Ship's Log: February 26

Fear watched the Chief Engineer leave the infirmary. She found his continuing concern for the Lieutenant curious, considering the leverage it gave others over him. The Chief was prone to such weakness, she had observed. Still, she found it interesting that it could be used to manipulate his actions often more effectively than his physiological addictions. He was protective of nearly all members of his engineering team, but the Lieutenant seemed to earn his particular attention. She suspected that his interest might be far more than professional, but she had gathered no evidence to support her hypothesis. As her superior, he was permitted special privileges with members of his staff. As far as she could tell, he had never exercised that prerogative.

The one orderly present stepped quickly out the way as Fear moved toward the Lieutenant's sleeping form. Her expression was at ease in sedated sleep. Fear checked the status readings, noting that nanites she had injected into young officer were performing an acceptable job of repairing the radiation damage to her body. Even with the enhanced treatment, her recovery would take some time. Several of her organs would still need significant regrowth after the sub-microscopic machines completed their work.

She made a small adjustment to the flow of antibiotics flowing into the Lieutenant's systems and then moved away from the treatment bed. Giving the orderly a quick glance, she headed back toward the autopsy labs. She had been distracted from completing that work too many times, for too long.

As she made her way down the short corridor, she felt a sudden chill that had nothing to do with the ambient temperature. She suddenly recalled the image on the surveillance monitor, showing that someone had been present in the chamber with Niguchi's body. Stopping to check the security controls, she noted that no one had attempted to access the chamber since she had sealed it. Pressing her palm against it, the door unlocked and slid open. Fear stepped inside, pausing for a moment as the lighting system activated. The shadows faded from the chamber, leaving it bright, at least to her Aerian eyes.

Fear stared at Niguchi's dead form for several long seconds before reaching over and deactivating the stasis field. The faint flickering of the purple-blue light faded, revealing only his naked corpse. During her medical training on Earth, she had noted that humans often covered their dead with a large piece of fabric. It was, she supposed, some kind of demonstration of respect for their dead or yielding to their weak constitutions involving visual evidence of the end of life. It did not, however, at the same time explain their predilection for athletic competitions were death, or at least serious injury, was a likely occurrence. Nor did it provide insight into their taste for violent drama. Individual humans she could understand and, to an extent, control. As a species, though, they were contradictory and unreasonable.

After rolling the raised equipment tray closer to the platform, she checked to make sure the camera was set to record the autopsy for later review. She picked up a small general-purpose medical scanner, passing it over the area of the platform where Niguchi's head rested. It chimed softly as it registered the remnants of cells other than those belonging to the dead ensign. Fear felt a mild wash of relief that the scanner had confirmed what the surveillance recording had shown. Her relief was mixed with a sharp sense of curiosity. What had they been doing here? From what she had been able to discern so far, Niguchi's corpse had not been tampered with.

She fed the results into the main medical computer, but it failed to find an immediate match for the cells among the crew. It would need several hours to extrapolate possible matches from the remaining viable fragments. Annoyed, but knowing there was little she could do to hurry the process along, she picked up the scanner again and began the formal autopsy.