If Only She Could Be Certain

[DrDMatthews 0]

There were just too many coincidences. Debbie was now convinced the entire thing had been carefully planned. A thought suddenly popped into her head and she quickly jumped to her feet. Moving forward, she tapped Kat Shawnsee on the shoulder. When the security officer turned around, Deb handed her the jacket.

 

"Scan ever centimeter of this thing. Let's make sure there are no bugs or tracking devices sewn into any of the seams."

 

From: Too Many Coincidences

 

Kat looked intently at Deb. Then, without a word, she took the jacket and immediately moved to a less crowded area where she could thoroughly scan it. As Debbie started back to her seat, she noticed Aidan Ridire staring at her. He'd overheard her request to have the jacket scanned.

 

"It's just a precaution," she said quickly, hoping that's all it turned out to be.

 

The Commander nodded and looked away. The exchange took no more than a few seconds but left Deb with a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. Aidan had a strange expression on his face. She hadn't seen that look in his eyes in three or four years. Although she found it both sad and concerning, it didn't come as any surprise. The truth was, she'd been expecting it to happen ever since they arrived on the planet.

 

Debbie carefully made her way aft and again took her seat. She glanced at Kat who was nearby, going over the jacket with the most sophisticated sensor she could find. As she watched Shawnsee meticulously scan the jacket, she doubted the security officer understood the ramifications involved. She wasn't sure Aaron or Jontilles did either and there was no way their Ferengi guest would know. But Deb understood it all to well....and so did Aidan.

 

Glancing away, Deb considered all she'd learned about Lt. Montgomery and it wasn't much. All she knew was that he supposedly died over fours ago, on Deck 13, Compartment 4C of the USS Cairo.

 

Cairo was an Intrepid Class Starship. Deb was familiar with the basic design but she couldn't be sure exactly where Compartment 4C was located on Deck 13. She wondered how close Lt. Montgomery was to the initial explosion that resulted in the ship's destruction. Was his body intact or was he among those who were identified by DNA only?

 

Her thoughts drifted back through the years to the make shift morgue they'd been forced to set up in one of Reaent's cargo bays. She could still see them....all 116 bodies, arranged in neat rows along the back wall of the morgue. Brian Smith spent hours painstakingly tagging every body so forensics would know the exact location where each one was found.

 

It was Deb, Brian and Rocco Studly who signed the death certificates but Debbie, as the CMO, signed every one of those for whom DNA was the only means to determine identification. Unfortunately, there had been quite a few. She had triple checked the data to insure there were no errors. After all was said and done, there was only set of remains left unidentified. And that's what first opened this nasty can of worms.

 

The Cairo's Chief Engineer, Lt. Richard Drew, was the only person on the ship's manifest who was still unaccounted for. What they assumed were his remains were found in a corridor between the cargo bay and main engineering. He bore the full brunt of the blast and there was very little left of him...just a few bone fragments. In spite of that, they were able to extract more than enough DNA for a positive identification. The problem was ... the deceased's DNA did not match the profile in Lt. Drew's personnel file. The official Fleet photo ID in the file was shown to several of the Cairo's survivors. They all agreed it was Richard Drew. But the DNA definitely wasn't...not even close.

 

The speculation began in earnest once Fleet Intelligence boarded the Reaent and unceremoniously confiscated the unidentified man's remains. The great fear was that someone had been able to tamper with Lt. Drew's personnel file. They'd managed to replace the photo but not the DNA profile. Had they made a mistake and forgotten to switch it? Or were they unable to so for one reason or another. The possibilities were endless. Among them was the unsettling fact that more than one personnel file might have been doctored.

 

All of this begged the question of responsibility. Who was behind this conspiracy....if there was a conspiracy? Whoever it was, they had access to very classified data....data that would require a high level security clearance. Was there a spy among the upper ranks in Starfleet? Was there just one traitor or a whole ship load of them? Again, the possibilities were endless....and very concerning.

 

Now, all these years later, they appeared to have answered at least one of those nagging questions. Lt. Richard Drew's personnel file wasn't the only one altered. It seemed obvious to Debbie that Lt. Ian Montgomery's file was also tampered with. She seriously doubted the true owner of this jacket died four years ago on the USS Cairo. Whoever she or one of her staff identified as Lt. Montgomery must have been an imposter....just like the man who passed himself off as Richard Drew. But this time, the DNA profile had also been switched.

 

Deb looked to her right where Kat was still working on the jacket. If they hadn't stumbled on to it, they would never have known Ian Montgomery survived the Cairo's destruction. They would never have to wonder exactly who it was they sent "home" for burial. That was another can of worms they would now have to deal with.

 

Debbie again looked forward and caught sight of Aidan. He didn't notice her watching him even though she could clearly see his face. That troublesome expression had only deepened during the past few minutes. There was a good chance his mood would grow even darker as their mission progressed.

 

As she quietly studied him, she thought back to the first time she had an in depth conversation with the Reaent's XO. It was in that make shift morgue after he positively identified Lt. Cmdr. Fiona Nashawryn, one of the Cairo's medical officers. He'd know the woman for years having served with her prior to his posting on Reaent. She had been someone.... special.

 

It was of small comfort to Debbie, but at least there were no doubts about Fiona's identity. Thanks to Aidan, she could rest assured the right person was returned to the Nashawryn family for internment. If only she could be as certain about the other 114.