An Alarming Matter

Posted on 23 Apr 2026 @ 2:04am by Captain Harvey Geisler & Lieutenant JG Quinn Mackie & Commander Madelina Barnes & Commander Camila Di Pasquale & Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler & Lieutenant Commander Kennedy Monroe M.D. & Lieutenant Ranul Frex & Lieutenant T’Mari Rael & Lieutenant Daynah Ral & Lieutenant JG Tevik & Lieutenant JG Kelly Khan

2,830 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Acceleration
Location: USS Black Hawk, Various
Timeline: February 8, 2391|| 1730 hours

Quinn sighed. As an ensign, he'd gotten quite used to handling menial roles and duties. Little had been off-limits. Extracting waste from the holodeck, purging isolinear relays. getting a fresh bag of Wilkins coffee beans from the cargo bay for the Bolian chef...

What he hadn't expected upon returning to the Black Hawk after being away was being relegated to Beta shift. He'd been used to Alpha for so long, always working alongside the Captain and the senior staff. There was the one time that he'd been turned into a meat puppet and forced to watch an alien organism manipulate the crew while trying to free its species from a isolation. In fact, Quinn had to wonder if being assigned to Beta Shift was the Captain punishing him for those antics even though they transpired two years ago.

No, that really couldn't have been the case. Captain Geisler was as stand-up as they come. After all, the Captain had once given the love of his life (Quinn's life, not the Captain's life) one of his own pips (the Captain's pips, Quinn was a cadet and didn't have pips yet) as part of a promotion to Acting Ensign. The Captain had issued several positive remarks and praise for a job well done to Quinn in the past.

The lieutenant shook his head and tried not to sigh again. Beta Shift woes aside, Quinn found himself simply amazed at the task at hand, and not in a good way. While the Fighter Squadron was off the ship, the Maintenance Chief had left behind quite a bit of work to be done, including cleaning up and reconfiguring the Squadron Operations station on the bridge. It wouldn't be so bad, but the station was at the front of the bridge right next to the helm. Someone's eyes were always facing forward, and that meant Quinn felt like there was always someone watching him.

"I swear no one ever used this thing," Quinn remarked, trying to shrug off the feeling. "Every time I open one of these submenus it's asking to set up preferences. Like, what do you mean pilot vitals were never set up to be monitored up here?"

Being very near him and dear to him was the love of his life, one Lieutenant JG Kelly Khan. She smiled as she listened to the love of her life and had to remind herself that they were indeed on the bridge of the Black Hawk, regardless of shift. "I'm right here and I happen to be very vital," she said, hoping it was said low enough to only carry to him.

Quinn began to laugh, but somehow managed to reign it back to a muted chuckle. "You, my dear, are the most vital of them all," he said softly back to her.

Kelly gave him a cheeky grin and waggled her eyebrows. "I have to keep you on your toes, Tiger."


===[Tevik’s Quarters]===

T’Mari was spending her off duty time helping Tevik to unpack and organise. Since his arrival onboard she’d finally come to realise that she did indeed have feelings for him. Now they could finally get their relationship on it’s feet.

Tevik found having T'Mari in his life to be quite enjoyable. It was nice to have someone to talk to, to confide in and it eased any loneliness he may have been feeling from other assignments.


===[Firing Range]===

She was off duty, but Commander Di Pasquale, the ombre haired Chief of Security was putting herself through the paces with her phaser training. She currently had it set at level seven and was rolling, firing, dodging incoming stun blasts behind blast shields and taking out one after another. It felt good to unwind when off duty, even if it was keeping her training in top shape.


===[Captain's Quarters]===

The living room of the Captain’s quarters glowed with the soft amber of the overhead lamps, and curled up on the couch, Joey held an oversized storybook open across her lap, its pages fanned like wings. Her twin toddlers pressed in close on either side—Jameson absently twirling a lock of her hair, while Alison clutched her stuffed rabbit and bear as if they were a lifeline.

At her feet, Rico and Pequeno lay sprawled in a lazy heap, ears flicking every time she shifted into a new character voice. And she committed—a gravelly growl for the grumpy troll, a high, fluttery trill for the woodland sprite, and a dramatic, overly serious baritone for the knight who absolutely took himself too seriously.

The toddlers dissolved into giggles each time she changed voices, leaning into her, their laughter ringing off the polished metal walls. Even the dogs seemed to listen, heads lifting whenever she hit a particularly theatrical line.

For a moment, the ship felt less like a vessel cutting through the void and more like a home—warm, lived‑in, and full of small, perfect stories.

