Chapter Text
“Kira to Dax, you free?” Ezri’s combadge relayed early one morning.
“I have a couple hours until my first appointment, what do you need?” She replied, looking up from her computer.
“Come to the science lab. There might have been a murder.” Kira informed her flatly.
“On my way.” Ezri closed the comlink and headed for the science lab, confused and intrigued. There might have been a murder? How was that something that was difficult to ascertain? Was there a possibility of suicide?
Kira met her outside the science lab wearing a clear respiration mask that sealed around the face. She gave one to Ezri.
“There was some sort of small explosion and we’re not sure what it is.” Kira explained as Ezri pressed the mask to her face and activated it. She snuck a glance at Kira's jawline, the mask seemed to stop before her frills. “We can’t get any sort of read on this room," Kira continued, "it’s like the computer can’t see it, engineering is working on scans. The tricorders don't pick up anything worrying in the air, but we’re wearing masks just to be safe since the dead guy looks to have inhaled something. So far it’s not an irritant to anyone’s skin, Nurse Jabara has a sample to analyze.” She continued as she lead Ezri past a Bajoran security officer and into the lab. Ezri's skin prickled as they passed through a gas-specific forcefield. Nurse Jabara was crouched down, scanning a Vulcan Lieutenant in Science blues with a medical tricorder. The lieutenant had transparent shrapnel embedded in his hands, face, and neck that leaked green blood, and the mucus membranes of his face were inflamed a vivid green. Thankfully the Lieutenant had been wearing eye protection from the shrapnel, but it didn’t save him. He looked familiar, but Ezri wasn't sure if she had seen him around the station, or if Jadzia had known him.
“Something shattered?” Ezri frowned at the shrapnel. That was definitely not supposed to happen, ever.
“A glass container.” Jabara responded. “It's possible it's part of an experiment, and the sealed container had some catastrophic flaw. If it’s an accident. It’s also possible that it was somehow turned into a bomb. The chances that the shrapnel have some sort of fingerprint or DNA on it are low, but I’ll check anyway.” She summarized.
“What can I do?” Ezri asked.
“Interview everyone on the station who knew Lieutenant Sevon.” Kira replied. “If it is a murder, they might tell you a different story than security. If it’s an accident, they might need someone to talk to.”
"Speaking of security, where's the chief?" Ezri asked.
"Here and gone already." Kira shook her head. "He said he was going to start informing and interviewing those closest to Lieutenant Sevon."
"I guess I'll start with the other science officers. Where are they?"
"Due to show up for work soon, our Lieutenant got here early."
"It may be useful for me to observe their reactions." Ezri frowned. "Julian's getting back from his conference in a week, right?"
"Yeah. What a thing to come back to." Kira frowned.
"Nurse Jabara, what's your plan for the autopsy?" Ezri asked.
"I plan to perform it in a few hours." She replied.
"We'll keep you updated on the substance in the container." Kira walked with Ezri to the door.
"Thanks, Colonel." Ezri turned the mask off and removed it once she was safely through the forcefield, and unsure where to put it, gave it to the Bajoran security officer, who smiled at her.
"The science lab is currently off limits." Ezri stopped a pair of Ensigns who approached.
"What? Why?" One asked, the other glanced at the security officer.
"Please wait with me, I'd like to tell everyone at once. How many on your team?" Ezri asked.
"Uh, seven total."
Within a few minutes Ezri had six science officers gathered around her.
"The science lab-" She started.
"Is Sev okay?" A tall Lieutenant asked.
"Lieutenant Sevon is dead." She informed them. Five pairs of eyes stared at her, one Ensign putting her face in her hands.
"He what?" One of them whispered.
"We're not sure what happened. Security chief Jearim is investigating, but right now it looks like an accident. Chief Jearim may want to talk to you about what you were working on and such to try and determine how this happened. I'm Counselor Dax, my office is open until 1900 hours if anyone would like to talk privately. I encourage you to take today to process this information. Talk to someone, if not me then friends, family, each other. I don't have much information, but I can try to answer any questions anyone has." Ezri concluded.
"His parents know?" A junior lieutenant asked.
"Yes, Chief Jearim is informing them." Ezri nodded. The science officers wandered away after a few silent seconds. Ezri returned to her office and sent Kira a message requesting she officially tell the science officers to attend a counseling session. She had an affirmative response within an hour.
