[Story by Shawn Alpay, Character Art by Thomas Marrone]
PROLOGUE
The ship rocked violently under the force of the looming Klingon battle cruiser. On the bridge, lights were low, and morale was lower. The officer in command picked himself up off from the ground and nursed a freshly-twisted shoulder as the chief medical officer quickly came to his side. “Damage report!”
A nervous ensign scanned the tactical console. “Shields at 23%, sir. Another strike like that and the Enterprise is toast.”
“Damn it all,” the commanding officer muttered. “Patch me through to Captain Kirk.”
Kirk lay in repose in a lavish hall, which stood filled with all manner of art, flora, and stately architecture. A woman in white flowing robes fairly glided across the room to Kirk’s side, placing before him an array of fruits and cheese. Kirk sat up, leaning an elbow on a pillow and grasped for the wine as she sat down by his side. He tilted the bottle slightly towards her. “A refill, my lady?”
She blushed. “Three’s my limit.” Still, she nodded with a coy grin, and he proceeded to fill her cup.
“Now…” Kirk took a deep swig of the wine from the bottle directly, then set it aside, placing his hand on hers for a moment before moving it to the small of her back. “Where were we…? Ah yes – we were about to discuss the specifics of how I might be able to best help your people.”
She giggled. “I’m sure there’s… much to discuss.” She leaned towards him, and he moved his face towards hers, placing a hand behind her head. Suddenly, Kirk’s communicator sprang to life with a whizz and a bleep. He glanced down at it with a furrowed brow and picked it up, swinging it open.
He sighed deeply. “Kirk here.”
“Captain, it’s Mr. Scott. We’re getting murdered up here! We need you to—”
“Scotty, I told you already, I’m engaging in diplomacy with the Nibians right now,” he intoned, with a glance and a smile up to his female companion.
“You can woo the president’s daughter another time, sir. Right now we’ve got—”
“Scotty, just can it. I’ll be up soon. Kirk out.”
He flipped the communicator closed and threw it onto another couch nearby. “Now… no more interruptions.” He placed his arm back around the woman and conjured up as gallant a smile as possible, leaning in once more.
A couple of low beeps then sounded. “Sung to Captain Perkins,” eminated a voice from seemingly everywhere.
Kirk scoffed. “God! Seriously?” He took a moment to restrain his anger, then tapped his communicator. “Perkins here,” he said curtly.
“Sir, do you have a minute? I’m… outside.”
Perkins waited a brief moment, nonplussed, his eyes rolled. “Then… come in.”
“Sir, as usual, you have locked out the external controls for the Holodeck.”
“Ah.” Perkins cleared his throat. “Right.” He sighed, again. “Computer, freeze program and unlock Holodeck door, Perkins theta zero.” The woman at his side froze instantly, and he swung his legs somewhat awkwardly around her and stood to his feet as a rounded door appeared about ten feet away, sliding open. An officer in a red-accented uniform and the rank of Commander entered the hall, his hands behind his back, approaching Perkins as the door slid shut and disappeared behind him.
Perkins straightened out his yellow command shirt with a tug along its hem, then folded his arms, glancing back to the frozen woman, then staring down the Commander, his brow furrowed. “Whaddaya got?”
Sung looked to the woman for a moment, then regarded Perkins. “I…” He cleared his throat. “I wanted to let you know personally that Voyager is missing and presumed lost with all hands in the Badlands earlier today. Sector 04-70.” Sung produced a PADD and handed it over.
Perkins’ brow darkened, his expression turning from annoyance to concern as he perused the information before him. “God. First the Navras, then this? What is this, a conspiracy?”
Sung produced a smile out of empathy more than anything else. “I know you were… friends with the captain of the Navras.”
Perkins turned his gaze up back to Sung, his face wistful. “Damn right I was. Cody’ll be missed by me and by Starfleet.” He looked back down to the PADD. “And Janeway was no slouch either. Damn.”
A few low beeps. “Scotty to Kirk. What’s the holdup?”
Perkins glanced up from the PADD. “Tom, I’m gonna have to call it quits for the day. You guys carry on over there without me. Perkins out.” He waited a beat, then continued, “Computer, transfer control of ‘Expedition Nibia’ to Holodeck 2 and end program.” The large hall immediately transformed to the familiar confines of a black room with yellow squares. Perkins and Sung proceeded to the door and stood in the hall. Perkins continued to read the PADD, and Sung stood at attention, his hands clasped behind his back.
“Still on for picklebacks at The Cup and Saucer at 2100?”
“As long as Lieutenant Lippman and Ensign Spencer have completed brewing that new pickle strain.”
“Captain, the replicator can just as easily—”
“That will be all, Mr. Sung,” Perkins intoned, the corners of his lips just hinting at the beginnings of a smile. Given the circumstances, however, such mirth was easily suppressed.
