Coffee & Explosions [Slight Backpost]

Posted on Thu Jul 24th, 2025 @ 1:09am by Lieutenant JG Nayisa Wrea & Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII

Mission: Character Development
Location: Mess Hall
Timeline: Pandora's Box MD5 Evening
1522 words - 3 OF Standard Post Measure

Finn had never been one for sleep, especially not since Rondac. Her nightly routine had become a familiar one: a quiet stroll to the mess hall for coffee and a bit of late night research. The place was usually empty by this hour, and the view never disappointed. But tonight, as she slipped inside, she spotted someone else hunched over a table buried beneath an unreasonable number of PADDs. Without hesitation, she made the executive decision to replicate two cups of coffee.

"Can't sleep?" She slipped a fresh cup of coffee in front of Nayisa and sat down without asking for permission.

The mess hall had grown quiet several hours ago. Nayisa was leaning over the table, one hand tangled into her hair to support her head, and she could feel herself starting to slip when a voice snapped her back to alertness. Looking up, she saw Finn take a seat across from her.

"Understatement," she replied, accepting the coffee with a brief smile. Nayisa made no effort to clean up the table, as the chaos was part of her own investigative system. "There's so many questions surrounding the explosions earlier today, and the longer it takes to answer them the less likely we will find our culprit." She rubbed her face with her hands. "Or culprits. We don't even know how many people orchestrated this."

"Interesting you should bring that up...I was just looking into the explosions myself," she took a sip of coffee and set her PADD down on the table with a shrug. "Needed to keep my mind busy and I figured investigating explosives was a good use of my time."

The news shouldn't have surprised Nayisa. She had peeked into everyone's files at one point or another, and had read the report on the rather bold decision to drop the warp core. The interest in the explosions did surprise her, mostly because she expected the woman to be busy with other things. "Really? Maybe I can poke your brain then."

Reaching over, Nayisa grabbed one of the many PADDs and handed it to her. "Analysis results of some residue samples from some of the EV suits that made it back." While many suits had been damaged, they held a wealth of information just waiting to be analysed. "That composition doesn't seem like something I would expect from pirates."

"No," she only barely glanced at it before setting the PADD back down. She had already seen the analysis. "That composition only comes from refined work. They didn't build those themselves or buy them off the black market. Even more curious, the way they were placed? That was intentional, like setting a trap. It wasn't just some random failsafe plan. I think whoever set those knew exactly what to expect."

Nayisa nodded along, unfortunately agreeing with her. It concerned her that this felt planned, and not just the type of plan made in a day or two. This took standard Starfleet search patterns into account, which automatically elevated the threat level in her books. "Oh, this is absolutely premeditated. The placement of each one is mostly consistent with the gaps in the hull, but they are far enough away from each gap that they only could have been placed manually."

Merely for a visual aid to reference, Nayisa grabbed another PADD, a larger one that displayed the squadron's scans of the wreckage, with each explosive's approximate location as red dots. Half of them were around known critical areas -- the decided engineering section and around some of the computer nodes -- and were clearly laid out in a way to allow for an easy, albeit dramatic, escape.

"We've identified 20 so far, triangulated between sensor readings from orbit, passive and active scans from tricorders, and a linear extrapolation of reported injuries. I hate making guesses here but either someone is crazy enough to carry the equivalent of at least dozen tri-cobalt devices on their ship, or one of the other vessels must have brought in a shipment." Nayisa paused to take a sip of the coffee, looking at the diagram as if the answers would just pop out at her. "What the hell can even damage this thing's infrastructure?? The neo-whatever it's made of is meant to take a lot of damage, yet these explosions caused structural collapse in some places."

Finn nodded, taking in the new information. "Seems more likely that they carried it themselves no? I mean with the patrols and everything, would've been difficult for a separate vessel to bring it in and make the transfer. Not really my specialty though, so I'm not sure."

The silver-haired woman made a doubtful face, but then it quickly dissolved into pensive consideration. "They definitely distributed them across the ships that breached the perimeter. But they are identical composition, which means they most likely came from the same source." She briefly flashed a smile at Finn, "pyrotechnics 101 for spooks: if it looks the same, it was likely built by the same hands. The high-prize question is: who? And how did they distribute them without our sensors picking it up?"

"Now you're starting to sound like a spook," Finn chuckled. "I have no idea who or how they distribute them, that's outside of my wheelhouse. I was just investigating the makeup of the chemicals. Have you found any info on who and how yet?"

"I would love to see your results of the chemical makeup. Might prove helpful. The 'who' part is, unfortunately, still a mystery." Having what seemed like an indefinite supply to pull from, Nayisa picked another larger PADD out of the pile, placing it front and center. "The working theory, just pardon the gaps." The PADD contained a somewhat-cohesive timeline of events, and she pointed to each event in turn. "The explosives were most likely distributed to the runner ships within a 24-hour window prior to the explosions. Enough time to get them where they need to go without running the risk of the explosives being used against the supplier. Communications chatter picked up between the pirate ships increased approximately 6 hours before the explosions, likely last-minute run-throughs of the plan. The Spruance is baller for processing these data packets.

"About 30 minutes before the explosions, runner ships breach the perimeter, and we detect a bunch of transports into the wreckage. With that prior extrapolation, "she eyed the other PADD for good measure, "it seems most likely that the raiders were told to go plant the explosives somewhere after they transported. This supports the idea that this was premeditated and not raiders having a death wish. Fast forward, the explosions go off, but it takes about 10 seconds for all of them to go, which feels like some old-school detonation tech. If the detonator were modern tech, there wouldn't be this ripple-effect delay. With me so far?"

Finn took a slow sip of her coffee, eyes fixed on the PADD as she spoke. “That ten second ripple? It’s sloppy if you’re trying to be clean, but perfect if you want to be seen. Either they didn’t have access to synced detonation tech, or they chose old school for the dramatic effect. And if that’s the case, we’re not just dealing with saboteurs, we’re dealing with someone trying to make a point. Could it have been staged, like someone wanted us to piece it together?"

"Maybe?" Nayisa ran a hand through her hair. The most easily accepted reason was that they were pirates with the collective brainpower of an Earth ferret. However, that reason provided the most leeway to miss a critical detail. "It could be someone trying to make a point, it could be the tools our suspect had at the time. In either case, making an assumption here is too risky..." A quiet beep caught Nayisa's attention, and her sentence trailed off as she picked up a PADD that was sitting closer to her. She eyed the contents, then some visible tension left her shoulders. Her expression, for just a moment, showed relieved concern. "Took her long enough..." she muttered, turning off the screen and setting the PADD back down.

Finn arched a brow at the comment and the second PADD, but let it slide without a word. She wasn't one to pry into other people's business for no good reason, seeing as how she hated it when people pried into hers. Instead, she tilted her head slightly, refocusing on the conversation at hand.

“You're right. Making an assumption is too risky.” Finn tapped her fingers lightly on her mug, now mostly empty. “I'm afraid I'm out of my depth here anyway," she said with a small resigned smile before motioning towards her mug. "And I think this is my sign to head back to engineering and do something with all the caffeine I've just consumed, but if you find any more leads or think there's something I can do to help don't hesitate to ask."

Nayisa looked back to Finn and gave a tired smile. "I appreciate your help. If you think of anything else, you know how to reach me."