USS Malinche NCC-38997-A

<Mission 21 - Bad Medicine>

<<USS Malinche, Aurora 0408/A's quarters, Day 2, 1630>>

Well, it's taken all morning and half the afternoon, but the lab's (finally!) finished and now I have to get ready for that dinner party. I'm not looking forward to this. At all. I'm not used to big to-dos like this and I'm afraid I'm going to do or say something to embarrass myself. Or the captain. But mostly myself. And then there's the possibility of having to eat dinner with that arrogant prig of a doctor. Knowing my luck I'm going to be stuck next to her.

And then, of course, there was the little matter of her practical joker. That jackass has been on my mind all day, I wish I could forget. I mean ho is it? Is it one of my people? What's his or her motivation? Jealousy? A dislike of clones? Someone just hazing the new girl? Eh, the last seemed the least likely; I've already gone through all the traditional Starfleet hazing rituals. So that leaves the first two.

Unless…unless this is someone’s weird idea of...courtship? Is someone trying to get my attention but is too shy to come out and say so? Hmmm.

I'm tempted to call in security...but I don't know what sort of person the Chief of Security is; if they insist on taking this up the turbolift to the captain then I've passed the point of no return. Would the captain see me as weak, unable to control my people? I can still remember that embarrassing altercation that had taken place in front of the XO, that couldn't have made either her or the captain confident in my abilities...Unless the XO didn't report it. She probably didn't.

Probably.

But if I wait too long in reporting this? Wouldn't they see that as poor judgment? Damn it, things had been so much simpler before I became a department head.

Hmmmm. The Chief of Security is probably going to be at the dinner. If they were, perhaps I could approach them in an unofficial capacity and feel him or her out, get an idea of the sort of person they were. And if they were willing to keep this off the books, well then…

Agh! I hadn't realized how late it was! I need to get ready for that dinner...!

<Mission 21 - Bad Medicine>

<<CEO quarters, Day 2, 1945 hours>>

Personal Log ON:

Well, that could have gone better. No, wait, computer, er...No, never mind that. I swore I wouldn't start over when I began doing these things, I'm not going to start now.

Doctor Janor died, he said his stew tasted weird. Or something. If someone wanted him dead would they have poisoned his food? That seems...obvious, somehow. I would have thought they would have used something more...I dunno...sophisticated.

What if it's a blind? What if the odd taste is just a distraction from the real cause of death? What if I'm over thinking this? What if the Trill really did die of natural causes? For all I know the slug in his chest got hungry and ate his heart.

Hmmmm. How was the food prepared? Was any of it replicated? I can't imagine the cook staff being able to make so many dishes without replicating some of it. What if the ingredients of Janor's had been poisoned beforehand? Someone had pre-porgrammed the replicators to produce a dribble cup for me so it's not impossible, but so far I haven't been able to figure out who did it. Maybe the killer...if there is a killer...other than the Trill slug...isn't as good at covering their tracks.

I need to talk to the Chief of Security, ask him if my theory makes sense. Or maybe I should wait until Doctor Setak's autopsy results. Well, I guess it could have been worse; it could have been Doctor Banks who had died: if she had keeled over I would have been the primary suspect. And...I'm going to clone hell for thoughts like that...

A personal log entry by: