Does This Bug Have Wings?

Posted on Sun Sep 17th, 2023 @ 11:28pm by Ensign Sophie Bishop

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Year One: Whispers in the Wind
Location: Science Lab
Timeline: MD0014 - 0900 hours

Sophie had brought the device she'd found a week ago to a science lab and had kept it locked for the time being, even from Amarok. Until they could decide what to do with it, it was being kept under lock and key and only those that needed to know would know.

Sophie and Olivia had been sworn to secrecy. The very thought someone had been able to plant this in their comms array with no trace left was worrying but the fact they had someone on board who had planted this was even worse.

Keishara had been her usual surly self and started an investigation from her side but Commander Greco had ordered Sophie, Commander Akimon and Lieutenant s'Lovok now into a room to determine what kind of device it truly was, where is came from/what species, and exactly what it had been doing in that comms array conduit.

Those two other officers had been vetted and deemed cleared to enter the fray of bug hunting..

When one of the labs had a restricted label on it, he found he was not allowed to look at, Amarok shrugged and went on with his duties when he first encountered it.

Now was the first time he’d been in this lab since it was commandeered by Security and interestingly he’d been invited to be here. He was all business as he stood at the examination table. He didn’t look at it, neither said or did anything as he waited for the senior officer to speak.

Sophie felt a little awkward that the Lieutenant had came in and not said hello. She stupidly put up her hand and waved at him even though he was only a couple of feet from her. "Hi Lieutenant." she went up and down on the balls of her feet due to a little touch of nerves. "How are you?"

Amarok glanced over at the young woman. He offered a half smile. “Hello Ensign. I am…” he paused and put his hands behind his back. “Still recovering,” he replied as he left it at that. He didn’t want to talk about it anymore unless he had to, like when he was with the Counselor. “How are you?”

"I'm fine sir, thank you." she smiled at him giving him a look over. She was fascinated by Romulans, by all species in fact but Romulans and Vulcans particularly. "I'm glad you are here." she said with a bit more emphasis based on his previous attack. She hated violence and even more so the unprovoked kind. "Sorry I'm taking up one of your labs."

Very much like a Vulcan, Amarok’s eyebrow raised. “So you hijacked this lab? You could have asked, no need to explain. I just hope none of our science officers were in the middle of time sensitive experiments. Not like we are doing any scientific exploration at the moment anyway.” He said with a sigh. “So why have you called me here?”

"Oh no! No, no!" Sophie's heart rate increased a little at the suggestion. "No hijacking, it was empty... and Commander Greco said I should, that I could. Sorry, I thought he'd inform you..." she bit her lip a little with nerves. She was a bag of them at best. "but I think we should wait for Commander Akimon to come in. That way I can explain to both of you why you are both here."

"Ah," Amarok said and nodded. "If the First Officer approved it then all is well Ensign." He added with a smile. It was at this point he glanced down at the console table which had a hand sized device on it and he realised he could hear a forcefield active surrounding it.

Though it was not powered Amarok agreed that the field was a good precaution. He eyed it closely, obviously examining it. He leaned in as close as he could as he walked around the table, he didn't speak as soon he'd be informed to as what this was all about.

Nahe had gone to the lab as instructed. The Captain and Starfleet intelligence wanted answers and they wanted them now. She walked in to the lab and saw the person she needed to speak with. " You are Lieutenant s'Lovok? I am Lieutenant Commander Akimon, The intelligence officer assigned to this ship. I require your assistance in figuring out where and who planted this device on the ship. I can only assume that this was either planted while we were at space dock or a small cloaked vessel got close enough to do such. May I count on your assistance? "

She turned to Sophie and looked directly at her. "You look familiar, but I do not recall your name right off... Ensign??"

The Romulan nodded. "Hello Lieutenant Commander, I am Doctor Amarok s'Lovok, you can. Well let's see what this device is all about." Amarok said though keeping his eyes on the device. They'd have the drop the field though. He gestured to the device. "I guess we should start with some probing scans, then actually take the device apart." He suggested.

"Bishop, ma'am. Sophie Bishop." she responded to Akimon. "There is also the possibility that someone on board put it there... like we have spies." she looked at the intelligence officer. "Not that I think we have spies, or that I would know what a spy looked like." her cheeks turning a little red.

