Chapter 28U - (is for Urdea...)

[Amy81]

Abby stiffened at the mention of Elmer's name, her strength returning in a flood of old feelings mixed with the news that Amy was alive. She took a few steps away from Urdea, then turned to face him.

"For over 20 yahrens I thought of only Elmer. Did everything I did in terms of Elmer. Well tonight I'm free of him, Urdea. I am not his wife anymore. I'm not his keeper. And if he were here..."

Well, if he hadn't run off we wouldn't have to find him, would we? You stubborn old coot..., Abby thought.

"He just wouldn't listen to me, you understand?" she continued, "I was tired of not having a voice anymore. But I have one now. You want to go find him, leave me out of it, but I can save you the search. Try Colonel Charybdis's quarters. He'll be there if he's anywhere."

She sighed, a look of regret on her face. "I'm sorry to snap Urdea. And on you of all people. Can I see my daughter now?"

[LucianG]

"Whitcher, get in contact with Colonel Charybdis to see if Elmer is with him. If you can't find the Colonel, get a Security team to his quarters to see if he's still there. In case he's left, put out a priority ship-wide apprehension bulletin on him to all Security teams, with instructions that he be escorted to the MedLab. He is not wanted for criminal activity, and do not, repeat, do NOT use force. If he's not found quickly, send word to the Agro Ship to see if he's returned there by shuttle. Contact me otherwise," said Urdea, picking up a portable comm unit from the row of recharging units on the shelf.

"Yes, Sir," said Whitcher, suddenly more businesslike than he'd been in quite some time.

Urdea turned to Abby and said, "Abby, I'm sorry about that, but it's my job. Let's go see your daughter." He held out his arm, offering to escort her....

[Amy81]

"It's alright" Abby said, slipping her arm in his. "I figured you'd have to do it eventually. It's just so nice to be free from that miserable daggit, I hate to be reminded of him, that's all."

They walked into the corridor, heading for medlab. "This is good. Wonderful", Abby said as she looked around. "Such a huge ship. I can feel the safety it offers just by walking its halls. Of course, you might have something to do with that feeling too..."

She looked at him and smiled. Things suddenly seemed so good. Her daughter was alive, and Urdea was right there by her side...

[LucianG]

Moving toward the Med Lab together, Urdea felt a sense of deep concern overcoming him. He had sent for Amy’s father, but that action would bring Elmer back in contact with Abby. Considering her mindset, he didn’t think that was a good idea, but it was the right thing to do to let the man know his daughter was still alive. Besides, they might need him for a transfusion…or a vital organ…or something similar for her. Urdea silently chuckled at the semi-wicked thought.

“What’s wrong, Urdea?” asked Abby, feeling the slight change in Urdea’s support.

“Just random thoughts,” he replied.

“Like what?”

Knowing that she wouldn’t want to be reminded of Elmer, he compensated with the other thought that had been crossing his mind. “Remember when we first met? You were—what? a first year student at the university?--and I was the last centon substitute guest speaker for the Captain for a debate on merits of the ongoing war with Cylon. He had a virus, so they printed his notes for me, and told me to just read the intro speech and then respond as best I could. As I flew in, I was so nervous, and because I was late, I didn’t even have time to go over the notes when I arrived. When I walked in a couple of centons late, the professor showed me to the lectern, introduced me to the assembly as the Captain, and told me I was to make the opening statement.”

“You looked like a wild animal in a spotlight,” Abby laughed. “We could tell when you opened the notes that something was wrong.”

“Yeah, wrong file,” he laughed. “It was the biggest victory the Cylons had had over our forces in a great many yahrens, and they weren’t even there! No one in the hall felt it was wise to continue the war after I got through. I’d never been so embarrassed in my life. Then, this beautiful young reporter for the student news journal showed up to rag on me. If you hadn’t agreed to go out with me after your interview, I think I’d have gone out and surrendered to the Cylons right then.”

