Episode 73
Chapter Six
Alan Christopher was tired.
Though he
almost always had some sort of problem to deal with, Christopher was
hard-pressed to find a time when sleeping was among those myriad
quagmires. In fact, he had long
considered sleeping to be among his best skills—able to do it in a moment’s
notice without so much as a second of hesitation. But in recent nights, Christopher found himself lying awake in
bed beside Erin Keller, staring into the dark abyss that was their quarters.
At first,
Christopher could ignore his body’s cries for sleep. As a Ka’Tulan, he didn’t need a full eight hours of rest each
night—in fact, he could get along just fine with four or five hours. But as the days dragged on, Christopher’s
energy reserves had begun to dwindle, and as he sat at the head of the table in
the conference lounge, it was finally evident that he was reaching the end of
the line. Tonight, he would have to
sleep—one way or another.
But before he
could even think about sleeping, Christopher had to get through yet another day
in the exotic globular cluster known simply as GSC-2374-E. And that day started with the daily staff
meeting.
“The hull
breaches on decks five, ten and eleven have nearly been repaired,” said
Lieutenant Bator as the meeting began.
Christopher
nodded attentively. Though any
hull breach concerned him, the one on deck five was of particular interest,
simply because the Mandroth had drilled into the hull to gain access to the Starlight. “Have your security teams found anything on
deck five?”
The Phobian
shook his head. “No,” he stated. “It would appear the Mandroth retreated
before they were able to board us.”
That was
perhaps the first piece of good news Christopher had heard in days. With memories of last year’s Garidian
incident still fresh in his mind, Christopher knew the last thing he
wanted was to hunt down some manic aliens on his own starship. It was bad enough to be invaded near
Federation territory; Christopher couldn’t begin to imagine what would happen
if the ship was to fall 80,000 light-years from home.
“Shields have
been restored to eighty-four percent,” Bator promptly continued. “By my estimate, they should be back up to
full strength by the end of the day.”
Though
Christopher thought the analysis reasonable, he could see Matthew Harrison
shifting uncomfortably in his seat.
Clearly, the commander wanted the shields back at their full capacity a
bit sooner; Matthew had been opposed to joining with General Kron’s fleet from
the beginning, and once he saw Garidians in the mix, he immediately expected an
attack. Christopher, however, saw no
such dangers, and decided to disregard Harrison’s concerns yet again.
“The
engineering outlook isn’t nearly as bright,” Jayla Trinn reported a moment
later—and everything about the young Trill seemed to support her
statement. Black soot smudged her face
in several places; her hair was a bit of a mess, and her communicator was
terribly crooked. She must have been up
all night, Christopher surmised.
And then he
chuckled faintly. At least he wasn’t
the only one… “Can we at least maintain
warp?” he asked.
She
nodded. “Yes. The warp engines are almost fully functional. But the transwarp manifold has been completely
destroyed—and we’re fresh out of transwarp coils, so it doesn’t really matter
if I can repair the manifold or not.”
“Unless we have
a run-in with the Borg,” Erin Keller quipped.
“Well,” said
Christopher lightly, “I’m not too keen about stealing transwarp coils from the
Borg.”
“I am doubtful
we will even have a rendezvous with the Collective,” Harrison added, though his
tone was rather serious—as usual. And
with that part of the conversation done and over with, Harrison quickly moved
on to the next piece of business.
“…What do we know of the whereabouts of Commander Tompkins?”
Bator’s stoic
face immediately turned grim. “We have
searched the Starlight several times,” he said. “Commander Tompkins is not on board.”
Jayla Trinn
expelled a weary sigh. “The last time I
saw him, he had just been clobbered by part of a bulkhead in main
engineering. We were under attack at
the time, and it took me at least thirty seconds to reach him. But by the time I got there, he was
gone. I thought he might have headed up
to sickbay—but with the ship falling apart all around us, I didn’t really have
time to think about it.”
“Well if he did
set out for sickbay,” Sarah Hartman promptly continued, “he never made it
there.”
“I am in the
process of reviewing the sensor logs,” said Bator, “but so far, I have been
unable to discern anything out of the ordinary.”
Christopher
expelled a weary sigh. “So in the
meantime, we can only begin to wonder where the heck he is. Lovely…”
He paused for a long moment—and nearly considered cutting the meeting
short—before moving ahead to the final thing on the agenda. “According to our Garidian friends, no
Federation starship has survived in this region of space for more than a couple
of weeks. Apparently, our ideals are
not compatible with… anything that goes on around here. It’s pretty much every
man for himself.”
“Though the
Garidians are far from trustworthy,” Harrison quickly interjected. “It is possible they had the other
Federation starships destroyed, and their crews executed.”
Suddenly,
Christopher wished that he had indeed ended the meeting when he had his chance…
because things were about to get ugly.
“Well, I have invited delegates from several vessels—including the
Garidians—to come and visit the Starlight. Hopefully we can solidify our relationship, and remove any
distrust between us…”
Harrison
frowned. “The last time the Garidians visited
the ship, it was nearly destroyed,” he stated.
“I do not believe this to be a wise course of action.”
Christopher
clenched his teeth. “And I do not
believe this is up for discussion,” he said.
“We need allies—and save General Kron—the Garidians are the only ones
who have bothered to talk with us. If
they prove themselves untrustworthy, we will toss them out the nearest
airlock. But until that time comes… We
are to treat them as allies. Am I
clear?”
Harrison forced
a smile to his face. “Crystal.”
“Lucas.” The voice was dejected—a totally ethereal
entity that seemed to dance around Tompkins’ mind with relative ease. “Lucas Tompkins.”
It was not a
voice that Tompkins recognized. It was
a voice without gender, without definition.
It was just there, in his mind, haunting him. He tried to open his eyes to stare down the mysterious speaker
behind this voice, but he could not. His
eyes disobeyed every last command he willed them to complete, much like every
other muscle in his body.
“Lucas
Tompkins,” said the voice again. “My
name is Setzer Umari. Can you hear me?”
Suddenly, as if
by divine intervention, Tompkins could feel his lips begin to part. A few precious words danced through his
chaotic mind, and moments later, he could hear himself speak them—and he
sounded like hell. “Yes,” he rasped. “I hear you.”
“Good,” said
the voice. Its soothing quality was
almost enough to make Tompkins forget about the thousands of other questions
brewing in the back of his mind.
Almost.
“Where… am I?”
Tompkins heard himself ask a moment later.
It was not the question he had hoped to ask, but it was better than
nothing.
“You are here,”
the voice enigmatically assured him.
“And where is
here?”
Setzer Umari
produced a faint chuckle. “So many
questions,” s/he mused. “You need your
rest, Lucas Tompkins. The road ahead is
long and arduous.”
With his senses
gradually coming back to him, Tompkins was quickly growing tired of Setzer
Umari’s little game. He no longer
desired those enigmatic, soothing responses.
He wanted answers—and he wanted them now. “I am well rested,” he assured his
companion. “Now answer my questions.”
“I cannot do
that,” said Setzer Umari—and the voice suddenly grew stern, it’s ethereal
qualities quickly falling by the wayside.
And on that
note, Tompkins no longer felt soothed by his mysterious companion. Tired of playing games, he gathered his
thoughts and forced his mind into focus.
He commanded his hands to move—and they complied. He commanded his toes to wiggle—and they
complied. He commanded his eyes to
open—and he suddenly stared at the face of the enemy…
“The Yelss…”