S3:E4 ASSASSIN'S CREED

[Ruth Sigurdsdottir]

A short bit later Sven was back in Holo conference room 2

Holo conference room 2

Sven surveyed the room. What a mess.

"I want to know who was assigned to what seat." he said. "Did anyone have the seating assignments?"

[Holo Conference Room - Innominatum]

[As NPC Lena Maghouin]

Lena looked up "Hi Lt. Aune... erm  Probably Lt. Commander Sukal would know. If not it's a case of setting down with the security feeds and ... why didn't we think of that earlier, do we have camera feeds from this room?"

[Holo Conference Room - Innominatum Outpost]

Lek looked at the report and became even more confused as to why he'd been summoned.

"Autopsy reports, ballistics, tritanium traces, this was security work not engineering."

He thought and was baffled that anyone would think he would know anything about any of this information.

"I am sorry Chief. Everything you have said or shown me is security related. I can tell you about ship mounted weapons, but I am not a personal weapons specialist. I didn't know anyone still used weapons with bullets, let alone a bullet made of something as specific as one made with tritanium. I can research such a weapon, but it's nothing I've ever heard of."

"If you could start cross referencing with Dr. York's report see if you can find anything that makes sense in correlation with what she and Dr. Al-Hambra have said.  Otherwise you could ask Lt. Commander Sukal where you might be of best use as the Security teams are stretched to their limits at the moment trying to stop everyone panicking, investigating, forensics, and so on... I assume that you can use a phaser and know how to patrol corridors at the very least."

PO2 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[Innominatum Outpost - The Pickled Pakled]

Lahr cringed back and held up a hand rather pathetically. "Whoa, hey...  chill!  I'm in.  I like breathing too much to give it up for a few extra credits or latinum."
...

The Klingon female held up a hand to stop her partner from making good on her threat to kill him.  Lahr laid back on the floor in relief.  His ribs ached from the abuse taken so far... several were likely cracked... and he definitely had some internal bleeding.  Undercover work sucked!  Explaining this to the doctors was gonna be fun.   'I tripped' wasn't gonna cut it.

"So Andorian.."

"I do have a name y'know.." Lahr interjected from his place on the floor at her feet, testing the Klingon woman's tolerance, now that he'd 'switched sides'.

"... your goods.  Who makes them?" she continued on as if he hadn't interrupted.  The male however gave Lahr another kick... supposedly to point out to him that they weren't 'friends' now.

Lahr doubled over in renewed pain, groaning.   Because of this he didn't answer right away which only upset the Klingons more.  A few choice insults were thrown his way, as the burly male picked him up by his shirt collar.  Lahr struggled weakly.  "No more..." he pleaded.   "Look I don't know the source. I'm not the brains of this venture.. I just have the gift of gab.. so I am way better at sales than he.  But I can arrange for you.. or rather your boss... to meet with him."

The woman scowled. The Klingon male gave Lahr a rough shake.

"You'll contact him now to have him meet us."

"Now?! During a Red Alert?  Is that even smart?"  His remark earned him yet another punch to the gut from the female.  The only thing that kept Lahr standing was the Klingon male holding him up.

"I didn't ask for you to comment.  I told you to contact him.  Do it!"

Lahr's antennae drooped and he nodded weakly.  "Yeah, okay.  My bad."

Lahr went to reach into his pocket to pull out his communicator, when the woman grabbed his hand to stop him.  She checked his pockets, pulling out the communicator and a handful of sample packets that he'd been looking to distribute today.   She stuffed the small packets into her cleavage before handing Lahr his communication device. "Call.  Tell him you need to speak to him in person urgently."

"Yeah sure thing..."

Lahr opened the communicator and called the Ferengi on the Chief Engineer's personal PADD - audio only.

"Lahr to Lek."

During a Red Alert, Lahr figured the Chief Engineer would be in Main Engineering... so his chances of getting through to Lek were not good.  But that could work out for the better.... as long as Helga's evil twin didn't take his failure to contact his partner out on him physically.

"Looks like someone else needs your help!" The Security Chief smiled hearing the notification on Lek's PADD
(OOC Post restored due to server outage - ShranLahr ch'Verret)

[Lek]

PO2 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[Innominatum Outpost - The Pickled Pakled]

Lahr cringed back and held up a hand rather pathetically. "Whoa, hey...  chill!  I'm in.  I like breathing too much to give it up for a few extra credits or latinum."
...

The Klingon female held up a hand to stop her partner from making good on her threat to kill him.  Lahr laid back on the floor in relief.  His ribs ached from the abuse taken so far... several were likely cracked... and he definitely had some internal bleeding.  Undercover work sucked!  Explaining this to the doctors was gonna be fun.   'I tripped' wasn't gonna cut it.

"So Andorian.."

"I do have a name y'know.." Lahr interjected from his place on the floor at her feet, testing the Klingon woman's tolerance, now that he'd 'switched sides'.

"... your goods.  Who makes them?" she continued on as if he hadn't interrupted.  The male however gave Lahr another kick... supposedly to point out to him that they weren't 'friends' now.

Lahr doubled over in renewed pain, groaning.   Because of this he didn't answer right away which only upset the Klingons more.  A few choice insults were thrown his way, as the burly male picked him up by his shirt collar.  Lahr struggled weakly.  "No more..." he pleaded.   "Look I don't know the source. I'm not the brains of this venture.. I just have the gift of gab.. so I am way better at sales than he.  But I can arrange for you.. or rather your boss... to meet with him."

The woman scowled. The Klingon male gave Lahr a rough shake.

"You'll contact him now to have him meet us."

"Now?! During a Red Alert?  Is that even smart?"  His remark earned him yet another punch to the gut from the female.  The only thing that kept Lahr standing was the Klingon male holding him up.

"I didn't ask for you to comment.  I told you to contact him.  Do it!"

Lahr's antennae drooped and he nodded weakly.  "Yeah, okay.  My bad."

Lahr went to reach into his pocket to pull out his communicator, when the woman grabbed his hand to stop him.  She checked his pockets, pulling out the communicator and a handful of sample packets that he'd been looking to distribute today.   She stuffed the small packets into her cleavage before handing Lahr his communication device. "Call.  Tell him you need to speak to him in person urgently."

"Yeah sure thing..."

Lahr opened the communicator and called the Ferengi on the Chief Engineer's personal PADD - audio only.

"Lahr to Lek."

During a Red Alert, Lahr figured the Chief Engineer would be in Main Engineering... so his chances of getting through to Lek were not good.  But that could work out for the better.... as long as Helga's evil twin didn't take his failure to contact his partner out on him physically.

[Holo Conference Room - Innominatum]

[As NPC Lena Maghouin]

Lena looked up "Hi Lt. Aune... erm  Probably Lt. Commander Sukal would know. If not it's a case of setting down with the security feeds and ... why didn't we think of that earlier, do we have camera feeds from this room?"

"If you could start cross referencing with Dr. York's report see if you can find anything that makes sense in correlation with what she and Dr. Al-Hambra have said.  Otherwise you could ask Lt. Commander Sukal where you might be of best use as the Security teams are stretched to their limits at the moment trying to stop everyone panicking, investigating, forensics, and so on... I assume that you can use a phaser and know how to patrol corridors at the very least."

