War Stories (Book 1) - Keith R.A. DeCandido [4]
He decided to read through the logs of the chief medical officer. Hers, he noticed, were only on the U.S.S. da Vinci since shortly after the cessation of hostilities between the Dominion and the alliance among United Federation of Planets, the Klingon Empire, and the Romulan Star Empire. Prior to that, as the client had indicated, she served on a different vessel, the U.S.S. Lexington.
Sitting in his quarters, Overseer Biron began to peruse the log entries of Dr. Elizabeth Lense….
U.S.S. Lexington
STARDATE 51246.9
The first thing Elizabeth Lense did when she entered her quarters on the Lexington was check her personnel file.
She hadn’t been on board the Lexington in almost a month. Her quarters were just as she’d left them—not that she cared. All that mattered was whether or not Commander Selden kept his promise.
After keeping me in his damn dungeon imagining vast conspiracies to create genetically enhanced doctors in Starfleet…
But no, there was nothing about the Starfleet investigation into whether or not Lt. Commander Elizabeth Lense, chief medical officer of the U.S.S. Lexington, top of her class at Starfleet Medical, had violated the Federation law forbidding postnatal genetic enhancement.
Of course, she hadn’t. The whole idea was patently ridiculous. And if the Federation wasn’t presently embroiled in a war with an enemy ruled by shapechangers who had spent the last several years fomenting paranoia throughout the quadrant, it no doubt would have been investigated quietly and with a minimum of fuss.
Instead, the revelation that the salutatorian of her class, Julian Bashir, had been illegally genetically enhanced by his parents when he was six led some to think that Lense, having, in essence, beaten him, might also be so enhanced.
So they locked her in a room on Starbase 314 and went over her life with a fine-toothed comb. End result: she was an absolutely brilliant and completely human physician, who had been kept off active duty, and probably costing lives with her absence, because some admiral somewhere thought it was a good idea.
Part of Lense wanted to resign right there.
Instead, she returned to the Lexington. There was, after all, a war on.
The door chime rang. “Come in.”
Heather Anderson walked in. Lense had been hoping that Captain Eberling himself would come by. The son-of-a-bitch owes me that much, at least. I always thought Starfleet captains defended their officers when they’re falsely accused.
Instead, he’d sent the first officer to do his dirty work. Lense had never liked Anderson much. She wasn’t sure why, there was just something about the older woman that rubbed her wrong.
“Good to see you again, Elizabeth.”
“Commander, I only just reported on board—”
“Uh, it’s ‘Captain’ now, Elizabeth—but ‘Heather’ is just fine. They’re sending us right back to the front lines, so we’re probably going to all be in close quarters for some time.”
Lense frowned, only just now noticing the fourth pip on Anderson’s collar. “What happened to Captain Eberling?”
Anderson’s lips seemed to twist oddly. “Didn’t they tell you?”
“They kept me in a room for a month, Comma—Sorry, Captain. The war could’ve ended while I was in there, and I wouldn’t have known.”
“I’m afraid that Captain Eberling died at Tyra.”
Blinking, Lense said, “I’m sorry?”
“Captain Eberling is dead.”
Anderson went on for several seconds. Somewhere, in the back of her head, Lense registered the captain’s words explaining that over a hundred ships were at Tyra, and only fourteen, including the Lexington, made it out in one piece. However, Eberling was fatally wounded on the bridge.
“Damn…” Lense muttered.
“There