The Net Closes: Part 1

Posted on 20 Aug 2023 @ 5:13pm by Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Stark & Petty Officer 3rd Class Constantin Vansen
Edited on on 20 Aug 2023 @ 5:21pm

1,789 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 18 - Cold Station 31
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 3, Operations Office
Timeline: MD 12, 1000hrs

[ON]

Gabriel turned the corner into the ops office and came to a stand still when he saw Vansen leaning over a consol. He smiled fondly as he just took a moment to enjoy the view, the sight a balm on his soul. He finally gave a soft, playful whistle as he approached, followed by a slow tut. "Looking this good at work has to be against regulations..."

Vansen looked up and found himself grinning at seeing Gabriel. He had missed that face. A face he had conjured up for himself when he had thought he'd be blown up. "I'm showered. Washed. Healed up. I've even managed to eat something, so you can thank all that for me looking this good in a clean uniform..." he winked, standing straight. He wanted to hug him. He didn't, just in case.

"Yeah well, I haven't, so I probably stink," Gabriel warned him, but moved close all the same. He reached to touch his arm, just feeling he was actually there and not a feverdream. "You're a sight for sore eyes, that's for sure."

"So are you," he reached to cover his hand with his own, watching Gabriel for a long moment. "Are you okay, Gabriel? I was worried when I came back and heard..." he stopped himself, his hand still on Stark's.

"Let's just say everything went to hell in a handbasket," Gabriel leant to him to keep his voice low. "Actually, as much as I'd like to be anywhere else with you right now, I need your help with work."

He nodded, watching Gabriel for a long moment before he smiled. "Well, I am at your service," he said, with a quick grin. "Hit me. It'll be good to distract me from going onto the bridge."

Gabriel glanced around to make sure they had privacy, but still instinctively kept his voice low. "Cards on the table, this is about the investigation involving Mimi. I know you must work closely with her, so...if you don't feel able to, I understand..."

"No, it's...fine," Vansen said softly, giving him a small smile. "Justice and all that, personal...thoughts don't matter. Facts do. So let me help, Gabriel."

Gabriel nodded firmly, and with no small amount of relief. "We tried to go through the security footage, but a lot of it is gone or corrupted. I don't know if you can help further with that? Failing that, I need to try piecing a digital footprint together...suspicious access to systems, tracing manipulation of evidence. My working theory is that this could have been done by an outsider, but no intruders have been found or flagged."

"Okay..." Vansen thought about it before he nodded, firmly. "That I can at least look into. Let me pull all the data we have for the time in and around sickbay. Video files, but also the other data. If we can't see it, maybe there is temperature fluctuations that can show us something. And I'll run a trace, see if anyone has hacked something."

Gabriel nodded, giving him a grateful smile as he squeezed his arm. He moved to his computer, pulling an extra seat over before settling down and bringing up the encrypted files. "So we pulled together the security footage from Sickbay at the time of the murder. Most of it was corrupt, gone or covered in digital artifacts. This was the best we could do..." he opened up the snippet they'd been able to clean up, enough to see a shimmering but transparent silhouette moving around Sickbay, but it ended quickly.

Constantin watched, eyes narrowed before he let out a breath. "Okay, so the first thing I'm going to do is to get the environmental readings from sickbay at this time as well. And extrapolate the approximate height and weight of that...shimmering spot there." His hands moved quickly, to bring up what he needed. "If heat or cold spots are recorded, which they should be, it'll help us with getting some measurements of whoever or whatever that is. Once we have done that, we can compare. I'll also check footage around the ship from that time, map everyone's movements."

Gabriel nodded as he followed his work, pulling his chair up closer to his. "Good start, let's get everything we can from this before broadening the search. It would be good to try and figure out how the footage came into this condition. The idea that Mimi could murder someone and tamper with all this evidence with sedatives in her system and whilst confined to Sickbay is convincing enough to me."

Vansen nodded as he started running the footage, slowly, with the other information coming up on the side. He frowned slightly, taking a slow breath. "We're talking about a humanoid," he finally said. "Height approximate six feet. And..." he stopped, looking to the side. "It's strange, it shows up as a cold spot almost...it's why it is difficult to see it on the scans too."

