Needle Acquired

Posted on Thu Jan 28, 2021 @ 8:23pm by Lieutenant Commander Ethan Brash & Lieutenant Skot Ryder & Lieutenant JG Finchley Kerr & Chief Petty Officer Shr'Nesh Karadis

Mission: Episode 2: Rising Tides
Location: USS Eagle, Deck 4, Science Lab 1
Timeline: Current
1576 words - 3.2 OF Standard Post Measure

After introducing Karadis and her having a few words with the other officers, Finchley pulled Karadis aside and took her to a console nearby.

"Ok, this is just going to be like every other Intel analysis job you've ever done, only nothing will be recorded, not even for SFI," Finchley said.

"Oh...how...you...surprise...me..." Karadis replied in a mock staccato voice.

Finchley looked surprised at the reply.

"Oh, come Finchley," Karadis said. "Think about it, you call me into a cloak and dagger meeting in a Science lab, with the XO and the Chief of Operations, not once do you mention SFI in any regards when normally that's the first thing you mention when we work together....actually it's normally the first thing you complain about when we work together."

"That's as maybe," Finchley began his reply, "but this time it's different; this time we're looking at a situation that has more complications than we would normally encounter."

"How so?" Karadis asked.

"Well, for one thing, this data core we have has more information in it than we'd anticipated," Finchley said.

"How much more?" Karadis asked.

"We're talking in the terraquads," Finchley replied.

Karadis nodded her head. "Best we get started then," she said "what am I looking for?" she asked.

"We're looking for any links between a Tzenkethi Minister, the Typhon Pact, a Romulan General called Ael, her assassination, and who could have done it," Finchley replied.

"Well, I have a few algorithms that can separate out some of the information into single files and a few that that can then cross-reference them." Karadis said, "I can't promise anything obviously, but I'll give it my best shot."

"We can't ask for any more than that," Finchley replied, "give me a shout if you have anything."

Karadis nodded and said, "Bring me everything I'm allowed to use, then leave me to it." she then turned to the console and began setting up her programs.

Finchley walked across to Ethan and Skot and said, "Ok, I've told Karadis as much as I can, but only about the Tzenkethi Minister, the Romulan General Ael, her assassination, and about trying to work out who did it. I need you both to give me as much information as you can to give to her so she can begin her analysis."

Skot turned back to the console he had been working at and moved his hands to compress the file he had been working on and transferring it over to the station Karadis had begun working at. He watched the young woman begin to work for a second before turning his gaze over to Finchley, "Let us see what your expert can do, Finchley."

Ethan nodded his crimson head, turning towards a section of the lab where he'd previously been keeping a sizable portion of the data for himself to look over. As he approached the glowing puzzle pieces, he wondered, briefly, if all of their dancing through the database would actually produce tangible results or if all their efforts were for nothing. Whoever this new girl was, he hoped she was all Finchley had made her out to be. With a glance back in her direction, Ethan managed a smirk full of confidence he, for the first time in a long while, didn't actually feel. Maybe if we just believe the answers are in here... He thought while his hands moved, pulling all the data he'd gathered into a single glowing ball, a compressed table-of-elements filling the space where a conglomeration of text used to be. Then everything will work out?

"Computer," Ethan said, "return data to LCARS format, disengage holographic interface. Save recent session data to local access server." A succession of affirmative beeps was followed by the room returning to its' normal illumination, no longer flooded with floating files.

Walking back over to Karadis, Finchley coded in a reference, and screens of information began pouring across the console screen. "Ok, it's time Karadis, let's see what we find."

----3 hours later----

Having worked feverishly for several hours, Karadis looked over to Finchley and gestured to him. Walking quickly over to her, he said, "What have you got?"

