Late Afternoon of the Dead (Zombies, Part III)

Posted on 21 Jan 2015 @ 5:01am by Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen M.D. & Commander Andreus Kohl & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Tharia sh'Kari & Senior Chief Petty Officer Keval zh'Erinov
Edited on on 21 Jan 2015 @ 11:38pm

1,443 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Episode 07 - Sojourn
Location: Starbase 84 - Deck 44, Holodeck 7
Timeline: MD 29 - 1620 hours

[ON]

The holodeck was different -- traded up from one of the few holodecks on Galileo to one of the multitude aboard Starbase 84 -- but the time and location was the same: Victorian London on Earth.

Shuffling along the back wall of the Hook and Net --a poorly-lit bar located on the wrong side of the River Thames-- Alistair Quick was moving at a cautious pace. His posture was drawn in, as if an introverted appearance would ward off attention, and yet Quick was attracting attention all the same. It wasn't the sort of attention Quick was accustomed to, when he was Andreus Kohl and living outside the holodeck, but rather it was brief looks of shock and derision. Wanting not to draw attention as an officer of the law, Quick had left his uniform tunic and helmet back in the morgue. His trousers and boots were plain enough, but his choice to move about in public in his undershirt was the problem.

Keval thought of the meeting with his ex, the feelings it had raised and he was almost able to keep his eyes off of Kohl's almost bare torso. The holographic images may have been programmed to react the way they did, but Keval was not programmed.

He managed to tear his gaze away, his antennae twitching and said, "Well I like your wardrobe choice. aren't you supposed to avoid detection not attract it?"

Sheepishly, Kohl spoke through the side of his mouth when he replied to Keval, "My research in this time period may have been a little superficial. (...Which doesn't bode well for my career as a scientist, I'll admit.) On Argelius, the people of hundreds of years ago were less bashful about the natural form."

"Well there's nothing wrong with your natural form, but they weren't as forgiving on Earth at this time."

"Evidently," Kohl remarked. He sat himself down at a table with a couple of spare chairs. "I hope," Kohl said to the man who was sitting there, "You won't take it as an intrusion if I rest my feet while you tickle your innards. I've been walking a while. Have you been here long?"


Meanwhile, at the morgue...

Dr. Carrie Ross had a good old fashioned medical mystery in front of her. She was sure that her attacker was dead before she started the autopsy, and yet somehow his corpse reanimated right there on the operating table.

"Well, this is most peculiar," she mused out loud as she tried to examine what was left of the corpse. "Outside of myths and fairy tales, barring a very unobservant doctor, I've never heard of corpses coming back to life. It's a medical impossibility."

"Of course," replied Tharia in the tone of Dick Deadeye, the victorian era detective. She had still thought this whole thing was a little silly and immature, but was doing her best to play along with this inane human distraction. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Yes, in fact there is," replied the Doctor. "I need to remove his brain. Well, what's left of it after your bullet to the head. Could you hold his head in place so I can open up his skull?"

Tharia winced slightly; the program was evidently somewhat gorier than she expected. Not that she had a weak stomach, but she didn't understand why a certain subset of humans would derive enjoyment out of watching and participating in bloody horror holograms. One would have to be quite depraved to get a kick out of programs like this or Knife VI, the latest in the all too long-running Knife series. "You're... enjoying this, aren't you, doctor?"

"Oh, of course!" exclaimed Tuula, pulling out her bone saw. "I love these kind of programs! Now, hold it steady..."


Later on, back at the Hook and Net...

In a holographic bar with holographic Victorians, Andreus Kohl fell back into his persona of social butterfly in a way he hadn't been able to manage in the real world of late. He moved from table to table, and introduced himself with as much or as little enthusiasm as he intuited his tablemates would appreciate. Applying ale didn't hurt either. He always bought a round of drinks when he crashed a new table, and he partook of the replicated-matter synthehol for himself, as well.

Kohl didn't stay at any one table for more than three minutes if the conversation dried up at the mention of the sauntering dead, which is what happened six times out of seven. Even that final conversation wasn't the figurative smoking gun Kohl had hoped for. Rather, a dock worker had spoken about a man who had consumed such quantities of alcohol that his shuffling looked more like the movements of the dead than the alive. And his description had vaguely matched that of the walking dead man from the morgue.

With a new determination in his step, Kohl strode over to the table where Keval was interviewing the locals. He leaned in close to the Andorian's left ear, and he quietly said, "Our walking dead man, or someone much like him, was seen lumbering out the back way."

Keval smiled at the teenaged girl he had been talking with. "Excuse me," he said to her, "I'll be right back."

He turned then Kohl "Let's go then."

Hurrying through the narrow hallway that led out the back way of the pub, Kohl's boots clucked against wood flooring and then clacked against the cobblestones lining the narrow alleyway outside. Across from the back door of the Hook and Net were the towering brick walls of another building, a warehouse perhaps. Light shone into the alley from the gas lamps on the street, but it was darker down the other way of the alley.

Kohl couldn't see where the darkened alley led, but he heard a something down that way. It was a rattling sound almost, it was a growl. Peering down the darkened end of the alley, Kohl dodged back to hug against the wall of the Hook and Net. Given all the syntehol he'd consumed, he swayed as he did so. Kohl glanced back to see if Keval kept close. There was a body out there in the dark. It was down on the cobblestone --looking to be missing one leg and one arm-- but it was crawling, dragging itself towards Kohl.

Keval, had indeed kept close. It was all part of the game the fun and Keval was having fun. The most fun he'd had in some time, "So what's next?" he asked.

"I think, I think this is the point where someone shouts: don't let them touch you," remarked Kohl in an even mien. He turned his head back and forth, wanting to keep an eye on the creature scrabbling towards them, but also returning his gaze to Keval's fine features. There was a falter in Kohl's voice, though, when he asked, "Are we-- uhm, would it be wrong to kill something that's ostensibly dead already?"

"Inspector Quick!" called out Tuula from the other end of the alley, with Tharia in tow. "I think I've found-- oh god, what is that!" she exclaimed, seeing the figure in the shadows writhing towards the inspector.

Sharing the gossip he'd learned in the pub, Kohl said, "Our man from the morgue was last seen back here." As the creature crawled closer still, Kohl backed away from where he was cowering. Taking Keval by the hand, Kohl pulled the Andorian with him as he ran towards Tuula and the light. "This one looks to be decomposing," Kohl said, his tone expressed all manner of alarm. "It must be suffering from the same affliction."

Keval wasn't quite sure what to make of Kohl's grabbing his hand. It was all part of the game, right? It was platonic right? Those thoughts faded from his mind as the creature rose and started moving, all too quickly towards them.

"If this disease is as contagious as I think, we're going to need to get somewhere safe." Tuula pushed herself backwards, backing away from the writhing living corpse in the alley. "And arm ourselves."


[OFF]

Inspector Alistair Quick (aka Lieutenant Commander Andreus Kohl)
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

Dr. Carrie Ross (aka Lieutenant (J.G.) Tuula Voutilainen, M.D.)
Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Dick Deadeye (aka Chief Petty Officer Tharia sh'Kari)
PNPC Jaana Voutilainen
Security Officer
USS Galileo

Jules Dickens (aka Chief Petty Officer Keval zn'Erinov)
PNPC Jared Nicholas
USS Galileo

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