From inside the archway of Holodeck Three, Chief Faso and Counselor Gwen Downie emerged after a few minutes. "Bad news," Faso said to Tw'eak. "They got everything."

Tw'eak, who had remained outside the holodeck, keeping an eye out for Lieutenants Baird and Rau, was unsurprised. "What do you mean?"

"I mean it's here, there's no good reason why there should be residual traces of theta radiation in the holo-buffer. They have bio-filters, too."

"But the logs are gone," Downie continued. "So is all the data - from the past day or so."

Tw'eak gritted her teeth. "Very thorough," she said, displeased.

"I mean, good news is, your instincts were correct, Commander - this was the place." Faso looked around at the black-and-yellow holodeck interior. "But whoever was here... they don't want us to know who they were. And given what they did? Big surprise."

Tw'eak nodded, then turned at the sight of Baird and Rau emerging from the nearest turbolift. "Hey, if you want, I can put up a separate relay, y'know," Rau said as soon as she saw Tw'eak. "Do separate comms, the whole bit."

"I appreciate the suggestion, but we're not at that point yet."

Rau looked to Baird. "I thought you said we were?"

"The commander's not as paranoid as I am."

"Yeah, just 'cause you have things like 'a family to go home to' and stuff, eh, Darren?"

Baird smiled, swiftly, before clearing his throat. "Yeah."

Rau looked to Faso. "Hey, Chief - you always bring your tools with you?"

Faso smiled. "It's why they call me Chief."

"Actually, the chief's here at our request," Downie continued. "Some of our earlier inquiries involved the use of the transporter, so who better to have along?"

"I didn't expect you and the boss to work together," Rau said to Downie. "But then, after what I saw happened to her on that Borg mission, I don't know how she's put back together so fast."

Tw'eak forced a smile. She was getting pretty tired. And learning that she had been right, only to have the data not be there where she needed it, was tearing her apart. To be this close, and not get the answers, was a profound disappointment. "I don't quit," she said quietly.

"Yeah. So this is where the killer vanished," Rau said in exaggerated ominous tones. "Vanished," she said again, her voice lowering, "into the dead of night."

"You've been spending too much time in here on cheesy holo-novels," Faso chided.

"Can you blame me? It's all the entertainment I can get now that the boss canceled my usual show." Rau gave Tw'eak a sarcastic grin. "Nobody arguing, no relationship drama, nobody even brawling anymore. Peace and quiet - I can't stand it."

"Let's just see what you can find out," Tw'eak said, gesturing to the archway.

Rau stepped inside. She pressed a few buttons, then her mirth evaporated. "Yeah," she said after a moment, then added, "damn." She stepped back and pointed at the archway. "This is - this is thorough. I'm not even getting traces of the stuff that should be here." She took a deep breath and added, "hmm."

Baird took a pace forward. "It might help if you explained what you're thinking, Dyra. No one else here is telepathic."

"Shut up and let me think," Rau snapped. She looked back at the archway, then directly at Tw'eak. "This is sophisticated. Like, algorithms and subroutines. No way someone just casually came along and did this - they had to want to be this thorough."

"Of course they did," Downie replied.

"Like, they even got into the facial recognition and authorized usage sub-systems. This - someone had a program ready to go."

Tw'eak looked around. "The internal sensors on this deck - this is Deck Six, not Deck Four."

"I'll check," Rau said, running a quick set of inputs through the archway. "Yeah, they - big surprise. Offline, right around the time the other ones were on Deck Four."

"So the killer would've needed to use a device for that," Downie said, "like on Deck Four?"

"Nah, probably not," Rau replied. "Plus those sensors were offline until oh-four-twenty-something all over the ship."

Baird looked at his padd. "That means our killer walked away from right here."

Tw'eak frowned. "So that's it, then." She straightened her uniform tunic. "Alright. I'll take my report on this to the captain, let him know... with luck, something will turn up. In the meantime, this whole investigation is not to be discussed with anyone until I tell you otherwise."

There were a succession of nods. "What do we do now, though?" Rau asked.

"Well, organizing a memorial service for Mellivenk would be appropriate," Downie replied.

"We should probably hold one for the others we've lost recently," Tw'eak added. "Lieutenant Raxx, for instance."

There was an uncomfortable shifting about from the junior officers, before Counselor Downie met Tw'eak's eye with her most sympathetic smile. "We already have, Commander, during your convalescence."

"I - oh." Tw'eak felt her antennae curdling inwards. "Thank you for advising me."

"If anything, I think we all appreciate how you didn't hesitate in making the suggestion, all the same."

