Speculation or coverup?
Posted on Wed Jan 9th, 2019 @ 2:32am by
Edited on on Wed Jan 9th, 2019 @ 4:02am
1,079 words; about a 5 minute read
Mission:
Episode 5 - It Would Be Their Pleasure
Location: Officer's Mess USS Pioneer
Timeline: MD009 1230 hrs
Richard drew in a deep breath as he walked into the mess. The perpetual smile he typically wore was wearing a little thin after working so many hours in sickbay without a break. He really had no excuse for not stopping earlier but he had thought his labors in the lab were rather important, important enough to miss a meal or two. Now, before he lost his mental sharpness, he decided to get something to eat and in the officer's mess rather than the standard one. Exactly why he was asked to meet Commander Quinn here wasn't exactly clear. He and glanced around with his pale blue eyes. He walked to a table and took a seat.
"Doctor, thanks for joining me. Sorry if I inconvenienced you in anyway, just my day has been filled with meetings, one after another. But I wanted to wrap up all the senior staff meetings today." Quinn said, as he stood up as he watched the good doctor walk over and take a seat. After the doctor took a seat, Quinn took a seat as well.
"No inconvenience at all," Richard said with a smile as the superior officer took a seat. His blue eyes smiled as much as his face happy to be free of the lab for a while, " What can I do for you, Commander Ó Flannagáin"
"As soon as we come off shore leave, I will check into sickbay for a physical, now with that said. I wanted to talk to you about the crews health. After dealing with the anomaly that displaced this crew for the past year, have had any reports of any side affects or noticed anything out the norm?" Quinn asked, as he picked up a bite, allowing Richard a moment to formulate his response.
Richard nodded his understanding of the question and drew in a breath, "I've been rather concerned about that same issue Commander but I can't say There is any pattern that has arisen from the experience." He tilted his head slightly and continued, "that doesn't mean nothing has happened but nothing consistent enough create a cause and effect conclusion." "Have you noticed something I should be aware of?"
"First call me Quinn in a small settings like this, and I have a been noticing small In discrepancies. I have security and intelligence working on collecting all the data from the USS Poineer, over the past year." Quinn started to say, allowing Richard a moment to chime in, if he wanted too.
"So you're looking more at behavior than physical health," Richard nodded and raised an eyebrow, "do you mind sharing what you found?"
"I'm not looking at the crew yet, the ship is what I am looking at. The log formats are all wrong. While you all were away, the USS Pioneer also vanished. But according to the ships logs, it was here in this reality sitting dormant and a drift." Quinn said, finding that hard to believe. The logs showed not only did the crew vanish, so did the ship. "I am concerned for the crew too, hence why I am asking about any adverse affects. A year in an anomaly or this alternate universe phenomenon they experience can have unforeseen side effects. Happy to hear non so far, but the ship seems to have forgot, what happened to her the past year. Or someone or something altered them. I want to find out who and more importantly why?"
"Do you suspect a cover-up?" Richard drew in a breath as he continued to ponder the new information, "that would not surprise me." "Have you considered what our missions were to be for that year?"
"I am just investigating at this stage, a little to early to speculate what exactly happen, the more I dig the more I am discovering. I am meeting with everyone, to answer the question. Trying to figure out what happened to you all and this ship." Quinn said, as he took another bite.
Richard nodded as he listened to the Commander. His pale blue eyes gave a hint of his ponderings, "I'll keep you posted if I notice anything piculiar."
The physician drew in a deep breath, "I know it was hard on me to be away from my family that long and if I had gone into Sodi’onar it probably would have proved fatal."
"Is your family down on the planet?" Quinn felt bad for not knowing the current location of the CMO's family. Typically he liked to be prepared, but he threw this meeting together at the last minute, and most of the crew were occupied with shore leave.
"There on Emok Nor," The Azzian's face broke into a broad grin, "Lei’hallah is the Azzian ambassador and she is currently involved in negotiations that she couldn't get away from, Adibah is assisting her, Fahli’ is having to take care of my daughter quite a bit and with Abigail in school they couldn't get away for the shore leave either."
"Sorry to hear that, hopefully we can get the Pioneer, back to the station soon. Family is very important." Quinn said, feeling a little guilty that Richard's family was not on vacation with him, it made a little more sense why Richard was loosing himself in his work.
Richard smiled, "I do hope so, I really miss my wives and daugher." He nodded, "Quinn, stop by sometime and I can explain the experiment I have going on in the medical lab."
"I would look forward to it, and will take you up on that." Quinn said as they continued to eat for a bit. After about 10 minutes of silence. Quinn stood up, and prepared to shake his hand. "I'll get down to the medical lab as soon as I can, it was great to meet you." Quinn said with his strong accent and firm handshake.
Richard stood as the Commander did and nodded, "pleaser to meet you as well Quinn, I'll see you in Medical shortly." There was a broad smile on his face, one more broad than he normally carried, "oh and thank you for confiding in me."
A Joint Post By
Commander Quinn Ó Flannagáin
Executive Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Commander Richard Ballston M.D. PsyD
Chief Medical Officer/Second Officer, USS Pioneer
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