She gave him a gentle squeeze on the arm. “It wasn’t that bad,” she laughed, then said, “Well, maybe it was! And the Editor, who supported the war, felt so bad for you she didn't even print my story!”

As they rounded a corner, Urdea looked ahead. “There’s the Med Lab right up there.” Two Fleet Security guards stood outside the entrance. Both were armed, and looked reasonably alert.

BEEP—BEEP—BEEP!

Urdea activated his comm unit and said, “Captain Urdea here.”

“Captain, it’s Whitcher. Lieutenant Wheran and a team are just outside Colonel Charybdis’ quarters. He said the door is locked, and no one has answered the chime.”

WHERAN! Why in the twelve Colonies did Wheran have to receive this particular assignment? wondered Urdea. Wheran, a distant cousin of Sergeant Whitcher, but one that Whitcher claimed only grudgingly, was one of the biggest troublemakers on the Callisto’s Fleet Security staff. He was very good at his job, but his attitude had long been a problem, probably as a result of failing to make it in Warrior training, and he’d had frequent run-ins with the Callisto’s Warriors. Urdea suspected him during the Fleet Security scandal a few yahrens before, but Wheran had been just careful, or lucky, enough to stay out of the brig.

“Have you located Colonel Charybdis?”

“He’s on his way, Sir,” replied Whitcher.

“Tell Wheran to wait for the Colonel. Chances are, Elmer’s on a shuttle.” And we don’t need Wheran causing trouble snooping through the Colonel’s cabin. “And Whitcher, tell Wheran he’d better be on his best behavior, if he knows what’s good for him. If he pulls anything, the Colonel will put him in the brig for so long that we may be to Earth before he gets out.”

[Col. Charybdis]

The call sounded pretty urgent. I had left Astraea with the interrogators and my mind was just frazzled. Astraea was alive!! And so were Amy and Lazant...Amy. My mind went back to Amy.

She was lying in Med Lab all but dead, they had not let me see her even though I wanted to. Perhaps now they would let me go to her. I made my mind up to see her immediately after I reported to my quarters. Perhaps she would be better by then...

I turned the final corridor to see at least 3 security personnel standing in the hallway. "Wheran, what's this all about?" I said.

"Colonel, Urdea has put out an AFB on a Mr. Elmer. He needs him for something."

Amy! They were trying to contact Elmer because Amy had been found alive.

"I had spoken to Elmer in my quarters a while ago, but I was called away on duty. I'm sure he's long gone by now." I stated.

"Yes, sir. But we have our orders. Could you please just check your quarters?" came Wheran's response.

Total nonsense, I thought. But let's get it over with. "Very well, but I'm sure you're not going to find anything."

I punched in my security code and the door slid open. I motioned the three security personnel inside my quarters and followed them in. It all seemed just as how I had left it.

Wheran crossed the room and went into the adjoining cabin where the turboflush was. I was standing near the door. He came out slowly and had the strangest look on his face. "Sir," was all he said.

"What is it, Wheran?" I said a bit impatiently.

"Sir, I've found Elmer. He's dead on your turboflush floor."

What? I raced into the room to find a most grueseme scene. Lying on the floor almost face down was Elmer. His legs were crumpled underneath his body very unnaturally. Crimson blood stained almost every inch of the turboflush room. Lying right next to his hand was a laser combo blade used for shaving. A large slit across his throat made it unmistakable as to how he died. He slit his throat!

"By the Lords of Kobol!" I stated in shock.

"Sir, we need you to please go into the other room and have a seat. I need to report this to Urdea immediately." Wheran said.

He thumbed his communicator. "This is Wheran. We have found Elmer. Repeat, we have found Elmer. He is in the Colonel's turboflush. Sir, you'd better get over here right now."

