Twisted Tale

Posted on Thu Jul 6th, 2023 @ 4:10am by Ensign Jeffrey Simmons & Ensign Ilan Ocara & Lieutenant Dr. Daniel Brasken & Warrant Officer Ahira Kasamoto

Mission: S1 Episode 5: Ex Post Facto
Location: Holodeck 2
Timeline: Date 2371-08-20 at 0330
2886 words - 5.8 OF Standard Post Measure

ON

After the "successful" interrogation of the Banean doctor Feras Nals, the away team had been provided a copy of the memory engram that had been implanted into Cassiel's mind before she was taken away by the still unknown kidnappers. Nals was still alive - for the moment - thanks to his promise that he would help remove what he had implanted into their officer, but what would happen after that was hardly a mystery to anyone. After a bit of back and forth, the decision had been made to return to the Vengeance where they would take to the holodeck to try and suss out more information about what happened to Lyra. At the moment, it rather felt like they were grasping at straws and the cold reality was they had made very little progress in finding their lost officer. It wasn't for lack of trying.

Ilan stood outside of Holodeck 2 with Jeffrey Simmons next to her putting the finishing touches on the program. It had been hastily accomplished, but she felt that the program derived from the memory would be accurate enough to suit their needs.

"Well, that's that," Ilan said and out of the corner of her eye saw the two men approaching. "Just in time by the looks of it." She spoke a bit louder so they knew she was addressing them, "I have the program set up for us."

What Ahira wanted to do at that moment was to be with Leon. Just to talk, nothing more. To help him sort out things. But that would have to wait. Right now, his duty came first.

He turned to the doctor walking beside him and asked, "Do you think we'll actually be able to help her?"

"That is our job, so that is what we will do." Daniel stopped crisply in front of the door to the holodeck as he turned slightly to Ilan. "By all means, let us have a look inside the mind then." While professional and perhaps a bit curt, Daniel had been working for many hours straight at this point without a break and his mental fortitude was being tested.

Ahira didn't know the doctor enough to know why he was being short with him, but that didn't matter at the moment. The doctor was right. It was their job.

"So, what do you need me to do? I'm a bodyguard, not a doctor."

"You have some experience dealing with our officer. Watch everything and see if anything seems wrong based on that experience." Daniel looked at the man as he spoke before then turning to look at Ilan and then with a slight nod walking into the holodeck.

"With dealing with Lyra." Ilan pointed out lightly, trying to humanize Lyra so there was less of seeing her as something and seeing her as the someone. Some people feared the lieutenant, some didn't like her, and people were entitled to those opinions but in the end, she was a Terran officer and deserved to be retrieved even for the most basic principle of it looked very bad on the Vengeance if they allowed their people to get taken - or worse, killed.

Lyra was not Ahira's favorite person on Vengeance, but he didn't dislike her either, and one thing he did do, was respect her. He didn't fully follow Daniel's orders, however. He did keep an eye on Lyra, but he also kept an eye on Ilan, and he also looked for anything that looked out of place.

As they entered the holodeck, they were met with a scene of black and white and a room that was familiar to Ilan. Her eyes went to the back of the room where a large window spanned the entirety of it and they could see outside in the grey sky there was pouring rain, though it was paused mid-fall as the program had not been activated yet. There were of course the other elements she had seen when she had investigated with Corvin - a desk with a large, comfortable looking chair behind it, storage spaces and shelves along the room, and the seating area where the uncanny phantoms of Lyra Cassiel and Targa Heda Jalak. They were silent and still, it was really rather unnerving.

"Wow, it worked." Ilan sounded impressed with her own accomplishment as if she hadn't really expected it to go this well. "Before anyone asks, no, I don't know why it is in black and white." She paused and looked around, noting that the shelves were more populated with documents and other clutter and there were plants and pictures on the desk.

"When I investigated this place with Lieutenant Hartjin, all of the plants and documents had been removed, just for your information. Are we ready to begin?"

"At your pleasure, Miss Ocara." Daniel turned and gave a slight smile before turning back to evaluate the program in as much detail as he possibly could.

"Computer, run program." Ilan ordered.

Jalak had been looking down at his balled fists against his thighs. He looked up and across to Lyra who was sitting there before him with her legs crossed and a smirk on her face. His eyes darted back and forth between his hands and her face, though his head had remained lowered.

Lyra spoke then and a very obvious and displeased scowl appeared on her face. “Targa, I must insist that you tell me this instant the information I require. What defensive capabilities do the Baneans have?”

