Investigation - The Herald

Posted on Wed Nov 29, 2017 @ 10:50pm by Lieutenant Nicole Anderson & Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit & Lieutenant Commander Miguel Torres & Lieutenant Arashi Tanaka Mr.

2,683 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Dīvide et Impera ~ Chapter One: Sending Out An S.O.S
Location: Victory/Caroline

Bridge

Nicole walked onto the bridge and came around to the Captain's ready room, her black bag gripped tightly. She rang the chime and stood at attention, steeling herself.

From inside came a muffled sound which might have been an acknowledgement of the chime, or a muttered response of Piss off. With Kennit, it was at times hard to be sure.

The Captain was seated not at her desk, but in the armchair next to the couch by the viewport, legs draped negligently over the left arm rest, leaning back comfortably against the right, crossed at the ankles. A mug of coffee rested close at hand, and she was reading something on a PaDD which appeared to be.. a romance novel?

Cocking one eye toward the visitor, she said “Doctor. To what do I owe the immeasurable pleasure of your company?”

"Captain Hunter is healed and sleeping comfortably," she said. "I've given him enough sedative to ensure we'll have a few hours uninterrupted. She put her bag down on the desk and opened it, reaching in and pulling out a small container. "He didn't have much on him," she said, opening the container and pulling out the contents.

"A few credit chips, some coins of various cultures, a data chip which he claims is the manifest for his cargo and where it's being delivered, a photograph," she paused and handed the picture to the Captain. It showed a slim, light-skinned, dark-haired Bajoran woman, and a beautiful, raven-haired little girl sitting on a bench near what looked like a field of flowers, smiling up from the photo.

The Captain looked at the photo impassively for a moment before tossing it down to the desktop next to the other items without speaking.

"There was also this," Nicole said, pulling out a somewhat tarnished Starfleet combadge.

The chime went off again as Nicole put the combadge down on the desk. Kennit picked it up, looking at the small device with narrowed eyes. Hearing the chime, after a moment she called out “Come!” without diverting her gaze from the combadge in her hand.

The doors opened and Lieutenant Owens walked in. "Captain, Doctor," she said, nodding to them, then held up a padd. "I ran a check on our guest; I got a hit."

That got the Captain’s attention. She looked up and focused her gaze on Owens, “Go on.”

"Jonathan Hunter, formerly Lieutenant Jonathan Hunter assigned to the USS Rochester in Security. Left Starfleet after the death of his wife and disappearance of his daughter at the hands of a Cardassian raiding party on the colony they were living on. Has been registered as an independent trader, dealing in everything ranging from mining equipment to scientific study materials to colony foodstuffs. Cited twice for suspected contraband but no convictions. Operates both within and without Federation space."

“A model citizen...” Kennit drawled with a glance at the Doctor.

"I wouldn't go that far," Owens said. "He was an average officer, and he's been in a bar fight or two, but so far he's not crossed any serious lines, no.

"So the question becomes, what do we do with him once he wakes up?" Nicole said.

“That will partly depend on what the search teams find on his ship.” Kennit answered in a flat voice. “If his ship checks out, we escort him to the nearest Starbase and then forget him. If his ship does not check out... well then we will deal with that when it happens. In any event, he does not have free access to my ship. He is to be accompanied by an escort at all times while he is aboard.”

"Aye Captain," Anderson and Owens said at the same time.

"I'm sure I can find an excuse to keep him in Sickbay for a while," Nicole said.

"At the very least, until the search of his ship's cargo holds is complete and we know whether or not a better place for him would be to have him cooling his heels in the Brig." Kennit answered.

"Aye Captain," Nicole said. "I'll keep an eye on him." She stood and nodded to Amanda, leaving the ready room to return to Sickbay.

Owens watched her go, then turned back to the captain. "If he's ex-Fleet, then he probably knows what he's in for here. I can't imagine turning away from Starfleet, even after losing his family."

“Starfleet murdered my husband. Starfleet turned me into what I am ... it doesn’t mean you can stop living. It doesn’t mean you can escape your responsibilities. Some people break, heal, and get back to work. Others..”she shook her head. “Others just break.”


USS Victory, Transporter Room 2 / S.S. Caroline

Assigned to join the security team beaming over to the cargo ship, currently held secure by a tractor beam. Lt. Raylen found herself first to arrive in the Transporter room to await the arrival of..well..everyone else. Heaving a sigh, she shifted her tool kit and found a comfortable spot on the bulkhead to lean against while she waited.

