[End act I] LtCmdr Jovenan – It’s not my fault I try to see the best in everyone
Jovenan
((Havun’s office, office building, Afalqi Project Launch Complex, Meranuge IV))
One could expect almost anything from Meranuge IV. There was nothing wrong with the Da’al or their homeworld, per se – the high level of UV radiation was a nuisance, but the locals didn’t seem to mind it – but on both times Jovenan had been there for something that was supposed to be, maybe not routine, but at least straightforward, and yet it had not ended like that. This time, the criminal investigation had got an unfortunate additional twist when one of the other teams had discovered a quantum singularity drive somewhere in the complex, technology that was not supposed to be there… and one that could threaten them all.
Jovenan: Okay… Apparently, the singularity isn’t stable. We might need to prepare for evacuation. Let’s get as much as data as we can, be ready for emergency beam-out if needed, and hope that the team gets it under control.
Bergmen: Singularity… Like… Star singularity?
Storm: As in Romulan design?
Mm-hmm. The Romulans’ somehow even more terrifying alternative for the matter-antimatter reaction warp engine. Although there were probably other cultures that used similar technology, and more might have acquired those from the black market after the Romulan Empire collapsed, but given that they already had hints of Vulcanoid involvement with Mr Havun, it was not a giant leap in logic to say that they were talking about actual, green-blooded Romulans.
Jaran: ::under their breath:: Just because the assumption was right doesn't mean it wasn't prejudice.
Right. They needed to put some speed to their investigation, in case the other team doesn’t get the drive under control or something else random and devastating happens in the next minutes – always a possibility. Jovenan kneeled besides Mr Havun’s computer console, besides Lt Bergmen who had diligently used all this working by it. As a team leader, she had needed to take a step towards being a jack-of-all-traits, but the scientist she was, she had an idea.
Jovenan: Have you uploaded the message to the Artemis? Now, can you isolate the degraded bits and the noise? Objects and fields in subspace leave their marker to the data in transmission, if we can compare it to signals we receive now, we might at least get a rough direction where the message came from.
Bergmen: Aye, ma’am. So far, we have been able to identify these two data chains. Most of the transporter transfers were inanimate things, but those.. ::point to couple messages:: those were persons - Da’als. The next thing we were able to identify was the origin point of the transports. It’s the same for all of them. But I must say they are weird. Those data. (beat) There are variables and other details missing. Incomplete. Maybe they are in code that I still struggle with to make sense of, so no definite conclusions yet, but, you know, it feels wrong.
People. Da’al. Jovenan tried to avoid frowning. Were those people accomplices to the theft, or pawns, bargaining chips for an involved party? It had to wait, as they didn’t even know where to look from, but luckily, Lt Bergmen reached out for his tricorder for something that might just give them a hint.
Bergmen: But we can take a look at those degraded bits and the noise, and from where our beloved User5871 was sending the messages…
Storm: Or perhaps where he or she was routing it through.
Bergmen: This one, it not match to other…
Jaran: In what way?
Jovenan: Different origins? Or different routing?
Bergmen: Let me try one more thing, Commander…
Jovenan gestured the Lieutenant to carry on. She watched on the side as he wrote his inputs to the console and Lt Storm worked on the PADD. Neither explained what they were doing, which was understandable considering that they wanted results and stopping for each step would have been a major hindrance. Jovenan, having taken a com/ops minor back in the Academy, tried to figure out from the screen what the Lieutenants were trying; there was some sort of chain, with the Artemis acting as a link, but the goldshirts were moving too fast for her to understand what was happening with the encryption process and the other parts. She just had to wait and trust their expertise. She turned to her own PADD, waiting for updates from the other teams.
Bergmen: Yes! Artemis received our message through the chain. Let me check the location from which the message was sent at the end… ::downloads the data and lets them show on the screen:: Wait… Is it?
Storm: I think it is!
Jaran: ::quietly, as an aside:: I would have been out at least a slip of latinum.
The reaction from the goldshirts seemed to indicate they were successful, but there was also an element of surprise. Jovenan glanced at them before turning to the screen.
Jovenan: What is… Oh. That’s a lot closer than I expected.
Storm: At least what I’m getting is that it came from this building. From the first floor.
The messages were coming from inside the house. That made it all the more complicated. Sure, Mr Havun had accomplices in the theft – or, there were many people involved in it – that much they knew already, but any interpretation she had made for the messages or the transporter data seemed… odd now.
Jaran: Don't tell me…
Jovenan: Can we pin down the location to even further accuracy?
Bergmen: Response
Storm: From the receptionist’s desk.
Jovenan stood up straight up and sighed audibly. They had walked past it just recently. For all they knew, they had just spoken to one of the criminal gang and walked right past her. When Jovenan had tried to get through the gate and get away from the receptionist as quickly as possible, she wouldn’t have ever guessed she would be relevant for the investigation. Guess they did need to pay attention to all the even mildly suspicious people they encountered.
