The Scooby Gang, Part 1

Posted on Sun Nov 2nd, 2025 @ 1:09am by Ensign Garabed "Garo" Hakobyan & Petty Officer 2nd Class Zal Rixi & Lieutenant Xalanth & Ensign Kash th'Kaasniik

1,252 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Side Plots
Location: Main Security Offices, Deck 8
Timeline: MD004 (Before Arrival at Barisa Prime)

The walk down to Security felt longer than it truly was. Garo gripped the data PADD firmly like it was made of crystal, careful, like the words inside might shatter if touched incorrectly. Beside him, Rixi's boots tapped-out a very impatient rhythm, and Kash's antennae seemed to make slow arcs as though searching the air for signs of danger.

The silence hit him first. Upon entering the security offices, Garo had to do a double-take to ensure he wasn't standing inside a monastery. He had never visited the security offices before. And it felt like a little secret, given that most security officers were either posted to the bridge or the brig. But here, the consoles were ordered, several workstations appeared idle and dim, but one desk seemed as immovable as a mountain. And behind it, Xalanth. Red scales and firm jaw set like stone, hands working over the console.

Garo swallowed. He feared the Dragonian. Whether that fear was rational or not didn't matter. He simply feared reptiles--even small ones like chameleons and leopard geckos from back on Earth. But this reptile was large and despite his teddy bear personality, Garo couldn't help but fear that one day Xalanth might decide to simply bite his Armenian head right off. Accepting that fear, he placed the PADD on the desk as though setting down a sacrificial lamb.

"Lieutenant," he began, his accent thickening. "We did what was asked. Full tear-down, every bolt, every wire, all day we pulled it apart like removing pomegranate seeds. Clean, clean, clean. And we found nothing new in the transporter." He lifted his eyes, forcing himself not to flinch. "But the sensors, ah--they're telling us a more honest story. Someone accessed the transporter logs from Cargo Bay Three. The alteration was made there."

Beside him, Rixi crossed her arms, all of her weight cocked to one hip. "Hours wasted, if you ask me." She sighed and smiled. "But there it is. Somebody ghosted through a transporter, then covered their tracks in Cargo Bay Three. That's the trail we've got."

The lizard nodded as he took the padd his yellow eyes looking over the data. "So we still don't know who or where they went," he said, gently clicking his tongue against the side of his head. " And whoever did so most likely removed themselves from the manifest."

"They are presumably still on board," Garo replied, the thought of an intruder or saboteur lurking aboard the Astrea leaving him ill-at-ease.

"So looks like we have one lead. Let's go and have a look at cargo bay three," the lizard said, standing up as he did so before grabbing his equipment belt and clipping it on.

Rixi nodded, watching Xalanth gather his belt. "Can you think of a reason why someone would sneak aboard and then sabotage a transporter... sir?" She added the last, realizing they were among other officers and not in a personal setting.

"Simple because someone had something to hide," Xalanth added as he headed for the door. Smuggling was what came to mind. Ever since the Romulan supernova Starfleet had had recruitment issues, so many of the more undesirable elements had slipped in.

It wasn't long before the three were stepping into the cargo bay. "Alright, you two. if you were hiding something where would you hide it?" the lizard said looking around the bay.

Rixi's eyes swept the cargo bay like she was ready to tackle a large clean-up job. With hands on hips, she said, "If I were hiding something, I wouldn't put it where you'd expect. Which means somewhere stupid."

Garo hugged his arms across his chest, his PADD pressed flat against him. "I think," he said carefully, "a saboteur is practical, not stupid. Kash, you're the computer expert--maybe you should check the console." He pointed to a dimmed-out display a few feet away.

"What do you want me to check it for?" Kash asked, casually looking over his shoulder as he walked to the terminal.

Rixi threw the Andorian a quizzical look. "Anything, Kash!" she said, her voice slightly louder than she'd meant it to be.

She sighed, turning to Xalanth and Garo, neatly folding her arms. "Here's what we know," she started. "Transporter got sabotaged back when we were crawling through the Expanse. Definitely not a coincidence. Somebody wanted to make sure what they did then didn't leave fingerprints. Then--" she snapped her fingers and pointed toward the console Kash was approaching, "--somebody wiped the logs. Did it right here in Cargo Bay Three. So whatever happened, this is ground zero."

Garo adjusted his grip on the PADD. "Which means... it is not just the system that is unreliable. It is us. It could have been someone on the crew." He swallowed. "Someone who knows systems better than we think."

Rixi glanced at him, her grin gone. "Yeah," she said softly. "Could've been. But let's not go there, okay?" She turned back to the endless rows of containers, the tall racks, the shadows behind them. "I'm still thinking this is an intruder. Why else would someone go to this trouble to mask a transporter log and then sabotage a key component like a coupler?"

"A coupler would prevent a pattern from making it to the buffer at all..." Kash's voice drifted as he logged into the computer. He glanced at Xalanth to see how closely the security chief was watching him before continuing. "It's a sloppy piece to destroy. The results could be losing a person or pattern entirely or just preventing a transport altogether. It's hard to know what their motives were. If we can figure out when it was destroyed it might help. If it was while we had away teams out..."

Kash let the team's imagination's finish the thought as data filled the screen. He struck a few keys and pulled the data out into a three dimensional holographic plane for the others to view.

Xalanth on the other hand, was doing something rather unusual. He was tapping his centrel claw on his foot on the floor, listening before stepping forward a few steps.

The light from Garo's wrist lamp caught the dust that floated, turning it into little twinkling stars. The cargo bay felt colder and darker than usual.

"This place," he muttered, "always smells like metal and... old socks. If something evil is hiding here, it is probably passed-out."

Rixi's lamp beam cut a clean, sharp line ahead of him. She snorted. "If something evil's hiding here, Garo, it'll wish it hadn't when Xalanth steps on it."

"Mmm. True. He has very"--Garo glanced behind him at the claws on the Security Chief's feet--"effective feet." The readings on his tricorder began to jitter, fluctuating near a crate. He crouched and ran the light along the seam, catching on something that looked like melted resin. "Lieutenant," he called to the Dragonian.

The Bajoran engineering technician leaned down beside him. "What did you find?"

"Looks like someone tampered with the locking mechanism. Not broken. More like... cooked."

Rixi switched her tricorder to an advanced thermal scan and studied the readings. "Maybe a plasma torch?"

"What was in there that they were after?" Kash wondered as he craned his neck from the computer terminal to see which crate they were looking into. He then began looking into cargo manifests to see if he could determine the contents when he hit a security wall. "So much sabotage right under our noses.


~TBC~

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