Posted July 6, 2022, 4:35 p.m. by Ensign Kovan ch'Sirhc (Engineering & Communications Officer) (Abigail G)
A Day Later, Somewhere Else Aboard the Sentinel…
“They’ve got the target under tight guard. Another rigged system isn’t going to do the trick. They’re expecting it. They’re too careful. I need to find another way to get to him…” The first officer said. They were somewhere private, where they’d not be overheard or seen. “The Farquharson boy is up to something. Have you heard about the rec hall incident?” The second officer nodded and then shrugged. “He’s trying to distract us. It’s probably a set up. Ignore him. Keep your focus on the target. If we divert attention, we dilute our cause, get caught before we accomplish anything.” The second officer sighed, “It’s unfortunate the plan to draw him out failed and she lived. At least we’d have something to show for our efforts if we’d gotten rid of the sister.”
The first nodded their agreement. “I don’t want to get caught before I finish the mission. Ensign Morgan has been investigating. I don’t know what she knows but from what Scott was telling everyone, doesn’t seem like she’s close. It doesn’t seem like they know there’s more than one of us.” They shrugged, “If we keep our heads down, I might even get another attempt in on one or both of them before I get out of here. Whatever happens, I won’t give you up.”
The second smirked, “Of course you won’t. That’s part of your mission. You’re disposable in the grand scheme of the mission. Even if they catch or kill you, I’ll still be here, feeding information out… and once they get someone else in, I can help them the same way I have you. The ship’s schedules, routines, security protocols, I’ve had time to study everything I can get access to. As long as I don’t get caught, this mission has a chance. If I can remain placed here, then once we finish off the Aldens, we’ll have a headstart with access to the Farquharsons. It’s not like you get someone on the inside every day.” The first nodded. These people were completely commited to their cause, nothing would make them change sides. “I’m skilled with machines mostly. They’ve got the target’s medical equipment under lock and key, 24/7. I can’t get to it. What can I do?”
“He’s been out of Sickbay, has he not?” The second gave the first a mischevious look. “Know how to shoot a phaser?”
Back with our main characters…
It was the next day, and while Rand was asleep, Roman had slipped out of sickbay in search of someone who knew where the investigation was. Rand had a nightmare the night before, she was scared and confused and he just wanted these people caught. It was Morgan he found first, and from her he got a summary of the investigation so far. He’d said before, but he told her again that he didn’t remember most of the day of his own accident. He also told her he knew about Randy’s stunt, and that he wasn’t happy about it.
Unfortunately, Randy’s stunt yielded little in the way of results. No one approached Randy’s quarters at all. In fact, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. If drawing the assassin out was the goal, it had failed colossally. When Morgan was done giving Roman a summary on the investigation so far, they went to find Kovan to get a report on the attempt to draw out the assassin.
~ Roman
Kovan was having a terrible day. Not the worst day of his life, oh, this was far, far, way far from that. . . but it was at least in top twenty. Randy’s stunt turned out to be a waste of time. If he and his sister weren’t targets before then they most certainly would be now. Which meant there were now three people to watch over and protect. Kovan attempted to do more “interviews” this time with the security officers but with the crew alerted and on edge it failed. He couldn’t get either of them alone for long enough to “talk”. Besides Kovan’s heart wasn’t in it anymore. The rage that had fueled him before had cooled to a self-depreciating glacier.
Roman and Morgan didn’t have to look for long for him, he came slinking to them with his metaphorical tail between his legs. “We need to regroup,” He said, which would likely be the understatement of a century. He looked tired and worn-out. The crew didn’t like him much before but these days that attitude was outright hostile.
Kovan
Roman sighed, he could guess what that meant. Randy’s stunt had uncovered nothing. Roman’s only idea was dumber than Randy’s and surely would either get him killed or dumped by Rand. “What do we know so far? Surely there’s some kind of trail? Surely an assassin can’t nearly take the lives of two officers and get away with it?” There was attitude in his voice, this whole thing had him grouchy and upset. That some fanatical hit squad seemed to be getting the better of Starfleet. Making a fool of all of them.
~ Roman
Morgan was pacing back and forth, thinking, tapping her chin with a finger. “It has to be an engineer, or someone with a lot of engineering background. From the list Rand compiled for us the only people who fit that description were engineers. The only DNA evidence on the machine was LaCroix and Gallagher. Gallagher has been on the ship a long time. LaCroix is new and his service photo doesn’t match who he really is. Rand found that out. She searched for his high school and early Academy photos. Not the same person, or at least not by picture. I don’t have his full background check yet. I would really like to review the security footage and ship’s internal sensors and see where he goes and then if the two logs match up.” She turned toward a lift, “Let’s go up to the security office and run those checks.”
