Setting the bodies on the stretchers, Yuuka began her autopsy.
"Bodies have arrived - one Neelaa male, one Neelaa female."
Examining the male, LeCartier shook his head. The male Neelaa's face was practically smashed in, and the rest of him was bent and bloodied and a variety of ways.
"Severe trauma - if I had to guess, it looks like this one died in the crash," he said, his report being recorded by his PERCOMD. "Good God, any more and he would have been a stain on the wall."
Motioning for Mitchell to turn the body over, LeCartier's observations were confirmed.
"Cause-of-death for Neelaa male: severe trauma suffered likely when the ship crashed," Yuuka recorded. "There's not much else to see here. Moving onto the female body."
Already, Colin and Nicole were examining it. The female body was in somewhat better condition than the male, but not by much. The body was just as beat up.
"I'm seeing several broken bones. The whole damn ribcage's practically shattered." Colin reported, using a scanner to look at internal injuries. "I've also got a fracture along the back of the skull..."
Yuuka examined the body alongside Colin.
"Looks like something big and heavy struck her across the chest and threw her on her back, and he must have hit the back of her head against the ground when she landed."
"So there was a fight inside the ship?" LeCartier hypothesized. "Possible mutiny? Someone throws a really big punch to her chest?"
Colin shook his head.
"Unlikely, considering how the Neelaa operate. Adherence to their Order means mutinies on ships would be rare. Even so, the size and severity of the injuries to the ribcage is too large and the direction of the injuries doesn't look like any melee strike."
Colin then pulled out his PERCOMD and quickly checked over some images on the USNS database. He stopped at a picture of a recovered bulkhead from a Neelaa vessel.
"It looks roughly the congruent to the wound," Yuuka commented as she looked between the picture and the chest.
"So a bulkhead falls on her, crushes her ribcage, and in knocking her back, she cracks open the back of her skull on the ground?" LeCartier wondered, piecing together the details.
"Exactly," Colin replied. "The bulkhead probably collapsed both lungs and did a number on her internal organs - she would have died soon after. Bulkhead probably got loose when the ship crashed."
Yuuka noted cause-of-death in her report. She then noticed something odd with her scanner.
"There's something lodged in her chest. Mitchell, if you may...?"
Yuuka motioned Mitchell to rip open the tattered uniform. There was an ugly lateral gnash along the chest.
"Scapel."
Nicole handed Yuuka her scalpel. She then slowly started cutting, opening up the gnash.
"Rib spreader."
Colin handed Yuuka the rib spreader. Using it, she opened up the gnash.
She then found herself staring at a small glowing object buried deep inside the chest. Yuuka lifted it out with a pair of forceps. It was small, barely the size of her thumb, but it glowed a brilliant green.
"What the hell's that?" Colin was bewildered, as were the others.
"Interesting" she commented. She then took a picture of it with her PERCOMD and sent the image to the people searching the ship.
"Doctor Fallax, Adel, or anybody on the ship - have you seen any materials similar to this? We found it inside one of the bodies, and we would appreciate it if you can identify it for us."