The counselor's use of her professional tone of voice irked Tw'eak. She saw what Downie was doing, but wasn't fond of it. "Actually, boss," Rau said, "I'm really glad you remembered. We - Raxx's memorial, lots of people were thinking about you. Almost as much as Raxx."

Baird nodded. "Just glad you're still around," he added.

Tw'eak didn't know how to respond. "I - thank you," she stammered. "Right. Let's get back to work. Notify your departments - report anything suspicious, right away. I want to know the moment we get another lead on this. This isn't over yet. One way or another, this killer will trip themselves up before long."

"Or strike again," Faso volunteered.

"It'll be a lot harder to escape if they do," Tw'eak replied. "We've closed off every point of access we can think of, here, to prevent a recurrence." She felt herself momentarily become dizzy. Retaining control of herself became her priority for a brief instance, but just long enough a few seconds to make all four of her officers sincerely frightened.

"Hey, boss," Rau said after a moment, as Tw'eak brought her back into focus. "You should go lay down."

"She's right," Baird affirmed. "I can bring this report to the captain."

"I'll come with you," Downie added, with a nod to Baird. She then looked to Tw'eak. "And I'll come by and see you in a bit."

Tw'eak gave what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "Alright. It's, what, nineteen-hundred by now..."

"Nineteen-twenty-seven," Rau replied. She pointed to the archway. "Says so right there."

"Okay. I'm going to go up to the bridge for a minute, then call it a night. If anything major develops, come find me."

"I'll come by tomorrow morning to check on you," Downie replied.

"Actually, doc," Rau interrupted. "I was gonna ask you if you had a minute, tomorrow morning. Just a short one. I keep getting those - things, like before." Her eyes darted from Baird, to Faso, to Tw'eak, and back to Baird. "Just things. No big thing - uh, things."

Downie's professional smile returned. "I'll find room in the schedule and let you know." She turned to Baird. "Shall we?"

Faso caught sight of Tw'eak about to lean against a bulkhead. "You alright?"

"Yeah," Tw'eak replied. "Just a bit tired. Why?"

"Just checking. Anyway, I better get back to my transporter room. Got a lot of nobody to beam aboard."

Tw'eak blinked, coming to a stop. "You do realize the reason for that, right?"

Faso gave her a meaningful look.

"Just checking," Tw'eak said with a smile.

"Half the reason I wanna solve this thing... so I can have my job back," Faso said with a laugh. He gave Tw'eak a nod, and turned to walk away, leaving her to lumber down the corridor, hopeful to avoid any further questions as to her well-being.

The bridge was quiet, as one might expect with the ship in a holding position in the middle of nowhere. Tw'eak gave a quick hello to Lieutenant Delano at tactical, while stepping beside the omnipresent Lieutenant Commander V'Sar. The conn, science, engineering and other aft stations were all inactive. Tw'eak looked over to Delano. "Hey, Lieutenant, give us a minute, will you?"

"Sure, Commander." Delano tapped his console. "I've re-routed to ops. Could use a coffee anyway."

Tw'eak watched Delano move into the conference room before smiling at V'Sar. "How are you?"

"All systems are nominal, Commander. We are stationary as ordered."

"That's not what I asked."

V'Sar looked to the forward viewscreen. "Inquiries as to how I am are illogical. I am at my duty station, therefore, I am sufficiently competent to perform my duties as required."

"I know I've asked a lot of you lately, and I'm sorry."

This caught V'Sar's attention. "To apologize for requesting that I perform my duties is further illogical. Perhaps the better question in these circumstances would be to ask, 'how are you?'."

Tw'eak shook her head. "You know, I wish I could answer you. I don't know."

"To know oneself is considered the central tenet of a variety of philosophies."

"Oh, I know. And usually, I do, but I've never been aboard a starship where there's been a murder before. And I'm heading the investigation, which I've obviously also never done before." Tw'eak looked forward, towards the captain's ready room. "And I'm not getting a whole lot of support here."

"An absent support system from higher ranks has been an ongoing issue with this command since I first came aboard. I am grateful that your presence here seems to be working to alleviate that issue."

Tw'eak blinked, smiling at V'Sar. "Thank you for the compliment."

"Merely an observation - though not one I would want to share if Captain Corlett were listening."

"Just between you and me... he's an odd one, isn't he?"

V'Sar contemplated for a moment. "His ...passive style of command and dissertative tendencies while in command are not typical of Starfleet captains. In certain circumstances, they can be advantageous, such as in diplomatic or scientific pursuits."

