- Joined
- Aug 12, 2010
- Messages
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"This is F.E.F.S. Urania, requesting permission for final docking procedure."
Deep in the frontier of Federation space, the research station Fringe 1 lies hidden within a tight cluster of stationary asteroids, obscured from casual scans and visuals by a nebulous cloud. It is not well defended, but its advantage lies in its isolation. Dangerous local hazards make hyperdrive warps to its exact location impossible, and unless one knows to look for it, they will never find it.
"Roger that, Urania. You are cleared for final approach. Commence airlock connection directive alpha."
Sonya Chalice flicked some switches on her helm's controls.
"We are go for docking. Commencing 90 degree starboard attitudinal adjustment. Dorsal thrusters engaged at low." The Urania tilted in space until the bottom of the ship was lined up with the research station's airlock. "Extending airlock tube, connection in 5... 4... 3... 2... touchdown."
There was a small thud, as of the bang of a distant drum, as the two man-made spacecraft docked with one another. Sitting upright in the commander's chair, to the right of Captain Elise Anders, Commander Tai Soude gave a curt nod to Ami Zheng, the logistics officers, and Kenneth Weiss, a marine.
"Got it," muttered Ken, not needing the process explained to him again.
"Be quick about it, we have a schedule to keep," Tai reminded them before turning to the captain. "Once we offload these food and medical supplies, we can set out straight away for Forward Base Epsilon."
"What's the big rush?" Sonya asked. "Something spooking you? These squints out here probably haven't seen anybody new in months. It'd be good just to get a chance to sit down and have some chow with them..."
Meanwhile Ami and Ken had left the bridge and were heading towards the back of the ship, dropping into the mess hall to gather up the rest of the crew who were finishing breakfast.
"Everyone, the unloading will go much quicker if we all pitch in," Ami said. "These scientists have been expecting a resupply for 2 months now and have had to be rationing themselves. Let's not make them wait any longer."
Around the long communal table sat Ausel, Athryn, Tammie, Nicolas, Judith, Rachel, and Odessa.
"Well if they need to eat so bad, what are they doing all the way out here, light years from nowhere?" Tammie grumbled as she moved to get up, taking her empty plate of food into her hands. "I mean, seriously, what's so necessary to hide all the way out here?"
--------------------------
"Tentak neurospore data set 257... negative reaction," the computer's feminine, AI voice chimed in Caitlin's lab. On the camera in front of her, a live camera feed into the containment chamber showed an unresponsive Tentak crawler biding its time, unmoving, in the center of its small pen.
On the floor above her, Caitlin could here a distant knocking. The ventilation on this old station had been placed in such a way so as to negate the sound barriers between her and Dr. Egan Bothwell's work station upstairs. Despite her wishes for solitude, peace, and quiet, Caitlin had been subjected for nine months to Egan's eclectic collection of smooth jazz, synth orchestra, and ages old pop idols from a bygone era. Now was one of his quieter periods of the day, which meant he probably wasn't working. Voices floated through the vent. It sounded like Maria had stopped by his office. Everyone on the station knew that Maria, for gods-knew-what reason, had a thing for Egan, and that he felt the same way, but the two of them were so awkward about talking to the opposite sex it was painful.
"Oh! Maria... ah eh heh... what can I do for you?"
"Mm, oh nothing, nothing. I just came by because I was telling everyone that the new food rations are here. Grant is telling us we can celebrate by splurging a bit on today's lunch. And there'll be new people here too."
"Yes, yes. More military personnel to keep hush hush around. But hey that's great news. I was wondering if the Federation had forgotten about us out here."
"Yikes, knock on wood. You shouldn't say such things, it's bad karma."
"Ah, eh heh heh heh... well, I didn't really mean it. I guess that I shouldn't scare you."
"Oh, I'm not scared. Not of you. Not that you're scary normally or anything. I mean, for a guy whose studying live Tentaks."
"Well, considering we're all in that same business, it wouldn't do for us to get hung up on that sort of thing. The work we all do is important."
"Yes of course...."
"Was there something else, Maria? Something you wanted to say?"
"Oh... oh no. That's all. I didn't mean to pause like that. Silly me. Uh. I'll just go down and tell Caitlin the good news. See you at the dining hall later?"
"Uh yeah, you can bet on it! Ta tah!"
The door closed above and Caitlin heard a deep sigh from Egan. "Ta Tah? Who says that? Idiot. Stupid, stupid, stupid." He shuffled to a spot directly above where Caitlin sat and in a few moments, his music started up again, drowning everything else out.
