Gaining Insight

Posted on 01 Dec 2020 @ 5:17pm by Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler & Commander Terry Walsh

1,998 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Ghosts
Location: Intelligence Center
Timeline: MD 4 || 1430 Hours

Joey moved down the corridor toward the Intelligence Center with many questions in mind. Some had to do with the Shran, and others had to do with the Black Hawk. However, there was one question that was fitting for both ships, and that was simply...

What the hell happened?

Then, there was the matter of their mysterious stranger. Kelinor. That's all she had to go on for the time being. Hopefully, the answer to that, and all the other questions she had would be found on the other side of the door she found herself standing at.

The Intelligence Chief put in her authorization code and moved through the doors once they opened. Normally, there was only one person on duty at a time, but when she took a look around, there were multiple people present. Something strange had happened while she was away, and that seemed like as good a place to start as any. "So, can anyone tell me what happened here over the last couple of hours or so?"

The Bolian Petty Officer turned to her. "Well now that's a lot of information to go over and we don't have enough time right now. In short, that group," he said, pointing, "is trying to figure out if any personnel in Flight Ops have died when it was turned into a sun. And then what a bright light is all about. We are trying to figure out why a used Sabre class fired on us. Welcome back, Commander."

Joey frowned. She honestly couldn't say any of this truly surprised her. The Black Hawk was definitely a magnet for this type of thing. "Thanks," she said, holding the tricorder in her hand. "Given what you've just told me, it sounds like you've all got your work cut out for you. That being said, I need a volunteer to help me weed through all of the information we were able to recover from the Shran. I can call more of our people in to help out with all of this if need be."

"You know what, I could use a break," said the Bolian. "Some good ole information analysis may just be what the doctor ordered. Petty Officer Trakk Brohar at your service, Commander."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Petty Officer Brohar," she said. "Our department may be small, but I still haven't been formally introduced to everyone yet. That is completely my fault, too."

"Don't worry about it, Commander," said the Bolian. He waved his hand in the air dismissively. "You're busy with so much that happens around here, no one expects you to know everyone. And I think they have a handle on it. No need to call anyone else in. So what kind of information do we get to weed through?"

Joey held up the tricorder that contained what they needed to read through. "We get to weed through all sorts of logs from a starship that went missing over a year and a half ago," she began. "Something pretty big happened on that ship. We need to find out what that was. Anything useful from the last eighteen or so months."

"Well won't that just be a regular hoo-hah," said the Bolian. "Shall we find a quieter room where we can search through all of this newfound data?"

"The lab," she stated, heading in that direction. It would definitely be more equipped to handle what they needed to do, and once inside, she began the process of getting the tricorder connected to one of the terminals. She moved her fingers over the display as information started to display itself on the screen. "This is certainly going to be interesting to go through."

"Lab it is then," he said as he followed his chief. Once the tricorder began putting the data into their system and on the screen, Trakk shook his head. "Oh I agree. This is all most certainly going to be interesting to go through. What do we have here...," he said. The Bolian watched the information scroll and rattled off some of what he saw. "Sensor readings...ship's logs...security...wait, what's that?" He stopped the scrolling and moved it back a little as the tricorder continued the download. "Damage reports? And why are they all marked within minutes of each other?" He looked over at Geisler. "What in the world did you see over there?"

Where did she begin? Joey took a deep breath. "Hull breaches that allowed nebula gases to seep inside. Dead bodies... some in pieces, some missing heads, some with holes through their chests. Security was missing weapons, protocols, isolinear chips... it was horrible. Definitely things nightmares are made of."

The Bolian shuddered. "Sounds like it," he said. "Still all of these damage reports are timestamped within just minutes of each other. And then nothing. It looks like whoever attacked them were the last ones to see anyone alive."

"What is the date and time on those timestamps?" She asked. Joey moved her fingers over the console. It was time to look for more specific things. "And that's just it... someone had to have known who was attacking them."

"One moment Commander...these damage report logs are dated May 2388," said Trakk. "And this one," he said pointing, "was flagged as priority, Bridge." He looked over to her. "Explosive detonation?"

"That goes along with what we saw," Joey said, pinching the bridge of her nose. More questions, very few answers. That's how life in Starfleet seemed to go. "Anything else flagged as priority? Or any mention of who might have been responsible?"

