Star Trek: Bendross

Episode 21 "treasure"

(Spring, 2083)

By

Jay P. Hailey

And

The Bendross Players

 

Rudy Greenvele was playing Easter Egg again.

Hold #72 was stacked to the rafters with boxes, containers and tools. Rudy felt oddly comforted at the existence of so much stuff in the Bendross III.

If the Colonists couldn’t improvise a solution with all the raw materials available, then Rudy figured they didn’t deserve to live.

Smelling carefully, Rudy detected a faint hint of mold and decay. He grinned. Another cache of fast food left to rot. The trip to the new world was going to take 20 years. The crew would pass most of the time in hibernation. However there were 20 watches. Each watch stood a year’s duty as the crew of the colony ship. Then they would return to hibernation for the rest of the trip.

Rudy was part of the 10th watch. At the beginning of 11th watch the Bendross III would conduct an all important course correction. So the 10th watch was tasked with careful maintenance and repair of the Bendross III to make sure it was ship shape for Captain Olson and the 11th watch.

The ship was a frame with modules slung all over it. This made it a lovely maze to explore. After finding a couple of caches carefully hidden "treasures", Rudy made exploring the Bendross III his hobby.

Smelling the faint aura of decay Rudy figured that another math impaired colonist had hidden another supply of burgers or pizza. Some people just didn’t understand that these would be 20 years old by the time they woke up to find them.

Stashes of money and jewelry Rudy also left untouched. Paper currency was a poor joke almost as bad as hidden burgers. Maybe the jewelry and coins were a good idea. Rudy didn’t know how useful they’d be but why not wait and find out?

What Rudy really loved was the hidden stashes of data. All of them, With Hamilton’s gleeful approval he added to the ship’s database. Now everything from comics archives, to a huge collection of Pornography, to the sacred writings of no less than three of the Earth’s major religions were part of the Bendross colony. Rudy added his own stash, the Gutenburg Project MVD.

Now there was a healthy supply of information aside from what Bendross Corporate Managers and Suits decided was tolerable.

For Rudy, though the real fun was the hunting and finding. So he followed the smell to the back of the cargo bay and looked around on of the huge deuterium filters. These devices the size of large suburban houses would be used to gather fuel for the colony's fusion reactors, and space crafts.

Rudy had to scramble under a tarp that was being used to keep the thing as dust free as possible.

Around the back of the thing in the most out of the way hiding place, Rudy found a dead body.

Stopping short, Rudy blinked. It was female and showed horrid effects of being dead and left out for a long time. Flies and insects still occasionally wandered by.

Rudy was not exactly used to dead bodies. However, hardly anyone got through the 21st century without seeing at least one. Rudy had seen many.

A careful look at the deck around the dead woman revealed to Rudy that there were no stains. There was a stain on the deck around the hands and the head which implied to Rudy that she hadn’t moved since she was placed there.

She was wearing a colonists uniform. Rudy couldn’t see any means of death but that wasn’t too surprising.

Rudy backed out of the Deuterium filter. Then he turned and walked purposefully out of the store room.

-*-

The decayed body, sans uniform laid on the stainless steel table in the Bendross sickbay.

"The Victim’s name is Crystal Heathers." Stephanie Jon Dou said into her recorder. "An Agriculture specialist from 7th watch."

Jon Dou picked up her tools and breathed for a moment. She wasn’t a pathologist, so she was faking the post mortem. Mainly because she was the Doctor on Tenth watch.

"The victim is a female human, by her records she was in her mid 30’s when death occurred. Her identity has been confirmed by biometric data and by her identity implant. This examination is an attempt to determine her cause of death. This is be made difficult by her advanced state of decay."

Jon Dou took another deep breath and then looked carefully at the body.

"Hmm. There’s damage to the trachea." Jon Dou cut into the decayed flesh to reveal more. "The skin is broken in a line across the throat. The trachea seems to be… Crushed. Maybe this won’t be so tough after all."

