Fragments: Subterfuge, Part 2

Posted on Sat Aug 9th, 2025 @ 12:58am by Captain T’Kal & Lieutenant Commander Clay McEntyre & Lieutenant CASTIEL 'Cas' Johnson MD & Petty Officer, 1st Class Emilie Dovria
Edited on on Thu Oct 9th, 2025 @ 7:52pm

2,121 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: ARYL 1X03: The Listening Post
Location: Station Delta IV Medical Bay
Timeline: Simultaneous with "Fragments: Data" and "Fragments: Interference"

Previously on "Star Trek: Ark Royal":

“McEntyre to T’kal. Sir, I am declaring a Class One emergency. The station is going on full lockdown. Biomedical threat confirmed. I’d advise taking the ship to Red Alert and a 24 hour standing watch.”

“Understood,” the Captain’s voice said through their communicators. “I’m ordering the ship to Red Alert. Station Ops will pass along the alert status here.”

A moment later, the lighting changed, reflecting the Class One emergency in progress.

Emilie had pulled a pair of gloves on and had begun to do a detailed check on the patient on the ground, "Sir," She addressed the medic, "I'll need an IV rig, normal saline with revantin," She referred to a medication that was good with regulating blood pressure and had few adverse reactions, "Fluids are important in these cases, remember, no skin-on-skin contact."

"There is nothing really to do here but watch these three." He brought up the computer, "They are all engineers, however two of them shared a cabin. He turned to the station medic. "Any changes to the patients, let us know. Lieutenant, PO Dovria, we have a few primary crime scenes to look at, before security does their thing that will more than likely contaminate anything we can use."

Emilie glanced up from the patient and nodded, "Yes, sir." She concurred, then glanced to the medic, "Glove up, keep a close eye on these two. Any changes, let the doctor and I know right away."


And now the continuation...


Engineers’ Quarters

Two cabins next to each other housed the station’s four engineers. Station Delta 4 lacked a proper security contingent, so they could not post a guard, but the operations centre had locked down the rooms remotely. They would only unlock it for McEntyre.

The fourth engineer, Petty Officer Oswin Simmons, had been ordered to stand near her room, in case there were questions for her.

As a fellow enlisted type, Emilie approached the engineer before the officers could and gave her a slight smile as if to let her know that she wasn't alone amongst the bigwigs that were about to invade his space, "Has anyone been in either room aside from the residents, PO? And when were you last in there? This is some nasty stuff we're talking about and I want to gauge if you're contaminated or if there's a risk."

“No, no one else has been in either room,” Simmons said, nervously shaking her head. “I wear gloves. Like, all the time. Germophobe.” She gestured to the pair she was wearing. “I guess it saved my life.”

"Good, good." Emilie took her by an elbow with a gloved hand and nudged her over to the side, "Sirs, I'm going to leave the investigation to you. Petty Officer, I'm going to bring you over here a few steps and do a quick examination on you." She gave her a relatively cheery smile, one of the arts of being a good nurse, "Any coughs, aches, headaches or general not-feeling-goods, PO..." She trailed off to get her to give her her name.

"Simmons," he answered. "O-Oswin S-Simmons. And no. N-n-no symptoms."

Walking over to the two, the Doctor said, "Don't count yourself lucky just yet. Even with gloves, the Ricin will transfer from the gloves to whatever else. A gloved surface is just as likely to transfer the ricin, as a non gloved hand would." He took out a scanner and started scanning the most common items in the room. "She will need a more detailed scan, than the scanner we brought. As well as security watching her at all times." The fact that she didn't show symptoms even the milder ones, was concerning.

Back outside in the corridor, Emilie followed up her scans with a visual look over Simmons and had made her take off the uniform jacket so that she could examine her skin on both arms, neck and upper chest. She removed one glove and made a show of also physically checking her pulse, breathing and even a minor rash that she found to just be a skin irritation, all while making jovial smalltalk. She then segued into a few questions, "Did you enter their room at any time, by chance? Touch anything or their uniforms?"

By this point, one of the station's few security guards, the only one not doing ricin sweeps, came to stand with Ms. Simmons.

"No," Oswin said. "No, we usually keep to our own spaces when we can." She laughed nervously. "These rooms are small, and get crowded when you have guests."

The security guard cleared his throat and held up his tricorder toward McEntyre. "Incorrect. Sir, her code was used to open the adjacent door repeatedly over the past three weeks."

Clay looks at Oswin with a curious eye, a stern distrusting look.

She laughed nervously again. "Right! Yes, I sometimes go in to drop off tools that I borrow, or to pick some up if I need them. It's so normal I didn't realize you meant that."

Something else was bothering Emilie, and she reached into her belt pouch with the gloved hand and came out with a penlight. "Look straight ahead, please, Miss Simmons," Her ungloved hand reached up to gently raise and pin the eyelid, using the penlight to flash the light in her eyes to test pupil reactions, first on one eye, then the other, "Pupils reactive and normal, no indication of Ricin poisoning." She released the engineer and gently squeezed her shoulder, "Nothing wrong with you that I can tell." Then it hit her, the lack of reaction from Oswin. This was not a germaphobe, there was no reaction to the skin-on-skin touch.

