Debrief with Makoto

Posted on Mon 31st Aug, 2026 @ 1:22pm by Commander Damion Ildaran & Captain Gordon Francis (Ret.) & Lieutenant Commander Yuma Mukkaai (Alias: Makoto)

2,659 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: [MAIN] Learning to Fly
Location: IBEX
Timeline: After "Epilogue"

-Start-

....Your Mission.... should you decide to accept it...

{IBEX}

As requested, Damion had the replicator produce a steaming mug of raktajino with pumpkin spice for Makoto and a large mug of sweetened hot basil tea for himself. The IBEX was remaining in the vicinity of 109 for the moment, while Cmdr. Severide gave a blood donation on Thunderchild. Damion wasn't sure if she would return to IBEX afterward or not; he'd wait to find out.

For now, Makoto had just completed an interrogation session with Anslo Tol, and Damion was curious to find out what she'd learned. When the door chime rang, he called out to her to come in and glanced at her as she entered. "Hi. I've sent a message to Captain Francis, asking if he'd like to sit in on this debriefing. He may be up to his eyebrows in work right now, though."

Makoto was in character as her stern laconic self, but the smell of pumpkin spice brought out her alter ego, the Earth persona she developed to blend with Humans. "Yuma" was a darling of Osaka, Japan on Earth, and it was a cherished time of her life. The outward motions were small, but she was relaxed and not at constant guard, the IBEX was safe territory. She walked into the ready room, a small conference room behind the Tactical board for mission planning at the rear of the bridge.

"You actually got me a 'Rak with pumpkin spice." Her flat statement, stuck between the two personas tilted into the friendlier actual persona. "Alex wasn't rude, but he never made me a drink for our debriefs. If that interests you at all."

Damion shrugged. "I knew I was going to have tea, so I figured I could make you something, too. Besides, I like to tinker with replicators. I wasn't sure how close I could get your order, because I'm not a fan of the flavor, but I've smelled pumpkin spice before, so I figured I'd try it out. Let me know how it tastes." He waved her to a seat. "I'm glad it went well with Anslo."

Yuma took a sip, and her current persona was far too polite and demure to do anything other than say, "Mmm, it's a spice all right, like pumpkin..." She didn't take a second sip immediately, but the raktajino flavor took over and redeemed it.

Blowing to cool it, she replied, "I've never had the pig butcher itself like Anslo has done, but I have everything on the Second Sons, and an eager agent wanting to blow stuff up. It could be a trap, but the smile on his face tells me none of this is a punishment. He would, in my opinion, strangle H'tek in the crib if he had access to a time machine."

She sipped again, the spice more like pumpkin/chai, and not unpleasant, "I can wait for the Captain, the intelligence here is..." She referred to the twin padds, one of them to be handed over, the other for personal notes, "there's a lot to repeat is all."

Damion took a quick glance at the PADDs. "I can already tell you got meatier details than came out of the debriefing on 109," he said. "They stopped that meeting so fast--and a good thing they did, considering--that their debrief report was not very satisfying." He sipped from his mug of tea. "What's your assessment of how difficult it's likely to be to go after the Second Sons?"

She took the question for a spin, and answered earnestly. "Very Difficult. Eradication would take too much effort for little return. There is a plan though, that will hopefully get them to do it to themselves. Part of why Anslo's cooperation and eager oversharing is even being listened to is that he has the whole thing outlined and I'm hard pressed to deviate, the plan is honest."

Captain Francis entered the room. "I'm sorry for the delay," Frank said, crossing the room and taking a seat. "I take it we're here regarding Mr. Anslo. I sure hope he's been able to shed light on all this. Does that replicator make a good cup of joe? It's been a difficult twenty-four hours and I need the fuel."

"I honestly don't know, sir; I stick to tea because I don't like coffee," Damion said. "I'm glad you're able to join us. I half-thought you'd be too busy for this right now. Please get some coffee and have a seat."

Yuma gave a small nod in greeting, "It does, and spices as well. Also, I have a debrief you will enjoy sir. Anslo's leads are verified as best we can ascertain, and the picture is complete. Within a year we can remove them from the board entirely."

Frank's eyebrows raised. "That's good to hear!" he said as he approached the replicator. "Coffee, Dahkur roast, black." He took the mug after it materialized and walked over to the table. "There's coffee, and then there's coffee; but if you really mean it, there's only Bajoran coffee."

