Shorn Search

Posted on Fri Nov 25th, 2022 @ 1:57am by Captain Devin Hadenbeer & Lieutenant JG S'Lace & Ship Elle & Lieutenant Commander Ull Arkyn & Lieutenant Commander R'elle & Lieutenant Commander Rayek trLhoell & Lieutenant Commander Klarth & Lieutenant JG H'orri Of the Red Fur

2,654 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Into The Void
Location: Conference room

It was a large bunch who found the conference room to be the best place to discuss the "Shorn" problem. Elle was on hand to answer any questions. While Ull and Rayek were able to use the interactive consoles in the conference room table the ship's AI employed the view screen at the far end.

"I am able to "see" any place with a holo emitter," she explained. After a pause she added, "There are no holo emitters in any toilet or the locker rooms. Several people figured that out and are using them to plot my demise."

She smiled, "But I can still hear," the frown returned, "Uh, anyway, last time I saw Shorn was nine hours ago when she entered the gymnasium locker room."

The screen showed Shelly Shorn crossing the gymnasium, nodding politely to a couple crew members. There was a particularly large duffel bag slung across her chest and it was obviously full of something. She entered the locker room.

"And...nothing after that," Elle said, "She never came out. No record of any transporters being used, either. I checked the auxiliary craft transporter logs and there's nothing. I guess the records might have been doctored..."

Ull recalled a report last night, more of a curiosity than anything else. a crew person reported finding an empty duffel bag in one of the toilets and reported it to lost and found. Lost and found was handled by security and they logged the bag in.

As for Shorn's bio and service record, she had no close relatives and was an average crewman. No bad habits, seemed to get along with everyone, no disciplinary issues...save for her missing three scheduled medical examinations...

"Interesting. The fact that she seemingly disappeared into thin air worries me. I suppose it's possible that the record were altered but somehow I don't think so. The fact that you can't find her Elle is of greater concern. Hiding from you is no easy task I suspect. I propose we start with the few place Elle can't see or hear. If she isn't there then we will have to figure out where she could be, if she is indeed still aboard the ship."

H'orri purrs which most people wouldn't be able to recognize should be characterizes as a sigh. "Again, didn't know her since different department. And my position was mostly a hold for transfer. But nine hours in a locker room, is to much except maybe a Caitian who fell asleep."

R'elle raised an eyebrow at that remark. She would never do that herself!

Rayek, seated alongside the Security chief so that he had access to the interactive console, took a moment to consider the information Elle provided and had Elle repeat the footage of Shorn walking to the gymnasium locker room. "'Nine hours ago' would put it at roughly around the time we were fleeing from Admiral Janeway and her Klingon allies. Elle.. can you overlap the time of this footage with the time of our dimensional jump?"

Elle was about to respond-

Klarth looked excited and said "This is like one of those Agatha Christie mystery holo-novels." Klarth made his voice deeper and said "The crewman goes into the locker room, but never comes out." Klarth sighed and said in his normal voice, "But unfortunately, it's reality, not a holo-novel."

Elle smiled, "The Lady Vanishes!"

"Well of course missing the medical exams stands out to me," says Klarth. "It could be nothing or it could be a deliberate avoidance because of what our scans would reveal.... Elle, if my spy theory is correct, is it possible she was secretly with the Void pirates and knew a medical exam would reveal that?"

"You're asking me?" Elle seemed surprised at that, but please as well, "Well, any detailed medical exam would reveal any cosmetic changes. Even if a dermal regenerator was used to modify facial features a doctor would notice right away. And if she were a species other than human she would definitely want to hide that fact."

Klarth also said, "And is there any sort of device that would fit in a duffle bag that would cloak her from Elle's detection? And where would she have gotten it?"

Rayek's eyebrows rose in interested acknowledgement at the doctor's contribution of information regarding the missing crewman's lack of medical exam. "Deliberate avoidance is a distinct possibility." The doctor's mention of the pirates that had attacked Gabriel Station earlier under the guise of being Romulans yet using a Klingon Bird-of-Prey, was noted by the Starfleet-commissioned Romulan.

Though Rayek had the night before begun reading past mission logs, he was far from having a clear understanding of the motivations of the 'Void pirates' as Dr. Klarth called them. Piracy in this region of space would not be very profitable - unless they were seeking to steal a specific high-value item that they already had a buyer for.

