SIM:Intelligently Analyzing

((Officer's Mess))

Pierce sat alone at a table in the far corner of the officer's mess, one which faced the window, so as to give him a nice peaceful view of the stars. Most of the time, Pierce preferred to be sitting alone. While he did enjoy being around people, at least from a distance, Pierce liked being able to sit alone with his thoughts, or in this case, his PADD and cup of tea.

It had been a few hours since his unpleasant encounter with Sherana in The Complex, so his craving for strong liquor had since past and he had now moved on to tea. He took a long satisfying sip from his cup as he read over the data he received while scanning the planet's surface. He had already made his, albeit abbreviated, report to the Captain but something nagged at him; he was missing something.

For what was now probably the tenth time, he scanned through the results of his scan, trying to find any piece of information he had missed, if only to satisfy the feeling that nagged him in his gut. He found it. It was very faint, almost indistinguishable from the background radiation and stellar dust that one might expect from a sensor scan. Luckily, Pierce was in the top 10% of his class in sensor analysis...a feat which made up for his embarassingly low grades in chemistry and biology.

What Pierce found was a warp trail but not just any warp trail, a federation warp trail. Pierce set his cup of tea down on the table and straightened up from his former leisurely posture, more than intrigued by his latest discovery. Upon further analysis he was (barely) able to determine it as the warp trail left by a danube-class runabout. Well, actually, it was either the trail left by a danube-class runabout or an Oberth-class tug and, since Pierce heard nothing abou an Oberth-class ship anywhere in the area, he confidently deduced that the trail was left by a danube runabout.

Pierce dug through some of the Apollo's old sensor logs and discovered bits and pieces, scattered throughout subspace that, when reconstructed, resembled communications protocols used by the Starfleet Marines. Now that rose more questions than Pierce would have liked to contend with. He established a subspace link with the Starfleet Intelligence Mainframe in an attempt to discover if Marines were supposed to be on that Planet. He stretched his security clearance to it's limits, running into many roadblocks on the way, but he was eventually able to determine that there were no authorized Starfleet Marine operations in this sector which meant that the marines had probably gone rogue. Not a good situation.

Frost: =/\= Frost to Ensign Pierce. =/\=

Pierce was in such deep concentration, that he nearly jumped out of his seat. But who the bloody was this "Frost" fellow? Pierce paused for a moment to think. Unless it was Commander Liam Frost, Chief of Intelligence on board the USS Apollo...

Pierce tapped his combadge immediately.

V Pierce: =/\= This is Ensign Pierce. =/\=

Frost: =/\= I figure it's about time we got you started. =/\=

Pierce quietly hoped that the amount of time he paused before answering seemed to pass faster in his head than it did in reality...he didn't want to make a bad impression on his department head already.

V Pierce: =/\= Yes, sir.=/\=

Frost: =/\= Meet me in the Dark Room. Deck ten. =/\=

V Pierce: =/\= Aye, sir. I will be there in two minutes. =/\=

Frost: [Tag]

Pierce tapped his combadge, severing the connection to Commander Frost. He got up from his table, downed the rest of his tea and made his way for the Dark Room, holding the PADD which hadn't left his grasp in over two hours.

((Timeskip - Deck 10, 1 minute and 58 seconds later))

Pierce appeared in front of the Dark Room and straightened his uniform, mentally readying himself before pressing the door chime. Once he pressed the button, he stood tall and firm, both hands behind his back, with the PADD in one, waiting for his superior to summon him inside.

Frost: [Tag]

Pierce walked into the Dark Room and scanned the room for the Commander, not taking much notice of the, admitedly impressive, Dark Room. He walked far enough into the room so as to allow to doors to close and didn't alter his stiff, rigid posture. Oddly enough, he seemed more nervous about meeting Commander Frost than he was about meeting his own Captain.

V Pierce: Ensign Vincent Pierce, reporting for duty, sir.

Pierce had to stop himself from throwing a salute, not wanting to appear to eager to please.

Frost: [Tag]

V Pierce: Thank you, sir

Pierce brought out his PADD, gesturing to Commander Frost.

V Pierce: Sir, if I may?

Frost: [Tag]

V Pierce: My scan of the surface has yielded some very interesting results. I was able to discover an, albeit faint, warp trail of what could only feasibly belong to a danube-class runabout. I also have reason to believe that one or more, likely at least three, rogue Starfleet Marines were involved with the research facility. How and what extent, I do not yet know.

Frost: [Tag]

Pierce, who was very excited as he was reporting his findings to his superior, felt his spirits drop when he heard that most of what he had just reported was already known by Commander Frost.

Frost: [Tag]

Ensign Vincent Pierce Intelligence Officer USS Apollo, NCC-71669