In Juno's Wake

[Annabelle O'Halloran 0]

Yet another attempt at speaking to some of the crew from the Juno had fallen more or less flat. Those who had been evacuated from the ill-fated and rundown freighter were being held in a manner somewhere between patients and prisoners as the Reaent crew tried to determine just what -- and whose fault -- exactly had led to the near catastrophe of their explosive cargo, and Caroline's few abortive conversations had led to little or no further light being shed on the matter. It was rather frustrating but not particularly surprising; the Reaent was not home to those people, nor was it a particularly supportive environment given how close they had all come to being incinerated by the explosion which had now spread radiation across several light years.

 

Caroline pondered the question as she rode the turbolift up from their guests' temporary housing, and could find no immediate new angle to try. It would bear thinking about, but for now she would let the matter rest. Stepping forward as the doors slid open, she moved out into the corridor and, with a few quick steps, walked over to and through the doors of the science labs. "Anna?" she called, looking around for the SCI chief and spotting her inside her office.

 

Anna leaned back in her seat, scowling at the screen in front of her. She was overdue in finishing her report on the Juno. Drumming her fingers on the arm of the chair, she reread the portion wherein she made her case for transporting the triceron from the Juno to the Reaent. Enough time had passed between her suggesting that it would be one way to avoid a precipitous explosion with a yield of over 6000 gigatons and the Captain's eventual refusal to allow it, that the point had become moot anyhow and now, here they sat...babysitting a radiation hotspot. It did sound a bit dicey but when you factored all of the elements in, she was still very certain it would have been safe. Of course, very certain was not absolutely certain. With a mutter, she continued the report.

 

Closer examination after a moment's silence revealed that Anna was thoroughly absorbed in working on a report; Caroline chuckled to herself and lightly tapped the window with her knuckles to get her friend's attention before moving to the office door. "Hey, Anna," she repeated with a smile, poking her head through the doorframe.

 

Looking up, Anna's frown was immediately erased by a smile when she realized who was at the door. "Hey," she answered, waving Caroline forward. "Come on in."

 

"Not interrupting, I hope..." Caroline said, stepping fully through the door and letting it slide shut behind her before moving to take a seat next to the desk. "You look like you're engaged in a battle of wills with your work," she added lightly, gesturing at the console which had been the subject of Anna's scowl.

 

"Hmmm....no not really a battle. Just a little bit of 'what might have been', which by the way, is supposed to be a good morning after exercise but in actuality is rather irritating." Shifting sideways in her chair, she nodded to Caroline, asking, "So, what's up in the realm of mental health? Anyone run amuck? You don't have to name names," Anna teased.

 

Caroline laughed. "Thankfully, no. I'm still trying to get the full picture regarding the people we took aboard, but everything seems to have reached a certain equilibrium, for the moment at least. I think most people are just relieved everyone got back to the ship in good time at this point; I certainly am. As for 'what might have been'...well, I've never been a big proponent of focusing on it but I suppose in the context of a report it's somewhat necessary," she said wryly, leaning back in her chair, almost from force of habit leaving the line of conversation open if Anna wanted to air her frustrations. "The radiation still posing a problem, I take it?"

 

Shrugging, Anna shook her head. "Not really. Nothing was caught in the blast radius and we're staying just outside the area until it dissipates enough to no longer be a threat in case unwary traffic does come anywhere near it. I think it's lucky on a few levels that the Juno was right on the edge of the system when she sent her distress call."

 

Caroline nodded feelingly. "Agreed; from what I understand about the situation, it could have been a lot worse. And you and the others didn't even have to start glowing from the radiation -- though I'm told it was a close thing," she said, grinning to show she was joking. "How are you recovering, by the way? You looked a little green when the teams beamed into the cargo bay."

 

"'A little' is probably an understatement," Anna replied with a grimace of remembrance. "To be honest, I didn't even notice while we were over there, but as soon as we transported back and got in line for decon, it hit me. Debbie said we were right up to the limit for what could be easily treated. I'm surprised the Juno's crew recovered as well as they have--it's a real credit to our Med staff; that ship and crew were treated disgracefully!"

 

"It was. Mr. Lexi seemed rather offended by the fact that it had been allowed to get to that condition," Caroline said dryly. "Sounds like the adrenaline rush was doing its job for you on the Juno; I'm not surprised it hit you like a brick coming back. Yet another stroke of luck...we certainly cut our timing very finely on this one." She cocked her head sideways and then gave Anna a teasing grin. "On the bright side...not a temporal anomaly in sight!"

 

"JJ was?" Anna was momentarily diverted, recalling how quiet the normally ebullient Brython had been after she'd returned to the bridge. "Well, I can certainly empathize with his viewpoint. No vessel should be served that way. That Captain should be thrown in prison for how irresponsibly he's behaved. I'm always surprised by how shortsighted some freight haulers can be. Their entire livelihood is tied up in the health of the ship and yet they don't treat it that way. Bad economics all the way around," Anna muttered.

 

"Laziness and ignorance are unfortunately both traits which are found the quadrant over," Caroline answered with a faint shrug. "And I'm willing to bet one of them was at work here. Either that or they had some sort of economic incentive to lose their ship and shipment. I'm still hoping someone from the crew will be able to make things more clear to me on that score. With such a dramatic explosion at stake, it doesn't seem like something whose motivation should be easy to hide..."

 

"If the engines hadn't been maintained so poorly, or experienced some sort of sudden catastrophe, whatever the reason for their spectacular failure, the triceron, even in its degraded condition, would have held safely in the containment field until the disposal site was reached." Anna tapped her workscreen, pulling up the initial tricorder analysis of the triceron. "It's just unfortunate that this particular shipment was produced explicitly for use in space. If it had been the kind used planetside, it wouldn't have included its own oxidizer and would have been rendered inert without oxygen. Wade's initial plan to decompress the cargo hold would have been effective." She glanced from the screen to Caroline. "Could be it was all just bad luck all the way around. Not necessarily anything more sinister than a drunken CO and a pathologically disinterested chief engineer."

 

Caroline smiled slightly at Anna's downplaying of the situation. "Well, sinister enough to make a hard day's work, at any rate. You and Wade put in a hell of an effort." She leaned forward in her chair preparatory to pushing herself to her feet, and gestured at the console again. "I'll let you get back to work, but I wanted to check in and see how things were progressing...I'll let you know if I learn anything pertinent from the Juno crew."

 

Anna nodded, as she watched Caroline stand up. "I'd be very interested to hear anything that would shed some light on how the Juno came to such an ignominious end. Maybe some of them will talk to you...they'd be dead if it wasn't for Reaent catching that distress call. Some of them may not even realize what exactly it was that happened."

 

"I wouldn't be surprised; those not in engineering or on the bridge at the time were quite possibly just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Caroline said, a little grimly. "In which case they're the luckiest of all of us. At any rate, I'll see what I can do." Turning towards the door, she offered Anna an encouraging smile. "Good luck with your report; don't get too wrapped up in those 'what might have been's."

 

"You're right," Anna agreed, her smile suddenly bright with humor. "There's always tomorrow to worry about."