Dead On Arrival

Posted on Thu Jul 25th, 2024 @ 7:43pm by Bones EMH Mark V & Lieutenant Junior Grade Rachel Sinclair & Captain Edmund Merrick & Lieutenant Mira Jayna
Edited on on Tue Jul 30th, 2024 @ 7:48pm

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - The Evil That Lies Beneath
Location: Sickbay - Deck 5 - USS Pioneer
Timeline: MD006 0730 hrs

Jayna was the first to enter sickbay. It not only looked deserted, it felt deserted. She looked around for someone to help them, then saw the body, still in the Suit, on a biobed.

She ran over to it and stopped, putting a hand over her mouth to keep from crying out. It was Neil's face and by the waxy look to it, he was definitely dead. She shook her head. There had to be a mistake. "No. It's not Neil. We need a doctor, or a medical tricorder." She clenched her hand into a fist to maintain control of her shaking limbs. They would figure this out, she told herself. The timing was still wrong. The timing had been wrong since Neil disappeared.

Something that Edmund, momentarily forgot was that Rowena was on her way here. "Good heavens I forgot to mention that Rowena was on her way here after I had sent the body here. I hope she didn't do anything to the body. Or the suit." He looked around " who do we call for look at the body?

That was important--and unwelcome news. "Then we need to move quickly." Since no one had come to see the body, and she heard nothing that would indicate anyone was here, she called for the EMH.

With a swirl of photons, light and motes the image of Leonard H McCoy came into view next to the bio bed in which Tremble lay. He wore the uniform of the current era. He gave a soothing and welcoming smile to Merrick and Jayna. "Now what seems to be the problem." His southern genteel accent could be heard. This EMH, Bones as he was known to the crew of the Pioneer, was every bit like the person he was modeled against.

"The body of someone who appears to be Major Cornelius Tremble is on the biobed," Jayna began. "There are circumstances that make me believe it isn't him. As part of an ongoing investigation, Captain Merrick and I need to know who it is and how he died." It was all true, and hopefully enough information for the EMH to give them the answers they needed.

"Well, first I must say that this sounds like a job for the Chief medical Officer. Secondly, why do you not believe your own eyes? This certainly appears to be the Major." Bones crossed his arms and looked at the two officers before him. There was an air of scrutiny about the EMH. "I am a doctor not a clairvoyant. So, care to tell me the whole story about what is going on."

"Two days ago, Major Tremble disappeared from the ship. The computer verified that he was not on board. Other members of the senior staff, including the chief medical officer, disappeared. If the doctor was here, I'd ask her, but she's not. The computer has reported that the major was missing before he was reported dead. There are other factors that indicate that the body on the biobed is not the major. Thus, we need to find out who that is and why they look like Major Tremble." She turned to Edmund. She was not going to argue with the EMH, but he was being unreasonable.

"With the actions of Commander McGowan, I truly do not want to leave things to chance. And as what Lieutenant Jayna has stated, this is an investigation and I really do not wish to believe what is in front of our eyes. All part of a security investigation. Never leave one stone unturned." Merrick added to further assuage the EMH.

Bones furrowed his brow and stroked his chin as he thought. He retrieved a medical tricorder and would begin an autopsy. However, he still seemed unconvinced. "What actions do you speak of Captain?" he asked Merrick. There was something going on here, and Bones did not like it. "Has Commodore Malbrooke been informed of this autopsy and all these events that you speak of?" Although he was still unsure of everything the two officers before him had said. Bones began a cursory scan as the start of the autopsy.

"He isn't acting like himself, I've been friends with him for a little bit, and his behaviour just doesn't add up. Though I am not a counselor there are still the indicators as something just doesn't seem right. Cold, withdrawn. A wall having gone up and he is rather guarded. He also seems to be a little bit paranoid. He also is a bit more aggressive in his demeanor if it seems that a person is trying to be too nosy in his business. Malbrooke hasn't swung a punch at me, yet. And all I can do at the moment is take notes and figure out what is happening." Merrick looked back at the body that Bones was working on.

Stepping into sickbay, Rachel was becoming more and more lost as for what to do. First the senior staff went missing, then the CO seemed to have gone insane and now a body has shown up. Taking a quick breath in to try and recenter herself, Rachel began to understand why some security officers drank. “I’m sorry to be abrupt Doctor, but what can you tell us”

Edmund glanced at Rachel giving her a nod of greeting then looked back towards Bones. He also looked at Jayna as well. "I will also say this, Bones, with all that is happening we need to be very certain to find out if this is truly Major Tremble or someone else."

