A Quick Update

Posted on 14 Jul 2019 @ 3:03pm by Lieutenant JG Charles Carmichael & Ensign Quinn Mackie

912 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Truth and Justice
Location: Stellar Cartography
Timeline: MD 15 || 1145 hours

“It’s about time.”

Lieutenant Charles Carmichael sat with his back to the only station in the tall Stellar Cartography room and faced the only way in or out of the room.

“Sorry,” Quinn muttered. The door closed behind the operations ensign who quickly walked across the ramp to the platform that kept Carmichael suspended a deck above the floor below. “Lieutenant Parks diverted me to a power fluctuation near the main computer. I almost deferred it to Ensign Araff, but then I realized it was one of my own subroutines causing the trouble.”

“You’re getting sloppy,” Charles remarked nodding at the darkened console. “Djinx would give me a visit of his own if this console is down any longer.”

“Well, when you disable it of your own accord to summon me, that’s the risk you take.” Quinn laid under the console and opened it up. The innards, as per usual, were in perfect operation, as the trained eye would immediately see. This entire situation, however, had been how the two routinely met when they had something to discuss. Until the Kalisan archive, they’d only meet once a week. The frequency had only ramped up in recent weeks, and even more so now that they were within spitting distance of Penduli V. “And yes,” Quinn added, opening his toolkit to get his tricorder, “I’ve manipulated the records again.” Quinn was worried that the number of visits were starting to be noticed. The last thing they all needed was to be discovered now. Their friends, the Boreriri and the Triosian that were rescued from the archive were still confined to quarters and very much under a watchful eye, forcing the two to be sidelined… for now.

“I need an update,” Carmichael pressed, tapping his fingers on top of the console. Today was the day he’d been waiting for since he was rescued by the Black Hawk, along with the rest of the crew from the Vasco da Gama. He’d served on the original Black Hawk, requesting assignment to the Gama in order to study the mysterious barrier around the Finnean Convergence Zone. Finding that probe changed his life forever, putting together pieces to an ancient mystery that led the Black Hawk further and further into the zone. “All I get to see down here is what the sensors tell me.”

“Khan’s on the bridge,” Quinn replied with a frustrated tone, tapping away at the tricorder. “In fact, Geisler picked her to be the one to take us through the minefield.”

Carmichael smiled. “Then she is certainly as talented as you say. Maybe I should have listened to you and turned her sooner.”

Quinn was too smart to reply to that one. He picked up the isolinear phase inverter and continued, “T’pyr is laying low, preparing changes to the environmental controls for the non-essential areas in case we need to control the ship’s population. With us being at yellow alert, pretty much all of the crew is awake, but not everyone is in position. I’ve helped rig the control gauges to hide the anesthizine increases, especially from bridge and engineering view.”

Charles nodded. “And Gomez has secured her place on the away team,” he added. “Though you have more to thank for that than her since you were able to reprogram the replicator remotely and poison Petty Officer Aramm.”

Ensign Mackie grunted, deactivating the phase inverter and traded the tool for the electro-plasma regulator. “Frankly, Charles, there are times I wish you had technical know-how. That way, I wouldn’t have to do all of the dirty work. Kemm in engineering would have been a perfect choice.”

“There’s about a dozen others on this ship I would have picked before T’pyr,” Charles reminded Quinn. “She was not among our candidates at all, but when we hit that quantum filament last month, you know we had to act quickly. Besides, her Vulcan strength will come in handy when the time comes.”

“No need to remind me,” Quinn muttered, deactivating his tool and closing the hatch just before the console came back to life. “Let’s just hope this is the last time we’ll have to do this.”

As Quinn started to stand up, Charles turned back to his controls. “Hang on,” he said, a bit of worry seeping into his voice. “We might have a problem.”

“You over did it with the flux generator, didn’t you?” Quinn said before heaving a heavy sigh.

“No,” Charles muttered. He tapped a few controls and brought up a sensor reading on the projection screen in front of him. “Recognize that?”

Quinn didn’t even have to think, recognizing the rust-colored hull with engine and weapon pods. “A Guardian ship. So what?”

“There’s dozens more inbound,” Charles remarked. “The Black Hawk could probably handle ten to twelve. Maybe twenty with the fighters. You might have to deliver a few more miracles before the day is through.”

Ensign Mackie shrugged. “You focus on getting control of the ship,” he told Carmichael. “Once we have that, all we have to do is punch through the line and make it to the barrier. Khan can do the rest and then there will be nothing to worry about.” In a reassuring action, he placed his hand on Charles’ shoulder. “For Dolmoqour,” he said softly.

Charles smiled and nodded. “For Dolmoqour. May no power in the universe stop us.”

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