The “Milli-Cochrane Caper” {Act 3.1}

Posted on Fri 16th Apr, 2021 @ 11:53am by Renato Solis & Commander Paul Graves PsyD & Lieutenant Commander Alora Baro & Lieutenant Commander Dallas Briggs & Khellian s'Siedhri MD & Lieutenant JG Kellian Michaels
Edited on on Wed 25th Aug, 2021 @ 5:40am

1,754 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Business Not At All As Usual
Location: Deck 2248; 220-A
Timeline: MD 4, 1800

*Revised 08/24- AG

-Start-

{Reigate Conference Lounge Deck 7}

Don't breathe too heavy... okay but don't hold your breath... palms are dripping wet, so hot I am leaving condensation on the table... okay... just breathe...

It didn't help Renato could feel their emotional tenor. Nobody wanted to be here. He looked at Kya and Reon, sitting closely together without sitting too close. Paul was here as well, and it helped. As all eyes turned to him, he felt the enormous need to use anything to take the edge off. Outwardly he only took a steadying breath.

"To begin..." He laid out his well-rehearsed five-minute presentation of facts and dates, he concluded with, "I believe he is here on the station, within a hidden area or rebuilt portion."

"So you're saying this is something real, something concrete, and not some sort of alien incorporeal life form or ... whatever?" Reon asked. He wanted to reach over and hold Kya's hand. Though she had placed one on top of the other in her lap, he saw the small tremor she wasn't able to control. Well, why not? This was scary business for him, and he had experience with scary business.

Renato shook his head, "My prevailing theory is leading towards a mechanical source, and Mister Theophilus Boule is human."

Reon nodded and smiled slightly. "I concur. There is a human source of mayhem behind this."

Ashrin, an Andorian male shorter than typical in stature, sat at the far end of the table eyeing everybody. His antennae twitched at the slightest provocation at any mood shifts he detected. There were certainly a few. Not that they didn't typically twitch. Running security in the Brown Sector was quite an adventure of its own. He could likely be more if his own addictions didn't keep him chained at times. He had his own suspicions but would listen to Renato before speaking. Until then he'd continue to observe. Everyone.

Ming sat at the table and tried to keep an open mind. She never took anything for granted or at face value, she couldn't afford to. She had to be skeptical even with a certain amount of facts. This wasn't her station, she was just acting Chief until Commander Dallas Briggs returned then who knows where she would go from here. If she botched up this situation and it became a total pooch screw then she would be held accountable and more than likely be kicked off the station and would have black marks on her record. She would never get vouched out for a new assignment for a Head of Security. She continued to observe and listen to see what everyone brought to the table. She was the new kid here.

Renato felt the eyes of the room and managed not to burp acid in anxiety. The pressure of the Security personnel scanning and judging his every word and motion made him sick. With a swallow and breath, those mental shields he worked so hard for clamped down.

He stuttered for a second but got the sentence started, "I...I...I know you all....uhhh... likely have your doubts, please consider the facts as a set, despite the apparent disconnect. We know that there are places within Brown Sector that have been rebuilt. We know the last time Brown Sector was thoroughly mapped was more than twelve years ago. Theophilus lost his job, wife, career when they caught him experimenting with transporter technology.

"When Theophilus came here, it was to use the Starbase for access to power and supplies to continue his experimentation with transporter technology. We found his body, but continue to see him walking around. He is alive, possibly using the transporter in a way to clone himself, among other hobbies, but motives are unclear. What remains for us is to understand what he is doing, and where he is operating from.

"To that end, I am asking we use a light touch, have Brown Sector security go in to find these hidden places. Starfleet won't be welcomed down there, and even the smallest sniff of uniformed officers will rile up the locals. I leave the rest to your authority, though I have ideas on where to start, as well."

"This is a matter of concern if for no other reason than that one person is already dead, and Mr. Boule's experiments pose a possible threat to the starbase power grid," Paul said. "So far, his use has not exceeded the base's capacity. We have no way of knowing what further experiments he is developing, however, or how much energy they might require."

"I agree that a light touch should be used here." Ming began, "However, as previously stated, one person has already been killed. The Brown Sector Security doesn't have the manpower or the resources to handle such an extensive search over such a large area." She hoped she had her facts right since she had very little time to go over all the information given her about the station and the Brown Sector. "I have already received word from the Station's Commander wanting results now and that Starfleet has to lend a hand."

