Chapter IIa: Absolute Disaster

There's a few seconds pause before he replies: "No brig here, commander. I guess we could lock them in one of the crew quarters or a cargo hold"

"No prisoners, commander!" The communication stops for a moment, then his voice returns: "Ten pirates ready to be beamed into the brig on your command!"

After that, Cass grabs yet another data pad, gives Mezron the conn, and goes into the ready room gesturing for Kendall to follow.

She gestures for Kendall to have a seat, sits at the desk, and records a message for Captain Tulak. The message explains how Cass dealt with Kendall's unexpected arrival, how the gas dispersed into the ship worked as planned, and that they are now in control of the pirate ship. She explains that no prisoners were found aboard the ship, that ten of the 17 pirates are currently in the Potential's brig, and the remainder secured on the pirate ship. She asks Tulak if she wishes to house any of the prisoners on the Antarctica or participate in interrogating them once they are concsious.

Cass hesitates before continuing. "There’s an additional complication here - I no longer trust my acting first officer. What began as seemingly petty attempts to undermine my credibility - such as telling our bridge crew to wear dress uniforms during our meeting - has escalated to what seems to me to be subtly aberrant behavior." Cass describes Darcy's bizarre threat over the comm. "I relieved her of duty pending a medical exam, but they found nothing medically wrong, other than being slightly over the blood alcohol limit, and very angry.

"So while I feel her behavior is 'off' and personally threatening to me, there is no medical support for keeping her relieved of duty. I need an opinion from a ship's counselor to know whether Darcy is truly unsound or merely... not my biggest fan. If we could work out a way for your counselor to examine her, it would be very helpful. As you know, I'm running short at the moment on senior officers available to act as my first officer."

She calls in an ensign and tells her to beam the data pad to the bridge of the Antarctica. Then she turns finally, to Kendall. "Sorry. A lot going on. You were saying?"

Before Kendall can respond, you get interrupted by a loud voice over the comm:
"Medical Emergency - Dr. Zlam to sickbay immediately - Commander Cassano, please come to sickbay - Security to sickbay immediately"

While you are all rushing to sickbay, you receive a message explaining what the emergency is: When the pirates were beamed over into the brig, eight of them were dead and the other two were dying. They have been emergency transported to sickbay and Dr. Belka is doing his best to stabilize them.
When you arrive, sickbay is in chaos, people running around, yelling over each other... A security team is standing watch at the door, Belka is leaning over the motionless body of a man in a cut open Spacefleet Command uniform. You notice Darcy standing at a medical terminal and talking with a nurse that's examining the other person, a woman in civilian clothing.