Second Opinion
Posted on Fri Apr 17th, 2015 @ 1:31pm by Commander William Carver M.D.
Mission:
The Night Cries
Location: Mortuary, Medical Complex, Pike City
Timeline: 2278.46: 0830hrs
Well, there she is, thought William Carver. He had just arrived at the Pike City morgue and was led by an orderly back to the observation room. The Starfleet doctor was left to his own while Doctor Elton was fetched from the hospital ward. Unlike at the senior staff meeting, Carve made sure his uniform was immaculate. Normally it wouldn’t have been a concern, but in this case he felt that Elsa deserved it. As he waited, he studied the lifeless form resting on the examining table in the room next door. Will’s interaction with Gunning had been limited, but she managed to leave an impression. He had attended to a lot of officers and enlisted crew over the years, from crewmen to even an admiral. But Elsa Gunning was one of a kind. She refused to settle for anything but the best, not just in herself, but in her crew. Will had had the pleasure, if one could call it that, of treating the Captain on a previous assignment. An unfortunate case of Rigellian fleas drove the USS Richmond to drydock. He was one of the many doctors tasked with taking care of the infestation and any infections related to it. Gunning was the executive officer at the time, and while she didn’t have any issues with the fleas, she did ask him to attend to another matter, one that she preferred not to bother her ship’s surgeon with. It was an intriguing question, and by then the reputation of the Black Widow had preceded her. How could he say no? He was not about to turn down a patient, especially not a superior officer. He learned a lot about her that day, and apparently she learned a lot about him. Enough at least to convince her to request him for this mission.
Carver was interrupted from his thoughts by the door opening behind him. He turned to see Doctor Elton shambling into the room. ‘Ahh, you m-m-m-must be Doctor C-C-C-Carver.” The disheveled man held his hand out for Will.
The Commander greeted the man in turn. “That’s right. My friends call me Will, but Doctor Carver is fine.” He didn’t give Elton much time to react to the comment before he continued. “I’ve read over your preliminary report. I understand that a complete autopsy has not yet been performed?”
“That’s correct, Doctor. The c-c-cause of d-d-d-death was pretty evident.” Elton didn’t seem too confident, but then again nothing about him really suggested confidence.
“I see. Still, I feel that there is a lot more that we don’t know about Captain Gunning’s last night alive. As you have already been informed, Commander Rackham has requested that I perform the complete autopsy.”
“Of course, Doctor. I had p-p-p-planned to do it myself after we had identified the body.”
“Well, now you don’t have to worry about it,” Carver replied bluntly. “We’re wasting time. Since I’ll need access to your equipment, I suppose you can help, but I’m taking the lead on this. Is that understood?”
“Y-y-y-yes, we are clear.” It was hard to tell if Elton was disappointed that Carver was running the autopsy, or disappointed that he still had to help.
“Then let’s get changed and get going, shall we?” After getting out of his uniform and into surgical scrubs, Carver and Elton scrubbed down and headed back to the examining room. The equipment Will had requested had already been gathered and ready for his examination. “Elton, start the recording. Acting medical examiner’s log, stardate 2278.46, 0830 hours local time. Subject is human female, age 48, positively ID’ed as Captain Elsa Gunning.” As he dictated, Carver picked up the hand scanner on the medical tricorder and started examining the wound. “Subject suffered a projectile wound, entering from the back of the neck on her left side and exiting through the face on her right cheek. The projectile shattered her mandible on the right side. The trajectory of the wound suggests that the projectile was fired from behind and to the subject’s left.”
Carver continued to scan the wound, leaning in close to get a better look at the details. “The size of the entry wound suggests a small caliber projectile, approximately 8 to 10 mm in diameter. The size of the exit wound suggests that the projectile was designed with a large exit wound in mind. Lack of metal shrapnel in the wound could mean that the projectile did not break up on impact. A hollow-tipped round is unlikely, probably a blunt round tipped projectile was used.”
Carver studied the screen on his tricorder and moved around the examining table. With Elton’s help, they rolled Gunning on her side so that he could see the entry wound for himself. “As suspected, the facial damage alone unlikely to be cause of death. The projectile appears to have pierced the right carotid artery. Scans indicate that the subject died due to blood loss, most likely due to the severing of the right carotid. Such a wound would typically result in significant hemorrhaging, and without medical attention could lead to death in a matter of minutes. Subject appears to have been dead for about nine hours. Approximate time of death to be 2330 hours local time, stardate 2278.45. There is no evidence of bruising on her face, arms or neck, so there does not appear to be signs of a struggle. It does not appear that she was assaulted prior to being shot. Lack of powder burns on the back of the neck suggests that the shooter was some distance away from the subject before discharging the weapon.”
Carver took a break from studying the wound. Over his years in medical school and his Starfleet career, he had been responsible for examining a number of dead bodies. But there was still something different about this one. This time, someone had wanted Elsa Gunning dead. She may have had a reputation as the Black Widow, but he had never heard of her having any real enemies. What did you get yourself into, Elsa? Carver thought as he prepared to move on to the next stage of the autopsy. Medical examinations were never pleasant or decent, though Will tried to give her some respect by leaving her body covered as much as possible. It wasn’t that her naked body offended Will. He was a surgeon. Even cutting into someone’s body had long since phased him. But somehow it was different with Gunning. He almost felt like he needed to respect her modesty. For now he left the sheet folded over at her waist.
