Log 26

Date: 20TH NOV 2186

Location: BERING STRAIT

I was shocked when I first heard the news. After everything we had faced in the war, the possibility of such an ordinary evil as a murder seemed... Odd? Strange? Impossible? I couldn't quite find the right word to describe it. Unexpected certainly but that much was obvious. Not to mention truly maddening. Maybe it's irrational but even though I knew it was at least possible that one of our group was indoctrinated I'd still started to trust all of them. To feel like we were a team, forged in our shared hardships. The news felt like a sudden cold shower of reality as the hard truth was delivered. I could 'hope' that this was some unrelated incident but I could already feel myself being dragged back into a world of suspicion and fear.

I hurried through the corridors to meet the Captain who was already waiting at the crime scene. The scene spoke for itself in volumes. A man in a naval uniform lay face down against the deck, a plasma tool sticking out of his back. His gun remained in its holster, unused. On the wall in front of him there was an open panel with several wires pulled out. Odd, I would've pegged the man as a guard not a mechanic.

"Had a good look Admiral?" Asked Captain Hellman.

"What would your deduction be?"

"I can understand you're angry-" I began.

"Because one of my men has been killed less than twelve hours after your troupe came on board my vessel? Very astute of you." he interrupted in a slightly mocking tone which swiftly turned serious.

"We can discuss the repercussions later Admiral. First as the officer in charge of our passengers I would like to hear your thoughts on who might have done this."

From that little speech I gleaned two things. Firstly and rather unsurprisingly this incident was, as far as Captain Hellman was concerned, our fault. I'm sure I would've felt much the same way in his place, even without knowing that one of us might be indoctrinated (which he didn't yet). The second was (I hoped) a sense that he was more concerned with solving the case than throwing his weight around. Proceeding on that assumption I ran through what little I could make of the crime scene.

"Well clearly the victim was taken by surprise, no time to call for help or even draw his weapon. So he was either busy working on this," I pointed at the panel.

"Or he already knew his killer and didn't suspect him. What intrigues me is that an engineer should be armed at all in the first place."

"He's not an engineer, he's is- he was the guard stationed to protect the comm room at the end of the corridor here. We've no idea what he was doing working on this, as I'm sure you know it was supposed to be your man doing it."

"My man?" I asked confused. "I didn't authorize any-"

The Captain frowned.

"I was assured that you had suggested it Admiral. Are you denying that now?"

"Denying?" I took a deep breath.

"Clearly there's been some miscommunication here. Who exactly was meant to be working here?"

"That Salarian fellow you brought with you, whatever his name is."

"Xi Chan?"

"I guess so. He was taking a look at the issues we've been having with the comm systems. I actually found him working on it earlier that day, he said you'd asked him to work on it. I was going to speak to you about assigning your men to repair work on my sub but he seemed to know what he was doing. He said that he'd traced the problem to faulty wiring in that junction box and that it should be easy to repair. We'd been trying to fix the issue ourselves for weeks so in the end I just left him to it. Later we detected an attempt to send a communication from the sub shortly before the entire comm system failed. When we went to investigate we discovered this."

"He was working on the comm system?" I muttered. In my mind's eye I recalled our first meeting months ago (though it honestly feels more like years). Xi Chan had been working on the comm system then as well before he was interrupted. Later during the General's failed assault mission the comm system had broadcast our positions to the Reaper troops. Was it possible that he had been responsible?

The simple answer was yes. I'd seen more than enough of his technical capabilities to know he could manage it. And thanks to the 'magic' of indoctrination anyone could have been turned into an enemy agent no matter how innocent they might seem.

"We need to speak to him immediately then. I definitively did not authorize him to work on any part of the sub, " I said definitively.

How did he react to being taken for questioning? Surprise which soon turned to nervous anxiety. Captain Hellman looked pleased to see it, he thought it hid a guilty conscience, that he already had his man. I was much more hesitant, I tried telling myself that it was just because I knew him so well that I was reluctant to believe he could be the culprit. But that was just it. I did know him well, well enough to know how he'd react in this situation even if he wasn't guilty.

But there was no time for sympathy now. I had to look completely impartial to reassure the Captain. Although I outranked him and my forces outnumbered his he still retained control of the vessel (and his men were certainly the only ones who knew how to operate it). I didn't like to think what he might do if he came to perceive us as a threat to his own crew.

"Admiral? What's this about?" I could certainly hear the fear in his voice/ We hadn't told him anything yet but he could see it was serious.

"We'll be asking the questions Xi Chan," I said to assert the role I now had to assume.

"Yesterday you were found working on the comm system. When did you leave that area?"