When she spoke, the Banean man finally looked up and made eye contact with her. When he spoke, his voice was understanding, respectful, and deferential to her. “I am sorry, Lieutenant Cassiel.” He shifted slightly where he sat. “I can’t provide that information for the safety and security of my people.”

“Then what good is a man like you to me?” Lyra asked with an audible scoff, looking sour and standing.

“Lieutenant, please. There must be some sort of understanding we can reach.” Jalak stood as she did, his voice taking on a note of pleading in the face of the unreasonable Terran woman.

“There is no understanding, there is only obedience.” Lyra spoke, haughty, her head lifting and she looked down her nose at the Banean. “Perhaps something your successor will understand.”

She advanced then and pulled a short flat blade that had been hidden presumably under her uniform at her back. Jalak lifted his hands up in defense and spoke in a rather alarmed voice. “Lieutenant, please! Don’t! Help!” He called for his security.

“No one can help you now, animal!” Lyra lunged forward, burying the blade in Jalak's lower abdomen. Her voice had that same haughty note that her face had shown moments before. Jalak gasped, stumbled, and fell over the table. The program froze immediately.

After watching the display, Ilan just let everything hang there a moment and then cleared her throat.

"Okay, let's replay that now that we have all seen it through once, and we can pause wherever we need to. Computer, restart simulation."

The computer chirped its reply and the simulation began once more.

Daniel adjusted his position to behind the Banean gentleman and continue to watch the system play out. He was intrigued at the exchange. Certainly, it made sense considering the role that Lyra held on the ship and what could easily be a mission that was given to her. Still, something felt off about the exchange. Perhaps it was the brevity or the words. He wasn't sure yet, but he intended to pick out what felt wrong no matter how many times he had to watch.

Ahira wasn't just a protection agent, he'd trained as an investigator, someone who could follow the evidence. Additionally, he was rather intuitive. The story appeared to be legitimate, Lyra was no angel, but there was something nagging at him.

Part of it he knew was because it was too perfect too realistic. It took him a few moments to determine what else made him feel like he couldn't trust his senses. There was something wrong with her speech pattern. He couldn't quite put his fingers on the details, but he knew that something was off.

Ilan watched the program play out and then looked over at both Daniel and Ahira wearing a strikingly similar expression. "Computer, pause."

She lifted her brows at both of them. "Care to share with the class, gentlemen?"

"This is too easy," Ahira replied, "too perfect. And, she just doesn't sound right. She doesn't sound like herself. Or is that just my imagination?"

"Not at all." Daniel moved some more, now with the scene between himself and the others. "Lyra is certainly capable of emotion, but it is controlled. Especially when it comes to a fight. The words are wrong and the aggressive leap are both out of character."

The doctor paused and knelt down, eyeing the knife that was being held by Lyra before the actual attack. "Something about this is bothering me too...Lyra, while certainly trained and capable, wouldn't have needed such a tool to deal with one of these. Especially when you consider that the killing strike is oddly specific when there were more vulnerable points on one that didn't know how to fight."

Ilan wandered a little closer to Daniel and stood behind him without crowding him. “Getting stabbed there wouldn’t usually drop someone instantly like it did with Jalak.” She noted with a frown and crossed her arms. “Okay, so it’s fishy. Hardly enough to prove anything. What else do you see?” She prompted both Ahira and Daniel.

"Well, like the doctor said, why would she stab him where she did? She's not a doctor either. But, even more importantly is why? What's her motive? She can be a cold calculating bi... she can be cold and calculating but she doesn't just kill randomly and without a reason."

"You watch yourself there, Kasamoto." Simmons frowned deeply, having caught what Ahira had been about to say. "She's a superior officer."

"I understand sir, I do realize she's a superior officer. Which is why I stopped myself. But I stand by my assessment. She is cold and calculating. It makes her a good Imperial officer. One whose bad side I wouldn't want to be on. One thing she isn't though is stupid, she doesn't do anything without a good reason. I don't see one here."

"I agree. Had her mission been assassination perhaps she would have studied their anatomy to know where to strike a blow like this, but even so, it wouldn't be sudden and from the front like this. Lyra is confident in her skills for good reason, but she wouldn't endanger a mission with this carelessness." Daniel continued to stare at the knife and tilted his head. "Computer. Analyze the knife being held by the representation of Lieutenant Cassiel. Does it match any known designs of Alpha Quadrant species?"

"Negative." The computer replied pleasantly.

Ilan leaned in and looked a bit closer. "She isn't wearing her dagger. They didn't have that in evidence and I don't recall it being in her belongings that Commander Petrov brought back from the planet. Computer, move time index forward five seconds."

