CHAPTER 7
Dax met with the survivors from the Observer. They had little to say. All of them were off-duty at the time the explosion occurred and Observer's klaxons sounded automatically, and all of them were in their quarters in the forward areas of the ship.
They knew next to nothing about probe operations. They seemed to know even less than what was available as unclassified information.
"We knew who was on the probe team," remarked Lieutenant Pitts, "but most of us didn't socialize with them, even talk to them."
"Why?"
"Because their work was so secret," Pitts answered. "Do you know what could happen to us if we talked to any of them about probe operations? We'd be facing discipline, demotion, confinement, a stain on our service records, maybe even a dishonorable discharge. We could lose our careers even if we only asked an innocent question. So we just avoided the probe team."
The meeting with the Observer survivors was brief. Dax hoped that Surveyor's probe team might have more helpful information. She contacted the most experienced member of the team, Lieutenant Kel Lauren. Lauren agreed to talk, but recommended that Dax speak only to him at first, saying that there was "no need to inconvenience anyone else at this point." Dax agreed that talking to Lieutenant Lauren was probably a good place to start, and she proposed a time to talk.
At the agreed-upon time, Dax opened a communication channel to Lauren.
"Mister Lauren, my name is Lieutenant Jadzia Dax, at Starbase Deep Space Nine."
"How do you do?"
"Very well, and you?"
"Fine, thanks."
"Mister Lauren, would you please be certain that security is activated where you are?"
"Oh, sorry. Okay, this channel is secure."
Dax saw an indication appear on her display showing that the conversation was now over secure channels. "Thank you. As you know, I am investigating an incident that occurred two days ago aboard the USS Observer."
"Uh-huh."
"You are a member of the probe team of USS Surveyor, is that right?"
"I'm the most senior member."
"That's good. As you are the most senior member of the Surveyor probe team, I thought you might be able to help me understand what happened aboard Observer."
"I doubt that. If the rumors are true, that one of their probes blew up in the Prep Bay, then I'm just as mystified about that as you are. I have no idea how anybody might possibly do such a thing. I thought it was impossible."
"Mister Lauren, have you thought about how this might have occurred? Can you suggest to me any avenues for inquiry that I might pursue?"
Lauren shook his head. "When we on the Surveyor first heard what had happened, we thought it couldn't possibly be true. Even when it was confirmed that a probe had exploded while being prepared in the Bay, we thought that it couldn't possibly be true. The members of the probe team, we all spoke about what might have happened. But we're all stumped. About the only thing we can agree on was that it simply couldn't have been an accident. Someone must have been trying to get that thing to explode. But how that person did it, well, we can't imagine."
"Let me ask you about some of the safety systems."
"Let me ask you something first," Lauren interrupted. "It might save time. There is an interactive demonstration of how the probes are prepared for launch. You can run it on a holodeck. I believe the demonstration is even unclassified."
"Yes, I've seen that demonstration."
"Okay. So you know that part of the probe preparation involves deactivation of some of the safety measures, but not deactivation of all of them."
"Yes."
"There are at least three safety systems that cannot be deactivated. Not by us, not by anyone. Only the probe itself can deactivate those systems, and even then only if it is deep inside the atmosphere of a gas planet, and away from life forms."
"Isn't there also a special code that needs to be entered, from a station outside of the Bay, so that the probe is authorized to detonate?"
Lauren became uncomfortable. Dax took note.
"Uh, the code, yeah," Lauren said. "The authorization code doesn't come from the Bay, that's right. It has to be given by the Probe Control Station. Listen, Lieutenant, is this conversation off the record?"
Dax raised her eyebrows. "Everything we say is confidential," she said. "Do you have something you need to tell me? Something seems to be bothering you."
Lauren took a few moments. "What's bothering me is what one of my team members said. She said that the guys in the Bay probably didn't try to make the probe blow up, but someone at the Probe Control Station did. In other words, somebody at the Probe Control Station not only gave the code for authorization to detonate, but then also gave the detonation command."
"Why would anyone do that?" Dax asked.
"Who knows? Maybe somebody wanted to kill every person on this ship? Maybe somebody went insane."
"No, what I mean is: is it even possible to give the authorization code early? Doesn't the Probe Control Station have to wait until the probe is launched and in position?"
"Good grief, no. Waiting until the probe is in position is the worst time to enter the authorization code."
"Why?"
Lauren laughed nervously. "Because if you're assigned to the Probe Control Station, you become very busy once that probe is launched. Entering the code takes time, and you have too many other things that command your attention. Once the probe enters the planet's atmosphere, it can get blown around, thrown off course, sometimes even spun around. And the ship has to be ready to respond to what the probe is doing. At the Probe Command Station, you're busy checking to be sure the probe is in position, checking to see that the ship is in position, and relaying all of that information to the captain. You could be making dozens of trajectory adjustments and course corrections."