Jayna nodded to Rachel, then turned to Edmund and the EMH. She firmly believed it was someone else, but she also needed the confirmation. Either way, they needed to know who was in the Suit.

Bones exhaled sharply through his nose. This was not exactly breathing but was more an act that the EMH did to imitate people. This was an act of frustration. He paused in his scan and appeared to be thinking, and analyzing the officers present. He did not have the full story, however, if he was to judge by the actions of those present Bones would know that something was wrong, or at the very least out of sorts. After a moment he nodded to the trio as if he was in agreement. "Computer begin recording. This is the autopsy of what appears to be Major Cornelius Tremble Executive Officer. Emergency Medical Hologram Bones presiding." He continued to speak his findings aloud for the official record, all the while he scanned the body. "Cursory scans show that the individual before me is physically the Major. However, there is a discrepancy that warrants further examination. While the individual looks like the Major, the body's mass is insufficient to be Major Tremble. To that end before an open body autopsy is performed I would like to withdraw blood to verify by DNA scan. Captain Merrick as the senior officer present, and in absentia of any next of kin. Do you consent to my removal of the deceased bodily fluid?" Bones turned to Merrick.

Edmund shot a glance towards Bones then to Jayna and Rachel then back to Bones. "Bones, I give permission to do so. " he uttered feeling hopeful that it wasn't Tremble and wondered who it was that was on the bio-bed if it weren't Neil.

Jayna remained outwardly calm, but the comment about body mass was one more reason why it could not be Neil. She did want to know who was dead, but to her it was more important to verify who it was not.

Rachel was puzzled by the discrepancy in body mass. It wasn’t like there was anything removed as far as she knew. None of this made sense to her.

"Thank you Captain. To begin we will remove the MARVEL EAS suit that the body is enclosed in." Bones spoke more for the record than for anyone else. He removed the suit piece by piece and when he was finished the complete body was revealed. It certainly looked like Major Tremble, however, where Cornelius Tremble was a broad man with the musculature you would expect from a Marine. Here there was a man who would be described as more lithe than muscular. Bones smiled as if the jig was up. "Well now you don't have to be doctor to see what happened here. Either the Major has been severely starved and dehydrated or we have someone different here. No matter we will find out in a moment." He held a hypospray to the neck of the body. "What I am going to do is withdraw some blood, run it through the computer under DNA compatibility scan. All members of the Pioneer's crew have their DNA on file. If this is the Major the computer will tell me." As soon as he finished speaking Bones withdrew a phial from the hypospray and inserted it in the medical computer.

Jayna watched intently as the knot that had been growing ever tighter relaxed. That was definitely not Neil's body. She felt lightheaded and took a slow, deep breath. Vulcans did not faint. Not even when they had confirmation that the man they loved was not lying dead on a biobed.

She moved so she could lean against the nearest biobed and watched to see what the doctor learned next.

"That most certainly is not Major Tremble." Merrick feeling rather relieved. "On this account it makes me happy." However, his expression of relief left. " I am also worried as to who is on that table." With Merrick's fondness of drawing, it had given him a keen eye as to how the body structure of people would be like. Muscle definition and such, which this physical form it wasn't matching the highly toned muscle of Tremble. However, who was on the table was waiting to be identified?

"Now that we know who it's not, the doctor will be able to identify the real victim," Jayna said. Her new concern, however, is that if Malificus killed one person, had he killed others? Would they start finding bodies around the ship? She hoped not.

Rachel gave an irritated groan followed by a sigh of resignation. While one question was answered, three more seemed to pop up every time. Right now, she was starting to wish she’d gone into engineering.

While the computer ran the analysis Bones continued with his autopsy. "Well now this is interesting. You see here..." He pointed to the readouts on the biobed. "...At the time of death, the amygdala was in overdrive. That tells me that this person was frightened. It seems that the fear center of the brain was over stimulated and this person quite literally was scared to death."

Scared to death? Jayna's thoughts flashed back to the underwater research facility--and to Malificus. She could easily see how someone might die from the horrors the entity produced. She wrapped her arms around her stomach and looked away from the body, not wanting to dwell on her own experience in that place.

"I have heard of course of the phrase scared to death. However, aside from a short entry made by The Doctor of the USS Voyager there are no cases of people being actually scared to death. I may have to write a paper on this and make further study." Bones added with a quick glance at the computer to confirm that it was still working the problem.

