Mycelian Madness: Chapter Two

Posted on Tue 8th Jul, 2025 @ 9:46am by Commander Heriah Rex & Khellian s'Siedhri MD & Lieutenant Commander Lanis Dhuro MD & Renato Solis

1,312 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Phoenix Gamble
Timeline: Previously: https://sb109.sim-station.net/index.php/sim/viewpost/2459

Renato felt like he had been called in to see the Headmaster and was about to be scolded. He had never been summoned by the Senior staff and though he knew it was an interrogation, he also knew it wasn't with him as a suspect. Nonetheless his palms were sweating as he entered the Conference room seeing there were doctors as well as Senior Staff present. His deductions of a medical situation led him to believe this was an interview, not an interrogation.

"And that is why I feel an outside observer, a private inv..." Heriah had been saying to the others, then, upon seeing him, "...ah. Mr. Soulless...here is the person I believe is best suited for this case."

"Mr. Soulless..." Heriah looked at the man. In fact, all eyes were on the man. Even the eyes of a young girl, whose image was displayed on the viewscreen behind Heriah, were glued to the man. "...Station roster identifies you as a Private Investigator?" She spoke that almost as though a statement but was also almost asking it at the same time.

The way the Trill spoke his name seemed almost insulting; his sense of her was also muddled. There was a suppression going on, the sort of mental imprint someone with a secret or explosive bowels has. The urge to "keep something down" radiated off of her and though Renato had never met her, he felt afraid somehow. He could see a seat meant for him, but remained standing near the door, giving off the vibes of one who wants to run at the first sign of trouble.

He answered her without revealing these sensations and set his demeanor to "closed off."

"Yes, I work in Garden District, out of the Community Resource Center. Mostly petty larceny, sometimes salacious ribaldry."

"Have you ever investigated missing persons," she asked. "And...aboard this station I am pained to say...kidnapped children?"

Renato had, in fact. He hated to make the Garden District sound like it was unsafe, but soft-shoeing the truth wasn't going to work here.

"Yes, more than a few missing cases over the years have come my way. All kinds of people, many of them dead ends. A ship leaves, or Starfleet didn't turn up anything in the investigation for me to work with. Outside of the former Brown Sector I have little agency."

"Well, do clue us in on what you may need, and we will see what we can do. This," she pointed over her shoulder toward the image on the viewscreen, "is Megos; 12-year-old girl. This is no longer a missing persons case because she has been retrieved. Found, more like, in the Garden District. She was missing, for about a week, and then suddenly showed up. This is how several of our missing children cases are concluding; with the children being located but without any memory of their ordeal. So far we have...well...if you look at what I just sent to your PADD, you will see the number of cases. And they all have similar Modus Operandi. All children, without any memory of what happened. Toxicology reports all show the same. Nothing actually toxic to the children. But they all have been given..." Heriah gave up trying to pronounced the list of what was found in the children's circulatory systems, "...memory blockers, concoctions that seem to make them tell the truth, obey any and all commands, etc. Just thinking about it..."

'...makes me want to tear out someone's entrails.'

"...makes me want to tear out someone's entrails." Heriah paused and looked around at everyone. "Sorry for that imagery. But you get my reaction." She looked back at Renato. "As Starfleet, we are up to our eyeballs in refugees, trade disputes, pirates, conflicting factions. I want to prioritize this case," she said as she pressed her hand upon her own PADD, "but cannot find someone qualified enough who can dedicate themselves entirely to this case. That is where you come in."

Renato felt several things at once. He had gained the trust of Starfleet, which swelled his chest a bit with pride. Fear, that the reason children were kept on a leash in the former Brown Sector had returned. And a peculiar dreaded certainty that the new Commander was insane. Her micro-expressions and telepathic broadcasting were off the charts. There was an ever so slight but frequent twitch to her right eyelid, another motion from her hand to brush a strand of hair over her ear when there was no strand. She was trying to silence a whispering thought that was nearly a shout.

A bolt of a dialogue spoken plainly rolled across his senses as indelible as sound. ...find the perpetrator then have him disemboweled. Make a spectacle of it. As for Soulless, use him, then take the credit. You deserve it.'

With great skill to show nothing of the odd moment Renato suppressed the reaction it truly evoked. He replied in time, "I will of course assist in any way I can. And in my long years here, well let me say these reports are familiar. The children com eback and we presume its shock or malnutrition from the ordeal, but this has been an issue before. I do know many of these people. Some are still on station, even. There are dark, unlit portions of the Brown Sector undercroft where it is widely known as unsafe for children. Nothing deadly, but loss of memory, malnutrition, ligature marks from restraint, this most recent case of an infant, it was known to affect telepaths severely so I didn't handle the investigation. I can hypothesize it connected to these others. As you said, I can dedicate myself to this entirely, and as it also happens, I am very well suited for memory recovery. Perhaps we can place the corners down for our puzzle, and begin as it were from the edges of memory."

'Latent telepathy. Just what we need. He's probing, listening. Get rid of him.'

"Feel free," Heriah returned, "to connect with Ensign Kaleh. She is Security and I have given her my blessing to help secure the Garden Sector, to include these unlit portions, as she sees fit. As long as the law is obeyed, that is. I will be sure to get Engineering on the task of improving those areas."

Renato appreciated the new level of access. Usually he was dodging Starfleet, but Kaleh was going to be a big help.

"Commander, it would perhaps help you to understand why those areas became that way. Do you know of the station's history, the civilian lives embedded here?"

"I am not," she said, retrieving her PADD; hoping this meeting was nearly done. "I have not read into all of the logs yet regarding station history. But none of that matters now, does it? This is a Starfleet starbase. No area should be unlit. No area should be in disrepair. No inch of this starbase should appear to be housing squatters and the homeless."

Renato flinched, and the words of someone else spoke to him from Rex. Was this how joined Trill communicated? Were there two personalities fighting for a single personality?

He tried to summon a response which wasn't emotionally overblown, though his first thoughts drifted that way. So instead of the tirade that begged to happen, Renato looked at Captain Francis and said simply, "Squatters are we?"

To Commander Rex he answered, "I see your time would only be wasted with further context, and after all you have me on the case. I should expect to have something for you in short order."

Without waiting to be dismissed Renato stood to leave pausing only to gather the pen and paper pad, and the digital padd offered with the details of the case.

 

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