Who Shot The Admiral

[Ritah Lowen 0]

Dr. Ritah Lowen watched silently as the Admiral/Entity led his entourage from Sickbay. Dr. Mele accompanied them which only made sense. The Admiral was definitely not himself and Ritah could testify to that.

 

As the door closed behind the Admiral and his attendants, Ritah leaned against the biobed with its burnt out control panel. She would never have believed what happened had she not personally witnessed it. She vividly recalled the moment the Admiral and his new best buddy interfaced with the ship's computer through this small, innocuous piece of equipment. She could only imagine her own expression mirrored those of everyone else who saw what happened. It was, quite literally, a jaw dropping experience.

 

With the exception of the Captain, everyone in the room was stunned. The Captain must have been surprised as well but, as with most Vulcans, he remained....unperturbed. They had already figured out they were dealing with a new life form....a potentially dangerous new life form. The silicone entity now controlled not only the Admiral, but the entire ship. The situation was deteriorating and there was no end in sight. The entity had managed to set a course to Bynaus in the Beta Magellan System, home to the Binars, the galaxy's premier computer programmers. Ritah casually wondered how they would be received by the Binars. Would they welcome the Manticore and its new life form? Or would the ship received a hostile reception.

 

There was little, if anything, Ritah could do about the Admiral's condition and the resulting danger to ship. She was a lieutenant, jg...just about as low on the food chain as one could get. But Dr. Mele left her in charge and there were definitely a few things she could do in Sickbay. Ritah wrinkled her nose as the acrid smell of the fried console continued floating throughout the room. Looking around, she motioned for one of the medical assistants to join her.

 

"See if you can get an engineer up here," she said as the young man approached. "This unit needs to be repaired or replaced or whatever."

 

She was about to continue when the doors to Sickbay swished open and the sound of voices filtered in. It sounded like the Admiral and he was definitely agitated. Another voice quickly followed, far softer and subdued. Ritah glanced in the direction of the sound only to find a couple of nurses standing in the doorway staring at someone or something in the corridor. One of them looked in her direction and waved her over. For some inexplicable reason, Ritah literally ran across the room, arriving at the doorway just in time to hear....

 

One of the nurses screamed while the other stood, open mouthed, staring down the corridor in shock.

 

"What happened?" demanded Ritah as she stepped through the doors and into the corridor. "Was that a phaser?"

 

It was a stupid question. Of course it was a phaser....a phaser on a very high setting. Even if she hadn't recognized its distinctive sound, firing a phaser onboard a ship activated warning alarms and those alarms were now blaring. She looked down the corridor and was surprised to see the Captain, and Mr. Precip and Dr. Mele as well as a few others. They were just a few meters beyond Sickbay. She thought they would have been on the bridge by now.

 

Ritah glanced at the nurses. "What just happened?" she asked in a loud whispered. "Who fired a phaser...and at what?"

 

Both women looked at her, shock and dismay etched on their faces. One of them finally found her voice. "I'm not sure," she began haltingly. "But I think it was the Captain and Commander Precip." She glanced down the corridor and then back at Ritah. "And I think they were firing at the Admiral."

 

For a moment, it was Ritah's turn to stand there, open mouthed, staring down the corridor. After a second or two, she slowly walked toward the small group. She noticed both the Captain and Commander Precip still had phasers in their hands and Dr. Mele looked positively sick.

 

She had a good idea why this happened. The only question remaining was.....who shot the Admrial?

Edited January 6, 2008 by Ritah Lowen