Sung replied with a curt nod, and they went their separate ways. Perkins ambled down the hall, his focus buried in his PADD. He then stopped, gazing down at the floor. “Computer, location of Yeoman Bukowski.”
“Yeoman Bukowski is in the Astrophysics Laboratory,” the computer duly replied in its prompt, monotonous fashion.
Perkins quirked a brow. “Astrophysics…?” He typed in a few things on the PADD, then made his way to the nearest turbolift.
—
“No way, Ben — it’s not going to work.”
Lieutenant Roodman glanced at her, then back to his console, continuing to key in commands and smiling slightly. “You signed up for this training to HEAR lectures, not give them, Bukowski. Now… put it in like I said — pattern alpha, revision three.”
She huffed with an eyeroll, then keyed in the command. “Okay — simulation started. Process complete in eight minutes.”
The lab door slid open and Perkins entered, approaching them. “Lieutenant,” he muttered, nodding in Roodman’s direction before looking down to Bukowski and her console. He only summoned up the most superficial attempt to comprehend the composition of her console before relenting. “Yeoman… you got a minute?”
She looked up to him, her expression stony. “I’ve got eight.”
“Perfect. Walk with me.”
She stood, giving Roodman an almost gloating look, then proceeded to follow Perkins out of the lab. As they moved down the hall, she looked his outfit over. “Really? Another Kirk holonovel?”
He ignored her. “I’ve been thinking more about what happened to the Navras.”
“Yeah? And that conversation you had with Glenn before the…” She cleared her throat. “Before?”
“Am I that predictable?” He handed her his PADD. “The USS Voyager was lost with all hands today.”
She perused it a brief moment, then looked up to him. “Am I allowed to even—?” She cut herself off, realizing before she was even finished asking about proper security clearance that he would say “Damn the torpedoes!” or something to that effect, and proceeded to read it further. “This says missing… presumed destroyed.”
“Yeah.”
“Just like the Navras.”
“Yeah.”
Bukowski stopped walking alongside him, placing a hand on her hip, the PADD held at her side with the hand opposite. “What are you on about, Captain?”
Perkins turned to face her, angling his open palms towards her. “I want you to lead an effort to compile as much data as possible on Navras and Voyager. Cross-reference the Loma Prieta’s design, crew, and missions. Find similarities.”
Her brow furrowed. “Wait, what? What does that even mean?”
He lowered his voice, concerned a stray ensign might happen by and observe their captain’s weakness. “Something’s not right, Tiffany. Bad things happen in threes, and I’m not interested in the Loma Prieta going ‘missing, presumed destroyed’,” he said, using air-quotes with his fingers. “Call me a worry wart, whatever.”
She glanced down to the PADD a moment, then back to him. “Isn’t this better researched by, I don’t know… anyone on the senior staff?”
“I need it to be you. I’m not interested in sharing the details of the discussion I had with Glenn with anyone else, and that gives you the strongest context to the research effort.”
She took the risk of being informal. “Seriously, Zach — I know you respected him, but the man was bonkers. He’s got you thinking nonsense, and he got his crew killed.”
“Seriously, Yeoman — it’s an order.” Perkins didn’t take the bait, it seemed. “I’ve provided you the necessary clearance; any searches you run in the ship’s computer are fair game for the next 48 hours.” He turned on his heel and trudged off, entering the nearby turbolift. “Deck 7.” He turned to face her, then pointed at the PADD in her hands, his eyebrows raised as the turbolift doors slid closed.
—
Bukowski entered her quarters, settling into the seat at her desk with a sigh. She glanced out the window, watching the stars zoom past for a long moment, before closing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger, exhaling slowly. “Alright,” she breathed, activating her desk console with a few touches.
“Computer,” she said in a measured fashion, “Compile history and design of the USS Loma Prieta, temporary security clearance Bukowski zeta four.” The console came to life, providing some overviews of the ship’s origins, its first shakedown cruise, a picture of its dimensions. She frowned at this. “Computer, I said the Loma Prieta, right?”
“That is correct.”
“Computer, provide detailed construction timeline. List all personnel involved in development and all locations in which parts were fabricated and assembled.”
The console lay blank for a moment before then dutifully proceeding to generate the requested lists. Bukowski scanned this for a few minutes, her face going slowly pale. She stared blankly at the bottom of one of the lists for a long moment. She then tapped her commbadge.
“Bukowski to Captain Perkins.”
“Okay, that was fast.”
“Meet me in my quarters, Captain. You’re not going to like this.”
—
Space… the Final Frontier. These are the continuing voyages of the USS Loma Prieta. Her ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life forms and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.
—
TO BE CONTINUED… STAY TUNED FOR ACT 1, NEXT TUESDAY.