"Looks like someone else needs your help!" The Security Chief smiled hearing the notification on Lek's PADD

[Holo Conference Room - Innominatum Outpost]

As Maghouin spoke, Lek was wracking his brain to come up with anything he'd ever heard about personal weaponry and came just as blank as when she'd first brought the topic up. He was a good engineer, but this was not his specialty and even though it wasn't it still annoyed him to be asked a question he couldn't answer.

"If computer access is available here in the middle of a red alert, I can look up what's on file about this weapon. Something so specialized cannot be common and that should narrow down the suspect list substantially."

Lek looked appalled at the idea of being used to patrol. If crime scene investigation was outside his area of expertise, such a trivial task was as well.

"I've had the basics of weapons training, but I'm certain I can be of more use in tracing this exotic weapon and, by extension, its user."

When the call from Lahr came in, he rolled his eyes in annoyance and now was not the time. He tapped his commbadge in irritation.

"I'm in the middle of something! I'll get back to you later."

He closed the connection and moved to a terminal that Maghouin had activated for him and fed in the specifics from the autopsy report. The answer came back quickly, as well as the use of the micro transporter.

Lek stood open mouthed for a moment before calling the Chief over.

"Well, there is your answer. A TR116 with a micro transporter to beam the projectile directly in front of the target. Diabolical. No warning. No defense. It's a good thing you shut down the transporters. I suggest that you place transporter inhibitors around all essential personnel and locations immediately!"

[Richard James Litt]

[Mjolnir - En Route to DS9]

[Ruth|T'ealc|Arya|Katya]

Recognising both that the crewman was either immature, bored, anxious or all three Lt. T'ealc moved to Gohun.  "I'm not a keen flyer either, I'm fine on a starship because it's so big and the transition is smooth you forget you're in them.  And there's generally plenty to do.  In a smaller craft you hope that there isn't anything to go wrong and..."

There was a loud **CLUNK** Ruth swore in Icelandic as the steering went a little funny.

"Space junk I think.  Now what's actually causing this to be about 4 degrees off..." she slowed to Warp 2.  "We don't have an Engineer with us dammit... I am sure there will be tools in here somewhere but we need to find out what has gone wrong first."

She did a few experimental weaving turns... then her screen output went black.

"� fyrir helv�tis sakir!¹" she exclaimed.  "I think whatever it was is out of the steering but now we're flying blind.  I'm going to come to a full stop, and see if we can get this sorted.  OK anyone have any engineering skills?"

She silently prayed under her breath to Odin and Freya.

"And crewman, no we are not there yet, nor are we likely to be unless you can magic some tools out of that 'overnight bag' you brought along with a strategy to get our computer systems back up and running... and then I estimate that we have another 36 hours, 24 at full warp before we reach Deep Space Nine.  We were running to schedule.  However, if you are bothered once you've made yourself useful if you can with trying to solve this problem then I can have Lt. T'ealc sedate you for a while, the trip might not seem so long then."

"I thought this thing was new?" Katya said, who already had the panel off on the side of the pilot's controls.  She held up a blackened chip.  "Do we have a spare?, some of the wiring seems to have been cut too.  That I can't fix.  I can swap out chips but we only did very basic engineering at high school.  This has been sabotaged."

"Litt, since neither of us are flying anywhere, contact Innominatum and copy it to Lt. Sukal, have anyone that worked on this shuttle arrested, have them check the security footage too. Then advise DS9 that we shall be sometime late, calculate our last known position working with Arya, and see if a rescue crew can come out with a spare part if you or Mr Gohun can't McGyver this to work at least nominally.  We need to get the girls and their gear to DS9 by 42 hours time maximum.  If need be, although I'm loathe to do it, we could have them pick up myself, the twins and their stuff and send an engineer with a part slower. Arya and Katya cannot miss that shuttle."

"Mr. Litt we are at this point on the Fenenginar/Argus/Maxia/Denobula sector crossroads near enough, possibly about 4 clicks north of that.  Would the AR-558 station have any supplies? Could we limp into there?" Arya asked.

"We could if we could see where we were going Arya, but flying blind in territory I'm not familiar with is not something I want to do.  Tell you what.  Mr. Litt you contact Innominatum and the Challenger.  Basically alert them to our situation and ask for the security feeds to be checked for the Challenger shuttlebay where Mjolnir was kept.  Of course it's entirely possible that this happened before they arrived.  Also advise that they go over the Delta Flyers for the outpost with a fine tooth comb.  Arya you contact DS9 and AR-558 explaining our predicament.  It could be that DS9 can send out some swift craft for us and pick you two and myself up and AR-558 can send out an engineer and part.  See what you can do.  You are all crew and crews pull together in crises."

¹TRANS: Oh FFS!!!

[OOC: REFERENCE - I/J 8/9 on map and Alpha Sector]

Litt was waiting Gohun to be the first in the little game he had suggested, but it looked like he didn't want to participate in that, so Litt just let it go.

He was starting to read something when a loud clunk was heard. "Mother of God" He said and watched the Captain make a full stop a few seconds latter and asked about engineering skills.

"Ma'am... If this is just in the flight systems I can handle... But my engineering skills ends there..." He said and then took the other order from the captain to send a message to Innominatum. "Aye ma'am".

Then, he took his PADD and started to write the message.

TO: Lt. Commander Sukal
FROM: Ensign Litt (aboard Mjolnir)
RE: PROBLEMS WITH THE SHIP.

Sir,
The Captain asked me to get in touch with you.

We had a problem with Mjolnir an we are currently stopped in the space, it looks like someone did something in the ship and some problems are happening here.

The Captain asked you to arrest everyone who worked at this ship, and check the security footage to check if someone did something to the ship while we were there, we were sabotaged. She also  advised you to go over the Delta Flyers for the outpost with a fine tooth comb.

Sincerely,
Richard James Litt
Flight Officer
USS Challenger

"Message sent ma'am". Right after sent the message, Litt answered Arya's question. "It is highly probable that they have some supplies if we didn't fix that." He said and searched for the engineering bag to get some tools... "Let's see what we can do here" He said beside Katya looking at the panel and started to trying to repair something.

"Gohun, can you check if something else are damaged?" He asked without look at the crewman, paying full attention in his task.

(OOC Post restored due to server outage - ShranLahr ch'Verret)

[Zavrol Gohun]

Gohun sat there completely oblivious of any social norms that he may or not have infringed upon. While he did not hate people or talking he was much more comfortable with an engine. He knew how to speak the language of machines. If only there were some sort of distraction.

There was a loud **CLUNK** Ruth swore in Icelandic as the steering went a little funny.

Gohun sat there for a second thinking about all the things that they could have hit going at warp speed that would not have killed them all immediately. When he thought of not answeres he decided to check the ship for sabotage.

"Space junk I think.  Now what's actually causing this to be about 4 degrees off..." she slowed to Warp 2.  "We don't have an Engineer with us dammit... I am sure there will be tools in here somewhere but we need to find out what has gone wrong first."

She did a few experimental weaving turns... then her screen output went black.

"� fyrir helv�tis sakir!¹" she exclaimed.  "I think whatever it was is out of the steering but now we're flying blind.  I'm going to come to a full stop, and see if we can get this sorted.  OK anyone have any engineering skills?"

She silently prayed under her breath to Odin and Freya.

"And crewman, no we are not there yet, nor are we likely to be unless you can magic some tools out of that 'overnight bag' you brought along with a strategy to get our computer systems back up and running... and then I estimate that we have another 36 hours, 24 at full warp before we reach Deep Space Nine.  We were running to schedule.  However, if you are bothered once you've made yourself useful if you can with trying to solve this problem then I can have Lt. T'ealc sedate you for a while, the trip might not seem so long then."

