Posted June 12, 2022, 7:07 p.m. by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) (Lucas Foxley)
Posted by Ensign Kovan ch’Sirhc (Engineering & Communications Officer) in side - sim: The Infiltrator
Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side - sim: The Infiltrator
Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side - sim: The Infiltrator
Posted by… suppressed (10) by the Post Ghost! 👻(snip)
Kovan turned and grabbed the freshly printed copies and brought them over to the XO’s desk and dragged over a chair for him and Morgan while at it. He set the papers on the table between the three of them, “Let’s see who we got.”Kovan
Morgan followed Rand into the office, pausing briefly, as if thinking are we really allowed to be in here? Then she sat where Kovan pulled up a chair. “I want to do full background investigations on everyone who fits the profile.” The list did not rule out many of the officers from either department, leaving twenty people to investigate. This was going to take a while.
~ Morgan
Rand nodded, “When we found out I ran the numbers and some limited background checks. We still are sitting at 121 of what should be 120 crew on board, but I can’t find the mistake in the files and records.” Rand had already given Morgan all that information earlier. “The only suspicious thing I found was LaCroix. The highschool and Freshman Academy picture don’t match with him currently. But it’s not…totally wrong either.” This was so far out of Rand’s skill set. She let them talk for awhile commenting if she knew anything, but it wasn’t much, and then, “I need to get back to sickbay.” She locked the office behind them and then returned to sickbay.
Rand
Morgan nodded. If it were her, she’d want to be in Sickbay too. Morgan spent the next three weeks conducting thorough background investigations on all the officers on the list as well as interviews with each of them. There just weren’t any other leads to narrow it down, so she ended up doing all of them. Kovan was free to help as much as he wanted, or go back to his regular duties. By the end of those three weeks, Morgan felt no closer to catching the person responsible. And she felt awful not having anything to tell Alden or the Captain about it.
~ Morgan
Kovan explained that it would be best if he resumed his duties as normal. No one else but Morgan and Rand knew that he had been brought into the investigation and that gave him a certain freedom. Their assassin may be careless around him. If they were an engineer then Kovan, as a swing officer who spent a good chunk of his time in engineering when not on comms duty, could keep an eye out there. Though as the days went by he felt more and more tense. Quicker to snap insults but most of the engineers saw it as Kovan being in a bad mood.
Roman was supposed to be out of sickbay in another day. Rand wasn’t counting on it. Not that she thought he wasn’t doing well, but she knew how quickly things changed. Also he’d already had one major relapse, and it was better for her worry to just assume things would continue as they were. That day she was on the go. She could only do so much from that little room in sickbay. She wasn’t eager to be away from the room, considering Morgan had no luck finding who was at fault. But she had to attend to her duties. So with her escort in tow she spent most of the morning running around the ship getting things done.
Right before lunch she stopped by her quarters. She spent some time with Pipkin, a shower, fresh uniform. Then realizing she hadn’t been in her office for almost 3 and half weeks she went across to it. She would check the pantry first. Stepping into her office she looked around. Something wasn’t right. Her office was messy. She never left it messy. She must have been really unaware the last time she was there, worried about Roman. Morgan was with her and she shook her head with a huff. “I must have been really upset, I never leave my office this messy.” She sat down in the chair and reached to turn on the console.
Rand
Morgan was assigned to protect Rand that day. She was always attentive when she was on protection duty. Her thoughts about the investigation could wait. Inattentive guards got the people they were protecting killed. It was that idea that had Morgan watching Rand closely as she entered her office and sat down to work. Morgan stood in the office, by the door. Just as Rand reached for the console, something caught Morgan’s eye. A spark, so small at first she thought it was just static electricity. But then it felt as though time slowed, an ominous feeling in her gut.
“Rand, no!” Morgan shouted, rushing over and diving into Rand to stop her from touching it. She had been right, the moment she dove for Rand, the console arced in much the same was as Alden’s equipment. It had been rigged, so that when she tried to start it, she would have instead been shocked with a fatal current of electricity.
~ Morgan
Rand paused and turned her head to look at Morgan as she shouted at her, her hands instinctively pulling back. Morgan grabbed her, pulling and yanking her bodily from the chair, just as the console exploded. Without Rand there to complete the circuit the whole thing over loaded and blew. Rand’s hands came up to block her face and take the brunt of the impact and heat. Morgan, with her training, knew how to fall, Rand did not. The force of the blast pushed them into the bulk head of the door, jarring Morgan hard enough to make her arms go limp and Rand was blown into the hall where she feel, her head bouncing off the floor.
