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I gulped, and found that I was not breathing. The palm that held my stun-gun felt cold and clammy against the metal. I'd practiced this manover a thousand times before. This was for real. I was doing the job that I had been trained and selected for, and I was ready.
The suspect was one Lt. John Norres. I had had him under servelience for the last four solar days, and I'd seen nothing but incriminating evidence. I was waiting for the computer scan to finish while he slept, and then, when I'd had the results, I informed my supervisor.
'Good Work' he had said. He order a trooper squad to back me up and then instructed them that I was the lead, I called the shots. My first capture, and here it was all on the line.
"Computer." I called out, "Identify occupent."
"Lieuteananty John Norres" The machine clattered.
"Open door. Security code INSEC4329."
"Internal Security code accepted. Door opening."
The panel slid way, to reveal a mess. A single room unit, with a bed on one side. According to the inspection roster, yesterday it had been spotless. The table was upturned, with glassware shattered against the wall. A bitter toned smell came from a corner where a glass bowel spued fumes. Raxxos. It was one of the most addictive substances known.
Lt. Norres lay spued on the floor, eyes glazed open, his legs were twiching. I muttered something incomprehensible, holstered my weapon and dove toward the floor. He was breathing, shallowly. I tapped the comlink on my wrist.
"Emergency medical transmat. Quarters to Medbay one, Raxxos overdose. You," I pointed to the lead trooper "secure these quarters, post a gaurd, and send a detatchment to medbay one." My comlink beeped back to me.
"Transmat ready."
"Begin." I felt the shock, as the implant in my skull froze my entire being, my eyes snapped shut involentarily and my heart stopped. When I moved next, I was in the infirmary, looking at an emergency medical technician.
"What can you tell me?" He asked.
"Standard internal-security arrest. Unfortunatly, we got to him after he got to the Raxxos." I said moving away, allowing him to pull down a ceiling-mounted body scanner.
He looked at me point-blank.
"Level five Raxxos poisoning." The next step was death, we had gotten there just in time.
"He'll recover in about a month. Probably permenant brain damage, atleast another two months in rehabilitation. Looks like a new case, though."
My head snapped up.
"New case?"
"Long term users have extensive brain damage, kidney failure and liver failure. Those secondary signs are simply not there. I'd say this is his first or second trip."
"Let's see if it isin't his last." I said, and left.
As I walked down the corridor toward my office, I could do nothing but turn the facts around in my head. This junior officer, whose marks were impeccable was taking an incredibly addtictive substance so he would loose control of his body and get, 'high'. Go figure. I guess it takes all types.
Reaching my office, I quickly made up a report, and imported it with the evidence found on the sight. I noted that the squad had reacted appropriatly and would definatly keep them in mind for future use. My chronometer ready 19:50. I'd been up since 06:00 and was pretty tired. I beeped my boss, and found him gone, so left a message with my report attached.
As I swiveled in my chair, I pulled the elastic that kept my chestnut mane bound, and gave it a shake. Standing, I dropped my stunner into a shiny wall mounted cabinet. As I closed it, I saw my reflection briefly. At nineteen, I was one of the younger officers aboard the RSS Unicorn. My gold lapel symbol flashed. Norris was gold too, and that ment that somewhere down the road he might have received command, just like me.
My cheekbones were high, and a tooth in my lower jaw was indented just like my mother's. I had long bangs, that needed trimming, and had just gotten my nose pierced, a dainty silver ring which looked pretty sharp. Dark bags were under my eyes that were just beginning to form. My mother had those too. My critical self-inspection was interrupted by my comlink chattering at me.
"Rames to Jacobs." It said. I smiled, it was Tony.
"Jacobs here." I replied, initiating the two-way contanct.
"You off work yet? I'm running late."
"Just filed the last report. I'd really like to take a pass until tomorrow, if you could deal with that."
"No problem," Tony said. "I'm pretty tired myself. Say, how about breakfast?"
Now that was an idea. "Sure. Cafeteria twelve, say, 0730?" I said.
"Sounds like a date. Gotta run, the Captain just wandered in."
I smiled.
"Jacobs off-line." I said to the comlink, turning it off. Any further messages would be routed to a messaging system. I needed some sleep, which came when my head hit the pillow. The computer beeped at 06:43.
"Incoming message." It intoned.
This better be important.
"Voice only." I clarified. No-one was going to see my face at six in the morning.
"Joan?" It was my boss, Lt. Commander Howard Gains.
"Yessir." I replied.
"Thought you'd like to know, Norris took a turn for the worse about four minutes ago. He's in a coma. The Roxxos was bad."
Words could not express my frustraition.
"Sir," I said through gritted, almost angry teeth, "I'll be on my way shortly."
"Very good. Gains off-line." I heard.
Dressing quickly, I had no time for a shower, unfortuantly, and made my way to the medical wing. The senior ship's doctor, a Commander Crenshaw was there, he was conferring with my boss. They both motioned me over toward Norris's bed.
"He's dripping in and out of coma, and if he stays there, he probably won't come out. There's another toxic chemical somewhere in the matrix of this batch of Roxxos. Whoever has found the source for the chemicals has also put in something that makes it toxic to the user, either by design or neglect." Commander Crenshaw said.
"Do you have any idea what the chemicals are?" I asked.
"I believe they are some kind of polymer by-product, as if the Roxxos were being siphoned from a waste tube, and part of the waste tube was being incorporated into the processing." He replied.
"That could make some kind of sense," I said, "Roxxos in it's raw state is taken from the waste tubes of the ship before being sent to the ion drives. From there it's processed and refined." I turned to my boss, "sir, I'm going to need that stroper unit again." He nodded. "Doctor, could you please email me the exact configuration of the polymer?"
"No problem." He turned back toward his terminal.
"Sir if you'll excuse me, I'm going hunting." He smiled at me. Determination was the realm of the young.
As I left through the doors I heard the doctor say to my boss:
"There's a dedicated one."
I smiled to myself as I walked down the corridor, alerting the stroper unit and calling for the survellince globes.
Each globe was a multi-faceted camera, which if moved slowly enough was very subtle and not easily
noticed. In the bowels of the ship, where the waste products were pre-digested on their way to the ion drive, the
globes would not easily be visible. I could send them through the ductwork of the ship and keep an eye on any
potential problems.
...work in progress. Last update, 19 Oct 1997...