Coming Up Empty
Posted on Sun Apr 26th, 2015 @ 12:03pm by Captain Aidan Rackham & Commander William Carver M.D. & Commander Ashley Kennedy & Lieutenant Rianna DiMarco & Lieutenant Duncan Harper & Lieutenant David Windsor & Ensign Daisy Skie-Cloud
Mission:
The Night Cries
Location: Starfleet Administration Centre, Fraser Road, Pike City
Timeline: 2278.46: 2200hrs.
Previously...
"I wish I'd had more time to learn." Aidan replied wistfully through a wry smile at Vane's joke. "You're right though- if I do half as good a job as Elsa did, I'll be doing okay. You know, I haven't even thought about the Farragut yet. I just hope she's ready to go. I might assign you and DiMarco to get up there and ensure she's ready for launch."
Vane nodded. "That's probably a good idea," he said. Part of being a Boatswain involved ensuring the hull's integrity. That, and being a voice and advocate for the enlisted. "Given that Captain Gunning was to take command though, I've little doubt the Farragut is in good standing. She wouldn't accept anything less." He paused for a moment. "Neither will you."
Rackham heard a knock at the door, presumably the first of the crew arriving back with their findings. He took a deep breath and bunched the information which he had spread out on the table into a neat pile. "Come in."
Rackham examined the faces of each of his officers in turn as they took their seats. Some seemed more chipper than others. Ensign Daisy Skie-Cloud especially, in the short time he'd known her, had never seemed anything but delighted with her lot in life.
He started at the head of the table with the- now his- Chief Surgeon. "Doctor Carver: what did the autopsy turn up?"
Carver grimmaced. "I'm not sure I found a lot to go on, I'm afraid. Time of death was about 2330 hours. The cause of death was certainly blood loss caused by the projectile wound." He shuffled through his notes as he recited. "The slug was approximately eight to ten millimeters in diameter and fired from behind her and to her left. It exited through the right side of her face. Beyond that, toxicology came back negative. There wasn't anything abnormal in her system. Despite the late hour, it had been some time since she had eaten, but I don't know if that will help us much. The only interesting bit of information was some trace amounts of radiation found in the fibers of her prosthetic leg. We couldn't identify in the lab, but Lieutenant Windsor may have more luck."
"A prosthetic?" Rackham raised an eyebrow- she had kept that quiet but it was hardly surprising. She was notorious for keeping things to herself.
"Ah, we isolated a radiation signature in the room as well," David chimed. "I'd wager it would match the frequency of that detected in the prosthetic," He said. David was surprised to hear that Gunning had had any sort of prosthesis, but it really was moot to the point at hand.
Rackham continued to make notes- he would have to remember to call on his Yeoman at some point. "Commander Kennedy?"
Ash had her rather extensive notes open on the data pad that she had on the table before her, but didn’t refer to them as she answered. “I didn’t turn up much at all from the murder weapon,” she said, looking first to Rackham and then looking around at the others as she spoke. “It was a Solkar Fabrications N-8 Carnifex semi-automatic pistol. It’s not an energy-based weapon, but a projectile weapon; a slugthrower. Not very common these days, but still manufactured in some parts of the galaxy and still used by some private security firms and criminal organisations.
“There was no meaningful evidence on the weapon at all,” she continued. “No serial number, no physical evidence. Nothing. So, I decided to check out the local private security firms on Cestus to see if any of their operators used this weapon. Three companies have branches here and none turned up any hits. One - over at Port Shangri-la - allows its operators to order exotic weapons including projectile weapons, but they have very strict rules and don’t permit anything made by Solkar.” She folded her hands in her lap and sat back slightly. “A dead end, I’m afraid.”
"That's unfortunate, but not unexpected." The Commander replied. The gun being left in the room suggested from the get-go that they wouldn't get anything off it but they had to check. That brought him to the lack of other physical evidence. "Lieutenant Windsor, Lieutenant DiMarco, what did you turn up?"
