Season 3 Episode 5 - Tainted Heart

[Odelot]

Black Rose - Computer Core Maintenance Room

Odelot looked at the admiral as he spoke.  The Admiral was thinking of things Odelot never thought of.  It was well known throughout the whole galaxy that Vulcans were very smart people.  Kirok was no exception.  He was thinking of all kinds of might-have-beens.

"Odelot will check!"

He began sifting through other logs and entries in the computer, seeking evidence of other encounters close to the period of their visit to the planet.  As he searched, he thought aloud about the issue.

"Odelot is thinking if they were made to go to the planet, they would have gotten cut up there, and not later.  But maybe they were tricked to go to the planet.  Then maybe they ran away.    Or... maybe someone on the planet got on the ship, and waited... and then killed them all!  Like in a scary holo!  An axe man with a mask hiding in the cargo!"

Now that Kirok had opened the door to Odelot's imagination, all sorts of possibilities were occurring to the Pakled.

[Aryn Corliss]

[Judy - Cargo Bay, Black Rose]

"Thank you, Captain. Eastman out," Judy answered. Things seemed to be coming together here. They had a timeline.

"Two short, dammit," Judy acknowledged. "You can go ahead and return to the Gibson. Lend a hand in sickbay, and report that to the bridge. Eastman out."

Now, she had one last group to check up on.

"Eastman to Odelot. Have you got any progress?" she asked.

Already, the older woman made her way in the general direction of the bridge. She tied her outer uniform jacket around her waist, and began to climb the maintenance tubes (she wasn't sure if they were called Jeffries tubes on civilian vessels as well) over the two-deck distance that was this entire ship. Even for a middle-aged woman with a prosthetic hip, it wasn't too much.

[Black Rose ---> Gibson - Sickbay]

Aye, aye, Commander, Alec responded, double tapping his badge to disconnect and start a new comm. Trenzal to Gibson. Two to beam directly to Sickbay from my location.

Acknowledged. 

A moment later, Alec and Kellen materialized in Sickbay, bodies occupying every biobed available and the rest laid out on the floor.

Naira and Lea were busily examining bodies, so Alec quickly strode to the captain to ask, Where do you want us to start? We can get these poor people taken care of more quickly. Is there enough stasis or cold storage to handle all of them?

*****

[USS Gibson - Sickbay]

"We're still receiving more bodies," she replied to the message. "I can get you a final report as soon as the other team is finished sending them over. We can however scan the individuals we have those far and send them your way."

[Gibson - Conference Room]

Acknowledged, Captain. Thank you.  Aryn glanced between Flick and Hawke. Hopefully with that information we can start piecing this thing together.

[U.S.S. Gibson – Briefing Room]

As he finish pressing his comm he looked at the rest of the crew and said "All right Luitenant Corliss and Dr. Ellis, and of course Tjuv let's see if we can finish the analysis on the bodies and roster hopefully, we can have some suspects.  Thank you for your hard work, we can go to the bridge

[U.S.S. Gibson - Bridge]

It took James a couple of seconds to walk into the bridge.  He looked at Judy and merely said "Judy, what did you find in there?"

Setting the computer to match up the bodies' DNA to their identities, Aryn followed Hawke to the Bridge, gesturing the junior officer from her seat and resuming her station, and tying her computer to the feed in the conference room so that she could monitor it.

[Naira]

[USS Gibson - Sickbay]

"Let's get the rest of these bodies scanned so ops can check their information against the crew manifest," she instructed Ms Mazal. "The rest of the autopsies can wait for now."

Naira took one side of the room, working from one table to the next to scan each body as she went. She didn't get very far when her comm went off yet again.

"Eastman to Naira and Hawke. Odelot retrieved something from the freighter's computer core that you'll probably want to see. I think you should come over to the bridge and check it out."

"I'll be right up."

[Black Rose ---> Gibson - Sickbay]

Aye, aye, Commander, Alec responded, double tapping his badge to disconnect and start a new comm. Trenzal to Gibson. Two to beam directly to Sickbay from my location.

Acknowledged. 

A moment later, Alec and Kellen materialized in Sickbay, bodies occupying every biobed available and the rest laid out on the floor.

Naira and Lea were busily examining bodies, so Alec quickly strode to the captain to ask, Where do you want us to start? We can get these poor people taken care of more quickly. Is there enough stasis or cold storage to handle all of them?
[Gibson - Conference Room]

Acknowledged, Captain. Thank you.  Aryn glanced between Flick and Hawke. Hopefully with that information we can start piecing this thing together.