"Petty Officer Rodriguez and I found that on a comms panel in one of the Jefferies tubes. Once I managed to figure out something was cloaked I pulled the power to the junction and it appeared. I didn't put it there." Sophie added for some reason. 'Why on Earth would you say that, Sophie?!' she shouted at herself internally.

Amarok raised an eyebrow as he slowly glanced at Sophie. He held the look for a moment then turned to the Intelligence officer. "Do I have your permission to deactivate the forcefield to run the scans?"

Nahe looked toward the ceiling. " Computer, recognize Lieutenant Commander Akimon. Authorization code Alpha tango 7 9 charlie charlie 472. Drop force field around object theta. " The force field shimmered and dropped. " You do indeed have permission to work on object theta, I would also like a step by step analysis of the device to better understand it myself and it should help point to who planted this device. You haver an excellent reputation Doctor for your work, I know I'll get accurate results with you on the task. Please let me know when you find anything of interest. "

She then turned to Sophie. " A pleasure to meet you Ensign Bishop. " I didn't think you planted the device in the first place. I've never heard of a spy reporting a device they've planted. " She said with a grin. But what I am going to need from you and petty officer is a statement from each of you of how and where you found the device and perhaps take me there as well so that I can investigate the scene. " Her tone dropped lower. " And to be honest, Spies look just like everyone else. But there are ways to flush them out and catch them. One just has to be patient. "

"Thank you," Amarok said somewhat slowly as he was unsure his work actually warranted praise as he smiled at the Lieutenant Commander. He focused on the console table and got to work on the sensor programming and triggered a series of scans.

Immediately technological signatures of the Bajoran, Cardassian, Klingon, Yridian and Romulan, though the list continued to expand in a variety of percentages. The exterior however wasn't that quite easily identified as it was still processing.

Amarok raised an eyebrow as Vulcan, Andorian and Orion tech signatures appeared on the list. "Fascinating, it seems that half the galactic community's technologies are involved in this device." He announced after several more minutes went by.

"I was trying to figure out what information they were sending... or receiving." Sophie interrupted. "As it was attached to the communications system, sub junction 3-A-1, I assumed it would have been listening in on internal communications as that junction links both internal, and external comms."

"Was it actually plugged in or just placed there?" Amarok asked as he began to gently poke the device's casing for a way to open it without having to break it.

"It wasn't attached, no." Sophie answered. "It was simply cloaked and sitting on top of the power node next to the interface to the communications data transfer isolinear chips."

Amarok picked up the device and frowned. "It does seem to not have any exterior connection points so it is wireless." He began testing it's casing for weaknesses by attempting to bend the device. Before long Amarok had grunted at his lack of success and excused himself.

He went to the nearby tools tray and came back with it. Amarok began using a sharp tool to cut into the device. "I think I.." He grunted and a piece came off. "Got it." There was the interior bits and bobs from a variety of species exposed. "This looks like a data storage component." He said as he pointed to a part that had the Yridian technological signature. He carefully extracted it and saw additional input. "Ah, here you go," he offered the storage to the others. "Who wants it?" Amarok asked with a smile.

Nahe cocked her head to the side and looked at the interior bit and reached her hand forward to examine it. " It's a data storage unit isn't it? " She asked. " I would love to see what's on it. "

"If you pass it to me I might be able to get enough power into it to open it up." Sophie asked holding her hand out to Akimon.

As it was passed to her she could feel their question. "I'll use an isolated console, just in case. I kinda wrote a lot of paper on data storage devices in the Academy..." her cheeks flushed. She was a geek and there was no hiding it.

She moved over to a console and isolated it from the reset of the ship, the lab and anything that could cause a connection. "This might take a minute. Talk amongst yourselves."

While the other two got working on the storage unit, Amarok continued examining the device's interior as well as taking it apart, carefully and testing each component for any traps or dangerous substances.

Nahe moved back to give them space and check an incoming message on her PaDD. She looked at it , frowned and put it back into it's hip pouch.

Eventually she managed to crack the encryption on the unit and squealed with joy quickly changing to shock. "Oh... its communications from outside the ship. Can't tell the source but the sign off of incoming messages looks like the initials JD." she shrugged. "I can tell that the messages were routed to a new terminal every time but it looks like we have people on board they are communicating with."

