Smoldering Traces
Posted on Thu Sep 4th, 2025 @ 8:57pm by Ensign Garabed "Garo" Hakobyan & Petty Officer 2nd Class Zal Rixi & Captain Remy Johansen & Commander Maxun Spello & Lieutenant Commander Nash Winters & Lieutenant Xalanth & Lieutenant Daynah Ral & Ensign Kash th'Kaasniik
2,023 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Side Plots
Location: Conference Room, Deck 1
Timeline: MD005
The conference room was far too quiet. Quiet in the way that made the rest of the ship seem louder and more insistent.
On one side of the conference table, were seated Ensign Garo Hakobyan, Petty Officer 2nd Class Zal Rixi, and Ensign Kash th'Kaasniik. On the opposite side of the table from the junior officers, were Lieutenant Daynah Ral--the Operations Chief, Lieutenant Commander Nash Winters--the Chief Engineer, and security chief Lieutenant Xalanth. To the Dragonian's right was the Executive Officer, Commander Maxun Spello. Last but not least, the figure of Remy Johansen sat in her usual place to Spello's right at the head of the table.
Garo had been talking for what felt like hours, though in truth it was only minutes. His hands rested on the table, overly stiff and heavy, nervous in the presence of one-half of the senior staff. The charred phase coupler sat upon the table in front of him, inanimate and still, like an ancient relic that seemed to hold the gathering together.
"...and the diagnostic led us to this."
He nudged the scorched coupler forward a fraction, unintentionally putting it closer to Captain Johansen as though it might make it less... his. "It failed. It shouldn't have failed. Not under normal conditions, no. I triple-checked. Maybe quadruple. I--" He swallowed. "...we checked everything."
Rixi leaned in, elbows propped carelessly on the polished surface of the conference table. "Kash and I dug through the logs," she said, trying to remain professional. "Every routine transport was accounted for--except one. One entry marked complete, but scrubbed clean. Nothing left but the ghost of it. No timestamp, no origin point, no destination."
She exchanged a look with Kash, adding, "Somebody went for a ride and didn't want anyone to know." She caught the eyes of her own superior--Lieutenant Commander Winters--from across the table, and lowered her eyes. Perhaps that remark was unnecessarily candid in front of the Captain and XO.
Garo cleared his throat, glancing sideways at her, then back to the senior officers. "We did what protocol told us--reported it up the chain. And, uh... we were told security would be taking over from here." His eyes flicked over--briefly and unwillingly--toward the seated figure of Lieutenant Xalanth. He was terrified of the Dragonian security chief--his red scales, fixed jaw, the sheer immovability of the man. He felt his throat tighten as of the lizard could snap him in two with a look. It was an irrational fear--but a very present one nonetheless.
The coupler sat between them all. Still scorched. Still silent. It was the only solid piece of evidence that malfeasance had occurred aboard the Astrea.
"What about internal sensors? I take it they were scrubbed as well?" Xalanth asked calmly, slightly tapping the table as he did so. This was all they needed.
“We should keep digging,” interjected Nash. “Nothing gets completely scrubbed. The ODN keeps logs of all sensor and transporter activity. Whatever data the user was trying to hide will be there, believe me.”
He addressed his next comments to the young Ensign, Hakobyan. “Ensign, you have the go-ahead to investigate further. With the Captain’s and Lieutenant Xalanth’s permission, of course, I can grant you whatever clearances you need. Bypass the built in security protocols to scan and detect the ID code of the user.”
Garo's stomach sank the moment Winters said his name. Permission. Clearances. Bypass protocols. It was meant to sound like trust, like opportunity. But all he heard was weight. Big weight. The kind of weight that climbed onto your chest, making it hard to breathe.
"Yes, sir," he said, voice tight. He cleared his throat twice, tied again. "Yes, Commander Winters. If the Captain and Lieutenant Xalanth approve, I--ah--I can run the traces. Go layer by layer. There will most definitely be footprints in the ODN backbone." He glanced to his right, seeing Rixi with her hands folded neatly on the table. To his left, the Andorian was also quiet.
"With your permission," Garo began, finding his professional voice. "And considering it was the three of us who discovered the coupler and the scrubbed log--well, I'd like to request Petty Officer Zal and Ensign th'Kaasniik continue to--ah--work with me." His eyes flitted over to the Dragonian once again. He looked away quickly, embarrassed.
Maxun sat quiet, listening to everything said and unsaid. He then glanced at Remy. "If i may, Captain?"
The Captain had been listening to the junior officers cautiously present the senior staff with their findings, what they had been able to determine up until this point. Transporter sabotage was a serious accusation. Remy picked up the damaged coupler and rubbed the burned edges between her thumb and forefinger as she processed the various possibilities.
The first officer's voice addressing her brought the Captain back into the meeting.
"Yes, of course Commander. What is it?" Remy asked.
Maxun tipped his head toward the ruined component in her hands. "While any form of sabotage aboard a starship is serious, to mess with a transporter is especially so. I feel that, to ensure full security containment of the situation, no one outside of this room should be involved in the investigation. And, both myself and Mister Xalanth should personally supervise this operation."
