In her Genes: Kidnapped
<in orbit over Bernadette>
A beep from Connie's communicator. She frowns, taps a key, "Saint. Go." Listens. "Uh. Ok. Patch him through." Pause. "Dr. Seshadri..."
Charley Wong looks up. "A doctor?" There's a slight questioning behind the statement of the obvious.
Connie nods, distractedly, to her exec, expression growing more serious, "When did you last see her...?"
Dinger might not be a regular on the bridge, but he's popped up looking for Lt Darling. Once he's out of the lift it doesn't take him long to realise his hunt is goingto be futile, but while no one ones to kick him off the deck he stays to watch the view, Connie's comcall getting a moment or two of interest, although that only increases with the second comment. He's still back by the lift, but his ears are going at least.
Connie nods slowly. "I see." A deep breath. "Thanks for letting me know. If you can wave me any more details, and..." A glance across at Charley. "I'll be in touch shortly." She kills the call, looks across at Charley. "You guessing, or am I telling?"
Charley Wong waves a hand, "You can tell, Ma'am. I prefer to keep an aura of infallability for the crew."
Dinger is aware he should probably continue his hunt elsewhere, bt he's curious now. How much harm could finding out whats going on do after all? He might even be able to help.
Connie laughs, somewhat drily, then sobers. "Leigh-Anne didn't turn up for work today." She takes a deep breath. "Didn't call in, either. They sent someone from the hospital to check at lunchtime, and her apartment had been broken into, signs of a struggle." A glance between Dinger and Adrian, and she lets out the breath. "Ok. Leigh-Anne was the MO on my first command. She... recently acquired some medical information that... is connected to me. And it would appear that someone else wants it."
Charley Wong turns her chair around, "ALright. Shall I put in a course, Ma'am?"
Dinger listens, has the decency to look faintly guilty when his lurking is noticed, then he nods once to indicate he's understood, or atleast heard. "Understood Sir," he replies simply, "where do you want me?"
Connie hrms, taps her fingers on her console for a moment. "That, Number One, is a very good question. I'm conscious that sticking a cruiser in orbit around Greenleaf, if they're even still there, might make them do something rash." A pause. "Whether that would be good or bad rash from our point of view, we don't have enough information to guess yet." She looks between the group on the bridge. "They already tried to steal or delete these records from the hospital data centre,. I'm guessing they didn't get what they wanted."
Charley Wong ponders a moment, "Alright. Flyby. Drop out of afterburn as we skim the surface on the flip side, and detatch a landing ship. Then we'll swing back around, and hover back a way."
"We could head for Jiangyin, or New Melborne and launch an ASREV at cloest point of apparoach," Dinger thinks outloud, the nods his head towards the XO as she suggests a a plan along similar lines. "Don't know a huge amount about the place but I seem to recall it's largely overgrown, that should give some degree of cover at least."
Connie nods to both. "Unfortunately, Lt. Darling is on leave till tomorrow." Drily, "Although I don't recall authorising him to take the Silver-3 as a personal ride." She runs a hand through her red mane. "A marginal preference for New Melbourne, I think, as it's technically still Border. Not a bad idea, Master Sergeant."
Charley Wong says quietly, "Well, that's your options, Ma'am. A flyby. Or a cautious approach."
Dinger isn't an astrogater and so doesn't know if either planet will give better coverage for an approach, so he merely nods at Connie's response, then glances round the rest of the bridge crew to see if any of them have anything to add. "I think you're right," he notes, before asking, "do you happen to know what there might be to expect on the ground?"
Connie shakes her hair back. "Flyby. Gets us there sooner." She sighs. "I'll wave Mr. Darling, just in case he was expecting a pickup." She looks up at Dinger. "They're decent enough at covering their tracks, if past experience is anything to go by. Whoever the hell they are. Can't guarantee they're still on planet even. But we can do more good on the ground."
Charley Wong says, "Right ho, ma'am."
Connie nods. "Thoughts, Commander?"
Dinger nods once as Connie makes her decision, and then Charley moves to make it happen. "Understood," he repies as his question is answered, although what is said does bring a faint frown to his features. "I'm not sure if the.. " he struggles for a few moments to find the right word as he has no idea how much the bridge crew know. "Project, can be of much use I'm afraid, but if there anything we can do tech or manpower wise then I am sure the Admiral will only be too happy to help."