"I'm glad you feel better, Ensign Larom, and please tell others they can come to my office to talk privately about Lieutenant Sevon's sudden death." Ezri bid farewell to a third scientist early that afternoon. On one hand she was glad so many of them were seeking mental healthcare, and apparently on their own motivation. On the other hand, she was writing two or three different notes per session. One normal set of notes, another for if the patient is actually the murderer, and a third for information about Lieutenant Sevon. He was the head science officer, so presumably should have been better protected if the container was part of a known experiment. It also meant Nurse Jabara would be doing most, if not all of the chemical analyses, since the science lab was a crime scene and all science officers were suspects for the moment.
Ezri sat down at her computer to find a message from Jabara stating that the substance in the container was a paralytic and killed the lieutenant in gaseous form by paralyzing his lungs and suffocating him. Ezri frowned, unsure if that explanation made sense for a Vulcan. She knew it was very unlikely the nurse had made a mistake, but she looked up Vulcan anatomy, trying to remember Jadzia's exobiology studies. She could perform the Rite of Emergence again and ask her. Ezri shook her head and pushed the thought aside. She was not going down that path again. She could simply look up Vulcan biology, and ask Jabara to explain what she didn't understand. Her research confirmed the message, of course.
"Feeling survivor's guilt is perfectly normal, especially when someone dies unexpectedly." Ezri assured Ensign Liakkith, who had yet to look away from her lap or hands. "We often feel like we should have done something to prevent it, even if we logically couldn't have known to prevent it."
"I don't know what experiment could have killed him, but I just want to go back in time and tell Sev to take more precautions." She replied, twisting her fingers together.
"Completely understandable." Ezri assured.
"It may be understandable, but it won't bring Sev back." Liakkith sighed. "He's just gone. How long until I can think about something else?" She barely glanced up while running a hand through her hair.
"That may take some time." Ezri replied gently. "You're probably going to have to be gentle with yourself as your brain processes this information."
"You don't have any information about the new head science officer, do you?" Liakkith asked.
"Unfortunately not, I'm sure Colonel Kira will let everyone know when she has news to share. Are you worried about the new science officer?" Ezri replied.
"Not worried, just wondering if they were going to want a report on the incident and how to prevent it in the future."
"Unfortunately I can't answer that for you, but I wouldn't worry about that yet. Perhaps you could answer a question for me, though? I've noticed that the science officers all refer to Lieutenant Sevon as 'Sev', can you explain that for me?"
"In English, Sevon sounds very similar to the number seven, so we asked if we could call Sev by a shorter name to reduce confusion, and he thought it was a good idea." Liakkith explained. "It also helped most of us feel more comfortable finding nicknames for each other, settle in, comradery, you know?" She wasn't a very physically expressive person, curling into herself, not lifting her head, though that may be from grief.
"Thank you, that does make sense. They sound nothing alike in Trill." Ezri smiled. "Also, we're just about out of time. Please feel free to make another appointment if you want."
"Thank you, Counselor. This helped more than I thought it would." She smiled and glanced at Ezri again she left, and Ezri started writing her notes.
"Lieutenant Cilegna, please come in." She smiled at the tall man, her last session of the day.
"Why do we have to talk to you but Ensign Illario's co-workers didn't?" He frowned.
"I'm sorry?" She faltered at the blatant hostility before the door was even shut.
"Last year Ensign Illario was murdered and people didn't have to talk to you. Why do we? Does Starfleet not think its science officers can handle a murdered co-worker like those on the Defiant?" He complained as he sat and crossed his arms.
"I'm following orders just like you, Lieutenant." Ezri sympathized. "When Illario died he had only been on the station a few days. I can't remember if his crewmates were ordered to speak to me or not. I had a lot of patients who were struggling with grief. I imagine you've all been ordered to talk to me so you can see whether or not you'd benefit from further sessions."
"So you're not going to ask how Sev's death makes me feel?" He asked. Ezri snorted.
"If I wanted an obvious answer I'd just ask your name, Cilegna. I'm here if you want to talk about Sevon, or anything else, but I'm perfectly comfortable sitting here in silence if you don't want to. If I read the orders right, you just need to visit me for an hour." She settled back in her seat and closed her eyes to wait and see what his confrontational personality would do with nothing to fight.
"If I ask you to not tell anyone something, you have to listen to me, right?" Cilegna asked a few minutes later.
"There are a few exceptions, but 99% of the time, patient confidentiality holds." Ezri replied, opening her eyes.
"What are the exceptions?" He asked.
"If I sincerely believe that someone will be injured soon. For example, if you tell me that you have proof Morn is going to attack someone, I have to report it so he's investigated." Ezri explained, purposefully using an example disconnected from the situation and with comically low chance of hurting anyone.
"Liakkith had a crush on Sev." He replied immediately.
"Okay."
"I don't know if you knew."
"Patient confidentiality." Ezri responded simply.
"It may be something to ask her about when you talk to her. His death is going to hit her really hard."
