Log_10
SD: 1207.02
A Viking funeral, or is that a fly buzzing around the corpse?:
Well, Flare is now reduced to ash and in a shoebox headed for his last swim, but getting there was anything but fun.
It all started with a hangover. As I said in the last log, K’Lynxyl and I had a few drinks the night before to Flare’s life, and, well both overdid it. I must say that I think I hold my liquor better than the cat, but then again Randy didn’t do so well on the hard stuff either. Could be a racial thing.
Anyway K’Lynxyl passed out in the middle of the floor, and didn’t seem inclined to wake up anytime soon. Myself, I was rather plastered as well, but her coming over and sitting in my lap sobered me up pretty well. Loads of adrenaline based fear can do that to a guy. In a few minutes I was able to stand and move around.
I may not care much for K’Lynxyl and her people she is a fellow officer, and I wouldn’t leave a dog on the floor like that. I tried to pick her up and carry her, but I was still fairly drunk, and she was just too damned heavy. She must be around 170 Lb! Not bad, but heavier than I thought and I could carry when I was staggering.
Giving up on the fireman's carry, I found a chair with wheels in the wreckage and after a bit of a fight, got her in it. We did get a few odd looks as I wheeled her down the hall to her cabin, but the people we passed were prudent enough not to ask. On the Freedom, the less you know the better.
Getting into her cabin was a bit of a problem, but shaking her was enough to get her to mumble, and that was enough to get the computer to open the door.
I probably should have taken the time to snoop her cabin after dumping her into her bed, but I just wasn’t up to it. I could just see me trying to explain why I’d barfed into her desk the next day. So instead I headed back to my cabin to fall into sweet oblivion. There wasn’t a dream to be had that night.
Unfortunately the bliss was short lived. I woke to a throbbing headache and felt like crap. While I was standing in front of the mirror trying to get my eyes to open, all I could wonder was if I’d been licking my boots in my sleep. I finally managed to down a few analgesics, a few bites of breakfast, and after struggling into my new dress uniform, managed to make it to holodeck 13. Funny and a bit sad to think that Flare had been held prisoner here by a babysitting program not 24 hr. earlier. Such is life.
Apparently Flare had requested cremation. On passing the arch I found we were standing with the coffin in front of a crematory. Lera was weeping and clinging to the Captain, K'Lynxyl was looking sad, guilty, and hung over all three. The new fellow/girl/whatever was also there tossing him/her self onto the coffin and wailing like he/she had lost a lover. Goddess that is confusing! Demian was nowhere to be seen, not that I thought he would come. I think the drubbing that Flare had given him was just a bit much for his ego.
Anyway I thought I was going to make it through this thing, till a man looking very much like someone that had been dipped into a vat of acid walked in. He’s Seth Brundle, our new assistant medical officer. My "stay out of the sickbay at all costs" note just got larger after taking a good look at him. My stomach tried to rebel at the sight of him, but I managed to hold it in check. Managed that is till K'Lynxyl ran around the backside of the crematory to hurl. Funny how the sound of someone barfing can make you go, and I did.
When we had recovered the captain said a short service, and we pushed the coffin into the crematory. I was horrified to hear Brundle mention in an offhand way that the body was shy a few pounds of flesh, and he thought that perhaps the burning body smelled like a cooking cheeseburger!
I questioned him and the computer about this. At first thought that cat-girl had been nibbling on the body, and then with every word I became more concerned. I think Brundle may have eaten part of Flare!
Talking to Brundle is like talking to a computer with a damaged audio input. You ask a question of him, and never know what random bit of information is going to come out. But if you ask the question often enough, you may get an answer. The answer this time was that he thought some of Flare was missing!
Turns out that after I left the sickbay yesterday Brundle came aboard by shuttle and did the autopsy on Flare. During the autopsy Flare’s brain turned to jell and ran out of his ears. Ugh!
Guess what, Brundle eats by turning his food to liquid with his spit. Put those two things together, and the fact that K was passed out last night, and you get a very suspicious situation with the human fly in the middle of it.
The three of us were in the sickbay (Brundle, K'Lynxyl, and I) when I put it together. I think K had thought that Brundle was just playing a joke on her. This also became more of a problem considering that Demian had shown up at the end of the service with another new crewmember offering that she was a snack for K'Lynxyl. I think I’m beginning to understand what she is up against, and it’s not making me happy. Anyway, the autopsy file showed that Flare was all there, except for some of the brain material that had oozed out. Bringing me back to Brundle as a prime suspect. But why say something if you have just eaten someone, unless he is trying to incriminate K? Then again he may just be stupid.
K'Lynxyl then frightened me almost as much as the possibility of the human fly having sucked up part of Flare as a snack by pulling off some prosthetics I didn’t know she had. Namely her ears, and furred gloves over her forearms that make her look more like her mother’s people. Without them she looked almost too much like a Kzin for me.
She was eyeing Brundle like she was going to attack, and Brundle for his part looked like he was going to spit on her. Had it all gone bad I would likely have shot Brundle down, but it cooled off so that I didn’t need to.
With the tension done, the fly turned back into the happy-go-lucky guy with the pizza face and left. K'Lynxyl and I talked over the situation, but couldn’t come to a conclusion on if Brundle had eaten part of Flare’s brain or not, and the evidence had just been cremated.
I was just getting ready to leave with the autopsy report and Brundle’s service record, when the little puke had the nerve to comm. K'Lynxyl and I say that we needed to remember what Harry and Phil, or something like that had said. I asked who they were, and he said that they were singers with some 19th century music group called The Bangles or something, and that all we needed was love. To be honest I don’t know which of us was more upset.
On the way to my quarters, I ran into Brundle and he was as annoyingly bouncy as he was at first, and I have a horrific feeling that this is normal for him. I tried to tell him that he should go apologize to K'Lynxyl about what he had done, and hope that she didn’t put him on report, but he didn’t have a clue. I finally gave up on him and left before I stunned him and shoved his body out an airlock, as tempting as that possibility is! If he doesn’t spend all his service life in the brig over insubordinate talk to superior officers, it will be a miracle! Next time he pulls anything like that while on duty, I’ll call a batch of red shirts to come get him myself! He has been warned.
Now I’m back into my day uniform and heading to the airlock. I hope there will be a place on the station that I can get some local clothing and some of my pay exchanged. When I’ve scoped the place out, I’m to hook up with K'Lynxyl before we go planet side.
I don’t really know why I agreed to take her with me, but even though she is probably 20 Lbs heavier then I am and well able to take care of herself, there is something vulnerable about her, something that I am not use to seeing. I just better take care that I don’t start empathizing with her too deeply. After all, she could be, and likely is a spy.
I also need to keep and eye on Lee as well. This planet somehow spooked him, and I want to know why.