by Dabin Reece
90503.2000
After The Messengers
-=Bridge, USS Serendipity=-
90503.2000
After The Messengers
-=Bridge, USS Serendipity=-
Normally, when a ship reached its destination, it was standard procedure for the helmsperson to announce such to the Captain, and await orders to stop the ship. Since Zanh Liis was already at the helm for their arrival at the Zenith’s last known coordinates, the middleman was essentially cut out.
She dropped the ship out of warp, and half turned towards the rear of the bridge to call out to Reece, at the Science station.
“Anything Reece?”
“I’m lookin’, just give me a second. Ah! There they are.”
Keiran saw it too from his station at tactical, and anticipated the Captain’s next request, placing the Zenith on screen. The ship was drifting, in reverse, at one hundred kilometers per hour, exactly as it had been when Nicholas Lassiter had ordered the ship to back away slowly from the anomaly it had encountered.
“Any sign of damage?”
Reece targeted the scanners, combing the Zenith from bow to stern. Try as he might he couldn’t find any outward signs that would indicated battle scars of any sort. “I don’t see anything wrong. Heck, Captain, I don’t see anything period.”
Liis mentally cringed at Reece’s use of the word Captain, as this generally meant Reece believed the gravity of the situation didn’t warrant the use of any sort of humor or nicknames like “Liisy.” Such instances in her years of knowing Dabin Reece were rare, and unpleasant.
“No damage outside or inside. I don’t detect any life signs either,” Reece continued.
“Hail them,” Liis ordered.
Sue Tenney opened a channel, waited several moments, but received no reply. There was no need to report the fact since everyone on the bridge was listening intently for a reply that never came. She shook her head at the Captain just to make it official.
Liis turned back to the screen.
“If it helps at all,” Reece volunteered, “No life signs, but no organic signs of any kind, living or dead. It is like they just disappeared.”
Zanh looked at Tryst for confirmation. “I sense nothing from out there, Captain. Perhaps this region of space is interfering with my abilities, but I can sense our own crew perfectly.”
Zanh got up from the helm, frustration obvious on her face with Reece’s report. “People don’t just disappear,” she declared. As soon as she said so she saw Keiran flinch in her peripheral vision. It was a slight enough motion that Zanh Liis O’Sullivan was the only one who could notice it. The kind of thing only those who have been partners, in ever sense of the word, would notice.
People indeed did just disappear, and the pain of years of living with it would haunt you, even if they came back.
She responded to his motion exactly as he would have wished her to, by pretending she hadn’t even seen it, and going on about issuing orders to her crew.
“I want to know where they went, and I want to know now. Pull everything. Ship logs, sensor records, propulsion logs, medical files, communication reports, transporter and weapons usage. Anything that can give us a clue. Salvek, you’ll coordinate the Away Team from the Zenith. First thing I want you to do is bring that ship to a stop.”
Salvek called off the list of personnel he would need to begin searching the Zenith for clues. “Reece, Tryst, O’Sullivan, Dengar, Hartcort. Ensign Lassiter. Commander, assemble security teams to search the ship deck by deck for clues.”
“Aye, Sir,” Keiran replied, having already anticipated Salvek’s order as well, a security team was heading for the transporter room as they spoke. “An’a’one else?”
Zanh and O”Sullivan exchanged a glance, as Keiran’s eyes subtly indicated Dane Cristiane, who was standing at the back of the bridge, just arrived, wearing an absolutely plaintive look on his face as he saw what was on the screen before them.
Zanh nodded slowly, giving her approval..
“Mister Cristiane, you’ll be with us.” O’Sullivan added.
Dane did not speak, for fear of changing their minds, other than to say “Yes, Sir.”
“Commander Salvek?” Reece began, clearing his throat nervously. “I think it would be better if I monitored things from here. Ryn can fill in just fine for me.”
“I’m ready,” Ryn spoke up from the secondary science station beside Reece. She was anxious to get off the ship for an Away mission, and Reece’s desire to stay opened the door for her.
Salvek looked to Zanh for an okay. The Captain nodded, and Salvek gave his consent for Ryn to join the others amassing near the turbolift.
Reece figured everyone knew his real desire to stay had little to do with his ability to monitor progress from the Sera and everything to do with wishing to not be far from February, when her due date was drawing so near. Still he offered the decent on the record excuse for the sake of the bridge crew.
Zanh knew his true reason for wishing to stay, just as she was sure everyone knew she wished to be one of the ones to go.
Sitting on the Sera’s comfortable bridge while others were where the excitement was, was contrary to every impulse in her mind. Not that running a tricorder around an empty ship and looking through logs was particularly exciting, especially when facing the possibility an entire ship’s crew was lost forever. But it was far more invigorating then sitting in the Captain’s chair waiting for a report.
She just wanted to get her hands dirty.
Salvek left the bridge with his team, and several junior officers arrived to fill the vacated positions. Reece returned to his scans, which were no more informative now then they had been moments before.
“Any idea what they were backing away from?” Zanh asked to try and break the silence of the suddenly very empty feeling bridge.
Reece followed the ion train from their engines, to the point it had originated from. “A lot of distortions here Captain. I see why they call it the Mixing Pot. I’m not reading anything at their point of origin, but the way space and subspace are twisting around each other ahead, there could have been something there at some point.”
Reece was not kidding about “up ahead.” Zanh was glad they found the Zenith when and where they had, because every kilometer deeper into this space they traveled, the more confused sensors and the helm became. Much farther and they may have encountered the same catastrophic forces that quite possibly were responsible for the disappearance of the Zenith crew.
Zanh stared at the screen and dug her nails into the armrests of her new chair as she waited for Salvek to signal they had arrived. She wanted to do something. Just sitting here doing nothing made her feel utterly useless.
[Salvek to Zanh.]
“Go ahead,” She snapped quickly, making it obvious she had been waiting on his call.
[Transport to the Zenith bridge was successful. Doctor Hartcort is not detecting any known contaminates in the atmosphere of the ship. We are beginning our investigation.]
“Let me know as soon as you find anything.”
[Of course, Captain. Salvek out.]
**********
Dabin Reece
Chief Science Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Dabin Reece
Chief Science Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012