The Investigation (Part 2 of 4)

Posted on 16 Aug 2013 @ 9:15pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle & Lieutenant Commander Amynta Markos & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant Jared Nicholas & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Riley Cameron & Petty Officer 1st Class Siren Hex Saalm & EMH Mark X-C "Shirley" & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Alexion Wylde & Verity Thorne

2,639 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4, Sickbay/Science Lab
Timeline: MD 01 - 2315 hrs

Previously, on The Investigation (Part 1)...

Delainey followed the ACMO's gaze and took in the new arrivals from the Intelligence Department. She saw them speak briefly with Kohl and assumed by his gesture he was giving his permission for them to speak to the Venture crewmembers who were in the most alert frame of mind. Of course, Delainey knew the most alert people could be just as psychologically traumatized as those who were injured severely. Psychological injuries weren't always visible, but they were just as serious. "I see that. I'm sure they're hear to get answers. I'll make sure they aren't left too upset."

"Thank you. I know questions have to be asked but the wounds of the mind are worse than the wounds of the body. I appreciate it Doctor Carlisle. I will head back to Triage in the Cargo Bay."

Allyndra figured with the EMH being able to pop back and forth and with Lieutenant Kohl and Carlisle here she could now go back to cover that area.
She turned and headed out of sickbay, taking only the time to remove the gown, boots and gloves and make sure that her uniform underneath was still presentable.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

The doors to Sickbay slid open, but rather than more casualties being admitted, Siren Hex and her boss, Amynta Markos, walked in, clearly healthy and unharmed.

Siren paused as the doors closed behind them, folding her arms as she took a moment to just look around. She tried to hold her breath, but it didn't work for long. She couldn't avoid the potent smell of blood and burnt flesh in the room. It made her frown despite herself as she glanced to Amynta. "We should check with the Chief Doc who is up for talking out of the survivors," she said quietly, even though she knew it would be obvious to Amynta. In all honesty, it was just something to say so they weren't standing silent in Sickbay amongst the smell and the atmosphere.

Amynta glanced over at Siren for a moment before looking ahead. She took a deeper breath, giving a small nod. "I suppose so," she said and walked forward. The sound of her heels on the floor was drowned out by the noises of pain and work. Sounds she had gotten a bit too familiar with since joining Starfleet.

In his peripheral vision, Kohl caught sight of the grey-collared Intelligence officers who were darkening his doorway. Neither of them looked particularly injured, which left Kohl with questions in his mind. He made his way towards the entryway, and he gave voice to his questions. "Crewman, Lieutenant," he said with a couple of nods. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"We need to speak to the survivors," Amynta said, her voice firm as she held his eyes. "Whoever can string together a sentence will do. We need to know what happened and we need to know as quickly as possible."

Kohl nodded at Amynta's request --or was it an order?-- and he swallowed any objections he had about the rest his patients needed. Rather, he could choose patients who were most capable of answering. Casting a glance across Sickbay, and listening for the beeping from the biofunction monitors, it didn't take Kohl long to point to biobed three. "You can speak with Ensign Sendal," he said.

"Thanks," Siren nodded, watching Kohl with a slight frown. He looked tired. She knew it was a stupid observation really, as of course, he was bound to be. But it meant she didn't want to make his life any more difficult than it needed to be for the moment. She nodded to Amynta, moving close to lower her voice. "I can handle the Ensign, if you're alright with that, Chief? Means you can interview someone else, get more info as quickly as possible?" she suggested.

"Of course," Amynta said and nodded, taking a deeper breath. "I am going to go and observe. Maybe I can spot something from the murmurs of the wounded that can give us a clue," she looked at Kohl briefly, her mind remembering his file before she nodded to Siren, walking away from them.

"Aye, Lieutenant," Siren nodded firmly to her boss, her features somber as she moved over to the Ensign that Kohl had pointed out, pulling a padd free from her belt to make notes. "Ensign Sendal? I'm Crewman Hex. I know it's been a bad ride, but I need to speak to you about what happened. So we can get a picture of events."

The ensign's brown hair was a ruffled mess and he still had several scrapes and bruises present on his cheeks and neck, but he managed to stare warily at the red-haired woman who had come over to speak to him. "Okay..." he replied in a tired voice, realizing he was in no condition to protest.

