Disclaimer: I do not own Voltron/Go Lion or any of their characters. They are the property of WEP and Devil's Due Comics and Toei Animation. All other characters are mine. This is written purely for entertainment purposes and I am not monetarily compensated in any way.
Rites of Passage
Chapter 11
I continue to read the Highlander's log, looking for some sign that McAlister was lying about her 'blunder bus.' At first glance there is none. All the information indicates that the ship was hastily refitted and on a troop transport mission. It says the jump drive went off line and caused them to pull out and accidentally drift across our borders when their main engines went off line.
Then I remember Yoi telling me that McAlister had told her guard that they were returning home for some holiday and that the g-cylinder was showing signs of destabilization. She told me they were boot cadets on being transferred to complete their training. So the old lady lied about that, so maybe she was lying about the rest of it. So which is it? Where they going to a base or were they going home? And where were they coming from?
As I begin to trace the records back my communications officers hails me from the bridge.
"Sir, there's an incoming communication from Korrinoth. From his Majesty, King Zarkon, your father." He says. I groan and look at the log and take a deep breath. I have no idea what he has heard about this fiasco and I don't want to find out. Not just yet. I have enough to worry about without him making it worse.
"Tell him I'm unavailable. " I answer. Probably the best thing about being on deployment is that he can't summon me at will anymore. If he wants to berate me for my stupidity he will simply have to wait.
"Yes, sir." He answers. I've done this before and I know my father will not be happy about being refused. Instead of calming down he will only think of more things to be angry about.
I return back to the log and continue my search for any information that will confirm that the Highlander was on some sort of military mission. I decide to check her cargo manifest and my hopes are further diminished. It lists heavy equipment used for farming and construction. Building materials, electronic components, pipes for irrigation and the like. All the things that that are typically needed by colonists. It certainly explains the extra tonnage that I had to account for when calibrating the tractor beam. Not only was this a transport ship it was also a supply ship, bringing much needed equipment to some fledgling colony. This does not look good.
I close out of the Highlander's logs and open my own. I might as well get started on my official report of the battle and get that out of the way before I resume my detective work. I push the nagging doubts I have about the Highlander to the back of my mind and begin reading the reports turned in from my fire teams.
As I'm finishing up my official report of the taking of the Highlander the intercom to my office buzzes. It's Yoi. He has something he'd like to speak to me about in person. I wonder if it's about the girl.
"Enter." I say and the door slides soundlessly open. He comes in and stands at attention. "At ease, ensign. Sit down." I say and gesture to a chair in front of my desk. He removes his helmet places it on his knee and sits with his back straight not touching the chair. He is the model of Supremacy discipline.
"Sir, I have come to tell you that I have been derelict in my duty." He says with stiff formality.
"Oh? If this is about the girl, I'm sure it's nothing that medical can't fix." I say. After his actions during the actual battle, his efforts to over-ride the Highlander's system during the g-cylinder collapse and his unwavering loyalty I can't imagine what he might be talking about.
"Sir, I'm afraid that I—"he sighs and pauses looking for what to say.
"Afraid that you what?" I ask.
"Sir, it's the Highlander's logs. I don't think I finished translating them." He says. I can hear the frustration in his tone.
"What do you mean you don't think you finished? They're right here! I've just spent two hours reading them."
"Sir, they are incomplete. There's more but I just can't get to it." He explains.
"Again, Ensign, what do you mean?"
"There's a ghost code under the original encryption. I wasn't able to break it." He says.
"Yet you gave it to me as complete?" I ask, now I'm getting angry. I have just wasted valuable hours of my time.
"Yes, Sir. I did. At first I didn't think anything of it. It's common for logs to be written over, especially when a ship has been refitted. But after I went back over to check it again after I sent it to you, I couldn't decipher it. That's very unusual. If it was normal I would have been able to access all of the old logs going back from the time the ship was put into service. But I can't. The only one that's available is this one. Something's not right about this, sir." He tells me. He is maintaining his bearing but I can tell he's nervous.
" Nhg! Why didn't you tell me this immediately?" I ask raising my voice.
"Because—because—" He begins and falters.
"Because why?" I demand. He hesitates and I lose my temper. "Answer me!" I shout.
"Because I thought that if I kept working on it I could break it , Sir. But I couldn't." He says. "She wiped it clean, sir, and I don't know how."
I glare at him. Not sure of what to say now. He should have told me from the beginning what the problem was. But he is here now and his new information adds to my suspicions about the Highlander's real mission. I'm already thinking how to turn this back to my advantage. Perhaps command's investigation will be able to break it. But what if it's more of the same mundane transport duty? Knowing what I know of McAlister, I wouldn't put it past her to have written an equally innocuous mission under this one. She had plenty of time to do so while we fought to take the ship.
"Ensign Yoi, you do understand that there is right now an investigation being assembled on this matter that will affect the careers and lives of everyone on board this ship?" I ask. It is all I can do to keep from berating him as if I were my father. The word 'imbecile' is on the tip of my tongue, but I have the self control to hold it there.
"Yes, sir I do." He answers flatly.
"Then what do you mean by coming here and telling me that you cannot perform your duty?" I ask. "Do you have no solution to offer me?"
"Sir, McAlister did this. If she could be persuaded to—" He begins.
I groan and rub my forehead. My hope that the old woman would cause me no more problems was in vain. "That's impossible." I snap. "She's dead."
