From: Kenneth Field (envision_at_fidalgo.net)
Date: Sun Jun 03 2007 - 17:59:56 PDT
"Things Fall Apart"
(continues from Rahul's "Edging Forward")
Location: GS-2
Stardate: 2.70603.1759
Scene: CNS Office ->Reception->Sickbay
"I'm done for the day," Commander Gene McInnis waved toward the receptionist as he passed from his office into the reception area.
The receptionist, an eager rating who dreaded talking to the Bajoran Ambassador Myall Tai, looked up from her scheduling array.
"How did the meeting go with the Ambassador? Should I schedule more time?"
Gene stuffed the PADD he'd been scanning into his briefcase and shook his head.
"Everything's screwed up by this serial killer thing," Gene replied. "The Ambassador is spending all of his time trying to keep the more orthodox Bajorans from going after the Cardassians on station and liaising with the Vedek Assembly who want the Orb back on Bajoran soil yesterday. There isn't going to be any time for anything else until we can catch this *misraheen.*"
"Seems you'd want the Orb back on Bajor, wouldn't you?" the rating asked quite sincerely. "It hasn't done much of anything for anyone here on the GATE."
"You'd think, wouldn't you?" Gene sighed. "The Orthodox believe that since it came out this end of the Wormhole, it belongs to this Quadrant's Bajorans. The Secularists don't necessarily want it here, but they don't want to give it up if there's something to gain politically from it. The Moderates all want to see what the Orb has to say to them, and since they comprise the bulk of the several thousand Bajorans on this station, it will take roughly two years for all of them to have a turn at the thing."
"You sound ... disquieted by the whole situation."
Gene made a mental note to get the rating some training. She might turn out to be valuable in a counseling role herself.
"I'm disappointed in my people," he admitted. "Bajorans are dying on this station, and if one of them hadn't been Vedek Dawan, they'd care more about the Orb and what it can do for them, than about people being murdered."
"Celebrity status. Had some difficulties with that back on EARTH," the rating nodded in agreement. "If there was some disease or condition that required treatment, it was a lot easier to get money for it if some celebrity had it. Especially if they were movie or sports figures."
"You suppose it's indemic to humanoid species?" Gene wondered idly.
"Everybody's egocentric," the rating smiled ruefully. "What's in it for me?"
He was definitely getting her into counseling track training.
"Call ahead to Sickbay for me, would you?" Gene asked at the door. "Let Dr. Gorman know I'm going to make a quick stop there on my way home."
"Will do. Have a good night, sir," the receptionist nodded activating the comm network from her desk.
-------------------- =/\=
Scene: Sickbay, Gorman's Office
"Well," Gorman sighed, rubbing his face with his hands, "I don't like it much either, but what else can we do?"
Lieutenant Nick Cannon had not appreciated having his flight status revoked. Under other circumstances, Gene was sure the Lieutenant would have made his position clearly and loudly, but he was so disoriented by this creeping dementia that he could barely function. There was no way in hell that either he or Gorman were going to let him drive a fighter with twin phaser cannons when he wasn't sure what he was even seeing.
"I've done some more thinking about this serial killer," Gene offered.
Jeff tapped the desk com screen to show the lead page of the local FNN broadcast news.
"You know what they're calling him now?"
"Him? They know it's a him?"
"I doubt it," Gorman waved off the question, "but it's not about being right. It's about being the first to get the news out, even if it's wrong."
"What are they calling him then?"
"The Reaper," Jeff tapped the off button on the screen and it went black.
"Isn't that a TERRAN bogey man?"
"And the correspondent who wrote the article is TERRAN. About the only thing that makes any sense about this business."
"I read your reports. I think we can assume he's either Bajoran, or someone who really hates Bajorans."
"You mean ... like Cardassians?"
"Cardassians don't hate Bajorans. Not any more. If they ever did. The whole Occupation was about not caring if the Bajorans lived or died. Cardassians didn't hate us any more than they hated their beasts of burden. Now, Cardassia has more to fear from BAJOR than the other way around," Gene explained. "No, this kind of thing implies intimacy. This guy gets in very close. He doesn't want to just kill. He wants to make a statement. He wants it big and bloody."
"That sounds like a lot of ego," Jeff tapped the desk with his fingers.
"Yes, but very likely he isn't obvious about his behavior. In fact, he might be quite calm in his day to day life. But he's got a certain expertise, probably medical training of some kind, but he's not a practitioner currently. Physicians are overworked everywhere they exist. They see enough blood, they don't enjoy causing it for pleasure."
"You mean he might have been a doctor once, but isn't any more?"
"Maybe. Just thinking about this. He's picked on men, both times, too. Not women. But I don't know why."
"Maybe because the point he wants to make concerns male Bajorans only."
"I don't know. We're pretty egalitarian compared to most of the Federation worlds. In fact, the Kai has been a woman more often than a man. We value the strength in our women, particularly with our spiritual lives."
"I think he's targetting specific people," Jeff mused. "We only have two victims so far, but one of them was the most important Bajoran on the station. And there aren't too many Bajorans in key positions here."
He gave Gene a pointed look.
Gene was surprised by the whole idea, but it made a certain sense.
"Just not enough of a pattern to tell what might happen next. But I promise not to walk down dark alleys or go down in dark basements. How's that?"
"And stay out of Jeffries Tubes, too," Jeff laughed.
-------------------- =/\=
Kenneth Field
envision_at_fidalgo.net
aka Commander Gene McInnis
CNS/GS-2
aka Lt. JG Mowree Nurunyon
aCNS/GS-2
aka Tomas' Alexei Vukovic
Former Chief of Staff to Ambassador Xana Bonviva
currently with the BORG
aka Maury R. Tee
Professor of English (Retired)
Proprietor of "Impulse Drives,"
a little shop of horrors
GS-2, Promenade
"I start fighting a war, you're definitely gonna see something new." Malcolm Reynolds -- "Serenity"
From HyperNews_at_youth.net
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