"I thought this thing was new?" Katya said, who already had the panel off on the side of the pilot's controls.  She held up a blackened chip.  "Do we have a spare? some of the wiring seems to have been cut too.  That I can't fix.  I can swap out chips but we only did very basic engineering at high school.  This has been sabotaged."
[OOC: REFERENCE - I/J 8/9 on map and Alpha Sector]

Gohun knew it. No one could be that bad of a pilot it had to be sabotage. Fortunately, he could fix one or two cut wires.  With that, he got out an engineering tricorder and started to take readings of the entire craft. Then the real answer occurred to Gohun. This was all just a test to determine Gohun's engineering skills.
"I think if we Readjust the navigational warp engine pylons we could get the warp drive back online. Unfortunately, the sensors will take a small amount of repair before they can work. This should take me a couple of hours.  I also recommend sending a distress signal to Deep Space Nine."

(OOC Post restored due to server outage - ShranLahr ch'Verret)

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

PO2 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[Innominatum Outpost - The Pickled Pakled]

[Holo Conference Room - Innominatum Outpost]
When the call from Lahr came in, he rolled his eyes in annoyance and now was not the time. He tapped his commbadge in irritation.

"I'm in the middle of something! I'll get back to you later."

Lek's abrupt response, told Lahr a couple of things.  First, that Lek's PADD was connected to his commbadge.  The connection tone was unmistakable to the Ops crewman...now that he'd been informed of what to listen for.  Things like that weren't taught to security... but Ops had to know these things.   And second, that Lek was on the outpost.  He knew that because, the Red Alert klaxon of the outpost had a different tone and alarm pattern than the ship.  Lahr had heard the same klaxon in the background of Lek's response as what was being sounded throughout the station.

"Too bad for you, Andorian.  I don't think he caught the urgency of your situation."   The Klingon hybrid woman nodded to her partner, who was the only thing holding Lahr up at the moment.  The male Klingon - full blooded if his facial features were anything to go by - rammed a knee into Lahr's groin. The undercover drug-dealer doubled over gasping for air.  The Klingon let go of him and Lahr dropped to the floor curling into a fetal ball, groaning.

He lay like that for several minutes before the male grabbed him by the collar again and pinned him to the wall.

The female Klingon regarded him, standing just off to the side.

"While we wait for this Lek to return your call. I want you tell me everything you know about him" she ordered.

Lahr however, spat at her feet. "No! I'm not saying another word... until you call off your muscle here... If you're just gonna beat on me... even when I'm cooperating... then what the hell is my incentive to talk?... Nah...  Screw you!" managed to pant out and glared at the pair.

Lahr was taking a rather big gamble that they'd want the info on Lek and the source of the drugs more than they wanted to kill him for mouthing off.

[Sukal]

Innominatum Outpost
Commander's Office

Sukal was not feeling well.  He wasn't entirely sure why the headache was persisting, but a trip to Medical was becoming something to consider at the rate the pain was continuing.  His Vulcan self-control allowed him to continue investigating the current crisis from the office via reports that were still coming in, but nothing thus far had changed the facts.  Ambassador Sighn'wa had been assassinated smoothly despite his best attempts to keep the Conference secure.  Either a TR-116 Rifle or a new TP-117 Pistol had been used - both the property of Starfleet.  Neither of those options made his life any easier.  Of course, such things had been known to show up on the black market, but he simply hadn't been prepared for someone to use such weapons against anyone at the Conference.  He had a bad feeling Starfleet Command and the Federation Council were going to have his head for this one.  That the Federation Special Envoy Veesha hadn't been breathing down his neck the whole time told him how severely the Ambassador was taking it.

Where had he messed up so badly that an assassin could do this with ease?  It just felt like he had missed something rather important, and in doing so it had cost a man his life.  Likely, it would completely disrupt the Conference to the point of no return.  There would be no reason for the others to cooperate if they thought Starfleet couldn't even protect them during a peaceful meeting.

A beep at the door brought him out of his thoughts as one of the Operations personnel was wanting in.  Sukal motioned the woman to enter, and in she came with urgent strides.

"Message from the MJORNIR.  Looks like someone sabotaged the Captain's Delta Flyer, Sir," the young female Benzite Ensign reported after handing over her PADD.

TO: Lt. Commander Sukal
FROM: Ensign Litt (aboard Mjolnir)
RE: PROBLEMS WITH THE SHIP.

Sir,
The Captain asked me to get in touch with you.

We had a problem with Mjolnir an we are currently stopped in the space, it looks like someone did something in the ship and some problems are happening here.

The Captain asked you to arrest everyone who worked at this ship, and check the security footage to check if someone did something to the ship while we were there, we were sabotaged. She also  advised you to go over the Delta Flyers for the outpost with a fine tooth comb.

Sincerely,
Richard James Litt
Flight Officer
USS Challenger

Of all the problems - now the Captain's ship had been sabotaged...a brand new Delta-Flyer.  Security was already going mad over the current crisis, but this was too important to wait.

=/\= "Lieutenant Lek, report to Ops immediately," Sukal put in the first call.  The second one he put in was to Lieutenant Aune, "Lieutenant Aune, the Captain's shuttle was sabotaged.  I need you to take a team and find Mr. ch'Verret as quickly as possible, and have him brought directly to Operations."   With that part done, he made his last call to the Shuttle Bay, "Lieutenant Wallace, I want ever single millimeter of the new Delta-Flyers gone over.  Use whatever Ops personnel you can add that aren't involved in the Conference security, and any Engineers you can snag."

He finally turned to the Ensign who had handed him the report.  "I will respond to this myself, and then I am heading down to Medical to check on a few things.  By the time I get back, I want to know who else worked on the Captain's flyer before she left, and have them detained.  Use the Security footage from the bay to discover those responsible for this, and look into logs for maintenance on her ship," he told her.  She nodded and returned to her station at Ops even as he sent a message back to the MJORNIR.

To:  USS MJORNIR
ATTN:  Captain Ruth Sigurdsdottir

"I have the investigation under way immediately, and am in the process of taking care of the detaining of those personnel responsible.  This, unfortunately, includes Lieutenant Lek and Mr. ch'Verret, as they were sent to your flyer at least once, and we cannot afford to rule out problems unseen.  If I know you, you are already working on the problem you face, but help is on the way."

Lieutenant Commander Sukal
First Officer

With that accomplished - Sukal made one more call from the desk to a starship in the area near where he believed his Captain and friends were stranded.  The USS BELFAST - an Intrepid-class was in that area, and promised to seek out the troubled MJORNIR.  Afterwards he made his way down to Medical not only to personally check on the status of the investigation, but also get some pain medicine for the headache which was relentless.  In a turbolift, Sukal suddenly let out a silent scream as he placed both hands to the sides of his head in agony.  His eyes squeezed shut as the pain overwhelmed his control.  A moment later, and he started to tap his combadge when he collapsed to the floor hard.  The lift opened up before reaching its original destination.  Standing over him was Lieutenant Command Amoreen.

"You, Sir, are too dangerous," she remarked with respect before snatching his combadge away before he blacked out.  She killed the turbolift after sending it back to its destination.  In doing so, it was stuck between levels.  She could have killed him.  Her training told her to, but Sukal had never done wrong to her.  In fact, she respected him.  From the moment she had met him; D'leha had noted how he had watched her...noted how quickly he had seen her deadly grace, her attention to detail.

