Autopsy

Posted on 05/02/2020 @ 4:27pm by Lieutenant JG S'Lace & Lieutenant JG Jasmine Langtree
Edited on on 05/02/2020 @ 5:04pm

Mission: S1E2: The Plomeek Soup Conundrum
Location: USS Crazy Horse - Sickbay
Timeline: Day 5 at 1500

S'Lace had one of the two bodies moved to med lab one, while the other was being kept in the ship's small morgue. With ship systems as they were they could not trust the computers so they had to use tricorders instead. Fortunately tricorders were very effective tools. All the same it was possible they would have to get "messy" meaning they would have to dissect the body. She had invited Doctor D'Anvers to assist as well as Lieutenant Langtree.

She regarded the body on the table before her silently. It was a mystery. Multiple mysteries. Who was this person? Who were the others in it's party to it? Why were they on a Federation ship being transported as prisoners? S'Lace realized this was not unlike the mysteries she enjoyed reading. So here was a possible kidnapping, and if someone was aware of the nature of these beings even a possible murder in progress with the Federation unwitting accomplices.

Crimes had motives. Most crimes had motives, she amended. Presuming this one had a motive, what was it? She gave a sigh; these questions the Chief of Security would ask; she could no more interfere with her duties as she would come to Sickbay to start treating patients. All the same, if answers could be gleaned from this corpse, perhaps it would make lieutenant Lae'Or's job easier.

"From what I understand," Leonie said quietly, "the Blackwell's cells were only meant to hold one prisoner at a time. That's why they were separated. When Sifir killed their medical officer, there was no one on board with the training or experience to understand what was happening." She shook her head slightly. "They didn't have a chance."

S'Lace frowned. Sjfir. The fifth prisoner, the one that escaped. Focus, the chided herself. She was here to learn about this species so she could better serve the two that still lived.

"What is its species?" Jasmine asked.

"Unknown at this time," Leonie said as she began setting up for the non-invasive scans that would be the first step in the autopsy. The system would create an image of the body and then drill down on that image, layer by layer, with the result being a three-dimensional holographic view of the body. "At least its not in the database."

"We could be dealing with an entirely new type of life form," S'Lace noted as the scan continued, "Malleable flesh, a dependence on close contact, if not tactile interfacing, strong telepathic abilities. We could at any time accidentally do them harm. Or when they awaken trigger any manner of social taboos."

If two lives did not hang in the balance she would have said it was all quite fascinating.

"We already have," Leonie said quietly as she moved around to review the data scrolling down the screen. "Caused them harm, I mean. Unintentionally maybe but someone should have realized. Made a note. Something."

"I wonder if it was all part of some plot," S'Lace murmured, "Our ship and the Blackwell's both suffer malfunctions, which might have destroyed whatever notes their doctor made about the species. Sjfir kills the one person who could have treated them."

She took special attention to the alien's dna, focusing on the smaller parts before working up, "But it is easy to see patterns if you are deliberately looking for them. For all we know Sjfir cared nothing for these four and killing the Blackwell's doctor was simply an act of defiance or insanity."

"Perhaps they are symbiotic sharing a single life force, perhaps that's they died". Jasmine said.

"It seems an inefficient system," S'Lace noted, "But I did suggest an analogy to the Binars to the Captain earlier."

The Doctor was quiet a long moment, then she said, "I have what Doctor Th'arhohret at medical school called a 'fanciful notion'. I have no facts to support this theory, only supposition. What if these two bodies are not dead but in some form of hibernation? We are dealing with an alien life form which seems dependent upon contact with other members of its species, or at the very least a close proximity.

"What if we moved these two bodies within close proximity of the other two, to even have them touch?"

"Even in hibernation," Leonie said, "at least as we understand the concept, there would be some sort of energy reading and there isn't one." She sighed quietly. "To put them together? It seems wrong somehow but you're in charge, Doctor."

