scans -- unfortunately, the confirmation of genetic pattern from the customs scanners when extrapolated did not suggest a natural match of the fingerprints being shown on the inprocessing screen. The identities were real, the finger prints were a match, but these two where certainly not who they were purported to be.

Immediately all three of them were detained for further questioning by Dovoro, who summoned a security team to take them up to security. Before they could leave Captain Baird relayed to Dovoro that these people were not common pretenders but this was a matter of importance to diplomacy and intelligence. Dovoro said she would take it under advisement, and passed it along to Dakin and Havaris who arranged for the S-2 officer and the Diplomatic officer to be present when the pretenders arrived. Captain Baird was kept on below as Dovoro took a customs and security team aboard his ship to search it inch by inch, lest he have any more surprises aboard.

Ensign Turtledove escorted the two human appearing males to the security office, and arrived to find a small panel of officers awaiting her arrival. The two with her appear to be in their mid-twenties and early thirties respectively, as they come inside they do not look cowed or afraid as most people caught is such a situation might, though they do stare with open curiosity at the ridges of the Bajorans and the insect-like blue hued Andorian.

Idrani stands out of the path between the doorway and the holding cells. She studies the two humans, but does not say anything.

Dakin is seated behind his desk, fingers laced on its top. The identity information, albeit apparently false, of the two men is displayed in LCARS split-screen on the attached terminal. He looks the two over curiously, but leaves the first words to be said to the senior officer here, namely Havaris.

Turtledove watches Dakin as she stands escort to the two detainees.

O'Rielly stands on the oposite side from Idrani (wearing a knee brace on his left knee), but also outside of the path as well. He gives the two men a glance and watches them very carefully.

Senior in matters of command, perhaps, but certainly not Security. Havaris had been standing a few feet from Dakin's desk, giving him much the same look that Dakin had been giving him. When it sinks in that everyone is more or less standing about and staring at one another, Havaris does finally clear his throat and clap his hands together for a vigorous rubbing. Silence begone! "So," he begins with his usual lack of aplomb, "who are you and why are you here under false papers?" Cuts right to the heart of the matter, does Havaris.

The elder of the two men says, "What we say here -- it doesn't get back to the Romulans does it?"

Medes, back in uniform ASAP as requested by Nevaren, looks perhaps still a bit under the weather, though it's a vast improvement over the Ball of Shivering Officer In The Infirmary she was a couple of days ago. Dark circles under her eyes, a-bit-less-than-healthy pallor and all, still she stands at Havaris's side; his opening pronouncement is met by one of her hands coming up to rub at the back of her neck and a glance at the floor. It's the sort of maritally-based expression which means, 'oh dear.'

Idrani inclines her head, antennae moving slightly at the mention of 'Romulans'.

O'Rielly raises his own eyebrows at the mention of the Romulans. He continues to look over the men with false papers. He also reaches down to his belt, grabbing the PADD he has clipped there, pulling it up in a slick motion, never once taking his eyes off the detainees.

Dakin blinks and leans forward, crossing his forearms on the desk. "You're under Federation jurisdiction here. You may speak freely. Though I have to say coming here using false IDs doesn't foster a lot of trust. As I run security here, you can see where that becomes my primary concern. Now then... you were saying?"

Havaris glances briefly at Dakin, then once more back to the two 'humans' with a ravenously curious expression. If you want to get a man's attention, ask to make sure what you say doesn't make it back to the Romulans. It's an easy catch.

The elder of two waves off the last bit of Dakin's speech. "We had every intention of contacting your office as soon as we made it through customs, our false credentials were supposed to get us through without incident so that the Romulans would not notice that we had come here. This is why we wouldn't tell your customs officer our actual identities, it would be better if you seriously considered not entering this matter in it's truth into your central computer at least for some time."

The younger one speaks up, "What the Captain is saying is that we have reason to believe the Romulans have compromised your computers at least at some level and we are trying to avoid their notice."

Turtledove flicks a curious glance at the younger man, but otherwise remains the quiet escort.

Idrani shoots a glance at O'Rielly.

Dakin nods and takes that in, giving a sidelong glance to Havaris, before saying anything. "Understandable. I can also understand wanting to steer clear from any Romulan notice. However, the reason I can understand that is that there can be so many reasons. Now that we've established all the preambles, may I hear yours?"

