Investigations - Information

Posted on 01 Aug 2026 @ 2:03pm by The Narrator & Ensign Kat Walker

1,167 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Unity
Location: Fighterbay
Timeline: Current

Movement caught Ensign Walker's sensors. This time of night, with the current tension in the air, the fighterbay was quiet - so the movement drew her attention. A person, human female by the heatmap - infrared being her normal visionmode. She found it more informative and less potentially ambiguous or limited than the visible light spectrum. Combined with LIDAR it was easily detailed enough for navigation and interaction with the crew.

This heatmap though was not one she recognized. A quick scan using visible spectrum light, crossreferencing the result with personnel files, she found the appropriate files. Security. In uniform. Looking thoughtful. Carrying a PADD. Probability was high that this officer was here to speak with Kat, so the Ensign activated its small remote-operated drone, the one she used to project her chosen avatar. With a shimmer the young woman she depicted herself as appeared, that soft, practiced smile ever present.

"Hello Lieutenant Widdow. What can I do for you?"

Not one prone to being startled easily, Rachel didn't jump or give any outward reaction to the appearance of the one called "Kat," but she did blink a couple of times. She took in the appearance before her, as she had heard about but had yet to meet this ship's second--now only--resident AI. "Hello, Ensign Walker," she said. She was about to introduce herself but realized that the AI already knew her. "I am part of the investigation into Commander Petrova's death." By now, the news had spread. "I was hoping to ask you a few questions."

"Of course, Lieutenant. I am at your service," Kat ventured, her expression shifting to a more neutral one as she stood at rest, hands clasped in front of her. It wasn't a big mystery what Widdow wanted to talk about, the AI figured. Still, at the moment the initiative was with the Lieutenant, as such the Ensign simply stood and waited for the first question.

"Thank you," Widdow said, a touch awkwardly, as she realized that this interview wasn't going to be like the others she had been conducting, and she was briefly at a loss for how to begin. "Well, simply put, what can you tell me about what you...recall or were able to pick up on while the event was going on? I am interested in the time period for approximately the first ninety minutes after the conclusion of the awards-and-promotions ceremony."

"I have archived the full and detailed recordings of that time period from my viewpoint. I can make those available to you," Kat offered. "Though the raw recordings are - ... difficult to parse for biological life, I can color code, annotate and label all officers present, along the timeline," she motioned to one side, where a holographic projection appeared of the inside of the convention hall, at the time Captain Kleim and Lieutenant Commander Petrova entered. The hologram looked an almost incomprehensible mass of shapes and partial colors, a combination of Kat's sensor data in raw form, with only herself, Kleim and Petrova displayed with added definition and labeled.

Rachel raised her brows slightly as she looked at the projection, suddenly fascinated by the workings of an AI such as Ensign Walker. She had not been wrong--it was hard to parse--but she followed along with the highlights well enough. "Can you find precisely what time Commander Petrova left the event? And if anyone was with her?" They had one or two eyewitness "we think we saw" type responses, but Walker's would be far more specific.

"Certainly Lieutenant," was Kat's simple reply. With a wave of her hand - a completely superfluous gesture to be sure but she calculated a visual indication that she was actively controlling the hologram would be appropriate given the situation - the representation of the party started moving forward. Petrova was highlighted in gold, Captain Kleim in red, Kat herself in silver, with the rest of the partygoers in grayscale silhouettes. Anyone coming near Petrova would be highlighted in white with their names in a label floating above their head.

Kat spooled through her logs at three times speed. Kleim calling the gathering to order. Starting to call different crew, going through the different awards and commendations, with Petrova as one of the last ones to be called. The commendation received, the Russian commander resumed mingling with the crew again. Before long though, she seemingly answered her comm badge - the moment it rang Kat slowed the replay to 100% speed, as Petrova separated herself from the crowd. Unfortunately Kat hadn't been able to capture any audio. After a brief moment of conversation though, Kristiana's gold highlighted hologram vacated the premises. Alone. Kat paused the replay of her log with the time highlighted.

"I do not know how admissible my logs are as evidence, should that become an issue. My systems are not of Starfleet design and by the very nature of my highlighting the various crew I am altering the raw recording. My word that this is still a fair and truthful representation of the events as they occurred are simply the word of an Ensign relaying an eye witness account of the events."

This was somewhat new evidentiary territory for the lieutenant, but she felt confident when she said, "At the very lease, it will be counted as much as any other eyewitness record." Her mind was running with what she had seen. So, someone had contacted Petrova via her comm badge in order to lure her away from the party. She would have to report this immediately after leaving here. "Is there anything else that you have in your records that you think may be relevant?"

Kat tilted her head slightly as if in thought. She scrolled back through the timeline of her recording, before running it forward again, highlighting the exits this time. Who entered, who left. Up until Petrova was called away, and beyond - nobody left around the same time as her, not from several minutes before until several minutes after. "I do not have anything else to add, at least not that I can think of. I will make this recording available to you and keep a copy of it in my own storage as well."

"Thank you, Ensign," Widdow said with a smile and a nod. "And if you somehow find anything else that you think could be useful, please let me know right away."

"Of course, Lieutenant," Kat nodded. "I've uploaded the files to the ship's main server, shared folder. They are encoded with your full name as the password. If there's anything else I can do to help the investigation I will gladly donate CPU time, storage or use of my sensors."

Widdow bowed her head slightly. "That is appreciated, Ensign Walker, thank you again." With that, she headed off. She would review the footage again on her own, but in the meantime, she had about seven thousand more interviews to conduct and not nearly enough time to conduct them...

 

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