The “Milli-Cochrane Caper” {Act 3.1b}

Posted on Wed 1st Sep, 2021 @ 6:05pm by Commander Paul Graves PsyD & Renato Solis

1,269 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Waging Peace
Location: Deck 2248; 220-A
Timeline: MD 4, 1815

Previously...

Renato was itching to get out there, he finally had security and people to go in force to root this bastard out. The idea of remapping Brown Sector was tedious and fraught with a whole different peril.

And now

{Zodiac}

Allie appreciated the officers who had questioned her earlier, but the night had gone long and the manhunt yielded no results. When they came back to search her small one-room apartment they had given up pretense of asking. She had four men in her apartment now, scanning the corners and cracks all over. Two of them had taken to tapping the walls with a metal stylus listening for pitch changes. They had moved her furniture, wrinkled the folded quilt she had not used since her baby had gone. They said it was a choice but when she said "no" the men had only sighed deeply and proceeded onwards.

An hour of rhythmic tapping drove her to the brink and she finally had enough. Bajora were known for quick tempers and sage souls, she forgot the sage when she raged at the tallest security officer, "Have you had enough? What would I be hiding in my walls, is this not outrageous? Who is your commanding officer, Computer!, Identify the men in this room! I want names and ranks!"

Kellian Michaels sighed and shook his head over yet another fruitless scan. "I am still Lt(jg) Kellian Michaels, and my supervising officer is Lt. Commander Dallas Briggs, Ma'am. I apologize for the disruption, but there have been deaths and injuries. We know you're not hiding anything, but someone is, and it's near this area."

***

The shouting was not just from Allie's small unit, Every Section A-S, on five decks around the Zodiac had security scanning the corridors, sometimes visually if the scans came back inconclusive. Renato was adamant his searches would be gentler, but after the fifth one and the fifth argument his patience was also wearing thin. He heard Allie shouting but had no time to devote to that potential injustice, Kellian was as professional as they came so he could spare the worry. The internal scans had ruled out many areas, the hard target searches a necessity for areas unable to be scanned to the molecule with accuracy. Of his list of a dozen stops, he knew none of them were accurate. He wanted to skip ahead but Starfleet wanted a grid search, no jumps out of the pattern. With the noise they were making while searching it would certainly give Theo time to hide.

He spoke to the two officers with him. "It's not... none of these would have the materials and ability to hide a transporter, it's just we can't skip it without... Let's focus on the ones with power trunk access near the station power grid.

Hokkim objected, "We were told to follow our stops, a grid search fails if the grid isn't maintained-

"It's not skipping, we are just saying 220-M is first, then we go down the row. I will be expanding my sense so think pure thoughts.... Oof that's classy, Oksana."

Oksana giggled a bit, "220-M: A4 has a daycare above the unit. It's an overwatch to half the M section."

Renato nodded, "Right... So not there, easy to mark that off, just pop your head in right? Ummmm, ona hunch we are looking for a windowless room that backs up to the ancillary Engineering storage bays, or somewhere with access to abundant power."

Oksana nodded, "220-O is on our list, runs along the central abyss?"

He nodded, "So it is, ok let's go then."

Hokkim objected again not running with them, they stopped to listen, "I'll continue the search along this corridor then, by myself."

Sharing a glance, Oksana and Renato couldn't be bothered. Oksana updated the grid with their next area, all around Renato felt the tensions of the people rise to the invasion from Starfleet. Oksana followed Renato to the turbolift at a jog. "Meet you at the other side, Hoke." she called out to him in gentle encouragement." The two finally arrived at the top level of the Zodiac. Oksana scanned the abutments and got no anomalies. No scanner blinds here. Hokkim finished a moment later and approached from another angle.

"See, twice as fast." Renato smirked but Hokkim grimaced. Renato would often smile moments before doing something nasty to the poor lawman taking him in. Hoke remembered the eye gouge, it wasn't the sort of thing you forgot. same smile, ,it was an impish grin and that was telling.

Paul Graves approached Renato and the two security personnel with him. "Renato, there is a lot of displeasure over Security intruding on these decks. I need to explain to many people at once what is going on and why we are being so invasive. May I use the community center for that? These people are owed an explanation, and they need one fast."

Ready to charge into the interior, seeing Paul was a dose of reality. He was getting heady and needed to rein it in before he got manic. Clamping the mental muscles down helped as well, agitated people bred an agitated telepath. He nodded at his friend, agreeing while only half listening.

"Yes, anything you need." He realized brushing Paul off was unacceptable and really gave a thoughtful answer a beat later. "We have a PA at my place, Zodiac does too... Shouldn't be difficult to simulcast. Jonko, the Tellarite to my left, has access to the station Comm panels for his ads... Yeah I'll have him route it all to the Community Center, but..." He looked to the two officers, realizing what he needed to do. "Oksana, take Deputy Hokkim and finish the Grid the way it should be done, I'll skip ahead and try to see if we can spare the heartache any sooner."

Oksana nodded sharply and Hokkim followed her, Alora showed up with her equipment and Oksana immediately moved to her for more official orders. Renato felt the expectation to go with Paul but his obsessions demanded satisfaction. Theo was hiding somewhere, and finding him was the sole objective. It was an awkward beat, chasing his raison d'etre while feeling the pull of civic responsibility. Renato hesitated, frozen in indecision, not willing to offend Paul but unable to go with him either.

"Paul, I have to go see this through, do you need me?"

Paul shot Renato a quick smile. "No. Go do whatever you need to do, and I will take care of this."

Alora smiled at Oksana, "Right I'm just going to set up here, with the equipment I have, my mapping program will scan and lay out the area but will only worry accurately up to a certain range." She said, opening a small briefcase and then another case. The second case held little rectangular metal spiders. The first held a computer. She tapped keys and the dozen spiders came to life and scattered, "It's what took me so long, I had to reprogram some sensor bots. Shouldn't even need to go into quarters unless it finds something that needs further investigating..." She explained tapping away as she knelt on the floor in the hall.

Paul gazed with interest at Baro's collection of delicate spider devices. "I like these! Don't let the kids get too close, though, or they will want them." He glanced at Alora. "I take it this means we can call off the room-by-room search. People here will appreciate that. Thank you, Commander. Excellent way of handling this."

 

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