Charley Wong says, "Depends what you want, ma'am. We could deploy as a practice force deployment. Won't be bad for the marines at all."
Connie nods to Dinger, "Appreciated, Sergeant." She looks over to Charley. "Conscious of not spooking them into something rash." She frowns. "Does lead to the interesting question of does Leigh-Anne have or know what they want? Or is it sitting on my terminal through there?" A gesture at the door to her ready room.
Charley Wong says, "ALright, then, ma'am. Flyby deployment of VHALO units."
Dinger's mind hits upon a question that makes him briefly uncomfortable before he gives it voice. "Is it possible Captain that this is a ploy to draw you out? You said this Leigh-Anne had information regarding yourself?"
Connie shoots a look at Charley. "Very possibly, Sergeant. In which case, they're probably hoping I'm the kind of person who would keep that kind of thing to herself and not involve anyone else. And then wind up doing somethig stupid, and in a whole load of a mess as a result." Grimly. "That's not me,"
Charley Wong says, "Exactly, ma'am. So. Deploy... oh... half a dozen, or so, men by very High Altitude deployment. Then fly back after they've had a chance to skirmish into position."
"Than I shall enjoy helping in anyway I can to show them what for Sir," Dinger replies with a solumn nod. As an engineer rather than a soldier he is perfectly happy to leave that sort of detail to Charley, although he does listen carefully incase he needs to give Axel an overview at anypoint.
A wry chuckle from the red-haired Captain. "Assuming that we have the first clue where 'position' is. I expect her apartment's now a crime scene, but if the pair of jokers Darling and I dealt with the other day are representative of the local law, I'm not confident they could figure out much."
Charley Wong gives a brief nod, "Right. That's what we put down recon for."
"Previous trouble Sir?" Dinger asks, as Connie mentions a prior incident, "same group or unrelated?"
"There is," Connie observes, with a trace of a smile, "A reasonable argument that investigating the kidnapping of a civilian doctor with a military drop is overkill, Number One." She nods to Dinger. "They attempted a distraction raid to steal some records from the hospital. I'm pretty convinced this is all connected now."
Charley Wong says, "Investigating, ma'am?" There's an air of practicality, "Shakedown operation for our recon platoon."
Dinger 'ahs' silently, recalling the mention of medical records above, then nodding once in Charley's direction. "Or even a joint exercise between the Marines and the Task Force. With the added bonus that many of them likely have hostage negotiation experience from their DAS days."
Connie holds her hands up in an 'I give' gesture, laughing. "Points taken. Heaven forbid anyone would think I was using a fully armed Alliance Battlecruiser to resolve a personal issue."
<Cortex News Network>
Concern is mounting on Greenleaf today for the safety of Dr, Leigh-Anne Duckworth, head of gynaecology and paediatrics at Eden Hospital. Staff initially became worried when the doctor failed to turn up for work today, a concern that grew when a routine check on her apartment revealed signs of a break-in and struggle. Local law enforcement, according to Officer Han, 'have the matter in hand', but as yet, no information has been released either by the Eden police department or any potential kidnappers as to the doctor's whereabouts or current status.
<some while later, in orbit over Greeleaf>
Adrian looks over the reports, and clicks his tongue. "This'd be your old MO you told me about..?" He taps the page on Duckworth's picture.
Connie nods. "Slightly more complex than that. The records we think they're after are connected to me."
Adrian's brow quirks. "And the fact that we're now in orbit of Greenleaf is, of course, complete coincidence?" He doesn't expect an answer, evidently, since he picks right back up. "So, whaddya need from us?
Connie hides a smile. "My exec convinced me that an exercise for the Marines would be a good idea. I was all for a couple of days leave and a shuttle."
Adrian nods. "Any sort of exercise in mind? Us trying to toss an entire planet for one person with anything less than an entire regiment seems a little problematic... I suppose that I could set my recon platoon to work finding her, then kick a rifle platoon or two down there to pull her out..."
"First step is to sift through her apartment." Connie signs. "Recent experience suggests the local law are pretty useless. There's a lot of jungle on Greenleaf, so if they are on planet, as you say, that could be interesting."
Adrian nods. "Split the recon platoon, then; one squad sifts her place, boots in the jungle while that's going on." He strokes his chin. "While my recons are hunting, if they're worth their badges, they should go relatively unnoticed. My concern is for the sifters at your friend's place."
