A Rude Awakening
Posted on Sun Jul 20th, 2025 @ 11:12pm by Commander Irene Vincent "Rally" & Tekina & Lieutenant Commander Damien Maillet & Lieutenant Commander Rebecca Bluegarden & Lieutenant Kathryn Dallas M.D. & Lieutenant Freya Michaud
Edited on on Sun Jul 20th, 2025 @ 11:16pm
2,043 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission: Season 1, Episode 2: War, Peace, And All That Jazz
Rebecca had returned to her quarters late. Her first day aboard Deep Space K-9 had been an eventful one, and deciding to host a get together for some of her fellow new officers at the end of it maybe wasn't the smartest idea. As a result Rebecca was thoroughly worn out as she changed into her nightwear and collapsed onto the bed as sleep quickly overtook her.
It hadn't been too long after Rebecca drifted off before it seemed like her alarm had started going off. Was it really time to get up already? She'd just gone to sleep...
Rebecca swatted the chronometer beside her bed, hoping to get a few extra minutes. However, when swatting the chronometer didn't silence the sound, Rebecca realized that this really was an anomaly, as the sound waking her wasn't the alarm she had set, but rather her communicator going off. Drowsily, Rebecca fumbled about to find her communicator, eventually grabbing the device and flipping it open:
"Isn't it a bit much, banging a shovel on my door at this hour?" Rebecca asked groggily.
"Sorry to disturb you, Commander, but you'll want to get down to deck 18 ASAP." The somber voice of a security officer on the other end responded. "There's been a murder."
Rebecca blinked as her groggy brain tried to process what her subordinate had just told her.
"Since it's so late, I'm raising the prices by 20%..." Rebecca said incoherently. "Also, I'll pay 30% less for anything you sell me...
"Are you alright, Commander?" The security officer asked. "I said someone's been murdered."
"I'm... Be right down.." Rebecca muttered, closing her communicator.
Rebecca had plenty of time to wake up on her way down to deck 18. But that didn't stop her from picking up a coffee from the Wawa on deck 16. Good they were still open 24 hours...
Once she had arrived on deck 18, Rebecca was shown to the gruesome scene, and if the Wawa coffee hadn't woken her up fully, what she saw in the Eifie delegate's quarters certainly did.
"Do we have a timeline of events for what played out?" Rebecca asked once they were back outside.
"Unfortunately, we're still working on it. The Eifie delegates have requested that all surveillance equipment in their quarters be disabled, so that's a major hurdle. We're still going over the tapes in the corridors, but that's going to take time, as is-!"
You could practically hear Commander Vincent coming before you saw her.
"What do you mean there's been a fucking murder?!" she could be heard ranting from just down the hall. "I haven't got time for this bullshit! I'm barely juggling these stupid-ass crew rotations with a major diplomatic summit, and now I have to contend with the fact that we've got a murderer on board?! FUCK!!!"
All heads turned as Commander Vincent rounded the corner, looking just as frazzled as she sounded.
"My apologies for that, Commander," she sighed as she drew up to the group. "Had to get that all out of my system before we could focus on the task at hand. So, with all that being said... what's the situation?"
Rebecca turned slowly towards Rally. Her ears still ringing from all the shouting.
"You are a lot more awake than I am right now, Commander:" Rebecca moaned. "Long story short, one of the Eifie delegates has been killed in her quarters, and... I think it's best you see what the killer did next yourself."
Rally furrowed her brow, but nonetheless complied and poked her head into the victim's room.
In the small quarters, the deceased Eifie lay on the bed, her abdomen covered in blood. However, the blood was also splattered on other nearby surfaces, most prominently on the bulkhead, where the blood had been smeared into the words 'YOU DID THIS'
"Jesus Christ..." she muttered before poking her head back out. "Do we have an ID on our vic, Commander?"
"She ain't named Vic, sir." Rebecca said. "That's a guy's name."
Rally gave her XO the stink-eye.
"What?" Rebecca asked, seemingly genuinely confused by the look of scorn from her CO. "I'm just clarifying what her name ain't..."
Rally pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "Then what is her name, Commander?"
"Vulpie, sir." Rebecca responded. "She originally hails from Flaya. Records show she had three kids: Two of them share the same father, while one is of a different father... Um... Since they seem to be listed as her next of kin... When do we start the process of contacting them about this?"
Rally scratched her chin. "Well, first thing's first, we should probably analyze the crime scene, gather up any forensic evidence that may be of use to us before we begin the process of contacting relatives."
Answering the summons to her quarters, Michaud dragged herself out of bed in the dead of night. Stopping only to fix herself a to-go cup of the strongest coffee she could find, she arrived promptly at the scene of the crime.
'Alright, you managed to drag me out of bed at an unholy hour,' she said groggily to her two superior officers. 'I got the message. Just waiting for one of our forensic scientists to get down here.' She turned to Bluegarden, 'it's Arteta. He does some shifts with Security as well, if you know him.'
"The Eastern European one?" Rebecca asked. "I'll have to make a note on his file to correct his name: He's listed on the roster as 'Arleta.'"
Swigging her coffee from her travel cup, Michaud nodded, 'yeah, that's the one. He admits it's his fault. His tee's aren't well-defined.' She shrugged. 'He's good with forensics mind.'
