Evidence and Suspicions


Captain Kirk had a message waiting from Chekhov when he returned to his quarters. He could have responded over the comm, but decided to walk to the sensor lab. It seemed like a good idea to keep moving. He was going to feel this work-out tomorrow anyway. 'Quite aggressively' had proven to be typical Vulcan understatement.

"Chekhov, what did you find?"

"Zere vas somezing zere, sair. Ze size ov a small sheap. But eet eez now gone."

"Cloaked?" That would not be good. They were a lot closer to Klingon than Romulan space.

"I believe zo. However, eets signature eez not like a Romulan cloaking dewise."

"Could it be anything else, Chekhov?"

The young officer shook his head. "I haf considered all ozzer poszivilities."

Definitely not good. The bad guys, whoever they were, had either altered Romulan cloaking technology or developed their own.

"Could we pick it up if it returned?"

"Yes, sair. I am programming zee senzors to search for eets signature now."

"Good," Kirk said. "Because I have a feeling they'll be back."


.

It had taken a bit past beta shift for Mr. Trinh in the audiovisual lab to find the anomalies in the security vid and work out exactly how it had been edited. Frame-by-frame analysis showed no indication that the second being on the tape was merely disguised as Trubese, but careful comparison between frames showed that whoever had forced Hodges into the cargo bay had been very carefully replaced by images of one of the Trubese lifted from the reception security vids. It had taken him hours to find the right sequence from those vids, but the match was clear. The back view of a Trubese who had gotten into a brief shoving match with an Aolian had been extracted from one record and made to look like he was shoving Hodges through the hatchway on the other.

"A most thorough and interesting analysis," Ms. Chandri said. "Despite the crude nature of the bomb, it seems our terrorists possess considerable technical skill."

"Whoever did this was a real artist," Lt. Trinh replied. "It'll almost be a shame to send them to a penal colony."

"Uncovering it took better work, Mr. Trinh," Kirk said. "Now go take some well-deserved rest. You're dismissed."

"Thank you, sir."

Once the lieutenant had left, Spock sat back and steepled his fingers contemplating the information. "I am less concerned with the fate of the editor than with how he or she obtained the video sequences and then tampered with the security recording. The pieced transmission from the station was also placed by someone with an unusual level of access to the station's computer."

"Well, let's start with the security records. Who could have altered them?" Kirk asked.

"Theoretically, only the commander, station security chief, or records officer," Spock explained. "However, I understand from Dr. Costellano that neither the commander nor the records officer would have been in a position to alter the records last night."

"Why?"

"The records officer went into labor at 22:10 and did not give birth until 09:23 this morning - well after the records were first reviewed."

"Okay, that's her accounted for," Kirk agreed. "What about the commander?"

"They are mates and he was also in sickbay." Spock glanced sidelong at Uhura. "I am given to understand that among humans the male is usually expected to be present during the birthing process." Uhura gave a curt nod, as if to say 'You better believe it, mister'.

Jim snorted. "Well, I should have realized no one could really be as dumb as Newcomb. It was all an act to throw us off."

"No," Selina shook her head. "That idea occurred to me as well, and much earlier. However, after listening to his thoughts...trust me, he really is that dumb."

She ignored the way Giotto tensed across from her, and continued. "That does not mean that he could not have been compromised. Given his capacity for incompetence, someone could have stolen his or one of the others' authorization codes."

"There should be a record of command code access to the station records," Giotto said.

"Uhura, open a secure channel to Lt. Hanlan," Kirk ordered.

Her fingers danced across the lab comm link and in a moment Lt. Hanlan appeared on the screen. "Hanlan here, sir."

"Lieutenant, we just worked out that that security vid was doctored. Someone got into the station's surveillance system, extracted it, changed it and spliced it back in. There should be a record in the station's computer if anyone accessed that vid."

