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Eva Jaz

Watercooler : Follow the rumor,rumor,rumor

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[<< Special thanks to everyone that graciously gave us permission to use their NPCs , even the one we coul not fit in >>

 

Collaboration Vilanne, Eva, Jaiysa

 

Manticore crew milled through the cargo bay, most in EVA suits, investigating the debris that had been deposited there, but a few more could be spotted outside the bay doors, peering through whenever they opened. Everyone wanted to know what was going on.

 

One of the janitors lucky enough to be in the cargo bay in his EVA suit did his best to listen in on what he could hear without getting too close, the words usually a bit garbled but understandable.

 

He could hear Dr. Chalice, her voice piercing with astonishment, exclaiming, “But it’s Sovak...pieces...mess.” The janitor raised his eyebrows and moved closer to the debris, close as he could get without being chased away, and looked at how the other scientists were scanning and removing bio materials, which he thought were fragments of skin and other medical debris. It looked, to him, like a crime scene from some of the forensic movies he used to watch. He finished his duty around the rest of the cargo bay, taking in a few more details as he went.

 

***

 

The janitor left the cargo bay and removed the EVA suit, placing it in a locker, listening to the talk of the other crew preparing to enter the cargo bay.

 

“I hear that there are parts from some alien craft.”

 

“Na, it’s not alien, it’s Vulcan.”

 

"I was just in there,” the janitor piped up.

 

They all stopped what they were doing and turned to listen intently, so he continued proudly, “The parts of the ships are scattered and burned like they were blown apart.” He looked in their eyes; they were awestruck and intent on his comments so he hurried to find something else interesting to say.

 

“The scientists and doctor also agree that people died...I heard them say that. Probably Captain Sovak, but they don’t want everyone to know yet, so keep that hush-hush.” He finished putting his suit in the locker and closed it up. “Be careful in there.”

 

“The Captain is not dead...they would have told us. You’re making stuff up again!“ said Dimitra, head of the late shift cleaning crew, rolling her eyes, before walking out of the locker room and heading to the mess hall.

 

The janitor was known for exaggeration, always trying to make himself appear more important. Dimitra had discarded what he had talked about until she walked passed a couple of science officers on her way to the mess hall who were whispering together with a puzzled look painted on their faces. She wondered if maybe she had dismissed the rumor too quickly.

 

***

 

Waiting for an extra cheese sandwich from the replicator, Dimitra scanned the room for familiar faces. If the Captain, and who knew who else, was indeed dead, someone was bound to know something.

 

Tray in hand, she spotted a seat at a table where Arthur, one of the med techs she was friends with, and Lieutenant Betty, who she had met briefly a couple months ago, were eating. She approached the group. “Mind if I sit?“

 

Arthur grinned. “Of course not!”

 

Dimitra smiled before putting her tray down on the table and taking a seat. Munching on her sandwich for a while, she looked at her tablemates. “So, heard anything about what’s going on in the cargo bay?“

 

Security Ensigns Crystal and Snow were at a nearby table, having their lunch, but the mention of the cargo bay clearly caught their attention, for both of them stopped eating at once, their heads slightly tilted in the direction of the table in question.

 

“Yeah, we were just talking about that!” Arthur said enthusiastically. “Supposed to be a madhouse down there. People running around and everything, and...” He gestured to the engineer sitting with him, who was staring down into her soup with an exhausted expression. "She says there's a whole bunch of metal down there. Like could be enough for three or four ships maybe. Right?"

 

He nudged Betty in the ribs; the woman grunted tiredly. "Yeah. Exactly."

 

Arthur rubbed the back of his neck and looked at Dimitra. "See?"

 

“Yeah, well...you’ll never believe what the janitor said...” She motioned for them to get closer so she wouldn't have to shout across the mess hall. “He said that...the CAPTAIN was dead!!!“

 

At the next table Ens. Crystal dropped her spoon noisily into her bowl and stared at her colleague. Snow shook his head lightly, remembering in time to close his mouth, which was still wide open. They went on listening.