The ship’s emergency klaxons began to screech across the ship. =/\=Emergency Teams to Deck 3 section 5, Emergency Teams to Deck 3 section 5. Fire suppression systems engaged. Emergency Teams to Deck 3 section 5=/\=
Rand
Kovan felt his heart in his throat when the klaxons blared and the voice came over the intercom. Deck 3, section 5. That’s where Rand’s office was. He body-checked a hapless En in the hall, still dazed and caught off-guard. Then shoved past another NE, to get to the the lift before them.
The emergency call sent two teams into action: one, of engineers, to make sure the fire was put out and nothing was too badly damaged, and an emergency medical team. The console had exploded, but there were no residual fires, so that part was easy. They checked the console to be sure it wouldn’t happen again, made sure everything looked okay, and left.
Kovan was the first engineer on the scene, he was already close by. He had just finished a bridge shift. When he saw no residual fires he checked the rest of the office for any other sabotaged equipment. Kovan was the last to leave the office and lingered behind.
The medical team was once again made up of Grat, Temple, and Randy. When they got there, Morgan was shaking Rand gently, looking worried. “The console was rigged, like Alden’s lab. It… It exploded, and we were blown back..” Morgan had earned some burns of her own, and she looked really shaken.
~ Morgan
This time they attacked Rand. Kovan’s hands clenched into fists. That gut-less-!!! Kovan breathed deeply through his nose. He can’t fly off the handle. Not yet. Not until he had names.
Kovan
Randy thought he might be sick. He came to an abrupt halt, dropping his medkit, next to Morgan and gently took her wrists and pulled her away. “Don’t shake her,” his voice some how was calm. He felt like his blood sugar was dropping and every nerve and muscle was shaking. He wanted to help Rand, but he knew Grat would never let him near her, not yet. He looked over Morgan she had burns along her arms. Her uniform sleeves took most of the blast and her pants were singed. He opened the kit and pulled out a hypo to give her something for the pain. When the shock and endorphins wore off she’d be hurting.
Morgan stared at Rand horrified and then her gaze turned to Kovan. “It sparked. The console, when she first turned it on, it sparked, from the back. I thought I imagined it at first, but then I could see the arc forming. I thought I got her in time, but it exploded. She used her key rod to open the door. How could someone get in?”
They could have hacked the door. Or duplicated Rand’s key. They could have crawled in through an access panel or vent. Kovan never replied, too lost in his own thoughts and rage to give Morgan a proper answer. He couldn’t look at Rand. If he did then he’d snap.
Grat and Temple knelt down next to Rand. Temple carefully felt along her neck and the back of her head. “No blood, nothing feels broken, but she already has a large swelling on the back of her head.” She reached into her kit for a neck brace to stabilize Rand’s head. Grat was scanning her with a tricorder. “Her hands have 2nd degree burns and her abdomen is burned as well.”
Randy turned from Morgan, “Her heart?”
Grat nodded, “Stable and no broken ribs, some bruising most likely from the blast. Her heart is racing a bit, but nothing dangerous. We need a stretcher.” Temple moved over to the nearest com panel and called for one. In the mean time Randy got Morgan up and moving toward sickbay. Grat and Temple weren’t far behind with Rand still unconscious on the stretcher.
Rand
“Wait a moment,” Kovan stopped Randy with a firm grip on the other’s shoulders. Kovan turned to Morgan, “Your investigation. Have you narrowed down the list of suspects? Who are they? Give me the names, Morgan.” Kovan was on edge, the signs of something wild and angry in his eyes, but he kept it together. Just enough for long enough to get what he wanted.
Kovan
Morgan looked up at Kovan and then shook her head. “I’ve done seventeen background checks and thirteen interviews. I just haven’t found anything that points to or rules out anyone. And um, she said her office was left a mess, that she’d never leave it that way. The list is in my quarters…” She was still too shaken up to give him more info than that. It to notice how angry he looked.
~ Morgan
Seventeen checks. Only thirteen interviews. Kovan nodded his head in a distracted way and released his hold on Randy. He waited outside Rand’s office for security to show up. Kovan explained the basics to them, his voice too flat but given there was just another attempt on a crewmate’s life it could be interpreted as shock. “And check the whole office for prints, before the explosion Rand made a statement that her office was messy. Something Rand would never do.” The security officers went in and Kovan slipped down the hall and to the lift. Headed straight for Morgan’s quarters.
