Suspicions

Lieutenant Barker entered the sickbay where the EMH was examining their new arrival. He'd already cleared the Captain and Lieutenant Toran of any effects from the theta radiation. They were all listening to the semi-conscious patient.

Chu realized that their guest was a Marine, a Captain from the discarded tunic on the floor. The marine fell back into unconsciousness and the EMH said "He needs rest Captain, I'll keep you informed of his condition."

Chu walked over to the two officers and spoke in a whisper. "Sir, can I talk to you for a moment, In private?"

Devore signaled towards the doctor's office and the three of them walked towards it. Closing and locking the door behind them, Chu began to talk, still in a whisper.

"That was a close one Captain." He said. "Captain, I'm sure that you're thinking what I'm thinking. How was the auto destruct order activated. Without the authorization from two senior officers, the main computer would not initiate the A-D. You'd have to by-pass over twenty security lockouts to gain access to the A-D subroutine."

"Actually now you come to think of it, yes that is a puzzle. With all the other problems that we were dealing with, I'd not thought about it." Toran said.

"Did ***Shadow*** make it back safely?" The Captain inquired.

"I believe he did sir. He managed to get to the transporters and interlocked it with our own so that he could get back." Chu said.

"Then I guess we should have a word with him. Let's see if he can shed some light on what happened." The Captain said.

"I'll come with you." Toran said.

"NO. Mr. Toran you stay here and keep an eye on our guest. He's the only one who can give us any answers. Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to keep us from finding out anything about the *Utopia*. Mr. Barker, Go back to the Bridge and check the sensor logs. I'll handle this on my own." Devore said.

They all started to walk out of the sickbay, when Sierra came rushing towards the Captain.

"Are you all right ?." she said

"I'm fine. Look I've got something to do, I'll meet you later. Don't worry, I've been in tougher scrapes than this and survived." The Captain said.

Captains' Ready room - An hour later.

"OK Mr. ***Shadow*** what happened out there ?" The Captain asked.

"I got to Engineering and managed to restore partial main power. I then started to download the ship's logs. That's when all hell broke loose, the auto destruct was activated, life support totally 'crashed' and I just got out of there. I guess the Captain of the *Utopia* rigged the auto destruct so that if anyone tried to 'take' the ship. They'd be destroyed, along with anyone within four thousand kilometers of the blast. We were all lucky to survive." ***Shadow*** explained.

"I guess so, did you manage to get any of the logs downloaded before you left?" The Captain asked.

***Shadow*** looked apologetically at the Captain. "In my haste to get off the *Utopia* I left my tricorder behind. Sorry Captain"

"Maybe our guest will be able to give us some insight into what has been going on." Devore said, hopefully.

"Maybe Sir. If that's all, I'll get back to the Bridge."

"Dismissed. Mr. *** Shadow***." Devore said.

*** Shadow*** walked out of the Captain's ready room and back onto the Bridge. *I'm so good. Devore fell for that explanation hook, line and sinker.*