[Amy81]

Abby entered medlab with Urdea, still arm in arm. She knew it might raise questions, but she didn't care. By the lords, they were old friends, and it might not be anything more than just that, even though that wasn't the case. Abby wondered briefly about Elmer. If no one answered the door at Charybdis's quarters, that meant Elmer wasn't there. Where could he possibly be? Maybe he hadn't found the Colonel, and was still stalking the halls...

They reached the main desk, and Abby introduced herself. In short order a doctor came to greet her, and led her into a room occupied by a young cadet. He approached Abby and Urdea with an extended hand.

"I just know you are Amy's mother" he said. "I can tell. She looks so much like you. My name is Dolet. I'm a friend of Amy's."

Abby shook his hand politely. "Nice to meet you. I think I've heard your name once or twice before. Have you seen Amy? How is she?" Dolet looked down, his expression growing grim.

"I think I'll take over, cadet" the doctor interrupted. "If you wouldn't mind..." Dolet took the hint and offered apologies as he left the room. The doctor shook his head slightly as he watched the cadet disappear from sight, then he turned to Abby and Urdea. He hesitated to speak, looking at Urdea, then back to Abby.

"It's okay" Abby said.

The doctor nodded. "I hope that news of your daughter being alive didn't raise your hopes too high" he began with some difficulty. This was never an easy thing. "The fact is, we tried everything we could, but your daughter has not responded. She is on life support, but to put it bluntly, there is no brain activity."

Abby's expression froze as what the doctor told her slowly sunk in. "No brain activity?" she repeated questioningly.

"Yes. She apparently was subjected to some sort of mind wipe by the cylons. We have discs which supposedly contain what was taken from her, but we simply don't have the technology to solve the problem of getting it back into her head."

"What about the Cylon craft they came in on?" Urdea asked. "Isn't there anything there, some clue or device that might help?"

The doctor shook his head. "That ship, though advanced and of recent manufacture, is nothing more than a fancy shuttle, according to reports from the landing bay. Quite simply put, we do not wipe minds, and have not the first idea how to put a wiped mind back together."

"So my daughter is dead, that's what you are telling me?" Abby asked.

The doctor nodded sadly. "She's alive as long as she's on life support. Given time we might be able to break through and solve the discs. But our medical staff is completely stumped, and I am not hopeful at all of finding a solution. Now the decision is yours of course, but how long you'd like her to exist like this..."

"I'd like to see her now" Abby interrupted. "Please."

The doctor nodded, and led the way into Amy's room. Urdea was going to hold back, but Abby locked her hand in his and pulled him to come along. They entered a small room with a life support chamber and little else. Abby walked slowly toward it as the doctor quietly stepped away and walked out.

Tears started to fall as she walked toward the chamber, and for the first time in what seemed like forever she saw her daughter...

"I never thought I'd see you again" she whispered, reaching out to take Amy's hand.

Behind her, Urdea's comm buzzed and he took a few steps back in order to take the call. He lowered the volume in respect for Abby as the call came in: "This is Wheran. We have found Elmer. Repeat, we have found Elmer. He is in the Colonel's turboflush. Sir, you'd better get over here right now."

[LucianG]

Captain Urdea was there for Abby, trying to help her get through the ordeal over her daughter’s condition, while trying to ignore his anger. According to what they’d just learned, it might not be possible to restore Amy’s stolen body functions and memories. It sounded as if only the life support machine was keeping her alive, which was in Urdea’s recollection, a horrible, though sometimes necessary, way to keep living. For a while anyway, he thought. Fortunately, Urdea’s time on life support had been relatively short following the accident, though it had taken almost two yahrens before he returned to relative normalcy. Now, the doctor made it sound as if Amy might not ever come off the machine. A few moments later, Abby was holding her daughter’s hand. Urdea said a silent prayer for both women.

Moments later, his comm unit vibrate buzzed softly. He had lowered the volume on entering the Med Lab to keep from disturbing any of the patients, but now he turned it down even more for privacy. On activating the receiver, he heard, “This is Wheran. We have found Elmer. Repeat, we have found Elmer. He is in the Colonel's turboflush. Sir, you'd better get over here right now.”

