Secretum Testimonii - Part II

Posted on Mon Mar 1st, 2021 @ 6:46am by Lieutenant Commander P’rel M.D

Mission: By Artemis' Bow
Location: Cardassia IV; Eitarakan City
Timeline: During Shore Leave
620 words - 1.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Pulling her hooded morning cloak up tighter across her shoulders, P'rel moved quietly through the Eitarakan city streets. Sharing the Cardassian fondness for heat, the Vulcan appreciated that morning cloaks had returned to fashion since she was last here; not quite as built as the average Cardassian woman, the cloak also served to add some discretion to her slender form as she approached the square she would need to cross.

Non-Cardassians were hardly a scarce sight anymore, certainly not since the reconstruction which brought in labour from all across the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, but nonetheless the nature of her visit predicated as little trace contact as possible. Having arrived the prior day on a Lissepian freighter, she had been able to enter the city without leaving an identification trace with the local security and save for the passive facial scanners prevalent across Cardassian worlds had managed to avoid creating a record of her being there. Assuming that Starfleet security continued to do their job, the scanners would correlate her in the security databases as nothing more than a medical doctor from the Vulcan Ministry of Medicine. Her cover when she was posted here after war hadn't been broken to anyone's knowledge, and she felt reasonable confident that should could move about unimpeded with a careful balance of discretion and reliance on her prior cover.

P'rel checked the time on her chronometer; 0530. The sunlight was beginning to trickle down the tallest of the buildings, and a soft orange glow grew stronger in the ambience of the square. A species so accustomed to heat, the Cardassian architecture has been designed to reflect light and warmth toward the ground, which was something the Vulcan woman was becoming increasingly grateful for as the air slowly warmed. The deliberate warming serviced another aim as well; the established sign that would initiate contact with her young friend. A desperately fragile cold climate flower which would be unrecognisable in less than an hour, and little more than dust a further hour after that, was the ideal signifier on a world designed to be warm.

P'rel looked across the square in between two buildings, where a pathway meandered off towards some residential complexes. She'd confirmed Silnan was still living there, and his routine, prior to arrival and knew that was the busiest throng of people began to move across the square from the pathway, that he was nearly there. She glanced to the building Silnan worked in; a biological analysis laboratory which would be impossible to penetrate with her available resources. She was confident Silnan would assist her, if he could, and took her first steps across the square to place the delicate flower in the planting bed Silnan would need to walk past.

Noticing the busy group beginning to fill the square, she reached for the micro transporter hidden in the cloak. Such a minimal power signature, to beam a tiny flower, it shouldn't register on any scanners in the civilian areas. Making one final discreet look towards the approaching crowd, she prepared to activate the beam.

The Vulcan stopped dead in her stride. In the flowerbed where she had planned to place the flower, sat another - a perfect Andorian ice lilly. Her momentary confusion gave way to a flash of panic. She was compromised. Taking a step backwards to retreat to a safer location she only stepped backwards flatly into a bulky Cardassian military uniform, worn by a tall and powerful looking man. She had no time to react, as a deep cold spread from a point on her left side in conjunction with the familiar hiss of a medical hyposray.

The Cardassian disappeared into a swampy fog of black as she lost consciousness.