Mission Archive

=/\=

(Continued from "Still Looking" by the eloquent Tiffany)

"When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

=/\=

Stardate: 30147.1645

Eve entered Main Engineering, pausing for a second to appreciate the unique sounds and sights of the mechanical nerve center responsible for the ship's propulsion. She didn't have any idea as to why Lieutenant Paquette asked for her to meet, but since she hadn't had a chance to fully welcome the CEO, it was an important opportunity.

Of course, that wasn't the only reason Eve was pleased. It was a much needed diversion from her appointment with Doctor Mizore that she had scheduled at 1700. The new Assistant CMO needed to be apprised of Eve's "condition" as quickly as Doctor Doyanne had, for the safety of Eve, the crew and their missions. But the Cardassian born woman was concerned by any unintentional emotional trauma it might cause to the new officer, who had such a close and deep understanding of the Bajoran occupation and the Prophets. Mizore Seska was from a part of history that Eve turned her back on in shame and disgust, but for the Medical Officer the tragedy of those times certainly couldn't be shirked that easily.

However, her current surroundings hummed with a far different kind of energy. Judging by the looks of it, Sonja Paquette was reinstalling a large volume of isolinear chips, sitting indian style on the floor, and drinking a large cup of tea. "Something stronger is going to have to wait," she said aloud to nobody in particular.

"You rang, Chief?" Eve Dalziel said as she entered into a closer proximity to the curvaceous Engineer.

"Ah, yes," Lieutenant Paquette carefully rose to her feet as to not disturb the work around her, and more properly greeted the Counsellor. "Thank you for meeting with me. I have a problem, and ANI thought you might be able to help."

Eve's large gray eyes widened  involuntarily. If the ship's consciousness couldn't help, how would she be able to? "I'm officially intrigued. Although I hope it's nothing technical."

Sonja rubbed the back of her neck and sighed. The she noticed a few strands of red hair had escaped the bun on the back of her head and she pushed them out of the way. "We have a mystery." She turned her tea into the matter reclamation unit and replicated a fresh cup. The previous one had long since grown cold even though she hadn't bothered to replace it until now. "At about 13:05 today, there was a malfunction of the turbolift that resulted in Lieutenant Commander Maya being delivered to a point three decks from her requested destination."

"And ANI was not able to detect the source of this?" That just didn't make sense.

The Canadian woman shook her head in frustration. "It's impossible. I've just done a complete workup of the systems on my end and it shows no anomaly whatsoever. Ditto for Ensign Stark's research into the matter. ANI pointed out that only a set list of officers would have the clearance to execute that sort of thing, and we've eliminated all of them... except for one."

"Ensign Shar'El." Eve's lips drew into a grim expression.

"How did you guess?" Sonja asked.

"She's Intel. She would certainly be able to manipulate the systems so that even the ship itself wouldn't be able to detect it. Of course I don't understand why." Was it to isolate Maya, and give the ILO the chance to better observe her under pressure, or was it to test the crew's ability to discover the source of the event? Eve thought back Morningstar's "Red Alert" in the wee hours of the morning and it had been a very effective gauge of the crew's readiness. Perhaps this was Shar'El's way of doing the same.

Lieutenant Paquette's vibrant green eyes were filled with concern. "You're one of the few senior staff members who has actually met with her, so I wanted your input on her behavior and if this was something she might do before I continued working on the problem."

Eve toyed with the part of her ponytail that had fallen over one shoulder before tugging the end of her hair into place so that it fell down the middle of her back. "There's no evidence that she did this, correct?"

"No.. not yet. But I wanted to know I was headed in the right direction before I resumed working, as any type of work we do on this from this point forward is going to involve time and resources beyond the norm."

"Do you have a summation of the research so far?"

"Yes." She handed the taller woman a PADD. "There's not much there other than what we've eliminated as not being the possibility."

Eve grasped the device in her hand. There was only one person she knew who might be able to help get to the bottom of this. "I need to take this to Lieutenant Commander Maya and let her take a look at it."

Lieutenant Paquette folded her arms in discomfort. "I really didn't want to get anyone else involved until we could prove something."

"I understand. It's not fair to accuse Shar'El of something without proof. But if anyone can understand the complexities of the data we need, it's Maya. The sooner the better." ::Damn:: Eve thought. She was going to be late for her appointment with Doctor Mizore. She tapped her comm badge. "Counsellor Dalziel to Doctor Mizore."

=/\= This is Doctor Mizore, =/\= the Bajoran woman answered.

"I apologize but I'm running late for our appointment." Eve shared a look with the Engineer next to her. "Something has come up and I'll need to see the ExO first."

The newly arrived crew member didn't act surprised. =/\= I will await your arrival, Counsellor. There are many things to attend to in the meantime. Mizore out. =/\=

Satisfied that she'd kept up with any loose ends, Eve nodded her head in approval to the CEO. "Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I promise either myself or Maya will let you know something as soon as possible."

=/\=

Lieutenant JG Eve Dalziel

Counsellor

USS ANUBIS, NCC-18501

"I savored those stories; I read them slowly, one each day. And when I was done, I wished I hadn't read them at all. So I could read them again... like it was the first time."

-Melanie to Old Jake, DS9, "The Visitor"