Setting the computer to match up the bodies' DNA to their identities, Aryn followed Hawke to the Bridge, gesturing the junior officer from her seat and resuming her station, and tying her computer to the feed in the conference room so that she could monitor it.

Just then Dr. Trenzel and Petty Officer Gates returned to sickbay. Perfect timing. "We've managed to scan these bodies so far," she waved her arm in a sweeping motion of the section of sickbay that they had covered. "The rest still need to be scanned so ops can compare the results with the crew. You can hold off on autopsies for now, scans are more important."

When Dr. Trenzel asked about storage space she had to stop and think about it for a moment, it had been more than a year since she had worked in the Gibson's sickbay and she had forgotten just how much storage space it had off the top of her head. "I ummm...I don't think there's enough cold storage space for all of them, no, but we can take over one of the cargo bays, lower the temperature and adjust the environmental controls."

She handed over her tricorder and peeled off her other glove, tossing it upon a nearby table.

"I've been called up to the bridge. Let me know if you need anything down here."

With that she exited the room.

[USS Gibson - Bridge]

Naira entered the bridge, nodded to those in the room and made her way over towards her Second Officer.

"What have you found?"

[Leanna Mazal]

[USS Gibson - Sickbay]

"Let's get the rest of these bodies scanned so ops can check their information against the crew manifest," she instructed Ms Mazal. "The rest of the autopsies can wait for now."

[Gibson - Sickbay]

Leanna had just finished scanning her 3rd body when Naira instructed her to focus on scanning the rest so Ops could check their information against the crew manifest and that the autopsies could wait for now. The trainee Nurse understood the importance of identifying the victims first before they did anything else so quickly answered the Captain.

" Understood and I'll let you know once I'm done" she replied before Naira moved off and was called once again this time by Judy.

Moving carefully down the row as Alec and Kellen the materialised and heard Naira fill Alec in before the El-Aurian asked about storing the bodies which the Captain then offered a solution given the size of the Gibson as she then left for the Bridge.

For now until instructed otherwise or spoken too, Lea carried on scanning.

[Judith Eastman]

It took James a couple of seconds to walk into the bridge.  He looked at Judy and merely said "Judy, what did you find in there?"

Naira entered the bridge, nodded to those in the room and made her way over towards her Second Officer.

"What have you found?"

[Judy - Bridge, USS Gibson]

Judy looked up at her two superiors, not feeling any need to follow the fine points of formality and rise to address them. She'd climbed two decks in a Jeffries tube today, and her step counter was somewhere just north of 12,000, so that was exertion enough for an expectant grandmother.

"I didn't find anything," she corrected. "Odelot, on the other hand, found this."
Judy motioned for them both to come closer, put on her glasses once again, and pulled up the report.

"Their log entry. 7 days ago, they visited a planet where they found an organ market. They'd only just begun to trade there when they found that out, so they naturally fled at... warp 6, top speed for them, if I'm reading this correctly."
Judy's glasses had a few specks of dust on them, so she wasn't 100% sure. She'd clean them soon.
"In any case, we found signs of a stowaway in their cargo bay, and their organs were harvested, so I'd say it's a safe bet that's where the perps came from."

Judy took off her glasses, a subtle sign that she was done, and got to work with her lens-cleaning solution and cloth. The specs needed cleaning.

[Kirok]

Black Rose - Computer Core Maintenance Room

Odelot looked at the admiral as he spoke.  The Admiral was thinking of things Odelot never thought of.  It was well known throughout the whole galaxy that Vulcans were very smart people.  Kirok was no exception.  He was thinking of all kinds of might-have-beens.

"Odelot will check!"

He began sifting through other logs and entries in the computer, seeking evidence of other encounters close to the period of their visit to the planet.  As he searched, he thought aloud about the issue.

"Odelot is thinking if they were made to go to the planet, they would have gotten cut up there, and not later.  But maybe they were tricked to go to the planet.  Then maybe they ran away.    Or... maybe someone on the planet got on the ship, and waited... and then killed them all!  Like in a scary holo!  An axe man with a mask hiding in the cargo!"

Now that Kirok had opened the door to Odelot's imagination, all sorts of possibilities were occurring to the Pakled.

Black Rose - Computer Core Maintenance Room

Kirok considered some of the possibilities.  Eliminate the impossible.  You are only left with the possible.

He looked at some of the logs again.  Going back further than the last seven days.   Then worked to the most recent.

"I agree with you hypothesis.  It does not fit that someone forced them to go there.  If that were the case the perpetrator would have likely left the ship at the planet" he said.

He went silent as he thought some more.  "The logs from the last seven days were purged by someone.  To me that would suggest that someone wanted to hide that information.  If someone new boarded the ship when they were at the bad place it would fit with the current scenario" he said.

