The Bearer of Bad News

Posted on Thu Apr 16th, 2015 @ 10:29pm by Captain Aidan Rackham & Commander William Carver M.D. & Commander Ashley Kennedy & Lieutenant Lhravitelim th'Endirhc & Lieutenant Rianna DiMarco & Lieutenant Duncan Harper & Lieutenant David Windsor & Ensign Daisy Skie-Cloud & Chief Petty Officer Edward Vane

Mission: The Night Cries
Location: Starfleet Administration Centre, Fraser Road, Pike City
Timeline: 2278.46: 0700hrs.

The call had gone out over an hour ago and Commander Aidan Rackham was waiting patiently in the cramped confines of the Starfleet Administration Centre's conference room for them to arrive.

How was he going to tell them? All of these people were here for pretty much one reason: Elsa Gunning and now Elsa Gunning was lying on a table with half of her face missing.

He worked his fingers around the pips and squeaks on his cuff, trying to slow time down by concentrating very hard on every passing second. Most of the Farragut's crew would either have been asleep or packing their belongings ready to transport up to the ship. He had called on the senior staff and they were due to arrive any time.

Daisy came scampering into the Conference room. She was carrying a Packet of Data Pads for Captain Elsa Gunning. The fleet uniform overcoat glistening from the rain still falling and her bare feet clad in sandals peeked out with each step. Her hair was a sodden mass of curls that draped her sun-darkened skin. "I hope I've come to the right room, Sir!" Seeing Rackham in the room, giving him a bright smile. "I'm supposed to turn these over to Captain Gunning. Sir's new ship, the Farragut." Holding out the Pads to him.

Rackham looked the young woman up and down a couple of times. She seemed every bit the antithesis of a Starfleet officer and yet there she was, wearing the metal pip which- someone in the bar the night before had reassured him- meant she was an Ensign. He shook off his surprise and unconsciously made a note to pull her up on her choice of footwear. "I'll take them, Ensign. Have a seat please."

Ashley Kennedy strode into the conference room in a haste. Rackham's message was completely out of the ordinary and she knew something was up. On entering, she nodded to Rackham, whose grim expression immediately suffocated any smile she might have produced. She matched his expression as her eyes passed to the other occupant of the room, who seemed a little out of place in her sandals.

William Carver backed into the room, waving and smiling at an unknown person down the hall. Despite his seemingly cheerful demeanor, he was actually a bit disappointed that he wasn't able to get any further with the receptionist, a brunette petty officer. He couldn't decide if it was because he was a superior officer, heading off world in a few hours, or the fact that it was seven in the morning. Likely his failure was a combination of all three. Turning to face the rest of the gathering of officers, he took in his surroundings. The two women in the room were going to be hard to judge, but it was easy to tell that the commander at the far side of the room was troubled about something. "Good morning," Will greeted them with a friendly tone. With the exception of the ensign, the other two officer's new scarlet uniforms were immaculate. Carver on the other hand was already testing out the casual mode with the double breasted flap open, revealing the pale green of the medical department.

DiMarco was in uniform when she arrived- which was a testament to willpower alone as she'd only fallen asleep somewhere about two hours before had. Her hair was brushed, though that was only because the massive mug of coffee grasped in her hands as if it were the holy grail had come before the brushing did. In fact, it was the only reason that she found her boots, too. The engineer gave a nod or three, but not a word as she trudged over to sink into her seat and nurse her coffee.

Duncan had barely been on the Ship and already he had been called to the Conference Room, he wasn't overly familiar with all of his new Shipmates but he was here nonetheless. He stepped inside and looked around at the assembled group of Officers and gave them a nod, "Hello everyone." He said before taking a vacant seat somewhere.

"My chrono said that we weren't supposed to begin working until eleven," Lieutenant th'Endirhc said dourly, as he made his way into the conference room last, clearly still tired and likely hungover from the night before. His uniform had clearly been thrown on in a hurry too, and the front flap was hanging open loosely, showing the yellow colour underneath.

"I'm sorry for calling on you all so early." Rackham began, his face white as a sheet. He could see them all wondering where the Captain was. Their questioning faces were completely reasonable. "I'm afraid it was completely necessary."

Daisy looked momentary puzzled as she didn't receive any summoning by him nor from the Captain Gunning, whom was still missing. Maybe it happened when she was in middle of being sent to Cestus III surface. She was new after all and was part of the skeleton crew that brought the Farragut to Cestus III and her new assignment after Captain Gunning either accepted her or rejected her.

Ash kept her mouth shut and her jaw tight as her mind started whirring with a thousand different scenarios, each more unimaginable than the last and each involving, in some way, the mission being cancelled. She didn't want the mission cancelled! This was her dream and she was literally hours away from it. Why would they cancel the mission? It was ridiculous to even contemplate, unless there had been some development. Rackham's ghostly face suggested that there was indeed a development.

Carver was a bit curious too. He had expected four more hours until shipping out, and at least two more hours of sleep. Whatever he had summoned them for better had been damn important. But he kept up the cheery facade.