Knock, knock, knock.
"Caitlin? The food rations came in!"
Deep in the frontier of Federation space, the research station Fringe 1 lies hidden within a tight cluster of stationary asteroids, obscured from casual scans and visuals by a nebulous cloud. It is not well defended, but its advantage lies in its isolation. Dangerous local hazards make hyperdrive warps to its exact location impossible, and unless one knows to look for it, they will never find it.
"Roger that, Urania. You are cleared for final approach. Commence airlock connection directive alpha."
Sonya Chalice flicked some switches on her helm's controls.
"We are go for docking. Commencing 90 degree starboard attitudinal adjustment. Dorsal thrusters engaged at low." The Urania tilted in space until the bottom of the ship was lined up with the research station's airlock. "Extending airlock tube, connection in 5... 4... 3... 2... touchdown."
There was a small thud, as of the bang of a distant drum, as the two man-made spacecraft docked with one another. Sitting upright in the commander's chair, to the right of Captain Elise Anders, Commander Tai Soude gave a curt nod to Ami Zheng, the logistics officers, and Kenneth Weiss, a marine.
"Got it," muttered Ken, not needing the process explained to him again.
"Be quick about it, we have a schedule to keep," Tai reminded them before turning to the captain. "Once we offload these food and medical supplies, we can set out straight away for Forward Base Epsilon."
"What's the big rush?" Sonya asked. "Something spooking you? These squints out here probably haven't seen anybody new in months. It'd be good just to get a chance to sit down and have some chow with them..."
Meanwhile Ami and Ken had left the bridge and were heading towards the back of the ship, dropping into the mess hall to gather up the rest of the crew who were finishing breakfast.
"Everyone, the unloading will go much quicker if we all pitch in," Ami said. "These scientists have been expecting a resupply for 2 months now and have had to be rationing themselves. Let's not make them wait any longer."
Around the long communal table sat Ausel, Athryn, Tammie, Nicolas, Judith, Rachel, and Odessa.
"Well if they need to eat so bad, what are they doing all the way out here, light years from nowhere?" Tammie grumbled as she moved to get up, taking her empty plate of food into her hands. "I mean, seriously, what's so necessary to hide all the way out here?"
--------------------------
"Tentak neurospore data set 257... negative reaction," the computer's feminine, AI voice chimed in Caitlin's lab. On the camera in front of her, a live camera feed into the containment chamber showed an unresponsive Tentak crawler biding its time, unmoving, in the center of its small pen.
On the floor above her, Caitlin could here a distant knocking. The ventilation on this old station had been placed in such a way so as to negate the sound barriers between her and Dr. Egan Bothwell's work station upstairs. Despite her wishes for solitude, peace, and quiet, Caitlin had been subjected for nine months to Egan's eclectic collection of smooth jazz, synth orchestra, and ages old pop idols from a bygone era. Now was one of his quieter periods of the day, which meant he probably wasn't working. Voices floated through the vent. It sounded like Maria had stopped by his office. Everyone on the station knew that Maria, for gods-knew-what reason, had a thing for Egan, and that he felt the same way, but the two of them were so awkward about talking to the opposite sex it was painful.
"Oh! Maria... ah eh heh... what can I do for you?"
"Mm, oh nothing, nothing. I just came by because I was telling everyone that the new food rations are here. Grant is telling us we can celebrate by splurging a bit on today's lunch. And there'll be new people here too."
"Yes, yes. More military personnel to keep hush hush around. But hey that's great news. I was wondering if the Federation had forgotten about us out here."
"Yikes, knock on wood. You shouldn't say such things, it's bad karma."
"Ah, eh heh heh heh... well, I didn't really mean it. I guess that I shouldn't scare you."
"Oh, I'm not scared. Not of you. Not that you're scary normally or anything. I mean, for a guy whose studying live Tentaks."
"Well, considering we're all in that same business, it wouldn't do for us to get hung up on that sort of thing. The work we all do is important."
"Yes of course...."
"Was there something else, Maria? Something you wanted to say?"
"Oh... oh no. That's all. I didn't mean to pause like that. Silly me. Uh. I'll just go down and tell Caitlin the good news. See you at the dining hall later?"
"Uh yeah, you can bet on it! Ta tah!"
The door closed above and Caitlin heard a deep sigh from Egan. "Ta Tah? Who says that? Idiot. Stupid, stupid, stupid." He shuffled to a spot directly above where Caitlin sat and in a few moments, his music started up again, drowning everything else out.
Knock, knock, knock.
"Caitlin? The food rations came in!"