Klarth's On The Case, Part One

Posted on Mon May 16th, 2022 @ 1:21am by Captain Devin Hadenbeer & Lieutenant Commander Klarth & Lieutenant JG S'Lace

1,078 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Into The Void
Location: Sickbay

During a lull in patients Klarth sat in his office behind his desk and had too much time to think. The idea that one of his crew mates had written that book about his former dishonor and that they had included S'Lace and made their relationship into some kind of erotic fantasy continued to enrage him whenever he thought about it.

No update had come from Ull, and Klarth feared that it wasn't a priority for the security chief. Klarth understood why, but he decided he'd have to continue to pursue the matter himself.

"Computer" said Klarth. "How many current crew members are on the ship that were here during the end of my previous tenure?"

The computer responded, "There are thirty four crew members."

A list of names appeared, there was only one officer and that was S'Lace. The highest ranking crew member was the chief of the boat, CPO Lucky Gal.

Klarth was confused and looked over the list, "shouldn't Captain Hadenbeer be on the list," he asked out loud. Also he was looking to see if civilians were on the list. Like he knew the bartender Jones was still on the ship, but wondered if their were others.

There was a pause, and then Klarth saw Hadenbeer's name added to the top of the list.

Klarth wondered if the computer was short a few gigabytes, but just moved on.

After tweaking the search he found there was only one civilian on board and that was Jones.

"Okay computer," said Klarth. "Please label this list "all suspects." Now, Lets see if we can narrow this down. Please look at all the suspect's, civilian, academy and service records and tell me if there is any mention of creative writing in their files. And let me know if there are any disciplinary actions in their files. And let me know if there is any mention of practical jokes in their files.

Crewman Vinga wrote poetry and had been published in a few periodicals. Petty Officer Seipa recorded a weekly video log about life on board a starship and transmitted it back home to Aldebaran III. And Chief Petty Officer Gal had published a book last year called "Spirits In Space and Haunted Ships".

Something about the way the computer had glitched during the search and then added the Captain's name disturbed Klarth. "Computer is there a Faraday cage on board?" he asked.

"There is no Faraday Cage present on board," the computer replied in it's emotionless vaguely feminine voice.

Well thought Klarth, it was an out there thought anyway. It was a very uncomfortable thought to think that maybe couldn't trust the ship's computer. When you live on a starship, you just take it for granted. He would put a pin in it and pull some of the other strings he wanted to before pulling that one.

"Computer, what company published Spirits in Space and Haunted Ships" book? Was it Blue Sky?" asked Klarth.

"Negative," the computer replied, "'Spirits In Space and Haunted Ships' was published by Merriam-Webster of Earth."

"Computer, has anyone on the ship ever called Blue Sky publishers?"

"There is no recording of any call by anyone on board Lionheart of making communication with the offices of Blue Sky Publishers," the computer stated.

"Computer, I want to make a call to the Blue Sky Publisher on Mars. But can you hide that the call is coming from my office and put a filter on me so I look and sound like a human female crewman. And put a fake background up so it looks like I'm calling from crew quarters? Can you do all that?" asked Klarth.

Before the computer could respond S'Lace was found standing in the doorway of Klarth's office.

"What, exactly, are you attempting to accomplish?" she inquired mildly.

"Ah good come in," said Klarth excited to see her. "Are you any better than me with the ship's computer?" he asked. "Sometimes I feel like the computer and I are barely on speaking terms...Anyway, have you ever heard of a reverse interrogation? I'm convinced if we contact that publisher and pretend to know who the author is that we can get them to reveal everything or at least enough to narrow down the suspects." As he said this he held up the pad with the 35 crew members.

S'Lace eyed the list. After a moment she inquired, "Are these suspected collaborators of the author themself? And our other problem is if we are not looking for a collaborator then the...culprit could be a crew member who left months or years ago."

Klarth sighed and his shoulders slumped, but he got more animated again as he said "I had not considered they might be off the ship, because then I could not confront them with my bare hands" As he said this Klarth was pretending to strangle someone.

S'Lace handed back the PADD and took a seat, "We may not be suited for this sort of investigation," something akin to a smile crossed her lips, very faint but it was present, "In these stories often times the doctor is subordinate to the detective," her eyebrows rose slightly, "And...in a way we may have access to a detective, one whom if we could enlist his aid might add a touch of...irony to this investigation..."

Klarth was surprised by S'Lace's suggestion, "I didn't know you were familiar with detective stories?" he said. "As I said, I am definitely having trouble with this case since it starts to boil my blood just thinking about it. An impartial detective would be a great idea. Who did you have in mind?"

S'Lace held out a PADD, on it was the familiar book cover, only the art also had an announcement scrolling across the bottom: New Holoventure!

"The holo adventure is being what they call "beta tested" S'Lace explained, "And I have volunteered as a tester. If I am correct we will be able to interact with the detective. And if he proves cooperative..."

She let the suggestion hang...

S'Lace," said Klarth "Aren't you just full of surprises?" He had been looking for some way to spend more time with her socially. And this could be a lot of fun. Just the kind of distraction he needed. And maybe it would give them some leads about all these other matters too. Like the human phrase said they could kill two birds at once....

TO BE CONTINUED...

 

RSS Feed