Salt & Peter

Posted on Fri Feb 9, 2018 @ 2:07pm by Lieutenant Nicole Anderson & Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit

495 words; about a 2 minute read

Mission: Divide et Impera ~ Chapter 2: Heralding the Chase
Location: Ready Room

OOC: Okay so I forgot the Captain. Oops.

When the Captain bade her entry, Nicole pushed through the gap before the doors to the Ready Room had completely opened, walked up to the Captain's desk and put her padd down. "Well, we can file this under 'things I never thought I would say in my lifetime': Lieutenant Greyson died of Caisson Disease."

The surprise on the Captain’s face would have been comical had the topic not been one of such deep concern. “He what?” She replied. “Caisson disease? Are you honestly telling me he died from a case of the bends?”

"In his bed, no less," Nicole said. "Massive embolisms due to undissolved nitrogen bubbles in the bloodstream."

“There aren’t many ways for that to happen, especially on a starship without setting off all sorts of alarms, yet no alarms were triggered.” the Captain said. “So how the hell did it happen?”

"Not through pressure," Nicole said. "The plants in his room are in perfect health. It was done chemically through the use of sodium nitrate and ammonium chloride, neither of which would set off the alarms." She sighed and rubbed her eyes. "This was murder."

“How did the murderer get enough sodium nitrate and ammonium chloride into his system to kill him?” Kennit asked.

"Penny brought me his last meal. It was laced with a heavy dose of sodium nitrate. I checked the replicator and the meal program had been modified. I don't know about the ammonium chloride, but that isn't hard to get ahold of, it's not a restricted substance."

“What did the maintenance logs for the replicator tell us about who accessed the system programming to modify the meal program?” The Captain immediately asked.

"That whoever was clever enough to modify the food was also clever enough to alter the logs. According to records, Grayson himself changed the recipe." Nicole sighed and slumped in her chair. "I'm going to go on the assumption that wasn't the case."

“It is rather unlikely..” Kennit answered quietly. She was thinking, the warning and information from Bennett running through her thoughts, compared to what she knew about the victim.. searching for the connection.

"Chemistry as a weapon," Nicole said, somewhat to herself. "Leaving the body in plain sight. Why kill him? He was a pilot with no high security clearance, no odd duties, and he was killed before he went on the smuggler's ship. It sounds like a crime of convenience, or necessity, not something planned."

“Or a distraction..”Kennit muttered.

"From what?" Nicole said. "Sounds more like an insurance policy to me. Maybe the killer was trying to rig a shuttle and got caught." She shrugged. "Either way, this is as much as we know. I'll share this with security and continue my investigation."

At the Captain's distracted nod, Nicole assumed she'd been dismissed and walked out of the ready room.

Joint Post

Captain Rhea Kennit
CO

Lt. Nicole Anderson
CMO

 

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