She looked away a moment typing the request into her terminal. "No, sir. No record of access to the surveillance system until after the body was discovered this morning and I was present when that request was made. There's no way it could have been altered at that time."

"Lieutenant, please have a complete diagnostic run on the base's computer." Spock ordered. "This level of tampering should leave some evidence detectable in programming anomalies."

"Yes, sir. I'll report the results as soon as the diagnostic is complete."

"Hanlan," Giotto said. "Whoever killed Hodges is probably still on that base and there's a cloaked ship out there somewhere too. Be careful."

"I always am, sir."

"Thanks, lieutenant. Kirk out." Jim turned back to the others. "Now, I guess we wait."


.

Given the hour and the nature of the discussion, they decided to adjourn to Kirk's quarters to dine and finish talking in a more private setting. Mr. Giotto had declined, citing the need to continue chasing down Hodges' connections, although he carefully avoided looking at Selina when he said it.

"He's nervous as long-tailed cat in room full of rocking chairs," Bones observed, after Giotto left.

Spock looked at Selina. "Someone should reassure him that I only listen to thoughts when I truly need to," she said. "It is usually an experience to be avoided."

"Don't worry about him. Probably wishes he could do it and doesn't know any better." McCoy pulled a chair out for Selina. "Have a seat, my dear." He smirked at both Spock and Kirk, as she took his hand and sat down. Spock had taken the place between her and Uhura, and Kirk took the opportunity to claim the open seat next to Selina, earning him Bones' trademark scowl.

"I don't get it." McCoy said, ignoring Jim's smug expression. "No one can remove records of command access and it's supposed to be impossible to hack a starbase computer."

"Yet even the best designed systems can fall prey to a determined hacker," Spock observed, eyeing the Captain.

"Spock, I didn't exactly have to be a genius hacker to break into that program. It wasn't even hard to recruit inside help," Kirk said. "I mean, everyone hated it. Of all the grueling training exercises and insane simulations the Academy put us through, that was far and away the most sadistic thing they ever did to us."

"Sadistic?" Selina asked.

"Yes." Kirk nodded. "Sadistic."

"And you designed this program?" she asked Spock.

"Yes. However, it was not -"

She tapped his hand. "Shhh. Do not spoil the moment. I do not think I have ever been so proud." She smiled at him and lifted her cup in a small toast.

Spock looked skyward, as if for strength, but refrained from responding.

She turned to address the Captain. "And if you can believe that any Academy simulation could qualify as sadistic you clearly have not had enough experience with Federation bureaucracy."

Uhura and McCoy laughed. "She's got you on that one, Jim," Bones said. "And you did volunteer to take it three times, so what does that say about you, huh?"

Kirk frowned at them, but gave in. "Okay. But I only kept taking it and hacked it because someone had to prove that there was a way to win."

"The test was designed only to observe reactions -"

"Yeah, yeah. I know. But it was also designed so that no one could succeed. You could have watched us face fear and mortality and all that without also forcing us to accept defeat. Which I won't...so I cheated." Kirk smiled smugly. "And I won. No such thing as no-win situations."

"Captain..." Spock began.

"No, he is correct, Spock," Selina interrupted.

Jim beamed.

"As long as one reserves to oneself the right to define the term 'win', it is always possible to do so." She raised an eyebrow at Kirk. "However, Jim, I believe you will find that the universe is nevertheless replete with Catch-22s."

Kirk's smile faded. "Isn't that a bit cynical coming from someone who doesn't exactly give in too easily?"

She shrugged. "Yossarian did not allow Catch-22s to break him and he eventually found that he could choose a way to achieve his true goal. In that sense, he won."

He eyed the woman who had not only slaughtered him in three bouts of fencing, but was clearly determined to win whatever private contest she and his XO seemed to have on-going. "You still don't strike me as someone who would just run away to Sweden - at least not before first stringing Cathcart and Korn up by their own guts."

That earned him a real smile. "Thank you, Jim. There may hope for you yet."

