Without A Trace

Posted on Tue May 16th, 2023 @ 4:21pm by Ensign Jeffrey Simmons & Lottie & Captain Ivan Petrov & Lieutenant Commander Yana Petrova & Ensign Mika Petrova & Immy
Edited on on Sun May 21st, 2023 @ 10:03pm

Mission: S1 Episode 5: Ex Post Facto
Location: Various
Timeline: Date 2371-08-15 at 1500
3174 words - 6.3 OF Standard Post Measure

ON

Administrative work seemed to be very far from the action and was less than exciting, often representing the kind of work which was both rather simple and repetitive, yet seldom routine. It was far off from waiting tables, and yet it came with many more perks seeing as it came, for a slave like Immy, with a higher rank, better amenities, and access to powerful people. She had yet to properly make use of these things.

She entered the office again with a large PADD in hand, her emerald eyes falling on Lottie.

“The Science Department report is even longer than it was two days ago, and that’s saying something.” she said, her musical sultry voice singing a song of distinct boredom.

Lottie had been working quietly in the yeoman’s office alone sorting and stacking reports for Jasper’s attention. The man himself had briefly gone away to see to some issue personally and had locked down his computer before doing so, but he saw little harm in leaving Lottie alone to do her work. She was a good, faithful slave who truly seemed to find joy in her work after all. Really, she was still riding a high from the party the previous day. It had been fun for her - slave or not - and Yana had been generous enough to let the slaves pick over the leftover food at the end of the party as a treat.

When the door opened, she jumped slightly and turned, but on seeing Immy walking in she relaxed. “Well, there has been a lot of trouble they’ve been working through.”

“Everyone’s completely stressed over the computer issues. I obviously have no idea what’s going on, but it makes me nervous to see people so…concerned.” Immy admitted, stepping over to Jasper’s desk and placing the PADD she had gathered on the pile that Lottie was arranging. “Pulling reports has even been difficult.”

Immy stepped over to the console and began to sort through their task list as it updated. She ran her slender, white fingers over the surface of the touch screen slowly, like a girl who hadn’t had a good formal education. She often noticed the contrast between herself and other slaves with the free officers and crew. These were highly educated and well-trained people. All she could do well, she felt, was screw, steal, and clean, in that order. She gave a quiet sigh, but said nothing.

“Yeah… me too. I’m sure they’ll figure it out though.” Lottie smiled and looked at Immy, though it faded when she saw Immy just looking at the screen with a pensive expression. “Immy? Are you okay?”

Immy didn’t feel well, but she wasn’t quite sure how to explain it. It felt like a high at first, and then it started to hurt a bit. It started with her hands, and she looked down at them to thin blue electric currents traveling over them. She felt heat and pressure. She tried to move them, but she couldn’t.

“Ahhh!” she exclaimed, finally, her beautiful face contorting into one of advancing fear. She realized something truly terrible was happening. The blue streams of electricity traveled up her arms next. She turned to look at Lottie and their eyes locked for a moment. She gave an exasperated sigh through her frightened face, her green eyes going large. “...wh…what…”

And then, with a great surge of blue, Immy ignited like a small star, and her pale skin and slave uniform turned, at once to light, and then to dust. She was gone, with only smoke, residue, and silence to replace her.

Lottie just stared, nothing but surprise and confusion on her face for a long moment. Her sweet, innocent mind couldn't exactly process what she had just seen.

Then she screamed.

"IMMY?!" She rushed frantically over to where Immy had been standing and took a few swipes at the air where her beautiful friend had been standing just seconds before. When they came into nothing but a few wisps of smoke, Lottie stood there frozen on the spot, her breathing starting to become more rapid - too rapid - her field of vision shrank and tunneled.

"Immy!" She called out again, looking around frantically, her mind not wanting to believe what she had just witnessed. When she looked down and saw only a pile of ash, she screamed again and raced out into the corridor, tears streaming down her face.

"Help! Please help! Masters! PLEASE HELP ME!" Lottie cried out at the top of her lungs, trying to run to find help but her legs weren't really working. In her grief, she finally stumbled and fell to the deck, sobbing wretchedly and curling up into as small of a ball as she could on her side. "Help... please... help. Immy..."

"Hey. Hey, slave. What is the matter?"

Lottie's eyes focused in and she looked up to the long, boyish face of a security officer who was kneeling down by her. She wasn't sure how much time had passed, everything was a blur. She shifted slightly and saw three other security officers behind him standing there staring down at her. Instinctively she shrank back, and then suddenly in a flash the moment where she saw Immy disappear snapped into her mind again. She began to sob again, inconsolable. "Immy..."

Jeffrey Simmons looked down to the slave crying at his feet, his brows raising and his face a mask of confusion. "Hey, what's an Immy?"

He received no response, the young woman was sobbing so violently he was afraid she was going to get sick all over his good shoes. He stood and tapped his commbadge, his nasally voice cutting over the comms.

"This is Ensign Simmons to Commander Petrova. One of your slaves is on deck two throwing some kind of fit and won't speak to me. She just keeps repeating the word Immy. I'm not sure what to do, ma'am."