Adrian says, "Don't suppose there's drop pods aboard?"
Connie laughs. "You wish. Charley was planning as if there were." She chuckles. "Was planning on skipping atmo and tossing you out in the ASREV." She shrugs. "As far as sifting the place goes, I can always go in there with Lt. Darling and pull rank. They were almost pathetically grateful when we did that after the hit on the hospital."
Adrian doesn't flinch at Connie's summation of her deployment plan. Apparently, the rumors of drop pods being as dangerous to the poor git inside them as the fight they're dropping them into, aren't just rumors. "Well, we can't stay at the ass end of the logistical chain forever. I might be able to call in a few favors, see if we can get bumped up a slot or three. Doesn't help us now, though.." He shrugs. "As far as them being idiots, well.. can't put everyone through AIS. Or its law-enforcement equivalent..." He slips into the gunner's station, and the console locks down. He glares at it. "Well, screw you, too.." He looks back to Connie. "I could send the recon platoon's CO in with the sift team; he may just be a short Looey, but that oughta be more than enough Alliance Authority to get them to leave 'em be. Or, if they have any sense, sit on the sidelines and watch how to do their job."
Connie nods. "Other option is to take some of Alpha with you." A shrug. "Which part of me would rather not, as this then has to go /out/ of my command chain."
Adrian nods. "noted..."
Not particularly pleased with having his leave cut short, Lt. Darling enters the bridge from the lift and replaces the junior navigator at his post.
Adrian looks back at Darling, and cocks a brow slightly, as Connie chews over their discussion. "CDR Calhoun," he says, by way of introducing himself; clad as he is in a Marine combat/utility uniform.
Darling gives the Commander a lugubrious "Lieutenant Darling", before setting about to his morning systems reports and log entries. "I presume we are delivering you to the planet Greenleaf, Sir, or will you be attached to the Destiny for some time?"
Adrian chuckles. "Sadly not, Lieutenant; you're stuck with me until I get killed or the brass decides to swap me out for the latest model; they put me in charge of your Marine detachment." He shrugs. "Guess whoever decided to try and kick me out last time still has a bit of influence.. or people don't read their gorram personnel updates...." It doesn't *seem* like he means you...
Darling takes this in stride, rarely worrying about matters pertaining to "the cargo". Still, he does at least make an attempt at civility. "She's not a bad boat", says the navigator, refusing to call anything small than a first rate a ship. "I'm sure you'll manage, Sir. I, for one, am glad the Marines can field another officer for our Saturday hoop ball game."
Adrian smirks. "We will once I've gotten them into a condition that doesn't make me physically ill just looking at them.."
Connie frowns, retrieving a Cortex message, sighs. "Bloody useless." A nod to Darling. "Remind me, Lt., I owe you a day's leave. And probably several beers."
"Why?" chimes the Marine. "He lose a bet or somethin'?" Adrian smirks slightly, apprently keen to get in on such bets in the future...
Unusual for him, he does not turn back to look at the C.O. as he says, "Not necessary, Ma'am, I was able to log the require deep space navigation time for my transport work." He does look up at the Commander, however.
The back of Darling's head gets a withering look, and Connie sighs, pointedly. "What on earth makes you think you need /leave/ for that, Mr. Darling?" She plonks herself back in the command chair. "Alliance regs 356/1, career development. Check it out sometime." The CO's evidently been in a better mood.
Adrian gives a humorless chuff. "Yeah, see what kind of career development an infantryman has to look forward to.. Loooong ruttin' list, that.." He pops his neck, grunting with the exertion as his neck makes a very crackly symphony, and rubs the thick muscles there. "Only thing for me, really, is weapon and armor R&D. And that's just because I did O&A."
Concluding the mundane daily reporting requirements, Darling leans back in his seat and lets the senior officers talk. Short of any actual orders, he amuses himself with triple checking fuel loading calculations.
Connie dumps a virtual page on Darling's console, showing a Cortex article. "Follow up to our last visit. Evidently they didn't get what they wanted."
The new MarDet bossman appears to be trying to unlock the weapons console so he can do some work. However, the system stubbornly refuses him access. After about ten minutes of dicking with the thing, Adrian leans back, draws a breath, and looks over to Connie. "Cap, mind checking my permissions..? This console seems to think I'm one of the Pirate Commonwealth or something..." Possibly related to that discharge he seems to be mightily sore about.
