Investigation Part II - Analysis

Posted on Mon Aug 5th, 2019 @ 3:01am by Lieutenant Aleksander Voroshilov

Mission: War and Peacekeeping
Location: CIO Office

Back in their normal uniforms, the Intel band had gathered in his office. It was late and they had burned most of their day on what little evidence they had acquired. It was all extremely circumstantial, all of it except the item Aleksi had picked up in the Jefferies Tubes. At this point their answer was little better than NSTR, nothing significant to report, “You first Tebiza, what piece of the puzzle did you find?”

They had talked ad nauseum about their finds, trying to get them pieced together in a way to string a narrative that would be mostly truthful without sending a lynch mob to Bolivar’s door. What he was actually asking was the snippet to present to the big boss, “Whoever hacked into the system was good, or terrible depending on how you look at it. Whatever killed the cooling definitely was a glitch of some sort, and whoever tried to fix it did a fine job mucking up any forensics. If you had to ask me, the fact only specific systems failed indicates a deliberate action but the cover up could have been just some young hotshot trying to put out the fire after the house had burnt down.”

“So something happened, but we can’t tell them who or why?” R’Mular rolled his eyes, “Of course, that’s useful. No offense to you, I have nothing better. A rats nest of wire and some burnt out panels, which you,” The Caitian motioned to Aleksi, “Said was interesting but not a smoking gun.”

“No,” Aleksi sighed, “Good find on the unnatural shape, but beyond the increased oxidation, which could mean rust or thermite, it’s a mere curiosity,” He pulled out a small container, tossing it to the Caitian, “Unless you pair it with that,” Catching the vial R’Mular could see a tan stick with a small receiver on it, “Cardassian Detonator, Federation Designation CAR-DE-104, illegal to own yet I found one in the Jefferies Tubes.”

“Shit,” He looked from the detonator to the Aleksi. It’d be pointless to ask how he was able to ascertain that, it was likely due to his past life as an FME analyst he probably handled a few detonators, “I suppose with how hard these are to get it, this is our smoking gun.”

“He said illegal,” Tebiza snatched the vial from R’Mular’s paw, holding it up to the light, “Not hard to get. I know a guy who will sell these to you, 50 credits per. He’ll lower the price to 40 if you buy a dozen or more. Still, not many fleeties would have this hardware,” She looked at Aleksi with a smirk before tossing it back to him, “Even naughty boys such as yourself.”

Catching the item he held it up to the light, “It’s clear at least the stellar nav flameout wasn’t an accident, and the hack was likely involved as well. I doubt it was a coincidence that both things happened around, if not at the same time. The real question is, do we risk having the lynch mob pull out Vicente and crew?”

“You mean give a mad man and his band of disciples a reason to harm this vessel and crew? That seems like a brilliant idea,” R’Mular shook his head, not a fan of stretching the truth, but less of a fan of getting crew needlessly hurt, “I guess it depends on a few factors. The first is can we keep it quiet? The second is do we really think the crew will act irrationally? Lastly, how much do we value our rank and positions.”

“We just don’t talk about it,” Closing his fist around the vial he tucked it into the desk again, “If they have no reason to suspect there was a need for a detonator they won’t ask about the detonator. From what you described the attackers likely used thermite, meaning there would be no evidence since the fuel is metal. And do I expect the crew to act irrationally? Certainly not, they would be extremely rational, the problem is their rationale is at odds with the survival of this ship and ultimately the survival of the Federation Border worlds.”

Aleksi stood up, grabbing his PADD. He had less than 20 minutes before he went to see the boss, “As for rank and position, you two are completely ignorant. As far as you know there is no detonator and if one is discovered it’s on me and me alone,” The man chuckled, realizing he could use the detonator to crew’s advantage. He just needed to get Vicente alone, “Now, if there are no more questions…”