 

Arthur stared at her. “What? What are you talking about? He can’t be dead, we’d have heard something.”

 

“I know, I know -- I didn’t believe him either, but he was just back from the cargo bay and said one of the doctors, the happy-go-lucky one...“ She stopped, searching for Vil’s name before looking at Arthur to fill in the blank.

 

“Dr. Chalice.”

 

“Yes, that’s the one! Anyways, he said she and some of the science officers were in Cargo Bay 2 surrounded by ship debris and....body parts. He also swears he heard that one doctor...” Dimitra made an annoyed face, having forgotten the name again.

 

“Dr. Chalice,” said Arthur once more.

 

Dimitra waved a hand in his direction dismissively. “Dr Chalice. Thank you. As I was saying, he swears that he heard her say that they had found the body of Captain Sovak...he also said it was real gory, blood everywhere!“ She leaned back in her chair, giving them all a meaningful look before picking up the second half on her sandwich.

 

Arthur and Betty stared at her in silence. At the next table, the two eavesdropping security ensigns, wearing expressions that could only be described as appalled, suddenly pushed back their plates and rushed out of the mess hall.

 

*****

 

Nurse Anastasia Bellamy was waiting for the turbolift to bring her back to sickbay for her shift. Arthur, looking somewhat stupefied by the news he had heard and as if his sandwich wasn’t sitting properly in his stomach, came up behind her, looking at the doors and shifting impatiently. “Hey, Ana,” he said without looking at her.

 

“Art,” she said with a smile before noticing his expression. “Are you alright?”

 

Arthur shifted again and then looked at her. “Haven’t you heard the news?”

 

She shook her head. “What news? About the debris?”

 

“Not just the debris!” Arthur said with a sharp shake of the head. “The bloody stuff! I heard from one of the cleaning crew that there were a bunch of dead bodies in the cargo bay...Manticore bodies!”

 

Nurse Bellamy stared at him, not even noticing the opened TL door. “What? Dead crewmembers?” she asked incredulously. “I have to get back to Sickbay immediately; they’ll need us all ready treat survivors.”

 

“It may be too late,” Arthur said mournfully. “Dimitra said there were people in pieces and that Captain Sovak was one of them. Dr. Chalice was in there cataloguing the parts.” His expression wrinkled up in disgust.

 

Bellamy covered her mouth with her hand in disbelief. Arthur nodded. “I know...it makes me sick to think about. Oh...look, the ‘lift’s here...” Anastasia stepped in without a word, shock still written all over her features.

 

****

 

Anastasia motioned Nurse Nancy to come over quickly. Nancy waddled over to Anastasia, “What’s up?”

 

“Did Arthur talk to you?”

 

Nancy shook her head indicating the negative.

 

“No? Sit down you need to hear this.“

 

Anastasia peeked her head over the counter, making sure no patients or doctors were within earshot. “Arthur said that he heard from Dimitra who heard it from the Janitor that the Captain and a bunch of members of the crew were dead. The Captain was even decapitated. The janitor saw Vilanne holding his head!“ She continued “Art also said that a lot of senior officers were dead but they’re trying to keep it a secret from the crew so we don’t start panicking while Manticore is still in bad shape.” She looked at her colleague “I wonder who else...did you see any body bags?“

 

Nancy looked at Anastasia with a dumbfounded look. She repeated the entire thing, almost verbatim, back to confirm what was being said. She finished with, “And...this is ALL true?”

 

Anastasia shook her head affirmatively. “The Janitor was there! In the cargo bay! Has to be! “

 

***[/font]Josh shot a side look at the nurses whispering behind their office counter and stopped wanting in on the gossip. He leaned over the counter before asking in a low voice, “What’s going on?“

 

Startled by the question, Anastasia stopped mid-sentence. “Err...I have some reports to file in. Nancy you can fill him in.“ Nurse Bellamy quickly got up with a stack of PADDs, leaving Nancy alone with Dr. Raleigh.

