Follow the Trails

Posted on Tue Nov 7th, 2023 @ 11:01am by Lieutenant JG Jasmine Brooks & Lieutenant Faith Hawkins

1,320 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: To Catch a Thief
Location: Science Lab
Timeline: During 'Boarding the Derelict'

With the away team on its one to one of the hulks to investigate any possible thefts that might have taken place. Captain Fredricks had ordered Brooks and Hawkins to begin looking for any breadcrumb trails that could have been left behind.

Jasmine sat at one of the work stations as she reconfigured the sensor array to detect warp trails. "Right, I think ive managed to reconfigure the main sensor array to detect warp trails. Hopefully, we'll be able to pick something up." Brooks commented.

The away team had departed, and she was not on it. Faith was glad. She hated shuttles. They and the runabouts were too damned small. It was the transporter or nothing for her. The chief engineer sat next to Jasmine, working intently. This sensor suite was much, much better than Arundel's. Faith thought two angles of attack would be better than one, so proposed a second option.

"Good plan. I think we should look for weapon signatures as well." she began, looking at a map of the system. Twisted, mangled debris was everywhere. Large, small. "It's probable they've used weapons to destroy the larger debris to clear a path." Faith pointed to an area where she thought this could have happened. "Particularly here."

"Good idea." Jasmine replied with a smile. "I'll add weapons signatures for the filter." She added as she tapped away on her console. A few moments later a map of the Chin'toka system appeared on the screen infront of them. Then Britannic's location and then the debris. Then an array of colours appeared across the entire system. "Well, it looks like the system has been well travelled and alot of weapons fire has taken place. Let's seen if we can filter this down a little bit more."

Brooks' hands danced over the console as she worked. The different colours onscreen became less and less. "Ok, ive narrowed down the search to the last 3 months. Seems there's about 15 different warp signatures that have used this system in that time. Not bad considering it's a no fly zone."

Faith nodded. The amount of warp and weapon signatures was no surprise. The prizes and rewards on offer were vast and lucrative. Clearly, further lives had been lost here as factions clashed over the best of the treasure. "One place we could start is areas with higher concentrations of weapon signatures." suggested Faith. "If there's any substantial debris, we could transport it on board for a closer analysis. Might give us a starting point."

Jasmine nodded, "This is basically grave robbing. Its disgusting that people gave their lives to protect this Quadrant but others are just in it for financial gain."

Of course it was. War and its aftermath always brought out the worst, the greed in people. These parts which were being stolen were likely being sold for profit. Faith didn't doubt some were probably being kept by these people to upgrade their own vessels. They'd probably be using the Federation's own technology against them.

"I could think of a lot worse to say." replied Faith. The memories were still too raw. She just wanted to find out who did this. And then leave. "But yes, you're right."

"Hmmm." Jasmine said as she looked at the screen. "Looks like this warp trail has been particularly active in this system over the past few months. Any ideas what ship it could be from?"

Faith wasn't sure. "It could be anything, Lieutenant. Anyone with intelligence would have masked, or altered, their warp trail. Weapons signatures are harder to mask. But, they don't give much of a clue either. Not when they can be swapped out for somebody else's technology." responded Faith, analysing the data. Then, something caught her eye.

"This debris looks pretty recent. Can you get me a closer look at it, please?"

"Sure. Hang on." Jasmine said as she recalibrate the sensors. "There you go."

Intriguing. That wasn't what she was expecting to find, but it was as clear as day. It could be a plant, of course, but there was only one way to find out. Faith wanted to have a look at it with her own two eyes. "I'd like to bring it on board for further analysis." she said. As yet, she'd not told Jasmine what it was.

"A plant? Surviving in space? Fascinating." Brooks replied as she took a look at the engineers screen. "Might need a containment field up just in case?"

"I'd say that's wise." replied Faith, looking at the debris. If anything, she wanted to see the weapons signature. It'd give them two signatures, rather than one. "How are you getting on with the sensors? I can transfer some more power from reserve if you need it."

"I have to say weapons signatures aren't my forte. I know being classed as a vet of the Dominion War, I didn't really do much war or battle stuff. I've always been a scientist at heart." Brooks explained as she continued to work on his console. "Maybe some extra power might help?"

"The role of scientists in the war should never be downplayed, Lieutenant. We were all in it together, whatever colour our collar was." replied Faith. She then tapped her commbadge. =A="Hawkins to Engineering, transfer 20% of reserve power to the sensors."=A=

=A="Baker here. Power transferred, Lieutenant."=A= came the response. Willa Baker was in charge in Faith's absence. She was new, but Faith thought she'd learn more with a gradual introduction to the deep end.

=A="Acknowledged."=A= Faith turned to Jasmine, the power transfer complete. It might not make any difference whatsoever. But, they had to try all avenues. Even if this told them where the trails went, they'd know where to look. "Anything?" she asked.

Jasmine nodded slowly. "There's plenty here from the war, obviously but there's a few that are more recent. Looks like a type 7 starfleet phaser array was used within the last 72 hours." Brooks slender hands moved quickly over the console as she triangulated the position. "There, that hulk of what looks like a stardrive section of a galaxy class vessel. Looks like the deflector array was been cut out."

"Any inclination as to what was used to cut through the hull?" asked Faith, examining the charred, mangled mess of the Galaxy class. It wasn't an accurate precision job. No, it was like it had been done in a hurry. And not very well. Her console then beeped, distracting her attention.

"I have a warp trail. Here." said Faith, putting it up on the larger screen. "They've been here several times, by the looks of it." she said, as more appeared on the screen. They fanned out to various parts of the site, from the exactly same point. The exact same point whoever it was made their escape from the scene of the crime.

"So that Galaxy Class is the carcass that the vultures are picking at at the moment. God knows what technology they've already taken from it." Brooks mused. "We best report this to the Captain. Wonder if it might be worth waiting and finding out who is picking the meat from those bones?"

"Well, I don't think it'll be too long before they're back for more. There's still plenty of valuable technology on board which hasn't been stripped." replied Faith. "But yes, we should tell the Captain. A lead is a lead."

Jasmine nodded. "Shall we go together or..." Her voice trailed off, she wasn't used to be the one making the decisions, she was only a science officer not a department head.

"I'm not particularly good at Science, Lieutenant." replied Faith. She could sense Jasmine's uncertainty. Faith completely understood. She was exactly the same when she was a junior engineer. With a reassuring smile, she turned to face Jasmine. "We can tell the Captain together."

Jasmine smiled. "Lets go." She said with a nod.

 

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