Possession - J.M. Dillard [68]
“A pity. Under the influence of that drug, it’s unlikely she would have ‘sensed’ the violence that occurred here. When she wakes, she should be present if we question any suspects Worf uncovers.”
“Captain, if I may speak off the record?” Riker asked.
“Of course.”
“I get the feeling there’s something on your mind. Something you don’t want to say out loud. If it would help us solve this—”
Picard shook his head. “It’s just that—this level of violence, Will. With those artifacts still on board …” He let the sentence hang there.
“That would implicate the Vulcan, sir, wouldn’t it?” Riker asked him. “He was the only person who’s been exposed to the artifacts, when he was aboard the Ferengi ship.”
“Yes, it would. But there would have to be some evidence. It’s not possible to destroy all this equipment and beat a human being to death without leaving something, and the Vulcan physiology is so different the evidence would have to stand out. Plus, according to the Vulcans, not even they were capable of controlling themselves during the outbreak. If Skel is infected, he should appear a raving lunatic. None of this makes any sense.”
Riker sighed. “You should know, sir, that Ensign Evans was Skel’s liaison officer. Of course, she was also the liaison to Kyla Dannelke and eight other scientists as well.”
“We’ll have to see if Worf can come up with something concrete. Until then, I don’t want panic setting in among the scientific group.” Picard stopped just as they arrived at the lift entrance and turned toward his second-in-command. “How quickly can we get Ten Forward back in order?”
“I can put a crew to work in there immediately,” Riker said. “We can replicate the equipment and recycle the damaged material. We should be able to get everything back together by this afternoon.”
“Well enough so that the scientists won’t be able to tell what happened?”
Riker shrugged, a gesture of dubious possibility. “If I can have some of La Forge’s engineering crew, I think so. Why would you want to hide it from them?”
“To rattle the cage of the perpetrators,” Picard said. “I can’t help but feel that they want to frighten us, that the savagery of their behavior is designed to evoke a response. That’s true for many criminal behavior types. If we can deprive them of that reward, it might help flush them out.”
Riker nodded. “I’ll get on it right away, sir. And I’ll have a medical team remove the body and prepare it for autopsy.”
“I’ll want Beverly to do it personally,” Picard ordered. “Make sure she sends the report directly to me, with as much confidentiality as possible. Also, ask Skel a few discreet questions about his whereabouts last night. In the meantime, I’ll be in my ready room.”
“Aye, sir.”
With that, Picard left the death and destruction of Ten Forward behind him and headed for the ready room, unable to believe he would once again be forced to contact the parents of a young promising officer with the worst news he could give. But before he would do that, he would review everything the Vulcans had sent him on the artifacts and the disease they caused, then he would contact Data and obtain a copy of Skel’s research as well.
Distractedly, he found himself grateful that Guinan had been spared the dismemberment of Ten Forward. She believed Ten Forward was a place of introspection, of healing—a place where crew members could truly relax and be themselves.
As for himself, he knew that a long time would pass before he could stroll into Ten Forward and not see Barbara Evans’s brutalized body lying twisted on its floor.
Perfectly calm and composed, hands steepled in a gesture of Vulcan serenity, Skel stood in the center of his comfortable guest quarters and asked, “What happened, Doctor?”
Despite the ostensible calmness of his question, inside the Vulcan’s emotions raged: bitter fury, disappointment, frustration. Through it all,