A Studious Breakfast

Posted on 25 Dec 2016 @ 4:55am by Captain Harvey Geisler

449 words; about a 2 minute read

Mission: Click Three Times
Location: Briefing Room 1
Timeline: MD 11 || 0800 hours

Harvey sat at the head of the table in the briefing room, eating the breakfast Joey had sent to him. For one of the first times in his command, he happily accepted the meal without waiting for some sort of protest from medical or yeoman.

Just that very thought curled his lips. If he’d had a strip of latinum for every time Doctors Kij or Quint or Milo or Yeomans Rasputin or Carter threatened to force him into sickbay to be fed intravenously or some other form of medical leave… Well, he’d have enough to invest in some Ferengi’s half-baked scheme.

Still, he brought some work with him. Little telemetry had returned from the probe. In fact, they’d only received ten minutes worth before a weapons platform vaporized the probe. So far, the asteroid field around Unity looked a lot like the asteroid field they all had come to navigate so well. Someone had taken time to create paths to a central complex by pushing asteroids around, and those paths were fortified with weapon turrets. Harvey could only assume that they were automated as the telemetry didn’t even show any shuttle movement.

The Confederation seemed to have selected a giant asteroid, much like Starbase Unity’s, to construct their base. The probe never got close enough, but it definitely picked up debris in the center of the asteroid field. Sadly, it was nothing that could be identified, but Harvey was certain it wasn’t the Cochrane. The dispersal patterns and the type of debris indicated a massive explosion. Had it been the Cochrane’s warp core -- a warp core breach -- then certainly there would further damage to the asteroid field.

But where was the Cochrane? Why hadn’t they tried to hail them?

And more, importantly, why did the asteroid field seem to be devoid of life? Where were the Confederation ships?

Something wasn’t right.

Harvey tapped the nearby communications controls on the table. “Geisler to bridge.”

=/\= “Bridge,” =/\= replied the officer of the watch.

“Accelerate to maximum warp. Sound red alert,” he ordered. The calculations in his head told him it would shave only an hour or so off their transit time. And, they’d be within sensor range in the next ten minutes. They’d have more opportunity to study the situation then.

=/\= “Acknowledged.” =/\= The channel closed, only to be followed by the klaxons sounding throughout the ship.

Harvey quickly finished his breakfast. Wiping his mouth with the napkin, he tossed it on the finished plate. He grabbed his half-full mug of coffee, took a gulp, and left the room. Soon, it would be time to finish all of this.

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