The Revelation

Posted on Sun 14th May, 2017 @ 10:11pm by Colonel Horatio Drake & Lieutenant JG Kellian Michaels

693 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Wrongs Darker Than Death Or Night
Location: Deck 1500: Section 49 Alpha
Timeline: End of Mission

It was the deafening silence that was the most prominent thing of the whole place. Usually, on a ship, one can't go anywhere without hearing the faint hum of the warp core. Not hearing that was something that Drake had just about gotten used to - nevertheless, there was always some sort of background noise. Section 49 Alpha, its doors wide open, resided on a deck that was devoid of all life and noise.

He walked, slowly, around each bio bed... arms behind his back... lips pursed, trying desperately to remain in control. The bodies had been removed some time ago, there was just the faint outline on each bed where organic matter had started to become one with the upholstery. If the beds hadn't been here, one could have been forgiven this was an engineering lab, with all the tools and instruments scattered about. It suddenly struck him how untidy the place had been left in... had the orchestrators left in a rush? Had they intended to come back? Why did they leave the bodies here? Was it some sort of extended experiment? Drake's greatest fear at this moment in time was that those questions, as well as countless others, would never be answered.

"Michaels to Drake." The comm. signal seemed to boom as it tore through the silence.

"Drake here.' He replied.

"Sir, I've double-checked the FFIS results and can now positively identify the partial fingerprints."

The sound of silence took over once again, what would this revelation bring with it? He knew the person responsible had to be someone of authority and power - how else could they have pulled this off? What's more, that person simply had to have been in Starfleet. He wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.

"Whose are they, Lieutenant?" His right hand now had his left in a vice-like grip.

A pause, and then Michaels replied. "It would be best if I discuss that with you in person, sir. May I meet you wherever you are?"

"I'm in Section 49 Alpha... hurry, Lieutenant." His voice trailed off, this had to be bad news.

"Aye, sir. On my way," Michaels replied, and the connection clicked off.

In reality the wait was probably only five minutes, perhaps six... but, for Drake, time seemed to come to a stand still. So many things were flying through his head - the overarching question of them all seemed to be, what action was he going to take? What if it was someone he knew... someone he had served with? Could it be his Uncle? The timeline certainly fit. He shook his head, as if shaking sand off himself - he had to keep a clear mind.

Kellian arrived at deck 1440 and steeled himself for entering the lab again. To his relief the O2 scrubbers had been at work, and the place no longer smelled of fire or dead bodies. He found Drake quickly and walked over to him. "Here are the results from the fingerprint analysis, sir," Kellian said and handed his PADD to Drake. It showed the names and images of several current and former Starfleet personnel belonging to departments ranging from medicine to nano-engineering, as well as a small collection of civilians, primarily academic researchers. More than three-quarters of the people shown were listed as deceased. "A lot of these people appear to have died from...accidents," Kellian said in a wry tone. "The person of greatest concern is the last on the list, sir."

Drake scrolled through the list, so far there was no one that he knew. "How can so many people have been... " He froze, his eyes locked on the PADD. It felt as if his heart had skipped a beat, suddenly everything made sense.

"Lieutenant... are you certain about these results?" It was a pointless question, even as the words came out of his mouth he knew what his next action was going to be.

"I'm afraid so, Colonel. I wouldn't have brought them to you if I weren't," Kellian replied.

Drake stared at Michaels and nodded his head slowly. He took a deep breath and quickly walked out without saying another word.

 

RSS Feed

Comments (1)