Eclipse Case File

Initial Briefing

Summary: A Ferengi merchant was caught smuggling in explosive components on Khitomer. He was arrested but the next morning he was dead, residue analysis showing he was disintegrated inside his cell. Sensors never picked up the discharge. Investigate.

Initial Briefing In Full "The USS Venture, Galaxy class explorer, has made some preliminary successes in the Shackleton Expanse. For those who don't know, that's a region deep in the Beta quadrant infamous for subspace disturbances. Exploration was very risky with older tech but anything with a variable warp fields can enter it safely. That's any next-gen ship as well as retrofitted vessels, such as the Venture." She sighs and makes an irritated snap with her hand in the empty air, prompting the presentation to continue. A planet, this time. "Eager to follow up on this success, the Venture is currently undergoing some additional tweaks and adjustments to return to the Expanse. Starfleet Command in their infinite wisdom has decided to invite any and all major players to join the exploration. In the spirit of jolly cooperation, I suppose. Talks are underway on Khitomer to hammer out the details. There's no shortage of volunteers. The Klingons, Romulans, several Ferengi consortiums, lots more. Details will be provided en-route but the situation is extremely fluid. Potential candidates keep coming forward. Or stepping back, if they don't like the terms of the deal. I think only the Tholians were utterly disinterested. I believe they told our diplomats to stay within our own space and stop expanding." Another wave of her hand. Various starships slide by fairly quickly, but Starfleet and otherwise. "Which brings us to the real problem: following the Dominion War, ship design in the Alpha and Beta quadrants advanced quickly. Our very own Eclipse is a fine example of that. Many designs are untested. The Shackleton Expanse is going to be a giant testing ground. A place to compare warships under the pretense of discovery. A damned modern space race." Faron raises a hand. "For those not familiar with ancient Earth history," Riggs continues, "The space race was an era when hostile nation-states used early space exploration science as a way to develop and display weapon technology. Rockets, guidance systems, that kind of thing." The hand goes down. "And that's not to mention all the potential resources and real estate up for grabs in the Expanse. So we're looking at something that will influence the power balance of the quadrants for the next decades to come. And others realize it too." The holograms change to show various data. Recordings, statistics, reports. "Security forces on Khitomer have noticed a sharp uptick in suspicious incidents. Most troubling, a Ferengi merchant was caught smuggling in explosive components. He was arrested but the next morning he was dead, residue analysis showing he was disintegrated inside his cell. Sensors never picked up the discharge though. Something is going on there and Camp Khitomer is a big enough place with a lot of traffic. It's all hands on deck for this one." "We'll fly close by and then you each take a shuttle the last few lightyears. More detailed instructions will be made available during the flight. That said, any questions for now?"

People of Interest

Dolus
The Vorta you met earlier (and Nolen spotted the name back at the briefing). Officially he's here as an observer and diplomat for the Dominion. Intelligence has tracked him to dozens of worlds over the past few years. In principle it's not strange for him to be on Khitomer, but with the Dominion you never know.
Nolen's Research:
Dolus has been quite busy, hammering out deals all over the Alpha and Beta quadrants. Most of these deals aren't that great for the Dominion, according to several economic commentators (a lost art within the Federation). People speculate the Dominion is here to create goodwill rather than just engage in pure commerce. This might also be an attempt to get the lay of the land and search out new allies for a future second invasion. Who knows?

Luthuk
A Cardassian politician and diplomat. He's made some big speeches in the past about Cardassia turning over a new leaf and working together with their neighbors. Intelligence has noted a meteoric rise to wealth and influence for him and his family after the war. Like many powerful politicians, he's got connections to some shady groups.
Nolen's Research:
Luthuk's name appears on some relatively unimportant documents. They would seem to place him as some sort of administrator or commander's aide during the Bajoran occupation and the Dominion war. Specifically, a comfortable life on the home world, far away from any battlezone. But this doesn't quite fit with his current important position.
Barzan's Info:
His goons came by a few nights ago. They're looking for ways to get into contact Merok. The kind of contact you can't just get by walking in the front door. Shady stuff. I'm thinking Merok's running a clean operation ever since Nooze died and now some deal between those two fell through, so Luthuk is trying to force the issue. Asking all sorts of questions about him, digging for dirt, trying to worm their way in somehow.
His family's important. Big dynasty of policy makers, meant a lot in the Union when they were still going on conquering left and right. Still seem to be fairly important these days so they must've landed on their feet. Guess even a Klingon invasion force can't cut out institutional rot, eh? The record's clean but he's as crooked as they come. Not that anybody can prove it, he's probably never even so much as held a phaser in his hands. He's got people for that, you know?

M'nerva (possibly not her real name)
Suspected Romulan operative of the Tal Shiar. Suspected of being responsible for numerous high-profile operations. Officially she's here to run security for a Romulan senator but that seems outside her usual wheelhouse.
Nolen's Research:
M'nerva is shrouded in secrecy and rumor. She's basically the Romulan counterpart to, well, you guys. A lot of reports about things she might have done but never enough proof to tell for sure. The only things you can confirm is that she worked together with Starfleet Intelligence for a while during the Dominion War, when the Tal Shiar were being the good guys for a change. She did some sabotage and wetwork, things Intelligence usually avoids and as such doesn't have tons of experts for that kind of job.

Merok
A Ferengi merchant and a relative of the captured and killed smuggler (who, incidentally, was called Nooze). He runs the local trading group which was expecting the shipment. He insists that he knew nothing of the smuggled explosives and must have been a side hustle of Nooze. No evidence was found in his home or place of business, but perhaps a second look is in order?
Nolen's Research:
Merok is a very public civilian figure but that works more against you than for you. Lots of junk data and irrelevant trips to Risa. He's about 87% certain to be involved with the Orion Syndicate and other criminal organizations. Your typical shady Ferengi who'll do almost anything for profit.
Barzan's Info:
Merok might know but he's in panic mode, denying all involvement and burning all bridges until it all blows over. You're not getting him to talk or sell.
His last job was delivering shipments to collector types. You know, eccentrics who live in their own private little museum.
He went to trade with a Terellian merchant, Fenno Brum.

Thot Varr
A Breen "war hero", if such a thing exists. Which means he killed a lot of our people during the war. As the Breen Confederacy is quite far away, they have no interest in directly joining the mission. But he's here to observe developments and to offer a trade in resources and technology. Breen energy dissipation tech might be useful in dampening certain subspace anomalies (analogous to turbulence), or so he has suggested. This seems an odd role for a military commander though and there might be more at play here.
Nolen's Research:
It's hard to get good recent data about Thot Varr. The Breen aren't big on sharing. What you do find mostly involves some reports from, again, the Dominion war. He was the head of an elite strike force. Recently there have been political tensions and minor skirmishes between the Breen and the Tzenkethi. Varr is most likely still spending most of his days with warfare.

...

Nooze
The Ferengi smuggler who was found dead. Worked for Merok.

Fenno Brum
A collector of religious artefacts and currently has the single largest collection of Bajoran art, relics, and objects outside of Bajor itself. All of it obtained during the occupation. In fact, when Cardassia was defeated in the Dominion war and forced to make reparations, they had to return all their stolen art. But tons of it had gone missing from their museums and private collections, all to somehow end up in the hands of Fenno Brum. The man is scum. But he also knows how hated he is, so he's well guarded and stays away from any place where the Federation is in charge, even partially.

Random Nausicaans
Came to pick a fight almost the moment you stepped out of the Barzan's atmo-parlor.