"I would like to read that once you are finished with your paper." Merrick responded. The one thing Edmund was worried about was the one who was laying upon that bio-bed, was it someone he knew? He mentally brushed that from his mind, there were quite a few people on this ship and he couldn't possibly know who this person was.

“Wait, how is that possible? Isn’t the fear response often followed by a spike in adrenaline?” Rachel asked as all the medical stuff went over her head.

"Yes, there is a surge of adrenaline when you're scared, but this is an extreme reaction," Jayna said. She turned to the doctor. "I would also be interested in reading that paper if you write it."

"Ensign that is a great question..." Bones was fairly impressed most young officers did not know anything medical. "The spike in adrenaline would come first. Usually when that happens the individual would respond in accordance with their fight or flight response. However, and I want you all to know that this is merely my hypothesis and not what actually happened here. Suppose one could not respond, the fight or flight response was quelled in some way. What would happen then? Well, the fear would essentially overload the brain and kill the individual. The brain would shut itself down in an effort to protect, but actually killing..." Bones' voice trailed off as the computer chime interrupted him.

"Now let’s see who is on my table." The EMH said as made his way over to the medical computer. After taking a good five minutes in silence to read the computer he smiled empathetically. "Well, I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is the DNA of this person does not match Major Cornelis Tremble. So, I can say without a doubt that this is not the Major. The bad news is the DNA matches that of Lieutenant Paul Michael, the Chief Helm Officer." Before he made an official entry into the ship's log Bones decided he would give those present a chance to respond. Perhaps they could shed some more light on this mystery.

The half-Vulcan was almost giddy with relief that the deceased was finally verified. "Do you know when he died? The last time I saw him was after a group of us had a look at the Serenity and found that the data had been wiped."

She looked to Edmund. "I wonder if he ran into the wrong person after that? Wasn't he going to look for more information?"

Edmund felt as if the wind had been knocked out of him, reaching out to steady himself, his face going rather pale. As what Jayna had mentioned, they all saw Lieutenant Michael when they were checking out the Serenity. Edmund was also getting the dreaded feeling that was staring at him, the only person who could have possibly done this was, Rowena. She after all was there under the influence of Malificus. And she or rather they were there in the marine area, the Morgue rather pleased as to proudly showing off what was made to look like Neil.

"I fear I may know who he had run into." drawing in a steadying breath. He then gave out a soft growl of frustration. "Okay, now that we know who this is, and isn't, there is another matter to attend to." He glanced at Rachel, then to Jayna. "This has to be stopped" his lips going into a thin grim line of determination.

"Sinclair, we've got to go very soon." Edmund urged Rachel then he looked at Jayna, "Keep an eye on things and keep track of Commander McGowen, just be careful." Even though he didn't outright accuse the chief of intelligence of what happened, Edmund felt that Jayna had the clues and would know where things were pointing at and he didn't like that Rowena was at the center of this, knowing that she had given out warning as to being possessed by Malificus.

"I am glad that Neil isn't dead, but, sad that Lieutenant Michael is." Merrick added.

Jayna nodded affirmative to all Edmund said. "Good luck." She hoped that they would be successful. It would be the first step in getting the ship back. One she hoped would end with finding the lost crew members.

Bones looked at the officers gathered. "Unless I am wrong. If the Commodore is no longer in command, and the Major is missing, and Lieutenant Commander McGowen is believed to have done this. Then that would leave Barr in command. I think you all need to chat with him. In the meantime, I have a log to fill out." Bones spoke matter of factly, with the no nonsense attitude that Leonard McCoy was known for. "Computer note in the log. Lieutenant Paul Michael lost in action as of this stardate."

"This I know, and thank you Bones for solving this mystery." gesturing towards the body of Paul Michael. "Sinclair? Let’s go report in to Barr." with that Merrick quickly exited Medical, it was time to get the ship out of Tyler's control.

Rachel nodded, “yes sir. Thanks, doc” she said, giving Bones a nod as she followed Merrick out of sickbay.

"Thank you, doctor," Jayna said to the EMH. He was probably not paying attention to her, but she was relieved to know who was really dead. Now she had to get back to Neil's quarters and avoid running into Rowena.

A Joint Post By
Bones (EMH Mark V)
EMH, USS Pioneer

Lieutenant Junior Grade Mira Jayna
Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer, USS Pioneer
Intelligence Liaison, The Cure

Captain Edmund Merrick
The Cure Executive Officer, USS Pioneer

Ensign Rachel Sinclair
Assistant Chief Security/Tactical Officer, USS Pioneer

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