Yoi's mouth drops open in surprise, then he quickly recovers. " Sir, I respectfully request more time to work on the ships logs." He asks.
"You're sure you can do this?" I ask.
"Yes, Sir. I'll figure something out." He answers with determination.
I don't want to do it, but I have no choice. "Alright. But remember Command is breathing down my neck about this. I need to give them answers, not explanations of why my crew and I are incompetent."
"Yes, Sir. Understood, Sir." He answers. I give him back the logs and dismiss him. He stands at attention and braces his arm over his chest in salute turns smartly and leaves.
I am very disappointed in him at the moment. However, I know that he feels responsible for failing at his duty. A lesser man would have never brought it to my attention and for that I must give him credit. I have faith that as crafty as McAlister was, Yoi and I will be able to out wit her.
After he leaves I open the reports of the teams I sent to inventory the Highlander's cargo holds to see if there is any useful information in them. At first it seems normal, exactly what I expect to find on a vessel such as this, but something stands out. There's no mention of the farming equipment listed in McAlister's official manifest. Instead there is a significant amount of military equipment on board. Enough to arm an entire ground division. There are also inter-stellar fighters. They are in storage, and inoperable at this time, but the numbers are significant. As I continue to look there are weapons, ammunition and body armor for far more than the personnel that were aboard. I think I have found the proof that this ship and her crew were engaged in more nefarious pursuits than McAlister had claimed. If she has made this error surely she has made another. I just need to find it.
I re-open the suspect log and re-read it with a critical eye, looking for any discrepancies. There are literally hundreds of entries for this mission and it will take me hours to sort through them.
I feel the start of another headache and reach into my desk drawer for medication.
It is well past dinner and I am still at my desk finishing the last of my other administrative duties when my intercom buzzes. Yoi has returned. I give him permission to enter. I see the look on his face is grim but resolute.
"Sir, I think I've solved the problem." He says.
"You were able to decipher the code to the original log?" I ask.
"No, sir. I was not." He answers.
"Then what the fuck are you doing here telling me you've fixed this?" I growl.
"I did, sir."
"If you didn't decipher the log, what did you do?" I ask exasperated. This situation is hopeless. I'm already calculating how long my prison sentence will be.
"I rewrote it, sir." He answers.
"You did what?" I ask dumbfounded, staring at him, incredulous at his audacity. I can't believe that he would dare to do something as underhanded as this. It is dishonorable. It is treason. It is punishable by death. I could slit his throat for even suggesting it to me. Only a complete fool would try to get away with it. And there lies its brilliance. No one would ever suspect that the Highlander's logs were fabricated. I can't believe I didn't think of it first.
"Let me see." I say and gesture for him to hand over the cards. I down load them and as I read I see some things that will need to be edited, but he has done a good job of recreating the mendacity of a daily log. I re-read the 'new' mission statement and nod my approval. He has written that the Highlander was collecting reconnaissance of our boarder defenses on her way to drop off reinforcements, munitions and other military supplies to Minos, an Alliance base that was supposed to be evacuating per terms of the cease fire. The ship was then to be fully rearmed once there and remain as security if we tried to enforce the agreement.
Minos was originally a thinly populated moon in the Arein system, but had been captured by the humans. It is rich in lazon and metal ore and in a very strategic location. It would be conceivable that the humans would try to keep it in spite of the agreement. It is also lies right in between our boarders, in a sort of buffer zone between our territories, which explains why the Highlander was over here in the first place. It may not be what McAlister was actually doing out here, but I suspect that it's much closer to the truth than what she had claimed.
It seems like a good plan. Almost foolproof, except that there will be a thorough investigation. If this deception is discovered the ramifications to my entire crew would be enormous and devastating. Career ending and resulting in dishonorable discharges that would make them little better than criminals. I don't even want to think of what will happen to me. Not even my status as a Prince of the Empire will save me. The worst case scenario would be to be sent back to my father, who would likely disown me publicly and cast me into The Pit of Skulls. If I'm lucky I'll just be stripped of all rank, title and property and exiled.
"This is good. But will it hold up to scrutiny? Command is going to have forensics picking this apart bit by bit. What if they get to the original code? Or figure out that it's not Alliance in origin?" I ask.
"They won't Sir, I worked in forensics. I used to decipher Alliance code all day long. I know their patterns and what forensics will be looking for. I was able to get into the old system since they didn't completely replace the computers and was able to pull up most of the old logs from when she was a warship. I changed the dates to make it look like the current log. I left the one McAlister wrote the top so it looks like a sloppy cover up on her part. Then I purged the old system of data." He answers with a certainty that reassures me.
"And even if they do suspect something, it will create enough questions that this, combined with my report will sway any call for disciplinary action in our favor…" I muse out loud. I will have to spend hours going over them and correcting some things just to make it more authentic, but I'm certain that this is a good plan.
"That's exactly what I thought, sir." He says.
"Well done, Yoi." I say to him as I have said so many times already. I look back over the logs he has written and gain confidence. At the end of the day the facts will remain that an Alliance warship, captained by one of their most brutal and notorious commanders had entered our territory with a cargo hold full of military supplies and personnel. And these facts beg the much larger question of what was such a vessel doing anywhere near our territory in the first place. I'm certain that this ruse will work. It has to.