O'Rielly continues to watch the men, refraining to comment yet, looking down over his padd.

Havaris ambles towards the wall and props against it, placing one boot flat against its surface, the other keeping him upright on the floor. He folds his arms across his chest and pauses in that momentarily so as to scratch at his nose. Otherwise still, otherwise silent.

Standing even more erect and with no hint of lack of personal pride, the elder officer says, "Captain Francois Mercere of the Occan Global Army, 197th Special Operations Unit. This is my adjutant Lieutenant Guilliam Cordair." He clicks his heels and offer his arm up in a saluting gesture then returns to his steadily upright posture, the younger officer follows suit in the entire clicking and saluting routine a fraction of a moment behind his declared superior.

Idrani nods to herself. Occan. That would explain the marked curiousity at the non-human species. "Excuse me, Captain, I was under the impression that although Occa was opening relations with the Terran government, your people were not interested in relations with any non-human species."

O'Rielly taps some keys on his PADD, continuing to watch the men carefully.

Dakin resists the urge to quirk an eyebrow at the display. Anything he could've asked is amply handled by Idrani, which prompts Dakin to simply look at the pair with an expression which practically reads "Well? Answer the lady" in big block type.

Turtledove's eyebrows, on the other hand, take a slight upward ascent. She alternates a discrete glance between the two detainees, while waiting to hear their response to Idrani's question.

Havaris manages to retain the same expression he'd been wearing all along at hearing that these persons are Occans. Of course, he does it while staring at them openly, but that's entirely beside the point.

Captain Merecere says,"Pro-Tem President Vhypist will soon have to face re-election. Since the removal of the Dominion from Occa, four open political parties have formed. The party that is elected will also win control of our foreign policy. Vhypist leads the isolationist party that wishes us to remain completely isolated from the galactic community until we can approach them as strong independents. Minister Trefois leads the Re-Patriation party that wants to open up relations with the United Earth Government only and seek our rights as Colonists from the pre-Federation era to humanity's economic and technological gains. Minister Oreleis is the leader of the Federation party, they wish to try again to win our entrance into the Federation as an independent member world. Minister Poitrain is the leader of the Omni Party, they seek to open up diplomatic relations with all the local powers and see which have the most to offer us and are willing to give us. The current leading faction is the Re-Patriation party, followed closely by the Isolationist party. The Federation Party is in third, but common pundit wisdom suggests that they will throw themselves behind the Re-Patriation party or vice-versa if the Isolationist party pulls ahead. The Omni party control a mere 7 percent of the voter support according to polls -- the Re-Pats control 40 percent, the Isolationist 35 percent, the last 18 for the Federation Party."

Mercere takes a breath after rattling off those statistics and facts to correct Idrani's own information, and Lieutenant Cordair jumps in saying, "That is of course the official story, if things were just as that we would not have had to risk our lives sneaking off our planet with a smuggler to contact the Federation."

Dakin considers for a moment, then asks, "The official story. Then what, may I ask, is the unofficial version of said story?"

Idrani glances at Dakin, then back at the two human gentlemen.

The door to Out clicks and unlocks.

Caeli arrives from the mall, the office's transparent aluminum doors sliding silently closed behind him.

Caeli has arrived.

*** Caeli is being summoned by a higher power. ***

Caeli goes home.

Caeli has left.

Fortunae locks the door to Out.

<PROVE> O'Rielly has the merit of Shrewd at 1.

O'Rielly continues to just observe the men, very intently actually. Thus far, everything he may want to say yet, has been asked, or it's just not time.

Mercere looks to his junior officer and gives him a cautioning glare, then he looks back towards the aliens that are apparently in charge. "That /is/ the official story -- it's just not a complete story. The part left out is that the Romulan Star Empire is trying to work behind the scenes to control the election and install their own puppet at the worst or a faction friendlier to them at the best from which they can insinuate themselves deeper into our system."

Idrani speaks up again, "That would be the Omni party, wouldn't it?"

Dakin listens for the response to Idrani's question.

"That's a rather impressive accusation, Captain. Not one we can simply accept sight-unseen." Havaris finally speaks from his place against the wall, glancing between Idrani and Dakin for a moment before continuing. "What proof do you have that the Romulans are insurgent upon Occa?"

O'Rielly seems to be watching the conversation still intently. He is also busy entering something into the PADD in his hand. He moves around slowly, looking the men over from different angles.