"Hang on," Trakk said. He tapped the console to bring up two screen searches, one for priority flags and one for names. "This one is the priority flags from the damage reports. Main Engineering reported phaser fire and minor explosions. The Security area reported phaser fire in an attempt to gain access to restricted areas. This other one is a mention of any names from the security reports. Looks like they're mostly crew names, though." He scrolled for a little while longer until an idea hit him. "Wait a minute, this ship was presumed destroyed at the beginning of the Consortium Crisis. If I cross reference 'Consortium' with..." He trailed off as he performed the actions. "Yep, there it is," he said a few seconds later, "at least twenty-three references to Consortium in the context of crew names and damage reports." He looked up at Joey again. "A mutiny or a seizing of control most likely."

"A mutiny makes sense, but I'm not sure phasers would have been strong enough to put those size holes in the hull of the ship," she stated. "Those had to come from outside, which means, there was another ship around during that time. Can you look for keywords that might match that?"

"Hmm." Trakk hadn't been over there and seen the size of the holes. "I can certainly check on that." He adjusted his keywords and broadened the search. A few minutes later, he found himself with a little more information. "Well, I have a Captain's Log where he mentions that their shields were nearly depleted, but no reason why. He also talks about them running into the nebula and away from some ships, but no indication that they followed them into the nebula. Odd...usually Captain's are more detailed than that." He looked up at the Commander. "No mention of a weapons bombardment or sabotage that would've depleted the shields. No mention or speculation on what kind of ships and who they were. No mention if they followed them in."

Joey tapped her chin while she mulled over what he told her. "A Captain would be more detailed if they weren't under attack. Something had to have been going on aside from mutiny. Let's look at the sensor scans to coincide with the times of the logs."

The Bolian nodded and turned back to the console. He crossed the sensor scans with the times of the logs and started shaking his head. "The only ship to have come across the Shran at that time was an old Orion Interceptor. Might have been Orion pirates from the looks of this. But the sensor scans don't show any indication of the Orions firing on them." He continued shaking his head. "Unless the Captain was the one that was Consortium and scrubbed all of this.... I hate to think of that."

"The Shran's Captain wouldn't have been the first to be Consortium. Keep looking and see if you can find anything else that might give us more insight. I need to look into the guy we came across on the ship," she stated. "I'll check back in with you shortly."

Trakk slowly nodded his head as he let that first bit sink in. "No, I suppose he wouldn't have been. But I'll certainly keep searching," he said, going back to the data. "And I'll await your return."

Joey nodded her head and made her way to her office. Maybe contacting Starfleet Intelligence would happen, but first she'd see what a little digging would pull up in her own. She took a seat at her desk and began to move her fingers over the display to see what would pop up when searching for the name Kelinor.

The computer immediately brought up a Starfleet record for one Kelinor Voseh. It listed his appearance as six feet, two inches and one-hundred seventy-six pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. There was an image on file to match the description. Then it listed his species as Nova Kron and gave a date of birth that would make him five-hundred forty years old this year.

Further down, it listed his Starfleet service. He was on the USS Galileo as a brig officer right out of the Academy. He was then transferred to the USS Osiris as the Assistant Chief Security Officer and eventually became the Chief. Years later, he was involved in an incident that put him up for a court martial. He was found wanting and subsequently dismissed from Starfleet. His Starfleet record didn't go into the details of the incident or the court martial proceedings.

There were a few personality assessments at the bottom from a counsellor aboard the Osiris. She noted that Kelinor was the most vain officer she'd ever met and quite arrogant at times. He wouldn't do anything for anyone else unless they could do something for him in return. 'Smartass' was also listed under several complaints from fellow crew members. And he loved the ladies...

Interesting, Joey thought as she read over Kelinor's personnel record. Former Security. It's possible he's responsible for what was missing from the armory on the Shran. That was all speculation at the moment, of course, but certainly possible. But, the Intel Chief wanted to know more about the court martial incident. Perhaps, she'd dig a bit deeper into that by contacting Starfleet Intelligence, but for now, the Intelligence Chief needed to see if Trakk found anything else before reporting their findings.

Joey rose to her feet and made her way back out to the lab where she'd left her analyst working. She turned her attention to the Petty Officer and approached him. "Have you found anything else out worth noting?"

The Bolian shook his bald head. "No, Commander. I'm sorry. There doesn't seem to be much more in here at the moment. I suppose, though, if it was the Captain and he scrubbed the data, he would've had to do so in a hurry amidst the chaos. It's possible he could have missed something. But it'll take a little more time than the few minutes we have."

"I'll run a more in depth search. Thank you for your help. You can return to your normal duties now," she said. "I need to talk to Commander Walsh and Captain Geisler."

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