Locked In (Part 3)
Posted on Thu Jan 29th, 2026 @ 1:03am by Commander Irene Vincent "Rally" & Lieutenant Commander Damien Maillet & Lieutenant Commander Rebecca Bluegarden & Lieutenant Commander Malcom Hunt & Lieutenant Freya Michaud
1,614 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Season 1, Episode 2: War, Peace, And All That Jazz
Location: Deep Space Station K-9- Conference Room, Deck 9
Timeline: After 'Locked In (Part 2)'
Previously, on Star Trek: Deep Space K-9:
Rebecca turned back towards the meeting.
"At this time, security and medical are cross-referencing Rheuysian-made melee weapons to determine if any of them are consistent with the Ambassador's injuries." Rebecca reported. "Right now, the Rheuysians are cooperating with the investigation, but if Vulpie's death was by a Rheuysian blade, I suspect that they will cease their cooperation and get defensive."
And now, the continuation:
"I have access to the manifests of every item that the Rheuysians and the Eifie declared in their effects," Damien said. "We'll review it with Security and account for any blades or other objects which might fit the murder weapon's profile and track it down. But if the weapon was smuggled aboard, then that won't be effective."
'We can get a metallurgic breakdown of materials typically found in Rheuysian blades,' Michaud stated contemplatively. 'We can scan for any anomalous traces of them present on the station - if it hasn't been slagged, or thrown out an airlock already.'
"And speaking of Lieutenant Dallas," Rally replied, turning her attention over to Kathryn. "Any findings from Miss Vulpie's autopsy, Doctor?"
"I'm afraid I can't add much more than we already know," Kate replied with a tinge of regret. "I can confirm Vulpie had taken her medication, but not enough to overdose, which I find hard to believe the assailant wouldn't realize we could figure out quite easily along with the fact she was indeed pregnant. She was only about 6 weeks along, so I'm not sure she was even aware of it. I can't help but wonder if the assailant was aware, however, because being stabbed the way she and where she was seems especially personal and...dramatic?" Dallas struggled to know if that word was the most appropriate, but it was the best one should could identify at the moment. Kate offered, "Forgive me for stating what seems obvious, but whomever did this seems disorganized and driven by rage."
Rally shifted slightly in her seat. "So, what I'm taking away from this is that the evidence would appear to indicate a close personal relationship between Miss Vulpie and her killer?"
Kate nodded. "I would say that's the most likely scenario, yes."
Rally glanced over at Rebecca. "Miss Bluegarden, has your team investigated any possible leads?"
Rebecca had been surprised by the revelation that Vulpie was pregnant, and she was already thinking about new leads to look into when the floor was ceded back to her.
"Well, we had been looking into the criminal background of the man who had previously assaulted Ambassador Barkh when the summit went into recess." Rebecca explained. "Eyewitnesses stated that a few hours after that happened, he was spotted again heckling Miss Vulpie, claiming that she was starving his kids by choosing to cooperate with the Rheuysians."
Rebecca turned to Kathryn.
"However, if what Miss Dallas has said with the autopsy was true, it might be worth investigating Miss Vulpie's history in the breeding program." She proceeded to speculate. "We know she's had three kids previously: The first two from the same father, while her third came from a different father. If this killing was indeed motivated by rage, we need to look into the possibility that this could have been an act of jealousy by one of the fathers of her children."
Rally perked an eyebrow. "Do we know if it's common for Eifie women to breed with more than one male partner, Commander?" She inquired.
"While the Eifie were reluctant to share the details of their breeding program, especially any information at all on their males, from what I could gather, it's commonplace for Eifie women to be paired with different male breeding partners." Rebecca explained. "The fact that Miss Vulpie had been assigned the same breeding partner twice is... Unusual, for sure."
Michaud sat back in her chair, slumping slightly. Though she had been there for at least part of the autopsy, hearing it out loud in such a formal setting had driven home to her the tragedy of the situation. A weariness settled deep into her bones. Murder investigations weren't what she had signed up for, and this was straying far from her comfort zone. 'So ... does that mean there we could have a partial DNA match for the perpetrator already?'
"That's assuming that either of Miss Vulpie's previous breeding partners had anything to do with her death in the first place," Rally pointed out. "And speaking thereof..." She shifted her attention back towards Kathryn. "You had mentioned Miss Vulpie was six weeks pregnant, Doctor?"
