"Another Perspective."

[FredM 0]

"I have always thought it would be a blessing if each person could be blind and deaf for a few days during his early adult life. Darkness would make him appreciate sight; silence would teach him the joys of sound."

- Helen A. Keller

 

It was simply annoying. There was no other word in any language, on any world, in any universe that could better explain it. Why else would a problem like this continue to happen? More importantly, why was it he had to be the one to fix the problem every single time it happened?

 

Lieutenant Junior Grade Jeremy Dixon was growing tired of this assignment more every day. Whiles his Bolian CO, First Lieutenant Adam Mer, did everything he could to minimize the routine...there was no escaping the routine. Dixon and the other four people he called his ship mates were assigned to the U.S.S. Terian Sun, one of many runabouts in the sector used to maintain the numerous communication and sensor buoys setup within the Federation. This was a blessing and also a curse...definitely more a curse than a blessing.

 

Jeremy had never been one to like life aboard a ship with what seemed like sixteen thousand people on it. Instead, he was content with his job and with the small group of people he got to do it with. They would head out from Starbase 409, spend several weeks checking up on their assigned markers and head back for a week or so of leave before repeating the process. But the routine was starting to get to the human who had been born not more than twenty-four years earlier.

 

This attitude was shared by most on the Terian Sun. The ship itself had been named after a river on Betazed, one none of them had ever seen or heard of before getting this assignment. But now, this runabout was having to return to Marker 3028/8. What annoyed almost all of them is that they'd already visited it when this tour had started three weeks ago. Now, when they had set course to go back to port, Starfleet had again reported the device had stopped functioning. So now they would experience at least a week more of putting up with each other...and Ensign Mackerson's flute playing wasn't getting any better.

 

As the small ship dropped out of warp, First Lieutenant Mer sighed and pointed. "There it is...." Dixon didn't need to hear anything else, standing from his station and walking immediately their cargo transporter. The device itself had not been standard, but installed given the ship's mission. "Get the stupid thing aboard so we can go home...," he muttered under his breath. Several chuckles came from everyone else in the cockpit, ending with Lieutenant Junior Grade Alexandra Thoman announcing they were within range.

 

As the familiar sound of the transporter started, Dixon glanced at Thoman and smiled. The Alpha Centurian smiled and blushed...something Jeremy wasn't all that upset about. After all, he'd only just asked her to go out with him back when they got to Starbase 409. But his thoughts of that future adventure were interrupted about the same time the transport was complete. Mer screamed something Dixon never got to hear before there was silence.

 

Three hours later, the computers aboard the Terian Sun would register another communique from Starbase 409. Starfleet still didn't have contact with the sensor buoy. It was a message no one aboard the runabout was in a condition to read.