Discovering Sebastian

Posted on Mon Aug 26th, 2019 @ 4:30pm by Captain Rueben Gregnol & Ka'see 'Cassie' Anderson (*) & Jasper Offermans & Chief Operations Kendra McIntyre & Chief Helmsman Eden Bowers & Ryder Bray

Mission: Mission 9 - Daucina
Location: Deck 7 - Sealed Off Area
Timeline: MD 4 09:00 Hours
1799 words - 3.6 OF Standard Post Measure

Cassie knew she had been silly to come back to the scene of where they had been discovered but she wanted to look it over and investigate more. It seemed a good place and it was her old area of expertise when Science had all the equipment. What she hadn’t expected was the body that she found just lying there on the platform as if it had been waiting for someone to find it for so long. It had been enough to make her scream loudly and step back in shock. She could hear the companions that she had talked into exploring the area come running as none of them had been brave enough to venture into the transporter area.

Jasper hurried in glancing around until he spotted Cassie over by the platform. He hurried over to her side and thus stood there, numbly unable to move as he looked at the what was left of a body. His lips pressed tightly together and he had to force himself to breathe.

"What's wrong?" Kendra asked as she saw her two companions rush forward. When she finally caught what had happened, the communications chief rushed to join her crewmates. "My God, what happened?" she asked, greatly disturbed.

"I found..." Cassie shone the light to show what she had seen. "He must have followed at the last second." She whispered not able to explain properly. It was just a dead body, nothing to describe. A lifeless body nothing more nothing less but the scientist knew this person, watched him stay behind to die.

When she heard Cassie scream Eden had come running to investigate. But when she saw Sebastian's body, something took over her that blocked the rest of the world out. It was beyond grief. She knelt down next to him and brushed her fingers through his hair, totally unaware of what anyone was doing around her. Not a single thought went through her head except being close to him even though she knew he was gone.

Not really knowing anything better to do at such a time, Kendra gently placed her hand on Cassie's shoulder. This group had been through so much together. This just felt like a punch in the gut. She dared not say anything, or the scene before her would become more real.

"Too late," Jasper whispered, "he was just, just too late." Tears had already started down his face as he recalled his last words to their Captain, "I should have stayed."

Pulling up the rear was Ryder, who had turned on his Starfleet training and remained steely while the others reacted. He knelt down, hand over his face as he took a visual, and respectful, the examination of the body on the platform. Despite the age of the incident, it was as if the body was still freshly deceased, save for a span of time of however long it took for anyone to find it. "... We need to tell the Captain," he said gravely. "... And we need to hold a proper funeral."

"Yes," Jasper finally said as he drew in a deep breath, "yes we need to do that." He stooped down closer to the body and looked puzzled, "why is he so well preserved?" "Over a hundred years and it's almost like yesterday."

Eden was now vaguely aware that people were moving about her and discussing things. "What?" She said suddenly. Her eyes were dry but anyone who looked into them would see the anguish she felt. She had already lost him once and now she had lost Sebastian again.

"He has no blood in him. The Dikironium cloud creature must have got him but he certainly wasn't with us when we woke up. I was awake for a few seconds and it was just us." Cassie said scanning the body with a tricorder. "He has technically been mummified. He is completely drained of red blood cells." Cassie knew she sounded cool and composed after her shock of discovering the body.

Ryder moved from the body of the Captain over to the console nearby. "There's also a chance that when they found us, it pulled something loose from the transporter..." He narrowed his eyes, looking over to Jasper. "You've been awake the longest, right? Is this crew observant enough to spot a dead body?"

"To spot a dead body," Jasper looked confused, "when they brought us out of the transporter they took us straight to sickbay, I don't think any of us, that is those of us in the transporter would have known anything about it." He took in a deep breath and began again, "the Ishimora crew was decimated, by the time we were put into the transporter lock we, including the Captain, were the last ones alive, there was no one to spot the body, that is if it was not in the transporter already." The man's mind was a bit confused by the whole thing, "with all the changes, the refits and the like surely someone would have spotted him."