"Considering our current geo-political relationship with the Federation," Mercere responds. "I think the simple fact that I am /here/ and talking to you should give some level of credence to my position." He stiffens his neck a bit and his ice blue eyes burn with an honest fire of annoyance, "Perhaps it is common among your species members to travel long distances at risk to your life and your career and possibly the safety of your family to tell fairy stories to your neighbors. It is not so with mine."

Captain Mercere gestures toward Turtledove -- "The young woman has our pouch, we were not allowed to carry it ourselves, if you want proof then you will find more than enough within it I believe."

Dakin looks over towards Turtledove and gestures for her to bring the pouch towards him. "Ensign, if you wouldn't mind..?"

Medes raises her eyebrows slightly and enters something on her PADD, remaining otherwise entirely quiet. When Havaris's species is imprecated against, and comparisons to humans made, she blinks. Three times. Rapidly. And rolls her lips inward for a moment before tapping on her PADD once more.

O'Rielly smirks as he walks around, finally opening his mouth. He lets his Irish accent come out fully right now, "So what were your plans upon clearing customs?"

Turtledove steps to the desk and hands the pouch over.

Idrani smiles pleasantly, going into diplomatic mode. "Captain, be assured that we appreciate the danger in which you've placed yourself and we do acknowledge the cultural steps you've made to come here in the first place. Allow me to introduce myself, I am LTJG Jaylas Idrani. I am the Diplomatic Attache Officer aboard S419." She adds, "I am an Andorian."

"In deference to the Diplomatic Attache," Havaris indicates Idrani with a tilt of the chin, "I'm not going to say what first came to mind in response to that, Captain." And that's probably a very good thing. He does, however, glance towards Medes with a small frown. In order to distract himself, he plucks his PADD from his side and begins tapping at it. Tappity tap tap.

. o O Idrani feels frustration and annoyance.

Captain Mercere forces a smile to his lips as the Andorian introduces herself, and cautions his adjutant to remain silent after Havaris speaks. "Yes madam, you are the same species as the woman who caught us in our subturfuge, which brings me to the answer to your question --" He looks toward O'Rielly, "Captain Baird was to take us to a place on your station called "The Neutral Zone" under our guise as Federation Humans where we would have gotten into a minor breaking of the peace so that your military police would be forced to bring us here for incarceration. Once out of the public eye we would have revealed our true purpose for coming here and used the cover of our misbehavior to be deported from this facility with Captain Baird who then would have smuggled us back to Occa with none the wiser."

Dakin takes the pouch, nodding to Turtledove. "Thanks." Attention back to Mercere, "Given that that's the station bar, that wouldn't've been a hard task to pull off." He begins to open the pouch and produce its contents, a number of photos and hardcopy sensor reading reports. On paper, no less. He seems intent on keeping his mind on the job, paying little mind to the jabs directed towards the non-human inhabitants of his office.

Idrani nods to the Occan gentlemen, then glances sidelong at Dakin as he goes over the contents of the pouch.

Turtledove nods to Dakin, then quietly steps back to her original position. Her expression is mostly neutral, however it seems she can't conceal the slightest tint of youthful cheer in her eyes as she regards the Occans again in passing.

Havaris pushes off the wall and ambles over to stand beside Dakin's chair, inspecting the documents from the side-wise, so as not to actually peer over the other Lieutenant's shoulder. He reverts to his native tongue for a moment, murmuring down at Dakin in Bajoran, "What do you make of it?"

Dakin looks over to Havaris, and returns a response in their native language as he flips through the photos, "Romulan scoutships Occan planetside... Occan military hobnobbing with RSN officers... Oh, this is nice, Tal Shava running Occan training facilities..." He then directs his attention to the sensor readings. "These looks like encrypted messages... they couldn't decipher them, but the y knew enough to be able to trace their destination to Romulan territory. Don't know about you, Kusto, but I'd call this a whole crate of smoking guns." Naturally, anyone wearing a commbadge or a UT can understand what they're saying.

Captain Mercere gives them a few moments to peruse the documentation he brought then says, "We fear they may be backing a faction for another coup, this time one that will be friendly to the Romulan Star Empire -- this if they cannot simply engineer the election to a favorable result.

We have tried to anticipate thier actions, gather evidence, but we simply cannot decrypt thier signals -- and we cannot keep ahead of the movement of their agents. If we tried to move on the things we did find it is likely we would only uncover a little and the rest would go underground."