Not hesitating, D'leha activated her device, and soon she looked just like Sukal walking down the hall. At the entrance to the CHALLENGER; she was wisked through to the ship by Security as they could only see their First Officer.  There was every likelihood she could never return to her assignment.  She had been discovered...at least in part, and that would lead to the rest eventually.  Even with the planting of a similar weapon on Aide K'roa; she knew it was only a matter of time before they all figured out it was actually the TR-116 with a micro transporter.  Considering she had one registered to her - it would not take them long after that to find out the rest.  Transport inhibitors were wonderful devices for stopping unwanted entries and exits, but the S'ona had used isolinear tags to transport past such devices.  Every bit of her equipment was tagged in her quarters, and once she reached an unmanned transporter room on the ship; she beamed all of her stuff to one of the shuttles.

Time was of the essence, but she did not move with anything less than grace and a sense of purpose.  Moving too hastily often got amateurs caught.   Besides, she had never seen Sukal move with anything more than a sense of purpose - never over hurried even in a crisis.  Once she reached the Shuttle Bay; Amoreen explained that the Captain was in trouble, and that she was taking out another shuttle to help.  The report she had managed to snag as it came in was shown to the Operations personnel on duty.  Considering it was his Captain and crew members in trouble; the man immediately made sure the shuttle was ready.

There was, of course, only two more things left to do.  First, she stealthily took out her hidden dagger, and came up behind the man to slit his throat.  Second, she appeared to drop a data crystal, which would contain orders from the Orion Syndicate to Lieutenant Commander Sukal to not only sabotage the Conference, but to kill Ambassador Sighn'wa.  She doubted it would be enough to truly frame the First Officer, but it would confuse their investigation further.  With these last two things done, she boarded the prepped shuttle, and used Sukal's own codes to get past the person stationed at Ops on the Bridge.  With the tractor beam disabled, confusion sown on the station, she piloted the shuttle out, and went to warp the moment she could.

There would be mass confusion on the Bridge as to why their XO had just bypassed their own system to leave the ship.  She wondered if Lieutenant Taray would actually get the ship underway in order to pursue without even knowing what was going on.  The USS JANARAN was on the other side when she piloted the ship away at warp - not that they couldn't have stopped her.  After all, no one was supposed to be leaving.  All she could do was wait and see what happened.

The terrible part of it all was she believed in what they had been trying to do at the Conference.  To get them to cooperate, and to nail down the traitor Leyton.  Yet, she had gotten in too deep with the Orions, and now she was as much a traitor as Leyton.

It had been a lose lose situation for her, but the job was done.

[Ruth Sigurdsdottir]

[Holo Conference Room - Innominatum Outpost]

As Maghouin spoke, Lek was wracking his brain to come up with anything he'd ever heard about personal weaponry and came just as blank as when she'd first brought the topic up. He was a good engineer, but this was not his specialty and even though it wasn't it still annoyed him to be asked a question he couldn't answer.

"If computer access is available here in the middle of a red alert, I can look up what's on file about this weapon. Something so specialized cannot be common and that should narrow down the suspect list substantially."

Lek looked appalled at the idea of being used to patrol. If crime scene investigation was outside his area of expertise, such a trivial task was as well.

"I've had the basics of weapons training, but I'm certain I can be of more use in tracing this exotic weapon and, by extension, its user."

When the call from Lahr came in, he rolled his eyes in annoyance and now was not the time. He tapped his commbadge in irritation.

"I'm in the middle of something! I'll get back to you later."

He closed the connection and moved to a terminal that Maghouin had activated for him and fed in the specifics from the autopsy report. The answer came back quickly, as well as the use of the micro transporter.

Lek stood open mouthed for a moment before calling the Chief over.

"Well, there is your answer. A TR116 with a micro transporter to beam the projectile directly in front of the target. Diabolical. No warning. No defense. It's a good thing you shut down the transporters. I suggest that you place transporter inhibitors around all essential personnel and locations immediately!"

[Holo Conference Room - Innominatum]

[As CPO Lena Maghouin]

Lena stood there transfixed for a moment while her brain wrapped itself around what Lt. Lek said.  "TR-116....Oh my go..."  Her mind reeling she took a deep breath.  "Right get that information up to Lt. Commander Sukal and have him send it out to teams searching for the murder weapon.  Lt. Aune if I may impose upon you to get either a seating plan from whatever source you can or see who was sitting immediately arou... ah that wouldn't work if there's a transporter beam to put the bullet directly in front of the target. Assassin could have been anywhere.  Argh.  Least we know what the weapon was!"

[Ruth Sigurdsdottir]

Litt was waiting Gohun to be the first in the little game he had suggested, but it looked like he didn't want to participate in that, so Litt just let it go.

He was starting to read something when a loud clunk was heard. "Mother of God" He said and watched the Captain make a full stop a few seconds latter and asked about engineering skills.

"Ma'am... If this is just in the flight systems I can handle... But my engineering skills ends there..." He said and then took the other order from the captain to send a message to Innominatum. "Aye ma'am".

Then, he took his PADD and started to write the message.

TO: Lt. Commander Sukal
FROM: Ensign Litt (aboard Mjolnir)
RE: PROBLEMS WITH THE SHIP.

Sir,
The Captain asked me to get in touch with you.

We had a problem with Mjolnir an we are currently stopped in the space, it looks like someone did something in the ship and some problems are happening here.

The Captain asked you to arrest everyone who worked at this ship, and check the security footage to check if someone did something to the ship while we were there, we were sabotaged. She also  advised you to go over the Delta Flyers for the outpost with a fine tooth comb.

Sincerely,
Richard James Litt
Flight Officer
USS Challenger

"Message sent ma'am". Right after sent the message, Litt answered Arya's question. "It is highly probable that they have some supplies if we didn't fix that." He said and searched for the engineering bag to get some tools... "Let's see what we can do here" He said beside Katya looking at the panel and started to trying to repair something.

"Gohun, can you check if something else are damaged?" He asked without look at the crewman, paying full attention in his task.

Gohun sat there completely oblivious of any social norms that he may or not have infringed upon. While he did not hate people or talking he was much more comfortable with an engine. He knew how to speak the language of machines. If only there were some sort of distraction. Gohun sat there for a second thinking about all the things that they could have hit going at warp speed that would not have killed them all immediately. When he thought of not answeres he decided to check the ship for sabotage.
Gohun knew it. No one could be that bad of a pilot it had to be sabotage. Fortunately, he could fix one or two cut wires.  With that, he got out an engineering tricorder and started to take readings of the entire craft. Then the real answer occurred to Gohun. This was all just a test to determine Gohun's engineering skills.
"I think if we Readjust the navigational warp engine pylons we could get the warp drive back online. Unfortunately, the sensors will take a small amount of repair before they can work. This should take me a couple of hours.  I also recommend sending a distress signal to Deep Space Nine."

[Mjolnir - en route to DS9 (well... supposedly!...) ]

"Thank you Mr Litt, let me know if anything comes in from the Challenger" Ruth said then turned to the Crewman.

"Crewman Gohun, correct me if I'm wrong but you're in the Security and Tactical.  So why have you got an Engineering tricorder?  What else have you requisitioned without permission?  I sincerely hope for your sake you have noted the logs for checking them out, otherwise there will be a demerit on your files.  However, rather fortuitous in this case.  Do what you can but you and I shall be having a chat when we are back to Innominatum and the Challenger.  While I'm happy for people to cross train, and in situations like this it's useful, but I do not permit people to just take things willy-nilly from departments especially departments to which they are not assigned.  For now I'll shelve this matter while you do what you can."

