Jen had never been accused of being a genius.  Fortunately, it didn't take a genius to see that Micaela was right.  "Sir, Miss Nieves is correct.  We should have a sealed bulkhead between us and the locker when she has the drones open it and then the lock box it contains.  If you would step this way, Major?"

"If you say so ladies," Ascott smirked. Not usually one to back away from danger he did as he was told anyway, curious as to what the drones would do. Back in his SAS days he would probably have just tried picking the lock, but they were right. There was a chance the locker was boobytrapped, and it was smarter to not take any chances.

   "Thank you, Sir."  Jen didn't want anyone else to die from the perp's actions.  The one body on the bridge was quite enough, thank you.

   Once everyone was a safe distance away, Maxwell said, "Miss Nieves, are you having one drone up close watching the opening process with the second observation drone views the process from farther away?  I ask because if there is an explosion, we will still have one drone recording what happened."

"That's the plan." she replied as she tapped out a few commands on her laptop to broadcast her display onto a local vidscreen so that the others could watch what happened in real time.

"Unit zero one, maintain distance of 2 meters from target. Unit zero two, maintain distance of 20 meters from target. Full data broadcast for the duration of the exercise." The last command was in reference to the normal process of recording data locally, and then sending bursts of data packets off at set intervals. That meant that a drone would usually record for 60 seconds, then send that data to Micaela all at once. It was a way to limit wireless interference. But in situations like this, she wanted that data broadcast continuously. She didn't want to risk losing any of it.

"Tau, let's see what's inside. I want you to open the locker, give us a chance to visually inspect the lock box, then open that as well. Use highest precaution levels." At the highest precaution levels the drone moved very slowly and very deliberately. It would use the lightest touch it was physically capable of, but that meant an agonizing couple of minutes to do what someone could do in 15 second if they weren't overly concerned about blowing themselves up.

Carefully the drone opens the locker. The half expected explosion does not happen, instead the locker door slowly swings open, revealing clothing, a dataslate, and a small lockbox.

Provided nothing went wrong, Micaela had a plan for inspecting the contents of the locker.

She'd start with another full scan to make sure there wasn't anything amidst the clothing, anything unexpected on the dataslate and to try to see inside the lockbox now that there was one less layer of metal between the scanners and the interior.

The clothing she would remove from the locker, one piece at a time, and set out on the floor. The slate she would also remove and take back to the closed pressure door that Micaela, Lou and Shouty McShoutface were waiting behind. Her bosses could decide if they wanted to inspect the slate directly. The lockbox she would save for last. She would need to determine how it was sealed before she could formulate a plan to get it open.

   Maxwell took a pair of latex gloves from her pocket and put them on before taking the slate from the drone.  "I'll run this through some icebreaker software back at the section.  Now, Miss Nieves, about that lockbox..."

"I'll have that open in no time if you want Lieutenant," Ascott grins, toying around with his K-Bar knife. "It wont close again afterwards though."

"On it." Micaela said in response to Lou, ignoring Shouty. The locking mechanism appeared similar, so she tried the same approach, visualizing the interior mechanism and using that data to select the proper code.

The lockbox pops open. Inside is a storage and display device, usually used to display photographic images. The particular model inside was hi tech at the time Polo launched, able to produce 3d images projected above the display.

"Looks like we're all clear boss." Micaela said, looking up from her laptop to the Lieutenant and the Major. "Geiger counter isn't showing elevated radiation and the chemical sniffer doesn't detect any residue that matches the profile for any known explosive."

She turned to look at the wall display and the small storage device still sitting in the opened lockbox. "I can't make any guarantees though, and this is my first gig in forensics so I don't have much past experience to draw on. I can continue to direct Tau to be our hands out there, but it will be slow going. That manipulator arm is an engineering marvel, but it doesn't hold a candle to our God given appendages. Your call."
This message was last edited by the player at 13:28, Fri 30 June 2017.

   Lt. Maxwell listened to Miss Nieves.  "With the Geiger counter not showing elevated radiation and the chemical sniffer not detecting any traces of identifiable explosive residue, I'd call it clear as well."  Maxwell smiled... actually smiled at Micaela.  "That was some very good work, Miss Nieves.  I'll take the display device with me and run both items through icebreaker and decryption procedures back at the shop.  Continue on with your drone work, but please keep it to unoccupied areas of the ship."

