This one is obviated - I elected to go more into "In media res" with the core of this story. As of this posting I am still banging on it
USS California The Golden Path 1
“Excuse me, you what?” The woman behind the desk grinned incredulously.
“We’re here to try to find information about the Orion house Beulongeau,” Haley said
“And how do you propose to do that?”
“Well, I was hoping to get some idea of how to proceed from you.”
The woman laughed “You thought you’d just drive up in your Starfleet cruiser, to Orion planets and start asking around?”
Haley kept a straight face and looked at the Admiral. That was sort of the idea.
“Just cowboy up and start poking around hope someone accidentally lets something slip!” Admiral Sadiq laughed.
“What would you suggest, Admiral?”
“You know, everyone saw you,” The Admiral said, with mirthful eyes. “Last week when you responded to the distress call. You used your quantum slipstream drive. It was a beacon. Everyone in the quadrant knows where you and your ship are.”
Haley nodded faintly, still keeping a straight face “Yes, Ma’am.”
“And everyone paying attention knows you were involved with the crab,” Admiral Sidiq grinned.
Haley’s face grew faintly pained.
“Your own reports tell of fighting the giant crab near a formerly secret Pirate base.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And you think, after all that, you can just galivant around the Orion worlds asking questions, and fumbling around like it’s a holonovel?”
“Admiral.”
“You explorers. It’s always amateur hour with you. Everyone tries everything and who cares if it’s half-assed or improvised? It’s the final frontier! We make do with who and what we have.”
“Sir?” Haley was happy to be mistaken for an explorer.
Sidiq turned harsh “I run a professional division here. I have experts and highly trained people. Intelligence work in the Orion Sphere of influence is not a job for amateurs. If you half-ass it here, you could wind up dead. Or worse, you could compromise my assets. Assets I’ve spent years and millions of credit cultivating. You could get sane people who actually know what they are doing killed.”
“Sir.”
“On no account will you flail around in my area of responsibility, wreaking havok and destruction.”
Haley stood straighter and focused on the wall behind the Admiral “Sir.”
“What information did your Admiral Six want?”
“We believe that Orion House Beulongeau has entered a relationship with the Tholians and is acting as an agent for them. I’ve been asked to gather information and see if House Beulongeau could be redirected.”
Admiral Sidiq laughed loudly “Jerdala Beulongeau hates us. He hates the Federation and he hates humans. He’d just as soon kill you out of hand.”
“What do you know about his relationship with the Tholians, Admiral?”
“What makes you think he has one?”
Haley called up scans of the Orion ships that attacked her shipmates in the Fulcrum region, “These ships were mounting advanced tech, including tetryon beam arrays and disruption torpedoes. Our information is they had some relationship with House Beulongeau.”
The Admiral looked at the scans with a poker face “I see. I see.”
She turned towards her assistant, a human Starfleet officer “Commander Adenike, I want this investigated.”
“Sir,” Adenike said
To her other assistant, a Gold Orion officer “Commander Zathrel, compile all our information relevant to this, scrub it of all information level 3 and higher, and then transmit a report of it to Admiral Six and the Captain, here.”
“Sir,” Zathrel said.
Sidiq turned back to Haley “Your part. Enjoy a shore leave and make whatever repairs are necessary, then get back in your flying billboard and return to the Fulcrum. We have real business here, and I don’t want your interference.”
Haley took a deep breath “Aye, Sir.”
“Dismissed. I'll call you if I need a fireworks show for the quadrant.”
The party from the USS California stood and left the Admiral’s office.
-*-
The hallways of The Admiralty were wide and designed in baroque fashion. The walls were lined with paintings depicting heroes of the Standish Royal Navy, and their epic triumphs, stretching back to Earth and Admiral Nelson.
Sian took a deep breath “I didn’t enjoy that.”
Haley breathed deeply and rhythmically “I think I could beat up some holodeck mooks.”
“That was interesting,” Holo-Leeta said “She’s under a lot of stress.”
The Starfleet party headed for the transporters.
Huge windows showed New London, stretching out. The natives of Standish were cosplaying Edwardian-era England as hard as they could. But with modern technology, everything could be much bigger and much grander.
Every so often in the hallway, they’d see holograms of the current Queen, Anne IV, or the Lord of the Admiralty, looking at them beneficently.
They passed Starfleet and Royal Navy people in the hallways. The two services were solidly intermeshed on Standish.
Near the transporter, the most generic Golden Orion man smiled and joined them.
“Lord Verdan is an excellent source of information from inside the Orion Sphere,” the man said “I hear he likes independent-minded Starfleet Captains.”
“Thanks,” Haley said.
“Good luck,” He said “Something is going on with House Beulongeu and we’re struggling to make sense of it. Maybe new eyes will help.”
“I’m not sure I want to get sideways with Admiral Sidiq,” Haley said.
“Tell Lord Verdan that Mister Deylhen sent you,” The Orion man walked away looking like any other bureaucrat in the building.
"That's not ominous at all," Sian said.
-*-