"A fact of which I am well aware, Doctor," S'Lace replied with a thoughtful frown, "When I last spoke to the Captain I said we would wait four hours to see if there was any change in our surviving patients, we have two point five more hours before that deadline is reached. In the meantime I suggest we continue a non-invasive study of this body."

Something that came close to an ironic smile crossed her lips, "If my foolish notion bears some weight it would be unfortunate for the being to come back to life with an incomplete body."

Leonie nodded as her mouth quirked upward. Not quite a laugh but there was a glint in her eye; it wasn't something to laugh about, her work was seldom humorous, but then the work they did leant itself to that sort of humor. "Well," she said as she scanned the data, "not an offshoot of the changelings. The outer layer is similar but beneath that, there is structure, bones, organs and the like. See?" She pointed to the data as it came up. "Nothing that looks like a digestive system which bears out the rudimentary facial features."

S'Lace nodded, "Which does raise the question; what do they consume for sustenance?" She frowned and nodded at some of the readings, "See how potentially pliable their skin is? I wonder if they absorb energy directly through it. And if the four were together I wonder if that means they were part of some unit, forming a sort of circuit?"

She cocked her head, "I wonder if we dismember the corpses and attach them to the survivors that would complete the circuit?"

Her attention drawn away from her observation of the data by the doctor's suppositions, Leonie paled visibly. That anyone would suggest such a horrific act, especially a physician, was disturbing enough but when that same individual was Vulcan? "That's disgusting," she said at once.

"Hmmm?" S'Lace turned to the doctor. She pursed her lips, considered her attitude and nodded, "Yes, I suppose it is."

She returned to her study of the data, willing herself to calm in the face of what she considered creepy and more than a little out there. "It does appear that they would be able to draw energy in. There are receptors through the upper layer to support that. And we also have observable findings; the two who remained separate, died and the two who joined, have not, its reasonable that they can draw from each other ... but clearly not enough to bring them back to consciousness. So, something is missing." She looked at her counterpart, hiding her disquiet behind a mask of professionalism. "Maybe instead of desecrating remains, we could consider a means of feeding them energy that they can't obtain otherwise."

"Really, Doctor, it was an idle speculation. I would never consider such an act," pause, "Unless I had no other ideas. I-That is interesting," she pointed to a small object at the base of the skull, "That is not natural."

Leonie moved around so that she could get a better look, pulling up her tricorder as she did so. "Definitely not natural," she said. "In humanoids, that's generally the ... hypothalamus?"

"Yes," S'Lace replied, "Or close enough. But their brain structure is different. It is not wise to assume that part of their brain is analogous to another species'."

Quite frankly all the talk of dismemberment and alien theories was quite fascinating but how did it really help them.

"Do they have any extra organs that you cant explain. According to some of the security folks they seemed to have some sort of psionic ability. At least that's what Todd told me. Could they be amplifiers?" Jasmine asked."

"An interesting theory," S'Lace noted, "In order to determine that we will have to remove it to better examine it."

For all her talk of dismemberment S'Lace had been reluctant to cut up the bodies. Her "fanciful notion" of them being somehow alive set aside, she did not know how their people would react. But they needed answers.

"I am cutting it open," she said after a moment, "We will make the incision and take deeper scans of the artifact, then we will see if we can remove it. I believe it best if an experienced engineer were on hand. This is alien technology and their insight might prove invaluable." she regarded the other women, "Do you concur?"

"Yes," Leonie said. "I agree."

"Are you sure they are quite dead?" Jasmine asked.

"Quite dead," Leonie said. "The body shows evidence of tissue decay."

"Then I see no reason to delay," S'Lace replied, "Although Engineering may have no one to spare at this time to aid us in our investigation. Nevertheless..."

She tapped her comm badge, "Engineering..."

A Post by:

Lt. jg S'Lace
Chief Medical Officer
USS Crazy Horse

Leonie D'Anvers, M.D.
Medical Officer
USS Crazy Horse

and

Lt. jg Jasmine Langtree
Chief Science Officer
USS Crazy Horse