Gathering the Evidence

Posted on 01 Mar 2019 @ 6:48pm by Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Stark
Edited on on 09 Mar 2019 @ 3:59pm

2,268 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: USS Galileo-A - Various
Timeline: MD -145, 0600

[OLD]

Allyndra waited until they had Mimi out the door and then called security.
=^= Commander Warraquim here. Security to Ensign Mimi's quarters. I believe there has been an assault. Transporting the patient to sickbay. =^=

Anyone that knew her, knew she seldom used rank, but when she did it was serious.

=^=Yes Commander, lock the door and we will be there to investigate.=^=

[NEW]

Lt. Aria Rice frowned as she straightened her uniform jacket, made sure her phaser was secure and then took the case. It had everything they'd need...scanners, kit for taking samples, an extra memory unit for any recordings the computer had taken and the other usual bits. She looked over at Stark, giving a weak smile. "You're with me," she said and motioned for him to follow, heading towards the turbo lift.

Gabriel slipped in beside her, silent as the doors slid closed. He cleared his throat, frowning as he glanced to her, his hands held uncomfortably behind his back. "You...know this isn't my speciality," he said quietly, watching her features for a reaction. "Right?"

"I know," Aria said as she met his eyes before she shrugged weakly, making her high pony tail swing with the movement of her head. "It isn't anyone of ours, but it comes with the job. So we will go and do what we can...keeping an eye on the facts."

Stark frowned at that for a long moment, but nodded. He already knew he was going to have to keep his emotions in check. When the lift came to a halt, the pair made their way to the quarters with grim expressions, overriding the lock to get inside. As Gabriel glanced around, he noticed there was nothing in vast disarray, no obvious signs of a big struggle. He motioned to the kit Aria had, letting out a soft breath. "I'll scan if you want to look around?"

Aria nodded, taking a deeper breath as she smiled weakly to him, because she felt she had to show some expression even if her heart sank at doing this. "Yes," she said softly, already carefully walking. "Scan for anything you can think of. Follow the standard workflows..." which was good, because that meant it was all on a PADD.

Stark nodded with a frown as he started a slow and thorough scan, area by area. Whatever he found, this didn't have a happy ending. Either they found evidence it was true, in which case, in all honesty, he wasn't sure what he'd do. He just hoped someone was there to hold him back when he tried to do it. Or they didn't find anything and either someone was going to get away with assault, or someone he respected as a colleague wasn't being truthful about something so...horrible. They were all bad endings.

He took a steadying breath to try and keep calm and focused, concentrating on the results scrolling across the screen as they were logged, trying to just do the job with some distance. By the time he worked his way to the area around the bed, the tricorder gave a warning sound. He frowned as he crouched with the blip, leaning in closer to carefully take one of the hairs he'd found as evidence. The readings were clear...they weren't a match with Mimi's DNA, instead they flagged up as a match to another DNA they had on file. M'rythr. It was proof that someone else had been in the room at some point, but not when or if they were involved.

Aria let out a breath as she started to scan her area, frowning. She stopped and knelt, reaching for a sealed bag. She also sprayed her hands to glove them...you never wanted to contaminate things. That was standard procedure. Knickers. And tights, just...thrown to a corner. She did a scan of them first, recording the DNA on it as she frowned. Mixed. She brought up the result. Mimi and M'Rythr. She bagged them, knowing that while scanning them was good enough, she wanted something to back up in case. Just...in case. She stood and looked around, over the bed. "We should get someone from Operations here, to look at the readings from this room..." she said aloud. "See who walked in and out of here, what times and so on."

Gabriel nodded in agreement, having been half looking down over her shoulder at her readouts. Something had gone on between the pair, that was clear enough. "There's a guy I know, I get the feeling he's...sensitive. And discreet." He tapped his commbadge, glancing upwards. "Stark to Vansen, can you meet me at Ensign Mimi's quarters, please?"

"On my way," came Vansen's reply.

Aria looked over at Gabriel but didn't comment, a weak smile of approval coming to her before she looked around, taking it all in. "No obvious sign of a struggle."

Vansen let himself in, in uniform with his hair tied back because he hadn't bothered getting it cut and he was now constantly paranoid that he would be told off at the length. He looked at the two Security staff before frowning. "What can I do?" he asked, a genuine question.

"We need an official log of who has been in and out of this room, and when," Gabriel said quietly, shaking his head with a slight frown. "It's for an investigation, so it needs to be fully authenticated. Any sign of tampering or missing information also needs to be flagged."

Vansen nodded and moved to the computer, taking a deeper breath. "Well, I can see if the computer has been tampered with. But I can also check the sensors on the door. They have a limited memory capacity but they activate by combadges," he said and moved to get his kit out, taking the PADD to connect up.

"Handy," Aria said and frowned as she watched, saw how the man recorded what he was doing. "You can put my authorisation on this," she added, in case he needed it.

"Appreciate it," Vansen gave a small nod, frowning as he looked through it. He bit his lip, his teeth scraping over the bottom one for a moment as he bowed his head over his work. He was silent for many long minutes before he shrugged. "No, but I have the lifesign of both Ensign Mimi and a...M'rthyr." He handed the PADD to Aria. "Full official record of who entered and exited these quarters."

Aria nodded as she glanced over at Stark. "Thank you," she said and smiled gently. "Your discretion...will be appreciated in this."

