Only the dead have seen the end of war

Posted on Fri Aug 23rd, 2019 @ 1:20am by Captain Abigail Laurens & Ashe Zachariah & Lieutenant Alanah Matashi & Lieutenant Aleksander Voroshilov & K'Lok Maarg

Mission: War and Peacekeeping
Location: Kaarg's Kitchen
Timeline: 2nd day after the bar fight

Kaarg’s Kitchen

Second day after the bar fight.
===/\===

It was early. Early enough that a chef could start preparing home-cooked meals in peace for the crew of the ship on which he now lived. After the bar fight, in which his presence had been spectacularly unhelpful (he was clearly losing his touch), he’d pretty much been busy with his kitchen and kept out the way. The cake had gone into storage to keep it edible and he was the first to admit he was sulking just a bit. He hadn’t even really got to punch anyone. It was as frustrating as a collapsed souffle.

He started to work on some bread rolls when he noticed a few things out of place. A pot had been moved here, a towel moved there; not as though someone had rummaged, but he was now very awake and very aware of his surroundings. The kitchen was quiet, save for the hum of equipment. He quickly cleaned his hands in the bar, then returned, disruptor drawn, hand on his dk’tagh. The smell of the flour and other ingredients he’d been using filled the air, changing the ambience in the room, despite the danger the General now felt lurking. Either someone was here or had been here recently.

He started to prowl, making sure not to touch anything else as he checked his domain. Nothing was obviously wrong but his gut was telling him otherwise. He started checking cupboards, around counters and eventually, he opened the walk-in freezer. “You have got to be kidding me,” he said to himself as he looked upon a female form, laying prone and quite dead in his freezer. “One of the ‘guests’,” he said to himself. Now on high alert, the Klingon warrior looked around again. He didn’t have that sixth sense of imminent attack, so went back to the corpse. “I remember you,” he said to himself, “Evita. One of the Trion Freedom Fighters.” He leant close but was careful not to violate the crime scene. “I can't see an obvious cause of death from here. This was definitley dumped here thhough,” he remarked to himself. He checked around the room some more but, without the right tools, he couldn’t do any more. He also wouldn’t have access to sensor logs or security feeds as he was technically a civilian here.

Eventually, he sighed to himself. “Why my kitchen? Of all the places to dump someone..” He walked to a console and tapped in his diplomatic code, ensuring an encrypted, target to target communication. He doubted they’d want this message intercepted. “Kaarg to Lieutenant Matashi, could you please come to my kitchen? I’ve found something you need to be aware of and unfortunately, it's not a cake.”

Abigail had barely slept, spending most of the night tossing and turning. The few times she had managed to doze off she had woken with a start violent enough that she found it rather impossible to relax again. Now that she had to be awake, all she wanted to do was sleep. She needed a pick me up, and it was that need that found her walking into Kaarg's kitchen. "Please tell me you can whip up something that will wake me up and get my brain functioning," she murmured with a yawn as she pushed her way through the doors from the mess hall.

Kaarg was leaning against a counter, knife in one hand, disruptor in the other. "So, you're not answering the security notice I just posted then? Neither is your CSec, which is somewhat odd, considering it was posted with diplomatic priority."

"I can," Aleksi wandered in, still a bit sore from the previous night's activities. Having heard the voices he invited himself in, not exactly sure why there was a security bulletin posted but was entirely sure he wanted a big plate of home fries and eggs, extra bacon Ashe would inevitably steal later, "Someone steal your sweetroll?"

Kaarg looked up at the newcomer. "Lieutenant Vorishilov," he said by way of greeting. "Over there," he motioned to the walk in freezer.

Aleksi looked at the Captain and gave a tired shrug, wishing the Chef had at least offered him some caffeine before he went to work. Lazily he walked into the freezer, the freezer shared by both Kaarg and Ashe, greeted by the chilled body of the fox, la Zorra, "Well, it isn't the sweetroll you should be concerned about, I found a body."

"Well, aren't you a barrel of laughs," Kaarg said drily. "The not-so-secret war between the two Trion factions just dropped a body on my doorstep and I'm not happy about that."

"Neither would OSHA or the FDA," The deaths were getting a bit stale to him, only the dark humor keeping him sane. Looking around he saw a bottle of vodka, rolling on the floor and uncorked. Removing a pair of gloves he kept on him for these sort of surprisingly common situations, picking up the bottle he was there was still some clear liquor at the bottom. His concern spiked, this was the same bottle he and Ashe routinely shared, "Ma'am, you may want to come in. You'll absolutely loathe it."

Abigail looked toward the open freezer door, then back to Kaarg. "You've got precisely thirty seconds to tell me that this is some kind of sick twisted joke you two have concocted in a moronic attempt to be funny," she said darkly.

"I could, but that would be a lie. You know I don't play well with others," Aleksi smiled, finding a good deal of humor in the situation as bleak as it was. He nodded at the Klingon, "Unless he's the lone joker, in that case good job."

Walking toward the freezer door, Abigail stood in the doorway, a shiver rushing over her at the blast of cold air. Her attention was immediately drawn to the body on the floor. "Who is it?" she asked, surprising even herself by the calmness in her voice. "Governmental or TLF?"

Kaarg hadn't moved, "Evita. TLF," he said.

Abigail nodded toward Kaarg before her attention turned back to Aleksi. "Retaliatory attack?"

