Everyone is staring at me, expecting me to say something.  I've seen enough old movies and Colombo episodes to know that this is where The Detective calls everyone together, then goes through a long speech where he finally reveals the name of the guilty party.  I wish that detective was here.  I'd like to know who did it, too.

   I took a deep breath, then let it out.  "We are here because the Roux Emissary was murdered.  My job is to identify the murderer.  I would like the Ship Doctor to administer the appropriate chemical cocktail to the Executive Officer and Acting Captain that will remove mental barriers and allow me to question him to get the truth.  I need to do this to help eliminate him from my suspect pool."

   I turned directly to Benson.  "Refusal to participate in this examination can be considered to be an admission of guilt.  Do you have anything to say before this begins?"

He pauses for a good ten seconds, glances at England, and then Gaulois, and then nods 'no'.

"For the record, no." He sits himself down on the available bed, and lays out his arm for Gaulois to inject him.

"If you think your heartbeat gets excessive, or the furniture starts talking to you, tell  me, Able. I'll pull you out."

"Is that likely?"

"No, but pschyosomatic illnesses and schizophrenic episodes have been reported."

"Wonderful. Do it, doc."

Over the next minute, Gaulois insists on quiet, and he injects five differing substances, some of which he recalibrates based on Benson's physiological responses as recorded by the medbay sensors.

Then he shows you both a piece of paper.

"Only the Detective should talk.  If I cancel this, you will (this is underlined twice) obey my order to cease, or I will stun you."

They wait for you to begin...

Able is looking relaxed, and half-asleep.

   I began to speak to Benson.  I'm trying my skittish client voice.  With any luck, it will come off as warm and comforting.  I'll start with some baseline questions to see how he responds.  I'll try reading his thoughts as I go.  "I'm going to start with some easy questions.  Answer each one truthfully."

   "What is your name?"

   "How old are you?"

   "What is your current rank?"

   "What is your current assignment?"

In reply to Misty (msg # 142):

"Of course, Misty. An Officer is, is Honest, and Brave."
::This is, not good, I guess.::

"Able Montgomery Benson."
::Mom named me after a great uncle, Monty in the first System War.  Heroic. I've not managed to live up to her standards.::

"28"
::hUNH::

"XO....umm, Captain. But that's only temp, sorry England, so technically XO."
His thoughts mimic his words.

"uMMM, wwll to lay on this bunk answering dumb, err sorry, questions."
::Whaaa....i'm on the bunk, does she mean that, or does she mean, my XO, or, hey, I'm the Captain, cool, or...::

   I feel like I'm tap dancing in a minefield.  This whole thing could blow up any second.  That's never stopped me before, though.  "You are doing fine Able.  Let's continue..."

   "Generally, how do you feel about aliens?"

   "How do feel about the Roux?"

   "What happened on the Druckner Haven?"

   "How do you feel about what happened on the Druckner Haven?"

   "How do you feel about powerful alien species?"

   "How do you really feel about the Roux?"

"I...am concerned. They're often helpful, but..."
::Crazy, terrifying, just plain weird, and then out of the blue, nice beyond reason.  Alien. That says it all. Not human. Still part of God's creation, but maybe after He got drunk.::

"I don't like them that much."
::Stiff-necked, ruthless murderous, gotta be careful with them, like they're a bomb.::

He starts weeping.  You see the same images as before, but without inhibition.  You're drenched in sweat as his agony transfers to you.

Gaulois intervenes with a dose of some drug that breaks him free.

"I...wish there wasn't any.  But since there is, we gotta play the hand we're dealt."

::Caution. Concern heading toward paranoia.::

He laughs. Gives you the same rough answer as before with some more detail.

   This was going as well as expected, considering that I was working on the murder of an alien ambassador on a humanoid starship.   Truth be told, I understood the Roux more than the carbon-based life forms where I shared a physical appearance.  I felt like the alien here.  Hmmm...  Maybe that was something I could work with.

   "Where were you when the Roux Emissary was murdered?"

"I was on the bridge."
::I had locked out the recording because I had written up the orders for Patch installing sound tubes.  The Roux have the ability to go thru all our datanets like our security is turned off. I'm pretty sure they can see whatever they want to see as long as we record it on our optical nets. Sound tubes is ancient, pre-Warp tech.....maybe they won'tnotice it, and then I can pull a card out of my sleeve for the Captain.  I just hoped the Roux weren't looking my way when I turned off the record.

The idea of the sound tubes is a hi-tech version of the steamship's metal tubes you shout down.
"Engline room, ahead by half!" and so on.

   "And, of course, there should be official Navy logs of what you did on the Bridge to verify what you were doing while on shift because there wouldn't be any normal reason to lock out the bridge recordings.  Tell me, Benson, can I go to the Bridge and get a record from the data net of everything that happened during your shift on the Bridge?"

