Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side - sim: The Infiltrator

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side - sim: The Infiltrator

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side - sim: The Infiltrator
Posted by… suppressed (7) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
The damaged muscle and nerves could be repaired without surgery, but the damage to his heart required immediate care and it would take the dermal regenerator too long to work the tissue from outside. It was a slow and delicate process, but not impossible. Grat made the decision to keep Alden sedated until his heart could function at a normal rhythm with out the pulmonary support system.

Alden remained stable throughout the surgery though his heart rate fluctuated enough to be worrisome. Afterwards, he was stable so long as he was on the pulmonary support system, but he was still showing signs that he wouldn’t stay that way without it, which meant he’d stay sedated for now.

---

Franks knocked on the door of the small yeoman’s office. Rand looked up at the clock. It was too early to be Roman or Randy. She quickly saved and logged out of her console and cleared her PaDD. She got up and opened the door. “Franks?”

“Rand.” He held his hands out helplessly and licked his lips, “Um,” and Rand suddenly felt icy all over. “There was an accident, in the lab.” Rand didn’t hear another word he said, she pushed her way past him and took off down the corridor for the lift. The office door closing and locking behind her. It was taking too long to arrive. She was heading for the access ladder when Franks grabbed her by the shoulders and steered her into the lift.

Rand walked into the medical bay and everyone stopped to look at her. It got really quiet and no one said anything, they just watched her. Then Franks was talking to her. Something about he had to get back to the lab and figure out what happened. Then everyone went back to what they were doing while trying not to be obvious about watching her. Her arms ached and felt like she was being pricked by thousands of needles. Where was Randy? She needed Randy. No one could tell her anything other than Dr Grot would be out to talk to her as soon as Cmdr Alden was stable. Rand sat in a chair out of the way and waited.

Morgan made sure that the engineer didn’t touch anything other than disconnect the power supply and left everything else as it was. She waited for Franks to return and lock the lab down before leaving.

Meanwhile Morgan was interviewing Ensign LaCroix.

Rand

Ensign LaCroix seemed genuinely mortified that he’d made such a mistake, and that the mistake had resulted in such a terrible outcome. He expressed that he’d never be able to look at the XO without guilt again. Then he took a seat and asked if there was anything he could do to help.

~ Roman | LaCroix

“Tell me about the malfunctions that triggered the maintenance request. What the problem was, what caused it, how you fixed it. What might have caused it to malfunction like this?”

Morgan

“The ticket said it was having random shutdowns. Meaning when it was used, it would turn off at random times,” LaCroix explained. “I found that the power supply was improperly connected… sort of like a cable coming loose but different. I fixed it by reconnecting it..
But I must have reconnected the wrong thing. I don’t even know how I could’ve done that.” He shook his head and then dropped his head to his hands. “Any Engineer worth his salts would double check, especially when dealing with the power circuits. If I lost my job over this, I’d deserve it.”

~ Lorenzo LaCroix

“Nope, come on.” Morgan dragged LaCroix to his feet and went back to the lab. She got Franks and the other engineer and pointed at the machine. “You work together, check behind each other and do a running commentary. I want to know if the power supply was tampered with before you fixed it LaCroix.”

Morgan

LaCroix went willingly with Morgan. He looked at the other engineer and stuck out a hand. “Lorenzo LaCroix. I’ve only been aboard for a month. Before that, I was in the academy, so I’m fairly new.” He sighed and looked away, “I’ll never live this down.”

The other engineer smiled and shook his hand. “I’ve seen you around. I’m Oliver Gallagher. I’ve been here… Almost a year.” He sat down in front of the machine, pulling off the access panel. “Let’s take a look…”

LaCroix sat down next to him and reached into the machine. “This is how I left it. I connected this into here.” He pointed to the cable Gallagher had disconnected at Franks’ command, and then to the power supply.

Gallagher nodded, following the cable back and then frowned as he followed that wire back. “This was the cause of the machine’s issue. It was shutting down because somebody rigged it to.”

LaCroix shook his head, looking up at Morgan. “I swear, Ma’am, this is what I did. I plugged this in here, I thought it was the power, but look, it leads up to the controls. This is why it overloaded. Someone switched them around previously, like a setup.”

“Don’t touch…” To late Morgan let out her warning.

Gallagher nodded, switching them back how they were supposed to be. “It was set up so that any one of us could’ve made this mistake.” Then he checked his PaDD. “There aren’t any other recent work tickets for it. Whenever it was set up, it was done off the books. Is there ever a time no one is in the lab?”

~ Ensigns Gallagher and LaCroix

“Okay let me get in there with the tricorder.” She bent down and using the wand off Randy’s tricorder she scanned for any biological trace left behind. She scanned everything, not just the obvious. The obvious might have been cleaned, the not obvious may not have.”

Both engineers moved out of her way. Unfortunately, there weren’t any fingerprints anywhere that LaCroix and Gallagher hadn’t just touched already.

Franks was shaking his head, then stopped, “Gamma shift during their meal break possibly.” He looked at Morgan. “Can you check the feeds? The lab has constant video feed because of the animals.”

Morgan nodded, “Alright, Lt I want the lab locked up. No one comes in without security or the Captain. I know you have to feed the animals. Do it quickly and then everyone out.” It was clear to Morgan it had been purposely sabotaged. And both engineer were her first suspects. Maybe Rand already had it narrowed down.

Rand

Neither engineer showed any obvious signs of guilt. Well, LaCroix looked plenty guilty, but more the I-just-nearly-killed-the-XO-kind-of-guilt than the I think I might get caught kind of guilt. Gallagher just stood awkwardly, not wanting to leave without Morgan’s say-so.

~ The Engineers