Poisoning the Well

Posted on Thu Nov 9, 2017 @ 4:24am by Lieutenant Si'Lar Trellis & Commander Amia Telamon M.D. & Lieutenant Benj Amoran

867 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Rumours
Location: Deck 583 - Civilian Quarters
Timeline: MD 8 - 1300hrs

ON: The sound of the woman sobbing and the baby screaming combined to make it hard to think straight so Benj assigned Opal to take the distraught wife into the kitchen in search of something for the baby to drink as an excuse to take her away from the body of her dead husband on the floor of the hallway where they had found him when they arrived.

He had been clearly in some pain, probably from his abdomen judging by the way he was curled up into a ball and with his face twisted into an expression of agony. Benj checked by scanning him to see if there were any wounds in his stomach to explain this but when he found nothing apparent he carefully turned the body over onto his back. The lividity and lack of rigour were giving time frames of very recent expiry so Benj scanned the contents of the man's abdomen to see if any of his organs had failed. It was clear that his fist had been balled into his stomach and Benj tested the contents with a probe. The analyser flickered and gave a very fast result and Amoran nodded his head.

=^= Amoran to Security =^= he spoke into his comm badge, flicking it to activate a channel and starting off a report. =^= I'm on Deck 149, Quarters 53Delta680. I have a suspicious death to report. Could you please send a team to do the necessary?=^= he went on, keeping his voice as low as he could and cursing the fact that finally, just when he could have done with the noise still, the child had stopped screaming. He didn't want to set the wife into any more distress but he had to report in and get Security on the case before he could transport the body to Sickbay.

"Damnit..." Lieutenant Si'Lar Trellis muttered to himself as he stood up and back away from the prone form of the woman laying before him. =^= "Trellis here, Security is responding to another call regarding a suspicious death." He said as he turned and began to walk out of the room. "Your call has just confirmed my fear that these are related to one another. I'll be there with a team immediately." =^= He concluded as he exited the quarters. He directed for several personnel to remain on the site and to continue the investigation until proper medical personal could come to retrieve the body. Although they could perform a site-to-site beam out, he knew that doing so could tamper with any sub-molecular evidence that they were hoping to retrieve.

It took less than several minutes for Lt. Trellis to arrive along with his security team. He immediately was struck by the loud screams of the child in the far part of the suite. The baby's cries were joined by the sobbing of its mother as it continued to ask questions that so far no one could answer.

"Doctor," Trellis started as he walked over and knelt down next to Amoran. "All of these Boslics in a matter of two hours? Tell me that you found a clue or just something to explain this." He pleaded quietly.

"All I have found is a pattern of gastric failure and most of the cytology is coming back with poison on the bottom line. Someone, something or some source is common to them all is claiming their lives in an agonising and clearly toxic manner." Amoran explained.

Trellis' brow furred as he read the tricorder readout. "Poison? But what kind of poison would only affect Boslics, but not the several hundred other civilians living in this section?" The Security Officer asked.

"More importantly, this all happened in a short period of time. This isn't just a coincidence, this was a targeted attack, but why Boslics? There can't be more than 500 throughout the station." Lt. Trellis said.

"I can't say" Benj replied. "That's your department, but I can tell you this poison they're using is ingested and it's hard to put something toxic into one person in a family and not get the rest of the members caught in drinking or eating the same thing. I don't know if that gives you any clues? It may only affect Boslics, but your second challenge is 'how can it be being given to some of them and not the rest'?" Benj put away his tricorder and stood back to allow the corpsmen to take the body away. "I guess I should have more for you once I do the autopsy" he acknowledged.

Lt. Trellis sighed as he stood up. "Unfortunately, I think you'll be doing a lot more autopsies before this is over." He said with resignation. "Before I came here, we had received word of at least two more deaths. That brings the total number up to 6 within 2 hours." He said. "As if Security needed anything else to rile the civilians." He sighed. "Let me know once you have an update." He said.

"Of course. As soon as I know, then you will. Rest assured." Benj answered and disappeared back to Sickbay to get the Autopsy underway.

Lieutenant
Si'lar Trellis
Security Investigation Officer

and

Lt. Amoran, Benj
Asst Chief Medical Officer

 

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