 

Nancy looked up at Josh, who was almost spilling his coffee on the counter trying to hear the whispers. She used her index finger to push the cup back into a full upright position, then after giving him the dissertation, she concluded with saying, “So, you see, we have an emergency on board, and no one is signaling sickbay, so we should set up triage, and pull out ALL of the spare body bags, even the small ones. I hear there are limbs and heads rolling our way shortly.”

 

Josh looked at her with eyes the size of saucers. “Heads? Body parts? Whose?“

 

Nancy repeated some of the big brass’s names again, mostly chiefs and of course, the Captain. “And I’m telling you, it’s all true. Dr Chalice was there, holding the Captain’s decapitated head!”

 

Josh’s jaw dropped. “ Oh...MY....” Lost for words he passed a hand through his unruly hair. “Ok, ok...I’m getting the body bags ready right this moment. Stand by for triage procedure should we need it.“

 

***

 

It had been a couple hours since Vilanne left for the cargo bay with the medical tricorders. She had thought she was only delivering them, not becoming part of the research that the Sci Geeks were working on, but she was doing her best. She finished the verbal report into a console recording, so that it could be immediately distributed by T’Prise to anyone she deemed fit. She wasn’t going to tell anyone, since she’d been ordered not to speak about it.

 

She was dismissed after putting in the report, but she had a really bad feeling about what she did find. There was bio-matter in petri dishes and still attached to many of the ship parts that were found. One area that was unidentified to Vilanne was full of DNA signatures matching that of Captain Sovak. This exact match spooked her, probably even more than the scan of the section where she'd found her own DNA.

 

She had a serious look on her face, and probably didn’t look up at anyone as she returned to sickbay.

 

Nurse Bellamy quickly hit Nurse Nancy’s arm seeing Dr. Chalice walk in and looking so preoccupied. She whispered to her colleague and friend “Oh Bozhe! It’s all true!“

 

As Vil walked in, she spotted her friends, some of whom were also identified in the DNA pattern matching. She couldn’t even make eye contact. She headed to her desk to put the final touch on some patient discharge papers.

 

Dr Raleigh almost missed Vil’s entrance as he was, as usual, in contemplation of his Romulan colleague while preparing the body bags. He shook himself out of another daydream prominently featuring Jaiysa before joining Vilanne by her desk.

 

An apologetic smile on his face, he squeezed Vilanne’s shoulder trying to somehow make it better. “I’m really sorry you had to see all that.“

 

Vilanne hesitated, looking at Josh, who rarely talked to her. “What? What did I see or miss?” She looked around sickbay for tell-tale signs of something bad happening.

 

Josh quickly removed his hand from Vilanne’s shoulder, not wanting Jaiysa to feel jealous if she was watching. “Lots of debris, eh?“ he said in an encouraging voice.

 

“What are you talking about? They should have already removed the debris from the burned surgical suite. What did I miss?” She was rather upset with this mysterious line of questioning and comments, considering her head was still back in the more questionable findings in the cargo bay that she wasn’t allowed to talk about.

 

Josh paid no attention to Vil’s interjections, being on a roll. “I know we all had the training to prepare us for the worst...but seeing the entire command staff mangled and with limbs missing like that? Poor thing. I even heard that you found Sovak’s head impaled on a torn piece of hull.“ Josh shook his head before a stunned Vil could answer. “I bet you need counseling...too bad the counselor is part of those unidentified body parts, eh?“

 

Vilanne stood up abruptly and looked around at all of the staff, most of whom were staring right back at her. All she could think was, I didn’t tell a soul!

 

*****

 

In another part of the ship, Captain Sovak, walking down a corridor, turned a corner and nearly collided with Ensign Snow, who was returning in a very somber mood to his quarters. Snow’s mouth opened, nearly hitting the floor as Sovak passed.

 

“But Captain..." he blurted out. "You are DEAD!”

Edited by STSF Jami

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