Part of USS Europa: And the Cradle Will Fall

Bodies… Found

The Eldara
MD 02 - 2345 hours
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Jolie placed her hands in between the two partially open sides of the door and looked back at Rowe. “Give me a hand with this Lieutenant,” she said as she began to try and pry the two halves apart.

Had made sure the light she was given was secure on the back of her wrist before putting her tricorder away and placing her hands on the other half. “One, two, three, pull!” She pulled hard on her half and felt it give. After they got it open enough for them to pass through, she pulled out her tricorder again and resumed her scans. “Not just blown out power junctions, but the whole grid here is fried. Whatever attacked them hit them hard.”

Jolie took out her tricorder and corroborated Rowe’s words, “No life signs in this portion of the ship, although it could be related to whatever fried this ship’s systems,” she said, looking up from her tricorder’s garbled readings. She returned her gaze to Rowe as she slid the device back into its holder. “I believe we should go with the tried-and-true method of visually inspecting these living spaces. One at a time.”

“I think we should also split this up,” she said, luckily there were only a couple dozen rooms. “I’ll take the right side first, while you take the left. Keep your Comms open and if anything comes up contact me.”

Jolie then turned to the right and began to pry open her first door.

Rowe went over her scans, lack of life support would be the main culprit but her gut was throwing all sorts of red flags up and her Klingon half, for the fight or flight question, is definitely preparing to fight. She looked to Jolie before nodding her head and realizing that being in EV suits, kind of restricts much movement and visual acknowledgement. “Copy. Comms open. I’ll go left then.” She said as she decided to secure her tricorder to her left arm where she had strapped on a piece of equipment, optional one with the EV suits, that allowed her to slide and lock her tricorder in place. Just something she acquired. Standard issue or not, it was useful in her eyes. With the tricorder on continuous scans, she went to her first door and started to pry it open.

As the door finally gave way, the sound of metal grinding against metal resonated down the deserted corridors. Jolie grunted as she eased the door open and walked inside, her phaser lifted, her eyes following the light from the wrist light as she swept the room.

“Room clear,” she remarked, having found no one or anything in the room, “moving on to my next one,” she said into the comm’s

“Nothing in this one either.” Said Rowe and moved on to the next.

The next few rooms Jolie pried open were similarly unremarkable. As she exited the last room, she became acutely aware that something wasn’t right.

“Lieutenant Rowe. I haven’t discovered any bodies, and none of these rooms appear to be occupied. How about you?” she asks as she walks down the corridor.

Rowe made it to the last one on her side with no incident. At least that is what she was hoping for until she forced the last door open. “Oh!” She swallowed the human part of her that was in complete disgust. She knelt down by the door and start to run her scans. “You’re going to want to come down here.”

Jolie was dissatisfied with what she heard from her end of the comms. The sound of displeasure from a lady Jolie was aware was part Klingon fueled her movement as she set off for the Lieutenant’s location. As she rounded the corner, she skidded to a halt when she noticed Rowe knelt next to an open door.

Flickering lights reflected off the bulkhead in front of the now-open door. Which had led Jolie to pause her movement because the rest of the rooms were pitch black, devoid of all light except that supplied by the wrist lights that both officers wore.

Jolie took a knee next to Rowe and tilted her head slightly to take a brief look around the room. Her eyes widened in horror and disgust as she witnessed the horrible scene.

Shifting her body back to center, she addressed the Chief Operations Officer, “Are you okay, Lieutenant?”

She took a deep breath, suppressing her human urge to vomit once more before standing up. “Yup. Perfectly fine.” She veered her eyes to her tricorder.

Her memory replayed the images that were still vivid in her mind as she tried to concentrate on the task at hand. Most of the bodies within the room had been shot at least once.

Jolie closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath. She stared at Rowe as soon as she opened them.

“Stay put, I’m moving in. If something comes up, notify the Commander and get out of here,” she said, standing up and bracing herself for the entry into the room.

Akira felt her Klingon side wanting to object but her human half negotiated with it, pointing out that there is likely nothing in there to fight. “No, no, you go right ahead.”

A tremendous thud could be heard as Jolies’ foot landed on the inside of the chamber. The sound made Jolie leap on the inside, yet she appeared to be as solid on the outside as she had always been.

She knelt down next to one of the bodies and visually judged that the victim had been shot through the skull. She drew the tricorder from its holster on her hip, examined the readings, and tilted her head to the side. She tapped on a couple of the holographic icons before turning her head to face the Lieutenant.

“Akira, I noticed you scanning a moment ago. Did your reading tell you who or what killed the crew?” she says, returning her gaze to the tricorder’s holographic display.

Akira had been standing there waiting before she heard the Lieutenant’s request. She started tapping away to pull up her recent scans and went over the data. “They all appeared to have been killed by particle weapons. By the consistency of the burns, a beam weapon. Unfortunately there’s nothing here to determine if they were killed by Cardassian weapons or Starfleet.” She unzipped her left breast pocket, reached in and pulled out a couple transporter tags. “Guess we just tag a couple bodies and have the ship transport them to sickbay.”