Mere Mortals

Posted on Wed Jun 24th, 2020 @ 2:53am by Cailus Griffin & Captain Nycolas Temple & Lieutenant Krysia Kaleri-Smith & Lieutenant Alexandra Alves MD
Edited on on Fri Jul 10th, 2020 @ 5:41pm

Mission: Death in Paradise
Location: Paradise Station

ON:

Upon the discovery of another body on Paradise - this time belonging to a Starfleet Officer - Chief Katya had moved quickly to cover up the incident. She didn't want another murder tainting the reputation of her station, nor the possibility that someone had been responsible for a Federation member's death on her hands. She had so adamantly blamed the Pandora for the death of her Guard, but now the Pandora would experience the same shock and confusion from the demise of one of their own. She had invited the Captain back to the station to investigate the body and retrieve their crew member, still unsure as to what was going on.

Temple was solemn as he walked across the docking corridor to Paradise, with Lieutenants Griffin, Alves, and Kaleri. He hadn't told them as yet what Katya had revealed, his head still swimming with questions and doubts.

Krysia was surprised just how solemn Nyx was looking, Whatever it was they had been brought over to Paradise for it obviously wasn’t good and was most likely something to do with their current investigation. She had to wonder if Katya had voiced suspicions about who the murderer might be of whether something else had happened. “Captain, might I ask what it is that we’ve been summoned for?”

Alexandra felt glad that they've finally allowed them to board the station. The station stuff have finally changed their minds for the better, it seems. Finally, they'll be able to get a closer look at this matter, and hopefully, find out who or what is behind all these turmoil. At least, she hoped this was the reason why the Captain asked her to join a boarding party to Paradise, equipped with a medkit. She was curious and eager to find out what was going on, when they boarded the station.

The Security Chief, as ever, looked quite unemotional as they walked, although the briskness of his walk betrayed his disgruntlement.

As they waited for approval from Paradise to enter the station, Temple looked to the others. "Unfortunately, we have a grave mission today. Paradise Station informed me they have discovered another body. They believe him to be a Starfleet Officer from this ship. After conducting a full muster of everyone onboard the ship, we have discovered that Lieutenant Vicuno, Assistant Chief of Recreation Services, is unaccounted for. I believe he may be the deceased person, but we won't know for sure till we get there."

The CMO shook her head in disbelief. This was the worst news possible. So far, it was one murder, which was more than enough. Now it happened again, which can rule out an accident. A killer was on the loose on board the Paradise. "Merda...", she cursed in Portuguese under her nose.

“Not another one!” Krysia shook her head and sighed. “If it is the Lieutenant why would anyone want to kill a member of recreational services? It’s not like he would be privy to any important information that anyone could use.” She frowned then looked at Alexandra curiously. “Doctor is it possible for a telepath to read or get an impression from the mind of someone whose dead?” It’s not something I’ve ever done but I’m just curious if it can be done? It might give us some insight into who or what we’re up against.”

"Well, honestly, I don't know.", Alex looked at the counselor with a puzzled glance. She was not an expert on telepathy, and frankly, in her business, she was used to dead people actually being, well... dead. Reading a dead person's mind was quite out of the ordinary, at least in her field. Neverthless, she was curious. "If you think that might help us, why not?"

“To be honest I don’t know if it’s even possible.” Krysia looked at Alexandra. “I’ve only ever read the mind of a living person I’ve never tried linking to a mind that’s no longer functioning. It may just be a massive waste of time.”

Nyx could only sigh, "Let's see when we get there."

Krysia nodded. She had to admit her enthusiasm for the station was waining as well.

The group boarded the next Transport Cube and it descended through the station. The glamour and amazement of Paradise was somewhat dulled now, at least it was to Nyx. Once he had marvelled at the technical advancement of the Outpost and wanted to know more - now he only wanted to get as far away from the station as possible. He couldn't wait to get back to Federation space. The cube arrived in the bowels of Paradise, only a couple floors from the very bottom. Guards were waiting as expected, and they escorted the group through a long silver corridor. The level's temperature was cold, the air still. It was a world away from the upper floors.

Krysia zipped up her jacket a little more, it was definitely colder than she liked at this level.