Frowning over the lip of the mug, the engineer narrowed one eye slightly. Her head was still thrumming, still working to catch up with her body which at least resembled a state of sentience, but couldn't wrap around the idea of why Rackham was standing up there sweating bullets. It had to be about the mission she decided after another sip of coffee. But then why would he be telling them instead of the captain?

David had sat through enough meetings to know when the mood was bad... and this meeting... it hung like a black cloud over everyone's head. He felt a little better seeing that everyone else seemed as confused as he was. At least he wasn't completely out of the loop.

He saw no sign of Elsa, which was odd for her, but he assumed she'd left Rackham in charge while she handled something more pressing. He remembered Rackham from the Pilgrim. They'd talked on ocassion. He was a good man, David knew that much.

Duncan noticed something was unusual about this meeting. But not seeing the Captain here to meet her new officers was very strange indeed. Everybody around him looked just as confused as he was.

Rackham was struck by a sudden thought. What about the Farragut? Surely their mission couldn't go ahead, meaning that there were now five hundred unassigned Starfleet personnel roaming around Cestus with a murderer on the loose. Christ- this goes from bad to worse.

"Can we cut the suspense, Commander?" Telim said, attempting to rub the grogginess out of his eyes. "Why are we here?"

"The Captain is dead." He stated bluntly, unable to find a good way to sugar-coat it. "She was murdered in the early hours of this morning- or so the city coroner's preliminary report states."

Instinctively, Ash's hand rose up and covered her mouth which gaped open as the shock of the news struck her like a phaser blast. Dead? she thought. She can't be dead!.

"That... that's impossible..." David, said, sounding almost like he was in a daze.

Telim's face went as pale as an Aenar's in an instance, and his hangover appeared to disappear with his colour. It didn't seem possible for the Captain to be dead, but unless this was some sort of elaborate - and cruel - ruse, then he had to take what the Commander had said on faith. His antennae fell in towards the centre of his forehead, as though they had lost the will to keep themselves up.

Duncan looked at the others in disbelief. He had met Captain Gunning when he was a Cadet, his father and her knew each other from his time at Starfleet Command and she made quite the impression on Duncan during their first meeting. It was a shame that it had happened this way. She was a good officer.

Daisy had served on graveyards shift for the flight to Cestus III and had heard a lot of bad things about Captain Gunning, and very little good things. Not used to the nuances and slang of Sol-3 which could be confusing at the best of time even for a linguist. So she said the first thing that popped into her mind, thinking it was a compliment as everyone on the ship used it with emotions. "May the Sun Goddess guide the Gunning Bitch to rest in peace," Softly with respect. She bowed her head, letting her rain sodden hair that escaped the ponytail to hang freely before her and drip onto the floor. At least the weather was appropriate.

Rackham glared across the desk. It was hard to tell what the Ensign had meant by her words. Her tone was laden with deference but her words were offensive. He decided to let her lack of decorum slide- there were more important things for them to concern themselves with.

The doctor had to catch himself. As serious of a situation as this was, the ensign's words nearly caused him to burst out laughing. He regained his composure with a cough. "With all due respect, I've met the city coroner, and I wouldn't trust his report any further than I could throw him."

"Agreed." Rackham replied curtly. "Doctor, I want you to take over the autopsy from the City Coroner."

Carver almost replied "With pleasure," but realized that probably wouldn't sound right given the circumstances. Autopsies were never enjoyable, but like Rackham, he wanted to get to the bottom of this. He may not have known Gunning that personally, but she still chose him for this mission, and that met something. Instead of saying anything, he only nodded stoically.

"Has anyone sent a message to her family?" Ash asked before suddenly realising, with regret, that she had no clue about Gunning's personal life, which was probably just the way the Black Widow wanted it. "Does she even have a family?"

Rackham nodded solemnly. "A brother. I will have someone notify him but I'd rather do so with some actual facts- sometimes the truth can help the grieving process."

"Do you have the coroner's preliminary report on you?" Carver asked. "I'd like to get caught up before I head that way."

Rackham passed the data pad along the table to the Commander. "The cause of death is evident but I want to know as much as there is to know about her last few hours."

Carver grabbed the data pad off the table and started flipping through it. He agreed that the cause of death seemed pretty obvious, but there were still a lot of angles that the coroner failed to pursue. It mostly appeared that he identified the projectile entry and exit wounds, did a couple of scans, and called it a day. Will was shaking his head throughout the whole report.

Skie-Cloud hoping to get the Commander to stop glaring at her, Daisy spoke up in her soft voice, "I know this may be a matter for Security. Is there anything we should know about this case? If we're to contribute in helping to solve this case?" Eyes sparkled as she moved her fast drying hair back out of her face.

"What we know is that she was murdered in her room at the Garrioch Hotel. Shot through the back of the head with a small caliber round from a projectile weapon." Rackham looked around the table to see most of the staff feverishly noting things down on their data pads. "Evidence-wise we don't have much to go on. The murderer left the weapon and the boots they were wearing in the room next to the body so we don't even have a trail to link them to it."

