Must Stop the Signal, Part 2

Posted on Mon 13th Aug, 2018 @ 6:21pm by Lieutenant Damion Ildaran
Edited on on Sun 19th Aug, 2018 @ 1:34am

1,460 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Oblivion
Location: Deck 1557
Timeline: MD2, 1025 hours

The sparkle of the medical transporter faded, and Damion glanced at Lt. Perry. "I hope they're able to remove that ring," he said. "She's a menace with it on and could still be a menace with it off. Were you able to ID her from the face scan?"

"Not immediately, which tells me she's either normally undercover and hasn't been caught, or she usually operates in a more central location in the Federation. She isn't Klingon or Romulan, so probably doesn't operate there, which is good for us. We don't get much cooperation from them on security issues or criminal issues either one. I've entered a trace search with the facial recognition database here, and sent a request to headquarters. Now we wait," Perry said, "though if Dr. Addams gets some DNA for us, that will be another marker where I can send out a trace.'

She looked around at her team. "Nice work, all of you, both with the woman and with clearing the site. Any evidence that someone else has been hanging out here with her?"

One of the women shook her head, "No, Ma'am, and I'd have to say she was living here, but alone unless someone could mask their presence better than I've ever seen. There's not one thing that showed up that isn't connected to the woman ... or a woman, at least."

Isabella nodded, "All right, thank you. Leave a couple of people at the end of the corridor, keeping it off limits until we're finished. You stay, and the rest can return to their station. Crime doesn't stop just because we caught a big case here."

"Yes, Ma'am," the sergeant said, turning immediately to follow directions.

Perry turned back to the man next to her. "You want to lead the way? You're more experienced in this spy business. That was a fast catch on that ring she was wearing."

"It's a bulkier ring than I'd have expected a woman like her to wear. That reminded me of a Kazon-Nistrim poison ring," Damion explained. "I've only ever seen a picture of one of those, but once I saw her wearing the ring she had on, I had to look. I didn't expect to actually find a poison ring."

"Not the kind of thing we usually expect a suspect to have, is it?" Isabella said, following him into the room. It was a large room, but appeared to be more of a cargo area than any kind of quarters. One corner did have a bed and a table, so someone had been living here. Or perhaps they napped while waiting for instructions.

"Interesting. She could have rented a sleeping pod but instead holed up in here," Damion said. "Much less convenient to do that, and being that this isn't normal living quarters, bound to look odd for her to be seen going in and out. I don't see any food or water in here, and no toilet."

"Probably not too many people wandering around down here to see her. She may have chosen her times to come and go. Why don't you take that table, see if there's anything of interest to your department, and I'll check out the equipment she was using for transmittal," the security chief said.

"I'd like a quick look at the transmitter, too," Damion said. He walked over to the table it lay on with Isabella. "The thing's tiny. She could slip it into her purse."

"And probably did," Perry replied. She looked carefully at the set up, not touching anything, but getting an idea about how things were set up. Pulling out her scanner, she set it for print impressions and skin oil content, and began to pass it over the small device. "Computer, analyze data for number of individuals touching equipment," she ordered, once the scan was complete. Then she nodded toward it. "You ever see anything like this before? Have any idea where it was made?"

"Vulcan," Damion said after a moment. "Look how ergonomic it is, for operation with either hand."

"I'll take your word for that part. Do you think we can trace it back and find out who acquired it? I'm guessing it would be almost impossible, because these people are obviously prepared to do anything at all to succeed.

"I only wish I knew what it is they want. Their end goal ... this is a Federation starbase, a huge facility. What do they think they can accomplish here?" Perry mused. "Surely they don't think they can take the base? Even if they did, the cost they would pay doing it, and once the Federation forces arrived here would make it too expensive, unless a madman is running things." She reflected a moment on that. "Or a mad woman." She shook her head, partly in frustration.

"So anything on the desk?"

"I'm not picking up any hidden compartments or electronics in the table." Damion knelt and ducked his head below the table. "Nothing on the underside, either."

Isabella laughed, "Are you telling me that sometimes a table is just a table? Did you do a molecular scan? Maybe there's something buried in one of the legs. Or, and I don't mean to tell you your business, but I need to leave nothing unexplored. Do the drawer depth and length match inside and outside, so there's no possibility of a small compartment?"

Damion laughed along with her. "It looks like a perfectly ordinary table to me, but yes, I can perform a molecular scan."

"There has to be something somewhere. They're good, but even the best make mistakes," Isabella said, looking around the room for something, anything that might help them track the woman and the people for whom she worked.

"Excellent point," Damion said. He donned a pair of examination gloves that he kept in a pocket and pulled out the drawer from the table to examine it. "The drawer's interior looks the right size. Let's see if the bottom is false."

Isabella was a hands-on investigator, but her years in supervisory positions had taught her patience and the ability to stand back and let someone else have the hands on, while they conferred in an investigation. The lieutenant was prepared with gloves, and this scene didn't call for more.

"Wouldn't that be a nice gift?" the security chief asked, hoping but not expecting.

Damion shrugged. "The poison ring is oddly low-tech, so maybe our signal lady is low-tech in other ways, as well." He studied the bottom of the drawer. "Well, it's not flush wi' the sides." Damion picked at it with a fingertip. "Are your fingernails long enough to dig at this a bit? I clipped mine yesterday."

Isabella reached out a hand and received the drawer. She took her turn at digging in the area in question and then pulled a nail file out of a pocket of her uniform. "I find this comes in handy for everything from subduing criminals to filing hangnails," she said. "Maybe it will now be the tool we need."

After a moment, she changed from a digging motion to a scraping one. "Here we go," she drawled. "Something's stuck on here. I don't think it's a data chip, exactly ... no, it isn't." She peeled off the thin and sticky bit which matched the color of the bottom of the drawer. Dropping the nail file on the table and putting the drawer down, as well, she managed to unfold a piece of paper.

"Interesting, low tech, and not found often," she mused. Perry copied the paper into her scanner and then handed it to the intelligence officer. "It makes no sense to me. Some kind of code, maybe?"

"At the moment, I'm just startled she wrote it on actual paper, with an ink pen," Damion said. "I've not seen that since I left home. Have you an evidence bag?"

"Hmm," Isabella said and pulled one out of a pocket. "It is strange, but perhaps because of the way it was hidden? Not much else would have been so easy to hide in that way. It does seem that a small gel chip or even a fingernail decoration on her manicure might have been easier, though."

Perry looked around the room. "I suspect that's all we're going to find, and having found it, there's no need to waste more time. I'll send a forensics crew in to go over every inch, but I doubt there's anything else." She pointed to the evidence bag, "Take that up to Miller and see what the two of you can figure out. That's more your work than mine, but I am curious what you find out, if it doesn't break the Secrecy Act. It was good working with you."

 

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