In her Genes: Distraction Burglary
Connie looks up as Darling enters the bridge. "Ah, Lieutenant. Just who I was looking for."
Darling moves towards his console, slightly apprehensive. "Yes, ma'am", he replies. "How can I help you?"
A chuckle. "Rest assured, Lieutanent, if you were in trouble, neither I nor Commander Wong would leave you wondering." She eases to her feet. "Don't sit, unless you have things that won't keep. I need a flight down to the surface."
Darling looks to the Ensign at the nav station, then back to the C.O. "Yes Ma'am. I can have a shuttle ready for launch in fifteen minutes." He takes a few steps to the door, "Shall I make it so?"
Connie nods. "Please." A grin. "And make it one with a working engine."
Darling smiles, 'As you wish.' He heads out the door.
=== Aboard ASREV Gold-1 ===
Lights around you flicker on as the main reactor powers up.
The air turns fresh and a gentle hum can be heard as life support is activated.
Terminals all around you power up as the computer systems are powered.
A loud roar is heard as the steering thrusters activate.
You feel a sudden rumble as the engines activate.
Connie has a holdall in one hand, ducks into one of the bunk areas. "Bear with me a moment. Take her down."
Darling shrugs past and into the cockpit to start the launch sequence.
Connie is back in a couple of moments, out of uniform, and slides into the co-pilot's chair.
Darling runs through the post separation check list, raising a brow at the commander's appearance but knowing better than to ask. Satisfied that he's forgot nothing, he starts the next flip card sequence of checks required for planetary descent.
Darling says, "There's a clearing out of town a ways if you're looking to make a quiet entrance." He continues to scan, "And there's what looks to be a private pad with no docking codes required."
"Hrm." Connie lets him get on with it. "This is a personal visit, but I'm being a little cautious. The clearing might not be a bad idea if it's empty." She frowns a touch. "In the event anything goes south here, Commander Wong knows I'm here and why."
Connie, it may be noted, isn't watching the ground come up.
Darling breaks orbit, working the ship through re-entry with mechanical, but correct, movements. "And me? What's my cue to bolt, Captain?"
The ship sways and bumps as its landing gear makes contact with the ground surface.
Connie grins. "I'll keep a channel open."
Darling doesn't look so reassured, but breaks the seal on the main hatch. "I'll keep her warm."
Connie arches an eyebrow with a glance outside. "I don't recall ever landing here when I was a trader. Mind, we did try and stay clean." She gets to her feet. "Do."
=== Eden Hospital, Greenleaf, about 10-15 minutes later... ===
[143.34 MHZ Ch:4] Connie transmits, "Mr. Darling... shut her down and get yourself to the medical centre here. West out of the jungle." A pause, in which she clearly is in conversation with someone else. "A uniform here would probably help."
[143.34 MHZ Ch:4] Scortch(Darling) says, "en route."
Evidently something's been going on. A couple of local law are... to be generous... dithering, and one of the medical team is dealing with a shocked and bruised receptionist. Several filing cabinets and terminals seem to have been variously forced and destroyed in the office area behind reception, and a number of security cameras shot out. Connie is talking to a woman in her sixties in hospital whites, frowning.
Darling makes his way into the room quietly. He is dressed in his bridge uniform with the addition of a sidearm. Giving the local law a glance, his brow knits as the scene becomes more clear. He approaches the C.O., stopping short a respectful distance.
Connie nods at something the woman says, still frowning. Turns. "Ah. Lieutenant." She runs a hand through her hair. "Get those two idiots taking witness statements or /something/, for Gods' sake." He outranks them both. "They seem to have issues with non-uniformed female authority."
Darling, unsure how anyone could take him for an authority, none-the-less does as he's told. drawing himself up, he calls, "Officer!" Then, inspired, he calls, "If you're not here to bring me coffee, then tell me what you're doing here?" And as if that was not clear enough, he barks a quick "Report."
Connie arches an eyebrow, hides a smile, turns back to the doctor.
"Uh..." The taller of the two clearly wasn't expecting to see Real Alliance Authority. "Sir. It appears a couple of... uh... visitors made off with some files and records, sir."
The shorter adds, helpfully, "We was just about to see if we could get anyone to identity 'em, sur."
Darling nods, dropping the edge from his tone but still not smiling. To the shorter man, he says, "That would be an excellent idea officer... Han." He waves the other over then to the both of them he sets out his expectations. "Nobody without a badge or a uniform goes in or out of that door unless they belong here. Anyone without a badge is a witness and one or more may actually be suspect." He looks to Han again, "You start taking statements, your cohort can stand at the door."
Connie nods at something, treats the older woman, perhaps surprisingly, to a quick hug, and turns back to Darling, slipping a hand in her pocket. "Leigh-Anne..." A nod at the older woman. "Says they got away through the carpark and into the woods. Short of an aerial search, I suspect they're well gone."
