Silent University

Posted on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 @ 2:19pm by Lieutenant Commander Melissa Daniels M.D. & Lieutenant JG Callaigh Roland

Mission: Welcome to Archa IV
Location: SF Academy, San Francisco, Earth; Psychology Classroom
Timeline: Ten Years Ago

A young woman continued to watch the lecture. She had expertly mimicked her emotions, which was easy for someone who had no emotions to do. She watched as the Professor continued his lecture. The professor began to end the meeting. But this professor was not merely just a plain and simple researcher. He was studying a way to give non-Betazoids telepathy in his spare time. Research that the colony had found to be compromising. The research had its benefits, but the Cardassians would be very interested in this, as would a number of other powers in the quadrant.

Seated to her left was a senior cadet just months shy of graduation. Andi toyed with a pad in front of her, bored to tears. She'd sat through these lectures before; this was a freshmen class after all, but as she had opted to stay at the Academy for a couple of years after graduating auditing classes had been one of her assignments for this year. The professor continued to speak in a monotone that was often mocked outside of his classroom by the students and the young woman stretched and squirmed in her seat. Letting out a breath of boredom, her eyes roamed to the woman next to her. She bent over so she could whisper to her classmate without being instantly detected. "His delivery could use a little work, don't you think?" She didn't recognize the other girl but really that wasn't so odd. There were a few older students who had switched majors after a length of time at the Academy and not all cadets started off at the bright young age of 18.

Kris did not look at the woman that offered the question. "I'm just taking this class just as a requirement." She noted.

Andi snorted. "Aren't we all?" It surely wasn't for the enrapturing teaching style.

Suddenly the Professor pushed a PADD that darkened the room. A presentation Professor Blakely prepared on Sociopaths started. This was Kris' chance. She reached into her backpack and drew the silenced pistol. Even in the darkened room, she aimed the laser sight on the Professor's cranium. Two silenced shots were discharged. Even though the sound was that of two quiet air discharges, it got half the classes' attention when the Professor's thoughts suddenly silenced. The door opened briefly and someone left in the confusion.

Callaigh and a few other soon to be cadets were waiting patiently for the lecture to end. They were scheduled to join the next session but their last had ended early and as such, they'd arrived early for this one. 'Twenty minutes left' Cal noted to herself after a quick glance at her watch. She was excited to get started ... being one of those rare people for which knowledge was a bit more than a requirement. While most of the group was content to lean up against the corridor walls, Callaigh had always had trouble sitting still so she paced in front of the door for what seemed like the hundredth time. On her pass back, she caught one of the boys in the group giving her a once over and rolled her eyes. Her mouth opened to shoot out some sort of remark to let him know she didn't appreciate it, but what came out was more of an oof and a protesting "hey!" The young Beta had stopped just outside of the door, and as someone came rushing out of the room, they collided with her.

Kris knocked into Callaigh, thus causing her backpack to drop to the ground, and the silenced pistol slid out of the backpack. There was something strange about this woman's emotions, as there were no emotions. One of the students burst out of the room and spoke. "Professor Blakely's been shot, someone call security."

The young Beta's eyes ony had a moment to settle on the gun that had seemingly appeared in the midst of the corridor as she picked herself up off of the floor ... and then she heard the word 'shot' and her head snapped up to the speaker. "SHOT?!" If this was some sort of a joke put on for the prospective cadets, Callaigh wasn't impressed in the least. Somewhere behind her a voice was alerting Security and the sounds of rapidly approacing footfalls could be heard.

Kris sprinted, grabbing the pistol as she ran down the hall. Two Security Guards appeared, the lead one was easily dispatched with a well timed kata. The kick perfectly stunned the guard. She grabbed his phaser and stunned the next one.

By this point the whole of the class had pushed its way into the hall as the medics struggled against the wave to reach the interior of the classroom. Callaigh couldn't help but be overtaken by the thought that there were all of these people here and yet, no one was actually doing anything; which just served to bolster her idea that this was some kind of drama club experiement that was in very very poor taste.

She took off again, toward a balcony. She then attached something to the railing and lept off. The clamp and rope, attached to the railing, slowed her descent.

As the figure plunged over the railing, the spell lifted from the crowd and en mass they moved to the balcony to lean over it and see where the diver had ended up.

Kris landed and unhooked herself from the harness. She then just walked away until she produced a handheld device and pressed the button on it. She disappeared in a transporter beam. The Professor was wheeled out on a hoverbed and the medics walked out. "By god. One shot in the heart, and one in the head. Whoever the killer was, she was a professional." One of the medics whispered to the other as they walked.

Cal's eyes roamed over the rest of the slowly dispersing crowd. None of them seemed to have any idea of what to make of this either. She couldn't help but wonder if this was really the path she wanted to start down toward the rest of her life.

OFF:

A JP

by

Lt. JG Melissa Daniels
Chief Medical Officer
SB 332

and

Lt. JG Callaigh Roland
Chief Counselor
SB 332