Damion also raised an eyebrow at Makoto. Just a year? For something she described as very difficult? "Let's hear Anslo's plan, then," Damion said. "We need to determine if any of what Anslo knew about the Second Sons while he was with them is still usable intel."

She nodded at the two captains and took another sip, "Well, let's start with H'tek, and Partha. They are the last two commanders of a unit long dead otherwise. Partha keeps the organization intact, H'tek keeps it active, and has clever means of getting his way. H'tek blew up the Starbase... almost, Partha would have sent assassins to cut throats. Anslo suggests we can let them come apart at the seams if we remove Partha from the equation, but he has a son Kr'togr, who would take over in a power vacuum and consolidate power if not for one thing. H'tek and Partha are two of maybe three people who know where the hoard is. The hoard is the bedrock of the Second Sons, thirty years of plunder, and H'tek can pay any price he needs to. Part two of Anslo's plan, is to dethrone Partha, and remove access to the hoard. Their fleet will fall apart if salaries aren't paid. Finally, part three is to dismantle his portal network. H'tek is using Portable tunnel apertures and disappearing into the night every time we start to respond to him. He mustered fourteen ships out of nowhere at the battle over Ticonderoga through those portals. Reverse telemetry gives us the locations of each portal they opened. The difficult part, will be choosing which one first."

Damion listened carefully and nodded. "That's actually good information and is backed up by some intel I received from HOME. Apparently, H'tek found and salvaged a First Federation ship, which is how he gained access to the portal network. I'm guessing the third person who knows the hoard's location must be their financial officer, a Captain Ckall."

Yuma took that with a curt nod, "That name appears in the ledgers frequently. Their financier then, is likely the other keyholder. Anslo has given information that Kr'togr has been upset over a lack of access, so three keys to the treasury seems to be accurate. His plan is detailed as such:"

The monitor had the file ready and she opened it, letting the display do most of the work showing the location of his mighty Negh'var, "Partha is an old lion, and sleeps in the same caves. There are lanes he has perfectly gauged the level of piracy to apply before being dislodged by the militaries. He receives tributes, and that is our in. We pose as a scout in his retinue, returning with shiny coins, or a high value asset. When we take him alive we move to phase two."

The display showed a cylindrical palm sized device, a smooth clamshell communicator. Yuma explained, "These are the devices. They can communicate instantly across vast distance, one advantage, and another is they can choose where to go. Anslo believes they are merely remote control fobs from an advanced species within the First Federation. Partha will have one. It is destined for his son, and that day is fast approaching. Anslo made it clear, Kr'togr will revive and then some, all aspects of the operation. Fierce, Strong, and get this, an Academy graduate. He lost commission off revelations of his secret Romulan heritage. We do not want him getting the device. It is highly unlikely H'tek or Ckall would part with theirs."

She closed it down, "Once we locate the plunder, we seize it. Dismantle the portals, and they become totally scattered in an instant. No need to root them out in a murderous campaign, they'll lose their efficacy and be death within each locality they are stranded in. We can do this without taking a life, which is a goal I'd be adamant we adhere to."

Damion nodded. "If we took lives, they'd plot revenge on us to the end of their days, and we might never see them coming. Best to remain as concealed as possible and make them wonder what hit them. What do you propose we ultimately do with Partha? We can't keep him in our brig forever--though he sounds like a Klingon well worth meeting."

Captain Francis had lost the conversation a few minutes ago, after mention of portals. He'd been quietly on his PADD, but Damion and Yuma did not know what he was doing. Finally he spoke up.

"I've been trying to trace that portal device--or 'fob' as you put it--to a First Federation race, and I found something interesting." Frank handed the PADD to Damion. On the screen was a small device the size of an old-fashioned communicator. It strongly resembled Partha's fob. "A similar device was invented on Fesaria about thirty years ago. By comparison to what Partha's fob can do, this model is far inadequate, more like a child's toy. But a version of it was mass produced. They're long since out of production, but I'd like to know if there's a connection to these toys and Partha's fob. Perhaps we could make one of our own."

