Winston Chronicles: Qob/Tranquility Universe

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2413

 

Once upon a shuttle....

 

Federation Space: Yridia Sector

 

The Captain, Chief Medical Officer, Chief Engineer and Chief of Security of the USS Deterrence stood beside the vacated Galaxy-Ex Commercial Shuttle in the confines of Shuttlebay one. They had found the shuttle via its emergency beacon drifting away from transit lane used by the company. Upon recovery of what the Senior Staff thought was a routine ship in distress call, everything became clear this call was far from routine.

 

“How’s the pilot doing Doctor” the captain querried as he walked around the cargo shuttle, examining it for the first time.

 

“The patient will live. He sustained no injuries during his ordeal... aside from perhaps his pride: being caught in his sleep cycle when this went down... and a fear of being fired over this,” the Chief Medical officer replied. I’ve had to sedate him to keep him calm.

 

“After what he endured I don’t blame him.... being held hostage and losing his shipment. What was his testimony?” the Captain replied.

 

“Excuse me, Captain, he did not lose his shipment,” the Tellarite CSEC replied.

 

“What?”

 

“Yes sir... Captain... the Gal-Ex manifest checks out with every item on his ship. Nothing from his cargo was stolen, and that included over 500 bars of Gold Pressed Latinum, 40 class one EPS relay terminals, three barrels of bloodwine, 1600 units of....”

 

“Okay.... Okay.” The Captain was a bit irritated wondering if this was just a pilot who fell asleep and or took a personal cruise.

 

“Sir, there was a theft. If I may show you?” The CENG pepped up.

 

The four entered the shuttle through the port hatch and worked themselves to the rear of the shuttle dodging the cargo left on board. The CENG took the lead..and accessed the engine compartment..and showed off what perked his interest.

 

“I don’t see anything,”the Captain pointed out. “Wait you mean to tell me....”

 

The CENG grinned almost. “This pilot had his warp core stolen right from under him. Whoever pulled this off was extremely... talented”

 

“Talented in theft,” the Tellarite CSEC could only reply.

 

“Look Captain, Chief. Whoever did this was no amateur. Most people who even tamper with a Matter-Antimatter assembly end up two ways dead... or severely injured. Note also...” the chief opened a hatch on the bottom of the lower floor of the engineering compartment, “...the anti-matter pods were taken.” Again, this was no simple group of criminals.

 

The Doctor stepped in. “Indeed a simple pirate would have just shot the pilot and made off with the most valuable things quickly. The pilot was rendered unconscious for four days - at least from the blood tests I have done. The drug used was dyproximine-alpha, a common sedative used in emergency sickbay kits in Federation starships for over 50 years until crewmembers began abusing the drug for a guaranteed eight hour sleep without seeing their physician. This abuse of medicine ended with the removal of the drug 30 years ago. Whoever did this gave him a hypo each day... for at least four days... and then left the MRE’s.”

 

The Chief of Security was a bit taken aback by the obvious conclusion. “The perpetrator of the engine theft wanted to the pilot to live.”

 

“That’s right,” the CMO replied. “Not your normal act of piracy these days. He left him food for enough time until we could get here and activated the distress beacon. The pilot told me he did not activate it, it was already on when regained consciousness.”

 

“Very strange case of theft indeed.” The Andorian Captain’s antennae twitched. “But in the eyes of some organizations, antimatter could be used to make a bomb. Blast and this theft probably took place...?”

 

The CMO replied, “A good week ago.”

 

“Captain, I cannot emphasize the skill level involved in removing and transporting an engine and its fuel. We would have detected an explosion if something went wrong,” the CENG added.

 

CSEC replied, “...and nothing of such has been reported in this area sir. Captain, may I recommend an immediate search for a freighter-sized ship carrying the engine.”

 

“Tactical will handle that Chief. I want you to scan this shuttle for DNA and/or anything else out of the ordinary. I will interview the pilot with the Doctor’s help, and then transmit what we have to command. And we better proceed quickly - they have a one week jump on us.” The Andorian Captain turned to exit the shuttlebay with another thought of not enough ships to do the job.