LtCmdr Jovenan – Where there is a web, there is also a spider
Jovenan
((Holodeck 2, Deck 2, USS Artemis))
The subtle hum of the holodeck and of the engines was overtaken by the soft swoosh of the reinforced doors opening. At first, as a learnt habit – despite it had never happened to her before – or rather as a knee-jerk reaction, Jovenan panicked that she had overstayed her holodeck reservation, before remembering that they were on an official ship business with an authorisation of a senior officer – herself – which should always come before recreational holodeck usage. So, instead of starting to apologise for forgetting the time, she instead turned to the crewmember with a questioning look on her face.
Jovenan: Yes?
Crewmember: The Captain wanted you to study this. ::hands over the device:: It’s from the Grunden General. He said he took it from his executive officer he killed after the executive officer tried to prevent him from entering the underground facility.
Jovenan accepted the device and studied it for a few seconds. She didn’t know what it was, but it could very well be an important clue to their puzzle. However, she found herself somewhat wary of it: unlike almost everything else in the room, the small device was real. A holographic explosion couldn’t – shouldn’t – harm them, but if the crewmember had brought them something dangerous, the holodeck safety protocols, even if functional, did nothing to save them.
Jovenan: Thank you. ::turns around:: Ensigns?
Having placed the device on the table while waiting for the Ensigns to come to her, Jovenan figured that there was only so much that they could achieve working separately. They had an immense web of clues and mysteries ahead of them, and although they could see more standing alone, it was only when they combined their knowledge that the web began to take shape.
Jovenan: Before we get to studying whatever this is, I want to try and combine as much as we can of what we’ve discovered so far. It all appears to relate to each other. Doctor Bancroft, please begin. What did you discover from the, um, biological data, or otherwise in the grunt?
Bancroft: Five of the soldiers in that Grunt died the way you’d expect in a war zone – shrapnel, blunt force trauma, likely from an artillery shell. Horrible, but typical. ::beat:: The sixth, though – that one’s different. And it might tell us what that transceiver was really for.
Jovenan raised an eyebrow. She had asked the Doctor to study the holographically recreated remains of the Grunden soldiers, just in case there’s something relevant there, and already he had made significant discoveries there. The Doctor, now out of the isolation suit, had at first appeared uncertain of how he’d contribute with his limited engineering knowledge, but if what he was implying was correct, he was solving a hefty part of the mystery.
Jovenan: Please, do tell.
Bancroft: All six had trace particles circulating in their bloodstreams – tiny, inert, and nearly invisible. Probably slipped in through rations or some other regular intake. Nothing sophisticated. No circuitry. But they’re electromagnetically reactive.
Jovenan’s hand moved to her chin, as if she was deep in thought. Electromagnetically reactive particles in bloodstream was not something she would have expected. Had the Kobyar done that? Were the particles some kind of tracking mechanism, or had they stumbled upon an attempt to poison the Grunden military? Or had the Grunden done it themselves, for whatever reason, or was it all accidental exposure? The Doctor continued hastily but softly.
Bancroft: …and for the record, I doubt seriously that Grundan tech would have picked them up.
Nodding, Jovenan lowered her gaze to the small device on the table. It was a fair assessment, but at every step, they had found more and more reason to doubt their original information about the level of advancement both sides had at their disposal.
Bancroft: In five of the bodies, the particles stayed evenly distributed throughout the circulatory system. But the sixth — he died ten to fifteen minutes earlier, and not from combat. Every one of those particles migrated to the brain. The results were… critical. Like a massive stroke or widespread aneurysm. Except, it wasn’t.
Imril: Nasty way to go.
Jovenan: Indeed. ::pause:: But in a war, it’s as good a way as they go.
Jovenan realised how gloomy or pessimistic she must have sounded like to the Ensigns. Before Starfleet, she hadn’t often thought about death, yet in the service it was a topic that came to her occasionally. Did the Grunden soldier feel pain or fear before he died, and would he have felt so more or less had he survived to be killed by the Kobyar drones? Her mind went to her sister-across-the-universes, vaporised by a phaser shot. What did she feel at that moment? It was a pointless line of thought, and she forced herself back to the reality as the Doctor was about to continue.
Bancroft: And here’s the real kick in the shins – that event lines up almost exactly with a low-level electromagnetic pulse from the Grunt’s hidden transceiver. Subtle enough not to trip alarms… but enough to move the particles.
Again, an eyebrow rose up. There were too many coincidences in play here. Some of it must have been deliberate or negligent. Killing enemy soldiers this way would have been a very subtle and complex game plan for the Kobyar, too much so. Had the Grunden done this, and had they known of the risks?
