The Smallest Absence Part II
Posted on Sat May 16th, 2026 @ 12:47pm by Captain Marc Kidd & Lieutenant Ezra Van Wijnbergen & Lt JG Adalyn O'Rourke Ph.D.
Edited on on Sat May 16th, 2026 @ 12:49pm
2,477 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
Episode 3 - The One Who Got Away
Location: Counseling Suite - Deck 9 - USS Artemis
Timeline: MD003 1530 hrs
"There is one more person who should be involved moving forward," Ezra said carefully. Upon uttering the words, he felt he might be applying too much pressure at a difficult moment, but held onto the feeling.
Before the Lashley's could respond, Ezra decided to continue.
"She's the chief counselor and a Forensic Psychologist attached to the investigative team. Her work is not interrogative and she does not lead questioning in the way police or security might. Her job is to see through behaviour and patterns, putting them into context." Ezra found himself rubbing his thumbs together as he spoke--a nervous tic.
"How would you feel about meeting my colleague?"
From the moment that Ezra had mentioned what happened Robert knew that a Counselor would be involved in some way. He was not one for counselors, didn't like them. Robert was of the school were you worked out your own problems. However, he took a look at his still sobbing wife and his heart melted. He knew in the instant that his wife would need this more than perhaps anyone. "I think it may help." He stated in an effort to get the help that his wife needed, and perhaps he did too. Even if he refused to admit it.
Ezra nodded solemnly. "I will remain your primary contact," he said, tapping his combadge. "We're ready for you, Adalyn."
A simple chirp of her communications badge was all that Adalyn offered Ezra as acknowledgment of his words. The last thing she wanted was for such a somber moment to be met with anything that sounded routine or perfunctory, even if it was something as ordinary as mere receipt of a message. This was anything but routine or ordinary, and she wouldn’t treat it as such.
Adalyn had been waiting in her office, not far from where the grieving couple were, so she intentionally took a moment to center herself before traversing the short distance between the two offices. Her thoughts briefly shifted to Ezra, whom she knew had just endured watching two people‘s worlds shatter before his eyes. it didn’t matter that he was just the messenger and it didn’t matter that such work was necessary. What was necessary could still steal a piece of one’s soul.
O’Rourke was painfully aware she was not immune to such theft. Just because the universe had already shattered for the Lashley's, it didn’t mean what she said and did next was going to be inconsequential. In fact, because they were much more vulnerable now, Adalyn knew she had to be that much more careful with what came next, ever reminded people often didn’t remember what people said or did in times of trauma, but would remember how others associated with those memories made them feel.
The doors to the nearby office opened with a quiet hiss. Adalyn entered and positioned herself next to Ezra, but she made a point to direct her attention to the Lashley's, not making a point to stare them down, but also making sure to acknowledge them, if only with her eyes to start. She turned in Ezra‘s direction just slightly to make it clear that she would follow his lead as she had promised when they had discussed her addressing the Lashley's for the first time.
Ezra could feel the counseling suite make space for Adalyn as she entered and seated herself. The room was flooded with grief as it searched for untouched edges. It tested the walls and the people within. With her arrival, it gave it someplace else to lean.
He gently tapped Adalyn's knee and rose slowly, having decided to allow his colleague the space to speak with them while he remained nearby on his feet--between them and the door. Not as a barrier but more as a bridge. He placed his hands on the chair he had just vacated.
"Mister and Missus Lashley," he said, his tone moulded into care, "this is Lieutenant Adalyn O'Rourke. She is the Chief Counselor aboard the Artemis and she works closely with the team investigating Peter's death. She is also a Criminal Profiler."
Adalyn nodded in response to Ezra's words and as she seated herself, she made sure to sit forward in the chair and to lean in to close the gap between the grieving parents and herself. They may have been only represented via holograms but that didn't mean small gestures of compassion could be overlooked. "I'm truly sorry to be meeting you both under these circumstances, and I promise to keep this meeting with me as long or as short as you need. If at any point you want to take a break or end our conversation, you need only say so. My only intention in speaking with you now is to introduce myself and to listen to whatever you might want to share about Peter. Things you share can certainly help the entire investigative team get closer to finding answers, but even beyond that, our goal," and here she looked toward Ezra, "and the entire crew's goal, is to never forget who we're doing all of this for."
It was Samantha Lashley that responded. She spoke softly and between tears. "He was our pride and joy. He gained a full scholarship to the colleges on Betazed, even at his young age. That was where he was supposed to be, on Betazed. What the hell was he doing where you found him? When can we have him for a proper burial?"
Adalyn took a beat to ensure the tone and pace of her answers didn't match the understandable urgent energy she was being met with. People in distress didn't need others to match their energy, but rather, someone to steady it. "We don't have a definitive explanation for how Peter came to be where he was found just yet," O'Rourke answered honestly. "To understand the sequence of events and give you real answers, we're going to need some time to get to know your son and examine the evidence to verify a timeline of his activities. That's why talking to people who knew him best, like yourselves, is so helpful. Anything you can offer, even if it's from his past, can give us insight into what drives him and what he values. Those types of clues help us identify avenues to explore in an otherwise perplexing situation."
She paused once more, knowing this next topic was a particularly delicate one. "Our goal is to allow those who knew and loved Peter to mourn him in the ways they value and when." Adalyn let that statement stand. No matter how sincerely intended, some words were too easily forgotten if they were too closely followed by anything else.
After a beat or two, she offered, "It's also fair to say conducting a medical examination of Peter is an important avenue for understanding how he died and identifying anyone responsible. The length of the examination process truly depends on what we find and what we're permitted to do, both as a matter of law and a matter of any cultural or spiritual practices you, as Peter's next of kin, wish us to observe."
