An EMH Bearing Bad News

Posted on Tue 29th Oct, 2019 @ 11:59pm by Lieutenant Damion Ildaran & Elizabeth Anderson M.D.
Edited on on Sun 3rd Nov, 2019 @ 8:27am

1,515 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: A Diplomatic Affair
Location: Elizabeth Anderson's Apartment
Timeline: MD-11, 18i15

Previously, in our story ... Damion slapped a hand down on the table, hard. "Elizabeth! You're an EMH and a trained counselor. Look at me! Do I look or sound like I'm bloody lying to you?"

And now we continue ....

"Damion, who are you? Setting aside whatever is between us, who are you? You're an intelligence officer, you talked to me about undercover jobs. What you do every day ... isn't that living a lie? As much as I care about you, as much time as we've spent together ... how would I know if you're lying? You're good at what you do, and it could be part of your job to keep this so deeply under wraps that not even those closest to you, which I think I am, can know.

"Originally, you talked to me about the woman you captured," she reminded him. "You've been strangely silent about her since. How do I know what safeguards have been put in place, what your orders are? I'm going to warn you about your admiral, and then we'll talk of other things ... whatever you wanted to talk with me about earlier.

"You be careful dealing with Dobbs. He's more than an admiral, even if he's retired. He's evil at it's worst, and whatever he's doing will sicken you to your soul. I don't know what it is. I only know what he's done in the past. So, ... I've had my say, and you've been warned. I'd really like it if we don't end tonight the way we ended last night, but that's for your say."

"Is that what it was all about yesterday--the secrets I have to keep for my job--and the fact that I have to keep secrets?" Damion thought for a moment as understanding dawned.

"All right, that explains a lot," he said, calmer. "I was pretty upset yesterday at the thought that you didn't trust me. I had thought trust was the basis of everything between us, and realizing that that wasn't so for you and that I had some concerns about you in return was, well, shattering. I will think about all of that. We can talk about it--because the way we ended last night--I was not happy, and I dinnae think you were, either."

"Now, this Admiral Dobbs. You keep telling me he's evil. Why do you say that? What do you base it on? The man, so far as I know, is highly regarded. What did he do, and why would you connect him with the woman I took to lunch the other day? No one in my department has even brought him up, and believe me, if they thought he was as evil as you say and connected to the situation, they would have said something."

"Yesterday was about a lot of things, but it was yesterday," Elizabeth said. "As for Dobbs, ... if I were human, you'd call it intuition, but, as you pointed out, I'm not. My database and the computers that run this entire starbase are interconnected. There are files I don't access because there's no need to know what's in them. There are others which are locked down tightly enough that I have no access, but those are few. Some I don't access because if it's labeled for high security clearance, I stay out, in general," Elizabeth explained, as she began eating. She didn't say she never read his files. It was part of the trust she had of him, which he doubted now, but she also didn't want to know things he didn't want to tell her ... and she realized his job required secrets.

"Quite a while ago, I came across some files which seemed to be in the wrong place. They were medical files, but they were ... hmmm, squirreled away?" She glanced at Damion to see if he understood what she meant. "You know, hidden in an illogical place, where one might or might not find them again. I meant to simply route them to the other medical files, but it spoke of something called "49-Alpha," and I wasn't sure what that was. I looked to see if it was a special project which should have been filed with other special projects."

Taking a sip of water, Anderson considered how much to say. She could look at the information with bare logic sensors. Damion could not. Hesitantly, she asked, "Have you ever heard of it?"

Watching her eat, Damion belatedly remembered the lasagna. He cut and scooped out a square for himself and put it on his plate, then added a helping of salad and dressing. The air filled with steam smelling of thick meat sauce seasoned with oregano, and rich, creamy ricotta filling. Damion sighed appreciatively. "This smells wonderful."

She smiled at him faintly. "Tastes even better. Grandma used to make it just like this." She winked at him.

Damion smiled back at the joke. He ate a bite of lasagna and thought about the phrase '49-Alpha.' At last, he shook his head. "I'm drawing a blank. It sounds a bit like an architectural planning code--so when you plan the layout of a building, you know what's to go where." He shrugged. "But really, it could be anything. It could be the code-name for an intelligence operation, the name of a military installation, a number code, God knows what. But you say these were medical files? Those would be arranged by medical records number, wouldn't they? And they're usually a string of digits, not a simple code like 49A. So they're not related to patients in the infirmary, I take it."

"Not the infirmary, Sickbay, a civilian clinic anywhere. I'm not sure what the A is about, but the 49 refers to a deck, I think. I've actually been down there, walked around. I can't find anything that is labelled 49-A, nor can I find anything that has to do with medicine. It's mostly enlisted quarters. That's not too surprising, because what was done there was - had to be - a secret. I'm not going into detail, but people had experiments performed on them that were science gone barbaric and ... Damion, the only word I know is evil." She put her fork down and clenched her hands in her lap.

Looking directly at him, she said, "I want you to promise me that if his name comes up anywhere, you will slowly back away from it. Take a thousand precautions before you ever go near this man. And don't go alone, take an army. He is NOT some benign retired admiral. I don't know what he's doing now, but I think your Zelda might have a clue." She shook her head, "No, I don't have any proof of any of it. All I have is a lot of lines of connection, far too many to be coincidence. Just promise me you'll be careful."

"Experiments?" Damion's gaze went shuttered for a moment, and then he looked back at Elizabeth. "What kind of experiments? Because, you see, I'm looking for a sick blaggard--a dangerous, vile person no end of smart, someone I think has murdered people or ordered them murdered. And proof, my arse. Where there's that much smoke--your lines of connection--there's bound to be fire somewhere. What did you find?"

Elizabeth still hesitated. Then she put her napkin on the table and got up to retrieve a PADD with a red cover. "This isn't connected to any system. It's where I download things I don't want to lose ... or to keep in an accessible part of my own database. Anyone searching me won't find much of what I've discovered. There's a file here - an autopsy report on three of the bodies that came out of 49 Alpha. It isn't bedtime reading, or dinnertime, either. Your description matches, in a mild way, what this says. Do you have a secure device with you?"

An autopsy report--for three people. Damion stared at Elizabeth, feeling tension knot in his gut. "In a mild way?" He reached across the table and grasped the hand Elizabeth wasn't using to hold the PADD. "I've not got a secure device with me; I only had thoughts of seeing you this evening. Good God, Elizabeth, why didn't you say something? I'd have come over to be with you, so you wouldn't have to bear this thing alone--because you're more frightened than I've ever seen you. And if your Dobbs is my sick blaggard, you're right to be afraid."

How long ago was 'quite a while,' Damion wondered? How long had it taken the preponderance of--connections--to build to this breaking point in her? If it had snowballed, that made him see her odd behavior in a new light. He could now understand why she had just burst out with Dobbs' name and a lot of baffling accusations with no preamble. It was a stunningly human sort of thing to do, to bottle one's fears inside. But she had done fear one better and crunched the numbers.

 

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