Lieutenant JG Ollie Bergmen - This investigation is like a matryoshka doll: Each answer opens just another question concealed within
CPT Arianus
(( Tertiary Conference Room - Operations Center, Deck 5, USS Artemis-A ))
Bergmen: There is just one issue… Two, technically, but one is more like headscratch…. (beat) All eight were flagged by Da’al Security for some reason. All eight died altogether in the transport accident according to Da'al records… A month ago.
Ollie Kimi Bergmen paused, looking at the others, awaiting their reaction. As he finished the sentence, he started to cower a bit, as if he were about to duck & cover.
Imril: First guess, they all faked their deaths and were hiding out in the Afalqi until the time came to leave. Quietly building the plasma accelerators and whatever else in the ship all the while.
Jaran: A transporter accident with multiple people at once would be very suspicious. I assume it was investigated.
Bergman looked at his PADD screen for a moment before responding and then shrugged his shoulders.
Bergmen: Yes. The investigation ruled it was an accident. Official conclusion was "a data transfer system glitch in the retransmission satellite leading to the transporter signal packet loss". But… Interesting fact: the investigation was closed the same day as the incident.
K'Wara's face told the story of how little they liked where the answer was going.
K’Wara: Accidents tend to be downplayed or simplified if there’s a lot of progress and prestige riding on a project... This is the same no matter how advanced the civilization.
Imril: How might this ‘accident’ tie into that transporter signal? Could the ‘shapeshifters’ be these supposedly dead Da’al, walking around the facility in other forms?
Jaran: It's possible. If they're taking the risk of that sort of thing, they must either really believe in their cause, though.
K’Wara: I doubt it. The only biometric sign-in that was out-of-place was that singular one of Alvaine’s. If there were multiple disguised infiltrators milling about the place, there should’ve been several flags of strange DNA logs over a prolonged period of time.
Ollie glanced from K’Wara to Imril.
Bergmen: There I need to agree with the commander. There are simpler explanations.
Imril moved back to Afalqi's schematics.
Imril: Let’s play another mental game. Assume eight officially-deceased stowaways on the Alafqi. The best place to hide the lifesigns would be here and here, in the schematic gaps nearer the engines. Any power readings given off by cryopods or shielded saferooms could be pretty easily masked there if you modulate the EM wavelengths coming off the experimental dilithium chamber. The excess power linkages in the walls could support either option.
Jaran: It's theoretically possible, with the right energy signatures.
Ollie nodded.
Bergmen: Not an easy thing to do, but it’s possible. Especially if you have a master key to ship systems you are actually building.
The discussion continued, and Imril continued in his mental game.
Imril: That would leave this area to house the plasma accelerators and whatever they charge. It's near the front end of the ship, and not too far off from a main weapon bank. It wouldn't be too hard to link one system into the other, or to convert these portholes into cannon ports.
Jaran: There would need to be some really substantial shielding between that array and any living beings. The radiation would be intense. Cutting it close to hide lifesigns that near plasma accelerators.
K’Wara nodded, accessing the computer to remove the schematic and bring up the eight helices again.
K’Wara: So now we’ve found out where and how the eight Da’al went. We need names, profiles, motivations. We’ve found out a lot of the hows, but we’re still missing several vital components to this mystery.
Bergmen: Names and profiles are in the database. Let me find them and upload to your console, Commander. On the topic of motivation, I can review their CV, medical history, etc., and prepare their psychological profile for you.
However, Jaran's was still in their thoughts on the previous topic.
Jaran: I'll admit, professionally, I'm far more interested in this transporter technology, if that's what it is. There's also one major unanswered question: who's the Romulan in this pattern?
K'Wara: And how did they first get into contact with Havun, and why? Vitor’s team is dealing with some pretty interesting technology right now, which is presumably what the infiltrator wanted. But how did they convince Havun to play ball?
There was no obvious answer in the personal files. There had never been one usually, not until it was too late - because if there were one, traitors would not get into positions where they could betray.