Gabriel rubbed his face tiredly for a long moment. "My first instinct was some kind of cloaking technology when I saw it. What you're saying would make sense with that," he sighed softly, bringing up the terminal data on the screen next to his. "So...the question is, how did this person manage to tamper with systems and evidence without tripping security alerts. They must have found a way to bypass security."

"Well, now that I know what has happened, I can do a trace to see where the original command came from," Vansen said as he looked at Gabriel, with a small smile. "Considering how battered the ship was, maybe being on emergency power knocked some of the security measures offline. Computer running on lower power would need to triage the needs based on what was inputted. Life support and keeping the ship from imploding would have been on the top of that list."

Gabriel nodded with a slow sigh, pulling up the logs that tracked movement around the ship, ready to cross reference. "Maybe we can work backwards then. If they are an outsider, they can't have covered every track. Hell, it would be hard enough for one of us to do it."

"Exactly," Constantin said and smiled, giving a firm nod. "Now, if I was doing this quickly, I'd find somewhere to get in...then access it remotely. That way no one would see me." He started to run a trace to find the access point. "And we know whoever or whatever needed to be physically on the ship. So let's try...seeing where people were, at what time. Like..." he found himself blushing, because it was one of the few things he had read when he was getting used to being on Earth. "Poirot."

Gabriel grinned at the reference, watching him with warmth in his eyes as he nudged his shoulder to his. "Can I be your Hastings then? No, no, wait...be Sherlock Holmes so I can be Dr Watson. I always knew those two had a thing going on..."

Vansen laughed, looking at him before he touched his hand, briefly. "Okay. You start mapping people's movements. I'll do this bit..." he winked before he looked ahead. "You know, once we're on a base...we should have dinner."

Gabriel smiled softly, even if he kept his dark eyes on his work. "You can say that again. I think we've earned it," he assured, shaking his head. "Okay...I've pulled together the movements of all crew members in the 24 hours before and after the attack."

"Don't...forget our visitors," Constantin said as he worked, frowning as he considered it. "Klingons have...lower body temperatures than us, don't they?"

"That they do. In the Academy, a Klingon cadet made so much noise and fuss after we did a Viking Ice Bath, that he became known as 2-ball for the rest of the semester, after the blue ball on our pool table," despite the anecdote, Gabriel's smile was weak. Because he understood the inference, in relation to what Constantin had said earlier. "I have it all here. Send it over, let's see if we get any hits."

Vansen chuckled, at the anecdote itself. The amusement was still in his voice when he spoke. "Let's do this then..." he said and sat back. "And let it run. It'll pull a list together of abnormal commands in the medical security systems."

Gabriel nodded, setting it to run as he leant back in his chair to be level with him, looking to him with a small smile. "Do I make a good Doctor Watson?"

"The best," Constantin said as he met his eyes, searching them for a long moment. "Are...you okay?" It was the thing to ask, but more...he wanted to know, if Gabriel truly was alright. He hadn't been there for everything the ship had gone through, but when he had returned he heard that Gabriel had been alone as the only representative of his department for the majority of it.

"Me? I'm just exhausted," Gabriel shook his head with a weak smile, touching his arm gently with concern. "But what about you? Turell made it sound pretty rough out there."

Constantin thought for a moment, his eyes slightly darker at going to that particular away mission. His first. "It was..." he paused before he chuckled. "You know what? It was rough but it is over. I've put that experience behind me."

Gabriel watched him with concern and regret, reaching out to caress the back of his neck before pressing his forehead to Constantin's temple. "I'm sorry," he said quietly.

Constantin hesitated for a moment before he wrapped an arm around him, closing his eyes as he let out a shaky breath. "I thought of you," he admitted quietly. "When it looked like I wasn't coming back."

Gabriel frowned with pain at the words, his hand stroking his dark hair gently as he let out a long breath. "I didn't doubt for a second that you'd come back," he whispered with a soft smile. "You're strong, Connie. And space is your home, it'll keep you safe."

Constantin smiled weakly at the words, just holding him. "Space is a cruel mistress..." he breathed softly. "But you're right, it's home. And I am okay, I promise. I got your arms around me."

Gabriel shook his head, tapping his cheek fondly as he chuckled. "Besides, I'd have kicked your arse if you didn't come back," he teased, squeezing him as the computer gave a beep. "Here we go..." he breathed, bringing up the list.

[TBC]

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

PO3 Constantin Vansen
Operations
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Rice]

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