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--></style></head><body lang=EN-US><div class=WordSection1><p style='margin:0in'>Mission: Murder on the Exeter Express<o:p></o:p></p><p style='margin:0in'>Day: 2<o:p></o:p></p><p style='margin:0in'>Stardate: 2445.12.02<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>(USS Exeter – Main Engineering – CEO Office – 2O/CEO – Lt. Cmdr. Keira Merek – 0932)</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Keira walked over to the replicator in her office. After being at it for several hours, she needed some kind of caffeine to get the motor going, so to speak. After being introduced to pumpkin-spice lattes by one Captain Williams before he attained that rank, back on Mars, and finding out that there were more flavored coffee beverages in the replicator library she found herself reaching for them more often than not. Before she ordered she asked herself one question. ~Am I addicted?~</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>“One peppermint mocha latte, double sweetener.” She ordered. In the brief time the beverage took to materialize in the replicator slot, she muttered something to herself. “Damn you, Trip.”</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>She brought the brushed metal travel mug up to her nose and inhaled the aroma. The pleasant cool of the peppermint got her thinking. She back tracked though what she had done to make sure she didn’t miss anything. She took a thorough scan of the scene Tiko’s quarters, everything a hand tricorder could do. She sent all the biological findings to Medical referencing the case. She checked and reviewed for transporter signals, there were none. The lock wasn’t tampered with that she could tell. Mechanically it was untouched. She checked the entry and exit logs, which were deleted, not gone, just empty of useful data. The file was still there, the information it contained was replaced with scrambled, random unformatted numbers. So either the killer did it to hide their activities or Tiko himself did it to hide his activities. He was an intelligence operative and as such he may want to hide his contacts so as not to reveal them. She took a sip of her sweet, minty-mocha solution.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>~Wait. The file size is unchanged. Just parts replaced with gibberish.~</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>It had been a while since she had done this crunchy of a bit of programming. She brought up the source code for her copy of the file. Each entry or exit logged into the system, who entered and who left. Using her own entrance and exit as an example the characters in the alpha numeric were odd, for each entry. Once the person exited and entered, the whole section was even numbered again. She took another sip of her caffeinated beverage.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>She looked at the characters in the scrambled section. Odd number. Getting a total count of the characters, there was enough bulk data to have two people enter and leave and have one person either, enter by the door and leave by another means or enter by another means and leave by the door. As it was more advantageous to be seen leaving but not entering than be seen entering but not leaving Keira believed it was more likely the killer entered by some unknown means and then exited by the front door. With the missing timestamps (not missing, scrambled) the next registered person to enter was the person who discovered the body. The one just previous to the scrambled portion was Tiko himself entering his room, never to leave again upright.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>She took another sip of her beverage and began working into the late morning.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>(Reply none)</p><p class=MsoNormal>(Posted by Todd)</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>NRPG: More to follow.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>“<span style='color:black'>The only way to defeat fear is to tell it 'No'." No - we will not take shortcuts on the path to righteousness. No - we will not break the rules that protect us from our basest instincts. No - we will not allow desperation to destroy moral authority.” - Michael Burnham, Star Trek: Discovery</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>“No, I’m from Iowa, I only work in outer space.” – Adm. James T. Kirk, “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Todd Holladay<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>SGT, IA ARNG (Retired)<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>