EXETERRPG: (2 - 2135) FO Cmdr Ailynn Bracken and Lt(sg) Ire Williams

[Mark Howard]

Mission: Murder on the Exeter Express

Day: 2

Stardate: 2445.12.02



(USS Exeter - Sciences ante-room – Commander - Aylinn Bracken  – Lieutenant
– Ire WIliams– 2135)



Ire shook his head.

“I don’t believe it. It was there right in front of us all the time.”



Ailynn nodded silently, draining her juice. “Doesn’t actually give us much
more than we had, sadly.” She said eventually.



“What’s our next step?”



Ailynn sighed, leaning her head back in tired frustration. “Aaaaargh!” she
growled, trying to let out some steam. “Okay...let's take a figurative step
back.What do we know?”



 “Well that the original sound and the recording tech run at the same
variance.”



“Right.” She nodded. “And the Computer didn’t recognise anything that we
have as a replicated sound, so everything we hear is pretty much as it was.
Perp didn’t use a secondary recording or voice change unit for instance.”



“So what we hear is not altered after the fact or changed.”



“And yet...and yet...the security tape picked up a modulation to her voice
as if…feel free to add any radical stupid daft ideas that you have, as all
I’ve got is a head full of nonsense.” she said to Ire amicably. In truth
she liked these moments, the times that all there was was a puzzle, and the
challenge that it held.



“Okay so the voice was changed while it was produced…..but they are not
speaking into a changed unit as we would have found the echo of the
original voice as it spoke into the change unit…..”

He frowned as a spark of a thought emerged.

“Is there a way to change a voice without needing a unit or somehow adding
a unit to yourself somehow so that you would not be speaking into it?”

Ailynn drew a breath, pensive. “There’s a couple of ways, most simply,
breathing helium or sodium hexafluoride will either raise or deepen the
pitch of your voice. Certain medical numbing agents will have a similar
affect. You know for throat surgery and the like. Those don’t sound like
this though. It’s as if the larynx itself is modulating the sound itself.”
She closed her eyes and sighed in frustration.

“You mean surgically altered?”

He paused thinking back to what his parents had told him about laryngeal
surgery.

~I knew that mom and dads surgical talk would help one day~

“My parents once told me about a laryngeal surgical procedure that would
remove the vocal cords and replace them with artificial ones. This might
change the sound but since modern techniques and regenerative procedures I
guess it would have fallen out of favour. Do you think it could have been
done with nanites?”

Her eyes still closed, Ailynn found her mouth moving as her brain wandered
off in a different direction. “I’d have to ask mum, but we’re under a
classified situation at the moment.” She sighed, thinking back to all the
units that she’d done on that kind of thing. “Nanites...technically you
could, but all it would do, I think, is repair any damage. Kind of like the
medical chip nanite tech that mum innovated.  “Unless…” her face fell, as
her brain put different parts of the jigsaw together. “Prophets...they
couldn’t have…never in a million years”

Ire frowned at Bracken’s expression.

“What could that not have done?”

“The semi-artificial modulation we can hear, isn’t a secondary effect. It’s
a bio-synthetic augmentation.” she drew a breath. “That’s
brilliant...horrifying...but brilliant.” Turning to him, she frowned.
“Basically means that they could in theory adapt their voice to sound like
anyone.”

Ire paused before speaking

“Bio-synthetic augmentation on the vocal cords….would that show up on scans
or routine medical?

“It might...depends what you were looking for. I think that you’d need to
do a full, deep scan, you know, checking every atom, tissue composition. A
basic scan on structure wouldn’t show it. Maybe some exotic compounds, but
nothing more.”

“Okay.”

“I don’t get the ‘why’ though. I've been awake too long, I can't think."
Ailynn said.

Ire nodded. “Well let's see what they did. They used this bio-synth augment
to change their voice so that we could not identify them while Commander
Nix was killed. The ability to change one's voice would be a great help to
a murderer.”

"It's an extreme way of doing it though. I mean, there's far easier ways
right? Why say anything at all? It's like they wanted to set this puzzle."

“Which it is proving at the moment.”

"I hate unexplained enigma" Ailynn said irritably.

“Is there a way we can use this to our advantage?”

Closing her eyes to think, she began to wish that she'd had coffee, or more
sleep at lunchtime. "At the moment I'm not sure." A thought crossed her
mind. "Is there a way to simulate the sound, but alter the characteristics
of how it would be created? Sort of...I dunno. If you programmed a trumpet,
you could alter the sound to replicate the sound of a wooden one rather
than brass yeah?" Ailynn wasn't sure her brain was making sense.