"I agree. The fewer people who know about this, the better." Xalanth added, giving a nod.
Daynah sat and did what she felt she did best which was listen. It was Maxun's comment that prompted her to speak up. "I would agree with the Commander. I could start with a full disassembly of the transporter. That alone would get us to the bottom of what was done when, and possibly who did it. Most people who work with systems leave small tell tale signs where they were. How they work that sort of thing."
Rixi let out a noise--a half groan, half-sigh--and dropped her forehead into her palm. It wasn't loud or disrespectful, but enough to be heard.
Every pair of eyes on the far side of the table moved toward her. Winters, Ral, the Captain, even the Dragonian.
Garo froze. His own eyes went wide, round as dinner plates. He shot Rixi a frantic side-glance that might've said, 'What are you doing? Shut up already!'. His mouth opened but no sound came out.
"Petty Officer Zal, do you have something to say?" Remy asked patiently. "No one is taking you or Ensign Hakobyan off of the investigation. You've done good work so far. But this is serious, and we do need you to work under the supervision of our senior staff moving forward."
The Bajoran engineering technician could feel the warmth of her own breath on her palm, forehead pressed against it. For a second she seriously considered just leaving it there and pretending she hadn't made a sound at all. But the silence on the other side of the table pressed down, heavy as a neutronium star. When she finally raised her head, her two short braids clacked against the headrest of the conference table chair.
"I--" Her voice cracked and she swallowed, glancing down at the gleaming surface of the table where her reflection stared back. "With respect, Lieutenant Ral, sir--ma'am--I already tore that thing apart." She gestured faintly toward the coupler as though it were a bloated corpse she'd been forced to autopsy. "Level Two diagnostic. We checked every subsystem, examined every junction. Hours of work. If there was something there, we'd have found it."
Her words started to tumble out too fast, and she knew she needed to rein herself in--cheeks hot under the weight of Winters' and Ral's eyes. "So, running it all over again? It's going to give us the same clean report. Which, respectfully, means it's not the hardware. It's the hands."
She faltered at that moment. The smirk that usually saved her in these moments refused to appear. She could feel Garo stiff beside her, could practically hear Kash's antennae twitching. She darted her eyes sideways toward Kash, hoping the Andorian might provide her with a new foothold, anything--confirmation, backup, even a raised brow that said, 'Yeah, she's right.
When nothing came, she quietly and firmly stomped on Kash's foot.
Kash let out a tuft of air, barely suppressing a groan as the pressure of Rixi's foot crushed his toes. He coughed to clear his throat. "Yeah, we did. Though, I'm sure another set of eyes couldn't hurt."
Kash fought back the urge to glare at Rixi. He was feeling the pressure of being in a meeting with so many senior officers and didn't want to mess anything up.
Nash heard the boot thump and had to cover his mouth to conceal his snickering. ‘I’ve been there once or twice, kid.’ , he thought to himself. “I concur that a thorough once over the old fashioned way would not hurt at all. Don’t be so hard on yourselves,” Nash said. His comments were directed at Garo and Rixi, the young specialist on his team. “The evidence is there. We just have to find it.”
Garo sat rigid, his shoulders locked like someone has hammered him upright like sheet metal. Winters' reassurance was supposed to sound kind, but to Garo it felt like more work. And it was. He felt his throat tighten, the back of his neck prickling.
Beside him, Rixi exhaled slowly through her nose. She wanted to push--to say the transporter wasn't the answer, that it would be a waste of time--but the air in the room was already pretty thick. She laced her fingers together on the table instead, knuckles pale, forcing a curt nod in the Chief Engineer's direction. She then turned and glanced at the captain.
Maxun considered the young Bajoran woman for a few beats. If he wasn't mistaken, there was more to things than she was saying. Perhaps it was nothing more than the stress of being across the table from several members of the senior staff. However, perhaps it was something else. "You said that you ran a level two diagnostic and found nothing. In that case, we will run a level one diagnostic, even if it takes all night. This is a serious situation, and while your experience and skills are not being called into question, it is our prerogative as members of the senior staff, to ensure that every fact is checked, double checked, even triple-checked if need be."
"Yes, sir."
Rixi and Garo both responded at the same time, their voices creating an odd stereo-like reverberation across the table.
"If there is nothing else to discuss here, then let's get to work," Remy stated. "Lieutenant Xalanth, I want increased security protocols in place as well while the investigation is underway. Until we know who is behind this, everyone is suspect. Keep me apprised."
"Dismissed," the Captain stated with one final order.
Captain Remira Johansen
Commanding Officer
USS Astrea
Commander Maxun Spello
First Officer
USS Astrea
Lt. Commander Nash Winters
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Astrea
Lieutenant Daynah Ral
Chief Operations Officer
USS Astrea
Lieutenant Xalanth
Chief Security Officer
USS Astrea
Ensign Garabed "Garo" Hakobyan
Transporter Specialist
USS Astrea
Ensign Kash th'Kaasniik
Operations Officer
USS Astrea
Petty Officer 2nd Class Zal Rixi
Engineering Technician
USS Astrea
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