Ezra had perked up slightly at the mention of Peter's early acceptance to colleges on Betazed. As a transplanted native of the planet, he knew just how difficult those schools were to simply get into... let alone attend on a full scholarship. Something about this symmetry left him feeling slightly unnerved, but he refused to let it show.
He watched Adalyn as she carefully made a connection with the Lashleys. Watching his colleague in action for the first time was something to behold.
Robert and his wife both leaned back on the couch they sat on. It seemed that the initial shock of losing their son had dissipated for the time being. Comfort was now something they needed, and it seemed they were more than happy to talk about their boy. Robert spoke first. "As for spiritual practices. We have none. We are not religious people, although I guess you can say we follow our own path. I will authorize anything you need in order to catch the bastards that did this." A small amount of anger crept into his voice, Samantha soothed the man with her hand on his arm.
"My boy was a smart one, but not too bright when it came to people. I guess you can say he was book smart, but not street smart. I always told him he was too trusting, but he said you got what you gave to this universe. So, he trusted everyone. When he left for Betazed he was over the moon. Peter loved history and spent hours researching the great houses of Betazed, and the history of the Chalice of Rixx. That was another quirk of his of sorts. He thought that if he was going to study on Betazed, then he better learn everything he could about the people that lived there, their culture. Peter learned the Betazoid language and spoke it fluently." She spoke not as a mother who was grieving but as a mother who was intensely proud of the short but accomplished life her child led.
Adalyn smiled softly as she hung on Robert and Samantha's every word, taking in the tidbits of clues offered inside the expressions of love and pride only family could offer. Peter sounded like a man anyone would be proud to know, and in her ideal universe goodness would only ever be met with goodness. Unfortunately, as they knew, there were any number of people who only knew how to meet goodness with violence and cruelty, and those who knew how to spot those whose goodness would never allow them to see it coming. "He sounds like a man ready to change the universe and someone too loving to be concerned with darkness. Your pride in him is well earned."
O'Rourke had no psionic abilities, but with time and experience, she had come to develop her own ways of noticing emotional shifts in her surroundings. She kept her attention on the Lashleys but her mind's eye on Ezra. She had no visible reason to think anything was amiss, and indeed, the Lashleys would have no obvious reason to think his mind was elsewhere, but she found herself wondering if all was as well as it could be.
Again, the mention of Betazed stirred something deep in Ezra's memory. Suddenly, he was thirteen years old again, standing beneath the vaulted ceiling of a travelling cultural exhibit on Betazed while rain hammered the transparent roof overhead with a steady tattoo. He remembered weaving between scholars and other interested children to get a glimpse of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx--the name itself sent his imagination running wild.
And then, he had finally seen it. A pot. Just a clay vessel no larger than a soup bowl with no less than a dozen museum spotlights trained on it.
Ezra remembered staring at it in complete bewilderment. He had expected radiance and mystery and something special that would have shaken his bones. Instead, it looked like something a tired farmer from a previous century may have kept dried lentils in.
His foster father, Jarlin, had noticed and nearly choked trying not to laugh at the boy's reaction in the middle of the exhibit hall.
"Ah," Jarlin had told him afterward, still smiling. "But that is the trouble with sacred things, Ezra. The older they are, the more ordinary they begin to look."
Suddenly, Peter Lashley not longer felt like some random abstraction assembled from an evidence report. He was not visible in Ezra's mind: a bright boy visiting Betazed with an even brighter future, maybe secretly disappointed at the very old clay pot.
Ezra then looked to Adalyn, then toward Robert and Samantha.
"I think," he said softly, "I would have liked your son."
He straightened himself a little, feeling structure and purpose welling inside him as he stood tall.
Adalyn smiled in Ezra's direction but also mentally noted her own gratitude they were doing this together. Ezra had clearly gone elsewhere in his mind for a moment, and while it wasn't cause for criticism, it solidified her desire to offer him support following the conclusion of their meeting.
"The Artemis isn't an ordinary Federation ship," he continued. "The people assigned here are specialists. There is an entire squad of investigators who descend on crime scenes. There are forensic experts who train other forensic experts. Analysts, profilers--" he nodded toward Adalyn--"counselors, prosecutors. Everyone involved understands exactly what is at stake, Mister and Missus Lashley."
He took a knee before both parents, his voice remaining gentle but with some iron behind it now.
"Peter will not disappear into some file. He won't become a statistic or procedural exercise." Ezra shook his head ever so slightly. "People aboard this ship already know his name and they are carrying it with them."
Ezra stood and exhaled slowly, the sound coming out as a sigh.
"If there are any developments in the investigation, I promise to keep you informed. If you need clarification, support, or simply someone to speak to..." He paused. "You can contact me directly at anytime. Holo-conference or subspace. You will not be navigating this alone--I promise you."
Adalyn remained seated, but offered, "Lieutenant Van Wijnbergen and I will make sure you have access to whatever bereavement care you wish, and if you ever want to speak to me, anytime, you need only make the request through him. We wish to streamline communication as much as possible."
"Thank you. I think for now it would be best if we could have a moment... ...To ourselves. We will answer any and all questions that you have. But I think for now my wife and I need time to digest all this. If that makes sense." Robert spoke. He could see that his wife was near tears again and thought it best for them to grieve and approach this conversation again. "Perhaps contact us tomorrow and we can talk more."
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Ezra Van Wijnbergen
Victim Advocate Counselor, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
Captain Marc Kidd
Commanding Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
Lieutenant Junior Grade Adalyn O'Rourke
Ship's Counselor/Profiler, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
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