Damion studied the image on Captain Francis' PADD. "I'm pretty sure Duke and/or the Exo-Comps would have a wonderful time, making and building this to the specs Makoto described," he said. "It's too bad Bits & Bytes on 109 is shut down; they might have one of these in stock. You can find all sorts of old technic down there. It's possible we could build one from scratch, if our people can reverse-engineer the specs. Captain Francis, may I copy this information?"

Frank shrugged. "Go right ahead."

"Thank you." Damion slid and tapped a finger, to send a copy of the information about the Fesarian toy to Duke and the Exo-Comps, and to his TaBB. "If we can make a fob of our own and fine-tune it based on whatever Partha has, that might help us. We could make a replica to replace Partha's real fob with."

"Talk to Mr. Mindo as well," Frank said. "He would have been a child around the time that trinket was invented, and he's an expert at these kinds of things."

"Thanks for reminding me. He's so new, I don't always remember he's read in on a lot of this." Damion forwarded the information about the toy along with a brief explanation to Mindo as to why he was sending the file.

He mentally reviewed what Makoto had told him. "So we impersonate a scout crew bringing in tribute to Partha. Then we apprehend Partha and take his fob. We use Partha's fob to locate and steal 30 years' worth of plunder, which we store in Deck X. Lastly, we dismantle the portal network." He sighed. "Which is a sad waste of those portals, but with Ckall and H'tek both having their own fobs, it's necessary." He glanced at Makoto. "Anything to add?"

She nodded, "Thank you, I have one more component from what Anslo has related. The First Federation vessel which manufactures the apertures devices is called the Allumvirunia, and he has demonstrated how the network uses that ship as its processing hub. Destroying or seizing the vessel will effectively end their usage of the network. The problem is, H'tek alone has the DNA sequence to control that ship. Anslo made it clear, First Fed tech is beyond impossible to hack, designed to lock down after too many attempts. Traveling there will place us well into the Galactic core, inside a gravity well the IBEX would likely be unable to escape from. Anyone traveling there would lack ability to control the ship for a return portal. Without H'tek, travel to the Allumvirunia is a one way transit, into a holding cell for ID verification. The one time Anslo went, H'tek made sure to demonstrate how hopeless it would be to try and take it by force."

With that, she set her hands calmly around her mug, taking a long drink.

"And there we come to the 'difficult' part of this plan," Damion said. "Where does H'tek store the Allumvirunia's required DNA sequence?"

Makoto shrugged, "Anslo seemed to think the ship has an AI, it can detect who is there. He didnt see a key, or it is likely tied to the sequence used to access the space. Partha would know, this is why we are focused on him for the first steps."

Captain Francis yawned. "For those in the audience that came in late, what are the first steps again?" He looked at the two of them and shook his head. "Never mind. A mission as impossible-sounding as this one needs to start with a simple objective. In this case, finding Partha. So focus on that venture and then worry about everything else when you get there." He finished his coffee. "Fortunately it sounds like you've heard most of the spoilers, which is good. Might give you an edge. What do you need from me?"

"The first step is to pass ourselves off as people bringing tribute to Partha," Damion said. "From you, sir, we'd need permission to consult with Commander Mindo regarding the inner workings of a typical Fesarian ship and the workings of the portal fob. Extra points if he can provide any intel about the Allumvirunia specifically."

"Didn't I just suggest that?" Frank asked.

"You okayed us consulting with Mindo about the fob, sir, but not about hacking into Fesarian ships in general or the Allumvirunia specifically."

Makoto looked askance at the Captain's curt comment, she answered, "Yes, but we still need your go-ahead to interact with anyone off ship. You are a control node. Admittedly, we have never had a HOME node in person, a query like this would go out and an answer comes back. Captain Francis, your role is usually anonymous behind the TaBB, and Captain Ildaran takes your input and anyone else's into his final considerations. I haven't taken your training, so the nuts and bolts are beyond me. The question underneath it all is, do we retain Mindo as an asset, or recruit him into an agent? Neither of you are aware, but Alex recruited me after years of doing work for him anonymously as an agent."

"And I recruited Mindo to a similar role about a year ago, before I brought him in on 109," Frank said. "His Chief of Security posting was for appearances. He's actually in intel as one of my operatives. Of course, I've never advertised that information, so I suppose I could have said something a few minutes ago. You have my full clearance to use Mr. Mindo as you need him."

"Thank you, sir," Damion said. "In that case, I think we have a mission."

-End-

 

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