"The Nequencia Jinx"

[Cptn Elias Moore 0]

Captain Hard was sitting in Defiant's ready room, looking through his viewport at the growing foundation of what would eventually become Deep Space Three. In the background was Nequencia III. Its resemblance to Earth helped one get over the knowledge that this outpost was farther from the Solar system than any of Starfleet's holdings. But it remained difficult to be completely at ease, what with Romulan space just a few light years away.

 

That close to a potentially hostile superpower, and the project already had a jinx hanging over it. They couldn't even start construction before Achilles was hijacked and his own ship was attacked by Challenger. The incident had nothing to do with the Romulans (it appeared, at least), but the report he'd received from Captain Moore was telling an even stranger story.

 

Further complications were quick to arise when construction began. Either the doctors on Earth or the Challenger survey team had missed something--the colony workers began showing signs of illness just days after the surface excavation began. The illness didn't appear serious--common cold symptoms that only lasted a couple of days--but it was coming and going with an irregularity and a persistence that was confounding the project medics, and they were having trouble isolating it.

 

And now there was this curious "discovery" at the excavation site. The site was under quarantine until the illness ran its course, so Hard couldn't observe the discovery firsthand. Only Captain Moore, as project head, could overrule the medical team's quarantine orders, and he was still on his way back from the Midgar system. Reports from the workers indicated that one of the digs uncovered an opening in the ground. The opening was a perfect square, about eight feet by eight feet, that lead down to a deep shaft. How deep it ran was anyone's guess since scans of the shaft were proving useless. Something around the shaft was clearly dampening the sensors... possibly natural materials in the earth, but with the reports indicating that the walls of the shaft appeared too smooth for it to be a natural formation, nothing could be certain.

 

Hard looked at his chronometer. The new additions to the fleet were scheduled to be arriving in just a few minutes. This next batch was supposed to be a significant one--four Lexington class ships, two Intrepid classes, and even one of the newly completed NX vessels, along with additional personnel and cargo. Their own contingent of ships had doubled as a sort of scout unit, establishing enough of a presence in the system to determine if any unwanted attention would be attracted. So far, the locals, particularly the Romulans, were quiet. Now, the fleet was going to expand as planned. The Admirals intended for Nequencia to be far more than a minimally supported backwater outpost; it was going to be a Starfleet nerve center, in spite of any reservations people had about its proximity to Romulan territory.

 

Hard recently shared the term "Nequencia Jinx" with Commander Dillon. He was a superstitious man, quick to look at any series of pitfalls as a plague of bad luck. Everyone was aware of the importance of this project, and more than a few were uneasy with the knowledge of their mysterious Romulan neighbors. As such, the project was as sensitive as it could get; it simply couldn't afford to be jinxed. This in mind, Hard found himself wondering about Captain Moore, about whether the young CO was capable of leading this project when many back home questioned whether he could even command a ship. Word was Admiral Gardner had recommended him for the job, and Gardner's recommendations could not be taken lightly. But Hard couldn't shake his suspicions about the relationship between Gardner and Moore. Gardner was known to treat the officers he really trusted like his own children... but he treated Moore like an insect destined to be squashed beneath his boot. Was it simply a harder form of parentage for a younger officer with a history of misconduct, or did he really want the kid to fail? *Would* he set the kid up for failure with such a sensitive project? Gardner could be vicious to his enemies, even those within Starfleet, but he was no fool. He had to think Moore was the best man for this job.

 

Hard opened a comm channel from his desk terminal. "Lieutenant Sheffield, gather up the reports we've received from the colony workers and send them to Challenger. The problems at the excavation site are going to fall to our illustrious project leaders."