The doctor has only been to the station once before, and it seemed quite different then. It was during a night out, and now it was the - literally - cold day of light, and not exactly a happy event.

After a long walk, they emerged into what appeared to be a morgue. There was a series of silver circles on the wall, running in rows of three. In the centre of the room was a large metal table. Without speaking, one of the Guards moved to a circle and pressed their hand in the middle. It turned out to be a hatch, which slid open to reveal a body inside. Silently, the body moved out of it's capsule and floated forwards, just up to the torso.

"Does this belong to you?" The Guard asked unceremoniously.

Stepping forward with the others, Nyx frowned as he peered at the body. It was definitely a humanoid male, but their skin seemed to be deeply bruised and covered by large patches of dark red spots. His face was contorted, mouth agape in a terrified scream, but the cause of their death had caused many of their features to become only just recognisable.

"It seems like Lieutenant Vicuno." Nyx muttered, looking over the corpse.

Krysia wasn’t the squeamish type but the sight of the Lieutenant’s corpse combined with morning sickness wasn’t a good combination. She turned away and took a few steps back behind the others, last thing she or anyone else needed was to be ill and contaminate the corpse.

Alexandra looked at the disfigured corpse, and quickly picked up her tricorder from the medkit. She walked closer to body, and started scanning it. Due to her profession, she learned how to detach herself from the horrfying sight, and remain calm and professional. Neverthless, she felt awful inside, not only because of the corpse, which was barely recognizable, but also because of the fact that there's been another murder, this time committed on a Starfleet officer.

Gathering her emotions Krysia took a deep breath and turned back to face where the body lay but kept her position back behind the others so she didn't have to see it again. "Do we know...what caused his death Doctor?"

"However he died, he died hard," Cailus commented quietly, twisting around to look at Vicuno squarely. "This wasn't a clean kill. He saw his attacker and had time to know what was happening. I've seen similar corpses as a result of accidental exposure to an extreme high-temperature high-pressure atmosphere. They had the same look of terror in their eyes."

"You have a good eye for medical diagnosis.", the doctor looked at Cailus with a grin, "Cause of death is indeed asphyxiation and exposure to extreme cold. Seems very likely that he was exposed to the vacuum of space." She then turned ot the Captain, "We have to take the body back to the Pandora."

While Kaleri was at the back of the room, someone was waiting in the corridor. He had made sure that the coast was clear before approaching quietly while the others where in the morgue. He concentrated as hard as he could, knowing the telepath would hear him if he thought it loud enough, 'Hey! Hey you!'

Krysia’s eyes widened as she heard a voice calling. She tried looking around without being too obvious to the guards. She concentrated hard sending a message of her own rather than speaking aloud, “Where are you?”

'Out here!' He answered. Suddenly, he popped his head in the doorway, revealing himself to be Del’al, the alien Kaleri previously encountered in Paradise's security cells. He looked around, hoping the guards hadn't spotted him, before signalling for Kaleri to follow him outside.

Making it look like she needed some fresh air Krysia stepped out of the room hoping she was about to get some information that would help them.

Meanwhile, in the morgue still, Nyx frowned as he walked around the body. "Any idea how long he had been deceased?"

"He was discovered this morning." The Guard replied with an annoyed sigh. "Our medical personnel believe he was dead a few hours."

"We'll need to take him back to our ship for full analysis." The words were coming out of Nyx's mouth with a strange formality. A death of a crew member required a set of procedures and all he could do was enact that process, as much as the gruesome death was playing on his emotions inside.

"I'd like to perform a full post-mortem examination as soon as possible.", the doctor said on a firm, but concerned voice. She was not convinced about the competence and good intentions of the station's so-called medical personnel.

"We'll arrange it." The Guard said, as if the mere acceptance of the request was a great favour.

Nyx nodded before turning back to Alves, "Doctor, have the ship beam yourself and the Lieutenant straight to the Sickbay. Let us know as soon as you have a preliminary report."

"Aye, sir.", Alex nodded firmly, determined to finally get into action and hopefully be able to find some answers, "I'll let you know what we found."

In the corridor, Del’al smiled when he saw Kaleri step outside, but he was still looking around with great hesitation. He held up a device that helped to translate his language to Federation standard. "Thank you much for helping me. The Guards release me after you said I was telling the truth."