"I was a member of the resistance, both of us were, we helped pave the way for the Alliance liberation of Occa -- we understand the value of working with people who are at the same technological level as our enemies -- we came here to seek help from Starfleet Intelligence, we can help agents get in place without detection, lead them to what we have already found."

Idrani listens to the two Bajorans murmuring, then replies to Captain Mercere. "You've come to the right place, Captain and we appreciate it that you have done so."

O'Rielly heads over to Dakin's desk, looking down at the items that Dakin has taken out of the pouch, but not touching any of them.

Medes glances sidelong at Havaris, taps at her PADD once, and clears her throat. For the most part, she seems content to listen and to watch for the moment, or at least has relegated herself to such.

Dakin looks to the two men, and says, now in Federation Standard, "You have my appreciation as well. And we might be able to handle part of the evidence gathering..." He stands up and goes over to the office's equipment locker, poking his head in long enough to remove a holographic camera before shutting and locking the door. He then lays the paper readings flat so as to take pictures. He asks of Havaris, "I'm assuming our library of Romulan communications cipher-keys is fairly up to date?"

Havaris continues murmuring to Dakin as the smoking guns are tallied. And even so, he frowns faintly. "It's all circumstantial. They're our allies, Rann, they can ply our space openly. They can deal with our member planets, our colonies, /and/ planets such as Occa which are non-aligned within our space. They can offer training assistance, they can wine and dine, they can woo and coerce. I'm not certain that we really have anything here that we can use to our advantage. Or even frame as an accusation. Or even /do/ anything about. Unless..." Havaris trails away, looking back to the Occans in question -- and in Federation Standard. "Do you have any way of tying all of this to a particular party? Any evidence to support the suggestion of a possible coup? It's not that we don't believe you, but this is rather much like having a motive, opportunity, a weapon, blood on the floor... and no body. It's impressive, but it's not enough."

Havaris does answer Dakin at the end of all of that, "That would be O'Rielly's department. We handle the codes, we don't generate them."

O'Rielly doesn't look to Dakin to respond, he just looks over the materials on the desk

Captain Mercere sets his jaw a bit, at which point his adjutant speaks up. "Gentlemen and Ladies," Cordair begins. "Clearly there are parts of this that are apparent to us as the fact that we breath air because we live on Occa and are not so clear to you." This mollifies Captain Mercere a bit as Cordair continues, "Pro-Tem President Vhypist is the current leader of our government and it's his isolationist policies that rule Occa. Considering he practically shoved you all out the door right after you helped save our planet from the Dominion, how likely do you think it is that he would invite the Romulans down to train parts of our military? Maybe you aren't aware that after the Liberation Vhypist had to take members of the old guard collaborationist military behind the last coup into his government to ensure things got back into a form or order right away. The political party that would be the most likely to want to deal with the Romulans is not in power, and in the polls shows the least amount of favor with the voting population. We realize the Romulans are your friends, but what they are doing seems to our analysts as a preparation should the Re-Patriation party or the Federation Party win in the next election -- or to prevent that. Contact with Earth, or contact with the Federation would undermine the power of these old guard power brokers -- this is why they allowed the Dominion to back them in a coup to prevent our last application for Federation membershp. This is why they arranged events to disqualify our application the last time by causing riots then putting them down with more force then was authorized just before your delegation came."

Cordair takes a breath and presses on, "Please understand, I'm not personally a member of the Federationist party, but I am loyal to my people and the our *Freedom*. Freedom chose, freedom to pursue our destiny, freedom from a string of military juntas. We aren't asking you to fight for us, we are just asking for your help in protecting ourselves agains the Romulan ability to outmanuever us because of thier technological edge -- and we aren't asking for your technology, just your expertise. What you use, you take back with you. If we claim the Romulans are mucking about, we can be silenced and disappear. If you have proof they are doing so, doesn't your Prime Directive require you to at least bring it out in the open so that perhaps the Romulans will reconsider?"

Havaris hears the Occans out yet again, expression one of concentration as matters are further explained. In the end he looks to Idrani with a raised eyebrow.

