Continued Mystery

[Shane 0]

"They’ve turned up nothing.”

 

Sighing slowly, Shane shook his head in frustration, “What did we expect?”

 

His uncle James stared back at him from through the view screen in his quarters, his eyes looking tired and worried, “I still can’t believe that you think a Starfleet officer is involved in this.”

 

“How else can we explain what happened to Wade and I on the station? Or the Federation vessel that was docked there before we came?”

 

James was silent for several moments, and then looked down at his desk, “I don’t know.”

 

Shane leaned back in his chair, his shoulders sagging in defeat. After the incident at his father’s station had occurred several weeks ago, he had almost immediately contacted his uncle. James was stationed aboard the USS Galaxy, which was set to arrive in system within a week at the time. Even though the younger Tayjer had been reluctant to contact Starfleet because of his suspicions, James had urged him to do so. His uncle had pointed out the impossibilities of keeping this kind of incident a secret, especially in the Sol System.

 

Starfleet immediately closed off the area, keeping even James and Shane out. They questioned him and gathered all the data he had found, along with his shuttle, the Firehawk. The investigators told him that they would handle it and get back to them when they found something. James stayed in the Sol System, using his leave days to stay behind and take care of any of issues that would be coming up with the investigation and the disappearance of his parents.

 

Shane received no news for a couple of weeks. In the meantime he tried to concentrate on his new position, hoping to distract himself with its duties and the new project they were starting. But it was becoming more and more difficult. Then his uncle contacted him today. “What suspects have they come up with?”

 

James held up a padd in front of him, reading from the report, “They suspect the Tram Crime Syndicate.”

 

“That’s ridiculous! The Syndicate has never been seen in the Sol System. What would they want with a salvage yard anyways?”

 

“Shane,” His uncle said, setting padd back down, “I don’t know. I’m just reading what they told me.” He paused, as if thinking about what he was going to say next. “From what I can tell, they’re going to close the case for now until more evidence can be found. So we’re not going to find out anything more for a while. The station is remaining closed off, as evidence.”

 

Shane remained silent in anger, staring at James. He didn’t know what to say or think anymore. Nothing was being done to find them, no progress was being made. He was tired of it.

 

After a few moment of quiet, James sighed and reached up to close the channel. “I’ll contact you if anything else comes up.” The screen turned black.

 

The young engineer sat in his chair, the frustration building up inside of him. With a snap of his metal arm, he hit the screen and broke it off the desk, sending it shattering against the wall of his quarters. He stood up and moved to the viewport of his room, leaning against the slopping bulkhead and staring out into space. What was he to do now? He couldn’t just leave the Reaent and go looking for them. He wouldn’t even know where to start looking and his father wouldn’t want him to abandon his position.

 

The chrono on his desk beeped the hour. Shane sighed and turned to the door. He needed to get back to Main Engineering to continue to analyze the data from the Nimbus III station. He began walking to the doors when a thought came to him. Moving to a closet, he found a duffel bag and pulled an isolinear chip out of it. It contained a copy of data from the salvage yard station and his shuttle. Taking it with him, he left the room headed for Main Engineering.