"Do we have access to internal scanner here?  If so, we might be able to scan for DNA that does not match the DNA of the crew.  We would have to subtract the away team DNA as well.  But doing so may help us figure out who did it" he suggested.

[Volskene]

[Bridge- U.S.S. Gibson]

James went close to the station where the Tholian was working and saw him work.  As soon as he turned around Hawke cracked a small smile as he figured his statement would "light up a fire" under the Tholians butt if they had one.  Volskene knowledge of warp fields and calculations were impressive.  It would take days for someone in Starfleet science to figure out the equations that he was using.

Hawke was hardly a scientist and he could not even pretend how it worked.  But he did have basic knowledge and enough to  not recognize the equations.

James took a deep breath as he attempted to read the science stuff.  James looked at the scientific results, and it came out in a formula.  James just saw a computer and could not make heads or tail on the data.  He was not a scientist.

James tried to give it another try and understand the location and heard a message from the Captain.

Thank you, Captain James responded

James looked at Volskene and said "Medical Castemember Volskene, all right, narrow down your search to all warp trails within two to four days, let's build a dummy proof chart containing the ship types and direction they went.  Make it so, lesser being with limited knowledge of science can understand, once you're done you can bring it to the conference room.  You shall be rewarded with your territory as promised"  James said in a serious tone.

Yeah, so idiots like me could understand it James thought

[Bridge - USS Gibson]

Volskene applied the particular restrictions taking into account the parameters specified by the Secondary Ruling Castemember, though charting it in a fashion that would prove useful to humanoids eluded his efforts. Nevertheless, the Tholian worked to display the parameters of the warp trails within the specified time points, taking into account the temporal drift in the subspace field with a series of complicated partial differential equations. To humanoids unversed in warp field theory, he would unfortunately have to explain in as dim detail as possible for him. But more than likely, he mused, their translation matrices would handle it (assuming they were capable of understanding).

Reducing the data took a rather prolonged period, after which Volskene followed with the information saved again to a data slate into the ship's conference chamber.

[Conference Room - USS Gibson]

The Tholian entered unceremoniously into the conference chamber, sliding the data slate onto the table.

"Overlay your Federation charts with the specified spatial grids. It will allow me to extract the relevant trails per the correct temporal coordinates."

[Naira]

[Judy - Bridge, USS Gibson]

Judy looked up at her two superiors, not feeling any need to follow the fine points of formality and rise to address them. She'd climbed two decks in a Jeffries tube today, and her step counter was somewhere just north of 12,000, so that was exertion enough for an expectant grandmother.

"I didn't find anything," she corrected. "Odelot, on the other hand, found this."
Judy motioned for them both to come closer, put on her glasses once again, and pulled up the report.

"Their log entry. 7 days ago, they visited a planet where they found an organ market. They'd only just begun to trade there when they found that out, so they naturally fled at... warp 6, top speed for them, if I'm reading this correctly."
Judy's glasses had a few specks of dust on them, so she wasn't 100% sure. She'd clean them soon.
"In any case, we found signs of a stowaway in their cargo bay, and their organs were harvested, so I'd say it's a safe bet that's where the perps came from."

Judy took off her glasses, a subtle sign that she was done, and got to work with her lens-cleaning solution and cloth. The specs needed cleaning.

[USS Gibson - Bridge]

Naira listened carefully as the other woman filled her in on the information they had gathered. As she pointed out, it was too much of a coincidence that the ship would just so happened to stumble upon an organ market in the days before their ship was attacked, resulting in the crew ending up with their organs removed for it not to be connected in some way.

"Set in a course for this market, but proceed with caution. I don't want to alert those responsible that we are on to them." In their quest to track down those responsible, she didn't want to be overzealous and risk tipping the attackers off, causing them to go into hiding and missing what could be their one shot at justice.

"While we're at it, alert Starfleet on a secure channel about what we've learned and where we're going."

In the event things didn't go to plan, she didn't want their ship to end up like the freighter.

[James A. Hawke]

[Bridge U.S.S. Gibson]

James heard the statements from the Captain and Second Officer.  He stood for a second and listened to the Captain's order "You have heard the Captain, make a course".

James then asked "What would be our ETA?"

The Helm answered "18 hours, Sir."

James merely nodded and said "Ok, lay in a course maximum warp"

It was not his place to countermand the Captain's order, but he would have liked the opportunity to states the possible trajectory of the people that might have gotten the organs.  They knew of four possible locations, and one of them is that they were headed.  However, it was not his place to make that order.

