Something feels out of place (Part 1)
Posted on Thu Aug 2nd, 2018 @ 7:26am by Ensign Dana Wakefield
Edited on on Thu Aug 2nd, 2018 @ 7:33am
2,247 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Episode 4 - The Sum of Our Parts
Location: Federation Transport Ship
Timeline: MD001 1515 hrs
May 28 2394 1515 hrs (relative time)
Dana’s eyes slowly began to open, but as she tried to focus a splitting pain made her wince. ‘Ouch, my head’ she said out loud as her hands slowly reached her temples and she began to rub. The room still spinning she attempted to sit up.
Slowly adjusting to the situation, she released she was in bed, her vision beginning to clear so looked around her quarters, but they looked strange, bigger, posher, and there were several empty bottles of what looked like wine on the table. ‘That would explain a headache and spinning room’ she thought to herself.
“Computer, coffee, black, extra strong.”
As the computer made the customary acknowledging tone, Dana stumbled out of bed looking for her uniform, she could have sworn she had left it on the floor as she normally did, but it was nowhere to be seen. However, the sound of the replicator springing into action disrupted her chain of thought and she instead homed in onto the coffee.
As she picked up the warm cup, she closed her eyes and took a large inhale of the aroma. Nothing beat a nice cup of coffee first thing in the morning. The pounding in her head, slowly began to subdue, until the sudden loud pitched sound of the door chime, pierced her ear drums.
“Come in.” she snapped, opening her eyes and focusing on the door.
The doors opened and a young man, who barley looked old enough to be in uniform walked in, carrying what seemed to be a pile of PADDs.
“Good morning Ma’am,” he said, going a bright shade of red, before averting his eyes, lowering his head and trying his hardest to look at the floor.
Dana stood there for a minute, trying to make sense of this awkward moment, but then she realised before she ordered the coffee she was looking for her uniform and…looking down at herself, she now released why the young man was turning a nice shade of red.
“Uniform.” She muttered out loud, realising she was stood just in her nightgown.
“Not in the normal place ma’am, this ship has a different layout, so I had to fold them and put them in the draws, second row down, on the left.” The young man replied still tying to look at the floor, but his eyes wandering every now and again.
“Right,” she said, heading off to find the uniform. She was accustomed to having help, after all when she was at home with her parents she had maids and butlers, but did she bring one with her?
Something was not quite right, something was out of place, but she couldn’t comprehend what, her head was still fuzzy, all she could recall was she had recently boarded a ship, which the young man had just confirmed and that it was a new position for her and that was excited for her first mission in her new post.
After about ten minutes Dana emerged from the bathroom area, she had managed to have a quick sonic shower and rather quickly change into her uniform, the young man was still stood there, he hadn’t said a peep. As he glanced up, he almost gave a sigh of relief that he longer had to look at the floor.
“So, you would be…” Dana politely asked.
The smile disappeared from the man’s face, it was like she had just stolen candy from a baby, or had she merely just disappointed him by not recalling who he was.
“I’m Aiden Ma’am, your executive assistant.”
“Sorry Aiden, rough night.” She said eying up the empty wine bottles and dirty plates still on the table.
“I understand Ma’am, I’ll get things cleaned up in here, but right now, you're late for a meeting in the briefing room.” He gently reminded her with a smile.
“Shit.” She said rather loudly “Why didn’t you say…” she said scolding him, before quickly drinking down the last mouthful of coffee while thinking how unprofessional it would look…arriving to her first briefing late, especially on her first mission.
“My apologies Ma’am, but they won’t start without you.” He replied, with a rather puzzled look on his face. Extending his arm towards the door signalling they should indeed get going.
Dana nodded as quickly exited her quarters, until she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, faced with four-armed security personal. She gently turned her head to Aiden, who had nearly bumped into her
“My own personal secuirty detachment…right?” she asked.
Aiden smiled “Of course Ma’am standard protocol when travelling. They go where you go.”
“Thought so.”
The gold uniforms quickly surrounded them, two officers in font and two at the rear, adopting a standard defensive position. As they made the way down the corridor people would stop and get out of the way, a couple of the junior officers’ whispering, like they had never seen anything like it before. After a couple of minutes, the group stopped and the secuirty officer pressed the button to call the turbolift, once it arrived they all walked inside. Dana was about to state the required destination, but Aiden beat her to it.
“Briefing room, deck one.” He stated
The turbolift journey was uneventful, and it had only taken a couple of minutes, as they quickly approached the doors to the briefing room, the lead security officers broke off and took their new positions at the entrance to the doors, ready to defend Dana with their life if needed. The doors opened, and the remainder of the group entered the briefing room.
Aiden quickly walked in front of Dana, before she had the opportunity to speak, he stood to attention and looked around the room, at the see of faces waiting patiently.
“Admiral on deck.” He announced at the top of his voice.
The room immediate got to its feet and stood to attention, her remaining two secuirty officers to up their positions to protect and defend her if needed.
“Admiral Sutherland, it’s a pleasure to have you aboard, I’m Captain Everdeen and it is a pleasure to welcome you aboard.” He said extending his hand for a customary handshake.
Dana phased out for a moment, the Captain had just called her Admiral Sutherland but wasn’t she going to use the name Wakefield for this mission, she was sure she was, after all, no one was meant to know that she was a Sutherland. Suddenly the sound of Aiden coughing snapped her attention back into the room.
