Strange Data

Posted on Mon Apr 19, 2021 @ 5:30pm by Lieutenant JG Camille Lévesque PhD & Lieutenant JG Ardal King

1,055 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Archangel
Location: Science Lab
Timeline: Shortly before “It Has Passed”

Looking at old data, "Computer. Pull up known data for this planet." He was pouring over the records. "King to Levesque." The data didn't line up. He didn't like it. They had a liaison sending data from this region. The data appeared to be edited after the fact. There was also a warning beacon in space around the planet. "I need your input before I write a report." In general, he only asked for that if there was a wording issue pertaining to Starfleet classified nature.

Finishing with Halvor and Penny and on her way back to the bridge, Camille stopped, nodded to Penny, and headed down a different corridor. She tapped her commbadge. "On my way." She checked his location with the computer and headed to the science lab.

A few minutes later and she was in the lab. She took a lab coat off the wall hook and put it on. "What can I do for you, Ardal?"

Looking at the computer date, "So apparently Halvor knows I'm on medical restriction from dangerous and hazardous Experiments until the last of Taggert's target make a reappearance. Hardheaded bastard knows a lot for someone who needed tutors." The way he said it, it sounded like he stole something from Taggert, bit that wasn't the case. He was being polite and not referring to passing bowel. "He sent me a bunch of files to read. This one is a planet in this sector. I had the Starfleet Liaison to the Delta Quadrant send me a new copy of written star maps. That man will not stop talking."

“The Starfleet Liaison is our central point of contact with Starfleet Operations,” Camille said. “Everything goes through him, so we need to put up with his eccentricities, or we get nothing.” She moved to look at the files he was talking about. “What did you find?”

Looking at her, "At some point, during data entry, this planet had to have been inputted wrong. What make it worse is, the scans of this planet are odd. So I recalibrated the sensors. This is the first set of scans." Volcanic ash, no breathable air, and heat well over 100 degrees Celsius. "The sensor recalibration showed hovering beacons in the lower atmosphere. They are and have emitting false data. We scan, they send information. I would like to take a shuttle down and see which data is correct."

“You know I can’t approve something like that myself,” Camille answered, “but I’ll write up a plan and I’ll give it to Commander Walker.” She thought a moment, tapping her finger on her chin. “I was working with Monsieur Halvor about a similar situation in another system. The data isn’t being inputted wrong; it’s being inputted falsely. The beacons is a new development.”

King looked at her, "He is going to want Anderson's opinion on lifting the medical restrictions. The non biodegradable pieces made it through just fine." He didn't want to go into bowl movement details with her out of respect. "They are in the sterilization process. I'm going to run them through a few times and return them to Taggert later this evening."

Camille bit her lower lip to try to hide her manifesting grin. It didn't work. "I'll expect a full report after you return Mr. Taggert's equipment," she said, completely failing to hide her amusement.

Looking at her, King answered sarcastically, "Preliminary report. One of those pieces hurt. I'm glad there wasn't blood."

She sat down on a nearby stool so she could laugh heartily without falling to the ground. “Oh, I’m glad you joined my department, Monsieur King.”

Laughing, "I'm glad. When I first joined Starfleet, the Dominion War was starting. I had top marks in sciences. War started and Starfleet said, 'War, Claws, Teeth, and the ability to withstand horrible environments. You're security now.' It was a little disheartening to have my degrees and be told to claw someone. Then they discovered I could Macgyver things and naked I look like an animal. A few worlds either have or had something that looked like me. Bad guys would just take me to a lab to study." He motioned around his lab. With nerd power, he could do serious damage to the ship from here. It was the same in her lab.

“I’m wondering now how many Dominion secrets you pilfered from their labs after you were taken in,” Camille said. “Not that it’s worth it. You should have been allowed to contribute in your own way. But I can imagine the opportunities to learn from being trapped inside such a place.”

Grinning and showing his teeth ,"Trapped three times. The last time, they caught on and literally shot me in the ass. It was a week before the fur was right. Daily dermal regeneration treatments. Did you notice, a spike in genetic engineering and holotechnology knowledge after the Dominion War?" He bowed his head.

“Oh wow, that was you?” Camille said, impressed. “I knew someone in school who benefited from the anti-addiction treatment recovered from pilfered data on Ketracel White. In a time of war, you helped save lives and further science. Would that we could all contribute that way.”

A toothy grin, "It wasn't always me. The plan worked until they got wise. Mostly, I just swallowed data chips, puked them up, and swallowed them, and worked on escaping."

“We all do our part,” she replied, returning his grin.

He was still reviewing and making notes on the things Halvor sent over. While going over the files, he found something else in the files, "What the hell? I was in this sector three years ago. That star hadn't gone supernova. When the hell did that happen?" He brought up other files. "That isn't right. This says that it was Supernova for over a decade."

“Another set of false information,” Camille concluded. “Another likely target for a secret base or dead drop point or similar. That makes three so far. Two that you’ve found and one Halvor found. Keep looking. Flag anything the least bit out of line, no matter how innocuous. I’ll give the Captain a preliminary report. We’ll talk more tomorrow? 0700 hours, here.”

Nodding and looking at the screens, "Yes, Ma'am."

 

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