   The Lieutenant then turned her attention to the Major.  "Sir, would you have some of your people bag up the rest of the items in the locker and take them to Security for examination and analysis?  I'll let you know what I find after going through everything."

"That I can do lieutenant." He nods at Jennifer as he whispers some commands into his throat microphone. Then he grins sheepishly at Micaela.
"Would you mind if I accompany you on your drone expedition miss Nieves? Or is it missus?"

From: Chambers Quarters

It was 3:41 pm, and Danny arrived, searching for Micaela Nieves (if she's alone he will approach.)

"Understood boss; and thank you."


Micaela wasn't as quick to respond to the Major though. She didn't know anything about the man, but their limited interactions had not been what she would call positive. And on top of that... was he flirting with her? Impossible. That had to all be in her head.

"Sure." she replied dumbly at first. But continued a moment later as her brain caught up to her mouth. "I'm not sure there will be much to see though. Most of the time the data is normal and boring. And, ah, it's Miss Nieves."

Movement caught her eye a moment later as another man walked into line of sight. From his clothes to his posture he looked like a civilian. He was probably woken early and was just here to collect his stuff, so she ignored him.

"Unit zero one and Unit zero two, deploy ahead of the core scanning flight to verify that the queued scan locations are free of personnel before scanning commences. Start with cargo holds 3 and 5."

Falling back into her element her confidence started to return as she spoke to the Major again. "The data will come to me, so at this point I just need a quiet and comfortable place to watch the numbers scroll by. Any suggestions?"

   Maxwell saw that she was no longer needed at this location.  She headed toward the door to head back to the office.  She still had a case to work.

To:  Security Section

Ascott directs Micaela to a spot where some pallets are stacked.
"You can set up right there I believe."

He then turns his attention to Danny.
"Anything I can do for you young man?"

Ah, there's the Major she had come to know and love. Only a military hard ass would consider pallets comfortable. But Micaela had worked under worse conditions, so she hopped up to the top, spinning around as she went, and let her legs dangle off of the edge once she had landed. For a moment she considered activating the Rock-Paper-Scissors program she had written for Tau, but she would probably get yelled at again, so she resisted the urge.

"No sir, I just needed to talk to Micaela Nieves, but as I see your busy, i'd be able to reurn in a few hours..?" he said politely.

"Me?" Micaela asked, a little surprised. She wasn't normally one to eavesdrop, but she was looking at a long stretch of having little to do and was kind of hoping that this civvy would upset the Major enough to cause him to pop off again and provide some amusement for at least a little while.

"Why would you be looking for me? What did I do this time?"

"I don't know if you've done anything in the past, I am just recruiting civilians for a sort of day job..." Danny said innocently, and truthfuly.

Say no. All you have to do is say no. You have a job and your boss has the temperament of a nun teaching horny teenage boys at a Catholic school. Whatever he's selling you don't need it or want it.

"What did you have in mind?" she asked.

Have you ever wondered if the problem is you, not them?

"Well, assuming your not busy, I will explain the terms... Basically, you'd be running a diner, the job description is virtually just dish washing and waitressing.... and considering there is no currency circulating this ship, your paycheck would be having something to do for a few hours a day, a few times a week... possibly more, possibly less... I would be a manager/supervisor, and all you need for the job is to know how to make eggs..... if this sounds good I can just find you again when the place is opening for business...?" Danny said quickly, but not rushed or slurred.

Micaela was silent for another moment, making a concerted effort to not let her mouth fall open.

"You... you're serious, aren't you."

"Sorry." she continued, hoping her growing smile came off in a good-natured way and not a malicious one. "I am gainfully employed at the moment, at least until I do something to get myself thrown into the brig. In either case I'm afraid I won't be of much help to you."

Danny sighed almost inaudibily, he nodded, and thanked Mrs. Nieves for her time... he left the Cargo Hold for the next person on the list.... for Gods sake he wanted to take a nap...

"Marco: Where may i find Mike Schmidt?" Danny asked, already loading a picture of him on his stalker pad. At this point, he was ready to quit... but was holding out for sake of not disappointing VanderBeek...