Post 352: Pardon the Inturruption

Stardate:70805.0900
Title: Pardon the Interruption
Author: R.J. Gilmore
Scene: Admiral George's Office, Federation Embassy: Trill
Time: A few hours after "Getting Down to It"
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"I'm sorry, Captain Gilmore, but the Admiral is in an important meeting and cannot be disturbed."

"This is an emergency."

"I understand, that, Sir, you've already told me three times." The young ensign behind the large desk told him politely, but firmly. "I'm sorry I can't be of greater assistance. If you'd like to make an appointment,"

[[Ensign, please,]] Jariel signed, but she indicated that she didn't understand. He gestured toward the padd in her hands, and she gave it to him. He hurriedly cleared the screen, typed in a text message and then handed it back to her.

"I understand, Vedek Jariel, that you both are well acquainted with the Admiral and I am certain that he'll be happy to speak with you, just as soon as his meeting is adjourned."

Gilmore took the moment in which Jariel had distracted the Admiral's assistant and walked past her, beyond her desk and toward the conference room doors.

"Wait! Stop! I'll call security!" she warned.

"Better call them all!" Gilmore snarled, as he thrust the doors to the conference room open and everyone at the table fell silent.

Admiral George rose from his seat. Before he could speak, Gilmore made an announcement.

"I need to speak with you, Trenton. Right now."

"Captain Gilmore! I had heard you were in town. Look, I'm finishing up here soon, why don't you let me take you to dinner? If you'll just wait outside," his eyes shifted uneasily.

As Vedek Jariel looked into the room from outside the doorway, he noticed that there were several Trills sitting at the table. Two of them were wearing medical uniforms just like the ones he'd seen on doctors at the Commission.

"I'm sorry, Admiral," George's assistant ran into the room, skidded to a stop and began apologizing profusely. Several security officers appeared behind her, but George waved them away.

"As you were." He instructed and with puzzled expressions they filed back out into the hall.

"I tried to stop them," his assistant continued, clearly shaken.

"It's all right, Mary Elizabeth. Captain Gilmore and I are old friends. I have just told him that if he will wait outside, we'll speak soon."

"I'm sorry. It can't wait." Gilmore objected.

"It will have to."

Gilmore's cane tapped against the perfectly polished floor as he moved toward George and whispered four words into his ear. "I'm here to collect."

The color drained from George's face, and he smiled weakly at those gathered at the table.

His memory flashed back to a time years ago, when he had sworn to someday repay a debt of honor that he owed to Gilmore. Apparently, the bill had just come due.

"My apologies, but if you'll just excuse me please, I will be back in a moment."

He ushered Gilmore out of the conference room and back into his office. Vedek Jariel followed, and George recognized him but objected to his presence just the same.

"I'm sorry, Vedek, I have to ask you to wait outside while we speak privately."

"He stays." Gilmore demanded.

"Fine, fine." The Admiral suddenly looked like a man who was staring down the barrel of a loaded gun and hoping it didn't go off. "What do you want, R.J.?"

"I need to know exactly what the Symbiosis Commission is hiding in the matter of a Trill symbiont called Grace."

"Did you say Grace?" George's eyes widened. "I was just- the meeting I was in. Several officers of the medical division at the Symbiosis Commission came to inform me that there were Starfleet doctors interfering in official Commission business. They're asking me to intervene."

"Are they now," Gilmore nodded to Jariel. "That is very interesting."

"Do you know this woman? This," George brought the file up on the computer at his desk. "February Grace?"

"She's one of mine."

"Well, I'm sorry R.J. but from what they're telling me she can't survive, and they want this whole thing to be handled quickly and quietly."[[Why?]] Jariel signed.

"Because," Gilmore snarled,"They are afraid that the truth will be known. The truth that sometimes they join symbionts that are too unstable to unsuspecting hosts, just to see what will happen."

"Medical experimentation of that sort is strictly outlawed by Federation bylaws!" Admiral George argued. "They wouldn't risk facing sanctions by conducting such research."

"Did they tell you that this is the second host that may-" he stumbled over the word, "die, because of this symbiont? They called the death of Wen Grace an accident," Gilmore put together several puzzle pieces in his head that February had left him over the years he'd known her. "I'm not buying that explanation any longer."

"I don't know what you want from me." George shrugged helplessly.

"They've given up on the girl. They're yanking the symbiont out even as we speak. I want to be sure that my medical people have all the factual information that exists, in order to give her every chance for survival. You are my guarantee of that."

George walked around his desk, and peered out the window at the Symbiosis Commission headquarters building, which towered menacingly in the distance.

"You don't understand, R.J. These people are powerful. Their entire society depends on the Symbiosis Commission. What it does, what it says. If they choose from time to time to sanitize the truth for the sake of the masses, who are we to judge?"

"I am not trying to be their judge, and they can sort all of that out another day." Gilmore concluded. "Today I only have one concern, and that is making sure that Starfleet officer February Grace is not sacrificed unnecessarily upon the altar of the Greater Good."

George was silent for a long time, then finally turned back to Gilmore and Jariel.

"I believe that perhaps you should join the meeting that's taking place in the conference room, gentlemen. If you'll please follow me."

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R.J. Gilmore
Commanding Officer
USS Independence