Klarth's question regarding cloak technology brought a smirk to the Romulan's lips. "There are. Starfleet has it's own version of the personal cloaking device. It's called an Isolation suit. My people also have similar stealth devices. They are specifically intended to deceive not just humanoid senses but electronic sensors as well - which are Elle's eyes and ears."

"Oh yes," said Klarth "How could I forget? I've used them before like when I studied the pre-warp civilization on Mantaca IV....Their mating rituals were very interesting, sessions could go on for many hours and you wouldn't believe the size of their..." Klarth stopped himself and said "But that's not important right now, an isolation suit is undetectable to pre-warp civilizations, but couldn't we detect it's power signature?"

"A Federation isolation suit - yes. A Romulan designed cloaking suit...." Rayek scoffed. "Unlikely."

Elle's eyes widened, "Ooooh, that's sneaky!"

Ull listened to the other's before he spoke up. "Her duffel was reported to Lost and Found last night, and it was empty. Elle, was there anyone who left the locker room after Shorn, but isn't accounted for as far as entering? Maybe it wasn't just an isolation suit, but could make her look like someone else."

"That's even sneakier!" Elle exclaimed, "You guys should write a book!" Elle hesitated, "I...sorry. Focusing..."

The hologram closed her eyes.

The Romulan considered the Sec/Tac chief's information about the duffel bag. "Empty, huh? Commander, can you have your men scan the dufflel bag and upload the results to Elle? There could be forensic evidence within the 'empty' bag that could hint at what was inside."

Ull nodded to Rayek. "I'll have it scanned and uploaded." He then touched his comm badge. "Ensign Jun, have the duffel bag that was brought to us last night scanned and uploaded. It may contain evidence we need."

There was a pause, then ensign Jun replied, "Understood, Commander. But please bear in mind we didn't treat it like evidence so any data might be corrupted."

Elle's eyes opened, she looked troubled.

"Okay, so if two of the same person had been around at the same time I would have spotted that. And if she had been using the suit to look like somebody not on either crew manifest I would have noticed that too. So if Shorn left the locker room she was cloaked. I mean, if she is using a stealth suit."

She looked about the room, "I see that before she went into the locker room Shorn went through the Lionheart crew manifest. I didn't think anything of it because I just figured she was looking for someone she knew. She seemed particularly interested in engineering staff."

Elle looked upset, "I'm sorry, I didn't think it was important. I thought we were looking for a missing person, not a potential spy," she glanced at Rayek, "Oh, I'm sorry! You wanted to know what was going on around the time of the jump," she cocked her head, "Oh, not sure if this is significant, but..."

Elle showed footage on the screen, it was Sickbay. Shorn was obviously loitering around, by that point she would have been medically cleared. Then H'orri was leaving Sickbay.

Shorn hesitated for several heartbeats, then she followed. Ull and Rayek noted immediately there was something in her left palm. She followed H'orri into the corridor, saw her enter one of the science labs. She seemed ready to follow.

And then acting ensign Dare Hadenbeer appeared, walking down the corridor towards the lab. Shorn hesitated, then returned to Sickbay, grabbed her duffel bag and quickly headed out, as it turns out bound towards the gymnasium.

Rayek raised an eyebrow at Elle's scattered intel of both the Shorn's search of the crew manifest and of a video feed. The video wasn't quite what he'd asked for earlier, but despite Elle's seeming uncertainty, Rayek found the images very significant.

"Elle, can you replay the video? Enhance and enlarge the image of what Shorn was holding in her hand." Rayek directed.

Elle nodded. She re-ran the footage, paused it and zoomed in on the hand.

Ull recognized the item immediately. "That is an Orion Needle, an assassination weapon. One walked up to a potential victim, pressed it against them and then depressed the trigger at the base. A sharp, narrow barbed needle would extend into the victim, tearing apart their insides. With a jerk the needle broke off and within a few minutes the handle would self destruct, melting. It is not a pleasant way for a victim to go."

Jun called, "Commander, we used standard and medical tricorders on the bag. There were no indications of any contraband but in regards to who might have handled it we have our people and someone else we are having trouble identifying; the readouts are...strange..."

Jun uploaded the information to the conference room. It took a moment for Klarth to parse the data, then the unusual DNA pattern came to him: it was human DNA...and Orion...