Kovan made his way in and searched until he had the list in his hands. The anger and rage he felt hadn’t dimmed. Kovan kept it contained, focused it into a fine, and potent point. He scanned the list, searching for those four Morgan had yet to interview and for any details that may stand out with the others.
Kovan
There were twenty officers on the list, there were three checks left to do and seven uninterviewed officers. LaCroix was on there, unbackground checked and uninterviewed, Morgan had noted that there was a holdup in getting some of the files for his background check. Then there were two security officers, a science officer, two other engineers, and a medical officer uninterviewed. One of the security officers and the science officer had holdups on their background checks, too. The security officers found nothing in the way of physical evidence, no finger prints or anything. The console was rigged in a very similar way to the machine in the lab, most likely done by the same person. It had overloaded and exploded because whoever did it had made it so the limit on amperage that saved Alden’s life wouldn’t happen again.
~ Morgan
Three checks. Seven interviewed officers. Kovan noted LaCroix’s name but also the names of the security officer and the science officer with holdups on their background checks. There was still so much work left to do but there wasn’t enough time. Their assassin failed and now the pressure was on. They operated under a countdown and must either succeed or escape. Kovan took the list and locked Morgan’s door to ensure no one else could get in after him. Not easily at least. Their assassin would know that Morgan was investigating, maybe they hoped to take her out with Rand.
Kovan canceled his extra shifts in engineering (easily granted given the amount of added work hours he demanded to limit his downtime as much as possible) and used Morgan’s notes on the suspects as his starting point. The medical officer was simple to catch in her room on her downtime. Kovan did not mess around. He got straight to the point and readily used his intimidating height and build to pressure upon the officer. He grilled them relentlessly and shamelessly used Morgan and Rand to coerce cooperation or silence. If any one reported his actions before he caught the assassin. . .
No. Can’t think of that now. Kovan held onto his rage and moved on to the next suspect on his list: the science officer.
That poor medical officer was terrified of Kovan and denied knowing anything about any of it. She promised to tell if she saw anything but really she just wanted Kovan to go away and was glad when he did. The science officer told Kovan he wouldn’t think anyone in the lab would do it, but what did he know? Also terrified of Kovan by the time Kovan was done with him, he had no valuable information they didn’t already know. Those two interviews took the rest of the day.
A day or so later Randy sought out Kovan. He didn’t give the man time to say anything. “So we don’t know each other but I understand you’ve been doing the engineering checks. I want this insert some untranslatable Gaelic word caught. Morgan came and talked to Alden in sickbay. Someone’s been in his quarters messing around with things. Left it messed like they did Rand’s office. I’m going to give this jerk what he wants - me. I’m the exact type of target he wants. How do you feel about spying on my quarters and seeing who shows up?”
Randy
Kovan blinked at Randy. This was unexpected. Kovan had been running himself ragged doing his “interviews” and running the checks in Morgan’s absence, all while working his regular shifts. “What, so you can land yourself in the infirmary right next to your sister? If you want to keep her company so badly then just go see her. You don’t need an electrical burn and the risk of potential death so the two of you could wrap each others bandages and kiss your wounds better.” It was a risky, but perfectly good idea. If their assassin really was motivated by targets with wealthy backgrounds. . . Kovan didn’t care that Randy was risking his life, but he did care about Rand and Rand cared deeply about her brother.
“And just what makes you think the assassin would go after you? They’ve failed twice now and a third mysterious accident is one too many. Especially with your connection to Rand and the XO.” There’s no way the XO or Rand would sign-off on this plan. But it could be the perfect opportunity. Kovan was conflicted. He had to be sure of Randy’s conviction and know how much he’s thought about this before deciding to go along.
Kovan
Kovan had made a mistake when it came to his… interrogations. And that was that even if they didn’t report his actions, all officers talked. Angry officers talked louder. To anyone that would listen. And that meant that after their run-in with Kovan, they were telling EVERYBODY all about Kovan’s suspicions, anything Kovan had mentioned in their interrogations made its way around their respective departments, Medical and Science. Unfortunately for the investigation, Science had one Ensign Scott in it. The ship gossip.
When the science officer Kovan interrogated blabbed all about it to Scott, Scott made sure the entire ship knew about all of it. By evening the next day, it was the talk of the ship. That the Commander’s accident wasn’t an accident, that Security suspected someone on the crew of being behind it, and that the same person had caused Rand’s accident, too. Whoever the assassin was, surely they knew all about the investigation now.
~ The NEs
© 1991-2024 STF. Terms of Service
Version 1.15.11
RSS Feed