"Working within what you gave me to look for, I may have a couple of links," Karadis began. "It would appear that there's a Tzenkethi Minister called Ar'chmanci who worked with this General Ael as part of her staff. He was an Ambassador to her or at least some kind of advisor. General Ael was having doubts over Romulus being in the Typhon Pact and was trying to persuade the Senate to take the Romulans out of it altogether. What Ael didn't know was that Ar'chmanci was also holding secret talks with the Cardassians about them joining the Typhon Pact. Unfortunately, there's no actual transcript of what the discussions were between Ar'chmanci and the Cardassians, so I don't know how far they went, or have gone. However, Ar'chmanci wasn't just sending secret messages to the Cardassians. He was also sending messages elsewhere, but they're encoded, and I haven't found out yet where they were sent to or what it was about. I've set up a program to try and trace where it's being sent, but it'll take a good few hours to try and work that part out. The saddest part of this whole thing is the assassination of General Ael and who did it. As you know, the Romulans are very bloody-minded about things, and they don't like change, disorder, or dissent. Being in the Typhon Pact allowed the Romulans to rebuild their fleet and their power base, so the Senate having one of their Generals speaking out against being in the Pact horrified them, as coming out of it would mean they lost all their trade options to get the materials they required to help rebuild their fleet and rearm their soldiers. Having a Tzenkethi Minister on the General's staff afforded them an excellent opportunity to have 'an accident' occur, and the General would no longer be a problem for them. From what I can make out, the General was meant to go with Ar'chmanci to a Typhon Pact hierarchy meeting, but Ar'chmanci got unavoidably detained at another meeting. He told the General to take his personal shuttle and go to the hierarchy meeting as the pilot could be trusted and knew where the meeting was taking place. The General did take the shuttle, but the shuttle never made it to the meeting. It blew up three minutes into its' flight. Ar'chmanci blamed what happened to the shuttle on insurgents who wanted to derail the Pact and said he would investigate and find out who had assassinated the General. From what I've read, nothing was found, so the investigation was stopped. Intriguingly, Ar'chmanci then continued to send secret messages to the Cardassian and also elsewhere."

Finchley had to admit he was impressed with what Karadis had discovered "A very good job as always, Karadis."

"Not complete, though," Karadis replied. "I'm still working on where Ar'chmanci was sending those other messages, as I said it could be a while before we ha-" It was at that point there was a ping, and the screeds of information stopped rolling across the screen on the console. Karadis began furiously referencing what information was now showing onscreen.

"Well, I'll be damned." She said, "Seems the algorithm I set up managed to decode the coordinates of where the other secret messages were being sent."

"Download the information onto a PADD, quickly," Finchley said.

Grabbing one, Karadis did as she was asked and handed it to Finchley.

"You're worth your weight in gold-pressed latinum, Karadis!" Finchley said, taking the PADD and walking over to Skot and Ethan.

"Looks like we have an awful lot from the data core in regards to what we set Karadis to find out," he said to his fellow data miners.

A very satisfied-looking Operations Chief exhaled as if he'd been holding his breath for ages. "You were right to bring her here." Ethan nodded towards Karadis, "Job very-well done, miss!" He returned his attention to the PADD in Kerr's hands. "We need to get this to the Captain, immediately, eh?"

Skot was scanning the data before replying. "That's an understatement," he laughed. "Great work all of you, especially you, Finchley and Miss Karadis." A smile crept it's across his lips as he reviewed the team in front of him. "I will run this up to the Captain. You guys see if there is anything else you can dig up. Once I am done debriefing her, I will come back down and help out. Sound good?"

"Sounds good to me," Finchley said.

"Ehmmmm...before you do, Sir," Karadis said, looking at her console screen, "You may want to bring that PADD back to me for just a moment."

"Why?" Finchley asked.

"I did a very quick algorithm to try and trace where the 'other' messages, not the Cardassian ones, Minister Ar'chmanci was sending," Karadis replied, "and I just had a double hit on what appears to be replies. However, the fact that the algorithm managed to trace that there were replies isn't what's fascinating."

"What is then?" Finchley asked, now intrigued.

"The signatures of the replies are," Karadis said, "one's Klingon, the others Starfleet."

Ethan shook his head, "This just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?"