Bergmen: There are just a few main rationalizations: ego, coercion, ideology, or personal gain… pick your poison. But with an additional eight souls in the mix, ego or ideology sounds more plausible, as with personal gain and coercion: the bigger the group, the greater the chance someone will talk to authorities and blow your op.
Imril: Response
Jaran: No, I don't think it could be a Da'al, even with that marker. Quite frankly, editing someone's pattern finely enough to alter someone on the DNA level with any reliability is beyond us. It may be possible that something could alter enough to fool, say, biometric scanners, though.
K'Wara: And yet it wasn’t. The only reason we caught this in the first place was because they had to hijack Alvaine’s biometric to pass through the checkpoint, and even that wasn’t foolproof.
Ollie listened to that discussion just on the edge of his mind as he focused on going through the data files and information about the deceased eight. Names, personal files, evaluations by superiors, psychological assessments for security clearances, that was more important than... what were they actually talking about?
Imril: Response
Jaran: Right. I'm certain we're looking at something that is purely cosmetic. Even that's tricky enough, and, if I'm being honest, could explain a transporter accident that killed eight people as much as them hiding somewhere. But if the Da'al were working with the Romulans, why would a Romulan need to hide? And where are they now? Presumably on the Afalqi.
K'Wara: We need to know who else would be on that Ship. If the Romulan is still disguised, it may be possible that even the Afalqi’s crew isn’t aware they’re there. Ollie, do you have any of the names of those missing Da’al yet?
Bergmen had just set down the last PADD when he heard his name and looked up.
Bergmen: Yea…es, sir. On your consoles. ::press send:: Now. Altogether with everything on them I was able to find in the Da’al database.
Jaran/Imril: Response
K’Wara: This is our focus now. Use whatever sensor data we got from Launch Control. We need to know how many people are likely to be on board that Ship, who was involved with the construction who’s since gone missing.
Ollie nodded.
Bergmen: Aye, sir.
Jaran/Imril: Response
Commander K’Wara continued with their task assignment.
K’Wara: Thanks to Ollie and the others, we have Havun’s personal communications. Odds are, some of those names will match the missing ones. ::searches through the files:: The first one’s obvious: Havun’s wife, Falon. She wasn’t one of the missing Da’al from the transporter accident, but she’s definitely on the Afalqi with him. According to Jetripar, she’d been home sick for the past several days.
A hologram of Falon face appeared in the air next to the helices.
Bergmen: Do we know how Havun got her on board?
Jaran/Imril: Response
JG Bergmen stared at the hologram on the table, silent for a moment. Something was still missing from him, from them. This had obviously been planned for a long time. Foreign persons or powers were involved. Havun or someone else approached or was recruited by those offworlders. Why mattered for the historic record. But there was one more thing. What did offworlders have from it? What did they want to do with Afalqi?
Bergmen: She was obviously quite important for Havun as he didn’t leave her behind. That points he does not plan return back. So whatever motivated him, it’s a one-way ticket. This is concerning regarding what they do once we find them. And this comes to those eight. If they are on board, they literally died for them to get off their planet. The more I think about it, the more I start to worry about what will happen once we catch up with them.
Jaran/K’Wara/Imril: Response
There was a possibility of approaching Havun and his defectors. But the more Ollie thought about it, the less he liked the idea. Yet it was not his fight, his responsibility, to decide. There was no reason not to say it.
Especially if that proposal was so Starfleet way.
Bergmen: I believe there is an option where this does not need to end in a shootout. But it will be unpopular with Da’al. A lot.
Ollie paused, looking into Commander K'Wara's eyes. There was no usual smile, no fake optimism. What was on Bergmen's face was noticeably different, and his body language had shifted entirely. Like he stopped in that moment being an officer, and instead became that NCO who opens his mouth on an officer because they needed to hear it.
Bergmen: Commander, I believe you should recommend to the Captain to give Havun and his co-conspirators a way out. Grant them Federation asylum for their full surrender.
Jaran/K’Wara/Imril: Response
TAG/TBC
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Lieutenant JG Ollie Bergmen
Operations Officer
U.S.S. Artemis-A
A240009JC1