Issues With the Cardassians

Posted on Tue Nov 16th, 2010 @ 9:59am by Lieutenant Commander Melissa Daniels M.D. & Captain Alexander Gunning & Chief Warrant Officer Daniel Maddux

Mission: Ten Little Diplomats
Location: Chief Medical Officer's Office, Starbase Medical

Melissa continued to speak with the member of the Detapa Council. "Counselor, If I can do an autopsy now, within twenty-four hours, I can isolate Cause of Death accurately."

"Indeed, and would your accuracy be any more efficient in finding what killed Gul Kenta?" The Counselor stated. "No, I do not believe so Doctor, We will preform our own analysis on these remains, and if Gul Kenta was murdered, we will inform you. The Cardassian Union formally requests that you turn over Gul Kenta's remains to his flagship, the Ghlaren." The Counselor vanished.

Melissa sighed and put her hand on her head.

[Corridor - Medical Level]

"I appreciate that you need to know the C.O.D. Lieutenant but we're bound by the ties of diplomacy here." The Captain said as he approached the unassuming door to Doctor Daniels' office. "If the Detapa Council does not give clearance for the Doctor to look at the remains then that's how it has to be. I suppose we'll just have to go on assuming the worst for now."

Davik nodded. "I'd expected that much. I'm still working on the filtration samples and food/drink/item samples from his quarters. If the C.O.D was related to that, we'll find it out," the Trill said. "You can count on it." He gave her a sharp nod.

Maddux followed but remained silent, his mind churning away. Something about this wasn't right. Why did the Cardassian die now? What was it about the death that seemed vaguely familiar to him?

Melissa spoke, "Enter."

"Doctor," Gunning said by way of a scant greeting. "Have you spoken with the council yet?"

Melissa spoke, "Counselor Ellias has made his decision, he wants the remains turned over immediately. Gul Kenta's diplomatic immunity is still in effect. I can't touch the body."

Davik held up his hand, looking at the captain with a solemn nod. "Diplomatic immunity is paramount, Captain. We can't have the body. Either way, we're going to figure this out," he said firmly and definitively. He gave them both a reassuring smile. "People aren't just going to walk around on this station killing other people. It won't happen."

"Unless I am allowed to take samples of the blood within his liver, I cannot accurately isolate the exact chemicals that caused the Hypertosis that killed him." Melissa stated, "I have no way of knowing if this is a Murder or an Accident. Even if you can find the chemicals that have been released in the Environmental system, I cannot compare it with the chemicals in his body without an autopsy. My sensors have thus far came up with names for the unknown chemicals in his body." Melissa brought up her monitor. "Stardust, Orion Fever, Heroine, E'Kara, and many more." The chemicals were displayed on the monitor.

"Keep in mind, though, that despite the fact that we don't have access to his body, we still have access to his medical records. I'm running everything I find through the last comparative medical analyses we have on Gul Kenta," Davik reminded the doctor. "Clearly, if there were chemicals, they were inert to everyone but Gul Kenta. So, by running each filtrated substance against his prior medical statements, I can determine if any of those items impacted his metabolic system. I do know how to do my job," he said mildly and with a smile. "You just gotta learn how to use the loopholes where they're given."

"Those are all illicit chemicals and stimulants. From what I know of it, they're all banned by The Federation. I would assume that the Cardassians would be more, how shall we say, lax with that sort of thing?"

Melissa spoke, "I've looked up Gul Kenta's psychological profile. Apparently his family once lived in Lakarian City on Cardassia Prime. A city that was completely destroyed by a Dominion orbital bombardment during the final days of the last war. He went into severe depression for about six years, and suddenly, recovered from it. I guess he found a dangerous way of coping. If he was murdered, then someone knew how to make these chemicals work to their advantage." Melissa stated, "If that is the case, then we're dealing with more than just another maquis here, we're dealing with a professional who is well versed in toxicology and has planned this meticulously."

Gunning stared in something approaching disbelief at what the doctor was telling him. He knew her secret but still, looking in her eyes couldn't bring himself to suspect or even doubt her word. "Is this a form of poisoning that's familiar to either of you?" He asked the group.

Melissa spoke, "This is not a crude thing Captain. It is something I am definitely familiar with. It is one thing for an assassin to poison someone, but it is another entirely to poison someone and deny the local authorities a body. Captain, if I am right, we may have a broken spear here."

Maddux's head snapped sharply to look at the doctor. "Broken Spear? How the hell do you know about-"

She looked at Maddux, it seemed as if she didn't have any emotions. "I was not always an doctor Chief. During the DMZ Conflicts, a colony near the Cardassian Border trained assassins. We were not Maquis Chief; while they used the Broadsword, we used the dagger, and we were well-trained. Epsilon Idris spared no expense, they enlisted former SI operatives, and even a Romulan Tal'Shiar defector to train their assassins. Broken Spears are deadly in ways that few can conceive. They know how to fake Starfleet Security codes so they can move undetected, they know how to create false identities to confuse the authorities, and they know how to create pointless red-herrings to send criminal investigators into circles."

That explains my misgivings, Maddux thought. He found himself instantly suspicious of Daniels; the Broken Spears had been a whisper amongst those SI operatives that had been undercover in the Cardassian theater of operations. The killings that SI had attributed to the Spears' assassins were always subtle, brilliant, creative and (most importantly of all) impossible to trace. The death of this Cardassian had smacked of such a move to Maddux in the form of vague familiarity, though it took this little revelation from an apparent Doctor of Death for Maddux to match two and two together in his mind.

"Do you know how many Broken Spears are still in circulation?"

Melissa spoke, "No, I do not know how many Broken Spears there are. We were trained separately so that we had no knowledge of other Broken Spear assassins. We even have implants that can vaporize us if we were ever captured. We were given three rules in our training; kill only the targets, be discrete, and do not compromise the colony."

"Vaporized?"

She responded, "I had my implant removed, at great risk to my life, when I became Melissa Daniels, Captain. Kris Valtan is dead, only her memories survive within me. Nonetheless, there is only one way we can stop a broken spear; I must hunt him or her down."

Davik listened as Melissa talked, contemplative with his hands folded in front of him. Finally, he simply said, "Any support that you need, you've got it."

Melissa spoke, "Chief Maddux, I must ask you to be careful with whom you share this knowledge with. Because I once killed for SI. Your superiors will not admit it, in fact, they'll deny it to their last breath. They found me on Chin'toka one time, and used me for their deepest and darkest."

Maddux crossed his arms and remained silent, staring at the doctor.

Melissa finally lost it. "Get out!!!"

[OFF]

Captain Alex Gunning
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Melissa Daniels MD
Chief Medical Officer

Lieutenant j.g Davik Tieran
Chief Security Officer
Starbase 332

Chief Warrant Officer Daniel Maddux
Chief Intelligence Officer