“Be there shortly,” replied Urdea softly. He deactivated the comm, wondering if the dunce was refusing to come see his daughter. He stepped back over to Abby and whispered, “Abby, I’m going to have to step out for a moment to take a call. I won’t be long.” She nodded silently, intent on trying to break through to Amy’s mind.

As he passed by the entry, Urdea said to Lorna, the medical clerk, “Can you get her a drink, make sure she drinks some of it, and then watch her. She’s in a state of near shock over what has happened to her daughter. I’ll be back in just a little while.” Lorna nodded, and moved to assist Abby.

As Urdea left the Med Lab, he felt a mixture of concern, frustration, and anger. He decided to deal with the anger before moving on to frustration. When he and Abby had entered the Med Lab, he had hoped—no, prayed—that she had been focused on the task at hand rather than his two guards standing outside. Both were armed, as backups to the guards inside guarding Hawke. They had acknowledged Urdea, but the one on the left, a man, had cast seemingly lascivious eyes on the woman at his side. He’d ignored the man’s looks, but just as they’d stepped into the Med Lab, Urdea had glanced back to see the male guard making a particularly vile gesture toward the woman….

Stepping out of the Med Lab, he acknowledged Officer Projan, a bright young woman who would probably someday become an officer, then approached the other guard, a twenty-something, very muscular man named Eukrie. “Officer Eukrie, walk with me.”

[Col. Charybdis]

Back in my quarters, I sat down on my couch in the main room. I could not believe what I had just seen. Elmer, sprawled dead on my turboflush floor!

"I can't believe he would do something like that!" was all I could say.

Wheran approached, "Sir, you might not want to say anything until Chief Urdea gets here."

"Why, are you suggesting something here? Are you suggesting I had anything to do with this?" I was suddenly becoming a bit irritated...

"Sir, just as a precautionary measure, please do not say anything until Chief Urdea gets here to take your official statement," was all that Wheran would say.

"Great," I replied under my breath. "What else could happen today?"

[LucianG]

They walked down the corridor a short distance and Urdea asked, “How are you this cycle? Having a good shift?”

“Uh, yes, Sir,” said a surprised Eukrie. “I’d have to say it’s going pretty well.”

“Well, son, I’ve got very important things to do at the moment, and little time to do them, so your shift just got a frell of a lot worse,” said Urdea in a low, steady voice, as he stopped and turned directly toward the larger man. “You are a Fleet Security Officer on the Battlestar Callisto. You have a very nice job on the best and newest ship in the fleet. You wear that black uniform with pride, and I’m sure you’re a hit with the ladies. If you want to keep that position and those perks, you will never, EVER, show such disrespect for a lady as you did a little while ago when the lady and I entered the Med Lab. If I ever see or hear of you doing such a thing again, I’ll have you transferred to the recycling ship…or worse...so fast that it will make your head spin. Do I make myself clear?”

Eukrie was shocked that Urdea had caught him, and even more surprised that the usually mild mannered security chief was so angry. Forcing a hard, dry swallow, he choked out, “Sir, yes Sir! I’m sorry, Sir. It won’t happen again, Sir.”

“Very good, Officer Eukrie. Next, you will correct this situation. First, you will apologize immediately to Officer Projan for having to put up with your disrespect for women and her in particular, since I’m sure she had to witness your little gesture. Next, you will write Lady Abighiá a handwritten apology, asking forgiveness for any offense that you might have caused her, without mentioning exactly what you did, since I’d rather her not know. I expect this apology, in an unsealed envelope, on my desk by beginning of First Shift tomorrow. Do you understand, Officer Eukrie?”

“Sir, yes Sir! Perfectly, Sir!” replied the distressed officer.

