Editing The Sevant Murders (section)

===The Murderer Uncovered, And Captured===

(USS Nimitz - Science Labs - Ensign Richard Collins -  1740)

"Ensign Collins? Richard? Are you OK?" she asked.

Lost in his thoughts, remembering the slick feel of blood on his fingers from only a short time ago, he hadn't noticed that anyone else was in the labs he had just entered. His head jerked to the side, and he noticed a female face. He had seen her before, but he couldn't place the name. 

"I'm fine," he said with an effort. "How are you getting on?" 

He walked over, as smooth as he could, to talk to her. She made a move to type something, then looked up at him. 

"Oh, I'm just running some standard tests," she said casually. "Seeing that Ensign Kalik is so overworked at the moment I thought I'd lend a hand. I used to be stationed here, you know? So I feel at home here. Are you sure you should be on duty?" Louise continued, looking closer at him. "You really don't look well. Can I get you anything?"

Rich looked at her for several moments, she was so cool... What had she just flipped from the screen? A thought chilled him, what if she knew..
What if she was secretly working on evidence that could convict him?

"Excuse me?" she said as she tried to push back on the chair. 

~And now she wants to escape!~

He considered what to do for a couple seconds, weighing in possibilities. He was desperate, he couldn't be caught, not if he wanted his family to live. But, if she were looking at evidence about him, then he was already caught! 

Without any warning at all, he pushed her and the chair into the desk with all of his strength, and heaved away. He broke out running for the door, only to find they were opening already. He tried skidding to a halt, but he had been moving too fast, and be barreled right into a couple armed security guards. 

"No!" he bellowed as he shoved blindly, knocking one of the two surprised people down and the other aside. The yelled after him, but he kept running. He took many shallow, panicked breaths, running blindly down the corridor with people yelling after him to halt. Of course, he didn't want to halt! If he could run forever...

A blue wall suddenly appeared before him, causing him to run head first into the containment field. He fell to the ground, stunned, then immediately got back up and without any reason at all, tried to punch his way through the field. 

Suddenly, he felt a painful stinging sensation in his back, and his legs just gave out from under him. 

~I've failed...~

He lay on the deck, panting, just barely holding on. He heard a female voice say "Ensign Stolev, we have apprehended Ensign Collins, we had to stun him on level one, he tried running."