   If I can establish that Benson had an alibi, that will go a long way toward clearing him.  If I can get him to admit that he has no alibi, that is an important fact to bring out.  I jotted a quick note for England to find out if there is any record of Patch's order to install speaking tubes.  I added a request for her to find any gaps in the Bridge recording during the then XO's shift, when they occurred, and how long they lasted.

"File Page, #118-A, Written. Paper Record. Its the Fourteenth such Record on this ship."

He tells you where to find the paper records, and tells you how to open the safe holding them.

"Yes, you can."
::And you should.::

England returns with the information.
It turns out Patch was working on this job when you quizzed him.
The time was at the time of the murder, which seems suspicious, and it was for fifteen minutes.  There was only one gap.

To clarify, the fourteen pages of lock outs cover nearly eight years of service.  Evidently, four years ago, the Marcus Caine was transporting a deep cover agent for a week, and he had a number of things to say that were so highly classified that they could not be recorded.  Burn Before Reading type stuff.  There are a few others, but using the lockout seems to require extraordinary circumstances.

   I dash off a quick note for England asking how long it should take to write a request like the one for Patch before going on.

   "Able, I've never stood a Bridge watch.  What happens if you need a snack, to use the head or fresher or restroom, or get a cup of something stimulating to keep alert?  Are you allowed to leave the Bridge for any reason?"

"You can call in another officer to hold watch for five minutes. Gaulois will bring you coffee.  Its actually one of his priority orders which takes precedence over anything but medical care.  Usually tho', he has a heated thermos on deck so he doesn't have to get up out of bed."

He pauses.

"But you can't do that during a lock our of the recording." He laughs.  "Its tradition on the last week of a cook's term to make him get up three or four times every night for food orders.  We also do that sometimes during the first week."

::Not supposed to. I didn't but some people enjoy hazing the noob.::

"Say, what about this idea of mine....the Emm did himself in?"

::I mean, yeah, its crazy, but alien = crazy.  And maybe he was dying and they want an excuse to burn us...::

   "About that lockout...  Fifteen minutes seems like a long time to spend writing a one page work order.  Tell me everything that you did during the recording lock out."

   Benson has a motive, the attack on his old ship.  He had an opportunity during the recording lock out.  With him still proposing that the Roux killed himself, I have to wonder if Benson is actually guilty.  I've still got a few more questions, though.

He winces, and confesses to taking a mood stabilizer for ten minutes.  Its a bit odd for you because you think he's talking about a drug, but he's actually talking about a self-hynosis pattern run on a dedicated personal video screen.

"Its not illegal.
::But no one gives the Captaincy to someone who uses them either.::

"When my stress from the Druckner gets to high, when I can't wall it out, and reconcile it like the minddocs said, when I just have to scream...then I look at the pretty pictures for a while and it goes away."

Gaulois shields one from the Benson's view, and shows you a 'first level'.  Its a pattern of lights on a computer screen, and you can just feel the tension fade before he snaps it off.

Benson looks kinda miserable, like he'd want to be seriously down, but he's on drugs so he's not.
::I so wanted to be a Captain one day. To be in charge of my fate.  Just me versus the Universe.::

   Dang, Benson didn't kill the Emissary either.  "Thank you, Able, for your cooperation.  I'm going to have the Doc bring you back down."  His career advancement was all but over, but he wasn't my killer.

   I changed my focus to begin to listen to what the Doc was thinking.  "And then, Doc, maybe you can convince me that you didn't kill the Emissary."

The Doc, and Chef, Friedrich Gaulois smiles.  He doses Able, and takes him back down to sleep.

England leaves "I need to tell....Nigel, no he's out of it...Chief of security that he is acting captain while Able recovers."

"Come with me." the Chef says.  And he takes you over to the kitchen, and starts making food.
"We all need a way to relax, but I relax with cooking. Egg drop soup? A chocolate milkshake?  Asparagus?" He laughs.
::What role do I play, how do i show her innocence?::

He keeps working as he talks.
"I'm not guilty.  The only thing I did was give Kathering her suppresant and chemical mood stabilizer in her tea.  AND I DOn't, sorry for yelling, think that is something wrong.  Have you considered it might not be us, it might be the Rous?"
::Ok, legally, I'm guilty, but its a law passed by unenlightened cretins which doesn't count.::

   I want to shoot him so badly.  It wouldn't be murder, just recycling waste material.  "Chef, look at this from my perspective.  First, you have demonstrated a dislike, if not hatred, of the Roux, openly insulting an alien species with your choice of vegetables.  Seriously?  Asparagus?  Second, you have also shown that you don't follow any rules that offend your personal sense of right and wrong, no matter what consequences might follow your actions.  Your 'But all I did was excuse' is crap and we both know it.  We both know that what you did put the entire ship at risk and violated countless of your laws and regulations."

