Subject: Grail: "Great Brightness" - 'Renegade Detective'

<<Stardate 47307.31 - 09:00>>

<<Somewhere between decks>>

Tifa crawled in the service tunnel as the yellow alert began. Without

her boots, she hardly made a sound as she deftly made her way in the

tunnel. Finally, she reached the access hatch that was her destination.

Opening it slightly, she let the scents from the corridor below rise to

her nose. Nobody was there, good.

She dropped lightly to the floor and with two agile leaps was before

the door of her destination. A few seconds later, she had overidden the

lock.

Once inside, Tifa leaned against the wall and breathed a sigh of

relief. Everything was going as planned. She had left her commbadge in

her quarters and had made it here without anyone seeing her, and now

that they were in the Great Brightness and on yellow alert, nobody was

likely to see her when she went back. Her little visit to Janice

Hargen's quarters would go unnoticed. At first, she was reluctant to

make this illegal visit, however, she was convinced the chief engineer

wasn't who she said she was and Tifa was determined to find enough

evidence to prove it. If she was right, then her illegal visit would be

justified. And now that she was here, she was even more convinced that

something was up.

The room before her was littered with broken furniture and various

objects that had been on them. 'A fight? or an Android temper tantrum?'

Tifa thought as she bent down to examine the debris from a chair and a

table. From the looks of it, the table had been pulverised when the

chair was thrown on it... a feat that would be beyond the stength of any

human. Tifa stood up, she was definately glad she had come. She then

searched through a multitude of engineering-related equipment, which

didn't reaveal anything, but while searching through Hargen's personal

belongings, Tifa found a strange box.

Opening it up, she saw that it contained electronic devices similar

to a repair kit. Finding a repair kit in the chief engineer's quarters

was hardly unusual, but giving the circumstances and the fact that it

was in Hargen's personal stuff only added to Tifa's belief. Perharps it

was time to let Castle in on her hunch. If Janice Hargen was indeed an

android spy, every minute counted.

Tifa recorded the ravaged room with her tricorder, according special

attention to the chair and table. Then she decided to bring the repair

kit with her, but as she made her way to the door, she noticed something

from out of the corner of her eye. A smashed mirror. Walking over to it,

Tifa immediately noticed a dark stain on the carpet in fron of the

mirror. Blood? Maybe Hargen was human. After all, androids didn't have

blood, did they? Bending down, Tifa sniffed the stain. No, it wasn't

blood... not exactly. Taking out her tricorder, she took a sample and

quickly analyzed it. The preliminary readings were very similar to human

blood, but Tifa decided to to push the analysis further. This time, the

tricorder revealed it was somekind of synthetic imitation, masterfully

made. This was all the proof she needed.

"Computer, locate Lt. Castle" she ordered, all thoughts of stealth

tossed aside.

=^= Lt. Castle is in his office.=^

Tifa was out the door a moment later.

Ensign Tifa Charr

Security officer, USS Grail

emeraldas@hotmail.com