Going over the Quarters, it was evident this was, in fact, the place of contamination, tools were covered in more than trace amounts of the poison, as if a cloth was soaked in it and used to wipe the tools. How the second engineer didn't succumb to his poisoning, was beyond him. He was just about to leave the room, when something that seemed out of place caught his eye.

"Dovria, can you bring into the quarters." Cas called out, picking up what seemed to be a case of some sort he set it on the table.

McEntyre entered, his tricorder out, scanning, running over surfaces and tables, looking for anything out of place. A stern investigators eye. He looks over to Cas, curiosity on his face.

"Found something, Doctor?" Clay inquired as he came closer to Cas.

"This place is covered with Ricin residue. Not just one or two things, they wanted to make sure that death was guaranteed. From the coffee mug to the computer screen." Opening the case. "Someone's interested in chemistry, the amount of residue on the equipment, there is no doubt where it was created."

Emilie gave one last smile to Oswin before she joined the two officers in the room, her own eyes looking over the room before looking at the tricorder readings that Clay had opened. Even gloved, she had no intention of touching anything unless she needed to, "And something really doesn't add up, sirs." She said in a low voice that shouldn't carry to outside the doors, "If she was in here without knowing about the Ricin, Ms. Simmons should be seeing some effects from exposure, There are at least a dozen ways to be exposed if you're unaware of it, unless she's truly paranoid about germs all the time, and I was touching her with a bare hand without any reaction. And if she was in here dropping off and picking up tools?" She trailed off..

Clay turned. “Then I am going to detain her on suspicion of producing the Ricin.” He told the both of them low enough for only them to hear.

"Detain her for questioning, however, with nothing on her, it is highly unlikely it is her." He paused, he turns to the Clay, "Lt, have you ever heard of the guy that, blew himself up."

"ON occasion, why?" Clay answer as he stood, straightening his uniform

"The one that usually has the most contact with anything dangerous, is the original person. One small mistake, then Boom bomb goes off. Person dealing with the poison, one small mistake, and he poisons himself, and not necessarily his target." He looked at the three officers. "Not saying its what happened. But if not, I don't believe she's the one that handled the poison. Or even came close to it."

"By her own admission, sir, she's been in here." Emilie didn't want to contradict her direct superior, but she felt she had to, "Plus, so long as she wore gloves and took precautions when applying it? You or I could do this, no sweat, she's an engineer and some of the things they do require just as much attention to detail. I don't know why she'd do it, though. motive is one of the things I don't see, but your investigation is just starting anyway, Commander." She nodded to Clay.

"She could be lying, to come in here, the way its contaminated, and not get a single bit of it on you... thats more than just careful... Unless she changed, used some strong sanitizer, and destroyed the clothes."

“Which is why I’d like to question her. It’s easier to do that if I have her in custody. Especially given her prior statements, her access to this room and her insistence on being in here. It screams to me she’s trying to hide evidence. She has, as you said, admitted to being in here and yet she’s not contaminated when almost every surface in here is. It leaves a lot of unanswered questions that I’d like to have answered.” Clay elaborated his thinking.

"I am glad in instances like this, I am no longer in charge of security." Cas replied as he looked over. "Get her over to the Ark Royal place her in the contamination brig, until we make sure she is clean."

"Duly noted, Lieutenant ." Clay said in a stern yet professional tone as he exited the room to arrest the engineer.

“Can I go now?” the engineer asked from outside the quarters, looking even more agitated. Her shoulders were tense. Her eyes wide and darting. Body language suggesting that she might try to run if logic did not remind her there was nowhere to go.

Clay emerges from the room a few moments later, stern, professional, calling over one of his deputies as he looks down at Simmons.

“Oswin Simmons, I am advising you under Section 30 of the Starfleet Code of Military Justice and the Fifth and Seventh Guarantees of the Federation Charter that I am detaining you on suspicion of the manufacturing of a poisonous substance, namely Ricin and possible Manslaughter charges related to the poisoning deaths in regards to the Ricin contamination of this station. You are bound by law to stand down.” Clay announced to her as stern and professional as he could, hands behind his back as he spoke.

“I am advising you that you may not speak with me or say anything but it may harm your defense if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence and used against you in a Federation Court of Law.”

The young engineer nodded and hung her head, tears welling in her eyes. “I understand,” she said quietly.

"Please come with me, Ms. Simmons." Clay asked with a subtle kindness as he and his deputy escorted her to the brig.

Emilie glanced around the room, not reaching out to touch anything because it could be deadly, especially if she did something dumb. This would be a nightmare to clean up, once the investigation was fully done. She touched Castiel on the forearm, "Let's get out of here, sir, we should go through a decontamination procedure and get back to sickbay, there are still a couple of very sick kids down there."

"I agree, however, we found the original cntaminated area. We don't know if any tools affected by the ricin was removed from these quarters, and contaminated other areas of the station." Cas replied looking at Clay, "I will let you have the tools to scan for said poison, its to be done before anything else is done in the area."

END

Lieutenant Commander Clay McEntyre
Chief of Security
U.S.S Ark Royal

Lt Cas Johnson
Chief Medical officer

Petty Officer 1st Class Emilie Dovria
Keeps-Getting-Mistaken-As-A-Doctor

PO3 Oswin Simmons
Engineer-turned-Prisoner

 

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