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008 “ “First Day On The Job And Ready to Roll.”


“So how do you like our facilities? Not too shabby compared to MIT, I hope.”

Bobbie Case turned in her chair. She sat at a half-circle of monitors and computer stations in a decently sized room which was packed with terminals. It was designed to allow up to ten persons simultaneous access to FedNet and the far wall was entirely transparent, permitting for an amazing view on downtown San Francisco and the bay. Federation Plaza dominated the skyline, looming large like a lone man standing in a field of low grass.

The young woman smiled and took out the sucker she had in her mouth. “It’ll have to do,” she said with little shrug.

Slade frowned. “Well you know you can always go back.”

Case glanced out of the window, making an effort to look contemplative. “Nah,” she said after a moment. “I like it here.”

“Listen, I know that we’re throwing you into the deep end but the old man chose you for a reason. Your test scores were through the roof and your aptitude test showed that you can handle yourself under pressure,” Jackson Slade sounded as if trying to convince himself as he looked suspiciously at the thin stick poking out from in-between her bright red lips. “What is that?”

“Oh this?” she asked and removed the sucker. It held a brown arrow shaped sweet at its end. “Jumja stick,” she explained. “You want one? I’ve got tons.”

“I think I’ll pass on that.”

She nodded. “Good choice. They’re delicious but immensely addictive. I really need to cut down,” Case said and placed the sucker back into her mouth. She turned to her computer terminals again. “Please don’t think that I’m not grateful for this opportunity, because I really am. I just wish I could have thanked Mister Masamune some more but he was in such a hurry to leave,” she explained, managing to make herself understood perfectly even with the large piece of candy in her mouth. She obviously had plenty of experience.

“I’m sure he got the message,” Slade said and smirked, recalling the furious handshakes and hugs the youthful lady had dished out after returning to headquarters.

The blonde analyst pulled back her long hair and attached a small, disc shaped dataport to the side of her neck. It would allow her to sync with the computer faster and it also provided additional protection when diving through the sometimes dangerous world of FedNet.

Slade followed suit.

The window darkened as it turned itself into a large computer screen, displaying satellite footage of a speeding train.

Slade watched intently.

“We had full coverage of the train from the moment our people boarded it,” Bobbie explained. “Let me skip ahead to the relevant bits.”

The image shifted and zoomed closer to the train. Then Slade could see it. A black figure had appeared on top of the train. The man was moving down the roof with apparent ease.

“He’s definitely cybernized,” he observed.

The train cars disconnected leaving just one lone car in the middle. Tank appeared on the roof of the middle carriage but Slade focused on the black-clad man instead.

“Now look closely,” she said as the image zoomed closer again, making it possible to make out the man’s movements. The train car exploded, the image flickered and Black was gone.

“How does he do that?”

Case deactivated the screen and looked at him. “I don’t know but it’s pretty darn impressive. It could be that he’s hacking the satellite. I will have to pull up its programming and see if it has been tampered with. If it has perhaps I can establish a back trace.”

Slade nodded. “Get Travin Eldex to help you, he specializes in this kind of thing.”

“It still take a while.”

“What else you’ve got?”

Bobbie took out the sucker and leaned back into her chair. “I’ve looked at the witness testimonies and it looks like about six passengers have reported a small gap in their memories and a state of confusion while being on the train.”

“That would correspond with the number of people Tank and Gavin said attacked them.”

“That’s right. I want to have a closer look at their enhancers. If they have been hacked it might be possible to find evidence of that.”

Slade shook his head. “None of them have given us permission to do that.”

She stood. “What? Why not?”

“Beats me. But we can’t get into the enhancers without them allowing us to. It’d be a violation of the Privacy Act otherwise,” Slade explained. “I’ve spoken to most of them and to be honest I think some might have been using stims recently. If that’s the case obviously they wouldn’t want us to go snooping through their enhanced brains.”

“We should get a court order,” Case replied with rising excitement.

Slade gave her a smile. So young and eager but still so much to learn. “No judge in the Federation would grant us one. Not while all we have are suspicions. And quite frankly it sounds a bit ludicrous too. That some cybernized criminal could hack into a dozen people simultaneously while at the same time setting off a bomb, manipulate a secure observation satellite and escaping from two of our best trained agents.”

“It’s not impossible,” she pouted.

“You’re a cybernetics expert, Bobbie, stick to that for now and leave the investigating to the field agents, alright?” he said and walked off.

“You know I do have a Starfleet accredited advanced weapons certification,” she called after him. “I could be a field agent too,” Bobbie added more quietly.

Slade waved her a hand over his shoulder just before slipping out of the room.

One thing at the time, I guess, she thought as she shoved the miniature jumja sucker into her mouth again and plopped herself back in the chair.


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