Finding the Facts from Security (part 3)

Posted on Fri Nov 4th, 2016 @ 2:55pm by Commodore Samantha York & Lieutenant T'Pral

826 words; about a 4 minute read

[CONTINUED]

[OLD]

Rroden looked around, his gaze sharpening. "That could come in quite handy," he said, smiling. "Quite handy indeed."

[NEW]

The Vulcan fell silent, and the turbolift shortly reached the designated deck. The door hissed open and she wasted no time in exiting. She didn't look back or let the others know, assuming they would follow. The route was efficient and direct, and within moments they were standing before the Materials Testing Lab. T'Pral shifted the camera in her grasp so she could access the keypad to unlock the door. That accomplished, she entered the lab and deposited her camera on a work table. "Put the other here," she said while accessing the primary LCARS terminal.

Rroden nodded, looking around the room. This was even more impressive than what he'd seen to date. He would have to report this to the Council. He set his burden down where she indicated and watched.

T'Pral worked in silence. She first prepared the computer, loading the scan strategies and analysis algorithms she would need. Then she arranged the two cameras, side-by-side and precisely lined up exactly thirty centimeters apart. Then she gripped the overhanging scanner and pulled it downward over the first camera. She returned to the computer and began the scan. Blue laser lines crisscrossed the device and data began scrolling by her terminal screen. Once the scan was done, she reset the computer for the second camera, then moved the scanner over that one to repeat the process. The entire scan took less than five minutes. "It will take a moment to analyze the data," she informed them.

Rroden nodded. "Fascinating."

"Indeed." T'Pral continued her work, until the computer beeped to notify her of the finished analysis. She brought up the readout on the main view screen in the room. "There is the anomaly," she stated, indicating the different waveforms displayed on the screen. "I have determined that this is not consistent with the degaussing." She turned briefly to Rroden, "I took the liberty of scanning your degausser when we got to the ship, to determine a baseline." she turned back to the screen, "From my analysis, the most likely culprit is a localized electromagnetic emission, perhaps a hand held device."

"Meaning someone took a small device and erased the video from the cameras in the garden," Rroden said. "The Council will be most interested in this information." As would the air guard. They'd been defending their degaussing process quite vehemently. "Any indication as to who did the erasing?"

"Or disrupted the recording process to act at their leisure," she nodded in agreement. "The signatures merely indicate the emission used, not who may have performed it. That information would be on the computer recordings. Given that we did not see them there despite extensive review, I do not believe we will be able to determine the actual culprit." She paused and looked back at the display, "However, we may be able to determine the specific device used."

"That would be something," Rroden said.

T'Pral nodded, "I simply need to analyze the discrepancy and extrapolate a waveform that would cause the effect." As she spoke, she did just that. It did not take long for the computer to complete the analysis and bring up the indicated emission. "I am not familiar with Jeneferan technology," she added, "I will require you to determine what device would produce this."

Rroden shrugged. "It is a simple matter of putting a circuit breaker in the camera and activating it remotely. It would be a little harder to place the breaker, and to get the proper authorization to access the camera itself." He considered a moment. "Any of the Council or high-ranking officials in the Palace would be able to do it. The difficulty would be to find a time when no one was about to catch them at it."

"Then perhaps the next step would be a detailed forensic analysis to examine any trace evidence left behind by the perpetrator," T'Pral said. "The science department would be the next logical destination."

"Forensic?" Rroden asked.

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Forensics are an old science on many worlds, typically predating warp by a few hundred years. Though not all called it such. "It is the application of the sciences towards a criminal case. The collection and study of said trace evidence to solve the mystery."

"Ah," Rroden said sagely. "We do analyze crime scenes, but we look for hair and footprints, for scents left on plants."

She nodded, "Indeed. We also examine microscopic and subatomic traces. Often evidence goes beyond what can be experienced directly by the senses."

"We do not have that technology at the present time," Rroden admitted.

"It is advantageous that we do," T'Pral said simply. She moved the cameras to a small antigrav cart to take them to the science labs.

Rroden just nodded and followed her.

____
OFF

Lieutenant T'Pral
Chief Engineer

Rroden
Jenefran Security

RSS Feed