There are several factors that can complicate the search for a weird space beetle on a starship. One of them is not knowing anything about the bug, other than the fact that it somehow travels on tachyon beams and may or may not be able to phase shift either fully or partially.
Another is when all processing power for the sensors has been allocated to analysing race ship data in order to determine odds for ship-wide betting rings.
“Are you serious?” Burgundy asked lieutenant Karien when he found out. “Is this even legal?” he forgot to add “ma’am”, but Karien was the only senior in the Science Department who didn’t go out of her way to make the ensign’s life difficult. Besides, she hated titles and ranks. She had chosen to remain in the Lone Star’s Science Department for personal reasons.
“There’s nothing illegal about math, Ensign.” she replied dryly, seemingly unaware that she was speaking in unison with Perdita’s telepathic voice inside Burgundy’s head. The prepondrian shivered and pressed a thumb against his temple. He often did just that when experiencing these uncanny-valley moments involving his gelatinous department head. Karien gave him a quizzical smile, as if she knew more about him than he did himself. Burgundy peered at her uneasily; sometimes it was hard to tell where Perdita ended and Karien began. They’d been working together for so long.
“I am under orders from the Captain to find our critter passenger,” he said sternly, almost petulantly. For a second he wasn’t sure whether he was addressing the lieutenant standing in front of him or the cube in the tank some metres away. “Surely that trumps any fun-and-games sort of usage of the sensors?”
He was surprised to see that lieutenant Karien simply laughed at his request, shook her head and walked off without answering. His surprise was eventually replaced by anger when lieutenant commander Animo’s tin-can voice echoed in his head again: You weren’t given an order, Ensign. You were issued a challenge. Good luck!
Burgundy wanted to scream and shout. He wanted to instill fear and respect in the people around him. He wanted them to feel as scared and diminished as he did. But in truth he was closer to tears than he was to any sort of authoritative expression; when he saw that some senior officers turned to him with amused smiles he grabbed a portable sensor kit and stormed off.