Yanna had been sitting beyond her desk down on the lower desks, working through a file she was compiling when the call came through. She cast her eyes over at one of the slaves who were working in the office with her. They were often permitted to come in and, in all honesty, there was no one in the Fleet who spent more time with them or was closer to them. She sighed. What was going on with Immy now? For days, the slave had been trouble, sneaking around with the XO’s Yeoman and thinking nobody knew. Of course, Yana knew. Yana had a way of finding out most every secret eventually. She had a gift for chasing shadows. She tapped her combadge.

“I'll be right there, Ensign.” she said, and then stood, logging off of her device. She looked around the room. “I’m leaving for a bit.”

The other slaves quickly stood and cleared the room, knowing the protocol well and not hesitating to follow it. If she wasn’t in the office, no one was. The Slave Mistress and Deputy Fleet Commander left the room and went immediately to the nearby turbolift, taking it promptly to deck 2. When she arrived, she rounded the corner and saw exactly what Simons had reported: Lottie weeping uncontrollably on the floor. She approached the young girl quickly and went down on one knee beside her, her hand moving to ensure that her uniform skirt still covered her.

“Lottie, what’s wrong?” she asked in a voice that was tender and quiet. She was always kind. Always. That’s what made her so terrible when she struck.

Simmons had remained and sent the rest of his team to continue on their rounds. He hadn’t wanted to leave the girl alone, but now that Yana was there, he shifted so he could move away at the very least and if he wasn’t needed he would just leave.

Lottie recognized Yana’s gentle voice immediately and did her best to calm herself down. Her face was bright red and streaked with tears, and she choked on a couple of sobs that got caught in her throat. She licked her lips and drew in a couple of shaking breaths, then did her best to speak. It was stuttering, halting, but she managed to force out a couple of words. “Immy… disappeared…”

“Disappeared?” Yana asked, her eyes cast down at the pitiful looking girl. She had just been working at her computer when another surge happened, glitching her equipment and she was more frustrated than normal. Though she suppressed it. She considered whether Immy was just somewhere sneaking around with Jasper. “What do you mean she disappeared? You mean you can’t find her?”

Shaking her head, Lottie sniffled and she wiped ineffectually at her face. “N-no. Disappeared. Sh-she was in the office and then… there was a bright light. She disappeared.”

Yana frowned, her slender brows knitting together as she tried to process what she had been told. At once, she stood up and started toward the office herself. When she got in, she took note of the fact that the room was empty. Her silver eyes scanned the space looking for any signs or clues, but she was already starting to suspect that someone was playing a prank on Lottie until she saw the pile of dust. Walking over, she knelt down beside it and took out her tricorder.

“This…how did this happen?” She asked the empty room and she performed yet another scan. She had no doubts this was what was left of Immy.

Lottie had to fight not to reach out and try to cling to Yana as the woman got up to leave. It wouldn’t have been appropriate, but Lottie was still scared and completely shaken from what she had seen. After a moment of being alone in the hall, she finally pulled herself up to her feet and shuffled to stand just inside the office door. She saw Yana kneeling by the pile of ash on the floor and her eyes welled with tears again.

“She… she was touching one of the consoles and then there was the light.” Lottie provided, feeling numb, useless, and just completely in a daze.

Yana stood, acknowledging the words the slave girl had spoken with quick action. She scanned the console and observed the readings for a moment.

“It seems like this console experienced a surge with the power fluctuations. It’s malfunctioning now as a result.” Yana said, pulling her tricorder down and letting it fall to her side. Her voice was gentle, and her Russian accent made her speech distinct. “It looks like she was vaporized…we should contact medical..”

“So she’s… gone?” Lottie asked, frowning and looking up into Yana’s eyes as if she were searching for hope or comfort. It was a stupid question, but she couldn’t really bring herself to believe that Immy was just… gone in an instant. No warning, no reason, just nothingness.

“I’m not a doctor or an engineer, but it seems like she’s gone.” Yana said, telling it straight but not without some sadness in her voice and compassion in her eyes. “I will make sure we figure out how this happened.”

“O-okay.” Lottie replied, looking around much like a lost child and then down to the floor. “What… what should I do, Mistress?”

Yana considered telling Lottie to clean up the mess, but then she considered the effects of having the sensitive slave sweep up her own friend.

“You should take the rest of the day off. You’re understandably in shock and will need some time. I’ll have someone clean up her…remains.”

"Yes, Mistress. Thank you." Even in her grief, Lottie seemed to easily fall back into her training, her "programming" as some might have called it - which truly was perhaps a more accurate label than the other. Her body had started to shake slightly though she continued to stand as resolutely as she could manage in the doorway. It was only when Yana finally dismissed her that she turned and walked away to head back to her room.

Alone.

------

Ilan felt like she was losing her mind.