"Ahhh," Amarok jumped at Sophie's squeal. "Ahh, Ensign could you not do that please." He said, his hand on his chest as he focused on slowing his heartrate. He then managed to recall what the Operations officer said. "I seriously doubt JD would be a real name." He glanced away as if reconsidering. "Though...." He trailed off.

"Sorry sir." Sophie felt quite bashful at her over excitement at her discovery. It hadn't been the first time she'd been told to somewhat calm herself down. "Maybe, or maybe it could be." she shrugged not wanting to dismiss it. "I mean the messages themselves are about how Starfleet has lost their way, how more radical measures need to be taken to show strength in Humanity and..." she trailed off seeing some more.

Sophie felt uncomfortable. "It mentions a group called The Whisperers..." she felt a shiver going down her spine even though she'd never heard of them before. "And there is a message telling some to attack you and a LOT of Romulan hate speech." she looked at the floor thinking how could anyone be this hateful, this angry.

At the mention of the attack on him, Amarok could feel the anger within him and this time he wasn't sure if he wanted to control it or not. He was holding the device at that moment as well as he continued to take it apart but his vision started to narrow on the device for it became an outlet and target for his built up rage. Being Romulan he had greater strength then the human Ensign, a vague thought crossed his mind about the other woman's strength but soon those thoughts vanished in the storm of fury.

The device cracked in a very earthquake manner across the device but diagonally in it's middle. A moment later it broke in two which caused the loud snapping sound to shoot up his hand and into his arms. Amarok realised he had not been breathing as he had put all that energy into breaking the device. He gently put the two pieces, which had components and cords and so on jagged out from both sides along the broken edges, back down on the table in front of him. A deep breath later he calmed the rage, it had successfully been vented and so lost its intensity.

He had closed his eyes upon placing the pieces down but didn't let them go, he took another deep breath and let the pieces go as well as letting his arms fall to his sides as he looked up at his companions. He was surprised he didn't scream it all out. "What a ridiculous designation for a cult." Amarok said flatly with almost no emotional tone, it seemed he was emulating a Vulcan's controlled state and wished he could have that level of control.

Nahe rubbed her temples and closed her eyes. " Great. Just what we don't need. " She stated softly. " With all the problems in the universe and we have to deal with a hate group? Haven't we moved beyond that? " She shook her head to dispel the notion of people's stupidity.

Nahe spoke. " Computer, silently monitor Lieutenant s'Lovok's vitals. If they change drastically or stress levels rise rapidly, transport immediately to sickbay. By order of Lieutenant Commander Akimon. "

Acknowledged. Responded the computer.

She held up her hand. " Lieutenant s'Lovok, please don't object. You've become a target and this is the only way that we can protect you at the moment, your a member of this crew and this type of behavior will not be tolerated towards you or anyone else. "

"I'm actually not a member of Starfleet. My rank is only provisional, I'm a civilian." Amarok said, he nodded. "I don't object to computer monitoring, though I suggest a security lockout on it should these Whispers wish to use your order or alter it in any way." He lifted his hands from the broken device pieces and could see green bruising at the indent of the device's casing left behind. He sighed as he put his hands behind his back and took another calming breath.

"Well, thank God I downloaded the information on the device before..." Sophie commented as she half listened to the conversation between the two more senior officers. As Amarok put the pieces down Sophie went to collect them and placed them inside a pouch. Commander Davaris had made comment of medical needing them for a DNA analysis, although how much that would help now was anyone's guess. "I think we have all we need here at the moment." Sophie said louder to the other two. It was time move on.

"Sorry," Amarok said but smiled. "Well the storage module wasn't there anymore so I doubt there was any more information in the device," he said. He thought he should head over to Sickbay just to see if his hands needed attention or not. "Are you headed to Sickbay Ensign?"

"I was going to drop this off to Doctor Marlow, but I can walk with you if you're heading that way." Sophie smiled at the man as they both moved off to the door. Turning back Sophie looked at Commander Akimon as she stood almost like a statue. "It was nice to meet you Commander." she nodded to her and both she and Amarok left for sickbay.

 

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