Siren pulled a chair up close so she could keep her voice low, and make him relax a little more than if she was stood over him like a bad omen. "What do you remember? Of what went wrong?" she asked. It had to be such an open question as they really didn't have a starting point yet. She crossed her legs and balanced her padd on her knee ready to type on it and make notes.

Closing his eyes for a brief moment, the ensign began to recall pieces of the event which had destroyed much of his ship. "I don't know...it all happened too fast..." he shook his head then tried to elaborate. "We came under attack. It was sudden. I was down on Deck 20 doing repairs to one of the exhaust manifolds...didn't see who it was but we took damage and I hit my head on a conduit...blacked out. Next thing I know, I woke up in an escape pod."

Siren was typing as he spoke, but glanced up to watch him, taking a breath to give him a moment to gather his thoughts. "Did the red alert sound before the attack?" she asked with a slight frown. "Take your time to think it through, it might help to visualise what you were doing."

Squinting up into the bright ceiling lights above him, the gold-collared man took a second to try and remember the order of events. "After. I think. Or...maybe before...or it could have been at the same time. I can't really remember." came his unhelpful reply. "Either way, it all happened within seconds."

Siren held her breath as she noted it down, although frustrated. It would have been telling to what form the encounter had taken exactly. "And I don't suppose you know if the bridge were in any kind of communication with them at all before they fired?" she asked quietly, making sure to keep her voice level, not letting the frustration seep in. It wasn't his fault.

"The bridge?" he shook his head. "No. Like I said, I was on a different deck." Pausing to glance around again, the ensign's thoughts shifted to those who might know more about the situation. He was just as worried about the attack as his colleagues on Galileo. "Maybe the captain can tell you more? Is she here?" he asked, continuing to look around the small sickbay.

"No," Siren said quietly, looking down to the the padd with a slight frown before taking a breath and easing back to sit straighter. "And there's nothing else? Nothing else at all that you can remember, that seems important now? Take your time."

"No." he answered with a shrug. "One minute I'm doing repairs, the next I hit my head and don't remember anything except waking up in an escape pod." he reiterated. "Wasn't much chatter in the pod either...everyone was pretty quiet, sort of just in shock of what happened. Then you guys came along and now...here we are."

"Okay," Siren finished up typing the notes of the interview, taking a deep breath. Eye witness account was valuable, but in this case it seemed that there was little to go on. She stood, nodding to him with a small smile, clasping the padd to her chest. "You've been a great help, thank you. Get better, you hear."

The ensign nodded and closed his eyes. "I will," he whispered as Siren stood up, "Be careful in this nebula...apparently someone...something was out there, waiting for us. And it might still be here."


Meanwhile, across the room in sickbay...

Amynta watched the woman from where she stood. She seemed lucid. Somewhat anyway. She wasn't surrounded by medical personnel which either meant she was okay enough to be alone, or dying. She walked over to her, moving to stand by the bed. "Hello," she said as she met her eyes. "I'm Amynta Markos, I'm Intelligence. I am going to ask you some questions regarding the Venture."

Perching herself up on one good arm, the older woman rolled on to her side to face the other intelligence officer. Like many of her fellow Venture crew members, she had various cuts and scrapes visible across her neck and hands, but seemed to be in fairly decent condition. "How many of us did you save?" she asked, seemingly preoccupied with the well-being of her fellow crew members rather than the information which the woman named Amynta wanted to know.

Amynta watched her for a long moment before taking a breath. "Current count is 120 confirmed saved. Although how many lives past today is a good question. I take those that could escape did..." she held her eyes before moving to sit down, glad one of the few chairs were available. It was difficult to talk to someone in a bed when you yourself were standing. "What the hell happened?"

She adjusted herself glanced around the sickbay, taking note of the various members of her crew which were present and those which were not. This starship looked...small, judging by the compact nature of its sickbay, and hopefully the other survivors had been treated and moved to a more comfortable location. "We were in the middle of conducting long-range sensor scans of the nebula when we were attacked. Ambushed is more like it." she answered in a disapproving voice with a scowl on her face.

