Sunday, December 20, 2009

The Investiation begins....

Jackson enters the arboretum on the space vessel, looking around for the structural differences mentioned in some reports he was given while still on Cordelia. “Jerrik, this is very different from what we were told the Konair would be on. Are you sure he was on this kind of ship?”

“Yes. This was the design of the flag ship. The only difference between this ship and the Konair’s was the shielding.”

“The shields were dual level shielding, correct? Outter and lower?” Jackson walks around the room, comparing what he is looking at to what he has on his schematics.

“Yes. Added for his ship alone, at the time. We have since upgraded that to a standard for all of our ships.” Jerrik stands, nearly at attention, waiting for Jackson to complete his comparison.

“Would the shielding codes have been encrypted?”

“Yes, they would have had to be. Everything on board the Konair’s vessel is uniquely encoded. The Captain, Executive officer and a trusted member of the senior staff are the only ones who know this coding system, at least the only ones on the ship. Why do you ask?”

Still looking over his data tablet and back at the materials in the arboretum, “We only forced down one shield that day.” Jackson, then turns to Jerrik wondering if this even bothers him. Doesn’t notice a reaction, Jackson walks across the room, hoping to get a view of the shields up from inside.

“One set of shields are up at all times. The second would only come into place once an attack started against the outer shields.”

“Yes…well, the second level shields never came online. We were sure you only had one, and very light weight one at that. We broke through easily enough. “

“Jackson you speak as if you were on the initial assault team. “

“I was.”

Jerrik frowns “You are responsible for the death of the konair?”

Jackson pauses what he is doing, looks over at Jerrik “I was part of the team that took the shields out, yes, and I took out or helped to, weapons and power. Some kind of chain reaction occurred inside to cause the explosion. Our goal was to obtain the ship for research and counter actions, not destroy it.”

Jerrik raises an eye brow looking at Jackson. “That does not sound promising.”

Jackson walks back to where Jerrik stands, turns so they are both facing out the window. “Well, now you understand why this war did not feel right to me, from the start. My people were convinced to attack a ship of exploration, by the look of things. This would not make sense. We did nothing to cause the chain reaction I saw, another reason why I’d like to know who is behind this.”

“I suppose under those circumstances I would desire very much the same.” Jerrik hands him a data tablet from his pocket. “This has one interview that was not in public record.”

“Who would that be?” Jackson begins to read the interview, eyes wide. “She saw this? She saw the events leading to the explosion?”

“Not all. Just those around her brother.”

Jackson starts to read the interview carefully. “She said someone pushed the Konair back into his room before it exploded. She doesn’t know what the person looked like or who it could have been, right?”
Jerrik nods “Yes, that is what was in the report.”

Jackson frowns. “Alright, when we are done here our next stop is to talk to the Sonteria.”

“I provided you with a highly classified document that does not mean she has more to add to it.”

“Yes, Jerrik, I realize this; however that does not mean she doesn’t either. She is the only living eye witness among your people.”

After considering his point a moment, “Yes…you are correct. She is the only living eye witness, on Zarrok.”
Jackson starts to review his options. Going over a list in his head of stops they should make, he realizes the Sonteria could be put off until another day. He knows that there was another ship in the area that should be available to enter and research more details about the battle that started it all. He also knows that with the effort of reconstructing from the various vantage points they may see something that was not seen before. His only regret is that the Konair’s ship was destroyed completely and that the computer core was never recovered from it, knowing it would have held the recorded events on the ship that day.

Jerrik indicates he should walk with him. “Jackson, you have much to see and learn of the Zarrokian people.”

“Yes, I understand that much.” Walks looking over the data tablets and his notes, hardly paying attention elsewhere. “What I’m not understanding is why both of our people were givin the impression they were under attack.”

Jerrik nods, continues to walk, realizing he’s not paying attention, takes the arm of his shirt and directs him into a small room. “Jackson you need to pay attention. I’m walking you through some very sensitive areas. If you are going to learn the answers you want, you have to watch what is going on.”

Jackson looks up from his notes. “hu?” looks around. “ yea..I just…” lifts data tablet. “need to keep this in mind. Sorry. You’re correct. I need to be watching.”

“Good.” Jerrik walks out of the room, Jackson next to him.

As they walk through the ship Jerrik bring Jackson to the engineering section of the ship. He walks Jackson through the offices then the propulsion system. The chief engineer showed him to a simulation room, where they run several different options for a ship of this form to explode. Several options show something similar to what Jackson recalled from the night they boarded the Konair’s ship. Then the engineer runs a simulation that starts in the propulsion drive section of the ship. The chain reaction leads to explosions in four different locations leading up to the bridge, before it also explodes into the darkness. Jackson’s eyes  go wide, staring at the exact duplication of events. He explains how his teams were pulled quickly back to their ship, and explains how he was almost caught in the third explosion because of how quickly one lead to the next. The engineer agreed that his assessment fit this model.

Jerrik frowns as they go over the possible triggers, then offers one of his own. “Would an interruption to the antimatter stream cause this?”

The engineer looks at the guard, nods “yes, depending on what it was, it could. What did you think of?”
Galk looks at the simulation, then holds up a small medallion, roughly the size of his fist. “Something like this, not obviously this item.” The engineer takes it from him, looks at it carefully, scowls a moment until he figures out what it’s made of, then nods in agreement with Jerrik. “So it could be something small thrown into the stream?”

“Yep. All it has to do is interrupt it in several places, which would occur in the effort of throwing it into a stream.”

Jackson looks at the exchange, makes several notes, then turns to leave. “Jerrik we need to get back.” He walks out toward the transportation room, nose in his data padd, again not paying attention to where he is going.