Strange New Worlds 2016 (34 page)

Janeway nodded in assent. “Lieutenant, do you have any objection?”

“No, Captain.”

“Then go ahead and start the interviews. And we’ll be ready for Andrews or Tuvok to
follow up if necessary. Do we have anything else?” Everyone was silent. “Dismissed.”

“Crewman Suder,” Chakotay began, “I’m sure you know why I wanted to talk to you.”

“I can’t say I do, Commander.”

The two sat in Torres’s office, which Chakotay had commandeered for the interviews.
Suder’s face was expressionless.

“And I’m sure you’ve heard of the attack on myself and Captain Janeway.”

“Attack?” Suder’s eyes narrowed. “I’m often not privy to the latest gossip. The captain
is okay, I hope?”

“She’s fine, but Lieutenant Tuvok has been injured.”

“A shame.” Suder’s tone remained even, but his eyebrow furrowed. “About Mister Tuvok,
that is. I have nothing but the greatest respect for Vulcan serenity. It’s too bad
that they don’t care to discuss it more often, at least if Lieutenant Vorik is any
indication.” He paused, his attention drifting. “Although I do get the sense Lieutenant
Vorik isn’t too fond of me. Perhaps it’s his discomfort with the Maquis.” His neck
snapped as he turned his gaze back to Chakotay. “But I digress. How can I help you,
Commander?”

“We’re just looking for any clues we can follow to determine who might’ve initiated
the attack. It required a feat of technical skill.”

“And you think it was someone in engineering?” Carey asked in disbelief.

“We have reason to believe it might have been, yes.”

The Starfleet engineer looked down at the table as he thought. “We have good people
here, but it’s a large crew. I don’t think anyone bears any animosity toward you or
the captain.”

“That’s a nice sentiment, Lieutenant, but I think we both know it’s not the whole
truth.”

Carey snorted. “What do you mean?”

“More than anyone, you know we’ve had a lot of conflict. Torres practically broke
your nose when we first joined the crew.”

“Well, yes.” It hadn’t been long ago, but Carey seemed to have distanced himself from
the event. “I mean, the lieutenant has a temper, but only if she thinks you’re trying
to provoke her. I don’t have to tell you that, Commander. You’ve known her far longer
than I have.”

“What about Seska? She’s talked about mutiny before.”

“Commander, is this about my part in obtaining the Sikarian transporter?” Carey shifted
into a near panic. “Yes, I worked with Torres and Seska to get the transporter technology,
but that doesn’t mean we have anything against the captain.”

Chakotay hadn’t been hinting at the conspiracy, but it made sense that Carey was concerned,
and there was no reason not to run with it. “Doesn’t it? You disobeyed orders. You
worked together to circumvent her decision. It would seem you aren’t content with
the way the chain of command is working around here.”

Carey’s remorse was palpable. “Commander, I just want to get back home.”

“And Captain Janeway keeps standing in the way of that. She stranded your crew and
mine in the Delta Quadrant. She’s turned down shortcuts to get back home.”

“Because she was doing the right thing!” Carey’s eyes were wide. “Yes, we disagreed
about trading transporter technology, but I have nothing but respect for the captain!”

Chakotay had him cornered.

“So if not you, then who feels otherwise?”

“Chakotay,” Seska replied, “a lot of us have mixed feelings about the captain. You
know that.”

“Enough to kill her?”

“Apparently.” Seska shrugged. “I mean, it happened.”

“You’re taking this awfully lightly.”

“Chakotay, I’ve seen a lot of people die. We both have.” She reached out and grasped
his hand. “It terrifies me that you almost got caught up in this. And you can’t be
implying that I was part of some conspiracy against you and the captain.” She massaged
his hand gently. “You know I would never do anything to hurt you.”

Chakotay pulled his hand away. “And what if I was an innocent bystander?”

Seska stood up and paced the office. “What do you want me to say, Chakotay? You know
I have the skill to do something like this. You know I had the opportunity. And you
know I’m not the biggest fan of the captain. I have a history of violence from both
the Maquis and the Bajoran resistance.” She threw a hand up in the air. “If I was
back home and the Cardassians caught me, I’d have been charged for far worse than
this.”

