Suspicion - Part 2
Posted on 31 Mar 2014 @ 6:34pm by Lieutenant JG Suteyo Alahanu & Lieutenant JG Telemachus Rahde
Edited on on 31 Mar 2014 @ 6:36pm
1,474 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
M12: For Duty or Honor
Location: Cargo Bay 2
Timeline: Backpost - Shortly following the Hearing
"So you did or did not raise it with Mister Rahde?" Van Berg asked "And at your own leisure means this is unofficial?"
Suteyo swallowed the frustration beginning to mount in him. "Sir, I am the current investigations officer on board, it is my duty to investigate anything out of the ordinary. I have investigated at my leisure, in off-duty hours because despite my reports and requests to open an official investigation I have been wholly ignored."
"No need for the Sir Lieutenant, since I'm both female and a non-comm, so Chief or COB work fine" Van Berg replied dryly "Continue..."
Suteyo nodded, the lack of protocol for addressing females on boards lead to a thousand variations on how to address a fellow crewman. "Sir" had gotten Suteyo through the Academy, and his time in intel had been poor training for spit and polish protocols. He nodded his head in acknowledgement before continuing.
"Before I drop the case, I need the confirmation from a superior officer that I turned in the report so if a future malfeasance occurs it can be noted that I made a report and will not be held to account for incompetence. I have turned in an official report outlining a suspicion of smuggling activity... to no reply, sent a message to Chief Rahde personally requesting permission to investigate my own injuries as well as the inventory discrepancy only to receive total silence on the matter. So I am left with no other option then to elevate my report to the next in line... as Starfleet protocol explicitly outlines, or was I simply supposed to let this drop? Hope I am wrong and maybe it will all work out?"
He had managed to keep a perfect tone the whole time, but his body language was contemptuous. He thought to himself 'Why have a man do a job only to ignore him?' He was doing his duty, but being chastised for it, this was a frustrating situation and Suteyo found his temper being stoked.
Van Berg ignored the man's testiness and focused on being pragmatic "I'm unsure as to why Mister Rahde would seemingly ignore your investigation, so let's ask him shall we?"
Tapping her commbadge =^= Lieutenant Rahde, this is COB Van Berg, if you are available could you meet with me at my location? =^= Van Berg deliberately omitted referring to Cargo Bay 2 or to Suteyo, knowing that Rahde could find her via the ship's internal security functions.
Telemachus was taken by surprising by the summons "I will be there shortly chief" he located the chief on the system and keyed in a site to site transport
While they waited Van Berg made a suggestion to Suteyo. "If there is smuggling going on aboard this ship, as you suggest, then as soon as we're done here, you could check who queried the computer on my location with the last few minutes, besides the Security Chief. That might help you narrow down people with an interest in what Security is doing..."
Suteyo nodded, glad to have his word for it being taken and progress finally beginning. "Thank you Chief, an excellent suggestion. I have four suspects currently, this might be a telling indicator." The loadmaster at SB 80 was part of it, Suteyo was certain, Frank Talquin had been absent from his station when the Achilles went to Red Alert, Lema Rogers was in charge of inventory, and Tarryn Marks as one of the ships galley wards were the only people unaccounted for at the time of the accident and not exempted by Suteyo's investigation.
The transport whine kicked in and deposited Telemachus Rahde a few feet from the cob
"What can I do for you ?" He said as he remotely locked out his security console from his pad
"Over to you Lieutenant"Van Berg nodded towards Suteyo
Suteyo told the story again for the hundredth time, it was only personal tenacity that had kept him pursuing this. He handed the Padd outlining the reports evidence while explaining the details in short form. "...There are other conclusions that can be drawn but I believe based on the evidence at hand this report to be the accurate history of events."
Telemachus read skimmed through the report. While getting most of the information from what Suteyo was saying “Lieutenant why has this not been reported to me before now?"
Telemachus looked through his report on his own system and selected the messages from Suteyo.
When he saw the abbreviated, truncated words, twisted diversions of his own true words, Suteyo felt a flush of heat. "Sir, these messages are half of their original length and not accurate to what I was reporting." One Passage in particular stood out to him, he had labored for several hours composing these messages making sure he didn't sound like an overzealous rookie or paranoid war victim. Suteyo showed him this, "It says, 'Will need to arrange protective detail for hazardous material'. I had originally input 'Will need to arrange protective detail for witnesses in the hazardous material storage department." His message had been tampered with, the urgent request for supplies and support had gone unanswered due to the unseen saboteur cleverly editing out words to change the intent of the message.
Suteyo always saved his work on a personal drive, and he located the original messages, forwarding them to Rahde so he could see their original status. It was four messages, each one more urgently requesting a reply. Each one had been edited to a pointless mumble about extra containers. “My apologies Chief, I had no idea my messages were being intercepted." As the messages read, it was a simple inventory discrepancy for the Quartermaster to resolve. Rahde wouldn't have bothered with a reply, small stuff was simply reviewed and added to the log report. The flame of resentment Suteyo had carried the last few weeks against his mystery assailant erupted into full conflagration.
Telemachus felt the rage flowing of off the lieutenant, "Well that's frustrating" Telemachus made a note on his padd and deciding that this needed to be resolved urgently. "Ok Alahanu, you have several of the crew under suspicion, who’s at the top of the list?"
"Okay, so now that you two are on the same page, I will leave you two to your investigation gentlemen" Van Berg concluded "Should it turn out to be more than a simple inventory error Commander Lantiq will require a full report on the matter. " She nodded respectfully to the two officers and went back to her duties.
The loadmaster at SB 80, Ensign Frank Talquin had been absent from his station when the Achilles went to Red Alert, Crewman Lema Rogers was in charge of inventory, and Civilian Tarryn Marks as one of the ships galley wards were the only people unaccounted for at the time of the accident and not exempted by Suteyo's investigation. Capim could not account for the presence of the man during shift, so that made him the most suspect.
"Tarryn Marks, a member of the Federation Civilian corps, working as a galley ward. Mr. Jothy was able to prove his absence from his duty shift during the time I was injured. A fourteen minute absence from the galley that began twenty two seconds after I contacted Ensign Rogers, and he has access to the Cargo bays here for the Galley back stock. I've already sketched the route likely taken, it is lightly worked requiring no turbolift access. He would have time to get to the Cargo Bay, and sneak into position... I had assumed initially the convulsion of the ship to have dislodged a crate but a memory recovery thanks to Elas Vonti allowed me to clearly recall the nature of the scene. It was pushed, directly on top of me, moments before the ship was lurched. The crate wasn’t damaged, and all three are still in there."
Telemachus thought for a few moments before saying "I take it you are fully recovered?"
Suteyo nodded, " Fighting Ready sir."
"Alright Lieutenant Alahanu I want you to continue with this investigation, this evening we will move the crates immediately before the evening inspection we must inform the deck chief and I want personnel posted in the cargo bay and someone watching the internal sensors we will see what happens"
Suteyo agreed, he set up the parameters on his Padd, confirming the sting op and details. "Will get on it tonight, I suggest before the crates are moved we place internal sensors on tracking crew even without their comm badge. And also, question Mr. Marks." He and the chief had finally gotten on the same page. They would get to the bottom of this.
Lt. j.g. Suteyo Alahanu
CCO
LT telemachus Rahde
Cs/TO
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