The Fruits of Our Labour

[Tachyon 0]

“The Fruits of Our Labour”

Stardate 0602.28

Lieutenant Arthur Dent

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Dent stopped at his quarters to grab a change or two of clothes. Before he left, he noticed a message. It was from Tristan—as Dent obsessed with work over the past few days, and the mystery of the Archer, he had sorely forgotten to give his uncle that tour of the station he had promised. Dent frowned and told Tristan that it would have to wait until he returned. The Pandora's Box was leaving in less than half an hour.

 

The ship looked ready for departure when he arrived on its bridge, having stowed his baggage in what would be his quarters for the duration of the voyage. He looked around the command centre. After more than a year on the station, he could only recall being on the Pandora's Box twice or so, and now he was on it again in less than a month. He liked it; it was a nice ship. It reminded him a bit of why he preferred the stability of station life, though.

 

Dent went to the ops console and checked systems status to make sure everything was ready. He wasn't really anticipating any problems, but he hoped that the mission would be fruitful. The major problem in the investigation was that of time. They were dealing with debris that could be years old—and those years of exposure to other objects, radiation, even perhaps people, could have done any number of things to the debris that would interfere with scans. They didn't know if the ship had been destroyed in that system, or if someone had brought the debris there. There were so many mysteries, and Dent felt like he was trying to do a puzzle with several of the pieces missing.