Suspicion - Part 1

Posted on 31 Mar 2014 @ 6:31pm by Lieutenant JG Suteyo Alahanu & Lieutenant JG Telemachus Rahde
Edited on on 31 Mar 2014 @ 6:35pm

1,267 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: M12: For Duty or Honor
Location: Cargo Bay 2
Timeline: Back post - Shorty following the Hearing

[Cargo Bay 2]

Suteyo had gone over the report a dozen times in the turbo lift. He had privately been investigating the Achilles crew and tracking inventory, not wanting to report anything lest his quarry be alerted. Now he had enough evidence he was now duty bound to report it to his superior. To his chagrin, he had been transferred aboard without meeting the XO or the Admiral, the timing had not worked out on his day of transfer and his orders had been approved from afar. Now his first meeting with the XO was to tell him he had a leak in Tactical aiding a smuggling operation ongoing aboard the Achilles.

Lt. Commander Lantiq had set the time for their meeting so Suteyo had to wait until he was available. Now, at the fated hour Suteyo stood outside Cargo Bay 2 awaiting Lantiq's arrival. He pondered over the evidence one more time from his initial report, checking the addendums as well.

Investigations Officer Incident report:

I had notified Ensign Lema Rogers to meet me in Cargo Bay 2 for an explanation, we are carrying fissile material for dilithium regeneration there, but manifest was short of what was physically present. While I was performing a second count after contacting Rogers, a container was loosed, if it had struck the ground hard, it would have been a radioactive contamination for the whole deck to evacuate from. I had thought myself to be alone in the Cargo Bay but with clarification from Elas I can now remember clearly how the crate moved when it fell. Nothing to the left or right even budged, it was the one crate and it moved in short bursts. It was pushed and it would have put the crew in danger had I not softened its impact with my body... which was not my goal, merely the outcome. A simple inventory anomaly I was checking into has now turned into a hunt for a fleet or civilian crewman on board with a taste for murder

The facts at play at this moment are as follows:

There are three extra 2000Kilo containers of Fissile Material

The extra three serial numbers are in a series themselves but out of sequence with the rest which are subsequently correct in their sequences.

The time the crates arrived coincided with recent repairs at Starbase 80.

Loadmaster at Starbase 80 confirms inventory count allocated to Achilles, no other shipments on record. Physical inventory from prior logs indicate these three had to have been moved on board at time of re-stock.

Records indicate two crates present aboard the Achilles at time immediately prior to docking at SB 80, not the tag numbers of three crates in question. The two remaining older crates were removed and recycled. serials confirm deletion.

Ensign Lema Rogers confirmed inventory prior to arrival, and confirmed delivery after repairs. Interview still pending.

Upon contacting Ensign Rogers to come to Cargo Bay 2, a crate was dislodged directly over me and would have killed me had I not noticed it when I did.

There was a person in Cargo Bay 2, though sensors show no crew, and all on duty personnel were accounted for. Process of elimination by distance and witness leaves a pool of twenty three potential candidates with access to communications, ships stores, and a lack of confirmed whereabouts for the moments before the time shift with proximity to the Cargo Bay.

Conclusions: These three crates were placed aboard by mistake or design, a mistake usually reveals itself in the redundancies, a designed plan would cover its tracks. Estimated sale value is considerable, but there are easier and more lucrative items to smuggle and sell. Materials would fetch the most value to low warp civilizations still unable to synthesize compounds with properties like Dilithium, or to low tech warships requiring warhead materiel. My report to Chief Radhe will detail a planned approach to narrowing the suspect while allowing for secret investigations as well as a protective detail for the witnesses involved, Loadmaster at SB 80, Ensign Rogers, Elas Vonti.

End of report

The Supplemental tab blinked at him, edits were still pending. Since leaving SB 80 and their recent mission Suteyo had tracked the three crates. They were still there, in Cargo Bay 2 where they were originally. Whoever brought them on board would need to get them eventually. This is why he brought the XO to the bay, so he could show him the mystery in person. The edits for his list of suspects remained pending, but he closed it out. There just wasn't time before Ryal arrived.


[XO's Office]

Chief of the Boat Van Berg hit the chime and entered Lantiq's office, she found the Executive Officer at his desk going over a pile of reports.

"You need something Boss?" She asked coming over to his desk and taking a seat. "Like a shovel?"

Lantiq looked up and smiled, the COB and he were old acquaintances "Hey, Vik! Yeah, I need you to go check something for me" He passed over a copy of Suteyo's report and waited while she read it.

"An inventory or supply error?" Van Berg offered "Although what's with this taste for murder stuff?"

"I have no idea" Lantiq shrugged "Suuteyo's new. Not sure if he's just trying hard to impress or if he's on to something. Go check it out and also find out why he's sending me reports directly and not following his own security chain of command through Lieutenant Rahde"

Van Berg nodded and got up as she headed for the door she glanced again at the pile of reports on Lantiq's desk "And people ask me why I refused to get commissioned"

"Yeah thanks Chief" Lantiq replied wryly "Maybe I should start delegating some to you?"

"Nooo. I'm busy chasing security around!" Van Berg laughed.


[Cargo Bay 2]

Five minutes later Van Berg got off a turbo lift and walked down the corridor to the forward hatch into Cargo Bay 2. She found Suteyo waiting outside.

"Lieutenant" Van Berg greeted him "Mister Lantiq's compliments, I'm here on his behalf. I've read your report, so what's going on?"

Suteyo sighed inwardly; he had been virtually ignored since coming on board. People kept treating him as a dumb brute, assuming the backwards Capellan was a grunt at best. His stoic silence and lack of friendly interaction certainly didn't help. And here again, people just didn't believe him when he said he was attacked. Sickbay noted it as a collateral incident from the turbulence experienced on the mission, Nurse Wendsar even had him flagged for psych review when he voiced his suspicions. Of course that psych review with the Ullian Counselor had revealed he was right to believe so. The confidence in himself restored he had petitioned for any officer who would listen to hear his report. He explained in a simple tone,

"The case is growing cold, and time is of the essence before any further crew transfers occurred. I believe malfeasance to be at the heart of my recent injury while investigating a discrepancy in the manifest."

"Okay, and why have you not reported this through Security Chief Rahde?" Van Berg asked

Suteyo hesitated, Rahde was busy certainly, but he had felt outright ignored. "Rahde had other issues to attend to, and I was left to pursue this at my own leisure. After several attempts to gain official investigation status I felt compelled to bring it to the attention of another Senior Officer before dismissing the case entirely. I still hurt as well, and my attacker is at large."


TBC>

 

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