USS Grail: "Thank Q" - Discoveries & Revelations by Lieutenant (jg) Eve Mallory (Chief Science Officer)

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Lieutenant Logan Castle (Security Chief)

Location: Science Department

Eve left the meeting and headed down to the Science Department. She found Lirzinji’kav and Blake bent over a console, with the Cygnan’s hands flying over the keyboard.

She’d met Lirzinji’kav after she’d left R’Laurent’s office the first day. Like most Cygnan's, he was always working on something electronic, or playing with a program on the computer. Cygnan’s were brusque to the point of rudeness sometimes, especially when you were interrupting them at a crucial point of whatever it was they were doing. But there was no one better, with the possible exception of the Binars, at deciphering computer problems or anything to do with electronics. Binars were better, but had less imagination.

Blake looked up as she entered. "What’s happened?" She asked. "We’re at Yellow Alert."

"Complicated," Mallory replied. "What have you found?"

She expected Blake to answer, but instead Lirzinji’kav looked up. "Clever," He commented. "Almost didn’t spot it."

Mallory came forward and stared at the screen. It was filled with rows of numbers, letters and pictograms. She frowned It looked like...

"That’s one of mine!" She exclaimed.

Lirzinji’kav nodded. "Yes," He said, looking up at her. "Improved on, re-written, but yours. You did good work back then."

"Only back then?" Eve asked with a smile.

Lirzinji’kav didn’t seem to hear her, instead pointing to the screen. "Not surprising though," He said. "Many ICE-breakers these days use your protocols for Starfleet hacking, with some changes. Computers haven’t changed that much in 100 years. I’ve told them many times to change the systems, but they don’t listen. Stupid."

"So what does it do?" Eve asked.

"Hmm?" Lirzinji’kav looked up again in surprise. "Didn’t I say?"

"No." That was the other problem with Cygnan's; their habit of assuming that they told you everything when they hadn’t. They assumed that everyone could do what they could do.

"Sorry, much apologies." The Cygnan turned in his chair. "Clever program. Sits in PADD for long time, then when the code is entered, anywhere on ship, it disables the security links, without tripping any alarms. All you have to do then is enter the code, use your fake retina and voice pattern, and you are in."

"Then why did it fail?" Blake asked.

"Good question," Lirzinji’kav answered. "Whoever did it, should have been able to get in. Failing at the retina scan after all the preparation he made is amazing. Can’t believe they could have been that stupid." He looked at Mallory.

"To get a virus to where they needed it, takes someone with command access to the computer core. To have an entry code takes command access. Someone with that kind of clearance would have to know about the narrow band for your retina; they’d have chosen someone else, like Cochran, Castle, Terrakian, or Blake. Not you!"

Eve blinked. "Blake doesn’t have clearance. Only the Captain, XO, Security Chief, Chief Science Officer and the ACSO have access."

Blake cleared her throat. "I *am* ACSO."

Eve turned to face the other woman. "Since when?" There was a dangerous note to her voice.

Blake faced her superior without any emotion on her face. "When Cochran appointed you Chief Science Officer, I received my new orders as your assistant."

"Lirzinji’kav, when was the program downloaded?" Eve asked, never taking her eyes off her Assistant.

"Difficult to say, probably this afternoon." The Cygnan replied.

"Can you find out on whose authorization it was downloaded?"

"Yes, of course. It will take time though..."

"Fine." Eve cut him off. "Contact me when you’ve found out." She turned back to Blake. "Would you come with me, Ensign?"

Together, they walked down the corridor towards SL14. Eve entered the code into the outer padd, and gave her retina scan and voice print. She wanted privacy, and this place was certainly private.

Once the huge metal door had closed with a solid <CLUNK>, she rounded on Blake.

"What the *hell* are you and Starfleet playing at?!" She almost yelled it.

"What do you mean?" Blake was composed as always. It made Eve want to punch her.

"Is this your reward?" Eve asked. "For being Starfleet’s whore? Not much of payment for ‘services rendered’, is it?"

Blake flinched. "It wasn’t like that." She said.

"No? Then why don’t you tell me what it was like? Tell me why you decided to seduce me on Starfleet orders to see if my sexual needs were still the same. And why they didn’t send me some nice hunk of man instead." Eve was angry, but glad to see that she was getting under Blake’s skin.

Blake was flushed, with embarrassment or anger, Eve couldn’t tell. "Your profile suggested that a woman would be the best approach over a man." Her mouth twitched. "There were plenty of male volunteers if I failed though."

"Oh, how nice!" Eve exploded. "But you were the first choice though. Does that mean you’ve been moonlighting as whore for long? Starfleet must use you all the time!"

"I am *not* a whore!" Blake shot back. There was anger in her face now.

<Science Department>

Logan Castle passed through the automatically shushing doors of the Science Department Offices. He did not see anyone, but he heard the staccato tapping of someone at a terminal in the next room. He stuck his head in.