"Because of her crush." Ezri nodded.
"I think she was getting up the courage to ask him out."
"But you don't think she got the opportunity?"
"If she asked him, he'd answer, and the whole station would know. She was getting so excited too, really making a big deal out of it."
"Thank you for letting me know, your concern for your friend is admirable." Ezri commented.
"Well, we're not really friends." Cilegna corrected quickly. "I'm sure other officers have told you about Liakkith's crush on Sev, or they will."
"She was really obvious about it?" Ezri asked.
"Yeah." Cilegna nodded. "I was kind of embarrassed for her, having a crush on a Vulcan, but some people make it work, you know? Sev didn't act any differently towards her, of course, but he definitely knew about it."
"I see."
"They probably didn't tell you anything about how the new head science officer will be chosen, did they?" Cilegna asked.
"No, I imagine you would know more about that than I." Ezri replied. "You would be in consideration, right?"
"Yeah."
"Are you worried you won't live up to the shadow Sevon left? Feel guilty about taking his place?" Ezri watched Cilegna cross his arms and close his eyes. She frowned. "Okay." She replied amiably. She'd told him she was fine to sit in silence, and if she wanted to earn his trust she couldn't go back on her word. She could use this time to start her notes on the session early.
-
The next morning Lieutenant Sevon was the main topic of the briefing. Jabara reported on the chemical used to kill him and the lethality and biological half-life, as well as the combination of chemicals and external factors that went into the container exploding.
"Could you send me your findings, please, Jabara?" Ezri asked. She nodded.
"Why would a counselor need such technical information?" Security chief Jearim asked.
"Knowing about the weapon helps me determine what kind of person would use it." Ezri explained. Jearim informed them that the glass container wasn't an official experiment anyone knew about, and was therefore not likely to be an accident. He stated that he interviewed Sevon's previous boss over subspace, as well as Sevon's parents, and would be interrogating the other scientists that day. "I'd like to join you, if I may." Ezri asked. "I interviewed most of them yesterday. Liakkith and Cilegna might be worth looking into."
"I appreciate your input, Counselor, but interrogating a suspect is a different skill set from counseling a patient." Jearim dismissed. "Plus, any other person present during an interrogation can influence how a suspect answers questions, and they would probably wonder why you're there. But anything you can share with me would be very much appreciated."
"I'll send you what I can." Ezri nodded. While she couldn't find fault with what Jearim said, his attitude was dismissive, even a little condescending. She took a deep breath and tried to ignore all the annoyed memories of previous Dax hosts being condescended to, assumed as lesser. Jadzia's memories of her field training were most recent, and some of the most powerful, along with Lela dealing with sexism and symbiontism in the government.
Later that day in her office, Ezri frowned at the report from Jabara. She really didn't have the chemistry knowledge for this.
"Computer, of the chemicals in this list, are any unable to be replicated?" She asked.
"Tetrodotoxin has limits on replication. All other chemicals can be freely replicated." The computer replied.
"What limits?"
"Tetrodotoxin requires a level 6 security clearance to replicate, and can only be requested from specific replicators."
"Which replicators can produce tetrodotoxin?"
"Replicators in the Infirmary and Science lab have the ability to synthesize tetrodotoxin if the person requesting it has level 6 security clearance." The computer supplied. Ezri checked the security clearances of the science officers, more than half were level 6 or higher. Most of them had been on the station less than two years, as well. A lot of science officers had left DS9 during the war and didn't return. Ezri imagined they had to weigh the excitement of the wormhole and the Gamma quadrant against all the potentially lethal other excitement that the station was frequently host to. Ezri kept researching all the components of the solution and their interactions, but quickly got a headache trying to determine which of the twenty or so chemicals reacted with other, and how, and to what intensity, not even starting on reactions involving three or more chemicals. She'd ask Jabara about it later. Right now it was enough to know that the glass container exploding was done on purpose, and required more chemistry knowledge than she had.
Bombs were attention-getting, made a statement. So the murderer likely felt ignored. Possibly they felt that their scientific knowledge was underutilized if they went to the trouble to make such a complicated solution. Which didn't really sound like Cilegna, so perhaps his not wanting to talk to her wasn't a symptom of guilt, perhaps his pointing her attention to Liakkith was genuine. And women were statistically more likely to use poison. But Cilegna's reaction to talking about the possibility of him becoming the new science officer still struck Ezri as suspect. As well as his calling Sevon's death a murder. Was that an inference or inside knowledge?
After lunch she went to the security office to talk over her thoughts with Jearim. He had redesigned it when he took the position, so that his desk was not immediately approachable. One of the Bajoran officers informed her that Jearim was interrogating one of the science officers and would be back.
