Returning to Arcadia

[Tom Servo 0]

Tom had just finished a refreshing shower, after being quietly transported back to his shuttle. He had already started his trip back to the Arcadia, when he sat down at the console, there was a very quiet piano concerto playing in the background.

 

As he got comfortable, he closed his eyes and thought about the past few weeks and refreshed his memory as to what he needed to include in his report.

 

"Computer, begin report to Starfleet Internal Security, and encrypt."

 

"On stardate 50901.05, I arrived at the Jaros, and met with the subject. After a week and a half, I was able to build enough trust with the subject to gain information from him. The attached people...", Tom paused for a second to transfer the people that M'Gaugh had mentioned to him into the report, "are alleged to be involved in the information smuggling scheme. M'Gaugh claims that information is not actually accessed at all. The memory cores are physically removed during routine maintenance, and while the core is out, the holographic patterns used to store the information is scanned and copied onto a smaller, portable memory module. Once the maintenance is complete, the accomplice that has the memory module, scans it using an offline device, and spends the time to decrypt any useful information, and discards the rest. Once enough information is compiled, or a critical piece of information is obtained, it is transferred to M'Gaugh to send to his handler. It appears that M'Gaugh is the only one that has made contact, and the only one that knows the extent of his operation.

 

"Computer, pause report." Tom stopped for a second, to gather his thoughts, as well as to take a little mental rest. He still sat, slightly slumped with his eyes closed, listening to his music, as the notes progressed he associated colours with the rising music, then as it peaked, it became more vibrant. The descending notes he often imagined being ripples in the water. He always thought to himself, music tells a story, and whenever you listen to a story, you have images in your head. For Tom, classical music without words often manifested itself in colours and shapes.

 

A few minutes passed, and Tom felt refreshed enough to continue. "Computer continue report. The subjects listed are primarily engineers, with two security engineers that were contacted if they found higher security files. All of them have contacted each other, although not directly, and they would not know each other if they were to meet in person.

 

"Once M'Gaugh had a memory module, he would break it into smaller pieces, and then piggyback them onto diplomatic transmissions that were relayed through his post to his handler. It is unknown if the diplomatic transmissions were legitimate, or merely created to allow M'Gaugh to covertly send his data.

 

"M'Gaugh claims not know his handler, but has confirmed that his handler knows that he has been apprehended.

 

"The logistics of the insertion proceeded as planned, and there were no incidents of note. The signal to Jaros' commander did not complete as smoothly as anticipated. Recommend for future missions with this commander be avoided if possible, however if necessary, to brief him more thoroughly without jeopardizing the mission.

 

"Computer. End report." Tom opened his eyes for the first time since he sat down. He checked over the console, poked a few buttons and ensured they were still on the right path back to Arcadia, then closed his eyes again.

 

"Computer, increase volume to level 8." As the music got louder, he could begin to see himself sitting in the middle of the concert hall as he travelled back to the ship.