Spirit Walk_ Enemy of My Enemy (Book 2) - Christie Golden [43]
A possibility, certainly, but a strange one. For a hologram to exist, someone had to program it. Who would want to create and operate such a precise and peculiar program? Kaz shook his head and continued.
In more barbaric times the body would actually be sliced up and the organs physically removed, weighed and measured. Even now there were times when such a procedure was warranted, but from here on in, Kaz felt he could utilize a holographic version of the corpse to complete the regulation autopsy.
“Computer, prepare to construct accurate holographic replication of the body on the biobed. All weights and textures must be exact.”
The biobed closed over the body, and a lavender beam washed through the form.
“Prepared and awaiting data,” replied the computer in its cool female voice.
“Project the subject’s skeletal structure,” Kaz ordered. “Keep it in the same position as it would normally be if held in place by tissue.”
Immediately the skeleton appeared on the empty bed. Kaz bent over the holographic projection. “Visual inspection reveals a three point four centimeter slash across the clavicle and sternum,” he said. “There is also a second slash entering above the fourth rib and cutting through the costochondral cartilage. Computer,” he said, slowly, carefully, “extrapolate from available data provided on autopsy what caused lethal injuries.”
“Lethal injuries most likely caused by lacerations from a surgical scalpel, type A-49.”
Kaz’s mouth went dry, but he continued. “Likelihood of injuries being caused by three-centimeter claws from an alien species?”
“Statistical odds are 4,298,443.987 to one.”
Kaz cleared his throat. “Statistics in favor of lethal injuries being caused by surgical scalpel type A-49?”
“Statistical odds are 1.0043 to one.”
In a slight daze Kaz said, “Add internal organs.”
The computer did so, and he beheld the matching injuries to vital organs. Again, he asked the computer to extrapolate what had caused them; again, it insisted that Ellis was slain by someone—or something—wielding an A-49-type scalpel.
“Apply epidermal layers,” he rasped. A third time the computer asserted that the injuries were caused by a scalpel.
There was a lot more he was supposed to do in order to fulfill the requirements of a Federation standard autopsy, but Kaz had had enough. The damn procedure had raised more questions than it had answered—questions that seemed illogical and bizarre. He terminated the holographic program of the body and instructed the computer to reinstate the stasis field around Ellis and return the corpse to the cadaver drawer.
Making his way to the replicator and requesting another cup of coffee, Kaz went over what he knew—or, at least, what he thought he knew.
One: The body showed signs of being in stasis for at least six years, but Ellis had been aboard Voyager yesterday.
Two: Chakotay claimed that he saw Ellis attacked right before his eyes, attacked by one of the creatures that Devi Patel had had the wherewithal to take scans of. The creatures existed, Kaz had no doubt about that. But there was no speck of dirt, no shred of DNA, anywhere on Ellis’s body.
Three: The computer insisted—and, he thought, rubbing his eyes tiredly, he would have agreed had he not been told differently—that the clean slices in the body that had gone deep enough to nick the bone had been caused by a scalpel, not animal claws.
It all added up to a mystery, one he was determined to solve. But again, he needed more information; more than just examining the body could provide.
Chakotay would still be asleep, and Kaz was glad of that. He didn’t want to have to bring any of this to his captain’s attention until he had more evidence and a theory that stretched wide enough to accommodate all the evidence. Commander Data had told him that he and Geordi La Forge had enjoyed playing the roles of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson on the holodeck. Kaz felt like