"Weird.. Maybe the person forgot to put them back on after..." Daisy turning a bit pink, but bravely continued on, "...a liaison of the heart. And it didn't turn out so good or something and the partner had to leave quite suddenly. But with this weather, Why leave boots behind? I know enough to wear some sort of feet protection."

"It looks as though the murderer stepped in her blood and either put a new pair on or left without any shoes." He found himself glancing at the Communications officer and immediately shaking off the bad feeling he had. Perhaps it had more to do with the suggestion that Gunning knew her killer intimately. "Whatever they used to get rid of the evidence was very thorough."

Having finished skimming over the report, Carver looked back up at the group. He had been following along with their questions. "Were there any signs of a forced entry?"

"None in the police report but I haven't been to the crime scene myself yet." Rackham replied. "It's a civilian hotel so we can't rule out a site-to-site transport. As I say, there was no trace of any physical evidence at the crime scene so just because something wasn't found, doesn't mean we can rule it out. It's like a needle in a haystack."

Rianna was silent for several moments. She just stared over the coffee mug, processing what was being said around her and blinking owlishly. Gunning murdered.. The words just didn't fit right.. As tough an old bird as she was, DiMarco was fairly certain that there were no weak spots or way to catch her by surprise. She was smart and gutsy and brazen. Was.. The engineer sat a little straighter in her seat, setting aside the coffee which tasted a bit too bitter now. "So, wait.. we're investigating this officially? Are the locals going to just let us run around on their territory or are we doing it any ways?"

"Since the crime involved a Starfleet officer, the locals have turned over operational control of the investigation to us." Rackham confirmed, trying to make it sound like their jurisdiction actually mattered- the truth was that they'd be pursuing it one way or the other.

"DiMarco, I want you and Windsor to analyse the crime scene to see if you can reverse analyse whatever it was that covered up the physical evidence. It's not usual technology- finding that might lead us to the killer."

"I've yet to find anything that can completely hide biological evidence, sir. We'll find whatever is hiding the evidence," David said, with his trademarked confidence, casting DiMarco a grin and a nod.

"Kennedy, I want you to get to grips with the murder weapon. See if you can trace its history and find out who it belongs to."

"Aye, sir," Ash replied instantly with a curt nod before proceeding to write out a list of tasks. She was no detective, but she knew enough about weapons to get her started. But, importantly, she would be doing something tangible to help bring justice for Captain Gunning.

Rackham looked around the table at the rest of the group, having quickly put names to the faces now that the haze of shock was beginning to clear. "Lieutenants Harper and th'Endric, Ensign Skie-Cloud, I want you to go door-to-door at the hotel. See if anyone saw anything suspicious."

Daisy gave one of her bright smiles and straightened up her posture. "Aye aye, Sir Commander!" At being included in the search to bring the criminal to justice. "Will I have time to freshen up a bit?" It was drilled into her to always look her best, even when she went outside to play as a kid.

Telim shot a confused frown at the ensign's comment about freshening up, but chose not to give it one of his usual sardonic remarks. "Will do, Commander," he said, his demeanour completely serious now that he knew the situation.

"I want you all to report back here at twenty-two-hundred-hours tonight." Rackham said, partly in response and partly as a general point. "That should give you ample time to cover your assignments."

"Understood Sir, we'll get on it." Duncan responded. It was clear that a murderer was around somewhere and that they must be stopped. Somebody will pay for what has gone on.

[TAG - Harper, th'Endric, - OOC Notes: The door-to-door post will turn up the fact that there was no room service available after midnight on the night of the murder. I'm hoping that it'll be a fun post as you meet some of the characters in the hotel. Remember it's quite a posh hotel so the people won't be too dodgy.]

"Vane." Rackham regarded the Cheron carefully. "You're with me. I want to see what surveillance we can dredge up."

Vane didn't react for a moment. He had a slight smile on his face, and for a moment didn't seem to notice the staring. He blinked, and then looked at the Commander. "Me, sir?" he asked, pointing at his chest.

"Yes, you." Rackham placed his hands firmly on the surface of the table, trying to compensate for his lack of sleep if nothing else. "Are there any questions?"

Ash leaned forward, frowning. It seemed callous and selfish to be worried about it with the news of the captain's murder so fresh, but she was worried about it. Elsa Gunning had brought her and the others around this table out to the frontier for a reason that was greater than any one of them. "Commander," she said. "It may be too early to say, but will they scrap the mission?"

The thought hadn't crossed Rackham's mind but it now it hit him like a freight train. He shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. At the moment, launch is postponed until we receive further orders- as soon as I know something, I'll update you."

---

Commander Aidan Rackham
First Officer

Commander William Carver
Chief Surgeon

Lieutenant Commander Ashley Kennedy
Weapons Officer

Lieutenant Duncan Harper
Security Officer

Lieutenant David Windsor
Science Officer

Lieutenant Telim th'Endirhc
Helm Officer

Lieutenant Rianna DiMarco
Chief Engineer

Ensign Daisy Skie-Cloud
Communication Officer

Chief Petty Officer Edward Vane
Boatswain
USS Farragut