Investigator or Investigated

Posted on Mon Feb 6th, 2012 @ 11:48am by Captain Alexsa Kendrick

680 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Fishing
Location: Personal Officer's Quarters, Deck 5
Timeline: After "Trials and Tribulations", Before "Going Down"

With the altogether unpleasantness of the last meeting with Halliwell and Lieutenant Shepherd out of the way, Kendrick retreated back to her new quarters that were assigned to her. They were a only a little smaller than the VIP guest ones that she summarily dismissed herself from due to her inability to curb her temper earlier. It was a spartan area, plain walls, no plants, the only ornamentation was a vase on the small table in the lounge area, but they served their purpose. They had a bed, a sonic shower, a replicator, and a brand new terminal with which she garnered very little clearance from still, just Delta-Two.

Not that it mattered all that much now. With the agreement of Mister Shepherd to help in any way he could, and Halliwell reconsidering her decision to downgrade Kendrick's computer clearances, Alex still had other means of gathering information, still had other avenues to explore, at least before formal interviews commenced. Despite her reckoning earlier, now wasn't quite the right time to be conducting interviews. Even her scheduled meeting with Lieutenant Shepherd had to be postponed. The Ranger was about to dive into the oceans of Taylforth, even after she'd made her objections abundantly clear and determinations on how it might look on Halliwell's record to the Captain herself, and the Baden Powell was to be staying in orbit until their ascension. No now was not the time at all.

"Computer, access the recording stored on the device located in the senior staff briefing lounge. Display the transcript for the past hour." What Alex saw on the screen was not the information she asked for. "What the hell is this?" She asked more rhetorically than anything else, when the data on the monitor changed, and started cycling through reports and details of the Murasaki Quasar, the M-317 system, the battle details and logs of Wolf 359, culinary delights of the Gamma Quadrant--a Ferengi perspective, a report of a Betazoid bio-survey... "Computer stop! What is this, this is not what I requested."

"Transcript of recording device, serial number one-three-eight-dash-two displayed on screen."

"No it isn't, this is nonsensical garbage. Where's the transcript of my meeting with Captain Halliwell and Lieutenant Shepherd?"

"No such transcript exists on the recording device requested." The computer replied.

And then it suddenly dawned on her--an infobomb. Or that's what the unofficial designation was, and it was the only one that fit the current situation. She also needed confirmation. "Computer, what about the device located on the Baden Powell? Show me the transcript for the past five minutes." Alex knew there would be very little, if anything but if it was as she suspected, she would see something very similar.

She didn't. The file came up blank barring a pre-flight check by the maintenance staff, and a file transfer of the coming mission for the shuttle to remain in orbit. "And the Captain's Ready Room?" Again she saw what she wanted to see, a few transcripts detailing a short conversation between Halliwell and Commander Michaels, Halliwell ordering a drink from her replicator, even a sound wave recording of Halliwell humming for about twelve point seven seconds before she presumably caught herself doing it and stopped.

"Well well, Lieutenant Shepherd, you crafty little bugger." Alex started mumbling to herself more amused than angry. "It looks like you've found one of my bugs but not all. No matter. Computer isolate device one-three-eight-dash-two and rotate the transponder frequency."

"Confirmed."

"Repeat last command every zero point one seconds, and mark previous recorded cycle as read-only under security confirmation Kendrick echo-charlie-two, then run a copy command to my personal storage sector and classify both segments as Level Four."

"Confirmed." the computer repeated.

It would probably take a little while to confirm that it was working again, although if what she suspected was true, it would not work for very long. Alex suspected that she was now on an extremely tight and short leash, trying to get her to force her hand, and turning the investigator, into the investigated.

 

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