A... man... looked up from a computer terminal and instantly disregarded him. The man was a Cygnan, easily identified by his eyes. Where there would be whites in a humans eyes, there was black. And where there would have been the color dictated by the genetic roulette wheel, there was solid white. It didn’t even come close to the most unsettling thing Logan Castle had ever seen in his life.

"I’m looking for Lt. Mallory.", Castle stated plainly.

"She has stepped out briefly.", the Cygnan responded distractedly.

Then, he looked up at Castle again. "You’re the Security Chief."

"Logan Castle.", he said with a professional tone as he walked over to the desk and extended his hand. The Cygnan shook it without enthusiasm.

"Lirzinji’kav.", the Cygnan replied. "I have been working on the mysterious ‘break-in’ attempt on SL14." The mans exotic eyes finally focused on Castle. "I am disturbed by what I have learned."

Castle had no patience for the mans reticence. Not after the unsatisfying interrogation of Jerome Bryant.

"Spill it.", he demanded.

The Cygnan's expression became confused at the outdated vernacular.

"Please tell me what you have discovered.", Castle elucidated.

Lirzinji'kav expression showed understanding, and some small humor at the colloquialism. "It would seem that the code used to attempt the ‘break-in’ belongs to Ensign Blake. The assistant to the Chief, Lt. Mallory."

"And where is Blake?", Castle immediately queried.

"With Lt. Mallory. Who did not say where they were going.", the Cygnan anticipated Castles next question.

"Computer. Locate Lt. Eve Mallory.", Castle spoke to the ceiling.

[Lt. Mallory is in Science Lab 14. Deck 12.], the familiar voice responded.

"Thank you, Lirzinji’kav.", Castle patted the mans shoulder as he left. "See you when I see you."

The Cygnan had already resumed his work.

<Science Lab 14>

Castle entered his personal security code and the door to the labs antechamber slid soundlessly open. He entered and crossed the small room, stepping up to the instrument panel to the right of the double-reinforced security door opposite the one he entered. He placed his right eye onto the scanner and spoke into the microphone. "Once more into the breach."

[Castle, Logan. Lieutenant. Identity confirmed.]

The labs double doors retracted.

Castle heard nothing of the argument that preceded his entrance, but the word ‘whore’ rang loud and clear as the doors opened. The two women on the other side fell immediately silent. Both Eve Mallory and ‘Blake’, he presumed, both had embarrassed, and somewhat guilty expressions at his entrance, overshadowed only by their barely contained anger.

Castle stepped in, showing Blake a narrow glare. The younger woman seemed taken aback by this strangers hostile gaze, but she remained silent in the face of it.

"Lieutenant.", Eve tried to get past the uncomfortable moment by breaking the silence. "We were discussing the possibilities of the earlier security breach."

Castle nodded, but put up a hand to Eve. "Well, you can stop theorizing. Lirzinji’kav tells me it was your assistant here who tried to access the lab earlier."

"That is not true!", Blake gasped in genuine shock. She immediately looked to Eve, the younger woman's eyes begging to be believed. Eves own expression became sympathetic, though she quickly tried to adopt a less concerned facade. It didn’t fool Castle and it certainly didn’t fool Blake, who smiled in relieved gratitude. Castle grimaced, at her, then looked to Eve.

"Well, he said her code was used, actually." Blake squinted at him shrewdly, understanding the tactic he had tried to employ.

"I only just received that code yesterday...", she started.

"One hour prior to the break-in.", Castle concluded.

"If she says it wasn’t her, I believe her.", Eve said, a little pain, a little confusion, in her face. Castle looked at both woman as they shared a ‘moment’. He was missing something here. There was a conspiracy between them that he was unaware of. A conspiracy that had nothing to do with this Science Lab. ‘Whore.’, was the word he distinctly heard Eve use. Were they arguing about a man? It made sense, but Castle had the sneaking feeling that this assumption was not completely accurate.

"Besides," Mallory continued, "If Blake had broken in, she wouldn’t have made the retina mistake; she knows my capabilities, front, back and sideways."

Castle was about to reply, but never got the chance, because, quite suddenly and unexpectedly, an alarm sounded blazingly within the room.

[Intruder Alert. Unauthorized access to Science Lab 14. Security Protocols activated.]

Castle turned to the already closed doors and dropped to his knees in a failure of equilibrium as a sonic bombardment of painful intensity assaulted him. He smelled the gas a second before it rendered him unconscious. When he collapsed, his head was cushioned by the thigh of Ensign Blake, who succumbed only seconds before he did. The last thing he saw was Eve Mallory stepping over the both of them, pausing only to take the phaser from his belt.

Jason Cleaver

Lieutenant (jg) Eve Mallory

Chief Science Officer: USS Grail