Part 5: Suspicions
“You wanted to see me, Captain?”
“Yes, Constable. It’s about your report on yesterday’s attempted assassination of Vedic Theryl. It’s not your usually…thorough report. I want to know what’s going on with this new lieutenant, James Ellison.” Captain Sisko picked up the data pad. He got up to pace his office, stopping to look out at Major Kira and the others working at their posts. “He said he heard the phaser humming before it was fired? What do you make of that?”
“At this point, Captain, I need more information. I will say the lieutenant seemed as confused by what happened as anyone.”
“Could he be lying? He would certainly know about the assassination if he were in on it. Maybe he got cold feet about killing a Vedic.”
Odo shook his head slowly. “That’s a possibility, Captain. But it’s one I’m reluctant to entertain. He’s only been here about a week and has arrested more criminals than most of my people do in a month.”
Sisko sat back down again, picking up the autographed baseball that always graced his desk. He rolled it around in his hands. “There’s no mention in his medical file of any non-human heritage that could explain being able to hear and see from such a distance. It’s not humanly possible.” Sisko looked up at Odo, unable to read his expression. “Do you actually believe him, Constable? Or perhaps a better question should be ‘does he believe it?’”
“I think he does. But he was reluctant to say anything about how he knew the assassin was up there. I don’t think he intended to say as much as he did. There is another possibility. He could be artificially genetically enhanced.” Odo hesitated a moment before continuing. “There are quite a few officers and captains out there who won’t work with him. They think he’s unstable. But according to his medical file, there was no evidence of any kind of mental imbalance or deficiency. I decided to dig deeper into our lieutenant’s history. I spoke to all the doctors who examined him over the course of the last two years. One of them had something very interesting to say. He told me he believed Ellison had been genetically enhanced, but that the procedure hadn’t been done correctly. Ellison refused more tests at that point, claiming everything was fine again. Since the doctor didn’t have enough proof or probable cause to force Ellison to submit to the scans, he had to drop the matter. You know that that kind of extensive genetic alteration is sometimes hit or miss the way these illegal medical facilities do it. I’ve read reports of side effects ranging from mild social dysfunctions to severe psychoses.”
Sisko looked thoughtful. “When my old friend, Captain Banks asked me to take Ellison on, he seemed…I don’t know…a little desperate. But I’ve known him for years and trusted his judgment. So on my friend’s assurances and your security clearance, I accepted Ellison’s posting here.” He held out the data pad. “So you think Lieutenant Ellison may have been enhanced? That would get him thrown out of Starfleet.”
“Yes. But we need to know if this officer is stable or not. I don’t want him on my station if he’s a danger—no matter how many criminals he can apprehend.”
Sisko smiled to himself. Odo took a lot of pride in keeping the station safe. “Constable. I want you to find out everything you can about our lieutenant. Quietly. In the meantime, I want Ellison kept away from this case in the event he does know more than he’s telling us. I need to talk to Doctor Bashir about how we can find out if he is enhanced or not.”