Darling's focus drops to the incoming data, reading it before commenting, "Bad for her." He gives the bulletin another review. "She's upset someone... But why dispatch the Destiny for a missing persons?"
Connie sighs. "Welcome to our slightly flaky set of consoles, COmmander." She glances back at Darling. "Because I'm pretty sure the information they're looking for is something related to me, and Commander Wong concurs."
Adrian nods. "I presume that you've made a note of this issue and plan to yell at the yard about it, if you've not already done so.." He shakes his head. "Any other things you want me to get going on, Cap?"
"Been filed, Sir", says the Lt. without much tone. "I've been handling most of the yellow tags for the brigde sysemts since coming aboard. Flight deck as well." He resists the urge to buff his nails upon his breast, but manages.
Connie sighs. "Just had a report back from the local law, who claim to have found no useful evidence at the scene. From past experience and reading between the lines, that might be more accurately summed up as they didn't look very hard."
Darling says, "Do we have the required forensics facilities aboard?"
Dinger considers for a moment then replies with a shrug, "looks like we know where to send the task force then. Most, if not all of hem should have crime scene experience surely?."
Connie shakes her head. "Not last I checked." She nods to Dinger. "Except there's a chain of command issue with that. Summed up as 'I don't command Task Force Alpha'."
Still somewhat taciturn, Darling sticks to his duty, worlds away from the conversation
Dinger 'ahs' silently again, yeah, there is that issue. He doesn't know the Lt in charge of the Task Force so he can't voice an opinion on which way she might jump if asked. "I got nothing Sir," he admits, knowing that neither he nor the other engineers working on the same project have specalisiations in that area.
Adrian shrugs. "Whereas the recon platoon in my batallion, does. Or at least training. On paper.." He seems less and less certain with each point, and stops talking.
Connie allows herself a faint laugh. "That's not confidence-inspiring, Commander." She frowns, shaking her head. A deep breath. "OK. Just so we're clear on the details here, and in case anyone spots something I'm missing. Leigh-Anne had a patient a few weeks ago who came in feigning symptoms in order to steal some very specific meds..."
Darling purses his lips, "Are these meds that would match up with any known quarantines?" He blurts out the thought without any rank or formality as if the thought just forced its way out.
"Rare and expensive meds?" Dinger asks, letting his mind run with things as no one seems to be objection to his presense or input, "and do the medical records you mentioned earlier relate to the same medications?" A pause, then he adds, "is Leigh-Anne the only Doc in the area with it, was she thought to bethe easiest to rob, or was she targetted for another reason?"
Darling sighs, "Scratch that. If you're right about the real focus of the robbery, there'd be no rhyme or reason to the drugs."
Connie shakes her head to Darling. "According to Leigh-Anne, they're the kind of thing you'd take for any of a number of long-term conditions." A nod to Dinger. "And yes, they're not cheap, and I'm guessing she picked Eden because Greenleaf's a relatively laid back world and it's near the spaceport." She exhales, "So. Hospital protocol means she didn't away with the meds until Leigh-Anne got a blood sample..."
"Forgive me if you covered this while I wasn't about Sir," Dinger starts apologetically to Connie, "but how does this link with the medical records? Or are theyentirely separate? Other than that I think I'm with you so far, we just need the forensics to compare the blood sample to anything that might be found at the Doctor's apartment and hope for match, or at least a link."
Connie laughs, a touch ruefully. "Um. Yes and no. I have her records, because Leigh-Anne slipped me a copy last time we were there. Because..." A deep breath. "My DNA's a parental match. And the answer to the next question you're about to ask is no I haven't."
Darling seems a bit surprised at Connie's revelation, having assumed that command officers were just hatched. He steals a glance at the C.O., but does not hold it. It's safer just to watch the console.
Dinger almost asks on the age of the woman in question, in a sort of daughter vs sister battle of curiosity. In the end though he settles for the more generally useful, and less intrusive "we got a description?"
Adrian cocks a brow. "....Aand that would be why it's complete coincidence that we're here at all, is it Captain..?" It's a slightly concerned tone of voice he has. "And the only reason I'm not more confident in their capabilities, is that I've only just met the officers. One or two good ones, a good number of fair-to-middlin', and more than a few I wouldn't trust to tie their boots. NCO's tomorrow, and the entire batallion the next day..."