Arashi arrived in the transporter room with his team and their gear as soon as he was able. "All right team, finish gearing up, We are going to get on mission after the major arrives." He said looking over to the lieutenant, recognizing her rank pips. "Lieutenant, any word on the eta of the Marine team?" he asked.

Raylen shook her head, “Not yet. We’re due to beam over there and get to work. If they don’t arrive soon we may have to head over without them.”

Two more engineering officers arrived, assigned by Lt. Cmdr. Torres to assist with making repairs to the damaged civilian vessel in hopes of enabling it to get underway on it's own power once more. Another five minutes passed, still with no sign of the marine's requested. Finally, unable to wait longer the away team transported over to the S.S. Caroline to get to work.

S.S. Caroline

The first thing Lt. Raylen noticed was the smell. Burnt everything, mingled with stale food odors and another underlying scent which best seemed to be described as 'wet moldy funk'. Hoping that her sense of smell would soon stop working in protest, she confirmed the data they had on the Caroline's interior layout and then got to work with the other two engineers to see what, if anything, could be done to restore function aboard the damaged ship while the security team led by Lt. Tanaka began their sweep.

Arashi arrived to where the liutenant was and finished gearing up. "You two, go with the liutenant. You protect her while she does her work and make sure that she and her team gets it done, no matter what. Read me?" Arash said and then the two spoke in unison. "Loud and clear liutenant. We'll make sure that she is well protected." They both said. "Good, the rest of you will sweep the ship with me. " The rest of the team loaded phasers and checked sidearms before moving out.


Bridge

Arriving at the Bridge, Raylen settled down at a still working console and began running an initial diagnostic scan, hoping the ship’s computer could tell them where the problems were.

The two guards were watching the turbolifts as Raylen did her work. "Well this isn't foreboding at all." The guard by the name of Goddard said. "Goddard, shut up. You are being two things right now and both of them are probably annoying the liutenant working on the bridge." Another guard by the name of Jackson said. "I swear you were like this in the academy whenever we would train in the holodeck in low light conditions." Goddard sighed and sat down, still watching the door. "l know but ..." Goddard was about to say something and just let it go.


Deck 2

Arashi was using his tricorder to record anything suspicious in the cargo storage but so far had found nothing. His security team were scanning barrels of food and other things but whatever it was that they had to find they came up empty. They continued however on the off chance that they might find something.


Engineering Bay

Sitting back for a moment, Sam ran a hand through her hair and sighed. For the past hour she’d been working with a pair of techs to diagnose and identify the damage caused by the Orion’s attack. Looking at the list of necessary and critical repairs, it was apparent that the dude hadn’t had his ship into a service yard in a while. The ship needed a good deal of basic maintenance work, and a lot of heavy repairs to damaged systems after being used for target practice.

Activating her com badge, she said “Raylen to Torres.”

Miguel was standing at the master table. "Go Raylen."

Tapping access codes on her PaDD, Sam said “We just finished compiling the damage check of the freighters systems. I’m sending the list of repairs, ordered by most critical to minor. This ship’s suffered quite a beating and it wasn’t in the best shape to start with I don’t think..”

"We'll start processing them, but from what I can see that ship should be decommissioned and replaced." he said as he looked over and saw that the list was starting to come through.

As he was speaking, Sam had been looking at the schematic of Main Engineering which she’d pulled up on the computer from the small engineering office she’d appropriated for her use while preparing work teams to get started on repairs when she noticed something. “That’s odd..” Sam muttered.

"What's odd?" Miguel asked.

“There’s a recessed alcove for repair storage across from me which is a lot smaller than its indicated on these schematic drawings of the space here..” Sam said as she rose and walked over to more closely look at the alcove space.

"It is a smuggler's ship might be a secret hold of some sort." he suggested.

“I’m going to get Tanaka and Prime on the horn.. I’ll keep you updated..” Sam told him.

"Understood." Miguel replied.

Signing off, she activated her com again and this time said, “Raylen to Tanaka and Prime. I’ve discovered a repair alcove in engineering which is smaller than the ship’s schematics indicate it was when this vessel left the construction yard. I think we may have a hidden compartment here..”

