9460/A Case For Analytics

A Case For Analytics
Date of Scene:	07 October 2019
Location:	R and D Labs, The Triskelion
Synopsis:	Jemma and Fitz make connections between Hydra and a freighter heading for New York.
Cast of Characters:	Jemma Simmons, Vi, 1343 (NPC)

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Jemma Simmons has posed:
    A typical day in the R&D lab usually sees at least one of the two co-heads of the department within it at any given time. And...today is certainly a typical day. For, on this particular day, Jemma Simmons is working on an experiment. Her tablet is out, sitting upon a counter top while a set of beakers sit upon a hot plate. Eyebrows furrowed in concentration, Jemma slowly adds a transparent liquid from a slow drip valve into one of the two beakers, keeping what seems to be a green liquid warm. After a couple of drops....the liquid shifts to blue....which causes the scientist to smile.

    It seems that whatever Jemma was working on seems to have worked, at least for the moment.

    The tablet is slid to the side, as she reaches over with a thermal glove to remove the beaker from the hot plate, leaving the other one alone. Her back is to the door...but that really doesn't matter...as she seems rather engrossed in her work. A tornado could storm through and she wouldn't immediately notice.

    A short distance away are a set of computers. It would seem that Jemma's next stop would be there...once she takes care of her little chemistry set.

Vi has posed:
The door opens to admit Jemma's coworker, cohort, and probably several other types of co-'s should one think on it long enough. Fitz comes in, wearing a long sleeve knit shirt and pair of dark pants, foregoing a lab coat for now. He has a tablet in hand and is engrossed in it, not even looking up to see who is in the lab as he walks in, head down on it.

Fitz pauses, taps quickly on the tablet. "Huh," he says softly before resuming a few steps further into the room. He pauses again and taps out a few more commands. "Hmm," he says this time.

Fitz doesn't look up from the tablet, just says, "Smells like you're making progress," to the room, assuming Jemma is there. He glances up finally to look over at the experiment. "Stable?" he asks of the state of the liquid in the experiment.

Jemma Simmons has posed:
    Without turning around, Jemma answers in the affirmative. "Indeed. Maintaining the temperature of the base solution at 89 degrees centigrade allowed for the reactant to combine rather efficiently without fear of a potentially volatile interaction." Once she has the blue compound off and cooling, she turns off the hot plate on the base solution, making sure to slide her reactant drip far away before doing so. "Tricky thing. Too cold and, at best, nothing happens. Too hot and the result is not exactly favorable to us."

    In other words, they blow up. Well...maybe not completely. But Jemma doesn't bother to elaborate at the present time.

    After she puts her toys away, Jemma shifts to take in Fitz. "So, I show you mine and you show me yours?" The phrase could be taken a number of ways, but with Jemma's prim and proper British accent, it is apparent she is being perfectly innocent with the phrasing. It seems that she is interested in what is holding Fitz's attention on that tablet. It's bound to be something good.

Vi has posed:
Fitz has already looked back down to his tablet, signaling he's working on something interesting. Though it's clear he's still listening as he looks up to say, "Hmm, interesting, the long-chain polymers were even more effective at regulating the reaction than I'd have thought. Well done, Jemma," he says, giving her a bit of a smile before a beep from his tablet causes him to look back down.

Fitz wanders over towards the computers as he answers her, "I was looking for a test case that predictive machine-learing search algorithm I wrote," Fitz comments. "I pulled up a few old cases and plugged in some intel from them and let it go without constraining it greatly, just to see what resulted. And... well, look," he says.

Fitz waves his tablet towards the computer, the gesture causing his display to transfer over to it. A waveform that Jemma would recognize as being a radio transmission comes up, along with a scrambled output. "This was an encrypted Hydra transmission recorded during a mission of Captain Rogers. We never were able to break it. But when I set the search loose on it..."

Fitz taps this tablet and a graph with months at the bottom pops up. "A similar waveform was found on these dates," he says, and the graph populates showing six different incidents. "And, this is where it gets interesting," he says. A depiction of the Earth pops up and he says, "So the algorithm just started searching for other events that correlated with those 6 transmissions, and found a few possible matches," he says. They pop up on the globe. There are a half dozen of them. Unexpected changes in a stock price on two of the six occasions. Surprising vote results within British Parliament within a day. Course changes by a freighter on two occasions. And a few others. "They aren't great correlations but I thought I might cross-index them with other known Hydra activities," he says.

Jemma Simmons has posed:
    Jemma's forehead furrows as she looks over the information as it pops up on the computer monitor. Her lips pull into a slight frown, a common sign of her thinking, as she reviews the data correlations. "So....each one of these happened when this transmission was played? Can we be sure that the tranmissions and the anomolies are related?"

