Mystery Box

Posted on Thu May 19th, 2022 @ 3:17am by Lieutenant Commander Ull Arkyn & Lieutenant Commander Klarth & Ensign Aakan Jun

1,137 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Into The Void
Location: Various
Timeline: Enroute

Ull sat at his desk reviewing the information he had discovered about the crate that had infected Alia. He made a call to the storage facility on Mars. "This is Commander Arkyn, on USS Lionheart. You have six crates stored by Ambassador T'Pel. I need them placed in permanent quarantine. Do not let them leave your facility."

"...We do?" the clerk replied, sounding a bit confused, "Ambassador who? Lemme check..."

There was a pause of several minutes. When the clerk came back he said, "Yeah, we've got 'em. One was shipped out a few days ago. Ah...when you say 'quarantine' do you mean there's something in them we should be concerned ab-one sec," Ull heard the man say something to someone off screen, "Jeb, if you even think about breaking that seal I'll shoot something off you they haven't invented a prosthetic for."

Ull spoke with some urgency. "Yes, there appears to be a very dangerous chemical in those crates. Our Doc is still examining what exactly it was. Do not open them under any circumstances."

The clerk's eyes widened, then he glanced down at his console as the movement of his shoulders implied he was manipulating his console. He replied, "I see. All right, we're going to engage in a facility wide shut down and have those crates examined by experts. If you could pass along any and all data regarding their contents we would be most grateful."

Ull saw red lights start flashing behind the man's head somewhere else in the room. It seemed he was taking Ull's warning very seriously.

Ull nodded to the clerk. "As soon as I hear back from our Doctor I'll get a copy of his findings forwarded to you."

Ull then contacted Ensign Jun. "Ensign Jun, this is Commander Arkyn, I need a biometrics report from the time and vicinity of Alia's room when she opened up that infected crate. We need to find out if anyone else was with her, or who called for help when she was stricken down."

Ensign Jun reported to his superior in person, the young man did not look happy.

"There was no evidence at all anyone else was in that room with the lieutenant," he reported, "Which to me means there are only two answers. The first is the lieutenant forgot about making the call, which I can't comment on because I'm not a doctor. Or..."

He grimaced.

"Someone was spying on her."

Ull responded with a grimace as well. "I don't like that thought any more than you do. We need to get a full sweep of her quarters to make sure there aren't any sort of devices set up to watch, or listen to, her."

"Well, sir, that's the thing," Jun replied ruefully, "Internal ship sensors can be hacked, communications systems can be repurposed. Heck, for some weird reason someone actually has viewscreens in the fresher units. We have a ship full of technicians who might be able to the job."

Jun paused and he seemed ready to say something, but he also seemed...hesitant...

Ull rubbed his face. "That's a very good point." He then seemed to notice Jun's hesitation. "Please, feel free to share your thoughts.

Another hesitation, then Jun said, "I took lieutenant S'Lace's statement, she was the one on staff when the emergency first broke. And it was she who heard the voice. Perhaps it was some bizarre practical joke, but..."

The young officer shrugged helplessly, "She said the voice sounded much like the Captain's."

Ull shook his head slightly. "Voices can be mimicked, but I'll have to ask the Captain about this."

Jun hesitated, then nodded, "Yes, sir."

Finally, Ull contacted Lieutenant Klarth. "Lieutenant Klarth, this is Commander Arkyn, thank you for bringing the crate and infection to my attention. I do believe there may be something bigger that was discovered because of it. Turns out there are six more crates on Mars stores by the same person. I have put out an alert to the Mars facility to place them under quarantine. If you have any contacts you could alert with your findings so that we could get them examined and make sure no one else is attack as Lieutenant JG Alia was."

Klarth was very thankful that the Commander was so though and good at his job and he told him as much. "Thank you very much for your diligence in this matter. Those six crates could be very dangerous. The medical reports came and Lt. Alia was exposed to a very nasty bio weapon with a decidedly Romulan signature."

Klarth was determined to find the bright side in such a bleak circumstance and so he said. "But the good news is that since Alia is a modified to fight diseases, she is already in the clear, but even for her it was a close call. If anyone else had opened that case they would be dead."

Klarth paused to double check a report and said "The bio weapon is no longer detected in her quarters so those can be reopened.

Klarth rubbed his face and sighed. "Please let me know if I can be of more help. I do not know how such a bio-weapon came to be in her case or why and that worries me."

Ull nodded to himself as much to Klarth's response. "Thank you, Klarth. I am still investigating that latter part as well."

"Any progress on the ship's practical joker or the mystery writer?" asked Klarth.

Ull shook his head slightly. "Still looking into them. I'll let you know as soon as I have any solid leads. Could you forward me you findings on the bio-weapon? I would like to share our research with the facility where the other crates are being held."

"Sure, I'll send that right over to you, said Klarth. "Speaking of the bio-weapon, since it seems to be Romulan in origin have you considered reaching out to that Starfleet intelligence contact that had information about the Romulan missions to the Void? Maybe they'd at least know where to start? I could contact them if you gave me the contact information. Depending on how technical any data is anyway, you'd might end up needing me translate it into layman's terms anyway."

"No problem." Ull sent him the contact info for who he had talked to at Starfleet Intelligence. "I'm going to get the information you just sent me to the facility."

"Thank you Commander," said Klarth. "I'll contact them as soon as we're finished." Klarth looked at the Security Chief and said. "It really is nice working together. Qapla'!" Klarth said with a Klingon salute.

Ull forwarded all of Klarth's findings to the storage facility. "I hope this helps you out. We are also going to be contacting Starfleet Intelligence about our findings."

 

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