“Alright, let’s take a look inside. Hand me the laser scalpel, Doctor.” Elton handed Carver the instrument and he began to cut into her chest. “Beginning incision into chest cavity now,” he continued to dictate to the recording. Long ago this process had been considerably messier. Rudimentary saws were used to cut through the bone, but only a sharp blade had been used to peel back the dermal layer. The cutting often sprayed bits of bone and blood around the examination room. Newer technology was not so barbaric. The laser scalpel was accurate enough to create a thin incision not only through the dermal layer, but on a higher setting could be used to cut through bone. This enabled 23rd century doctors to perform their jobs much more cleanly with only one tool. The only drawback was getting over the smell of burning flesh, a minor inconvenience for all the other benefit. Soon Will had cut through Gunning’s dermal layer and peeled back the flesh. Shortly after he had cut through the rib cage and removed the sternum. Next was the messiest part of the autopsy. Each of the deceased organs had to be removed, one by one, for further study. Throughout the entire process, Carver dictated to the recording what he was doing, starting with severing of the trachea and removal of the lungs. Each lung was placed in a separate container. Next went her heart, the vital pump that had gone still so many hours before. Her liver, gallbladder, and kidneys were set aside for a toxicology study. Any unknown substances that might have left the Captain drugged would need to be filtered and processed by these organs. Because she had been shot from behind, it was unlikely that she was drugged. But Carver still wanted to check. This had been, or at least was going to be, his captain, and he wasn’t going to leave any stone left unturned.
After that, the stomach was drained of acid and examined for its contents. While it might not have told them much about how she died, what she had consumed might have told them more about what she had been doing the night she died. However, examination of her stomach and intestines suggested that she had not eaten for several hours prior to the time of death, so there was not much that Carver could conclude about her whereabouts or activity prior to returning to her hotel room.
As Carver continued, he slowly made his way down Gunning’s body. Depending on who was asked, this part of the procedure could be considered even more invasive than looking at the internal organs. But thinking back on the comment the young ensign had said earlier that morning, it was something that had to be checked. “There are no signs of tearing to the subject’s vaginal tissue. Examination shows no sign of seminal fluid, and scans confirm that no DNA other than the subject’s is present.”
The physician paused a moment and considered what he had to do next. Despite already being wrist deep inside her chest and having to perform a visual inspection of her sexual organs, this was what he had been dreading the most, and what he was most glad that it was him performing the examination. Gunning was not able to protest, but even after that short time when he treated her when she was on the Richmond, Carver knew that she wouldn’t like what he had to do. “Sorry, Elsa, but I have to check.” Will pulled the sheet off of her the rest of the way, finally exposing her lower legs. Her left leg was fine, but her right leg had long since been replaced by a prosthetic.
This was the reason why she wanted him to attend to her all those years ago. The stoic and unflappable Black Widow had a secret that she never wanted to get out. Years prior when she had been fresh out of the Academy, Elsa had been involved in a training accident. An explosion had left her injured, but her right leg had been mangled beyond repair. The best course of action was to amputate it just below the knee, and replace it with a prosthetic. When Carver attended to her, she swore him to absolute secrecy. Very few actually knew of her disability. Since the artificial limb functioned nearly as well as the real thing, there was really no reason why should have felt like it would have held her back. But the proud woman considered it an embarrassment, a tarnish on her immaculate reputation. While he wanted to think that she chose him for her mission because she believed in his ability as a surgeon and as a physician, part of him wondered if it was only because he already knew her ‘dark’ secret. She made him swear to never tell a soul, and until now, he had never mentioned it. By this point, of course, Doctor Elton already knew about her leg, and there was no sense of hiding it from him. But nevertheless, Carver felt like he owed it to Elsa to keep her secret as long as possible. The only problem was that he was concerned that it could help in their investigation.
“Commander Rackham said that the murderer must have done something to clean up after himself after shooting the victim. The presumed murder weapon and the murderer’s boots were left behind. Scans did not detect any sort of residue or radiation on the boots, the weapon, or the victim’s clothing.” Carver picked up the hand scanner and waved it over the prosthetic leg. “However, Captain Gunning’s leg is made of a polymer designed to replicate the feel of a real leg as much as possible. It’s not widely used, and I know from personal experience that the subject was very private about the existence of the prosthetic. It is unlikely that the murderer knew that she had it, unless he or she was more intimately familiar with the victim. Based on other evidence, that may not have been the case.” The tricorder beeped with preliminary results. “Scans are detecting low levels of radiation, though the source is not clear. It is possible, though merely conjecture at this point, that the source of the radiation was whatever the murderer used to clean the crime scene. This low level radiation is probably retained due to the material properties of the prosthetic’s outer layer. Determination of the exact type of radiation is not known at this time. Further investigation is recommended.” Setting the tricorder aside, Carver carefully removed the artificial limb and placed it in a separate container.
With the examination of the body complete, Will closed up Gunning’s chest cavity and returned the modesty sheet to her body. The organs that had been removed, including the prosthetic leg, were prepped to be sent to the lab. Carver decided that he could trust Elton to get the specimens to the appropriate facilities. With the other doctor gone, Carver was left alone with Gunning’s body in quiet reflection. But he didn’t keep it that way. “I wish you could talk to me, Elsa,” he said to her lifeless form. “I wish you could tell me everything that happened to you last night. But hopefully your body parts speak loudly enough. I’m sorry about the leg, but it had to be done.” He paused a moment, not really sure what he should say, or if he should say anything. But he decided to leave her with one final thought. “We’ll find them, Elsa. We’ll find whoever did this to you.”
Commander William Carver M.D.
Chief Surgeon
USS Farragut