Klarth just about fell out of his chair, the last time Klarth went up against a female Orion pirate, things did not go well for him or the pirate. "It seems she avoided the medical exam because she is partly Orion....Elle, I assume you have previous medical exams of Shorn on file and she was fully human? This Shorn must be an imposter."

Elle nodded and showed the crewperson's service history and medical exams on one of the screens.

Rayek glanced toward the Caitian who'd almost been the assassin's target. He studied her reaction.

"It would seem so Klarth. Now I wonder if she had anything to do with the attack on Gabriel Station? My guess would be yes. What or who is she after is the big question? Who was she looking for on the crew manifest? Is there anyway to track a half orion life sign? I would think it would rather stick out. Unless of course she is using something to hide her lifesigns. Still, it's worth a shot." R'elle said as a low growl came out as she was both frustrated and worried. Her tail flicked back and forth as she was rather agitated by this news.

"I am trying," Elle replied with a frown, "But she must still be wearing the suit," she hesitated, "I mean, we are assuming she is wearing a suit. I don't know why she was looking up Engineering personnel stationed on board me."

The Romulan pondered the AI's comment. Why indeed? Perhaps to find a crewmember the assassin could coerce or disguise themselves as."

Ull's look went to anger briefly before he got it under control. "I hate Pirates. They have done nothing but give us a bad name." He says almost under his breath. Then he looks up to address the group. "She seemed to have some interest in H'orri as well, even though she was looking through engineering manifests. We know what Shorn's life signs should look like, but we should scan for bioelectrical patterns that do not match those of the crew. If we spot one that is different we may have found our Imposter."

Rayek was doubtful of that a scan would work. With his past Tal'Shiar training, the Romulan knew of ways to mask or create a false bio-signature with little more than a tricorder. It wasn't unreasonable to believe that this Orion assassin could potentially do the same.

"Indeed Commander. I hate them as much as you do. It sounds like this woman is an assassin and seems to be looking for her target or targets. She might think H'orri knows something. That worries me a lot. I think a security detail should be assigned to H'orri. Perhaps we should thoroughly check the engineering crew to start. Personally the way I feel if I had a moment with her I would rake my claws over her face and make sure she regretted messing with us!" R'elle said still growling.

Ull's anger flashes momentarily again, but this time at himself. Then he taps his comm badge. "Security, dispatch a detail to main conference room. I want at least two security personnel with lt. JG H'orri at all times until I say otherwise."

Security quickly acknowledged, stating two were on their way immediately.

Rayek nodded his agreement of that move. "It might be wise to have Security increased at most Engineering locations as well, with mandatory DNA checks to enter."

"H'orri, why would she want to kill you?" asked Klarth "She must think you know something about the Void, something she must protect."...Then Klarth thought of something else. "This footage is before the dimension jump. We're no where near the Void anymore, does that change her plans?"

H'orri replied, "I know there are some in the Federation against my stance on Potential AI independence. And that fact that I believe in the eventuality of every Stafleet Vi becoming an independent AI in the future. I expected the first one 40.359421 years in the future approximately. So yes I have had death threats, I even had Starfleet Admirals suggest that I deny and discredit my doctoral thesis. But I didn't know this specific person wanted me dead. Why would I know that? Like I said I barely knew the person existed. Everyone on the station who even interacted with her thought she was a ghost most of the time "

H'orri says a little angrily. H"orri takes a deep breath as a security team arriveed.

"Although, these men around me should make it more difficult for someone to hurt me."

"I don't think it has anything to do with your work on AI," said Klarth. "They didn't kill every other scientist on Gabriel Station and take the ship that came out of Void, because of AI. They killed them because they didn't want any research on the Void to survive. I think the most likely scenario is that they got a list of every scientist on the Station and decided to just kill them all to be sure. She doesn't know or doesn't care that you weren't there long enough to learn much about the Void."

Elle had stared at H'orri during her statement. Then the hologram blinked, "Ah...if it helps at all with security Shorn was focusing on female members of the Engineering department. People roughly her height and build. There were six of them."

As Elle showed the six on the screen the doors swooshed open and the security people entered. They gave Ull a nod then glanced about the table. Spotting H'orri, they briefly conferred. One stayed by the door while the other made his way around the table to the science officer.

And then suddenly the security officer on the move gave a sharp jerk. Red blood erupted from his mouth as something grabbed his phaser from his hip, the phaser moved, Ull's skilled ears heard the weapon's firing setting being adjusted from stun to kill...!

 

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