“Captain, thank you.” She replied finally reaching for his hand and shaking it, “It’s a pleasure to be aboard, at ease everyone.”
The Captain smiled and signalled for Dana to sit at the head of the table, to which she gracefully did, crossing one leg over the other, the remainder of the senior staff followed her lead and sat after her, as protocol dictated, leaving only the Captain standing. He turned and pressed several buttons on the wall display before it flicked to life and displayed an overview of the sector.
“As you are aware Ma’am, we are currently cloaked as we attempt to get you to the rendezvous point with the Warship Pioneer. However, we had had to slow to warp two to avoid detection by Empok Nor’s long range detection grid, our last detailed scans show the last know positions of enemy vessels.” He paused, allowing the assembled crew time to observe the wall display.
“Empok Nor, I owe a rather repulsive Ferengi who owns a bar there a favour.”, with images of her bartering for something popped into her mind “Zulg, Zorg or something.” Dana said to the look of horror and shock of some of the crew, even the Captain seemed taken aback.
An eerie silence fell over the room, as the Captain straightened his uniform jacket and pressed another button on the display. “We have lost several ships in the area recently, for some unknown reason a high enemy presence has been in the sector, but as I guess as we are still at war with the Dominion and Cardassia, they are still shoring up their borders. The last communication from the Warship Pioneer was somewhere in this sector, which is known to be near an enemy research facility.” He said as a square on the screen began to flash before the display zoomed in and enhanced the area. “As you can see…” Suddenly the white lights dimmed and were replaced by the red lights and siren, as the sound of the internal communications interrupted the Captain.
“Red Alert, three Dominion, Two Breen and several Cardassian Warships approaching our position.”
The room burst back into life, with people rushing out, “Ma’am your welcome to join us on the bridge if you like.” The Captain said, itching to leave the room and join his officers.
“Very well,” Dana replied getting to her feet, her secuirty escort and Aiden quickly surrounding her.
“Captain, the safety of the Admiral is your main priority, no heroics.” Aiden gently reminded him, after all, several Captain’s were itching to even the score against the Dominion after all the Federation had suffered so many casualties in the war, that some people doubted that the Federation would ever get back onto its feet.
A quick displeased glare from the Captain towards Aiden followed before he glanced at the Admiral and nearly shook his head. “Of course.”
--- Main Bridge---
“Report” Captain Everdeen barked as they all entered the Bridge.
“Sir, a large envoy of enemy vessels is approaching our position, we’ve gone to impulse power and reduced our output emissions to lower the risk of detection, but as you are aware the Dominion are becoming more successful at penetrating and detecting cloaked vessels.” Replied the fist officer.
“Captain, they are starting to bombard the area with tachyon scans, they may have picked up a subspace variance while we were at warp.” Informed the operations officer.
“Tactical, prepare to unload everything we have. Helm plot an escape trajectory, prepare to drop the cloak and retreat at maximum warp, we can’t take any chances today.” Barked Everdeen as the tension on the Bridge began to rise.
“Enemy vessels within firing range in thirty-six seconds.” Altered the Tactical Officer.
You could have heard a pin drop as a deadly silence fell across the bridge, only the gentle hum of the red flashing lights could be heard as everyone held their breath, that thirty-sex seconds seemed like an hour, but the silence was soon broken.
“Incoming, enemy fire.” Yelled the tactical officer.
The ship shook, and Dana lunged sideways before Aiden caught her as an explosion detonated rather closely to the ship.
“Drop the cloak, helm get us out of here maximum warp, tactical return fire.” Everdeen barked as a damage report began to come through to his terminal.
“Belay those commands,” Dana shouted as all attention and eyes now focused on her, fingers poised to carry out the Captains orders.
“What the hell are you doing…” Barked the Captain, getting to his feet ready to approach her, however, Dana ’s lead secuirty officer stepped forward, phaser raised.
They haven’t detected us, they are shooting blind, just wait…” she barked back, as she had been hovering behind the Operations Officer reading the data, which oddly made her feel at home.
“More enemy fire, brace for impact.”
But Dana was right, this time the detonation was much further from the ship, she gave a sigh of relief as the Captain gave a reassuring nod in what she interpreted as a vain apology as Everdeen sat back into his chair.
“The admiral is right sir, they seem to be randomly detonating warheads, I don’t think they have detected us.” Replied the Operations as he glanced at the data pouring in.
The random detonations went on for the next thirty minutes, however, nothing came as close as the first explosion.
“Captain, the ships are moving off, they are preparing to go to warp.”
“Well stay put for at least another ten minutes, then take us back on our original course, we need to get the Admiral to the Pioneer.”
Dana gave a sigh of relief, she signalled Aiden with a glance, and he leaned in towards her.
“You will express my disappointment to the Captain at the way he dealt with my objection, I shall retire to my quarters and you can have the rest of the night off, let your hair down, have fun, your only young.” She said with a smile.
Again, the young man blushed, “Yes, Ma’am.”
Dana nodded at her secuirty detail and as she turned and prepared to leave the bridge, she heard the soft tone of Aiden’s voice.
“Captain, a word if I may please, in your ready room.”
A smile crept across her face, normally she would of loved to give a Captain a dressing down, but her headache had returned and something about watching the operations officer made her feel out of place, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
Lieutenant Junior Grade Dana Wakefield
Chief Operations Officer, USS Pioneer
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