Jaran: So she was trying to be difficult.
Bergmen: Response
Storm: I get that doesn’t mean it WAS the receptionist, but…
Lt Storm turned towards Lt Bergmen.
Storm: It does make sense. She’s got eyes and ears on everything that goes on in here. Perhaps even surveillance access.
She was right. The receptionist would know who entered the building and would be able to grant access to people without raising alarms at the security. People might not look too closely what a receptionist was doing. Of course, innocent until proven guilty, but they might have enough to suspect someone with access to that console as a member of the hijackers.
Jaran: Do we have time to talk to her before we're all blown up or spaghettified or whatever happens when a singularity drive fails?
Jovenan: ::looks down to PADD:: I just got a word that Commander Munro’s team have been successful in stabilising the singularity, for now. No need to fear for immediate obliteration quite yet.
Bergmen: Response
Jaran: We could probably spend hours in this office, if we wanted to comb through everything. Would you say we have enough relevant data for the time, though? I'd kind of like to catch that receptionist, if she's still there.
Jovenan thought for a moment. There was just so much material in Mr Havun’s office, and they would never be able to comb through it all, not even if they spent days there. It was just a choice of whether they could find better clues in here or if the reason to believe in the receptionist’s – or someone else’s on that console – collusion with the criminals. The Afalqi got further away every minute, they didn’t have the time for all that. She inhaled deep before announcing her orders.
Jovenan: We will apprehend the receptionist. If she has escaped in the meantime, we’ll inform the Da’al authorities, they might be able to arrest her before she can get far. Hopefully, there are still clues to be found on the console.
Bergmen/Storm: Response
Jaran: Yeah, you're right. If I'm being honest, this building kind of gives me the creeps, and I don't really want to be in it any longer than necessary. Especially alone.
Smiling a little, Jovenan holstered her tricorder and put her PADD away. It was just an office building, but it was certainly a maze with a haunted atmosphere of abandonment. And Mr Havun’s office… she wouldn’t have been that surprised to find a body stacked somewhere among the miscellaneous items in there.
Jovenan: Now imagine how terrifying the Callisian Dark Things had been in this environment. ::smirk, then jerks head sideways:: Let’s go.
Bergmen/Storm: Response
Jaran: Does anyone remember the way to the lift?
Jovenan: Uh, we’re on floor 3, corridor 7… something, and we came here on a lift marked with dark blue. Can’t be that hard to follow our footsteps back.
She opened the door and looked to both side of the corridor. The empty, barren yet brightly-lit directions looked so identical to her that she couldn’t at first glance tell, which way they had come from. Maybe it was going to be a little harder to reach the reception after all…
Bergmen/Storm/Jaran: Response?
((Reception, office building, Afalqi Project Launch Complex, Meranuge IV))
Jovenan’s smile had faded away as the corridor on the ground floor was extending to a lobby. In the few minutes it had taken them to reach this place, she had started to suspect that if the receptionist was still there, she might have prepared for a fight. If she was indeed a part of the criminal gang, the investigators would surely alarm her, and she might not be willing to go down peacefully. Jovenan had opened the holster of her phaser, so that she could pull out the phaser in a moments notice if there were signs of a firefight. Perhaps the receptionist had escaped. Perhaps she was still playing her role, perhaps she had nothing to do with the crime. Jovenan gave silent signals to Lt Storm to circle the other way and for Doctor Jaran to cover for them just before they made the final turn and rushed towards the receptionist’s booth, and…
nothing.
Jovenan: Search the area. Bergmen, console.
Storm/Jaran/Bergmen: Response
Jovenan leaned against the console. She found herself frustrated; they had been so close to capturing one of the criminals, they had spoken to one and ignored her. Inhaling and exhaling, she looked at the figures on the console, unable to do anything more about the receptionist but to hope that the Da’al authorities would be able to find her. The Da’al were isolated enough that there were not too many ways to leave their system unnoticed.
Jovenan: Look up anything she might have tried to delete recently. She would have left in a hurry, so there might be something that didn’t get wiped out as thoroughly as she had hoped for.
Storm/Jaran/Bergmen: Response
The rate of Jovenan’s heart rate was elevated, even if she didn’t do anything else but watch the lines of code run on the screen and screens pop up on the interface. The more they were able to restore, the more it became apparent: the receptionist had received information from an outside source, relayed it to Mr Havun and perhaps other conspirators, and sent back reports. Most of the data was lost forever, but one message caught Jovenan’s attention, and she pointed at it.
Jovenan: She sent that while we were already in the building. Those transmission coordinates match an area elsewhere in the Borderlands. ::pause, looks at teammates, smirk:: Looks like we got a heading.
Storm/Jaran/Bergmen: Response
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Lieutenant Commander Jovenan
Chief Science Officer
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11