Sneaky, Sneaky!
Posted on Tue 12th Nov, 2019 @ 7:50pm by Lieutenant JG Kellian Michaels
877 words; about a 4 minute read
Mission:
Resolution
Location: Security Investigations Office
Timeline: MD 1, 17:45
Muffet Langston was relaxed, her cephalothorax resting on the deck, and her six feet gathered in close. She was leaning in over a holographic display, and eating something out of a mug wide enough to be a bowl... or a bowl with a mug handle stuck on the side. "Oh!" she exclaimed, leaning in closer, and making a gesture with her spoon which the computer interpreted as an instruction to roll back the recording. "Eureka!" she all but shouted.
"If you want to displace water, the bathtub's down the hall," Kellian Michaels replied, pointing with his left hand, which was still a bit swollen after a cello string mishap the previous evening. "What did you find?"
"C'mere," Langston responded, ignoring the Archimedes joke and beckoning with her spoon. "Look at this!" She ran it back again, and narrated as the clip played, "this is visual log data from deck 668, one of the central shopping corridors on that level. Watch the Vulcan in the Hanfu." The referenced individual, a male Vulcan in a wrap garment of neutral colors, appeared to be window shopping. Suddenly, a spray of blood blossomed from his lower chest, and he collapsed.
"Oh, my God!" Kellian's gut lurched for a moment until he forced himself to calm. The blood being green instead of red only slightly reduced the shock of the attack. "Computer, pause and reverse recording for three seconds, and replay at half speed."
He watched the Vulcan's face and body as the penetrating trauma again occurred. "What should I be looking for?"
"Not him," Muffet said smugly, taking another bite from her bowl/mug. Bowg? Mowl? "He was pronounced dead on arrival by Doctor Addams, after Provost Officers Morgen and Faust arrived on-scene and got him an emergency transport to sickbay. Doctor Addams discovered he had a three-centimeter diameter hole through his ribs, his heart, and his ribs. His other ribs. Ventral and dorsal.
"I went over the crime scene with the proverbial fine-tooth comb, and didn't find the projectile. So I did it again. No projectile. I started thinking about auto-transporting weapons. Ice bullets. Psychokinetic daggers. I couldn't find any evidence."
"Three centimeters is a pretty large hole. Entry and exit?" Kellian frowned, replayed the video clip again, and looked for someone standing behind the Vulcan. He continued to watch as the Vulcan collapsed. "If someone were behind him, I'd think about a collapsible projectile, something that could be concealed in a sleeve, extended, and retracted, possibly a tube shape with a sharpened rim. But I don't see anyone standing behind the guy, and that kind of weapon would have to extend and retract very quickly and powerfully, to go through bone. And it would leave a core behind. There'd be noise. No toxins?"
"No toxins," Muffet agreed, licking her spoon. She laughed. "Computer, rewind to time index 9538 and hold." The image ran backwards, the recording bizarrely turning into a man rising from the deck, absorbing a spray of blood, and walking backward from the scene. "Watch the crowd. Computer, play at quarter speed." She watched her colleague's face as the scene ran again. "I'd gloat, but I had to watch over a dozen times before I saw it. Computer, rewind and hold." The Vulcan did his resurrection dance again, and Muffet pointed out a pale Andorian walking a few meters behind the Vulcan. "This guy. Watch this guy."
As the computer ran the animation forward slowly again, the Andoran's eyes flicked to the Vulcan and then away. His left hand came up, and he made a finger gun with his index and middle fingers, and dropped the 'hammer' represented by his thumb. His lips moved. The Vulcan lurched, blood exploding again. "You see?!" Muffet demanded.
Kellian's eyes widened. "Not psychokinetic daggers, but it sure looks like a psychokinetic bullet. And since this 'bullet' didn't need to expand, the wound diameter remained the same size along its path and didn't ricochet against bone the way a physical bullet would have. Muffet, that's pretty frightening. If this guy is still on the station he'll have to be taken out from a distance and treated with psi suppression drugs before we can safely question him. What do you know about the victim?"
"According to his arrival documents, his name is Stonk... and then a bunch of Vulcan sounds I'm not sure I can even hear, let alone pronounce. He arrived about an hour and a half before his death; again, according to his arrival documents, he was here to, and I quote, 'observe endangered animal species in a comfortable habitat.'"
Muffet held up a finger. "Hold that thought," she instructed. "I need to send a BOLO[1] on this guy to the POs on patrol. Consider armed and dangerous, do not confront, do notify if seen."
"If you don't mind, I'd like to get Lt. Commander Jekkar's input on this," Kellian said. "This is Cottman IV-level psionics. It takes a lot of energy to do what that perp did. I know at one time there were Andorians who were supposedly telepathic, but this is far beyond telepathy."
1) Be On the Look Out. Also called an APB (All Points Bulletin) in some places.
RSS Feed