A Hearth for the Tree

starfarertheta

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Excerpt //:

...

A new voice seemed to speak distantly. “You sure she’s alright?”

The familiar one, Dajed’s, joins a little nearer. “It sounded worse than it was. Not even a bump on the head from what I can tell.”

“What about her lungs?”

The voices got closer as they spoke.

“Her new lung tissue should be better acclimated now. A nap can do wonders from time to time.”

“She passed out. Then fell on the floor. That's not a nap.”

“Whatever you want to call it, our patient is waking up from it now.”

Avyma’s eyelids feel heavy when they opened. She had a headache now, and she had no idea who two of those voices are. Three new figures are in the med-bay, all stood near her bed. All looking different in their own way...  Were those antennas on the far one? The one closest to her, with black hair and white shoulder pads, began to speak.

“A pleasure to meet you Avyma. I am Captain Meresankh Ruya. To my left is Lieutenant Atocas Tarehn- ship's counselor. To my right is Lieutenant Commander Sh'etoles Tasv- Head of Security. Welcome aboard the Federation Starship Philoxenia."

Avyma isn’t sure what to make of that greeting. Avyma isn't sure what to make of that greeting. It seemed friendly enough but she wasn't willing to drop her guard yet.

...

Link to full chapter here ///

starfarertheta

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Interval I //:

Ensign Dusan Slade wished he could just watch the ships outside Earth Spacedock. Today had something more stressful in mind: a trip to the Admiral's office. Escorting him was Lieutenant Linnea. Aside from a brief exchange at the transporter room on one of the service levels (that they insisted on using for some reason), they walked most of the way in silence. And in the turbolift... more silence. Slade tried to keep his cool, but he had started to fidget a little when they exited the turbolift near the shipyard counter.

"Why am I here?" asked Slade in the entryway to Operations.

"We want your input." said Linnea.

"I barely saw anything."

"And we want to talk about that."

Slade blinked in confusion. "You want to talk about barely anything?"

"From you, yes."

After a resigned "oh", the Ensign started regretting his unprofessional attitude at a time when things weren't exactly going his way.


- - -

Admiral Jorel Quinn's day always seems to start with bad news anymore. Especially when Commander Burgess was in the office. Probably not fair to say of the commander as it was the his job to deal with bad news. Sometimes this news was a first contact incident. Other times it was losing a ship close to home. At least the Orchid was doing well.

"We lost a ship at Pluto?" the Admiral asked quizzically.

"Yes, sir." Said Linnea.

"Do we know where they went?" said the Admiral a bit wishfully.

"We do not, Admiral." said Burgess, the Admiral wasn't the least surprised by this. The Commander continued, "But we have a team working on that now."

"And it was just finishing a refit when this happened?"

"The ship only had a crew of 100 on its test run out to Pluto." began Linnea. "The plan was to drop of a squad of cadets, test some new transceivers, and then return to the San Francisco Yards."

"What happened?"

Linnea and Burgess turned to Ensign Slade, who took a minute to get the obvious hint. Admiral Quinn leaned forward in interest? Or amusement?

"Uh, I-I don't know what I saw," began Slade, "one minute I had clear communications with the Philoxenia. The next there was a terrible noise over comms and something showed up on sensors. And then it was just quiet- no more Philoxenia."

"Uh, I-I don't know what I saw." began Slade, "It was some kind of energy phenomenon. One minute I had clear communications with the Philoxenia. The next there was a terrible noise over comms and there was an anomalous blip on sensors. And then it was just quiet- no more Philoxenia. No remnant of whatever appeared."

"Yes sir, it's loss has distressed its development team. Another prototype is being assembled as we speak. However, it should not be Starfleet policy to lose technology." said Burgess with his effortless seriousness. Nevertheless, the Admiral chuckled a little.

"Never on my watch, Commander." said the Admiral humorously. And then his face grew serious as he sat upright again. "Any suggestions on where we can pull ships from for an investigation, Linnea?"

"Let's see..." said Linnea who consulted her PADD. "We've got a few ships available. Some are considered for the 77th Special Tasks Fleet, some considered for the Proxima Vanguard, and some for Special Reconnaissance. All could be reassigned on short notice. There's always 'The Captain' too." Linnea hands Quinn the PADD who takes it and looks it over with a sigh.

"Well, 'The Captain' would be an excessive response here I think. Good selection as always, Linnea. What ever could we do without you?" said Quinn. Linnea refrained from making the obvious quip- there would be a better moment for it no doubt. "I'll need to think this over." the Admiral continued, "One lost ship is hardly our only concern. We need to be everywhere these days." said Quinn.

"Or everywhen." quipped Linnea with a smile. A loud "shhhh" was heard. Everyone glanced at Crey, who was giving them a curiously severe glare as he slowly turned his head back around to continue his discussion with another officer. Slade was confused by this and no one would explain it to him until he had his own temporal incident.

"Wait, what about the Viminal? They were there when Philoxenia disappeared." asked Slade suddenly.

"Yes they were, Ensign." said Burgess. "Rest assured Captain Ad'Lantana is continuing her investigation as we speak. She has already sent back findings that are... surprising."

"Surprising? What do you mean?" asked Slade.

"It's hard to say right now. It's just surprising." Burgess said.

Slade didn't learn much more about what was going on after that.