Closure

Posted on 03 Jul 2013 @ 10:06am by Captain Jonathan Holliday & EMH Mark X-C "Shirley"

848 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 1 - Bridge
Timeline: MD09 0330hrs

[ON]

John's Bridge shift had been uneventful. With the exception of a few less than cooperative power relays causing a temporary loss of lighting on deck three, nothing had come up that the Beta shift hadn't been able to handle. Even at this early hour when the Gamma shift had taken their stations, Holliday had still not left the Bridge, having instead moved into the Ready Room to try and get some last minute work done.

=^=Shuttlebay to Commander Holliday =^=

The blip of the comm system broke the otherwise silent atmosphere of the Ready Room, and John was surprised that anyone would be calling him at this early hour of the morning. Rousing himself from a semi-comatose state staring into a PADD, he tapped his commbadge in reply.

=^=Holliday here - what is it? =^=

=^=Sir, Commander Coleman's shuttle has returned ahead of schedule. =^=

John was a little perplexed why the shuttlebay duty officer thought it was of any importance to him at 0330 that the ship's 2XO had returned ahead of schedule. There was no paperwork for him to complete as she had been on a personal excursion and there was no need for him to debrief her.

=^=That's very nice Shuttlebay but why exactly do I need to know this right now? I'm sure the Commander can tell me herself when she reports for duty in the morning. =^=

=^=Sir..I think you'll want to come down here. =^=

John's blood ran cold at the mention of having to attend the shuttlebay - there was no reason to call the ranking officer and acting captain for a simple shuttle return unless something was seriously wrong. Dropping his PADD to the desk, John broke into a sprint and cut across the Bridge towards the turbolift, receiving a few sideways glances as he passed the various terminals on his way there.

A short turbolift journey soon deposited the Commander outside the shuttlebay, and quickly it's doors parted to gain him access. The scene inside was one of shock - shuttle crews who had attended the vessel after it's arrival were stood silently with the rear hatch lowered, looking towards the pilot and co-pilot positions as if frozen in space and time.

Cutting across the room, John made his presence felt almost immediately, taking command of the situation from the junior enlisted crewmen who had been here up until now.

"What's going on? Clear the deck!"

The XO bellowed at the top of his voice, shaking the young crewmen back into reality and sending them scurrying for the exists as fast as their legs would carry them. Heading round to the rear of the shuttlecraft, the Commander was shocked to see the face of the EMH meeting him.

"Hologram - what is going on here?"

The computer-generated physician was packing away several small devices into an emergency medical kit that had been pulled free of one of the panels in the rear compartment of the shuttlecraft. Several used hypospray cartridges littered the deck.

"Ah, Commander Holliday. I'm sorry but there was nothing I could do. The patient had been devoid of brain activity for too long to allow effective resuscitation."

Resuscitation John queried in his head, at such an early time in the morning it was obvious why the EMH had been projected into the shuttlebay to save waking the organic members of the crew who were enjoying some well-earned sleep, but the matter still made no sense.

"What do you mean resuscitation? Where is Commander Coleman?"

John felt a sense of panic set into his bones. He was the one who had authorised Coleman to head off on her own personal away mission against his better judgement and technically against Starfleet protocol. he was the one who had let something happen.

"Complete system failure caused by massive damage to almost every organ in her body, as well as blunt force trauma and some kind of energy discharge that led to a breakdown of the impulses in her synapses. According to the shuttlebay crew this vessel returned here on autopilot - she was dead before she even arrived. A pity."

The incredulity of the hologram was almost enough to make John delete it's program - describing the loss of a senior officer, of any crew member as simply a pity was the greatest underestimation that anyone could make. Stepping past the hologram, Holliday saw the lifeless body of Coleman slumped in the pilot's chair of the shuttle. He felt sick to his stomach, almost as if he wanted to curl up in a ball or punch the living daylights out of the nearest thing - luckily for the holographic EMH, it's matrix didn't quite fit the bill.

"Hologram....have the Commander's body transferred to the morgue immediately....I...will inform Starfleet command, and the Captain. I want a full post-mortem analysis within the next 24 hours - if someone killed Coleman I want to know who and how, then I will find out why."

[OFF]

CMDR Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

EMH Mk-X
Emergency Medical Hologram
USS Galileo
pNPC John Holliday

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