Author's Note: Okie dokie, so this chapter is one of the reasons I decided to make rate this story M. Probably overcautious on my part, considering the kinds of movies and stories that are out nowadays, but hey, I believe in being careful with this stuff. There is some fairly graphic descriptions in here; for those of you that like it - tell me what you think. And in lieu of actual curse words in here, I've used a few that I felt could act as a substitute. (Some of them I find pretty funny.) Reviews are welcome!


Chapter 3: Tragedy

It was the comm. alarm that woke him up.

General Veers slowly opened his eyes. He had been dead asleep, dreaming about who-knows-what, when the shrill alarm had cut through his consciousness; he had no idea how long it had been going off, but he supposed he had better answer it. He slapped his hand in the general direction of the switch.

"Veers," he identified sleepily. "This had better be good."

"General Veers, sir, I apologize for waking you this late, but Captain Piett insisted on you being contacted."

Veers rolled over and squinted at the timepiece by his bed.

"Kriff, what time is it?" he demanded.

"Just after 0100, sir," the comm. officer answered. "You're needed on Deck 56 near the Main Docking Bay immediately. It's urgent."

"What can possibly be so urgent at one in the morning?" Veers demanded irritably. But he had already heaved himself up from his bed and was putting on his uniform.

"There's been an . . . incident, sir," the comm. officer answered tremulously.

"You'll have to be more specific than that." There was a significant pause from the small speaker.

"It's . . . one of the Docking Bay crew, sir. Someone's been killed."

Veers' fingers slipped as he tried to pull his tunic on. The shock of what he had just heard instantly wiped away any sleep that remained; he was much quicker about finishing dressing then.

"Tell Captain Piett I'm on my way."


Despite the late hour, it seemed as if the entire ship had been roused. Veers had never seen the nighttime passageways look so busy before. Couriers were rushing back and forth carrying messages, techs were brushing shoulders with medical personnel, and everywhere he looked he saw line upon line of stormtroopers. Whatever had happened here had stirred up a hornet's nest.

"General Veers! This way, sir!" someone called, and Veers looked up to see the duty officer wave at him over the heads of the crowd. The hurrying mass parted up the middle to let him through; the duty officer was not, apparently, taking him towards the Docking Bay proper, but rather towards the bay control room's antechamber. Up ahead he could see a dense cluster of medics and the Chief Coroner, Dr. Battai. Both Captain Piett and Admiral Ozzel were deep in conversation with him as Veers joined them.

"Admiral, what's this all about?" Veers asked without preamble as he came level with him. Ozzel looked unusually grim.

"One of the monitor techs reported finding a body in one of the storage lockers about twenty minutes ago," he said. "The fool was so panicked he could hardly give a clear account of what he saw."

"Understandable, Admiral, given what the Coroner has determined," Piett murmured, "and with what we've seen for ourselves." The Captain was pale and clearly shaken. Veers turned to Dr. Battai.

"What have you found, Doctor?" The Coroner, an older officer with graying hair shook his head at the General.

"Preliminary cause of death at this point seems to by severe hypovolemic shock. He's been dead for over an hour."

"Can you identify the victim?" Battai shrugged.

"I'll need to perform a DNA scan when we reach Sickbay. The body was mutilated pretty badly. But we can infer from his uniform that he was one of the monitor techs stationed here, and he was very young."

General Veers froze, a horrible thought crossing his mind. Surely it couldn't be . . ?

"I want to see the body," he heard himself say. All three officers looked at him incredulously, and Battai hesitated.

"Sir, it's pretty ugly. We can hardly –"

"I want to see it!" Veers thundered, and Battai skipped backwards in alarm. He swallowed hard and nodded.

"Of course, sir." He gestured for the General to follow him into the antechamber.

There was so much blood pooled on the floor that they had no choice but to walk through it. Hardened veteran though he was, the giant crimson lake was enough to turn his stomach. Just around the corner beside an open compartment door lay something shrouded in a white sheet. The edges of the covering trailed through the blood, looking as if both were one and the same. But even covered it was evident that the limbs of the corpse were twisted and splayed out at unnatural angles. Finally one of the medics leaned down and pulled back the sheet covering the body.

Veers found himself starring down at a face covered with so much blood that he could hardly discern a face in it. Horrific gashes and tears along the neck and chin split all the way down to the bone, and even the battle-hardened General found it difficult not to vomit at the sight. The only features that were recognizable were the eyes. They were still open, frozen in shock and horror.

They were bright blue.

"Tiylers," he breathed.


"The DNA scan checks out," Dr. Battai announced, handing his data pad to Admiral Ozzel. "The body has been positively identified as Ensign Braxton Tiylers."

For a moment no one said anything. There was so obviously nothing to be said. Ozzel read the Coroner's report in silence, the shrouded body of the victim just barely visible in the veiled alcove behind him. The soft hum of Sickbay's medical equipment and the muted conversations of the medics in the other room lacked their usual comfort. The death of one of their own had hit all of them hard.

Suddenly Veers spun around and faced the wall.

"Kriff it!" he bellowed and slammed his closed fist into the bulkhead.

"General!" Battai cried in alarm.

"I should have known!" he raged, not hearing the other. "I should have kriffing known!" His last word was punctuated by another blow to the wall.