Kirk grinned, both at getting a positive response from her and at the scowl he got from Bones and the raised eyebrow from Spock.

"Don't encourage him," Nyota warned.

"I did not intend to imply that sort of hope." She tilted her head, as though studying him. "I thought he was finally expressing an understanding of the wisdom of not provoking me. While I accept the logic of obtaining whatever measure of victory is possible, I do not easily abandon a preference for total victory." Her lips quirked sideways. " 'Never give up... Never surrender'."

As Jim cracked up and Selina grinned, the other three just looked at them in puzzlement.

"C'mon." Jim said. "20th century earth sci-fi. You know, the NSEA Protector!"

Blank looks.

"Captain Peter Quincy Taggart?" Jim pressed. " 'Never give up... NEVER surrender!' ?...no one?" He crossed his arms. "Hmmph. Philistines."

"Captain," Spock asked, his gaze turned inward searching some internal database of human terms. "What do Iron Age Canaanites have to do with a 20th century science fiction series?"

"It's a figure of speech, Spock," McCoy said. "He means we're culturally illiterate because we aren't familiar with the sort of ancient cornball space opera he likes to watch."

The Vulcan's eyebrows rose. "Fascinating." He looked at Selina. "And how is it that you are familiar with such a reference?"

She arched an eyebrow back at him. "You ought to know. You fixed me up with him."

Nyota grinned as realization dawned and one side of Spock's mouth quirked upward. "I see. I was unaware that he had shared that particular interest with you."

"Wait." Jim was looking back and forth between them in disbelief. "You fixed her up with someone?"

"That had to be interesting," Bones said dryly.

"It was an occurrence unlikely to be repeated in this or any other timeline," Selina stated flatly.

Spock's lips twitched fractionally further upward and he raised a challenging eyebrow. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Just stop it you two," Nyota said. "We have other things we need to discuss. You can bicker later." She received twin Vulcanish looks of affronted surprise.

"But..." Jim began. Nyota widened her eyes and drew her finger across her throat, signaling him to shut up.

"You are correct. We stray too far from the topic at hand," Selina acknowledged. "Spock, you believe someone has defeated the security systems in place to shield the base's computer?"

"I see no other alternative. It should not be possible for even base personnel with the highest level of clearance to alter records anonymously," Spock replied. "Moreover, the presence of a cloaked vessel strongly suggests outside interference."

Selina nodded. "The variety and extent of technical skills employed by our terrorists also suggest that they are more than a few hired guns acting on behalf of a faction or factions desiring to disrupt trade negotiations. I begin to suspect either our competitors among the galactic powers or the workings of a crime syndicate. I am not certain which is the more disconcerting prospect."


Apologies if I didn't get Chekhov's accent to come across well. Ironically, I've learned enough Russian to translate technical papers, but I have a lousy ear for accents and could never get the pronunciations down. I have the deepest sympathy for Chekhov trying to pronounce English.

The three people who could alter station records are based on the three people who could alter ship's records in the TOS episode Court Martial.

Several of you have probably deduced that Lt. Hanlan's uniform is red. The general rule from the series is that when Kirk gets no action a redshirt dies. He's not getting the action he was shooting for, but he did manage an anonymous hook up after visiting the gaming parlour. It could go either way.

The spoof GalaxyQuest has sometimes been jokingly referred to as the best of the Star Trek films. Until the current one, a case could even be made for that. After rewatching it recently, I decided it had to exist in this reality. Afterall, the one thing Star Trek doesn't share with our universe is the existence of a tv series called Star Trek...but there had to be something like it.

And, yeah, poor Nyota is probably getting tired of mediating Spock and Selina's peculiar variety of sibling rivalry. Of course, Spock is a bit unsettled by Selina calling the Captain 'Jim' now and continuing to flirt a little with McCoy. Hence the subtle threat that he might consider trying to fix her up again (afterall she doesn't have the fan club to hold over his head anymore).