"Yeah, but this is an escort vessel - it's not really built for either of those things."

The Vulcan operations officer nodded contemplatively. "Indeed."

"I guess... you've served under Captain Corlett longer than just about anyone else onboard. I'd appreciate your opinion, because I really don't know how to proceed. Now, I could try to bring him in for each detail of the developments, but he's not really a detail-oriented kind of guy."

"I would disagree. The captain's own interests typically need to align with the subject in order for him to take interest in the details. As was the case during our recent encounter with the Borg technology aboard-" V'Sar came to a halt, realizing that to speak the starship Kolibri's name would be a violation of their orders.

"Yes, that recent encounter," Tw'eak replied knowingly. "I know exactly what you mean."

"If I were to infer, I would presume that the captain would be most comfortable entrusting the investigation to you, as he has with drill scheduling and crew evaluations."

"You mean that's not just to keep me busy?"

V'Sar paused for a moment. "I had not considered that possibility. However, given the nature of the investigation, and the non-zero chance of a further criminal act being perpetuated onboard, in your position I would consider the captain's broad leeway towards your role in leading the investigation to be an affirmation."

"So he does trust me," Tw'eak replied.

"In a sense, at least as far as the matter at hand requires."

Tw'eak nodded, silent for a second, before asking, "you really think of it as a 'non-zero chance' that this killer might strike again?"

"It is only logical - and not a reflection on your skills in finding the murderer. There is also a non-zero chance that the murderer might no longer be on board."

"Actually, the..." The first thing Tw'eak began to say was something she quickly realized was still not known outside of the investigation. After all, it took someone with considerable knowledge of the ship's systems to pull off this murder - and while V'Sar was probably not a cold-blooded killer, Tw'eak realized she needed to buffer V'Sar from the current matters in the investigation. She changed tack in her comments. "I was going to say, the thing I need most is a minimum of other concerns to worry about."

"Such as operational concerns?" V'Sar inferred.

"The very same. I know the ship's in good hands with you in charge - and the captain is, nominally, on the bridge most of the time."

"Insofar as he is present upon Deck One of this starship, you are correct."

Tw'eak searched V'Sar's face for some sign of that having been a joke, but the Vulcan was inscrutable as ever. "I want you - or whoever is on shift - to pay close attention to the internal sensors. If you notice any part of the ship, however small, is no longer readable, then I need to know about it, immediately."

"I will advise the other rotations of this as they come on shift."

"Good. Keep the shields up, just enough power to prevent transporter activity on or off the ship. Another thing - any unauthorized transmissions need to be reported to me as well."

"Should we monitor crew access to subspace communications?"

Tw'eak considered for a moment. "No, that won't be necessary. I don't think we can spare the manpower - and besides, I don't really want to give people anything else to become angry about. It's bad enough idling out in space like this. We'll be locking out the holodecks for a couple days as part of the investigation, so the last thing I want is to take away people's ability to get in touch with their loved ones, as well."

"A sensible precaution. It would also be most prudent to uphold privacy protections unless reasonable suspicion should arise. Towards that end, I will input an automated monitor algorithm with regards to the basic aspects of subspace transmissions - senders and recipients, duration of communication, and transfer of data. Should anything suspicious arise, I will advise you."

"That's a good idea. I'm trying to figure out if we've got any other ground to cover that I haven't thought of yet."

V'Sar indicated her console. "All transporters aboard the ship are offline until further notice. Lieutenant M'Rann has advised me that all shuttlecraft are locked down for similar reasons. I had intended to ask whether you felt a ship-wide security alert might be appropriate at the present time."

"Hmm." Tw'eak mulled it over - having extra security might be helpful if someone was sneaking around and vapourizing crew members, but then, it also meant their investigation would be able to rely on fewer security personnel - and those that were available would be working around the clock. "For right now, I think we leave it as is, and hopefully we get some answers by morning."

"Understood. As discussed, I will advise all shifts of your instructions."

"Mostly I just want to know if anything happens that's out of the ordinary - that works to a killer's advantage. If we're going to find them, we'll need to be one step ahead of them."

V'Sar nodded. "And so we shall," she replied.

Tw'eak patted the Vulcan on her shoulder. "I'm glad you're keeping everything together up here, V'Sar. Hopefully we'll get this all concluded soon, and with no further incidents. But let me know the second anything unusual arises. That'll be all. Thank you."

"Certainly." V'Sar returned her attention to her console, unflappable as ever.

Tw'eak stepped back into the turbolift, ready to collapse. "Deck three," she instructed, and the turbolift carried her to her quarters.