Darling purses his lips in thought, 'how many of them? I don't know that the sensor package on the ASREV will penetrate the canopy, but I'd be willing to try." He looks back at the local law and murmurs, "It would involve leaving them in charge of the scene."
Connie nods, makes a face. "Permit me to introduce ex Commander and Chief Surgeon Duckworth, formerly of the IAV Tsinghai." She gestures to the older woman, who offers Darling a hand with a smile. "I suspect she can put the fear of God into these two once you've set them on the right road." A wry nod. "It's probably our best bet." She's clearly somewhat troubled by the whole thing.
The two lunkheads, meanwhile, are doing what they're told. One might sense that they're relieved to have orders.
Darling takes a look at the older woman, giving her a respectful, "Ma'am" before turning back to the C.O. "We'll, we're set here then. I'm sure the locals will have someone with an actual clue out here before too much longer. Will you be aboard, ma'am? I'm still a little unsure about running the full sensor suite at low altitudes", he asks.
Connie nods. "I will."
Leigh-Anne adds, quietly, "There were three, as far as I can gather. One of them managed to sneak in the office, and he may have had several minutes of system access. The other two were cover, until he got spotted."
Darling softly questions the woman, "Did they have anything in their hands when they left?" Then to re-iterate, "Was anything physical stolen?"
She frowns. "They had some physical files with them. Until we get one of the IT guys on the system, I'm not sure whether they were in the system to acquire or destroy data." Which is an odd thing to speculate on.
Darling looks back to the C.O., "Then there's nothing slowing them down." His eyes hold steady upon her as he watches for a course of action.
Connie mhms. "Let's go." She turns to Leigh-Anne. "I'll be in touch. Get some security in here, though." The older woman nods as Connie turns back to Darling. "Time's a wasting. Mr. Darling."
=== back to the ASREV... ===
You feel a sudden rumble as the engines activate.
A loud roar is heard as the steering thrusters activate.
Darling mans the Pilot's Console.
Connie leans back in the chair. Sighs. "Do you believe in co-incidences, Mr. Darling?"
Darling slips behind the seat, setting his weapon in the cradle on his seat pedistal and strapping himself in with the five point harness. "Never cared for them, myself, Ma'am." Spooling up the engines, he calls, "Any particular direction from the hospital you think they went?".
Connie mmhms. "Car park is north and west, so that's probably a good place to start." She scowls. "Likewise."
With a slight jolt of the jump jets coming up to full thrust, the enforcement craft pulls out of the clearing to hover about 50 meters above the forest canopy. Feeling a bit cautious, he slips the stick left for a full 360 panoramic view of the sky before dipping the nose and speeding off towards the medical complex. "I see a roadway about 3 clicks north... maybe a half hour on foot from the car park."
Connie mmhms. "If they've got there, they're clear and gone. They can't be far if they went that way."
Darling guns the ship, closing the distance to the road in three minutes without the thick forest to slow them down. His 180 is creditable, though he oversteers by about 15 degrees. "If they haven't got this far, we can squeeze them back towards the clinic." Then, looking out the window to the ground below, 'A couple of grenades might make them reconsider."
Wryly, "Conversely, a SAM, if they have one..." She leaves that thought there as something comes up. "Blip on IR, bearing 290, about half a klick."
Darling's noses foward, rudder pedals swinging the craft around to take the bearing, "Two niner zero", the pilot confirms and the trees begin to blur beneath the ship. Without asking for permission, he reaches over to arm the ship's own weaponry before the distance is closed.
Connie, it would appear, has a remarkably gifted turn of gutter Chinese, and uses it to give vent to her feelings, as the blip turns out to be one of the local large herbivores. A shake of her head. "Sorry."
Darling pushes the ship around in a slow, lazy circle. His eyes strain to pick out any motion or color that does not belong in the sea of limbs, leaves and branches. "I got nothing, Ma'am...'
Connie shakes her head. "Me either." A rueful sigh. "Scout the road, but otherwise I think we take her up to orbit."
Thrusters swivel to turn the craft parallel to the road and the wind howls as speed increases. With no traffic in sight in either direction, the pilot finally capitulates and begins a full orbit burn.
Connie watches as the little craft approaches the Destiny. Can't help a quiet sigh. "Call me old fashioned but God, she's a good-looking thing."
Darling's smile comes easy with the stress of ground ops now in the past. "Home sweet home", he replies. Over the comms, he initiates the landing request in his usual relaxed drawl. "Anyone you want to see at touch down?" he asks the C.O., radio channel still open.
Connie shakes her head. "I'll talk to Commander Wong later." She tapes her fingers on the console. "Coincidences. Bah."
Darling completes the docking without comment or issue, powering down systems as the magnetic grapples pull the craft down to the deck, held tight in the event of any possible maneuvers. Unconcerned about being observed, he pulls a tiny medal out from beneath his tunic and gives it a kiss before slipping it back away. "Request a quick trip to the head before returning to the bridge, Ma'am."
