Science Inquiries

Posted on Fri Aug 7th, 2015 @ 7:15pm by Lieutenant Commander Michael Darwin & Lieutenant Tess Rutheridge

* * * Galileo Center * * *

Tess scrolled down the agenda for the day on the monitor. It was quite full. Sighing he slouched back on the seat and drummed a little with his fingers on the desk as he collected his thoughts and organized them by priority.

The first one would have been to check in with Riley to have a report on the progress about the Iconian slab translation. But it seemed Lt. Sukotav had chosen the right day to be late to work.

Taking the padd he watched again the material Six had been able to put together just before… Yes, just before her reckless choice. Her pip was still there on Leroy’s desk where he’d left it that morning. Taking it between thumb and index he regarded it for a while, a sense of discomfort coming to his mind as he recalled the moment.

He shook his head as if trying to clear it then, with a frown, he put the pip in the desk drawer and closed it.

The doors swished open letting the figure of Ensign Samara appear in the frame, “There’s a visitor for you, Sir.” She said as if in embarrassment, “Er… Lieutenant Darwin from Security.”

“Security?” Tess repeated furrowing his brow. “Well, let him in.” He ended then nodding to Samara.

"Lieutenant Rutheridge, morning. I'm Lieutenant Darwin," Darwin said, entering the man's office. He got right to the point: "I'm sorry to report that Lieutenant Riley Sukotav has gone missing. It appears that he was removed from his quarters last night, sometime after his shift here. Security is searching for him and watching all transports off-station. Temporal Affairs is also involved because there were some strange readings in Sukotav's quarters."

“Well… Er… One moment Lieutenant.” Tess said taken aback by the flow of (bad) news coming from Darwin. “Lt. Sukotav missing?... Temporal affairs?... Strange readings? Please explain. and try to give some more details if possible. I spoke with Riley just yesterday as he went off shift and all seemed normal. Who can have possibly removed him and why?”

"It appears that Riley made it home after his shift yesterday. Sometime between then and when Ensign Madhava attempted to find him, he disappeared. In his quarters, there was a spilled bottle and a broken glass; just to one side of those is evidence of a rift - possibly a temporal rift, so Temporal Affairs is researching that. So it seems that Riley may have been pulled or fallen into the rift." Darwin paused. "That's all the information I have on that theory at the moment. There is the possibility that someone on the Station removed him, but I have no evidence of that yet."

Tess, incredulous, scratched the back of his head as he tried to focus on Darwin’s words a look of discomfort evident on his face. It seemed to him that his week would never end…

“Well... This is most unexpected.” he managed to say looking up to Darwin. “If I can help I’ll do that gladly. Is there any hypothesis already made up? Riley is quite the quiet type of guy. Level headed on the tasks he undertakes... I wonder how he could have made himself enemies. Lately he was working on a project taken over from an ensign who… left it mid-way.”

"Six of Ten, I'm aware of her and what she was working on." Darwin decided to leave Tess' 'enemies' comment alone - he didn't really want to explain that any enemies Riley had were likely because of Ensign Madhava. He knew that such an explanation would only serve to make Madhava look bad and to call into question Riley's choice of friends. "That work, as I understand it, has been on a set of tablets that talk about a hidden item and a sect that is supposed to protect it. I'm here to find out how far Riley got on his work with it. Did he locate where the item might be? Did he send that information to Commander Antos?"

Tess stiffened as a hint of annoyance stung him with the Security Lieutenant's words. He didn’t like the idea of being prodded for information by someone who clearly already knew more than he cared to show. “I have to correct you on this, Lieutenant.” He said through his teeth, "There are no tablets but we’re speaking of a stone slab, very ancient and carved in Iconian language. I can show you if you wish.” He ended waving a hand to the office doors.

"I apologize, I misunderstood what Six told me." He shook his head at Tess' suggestion and said, "I don't need to see the stone; I just need to know the status of Riley's work on it. If there is a group that's supposed to protect this item, has he found something that would make them take notice of him?"

“We are at an early stage in this project. Most of the words are translated and their meaning has yet to be verified, so… We have nothing on our hands as of now. Riley’s main task was to conduct a series of research based on the clues provided by the translation to define if we’re speaking of legend or of something true. But, as I said, we have nothing as of yet.”

"Oh" Darwin's brow furrowed as he considered what sounded like a dead end. He brought up another thought, "Six mentioned a set of coordinates and said Riley was going to see whether he could find what those numbers might relate to now, taking into account the huge amount of time that has passed and the shifting of planets and stars. Did he talk to you about that?"

“Yes he mentioned that but that is no easy task. He was working on the project and I was waiting to meet him today to talk about his progress. I can delve into this myself but some time is needed in any case. I doubt we can have a satisfactory response by just reading the notes he’s made so far.”

"Hmm. Alright." The Security officer was getting the message: the stone's message was a dead end. He'd need to find another explanation for Riley's disappearance. "Lieutenant, I appreciate your time answering my questions. If you hear or discover anything about Riley, let me know, please. In the meantime, I'm sorry to have brought this news to you."

“This news is grave indeed, for Riley is also a friend aside from being part of the Science team," Tess replied shaking his head slowly. “Please, keep me informed about any further development. On our part, we’ll continue his research at once to see if we can get some helpful information to share with you.”

"Much appreciated," Darwin said and took his leave.

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Lt. M. Darwin
Running Into Dead Ends

Tess Rutheridge
Weighed Down By More Bad News