Two Becomes One

Posted on Sat Aug 24th, 2019 @ 10:57pm by Lieutenant Commander Calvin Morgan & Captain Abigail Laurens

Mission: War and Peacekeeping
Location: CO's Ready Room

Abigail sat sideways on the couch in her ready room, knees pulled up in front of her, staring blankly at the stars beyond the view port, her hands wrapped tightly around the mug she had resting on her knee. To say she was tired was an understatement. It felt like the past few days she'd no sooner closed her eyes than it was time to wake up again. The lack of sleep and the extra stress of everything that was going on on the ship already had the makings of the kind of bone weary exhaustion that really only had one resolution. Sleep. Lots of it.

Instead, she was waiting for the Chief Medical Officer. While she knew that there was no way he was going to have all the answers she wanted, or needed, so quickly, she was hoping at least he'd be able to give her something more than the nothing they she currently had to go by.

Ignoring the formality of hitting the chime and waiting, Calvin walked up to the door. It wooshed open in front of him, and he took that as good of a sign as any that he could walk in. Too much was going on to play pomp and circumstance with everything. He looked at the Captain, his medical eye seeing her as a patient for a moment. The mission was starting to take a toll on her. He bite his lip and decided to be civil. "Cap, you wanted to see me?" He asked, giving her a quick informal salute once she looked in his direction.

The sound of the doors opening momentarily startled her. She looked up and smiled faintly. "Replicator's there if you want a coffee," she said, motioning vaguely toward the replicator. "I wanted to see where you were at with the...bodies?" she cringed as she said that word, it sounded so impersonal and cold. "I know you won't have full reports yet, but I was hoping you might have something more than nothing to wage in with."

"The body yes," Calvin corrected subtly, "I have notes compiled, unfortunately I have more questions than answers with Ernesto. Security's reports, the crime scene, and the body just do not match in the slightest. I have theories, but no proof without corroborating evidence. I'm happy to discuss it further, but first we should talk about my patient." He stated, sitting in a chair near the Captain, a glimmer in his eye.

"Your patient?" Abigail asked, thoroughly confused. "Uh...okay?" She turned toward him, taking a sip of her latte. This patient must have been a major case if he felt it was more important than the murders that had happened on the ship.

Calvin nodded. "The crewman who determined time of death of Evita, well he was off," Calvin thought for a second, "Well by a lot. Mostly because she's still alive. With only a cursory check of her, she appears to be dead. However she's more in a hypothermic deep coma, probably also caused by whatever poison or toxin is in her," Calvin was guessing about the attempted cause of death, but without any physical markings, he was confident he wouldn't be far off. "I brought her down to the morgue in normal fashion. As far as everyone on this ship is concerned," He pointed at her, "except you," and pointed at himself, "and me, think she is dead." He leaned back in his chair to let that sink in.

Abigail stayed silent for the longest moment. "So she's alive..." she said softly. "And the only people that know that are you and I?" Her hands gripped her mug tighter as she contemplated over the situation. "I don't want anyone else knowing that. As far as the rest of this ship, even the senior staff, are aware, she's dead. Can you treat her in the morgue? Is it equipped enough to do what ever you need to do with her?"

"Yes, in fact the morgue will work nicely due to the temperature requirements. I need one more though. Cryogenics aren't a strong suit of mine, and I'm going to need an extra set of hands," Calvin responded.

"I'm assuming you have someone in mind?" Abigail asked, watching him closely.

Calvin leaned forward. "The only person on this ship who is intimately familiar with cryogenics, Rogers. He's been in them and worked them long before either of us were twinkles in our parent's eyes," He answered. "He may not be medical or science, but he'll have the know how," He added with confidence.

Abigail nodded slowly. "Bring him in, but you'll need to impart on him the importance of this staying quiet. She may be our only hope in actually finding out who's behind all of this. The last thing we want is for word to get out that she's still alive. Someone will no doubt come looking for her."

"It'll be our secret," Calvin responded. "I'll keep you informed of the results, but it will probably take a while. Have a lot of studying and setting up to do." He slid to the edge of his chair, not wanting to be rude but also knowing there was a lot to do, and it was probably going to be time sensitive.

Abigail nodded again. "Of course," she said quietly. "Keep me updated please, thank you Lieutenant." She offered a smile. "Good luck."

"We already got the good luck today," He quipped as he stood. "Now we see if we can exploit it." With an informal quick salute, he turned on his heels and left the ready room. Much slower and more casual than he wanted to, but appearances had to be kept.