Never Dead: Beyond Nightmares

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Log 4:

PFC Jericho's Morgue...

Jacob Duncan...

August 10, 2413

"This is Medical Officer Jacob Duncan," The senior medical officer reported as he flicked on the recording device, opening a new audio log. "Earlier today, three members of the crew killed themselves. Slit their goddamned throats." Jacob began putting on his surgical gloves. "The Captain has brought the bodies to me, and wants me to determine the cause of death. It's a little obvious, but whatever keeps me off of Tyr is good enough for me. Medical Officer Nathan Phillips will be taking the role of my assistant today."

Jacob looked up at the other medical officer. It had taken some convincing, but the Captain had allowed one of the other medical officers to stay in the morgue with him. It would have been terrible to be stuck without an assistant, even worse to be stuck with one that didn't know what he was doing. All the other medical officers, including the senior medical officers, were down on Tyr, mining out the Tyr Monolith. Being a Seven Heavens cultist, the Monolith was a rather 'big deal' to Jacob, a conduit that proved the truth behind his religion.

Getting closer to the dead bodies, Jacob there was a... peculiar stench coming from the bodies. Similar to rotting, but much worse than that... the medical officer slipped on his surgical mask and began to examine the wound that had decapitated one of the miners. "Who was this man?"

Opening a data-pad, Nathan searched the Jericho's manifest for the man's identity. No one had actually told either of the officers any of the corpses' identities. "Right... this guy was... um, Kyle Hendricks."

"The security officer working on stopping those rapes?" Jacob looked up from the body. He had heard rumors that the Captain had made some... unusual mistakes with who to send down to Tyr, but that was really starting to push the bar. When Nathan nodded, Jacob continued to ask, "Did he suffer any form of depression?" before turning back to examine the body.

"Nope. Happy and cheerful guy, up until Cap'n Borne told him he had to go down. No mental problems, either. At least, that's what the psychiatric report says." Jacob pressed a few more buttons, probably searching for the other two miners' names.

Jacob touched the scabbing wound where Hendricks's head once was. Even through the gloves it was warm to the touch, although the rest of the body was cold. Jacob took a slight note of what appeared to be burn marks where the cut began on the throat. Jacob turned to inspect the head, which had been gruesomely set aside from the body by the people delivering the bodies. Around the throat, there were more burns. "It appears... that Mr. Hendricks killed himself with an abnormally hot object, which decapitated him." He looked up. "Is there anything on site that can cause these kinds of wounds?"

Nathan looked up from the data-pad. "Um... well, there are plasma picks and plasma gun, but the miners don't have access to them. Cap'n's orders."

"Yes, I know that they have those things. Can they inflict these kinds of wounds?"

Nathan blankly stared. "Um... I don't know."

"Hmm. Maybe they disobeyed the captain's orders. I would, too, in their situation." Jacob grabbed a nearby scalpel and began to chip away at the wound. "Either way, get me a plasma pick up here after we're done. I need to run an experiment with one."

Nathan nodded and continued to look through the data, trying to find anything he could use, while Duncan continued to chip away at the wound. Soon, an orange semi-solid, possibly a combination of pus and blood, began to force its way out of the open wound and onto the operating table. Jacob examined without disturbing the body any further. Once on the table, the pus-now about the size of a key on a keypad... began to literally crawl, similar to a slug, over towards Jacob. "Fascinating," he observed as the substance forced its way past and over a pair of tweezers. The stench from earlier somehow forced itself through the surgical mask, and the medical officer realized that the liquid was causing the stench. He grabbed an empty container and delicately used the side of his scalpel to push guide the puss-creature into it.

Jacob sealed the container and set it aside, making a personal note to examine the puss itself. The stench almost immediately went away. The doctor made a few more chips with his scalpel, expecting more of the pusy substance to work its way out, but when none came, he turned his attention to the other bodies. "Any identification yet?"

Nathan had been completely oblivious to the event happening just across the room from him. "It took a while, but, yeah. The guy with the dirty-blonde hair's name is Brice Richards, and the ginger's Kirk Walker." He set the data-pad aside. "Neither one of them had psychological problems." The other officer pulled on his surgical gloves and walked over to Jacob.

Jacob moved over to the blonde corpse. The man's shoulder-length hair was bloodied, and some of it had been cut off by the cut from what Jacob was positive came from a plasma pick. He examined the wound. Also burn marks, but not nearly deep enough to take his head off. Jacob made a quick report of this, then moved over to the other body and made the same general report.

Jacob opened his PDT's video-link to Captain Evans. "Sir, autopsy is done."

"Anything to report?" the Captain asked on the other end of the link, sipping his coffee.

"I notice that there are some burns around their cuts. I'm going to need a plasma pick and plasma gun to run a few tests."

The Captain appeared to be slightly annoyed by this request. "Why would you need some of those? The mining crew couldn't access those, they would need Jason's access codes."

"We can never be too sure about insubordination," the medical officer reported while removing his surgical gloves.

The Captain took a long drink, and then agreed, "Yeah. Bet no one thought that Stone bastard would have blown up Io Station, 'cause he was just an engineer. If someone had been a little more careful..." the Captain turned to talk to some unseen crewmate. "Bennett, get the doctor a plasma pick and a plasma gun. Check the mining facility's plasma tools for any blood. I don't exactly trust them anymore. And get someone down there to put the bodies in their cryo-tubes. See you later, Jacob."

Jacob took off his surgical mask, and raised both of his arms into an 'X' shape, the sign of Seven Heavens prayer. "Allah be praised." Once his video-link closed, Jacob turned to leave, first grabbing the container with the organism in it. It had duplicated into two creatures. "Intriguing..." It had been only a few minutes, and yet the blob had already begun to multiply. This was worth further investigation. "See you tomorrow, Nathan," the officer said in dismissive fashion to the trainee.

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