    Still more questions seem to come to Jemma, swimming in her thoughts. But, she holds herself back. All in due time. "You said you was going to cross-reference with other known Hydra activities. Did that present anything to go on?" Her own tablet is forgotten at the moment. The fact that there might be a link with this previously undecyphered transmission and the other events Fitz has identified has gotten Jemma excited. There might be hope to decode the transmission after all.

Vi has posed:
Fitz leans back against one of the lab counters. "We can't be sure," he confirms. "Figure the algorithm looked at billions and trillions of events based on timing. Just random chance there would be some matches. And there were more, but these were what were left after ruling out things that seemed too unlikely to have Hydra ties," he says.

Fitz taps on the tablet. "Well, one of them, this ship. The Achilles Sparo," he says, and the globe zooms in to show the ship, currently in the Atlantic, and a line tracking its path shows it made a recent U-turn. "They just made a course deviation last night, the timing of which could have coincided with some different transmissions out of Algiers," he says, where a Hydra communications relay is suspected to exist. "Though it's still not proof, it definitely raises the confidence-"

Fitz is cut off as the display shows the boat swinging around, changing course to return back to its original course. At the same time a red light flashes above the globe display. "It's the original transmission's waveform. It just was picked up 15 minutes ago, and the boat just now changed course again!" he says excitedly.

Jemma Simmons has posed:
    The slight frown shifts to a knowing smile as Jemma sees the excitement work its way out of Fitz. Then, it is back to the computer screen as Jemma reaches out to tap the display. "So, it seems to me that the best way to decypher an unbreakable code is to travel to the destination of the transmission and procure the decoder from there." It is a simple statement...but one that Jemma makes while watching Fitz directly. "After all, if we see course deviations whenever this transmission is sent, it is only logical that there is some sort of decoder aboard to facilitate translations."

    That sly little smile widens more. "And....if this is a Hydra-controlled vessel, I am suddenly extremely curious as to why this particular vessel is so important as to get direct encrypted orders."

Vi has posed:
The slender, soft-spoken Leopold Fitz gets that smile that he always does when Jemma's intellect is on display. "Yes, with three course changes for the one signal, plus another from a different suspected Hydra source, I imagine this worth acting on. This was Steve Rogers' case, I'll forward the information on to him."

Fitz has that pleased smile that Jemma will no doubt understand. That pleased rush that comes from their scientific and technical achievements. In this case pulling a few needles out of a haystack and finding they fit together.

Fitz uses his tablet and a dotted line stretches out ahead of the Achilles Sparo. "Looks like it's present course has a destination, the same as they did before the two U-turns. New York City," he says, zooming in on where the dotted line intersects the US coast.

Jemma Simmons has posed:
    "Well then. It is rather convenient that we just happen to be in New York City so we can send a proper welcome." There is even a little chuckle as Jemma flashes that smile towards Leo. "I think we should most definitely give this information to Captain Rogers and to Director May and strongly encourage the two to organize an appropriate party for the arriving freighter." Jemma taps the display lightly, right where the projected course and the coast line meet up. "I am sure they would greatly appreciate the opportunity to be on hand for the ship's arrival."

    Jemma continues onward. "I can make the arraignments with Director May and Captain Rogers if you like. You just keep tracking that vessel. I am sure that whatever is upon that ship is going to be rather intriguing for us to look into." There is a pause, then Jemma adds on with a small grin. "You are absolutely brillant, Fitz. I don't think that anyone else could have found that tie-in quicker."

    And, with that, Jemma snatches up her tablet, closing her results from her experiment as she opens up the internal email program, pulling bits of information from the computer display to her tablet...and of course crediting Leo for all of it. "One step closer to breaking the code. Isn't that exciting?"

Vi has posed:
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away on the Achilles Sparo...

Captain Johanssen sighed and shook his head as the ship finished swinging around, returning to their old course. "Let's pick up speed four knots. We can't make up for that about-face we did, but at least we won't be as late," he tells his helmsman.

"Aye, aye," the man replies, moving the throttle forward. The prop began turning faster revolutions, the heavily laden ship slowly surging forward a little faster than before. The man glanced over as the Captain headed for the door off the bridge. "Where are you going, sir?" he asks.

Captain Johanssen shook his head. "Another damn search. We might be back on course, but I was told to make doubly sure," he says. "Like there's anything to find," he says, rolling his eyes. But he's not willing to question his superior's orders. "Heil Hydra," he says.

"Heil Hydra."

And down far below decks, in a crawl space in the bulwarks of the ship, a diminutive teen huddles beneath some clothing used as a blanket, stolen from where it was left draped over a chair in the engine room. The worst of the seasickness passed. She'd felt the change in the ship's motion. Perhaps she'd have to sneak up to deck tonight and see if they were near to land again.

She had to get off this ship.