Greatest Threat Part 1

Posted on Fri Apr 3rd, 2020 @ 6:46pm by Commander Alexis Agrax (*) & Executive Officer Valiyi Uhin & Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein & Jinx Jorasco & Commander Adamya Ryon
Edited on on Fri Apr 3rd, 2020 @ 6:47pm

Mission: Cosmos
Location: Armory, Deck 580
Timeline: 2396
1441 words - 2.9 OF Standard Post Measure

With the turbolift unable to access the last few decks, the climb down toward Deck 580 was fraught with obstacles and danger. Fused access doors, exposed EPS relays, and some fire hazards were just a few of the problems that the crew ran into.

Finally reaching the deck with the armory, Commander Adamya kicked the last hatch open. As he stepped into the corridor, he almost audibly gasped. There was a hull breach just down the corridor, revealing debris and things that he would rather not think about. The only thing that stood between them and the cold vacuum of space was a force field.

"Careful," the Bajoran commander stated as he turned to offer a hand to help those coming out of the jefferies tube behind him. As they came out of the tube, Ryon added, "Armory is a bit down the hall, but we have to be careful."

Alexis took the offered hand to help herself out as she was carrying equipment in a rucksack. She muttered a quick expletive as she saw the force field before stepping along to where the armory door was meant to be. Alexis for a second had a flashback to somewhere she tried to never think, but it was impossible to not compare.

Ash gave a low whistle as he exited the hatch and saw the force field. It reminded him a bit of surviving the destruction of the USS Nimitz. “Was there anyone down here?” he asked quietly.

Coming up behind him, Byla sucked in a sharp breath at the scene. She'd seen worse, but that was the problem. The images overlaid in her mind. Pull it together, she told herself firmly, and hauled herself the rest of the way up the ladder.

Nodding his head a little, Adamya replied, "Had to be. Reports state that the station was running drills at the time for conference prep." The Bajoran's tricorder beeped as it scanned definite signs of an antimatter-matter reaction. "That is odd," Ryon started. Holding out his tricorder so the rest of the team could read the holographic display, he finished, "It's almost like an under powered photon torpedo went off right here."

Byla glanced at it. This wasn't typical work for a JAG, but she'd seen her share of explosives, as well as having helped to make and plant improvised devices. "Check for chemical traces. Power signatures will be a mess to sort out here if any phaser power packs reacted and went off too."

"Mm." Asha had herself propped up on the opposite wall, padd directed right at the door. While it could not pull the same readings a tricorder could, it most certainly could record a picture of the damages. "The blast is consistent with a few terrorist cells that are being monitored in the Diplomatic Corps. I'll send information to one of my officers. They've been keeping tabs on any activity that might rear its ugly head in our direction."

Alexis glanced at the group as she worked her way along. They were working on the investigation while she was going to work on the armoury, and seeing if anything was in working order that needed securing. It was unlikely, but they did not need any weapons in the wrong hands.

Seeing Alexis break off toward the armory, Ryon decided to go with her. He had never been a security officer, and this kind of investigation was out of his wheelhouse, but his time as a Task Group Commanding Officer and now a Strategic Operations gave him a firm grasp on what kind of equipment a base like this should stock. The Bajoran said, "I'll scan this end and you scan that one. Even broken phasers or rifles would leave a distinct tachyon trace. We have to make sure this explosion wasn't cover for getting these weapons into the wild."

Alexis nodded. "Have any of you been in a situation like this before?" she wondered to anyone as she worked methodically along the rows.

“Not on the investigation end,” Ash said as he studied the tricorder readings he was getting. “There is something...odd. The residual power signature isn’t strong enough for how recent the explosion was. If it was a photon torpedo, the yield is lower than those in current use. And how did they shield it from the station’s internal security sensors?” he mused. “They would have detected a weapon signature. I can think of a few options.”

Byla was glad someone else had prior experience. It made it a little easier to speak up. "Yes. Not investigating, but I've been on the receiving and sending ends. So," she began ticking off options on her fingers, "components smuggled in and assembled later, older low yield tech that's below threshold or more easily shielded, TED -- transported explosive device. Sensors should have caught the latter, but you only need a seconds' gap in readings to get past that."

“Right,” Ash said. Sabotage wasn’t his area of expertise, but sometimes in a pinch, an operation used what they had. “All good options. Did the sensors catch any unauthorized transporter activity like that? If not, it would have needed to be brought in. And need to be hidden somehow. Have we pinpointed the origin of the blast?”

"It will not have been transported," Alexis spoke up, having been thinking through options as they spoke. It had been years since she had done an investigation like this. "The transporters would have noticed. Do you have the readings?" Alexis turned, something bugging her about the conversation so far, something that the JAG officer had said was bugging something in her head and she couldn't get a grip on the thread of information.

"What if it was already here, but in parts?" Asha offered. "Sure, all of whatever it was that caused this damage would look pretty suspicious if it was put together, but unassembled?" She paused, frowning at her padd. "I'll be able to narrow down the search on my end once we get a few more details, but it seems like this isn't the first weird attack on a Starfleet installation. I know it's pure conjecture without hard facts, but I feel like I've come across something like this in my files."

“The transporters would only notice if it went through our transporters,” Ash said. “If a ship beamed it on, we would detect the transport, but not what was in it. We would need to see the security logs. And a transported explosive could be detonated remotely immediately upon the completion of the transport.”

Listening to the others talk through the situation took Ryon back to his time in the Bajoran Resistance, or at least helping them out. "A tactic that we used on Bajor to get around Cardassian scans was to break down weapons into parts and stash them in different shipments. If one was ever caught, the piece would be meaningless." Nodding toward the others, he added, "Makes sense that a lower level photon torpedo, or the equivalent, could have been brought aboard in pieces then carried or transported to various locations."

"Aye," Byla agreed. "A fairly successful tactic if you knew how to break things out to avoid notice. Also works best with older tech, because the lists set up to that monitor for that sort of thing usually focus on components of newer and more destructive devices."

"So," the Bajoran began, "we are dealing with older tech. Probably brought aboard in various incomplete stages. That gives us an entity that has some working experience with Starfleet scanning regulations." In his mind, that was enough to scratch a few terrorist cells off the list but there were still too many to even begin to guess at this point.

Alexis allowed them to spitball as she tossed broken Mark 2 rifles to the floor. "Also gives an idea of who could be working with older technology," she pointed out.

"Anything missing on your end?" Ryon asked Alexis. Holding up his tricorder, he said, "Found some pieces and rubble, all add up to what the armory had on this end."

"Nothing missing everything just broken." Alexis answered with a frown. Something was truly bothering her about it all but she could not put her finger on it at all.

---

Commander Adamya Ryon
Chief Strategic Operations Officer
USS Cosmos
(pNPC Jared Rosado)

Commander Alexis Agrax
Chief Of Security
USS Cosmos
(PNPC Sloan)

Lieutenant Bylaxera Drake
Senior JAG
SB 621

Lieutenant Asha Macae
Chief Diplomatic Officer
SB 621

Lieutenant Ash Danrisa
Chief Intelligence Officer
SB 621