Dakin looks to Havaris and nods, "Hence why I want these decoded. Maybe we'll get something more concrete." Then to the two Occans, "The Prime Directive prevents Federation personnel from interfering in the natural evolution of non-aligned civilizations. Granted what you say the Romulans are doing flies in the face of that, but as a non-aligned government, they're under no obligation to hold themselves to that. Still... you've given us much to think about." He turns to O'Rielly as he pops out the iso-chip from the camera and hands it to him, "Mr. O'Rielly, how soon do you think we can have these decoded?"

Idrani considers what Cordair and Mercere have said, not commenting for the moment. "Is the Occan government asking the Federation for assistance?" She asks, simply.

O'Rielly takes the chip, "Should be short if I currently have access to the proper codes. If not, it will be a little later."

Mercere takes control back from his adjutant, "I believe we have already clarified that Vhypist would not ask you for help any more than he would ask the Romulans for help; yet the Romulans are on our planet and interfering with the status quo instead of letting us find our own course in policy through a democratic election. *We* are asking for help from Starfleet Intelligence. We helped them plan and prepare for the liberation of Occa -- by we I mean the resistance -- now we are asking help again, this time pre-emptively. We gathered evidence, we made the trip, we are asking. Are you telling me that Starfleet won't do anything about the Romulan intrusion into OUR space that is supposed to be recognized by your entire alliance -- an intrusion that they have to come through *your* space to acheive -- when all we are asking you to do at this point is send some of your own field agents to indepently corroborate our evidence and suspicions?"

Idrani glances at Havaris and Dakin, "I see nothing wrong, diplomatically, or with regard to the Alliance Treaty, in looking over the evidence and corroborating it, as Captain Mercere suggests."

Idrani adds, "I would also like to hear your thoughts on the Romulans compromsing our computers." That, to Captain Mercere.

Dakin looks between Havaris and Idrani. "Nor do I see any harm in further analysis of the evidence and presenting it to our superiors here." He then listens intently for the answer to Idrani's question.

Medes pokes at her PADD once or twice, then moves over to stand beside Havaris, who she addresses in whispered Bajoran. Medes whispers to Havaris, "If there's even a hint of an actual threat to the station's computers, corroborated or not, I'd rather think I should be letting Nevaren and The Boss know immediately. You know how Nevaren is about the computers, and how... Ghorev... /is./"

O'Rielly looks up to the men, "Now you made mention of you thought the Romulan's may have had access to our systems?"

Havaris glances aside at Medes and nods his head in understanding, "Get on it. If anything gets turned up, let me know." That said, Havaris looks to Idrani, then to Dakin, then back to the Occans once more. "*I* can't authorize this deployment of assets to Occa, no. The difference between then and now is that we were at war with the Dominion. And we aren't with the Romulans. That sort of thing isn't mine to authorize, nor anyone else's in this room at present. We can reccomend it, but we can't make it so. You're going to have to show a bit of patience. This isn't the sort of thing we take lightly."

Idrani comments, "Sir, I suggest that if our computers are compromised that the only communication done with /any/ part of this information is done face to face. A PADD message or a combadge message could alert any hackers that we're onto them, before we're prepared to find them."

Dakin nods to Havaris, "Lt. Havaris is right. The decision isn't ours. We can, however, analyze the evidence, bring it to the people who can make that call." He then nods to Idrani. "Agreed." Then to Havaris, I think we'd do well to instruct everyone here to keep these 100 percent off the books. Meaning no logs, no reports, no comm or computer traffic." He says that last part to all Starfleet personnel here for clarification.

"I can do a preliminary check for leaks, mind," notes Medes somewhat absently, still looking down at her PADD, after a nod to Havaris. She's on her way to the door. "It's not something I use often, but." She shrugs. "Before I go talk to The Boss and all. Might be good to know if we're hemorrhaging information."

Captain Mercere fields this question, "After our government made discrete initiations of dialogues with your government the Romulans started showing up, the training camp, the meetings. One of our listening operations on those we consider conspirators provided us with this belief. One conspirator said to another conspirator that one of the Romulans agents mentioned a need for them to increase their own security measures, and then in the context of the conversation indicated the Romulan gave the impression that they had their hooks into your systems here in an effort to demonstrate how easily such things could be done. It may have been bravado, but you can see our concerns that your computers or communications are compromised or that they have an agent in place on your station feeding them information through what may appear to be a legitimate channel."