Connie grins. "Granted. I need to change, so..." She eases out of her seat, heads for a cabin.
=== A while later ===
Connie sits at her console for a few moments, fires off a wave, them stands, tucking a data key into her pocket. "Commander, when you have a moment."
Connie passes through the secured door.
Charley Wong arrives from ABS Destiny - Bridge.
Charley Wong has arrived.
Connie is sat at her console, surveying the files on the data key. Wryly, "Do you believe in coincidences?"
Charley Wong says, "Rarely or never. Why?"
Connie mms. "Me either. So when I arrived at Eden Hospital? They'd just had three local types pull off a distraction burglary... ok, technically robbery by the time it had finished... on the ER records room."
Charley Wong says, "Really, now you interest me."
Connie mmhms. "Two of them distracted the receptionist, one snuck in and had between three and five minutes alone time on the system. When she twigged, it got ugly. They got away with some physical files."
Charley Wong says, "Let me _guess_ which ones." There's an amused look, "Alright, now you have my interest."
Connie shakes her head. "I don't know. Leigh-Anne's inventorying the records now, and she'll get back to me." A pause. "She's not sure whether things were taken or /deleted/, and whether the physical files were a distraction." She runs a hand through her hair. "Being Leigh-Anne, she'd already taken a copy of the interesting files for me anyway." She indicates the key.
Charley Wong says, "Should I stick my fingers in my ears and go 'la-la-la', or are we going to agree you didn't get that until it was material evidence?"
Connie shrugs. "It's a copy of the DNA results, and some security footage, of my daughter. I could make a reasonable case for being allowed to have it."
Charley Wong says, "Alright. That'll do. What about older records?"
"None." She toys with the mouse, resisting the temptation to open a file. "Best guess is she's not local, was in on a ship."
Charley Wong says, "Alright, well, that's not too bad. Got the dock records? We can always claim to be doing customs checks."
Connie mmhms. "On the way to us. It was about three weeks ago, so..." Wryly, "You know what getting anything before today out of planetary customs can be like."
Charley Wong says, "Yeah, I know it." She ponders. "Beyond that, you're limited. Unless you want to put a tag on her. That would pick her up on Core planets, but... would require explainations."
Connie shakes her head. "Not yet." She frowns. "Something's odd, though, about all this. It's..." A helpless shrug, and she clicks on a file. Watches for about ten seconds, taps the space bar and turns the screen so Charley can see. Pale skin, eyes set in a face that matches Connie's in shape, framed by hair dyed a shade of purplish-red. There's a definite resemblance. Connie doesn't comment, just waits.
Charley Wong says slowly, "Dye. Is the colour traceable?" She moves to lean over Connie a little to rewind, and replays it, watching the videoed woman walk. After a moment you might realise she's looking for signs she's packing.... or combat trained.
She's not formally combat trained. Hard to tell for sure if she's packing as she affects a layered approach to clothing. Connie hrms. "Difficult to say. You're assuming the colour rendering on the camera is at all faithful." A laugh. "And it's not like that's a rare colour for girls to choose generally." She studies her for a moment. "I'm reckoning about twenty or so."
Charley Wong gives a little grunt, "Looks like. She's not moving to cover corners. And doesn't _look_ like she's a top end martial artist or something like that."
Connie shakes her head. "No. She mostly looks worried and a touch scared."
Charley Wong says, "What was she in there for?"
Connie hrms. "And there we have a problem. The symptoms she *claimed* were a red-herring to get inside. The drugs she swiped were specific - she knew what she was after, so Leigh-Anne's guess is a recurring condition she knows she has." A wry laugh. "I love Leigh-Anne dearly, but she is a stickler for patient confidentiality - took a bit of persuading to get the DNA out of her. So the blood work /isn't/ on this key. And what am I bet it's not on the Eden system any more?"
Charley Wong says, "Hrm. So. Do we know what drugs were taken, even?"
"I believe so."
Charley Wong says, "Alright. Go take the list to the MO. Run it past him, and see what he'd give it for."
Darling broadcasts over the intercom: 'New contact, bearing two four nine mark three. Speed two five two zero.'
That earns her a look. "Leigh-Anne's sending me that when she's done assessing the damage. Although a second opinion won't hurt." She looks up at the announcement. "Which reminds me. Mr. Darling got some more lowflying time in in one of the ASREV's. Improving. Even if we did fail to track down the culprits after they fled into the woods."
Charley Wong says, "He's clocked up a lot of big ship time. Which is natural, but..."
Connie nods. Shuts the terminal off, decisively. "If I spend too much time looking at those, you have my permission to password lock the key. Let's go see what's coming to visit. Besides, I have a one-to-one with Jacy shortly."
Charley Wong nods, "Good. Fine... and yes. I'll bear it in mind."