"He's a damn good shot, too." Rebecca added. "I recertified him with flying colors."
'Oh hey, there he is,' Michaud pointed in the direction of a scrawny, pale man with dark hair that stuck up at the back of the head. With wide, dark eyes he glanced round and about as he made his way through the throng of Security personnel, clutching a case tightly in one hand. 'Sirs,' he said in a thin reedy voice as he approached them. 'I heard there's been an ... incident?'
"Well, I think that would be both technically accurate and something of an understatement," Rally admitted nervously.
Cocking his head and blinking a few times, Arteta ran a hand through his hair, 'uh, right. Well. Uhm. Probably should see it for myself? And has anyone else had access to the scene?' He pointed to the other side of the corridor. 'I'll need to collect some elimination traces if they could line up there.'
Nodding, Rebecca turned to the security officer guarding the quarters, who seemed evidently confused at the sight of a coworker wearing a blue science uniform instead of security red.
"Let him in." Rebecca ordered.
Nodding, the confused security officer stood aside, allowing Arteta access to the crime scene.
'Thank you, thank you,' Arteta mumbled vaguely as he cast a practiced eye across the scene. 'Oh my,' he said, nonplussed as he saw the words daubed in blood. 'Quite dramatic.' He ran a hand across the back of his head and through his hair once again.
He turned to see that everyone had cleared the room for him. Setting his case down, he began muttering to himself as he pulled out a heavy-duty science department tricorder, and got to work.
Michaud peaked in around the corner of the doorway to observe as Arteta moved about in short, bird-like movements, hopping this way and that in some pattern known only to himself.
She leaned back towards Bluegarden, 'He has flying colours in the phaser certs? Really?'
"I'm telling you, he was dead on:" Rebecca said. "Two out of three bullseyes, and even though he missed the third one, he still hit the next innermost ring."
'Daaamn,' Michaud exclaimed quietly. Arteta had busied himself collecting a sample of blood from the victim, and a sample from the daubed words. 'I guess it takes all sorts.'
It was a doctor was awoken in the middle of the night for anything good, but when Kate was notified she was needed because of an "incident" with one of the Elfie, she immediately thought of the pregnant Ambassador. It was only when she was given further details that she realized it was not life that was cause for her awakening, but death.
Somberly, she dressed and grabbed a forensic medical kit before making her way to the scene where understandably, a number of people had already gathered, including a member of security who appeared to be documenting the scene. This left the grim task of attending to the poor soul to her, Before making full entry into the room, she nodded respectfully to the group and asked, "How was the deceased discovered and by whom?"
"When Ambassador Tekina called morning summons, Vulpie here was absent, so the ambassador sent one of her guards to wake her, assuming she had overslept..." Rebecca explained.
Rebecca went over the notes she had been handed again, making sure she was reading them right. She was sure the doctor already knew about this, but for the sake of giving the report in its entirety, Rebecca was obligated to include it:
"Apparently, strong fatigue is a symptom of Eifie morning sickness, and the Ambassador was aware that Vulpie was back in the breeding program, and failing to report in might be a sign of good news. The guard found Vulpie as she lays now."
"Thank you for the context," Kathryn replied to Rebecca. I'll finish a few more things here but I will know more when I perform the autopsy."
'If you don't mind, I'd like to be present for the autopsy,' Michaud offered as she drained the last of the coffee from her to-go cup. She imagined she looked terrible at this hour, but it couldn't be helped.
"Ops to Commander Vincent." It was the voice of Second Officer Maillet coming over the station's comm system.
Rally stole a quick glance at Rebecca before moving over to a nearby wall panel. =This is Commander Vincent speaking; go ahead, Mister Maillet.=
Damien's voice now came from the activated wall panel. "Commander, Ops has just received the initial report from security. I don't want to interfere with the investigation, but I need to remind you about our legal obligation to notify the Eifie Ambassador."
=Working on it, Commander,= Rally responded. =Though, if Commander Bluegarden's account here is to be believed... I think Ambassador Tekina has already been informed of the situation.=
"Do you need anything from Ops at this stage?" asked Damien.
=Schedule a senior staff meeting for 1000 hours,= Rally instructed him. =If whomever did this to our vic is in our station right now, I think we need to regroup assess our options.=
"Yes, ma'am."
Rebecca sighed. Clearly the Commander hadn't gotten the memo the first time round...
"For the last time, her name ain't Vic." Rebecca said. "I don't even think Vic is an Eifie name..."
Rally gnashed her teeth. Clearly, her XO was an idiot.
"As in victim, Commander; it's supposed to be an abbreviation," she reiterated with all the subtlety of an Elephant playing hide-and-go-seek.
"Well... You could've just said that." Rebecca muttered in response, slightly embarrassed that she had failed to register a slang term. She would need to read up on it more...
"I hadn't heard the term before either, Ms. Bluegarden," Damien could be heard saying over the comms. "Um, I mean, Ops out."
A mission post by
Commander Irene "Rally" Vincent
Commanding Officer
Lieutenant Commander Rebecca Bluegarden
First Officer
Chief of Security
Lieutenant Commander Damien Maillet
Second Officer
Chief Communications Officer
Lieutenant Kathryn Dallas
Chief Medical Officer
Lieutenant Freya Michaud
Chief Science Officer
Vulpie
Cadaver
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