“LaCroix is at the top of my list.” Kovan said. He had several days to think over everything and he felt a growing certainty that an engineer was behind it all. He kicked himself hard for not following his gut and interrogating the engineers sooner but he didn’t want to risk being wrong.
Morgan really had to ignore what Randy did. In theory it was a good trap, but it was reckless and ill prepared. Arriving at the security office she pulled up the surveillance videos and ship’s logs and set a search for LaCroix. “What also bothers me is Rand checked the records, she does NOT miss things or confuse them. So who ever fixed the ship logs has to have some clearance and rank, or has help to do it. Or has copied credentials or something.” She sighed, “What are your ideas?” she asked of both Alden and Kovan.
Morgan
“Someone’s messed with ship communications,” Kovan said quietly, but with a firm certainty. “I’ve set them right again but they’ve been compromised for who knows how long. I will keep an eye on the comms equipment, see if our assassin notices and if he tries to tamper with it again. As for altering the ship logs. . . could be another Hijacker. A good one, not the cheap out-dated thing used by the pranksters.” Though Kovan and the rest of engineering worked to correct the weakness that allowed a Hijacker in, the technology behind them was ever changing. Shoring up defenses against one could mean nothing when a newer model exploits an entirely different weakness in ship design.
Kovan
Roman nodded, “LaCroix seems like the most likely candidate. But how do we prove it? These are serious accusations, we can’t just go pointing fingers only to later find it was a really great frame job. As for the comm systems… Check what exactly might be at risk, what has been sent and received since the system became compromised. That will need reporting to Starfleet.” To Morgan’s question he considered momentarily and then said, “I’d say copied credentials, who knows whose credentials. I can’t imagine anyone high up enough to do that helping them accomplish it.”
~ Roman
Kovan nodded, “I started some of that already. I ran a risk analysis but that’s still running. The other comms officer is watching that for me while they’re on duty.” Whatever their name was. Kovan couldn’t remember in this moment.
Morgan pulled up another file, one with some generic name that wouldn’t get anyone’s attention and then copied to a stand alone disk and then onto her PaDD. “This is the 3 outstanding background checks I’ve been waiting on. LaCroix was one of them.” She handed the PaDD to Alden to look over the files and tell them what they said.
“Good academy grades, no major troubles or reprimands, from small-town Illinois… Passed his entrance psych evaluation.” Roman scrolled through the file. “His photos didn’t match, right? What if we ask him specific details and see if he knows them? I think there was a real LaCroix, and the assassin replaced him.”
Morgan turned back to the security footage and ship’s internal sensors logs to see where LaCroix had been going and if the logs all matched up or if he was trying to trick them.
LaCroix had been very careful with leaving that kind of trace… But now that they knew what they were looking for, there was evidence he was trying to trick them.
“Kovan, who on the ship would have the credentials high enough to change the logs so well that even Rand couldn’t find it.”
Morgan
~ Roman
Kovan listed off the names of several high ranking officers, then added, “If LaCroix is our assassin then he’s patient. All it takes is one person getting careless for him to take his chance and steal another’s credentials. Starfleet officers are some of the most lax and trusting of any I’ve seen. Sure they still follow protocol in general but,” He shrugs. “Anyways, I think the XO has the right of it. Let’s talk to LaCroix and see if we can’t trip him up.”
Kovan
Morgan shook her head. “It won’t work. We don’t know LaCroix and obviously no one else on the crew does either because no one reported the wrong crew member being on board. And even if it wasn’t officially reported, Scott would have heard the gossip. And if they are so good to not leave any physical evidence, and sneak someone on board that we aren’t 100% sure that he’s an imposter, then he knows what is in the service file. And we can’t just pull him in without cause. So I suggest instead we go ask for a DNA sample. So we can definitively ‘rule him out’ from where he touched the machine to fix it. Then we have it run against Star Fleet Security Command and Federation Security. That way even if he’s altered the files here we can find out who he really is. While we do that I’ll get a good shot of his face and run a recognition program that will compare bone structure. Kovan I’d like you to monitor the ship’s systems to see what he does after I leave. Cmdr I’d like you to come with me. I’ll keep Ward and Richards with us, but out of sight, just in case, but I’d like to see how he reacts to you.”
Morgan
“Alright, but I want to go with you when you get that DNA sample. I don’t trust our security officers with their own guns much less actually keeping someone safe. It’s not like he can do anything to the ship comms right after you’re done talking to him. Not with the new protections I put in place.” It was a selfish request but Kovan was paranoid to a fault and he wasn’t going to be somewhere else when something happened. Not again.
Kovan
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