The Other Side of the Coin

Posted on Thu Dec 8th, 2022 @ 3:08am by Lieutenant JG Nayisa Wrea
Edited on Sun Aug 6th, 2023 @ 1:54am

After a long day of processing data, Nayisa was glad to finally be in her quarters. The second the doors shut behind her, the bubbly smile faded, and she kicked off her shoes and began to remove her jacket. "Computer, begin personal log and run program Wrea-delta-five, authorization Wrea-gamma-six-one-one-theta."

The computer paused as it ran the program, then beeped when it was ready to record. Folding the jacket and setting it neatly on the edge of the desk, Nayisa sighed as she looked around the room. She didn't really keep personal possessions, so her quarters looked almost untouched. It didn't bother her, but this time it almost felt like something was missing. Whatever it was, she'd deal with it later. The computer was waiting for her to start her log.

"Whoo boy," she began, stretching her arms above her head. "It's been a wild last few months. Hell, it's been a wild last few days. I wish I could have surprised Didrea before we worked together, but with the seriousness of the Avalon mission, I guess that couldn't have been helped." She laced her fingers behind her head and shifted her weight from one foot to the other, "after years of video calls and simple letters, it's so weird finally working with her. Not in a bad way, just change of habit."

Nayisa began to pace around the room as she spoke, finding some delicate path between furniture that mimicked a river lazily bending around the surrounding terrain. It was almost a game to see how quietly she could do it and how close she could get to furniture without so much as brushing it. "Anyways, I feel bad for not telling her about the new lead. I remember the last time I made that mistake... she was sulking for several months. I have to get it off my chest, and what better way than in a log that will probably never see the light of day again?" The 'Wrea-delta-five' program, a product of her boredom one afternoon, had rotating encryption keys and three levels of security firewalls. It was tough to break and way more robust than standard encryption, so she was more confident that what she said remained truly private.

Her expression turned pensive as she recalled what she had gathered over the last two years, not that it was much to begin with. "I have reason to believe that this lead is worth exploring, and if it's meaningful then it would be the closest anyone's ever gotten to finding Wulfe. He's been a sneaky one, but even he messes up sometimes. Spike dispersed a bioweapons trade a few months ago, organized by someone matching Wulfe's description and assumed M.O., and Spike managed to collect some evidence at the scene. Processing and identifying will take a while because of the queue at the forensics office, but if it's really him then man, it would be such huge progress!"

The excitement in Nayisa's voice briefly matched her expression, then it faded as she realized there was more to it. What would her next steps be? She folded her arms in front of her chest and tapped her thumb on her chin for a few seconds before continuing the log.

"I can't just abandon my post to go after this man, but if it ends up being a match, then someone should investigate before the trail goes cold. Maybe I could convince Spike to help investigate him. At the very least, Wulfe is involved in so many shady practices that he's worth keeping on a wanted list, and he's sneaky enough that it would take more than some feet-on-desk investigator to catch him. I think he could pose a real threat if he's not dealt with. A threat to what... I have no idea, to be honest. He hides his tracks so well, I'm honestly lucky to have anything on him at all. Even guessing his intentions ends up being more speculation than evidence. I was able to get the notes from the initial investigation twelve years ago, and maybe with a little more digging I could build a report that's convincing enough to let headquarters dedicate resources to it." There was doubt in her voice, knowing that she just didn't have enough information yet to determine his threat level, let alone scrape together a report.

A frown crossed Nayisa's expression. "I doubt I'd be allowed to participate in any follow ups, though. I'm too close to it all and I probably wouldn't be able to stay objective." Her own desire to catch this man was conflicting enough, but with how close she was to Zade there was no way for her to make decisions that didn't have emotional influence behind it.

Nayisa's thoughts went back to Lieutenant Ken Mueller, the man she nicknamed Spike, and rolled her eyes. "Man, speaking of Spike... what. A. Tool. That's all I have to say about him. I say it a lot but I'm so glad I never have to work with him directly. Long distance is good enough for me. Great resource, and efficient at his job, but the dude acts like has a spanner up his butt or something."

The silver-haired woman put her hands on her hips as she paced. "For now, though, I have to focus on getting acclimated to the crew of the Athena, and I'll find some off-duty time to piece this all together. I can't be a total recluse like on the Pioneer. Well... I guess I could, but that was so boring."

She paused again, then walked to her lounge chair and plopped into it with a controlled fall, feleing the chair rock back slightly. "Computer, end encrypted log and begin decoy log." Another benefit of her program was that she could mask her logs with a decoy, that way her file wasn't a wall of 'log encrypted' printouts. As the computer worked on the request, Nayisa summoned the bubbly personality she had been using while on board.

"Changing ships is always such a fun experience! There are so many small things to explore that make the ship unique. I'm just glad I was able to explore instead of staying confined to quarters to recover from a broken leg. Man, transferring while on the tail end of medical leave is a hell of an experience. It was even weirder knowing that everyone was on shore leave... probably because I couldn't really do my normal work but I also couldn't really participate in the shore leave. I will say that I'm so glad to be done with desk duty, though."

Leaning back, Nayisa stared up at the ceiling. "Meanwhile, I met up with Didrea for the first time in, like, ever! The last time we hung out was at the Academy, which feels like it was ages ago. I found out shortly after I got my transfer orders and skimmed the personnel files. At first, I didn't believe it, but it's her. I wanted to surprise her, but the mission came first, which foiled my plans. I think she was still surprised, though, in a good way." The original plan was to sneak into her office and sit there like the villain in those old, cheesy action movies, so when the security chief entered her office she could jokingly say 'I have been expecting you.' It wasn't too bad seeing her after P'Rel told them to collaborate, but it just wasn't as fun, and the silver haired woman knew that Didrea needed more fun in her life.

"Another person I met was a guy named Sam." Nayisa couldn't help but chuckle at the memory as it came back to her. "He's cute and all, but man it's so easy to make him nervous. It's like he's never talked to women before. I feel kind of bad for him, but at the same time... I'll admit, it's kind of funny. He looked like he was going to pass out when we met for the first time! We won't talk about what happened on the bridge, though... I won't embarrass him too much in my personal logs. Maybe I'll invite him for drinks sometime. Nervous guys tend to loosen up after a few drinks, at least in my experience."

A singsong sigh escaped her lips, as if she were simultaneously relieved to get that off her chest and bored of making the log. "I guess that's it for now. Not a lot to report on since I just transferred. Maybe I'll have more gossip in a couple weeks." Unable to think of anything else, Nayisa dropped the act again and said, "Computer, apply decoy log and archive to personal file." After a moment, the computer beeped again, indicating that it was finished. Nayisa stared at the ceiling for another moment before standing to go change out of her uniform.