Ever since they had run into that storm, her life had been inundated with nothing but problem after problem and she was starting to tire of it. It wasn't so much that she didn't want to work, but what she didn't want to do was take the place of her Chief who was really doing absolutely nothing to help their current situation and spent the majority of her time in her labs conducting less than secret, horrible experiments. Because their department was so small, it had gone largely unnoticed thanks to Ilan's propensity to pick up the slack when a job needed doing so things were still getting done.

And that bitch was taking the credit.

She found herself stomping angrily toward the science lab once again to get the readings on the latest of she had lost count how many power surges. The door opened and it was dark inside; she knew the layout well enough though and walked inside while speaking.

"Computer, lights."

The lights came up and she was still moving toward the console, but stumbled suddenly as her foot caught on something in the middle of the floor. She lurched forward awkwardly, her feet trying to find solid ground again, then finally was able to catch herself on the console. Immediately she turned and looked down. The anger on her pretty face immediately gave way to shock and she let out a startled scream on seeing the body laying on the floor. "Gods!"

Her heart racing, she took a deep breath to steady herself and knelt down to see who it was, but she didn't have to get far to see it was Jones. Making a face, she moved a hand to try and check for a pulse while also wondering if the woman even had a pulse to check. There was nothing. Ilan lifted a hand to her commbadge and then stopped. Who did you call for some chop shop cyborg? Medical? Engineering? Both? She let out a drawn out sigh and tapped her commbadge properly.

"Ocara to sickbay, I need a medical team to Science Lab 1. I think Lieutenant Jones is dead." Despite the situation, there really wasn't any alarm in her voice. With sickbay acknowledged, she tapped her commbadge again.

"Warrant Officer Ocara to Captain Petrov."

“Petrov here.” Ivan said, his voice even.

"Sir, you may want to come down to Science Lab 1. I believe Lieutenant Jones is dead."

Ivan sighed. He had been fielding more than a few calls from around the ship reporting injuries and strange shortages, but this was the second death, and of a senior staff officer.

“I’ll be right there.” the Captain said, and then turned for the turbolift. When he arrived in the lab, he frowned at the scene before him which included the newly-minted Ensign Mika Petrova and Ilan. “Tell me she was wrong.”

All Mika did was shake her head, her jaw set with worry, and then her eyes fell on Ilan again.

“I was coming down to check the sensors after this latest surge. The lights were off, I came in and brought them up and tripped on her.” Ilan provided, frowning but not seeming overly perturbed still. “Something may have happened to her during the surge; interfered with her mechanical parts.”

“My scan says that she is definitely dead, and too far gone to revive.” Mika said, her eyes moving down to the body under their feet. “At this point, I’m sure she might serve a research and development purpose, though no one would have been more excited about the prospect than her.”

“That’s true.” Ivan said, a grim expression on his face. He was getting tired of losing people, and it was starting to show. “Did you get a chance to take a look at any of the consoles in here, Ocara? Reports from other injuries shows this sort of thing happened to people who had their hands on the interfaces when the surge occurred.”

“I haven’t yet, sir. I’ve been doing some initial scans with a tricorder first because frankly I don’t want to end up like the Lieutenant.” Ilan replied. “How many decks did this occur on, if you know? I haven’t had a chance to read any sort of reports yet.”

“Four crewmen were injured, two killed.” he answered,, “As for decks, nearly half of them. We’re lucky more people weren’t hurt.”

He sighed and stepped slightly closer, looking Ilan in the eyes.

“As of now you’re Acting Chief Science Officer. As a Warrant Officer, I trust you will be capable to that task for the foreseeable future?”

Ilan bit back the urge to point out that she had effectively already been filling that position since their run-in with the Vidiians. Instead, she simply gave a nod and held Ivan’s gaze. He had stunning eyes. “Yes, sir.”

“Ensign,” he said, giving his daughter a sad smile before turning and quickly exiting the room.

Mika looking at Ilan and fluttered her eyes a bit. Their time in the Delta Quadrant was one event after another.

“I’ll get a team down here to take her off your hands..” she said in a low voice.

“Ah, yeah thanks.” Ilan said and spared a look down to Melissa. “I just don’t understand why we can’t figure this all out…”

“It beats me. I don’t know a computer core from a warp core.” Mika said with a shrug. “It just seems to me like phenomena like we passed through happen to ships all the time and this computer and power glitch never does. It makes me wonder if something else is going on.”

“Yeah, me too.” Ilan replied and gave Mika a slightly strained smile. “Guess it’s on me now on the science end. I better get to it, huh?”

“Good luck, Ilan.” Mika said, placing a soft hand on the other woman’s shoulder. “Maybe you should invest in rubber gloves first, though.”

Despite the entirely morbid situation, Ilan let out a chuckle and reached up to squeeze Mika’s hand on her shoulder. “Yeah, seems like it. You be careful yourself, Ensign.”

Mika nodded, but gave no verbal response beyond that. She walked toward the door and was gone in a second, leaving Ilan standing with the body of her former cyborg boss.

With everyone gone, Ilan looked down at Melissa’s body. The room was deathly quiet for obvious reasons, but it was fitting in a way.

“Good riddance.” She finally scoffed and stepped over the inert cyborg to get back to work.

They had to figure out what was going on.

END