facility One-A.
However, this fried circuit board was produced on Sinope One at factory Three-D.”
“There’s
no reason to ship this part the eight-odd star systems from Sinope to Janus, is
there?” Heskan asked.
“No,
sir. Not when Janus Three makes its own circuit boards right at the same
factory. Which means that after construction, someone cracked open the buoy
and inserted this board from Sinope,” Truesworth answered. “I had Brian go
back and track this board and it turns out that it failed nine years ago. The
buoy it originally belonged to was decommissioned and sold for scrap.”
Heskan
brought his hand to his chin. “So, someone bought that part, shipped it all
the way to Skathi and then EMU’ed out to the Skoll buoy to swap it with its
functional circuit board. Presto, failed buoy.”
“It’s
almost perfect. Out here, the navy is more likely to just replace the buoy
with a new one and if they do recover it for inspection, the failure looks
legit because it is legit,” Truesworth added.
“Yeah,
nine years ago it was,” Heskan said sardonically. “Okay, we need to think this
through. Brian, excellent work.”
“Thank
you, sir,” Deveraux answered back quickly and then turned to leave. He had
been a petty officer long enough to know when he was dismissed.
Heskan
opened a comm link through his datapad and spoke into it, “Attention, Anelace,
this is the captain. Section head meeting in fifteen minutes in the main briefing
room. Out.”
Next,
Heskan turned to face Truesworth again. “Jack, that was some mighty nice
work. I know you and your section must have felt like this was just pointless
busy work but you really made something out of it. I want Deveraux’s
recommendation for commendation on my desk by next week, ok?”
A broad smile spread across
Truesworth’s face and he saluted, “Yes, sir!’
* * *
Thirty
minutes later, Heskan had outlined Deveraux’s findings to his section leaders.
“We finally have undisputed proof that someone is tampering with the navigation
buoys in this system. The questions are who and why. Any ideas?” Heskan
finished.
Ensign
Selvaggio tentatively raised her hand and offered, “If they EMU’ed to the buoy,
then the ship carrying them would have to have gotten very close to it. The
buoy would have detected it and recorded a near collision with it. Was that in
the buoy’s memory?”
“No,
the buoy shows nothing like that and there are no signs of altering the
record,” Truesworth answered.
Selvaggio
looked up to the ceiling in thought as she continued, “So how do you get a ship
close to a nav buoy without detection…” She trailed off, lost in thought.
“You
use a stealth ship,” Lieutenant Jackamore stated. The engineering officer
cleared his throat. “A ship with proper stealthing and moving slow enough could
get within a light-second of a buoy undetected. Then the crew EMU’s out and performs
the operation on the buoy, returns to the ship and they move away with nobody
the wiser.”
“That
suggests a military ship. We’re at least nine dives from the Hollies,” Riedel
said.
“It
wouldn’t have to be military if the ship was small enough,” replied Jackamore.
“Sure, we’re used to thinking in terms of military-sized ships and if that were
the case, we’d be looking at something like one of our destroyer-sized scouts.
However, it’s possible to stealth civilian ships too. There’s black market,
near military grade, stealth equipment for sale and if it was installed on
something small, like a civilian sloop,” Jackamore tilted his head, “it’d be
awfully hard to detect. Plus, add in this star system’s ambient radiation and
you have a bona fide stealth ship lurking out there.”
“What
would something as small and expensive as a stealthed sloop be good for out
here besides wrecking buoys?” Riedel asked.
“Not
much,” Chief Brown offered. “They’d
However, this fried circuit board was produced on Sinope One at factory Three-D.”
“There’s
no reason to ship this part the eight-odd star systems from Sinope to Janus, is
there?” Heskan asked.
“No,
sir. Not when Janus Three makes its own circuit boards right at the same
factory. Which means that after construction, someone cracked open the buoy
and inserted this board from Sinope,” Truesworth answered. “I had Brian go
back and track this board and it turns out that it failed nine years ago. The
buoy it originally belonged to was decommissioned and sold for scrap.”
Heskan
brought his hand to his chin. “So, someone bought that part, shipped it all
the way to Skathi and then EMU’ed out to the Skoll buoy to swap it with its
functional circuit board. Presto, failed buoy.”
“It’s
almost perfect. Out here, the navy is more likely to just replace the buoy
with a new one and if they do recover it for inspection, the failure looks
legit because it is legit,” Truesworth added.
“Yeah,
nine years ago it was,” Heskan said sardonically. “Okay, we need to think this
through. Brian, excellent work.”
“Thank
you, sir,” Deveraux answered back quickly and then turned to leave. He had
been a petty officer long enough to know when he was dismissed.
Heskan
opened a comm link through his datapad and spoke into it, “Attention, Anelace,
this is the captain. Section head meeting in fifteen minutes in the main briefing
room. Out.”
Next,
Heskan turned to face Truesworth again. “Jack, that was some mighty nice
work. I know you and your section must have felt like this was just pointless
busy work but you really made something out of it. I want Deveraux’s
recommendation for commendation on my desk by next week, ok?”
A broad smile spread across
Truesworth’s face and he saluted, “Yes, sir!’
* * *
Thirty
minutes later, Heskan had outlined Deveraux’s findings to his section leaders.
“We finally have undisputed proof that someone is tampering with the navigation
buoys in this system. The questions are who and why. Any ideas?” Heskan
finished.
Ensign
Selvaggio tentatively raised her hand and offered, “If they EMU’ed to the buoy,
then the ship carrying them would have to have gotten very close to it. The
buoy would have detected it and recorded a near collision with it. Was that in
the buoy’s memory?”
“No,
the buoy shows nothing like that and there are no signs of altering the
record,” Truesworth answered.
Selvaggio
looked up to the ceiling in thought as she continued, “So how do you get a ship
close to a nav buoy without detection…” She trailed off, lost in thought.
“You
use a stealth ship,” Lieutenant Jackamore stated. The engineering officer
cleared his throat. “A ship with proper stealthing and moving slow enough could
get within a light-second of a buoy undetected. Then the crew EMU’s out and performs
the operation on the buoy, returns to the ship and they move away with nobody
the wiser.”
“That
suggests a military ship. We’re at least nine dives from the Hollies,” Riedel
said.
“It
wouldn’t have to be military if the ship was small enough,” replied Jackamore.
“Sure, we’re used to thinking in terms of military-sized ships and if that were
the case, we’d be looking at something like one of our destroyer-sized scouts.
However, it’s possible to stealth civilian ships too. There’s black market,
near military grade, stealth equipment for sale and if it was installed on
something small, like a civilian sloop,” Jackamore tilted his head, “it’d be
awfully hard to detect. Plus, add in this star system’s ambient radiation and
you have a bona fide stealth ship lurking out there.”
“What
would something as small and expensive as a stealthed sloop be good for out
here besides wrecking buoys?” Riedel asked.
“Not
much,” Chief Brown offered. “They’d
Similar Books