Innominatum Outpost
Commander's Office

To:  USS MJORNIR
ATTN:  Captain Ruth Sigurdsdottir

"I have the investigation under way immediately, and am in the process of taking care of the detaining of those personnel responsible.  This, unfortunately, includes Lieutenant Lek and Mr. ch'Verret, as they were sent to your flyer at least once, and we cannot afford to rule out problems unseen.  If I know you, you are already working on the problem you face, but help is on the way."

Lieutenant Commander Sukal
First Officer

With that accomplished - Sukal made one more call from the desk to a starship in the area near where he believed his Captain and friends were stranded.  The USS BELFAST - an Intrepid-class was in that area, and promised to seek out the troubled MJORNIR.

Ruth's attention was drawn away by a beep of her PADD.

"It seems, Mr. Litt that your message bore fruit.  Sukal has help coming, so if we sit tight that should happen soonish!"

She clicked away on her PADD sending a message back.

TO: Lt. Cmdr. Sukal, XO USS Challenger
FROM: Captain Sigurdsdottir, CO USS Challenger, currently on DF-Mjolnir
SUBJECT:  Lt. Lek, PO ch'Verret

With reference to Messrs. Lek and ch'Verret, they were at the Mjolnir under my instigation, with permission, and regarding the little 'extra-curricular' activity I had for them in getting to know our Romulan 'friends' and the 'sweeties'.

Also, as I'm sure you will feel the same, that neither Lek nor Lahr would do anything to hurt the members of the crew or myself. The are some you just trust.  And since Lek is more in the business of fixing things I hardly think he'd rig things to blow or cut wires.

My suspiscions are actually on the Cadets you know the ones, or anyone who might gain by me not getting to DS9.  I don't think this is directed at anyone else but me.

~END MESSAGE~

[Lek]

Innominatum Outpost
Commander's Office

=/\= "Lieutenant Lek, report to Ops immediately," Sukal put in the first call.

[Holo Conference Room - Innominatum]

[As CPO Lena Maghouin]

Lena stood there transfixed for a moment while her brain wrapped itself around what Lt. Lek said.  "TR-116....Oh my go..."  Her mind reeling she took a deep breath.  "Right get that information up to Lt. Commander Sukal and have him send it out to teams searching for the murder weapon.  Lt. Aune if I may impose upon you to get either a seating plan from whatever source you can or see who was sitting immediately arou... ah that wouldn't work if there's a transporter beam to put the bullet directly in front of the target. Assassin could have been anywhere.  Argh.  Least we know what the weapon was!"

[Holo Conference Room - Innominatum Outpost]

Lek didn't like the sound of the summons, but what he thought about it didn't matter. At least he'd given the Chief something to work with.

"Sorry Chief, have to go. Good luck."

Lek tapped his commbadge as he exited the holo-deck.

"On my way Sir."

Even though the outpost was small compared to a full sized starbase, it still took longer than it would have on the Challenger for the turbolift to bring Lek to the station's Operations center.

On entering the hub of activity, Lek didn't see the first officer, which made him frown.

"Not like a Vulcan to be late."

He looked around for someone who looked like they were in charge and caught his attention.

"Lieutenant Lek. I was ordered to report here by Lieutenant Commander Sukal. As he is not here, I might be being an alarmist, but as Vulcans are never late, and we have just had an assassination on the station, maybe you should try and locate him?"

[Stryker]

Innominatum Outpost
Commander's Office

Sukal was not feeling well.  He wasn't entirely sure why the headache was persisting, but a trip to Medical was becoming something to consider at the rate the pain was continuing.  His Vulcan self-control allowed him to continue investigating the current crisis from the office via reports that were still coming in, but nothing thus far had changed the facts.  Ambassador Sighn'wa had been assassinated smoothly despite his best attempts to keep the Conference secure.  Either a TR-116 Rifle or a new TP-117 Pistol had been used - both the property of Starfleet.  Neither of those options made his life any easier.  Of course, such things had been known to show up on the black market, but he simply hadn't been prepared for someone to use such weapons against anyone at the Conference.  He had a bad feeling Starfleet Command and the Federation Council were going to have his head for this one.  That the Federation Special Envoy Veesha hadn't been breathing down his neck the whole time told him how severely the Ambassador was taking it.

Where had he messed up so badly that an assassin could do this with ease?  It just felt like he had missed something rather important, and in doing so it had cost a man his life.  Likely, it would completely disrupt the Conference to the point of no return.  There would be no reason for the others to cooperate if they thought Starfleet couldn't even protect them during a peaceful meeting.

A beep at the door brought him out of his thoughts as one of the Operations personnel was wanting in.  Sukal motioned the woman to enter, and in she came with urgent strides.

"Message from the MJORNIR.  Looks like someone sabotaged the Captain's Delta Flyer, Sir," the young female Benzite Ensign reported after handing over her PADD.

Of all the problems - now the Captain's ship had been sabotaged...a brand new Delta-Flyer.  Security was already going mad over the current crisis, but this was too important to wait.

=/\= "Lieutenant Lek, report to Ops immediately," Sukal put in the first call.  The second one he put in was to Lieutenant Aune, "Lieutenant Aune, the Captain's shuttle was sabotaged.  I need you to take a team and find Mr. ch'Verret as quickly as possible, and have him brought directly to Operations."   With that part done, he made his last call to the Shuttle Bay, "Lieutenant Wallace, I want ever single millimeter of the new Delta-Flyers gone over.  Use whatever Ops personnel you can add that aren't involved in the Conference security, and any Engineers you can snag."

He finally turned to the Ensign who had handed him the report.  "I will respond to this myself, and then I am heading down to Medical to check on a few things.  By the time I get back, I want to know who else worked on the Captain's flyer before she left, and have them detained.  Use the Security footage from the bay to discover those responsible for this, and look into logs for maintenance on her ship," he told her.  She nodded and returned to her station at Ops even as he sent a message back to the MJORNIR.

To:  USS MJORNIR
ATTN:  Captain Ruth Sigurdsdottir

"I have the investigation under way immediately, and am in the process of taking care of the detaining of those personnel responsible.  This, unfortunately, includes Lieutenant Lek and Mr. ch'Verret, as they were sent to your flyer at least once, and we cannot afford to rule out problems unseen.  If I know you, you are already working on the problem you face, but help is on the way."

Lieutenant Commander Sukal
First Officer

With that accomplished - Sukal made one more call from the desk to a starship in the area near where he believed his Captain and friends were stranded.  The USS BELFAST - an Intrepid-class was in that area, and promised to seek out the troubled MJORNIR.  Afterwards he made his way down to Medical not only to personally check on the status of the investigation, but also get some pain medicine for the headache which was relentless.  In a turbolift, Sukal suddenly let out a silent scream as he placed both hands to the sides of his head in agony.  His eyes squeezed shut as the pain overwhelmed his control.  A moment later, and he started to tap his combadge when he collapsed to the floor hard.  The lift opened up before reaching its original destination.  Standing over him was Lieutenant Command Amoreen.

