The Interrogation

Posted on 24 Oct 2025 @ 1:01am by Lieutenant JG Shay Mitchell & Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale & Lieutenant Ranul Frex & Lieutenant T’Mari Rael & Story Teller

1,442 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Imposters Among Us
Location: Interrogation Room 1
Timeline: July 8, 2390 || 1300 hours

Time was slipping away too quickly, but Camila got the notice that Ensign Wallace and Ensign Hollingsworth had brought Lieutenant Frex to Interrogation Room One. She put on her game face even though she wanted to scream in Klingon and demand the Engineer's spots, but chose to focus on the questions she was about to ask him. She looked at Shay and T'Mari as she took a calming breath.

"Everyone ready?" she asked.

"As ready as I'm going to be," Shay stated. She still found it hard to believe that one of their own could sabotage them like this. There was only one question she wanted an answer to, and that was simply... why?

T’Mari nodded. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

Frex was just sitting at the table, his hands in the electronic locks upon it. He was still wearing the same duty uniform from earlier, minus his combadge of course. Frex had been racking his brain since he was taken into custody about who could have done this or how it could have been done. Everyone from him to Camila to Joey to a few other people had access to the devices, especially when they were transferred off of the Black Hawk. So, he wasn't wondering what happened and why they would wanted to have messed with the devices.

T’Mari studied Frex as she stood to one side. If he was guilty of anything he certainly didn’t appear to be worried about it, in-fact he seemed calm, she stepped a little closer wanting to set a baseline for her own readings. “Lieutenant, do you know why you’re here? Does it concern you?”

Shay blinked, but said nothing for fear that her sarcasm would get the better of her. Of course, the engineer knew why he was there, and if that didn't concern him, then there was something seriously wrong. The newly minted Lieutenant JG cleared her throat and moved around to the other side of the table. "Perhaps, we should let Commander di Pasquale ask the first question," she said, then looked toward Camila. "Commander?"

"Thank you, Lieutenant Mitchell," Camila said and cast a pointed look at the Counselor, who she had asked to merely monitor the Chief Engineer and ask a question only if necessary. "Lieutenant Ranul Frex, you stand accused of sabotage of the tricobalts used in the battle with G90B. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Frex almost didn't even hear that they were asking him questions. It felt like he was a world away. Well, actually a galaxy away. He wasn't even looking Camila in the eyes because he knew how this all must've looked. Frex was the Chief Engineer and one of the few people who had close access to the devices. But, in his heart of hearts, he knew that he didn't do anything to those devices. When he realized that Camila asked him a question and it finally sunk in, Frex looked at Camil and replied, "I don't even know what happened to those devices. As of this moment, you probably know more about them than I do. The only thing that I know for certain is that they didn't work."

"Our investigation revealed you altered the tricobalt’s onboard computer had been fed incorrect perimeter definitions, causing it to misinterpret spatial boundaries and target acquisition zones. This flaw, combined with the timing and yield inconsistencies, rendered the device tactically unreliable and dangerously unstable. The logs had been partially scrubbed, but the residual data fragments point to you. The sabotage was elegant, buried beneath layers of legitimate work assigned to you, suggesting intent and technical mastery. A misfire could have jeopardized the entire vessel."

Frex thought about it for a moment as he was thinking back to when he was working with Camila and Joey on the devices. He was trying to rack his brain and figure out how anything like that could have happened. Then, something crossed his mind and Frex replied, "Well, thinking back to when you, me, and Joey were working on the devices, I remember that you and Joey were giving me all the information to put into the tricobolt devices. I was worried that I might input something wrong. But, I remember doing and redoing everything for them, from the perimeter definitions to the field strengths to the acquisition zones. So, there should have been no way for anyone, myself included, to mess anything like that up. I even think Joey double checked my work behind me, just to make sure that I had everything correct to the intelligence that her team had collected about the G90B. So, I don't know how this could have happened. Especially since the devices were under lock and key from the time we got done with them until they were loaded onto the other ships."

Before Camila even had the opportunity to respond, the ship’s red alert klaxons blared to life, their shrill cry slicing through the tension in the room like a disruptor blast. The lights overhead flickered, then dimmed to crimson as the emergency protocols kicked in. Outside the interrogation room, the Security Complex erupted into chaos—shouts echoed through the corridors, overlapping voices calling out reports of fires on various decks, hull breaches near Engineering, and explosions tearing through the lower decks.

Shay blinked, panic surging through her as she moved toward the door, tapping the panel to check the status of the corridor. The screen flashed red—according to the display, containment fields were failing in multiple sectors.

Camila stood in shock for a minute as report after report came over her combadge. "Initiate General Quarters Four! Seal the ship!" she called after she recovered and slapped her combadge, calling for the bulkheads in all sections of the ship to sealed off. "Security to all essential areas!" She headed out of the interrogation room after Shay.

"I'm going to go find the Commodore" she called as she grabbed her tactical belt and secured it as she headed out of Security. "Computer, locate Commodore Geisler!"

"Commodore Geisler is in Auxiliary Control," replied the computer.

Frex heard everything starting to happen and he tried to yell out to Camila. But, she was already out of the door and running out of the security complex onboard the Black Hawk. He was still shackled in and couldn't help but sigh as he waited to see what happened next.

T’Mari stood amazed that things had gone from nothing to seriously bad in no time at all. “I believe you!” She moved across to Frex, she couldn’t just leave him shackled in a room when all hell was breaking loose outside. “We need to get loose, but we’ll be sticking together. One wrong move and I'll deck you, got it!?”

The Warden who had never left his post and wouldn't under any circumstances unless another Brig officer were there to replace him looked at the Counselor in disbelief. "Lieutenant Rael, if you make one more move to free the prisoner and you will be under arrest as well. Lieutenant Frex, do you wish to place charges against the Counselor for threatening you?"

“What? I wasn’t…” T’Mari paused. “Fine! I’ll just stand here while all hell breaks loose and we get ourselves killed. How does that sound?”

"You're in the safest, most secure place on the entire ship, Counselor," the Warden said. "I'd suggest you sit down and work on your feelings. They seem to be out of control."

"That's enough. Now is not the time for any of us to lose our heads," Shay said as she rushed back into the interrogation room and over to Frex. The young woman began to take his restraints off. "You're still under suspicion of sabotage, Lieutenant, but right now we need all hands on deck. You and I will be taking part in the buddy system. Lieutenant Rael, you're welcome to join us, but the Warden is right. The Security Complex is the safest place to be."

“Safest maybe, but not the smartest” T’Mari added. “I’m coming with you.”

"I'm on the same track as T'Mari. It might be secure, but I think that's what they want right now. They want us locked down and fighting amongst ourselves. So, I'm coming with you guys and maybe, we can get through this together!" Frex replied as he followed T'Mari and Shay out of the complex.

Shay made her way out with them, hoping that they could get things under control as soon as possible. Many lives were dependent on it.

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