Ensign Gavrin Tarsan - Side By Side
Sean Sabbage
(( The Afalqi Project, Hangar 1659 – Meranuge IV ))
Having thoroughly embarrassed himself getting perhaps a little too excited over the idea of getting his hands on interesting ship specs, Gavrin was now discussing with Imril the best place to start.
Tarsan: ::to Imril:: Lieutenant, where would you like to start? If- uh if you don't mind, I can pick up the engine specs?
Gavrin’s PADD beeped as Imril sent over the specs to it, the Ensign peeking thoughtfully at it as he set it beside the console he was poking at
Imril: Right now, while we have access to the hangar and it’s computers, I’m going to go see what those computers have to say about what happened here. But we’re going to go over all of these so-called specs soon enough. See what’s there. What doesn’t need to be there. What probably shouldn’t be there. What all of those things put together can tell us about the parts of the ship that we’re not allowed to see.
Imril: My guess is if there’s something aboard the Afalqi that our hosts don't want us to know about, it might be something the theives thought was important or valuable enough to take control of for their own reasons.
Gavrin skimmed the specs on his PADD, comparing them to the Da’al’s console specs, seeing if he could spot any differences as he and the Lieutenant conferred.
Tarsan: I was thinking that I might check for any technology that would have allowed them to escape from the hanger without being seen, wormhole generators, and so on?
Imril: If a wormhole had come through this area, we’d be picking through the pieces of a disaster area. So I think we can rule that out. But you've got a good idea, so run with it. Go ahead and scan this place from top to bottom while you're at it. We may want to rebuild this crime-scene in a Holodeck later.
Gavrin nodded. Something he should have considered, but he forced himself not to feel too foolish about it - there was a reason he was the most junior officer here. He set a search running on his PADD as he pulled out a scanning drone, fiddling with its settings before releasing it to get a full scan of the entire hanger.
Munro: :: to Cole :: What you got Lieutenant?
Cole: ::eyes focused:: It's what I don’t have that interests me more.
In the distance, Roy initiated a sensor sweep.
Cole was not far off, moving along the perimeter with methodical pace.
Bancroft: ::idly:: Place seems pretty intact for having just hosted a large-scale heist, no?
Cole: If this was a heist there would be signs of haste ::gestureing:: skid marks, things knocked over in the hustle.
Imril climbed up a ladder as they spoke.
Imril: It screams ‘inside job’ pretty loudly. We already know that the ship’s Chief Engineer appears to be involved. Maybe they had help on the administrative or security side of things?
Munro: Let’s hope Commander Jovenan and the others can get some answers to that question, they are searching the Chief Engineer’s office. This place is eerie. Like everyone just upped and downed sticks?
To emphasise her point, Ava picked up a toolkit that had been left abandoned on the floor. It had been well used, on the box a name written in the Da’al script had been scrawled on it.
Munro: Engineers don’t just leave their tools unattended - especially if they go to the trouble of welding their name on the box.
Gavrin blinked, looking over towards Munro, his attention pulled out of his data skimming.
Tarsan: Maybe they thought they were coming back?
Bancroft: Right. I mean – even the chairs at the consoles. Not a single one out of place. They’re all even pointed the right direction.
Cole: ::looking over to the console:: Feels like they definitely had help covering their steps. I doubt they took the time to ‘Close shop’ before they left.
Imril: The ship’s transponder wasn't picked up in the skylanes by local traffic scanners or any privately-own scanners that the local police are aware of. The more mundane reasons for that would be that someone installed a second transponder, or the thieves had help from outside this facility in covering their passage to open space.
Imril: ::Calling to Tarsan:: Any news on more interesting ways of getting away unobserved, Ensign Tarsan?
Munro: Run a transponder signal, see if there’s any jamming in place?
Gavrin considered the specification search that was running, glancing at the results on his PADD. He flicked another instruction to the scanning drone to try and pick up any issues with transponders. There was something bugging him about the specifications as he read through them, but he couldn’t quite figure it out.
Tarsan: I’m not seeing any specific stealth technology, but… there’s something in the results that’s not lining up. Give me a minute.
Roy’s tricorder trilled.
Bancroft: ::frowning:: PCE-4? A tiny amount, but it’s definitely PCE-4. This is just a hangar, right? Not a clean room?
Cole: In a place this tidy, the wrong trace isn’t background noise. It’s intentional. ::beat:: Details matter.
Cole: In a room this controlled, a tiny amount of the wrong thing says more than a mess would.
Imril: I know PCE-4 is the go-to sterilizer in Starfleet. But how common is it on this planet?
Gavrin let the conversation flow over him, frowning deeply at the console. He checked the specs on his PADD, then over to the console. There was definitely something wrong with the data.
Munro: If they made an effort to hide something that would tell us that there is more to the story than meets the eye. Something that would require a full sterilisation?
Imril: I’ve got hangar computer access. Looking up Security sub-directories.
Munro: Tarsan, how are you getting on with the transponder signal? Roy, try and find me anything at all, a morsel of DNA could tell us anything.
Tarsan: ::checking the results from the drone:: I’ve got nothing on the transponder, Commander. It was like it was there one moment and gone the next. But I’d normally expect a shutdown signal and there’s nothing. There’s something weird in the interference pattern, though…?
Cole: The room feels arranged. Not staged exactly… but managed.
Bancroft: ::to Munro:: I’d give my second pip for so much as a fallen eyelash right now, Commander.
Imril: Surprise, surprise. More redactions. Some of them dating back to when the Afalqi was first docked here.
Munro: Does it indicate who has access to those redactions?
Cole: If the records are selective and the room is selective, I’d start by assuming the same hands touched both.
Tarsan: Is this above and beyond the redactions that the Da’al agreed with us?
Bancroft: If the device that blocked the signal is still here – and wasn’t ‘cleaned’ with everything else in this hangar – how would we locate it?
Imril: Would it be terribly undiplomatic of me if I started peeking behind some of these black bars?
Munro: :: reluctant sigh :: Let’s try and find out what we need staying in the lines of diplomacy. The captain is with their Minister now, I don’t think it would help if he found out we tried to hack their system. You and Tarsan are going to have to get me some answers based on the access you have. Go help them, ensign.
Gavrin nodded, picking up his PADD from where he’d left it, taking a second copy of the specifications on the console he was looking at before going to join Imril on the balcony. He kept frowning at his PADD on the way up, and by the time he got to the Lieutenant he had realised what was bugging him.
Tarsan: Lieutenant.. There’s something wrong in the specifications they’ve given us. The ones you sent me differ very slightly from the ones on the access console, which were the ones the engineers were actually working with. The redactions are the same but… there’s some really subtle changes
Imril: response
Tarsan: ::showing them on the PADD, laying the specs side by side:: I can’t see it all because of the redactions, but look at the engine design. On this one it’s a few meters to the left of the other. Which leaves an empty space. And there’s other tiny differences that if you weren’t looking at both sets side-by-side you wouldn’t see.
Imril: response
Tarsan: ::nodding:: Exactly - I think the engineers were adding extra things that weren’t on the design and falsifying the design documents they were sending their bosses, but they left their original documents here.
Imril: response
Gavrin opened his mouth to respond, but the noise of machinery moving dragged his attention over to see the gantry shifting suddenly where the other team were working.
Tarsan: Uh, is it meant to do that??
Imril: response
Munro/Cole/Bancroft: responses?