Fleet Captain Addison MacKenzie - Sabotage
Addison MacKenzie
With Commander K'Wara and Secretary Jetripar headed to another part of the complex to examine additional data, the rest of Captain MacKenzie's team found themselves under the watchful gaze of some poor disinterested security guard, no doubt meant to serve as the proxy responsible for ensuring the Starfleet crew didn't see anything they weren't supposed to...
MacKenzie: ::softly:: Not exactly forthcoming, is he?
Vitor shrugged and held up the data rod Jetripar gave him.
Silveira: Politicians… That’s to be expected. At least he cooperated. But honestly to me it looks too good to be true that they know this was the work of Chief Engineer Havun. And again… Why?
Breys: There are a lot of reasons for an engineer to steal a ship, especially when he had such a bad relationship with his boss.
She paused for a moment, pretending to study the readings on her tricorder, and Silveira crowded in closer.
MacKenzie: Do you think he had anything to do with it, or do you believe his story that it was definitely the Chief Engineer?
Silveira: It’s too early to believe in anything. The accounts we have could easily be tampered to frame the Chief Engineer. There’s certainly a conflict here, but that isn’t uncommon in Da’al culture. I just don’t want to rule out any scenario.
Ensign Breys also came in closer.
Breys: If it was the Chief Engineer, whatever they aren’t telling us about the warp drive is likely important.
MacKenzie nodded.
MacKenzie: Let's see if we can uncover any evidence or any data that might be helpful. ::gesturing toward a console::
Silveira: Also we should run the data that Jetripar gave us. I want to see if there isn’t… Any foreign pattern…
Breys: I’m not sure what you want me to look for.
MacKenzie: Anything out of the ordinary. ::offering a slight smirk, then prompting Vitor, knowing he would be more than happy to explain further:: Commander?
Vitor, in turn, offered his own wide grin, then launched into an explanation.
Silveira: I am not sure if any of you considered the possibility of outside influence? The Da’al don’t have many friendly neighbors and they were never on good terms with the Klingons. And there’s always the Suliban… What I mean is how fully original is the work on their prototype, and if their data doesn’t match any of the known antagonists… Or is it the protagonists… ? Any of the other key players around. Because another thing is bothering me... Where did they go?
Breys: I can look for some of the more common signs of tampering, but analyzing this data on the Artemis would let me cross reference it with the federation schematics databases to see if they creatively repurposed any ideas.
Breys looked at the guard next to them. They didn’t seem to care.
MacKenzie: Tampering... Or at the very least signs that are inconsistent with Da'al technology.
Vitor nodded and opened his arms, winking at MacKenzie and offering the data rod to Breys.
Silveira: Care to do some of that Science magic you Blues are so well spoken for?
Breys: I’ll see what I can find.
MacKenzie: I'll lend a hand.
Breys: So far everything seems standard, all the data uses the same formatting. None of the non-redacted schematics feel like neighboring tech.
MacKenzie: It's almost too perfect... As if it was manufactured to look this way.
Silveira: Response
Breys: That’s a great idea, if the data is fine, what if they missed the data’s data?
Silveira: Response
MacKenzie: What are you thinking, Ensign?
Breys: Look at this ::she points her tricorder at where she installed the data rod:: minor quantum fluctuations. Normally that could be background noise, but this pattern is too regular.
MacKenzie nodded slowly. Slowly, the threads were starting to reveal themselves.
MacKenzie: Like it was planted?
Silveira: Response
Breys: The Klingons are known to use encryption at the quantum level, but all that means for certain is some data on this rod passed through a Klingon computer at a point, or maybe just a computer someone bought from the Klingons.
Silveira: Response
Before she could answer, they were interrupted by the chirp of her commbadge.
Munro: =/\= Commander Munro to Captain MacKenzie=/\=
MacKenzie: =/\= Go ahead, Commander. =/\=
Munro: =/\= The hangar’s been destroyed, while we were trying to locate a jamming device we appear to have triggered some kind of booby trap. I think it would be safe to assume that there may be other traps =/\=
MacKenzie's face fell. It was a huge misstep, one that she hoped the Da'al wouldn't blame them for, but see it instead for what it was - likely an act of sabotage.
MacKenzie: =/\= What's the status of your team? =/\=
Munro: =/\= Everyone seems okay, Roy is checking them over now. I might have the location of the jamming device and :: pauses and looks at Imril :: Lt. Imril retrieved some information from the hangar files =/\=
MacKenzie: =/\= See what else you can uncover, but watch your step. =/\=
Munro: =/\= Understood, Captain. Munro out. =/\=
When the channel closed, MacKenzie offered an unamused look to Silveira.
MacKenzie: Complications.
Silveira/Breys: Response
MacKenzie pointed at the console.
MacKenzie: Whatever we do, we should do it methodically... We don't want to risk any possible corruption of the files, in case someone sabotaged these as well.
Silveira/Breys: Response
Commanding Officer
USS Artemis-A