Investigation Part II
Posted on Thu Feb 29th, 2024 @ 8:34pm by Chief Petty Officer Xeres & Captain Edmund Merrick & Lieutenant Fathom Fellini & Lieutenant JG Mira Jayna & Sergeant Miranda Schultz
Edited on on Sat Mar 2nd, 2024 @ 7:04pm
0 words; about a 1 minute read
Mission:
Episode 15 - The Evil That Lies Beneath
Location: Shuttle Maintenance Bay - Deck 10 - USS Pioneer
Timeline: MD004 1200 hrs
"Hence why I gathered those with me, also need to scour the Serenity for any sort of trace particles, even on a level of an atom. We didn't come back alone, and can a possible ghost have come back with us? I know that sounds a little bit insane but it has happened that an entity can latch upon someone and come onto the ship." Merrick stated.
"Yes." Jayna drew out the word. "I encountered the entity on the underwater station. It is not something I want following us back to the ship." But if it had, it could have been in any one of the team. It had been in Corporal Shy when he was rendered unconscious and Miranda had control of his suit. "I agree that we should do a thorough analysis to see if there's anything here."
"Well, if you would like, feel free to step in and take one of the stations. I will be happy to help in any way that I can." Xeres said to the officers present. His need to please being as strong as ever.
"Well then let's get to work." Edmund clapping his hands together and giving a bit of a smile. Not that what he could offer much, to the whole examination of the Serenity except for putting together a team and going over results of the testing. He had a worry that was just nagging at the back of his mind, "I need to go see Tremble after this, I hadn't spoken to him about what the suits had picked up." his smile slipping away.
"Not as much as I'd like," Jayna replied. "From the suits, that is. A lot of what we saw was in our minds. But there should be something from the team that went to engineering that could be of use." She'd been so busy with other things she hadn't talked to the others.
She also planned to see Neil after this--for several reasons. "What would you like me to look at?" she asked Merrick.
Merrick thought for a moment or two, the Serenity had been put into diagnostics, but couldn’t' there be some examination being done whilst that was happening? "There are records of the Serenity that had been done when we first came back into the shuttlebay, are they still there or were those eradicated as well? Fathom, I would say that a scan being done upon the Serenity looking for any signs of something that had been in contact with the ship, and perhaps maybe can get some intelligence as to what others had seen while in that Laboratory. I am also open for suggestions as well."
"I'd like to see if there's any record of who deleted the data," Jayna said "That didn't happen by accident, and that person may be causing more mischief on the ship."
"That is a good area to look for, and I would like to take a look at the scan records you had made." Looking at Jayna, Merrick then directed his next question towards Lieutenant Michael, "Out of curiosity, did you feel anything different in the flight of the Serenity compared to how she flew on our trip to that underwater lab?"
Jayna nodded in agreement. It was clear to her that there was a lot going on she knew little about and she would see how soon she could correct that as soon as they were done here.
"One of the first things I did was to check the flight recorder for the trip to the lab and back to the ship. Readings were normal both ways." Michael responded.
"Okay that works but, what I am looking for is, did you feel in your gut that something may have changed or not feeling right? Remember we had to deal with some sort of sea creature, and didn't we have some trouble leaving the landing area we were at?" Edmund asked.
"Going in, we did have some trouble, and we all felt that it indicated something was wrong," Jayna began.
"The readings weren't conclusive," Miranda added. "That's my recollection."
"It felt more abandoned than anything. On the way back, we were all shaken by what we encountered. I doubt anyone would have felt anything unusual," Jayna finished.
Xeres had been listening as the officers spoke, he turned to look over his shoulder from the console aboard the Serenity. "Sirs if I may? The issue at hand is who deleted the logs. I think once we figure that out you can proceed with your investigation. So, to get started I have pulled up what we do have. We need to back track the deletion through the system until we can find who did it."
"Agreed," Jayna said. "If we can track it back. there aren't many on the ship with that kind of access." She paused. "See what you can find. If necessary, I can use the intel computer to look. It has more access than most." She wanted to narrow down the search so she could focus on the few remaining and hope to get lucky. She was also more comfortable using her skills with computers in private.
Edmund mused on Jayna's suggestion then shook his head. "I feel that we'll need to go over everything here including try to find out just who could have done this. I am certain that Xeres is willing to allow you work at one of the stations here." looking towards the Bolian. "And we do have the ability to also look into any possible remnant of something we could possibly brought over with us." Edmund looking towards Fathom.
"All I can say at the moment is that whoever did it knew what they were doing. But if we are going to find out we are going to have to do it here with the Serenity's computer. Perhaps a recursive data trace?" Xeres wasn't sure if that would work but he thought it would be a good place to start.