"Did you get any indication of what ambushed you?" Amynta asked as she watched the woman closely, to see if she had anything to hide. It was a difficult thing, really. What she saw depended on what she did.

"I can't be certain." the woman began to answer. "We abandoned ship so quickly I didn't have time to get a detailed look at the sensor readings. But..." her voice trained off as she furrowed her brow in deep thought, "I could have sworn I saw something from the escape pod window. It looked like part of a cube, but it was shimmering...and then it disappeared. Sort of like a cloak. My first thought was the Borg - they've operated in this sector of space in the past - but...Borg ship's don't cloak. Right?" she thought out loud, then shook her head in confusion. "I guess I don't know what I saw."

Amynta nodded, watching the woman for a long moment. "I think you did well to survive," she said, her voice almost gentle. "What was the atmosphere before? Did you see or hear anything that might seem odd looking back?"

Sighing then grinding her teeth, the woman proceeded to huff in obvious frustration. Yes, she had survived, but wasn't sure how many of the rest of her crew had. At the moment, her own life seemed insignificant compared to the hundreds of others on board at the time. If they had only accounted for 120 of the 300+ in the stardrive section...

"I think what I just told you was pretty odd, right?" she answered with agitation. "I'm not sure what you mean by atmosphere but everything was fine up until the attack. All systems were operating properly and there was nothing unusual on sensors. Then...well, I think you can imagine how terrifying it got when the shit hit the fan with no warning."

"The 'shit' always 'hits the fan' with someone knowing," Amynta countered, watching her. "I am just making sure that we have all the facts. And if you saw something weird before it all 'hit the fan', then maybe someone onboard the Venture was aware that it was going to happen. It is my job to discover as much information as I can. I've noted what you saw outside. I always want to know what you saw inside. It makes it easier for me to report to my Captain so that whatever happened to you won't happen to me."

"Nothing showed up on sensors except for the standard nebula interference. So...no one knew anything as far as I know. If they did, I'm sure the captain would have warned us." the woman replied, then crossed her arms and laid back on the biobed. "Where is Captain Sutherland, anyway?" she proceeded to ask, looking around the room again.

Amynta looked at her for a moment, letting out a breath. "If Captain Sutherland was here, we would most likely have more answers. As it stands, she hasn't been recovered."

Hearing the reply, the older woman stared blankly at the ceiling while contemplating deep thoughts of her family, crew members, and her captain. It was depressing to know that Sutherland was missing in action, and it caused a knot to tighten up in her stomach. She didn't turn back to the intelligence officer. She had no desire to keep answering questions, and she had told the gray-collared woman everything she knew. For now, there was nothing to do except wait on one of Galileo's biobeds until she was well enough to return to duty.

Amynta watched her, knowing that she'd get nothing more out of her. "You're alive. Don't feel guilty for that," she said firmly, almost an order, before moving away from the woman. So Borg then. She had hoped it had been simple sabotage. Borg brought other demons forth for people.

Moving over to her chief, Siren moved in close to Amynta when she'd seen that she'd finished so she could lower her voice to a whisper. "I got what I could. It all seemed to happen so fast that details are light on the ground."

Markos met her eyes, frowning as she gave a weak nod. "I've gotten some information. We should sit down and look over it, see what corresponds..."

"And get a report in to command," Siren nodded in agreement, frowning as she touched Amynta's sleeve with a shiver, moving away with her.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

CMDR Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant jg Allyndra illm Warraquim
ACMO
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Andreus Kohl
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. Cmdr. Scarlet Blake
Chief Counsellor/2XO
USS Galileo

Master Chief Petty Officer Markum Quinn
COB
USS Galileo

Lt. Amynta Markos
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

LT Delainey Carlisle
Asst. Chief Counselor
USS Galileo

LTJG Jared Nicholas
Language Specialist
USS Galileo

LT Jacob Pendleton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

CN Siren Hex
Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo
NPC'd by Scarlet Blake

WO Alexion Wylde
Medical Officer
USS Galileo
NPC'd by Scarlet Blake

PO2 Verity Thorne
Chaplain
USS Galileo
NPC'd by Scarlet Blake

WO Riley Cameron
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo
NPC'd by John Holliday

EMH Mark-X
Medical Officer
USS Galileo
NPC'd by John Holliday

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