Vansen gave a weak but joyless smile at the words. "It's my Chief. Of course I'll keep my mouth shut about it," he said quietly. Loyalty mattered to him. Whatever was going on...well. He kept his mouth shut.

"Good. Dismissed," Aria said and turned to Stark, waiting for Vansen to leave. Once she heard him go and nodded. "Let's head back and...look at what we have."

Gabriel nodded, already saving his findings as he led them out. He remained silent until the lift gave them privacy. "Something happened between them, but frankly, until Mimi makes a complaint that an assault took place, this isn't an investigation. It's an evening between two adults," he glanced to her to catch her eye. "Think we should take it to Franklin anyway? We could get a head start for if she does make a complaint."

Aria nodded as she held his eyes, taking a deeper breath. "Yes," she finally said. "Let's bring this to Franklin, prepare her in case this moves forward."

*****

Aria glanced at Stark as she rang the chime to the Chief's office, knowing Franklin would be there. Rather than barge in, she had opted for the slow approach. She looked down at the PADD in her hand, with the gathered evidence. Just in case. This was just in case after all. Maybe nothing untoward had happened. But even so.

Amaranai was sitting in her office catching up on some work that had been pushed aside. It was nothing special, simply requests for a shift change or leave. The work was tedious and though Amaranai missed being on a vessel that catered to danger and excitement, the security officer was beginning to realize that no matter what ship she was on, something was always happening.

As if to answer her plea for something different, however, the chime rang, which caught Amaranai off guard.

"Enter," she said.

"Lieutenant," Aria said and motioned for Stark to follow in with her.

When she saw Aria enter, she was a little puzzled.

"Hello lieutenant," Amaranai said. "How can I help you?"

Aria looked at Gabriel before back at Amaranai. "We...were sent by the CMO to Ensign Mimi's quarters. She believed there had been an assault. We have gathered the samples and information we could. No complaint has been raised, but we thought...it was best to bring it to you, ma'am."

An assault?

"Yes ma'am," Aria said before she glanced over at Stark and then back at Amaranai. "Sexual in nature judging by what we gathered. But nothing has been reported. We went in and gathered evidence in case it was needed. It is all here..." she offered the PADD over to her.

Amaranai took the PADD and started to look through the data. Clearly her staff had done a thorough job in gathering the evidence.

"Did you speak to the victim?" she asked. "Is there a reason they do not want to report it?"

Before letting Aria speak, the lieutenant continued.

"I see your reports, but what do you think might have happened?"

"We were contacted by medical, we haven't spoken to Mimi yet," Gabriel swallowed hard, making a conscious effort to try and stay objective and calm. "I hate to say it, but this concerns one of our own. M'rthyr is involved. The log shows he was in there with her at the right time, and there's enough of his DNA to show there was....intimate contact of some kind. Whether it was consensual or not, we will have to wait until we can speak to them for their versions of events."

"So really, this is just...in case," Aria said as she smiled weakly, almost sadly, holding the Lieuteant's eyes.

Amaranai listened. Hoped that what she was hearing wasn't true. That there had been a mistake. Some people had been convicted with even less evidence and it seemed as if there was a lot of evidence that led Rice and Stark to these conclusions.

"Thank you, lieutenant," Amaranai said.

She paused a moment.

"I'm not going to take sides," she started carefully. "You did the first part of your job but if the assault doesn't get reported, our hands are tied." Another pause. "But if you can get the victim to explain on the record, then we'll have a case. Do you think that's possible?"

"Depends how strong her statement is," Gabriel frowned, shaking his head as he looked between them with dark eyes. He moved for the console, starting to go through the evidence they collected to fill Franklin in. A few minutes later, however, the comm chirp sounded.

"Commander Warraquim to security, please locate and detain M'rthyr for questioning."

Gabriel straightened at the words, frowning deeply as he watched them, his body tense. "Maybe they've got more now? We should get them to send over whatever evidence they have while we bring him in..." he shook his head, his eyes on Aria for a long moment. He was having to focus through the anger welling in him at the idea of what he might have done. Maybe it was that focus that took his mind back to the last violent incident he'd got caught in the cross fire of that involved M'rthyr. Quite literally...when he and John Hollenday had been fighting right in the security office. He'd had to physically get between them to push them apart.

It had been Hollenday that had ended up in the brig for it after the security footage had shown he'd thrown the first punch. But it had been hard to get a full grip on what had happened with the audio having failed. It bothered Gabriel, in the kind of way that made the back of his neck cold. And perhaps focusing on that helped him to keep calm over what was unfolding.

"He was involved in that fight with Hollenday," Gabriel said quietly, shaking his head, his finger tapping lightly against the edge of the console as his mind ticked. "If the rumour mill has it right, Mimi and Hollenday are pretty sweet on each other..." he looked between Aria and Franklin, clearly unsettled by it. "Do you think it's worth getting Vansen down here? See if he can retrieve the full footage of the fight?"

Amaranai heard the call from the commander. It did not bode well and once Stark spoke up, things were not looking good for one of her security officers. She stood up and moved around the desk and looked at her team.

"You heard the commander," she said. "Find him. Bring him in. Put him in the brig and make him wait." She paused. "And get Vansen down here. It would be interesting to know how that fight got started."

[OFF]

--

Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin
Assistant Chief Security
USS Galileo-A

PO1 Gabriel Stark
Security
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Blake]

Lt. JG Aria Rice
Security
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Vansen]

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