Off to the side, the ever working Captain Geisler sat at the desk, sifting through one of many reports from the day. It'd only been a few days since his demotion, and somehow the workload hadn't changed. No longer did he receive updates from the Task Group. Instead, he'd been receiving briefing packets from Gamma Command. None of it was required reading, at least not explicitly declared. Its true purpose was obvious, to expand Harvey's mindset of the strange new worlds and phenomena that the Gamma Quadrant had to offer.

Not that he or his crew needed any reminders.


===[Bridge]===

Frex was working away on the bridge and making sure everything was going smoothly. Engineering had been quiet that day and Frex knew better than to voice that out loud. As soon as he would say quiet, everything would go rolling downhill from there. So, he just worked some more and hummed to himself a little bit.

At the front of the bridge, Quinn grinned at Kelly's comment about being kept on his toes. Just as he was about to respond, his console chirped. He recognized the particular set of sounds as activity on a communications channel. If he hadn't been running a diagnostic on the ship's comm array to ensure that direct communications with the fighters was still properly functioning, he wouldn't have noticed it.

"Um," he announced aloud, unsure of who was in command of the bridge that moment. Normally for Beta Shift, it would be the Executive Officer, but Quinn did not take the opportunity to turn around and visually verify. "Looks like there's a distress call coming in. Starfleet frequency."

Maddy stepped onto the bridge just in time to hear Quinn’s uncertain announcement, the soft hiss of the doors closing behind her drawing only a few glances. She took in her surroundings quickly—Frex at his station, Kelly near the front, Quinn half‑turned toward the command area with that look that said he’d stumbled onto something important.

She crossed to the center of the bridge with purpose, eyes fixed on the young man. “Lieutenant Mackie,” she began. “Let’s not keep a distress call waiting. Put it through”

"Aye Commander," Quinn said, his spine suddenly straightening once he realized he was now the center of attention. Better impress the new XO... He tapped a button to play the distress call through the bridge's speakers.

Instantly, a high-pitched shrill that wavered as if someone was speaking violated the eardrums of everyone on the bridge. Quinn recoiled, immediately slamming his palm on the mute button. "Standby!" he called out, much louder than he needed to. With a few taps, he analyzed the signal. "That's..." he said in a normal tone, "...that's a proper signal. There's no gain or enhancement or distortion. That shrill is exactly as it should be."

Daynah was at the Science station on the Bridge. At the moment there was nothing that needed her true attention. The sensors were green across the board and there was nothing to note on them. When the distress call came in she lifted her head. Now this was something she thought.

Maddy flinched at the piercing shrill along with everyone else, jaw tightening as the sound cut off. She exhaled slowly through her nose, regaining her composure as Quinn worked the console. “That was no ordinary distress call,” she said, stepping closer to his station. Her eyes flicked to the waveform dancing across his display.

“If that’s the unmodified signal…” she murmured, more to herself than anyone else, “…then someone out there is trying very hard to be heard.”

She straightened, her voice carrying across the bridge.

“Lieutenant Mackie, isolate the pattern and run it through the universal translator. See if it can make sense of the structure. If not, send it to Science," she said, then turned slightly toward Daynah at the science station. “Lieutenant Ral, prepare to analyze the signal’s origin and composition. I want to know if this is biological, mechanical, or something in between.”

Quinn did his best to comply with the order. With his console still being rebuilt and reconfigured to handle squadron operations, he only had so many tools at his disposal. "The universal translator isn't being too helpful," he said with a sigh, "at least with what limited controls I have. Lieutenant Ral, sending it all over to you now..."

"I have it now. Scanning." Daynah worked her console, this was something that was more than interesting. So interesting that it had both Daynah and Ral interested. "This signal is definitely Starfleet in origin. However, the universal translator cannot recognize the language. The closest it can come up with Tholian and even then nothing translates. The signal is not altered, or distorted. What we are hearing is the original transmission."

Kelly wanted to cover her ears at the unearthly screeching sound, but wanted to hear any orders from the Commander. She kept her hands on the console as she tried to interpret what she was hearing as anything but noise without a pattern.

Frex was trying to work through whatever they were listening to. He looked over the comms system to make sure that what they were hearing wasn't a malfunction within the system itself. Frex looked back at the XO and said, "It's definitely not a comms problem. The comms systems are working within their tolerances."

"Commander," Quinn called out from the forward station. While he may not have been able to do much with the transmission, he could at least verify the source. "I've pinpointed the source of the transmission. USS Tiburon, Saber-class, on assignment at Nebula G87-4M. I have a solid fix on its transponder, but I'm not picking up on any conclusive telemetry from it."

Maddy nodded once, sharply, as Quinn delivered the report. “Good work, Lieutenant,” she said as she stepped toward the center of the bridge, hands clasped behind her back as she considered the implications. A Starfleet vessel broadcasting a distress call with no telemetry… that was never a good sign.

