Finding proof of a girl's death on a planet overrun by zombies.
Setting: Space. There are aliens and starships and a galaxy-wide war slash zombie invasion.
Search terms tried: I looked up evacuation procedures and death in absentia, but there seems to be a time frame of years of the latter, not days/weeks, and in any rate "well, she's not here, so she's probably dead" won't cut it for the characters involved.
If any part of this doesn't make sense, please let me know. I have some nasty brainfog that isn't quite helping coherency.
Character A is a soldier helping evacuation efforts on a planet that's been invaded by, essentially, alien zombies. She ends up on the run with Character B, who is a fifteen-year-old farm girl. B breaks her leg and can't stop crying, and A kills her because she's afraid she'll attract the zombies. A makes it off the planet and to a hospital, where character C, the commander of a starship, overhears A telling her story to a nurse. C realizes that B sounds an awful lot like Character D's sister, right down to the (first) name; the planet matches as well.
D is C's pilot. He's been through hell and back with C, and they're close. If D's sister is dead, C wants to let him know as gently as possible - but while it seems likely, there's no proof that the girl A killed is actually D's sister and not just a girl with the same name, on the same planet, sharing some superficial traits with D.
Taking into account that anyone who hasn't evacuated the planet yet is probably toast, is there any more solid evidence that C could dig up that this is actually D's sister? If not, I can't figure out how to write the story without D convincing himself that it's a huge coincidence and his baby sister is just fine, she'll show up in lists of evacuees any day now, she will, dammit - so I guess that is less a little detail and more a giant potential plot hole. :P
(I do realize that there are some issues involved with C just casually standing around and hearing this whole story, but that part's canon. The RPG hero always hears about everyone's personal problems in excruciating detail, right?)
Search terms tried: I looked up evacuation procedures and death in absentia, but there seems to be a time frame of years of the latter, not days/weeks, and in any rate "well, she's not here, so she's probably dead" won't cut it for the characters involved.
If any part of this doesn't make sense, please let me know. I have some nasty brainfog that isn't quite helping coherency.
Character A is a soldier helping evacuation efforts on a planet that's been invaded by, essentially, alien zombies. She ends up on the run with Character B, who is a fifteen-year-old farm girl. B breaks her leg and can't stop crying, and A kills her because she's afraid she'll attract the zombies. A makes it off the planet and to a hospital, where character C, the commander of a starship, overhears A telling her story to a nurse. C realizes that B sounds an awful lot like Character D's sister, right down to the (first) name; the planet matches as well.
D is C's pilot. He's been through hell and back with C, and they're close. If D's sister is dead, C wants to let him know as gently as possible - but while it seems likely, there's no proof that the girl A killed is actually D's sister and not just a girl with the same name, on the same planet, sharing some superficial traits with D.
Taking into account that anyone who hasn't evacuated the planet yet is probably toast, is there any more solid evidence that C could dig up that this is actually D's sister? If not, I can't figure out how to write the story without D convincing himself that it's a huge coincidence and his baby sister is just fine, she'll show up in lists of evacuees any day now, she will, dammit - so I guess that is less a little detail and more a giant potential plot hole. :P
(I do realize that there are some issues involved with C just casually standing around and hearing this whole story, but that part's canon. The RPG hero always hears about everyone's personal problems in excruciating detail, right?)