[Begin Act I] LtCmdr Jovenan – Here again. Why am I here again?
Jovenan
((Outside the Office Building, Afalqi Project Launch Complex, Meranuge IV))
Jovenan breathed in the dry desert air and cast her eyes towards the sky. The rings of Meranuge brought back memories. Those were the same rings that arched far above them during the Artemis’ first mission. Jovenan had been but an Ensign back them, having served mere months on the Excalibur before being reassigned to the newly relaunched Luna-class ship and sent to bring humanitarian aid to the Da’al. Hauling food, water, blankets and medical goods to a city struck by an asteroid should have been easy. In the end, Genkos had run his sword through Vitor’s shoulder, Jovenan had had a firing squad take down their XO, Lorana had run down roaring towards a violent mob, and from what she had heard, someone had shot a child or something similar. But they had survived. They had even had their shoreleave there, but she didn’t have any better memories of the La’kso Canyon either.
She had to squint her eyes and bring her hand to shadow them. It was very bright, too bright for her, which reminded her to be mindful of the high level UV radiation. Looking around for a shadow of a building, Jovenan led her team pass a service road and across a red soil courtyard to the shadow of the office building. The white, boxy building had neat and uniform rows of rectangular windows. Looking from the ground, it was remarkably indistinctive; it could have been anything, tax office, mid-sized company headquarters, chemicals factory, barracks. Nothing in the exterior revealed it as the home of the most brilliant minds behind the most advanced engineering project on the entire planet. She scanned the rows of windows with her eyes, trying to figure out which one was their objective, but there were no clues outside. Would the Da’al place the Chief Engineer’s office at the base of the building, or at the highest floor?
She turned her gaze back down to her team. Lt Bergmen’s and Doctor Jaran’s capabilities were already something she knew about, while she was quickly becoming more acquainted with Lt Storm. It was a sundry team of professionals from across the board, but all of their specialities would come to help them in their mission, Jovenan was sure of it.
Jovenan: Our task is to search the office of the Chief Engineer of the Afalqi Project. He is suspected of being the leader of the team that stole the ship of Afalqi. We should try to get access to his communications, logs, anything that might give us clues. The Da’al seem to be eager to get their ship back, so finding the destination of the ship, if possible, is our primary objective. But we should also look for evidence pertaining to, um, motivation, means, accomplishes, so forth. Anything relevant to the suspected theft.
Storm/Bergmen/Jaran: Response
Jovenan looked down at her PADD. Despite the shadow of the building, it was too bright for her to read it, so she had to take a few seconds to adjust its brightness. An image of the Da’al man with lavender hair in his early middle-ages popped up, and Jovenan turned the device to show it to the others.
Jovenan: This is Chief Engineer Havun. Age 49, married. Parents had a mining company on the moon. Accomplished engineer, worked on several successful projects before landing as the Chief Engineer on this project. And… that’s pretty much it. If he had a reason for stealing a starship, it doesn’t come up in the short bio the Provisional Government sent us.
Storm/Bergmen/Jaran: Response
Closing her PADD, Jovenan looked once again at the rows of windows and past the building to the wilderness that surrounded the site. It was a major, confidential government shipbuilding project, so it was natural they weren’t exactly in the middle of the town. She almost waited for a scaled monarch to fly over them, one of those giant birds that dominated the La’kso Canyon and its secret spaceship hangar. When she turned back to her team, she shot them a smile.
Jovenan: This is a criminal investigation, so we need to be thorough, but remember also that everyone’s innocent until proven guilty. Keep your eyes and minds open until the end. ::pause:: Questions?
Storm/Bergmen/Jaran: Response
((OOC: To the new people reading this: if you still have ongoing shoreleave scenes, please jump into the mission and end the other scenes asap as backsims if needed.))
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Lieutenant Commander Jovenan
Chief Science Officer
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11