“I guess so.” he paused for a moment thinking about what Bracken had said.
“We could run it through the computers in the acoustic lab and see if that
works or we could go to the holodeck and try and replicate it there.”

"Either or." Ailynn said. "Lets go with the lab. The holographic interface
table should make it easier."

“Okay.”

As they walked back to the lab Ailynn chatted to Ire, "I'd like to believe
that this will give us an ID, but I wonder if we're too far behind."

Ire nodded and sighed tired. “I have a feeling that we are so far behind
it's not even funny. I would be happily surprised if I was wrong and we
could get this person but I feel that it will be a miracle.”

"Sadly I agree." She sighed. "You remember back at the Academy, when we
woke up, did stuff, then at the end of a shift nothing crazy had happened
and we got beers then went to sleep? I remember those days?"

“Yes. Those days were good. When your only problem was not irritating the
Master chief or being late for lectures.”

Ailynn laughed gently. In the meantime they'd reached the thermal that they
wanted. "Computer restart previous session. Get me a display of a standard
set of vocal Cords on this table. Normal tissue types averaged across known
species."

Ire looked at the screen and nodded to himself.

“This is going to take some time. I need another coffee. Do you want me to
grab you something for the replicator?”

"Coffee would be good. Strong and a splash of milk. Thank you. I'll try and
cut down our variables a little."

“Okay.” He paused as his stomach rumbled. “Snack?”

She honestly couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten, but on the flip
side, she didn’t like having to stop once her teeth were into a problem.
“Just the coffee will be lovely, thank you. I should have had one last time
rather than the juice.” She then switched her attention to the display in
front of her, and began the laborious procedure that would try and limit
their options. She then selected a few parts of the display.

Ire smiled. “No problem one coffee coming right up.” he headed over to the
replicator and imputed the order. He leaned against the wall as the
replicator hummed away as the Bracken’s coffee and another raktajino
appeared. A small bowl of salted popcorn appeared beside the coffee cups.
He picked it al up and moved back towards Bracken. He placed his cup and
popcorn beside him on the workspace and handed her the coffee.

“Here you go. Found anything yet?”

Ailynn shook her head. Not yet. “Computer, alter shape and size for an
average female, taken from species currently on board, then alter
composition of the selected parts to match the composition of nanites as in
file Bracken-iota-two.”

[acknowledged]

“Run voice ID. Does it produce the same modulation as in the sample?”

[working]

 She turned to Ire. “Well, this will test out our theory if nothing else.

“Okay.”

[calculations complete. Simulation produces a similar, but non-identical
modulation.]

Ailynn swore. “There’s times that I hate being correct.”

He sipped his coffee. “Well at least we now know and it is one step closer.”

Ailynn picked up the coffee “Thank you, that’s kind. Mmm. perfect.” she
allowed the caffeine to kick in for a few seconds, and then carried
on.“Well, we at least know which haystack we might find our needle in.
Okay. next step will take hours, but we can automate it. “Computer. Alter
all other variables around the standard range. Produce and compare a
voiceprint for each set of variables with both normal and altered
composition. Immediately inform myself and Lieutenant Williams the moment a
match is found to any on the Exeter crew.” She turned to Ire. “Does that
make sense?”

“Yes it makes sense.” He looked at the computer monitor. “I just hope it
doesn't take all night.” he pulled up a char and dropped into it.

“Hopefully not, but the amount of minor tweaks is actually completely
insane, so it’s going to be a few hours at least. I’m going to forward what
we know to Trip and then try and get some beauty sleep, don’t feel that you
need to sit and watch it if you have other stuff to attend to.” She smiled
gently. “I’

Ire nodded. “Thank you. I will finish my coffee and the popcorn and then do
a few things until my shift at 2300. Enjoy your sleep and I hope it's
restful.”

Ailynn smiled as she stood up and stretched her back, “Me too. Sure as hell
been a long day. Good work Ire, thank you so much.”

Ire smiled. “No problem I want to get his person as much as anyone else.”
He stifled a yawn and glanced back at the scrolling console. “You know what
they say. ‘Should not have joined if you can’t take a joke’.” he said
sarcastically.

Ailynn chuckled gently. “I’m going to head off. I'll be in my office for
the next ten, and then in sleepy bye-bye land after that. Take Care.” she
patted him on the shoulder amicably as she left. A tired, but content smile
on her face.

(Reply none)

(Posted by Robbie and Mark)
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