Face to Probe

Posted on 27 Sep 2017 @ 2:19am by Captain Harvey Geisler

502 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: The Finnean Crisis
Location: Science Lab Six
Timeline: MD 6 || 1500 hours

At last.

Harvey stood alone in Science Lab 6. Though the details from the briefing on Deep Space Nine were still secret, the very presence of this probe was going to start a lot of rumors. Though he’d asked the senior officers to handle this matter privately and personally, he was certain both Commander Djinx and Lieutenant T’Pai would be asking him to bring additional personnel into this project.

For a moment, he thought of Lieutenant Carmichael still locked away in his quarters, held under close guard. He’d never been a suspect in this situation as his testimony lined up with everything on the Vasco da Gama’s security records.

Still, Harvey hadn’t released him. He hadn’t a reason why. Was it for Charles’ own protection?

Or was it for Harvey’s? To keep rumors about this message of impending doom away from the ears of his crew. The ears of people Harvey told himself not to trust.

He was forty-one years old, given at least twenty years of his life to Starfleet, squared off against the Dominion and Consortium, lost the woman he loved, and more. He’d been beaten, bruised, and broken.

But, in this room, he felt a new emotion for the very first time. Fear.

Trust no one. His own words echoed in his mind, reverberating more and more with every bounce.

In the forward torpedo storage bay rested a dozen Class Nine probes. The rusted, pitted two-meter canister sitting precariously on a stand in the center of the dimly lit lab was the hundred-year old self of one of those probes. Its very presence generated that fear that caused Harvey’s joints to tremble.

It meant his destiny was set. It was he who would enter this Convergence Zone, a feat not accomplished by anyone, including the Vasco da Gama who’d been trying for more than a decade. It was he who would uncover the cause of this unknown danger to the Federation.

But it was only the probe that emerged. Why a probe, and not a hundred year old version of the Black Hawk? Why else would he launch a probe, unless there was no other choice? The fate of eight hundred people, including his closest friends, the love of his life, and his unborn children… it all hid behind this simple two-meter canister.

His right hand morphed into a fist. Before he knew it, Harvey raised his fist and quickly brought it down on the probe. Somehow, he managed to catch himself before it actually struck the ancient device. No. Anger was not the solution.

The solution… was inside the zone. Not inside this probe. They had to get in there. He had to get in there. He had to rip destiny’s grip off of their lives. He had to rid themselves of this certainly uncertain future and stop whatever this danger had in store.

And, he had to do it before insanity claimed his own mind.

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