Zero Five Thirty
Posted on Sun Apr 12th, 2015 @ 11:47am by Captain Aidan Rackham
Mission:
The Night Cries
Location: Room 258, Gallant Star Hotel, Brooks Street, Pike City
Timeline: 2278.46: 0530hrs.
Commander Aidan Rackham awoke with a start. His eyelids were all but stuck together and he could feel the hangover looming in the background menacingly. It was only a matter of time before it kicked his arse.
He looked at the clock. Zero five thirty hours. What the hell had woken him up?
His mouth. His mouth felt like it was stuffed with cotton wool. He groped around for the glass of water which he had taken the sensible precaution of sitting by the bed. It wasn't what had stirred him.
Was it the chirrup from his communicator?
It was definitely the obnoxious source of his rousing.
Who was contacting him at five thirty in the bloody morning? If it was that pest Lieutenant Anderson from the Starfleet Administration Centre then he'd be getting a phaser muzzle in his eye. He had been all over him like a rash every day since he'd arrived. That was the problem with putting relatively low ranking officers in charge of planetary administration, the minute someone more senior turned up they were always itching to learn.
He flipped the lid up and activated the comm channel. He greeted the caller as thoroughly as he could. "Rackham."
"Commander Rackham, this is Lieutenant Anderson from Starfleet Administration in Pike City."
He had half a mind to throw the communicator against the wall and go back to sleep.
"Commander I have a call placing from the Pike City Police Department- they want to speak to you."
He racked his brains, trying desperately to remember whether he had knocked anyone out on his way home from the Brew House the night before. He was fairly sure he hadn't. "Patch them through, Lieutenant."
"Commander Rackham? This is Detective Talbot from Pike City Police Department. We've found the body of a Starfleet officer at a hotel in town and as the ranking officer planetside, we need you to come down to the mortuary to complete some paperwork and liaise with us on the investigation." The crackly voice of the police officer on the other end told him.
Elsa must have been delayed if I'm the ranking officer. Rackham thought to himself as he shoveled sleep out of his eyes. He stifled a yawn and pulled his face in an effort to freshen himself up.
The bureaucracy was pretty standard procedure. Whenever there was a crime involving a Starfleet officer the ranking officer on world was given the option to take over the investigation if there were suspicious circumstances. "Understood, Detective. Where will I find the morgue?"
"You'll find it in the medical complex, building eleven."
Rackham glanced at the map he kept on the desk so that he didn't look like such a damned tourist all the time. The medical complex was a fair distance away through the driving rain which hadn't subsided in days. "I'll take a taxi. I'll be there in twenty minutes."
Commander Aidan Rackham
Executive Officer
USS Farragut
