CHAPTER 10
The next morning, Sisko woke at his usual time. He ate a modest breakfast in his quarters. He wasn't very hungry.
His conversation with Commissioner Young had been largely unproductive, but her reaction to his questions was not entirely unexpected.
As he ate, Sisko decided to review whatever unclassified materials he could find about whether the missions assigned to Observer were different than those assigned to Surveyor.
It turned out that the two ships were treated disparately. There seemed to be little question about it. In addition to the Gamma Quadrant mission and the binary gas giants mission, Sisko found several indications that Observer was generally regarded as superior to Surveyor.
There were several notable scientific publications about planetary behavior that used data collected as part of the Gas Giant Mapping Project. All of these scientific publications involved data collected by Observer; none involved Surveyor. One publication flatly stated that Observer was typically assigned the more difficult missions, the time-critical missions, and the more prestigious research missions.
Starfleet records showed that nearly all of the awards and citations for service in gas giant mapping went to the personnel of the Observer.
Another unclassified report suggested that this favoritism was not based upon prejudice, but upon performance. Observer got the more interesting assignments because it was better at the job and had a higher success rate. According to one source, when it came to time-critical missions, Observer's record of success was significantly superior to that of Surveyor. So if the mission was time-critical, then it would usually go to Observer.
This same report mentioned that, in the first years of mapping, the performance of Surveyor and the performance of Observer were roughly equal. But beginning about three years ago, Observer began to demonstrate that it was faster and more efficient, as measured by several metrics.
Sisko was frustrated by the fact that none of these unclassified documents included any of the metrics, and the documents also omitted actual statistics and important details. It would be nice, Sisko thought, to see how performance is assessed, and see how well the crews of the two ships actually did with respect to the criteria used to measure performance.
Sisko was further bothered by the fact that there was no definition in any of the unclassified documents as to what made a mission "time-critical."
After finishing his breakfast, he went up to Ops. He found Bashir waiting outside his office.
"Good morning, Doctor."
Bashir's voice was emotionless. "Good morning, sir. I need to speak with you."
"Of course." Sisko entered the office and sat in his chair behind his desk. He motioned for Bashir to sit, but Bashir remained standing, his hands behind his back.
"Sir," Bashir said, "it is my duty to inform you that all of the crew members of the USS Observer are dead."
Sisko was stunned. "Doctor?"
"All of the survivors died a few hours ago. I found their bodies this morning. They're all gone."
Sisko dreaded asking the next question. "Did they expire from neural damage?"
"No, sir. That is, sir, the first six survivors expired principally due to neural damage from exposure to Upsilon Radiation. The remaining ten died by their own hands."
Sisko said nothing for several seconds. The news was unexpected, but Sisko did not find it to be especially surprising. He had personally wondered what he would do if he were in the position of the doomed survivors, and he had thought suicide would be an option that deserved serious consideration. He looked into Bashir's eyes. "How?"
"Dyneuryllin overdoses. Injected. Each of the survivors had injected himself or herself with a bolus equivalent to twelve doses. They died peacefully within minutes, each person in his or her quarters in the medical section."
"Where are their bodies, now?"
"I have placed them in storage in the morgue."
Sisko bit his lip, and asked, "How did they get the Dyneuryllin, Doctor?"
Bashir took a deep breath. "Sir, I hereby present myself for arrest and disciplinary action."
"Did you inject these people with overdoses of Dyneuryllin, Doctor?!"
"No, sir!"
"Somehow, they got their hands on Dyneuryllin and on a hypo, am I right?
"Yes, sir."
"How?!"
Bashir stood silent for a few moments.
Sisko prodded him with a lowered voice. "How, Doctor?"
"Someone took one of my hypos and a case of Dyneuryllin doses from the Infirmary. I do not know who did this, but I have an idea."
"Who?"
"I found the hypo in the hands of Lieutenant Amy Pitts. It appears that she took the hypo to each of her shipmates, and then used the hypo on herself. The, uh, unused doses of Dyneuryllin were in a case next to her body. Lieutenant Pitts was the last to expire."
"Lieutenant Pitts. She brought her shipmates home from the Gamma Quadrant," Sisko said.
"Yes, sir. She brought them home."
Sisko felt a mixture of emotions beginning to rise, but he forced his mind to the business at hand. "Am I to assume that the hypo and the Dyneuryllin were kept in the Infirmary in less-than-secure facilities?"
Bashir nodded. "They were essentially unsecured, yes, sir."
Sisko lowered his eyes. "Consider yourself confined to the station until further notice. I will notify station security and Constable Odo that you do not have authority to leave. Continue your medical duties in the meantime."
"I understand, sir."
"There will be a hearing."
"Of course."
"Deep Space Nine might have to apply for a new chief medical officer."
Bashir swallowed. "Yes, sir."
Sisko stood and faced Bashir.
"Julian. Those people were facing days of pain, severe pain. Worse than any torture, I understand. They had no hope of survival."
"Starfleet Medical is unlikely to see that as an excuse."
"That's not what I mean. What I mean is, that they chose their own course of action, and I am not in any way inclined to say that their choice was unreasonable. In fact, I cannot help but think that the choice your patients made was the best one they could have made. Patients have a right to control their own treatments, don't they, Doctor? They even have a right to declare how they wish to die."
"But there are procedures in place for that, legal safeguards. I do not have a right as a physician to assist a patient in taking his or her own life unless those procedures are followed to the letter. And here, they weren't."
Sisko knew that physician-assisted suicide had never been a viable option for the Observer survivors. The official procedures required, at a minimum, a second opinion from a physician, plus a formal interview with a qualified counselor. The survivors would have perished in agony before those things could be done.
Sisko rubbed his forehead. "Whether your actions were reasonable or careless, proper or improper, I am not in any position to say. That's Starfleet Medical's prerogative." Sisko straightened up and looked at Bashir. "I will inform Commissioner Young of what has happened. If she contacts you with any questions, you should consider yourself subject to severe sanction, and you would therefore be within your rights to refuse to answer them."
"If she asks me anything, I'll cooperate fully. And the same goes for Starfleet Medical: I intend to give my full cooperation."
Sisko couldn't think of anything further to say, so he said, "Dismissed."