Investigations Bear No Fruit

Posted on Wed Dec 21st, 2011 @ 5:29pm by Captain Vorn Krace & Commander Acle Walex

Mission: The Fate of the Swiftsure
Location: USS Iapetus - Briefing Room
Timeline: MD09 0800hrs

Krace looked up from his steaming mug of coffee - strong and sweet today, as he felt he would need every bit of help in staying awake and alert after the events of the night - as the door to the briefing room opened to admit one officer - Acle. The captain sat up straighter in his chair as he approached the table, and took a place near his end of it.

"Have we learnt anything from Varro's ship yet?" the CO asked, diving straight into the heart of the only current lead they had in their hands at present. "Any clues as to Varro's whereabouts, or to the past activities he was involved in just before abandoning his ship?"

Acle handed a PADD that he had brought in with him to his captain. "Well, the science department's team were able to determine that this was indeed Varro's ship. We were able to match his DNA that was in the system when he first became a Starfleet Informant, to some personal effects that were in the ship. You'll see on the first page there a list of said personal effects."

Acle paused to give the Captain some time to go through the list before continuing "The engineering team found no evidence of rough play. The ship's structural integrity is intact. There are not any signs of any foreign contaminants that might have poisoned Varro, nor is there any evidence that the ship was breached. Whoever it was, assuming that our erstwhile informant was kidnapped, did not have to forcibly gain access. Or they had transporter technology. A diagram of the ship's schematics is on page two, you will note that everything is in good working condition, if a little worn. However, the engineers assure me that the wear is from normal use and wouldn't result in any harm."

Acle again paused to give the Captain a moment to look over the PADD. "Finally, the intelligence team went over every piece of evidence recovered from the ship as well as the engineering report. Unfortunately, other then confirming that it is Varro's ship by some documents that were left, the only thing that they were able to confirm was that he left in a hurry. By what he left behind, he either left in a great deal of a hurry, or was taken without regard to personal comforts."

Acle sighed, leaning back in the chair, placing his hands behind his head and interlocking his fingers together. "All in all, we didn't really learn that much from the ship Captain. But, it is a step in the right direction. Maybe the away team or shuttle patrols will be able to find something else that we can use in conjunction of this."

"In other words, it was just a dead end?" the captain responded, his mood and reaction to the report duly soured by the events of the night still. He sighed, visibly coming to a quick conclusion that there was nothing further they could do until they heard back from their away team. "Thank you anyway. Anything else to report?"

Acle hesitated before replying. "The engineering team did uncover a file. We aren't sure what is in it, what it could do, or even for that matter, if it is anything at all. It is keyed to a voiceprint. It doesn't specifically say who the voice's owner is, but, it has a tag on it. The tag simply reads 'For the Starfleet Captain'. I left this until last so as not to give you false hope. I highly doubt it was addressed for you, whomever left this almost certainly didn't know of our existence in the system.

"What is it?" Krace asked, perplexed that the pirates would leave such a file behind. "A virus? Does it look like it contains any sort of disruptive subroutines?"

Acle shrugged before replying. "We have the file fully contained on an independent computer system not connected to the Main Computer, without even a way for it to be connected. Furthermore, the file is still behind several firewalls. Theoretically speaking, it would be impossible for any type of code to be transmitted. But, by the same token, there is no way we can know what is in it, unless we can get through that voice print..." He finished.

Vorn frowned at this information. Why would the pirates leave behind a voiceprint-activated file? They had to know that they would detect it and isolate it, so Krace found it hard to believe it was left to trigger some kind of event, not after the skill and planning they had put into their capture and escape. If they'd wanted to set off a computer bomb in the system, they'd have done it as soon as they left. "Well, we've got no other leads, so let's take a look at it. Computer, bring up the information about the file left behind by the intruders."

The computer chirped an affirmative. "Opening file. Voiceprint ID recognised. Playing message." The screen on the wall behind Krace's chair switched to a video image of the pirate crew's leader, and it took a few seconds for the surprised Krace to turn around to face the screen.

"My dear old captain," the pirate began, an air of smugness hanging around his recorded image. "As you have no doubt now been made aware, we have escaped from your holding cells, and suitably disabled your vessel to prevent it from being of any threat to us here in this system. We have left you with sufficient systems and power to limp back to your home base within the Solaris Nebula, from where you will hopefully carry on home through that gateway of yours.

"You should know that we have also by now taken your search team on our station hostage. If you do not leave within one standard day, I will kill them. Good day, Captain."

Krace sat in silence for a few moments after the viewscreen had reverted to its default state, before barking out an order. "Get every shuttle we have out there and looking for that scum bag, and tell Drex his time frame for getting our repairs done has just been cut."

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Captain Vorn Krace
Commanding Officer

&

Commander Acle Walex
Executive Officer
USS Iapetus