Studying her for a moment, the Andorian considered his reply. Working with Starfleet wasn't high on his list but getting this resolved sooner, rather than later, would allow him to go back to making his time his own and dealing with the status quo in the sector. "I'll put together what maps I have, I can't promise they're the most accurate but are hopefully more up to date than anything you may have at the moment." He wasn't much of a coordinator but had a few resources that could help.

Kya spoke up, not realizing what she was volunteering for. "We saw the man." She referred to Reon at her side. "We searched that whole block high and low, and he simply vanished. Tricorders didn't detect a trail, either. You say this is a Human, but I can assure you this is something worse. People won't like it, but they probably won't like being haunted, either."

Renato took her cue with a nod, "The man who suffered a seizure was Argelian, his telepathic cortex overloaded from stimulus, but he is recovering at present. We have a body in the morgue, which shows the response to this inflagrante can vary. We haven't had a chance to interview him, but Deputy Kiro finally gave a statement and description of what he saw before his eyes were injured. The specter in pain, and screaming, afraid even. My intuition is that these ghosts are tied to the experiments Theophilus was performing, and not to a malicious action. We will need to speak to his ex-wife again to gain more insight as to what he was doing last she saw him."

Finding his place to interject, Eberstark added, "I would like to be part of that next conversation with the ex-wife, if you don't mind."

It was one of the few leads they had at present, and Andrew wanted to be sure they weren't overlooking a clue by not asking the right questions or deliberately being deceived.

"I can arrange that," Paul said, "but she didn't seem to know many details when we last spoke with her."

"Does anyone else know him? Did something traumatic happen to him to cause this ... separation from normal behavior?" Reon asked. He was staying close to Kya, protectively close, and he hoped it didn't make her uncomfortable. He wasn't in the habit of putting women in dangerous positions, or leaving them there if they were in one. He liked Kya and wanted a friendship with her, but he wasn't willing to leave her on her own in this dangerous place and situation.

"She didn't say, when we spoke with her," Paul replied. "But she did indicate a long-term, growing obsession with transporter technology and unethical use of it that surprised her." He glanced at the Security staff and Renato. "If you're interested, I was able to obtain both Boule's examination for transporter specialist certification and the report from his last employer regarding the illicit transporter lab that he had set up before he was forced to relocate it to his home. I suspect Commander Baro could explain the paperwork far better than I can."

Frustrated, Velasquez said, "I feel like everyone here is battling a bobbing balloon in a dark alley!"

"Clever people like this can feel like the boogy man." The engineer finally spoke up. She'd been listening mostly but part of her mind was reviewing what she'd learned from the paperwork, it was beyond what she would have considered, that was for sure.

"No doubt he is so, but even the most clever are still creatures of habit. Especially if you go back far enough, wherein you may find clues or mistakes that can help with later behavior." She paused again, "I'm not sure I've ever used the words 'Monstrously Elegant' before, but they fit here. The overall idea of his experiments or interest seemed to be DNA splicing, using the process of transporting multiple sentients to essentially mix and match before they reformed." Baro paused again a bit disturbed.

Something rang a bell in Reon's head. Where had he heard something being discussed in Orchids & Jazz ... something Daneel had said about one of their customers ... an Aenar? He couldn't bring it to the surface, but he'd ask when he got back. There could be a connection.

Continuing, the engineer said, "His certification exam responses focused heavily on exactly how the operator affected reformation of the one transported. We essentially trust the operator to put us back the way we started, but he seemed to have other plans. He was determined to 'improve' what he saw as 'raw material'. His answers seemed to be especially focused on modifying the genetics related to aging." She stopped there, letting people adjust to what she'd told them so far.

"So he was trying to affect the telomeres and the senescent cells? But wouldn't it be easier to just copy a baseline pattern of himself at some particular age in the pattern buffer, save the pattern, and then simply force that pattern any time he rematerializes in that one transporter? That's how I would do it," Paul said. "But perhaps that is so obvious an idea that transporters have built-in fail-safes against attempts to do such a thing."

Yet, Velasquez wondered, would that be enough for this man? Just to duplicate and change himself?

 

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