Wade had looked over her report, at least what he could actually have access to. His new Intelligence Chief was young, maybe almost too young. But she was a proven operative and he also figured Star Fleet wasn’t going to send someone that didn’t have the needed discipline for this mission. He appreciated that thought, at least. He’d decided to crash the party over in the Intelligence Suite, not yet having been able to visit it, and also wanted to get a lay of the land. The additional paperwork and clearances he’d needed to even set foot in it had taken him three months to get through. That was after being cleared on everything needed for command.

Walking up to the door, he pressed his hand to the panel and leaned forward for his retinal scan and voice print identification. “Commander Wade Samstone.”

A moment later the computer beeped, and the door slid open, showing a dimly lit corridor as he stepped through.

The corridor was short and also empty save for another door at the end. As he moved and approached it, there was a pause of a few seconds before it opened. When it did so, he found himself stepping into the circular hub of the intelligence suite. Seven closed doors sat evenly spaced around the room with all their mysteries behind them. In the middle of the room was a large circular table that was currently displaying the Starfleet insignia and nothing more on a field of blue. At that table stood a tall woman with a slightly taller man by her side. They were both deeply involved looking at a PADD the man was holding. After a moment, she said something, he nodded, and turned heel and retreated through one of the nearby sets of doors.

It was then the woman turned her head and settled her attention on Samstone. Her eyes were a brilliant blue that pierced sharp as blades into the core of a man, and the intensity of her gaze had an unnerving, predatory quality to it. Beautiful, fierce. All of this could be registered in just the briefest of moments; merely seconds later, her expression softened and she rounded the table while looking at him.

“Good morning, captain,” she greeted in an even, lightly accented voice.

“Good morning Lieutenant.” He recognized her immediately. Her eyes were just as sharp as they were in her photo. “I'm glad to see you and your team already at work. I'm sure our new sensors are picking up quite a bit. I know signals intelligence has been putting out reports faster than I can go over them, I have a stack I got a bit ago.”

Wade strolled up to the table standing across from Oksana, making note of her size. She would certainly be able to hold her own in a fight, he just hoped that her health and recovery from previous injuries wouldn't inhibit her in the field. “I like that you've done with the place.”

“That’s very kind, thank you.” The smile and softness lingered, but he had seen moments before that she was capable of much more than gentleness. “If you’d like, I can show you around? One of the offices is unoccupied at the moment so it won’t interfere with anything.”

“Of course” he replied. He didn't want to interfere with anything ongoing and ensure everything remained separated as needed. He could only imagine the amount of time Jessica spent in one of these rooms locked up on top of her training.

“Give me the run down please.”

“This way.” She indicated with her hand to one of the doors and then began to walk toward it herself. From the way she moved, she didn’t appear to be suffering on that day from any ill effects of her injury and walked with the grace and poise that she had spent many years of her youth learning.

“As you are aware before entering this area you were required to provide retinal and voice print identification, what you may be unaware of is in the corridor immediately after entering, you were scanned silently once again to verify your identity. When there is someone inside of that corridor, both doors remain locked until that second verification is cleared, once it is, you proceed forward or back, but only one door will ever open at a time; unless a special group clearance is given with all members submitting to scans, only one person may enter this location at a time.”

As they approached the door, she paused and indicated for him to approach the panel. “If you please, these offices are also locked until clearance is given. Once clearance is given, one may enter and exit freely until they leave the hub area, if they do so they must repeat the process again.”

It was tedious to be sure, but this was what was required when dealing with such sensitive information.

He listened as she spoke and went through the process of everything. It made sense to him and being so broken apart made him happy to hear. The last thing he wanted was to have a leak somewhere they couldn’t afford to contain. “That makes sense why the door took an extra moment, and I do appreciate the idea of re verification and the ability to work within the main area here and ones assigned suite accordingly. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t curious as to where we’ll be conducting the initial intelligence briefings for the Blackwatch missions? I know primary intake will be here.”

“Across the main corridor you will find rooms with similar clearance verifications for both of Blackwatch’s groups. Should more separation or additional space be necessary, the offices in this area can be utilized for that purpose.” Once he had again affirmed his identity with the computer, the door they were standing at opened and they stepped into a room that would sit five people working and comfortably had room for more if need arose. “Each of the offices in this hub – with the exception of my own office – are outfitted the same. They are also built in a modular fashion if need might arise to change things around.”