The Art of Detection..."
By: Dr. Alyssa Caitlin Northrop, Intel Officer, [PST]

Stardate: 58204.26 1420

Having grabbed a shower and a new set of clothing, Alyssa made her way to her office. There was a bit of work to do in terms of tracking down that pa'tak Birkhoff. Sitting down in her chair, she picked up a PADD and a stylus then turned on her computer terminal. It flashed to life as she sat there. Of course...she had all sorts of questions in her head....as to what she'd be able to track down in the computer, that was a different story entirely.

"Computer, pull up all Maquis Alliance files pertaining to Captured Federation Prisoner Gordon Birkhoff."

The computer beeped in acknowledgement, "Searching."

After a few minutes the computer displayed a listing of several different files. Starting with the most recent of them, she began reading. As she made her way through the files, she made notes, though she really didn't find much in terms of a lead. That was, until she happened across a file that contained the transcript from the little twit's interrogation back on Qul Tuq.

Alyssa made a quick note of it, then finished reading the other files. They didn't particularly help. She leaned back in the chair and thought over the information she currently had. Apparently Gordon Birkhoff had been a Computer Tech back on Earth whom the Federation has simply drafted into service and made the CSO on the Lynx. Although, she found it very interesting that Mr. Birkhoff had been aboard one of the ships sent to capture a freighter of refugees that contained one Dr. Paul Sparrow. According to the Qul Tuq transcript, Birkhoff knew Sparrow professionally and wanted to defect so that he could work with him again. This suggested that Mr. Birkhoff had other connections because that was just too damned coincidental. Apparently this particular bit had been ignored since Dr. Sparrow had been in a coma at the time and unable to verify the statement.

Picking the stylus up again, she made a note to contact Dr. Sparrow and have a talk with Sam Carter and Melissa Jarvis. On board the ship....they had the most intereaction with him. Other than herself. Though she'd not learned anything very useful. She knew that they were trying to get the Zion to a specific set of coordinates...and that Rodgers' people would be released at that time. But beyond that, she knew nothing.

Tapping her comm badge, Northrop called the bridge, "Northrop to Ops. Would it be possible to get me a secure channel back to Qul Tuq in general and Dr. Paul Sparrow in particular?"

The unknown officer on the other end replied that it would be possible and asked her to standby. A moment later, the young man was back on the line, "Dr. Northrop....the channel is open and secured."

He signed off the line and left her to her business. "Hello....Dr. Sparrow....I'd like to ask you some questions if I could."

=TBC=