Elementary, My Dear Drake

Posted on Wed 10th May, 2017 @ 9:10am by Lieutenant JG Kellian Michaels & Colonel Horatio Drake
Edited on on Wed 10th May, 2017 @ 11:22am

1,169 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Wrongs Darker Than Death Or Night
Location: Deck 1500: Section 49 Alpha
Timeline: MD-02: 2230 Hours

ON:
The journey from the Senior Officers' briefing room on deck 14 to Michaels' office on deck 577 had taken approximately eight minutes, but Drake was so deep in thought he was acting autonomously and didn't even realise his journey was over until he had entered the office complex. He walked through a small maze of laboratories and testing areas before arriving at the Investigations Officers' door... it slid open obediently as he got closer.

"Lieutenant" Drake nodded as he entered, stopping a few feet away from his desk and placed his hands on his hips. "What have you found?".

Kellian stood and saluted. "Colonel, thank you for coming. Please have a seat." He leaned over his desk and activated the privacy lock before speaking further. Then he swiveled his computer screen so that Drake could see it. The screen contained strings of jumbled text in red interspersed with lines of comprehensible text in black print. Far more red print showed on the screen than black.

"What we have is a mess," Kellian said, "objectively and figuratively." He pointed at the screen. "Firstly, a lot of the data had either degraded or was damaged in the explosion and lost. Secondly, whoever wrote this material did not want it to be seen by anyone who didn't have the key. The encryption method is cutting edge for its time, but old--about 15-20 standard years old, according to LCARS. It is also double encrypted, using two different key-strings to encrypt two different parts of the data. One part of the data pertains to the day-to-day operations of the lab you found. The other part of the data is observations and analyses of test results, probably something that Dr. Addams could make more sense of than I. What I could understand of it was bad enough." Kellian flicked a glance at Drake. "I think you need to see this particular section, sir. It implies that someone very high-up in Starfleet was overseeing the research. Computer, display text onscreen starting at line 5028-A."

The monitor display shifted, to show nearly a full screen of black text.

Drake had been leaning on Kellian's desk to get a better look at the screen, but he almost jumped up at his statement. "Starfleet? You're saying that Starfleet were responsible for... for that laboratory of horrors? There's got to be some sort of mistake, Lieutenant! Are you absolutely sure?" Deep down he knew that he was sure - if he had learned one thing working with Kellian, it was that he was meticulously thorough and took great pride in his work. He simply wouldn't have made the statement if he didn't believe it to be true.

Kellian nodded. "I don't like what that says," he told Drake with a brief glance at the computer screen, "but the facts that we know bear it out. Vanguard was a Starfleet base when this particular encryption method was used--and the encryption method was developed by Starfleet Intelligence; it's right there in the LCARS citation." Kellian tapped his screen and brought up an LCARS window containing the entry. "It's possible that someone might have hacked the computer system at Intel to steal the encryption, but altering the plans of Vanguard so that their design change appears in the blueprints...no. That could not have been authorized by a civilian."

Drake stared at Kellian and then back to the screen, he could scarcely believe what he was being told. Starfleet had condoned... or even actioned... the atrocities that had taken place on Vanguard. For now, he had to accept that and put it to one side.

He sighed, "Anything else?"

"For what it's worth, I think even most Starfleet brass didn't know about this lab," Kellian said. "While Ensign Chanar worked on the decryption of these files, I checked Lt. Commander Breaux's travel and communication records for the three months before his disappearance. So far as I can determine, he received no orders to report to Vanguard. He had no encrypted messages and no deleted messages that couldn't be determined to be normal deletions; everything was an open book. He planned to meet his family on Earth for a reunion in New Orleans; they wrote back and forth extensively. Between his arrival at Starbase 41 and his expected departure on the freighter Roland, he simply vanished.

"So I checked vessels coming in to Vanguard during that time. I came across something interesting. A freighter bringing in medical supplies, the Pauling, dropped off its cargo and departed. An hour after its departure from here it exploded, killing all hands. A warp core malfunction was determined to be the cause. Its manifest listed its cargo as 'biological tissue samples and stem-cell growth cultures,' but the weight given on the manifest is far heavier than I'd expect for even a few pallet-loads of Petri dishes." He paused. "The Pauling wasn't docked at Starbase 41, but it was orbiting Beta Ardeia, the same planet the starbase orbits. I can't prove a direct connection without Starbase 41's flight control reports from that time period, but it would be easy enough to transport Breaux by shuttle to the Pauling if he was kidnapped from the starbase."

"When did this all take place?" Drake refolded his arms and furrowed his brow, as if wanting to put the pieces of this puzzle together but not knowing what the picture was.

"Commander Breaux disappeared about 15 years ago, after the Dominion War and after the FCDA took over here," Kellian said.

Drake frowned, none of this was making any sense at all.

"In your opinion, Lieutenant, the person overseeing these experiments... would they have been an engineer or a physicist?" He knew that Kellian wasn't the most qualified person to answer the question - he dealt in fact and was being asked for speculation. Dr. Addams or Lieutenant Shepard would have been better people to ask. But there was something about Kellian that made him trust his judgement, believe in his opinions.

Kellian thought about that. "I would say that whoever was in charge of the 49-Alpha lab most definitely had to be an engineer, biomedical engineer, or cyberneticist, something like that, given all the pseudo-Borg implants I saw in there. You'd need a neurosurgeon or two, as well. As for that guy's boss at Starfleet HQ? Maybe that person could have an engineering or similar background, but there's no way to know. Whoever that guy is or was, he or she knows how to hide in plain sight and is very good at being the spider controlling the web. I hope that person has long since retired."

Drake nodded slowly, thinking. "Do we have any more information?"

"I'm checking the place for fingerprints and have already collected several. I'll run them through FFIS and let you know what I find."

"Very good" He nodded... remaining silent. Something was very wrong with this picture.

OFF:

Colonel Horatio Drake
Commanding Officer
&
Lieutenant Kellian Michaels
Security Investigations Oficer

 

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