The command brought the recording forward and Lyra to her feet in the middle of speaking. Ilan was looking at the blade as she stood next to the still image of Lyra, standing at the same height as their missing lieutenant's image.

"Ilan, correct me if I'm wrong," Daniel spoke with the tone of someone that doubted completely that they were in fact wrong, "But you are generally measurably shorter than Lieutenant Cassiel, yes?" He stood up from his crouching position and looked between the two before looking at the knife again. "I also highly doubt that Lyra would acquire a knife from this civilization, trophies and such aren't her style. Based on the computer's analysis and the design of this blade I would believe this is from this planet and along with the other inconsistencies I would say this has been modified somehow."

"Uhh... yeah, actually I guess I am. I used to not be when she... well I mean I guess before she got her procedure done to reclaim her face. We used to be the same height so I didn't think anything of it." Ilan looked away, glancing toward the window and immediately frowning. "The hell..."

She wandered closer toward it and tilted her head one way then the other, very faint symbols in the glass catching her eye. "Anyone else see this here, or do I need to go have my eyes checked?"

Daniel walked over to join Ilan at the window and squinted at the glass and then around the room. "I have no idea what that is, but there is absolutely something there that doesn't have a matching item to cause a reflection. Perhaps an indication of the modifications we suspect?"

“Maybe?” Ilan replied, her nose scrunching as she looked at the strange symbols. “It almost looks like Banean written language but not quite. Here let me see…”

She pulled out a PADD from her side and activated it. It took only a moment to load up the recording of the memory that had been provided and play it there. At first, she focused on the window and saw nothing, but when she focused on the image as a whole she saw in slightly faded text at the “bottom” of the playing memory sigils and signs that looked very much like what they were seeing projected larger in the window.

“Look at this.” She said and turned the PADD toward Ahira and Daniel.

When first given this assignment, Ahira had known that his medical skills were sorely lacking. He knew some advanced first aid, but little beyond that. He certainly had no knowledge of pathology. He did have some forensics background and he knew how to do research. So, he'd spent some time looking into the Numiri as well as the Baneans.

He knew he'd seen those symbols before, but it took him a few seconds to place them in his head. "Those symbols there are Numiri. Does that help?"

Daniel took the PADD after Ahira and analyzed what was on it. "Admittedly I have not spent much time with the language, but the structure looks more mathematical than linguistic." He shook his head slightly and rubbed at his chin. "Considering this was done as punishment, supposedly, I would think this would spell out crimes or descriptions of the scene. I cannot imagine why equations would be imprinted on the memory."

"Unless." the half-Romulan mused, it's like coding that was done in computers a couple of hundred years ago."

"And," he added. "There is something else strange. If we're right, and I'm damned sure we are, the Banaens are the ones that put this fake memory here for us to find. But it's a Numiri code. They are supposed to be at war. Does this sound like they're at war?"

"Not really but..." Ilan began, frowning.

"Unless it is a gambit." Simmons pointed out in a rare moment of higher understanding. "What if it wasn't ever the Baneans at all? What if this had everything to do with the Numiri?"

Her frown growing, Ilan looked down at the PADD. "That would mean... we've been looking in the wrong places this whole time. Should we tell the Captain? Maybe try and decipher this code?"

"I think we should try to decipher the code first," Ahria suggested. "I think it's very likely we've been looking in the wrong places. But, we won't know that for sure until we have all the facts. And deciphering that code is the best way to do that."

"Agreed in theory, but in practice, we need to get people moving on this information now. Ahira, start working on the code, bring in anyone you believe will be of help. Simmons, inform the captain what we have found. Make sure to impress upon him that all of the information is not known, but we are confident this was forged and that we believe the Numiri are to be looked at much more intensely." Daniel turned to each as he spoke, ending on Ilan. "If possible, get someone to clean up that text. I know it isn't your specialty, but you at least know what we are looking at."

Daniel rubbed at his eyes a quick moment and considered the better part of valor at the moment would be to retreat and get some sleep. If this panned out, he would need to be at his best for the next part of removing the memory from their officer. "Dismissed."

Ahira started to say something but thought better of whatever it was going to be. Instead, he nodded in understanding and turned to leave the room.

Simmons left on Ahira's heels leaving Ilan and Daniel alone for a moment. She thought about saying something - he looked so tired - but there was work to be done. Instead she gave his shoulder a small squeeze on her way out.

They'd been left with more questions than answers at this point.

END