“Good.” He softened his voice and said, “Eukrie, you’ve served well since you’ve been on the Callisto, for what, almost five yahrens? That means something. You apologize to Projan, I get that apology and approve it, you seal it and hand deliver it to Lady Abighiá in my presence, and we’ll keep this between the two of us. I will not enter it in your record.”

“Thank you, Sir,” said Eukrie.

“Carry on, Officer,” said Urdea as he made his way toward Charybdis’ quarters. If Elmer was indeed refusing to go see his daughter, Urdea felt as if he was now in the proper mood to really let the fool have it!

[LucianG]

Wheran, Lieutenant, Fleet Security, assigned to the Battlestar Galactica, was a somewhat bitter man. As a child, his greatest desire was to become a Colonial Warrior, fly Vipers, and help defeat the Cylons. Unfortunately, slightly slow reactions and motion sickness issues put an end to that dream, and as a result, he had developed a serious dislike for the job he had once desired, and for those who performed it. Abandoning a career among the stars, he had decided to go into law enforcement. He had just graduated from the enforcement academy a few sectars before the Cylons attacked the Colonies. As a trained policeman, he had naturally been assigned to Fleet Security, but his dislike for Warriors had somewhat hampered his abilities and sometimes clouded his judgment. Age and experience had tempered this, somewhat….

Wheran, still a little pale, met Urdea just outside Colonel Charybdis’ quarters. Urdea peeked inside the room as the door closed, and he saw the Colonel sitting on his couch, with two of Wheran’s squad members inside. Wheran motioned Urdea away and down the corridor so they could speak privately. At the same moment, Urdea was surprised to see Lieutenant Proteus and Sergeant Atropas, Proteus’s aide, approaching. Proteus was carrying the crime scene pack, and Atropas had a camera and a light around her neck. This appeared to be more than just Elmer refusing to come out of the turboflush room. “Wheran, what’s wrong?” questioned Urdea, beginning to dread the response.

“The apprendee, Elmer, is dead in the Colonel’s turboflush room. It’s been made to look like suicide, but considering the apparent implement of death, I suspect that it might have been murder,” said Wheran. “While we were waiting, I told Colonel Charybdis that he shouldn’t say anything until you arrived. I didn’t want to say anything that might be kicked out later if we get—ah—charge him with the crime. After all, right now, he’s the chief suspect.”

Urdea took a moment to let Wheran’s comments settle on his mind. Elmer—dead. Colonel Charybdis—chief suspect. Since Charybdis had been close to Elmer’s daughter, perhaps something could have happened between them, but Urdea didn’t want to believe that. “I assume the death scene is isolated, and that it has not been violated. No evidence has been destroyed?”

“No, Sir. Well, not much anyway. We’ve kept everyone out, with the door closed, except for Colonel Charybdis who went into the room to take a look. He was just inside the door, so he stepped on the very edge of the scene, and messed up a little of the blood spatter. I just looked in from the doorway.”

“Too bad about the Colonel. Hope he didn’t mess up too much. If so, it will make the scene more difficult to read, and make it more difficult to clear or convict him. What else do you have?” asked Urdea. “Other suspects, death implement, other important evidence?”

“Well, Sir, if it is a murder, and I’m not sure it is, then, like I said, Colonel Charybdis has got to be the chief suspect; however, I’ve been putting together a list while we waited for you to arrive. First, the death implement appears to be a laser combo blade.”

“Was the safety screen removed?” asked Urdea. The screen usually kept the user from being seriously injured.

“I didn’t get close enough to it to tell for sure,” said Wheran. “Now, as for suspects, I put together a list while we waited. I wanted to speak with you before we started an official investigation of any of these folks, so I did my checking from the computer terminal in the Colonel’s quarters.”

Well, I hope there was no evidence on that device, thought Urdea.

Wheran continued, “Next on the list after the Colonel is the deceased’s wife, a woman named Abighiá.”