Chapter Four
Three
days passed since the coming on board of Team 1, Janna Sutter didn't find much
of the discipline or mood on this ship to be very different from those on
normal Starfleet ships, besides Sickbay and the missing rank insignias on
crewmembers, she almost felt as if she was on a normal ship, which was very far
from the truth.
In
the small mess hall at the forward-starboard wing of the ship was empty at the
end of Beta shift. Janna had taken the shift just so she could fall asleep
easier. She was thinking about her daughter...She hadn't seen her in person for
so long, just before the subspace message of SI came she had hope that they
could spend some time together on Earth. Fate had deprived her of that. She
sighed and took a sip of her lemonade.
«
Turning in soon, commander ? » a familiar voice asked.
She
turned and saw commander Kline walking towards her
table, holding a glass of something green.
«
Commander. » she smiled politely. « Uh...Yeah, I was about to. »
«
Okay. May I ? »
he gestured to the seat opposite to her and she nodded. He sat down and took a
long gulp of green liquid.
«
What's that ? » she asked, gesturing at the glass.
He
answered : « Aldeberan
whisky. Terrible stuff, but it sure wakes you up. »
She
smiled weakly and nodded.
The
commander frowned and asked : « Are you okay ? »
She
looked up at him, as if startled by the question then nodded
: « Sure...Yeah...I'm fine, thanks. »
He
shrugged and took a small sip of whisky, then asked :
« Is it about your daughter ? »
Her
head jolted upwards again, her eyes locking to his and asked
: « How the hell did you know that ? »
He
said : « I met Clara a few months ago, she was on
board the ship where I was serving at the time. She's amazing. »
«
Yeah... » Janna smiled. « She is... »
«
She told me she hadn't met her mom for a long time and she wished you could get
together soon on a shore leave or something. »
She
sighed : « Yeah...I should have never joined Starfleet
Intelligence... then get married, have Clara. » she buried her face in her arms
which were crossed and lay on the table.
Kline
picked up her glass and studied it : « Is this synthehol ? »
«
It's lemonade. » she said. « Why ? »
«
Oh...I was just checking. »
She
rose her head slowly and said : « Stupid Team
1...stupid Starfleet Intel...stupid me... »
«
That's a lot of stupid. » he nodded.
«
Stupid is the way of the universe... » she grunted.
Suddenly,
a massive jolt threw the two officers off their seats and onto the floor of the
mess hall.
«
What the hell was that ? ! » Kline asked.
«
Let's find out. » she said, running out of the room followed closely by the
commander.
On
the bridge, captain Anderson looked like he had
punched himself to wake up. He was sitting on his command chair looking vaguely
like Frankenstein.
«
Report ! » he barked when Sutter and Kline arrived on
the bridge.
Janna
checked her console : « The dilithium
chamber hatch has failed ! Evacuation in progress. »
The
turbolift opened at the back of the bridge and commander
Stevenson stumbled in, holding a crewman who had a piece of metal planted in
his left thigh.
«
Stevenson ! » Kline rushed to the side of the wounded
man. « What happened ? »
«
I haven't got a clue, commander. The hatch just blew up in our faces. Mister Gregors was near it when it exploded. » replied the
engineer.
«
Activating emergency forcefield. » said Jennifer
Mantion who was sitting at the tactical station.
«
What's the status of the antimatter containement pods ? » asked the captain.
«
They're holding up just fine. » said Sutter.
Kline
picked up the wounded man and stepped into the turbolift :
« I'm taking him to sickbay. We need you up here, mister
Stevenson. »
Stevenson
nodded, slapped the wounded engineer on the shoulder and rushed to the
engineering station as the doors to the turbolift closed.
«
We're in no immediate danger, captain. » said Stevenson. « The antimatter is
safely contained. The forcefields are holding, and
there's no danger from the radiation for now. »
«
Good. » the captain said. « Now... » he turned to face the chief engineer.
«...what in the world happened, mister Stevenson ? »
The
lieutenant shrugged : « I don't know captain.
Everything was going as smoothly as usual until... » he clapped his hands
together. « ...boom. »
«
You have no explanation. »
«
No...the last time something like this happened was at
least ten years ago...on the
«
So ? »
«
It's not a defect, captain. » Stevenson said. « I would be ready to swear on my
honor as a chief engineer. »
«
All right...which probably means that we can go back to the original assumption
of the crew of the Enterprise. » said Kline.
«
You mean... » Mantion started.
«...sabotage...
» Kline nodded.
«
How could someone be able to sabotage the dilithium
chamber hatch ? » the captain asked. « There are at
least five people down there at all times. It's impossible. »
«
The
captain frowned : « I see. »
«
How can we find out who did it ? » asked Janna.
«
I don't know... » Stevenson said. « We can't scan for fingerprints since the
hatch blew up. Almost everyone on the ship passes by the hatch every day so we
can't check the tracement logs of the crew. »
«
We do know one thing. » said Burnel. « Whoever blew up the hatch is on this
ship, and if he is. That means he's a professional. Remember
? All the crewmembers on the ship are full-time agents for
Starfleet Intelligence Covert Ops. »
«
Which complicates our task a little. » said Janna.