Just to be thorough, Jon Dou followed every step in the Forensic manual anyway.

-*-

Martin Kerenski absorbed Jon Dou’s report with a sour face. "She was murdered."

Jon Dou nodded "That would be my guess."

Hamilton said "Her larynx was crushed, her was body hidden. Smells like someone has something to hide."

Kerenski slid a look at Ashby. "I don’t like that."

"What’s to like?" Ashby said. "If we find the sonofabitch who did it, we space him and he can walk home."

"And whose responsibility is it to find out who did this?" Kerenski shot back

"Well it’s…" Hamilton stumbled mentally. "Oh. Us."

"That’s right. And I don’t have the training to investigate a murder."

"My Mom was a Cop. Come to think of it so was my great grandfather. And His great grandfather. My great grandfather, grandmother and great aunt all worked at the same detective agency a hundred years ago. Relax. It runs in the family. I have you covered." Hamilton said. "

Jon Dou and Kerenski looked at Hamilton.

"My hero." Jon Dou said with a carefully calculated amount of sarcasm and disdain.

"This thing’s as good as solved." Kerenski said.

"Now, c’mon." Hamilton said outraged. "We’re on a ship ten years away from anywhere. How far can the perp run?"

"Perp?" Jon Dou purred "You’ve watched all the Hunter vids, haven’t you?"

Kerenski’s face got hard. "Ham, I hate it that someone killed a person on my ship. I dislike anyone thinking they can get away with that. I dislike anyone rubbing my nose in it."

Hamilton unconsciously reared back a little bit. He hadn’t realized until just that moment how big Martin was. "Right. I getcha."

"Find them for me. Just point the way for me. That’s all." Kerenski’s eyes burned with fierce determination.

"And what will you do when you find someone?" Jon Dou said. "Space them, like Hamilton said?"

 

Kerenski brought himself under control. It was like throwing a switch. There was a frightening predator, a big, angry man. Then there was the usual blandly professional Martin. "Civilization is based on the rule of law, Doctor. If we can find the murderer then I will arrest him and stuff him into his cold sleep tube. We will hold him wither for a court martial by Captain Olson or a trial by the civilian court we will set up." A hint of the anger showed through "Unless he resists, of course."

"Oh, of course." Jon Dou said. However, she believed that Kerenski was sincere.

-*-

Hamilton walked through the bridge on the way to computer room.

Alicia Bendross was there, with her two hulking bodyguards.

"Oh, Hammy!" Alicia said.

"What, Alicie-Weesy?" Ashby oozed back.

"Is it true? Was that poor woman murdered? Here? On My colony ship?"

Hamilton blinked "Maybe she called someone Pookie or Gootchy and they snapped."

This earned an exasperated and derisive look from Alicia and her two bodyguards. The fact that Hamilton wasn’t cooperating was viewed as an obstructive waste of time.

"Does this pose any danger to. . . me?" Alicia bulled ahead.

Hamilton returned his own derisive look. "With Jack and Little Joe? That’s not Murder it’s suicide." He was really afraid that Alicia was going to quiver her lip at him and he was going to have to puke.

"Be that as it may," Alicia waved her hand "This murder thing. It’s disorganized and un-tidy. Are you and Martin going to find out what happened?"

Hamilton nodded "I was just going to start my research now."

"Research?" Alicia tasted the word as if it had a foreign feel

"People aren’t murdered in a vacuum. She was into something. The key to that will be in who she knew." Hamilton said as he started towards the computer room.

Hamilton barely caught the calculating look that flashed across Alicia’s face before she blinked slowly. "But. . . We’re surrounded by vacuum."

Joe Little and Jack Rockwell rolled their eyes tiredly.

Hamilton shook his head and kept moving into the computer room.

 

Disclaimer: Paramount owns all things Trek. I claim original characters and situations in this story for me.