"I don't understand. When do you enter the code?"
"Typically we enter it after checklist completion, just before launch."
Dax wasn't sure she'd heard that properly. "You give the authorization code while the probe is still aboard the ship?"
"Sure. We don't give the actual command to detonate, of course. The code merely authorizes the probe to accept a command to detonate."
"And you give the actual command to detonate when the probe is in position?"
"That's right." Lauren smiled, but his smile was far from warm. "In case you're wondering, we could give the command to detonate while the probe was aboard the ship as well. We don't do that, but we could. Once the authorization code is entered, Probe Control has full discretion as to when to command the probe to blow up."
"What would happen," Dax wondered, "if just before launch you did give the command to detonate?"
"Nothing. No explosion. The probe won't even be able to prime. There's no way it could blow up."
"You're certain?"
Lauren raised his eyebrows. "I've never actually tried to do such a foolish thing, if that's what you're asking," he replied, with a note of offense. Then his attitude relaxed, he shrugged and continued: "Sorry, what I meant was no, the probe can't blow up. That probe can only prime and detonate when it is deep in the atmosphere of a gas giant and when no life forms are nearby. When that probe is aboard ship, the conditions are unlike those of a gas giant, and there are life forms in close proximity. There are at least three separate safety systems that would all simultaneously have to fail. And not just fail; if they all stopped working, there still would be no explosion. No, the safety systems would actually have to go haywire and do the exact opposite of what they were supposed to do."
"I see."
"The odds against that happening are, well, so remote as to be impossible." Lauren sighed. "I'm sorry. But I just can't give you any ideas. But if you figure it out, I'd love to hear how it was done."
"Just so I'm clear on this," Dax said, "the authorization code and the detonation command can both be given while the probe is still aboard."
"Yes. Originally the idea was that the code and the command would be tied into an environmental interlock, but that would just be duplicating the safety already offered by the environment assessment safety system. So that interlock was not implemented."
"But you think that's what happened, that someone in Probe Control must have issued both the authorization code and the detonation command while the probe was still aboard Observer?"
Lauren took several seconds to answer. "I don't know. This is just what one of my team members thinks. Her point is that Probe Control needs to issue the authorization code and the detonation command for the thing to blow up, so that must have been what happened. That's what she thinks. As for me, personally, I don't know what to think. Lieutenant, believe me, I've gone over it and over it and I just can't begin to come up with any way that I could make any of the damned probes explode inside the ship. As I see it, what happened was physically impossible."
Dax saw from his expression that Lauren was not going to be of any further help, and that he was hoping to end the conversation. She decided not to push him for more information, at least, not yet.
"Mister Lauren, if you think about this further, and if anything occurs to you that might explain what happened, then please let me know."
"I will. I hope you find out what happened. If you don't, I'm probably going to be without a ship."
"I suppose the Surveyor's stand-down order will be lifted in due course," Dax remarked.
Lauren lowered his eyes. "I'm not as optimistic as you are." He raised his eyes and looked straight at Dax. "I mean, this happened to the Observer."
"I don't follow you."
"It happened to the good ship."
"I still don't follow you."
Lauren smiled a wan smile. "Well, let me explain a little bit about the Observer and the Surveyor. The Observer is the 'A Team' that gets all the interesting and challenging missions; and the Surveyor is the 'B Team' that gets all of the routine and uninteresting missions."
Dax shook her head. She hadn't heard of this.
"Well," Lauren drawled, "I doubt there's an official Starfleet policy along those lines, but everybody aboard the Surveyor knows it's true. Observer gets all the main courses; Surveyor gets the leftovers. Observer gets all the cutting-edge research projects and the high-profile missions; Surveyor gets the run-of-the-mill jobs. Observer gets all the prestige and awards; Surveyor gets nothing but a pat on the head. Observer gets first pick of all personnel, too; if there's a gas giant specialist who is really talented, Observer will snatch that person up; Surveyor gets whoever is left."
Dax could hardly believe what she was hearing.
Lauren saw the expression on Dax's face and chuckled. "I'm exaggerating a little, maybe. It could be that Observer deserved all those accolades, I don't know. I only know that, try as we might, Surveyor couldn't begin to match Observer's performance, and we had no idea how they were able to turn in the numbers that they did. Naturally, they didn't want to share their secrets with us. They were the 'number one' ship and they wanted to keep it that way."
"I see."
"And now I'm hearing scuttlebutt to the effect that, if an on-board probe explosion could happen to Observer, and since Observer has the best and most talented people, then it's only a matter of time before an on-board explosion occurs on Surveyor. So I'm not optimistic that the stand-down order will ever be lifted."
Dax didn't know what to say, so she said, "Interesting."
"That's all off the record, though," Lauren reminded her, grinning insincerely.