Not Stealing But Murder

Posted on Sat Apr 24th, 2021 @ 8:54am by Captain Bethsabée Leroux & Lieutenant Samantha Leyton & Commander William Gerhard & Lieutenant Avira zh'Kenarh M.D. & Ensign Elegy Nascimento

Mission: Mission 4 - Eden
Location: The Caelestis
Timeline: Day 166 09:00
1834 words - 3.7 OF Standard Post Measure

"You're not a machine, you're a person." The phrase kept repeating through Beth’s head as she took a turn to the left from where the group were exploring a large open area that looked like it might be suitable for events with seating and a stage. Beth wanted and needed a moment to herself and found herself in what she could only describe as a gymnasium and paused leaning against the wall. She closed her eyes just enjoying the silence for a long moment before she opened her eyes and noticed a dark puddle on the floor against the stark white of everything on the ship. She raised her weapon and moved to the puddle crouching to touch the puddle. Pulling her hand back she realised what the puddle was, there was only one thing that red.

The knowledge sent her into a spiral as she noticed the trail and started to follow it, leading her further and further into the gymnasium and the strange equipment there that would have kept a crew at the height of fitness. She did not know what the noise was as she found who the blood was on the floor, much later she learned it was the scream of horror that had sent the crew members who were exploring with her running to find her bent over the body of Aurelias Davis.

William drew his phase pistol from his holster, began running towards where he heard the scream come from. As he ran, he began noticing the puddle and dark streaks on the floor. His pace quickened as he realised he was seeing blood. "Captain, are you alright," he asked as he approached. The sight of the body on the ground made him pause briefly as his mouth went slightly dry, "Mother of.....God." With his left hand, he pulled his communicator out of his pocket and scanned the immediate scene, "Gerhard to Atlantis, a medical emergency at my position. I need medics and a security team here now."

Hearing the scream, Samantha rushed to the source, she immediately spotted Lieutenant Gerhard and then Captain Leroux. Her eyes then took in the blood and finally the sight of Aurelias. Her body began to tremble as she fought to find her voice. "Aurelias!" she ran forward and knelt next to him as tears streamed down her cheeks, feeling for a pulse, she began to sob harder as she couldn't find one.

Beth had been holding the man as she had come to the same realisation with her scream. “He is cold.” She whispered putting him on the ground as she tried to move back and away. He was gone and no medical team was going to be able to change that by the scene around them. She was covered in blood and was pretty sure she was never going to get clean again.

It hadn't taken Avira long to make her way towards where the medical attention was called. They were all still around the same portion of the ship, trying to explore safely and seeing what kind of materials they could gather for themselves. She saw the commander sitting on the floor next to a lifeless body, covered in blood, someone else was bent over the body, possibly in an attempt to determine the severity of the injuries. When the captain of the ship indicated that the person was cold Avira herself immediately switched gears, this was no longer a matter of trying to save someone's life, "Please step away from the body," she wasn't a medical investigator but she had seen her fair share of dead people the result of foul play in the Guard. An investigation had to be called and everything could be a vital clue to revealing who the culprit had been, "we don't want to contaminate the scene" any further than they had already done that was. With confident strides she stepped closer to the body and took in the surroundings fully with all of her senses, her antennae sweeping around to get a full picture of the situation, "everyone here will need to give clearance for their biometrical data being released to the investigators." They needed a way to remove them from the equation, at least for now. For all the Doctor knew any of the people gathered could've ended the officer's life.

For his part, Ensign Elegy Nascimento had followed the trail of blood smears and guttural sobs at an urgent pace, entering the hall at Avira's side. The bloody form of Aurelius Davis caught Elegy's gaze first, and Elegy adjusted his eye-wear to centre the speech-to-text visuals that would help him to process the overlapping reactions being uttered. Secondly, Elegy couldn't help but notice the Captain hunched over Aurelius' body, her own hands covered in blood. Having seen too many movies, Elegy softly muttered to himself, "Did the Captain kill him?" in pure incredulity. Shortly thereafter, his Chief Science Officer mode kicked in, and Elegy stood back from the scene of the crime. He stepped back further when Avira gave her orders and he palmed his hand-scanner in the meantime.

