LOCATION: Deep Space 13
CLAIM: A precious item belonging to the Romulan Republic went missing in the middle of a public exhibition
DIRECTIVE: Investigate to identify the perpetrators of the theft and recover the stolen item if possible
NARRATIVE: The visiting senator Havaid tr'Mas held a fancy shindig to show off the artifact he was taking to Ch'Aehkla, something called the Signet Ring of the Ruling Queen. This item had been held in Security's custody for three days prior, and we delivered it right to the exhibition ourselves. But when the sheet was pulled off, the item was missing.
The officers on location will follow up with their own reports, and we'll be gathering testimonials from the guests at the exhibition.
RECOMMENDATION:
Collect witness testimony
Identify source of sonic pulse detected during the event
Study cyclosilicate dust found at the crime scene and compare to scans taken of the ring when we originally took custody of it
ADDENDUM: Forensics report for the crime scene is attached. Its principal conclusions are summarized as follows:
The so-called "glitter dust" found in and around the exhibit case has been confirmed to be replicated beryllium aluminum cyclosilicate. It's a perfect match for the molecular structure of the gemstone scanned by security upon the exhibit's arrival at DS13.
However, the dust recovered after an exhaustive collection process at the crime scene only adds up to about 12% as much mass as we would expect a gem this size to have. It's listed in the cultural database at 21.4 carats (4.28g).
Traces of auric chloride were found on the inner surface of the display case and in the fibers of the cushion. These traces were degraded by exposure to the strong lights of the exhibition area, making it difficult to speculate how much was there to start with.
All the systems in the exhibit case were functioning normally throughout the exhibition and its stay in lockup. There are no logged instances of the stasis field that protected the contents going offline at any time between security's initial inspection on arrival and its delivery to the exhibition hall.
Finally, a review of the embassy deck schematics confirms that the exhibit hall and the stairwell where the hypersonic pulse was determined to originate share a ventilation system, with a relatively straight path through the ducts from one to the other.
ADDENDUM: Scans of the embassy stairwell indicate too much foot traffic to produce a reasonable list of suspects. Further scans in and around the air duct did not reveal any recent DNA traces; it's unlikely that whoever produced the pulse actually entered the duct, merely used it to convey the sound into the exhibit hall.
Per the forensics report, there's not enough dust to account for the stone having been shattered by the pulse; nor does that explain what happened to the gold ring. The presence of gold salts on the case and cushion makes me wonder about hydrochloric acid, but I didn't see any signs of acid damage, nor do I have any idea how it might have been introduced.
I've personally verified the chain of custody from the ring's arrival on the station, to the vault, and then from the vault to the exhibit hall. I've also compared the original scans I took of the ring and confirmed they match the dust found at the scene.
Someone's going to have to tell the Senator that we're still figuring out what happened to the ring, but more importantly, the one he brought on board was a fake from the start.
ADDENDUM: Per instructions from Lieutenant Commander Nim, forensics was tasked with going over replicator recycle logs in an attempt to uncover any form of device that could of emitted the short pulse mentioned prior. Nothing was found on a first look through. However, a second pass was conducted once we determined that we should also be searching for components of such devices as opposed to just the whole.
Replicator logs revealed a component of a sonic shower, an acoustic inverter, was recycled just minutes after the pulse was heard. After working with operations and engineering, four recent work orders for replacement acoustic inverters were flagged and forward to this case's attached officers for further investigation.
ADDENDUM: Tonight I met with WCDR Miral and secured permission to query the Republic's civilian and military DNA registries. The two samples collected from CENT Navaka t'Sirol's shower belong to the Centurion herself and Senator Havaid tr'Mas. If the acoustic inverter did indeed come from that shower, we can now prove that Havaid had access to it.
I've ordered 24-hour surveillance of the senator, his aide Solka t'Shal, and his ship, the SS Adeodatus. I've also received CAPT Ailes' assurance that the ship will not be allowed to leave. From this moment forward, these two are our primary suspects. We can't rule out the possibility that they may have had accomplices, however, so don't get complacent.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Finish replicator pattern buffer review
Reconstruct sonic pulse device
Determine how pulse device seemingly evaporated the whole ring
Trace the origin of all pieces of the device back to find some concrete connection to Havaid and/or Solka
ADDENDUM: Forensics took a closer look at the tricorder scans of the signet ring taken when it was first placed in security custody. It had been bothering them that the cyclosilicate dust mass collected at the crime scene didn't add up to anywhere close to the expected mass. Except that when they did, they found that it does match the measured mass of the scanned ring, because the scanned ring was hollow. Taking that into account, the collected dust is 89% the mass of the actual ring that came onboard with the senator.
ADDENDUM: Ensign Ersa conducted a holodeck simulation to reconstruct means/method/mechanism and, if possible, motive. We didn't reach any conclusions on the latter, but we did manage to build - with parts recovered from the replicator buffer - a working (simulated) device that could generate a hypersonic pulse matching the one recorded at the scene, and confirmed it would shatter the (simulated) beryl of the ring. Artim and the computer also came up with a chemical, chlorinide, that wouldn't show up on the tricorder scan and would, when released from the hollow stone, dissolve the gold ring itself. The results of the simulation were a 98.9% match for the crime scene.
Participants in the sim: myself, Lieutenant Soryk, Sublieutenant Shiarrael t'Lhoell, and Ensigns Ersa, Norahn (Nunya) and Sorik (no relation).
ADDENDUM: Officers attempting to track down the origins of the other pieces of the sonic pulse device have come up with a possible source for three of them (the Bajoran tricorder, the diatonal amplifier, and the capacitor): Snorg's Second-Hand Salvage Emporium on deck 22. Similar or identical items were found among the stock, and when asked about the items that weren't perfect matches, the manager promised she could get them. After reviewing the bazaar security footage, we have confirmed that Solka t'Shal visited this shop on SD-96540.9. We don't have footage of the interior of the shop, and the manager was claimed to have a very poor memory for customer names and faces. She runs a cash-only franchise, of course.
ADDENDUM: Currently assembling a list of all known Syndicate operations within (total) three days travel from approximate location of Imperial ambush to DS-13, with highlights for those that might be capable of producing the forgery. Of course, always the strong probability of other bases and hideouts not known to SFI at present.
Also, for what it's worth at this point: I think the Senator had the real Signet, the Tal Shiar intercepted and took it from him, and everything since - all of this - has been him trying to cover his tracks and/or ass. If so, we can probably expect them to secretly, or maybe even openly, present it to the government of Ch'Aehkla to get them to ally ... after everyone's done dragging our names through the mud.