Youth is Wasted on the Young

Posted on Mon Sep 23rd, 2024 @ 3:42pm by Captain Malcom Llwyedd & Warrant Officer Arlan Harlan
Edited on on Fri Oct 18th, 2024 @ 11:10pm

1,115 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Interlude 1 Gamma Quadrant
Location: DS18 Promenade
Timeline: tbd

[ON]

Harlan was excited for the first time in ages. Truman had appeared. Truman! The only one who might share a classic grumble about things. It was about darn time. People had begun to forget what a menace Harlan's demeanor could be. He needed someone like Truman to help exercise the old muscles. The message to come alone was always a bit troubling, but it was probably just so that no non-ironsides would interrupt their banter.

After a few minutes of trudging through corridors, and the occasional turbolift, he arrived at the designated area. "Truman, where are you? Don't leave a fellow in the dark."

Truman had chosen the upper ring on the third platform of DS18 for a reason. He knew that the sensors in the area weren't working. He knew that because he'd disconnected them himself. He gripped the phaser in one hand and looked out at someone he didn't recognize. No time to waste though. He stepped out into the dim light that was provided by a few overhead lamps. Most had been destroyed in the recent attacks,

"Who the hell are you?" Truman growled. "And what have you done with Harlan?"

Harlan wanted to growl right back. "I'm me, you old goat. I had an encounter during an adventure, and now I'm in my youth again. Could anyone but the real Harlan grumble back at you like this?"

"Yes," Truman said. He raised the phaser a little in case he needed a snapshot. "I know a lot of old bastards that can grumble like that. Old people grumble about everything. Tell me something that only Harlan would know or I'm going to plug you and throw your body over the side." The burly engineer tensed his muscles, waiting to see what would happen. He really hoped it was Harlan but he couldn't figure out how it was possible.

"Grrr, you don't tell me what you brought me here for, I'll regret saving your butt from that radiation event a while back. Then we will have a problem because I'm a busy man despite not being chief engineer anymore."

The mention of the radiation incident, something that Truman had never told anyone was confirmation that, despite what he looked like, this was indeed Arlan Harlan.

"They took away your Chief of Engineering role?!" Truman yelled, lowering the phaser and tucking it away. "How the hell did that happen?"

Harlan winced for a moment. "No need to shout. My ears work a lot better than they used to. But to answer your question, the captain made the call to have someone new lead the department. It's probably for the best, considering the adjustments this new body is causing. I haven't been at the top of my game lately. Perhaps it is even time to consider retiring from the fleet to relive a life once spent among the stars."

"Bah, but enough about my situation," Harlan continued. "What did you call me here for with this cloak-and-dagger routine?"

"Right, right," Truman said, stepping closer to Harlan. "You're the only person I can really trust. See, I been noticing strange stuff on the station. After those invaders were put in their place, I thought I could get back to fixing what they broke, and things would go back to normal." Truman looked around, his eyes narrowing. "Harlan," he said in a low voice. "There are some invisible people on this station.

Harlan cocked an eyebrow at Truman; he was never much for raising eyebrows, only lowering them, but it was a new thing for a new Harlan.

"Invisible, huh? How did you reach that conclusion? Are you seeing things walk off on their own? How about odd or wavy silhouettes like from an old science fiction movie? What exactly is giving you this impression?"

"The other day I was down in the sub-section of deck 45. It's got a lot of power conduits and that annoying Ops officer, Lieutenant Woodhouse, was trying to figure out some big power drain and he wanted me to crawl to tarnation and back. What could I do? So I went and crawled around for a couple hours. Didn't find anything in the conduits. But when I was about to pull the grate off to get back into the corridor, I heard some weird voices. Then I saw the two biggest, ugliest white scaly guys creeping up the hallway. I was planning to jump out and hit them with my wrench but then, they just shimmered and disappeared. To make matters worse, I've seen that shimmering around at other places," Truman said.

Harlan puzzled over this for a minute. "White and scaly...can't think of which species that might be without seeing them. Throw in the addition of single-person cloaking tech, and it's a mystery for sure."

"So, what should we do? What makes me the best person to help find the culprits?"

"I trust you," Truman said. "That's what matters most. I want you to get out and about on the station and start making note if you see any of those shimmers I'm talking about. Once we have some real evidence, you can get us into see Captain Llwyedd. He seems like a steady fellow and will hear me out," Truman said.

"Eh, sounds good enough. I'll keep a notepad with me for such occurrences. Maybe I'll even ask the science department to give me a hand recalibrating a tricorder by saying I'm going tube diving and need an extra set of digital eyes. Could be just what we need to get a real silhouette, you know?" Harlan thought further after he voiced his idea.

"Maybe we should meet in, what, a week of standard time? See if anything has tripped either of our triggers? How long are you sticking around?"

Truman shrugged. "I'm assigned here for the duration, assuming those alien creeps don't come back again and blow us to smithereens," Truman said. "Yeah, let's meet up again in a week. Same place. Same time."

Harlan nodded. "Sounds good. Give me a day to put some equipment together and start wandering around. Should be a fun distraction as my job duties change."

"Anything else happening? Or are we done here for now?" Harlan asked.

Truman shook his head. "No. Be careful and I'll see you in a week." And with that, Truman slid back into the shadows, leaving Harlan standing alone.

[OFF]

Warrant Officer Arlan Harlan
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298

Chief Petty Officer Stanley Truman (NPC by Llwyedd)
Engineer
DS18

 

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