Responding to the call he was getting he spoke quickly. "I have two security guards with you but I am coming down there to help." Tanaka said and turned to go back to where the liutenant was. "The rest of you finish the sweep here. I'll be back as soon as I can." he said to the rest of his team. He arrived at the location where the liutenant had found the alcove. "Let me scan that with the tricorder." he said and swept the scanner over the repair alcove. "What do you think it is?" Arash asked the liutenant while waiting for the scan.

“I think it’s a smuggling trap, a smuggling compartment hidden by a false bulkhead. Based on the original construction schematics, depending on the actual size of this bulkhead it can’t be more than 2 meters deep by 3.5 meters long. He can’t hide anything big in there but there’s ample room to hide little goodies..”

While awaiting the arrival of the rest of the search team, she activated her com badge and said “Raylen to Cmdr. Hunter.”

On the Victory's bridge, Alec took Raylen's hai. "Hunter here Sam. Go ahead."

Quickly relaying to the XO what they’d found, she filled him in on the new development.

"I think your hunch is correct Sam. Sounds like just the thing a smuggler would use to hide anything he didn't inspectors to find."

After a thorough scan of the false bulkhead, Sam was able to identify the control mechanism which opened the access hatch to the inner compartment. Tapping her com badge, Sam said “Raylen to Bridge.”

Alec waited impatiently to hear from the away team especially after saying they had found a possible smuggler's trap. "Hunter here. Go ahead."

“We are about to open the false bulkhead..stand by.”

"Watch for any possible booby traps." Alec cautioned, "We don't want any unnecessary surprises."

“Aye sir,” Sam answered. “Stand by.” With a little shake of her head, she tripped the hidden control and immediately, allow shiver fumbled through the deck underfoot as the false bulkhead opened. Inside where a number of cases, the largest no more than 4 foot square neatly stacked. None were marked. Stepping to the nearest case, Sam reached over and thumbed the switch to open the case. The top popped up and slid aside. Inside the case was a soft, velvet lining on which lay a large number of loose, brilliantly glittering diamonds.

Picking up one stone that was the size of her thumbnail, all Sam did was whistle in surprise as she held the stone up to the light.

Arashi looked at the diamonds and wondered what the person smuggling them was expecting. It seemed like that they might as well be smuggling gold-pressed latinum or something else for that matter. "What would he be smuggling diamonds for? I know back in the 20th century that they did this to make money but why would this person want to do this now?" He asked as he packed the diamonds up along with his subordinates that he left with the lieutenant.

"Not any diamonds," Raylen said. "Kalv’rati diamonds. They're extremely rare. Explains why he's skirting on the outside of Federation territory. It's illegal to trade them here because the Kalv'rati generally don't allow them to be taken. Kind of like Imperial Jade centuries ago on Earth."

Activating her com badge, Raylen said “Lt. Raylen to Commander Hunter. Sir, we have found contraband tucked away in the hidden compartment all right.” As she spoke, she ran a tricorder scan of the stones. “Kalv’rati diamonds. Big ones, and a lot of them. At least in this first case.”

On the Victory's bridge, Alec let out a low whistle as Raylen reported what they had found. "Kalv’rati diamonds huh? Now isn't that interesting. Good work Sam. Crack open the other cases, see what they hold."

“Aye sir..one moment.” Raylen answered. Then, “more diamonds. Each case has a different general size stone but they all contain diamonds.”

"Very good Sam." Alec repeated, "Confiscate them and assign a security detail to watch them until we can beam them over here." HE tapped his com, "Hunter to Kennit, Captain, Something I believe you will be interested in. I just heard from Raylen. They've just found several cases of diamonds." He didn't elaborate, he didn't have to, the man was smuggling precious stones.

“Smuggling Kalv’rati diamonds...” came the Captain’s answer. “Well isn’t that interesting. Seems that he wasn’t so innocent after all.. Thank you Number One, Have the contraband transported to the Victory and placed in secure holding, Get with Lt. Casey in Security. See that the cases are kept under 24 hour surveillance and I want a guard posted as well.”

"Aye Captain. I was in the process of seeing to that." Alec answered.

After signing off with the XO, the Captain sent a text message to Dr. Anderson. It was fairly brief. ::Your bosom pal, Captain Hunter was hiding contraband aboard his ship after all. Diamonds. I told you so..:::

Sickbay

Nicole looked up at her computer as the alert sounded and read the message. She raised an eyebrow and glanced at Hunter, sitting passively on his bed. Their eyes met and he gave her a half smile and a small wave. She nodded and waved back. *Looks like he'll be in the brig after all,* she thought.

 

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