Artemis: Security Concerns:
Dori
Destiny had called for Major Bamber and when he arrived, Patricia came out of Emma’s bedroom, a bit more calmer than when she had gone in there. Harry had arrived in fairly quick time and was waiting with Destiny when she walked out of Emma’s bedroom.
“Thank you for coming Major.” Patricia’s voice was a bit subdued. “Would you like a cup of coffee or tea? Destiny?”
Harry shook his head.
“Yes please, some peppermint tea.” Destiny replied.
Patricia got the requested drinks and sat down on her couch. She sipped the calming tea and spoke softly.
“About fifteen minutes ago, I got that message.” Patricia gestured to the terminal, but she couldn’t look at it. “I’m pretty sure whomever sent it, well, they were responsible for the explosion that took Chantel.” Patricia took a deep breath. “I called Commander Fairchild, who notified the Captain. We need your advice, and help.”
“The Captain wants me to keep a transporter lock on both Patricia and Emma, and have them sent to a secure location at the first sign of trouble. He’s working on the contingency that there are people on the ship who wish her harm, but I’m concerned that there are people off the ship who might try and take her off it. If the shields were to fall for even an instant, they could take advantage of that - should they be close enough - and beam her off. I was hoping to plan for either contingency.” she pointed to the message. “I’m going to have a go at seeing if they tapped into the ship’s computer systems, or if this is a subspace message. Please, have a look. I value your thoughts.”
Harry looked at the message and his face went carefully blank.
“Have you contacted Ree?” he asked absently. “She’s on Terra and you know she’s the most trustworthy untrustworthy person we know. - You’ll want Kyr on analysis, I can get him on that if you like. We are restricting this to ‘need to know’, yes?” he said, glancing at them quickly. “The less official paperwork the better now, until we get an angle for who’s behind this. - I’m going to have a word with the engineering kids and get them to erect a permanent forcefield around your rooms, much like we have down in the brig. That way, Emma won’t be disturbed and no one can beam in or out. - I’m also going to get Kyr to steal the files on the investigation so far and have him look for whoever had access to those logs. If I go through official channels it could alert someone - I assume it’s okay we use him for this Destiny, being that he’s my finance, I can talk to him about this out of hours so to speak.”
Destiny gave a nod. “I had planned to ask Kyr myself, depending on whether I was able to trace this message or not. His skills are still better than mine.”
Patricia looked up at him and tried to give him a smile, but was still shaken up.
“Please, off the books as much as possible Major. I don’t want to tip our hand. I want to catch these people.”
“Talk to Ree, give her the bare bones and then she can fill in the blanks if we need something planet side. As far as I’m concerned, after this meeting, we are going to go back to normal social contact. We don’t know if you’re being watched. I’ll Kyr and Destiny can be go betweens as well should we need it and of course you will be coming to the ship’s favourite dads dinner - Emma can meet Astra and Kestra and we can socialise like the adults we are,” Harry said.
Patricia nodded slowly, taking a deep breath. She sipped her tea and then took another deep breath.
“From a security standpoint, do you think it would be wise to have someone in the school with them? Maybe Tuakina? I just want her to be safe...”
“You leave the paranoia to me. I’ve already talked to Starfleet security and Intel anyway.” Destiny said firmly. “We’re leaving Tamaris out of this.”
Patricia looked at her curiously.
“Why? She’s in a good spot to help?”
Destiny looked around the room. “I suppose between Reyu and Admiral Henna, she won’t leave the space between Terra and Betazed. I just don’t want her going off on her own and getting in trouble. I don’t like this. If it’s that woman from the adoption center, she must have had help, and inside help too.”
Patricia slowly nodded in understanding.
“Yeah, knowing Tam, she’d go haring off on a crusade. Better off leaving her out of it.”
Destiny turned to Harry. “I can contact her if you really want me to. Make her promise me she won’t. But I want her to settle into a normal life.”
Patricia nodded.
“If anyone deserves it, she does.” she said softly. She then took a deep breath. “Okay, no Tamaris, unless no other option. Okay, shields around our quarters. But what about when I’m on duty and Emma’s at school?”
“We will security sweep daily and possibly get some extra security into the classroom to keep an eye. It is unlikely anyone will try anything daytime,” Harry said thoughtfully. “And you shouldn't work alone.”
“You can work with me. I’m doing most of my stuff out of the office, in my quarters.” Destiny said. “It’s been weird in there since Kairn... I’m trying to phase my way back in, but I can delay it if it means your safety.”
Patricia frowned.
“That’s not going to be practical really. I’ve just gone back to duty, and I can’t go and hide straight away. Okay, how about as a compromise, you work in my office, just off the bridge. And I will stay in my office, will that work?”
Destiny paused, then nodded. “Yes, I don’t need much space.” she replied. “But if I have to leave your office, then you can go to the bridge.”
Patricia nodded.
"That works. And if anyone asks, we're doing personal reviews. "
Destiny frowned. “Don’t you usually do those with the chief counselor?”
“Yes, but we can say it’s senior personal reviews, and I’m showing you how it’s done in your role as Second Officer.” Patricia gave a wan smile. “I’m not going to cower or hide from these people. I will not. But I’m also not stupid, so I will take precautions.” Patricia took a deep breath. “I want to keep this as quiet as we can, I do not want to scare Emma.”
“Perhaps a quiet word with the teacher.” Destiny said, thinking of the bravery of Samantha’s oldest. “The ship is not altogether a safe place, anyway. Adding the possibility of people trying to get on the ship for an indeterminate reason should be something the teaching and daycare staff might want to add as a safety drill.”
Patricia nodded, pleased.
“That’s a good idea. I actually might even bring it to the Captain myself. Say we need to start some ship wide safety drills, especially for the civilians we have on board.”
“You mean there aren’t any already?” Destiny asked.
“In a limited capacity, I think. Um, Harry?” Patricia suddenly blushed. “Oh god, I should know this.”
“There are,” Harry said. “Because of the ship’s size we usually run them per department on a monthly basis. Bela coordinates the roster under her purview, my lot provides backup. I think you were off ship for the last full ship drill, Trish, and honestly, we’ve had too many real life events happening to do the full scale thing since then. But the individual departments do them.”
Patricia nodded in relief.
“Sorry, too much is happening at the moment, and lately, I feel a bit scrambled to be honest.” Patricia took a deep breath. “Okay, well, we need to run a ship wide drill then. But, I think we’ll leave that one until after we’ve got our guest on board, and caught those bastards that are determined to ruin my life...”
Destiny nodded, then looked between Patricia and Harry. “I’ll leave that between you two and the Captain.” she replied. “It sounds like we’ve got everything pretty much settled.”
Patricia looked at her two friends.
“Thank you so much for helping me with this. You don’t know how much it means to me.”
“You’re welcome.” Destiny replied. “Don’t worry. We have your back.”
End