“Captain! E-T-A: ten minutes, at present
speed.” the sensor officer announced. The bridge was abuzz with crew members expediently
and precisely performing their ships’ duties. The stars streaked by faster than
Aaen had ever seen for this ship. The fourth series of ship-wide scans were
unrevealing of anything he or the deputy needed to send a ‘welcoming party’ to
investigate. The fifth series was to follow, and Aaen was prepared to record
the readings to be reviewed by the first officer later on. The deputy was
focused on organizing the ship’s complement of security forces, as a
precautionary measure. The Orion’s were notorious for their methods of how they
increase their fleet size. Aaen’s orders were being followed to the letter:
make sure every security officer is heavily armed and on-standby for deployment.
“Very good.” the captain replied.
An
alarm filled the bridge. The long-range communications officer who sat
front-center on the bridge on the bottom-most level scrambled to begin working
on whatever message, or messages had
just come in. Aaen’s skin was already crawling at what his imagination was
telling him might have just developed with the situation. The deputy remained
focused.
The
first officer rushed to the security stations. “Chief, I want regular patrols
of all decks, all rooms, on this ship. I want you to start coordinating that, immediately. If this ship is boarded, I
want our people out looking for them before they show up. Understood?”
Aaen
nodded acknowledgment and noticed the deputy was nearly finished arming and
standing-by the ship’s security personnel.
Decoding whatever message that came through
turned out to be a quick process. The message was immediately rushed to the
first officer who scanned the message, and then sharply handed it to the
captain.
The
look on his face abruptly changed, then he looked up and, concerned, directly ordered,
“Standby to slow to sublight engines!” the look on his face
resembled a frustrated flag-rank officer.
“Freedom and Washington are matching our heading and speed.”
The
security personnel was armed-and-ready. Aaen was now trying to decide on
whether to prioritize securing main engineering, deflector control, sickbay,
or. . .
Another
sensor alert sounded. “Two minutes!”
the sensor officer declared.
Aaen
was feuding with himself for a few more seconds, and then made a decision. “Alright,
deputy, deploy the first wave of security patrols, here, here, and here,” he pointed at a series of
decks on a side-view cutaway of the ship’s technical diagram on the deputy’s
screen, “deploy the second wave to the lower ten decks. Their orders are to
report anything unusual.”
The
deputy acknowledged with a nod and began deploying security.
Another
long-range-message alert. Another message was rushed to the command crew.
The
first officer read the message, and then the captain and first officer spoke to
each other for several seconds as the message was handed to the ambassador. The
ambassador quickly read the message and then entered the conversation. Aaen
couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the look on the ambassador’s face spoke
volumes
“Standby shuttle bays and transporter rooms.”
the captain ordered.
“Security?” the first officer barked.
Aaen
snapped, “Patrols have begun on the upper and lower decks. Security detachments
have not reported back yet.”
“Report
as soon as possible.”
Aaen
turned to his computer and directly replied, “Acknowledged.” then he looked at the deputy, “I’ll take the first
patrol of the bridge, and deck two. Keep running security scans and updating
the security logs. When I come back, you’ll take the next watch.”
The
deputy nodded and pulled his sidearm closer on the desk to him. Aaen was
already marching halfway down the spiral staircase to deck two, vigilantly holding
his rifle low in hand. The barrel was pointed at the ceiling.
A
sensor alert sounded. The sensors officer rapidly read the new external short
and long-range sensor information and then looked at the command crew. The
captain rushed to see what had been detected, and then sharply returned to his
seat and looked at the first officer and mumbled something to him before facing
forward and yelled, “Yellow alert!—Shields
up!”
*****
Steve H. told Jordan Foutin, "You are the next Tom Clancy. You really are a gifted writer."
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