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Post by Amy81 on Oct 31, 2006 13:22:59 GMT -6
Abby finished her fourth fumerette, then left the medlab with a lot on her mind. The things that Amy had told her about Elmer and his death had her thinking quite a lot. About how Amy could have found out while confined to medlab since her return, and how Abby hadn't heard a thing. And if the things Amy had said were even true.
There was much more that needed to be discussed, but those were at the top of the list as she made her way to the security section, and stuck her head into the main office.
"Is Captain Urdea in?" she asked the officer at the desk...
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Post by LucianG on Nov 1, 2006 7:25:41 GMT -6
"Is Captain Urdea in?"
Sergeant Whitcher looked up from the desk in surprise to see Abby standing in the entrance. Rubbing his mustache, he exclaimed, “Miss Abby! The Major was either playing a trick on me when he asked me to send you a message a few centons ago, or you have mental telepathy! He just got back not more than twenty centons ago. Go on in and surprise him.”
* * *
In his office, Urdea had finished unpacking his work satchel and started to scan his personal messages. There were a number from Abby, most dating from just after the start of his assignment. The first couple were short “get together again soon” messages, then the next group, slightly larger questioned why he wouldn’t write her back, and then even those had even ended. He shook his head sadly, hoping that she would understand when he finally got to speak with her. Scanning the rest of the messages, he found few others. There were a couple from Jostine, his late wingmate’s sister, and his “nephews,” her children. It appeared that Captain Proteus had taken care of all his messages relating to his security work on the Callisto.
Urdea’s small duffel bag sat unopened on the floor next to his desk. When President Tigh had requested his presence for a special assignment, he hadn’t understood the nature of the assignment or the fact that it would take sectars to accomplish. During the difficult assignment, he’d traveled to more than twenty ships of the Fleet as he gathered a great deal of information about secretive criminal council known as The Organization. In the process, he had helped set up a number of potential operatives who might eventually be able to infiltrate some of the smaller organizations that made up the “governing” umbrella group. Following his return to the Galactica, he’d spent the last couple of sectons writing a report for the President and being debriefed. When Urdea was leaving the Galactica, President Tigh had met him, thanked him for his service, and finally lifted the communications blackout that he had been operating under throughout the assignment. His first order on returning to the Callisto’s Security Office was to have Whitcher trim his now bushy mustache, and then to have him locate Abby.
His comm buzzed and Sergeant Whitcher, who'd had second thoughts on the wisdom of surprise, said, “Major, you've got company…” as the door to his office opened.
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Post by Amy81 on Nov 2, 2006 6:21:21 GMT -6
Abby stood in the doorway, a mixed expression on her face. She wasn't sure how she felt as she looked at Urdea. After such a long time without a word, she wondered if it might be her that was the reason. Was it too much to try and rekindle old feelings with him, and did she presume too much in trying? And most importantly, with Elmer's passing so recent was wrong of her to even think about someone else this way? Had Urdea simply decided this for her and keep himself off limits for a while?
She took a step in. "Hi Major Urdea. I seem to have accidently demoted you out there." She indicated behind her with a thumb over her shoulder. "Uh, if I'm not disturbing anything, I'd like to talk to you. About the case of course. Elmer...?" Suddenly the need for a fumerette was overwhelming. She reached into her purse, wondering if he'd mind...
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Post by LucianG on Nov 2, 2006 8:30:51 GMT -6
Having spent so many cycles trying to keep her out of his mind while unable to contact her on the recent assignment, Urdea was both extremely surprised and thrilled to see her standing in front of him with basically no warning. He rose quickly from his chair, then almost tripped over the bag with his prosthesis as he tried to step toward her, saying, "Abby! Oh, Abby! You're here! It is so good to see you again. I'm so sorry I couldn't contact you...." Suddenly sensing her obvious nervousness as she fumbled with a fumerette and detecting her rather withdrawn nature, he stopped his initial advance to take her in his arms and paused further as her words registered, "About the case of course. Elmer...?"
There was no hug, no kiss, no excitement in her voice at their long delayed reunion. Nothing on her mind but business, and nasty business at that. The wonderful fantasy he'd created in his own mind, against his better judgment at that, suddenly revealed how precariously it was perched in the citadel of circumstances, in danger of crashing ruiniously down around him. Indeed, he'd violated one of the cardinal rules of law enforcement by becoming emotionally involved with her, a person involved in a case. And yes, he knew it was wrong to do that, even when the person involved, Abby, was the love of his life. Now, it seemed, he would pay for the indiscretion. To business, then.
"Ahem, of course...Elmer. Yes, I do have some information for you on his case..here, let me...ah, get you a light," he stammered as he reached back across the desk into the drawer to try to find the old lighter he kept there. He held out the lighter and the little laser arc engaged as Abby extended the fumerete to meet it....
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Post by Amy81 on Nov 2, 2006 14:54:35 GMT -6
Abby had the fumerette between her lips, extending it towards the lighter. She put both her hands on his to steady the lighter, then gratefully inhaled as the fumerette lit up. She took one hand off of his and took the fumerette from her lips, exhaling upwards.
Their eyes locked momentarily, her hand still on his. "Couldn't contact me ....or wouldn't?" she wanted to know.
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Post by LucianG on Nov 3, 2006 18:58:04 GMT -6
“Could not. President Tigh’s orders were to contact no one from the outside, and to draw no attention to myself during the assignment. I can’t even really tell you much about it now.” He smiled as he added, “I can tell you, though, that an old janitor with a limp pushing a cart can go just about anywhere in this Fleet without really being noticed.”
“Janitor?” Abby questioned.
“Yeah, janitor…which reminds me of a joke. You know, they say that if you really study in school, apply yourself, and do well, you can be in the Colonial Military or be, say, Head Farmer. If not, you can end up being a janitor.”
