Babylon 5: Outrageous Fortune

[Shayuri]

"Thank you, Tarvok, we appreciate the cooperation," Ashley says warmly. "We wouldn't be disrupting your day like this unless it was very important. You can return to your duties now."

She nods at Kirth. "That's a good idea. Yaktal, lets have a look at those door access records."

 

[Dr Simon]

As Kirth and Yaktal get to work on what might be a lengthy search, Eva Gulati pops her head around the door.

"Thought you ought to know," she says. "Most of the team have arrived. I've told them what the situation is and that you might want to question them. However, two are still missing. Dr Sushar, who we knew about but I'm still getting no answer at her home, and Mriva, one of our junior researchers. No answer from either - didn't know if you wanted to check on this?"

 

[Leif]

Kirth Warren

"Your call, Ashley. What do we do now?" says Kirth. Then, thinking again, he quickly does a local area net search for Sushar and Mriva, to see if they have any recent activities on the comp net.

 

[Dr Simon]

With Yaktsal helping, Kirth's search is relatively quick and easy - neither Dr. Sushar nor Mriva have accessed the university computer system since the end of the working day yesterday.

 

[Leif]

Kirth Warren

"That strikes me as being quite strange! Were Dr. Sushar and Mriva expected to be working today? Do they ordinarily do this without accessing the computer?"

 

[Dr Simon]

"Mriva should be in," says Gulati, "and Dr. Sushar was expecting to meet you. It's not unusual that they haven't accessed the university computers since leaving yesterday. Sushar was going to be doing some work at home, and I think Mriva was going to that concert on campus last night."

Yaktal glances at Kirth.

"If we check the public areas we may even see her on the security footage," she says

 

[Leif]

Kirth Warren

"If it's not too much trouble, could you check the security footage from public areas? I'd feel better if all of us at least knew just what the missing people looked like."

 

[Dr Simon]

"I can fetch you some pictures if you like," says Gulati, but she doesn't move as Yaktal calls up the security footage on the monitors.

"The concert started at... well, call it 8pm Earth Standard, to save you dealing with Abbai time measurements. Here's the main hall, outside the auditorium..." She spools through some footage.

"Look, that's her," says Gulati. The image, when soomed, shows an Abbai female slightly shorter and broader than average. She is accompanied with a group of other Abbai females, one of which has a distinctively large and red head crest.

"So, if we have a look around 10:30pm EST..." says Yaktal. Again, she spools through footage. "Hmm.... Look at that...."

The footage shows that Mriva, her red-crested friend and two others are not leaving by the main exit, but heading off down another corridor.

Yaktal enters some more parameters.

Then Mriva and her friends travels down several corridors. They look a little shifty, and pull up the hoods of their gowns over their heads. The footage follows them through the university, right towards Sushar's lab. The last bit of footage is the doctored section. The figures that briefly flickered in the corner would seem to be Mriva and friends entering just before the camera footage is altered.

Gulati lets out her breath explosively.

 

[Leif]

Kirth Warren

"My main question," says Kirth to Ashley, "is how does this new information change the reason for and the purpose of our visit here?"

 

[Shayuri]

"It doesn't. But it gives us a place to start looking," Ashley replied. She looked at Gulati. "Has anyone tried to contact Dr Sushar or Mriva yet at their homes? Kevin, Kirth and I should visit Mriva's place, but lets call Sushar too. If there's no response there we need to get a security detail to his place and see if he's all right."