"That is the most likely motive," Setting the bottle down, quietly reminiscing it's loss, Aleksi stood up, "But we'll need to run an autopsy. As our resident warlord can probably confirm there are no obvious signs of death. If I had to guess, a combination of poison and exposure."

"I'm no warlord, Lieutenant," the Klingon said. "I agree with your assessment, however. Either drunk and dumped or poisoned." Kaarg noted the bottle Aleksi had picked up but said nothing more.

"Computer, red alert, mute klaxons," she ordered calmly. "Lock down all guest quarters, and restrict access to the crew lounge and the crew mess hall. Authorization Laurens Delta Seven Nine Echo"

Almost immediately the red lights started to strobe and the computer provided an acknowledgement that guest quarters had been locked down.

"Get security in here now, secure the scene and gather any evidence you can find. Get medical in as well. I want to know how she died and I want to know who the hell was responsible. I want a full report on my desk within an hour." The tone of Abigail's voice made it quite clear that this was entirely not negotiable, indeed there was an edge of outright anger to her voice. "Understood Lieutenant?"

Turning toward Kaarg, she shook her head slightly. "You have my apologies," she offered, her tone softening slightly. "What ever help you need to straighten this mess up, please let Operations know and they can arrange it."

Kaarg nodded, "This is why we have a diplomatic alert system in place, Captain. Although I wasn't being attacked, lucky for whoever did that," he said, pointing to the freezer, "I am concerned that such an alert seems to be largely ignored by your security staff, unless, of course, your resident spook told them to stay out?" He gave Aleksi a pointed, questioning look.

Veiled threats from a Klingon, how original, "Of course, because I secretly love tormenting you and delaying my morning meals," Aleksi's face was blank, not awake enough to actually put any effort into the sarcasm.

Kaarg grinned, "I can get behind that sentiment. No harm, no foul, I believe you Humans say."

"Security is still knee deep trying to clean up the last mess that we ended up with because of these people," Abigail replied quietly. "They will be here momentarily. In the mean time, Lieutenant Voroshilov, get Ms Zachary in here to assess the bar and see if anything there has been touched.

"As the lady wishes," A mix of fear and excitement hit him, she was proving to be the type of leader he loved, decisive. Murder investigation wasn't his purview, but he had been enjoying the hobby as of late. He knew Ashe would show up soon enough, he did promise breakfast without the fire hazard. Still he tapped his comm badge, "Computer, inform Ashe Zachariah to report to the kitchen immediately. Captain's request."

The Klingon didn't move during that exchange. He also did not look happy. "This does confirm one thing I hoped I was wrong about, Captain," he said, finally looking at her. "Either your guests know how to circumvent your security or someone on your crew is helping them get around, though that means they are working both sides or you have mnore than one. Luckily, the Trions only seem concerned with each other for now. If that changes, you have a bunch of fanatics on your ship who will do anything to win." He took in a breath before continuing. "Collateral damage isn't usually a problem for people like that. At the moment neither side seems to see your people as the enemy but that can change with a sentence. If you need my expertise or skills, shout up. I gave them a chance to back down in the bar before but they've shown they can't be sensible." Another pause, then, "and thank you for the offer of helping clean up, I think your crew has better things to do than clean up my kitchen, so I won't bother them unless I have to."

Abigail nodded slightly. "Very well, but the offer stands." She took a deep breath and shook her head again. "I mean it Lieutenant, I want those reports on my desk in the hour. If anyone needs me I'll be in my ready room, trying to work out how the hell to explain this to Command."

"You'll have a prelim on your desk as soon as possible," He wouldn't promise anything he couldn't deliver. The toxicology screen would take a while and with teleporters down they'd have to physically drag the corpse out. At best she'd get a layout of the crime scene and a list of things that didn't kill her.

Aleksi smirked at Kaarg. It was clear the Klingon didn't much trust him, which was logical, "You could baby sit me if you'd like."

"Let me grab my tools," Kaarg said. A moment later he reappeared, bat'leth in one hand. "We Klingons don't do subtle. Where to?"

"Not in my experience," Aleksi laughed a little, pulling out his tricorder, "To the bar, I think this open bottle will tell us more and I've always hated the cold."

Kaarg nodded, "Sounds like a good place to start. Let's see if whoever came through here left us anything to find? They killed someone in your House and dumped them in mine. I'm not letting that stand."

Things had been so stressful since everything had started with these delegations and the reports where piling up. Alanah had finally been greedy and taken some time for herself. It took a good while for the alert to awake her as she had wore herself and her companion out. As she woke from her slumber she looked over at the Engineer that she had bed the night before was still out cold. "Oh Shit" she let out as she read the alert. Her companion rustled to see what was going on but Alanah was already fitting herself in a uniform. "See yourself out." is all she said as she made a sprint out the door.

She made her way into Kaarg's place. He hair all dishoveled. "Whats the alert?" She said plainly noticing Aleksi and Kaarg by the bar.

The fully armed Klingon looked over at Aleksi, before biting down the comment he was about to make. He wasn't in her Chain of Command so motioned for Aleksi to fill her in. He was fleet, Kaarg wasn't.

Aleksi sighed, looking at the woman, "Dead body in the fridge, no obvious signs of violence. Possibly revenge killing, we can use yellow shirts to secure the scene."