"It's a place to start," Jayna said. "The intel computer can help determine who could have erased the data and erased any sign of doing so. I think we should take a multi-pronged approach to this as I doubt it's an isolated incident."
Fathom looked at the others. "Science can check for odd readings, but we may need to bring someone from medical to see if it's any sort of bio hazard. Decontamination can only find something already in the system. Sometimes an unknown virus gets through."
That gave Jayna an idea. "Have you checked the other shuttles to make sure they weren't tampered with as well?"
Xeres felt a tad insulted that they would think he a Bolian would not have thought of that already. "Yes all shuttles save for the Serenity are operating within normal parameters. In fact, the Serenity is operating normally as well. It is just that data that the sensors read while the ship was under water is gone. There is no trace, as if it never happened. The data prior to going underwater is here." Xeres looked at the data readouts on his screen as he spoke. Within a moment he cocked his head. "Captain Merrick, it says in the equipment manifest that your team from The Cure had taken the MARVEL-EAS suits aboard. I wonder, do those have independent sensor recordings? If they do, then if we can't find out who deleted them we can still have a record of what happened. However, I do think that regardless we should continue to search for the culprit." As most Bolians when they get excited, Xeres began to rant.
The suits were already mentioned, but with so much concern over the Serenity, Miranda wasn't surprised it was overlooked. Jayna had looked at her suit and the one the Vulcan used. She wasn't sure if there was anything of interest in the data, though. "Corporal Shy was taken directly to Sickbay." He'd been acting odd in the facility.
Jayna didn't mean to insult the Bolian. As no one mentioned if the other shuttles had been checked, but she meant for any data loss. She had no idea why, but if it had, it would indicate a different problem. But it wasn't worth clarifying what she meant, so she remained silent for Merrick to answer. As Xeres mentioned where she could search the computer from here, she checked to make sure she had her data chip with her and headed for a console.
Feeling a tad emboldened Xeres pressed the issue. "The Corporal's suit may have gotten something of interest. Was the data from his suit looked at?" He continued to attempt a recursive algorithm to find out who deleted the Serenity logs.
"Good question. You would have to ask Major Tremble," Jayna replied. "I only have data from my suit and Sergeant Schultz'."
"That is next on my list to do. I hadn't even looked at my own recordings of my suit." Merrick could only shake his head at his lack luster performance on this matter. "he glanced over towards Lieutenant Michael, "Anything else you can add to this?" Edmund was hoping that there could be some added perspective on what was happening.
Fathom didn't have anything to contribute to the discussion, so she began a scan of the shuttle to see if there was anything at all to indicate that something had hitchhiked aboard.
Xeres smiled as he exclaimed, "YES! I think I found the beginning of the trail of who deleted the logs. In the shuttlebay the Serenity is designated as a command vessel. That is to say that it is usually only used when a member of the command crew is aboard. As such whenever someone enters the Serenity, she logs the code who entered. According to the data an Alpha clearance code was used to enter the Serenity just before I did. These codes are only issued to the Captain, the Executive Officer, the Second Officer or the Chief of the Boat. It could only be one of those four people. Perhaps if one of you can run the recursive algorithm we could find out exactly which one." Xeres sometimes felt that it was amazing that anything got done on the Pioneer when all the senior staff did was stand around and chat instead of working.
"It wasn't Neil," Jayna said firmly. "He has no reason to delete the logs. He also knew I had a copy. I don't think it was the COB or captain. I know the algorithm, but for a second verification, send me the time stamp of the login."
She ran the recursive algorithm, verified the location of the four at the time of the login, and then ran that through one of her own programs to extract anything else that could be recovered. They all came up with one person. She looked over to Edmund, knowing this would affect him the most. "Rowena McGowen. I've got her location as the shuttle bay, her access, and an image of her walking out of the bay after."
Mentally, Edmund was going through the list of those who could have had access to the Serenity. In fact, he was murmuring quietly those who had been on that ship. "There was me, Lieutenant Michael, Sergeant Major Barr, Shy, Jayna, Schultz..." his heart sank as he arrived to Rowena around the same time Jayna said her name. "He looked at Jayna, "It was Rowena." his jaw tensing and his lips thinned to a grim line. "I am going to have to go find Rowena."
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Fathom Fellini
Marine Biologist, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Junior Grade Mira Jayna
Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer, USS Pioneer
Intelligence Liaison, The Cure
Sergeant Miranda Schultz
Communications Specialist HQ, The Cure
USS Pioneer
Chief Petty Officer Xeres
Shuttlebay Manager, USS Pioneer
Captain Edmund Merrick
The Cure Executive Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Paul Michael
Chief Flight Control Officer, USS Pioneer
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