"Very little, sir. It seems as if the room was stripped clean somehow," He explained. "We found a few traces of dirt on the boots and some in the carpet as well, but it's sparse... I don't know that we'd be able to trace it at all. Perhaps, but... it's a long shot," He replied, frowning. "We were able to trace the trajectory of the shot, and determind that the shooter was somewhere between one-point-seven and one-point-nine meters tall... and that's about it." He said, sighing. "The only thing of note that we found was the radiation. DiMarco and I surmised that it may be related to what cleaned the room," He shrugged a bit, "But honestly, that is just a guess."
"To further flesh that radiation mention out-" DiMarco sat up in her chair a little as she spoke, "We checked for naturally occurring gases like radon and such. No deal. Plenty of man-made objects throw off rem. Even food and water do. It was enough to raise an eyebrow, but not enough to be anywhere near lethal."
"We'll keep it in mind though. Did your door-to-door inquiries bear any fruit?" He asked, turning to the small team who had wandered the corridors of the hotel in the morning.
Ensign Skie-Cloud looked at her Pad, "In one of the room on the same floor had a faint solvent smell to it. Like you use on machinery to clean with. Then a lady with green stuff on her face with curlers, Room next door to ... umh... where the murder took place, heard everything thinking they was having sex. She called both hotel security and the police to get them to stop. This was around midnight, cause she complained about the Room Service carts having squeaky wheels. She upset that Fleet personnel could get away with mur.. uh? stuff that regular patrons couldn't get. Like room service at all hours." She looked at her pad again. "Another lady thinks it's a Shoe Serial Killer on the loose."
"I see." Rackham replied carefully, trying to make quick notes of everything the Ensign had said and having difficulty. He underlined two words. Fleet personnel.
"Oh! There was this guy across the hall from Captain Gunning's, could see through doors as he saw me raspberry the door!" Daisy gave a soft giggle at the memory after she blurted out that tidbit with one of those big goofy ear to ear, teeth showing grins.
Duncan looked at the Commander, noticing his reaction and he felt it was time to lend a hand. "I'm still examining some of the Evidence we have collected Sir but I should have a better idea later today."
"We didn't have much more luck, I'm afraid." Rackham began their own report. "We went through hours of surveillance footage but we believe that the murderer left via one of the side entrances."
"Kennedy, DiMarco, th'Endirhc, Skie-Cloud- beam up to the ship first thing tomorrow. I want the Farragut ready to go by ten-hundred-hours on twenty-two-seventy-eight-point-four-seven." Rackham ordered. "I have been given command of the Farragut. The mission continues as planned."
Ash couldn't help but smile, but she quickly stifled it. The mission would go ahead. She didn't quite understand how or why, but she was going to take it. She swallowed her excitement and forced herself to utter a monotonous, "We'll have her ready, sir."
Carver wasn't sure what to think. He was only on this mission because Elsa had requested him. But he hadn't signed up with Starfleet just to stay at home. He knew the opportunities associated with this mission were too good to pass up.
Nodding, Rianna folded her hands across her stomach and sat back in her chair. She was itching to get her hands on the Farragut and find all the little burrs and rubs that a refit caused before it had a chance to give her a migraine. You never had a refit without problems: it was practically a known scientific law at this point. Plus, she'd rather be up on ship with busy work than feeling useless trying to come up with answers for why someone would kill Gunning. There weren't always answers for atrocities. They simply were. It was part of what made them awful.
"Okay. Be at your posts tomorrow morning at zero-six-hundred local time. Get some sleep but watch your backs." As the officers began to file out of the room he held up a finger to the Weapons Officer. "Commander Kennedy- can you hold back for a minute?"
Commander Aidan Rackham
Commanding Officer
Commander William Carver
Chief Surgeon
Lieutenant Commander Ashley Kennedy
Weapons Officer
Lieutenant Rianna DiMarco
Chief Engineer
Lieutenant David Windsor
Science Officer
Lieutenant Duncan Harper
Security Officer
Ensign Daisy Skie-Cloud
Communications Officer