"That's correct," Kate replied.
"Do you know if you were able to extract a DNA sample of some kind from the fetus?" Rally proposed. "Something we can potentially compare with her surviving children, see if there's a correlation with either of her previous breeding partners or if there's possibly a third father we have to contend with?"
'We can extract the DNA, the technology exists,' Michaud replied firmly. 'However, I cannot imagine that the Eifie would allow us access to the fetal DNA. They have been ... protective of their breeding program. With good reason, it has to be said. We would have to tread carefully in any requests ...'
"That might be something outside of security's wheelhouse." Rebecca sighed. "You'd think we were after their deepest, darkest secrets with all the subpoenas we've had to serve them just to get what we already know..."
"Perhaps I can assist with that," Kate offered. "Maybe their desire to catch the murderer will be persuasive."
'You can try - I'll tag along too if you want. Maybe we can persuade them to release information relevant to our victim only. It might just do it ...' Michaud said, trailing off towards the end of her sentence. She could feel a headache coming on just at the thought of dealing with another round of negotiations around bio-data. Nothing to it but mainline some coffee, she thought as she shook her empty takeout cup.
"We'll take any lead we can get," Rally authorized. "Since the killer's still at large and we don't know their intentions, we have to anticipate the possibility of this sonofabitch striking again; anything so much as a list of names will go a long way in helping us to eventually apprehend them."
'The sooner we get those, the better,' Michaud said with a tight, unamused smile. The sooner she got out of the meeting room, the sooner she could fill her coffee cup too. She wondered when she had developed the craving for the black stuff. It had crept up on her, as her addictions were wont to do. The cerebral part of her brain observed the fact in a cool, detached way, wondering if this was a trigger to fall into past behaviour patterns.
Rally turned her attention to Damien and Malcom. "Mister Maillet, Mister Hunt; are there any records of people having left the station between the time Ambassador Vulpie retired to her quarters and the time that her body was discovered?"
Lifting the PADD from the table, Hunt began going through several bits of information. "Just a few reports of transfers to the Yorktown. But otherwise, nothing out of the ordinary."
"Then we have to assume that the killer hasn't gotten far," Rally remarked as she glanced over at Damien. "Mister Maillet, get in touch with the Yorktown and instruct them to hold position; any future departures and/or disembarkations from the station are being postponed until further notice."
“Right away, ma’am,” the Comms chief said. He took that as his cue to leave the room and head for the communications station in Ops.
"Oh, boy; daddy ain't gonna be fond of getting held up..." Rebecca sighed.
Michaud raised an eyebrow. Holding the Yorktown, really? Had it really come to that? Still, this far out on the frontier, ships were few and far between. Michaud was only glad that she didn't have to countermand a starship captain's orders.
Simply raising an eyebrow, Malcom gave a noticeable sigh. The Yorktown had been posted for the four days and he was fairly certain the man wasn't returning. Leaning back in his seat, he kept an eye on everyone in the room.
"I know that this isn't going to be ideal," Rally went on to explain. "The delegates especially aren't going to be one too happy about being confined to the station like political prisoners; but right now, we have to get this situation under control before it escalates into something we have no control over. And I'm going to count on each and every one of you to ensure that we don't get to that point.
She glanced around the room. "Any further questions?"
"None here." Rebecca replied. "We'll get to the bottom of this."
'Just eager to get to work, Commander,' Michaud replied with a thin smile.
"Alright, then," Rally sighed, reaching forward and cracking her knuckles. "You all know your roles and responsibilities in this, so let's not beat around the bush any longer than we need to be; we've got a killer to bag, so let's get to it."
Posting By:
Commander Irene Vincent
Commanding Officer, Deep Space Station K-9
Lieutenant Commander Rebecca Bluegarden
Executive Officer/Chief Security Officer, Deep Space Station K-9
Lieutenant Commander Damien Maillet
Second Officer/Chief Communications Officer, Deep Space Station K-9
Lieutenant Commander Malcom Hunt
Chief Operations Officer, Deep Space K-9
Lieutenant Kathryn Dallas, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer, Deep Space K-9
Lieutenant Freya Michaud
Chief Science Officer, Deep Space K-9
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