Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

[diziara]

After much protest, and not a few unsavory challenges and accusations exchanged between K'Etra and Diziara, the commander agreed to allow the team one day to investigate Marloth's claims. She left one of her officers with the team to assist them, introducing him as Lieutenant Korloth and suggesting the team start with the official reports.

Even

Comments

[gmdreia]

AJ had been listening attentively and quietly at this point, but at the mention of "autopsy", she perked up. Gloves were on, medical tricorder out. "What we got?"

[svetuninteligbl]

Svetlana blinked at AJ and took half a step back. "I am thinking maybe we should split up. D and I will press the bartender, you two, well you have the gloves."

Svetlana nearly dragged Diziara out of the office after brief affirmatives from Tom and AJ. "You scared of doctors V?" Diziara asked, shaking her uniform back in place.

"No one should be that fast with rubber gloves. Pistols yes, rubber gloves..." Svetlana shook her head. "Definitely not."

[gmdreia]

The corner of AJ's mouth quirked, just a little bit. "Paramedic," she said. "Hazard team. No doctor's that fast with gloves."

She reached for another pair of gloves and tossed them to Tom.

[diziara]

Tom stared at the gloves a long moment, then looked out the door of the interrogation room after Diziara and Svetlana. Eventually his gaze drifted back to AJ, and he sighed. He picked up one of the PADDs as he stood from the table, and holding it and the gloves in the same hand.

"After you, Crewman," he said, indicating she could lead the way out of the room.

[gmdreia]

AJ picked up one of the PADDs, and headed for the morgue. "Bar fight, huh? Fucker's gotta know to always bet on the Klingon. Cause of death: Darwinism."

"20, 21... ah there you are. Number 22," she said as she looked over the morgue's rows of lockers containing the stasis beds. She set her bag down on the floor, and the PADD on top of the bag.

She gave the drawer a good yank, and out rolled the stasis bed containing the victim. She observed the Y cut and crude stitching down the front, and poked and prodded quickly with her gloved hands. "He looks pretty good for a blunt force trauma... nothing's broken."

She looked over the body, pausing to look at a cut on the man's torso.

"That doesn't look like a d'k tag. Seen my share. I'd hazard a guess... a Ka-Bar. Perp knew his anatomy," she said. "Not really easy to kill with a knife. Not unless you really, really know what you're doin'. It's not like you see in the holodramas."

"Here, give me a hand?" she said. She motioned with her hand. "Y'know, help me turn him."

[diziara]

As Tom and AJ had left the security office, Korloth fell into step behind them without so much as a word. A grim frown had fallen across his face, but the corners of his lips turned upwards at AJ's quip about the Darwinism. Tom, on the other hand, shook his head slowly, and bit his lip in an effort to avoid commenting.

As AJ poked and prodded at the corpse, Tom watched quietly. He'd seen his share of dead bodies over the years, watched more than a few of them get collected and carted off by various sorts of medical teams, and read more than his fair share of autopsies. He still wasn't quite sure what to do with the way medical so often just treated a body as just some object.

When AJ asked for his help on turning over the body, it took Tom a long moment to respond. He set the PADD in hand aside, and pulled on the gloves she'd handed him earlier with care. Grasping the body where indicated, he carefully shifted it's weight; once it'd been turned he settled it down with a gentleness usually reserved for the living. He stepped back,

[gmdreia]

AJ ran her hand down the back of the corpse's neck, down his spine, then checked the "kill zone" (torso) with both hands, making sure that everything was intact. "Nope, after a fight with a Klingon, I'd expect to see a lot worse than this. Killer either got in one lucky stab or knew exactly what he was doin'. And after a fight, I'd expect to see a lot more slashin' and plenty of punches."

AJ circled the dead man's right wrist with one hand. "First thing I noticed. No defensive cuts on the fingers, no marking or bruising of any kind on the hands. He was good and surprised."

[diziara]

"At least she didn't pull out any lube..." Diziara returned with a laugh. She flipped off Korloth as she and Svetlana made their way through the main security office. He started to stand, and looked back at the interrogation room for AJ and Tom. She spit something at him in Klingon that roughly translated to an insult on his mother's lack of fitness to wear combat boots, and directing him to stay and wait for AJ and Tom. She grinned, blew him a kiss and waved to him as she and Svetlana made their way out of the security office.

It wasn't hard for them to find the bar, there was literally only one left in business on the station, The Prancing Pony. It stuck out like a sore thumb on the business listings for the station, the only name in the list that wasn't in Klingon script.

"I'm just picturing we're gonna find Hobbits in there, dancing on tables-" Diziara started as they rounded the corner just before the bar. Suddenly she stopped midstride and stared at the place.

[diziara]

"This shit just keeps getting fucking better and better," Diziara growled. "Come on, V, I need a drink. A hard drink." A curse in Klingon escaped Diziara's lips, her hand clasped Svetlana's upper arm, and Diziara marched into the bar like it was life or death that she get a drink.