"You, Sir, are too dangerous," she remarked with respect before snatching his combadge away before he blacked out.  She killed the turbolift after sending it back to its destination.  In doing so, it was stuck between levels.  She could have killed him.  Her training told her to, but Sukal had never done wrong to her.  In fact, she respected him.  From the moment she had met him; D'leha had noted how he had watched her...noted how quickly he had seen her deadly grace, her attention to detail.

Not hesitating, D'leha activated her device, and soon she looked just like Sukal walking down the hall. At the entrance to the CHALLENGER; she was wisked through to the ship by Security as they could only see their First Officer.  There was every likelihood she could never return to her assignment.  She had been discovered...at least in part, and that would lead to the rest eventually.  Even with the planting of a similar weapon on Aide K'roa; she knew it was only a matter of time before they all figured out it was actually the TR-116 with a micro transporter.  Considering she had one registered to her - it would not take them long after that to find out the rest.  Transport inhibitors were wonderful devices for stopping unwanted entries and exits, but the S'ona had used isolinear tags to transport past such devices.  Every bit of her equipment was tagged in her quarters, and once she reached an unmanned transporter room on the ship; she beamed all of her stuff to one of the shuttles.

Time was of the essence, but she did not move with anything less than grace and a sense of purpose.  Moving too hastily often got amateurs caught.   Besides, she had never seen Sukal move with anything more than a sense of purpose - never over hurried even in a crisis.  Once she reached the Shuttle Bay; Amoreen explained that the Captain was in trouble, and that she was taking out another shuttle to help.  The report she had managed to snag as it came in was shown to the Operations personnel on duty.  Considering it was his Captain and crew members in trouble; the man immediately made sure the shuttle was ready.

There was, of course, only two more things left to do.  First, she stealthily took out her hidden dagger, and came up behind the man to slit his throat.  Second, she appeared to drop a data crystal, which would contain orders from the Orion Syndicate to Lieutenant Commander Sukal to not only sabotage the Conference, but to kill Ambassador Sighn'wa.  She doubted it would be enough to truly frame the First Officer, but it would confuse their investigation further.  With these last two things done, she boarded the prepped shuttle, and used Sukal's own codes to get past the person stationed at Ops on the Bridge.  With the tractor beam disabled, confusion sown on the station, she piloted the shuttle out, and went to warp the moment she could.

There would be mass confusion on the Bridge as to why their XO had just bypassed their own system to leave the ship.  She wondered if Lieutenant Taray would actually get the ship underway in order to pursue without even knowing what was going on.  The USS JANARAN was on the other side when she piloted the ship away at warp - not that they couldn't have stopped her.  After all, no one was supposed to be leaving.  All she could do was wait and see what happened.

The terrible part of it all was she believed in what they had been trying to do at the Conference.  To get them to cooperate, and to nail down the traitor Leyton.  Yet, she had gotten in too deep with the Orions, and now she was as much a traitor as Leyton.

It had been a lose lose situation for her, but the job was done.

Holo conference room

Sven considered the use of a TR-116 or 117. It was diabolical and he was glad the security chief enacted transporter inhibition protocols. He was about to respond when he had an urgent call from Sukal. His heart sank when he heard that the captain's shuttle was sabotaged. And he was the one that over saw the safety of it. It was the Sigurdsdottir girls and that puppy. They distracted him when he sought to teach them a lesson in star fleet operations. He chided to himself and swore.

He tapped his com badge and replied to Sukal  "Acknowledged."

He called out to the station in general. "Computer, Locate Lahr ch�Verret."

The computer replied, "Petty officer ShranLahr ch'Verret is currently located in the Picked Packled, on deck..."

Sven interrupted the computer, "Thank you." he turned his attention the station's security chief. "This is where I leave you." he then signaled for two security officers to follow him.

A few minutes later they arrived at the locked Picked Packled and he found the door locked tight. He punched a panel and it swung open. There was a locking mechanism that he grabbed. "Computer, override the lockout for the Pickled Pakled, authorization Aune sierra tango romeo 114."

"Acknowledged." the door locking mechanism clicked as Sven turned the clamp. The door was muscled open and he entered signaling the security officers to fan out. He made his way to the back and low and behold he heard ch'Verret groan and call out. Something was up.

Sven leaned on the bulkhead casually eyeing the Andorian being held in the air by the male Klingon. "So, what do we have here?"

(OOC Post restored due to server outage - ShranLahr ch'Verret)

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

PO2 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[Innominatum Outpost - The Pickled Pakled]

He called out to the station in general. "Computer, Locate Lahr ch'Verret."

The computer replied, "Petty officer ShranLahr ch'Verret is currently located in the Picked Packled, on deck..."

Sven interrupted the computer, "Thank you." he turned his attention the station's security chief. "This is where I leave you." he then signaled for two security officers to follow him.

A few minutes later they arrived at the locked Picked Packled and he found the door locked tight. He punched a panel and it swung open. There was a locking mechanism that he grabbed. "Computer, override the lockout for the Pickled Pakled, authorization Aune sierra tango romeo 114."

"Acknowledged." the door locking mechanism clicked as Sven turned the clamp. The door was muscled open and he entered signaling the security officers to fan out. He made his way to the back and low and behold he heard ch'Verret groan and call out. Something was up.

Sven leaned on the bulkhead casually eyeing the Andorian being held in the air by the male Klingon. "So, what do we have here?"

Lahr was bracing himself for the strike, which he could read on the the Klingon male's face, was coming from the female.  So much for trying to play it tough.

But the punch was interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Lt Aune.   For a moment the two Klingons were silent as they glanced towards one another, gauging their options.

Lahr was saved!  But his mission would be ended if he didn't handle this in just the right way.

Lahr turned a smile towards the Klingon and lifted a hand to tap the male Klingon on the shoulder weakly.   "Thanks for the demonstration there.   Yeah, you are right.  You are way faster than you look.  But you can put me down now.   You made your point.   I owe you that ale, now."

The Klingon male looked to Lahr in surprise, while the female clued in faster.  "You heard our friend, put him down.. gently now."

The Andorian looked over to the Lieutenant.  "So what can we do for Starfleet's best and brightest, eh?  What's up with this Red Alert? Are we being evacuated?"

[Ruth Sigurdsdottir]

[Holo Conference Room - Innominatum Outpost]

Lek didn't like the sound of the summons, but what he thought about it didn't matter. At least he'd given the Chief something to work with.

"Sorry Chief, have to go. Good luck."

Lek tapped his commbadge as he exited the holo-deck.

"On my way Sir."

Even though the outpost was small compared to a full sized starbase, it still took longer than it would have on the Challenger for the turbolift to bring Lek to the station's Operations center.

On entering the hub of activity, Lek didn't see the first officer, which made him frown.

"Not like a Vulcan to be late."

He looked around for someone who looked like they were in charge and caught his attention.

"Lieutenant Lek. I was ordered to report here by Lieutenant Commander Sukal. As he is not here, I might be being an alarmist, but as Vulcans are never late, and we have just had an assassination on the station, maybe you should try and locate him?"

[Operations Center - Innominatum]

[As NPC Lt. j.g. Chloe Morgan - Ops]

Lt. j.g. Chloe Morgan, the duty officer manning the Ops Centre since Sukal left for the Commander's Office, was taken aback slightly by Lek's comment but she knew the Ferengi officer was right.

Nodding slowly she answered him.  "Yes, I've never known him to be tardy, he did leave some time ago but if he indicated that you should meet him here then this is where you should be.  As to where Mr. Sukal is.  Computer, locate Lt. Commander Sukal."

