Needle In A Haystack

Posted on Sat Aug 8th, 2020 @ 7:59pm by Commodore Jane Saulitis & Commander Dominic Aldrich

Mission: Cruel Meridian
Location: Shuttle Bay
Timeline: MD 08 Prior to "Just Point and Shoot"
796 words - 1.6 OF Standard Post Measure

Jane arrived, barked at a couple of Ensigns to get back and opened the hatch. Hak was slumped unconscious in the pilots seat. She rushed forward to feel for his pulse but it was strong and steady so she breathed a sigh of relief. When the medical staff arrived to transport him to sickbay she felt better knowing that she need not follow them immediately. She would see him soon enough and her ship was currently in danger.

"Alright. Let's see what we can find. Don't touch anything unless you have to and don't save any information you come across."

"We best restict the number of people involved in this," the Romulan security chief said as he slid up to the unconscious man's side, "perhaps just yourself, the first officer, the science chief and myself. Between us, we may be able to discover if he is indeed our family member, or someone else." It felt odd to think of the man this way.

"I already have. Aside from the medical staff, only the three of us will be boarding the ship. We're only took to look at what information is relevant to saving Majestic. I imagine the rest will be encrypted anyway, or not on board the vessel at all. I just want to see how he got in here," Jane replied.

Dominic watched the Captain and her stiffer than normal demeanor. She was deadly serious and he knew that he had been brought down here for a purpose. As a result, he stood by quietly as he awaited instructions.

"We won't touch anything decrypted, unless it's considered relevant for our safety, and his," Lhaes promised as he moved to one of the consoles. "I should probably tell you that cryptology is not part of my skill-set..." He cast her an apologetic look. He was many things, could pose as a great many things, but this wasn't it. Annoying as it might seem, he did have to admit to his limits.

Jane nodded. "I just want to see how he got in and whether that might help us get out. Perhaps when he's awake he can assist us further." She entered the shuttle and went straight for the computer to see if we could even log into the thing and what if anything would be unclassified about the rescue mission he undertook.

"If he's awake then we should question him yes. How he got here, and found us, is a bit of an enigma," Lhaes answered, as he powered up the console, "science should make detailed particle scans, just in case."

"I'll do that. Sickbay will inform me as soon as he's awake." She couldn't help but smile at his use of the word enigma. Although she'd known Hak since academy days, a lot of people found him a bit mysterious. It never bothered Jane that he didn't talk about work or that he seemed to know things before anyone else. "No scans, just see what you can find on the surface of the computer and leave it at that. Classified means just that and I really don't want to do extra paperwork."

"Ma'am," Dominic spoke up, "I understand that you are asking for no scans, but if there is anything potentially dangerous in here that is giving of radiation, then we need to know about it, tacheons or otherwise. I've set the internal sensors to ignore this bay, but, with all due respect, if you're asking the Commander and I to be a part of this investigation then we need to be as safe as possible while also being discreet." He sat down at the terminal next to Lhaes and added, "I'll begin with the most recent sensor logs and stop at an hour or so ago, if that is acceptable."

"We could log anything we find under a separate file with your eyes only," Lhaes offered.

Jane nodded to Dominic. "You're right of course. And yes Commander," she turned to Lhaes, "That will work perfectly."

Dominic set a tricorder out to scan and monitor. "I'll do a short active scan and then it will go into a passive mode to look for safety issues." He then moved his hands over the console to go through the sensor logs. As the data began to stream through Dominic noticed that gravimetric resonance had distorted the reading roughly forty minutes prior to the ship being detected on sensors. "Lhaes, go through the nav logs and see is you can determine where this ship was roughly forty minutes ago. I have some signs of a disturbance peaking at that point."

"Sounds like a good plan. Let's begin gentlemen. It's time to save the ship." Jane walked into the shutttle and sat down in the pilots seat.