Connie nods to Dinger. "CCTV footage, in fact. Twenty, slim, long hair dyed reddish purple." She looks across at Adrian. "Had I had my way, I'd have taken a shuttle and a couple of folks I trust. Commander Wong seemed to think this was more sensible, and I'm conscious of the fact that my judgement could be seen as suspect." Pointedly. "Which is why I'm telling you this, since I've heard far too many stories of people in similar cases doing stupid things because they didn't trust anyone else with their secrets, and I don't aim to be another one."
Adrian doesn't react to this particular revelation, but after a moment, he nods. "So we can make sure you stay objective, right..?"
Darling glances at the screen, "Traffic from Paquin to..." He runs the calculations and finishes, "Silverhold"
Connie nods to Adrian. "Like I said, there is something very odd afoot here. I do not have a daughter. I think I'd have noticed."
Dinger nods once as his question is answered. With no need to look at it he merely asks, "anyone shown it to the guys working the spaceport? Someone might have seen her boarding a ship, or heading for a shuttle to somewhere." At the specific comment about a daughter he asks, "niece?"
Darling mumbles, "Clone."
Adrian's eyes look past Connie for a moment before he comes back to the here and now. "I certainly hope you'd've noticed.." He looks over to Darling with a slightly annoyed look, as though he dearly wishes to smack the old looey on the back of the head, but he resists any such urges. "Clone would be 100% match, Darling, not just a parental."
Connie shakes her head at Darling's last question. "No. Would require me to have a brother or sister." A pause, and a laugh. "But hell, once we've established one relative I don't know about... Seriously though, no. I'm told that there's a very visible difference between parental and sibling or neice/nephew matches. And as the Commander says, clone would be an exact match."
Adrian says, "Well, bar a few zygote-level mutations.."
Darling shrugs, entertaining the thought iterative errors over generations and perhaps legions of red haired warrior women. In a moment, a shudder runs through him, prompting him to return to scanning
"She left on a shuttle." Connie sighs. "But somewhere there we lose track." A pause. "However. Someone appears to want her DNA and bloodwork details. Really quite badly. Which brings us to where we are now."
Dinger is happy to take Connie's word at that, he's not a forensics expert. He's not about to ask if the CO ever donated eggs, givent hte conversation so far he's fairly certain she'd have mentioned such a thing by now if she had. "Sounds implausable I kow," he starts, stating the only remaining option he can think of, "but you don't know of any reason someone would steal your genetic material do you Sir? Forgive the expression, but you don't have any in teresting mutations or such?"
"You mean besides the red hair?" He gives Connie a friendly smirk. "If you weren't in Hudson's chain, Cap, she'd probably be flirting with you off duty."
Darling gets a look. "I get enough snark off Commander Wong, Lieutenant. And since I ruined your leave, you're due." Connie grins. "Share. I could use a laugh about now."
Darling's ears flush, "Horns and tail would have been my first response, Ma'am." He looks over the Marine Commander, at least taking the opportunity to check for a sense of humor.
Adrian cocks a brow. "You obviously haven't met some of my old CO's.."
Connie laughs. "Or mine." She hrms, thoughtful a moment. "To answer your question, Sergeant..." To Dinger. "Not that I'm aware of, unless red hair, green eyes and being left handed and afraid of heights count."
Darling catches another ship flicker on the screen, reporting "Traffic, transport, Silverhold to Paquin."
"It's a dumb question I'm aware," Dinger starts, still focusing on the pair of interlinked mysteries at hand, "but it's not a medication you need to take is it Sir?" That might go a way to explaining the attempted theft. "How widely is it available? Could we realistically wait for her to try somewhere else or is it too widely distributed?"
Connie mms. "Good question. No, I don't take it. If she wants that /specific/ one of the several dozen variants, it's not that common, I gather - certainly not over-the-counter. You're looking major hospital like Eden or Book Memorial."
<Alliance Notice to Navigators>
Duration: 72 Hours
Extension: Unlikely
Greenleaf nearspace is designated a Military Operations Area by ABS Destiny. Approach procedure Delta applies. Airspace is NOT CLOSED although all inbound ships should announce landing intent and departing ships should announce destination upon clearing orbit. Common hailing frequency of 100.00 MHz will be monitored. Your cooperation is appreciated.