   I felt like serving him up to the Roux, tied up on a platter and covered with Big Mac sauce.  "Third, you've already given me your an enlightened man is more superior to the common man speech.  That tells me you would do anything you felt that you needed to do, including assassination.  Fourth, you probably didn't do the job yourself, but I've seen your propensity for slipping chems to unsuspecting people to control their behavior.  Your pixilated patsy wouldn't remember anything, leaving you with an alibi in the clear."


   My hand wasn't far from my Glock as I smiled.  "Chef, you have about a minute to convince me why I shouldn't put you out of my misery by putting an end your smarmy little career."

OOC; time for a GEroll...

First he starts to turn red, then his face hardens into a nose lifted look of disdain.

"Oh, you think I did Nigel's brain fog...that wasn't me."
::Must have picked up malware from the ship system, or just fried his noggin hooking up.  It can happen,::

And by the time you finish, he's looking panicky.
::She's gonna kill me. Me> Me."

He runs for the door yelling for the chief of security.
::I've got that syringe ofsleepyjuice in my sleeve.  The Chief will save me.ll

   I understand why they run.  It's all about getting something, either help or away.  He's hoping for help here.  Otherwise, where is he going to go?  Still, I had to follow him.  Who knows what kind of crazy things he was telling everyone.  I set off cautiously to find the Chef.

You step out slowly to see a frantic chef leave the security chief's office, and head toward the bridge.  He forgot that the Chief is now the Acting Captain.

The Bridge door opens, closes as you walk toward it.

You hear a sound vaguely like a freight train.

The door opens.

You hear a call from inside.

"Come in, detective.  Make sure I can see your hands." Its the chief.

   I called out.  "I'll be happy to do just that, as soon as you get the sleepyjuice syringe the Doc keeps in his sleeve for drugging people he doesn't like.  And since I found out that he had been illegally dosing a class three mentalist to allow her to circumvent safety protocols because he thinks he's smarter than your entire governing body, I'm reasonably sure that he doesn't like me."

In reply to Misty (msg # 160):

"Doc's unconscious and velcroed to a chair.  I gave him a dose of air pressure, and the poor guy fainted right out.  You must have scared him badly.  He was yelling that you were about to murder him.  And when he wouldn't calm down, I calmed him down."

There is a flat, menacing calm in the Chief's voice.  Its the voice of a person who is considering whether they are going to have to take lethal measures.  You recognize it because you've had that exact same tone before.

   I walked into the room smiling, my hands far enough away from my tools to be nonthreatening.  "I gave Doc four reasons why I thought he could be the murderer, then I gave him a minute to convince me that he wasn't.  That's when he took off screaming."  I shrugged.  "Go figure.  Personally, I don't think that Doc has the stones to do that kind of job himself.  I wanted him to prove or disprove my accusations.  I guess he did that all right."

He puts his air pressure box gun down on the desk next to him.

"I don't think he does either.  I've been trying to follow along on your investigation."

He pauses.

"So far you've hit pretty much everyone.  The Roux, and each of us you seem to have cleared off your chart....which leaves you..."

He shakes his head.

"Not willing to invoke time travel yet.  So what do we know?
1. A generic steel ball, of human design, hit the cooler pan on the Emmissary.  Over time, he baked.
2. This needed a calculating mind, with as you say, enough stones.
3. It also needed a lot of physical power.  I'm the only one on the ship strong enough to do it, by hand.  Patch could make a device.  We already ruled out the air pressure box guns. The Roux are strong enough.  So is the Cyborg Marine, if she is cyborged.  Also, evidently Katherine could have done it with TK.
4.  Out of Nigel's babbling you got the bit where 'she walks in beauty like the night' Cyborg Marine Luna Miles, and its a good description of her.  Now you might think that there is no way she could have done it.....but...I was asleep.  Captain England covered for me at my urgent request.  I had went over to the Islands room to counsel them earlier, that their antics were disrupting the crew.  Saw a cup of tea, thought it was for me."

"5. But how did Cyborg Marine get unlocked?  Patch says it is impossible, and I'm aware he's a genius.  If he says it can't be done, then it can't.  But it was done.

6. We also know that Nigel is suffering some sort of brain fog, and he talked of a malignant ghost."

   As I thought about it, I never really cleared the Supply Officer from my suspect list.  She attacked me right about the time I was going to ask her about the murder.  "I need to speak with your unlocked Marine again.  We never finished our last question session and there are a few things I still need to know."