Helmsman's Log Stardate 509052.9

[Lt Fabio 0]

NPC Log, Lt Fabio

Stardate 509052.9

USS Manticore NCC 5852

 

Lt Fabio’s console remained ominously silent. Hours had passed with barely a squawk in Romulan space while Manticore sat in a large moon’s polar orbit, dodging Romulan warbirds and waiting for the away team to return from Romulus.

 

The silence and the absence of the senior staff except for Commander Precip, had settled a pall over the entire ship as they waited… and waited… and waited. Hours turned to days, which had turned into a week and then almost two. The window was closing fast, and Lt Fabio prayed that something – anything – would come over the comm soon. Then, without warning, the conn exploded with subspace chatter.

 

Lifting the specially fitted noise-canceling headphones from his ears, Fabio turned to Commander Precip in the command chair, but the Commander’s expression told him he’d already heard it.

 

“What has got them so agitated,” Precip mused. “Maybe they witnessed an illegal craft, or they've been recalled to the Romulan Star System....”

 

“Can't come up with anything definitive, Commander,” Fabio replied, “but I do hear Babylon if that means anything. They’re using an obscure Romulan dialect as well as their encryptions, so it’s difficult to tell.”

 

“Babylon...The Babylon? The Romulans think she's in the Romulan Star system?”

 

Fabio shrugged. “Unknown, sir. But I don't speak that particular dialect of Romulan and the UT isn't much help at the moment. I do know the word Babylon when I hear it. No disrespect, Commander.”

 

Precip turned to Ensign Crystal at the tactical console. “What about the warbird nearest our location?”

 

“The Warbird has ceased scanning our area and has moved to the Romulus star system,” Crystal replied.

 

Fabio replaced his headphones and continued monitoring, not wanting to miss anything, no matter how minute. Another long period of silence ensued until Commander Precip’s thoughts became audible.

 

“Did Starfleet really send in the Babylon? Wolfe is a psycho!”

 

Now that was something Fabio really needed to hear. He knew Wolfe was in some way responsible for Admiral Atragon’s remaining behind on Starbase 9, but since Fabio was second string conn – and sometimes third string – he hadn’t heard any of the particulars. Still, if tales were told around a campfire there was always one about Adrian Wolfe, and usually a story of the blackest side of black ops, sandwiched between tales of Freddie and Jason.

 

An involuntary shudder ran from the back of Fabio’s neck down his spine to his toes. Listening to Romulan chatter seemed a much better idea so he focused all his energy on that, searching for any clue about their missing crew.

 

Suddenly Crystal’s voice topped the Romulan chatter on the conn. “Sir! I have an inbound vessel. A shuttle, approaching us fast! She almost looks like she's going to burn up! Wow! Haven't seen one go this fast before. No sign of weapons lock or scanning beams on us.”

 

Fabio shifted parameters for confirmation. It was exactly what they were looking for, but it was coming in hot and from the wrong direction. Within minutes, several things happened in rapid succession. Manticore’s cloak dropped, an intruder beamed into the ready room, security scrambled to cover the bridge, and, like Santa Claus coming down the chimney, Admiral Atragon appeared at the ready room door.

 

“Good to see security it on its toes,” he said as he pushed past security and looked around, obviously confused. “Where is Captain Sovak?”

 

It took a minute for Commander Precip to gather his wits, but finally he said, “Captain Sovak led the Away team to Romulus sir, with the senior staff, replacing a special operations team sent by Inspector Morris to land on Romulus itself to avert a catastrophic plague.”

 

Fabio replaced his headphones, not so much to tend to business as to not hear the admiral’s reaction when the stuff hit the fan. Try as he might, the conversation still broke through.

 

“Why did we replace their crew?” said the Admiral. “This was their mission; we are just the ferry service.”

 

“Inspector Morris' Special Team died in transit. Sovak took it upon himself to lead an away team to complete the mission.”

 

“With the entire Senior Staff?!!? Is he out of his Vulcan mind?”

 

Fabio cringed, pressing the headphones to his ears with both hands. An explanation and a half later, Fabio found himself plotting a course towards Romulus and wishing he’d taken another career path. Fashion modeling sounded really good right about now.