Solving the Case

Posted on 21 Apr 2020 @ 2:05pm by Commander Kristiana Petrova

1,388 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Changing Faces
Timeline: MD 04 - 1500 hours

Kristiana rang Rau's doorchime. She had a lead and wanted the Secretary's help for the next step. A young, slightly nervous, security officer had accompanied her.

The chime rang and a lazy cougar rose to four feet, shifting back up to two feet without missing a stride. (She'd had a really long time to perfect that.) Pressing the button, the door opened. "Commander," she greeted.

"Secretary Rau." Kristiana gave a nod. "I have a possible lead, but would ask for your assistance in pursuing it." She remained purposely vague. "I'm going to search Madison's quarters and would ask that you come with me, to avoid possible future - ... Suspicions of misconduct or evidence planting." Petrova explained. "Think of it as an insurance that we're taking this seriously and performing our investigation as honestly and in depth as we can. This is Ensign Palmer," she motioned to the young security officer. "He'll be assisting in the search."

"Then you'll be starting here," Rau pointed out. "We requested the same quarters, so Madison was sleeping here, although she sequestered her space in a specific area." Camilla stepped back to allowed the other woman in. "Just that one," she said, pointing at the small couch in the far corner of the living room area.

"Thank you." Kris stepped inside, looking at the indicated area. "I'll need to go over Madison's personal belonging first. Any luggage she brought along, no matter how small." she said, Palmer heading over. "Meanwhile, can you tell me about Madison? How long have you known her? How invested was she in the peace talks?"

Rau replied, "Madison and I have known..." She hesitated, frowning slightly. "...we knew each other for decades, even before she became my aide. We fought side by side in the wars, but she felt the same as me about the peace talks, and that's that these were a smart move for our people."

"Hm." Kris considered for a moment as Palmer searched Madison's belongings. "Were there any deep seated grudges against the Terran Union? You say you both fought in the war - having been in a war myself I can understand lingering animosity against what was once your enemy."

"There always will be some," Camilla agreed. "It's inevitable. I don't particularly like the Union now, but I'm a pragmatic woman, Commander."

While the two spoke, Palmer was carefully moving through the small collection of items that Rau had indicated belonged to Madison. He was conducting a visual inspection as well as going over the items with a tricorder, one by one...

"It never gets easy though." Kristiana sighed, her cold shell cracking for a moment in shared history across different universes. "Takes a generation to wash away old hatreds, and even then sometimes that's not enough."

"Does living for generations make it easier or harder?" Rau said wryly. She had not slept well since all of this began, and it was showing.

"Commander!" Palmer suddenly exclaimed.

"Yes, Palmer?" Petrova turned to face the ensign.

He held up the tricorder to show her a sort of topographical map of an item of clothing inside the bag. It showed that there had been a sort of depression in the fabric a shape of something that suggested a container of some sort, with a dried liquid around the top. "I've interfaced the readings with medical," he began.

"What is that?" Camilla asked, looking into the bag.

Palmer blinked. "It appears to be clothing, Madame Secretary."

That brought a very disconcerted frown.

Kris just facepalmed. There was a reason Palmer was still only an Ensign. The man meant well, but by the Gods ...

"Madison was a shapeshifter," Camilla replied distantly. "None of us needed clothing. We create it of ourselves."

"While this is all fascinating - " Kristiana did not go into detail that her war was against shapeshifters, wouldn't be helpful to the situation at hand, "I'd rather hear what the link is between that article of clothing and Medical."

"Yes, sir," Palmer said with a nod. "According to the medical database, these traces are dried venom that matches what killed the Seelie aide."

"Which - I am reticent to admit - confirms my suspicions." Petrova spoke, turning her attention back towards the Seelie ambassador. "Secretary Rau, there is no murderer to find. Your aide killed herself, in what I suspect was an attempt to upset the peace talks." She spoke, calmly but firmly, watching Camilla carefully. "This residue is the final proof we needed."

The tall, shape-changing woman just stood there for a long, silent, tense moment as her eyes swung between the undeeded clothing to each of these Starfleet officers. She frowned. "I wouldn't have thought her capable of that," she finally said softly. As she'd said, she was a pragmatic woman.

Kristiana relaxed slightly when the woman didn't become angry or lash out, like she'd half been ready for. "We have three pieces of evidence. One circumstantial, one hearsay and one pretty direct and conclusive. The circumstantial evidence is the article of clothing. You said yourself, you Seelie make your own clothing from your shape shifting - ... ness. The hearsay evidence is a recording of people's positions relative to Madison during the banquet. Between Madison last taking a sip from a clearly unpoisoned drink to the blackout nobody outside a few people from our crew and yourself were near enough to Madison to poison her drink."

"The third piece of evidence is the residue," the Russian woman continued. "Looks pretty conclusive to me." She hesitated a moment before continuing. "Though part of me wonders - and I have absolutely no evidence for this except the loosest of circumstantial - but why did you decline the offer for a security escort beforehand. Part of me wonders - and this might just be the suspicions of a weary and jaded security officer - did you know this was going to happen, and figure a close security presence might interfere?"

Camilla's eyes snapped sideways. Her eyes narrowed to slits like that of a snake and a soft hiss bubbled up from her throat. "No," she said. "We are not an extroverted people, and it was uncomfortable enough to be on this unfamiliar ship for such difficult talks. We can take care of ourselves." Then she deflated a little. "Except when the enemy comes from within."

"What's going to happen with the peace talks now?" Kristiana simply asked. The woman's reaction to her prodding hadn't told her much, but then, it didn't need to. Whether her suspicions were true or not would be impossibly to prove anyways.

"I don't know," Camilla replied. "I will need to go home and...reevaluate. We will cause you no more trouble, however. We will go home."

Kristiana nodded, hesitating a moment again before speaking. "From someone who nearly saw several proud people wiped out because of a war, don't let the chance for peace die, Secretary." she offered, turning towards the exit. "Palmer, let's go back."

After packaging the clothing with the venom residue for evidence, Palmer was right on her heels.

Rau hadn't moved from her spot, but she turned her head to speak over her shoulder. "Thank you, Commander, for finding the truth." Her voice was solemn and heavy.

Kris paused, not quite sure what to say. What did one say when one felt sympathy, but also a bit of distrust? "Of course," was all she could think of on the spot. That said though, she made her way out with Palmer. "Nicely done," she told the junior security officer once the door had closed behind them.

"Thank you, sir," Palmer said. "I'm just glad we found the truth. It was disturbing imagining a killer loose on the ship."

* * *

The peace talks thus ended without peace achieved, although not further violence or discord. Sometimes, one must take what one can get. The surviving members of the Seelie Coalition departed, and then the delegates of the Terran Union followed suit, and the USS Odin was once again left to its own devices...

=/\= End Log =/\=

OOC: This closes the main "story" of the plot. All of the guests have departed, and I'll be doing a log soon to fix the personnel changes we've had! You can now have some "downtime" logging before we start the next plot. <3

 

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