***18 hours later***

After their trip for 18 hours, they have reached their coordinates.  James merely said "All stop"

An he waited for the Captains orders.

[Judith Eastman]

The away team was beamed over, the bodies were set up, and the Gibson was on its way.

[7 AM (18 hrs later) - Judy - Bridge, USS Gibson]

Judy had been on the bridge since 4 AM. The fact was that she couldn't sleep as well on a crappy mattress, without her fiancé, and without her dogs to boot. At least, with her coffee, she could function more or less normally.

She was currently in the counselor's seat, on her cushions, halfway through her third cup of joe, which was currently chasing down a bagel.

She looked over at Hawke when they stopped.
"Well, sir, I believe it's time," she remarked. "Nothing like an away team first thing in the morning."
Not for her, however. She was old news, with a prosthetic hip, back pain, and glasses. Besides, she'd been up since 3 in the morning. Her place was up here.

[Naira]

[Bridge U.S.S. Gibson]

James heard the statements from the Captain and Second Officer.  He stood for a second and listened to the Captain's order "You have heard the Captain, make a course".

James then asked "What would be our ETA?"

The Helm answered "18 hours, Sir."

James merely nodded and said "Ok, lay in a course maximum warp"

It was not his place to countermand the Captain's order, but he would have liked the opportunity to states the possible trajectory of the people that might have gotten the organs.  They knew of four possible locations, and one of them is that they were headed.  However, it was not his place to make that order.

***18 hours later***

After their trip for 18 hours, they have reached their coordinates.  James merely said "All stop"

An he waited for the Captains orders.

The away team was beamed over, the bodies were set up, and the Gibson was on its way.

[7 AM (18 hrs later) - Judy - Bridge, USS Gibson]

Judy had been on the bridge since 4 AM. The fact was that she couldn't sleep as well on a crappy mattress, without her fiancé, and without her dogs to boot. At least, with her coffee, she could function more or less normally.

She was currently in the counselor's seat, on her cushions, halfway through her third cup of joe, which was currently chasing down a bagel.

She looked over at Hawke when they stopped.
"Well, sir, I believe it's time," she remarked. "Nothing like an away team first thing in the morning."
Not for her, however. She was old news, with a prosthetic hip, back pain, and glasses. Besides, she'd been up since 3 in the morning. Her place was up here.

[18 hours Later]
[USS Gibson - Captain's Quarters]

She would never openly admit it, but Naira had had the best night's sleep in what felt like a lifetime. Sure, the bed wasn't quite as nice, it lacked the personal touches that made her quarters back on Columbus feel like home and the room was much smaller, but she also wasn't being awoken several times during the night by a fussy baby, Lurels after a nightmare or ANaLYn excited to inform her of a new fact she had learned in the middle of the night.

After quickly dressing, Naira stretched her arms out over her head, rolled her shoulders back and took a moment to enjoy the peace and quiet. She even managed make it out of her quarters without tripping over one toy, discarded article of clothing or a small targ with a knack for running under foot.

[Bridge]

Naira arrived on the Bridge just as the Gibson dropped out of warp. She what exactly she was expecting to find on the other side of the warp trail they followed, but before them sate what looked to makeshift space station of sorts cobbled together by bits and pieces of differing ships of various ages and origins. While such places weren't all that uncommon outside Federation Space or in areas less frequently patrolled, such places had a well established connection to shady and elicit business dealings. Inside they were likely to encounter a slew of criminals and criminal behavior, however, being outside of Federation Territory, they lacked any sort of real authority other than to bring in those responsible for the murder of The Black Rose crew.

"We're not likely to find many friends or those wishing to help us in our search," she said as she circled around the front of the bridge, coming to stand before the main viewscreen, with her eyes fixed on the station maybe twice their size. Though, it wasn't the station that posed the real threat so much as it was other ships in the area.

For a moment she thought long and hard about their situation. There were a number of ways they could approach this, but if they were going to get answers they were going to have to go in with a plan in mind. She turned around to face her First and Second Officers before addressing them. "What do you think of sending two teams down? One will go down in civilian clothing, the other in uniform. They likely picked up our presence by now and they'll be expecting us to show ourselves in, but what if those of us in uniform could divert attention away from the other team so that they can get the answers we are looking for?"

[Leanna Mazal]

[Flick & Lea's Quarters - 18 hrs later]

Once she had finished in Sickbay, all Lea had wanted to do was sleep but had made time to see Fells before finally going back to the quarters she shared with her best friend.

After some catching up, sleep came relatively quickly although her dreams had been plagued with visions of the dead. That hadn't happened in quite some time but she had plenty ploughed through until she couldn't sleep anymore.