Sam slowly stood back, taking in deep breaths as her body shook. She closed her eyes. She had been close with Aurlieus and they had shared even personal moments together. Another emotion was welling up within her as she turned and looked about the room in rage--she could only think of one entity capable of this and if not, should at very least knew who did commit the murder. "E.D.E.N! Show yourself!" she screamed.

But the AI did not appear at all. Beth looked at Elegy as she heard his whispered words and paled she realised he thought that as had said it aloud. She was shaking from head to her toe as she looked at the blood on her hands and covering her legs from where she had been sat cradling him. “No, I did not Ensign. I am not that good an actor.” Beth wore her heart on her sleeve but it was not about her but about the man dead on the floor.

As his security teams arrived, William directed them to secure the area and start a scene log to document who came into contact with the crime scene. He then activated his communicator again, "Gerhard to Atlantis, I'm going to need a forensics and coroner team over here to process the crime scene. Also, alert the duty investigation officer we have a possible homicide over here." He closed his communicator and placed it back into his pocket. William had been involved in a homicide investigation before, but he had more training in the forensics side than the investigative side. As the Chief Armory Officer, while he had operational control over a criminal investigation, he preferred to leave it to the investigators assigned to him by Starfleet Security.

"Very well, until proven otherwise by an autopsy we have to assume foul play. Therefore this is an active crime scene, everyone here needs to provide biometric data to Petty Officer Bilum whom I designated as the scene control officer. The ship's duty investigator is coming over with a forensics and coroner team who will process the scene. Once they arrive I will turn this scene over to them," William said to the assembled officers, "I recommend from now on we travel in pairs aboard this ship until we can determine what happened."

Avira frowned a bit, her antennae twitching. She understood the need for a forensics team, but she also realised that she was the coroner team with the untimely demise of her previous supervisor. She didn't think to comment on it, it was clear that William was trying to take control over a terrible situation. She'd just be there to do the on-site medical inspection and would do the autopsy when the remains were transferred over to the Atlantis.

William turned to the captain, "Captain, I'm going to have to ask you to remain here to give your statement to the investigator since you found him." He could tell she was still in shock from the ordeal, but protocol dictated she record her statement now since the incident was still fresh in her mind.

"Of course." Beth nodded and moved a little away moving to sit on the floor staring at her hands and the blood there. She knew the process, knew what was needed but did not mean she was able to process it properly right then and there.

"Nobody here had any reason to kill Aurelius," Samantha snapped in anger and hurt. "We need to find out why that AI isn't showing itself."

The sudden snap of emotion startled Avira for a second, she realised of course that this was a personal matter to many of them. For a second she felt happy that she had kept herself professionally detached from most of the crew, immediately she felt bad for that realisation. She stood stoically in the corner of the room, waiting for the rest of the forensics team to arrive.

Physically hanging back from the rest of the away team, Elegy Nascimento only looked closer into the crime scene by virtue of his hand-scanner. The invisible sensors could examine every corner of the room, near or far, without tampering with the physical evidence that remained. "No signs of life but our own," Elegy reported to the team. As he changed the settings on his scanner, his train of thought started to drift. His gaze on the sensor readings blurred, no matter how much he tried to focus. Instead, Elegy's thoughts drifted back to his last conversation with Aurelius. The same conversation Elegy had flippantly shared with Samantha Leyton, and others, when they had suggested Elegy could benefit from some counselling. At time, it had been naked deflection on Elegy's part. In this new light, the broken telephone of remembrance and reframing, Elegy had basically told members of the crew that Aurelius had accused Elegy of being a thief. Elegy couldn't help but wonder: would that make him a murder suspect?

William looked over at the XO when he heard her harsh reply. He knew that tempers were hot right now, and quite frankly he agreed with her that the AI knew something about what happened. Until a cause of death was determined, he could not rule anything out, however. "Until we know all the facts, all options are on the table. Once Chief Karalo arrives we will start our investigation and leave no stone unturned, you have my word on that," he said calmly. He did not want to respond harshly for fear that it would exacerbate an already tense situation.

Samantha couldn't even look at Aurelius' body--it was too painful, as she paced about the room, she needed to have a chat with that damn AI or she was going to rip the ship apart with a phase pistol until she got her answers.