Off the Grid

[STSF Jumper 0]

In a contained and confined area such as a space ship, gossip and facts traveled at exactly warp three and counting. Who was sleeping with who, who screwed up, who didn’t get along with one another, where the best coffee was located, and many topics in between.

 

On Fleet Border Patrol vessels, with the smaller and tight-knit crews, news traveled way faster.

 

Ensign Honor-Scar had entered the main lounge on the hanger deck to find at least a dozen pilots together in groups, having the same animated discussion and calling over group to group. She also counted orange jumpsuit clad deck hands intermixed in the crowd, adding to the numbers and the on edge energy pervading the area.

 

The golden furred Cait was usually cocky and brash, entering a room like she owned it. She was no fool however, and her instincts picked up on mild tension in the lounge - something was going on and now was not the time for hijinks.

 

Briefing reports from the command staff had hinted that something was hinky with the atmosphere of Epsilon Scorpi Four, and transporters were affected. Wireless communications and news transmissions remained unaffected, and regular news broadcasts had been streaming constantly from the planet below. Her attention was diverted to one of the two flat screen monitors that dominated the room, and the ‘breaking news’ hinted that something was going down on Wei.

 

She gave a playful paw swipe to a patrol buddy, a blue skinned Andorian male recently assigned a permanent slot with one of the EC Tomcat squads. “Yo, Shiran what’s the word?”

 

The tall humanoid turned his attention towards the shorter feline. “The word is that the Hobbes and the entire senior staff dropped off the Epsilon Scorpi grid.”

 

She flipped an ear back. “Well, that’s not good. They were on route for that big diplomacy thing, right?”

 

He nodded, his forehead antenna accentuating the movement. “Bridge FOPS and TAC were tracking the shuttle, and then Bam – nothing.”

 

“Shir, don’t use ‘Bam’...Bam! implies large explosions. So, what, the Hobbes just went off the grid, just like that?”

 

“Bridge communications has a direct communications line with the planetary government; the Amadacia and Doman leaders are aware that something happened, and joint rescue teams have supposedly been launched. Details are still sketchy.”

 

Both of Honor-Scar’s ears went flat against her head. “Well-” She spread her paws in a gesture that encompassed the entire lounge, “-shouldn’t we be suiting up? Or at least get someone on the Mule to deploy some Security grunts to the planet’s surface?”

 

He looked sheepish, his antenna sagging slightly. “We already tried to get a launch time. Duty Officer gave orders for us to stay put for now…it’s not our jurisdiction. I can understand though; we still don’t know what happened, so why risk more personnel? We go in all hot, and the Wei government considers that an invasion of their territory.

 

It was a blunt assessment, but you needed to consider the source; the Andorians had military logic down cold – no pun intended, since the species originated from an ice ball of a planet.

 

Jumper didn’t agree with the assessment though, military logic aside. She growled, punctuating her words. “No offense there Blue Boy, but I’d go in fighters blazing and diplomacy purview be damned.”

 

Shiran snorted good naturedly. “And that is why you are not in charge Fuzzy.”

 

She play-swatted at him again, and then both ensigns turned their attention back to the live news feed from Epsilon Scorpi.

 

= = = =

EC - Electronic Countermeasures

FOPS - Flight Operations

TAC - Tactical