Opening her eyes and laying there for what felt like ages, Lea finally forced herself up and made a beeline for the shower quietly so as not to wake her friend.

[Aryn Corliss]

[Gibson - Corliss/Trenzal Quarters]

Aryn made it to their quarters late after staying on the Bridge for an extended shift as they sorted data and matched bodies to crew members. She'd fallen into bed and slept for several solid hours, her dreams of dead bodies and floating organs not enough to wake her.

Alec didn't make it to bed until the wee hours of the morning after cataloging all the bodies, then performing nearly a dozen autopsies. He'd finally had to quit after making the arrangements for the modified cargo bay to store the majority of the bodies. He fell into bed next to Aryn, not even disturbing her sleep, though she did draw close and cuddle into his side.

[6.30 AM]

Aryn woke and slid quietly out of bed, trying not to wake Alec. She hadn't even been aware of him coming to bed. She showered and donned her uniform and requested a large coffee and a fried egg sandwich from the replicator.

Pressing a light kiss to Alec's cheek, Aryn hurried to the Bridge, wanting to be present when they arrived at their destination.

[Bridge]

Morning, Aryn said through a yawn as she exited the turbolift and headed toward her station, half-eaten sandwich and large, covered cup of coffee in hands.

You're relieved, she informed the junior officer at the operations station.

The other woman nodded and vacated the seat, which Aryn plopped into with a sigh.

Did you sleep at all? she asked Judy.

[Odelot]

Black Rose - Computer Core Maintenance Room

Odelot nodded, "Odelot can make everything go, now.  We can ask the Doctor for the deena, and then be scanning for different deena.  You are smart."

However, with the leads that had already been discovered, it seemed that the away team's investigations were being curtailed.

The chase was on.

USS Gibson - Engine Room - 18 hours Later

Odelot had enjoyed dinner, then a nap with a nightmare, then a snack to make him feel better, then another nap with a good dream, and then breakfast, and then a snack, and now this: He was sitting in the Engine Room of the USS Gibson, staring at the systems display and waiting for something to break.  It was pretty boring, because the Gibson was a very good ship and everything was perfect.

He was sitting here, rather than in the ship's lounge or another area, because he did not want to run into the security people or the Tholian Spider Man.  It was rare for the Pakled to carry a grudge, but there were exceptions.  He could easily be mad at someone for 1,000 years for hurting his friend and failing to apologize.

The security people who had failed to help were almost as culpable, in his mind.  With no tasks at hand, Odelot was brooding on the subject more than he usually would.  He probably should talk to the Captain about it, but right now did not seem like the right time for it.

Poor Dihiq.  He deserved better.

Odelot would fix it.

Somehow.

[James A. Hawke]

[Bridge – U.S.S. Gibson]
Hawke stood in the middle of the bridge.  He looked a little tired as he had a really long first day on the job.  Technically, he should not have started his position under his evaluation was finished.  He already had one appointment with Dr. Felicity Ellis and Hawke spent most of the nights going around the stations and getting to know everyone.

James thought to himself "No rest for the wicked".  He barely had time to set up his personal belonging or items.  His quarters were a big mess, and the only thing that is getting used right now is the bed.

James heard Judy as she commented

"Well, sir, I believe it's time," she remarked. "Nothing like an away team first thing in the morning."
Not for her, however. She was old news, with a prosthetic hip, back pain, and glasses. Besides, she'd been up since 3 in the morning. Her place was up here.

James offered a smile and responded "Could be, but something tells me this is going to be normal

"We're not likely to find many friends or those wishing to help us in our search," she said as she circled around the front of the bridge, coming to stand before the main viewscreen, with her eyes fixed on the station maybe twice their size. Though, it wasn't the station that posed the real threat so much as it was other ships in the area.
"What do you think of sending two teams down? One will go down in civilian clothing, the other in uniform. They likely picked up our presence by now and they'll be expecting us to show ourselves in, but what if those of us in uniform could divert attention away from the other team so that they can get the answers we are looking for?"

Jame nodded at the Captain and considered the option.  She was right they already would have detected their presence, and it's more than likely that they are not going to admit that they are taking organs from other species unwillingly.

James agreed with the assessment, and they had enough officers and civilians to be believable.  "Agreed, I wonder if the team in Uniform is establishing diplomatic relations and trade routes agreement.  With an Admiral and Captain on board it would be believable.  Meanwhile, the civilian team is trying to purchase organs, we have enough personnel for this and since we have civilians passing as them should not be too hard.  We would have a uniform team, and civilian team"    James responded.