The Missing Pieces

Posted on Sat Feb 25th, 2017 @ 6:25pm by Lieutenant Commander Le Austin & Lieutenant Alana Tovan

Mission: Shadows and Whispers
Location: Shuttle Repair Bay 219 (Locked Down)
Timeline: BACKPOST: Before "The Many Headed Hydra"

"Nothing new," Austin said from under the shuttle, surrounded in scattered bits of wreckage as he continued digging through the parts and systems that were still identifiable after the crash, "Looks like that was the only sabotage... Anything on your cross reference he asked back to the the person in working with him.

Despite Alana Tovan's short stature, she towered over her superior officer who was still working under the shuttle. She was disappointed to be stuck checking records while Commander Le was busy at work on the shuttle. Still, she was surprised that he chose her of all people to trust her with this assignment. "Most of the maintenance logs didn't seem out of the ordinary. For the week leading up to the captain's trip there were a number of operations and flight control personnel with access to the hangar and shuttle. There are no entry logs for this particular shuttle."

"C'mon, there's gotta be something," Austin replied from under the shuttle. "See if you can cross reference after hours badge locations to entry and egress permissions?" He asked. "And then couple that with the shuttle access logs. Maybe something doesn't line up there," He said.

"I already did that," Alana replied matter-of-factually. A little smirk appeared on her face out of thinking of that before her superior, but she quickly pushed it away. "I cross referenced the hangar entry logs to the maintenance logs for hangar and other shuttle. There was nothing out of the ordinary for this shuttle. But I did find something strange about the hangar. According to the maintenance logs, there were a number of entries referring to repairs on the shuttle launch system. Those logs stated that the computer system that manages launches and landings received an upgrade two days before the shuttle's departure."

Austin slid out from under the shuttle and looked up at her, "Was the launch system actually upgraded?"

Tovan nodded. "I checked that too. No actual changes were made to the launch system. Nor were any repairs requested or part of the maintenance queue. If someone already had access to the hangar, and had a convincing enough reason to get access to the ship, then they may have been able to plant some sort of device."

"I could give a half dozen reasons to access a shuttle after a launch system upgrade," Austin said, standing up and dusting himself off. "We got a name on the tech?" He asked.

Alana almost looked insulted before handing Le her PADD. "Technical Specialist Daniel Vernon. And get this. He used to have family on the station; his wife and two daughters. All three of them were killed in the Sojourner bombing."

"Could be motive, if he blames the Captain and S'er'in'e," Austin said, looking over the findings. "Good job, Lieutenant," He said, giving Alana a grin. "Computer, locate Daniel Vernon, please."

"Daniel Vernon is in the fighter wing hangar bay," the computer promptly replied.

"Alright," Austin said, "Computer, lock down the hangar bay and locate Captain Von and Colonel S'er'in'e."

The computer quickly replied again. "Captain Von and Colonel S'er'in'e are in the fighter wing hangar bay."

Alana gave Austin an alarmed look. "We shouldn't have had any repairs in the hangar. Are we too late?"

"Security to Fighter Wing Hangar bay, immediately!" Austin barked into the badge, already heading toward the door to the repair bay, "C'mon Alana! We don't have time to waste!"