Murder in the cargo bay

Posted on Mon May 13th, 2024 @ 3:28am by Captain Tyler Driskill & Lieutenant Nixie Wilde

1,486 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Mission 1 - Project Concord
Location: Deck 14 - saucer section | Cargo bay 3 | USS Concord

Captain Tyler Driskill stood over the dead body of the Bolian Operations Officer and waited for his Chief of Security to arrive. This was one of the things Tyler didn’t like about his job but it was part of it. After everything that had already happened now a member of the crew had been nurses or at least that’s how it looked.

Wilde had been making her way to the Captain with a quick step, not wanting to keep him waiting after hearing the weight to his voice over the comm. Yet, her pace slowed as her gaze lowered to the body on the deck, the sight of death instinctively slowing her down. "Captain," her tone was grave as she moved to his side, but her eyes were on the Bolian, taking in the scene.

“Lieutenant” Driskill greeted his Chief of Security softly. He didn’t like loosing people and even more so when someone took their life. “This is or was Ensign Tullos, Operations Officer” he had served on the bridge a few shifts with the Ensign and had always been impressed.

Nixie shook her head at the words, sighing as she crouched down and pulled her tricorder out. "The poor guy," she murmured quietly, her features still and cool in the face of death though.

“Yeah he was a good officer” Captain Driskill took a deep breath “how do you think he died?”

Nixie took a moment or two to look over the scrolling data on her tricorder. "His airway was blocked, leading to asphyxiation. An autopsy can tell us more. Without anything left in the throat to point to accidental death, we should assume this was murder," she looked back to the Captain, anger in her eyes. That someone had done this to their colleague...and on her watch. "I'll need to seal this room, it should be treated as a crime scene," she added grimly.

“Absolutely”. He shook his head still looking down at the murdered Bolian there lifeless on the floor. “What ever you need, Lieutenant.”

Nixie nodded, sighing as she looked back to the body. This...on top of everything else. It was difficult to comprehend. She did a full scan of him with her tricorder, to get as much data as possible before moving him. Only when she'd secured the logs and sensor reading from the room did she order the transport of the body to Sickbay for an autopsy. She shook her head as she looked to the Captain, the tension clear to see on her features. "I'll need to go through all this data with a fine tooth comb, and I'll need to do a full sweep of this room for physical evidence. Were you the one who found him here?"

“Of course, whatever you need to do” it had been a long time since Captain Driskill had a murder on one of his commands. “I was the one that found Mister Tullos.”

"I'm sorry," Nix replied quietly, meaning it. She wouldn't wish that on anyone. "It...does mean I'll need to take an official statement from you though. For the record."

“Of course” Driskill gave a nod “whenever you are ready, Chief.” The Captain looked around the cargo bay there crates to sit on if the Lieutenant wanted to do the statement now or wait. “When would you like to take the statement,Lieutenant?”

"Could you come to the Security office in a couple of hours?" she was bold enough to ask. She didn't have a problem asking for what she needed even from a Captain, and right now, she needed to get the scene and evidence secure before anything else. She had a hunch that the Captain would understand.

“Absolutely” the Captain knew he was innocent so he had no reason to not come in and make a statement.

Nixie nodded, unable to deny a slight touch of approval that came to her. It seemed that the Captain trusted her, and it wasn't something to be taken for granted on a new ship. "We'll figure this out, Sir," she promised.


(3 hours later)

In a few hours the Captain found himself stepping into the security suite to give his statement to the Lieutenant “reporting to give my statement” the Captain said standing in front of the Security Chiefs desk.

Nix nodded as she sat back from her screen, letting out a soft breath. They'd secured and swept the scene of the murder. Murder. It was still surreal to use that word. "Thank you, Captain. I'm going to record if it, with your permission?" she motioned for him to take a seat with her, tapping on her screen to set it up. "It can be logged as evidence."

Driskill gave a nod and took the offered seat. He wasn't on trial or even being accused of the murder but doing something like this always felt uncomfortable.

Nix nodded back with a small, half apologetic smile, starting the recording before settling down at her desk. She had a padd too, to make her own notes, in case anything sparked from what he said. She went through the opening gambit, declaring who was giving the statement and who was taking it. This wasn't a part of the training they had to use often...thankfully...but it had been drilled into them all the same. "Could you tell me how you came upon Ensign Tullos?"

“I was headed to the cargo bay for a crate of Isolinear chips” the Captain paused and looked up at Nixie. It’s took me a few moments to find them but I heard a thud before I pulled the crate down.” Tyler shook his head “after a few seconds of looking around the cargo bay I found Ensign Tullos lifeless body.. face down on the cargo bay floor” Captain Driskill took a deep breath “I checked for a pulse and called for you.”

"Did you see him on the way in?" she asked quietly, watching him with a frown she didn't even realised had crept onto her features.

“No I didn’t” Tyler replied firmly. “I was coming to get some additional parts needed for one of the bridge panels to be repaired. I heard a small thud and made my way over to mister Tullos.”

"And you saw no one else going in, going out or working in there?" she asked, but only for the record, because she knew he would have already told her if that was the case.

“That is correct” Captain Driskill was trying hard to make sure there wasn’t anything he was forgetting.

Nix took a moment to make a note, frowning. Because it meant that both Tullos and the person who killed him were already in there when the Captain arrived, albeit in a different section. But the logs show no one else in attendance, which meant either the sensors or the logs had been tampered with. "Did you go straight towards him? Is there anything you can remember during those immediate moments? Even if it's just...a sound...a smell..."

Thinking back once again “just heating someone say something I couldn’t make out. A thud like a body hitting the floor then I started looking around” the Captain looked up “found the body and called for you.”

"And how well did you know him?" she asked quietly as she looked up from her padd to meet the Captain's eyes, her own full of regret for his whole miserable situation.

“Just from serving here on the Concord” Captain Driskill shrugged. “We had a few bridge shifts together but y that’s about it.”

"And it seems pretty redundant to ask if you'd noticed anything different about him, considering we've all just been flung half across the universe, but I'll ask anyway," she offered a weak, almost apologetic smile.

“Yeah nothing that I could point out” the Captain agreed with Nixie.

Nixie nodded with understanding at that. This was a new crew...there was no guarantees she'd find anyone who knew him particular well to speak on his recent behaviour. And even if there was, they were *all* in extreme shock, it would have been understandable to assign any odd behaviour to that. She leant to end the recording, logging it for evidence. "Thank you, Captain, it's good to cross all the 't's."

“Of course” Tyler sat there for a second “keep me updated on what you find?”

"You'll be the first to know," Nixie assured with a troubled frown, shaking her head with slight disbelief. "As if things weren't bad enough..."

Tyler didn’t say anything but he agreed with his security chief “if there is nothing else?”

"Of course, no..." Nixie motioned that he could leave...even if that felt unnatural when he was the Captain. "We'll figure this out, Captain."

“Keep me updated” Tyler left the Nixie headed back toward the bridge.

 

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