“We’ll have to investigate in person,” she announced, her voice carrying the weight of decision across the bridge. “If the Tiburon is in trouble, we’re the closest ship in range to respond.”

She turned toward the helm. “Lieutenant Khan,” she called, “set a course for Nebula G87‑4M and the Tiburon. Maximum warp.”

"Maximum warp, understood," Kelly responded as she entered the coordinates for the nebula and engaged the warp drive to maximum.

Daynah activated the long range sensors. She wanted to get as many scans as she could right now. She knew that once they were in the vicinity of the nebula the sensors would be unreliable at best.


===[Tevik’s Quarters]===

T’Mari paused as she folded up an empty box, sensing the change in emotions coming from those on the bridge. “Something must have happened, there’s quite a change in emotions.”

Tevik paused in his putting up clothes and turned back to T'Mari. "A change in emotions? Are you able to sense more? Is there apprehension? Concern or uncertainty?"

T’Mari nodded. “All of it, a jumble of heightened emotions. I would go and see what’s wrong but I don’t want to tread on any toes when it might not need it.”

"A logical approach. I would suggest you continue to monitor the emotions of the bridge crew and see if they change and then you can form a more informed decision." Tevik answered.

T’Mari nodded. “A logical suggestion” she smiled. “I’ll do that while I finish off helping you with those last two boxes.”

Tevik looked at her, "Is it not? I meant it as a compliment to you and your thought process. I apologize if I upset you."

“Why would you have upset me?” T’Mari asked. “I didn’t mean to sound like I was cross with you, I was just trying to compliment your logic.” She smiled.

"You did nothing wrong and I did not think you were cross with me.. Thank you for the compliment." Tevik answered though he did not smile, his eyes held a smile in them for T'Mari.


=== [Dr. Kennedy Monroe’s Quarters] ===

Kennedy was enjoying a quiet dinner in her quarters, and some pleasure reading. Today’s offering was a mystery novel so engrossing she jumped when the com interrupted her thoughts.

“Sickbay to Dr. Monroe. The latest bridge update indicates we’re investigating a distress call of some sort. We don’t have too many particulars yet and we may not be needed, but I know you asked to be kept informed if any of the bridge reports suggest our services may be called upon.“

Kennedy smiled and stood, pressing her combadge, recognizing the voice of one of her senior nurses. She had been with Kennedy for any number of situations in which they’ve been caught off guard and were scrambling from moment to moment to take care of the distressed and injured. “Understood. Make sure the triage team is notified just in case and let me know when you know more.”

“With any luck, I hope I’ll get that opportunity before the ship starts shaking or exploding this time,“ the nurse replied, the sarcasm obvious.

“You and me both,“ Kennedy replied with a chuckle. She closed the channel, sighed, and forced herself to get back to her reading. She couldn’t stay on edge around the clock for something that might not be anything at all, but she couldn’t be unprepared either. For now, however, the only mystery she was required to investigate was detailed in the PADD in front of her.


===[Geisler's Quarters]===

If Harvey hadn't been facing the window, he wouldn't have noticed that the ship had changed directions and increased its speed. The inertial dampeners were doing a fine job of keeping the ship's movements rather fluid and undetectable. Still, the change in course was enough for him to sit up in his chair and tap his badge. "Geisler to bridge. What's our status?"

“Bridge here, Captain,” Maddy answered, tapping her own badge as she stepped toward the command chair. “We’ve intercepted a Starfleet‑encoded distress call originating from the USS Tiburon in Nebula G87-4M. The signal’s authentic, but there’s no telemetry accompanying it.”

She glanced toward the forward stations, watching the crew work. “We’ve set course to investigate. ETA is forthcoming. We’ll update you as soon as we have more.”

Harvey's eyes shot across the room to Joey. Distress calls were never good, especially the first the Black Hawk had received since being placed on convoy duty several months ago. Was it sad, Harvey wondered, that he found himself somewhat excited by the notion? "Keep me updated, Commander. As soon as we're in range, I'll come up to the bridge."

“Acknowledged, Captain,” Maddy replied, her voice crisp but steady. “We’ll keep you updated as the situation develops. I’ll notify you the moment we’re within sensor range of the Tiburon.” She closed the channel and turned her attention back to the bridge, already preparing the next steps.

Joey met Harvey’s eyes, her stomach tightening even as she forced a calm expression for the twins’ sake. They were happily absorbed in their toys, blissfully unaware of the shift in the room’s energy.

She swallowed hard.

“Should I… activate the holo‑nanny?” she asked. “And get into uniform? I feel like I should be ready.”

Harvey shook his head, reaching down to straighten his uniform. "If it's a distress call from the Tiburon, it's likely they're just having engine trouble from the nebula's gases. But you and I both know... the Gamma Quadrant is always full of surprises."

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