Idrani's brow furrows. She murmurs under her breath, "Wherever there is a legitimate Romulan presence, there is an intel network." Then to Captain Mercere, "Do you have any information or suspicions as to the nature of the 'hook' or the legitimate channel?"

Mercere replies, "We could take down the conspirators and interrogate them, but I feel that would be useless since one was only quoting a conversation with a Romulan. It is more likely that a Romulan interrogated might reveal this sort of information, but if we make a move on them now ...it seems a premature risk to take from our end."

Idrani nods, "I understand, Captain."

. o O Idrani thinks "Just because they're our allies, doesn't mean their not spying on us. Oh no, not at all."

O'Rielly frowns as he listens, but moves to go lean against a wall, lifting the leg with the injured knee off the ground, giving it a slight rest.

"Well, let's look at the facts," Havaris begins simply, "Who knew we were making quiet ovations with Occa? Who has access to that information? The Diplomatic Corps, Senior Staff, Command Officers, and anyone with hacked access to those information networks." Havaris counts down the list on his fingers, ending on his thumb. No fifth person. "Short list."

Fortunae unlocks the door to Out.

Medes heads out of the station security office, the transparent aluminum doors sliding open at her approach.

Medes has left.

Fortunae locks the door to Out.

Dakin nods, concurring with Havaris. "Very."

Idrani falls silent, now. Thinking.

Lieutenant Cordair speaks up, "Considering we don't know how compromised our own legitimate system is, we opted to come here instead of going to Dulcais because the trip is shorter. They may have my face, the Captain's face as well on file in their databases -- the longer we stay here on your station the better the chance they will note something if they do have agents aboard. If you can see so far as to get us out of this station and back into space with Captain Baird we would appreciate it. You can contact our network through our previous contact point... Starfleet Intelligence should have that on file with your decision either way, we can also try to funnel more data out via that route if your superiors need more convincing and we can avoid being discovered for leaving. The Captain and I will of course commit suicide before being caught and forced to talk."

O'Rielly's Padd Beeps denoting an incoming message.

O'Rielly glances down to his padd, looking it over.

. o O Turtledove thinks "Hrm. Kamikaze officers. I... think I'm starting to like these guys."

Idrani glances over at O'Rielly.

Dakin nods then looks to Turtledove. "Point taken, though I'd prefer it didn't come to that. Ensign, escort them to the docking bay double-time, get them aboard Baird's ship and get them out of here. Anyone asks, they were stowaways and are being put off the station. My authorization." He looks to the assembled. "Anything else?"

The Occans shake their heads, the Lieutenant looks hopeful, the Captain looking grimly less so.

"That we can do." Havaris nods to the Occans before looking to Idrani, "On that note, Lieutenant, it's rather important that we deal with this matter away from the Command branch and diplomatic corps, within Starfleet's Senior Staff. Not in the the usual manner, either. Keep it out of the Command bucket, keep it out of the Diplomatic bucket. Since thusfar it's only been compromised to those present and the Senior Staff, let's keep it that way. This conversation, this matter as a whole, is officially classified level seven. Keep it quiet for the time being while we confer with Ghorev and Commander Balin."

Idrani nods faintly. "Yes, sir." She looks at the two Occans, not unkindly, and with sympathetic understanding of their plight. "Captain, Lieutenant. We can't make the decision to corrobate this data, but we will put it into the hands of those that can. You've done the right thing by coming here. Good luck to you."

O'Rielly nods in agreement with Havaris, "Keep it out of the computer system period." He looks to the Occans, "Thank you for bringing us this information, we will do what we can to see that your concerns are investigated properly."

Turtledove snaps a nod to Dakin, then casts a glance at the Occans, regarding them with an optimistic, but quiet, energy. "Thank-you gentlemen, if you will just come with me...", she smiles, politely, and then starts to lead them out.

The Lieutenant speaks up suddenly, a momentary slip of his composure perhaps as he says, "There was one more thing. After the Liberation, our government cut off communication. We -- I -- many of us wished to thank you. You, and the Klingons and even yes the Romulans for the risks you took and lives you spent to help us be free from the Dominion Yoke... I hope that you see this matter, as I do. If we allow the Romulans to undermine our democratic process, or stage a coup, then all souls who died liberating our planet died in vain. Yours and ours. I just wanted to say, thank you. That is all." He then turns and follows Turtledove behind his Captain. The doors open then close behind them leaving an strong impression that they will never be seen on this station again.