| |
|
Table of Contents
|
At Outpost Seven, things were still not going well for the young lieutenant. He had a considerable amount of time left on his double-duty schedule, but it wasn't nearly as bad as he thought it would be.
Even sitting in front of the main viewer, he could see 'the light at the end of the tunnel.' It could have been a lot worse. At least nothing permanent was going on his record. There was only about twenty minutes left on this particular double shift. Afterwards, he could have a good supper and get in a little time off before a much needed rest.
Just to make the last few minutes go by faster, he decided to do one last series of readings and scans. Studying the main viewer, he started at the top left and went through his normal procedures. He was stopped by an unexpected movement. It was a distortion. Before he could react, a ship de-cloaked in the center of the screen!
The young officer reached out for the alarm but it was too late, the automatics had done the work for him.
Looking back at the big screen, he was shocked by the ship's configuration. It wasn't like any Romulan ship he had ever seen. In fact, it was a Federation ship! Well, at least, it was part of a Federation ship. It looked like a starship, but there was no primary hull!
The door behind his duty station snapped open and two men stood staring at the sight on the screen.
Chief Harper had a very familiar scowl on his face. "Lieutenant, why are the automatics sounding an alarm that I should not be hearing?"
"But, sir, it appeared out of nowhere!"
Lieutenant Commander Harper was angry and it showed. "Lieutenant, there is no way a Federation ship could activate a proximity alarm. Either it would be detected at a great distance and hailed, or if it did get close enough for visual recognition, the duty officer would deactivate the automatics and notify the station chief, right?" His voice was under control, but very condescending.
Sputtering in frustration, the young man tried to explain, "But... sir, it was... cloaked. It was just there... all of a sudden."
Doc shook his head in disbelief. "Even a pitifully uninformed med-tech like myself knows that the Federation doesn't have cloaked ships. And this one looks crippled at that."
"Have you at least tried to establish contact with them?" Harper looked and sounded as if he had already knew the answer.
"Sorry, sir, no." He turned and activated the comm board. "Outpost Seven to unidentified starship, please respond and identify."
The image of Admiral Hikaru Sulu filled the screen. "Outpost Seven, this is the Starship Enterprise. Have you been in touch with the fleet in the area?"
"No, sir."
"Either we missed the rendezvous or our notification of intentions weren't received." Sulu smiled. "We may be having communications problems. Could you relay a signal for us?"
Turning to the station chief for approval, the young man asked, "Sir?"
"Of course, Admiral. Glad to be of service." Chief Harper was now all smiles. "What is it you want us to send for you?"
"Just four words, 'The Phoenix has risen,' got it?"
"Yes, sir, anything else? You look like you could use some assistance."
"That's all, thank you. Sorry about our unannounced arrival. Enterprise out."
Harper was just about to give his young officer a major chewing out, when the viewer automatically shifted back to an external visual of the Enterprise. Then, quite unexpectedly, the ship shimmered and vanished!
"See?! I told you so!"
|
© 2024 Brad McDonald / U.S.S. Kitty Hawk
Star Trek and all related marks, logos, and characters are solely owned by CBS Studios, Inc. This fan organization
is not endorsed by, sponsored by, nor affiliated with CBS, Paramount Pictures, or any other Star Trek franchise.
|