“It was my pleasure!” Krysia smiled. “You were telling the truth snd I couldn’t let them punish you for something you weren’t guilty of.”

"I want to repay favour. I want show you what's really happening on Paradise." He said.

Without saying much else, Del’al gently grabbed Kaleri's hand and led her down the corridor. A few metres away was another morgue room, this time with a Security Seal over the doorway written in several languages, each less inviting than the last. He looked up and down the corridor before gingerly removing the cover over the access panel and getting to work. After a few moments of pulling some cords and playing with the data chips, the door slid open.

Del’al snuck into the room and indicated for Kaleri to follow him.

Following Del’al Krysia looked cautiously around hoping that she wouldn’t be caught in an area where she clearly shouldn’t be. “My people will be wondering where I am soon, the guards will start looking if we’re too long!”

The alien nodded as he turned on the lights. This morgue was much like the other, with a metal table in the middle and silver circles on the wall. Except this one had a body already out on the table. It was the deceased Guard; hence why the room had been sealed. There was a phaser wound on his chest, evident by the large scorch mark across it. Whoever had been inspecting the Guard had thoughtfully placed a medical gauze over what would have been the exposed burnt flesh, but it was also clear he had been in a fight too, with other tears and scratches across his uniform. If one had stopped to question it, it might have seemed odd that the Guard was still wearing his uniform during a post-mortem examination. That's assuming, one was ever being conducted.

“There doesn’t look like much is happening with this body” Krysia looked at Del’al curiously. “Why is he still wearing a uniform? He’s supposed to be undergoing a post mortem isn’t he?”

Del’al moved to the head of the body, which was still wearing the Guard's trademark large round silver helmet - although it was dinted and scratched too. He leaned over carefully and pushed a button on the side, and the round helmet slid away into the back of the uniform. Underneath, inexplicably, was another helmet. This one was a dark, rusty brown, with a long visor across the eye-line and a short, flat snout at the mouth. The Guard's uniform, their helmets, had never served any real purpose apart from hiding the true person underneath. Or indeed, which species was underneath.

"We call them the Monsters." Del'al spoke softly. "I believe you call them the Breen."

Krysia looked at the body in horror. “The Breen! Is every guard on this station a Breen?” She backed away from the body. “What in the hell is going on here?"

"They infected this station slowly." Del'al replied. "They took over my father's tavern, kicked us out and made it their own. I still know the back-ways and hidden spaces, so I could spy on them. That is where they plotted. One by one they became Guards. Katya wanted tough security, and they were all well-trained, so of course she hired them. They claimed to be... rogues, unaligned from the Confederacy. But it was all their plan. This one." He indicated to the body. "Was one of their leaders. He ensured only Breen became Security until they had taken over the whole station. Katya is powerless against them now. They run Paradise."

All Krys could do was listen in horror, she had to warn the Captain about this and the sooner the better.
“What about you? The younglings? Where are you in all of this?”

Del’al sighed, "I became a scavenger, trying to help those outcasted by the changes to the station. I thought... No, I knew, I would die here one day. But not any more. Look at what your people did." He smiled, a triumphant smirk. "You can kill them! They are mortal! The Monsters can fall... Yes! The Monster will fall! Tell your Captain, Kaleri, tell them the outcasts are ready to fight back. We stand with you, together we will save Paradise!"

There came a noise from the corridor and Del’al's happiness was short-lived. He immediately went back to survival mode, running over to the lights and turning them off again. He pushed Kaleri out into the corridor and allowed the door to close, hiding himself within the room. A Paradise Guard approached, looking around furiously, but with little else to question but Lieutenant Kaleri standing on her own.

"What are you doing here?!" They demanded, in that strained, auto-tuned voice.

Krysia had to think and quick! “I...I wasn’t feeling well. Seeing that body like that...” She faked still feeling nautious in hopes that it would work.

"Return to your people." He ordered, pointing back to the first room. "Now."

She nodded and quickly hurried away towards where Nyx and the others were. She couldn’t wait to get off Paradise and back to the safety of the ship. She couldn’t risk saying anything in front of the guards it would have to wait until they returned to the ship. She hoped that would be sooner rather than later.

OFF