Divided Attention
Posted on 29 Jan 2025 @ 6:36pm by Commander Calliope Zahn & Senior Deputy Marshal: Sven-Erik Lofthammer - FMS
Mission:
M4 - Falling Out
Location: OC, Engineering Conference
Timeline: MD 27, 1215 hrs (During Keynote Speech)
1466 words - 2.9 OF Standard Post Measure
The opening ceremonies had so far been uneventful, at least as far as Lofthammer’s idea of eventfulness went. Some of the fleet’s foremost engineering professionals sat at the head of the room, clapping or flapping or whatever was appropriate for each of their species, as they politely welcomed the keynote speaker to the podium. Close by, Admiral Sepandiyar and Captain DeHavilland were dressed and pressed, along with other leading station personnel.
When they had been picking out their seats, Calliope had remarked to herself with a little bit of what sounded like surprise, recognizing someone named “Bowdler”, who Lofthammer assumed was one of the command uniforms beside DeHavilland, but that was the extent that he knew anything about the guy. He did notice that Commander Zayne, the station XO, was missing from the pomp show, but maybe with all the rest of the leadership attending, they had to leave someone in charge up in the CiC…
Lofthammer’s thoughts trailed away from the blahblahblah of the speaker beginning her address, his mind wandering instead to review the safety measures in place around the conference center, the surrounding decks, and the station as a whole. There were many layers of security in place, and he could see uniformed guards at their various assigned positions. The typical gold uniforms made them otherwise blend right in with the engineering personnel who made up the majority of attendees. Any event that brought so many people into one place called for additional precautions, naturally, even if it had just been a well attended game of rugby on the green outside the conference window and across the way in the environmental deck.
This one, however, happened to put a lot of eggheads in one big basket. Trade events were held all of the time around the Federation and beyond, and commonly went without any major hitches, but security breaches were often more than just ones that went off with some type of ‘bang’. There was potential for leaking sensitive information, for social infiltration, and for hacking and data theft, among other angles. Anytime things were gathered in one grand exposé for attention, it was to be expected that some of that attention just might be less than desirable.
Having come into the conference center’s main hall with Zahn, Sven let Zahn seat them, although he wasn’t particularly thrilled about her choice. Ignoring him when he’d tried to shuffle into a back row on the side, she’d strode right down the center of the room and selected a row all the way towards the front of the audience, giving him a limited view around the majority of the auditorium space, which was now largely behind him. He tapped out a pattern on the side of his glasses to use a tricorder link and extend the view with a lifesign tracker. But there were a lot of lifesigns in a wide variety of signals to select from the hundreds in attendance.
He narrowed down the species in his scan to Tellarite and Ferengi. The Tellerite he had followed in was his primary concern, but he’d also thought he’d overheard a group of Ferengi discussing technological espionage– at least that’s what it had sounded like to Sven when they said something about unethical means of acquiring technology.
He flagged them as well.
Not that he was likely to have any trouble with losing the Ferengi entourage in a crowd. They were a noisy bunch and whispered quite a bit, constantly commenting on their surroundings, the other attendees, and any idea that came to mind in the moment; one of them was continuously admonishing the rest to shut up and listen, as if directing a school group. He looked a little familiar.
Sven tapped Calli on the shoulder and whispered, “You know them?”
Being absorbed in the keynote speaker’s grand statements about the future development of thought itself being the key to unlocking as yet unimaginable fields of study, beyond even the quantum realms, possibly including layered inter-dimensional and multi-versal matrices that would unlock matters of spacial, temporal, and even biological processes that hitherto had been left only to the likes of mentalists and mystics but now they were on the very cusp of unveiling… Calliope looked slightly annoyed to have her concentration broken. “Hm?”
“The Ferengi field trippers?”
“I don’t know any of them,” she whispered quickly, having no extra attention to expend on it.
“I thought the one looked like he’s from the Promenade?”
Her eyelids fluttered momentarily, recognition coming to her. “Oh. Brek, yes. Of Timeless Treasures.”
Sven’s face screwed up slightly, trying to remember the business name before the impression of the shop front on the Promenade came up in his mental index. “The art gallery?”
“Shh. I’m trying to listen," Calli primarily mouthed the words silently.
Sven grew quiet, appearing to look intently at the speaker while really eye tracking in his lenses, the motion of his irises selecting the other lifesigns behind him. There were several Tellerites in attendance, but only one of them was seated with an Andorian. Remembering that the Tellerite who had given him trouble had been in the company of an Andorian cohort, Sven locked that life sign in his display. The Andorian too, for good measure.
All the while the Marshal tried to think what an art dealer might have an interest in an engineering conference for, and how bringing a bunch of young adult Ferengi might advance Brek’s potential interests. Sven had known more than one criminal who had used art as a front for laundering money and passing contraband or intel between various contacts. Timeless Treasures made his list of things to keep a closer eye on, going forward…
He focused back on his life sign display, hoping he had the right Tellarite. It took all of his self control not to just turn one hundred and eighty degrees in his chair and get a good visual on the Tellerite to ID him outright. He shouldn’t have stuck with Zahn, he thought, regretting being blocked into the seating right up front, and now unable to relocate without causing a stir.
Instead, he leaned back, rubbing his palms on his thighs, and whispered again. “How long is this key noting thing?” Calli didn’t answer him. Maybe she hadn’t heard. He whispered just a tad closer to her ear. “Zahn, how long is–”
“As long as it needs to be,” she said between her teeth in a sing-song whisper bordering on a threat, casting him a tiring side-glare.
After that Calliope didn’t hear another peep from Sven, who crossed his arms following her warning shot; she imagined he was maybe a little miffed that she didn’t want to engage in a game of whose-who during a proper event where she was in spitting distance of the esteemed guests, brass, and station commander. It would be a bad look to be as disruptive as the Ferengi who were seated on the far side of the same row. Of course it would be hard to outdo them in the whole enterprise of distracting noises... even when they weren’t saying something, they were shuffling around, grinding their teeth, breathing unusually heavily, or kicking their feet into one another accidentally or in retribution for having been accidentally kicked.
Meanwhile, Sven couldn’t find it: the demonstration case over which there had been all of the checking in rigamarole. It wasn’t in his passive scans. He knew it would read as a kind of dead spot in the spectra, being shielded as well as it was. Maybe it meant the case had been taken to the exhibit hall already. Sven didn’t like it being unaccounted for.
Tilting awkwardly on one ass cheek to reach the comm link padd in his side pocket, (why were auditorium seats always set so tightly together?) he texted the security staff in the exhibit hall, asking them to confirm location of the item number, and describing the unit’s exterior.
A status text ***awaiting exhibit hall team response*** flickered in the bottom rim of his shades as he tucked the device back into his belt catch.
Annoyed at being jostled with Sven’s elbow, Calli served him another side-eye, as if to ask him if he really had to be texting– Right now? Right here? In the font rows? During the keynote speech?
A hapless half shrug was all Sven could offer in response.
As she shook her head slightly with disapproval, her earrings dangled back and forth.
They were both in agreement on that point. She couldn’t take him anywhere.
