Captain's Assessment

[FredM 0]

Captain's Assessment

Captain's Personal Log

Stardate 0904.24

 

The last of the those claiming to be the missing had entered a turbolift. The transporter room was, now, empty. Normally the transporter chief would have remained on duty, but the engineer had other duties to attend to. After all, they had already been down to half a roster only to have another half of that vanish into thin air. The Reaent had in fact taken some major blows from the Romulans after their unexpected return to the Beta Quadrant. Yet good timing had allowed them to prevail.

 

Or had it?

 

In the midst of the initial processing of those aboard lifepods, several reports had been handed to Michaels. What they said made no sense but were the only facts available.

 

First, what few science officers they had were able to confirm the wreckage sitting one hundred thousand kilometers off the starboard bow was that of a Federation starship. Fact.

 

Second, the wreckage had markings that were suggesting the ship had the name Reaent. Fact.

 

Third, what might be a log buoy had been detected floating near a debris field that clearly looked like the his ship's engineering hull. Fact.

 

Fourth, Fleet Captain Steven Galen from Task Force 8 had indicated receipt of a distress call from the Reaent transmitted with all the proper identification codes and security frequencies about one hour earlier. Fact.

 

Fifth, Task Force 8 had also detected evidence of a massive firefight and multiple detonations consistent with "the destruction of more than one starship of heavy cruiser size." Fact.

 

Sixth, the Reaent currently had twenty-three escape pods sitting in cargo bays and on the fighter deck. They bore markings showing they were from his ship, had time stamps and computer logs to match. The problem was that these lifepods were also still sitting in their berths, showing no records and computer logs backing up the counts. Fact.

 

And perhaps most importantly, the ninety or so officers who had simply vanished into thin air less than thirty minutes ago were the people they had just beamed aboard sitting in the lifepods that were but couldn't be from the Reaent.

 

This left just one simple question: What in the hell was going on?