The Quantum Leap - Part 30

-For Grandma-

“JEEEZ!” Jorgensen shouted at the top of his lungs at the spine-tingling sight of the 7-foot-tall jagged-edged, shaded behemoth standing in the middle of the metal catwalk on the upper level, looking down at a female lieutenant-commander whose uniform insignia indicating an engineering specialization. The light panels under the figure’s two feet were flickering with the last few milliamps in its backup power cells. The surrounding circuitry was damaged, intermittently and erratically interrupting the power flow. The away team realized who the screaming was coming from—

The tall jagged figure looked down with a growl at the female engineer, then snapped and looked at the away team. The flickering light revealed two beady red eyes in the away team’s flashlights, jagged-edged teeth, and a prickly facial structure. The figure snapped back at the engineer as it clutched her uniform jacket’s collar with its right hand—lifting her ten inches off her feet—and raised its left fist as though preparing to strike her down, then the figure growled as a burst of air scattered the engineer’s head of hair and foul-smelling moisture sprayed over her front.

The figure collapsed instantly as the engineer slammed feet-first into the catwalk. She was curious about what sprayed all over her front. She retained her footing, then quickly her balance; stood up, and looked down at the dark figure. Her neck and shoulder were sore from the figure’s sharp grip. The shock of the terrifying moment rattled her to her core. The figure’s fists were bigger than her head—or so they appeared from point-blank-range, as it were, she reminded herself. She retraced her steps before she encountered. .whatever it was. An alien? She wondered. Yeah, probably, she told herself in the back of her mind, trying to consciously process what had just nearly happened to her. The blow could have easily sent her over the handrail and twenty feet straight down before anyone says anything about any injury she could have suffered. Her next question was ‘where did that sharp burst of the air come from?’

Suddenly, twenty shorter figures appeared all throughout engineering. At first, they appeared as severely blurred humanoid distortions in a tactical stance holding something long and seemingly tubular tucked tightly into either their right or left shoulder. The blurring effect was rapidly followed by a crisp outline of tactical—ballistic?—tight-fitting and darkly-colored armor and multiple red dot targeting sights focused on various critical areas of the dark figure’s upper-body. The away team quickly realized they were looking at a Shadow team.

“Alpha-Three to Alpha-One: be advised, the target is down in November-Hotel’s engineering room,” a male voice said directly over a secured comm-link. Two seconds later, Alpha Three responded, “Roger that,” the dark distortion turned to the engineer. “A medical team is on its way. The bridge engineer is going to have internal communications back online in a few minutes. The Admiral has received new orders for this fleet.”

The engineer nodded seemingly hesitantly, “Understood. Thanks,” the dark figure had a severe shoulder wound. The engineer immediately realized the spray was its blood. She was in shock and was trying to hide the fact. Still, she couldn't help but shiver subtly from chills. 

“Captain! Good luck to you and your crew.” he reached for a device on the outside of his left shoulder armor plate. “Standing by.” In three seconds, the Shadows faded into nothingness.

A medical team rushed into the room from an adjacent entrance and began attending to the engineer. Some of the lights in the floor and a few of the overhead lights on both levels of engineering gradually flickered partially on.

Aaen’s mobile beeped. Aaen retrieved it to find Odyssey was hailing him. He answered, “Go ahead,”

“Captain, this is Commander Smith. New Horizon’s secured the docking bay and restored partial main power to this section of their ship. Lieutenant Hayes received a new priority message with updated orders. The away team needs to return to the ship immediately. New Horizon’s security has taken custody of the aliens. We’ve got new orders, sir.”

Aaen’s curiosity had peaked, “Roger that. We’re on our way back. Stand by to verify the priority message’s authenticity, and get the ship ready for launch.”

“Yes, sir,”

The away team returned to Odyssey in ten minutes. Upon returning to the bridge, the away team sat to their stations. Aaen was particularly glad to be sitting back in his chair. He turned around as the message verification process began.

The message’s coding would be compared to a series of red-colored code prints on one-way fiber-optic print locked in a secured case over Jones’ station. The first officer, Aaen, and Sandberg would scan their respective thumbprints on the case’s control panels and speak an authorization code that would be analyzed by the case’s internal computer, then the case’s locks would disengage. They would remove a specific print according to their bridge assignment, then review the codes in order. When they could verify the message’s coding is correct, they were in business.

*****

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