Imril: And nobody else noticed they were driving around with a dead man?
Jovenan: Either they didn’t notice or dismissed it as something they couldn’t stop for. Heart attacks and similar medical events are not uncommon among military in war, so they might not have realised what happened. ::pause:: Thank you, Doctor. Ensign Imril, what have you found?
Imril: I can eliminate the asteroids as possible transmission targets. Even if they could passively receive outside transmission, their communications systems are all out of alignment with Galaris IV, and each other. They appear to have stopped realigning themselves to adjust for relative movement of the asteroids they are mounted to. Due to neglect or wear, I can’t say. I’d have to rope Astrometrics in for some more precise calculations to be sure, but I’d estimate transmitter dish connectivity began falling off six years ago and was hopelessly disconnected by no later than three-and-a-half years ago. The drones on the outer and inner planets -- the ones that I can confirm are still moderately intact -- are just as invalid.
Nod.
Jovenan: Save to say those are out of the question. What does that leave us with?
Bancroft: Response
Imril: That leaves the space telescope and the moon. There are multiple signals coming off both of them. It’s a good bet that the telescope was used to track Artemis’ arrival into the system. Both the Kobyar and Grunden are bouncing signals off the moon via proprietary receivers as part of their communications infrastructure. It would be easy enough to hide an extra receiver among any of it, or hack into an existing line. I need time to pin down all of the channels and transmission data.
Jovenan kept nodding slowly. Bouncing off signals from the moon or other natural satellite was a very old and tested method of communication; it wouldn’t be out of the question to imagine both sides doing so at this time, which would make the moon a potential hiding place for a transceiver. She wrote a few words to a PADD and made sure that the signal team received the information. Still, to her, the more curious detail was the use of the telescope to track the Artemis. That demonstrated a high level of control…
Jovenan: Thank you, Ensign. We’ll see if we have time to pin down the signals. Ensign Tho’Bi?
Bancroft: Response
Tho’Bi: ::softly spoken:: Assuming the countdown time is correct (beat) the drone in the forest was always going to blow (beat) no matter what we did (beat) ::heavy breath:: either we were the target (beat) or the forest was.
Pressing her lips tight together, Jovenan tried to interpret what the Ensign was saying. He was clearly taken aback by something, and from the frustration and the notion of the drone blowing up regardless of their actions, she began to suspect that he might feel guilty of not being able to stop it. She felt sorry for what he was going through; the feeling of inadequacy and guilt for failing to do something were not strange to her. How many times had she thought she should have been able to realise something, save someone, make somewhere in time, only to realise she didn’t have a chance to begin with. However familiar and understandable his emotions were, they distracted him and the entire team, and she, as the senior officer, needed to do something about it.
Jovenan: ::softly:: It’s okay, Ensign. Sometimes we have to do things that are beyond our ability to do, no matter how hard we try. It’s never your fault if you fail in face of an impossible task, you just have to keep trying. Can you tell what the countdown was for? Is there a relation to the signal?
Bancroft/Imril/Tho’Bi: Response
Jovenan: Thank you, Ensign. This is all…
Her voice trailed off. She had asked for the report from each Ensign so that they could gather all the lines they were working on separately and see if something would emerge to complete the web. There were still much that they didn’t know, but her mind kept filling in the holes, creating an image that looked even grimmer than what they already had seen.
Jovenan: So. Both the Kobyar and the Grunden have been in possession of outside technology. On both sides, the outside technology is identical and built from materials that are nominally easy to get hands on and therefore doesn’t reveal much of the constructor. Much of this technology sends a signal to something or someone who has a receiver in the system. This outside party is apparently capable of tracking said technology, and with the telescope, monitoring the system. They are either unaware or uncaring about the effects the technology may have on the soldiers in the field. And… just when a ceasefire is declared for the duration of our visit, the drones – which use said technology – attack locations in the Grunden side and near our locations, and another drone explodes near us, causing the war to resume.
Bancroft/Imril/Tho’Bi: Response
She didn’t want to get much further than that. It would have been too early to call it, but there was an itch to make the deduction here and there: someone was not only providing both sides with matériel and technology, they were orchestrating the war. After having a deep breath, she picked up the new device from the table and held it up, offering it to any of the Ensigns.
Jovenan: Regardless of the intention, there’s clearly a single group behind the interference with the societies here. They might be hiding their identities, but they might have made a mistake somewhere. Dirt on components, techniques used only by a single faction, DNA… ::pause:: We have to figure out who they are.
Bancroft/Imril/Tho’Bi: Response
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Lieutenant Commander Jovenan
Chief Science Officer
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11