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Chapter One

 

 

            « Hi Mom ! » the face of a grinning Clara Sutter on the screen said.

            « Hi, honey. » Janna Sutter smiled at her daughter.

            « So...where are you ? » Clara asked.

            « I'm near the Forsythe cluster in sector 78, the Montreal is making an analysis of the red dwarf's surface...It's pretty boring. » she said. « And how about you ? »

            « I'm on the USS-Clemens, we're on our way to the FGC-47 nebula to study the sentient creatures who live in there. »

            Janna smiled. Once, when Clara was still living on the Enterprise with her dad, one of her imaginary friends had become real, it actually turned out to be a lifeform living in the nebula that wanted to kill everyone. Since then, Clara had become a civilian specialist on the nebula where the lifeforms lived. She was one of the youngest specialists in Starfleet, only eighteen years old and already well-known in the Federation.

            « So, when will you be back ? »

            « In a few weeks. » Clara said. « We won't be long. The captain says we should be back on Earth before the end of the year. How about you ? »

            « Well, the ship will put in for maintenance at McKinley station in five weeks. It'll be in there for at least a month and a half. »

            « Well that's great ! We can see each oth... »

            A chirp from Janna's combadge interrupted the daughter, she tapped it and said : « Sutter here. »

            « Sorry to bother you, commander. » said a voice. « We're receiving a priority one subspace message for you from Starfleet command H.Q. »

            Starfleet H.Q. ?  She thought. Why would they be calling me ?

            « Okay. » she said. « Put it in down here. »

            « Yes, commander. »

            Janna tapped her combadge again, severing the comlink and looked back at Clara : « We'll talk again soon, honey. »

            « Okay, bye. » Clara smiled and signed off.

            Janna deactivated her subspace frequency and opened the message she had just received she gave her voice authorization and the information appeared on her screen.

 

Commander J.Sutter

Message from SF H.Q. :

 

Happy Birthday, officer.

Temperature is warm.

Earth is still turning.

Sincerely, Saraf Siniki

 

            « Oh my god... » Janna stared with wide, disbelieving eyes at the computer screen. She read the message again. . .and once more and her disbelief only grew...

            She knew what the message meant, she had known it would be coming for a long time, but it had escaped her mind, her life had been so...normal that she had forgotten all about the message...about Starfleet Intelligence and her past-life. She knew that the message calling her was extremely urgent, no one would activate the Team 1 message for anything less.

            She stripped off her pajama and pulled on her uniform, she adjusted her collar, packed a bag with a few clothes and ran out of her quarters.

 

***

 

            Somewhere else, the same words blinked ominously on the terminal's screen.

            The letters were well known by the officer, they were calling him to become the member of the new Team 1 of Starfleet Intelligence.

            « Finally... » the officer staring at the screen smiled. « The time has come... »

 

 

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