Since Lt. Cmdr Amoreen had taken Sukal's commbadge, the computer intoned "Lt. Commander Sukal is not on Innominatum, last recorded known location before out of range was Shuttlebay 2, Deck 20 on the USS Challenger."

Morgan thought that a little strange, why would the XO be on the Challenger when he'd summoned Lt. Lek to the Op Center.

"Lt. Lek I think we have a trickier situation on our hands, give me 2, do you have any experience with looking at camera feeds? Perhaps you could look at the feeds from the Commander's Office on base to the Operations Center.  I know it's not in your normal range of things for an Engineering Chief to do but... sometimes we've all got to muck in, Sir." she added the Sir in deference to the fact that Lt. Lek held a higher rank to her and technically she should have turned over the command to him, but at the time she wasn't aware that he was going to be staying a little longer than anticipated.

"Crewman Groff,.." she said turning to to the Bolian male at Ops 1 "Please work with Lt. Lek, two pairs of eyes and all that.  Ensign Greenway, check logs to find any unusual activity and also find Lt. Commander Sukal's life sign, see if he's still on either the Outpost or the Challenger.  Since we are in a dangerous situation here, I wouldn't put it past anyone to nab his commbadge."

Finally she put out a call to the Challenger.   Innominatum Operations to Lt. Taray, I have Lt. Lek here who was supposed to report to the XO, however Mr. Sukal isn't here.  Upon enquiring to his whereabouts said that he was in Shuttlebay 2 - Deck 20 on Challenger.  Given the situation could you check if he's aboard and for any unusual activity up there. Morgan out. 

"Ma'am..." came a call from Greenway.  "We have a turbolift stuck between decks close to the Medical Suite here on Innominatum."

"If it's the on on Decks 200-202, Lt. Commander Sukal left it and went up to the Challenger..." Groff said looking at the feeds and following 'Sukal' to the airlock.  "Either way we need to get that lift working, which is more a job for an Engineering team..."

"Mr. Lek... it might be worth investigating...." the Ensign said worried as she liked Mr. Sukal, he always looked out for the junior staff.

[Ruth Sigurdsdottir]

[Meanwhile on the Mjolnir...A day later]

"Lt T'ealc could you take the comms and listen out for anything coming in from the Belfast.  I'd rather not have us move too far even if Crewman Gohun is successful in repairing the wiring, I don't think we have a spare chip.  Best case scenario is that they'll beam us over and then tractor the Mjolnir into DS9 so we can get the girls to Academy quickly.  Shouldn't be long if Mr. Sukal had a hand in it, he'd just contact the closest Federation vessel!" Ruth said confidently although being stuck in the middle of space like a sitting duck wasn't her favourite thing to do she was positive they'd be rescued quickly.

"Tell me Mr. Gohun... where you learnt your engineering skills.  Is that something you would prefer to do, if there is the opportunity we could have you work with Mr. Lek sometimes.  And remind me Mr. Litt, which department was it you wanted to cross train in?"

She was trying hard to keep people happy but being essentially trapped in a box with 5 other people was going to be an uphill job.

[45 mins later]

"Ma'am incoming transmission from the USS Belfast, they can see us and will be with us in approximately 20 mins, we are to prepare to beam across and they will attach the tractor beam once we are safely aboard." T'ealc announced.

[Lek]

[Operations Center - Innominatum]

[As NPC Lt. j.g. Chloe Morgan - Ops]

Lt. j.g. Chloe Morgan, the duty officer manning the Ops Centre since Sukal left for the Commander's Office, was taken aback slightly by Lek's comment but she knew the Ferengi officer was right.

Nodding slowly she answered him.  "Yes, I've never known him to be tardy, he did leave some time ago but if he indicated that you should meet him here then this is where you should be.  As to where Mr. Sukal is.  Computer, locate Lt. Commander Sukal."

Since Lt. Cmdr Amoreen had taken Sukal's commbadge, the computer intoned "Lt. Commander Sukal is not on Innominatum, last recorded known location before out of range was Shuttlebay 2, Deck 20 on the USS Challenger."

Morgan thought that a little strange, why would the XO be on the Challenger when he'd summoned Lt. Lek to the Op Center.

"Lt. Lek I think we have a trickier situation on our hands, give me 2, do you have any experience with looking at camera feeds? Perhaps you could look at the feeds from the Commander's Office on base to the Operations Center.  I know it's not in your normal range of things for an Engineering Chief to do but... sometimes we've all got to muck in, Sir." she added the Sir in deference to the fact that Lt. Lek held a higher rank to her and technically she should have turned over the command to him, but at the time she wasn't aware that he was going to be staying a little longer than anticipated.

"Crewman Groff,.." she said turning to to the Bolian male at Ops 1 "Please work with Lt. Lek, two pairs of eyes and all that.  Ensign Greenway, check logs to find any unusual activity and also find Lt. Commander Sukal's life sign, see if he's still on either the Outpost or the Challenger.  Since we are in a dangerous situation here, I wouldn't put it past anyone to nab his commbadge."

Finally she put out a call to the Challenger.   Innominatum Operations to Lt. Taray, I have Lt. Lek here who was supposed to report to the XO, however Mr. Sukal isn't here.  Upon enquiring to his whereabouts said that he was in Shuttlebay 2 - Deck 20 on Challenger.  Given the situation could you check if he's aboard and for any unusual activity up there. Morgan out. 

"Ma'am..." came a call from Greenway.  "We have a turbolift stuck between decks close to the Medical Suite here on Innominatum."

"If it's the one on Decks 200-202, Lt. Commander Sukal left it and went up to the Challenger..." Groff said looking at the feeds and following 'Sukal' to the airlock.  "Either way we need to get that lift working, which is more a job for an Engineering team..."

"Mr. Lek... it might be worth investigating...." the Ensign said worried as she liked Mr. Sukal, he always looked out for the junior staff.

[Operations - Innominatum Outpost]

Lek listened to the findings from the outpost staff and knew something was beyond wrong with what the information was reporting and with what was almost certainly happening. Without asking, Lek tapped his commbadge.

"Lek to Challenger. Intruder alert, Shuttlebay 2, Deck 20! Lock all shuttlebays and shuttles. Intruder has the first officer's commbadge and may have him as a hostage. Initiate transporter lockdown. Initiate general quarters security condition three!"

Having done all he could do to protect the ship, Lek then turned to the camera feeds and scanned through them quickly. He could see the calls Sukal sent from the station commander's office and him leaving for medical on the outpost, then entering a turbolift. At that point the camera feed went black.

Quickly switching to the maintenance log of the turbolifts, Lek found the lift stopped briefly, then resumed before stopping at the docking ring where the Challenger was berthed. Figuring the station's security was compromised, Lek activated the feeds from the Challenger and saw Sukal enter the ship. Tracking his commbadge, led him to the shuttlebay. Once he was certain of his recreation of events, he spoke to Lieutenant Morgan.

"Lieutenant Morgan. Stand by with station tractors and weapons. If anything leaves the Challenger, try can capture them, if not, I'm authorizing you to fire. Aim for engines, we don't want the assassin to escape!

"I think things have now officially gone from bad to worse and based on what I am seeing, I am heading for the Challenger to take command. Have your Ops coordinate with whoever is manning Ops on the ship. And in the name of the Blessed Exchequer, get those transporter inhibitors in place around critical personnel and locations!"

Lek didn't wait for a response as he bolted for the turbolift.

