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[Fanfiction/Humour] The Secret of ESD's Shuttlebay.
jstewart55
Member Posts: 412 Arc User
in Ten Forward
Just why does Quinn keep it off-limits, even to Starfleet's finest?
*
“Sir,” Ashi said, before hesitating. It was atypical behaviour for a Vulcan to not know what to say next, but the matter was rather … delicate.
“Yes, Fleet Admiral?” asked Jorel Quinn, not looking up from the PADD that he was working on. With so many crises developing across the galaxy, it was a wonder he found time to do any paperwork at all these days.
“I have the highest security clearance in the Federation, correct?”
“That’s true,” replied Quinn slowly, not sure where this was going.
“How many times have my crew and I single-handedly saved the entire cosmos? Klingons, Devidians, Romulans, Cardassians, Jem’Hadar, Breen, the Undine, the Iconians, the Sphere Builders, and now even the Hur’q have returned.”
“We’ve kept you rather busy, haven’t we?” the old Trill said with a wan smile. “Do you feel that you haven’t received sufficient credit for your actions?”
“Not at all, sir,” said Ashi with a dismissive wave of her hand. “It’s just … why can’t we go into Earth Spacedock’s shuttlebay?”
“I beg your pardon?” asked Quinn flatly, finally putting his PADD down.
“Any attempt to go into the shuttlebay is met by a security firewall.”
“It’s still under repair after the Undine attack. There are some structural defects that the engineers haven’t gotten around to fixing yet. We don’t want people blithely wandering around in there.”
“I see.”
“You seem unconvinced, Fleet Admiral.”
“It’s a trivial matter, sir. It’s just that I’ve heard some talk about it in Club 47.” Smiling wrly, she added, “Some of the junior officers believe that some deep, dark secret is contained within.”
Quinn laughed. “You can assure those junior officers that there’s nothing of consequence in there, aside from a few loose stembolts.”
With a curt nod, Ashi took her leave. The Balefire was due to depart on a mission to the Gamma Quadrant soon, anyway.
*
Jorel Quinn looked around shiftily; just because it was late didn’t mean that Spacedock wasn’t bustling, but fortunately there were only a few scattered junior officers between him and the shuttlebay. With a stealth borne out of long practice - to say nothing of many lifetimes of experience thanks to his symbiote - he made it there without incident.
Pressing a button on a console, he said, “Override security firewall, authorisation: Quinn-Charlie-Echo-Delta-7.”
“Override confirmed,” the computer said in its purring feminine voice.
Quinn offered a polite nod of greeting to some of the technicians on late-night duty; if they were surprised to see him, they didn’t show it. He reached a flight of stairs and descended down into the unseen innards of the bay.
He smiled to himself. A deep, dark secret. It was true that the shuttlebay was home to something that could not be seen by eyes - human or otherwise - but it was for their own good. It had taken years to track it down after it had been released. Attempts to destroy it had failed, so it had been shot into space for safe-keeping.
Finally, he reached it. Sitting on a plinth was a shiny box with a strange logo of a man with some type of apparatus protruding from the back of his head. Quinn approached cautiously, too many memories of the Borg flooding to mind. In its own way, the contents of the box were as pervasive as anything the Borg could do to organic minds. “What was humanity thinking when they created you?” Quinn said aloud, picking up the box and reading the name of this fiendish object.
“Half-Life 3.”
*
“Sir,” Ashi said, before hesitating. It was atypical behaviour for a Vulcan to not know what to say next, but the matter was rather … delicate.
“Yes, Fleet Admiral?” asked Jorel Quinn, not looking up from the PADD that he was working on. With so many crises developing across the galaxy, it was a wonder he found time to do any paperwork at all these days.
“I have the highest security clearance in the Federation, correct?”
“That’s true,” replied Quinn slowly, not sure where this was going.
“How many times have my crew and I single-handedly saved the entire cosmos? Klingons, Devidians, Romulans, Cardassians, Jem’Hadar, Breen, the Undine, the Iconians, the Sphere Builders, and now even the Hur’q have returned.”
“We’ve kept you rather busy, haven’t we?” the old Trill said with a wan smile. “Do you feel that you haven’t received sufficient credit for your actions?”
“Not at all, sir,” said Ashi with a dismissive wave of her hand. “It’s just … why can’t we go into Earth Spacedock’s shuttlebay?”
“I beg your pardon?” asked Quinn flatly, finally putting his PADD down.
“Any attempt to go into the shuttlebay is met by a security firewall.”
“It’s still under repair after the Undine attack. There are some structural defects that the engineers haven’t gotten around to fixing yet. We don’t want people blithely wandering around in there.”
“I see.”
“You seem unconvinced, Fleet Admiral.”
“It’s a trivial matter, sir. It’s just that I’ve heard some talk about it in Club 47.” Smiling wrly, she added, “Some of the junior officers believe that some deep, dark secret is contained within.”
Quinn laughed. “You can assure those junior officers that there’s nothing of consequence in there, aside from a few loose stembolts.”
With a curt nod, Ashi took her leave. The Balefire was due to depart on a mission to the Gamma Quadrant soon, anyway.
*
Jorel Quinn looked around shiftily; just because it was late didn’t mean that Spacedock wasn’t bustling, but fortunately there were only a few scattered junior officers between him and the shuttlebay. With a stealth borne out of long practice - to say nothing of many lifetimes of experience thanks to his symbiote - he made it there without incident.
Pressing a button on a console, he said, “Override security firewall, authorisation: Quinn-Charlie-Echo-Delta-7.”
“Override confirmed,” the computer said in its purring feminine voice.
Quinn offered a polite nod of greeting to some of the technicians on late-night duty; if they were surprised to see him, they didn’t show it. He reached a flight of stairs and descended down into the unseen innards of the bay.
He smiled to himself. A deep, dark secret. It was true that the shuttlebay was home to something that could not be seen by eyes - human or otherwise - but it was for their own good. It had taken years to track it down after it had been released. Attempts to destroy it had failed, so it had been shot into space for safe-keeping.
Finally, he reached it. Sitting on a plinth was a shiny box with a strange logo of a man with some type of apparatus protruding from the back of his head. Quinn approached cautiously, too many memories of the Borg flooding to mind. In its own way, the contents of the box were as pervasive as anything the Borg could do to organic minds. “What was humanity thinking when they created you?” Quinn said aloud, picking up the box and reading the name of this fiendish object.
“Half-Life 3.”
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"He shall be my finest warrior, this generic man who was forced upon me.
Like a badass I shall make him look, and in the furnace of war I shall forge him.
he shall be of iron will and steely sinew.
In great armour I shall clad him and with the mightiest weapons he shall be armed.
He will be untouched by plague or disease; no sickness shall blight him.
He shall have such tactics, strategies and machines that no foe will best him in battle.
He is my answer to cryptic logic, he is the Defender of my Romulan Crew.
He is Tovan Khev... and he shall know no fear."