PROLOGUE
"...five...six...seven...eight...nine...ten..."
The
long, sleek trading vessel was called the Arrow. It was bringing a
shipment of Klingon blood wine to the Rigel system
where a Klingon trader was supposed to pick up the wine.
"…twelve…thirteen…fourteen…."
The bridge was
not really worthy of the name the captain had given it; it had two seats, one
for the co-pilot, one for the pilot, and just two consoles in front of each
seat.
"...twenty...twenty-one...twenty-two…"
The Arrow
was a pretty big ship, although its crew had only eight crewmembers, including
two children. The two children of the captain and his wife,
sisters.
The
captain's name was Harald Burnel, a tall, handsome
man with blond hair and blue eyes. Leila, his wife and first officer, was small
but beautiful. She had brown hair and gray eyes; she also was the
engineer of the ship. Harald and Leila's two daughters
were eight and six years old, Sylvia, the oldest, and Agatha, the youngest.
"...twenty-five..."
Because
of the limited amount of people aboard the ship, during busy hours, the ship
needed to have a pilot, Harald, being a well-known pilot,
decided that his daughters could pilot the ship while the rest of the crew was
working on repairs or on the cargo they were carrying. So, even before they had
learned to walk, the Burnel sisters were piloting the Arrow. Today,
Agatha was sitting in the pilot's chair, Sylvia was
next to her, reading a book.
"...thirty!"
Agatha said happily.
"Be
quiet, Gathy." Sylvia said, frowning. "I'm
reading..."
"Thirty light-year, Lilly!" Agatha pointed at her
console.
"Don't
call me Lilly..." Sylvia said, trying to concentrate on her book.
"But
the Arrow did the thirty light-year..." She looked back down at the console. "Thirty-one light-year!!" She corrected happily.
"Hooray..."
Sylvia said unenthusiastically.
Suddenly,
a beeping sound came from Sylvia's console. She instantly became alert; she
dropped her book and studied the readings on her console: "Proximity
alert, Gathy! What are you
doing?"
Agatha
was giggling: "I turn after."
Sylvia
looked out the viewscreen and jumped, the Arrow was going straight for a
large asteroid.
"Gathy! The rock!" She waved
her arms around wildly.
"I
just going faster, Lilly. Look." Agatha pressed a
button and the Arrow jumped to maximum warp.
"What
are you doing?!" Sylvia was about to jump on her sister.
But
suddenly, Agatha made the ship turn to its side ten degrees. The acceleration
made the ship swivel wildly and then Agatha decelerated violently and jumped to
warp in another direction.
They
narrowly missed the asteroid.
Sylvia
was staring at her sister in disbelief, Agatha was just giggling.
"What...?!" Sylvia was at a loss for words.
"We
go fast now, Lilly." Agatha pointed at the navigation screen. "We go
faster five hours because of rock."
The
doors at the back of the bridge opened, Harald Burnel
walked in: "What happened?"
Sylvia
ran to her dad and said: "Gathy almost crashed
us in a big rock."
"But
we go faster!!" Agatha protested.
"Agatha."
Harald walked to his daughter and picked her up.
"I told you not to try anything stupid like this."
"But..."
"No
buts." He said. "You don't have the right to pilot for two weeks,
okay."
Agatha
grunted something unintelligible.
"Sylvia.
Take the conn." Harald said. "I need to
finish the inventory of the shipment."
"Yes, daddy." Sylvia said.
Approximately
twenty years later, on Earth, in a dark office with no windows, a man with
dark-hair was finishing his bowl of split-pea soup. When the bowl was entirely
emptied, he pushed it to the side of his desk and opened up his laptop
computer. He entered the directory of Starfleet personnel and began checking
files.
The
door chime sounded and a woman stepped in, one of his people.
"Ah...There
you are." He said with a smile. "Please...Have a seat." He
gestured to the small stool that was placed in the middle of his office. She
moved towards the stool and sat on it, watching him expectantly.
"I
suppose you know why I called you." He said.
"I
have a good idea." She said.
"It
concerns our plan." He said. "The subject is on starbase 666,
otherwise known as Hell's Gate. She's on leave from her duties and this is the
perfect time to pick her up."
"Right..."
She said. "Is that all?"
"No..."
He picked up a data padd and tossed it to her. "These are the details of
your mission."
She
frowned: "A mission? I thought my mission was to pick her up."
"Yes...And
you will test her on this other mission." He pointed at the padd.
"You may be confident in her capabilities...I am not."
She
sighed: "Right."
"So...Better get going, right?" He smiled.
"Aren't
you going to wish me good luck?" She asked.
"No."
He said.
She
raised an eyebrow: "Why is that?"
"If
you are one of my agents...You don't need luck." He said.
She
sighed: "See you soon."
She
stood up and walked out of the office, leaving the dark-haired man alone at his
desk.
One
day later...
Sylvia Burnel sat in the bar of Hell's Gate station, she was holding a glass of orange juice and was
looking out the panoramic window of the bar at the Valiant that was being repaired.
She heard footsteps behind her, and then a voice:
"Hello Sylvia...Holy cow! What happened to your
arm?!"
Burnel turned.
Standing there was Agatha Burnel.
Her sister...