She returned to the table and grasped his hand again. “But I won’t lie to you, Chakotay.
I had nothing to do with this. I’m not a Klingon. I’m not going to try to kill my
captain, no matter how much she gets on my nerves.”

“Then who?”

“Logically, no one.”

“I’m sorry?”

Vorik reiterated, “Logically, no one would have assaulted Captain Janeway. The inevitable
fallout of such an assault among the crew far outweighs any possible benefit. The
first question in any crime is this: Who takes benefit? No one that I am aware of.
Certainly none of the staff that I am serving with.”

Chakotay’s mouth hung open until he could bring himself to speak again. “So your Vulcan
logic tells us that this didn’t happen? I think I can identify a few flaws with that.”

“ ‘When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable,
must be the truth.’ If you view the logs, you will find a series of recent technical
malfunctions. Minor replicator issues. So minor that people have simply dismissed
them and continued on with their lives.”

That much was possible. Replicator issues were hardly unknown, so usually one just
accepted them unless the problem was major or frequent. “And why hasn’t Lieutenant
Torres pointed this out in our investigations?”

“The nature of the malfunctions has been so minor that the problems were attended
to by other staff as the issues arose. Only someone attuned to hearing everything
around them would have noticed the pattern of complaints mentioned among the engineering
crew.” Vorik inclined his head to one side as if to draw attention to his pointed
ears.

“Your Vulcan logic is still flawed. Setting aside your dubious definitions of ‘inevitable’
and ‘impossible,’ your theory still doesn’t account for the actual explosive.”

“The ‘explosives’ were fireworks. I would hypothesize that the fireworks were part
of an ill-conceived prank. One that, in this case, had particularly poor timing.”

“And the cover-up? The deleted files?”

Vorik seemed to lose some of his confidence, but he continued, “I would posit that
the type of person to attempt such a prank would also be the type to panic were such
a prank mistaken for an assassination attempt.”

“Mister Vorik’s confidence in his crewmates is admirable,” said Tuvok as he listened
from his sickbay biobed. The burns that had previously covered his face and hands
had already been completely healed. “But I fear his confidence in his own cleverness
is distorting his logic. A frequent problem with young Vulcans.”

Janeway, Chakotay, Andrews, and Torres all stood around the biobed as the Doctor reviewed
his most recent scans of Tuvok. Andrews was pacing nervously, his discomposure evident.

“I wish everyone could share his confidence,” started Andrews. “We’ve been hearing
a lot of nervous talk from the crew. The Starfleet crew is worried this could be the
start of a Maquis uprising. Suspicious Maquis are thinking this was an attack on Chakotay.
Everyone’s keeping their cool so far, but I don’t know how long this will last.”

“Unfortunately, Ensign Vorik’s prediction that a conflict was ‘inevitable’ may yet
prove true. If the crew believes there is someone among us who tried to kill our captain,
it may, at best, undo much of the progress we have made in building trust between
our diverse crews.”

Torres had her doubts. “It seems like my department’s been drawing together more than
ever.”

“Perhaps,” said the head security officer, “but that confidence will ebb away with
time. The rest of the crew will see a group of Maquis and a recent collaborator in
a conspiracy.” He sighed. “And an overconfident young Vulcan protecting his crewmates.”

Janeway crossed her arms. “All the more reason to determine who did this.”

“Unfortunately, based on the reports I have been receiving, we seem to have nothing
but dead ends. Our analysis of the crime scene has shown nothing. The interviews were
ambiguous, but we must assume they have put the perpetrator on guard. The computer
records have proven unrevealing.”

“So now what do we do?” asked Chakotay.

“I will continue to analyze my team’s findings and pursue any further leads, but it
is possible that we may not find an answer to this.”

“That’s not acceptable,” Chakotay stated.

“Acceptable or not, we cannot produce evidence that does not exist.”

Torres shook her head in disbelief. “So we leave a possible attempted murderer on
our staff and wait for the crew to explode?”

“At the very least, we need to put both the killer and the crew at ease. We will continue
to keep security on high alert in case of further attempts. Lieutenant Torres, would
it be possible to create an additional backup log of all transporter and replicator
activity?”