"So," Ryder concluded, "Someone's been messing with the transporter past what you stated. Not only was he mummified, but he's been in there for awhile. Maybe something jarred loose on our return trip from... what were we calling that other reality again? - From there, but I wouldn't count out the possibility that we may not have seen the last of some nefarious plot.... or that monster, come to think of it."

"Oh I hope we don't see that thing again," Jasper blurted, "I still don't know how we would get rid of it if it got onboard again."

"Hopefully, Starfleet found some kind of purging mechanism in the last 200 years," Kendra stated, not wanting to think about it. "I haven't been able to bring myself to look for it in the library," she added, going blank for a moment. The trauma of the event was still fresh for her.

"Let's not think about that thing it can't be here we would know by now." Cassie shrugged out of her shirt leaving her in vest type top. "I don't know. No one has been down here since we came out. We only came down here to look for old and useful stuff." The woman reminded as she laid it over Sebastian's body covering his face.

"What are you going to do with him?" Eden asked, she knew the answer, it was the only way but she didn't want it to happen. She didn't want to be separated from him again.

"We should tell Gregnol," Kendra stated. Nodding toward the man on he floor, she somberly stated, "He deserves better than to be left here."

Cassie squeezed the woman's shoulder for a moment before glancing up at the others. "I will get Uhin or Gregnol." The woman said with a grimace as she quickly disappeared out of the old transporter room.

Ryder stood upright, looking over to Eden. For the first time in awhile, he had a sympathetic look on his face. "... I assume after a talk with the Captain, we're gonna find a way to bury the body. Maybe contact whatever next of kin could be... let them know. But he's not in there, Eden. The body is a shell that gets left behind, right?"

Eden didn't at all appreciate those words even though they were true. He was right here in front of her again and yet he was gone and she knew this. It didn't make it any easier. "I'll find his family." She replied finally. It was the least she could do for him.

Now that her speciality was useful, she was not going to pass up the opportunity. Casting a sympathetic smile at Eden, Kendra offered, “I can help with that. The least I can do is to write a good obituary.”

She didn't mind that only . . . "No one will know him in this time period. Maybe he doesn't even have any family still alive. But I guess it wouldn't hurt. It's respectful."

Cassie entered the room again with Gregnol in tow. The towering man stopped and bowed his head in respect. "Where has he come from?" The man wondered having been there when the crew had been released. The console had been deactivated moments after they had left.

Jasper saw the pair as they walked in and then heard the Captain's words as he looked at him then let his gaze return to the body, "I, I don't know sir."

"The transporter, presumably." Ryder butt in. "If we've assumed the area's been monitored since it was last adventured into, then the only logical explanation is really a transporter misfire. Probably when we leapt through that wormhole or whatever." He looked toward Reuben. "Ryder Bray. I assume you're the guy in charge around here."

"We've met before Ryder." The man commented as he realised he was at a complete loss. No one had been down here in nearly a year at it had been sealed off after the group had been rescued. The area had only been opened up with the prospect of turning it in a possible science area for a brewery or storage space. "Okay, we need to find out what has happened to him." The man said carefully trying to think through the options he had. "Cassie can you stay with Captain Deauvuex the rest of you why don't you head to the Ward Room I will catch up after I have made arrangements."

"With all due respect," Ryder cut in once more, "If you need to find out what's happened to him, wouldn't it be best to examine the transporter logs? Look about the room for evidence of tampering? What if someone's managed to get in? We certainly did, and it didn't take a whole lot to do it, which would potentially debunk my first theory, but we should get to the bottom of this before it gets worse."

"Which is why I need you all out of the room." The Captain had been Security before the command track had come calling. He knew how to run an investigation. "You are welcome to stay thought Mister Bray."

"I'm not leaving him," Eden said simply. And she wouldn't. There was just no way that she could physically make her body move away from him. They were separated once and though she knew he was gone, she didn't want to be separated from him again.

OFF::

Cassie Anderson
Biologist
SS Mary Rose
(PNPC Gregnol)

Reuben Gregnol
Captain
SS Mary Rose

Eden Bowers
Chief Helmsman
SS Mary Rose

Jasper Offerman
Operations
SS Mary Rose

Kendra McIntyre
Chief of Communications
SS Mary Rose

Ryder Bray
Security
SS Mary Rose
(PNPC Uhin)