Xeno Alliance communications (iRP) (FO)

[Capt. Henry Morgan]

Glenn was almost finished with his paperwork. Finally, he might actually get some time to go down to the bar and relax with everyone else. Just as he signed off on the last item, a parts requisition request for a load of engine components, the comm unit on his desk beeped. He switched it on.

"Thacker here, go ahead."

"Sir, this is Chief Wilson from security, we caught one of the new maintainance techs attempting to send out an unauthorized message to Planet Denver. The message was encrypted, so we don't know who it's intended for or what it contains, all we know is that he tried to bypass the lockout on unauthorized communication. We've got him in a holding cell at the moment. What should we do with him?"

Glenn realized that his evening of relaxation just ended, and thought for a moment. "Take him to interrogation and hold him there. I will deal with this personally."

"Yes, sir, we'll take care of it right away."

With that, the channel closed. Glenn considered for a moment exactly how he was going to handle the situation, then realized that he had the perfect tool for the job. He walked through a door in the back of his office and into his private quarters. There, he took what appeared to be a standard LPI stun baton off his wall. Before leaving, he quickly informed Jack of what was going on, then left to go to interrogation.

When he arrived, the room had three people in it. Standing near the door was one of the lower-ranked Security guards, who snapped to attention when Glenn entered the room. Clearly, he was ex-navy, and a recent recruit, since he hadn't lost his military habits yet. Glenn motioned for him to relax.

Closer to the center of the room was Ouray's Security Chief, Eddie Wilson. Wilson was an imposing man, known for his short temper and dedication to the Xeno cause. Eddie typically wore his uniform without a collar or sleeves, exposing the prison tattoos he had recieved during one of his stays in Huntsville, including the spiderweb tattoos on his elbows and the XA on the back of his neck. Honestly, Eddie Wilson scared him a bit, but he was fanatically loyal, and was only dangerous to non-Xenos.

Finally, tied to a chair in the center of the room was a man which Glenn didn't recognize. He wore the uniform of an Ouray maintainance tech. The nametape on his Uniform read 'Robinson'. He glared at Glenn.

"Mr. Robinson, Eddie here tells me that you were caught attempting an unauthorized transmission. Want to tell me what was in it?"

"I'm not telling you anything, you son of a bitch!"

Glenn looked at him with disapproval. "Not quite the answer I was hoping for." Glenn lifted the stun baton up to show it to the maintainance tech. "You know what this is?"

"It's a stun baton. You think you're going to intimidate me with that piece of junk?"

Glenn adjusted the controls on the baton, not looking at the prisoner. "You're half right. At one time, this was a standard LPI stun baton. When we got it, however, it was damaged. Now, working in maintainance, you're well aware of the fact that we're masters of make-do engineering. If you don't have the right parts, you use parts that work almost as well. Sometimes, Mr. Robinson, you get unexpected results when you switch parts. For example..."

Glenn touched the end of the baton to the prisoners shoulder. His eyes went wide and he screamed out in pain.

Once he recovered, Glenn continued talking. "In this case, instead of disrupting your nervous system and rendering you unconsious, this device now trigers the pain center of your brain. That was it's lowest setting. It has 8 more, and each time I use it, it cycles up to the next power level. At it's higest levels, the pain alone has been known to kill people. Now, about that question. What was in that message, and who were you sending it to?"

"Go to hell!"

Glenn touched him with the baton again. The prisoner screamed again, this time louder. Clearly, the pain was worse this time.

"Seven more to go. Want to rethink your answer?"

The prisoner glared at him. "No!"

This time, the prisoner's eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he doubled over from the pain. Still, he remained consious, though.

"Tell me what I want to know!"

"He said he'd kill me if I told you anything!"

"I'll kill you now if you don't." Glenn touched the prisoner again, and held it on him for a couple seconds this time. The prisoner's screams were almost deafening.

"Answer the question. Who did you send that message to, and what was in it!"

The prisoner looked up at him in fear. "Please, I've got a family at home. They'll be killed if I talk!"

"If I were you, I'd be thinking of your own saftey right now." Glenn hit him with the baton once more. This time, the prisoner's screams gave way to sobs, and the prisoner began crying.

"Had a change of heart?"

Through the tears, he said "I'll tell you, just don't hit me with that again..."

"Very good. Now, what was in that message?"

"It... it was the access codes for Ouray's defensive array, as well as the communication transponder frequencies for Xeno ships."

That information was serious. The access codes would allow anyone to access Ouray's defensive systems and leave the base defenseless. Almost as serious were the transponder frequencies. A powerful enough sensor array tuned to those frequencies could locate every Xeno ship operating in a particular system. It was a very good thing they caught this before it got out.

To the prisoner, Glenn said "I see. And who did you send this to?"

"His name was Mendoza... he's an LSF agent. He forced me to come here to infiltrate you and get that information. He was supposed to extract me after he got it."

"Mendoza, huh? I wouldn't have trusted his word if I were you. Still, your cooperation is appreciated."

The prisoner looked up at him. "Does that mean you'll let me go?"

"Not quite. Eddie, would you show Mr. Robinson the door please?"

Eddie smiled widely. "It would be a pleasure, sir."

Glenn turned and left the room to fill out his report to Jack, and to fill out a requisition form for some oxygen to replace what they were going to lose by ejecting Mr. Robinson out of an airlock.

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