Mystery of the Severed Hand

SPACE DATE 2236.037

It seems that we’ve got ourselves a little mystery here onboard the Remarkable, and at the worst possible time too. Cdr. Powell discovered a severed human hand sitting in a pool of blood outside the ship’s galley this morning, and all this while the Kreesian diplomatic delegation is on board! Dr. Rena wanted to run some stupid genome tests on the blood pool to find out whose blood it was, but I had ordered it all mopped up before the diplomats saw it. Besides, I told her, we don’t need to go through all that scientific mumbo-jumbo to identify the former owner of that button-pushing appendage. We’ll just do a roll-call of the entire crew, and find out who’s missing (or who reports for roll-call missing a hand), and bingo! Unfortunately, following the roll-call, all of my crew is present and accounted for, and every one of them still has all the limbs that they had since the previous roll-call. It’s quite a mystery!

Now, Dr. Rena has a new theory – she says that according to their profile, the Kreesians are experts in the science of cloning, and they’re known to be devoted meat-eaters. She theorizes that the Kreesian diplomats cloned a member of the crew, and either devoured the clone, or else they ate the crew member and set the clone loose to report for roll-call. She suggests I bring the question up with the Kreesians tonight at the formal state dinner I’ve invited them to. It’s probably going to be an awkward night, especially during the fruit salad course.