Abby looked at him quizzically, and he added as he shrugged his shoulders slightly, “Well, I didn’t say it was a funny joke. But I did learn that I don’t ever care to be a janitor again, even if I’m just pretending to be one…and that I don’t ever want to be separated from you again.”
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Post by Amy81 on Nov 4, 2006 8:04:06 GMT -6
Relief washed over Abby as he spoke the words. She felt the same way, and felt foolish for reading so much into the fact that he was simply on assignment and out of touch.
She held the fumerette out of the way, slipped her free hand around his neck and pulled him closer, gently kissing him. For a moment everything else fell away and it was just the two of them, alone in the universe, just like it had always felt when they were together so long ago.
After a long moment she took a step back, a small smile on her lips. It was a sad smile, as she thought of the past. She took a deep drag on the fumerette, her eyes never leaving his. They couldn't have the past, but they could maybe, just maybe, have a future...
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Post by LucianG on Nov 6, 2006 5:33:09 GMT -6
<Since it’s been a while, if you’re like me and need a refresher course on what happened, you might browse the following.> bscallisto.proboards20.com/index.cgi?board=BSC&action=display&thread=1105619028bscallisto.proboards20.com/index.cgi?board=BSC&action=display&thread=1106002582bscallisto.proboards20.com/index.cgi?board=BSC&action=display&thread=1111063285Urdea lingered in the embrace, not wanting to let her go, but there was work to be done, something to be set right, the guilty to be apprehended and hopefully punished, and the aggrieved’s mind to be eased. If the damaged party was anyone but Abby, it would have had to wait, but since it was her, and since he didn’t think their relationship could ever move forward until she had some resolution regarding Elmer’s death, he resolved to move forward. One more “absolute last kiss” followed the “last kiss,” and then he said gently, “Abby, I’m really sorry to have to break the moment, but I think you’d better have a seat. You came here, at least in part, to find out about Elmer, and at long last, I can give you the answers about what happened to him and why his death hasn’t been resolved sooner.” * * * “When Elmer died, it wasn’t clear whether it was accidental, self-defense, suicide, or murder. Due to the conditions at the scene, an accident was ruled out very quickly. Self-defense was eliminated since that requires the presence of the person defending him or herself, which usually leaves evidence and often results in someone shouting 'self defense!' In this case, there was no clear evidence of anyone else being there. Finally, there were several pieces of evidence that pointed to probable suicide, and several others that could have indicated murder. It’s been tough sorting those out. In fact, a short time into the investigation, there were six suspects in Elmer’s death. There were a few others added as the investigation continued.” “Six? Others? Who would want to kill Elmer?” asked Abby. “Well, first and foremost was he himself, meaning suicide, not murder. There was a lot of blood, but no evidence of tampering, no evidence like footprints or post-event fingerprints that would indicate that anyone else had been there. But some of the facts didn’t fit suicide, though. The time of death was wrong according to the initial study. Colonel Charybdis had to have been there at the time of his death. Even when Doc BKJ performed the autopsy, there was still a short overlap when Colonel Charybdis would have been there along with a short period after he reported departing. We know that Elmer seriously disliked the Colonel and was probably being belligerent toward him, which reportedly led to a physical altercation between them shortly before Elmer’s death. To make matters worse, Elmer’s death occurred in the Colonel’s turboflush, and the death instrument was the Colonel’s own laser combo blade with the guard screen removed.” Urdea saw a frown cross her face, so he added, “You know, the screen that’s supposed to diffuse the concentrated laser effect and, according to the company that made them, give a guy the ‘closest shave in the Colonies.’ Anyway, that screen was later located in a trash receptacle on the Bridge, near where the Colonel was working. All-in-all, there was a fairly compelling, though circumstantial case against him.”
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Post by Amy81 on Nov 6, 2006 19:45:12 GMT -6
"But it's definately a suicide" Abby said. "Isn't that right? Amy told me that's what happened. That Charybdis left him alone and disconcerted, and that Elmer..." she choked a little on the words: "he took his own life. What I don't understand is how she could have found out while confined to medlab since she came back and I'm only learning this now. She didn't learn anything from Charybdis, she insisted on that much..."
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Post by LucianG on Nov 7, 2006 11:39:53 GMT -6
“Abby, I really have no idea how Amy could have learned anything about it. Chances are, she’s heard that Elmer was dead and is just guessing about the circumstances. I suppose it’s possible that when she was in the coma that she might have subconsciously overheard one of the guards discussing the case, or more likely, conjecturing about it since none of them would have been working on the actual case.”
Turning back to the original question, Urdea said, “I believed that it was suicide from the start, but there was conflicting evidence that made that questionable. For example, there was no suicide note. There’s no written rule that one has to leave a note, but for someone in enough pain to actually go through with it, it’s pretty common to leave some kind of explanation, a justification, or sometimes even a blast at the persons or events that the deceased blamed for his or her problems. More importantly, though, was how did that screen get from the Colonel’s turboflush to the Bridge? Was the Colonel somehow culpable in the death, even if he hadn’t done the deed himself? If he deliberately removed the protective screen from a laser combo blade and left the unprotected device all alone with an obviously upset, depressed, and possibly suicidal individual, and then that person went on to commit suicide, there’s an argument to be made that the Colonel would be at least an accessory to the death. We couldn’t rule that out without more evidence. And then there were the other suspects.”
Abby took a puff on the fumarette to calm herself, with seemingly little effect, and then asked, “Okay, you said there were six. Elmer and Charybdis, that’s only two. Who were the others?”
“Oh, a virtual rogues gallery,” replied Urdea with the first hint of a smile during the entire discussion. “First and foremost in the minds of the investigators was the deceased’s wife…you.”
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