Part II-- Murder Mystery Night

Posted on Monday, 13 December 2021 - 4:54am by Lieutenant Alex Kingsley & Petty Officer 1st Class Siana Ilian & Captain Pippa Whitley & Lieutenant T'Lanna Vali & Lieutenant JG Adrianna Eberhardt & Lieutenant Haru Hernandez & Lieutenant JG Maximus Mackenzie & Lieutenant JG Hayashi Hamura & Ensign Oriana Skye Sety

Mission: Operation: Mirror of Madness
Location: Holodeck | Deck 4 | USS Standing Bear
Timeline: 2394 MD 02 2000 hours

Within the once luxurious confines of Raven Manor, the assembled guests were enjoying food, drink and good company. Some had even ventured off into adjoining rooms as the old grandfather clock dutifully kept track of time. The antique hands shifting until chimes marked the arrival of a new hour. It was time!

Outside, lightning lit up the sky, striking the ground just a few yards from the stately home. At the exact same moment the front door blew open and as wind wiped through the room all the candles were immediately extinguished, plunging the room into darkness. There were a few moments of silence before a piercing scream from somewhere among the group cut through the night.

In the middle of the crowd, Siana fumbled in the bag draped across her body for a flashlight and flipped it on, apologising as she realised she had just about blinded their new captain. Lowering it, she swept the beam around in a slow circle, stopping when the flashlight came to rest on the body slumped over the table with a carving knife protruding from the back.

It was the butler!


And now the continuation...


"I guess he didn't do it," someone commented from behind Ilian, sounding disappointed as she heard a bit of paper being torn up. "Dammit. They always do it!"

T’Lanna walked cautiously into the darkness of the room, she’d been exploring the house familiarising herself with her holographic surroundings. “What happened? What did I miss?” It was then she saw the dead body of the Butler. “Ohh...that’s what happened.”

"To be fair, would you want this over quicker," Scarlet jokingly asked before then seeing the body for herself. The woman suddenly felt rather green and averted her eyes, "Gawd, there's a reason I'm not in medical."

Haru placed a gentle hand on her back. "Are you alright? "

Scarlet nodded, blushing a little, "kinda thought it would be more 'comedic' gruesome, instead of gorey."

Mac spoke up. "I say we all assemble in the drawing room to discuss this."

Haru looked over at Hamura. "And dial back the yuck."

Siana looked between them all, confused, “so a murder mystery with no murder? There isn’t even blood… why didn’t we add blood? Anyway… it isn’t like he’s dismembered…”

T’Lanna was enjoying herself, as a psychologist this was her area. “Who was in the room at the time?”

"Indeed who?" Pippa said as she walked around the deceased butler. "We know the where...now for the rest of the information. It would appear as though we have ourselves a bit of a murder mystery" added the Captain with a smirk as she held up her cigarette holder and had soon let out a bit of a puff. "Don't worry," she added as attention was drawn to her. "These are purely for show, practically none of the health risk."

"And they look smashing," Mac said to the Captain.

Haru rolled his eyes. "Stop sucking up." He grinned at Pippa. "That's my job."

Across the room, Alex watched the events unfolding as she took a long drink. What she wouldn’t give for a Great Dane and maybe the Mystery Machine. Setting aside her glass she moved towards the kitchen. Seemed an obvious place for someone to get a knife. Maybe the chef had seen something? She’d let Haru and Mac fuss over the Captain.

"Well, we had a lot of people in the room, but it was dark since the lights went out," Siana pointed out, using her flashlight as a guide while others relit the candles. Slowly more and more light filled the room, easing some of the nervousness. "It could have been anyone. Although the scream didn't sound like a man, did it?"

To her ears it had sounded high pitched, feminine. And the butler had a rather deep, if somewhat irritating, accent. Or maybe it was her imagination playing tricks.

“It’s all very odd” T’Lanna frowned, “But if we know one thing, it’s how to solve a good old mystery.”

Opening the door to the kitchen, Alex took a moment to take in the scene before letting the door swing closed again. "I think the programme might be malfunctioning," she announced to nobody in particular, pushing the door open to ensure her eyes hadn't been playing tricks. "Unless your kitchen is meant to be right in the middle of a beach..."

Frowning, Siana crossed to the woman's side and peered around the partially open door. Her eyes widened for a moment in surprise before she pulled the door closed and stood to bar the way so nobody else could see. "Apologies, seems maybe there are a few kinks in the programme," she announced, gesturing towards Hamura and her fellow party planners for them to come join her. "Please, help yourself to a last drink and some food and we will get right on this to fix it up and reschedule -"

"Everyone's an adult, they can cope with a beach," Alex whispered.

"I am not letting the captain through that door onto a nudist beach!" Siana hissed, her cheeks scarlet. by the time she turned to face Hamura and the others. "I'm sorry. There must be some issues in the code that didn't show up during the diagnostic. I can totally fix it, but I need the programme to be offline to do it. Sorry guys."

Pippa tugged on her clothing. "Not a problem, I think I will keep this getup in my closet. Anytime you want to play murder mystery again, you know where to find me."

Hamura grinned. "We'll try again." They looked at Siana. "The program is good. Just a few glitches but I have faith when done it will be popular."

Oriana smiled. "Me too."

Mac looked over at Siana. "I could go for a beach. Swim in the ocean might be fun. Why don't we all go?"

“I appreciate the thought but this costume is not for swimming,” Siana replied, her disappointment clear. “Thanks everyone. I’ll iron out the kinks and next time we have some R&R the program will be perfect.”

Taking a deep breath she tried to quell her sadness as she announced, “Computer, end program.”

Mac and Haru were the first to leave followed by Hamura and Oriana. They still had to have their talk.

OFF