"Challenger!" He growled and hoped he wasn't too late.

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

Innominatum Outpost
Commander's Office

With that accomplished - Sukal made one more call from the desk to a starship in the area near where he believed his Captain and friends were stranded.  The USS BELFAST - an Intrepid-class was in that area, and promised to seek out the troubled MJORNIR.  Afterwards he made his way down to Medical not only to personally check on the status of the investigation, but also get some pain medicine for the headache which was relentless.  In a turbolift, Sukal suddenly let out a silent scream as he placed both hands to the sides of his head in agony.  His eyes squeezed shut as the pain overwhelmed his control.  A moment later, and he started to tap his combadge when he collapsed to the floor hard.  The lift opened up before reaching its original destination.  Standing over him was Lieutenant Command Amoreen.

"You, Sir, are too dangerous," she remarked with respect before snatching his combadge away before he blacked out.  She killed the turbolift after sending it back to its destination.  In doing so, it was stuck between levels.  She could have killed him.  Her training told her to, but Sukal had never done wrong to her.  In fact, she respected him.  From the moment she had met him; D'leha had noted how he had watched her...noted how quickly he had seen her deadly grace, her attention to detail.

Not hesitating, D'leha activated her device, and soon she looked just like Sukal walking down the hall. At the entrance to the CHALLENGER; she was wisked through to the ship by Security as they could only see their First Officer.  There was every likelihood she could never return to her assignment.  She had been discovered...at least in part, and that would lead to the rest eventually.  Even with the planting of a similar weapon on Aide K'roa; she knew it was only a matter of time before they all figured out it was actually the TR-116 with a micro transporter.  Considering she had one registered to her - it would not take them long after that to find out the rest.  Transport inhibitors were wonderful devices for stopping unwanted entries and exits, but the S'ona had used isolinear tags to transport past such devices.  Every bit of her equipment was tagged in her quarters, and once she reached an unmanned transporter room on the ship; she beamed all of her stuff to one of the shuttles.

Time was of the essence, but she did not move with anything less than grace and a sense of purpose.  Moving too hastily often got amateurs caught.   Besides, she had never seen Sukal move with anything more than a sense of purpose - never over hurried even in a crisis.  Once she reached the Shuttle Bay; Amoreen explained that the Captain was in trouble, and that she was taking out another shuttle to help.  The report she had managed to snag as it came in was shown to the Operations personnel on duty.  Considering it was his Captain and crew members in trouble; the man immediately made sure the shuttle was ready.

There was, of course, only two more things left to do.  First, she stealthily took out her hidden dagger, and came up behind the man to slit his throat.  Second, she appeared to drop a data crystal, which would contain orders from the Orion Syndicate to Lieutenant Commander Sukal to not only sabotage the Conference, but to kill Ambassador Sighn'wa.  She doubted it would be enough to truly frame the First Officer, but it would confuse their investigation further.  With these last two things done, she boarded the prepped shuttle, and used Sukal's own codes to get past the person stationed at Ops on the Bridge.  With the tractor beam disabled, confusion sown on the station, she piloted the shuttle out, and went to warp the moment she could.

There would be mass confusion on the Bridge as to why their XO had just bypassed their own system to leave the ship.  She wondered if Lieutenant Taray would actually get the ship underway in order to pursue without even knowing what was going on.  The USS JANARAN was on the other side when she piloted the ship away at warp - not that they couldn't have stopped her.  After all, no one was supposed to be leaving.  All she could do was wait and see what happened.

The terrible part of it all was she believed in what they had been trying to do at the Conference.  To get them to cooperate, and to nail down the traitor Leyton.  Yet, she had gotten in too deep with the Orions, and now she was as much a traitor as Leyton.

It had been a lose lose situation for her, but the job was done.

NPC Lt Taray - Chief of Security/Tactical]
[USS Challenger-A - Deck One - Bridge]

When the first report of activity in the Shuttlebay was announced by the Ops officer on the Bridge, Taray thought it would be no deal.  They had that place sealed off and locked out.  Or so she thought, but a moment later Lt Commander Sukal's authorization codes were used to by-pass Ops.

"Where the Hell is he going?!" she complained as she watched the shuttle begin to move out of the bay.  "Ops try hailing the Commander.  Find out what he's up to and when we can expect him back."  She grumbled more about the Chief of Ops not filing a proper flight plan in advance.

"No answer to our hails, sir."

More trouble sounded a moment later when a roving security patrol called in to report they'd found a body in the shuttlebay.  Was it related at all to Sukal's leaving?  Taray didn't know for certain but the situation meant she couldn't take the chance.

"Ops, tractor that shuttle!" she ordered.  Executive officer had some explaining to do.

"Tractor beam is not activating, sir. I've been locked out.  It need Command level authorization to reinitialize"

As she was listening to this Taray heard the Security officer call out that the shuttle was clear and powering up its warp engines.

"Red Alert!  Ops contact Innominatum and inform them that Lt Commander Sukal has cut communications and appears to have stolen a shuttle.  We request to be undocked in order to pursue."

Just as the Ops officer nodded their acknowledgement a call came in from the Outpost.

[Operations Center - Innominatum]

Finally she put out a call to the Challenger.   Innominatum Operations to Lt. Taray, I have Lt. Lek here who was supposed to report to the XO, however Mr. Sukal isn't here.  Upon enquiring to his whereabouts said that he was in Shuttlebay 2 - Deck 20 on Challenger.  Given the situation could you check if he's aboard and for any unusual activity up there. Morgan out. 

And then a second later a call from Lt Lek.

[Operations - Innominatum Outpost]

Lek listened to the findings from the outpost staff and knew something was beyond wrong with what the information was reporting and with what was almost certainly happening. Without asking, Lek tapped his commbadge.

"Lek to Challenger. Intruder alert, Shuttlebay 2, Deck 20! Lock all shuttlebays and shuttles. Intruder has the first officer's commbadge and may have him as a hostage. Initiate transporter lockdown. Initiate general quarters security condition three!"

Having done all he could do to protect the ship, Lek then turned to the camera feeds and scanned through them quickly. He could see the calls Sukal sent from the station commander's office and him leaving for medical on the outpost, then entering a turbolift. At that point the camera feed went black.

Quickly switching to the maintenance log of the turbolifts, Lek found the lift stopped briefly, then resumed before stopping at the docking ring where the Challenger was berthed. Figuring the station's security was compromised, Lek activated the feeds from the Challenger and saw Sukal enter the ship. Tracking his commbadge, led him to the shuttlebay. Once he was certain of his recreation of events, he spoke to Lieutenant Morgan.

"Lieutenant Morgan. Stand by with station tractors and weapons. If anything leaves the Challenger, try can capture them, if not, I'm authorizing you to fire. Aim for engines, we don't want the assassin to escape!

"I think things have now officially gone from bad to worse and based on what I am seeing, I am heading for the Challenger to take command. Have your Ops coordinate with whoever is manning Ops on the ship. And in the name of the Blessed Exchequer, get those transporter inhibitors in place around critical personnel and locations!"

Lek didn't wait for a response as he bolted for the turbolift.

"Challenger!" He growled and hoped he wasn't too late.

Taray answered. "Too late sir.  Challenger requests to be undocked and released from lockdown.  We believe Mr. Sukal.. or the intruder... has stolen a shuttle, and may be involved in the death of one of the crew.  Our tractor has been sabotaged.  We need to undock in order to pursue."

Taray waited for the permissions to be granted.