"It would've been seven- uh that is nineteen hundred hours sir."

Fifteen minutes before the murder, very convenient.

"Exactly nineteen hundred hours?"

"Uh just before, I noticed the time just as I was-"

"And you can prove that?"

"What?"

"I asked if you could prove that Mr. Chan."

"Crewman Denning can verify my statement."

"Crewman Denning is dead. The deceased do not make very good alibi's Mr. Chan, particularly in a murder enquiry."

I thought the captain was going a little far with that one but I stayed the course. I had to let the interview play out for Xi Chan's sake as much as anyone else's. Still it wasn't easy, the news of the crewman's death threw him into a panic and eventually I had to insist he be allowed to calm down.

"I asked the crewman to hold something in place while I went to fetch a new power regulator."

"Why didn't you return?"

"Well I was going to but then you-"

"I called him over to talk about our runaway cadet," I realized having worked out the timings. Xi Chan nodded eagerly.

"By the time we'd finished discussing it they wouldn't let me back into the section, said it was a secure area locked down for the night."

I glanced at the captain to gauge his reaction. He noticed and gave a grudging jerk of the head, halfway between a nod and a shake of the head. My guess was he could see it was plausible but wasn't convinced. Well to be fair there was still one issue left to be cleared up.

"Why did you lie about receiving orders from me to work on the comm system?"

"What? But I was told you gave the order."

"And who told you that?"

"I can't really remember, I was with several officers and then the topic of the broken radio came up and someone said you'd already gotten authorization for me to fix it."

"Xi Chan this is important. We have to know who told you that I authorized that repair."

"Uh, well I guess, I mean I think it was Coberg. General Coberg."

We allowed Xi Chan to leave after that.

"So, what was your take on that?" Hellman asked.

"Probably about the same as yours. Xi Chan didn't have time to commit the murder and send the message-"

The captain shook his head, interrupting me.

"I'm afraid I can't fully agree. Xi Chan was working on the system prior to departing. I'm not discounting the possibility he somehow rigged it to send automatically."

"Maybe but logically speaking it seems likely that Crewman Denning was murdered so that the killer could gain access to the comm room," I countered.

"That suggests to me that they weren't aware that the system hadn't been fully repaired yet."

"That's still just speculation but I can see some sense in it. The interview still answered some questions though. Your man said he left Denning holding something, that explains why we found him at the panel instead of guarding the door."

"And then someone sneaked up behind him and stabbed him. His guard was down, probably wasn't expecting anyone to try anything."

"Yes well he didn't know we'd brought aboard a psycho," the captain muttered bitterly.

"And when he was killed he dropped what he was holding and the system shorted out before the message was sent," I mused.

"The killer shot himself in the foot by killing Denning?" snorted Hellman.

"Well it's all a lovely theory but it doesn't get us any closer to the culprit."

"Yes it does," I asserted.

"I don't think we can assume the timing was a coincidence. Whoever actually was responsible must have known Xi Chan was fixing the system and assumed the job was finished when they saw he'd left."

"The entire mess hall saw him after he left the comm room. In all the commotion you caused afterwards I can't remember if anyone slipped away."

"Then we need to focus on tracking down the people that knew he was fixing it in the first place. Starting with the man who gave the to repair it in the first place."

The Captain shook his head at this.

"No way. I know Coberg, me and him go way back, years before the war. That's how he knew about the subs in the first place. There's no way that man would ever do anything like this. You've worked with the guy for months now, how could you even suggest it?"

"He could be-" I started to say before stopping myself. If I mentioned that I suspected a member of our resistance was indoctrinated by the Reapers we'd be lucky not to end up swimming for the shore. Luckily the captain was too caught up in what he was saying to notice my slip.

Unfortunately the reprieve was relatively brief with the arrival of another of the subs crewman spelling our downfall.

"Captain we've detected three Reaper Destroyers on an intercept course."

"What!? Is there any indication we've been detected?"

"Not exactly sir, the ships are sweeping a longitudinal line that will cross our current path at the drop off site. We've detected them running continuous scans however."

"They're searching along that entire axis? It doesn't make much sense, it seems too much of a coincidence that a random sweep exactly coincidences with our destination."

"Unless they only received partial coordinates," I reasoned before realizing I'd accidentally spoken out loud.

"The transmission the killer sent out before it was interrupted? But why would anyone on board want to draw the Reapers to us? That would be suicide."

I thought about keeping my own council to try and rectify my earlier slip but Captain Hellman was alerted to it now and noticed my hesitation.

"What aren't you telling me Admiral? You might outrank me but this is my ship and I demand to know what is going on here."

"Well..." I began.