[snip]

“Computer, replay the recording from the start.” The computer wound back time within the holo-display. V’alura waited until their suspect picked up the sample. “Pause. Look at the slight distortion to the recording. Someone created a filter and either installed it to the recording program or activated it when they needed to access the sample. It’s not difficult to do, but it does take some technical know-how. It’s subtle enough that the casual observer wouldn’t notice the filter. If you look we can’t quite make out the faces of any one else in the room.”

Lt. Jg. Belmont (CSO)

“Well, that unfortunately rules out Dr. Velkal,” Demil said after punching a couple things into his PADD. “She doesn’t have the know-how to do that. Quloxia, on the other hand, is married to an engineer, and Dr. Singh has access to the system and could have tampered with it after the fact.”

Right then, the doors hissed open. Dr. Singh stepped into the room, as Demil quickly shut off the footage. “Oh, hello Lieutenant Belmont, Ensign,” he said. “What brings you to my lab?”

Ens. Lis

V’alura flashed a smile to Dr. Singh, perfectly composed and relaxed as though this were a normal day and she was on her rounds around the various labs of the Ark Angel. It was as easy as slipping into the role of a character and following a script. “Ensign Lis and I were discussing ideas for new experiments for the biology lab. Such as the connection between linguistic ability and genetics. It’s interesting stuff and worth looking into. What you think?”

Lt. Jg. Belmont (CSO)

Singh visibly relaxed. “Oh, yes. Sounds fascinating. Anyways, I just needed to grab something before I go off-duty.” He moved to push past V’alura, towards the samples, but Demil shifted into his path surreptitiously.

Ens. Lis