"Do you possibly know when he'll be back? Should I wait here, or come back later?" Ezri tried.
"I'm not sure, Counselor. He doesn't want to be bothered during an interrogation. I'd say try again later, I could alert you on comms if you like."
"Thank you, I'll stop back in a bit." She smiled. Well, she could use this time to talk to Jabara and try to determine what all the chemicals in the solution did.
"Counselor Dax, have you seen Nurse Jabara?" One of the nurses asked as Ezri entered Sick Bay.
"Not since this morning, why?" Ezri frowned.
"She's just late coming back from lunch, nothing to worry about, I'm sure." They assured. Ezri frowned.
"Computer, locate Jabara." She directed.
"Jabara is not on the station." The computer replied.
"Not on the-"
"It's okay, there's a lot of places on the station the computer can't see." Ezri interrupted the nurse. She tapped her combadge. "Dax to Jearim, Jabara is missing."
"I told you that I'm not to be interrupted, Counselor ." He said forcefully, definite condescension on her title.
"Jabara is missing." Ezri repeated.
"Information that not everyone needs to know. My security officers can handle the search, please come to the security office and inform them." He closed the comlink.
"We're going to find her." Ezri assured the nurse before heading back to the security office.
"Welcome back, Counselor. Chief Jearim isn't done yet." The Bajoran security officer greeted her.
"He told me you could help me. Nurse Jabara is missing, the computer can't find her."
"We're on it." She nodded, tapping her combadge. "Atola to all available security officers. We have a missing person, please begin clearing the service crawlways and mark where you've cleared on station maps." She received a chorus of acknowledgements and opened another comlink. "Security officer Atola to Colonel Kira."
"Kira here." Her tone sounded bemused or curious.
"Colonel, Nurse Jabara is missing, request permission to prevent all departures until she's found."
"Permission granted, I'll let the ship captains know."
"Thank you, Colonel." Atola closed the comlink and returned her attention to Ezri. "We'll find her, Counselor."
"Thank you. I'm going to wait to speak to Jearim." Ezri smiled.
Ezri looked up as Cilegna entered the office and stopped, looking at her.
"You're not allowed to tell anyone anything I told you." He stated.
"That's right." Ezri replied calmly.
"So why are you here?" He frowned.
"I have other matters to discuss with Chief Jearim."
"Has Nurse Jabara been found?" Cilegna asked. Behind him, Jearim frowned at Ezri, slightly shaking his head.
"I haven't heard anything." Ezri shrugged. "But please keep this information between us, with the two most senior medical officers not available, we don't want to worry anyone unnecessarily. I'm sure the rest of our medical officers are well equipped to handle anything that might arise, so there's no need to potentially cause a panic on the station."
"Right, yeah." Cilegna nodded.
"We mean it, Lieutenant." Jearim spoke up. "It's not worth worrying about."
"Okay." Cilegna nodded and left.
"And now there's that to worry about." Ezri frowned, watching him go. "I'm sorry. I didn't consider a missing person to be confidential news."
"When I say I don't want to be bothered during an interrogation, it's for a reason." He stated. "What do you need to tell me?"
"The use of a bomb as murder weapon suggests someone who feels unseen or unheard. The complexity of the design suggests that the murderer may feel like their intellect isn't being put to good use, or recognized, so they have to prove that they're smart. The use of poison statistically makes the murderer more likely to be a woman." Ezri replied. "I also feel confident that both Cilegna and Liakkith have motive to have killed Sevon. A majority of the science officers also have means-"
"Yes, I checked all their security clearances already." Jearim interrupted, annoyed.
"Making sure we both have the same information." Ezri replied evenly.
"Listen, unless one of your worm's past selves or whatever was chief of security or a private detective, this is my investigation." He stated forcefully. Ezri took a deep breath to prevent herself asking if having a murderer for a previous life counted as applicable experience. Jearim was likely feeling defensive about his position, especially with Ezri having so much life experience through Dax, and Jearim having to follow Odo's footsteps. An argument would not help them catch whoever murdered Sevon.
"I previously assisted Odo with apprehending a murder and was hoping to provide you the same assistance." Ezri replied after a second.
"What am I supposed to do with 'a bomb suggests the murderer feels unseen'? Protect their feelings when I arrest them?" He scowled.
"From what I observed of Cilegna, he doesn't seem like the type of person to use a bomb, or poison. He's very direct."
"This is all too speculative. I need facts. Unless you can provide me with proof that will hold up in court, I don't see how you can help the investigation." He dismissed.
"I'll do my best." Ezri let a bit of sarcasm slip out as she left.