Reaching Out

Posted on Fri Jun 9th, 2023 @ 6:26am by Captain Malcom Llwyedd & Warrant Officer Arlan Harlan

1,016 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: A Long Hard Road Ahead
Location: USS Firebird - En Route to Bajoran Wormhole
Timeline: 23 August, 2396, 1100 Hours

[ON]

Harlan was on the turbolift following the staff meeting when his combadge chirped at him.

"Chief Harlan, this is Lopt. Uhh... I've got a strange message coming in on a tertiary coms channel. The channel is labeled Ironside, which I don't understand. I also don't understand why it is routed to engineering instead of the bridge. What should I do?"

Harlan looked up from his PADD. "Huynh? What's that Lopt? Oh, Ironsides, right. Put that through. Usually means someone like me is trying to reach me. Don't worry about it otherwise."

"Uhh... ok, chief. Patching it through to you!" Lopt said. There was an unusual popping sound over the comms line, followed by a whining sound as if someone was drilling in the background.

"Harlan? Harlan is that you?" a voice said and then a mumbling follow. "Did that kid get this thing working? Kids these days. Hello? This is Stanley Truman. Is anyone there?"

"Truman, I can hear you. It's Harlan. Can you hear me back? What's got you worked up that you needed to contact me directly like this?"

The line made a whining sound and then became clear. "There, that fix er," Stanley said. "Listen, Harlan, I'm out here in the ass end of nowhere on DS18. Was kind of a sweet gig. Sure we had some issues getting things done but wasn't our fault. We been hiring this locals peoples to build up some good relations or some such things. Orkoes, Chaktayak Ffriths.... a whole damn load of them. Pretty sullen workers. We anyway, we been attacked, old friend. I heard you were headed this way and I want to let you know that things are bad, They are trying to close the wormhole! We got lots of injured people. I need your help pronto!"

Harlan was concerned. It wasn't often that someone like Truman was flustered in this way. If something could that to him, it could happen to Harlan and that was just no good.

"DS18, eh? Sounds like nowhere, indeed. And attacked? We can't be having that. You'll be my first priority as soon as I'm in the neighborhood, which will be soon as I've already met with the other officers and we are scheduled to hop out shortly. That work? Anything else I can specifically do?"

The line crackled and Stanley's voice faded in and out. "Yeah, bring me a..." he said but the channel abruptly went dead, leaving Harlan standing in an empty, quiet turbolift.

It wasn't often that something could make Harlan curse; as rough as he was sometimes, such talk rarely had a place on a ship. This was one of those times. "Damn," he said aloud as the channel went silent. "It really sounds like Truman is in the deep of it. Not sure what he needs to get out of it either. I guess I need to run right back to captain with what I just heard. He will want to hear this in person."

The lift hit its destination and Harlan immediately hit the button to go back to where the captain just was. The grizzled fixer merely thought to himself as the lift took its return trip and the unknown danger ahead.

Malcom was just sitting down in the Captain's Chair on the bridge when Chief Harlan emerged from the turbolift. He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Back so soon, chief? Did you forget something?" Malcom asked with a smile.

Harlan sighed with a slight grimace as he responded. "Not quite, Captain. You remember Truman, right? A fellow like me in a lot of ways? Well, he's where we are going and he just told me DS18 is in a heap of trouble. Something about an attack and people wanting to close the wormhole. It sounds bad, Captain. We might want to be on alert as soon as we hit regular space, and you needed to know as soon as his call dropped."

Malcom frowned. "I do remember Chief Truman. He used to work at DS9 I believe. I didn't know he'd been transferred to DS18. I also didn't know there was a direct channel for chiefs," Malcom said. "But at this point, any information is good information. Did he say anything about what kind of attack and how they might close the wormhole?" The idea of closing the wormhole reminded Malcom of the story where a Bajoran radical had attempted to do the same thing many years ago.

Harlan didn't really want to talk about the channel and breezed right past that as he answered. "No information, I'm afraid. Just that an attack happened, that people were hurt, and that he needed something mysterious from me. The whole interaction lasted maybe 20 seconds, so I don't have any details for you. I'm ready to do what you need though. Truman is really relying on us."

"Understood, Harlan. Go down to Engineering and go over that transmission with everything you've got. Who knows, maybe there's some information we can glean from it. Get Lieutenant Baxter involved too. And if you hear from Truman again, come to me right away," Malcom said.

"Can do, Captain. I'll get right there and have the science whizzes go over everything with a fine-toothed comb. I'll ping you the instant I think there's something worth noting, with the goal of having all this done before we hit regular space. Anything else?

Malcom shook his head. "No, Chief. That is all," Malcom said and watched Harlan practically sprint back to the turbolift.

"A private channel for just the chiefs?" He mumbled to himself, a slow smile spreading across his face. "I'll have to file that bit of information away for future use."

[OFF]

Commander Malcom Llwyedd
Commanding Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298



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



Warrant Officer Stanley Truman
Chief Engineering Officer
Starbase Eighteen

 

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