"General, calm down!" Piett yelled, grabbing the General's arm. "This wasn't your fault. There was no way any of us could have known this would happen."

The Captain had no idea how wrong he was. Veers had been the one who had broken up the fight. He was the one who had ordered Tiylers to stay away from the Bak'el. He was the one who had suspected that the matter was far from being settled. He should have done something about it! The responsibility was solely his.

But even if he had known something like this would happen, what could he have done to prevent it? Locked either Tiylers or Baine in the brig for the night? Put constant surveillance on the Ensign? No. There was nothing he could have done; nothing in the galaxy could have given him any indication that a tragedy like this was going to happen.

But the guilt remained.

Veers roughly pulled his arm free but didn't say any of his thoughts out loud. Piett was watching him with an expression hovering somewhere between concern and puzzlement. The General forced down his anger and self-reproach, refusing to look anyone in the eye until he was sure he had a firm grip on his emotions.

"How was he killed?" Ozzel asked the Coroner. Veers looked up with renewed interest as Dr. Battai answered.

"As I said before, primary cause of death was hypovolemic shock. But it took me some time to find anything else; there was a lot of blood to clean up first."

"And?" Veers asked impatiently. The Coroner hesitated.

"This was no accident, sirs," he admitted softly. "This was deliberately planned and executed. Ensign Tiylers was murdered."

There was a shocked silence. Veers felt his jaw clench tightly; he had suspected as much.

"Continue," he said with a nod.

"First of all, the cause of death was not by a blaster," Dr. Battai said. "No one reported hearing any shots fired, and there were no obvious plasma burns to be found. In any event, a blaster shot would not have caused that much bleeding; the wound would have been partially cauterized. Upon further examination, we did find two small wounds on the left side of his neck, "

"Knife wounds?" Piett asked sharply. Battai shook his head.

"No sir; they were too small. They almost looked like . . ." He hesitated, then waved them to follow him. "I think it would be easier if I just showed you, sir." He pushed back the curtain and led the way into the examination room. When they had all gathered around, Battai carefully lifted the sheet covering the Ensign's face. Mercifully, someone had closed his eyes; Veers didn't think he could bear to look at those wide, staring eyes again. The Coroner put on a pair of examination gloves and rotated the head slightly to expose the neck. There, just barely visible, were two small dark marks about 5 centimeters apart, one on top of the other. Veers felt his stomach clench when he saw it. He was absolutely certain he knew who had murdered the Ensign.

"Doctor, those almost look like fang marks," Piett murmured, bending down to get a closer look. Battai nodded.

"That was the strange thing about it, sir. From all appearances the wounds are small, almost insignificant. But they completely tore through the carotid artery. He bled out within minutes."

Piett straightened and turned to the stormtrooper commander waiting by the doors.

"Commander, this seems to be as good a time as any to hear your report." The trooper straightened promptly, but even with his face hidden, Veers could tell the man was nervous.

"Captain, after having questioned the Docking Bay crew . . . unfortunately we didn't learn much. Ensign Tiylers apparently stayed at his post long after his shift was over. The other techs said he had muttered something about needing to work through something first. After that they had left him alone. No one heard any sound of a struggle. No one saw anything; the Night Shift Duty Officer was the one who found the body."

"There were no witnesses?" Piett questioned. The trooper shook his head.

"None, sir." The Captain looked deeply troubled by that; he glanced at Battai, who shook his head sadly.

"Even if someone had been there, it would have been too late by the time help arrived."

At that moment Sickbay's doors opened. All four men looked over to see Ambassador Selto, Prefect Gayrn, and Councilor Baine stride into the room flanked by two Bak'el guards. Veers felt a violent surge of hatred when he saw the latter's arrogant face.

"I have just been informed of what has happened," Selto said quietly. He approached the veiled corpse almost reverently. "I am truly sorry for his passing."

"Did he suffer?" Baine asked. The words sounded innocent enough, but Veers could hear the mocking tone in his voice. He glared at the other.

"Why don't you tell us?" he growled.

"General," Ozzel hissed warningly. Baine's eyes narrowed, a nasty smile forming on his lips.

"Are you accusing me of something, General? It sounds as if you believe I did this."

"Prove me wrong!" Veers challenged. His fists were clenched in rage; if Baine had dug up Tiylers from his grave it wouldn't have been as bad as mocking his death.

"General Veers, that is enough!" Ozzel barked fiercely. "Ambassador Selto, I am afraid we will have to launch an investigation into this murder."

"You believe one of my people is responsible?" Selto asked calmly.

"We are forced to consider all possibilities, Ambassador," Captain Piett answered. "We hope that you and your people will cooperate." Selto glanced back at the corpse and slowly nodded.

"Yes, Captain, of course. We will provide you with whatever assistance you require."

Veers hardly heard the conversation that followed. He and Baine had locked eyes. The General had no proof that Baine did anything, but he knew the Bak'el had killed Ensign Tiylers in cold blood. He had somehow made his way down to the Docking Bay control room without being seen, confronted the tech again, and murdered him without anyone hearing anything. Veers had dealt with murders in the past; occasionally he had had to take up the role of executioner. But this heinous crime was far beyond anything he had ever seen before.

They had no proof . . . yet. But when they found it, General Veers would gladly take up the role of Executioner once again.