" Entrance "
(Previous Post was Julian's " More Questions, Not Enough Answers ")
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Stardate: 60301.1508
Setting: USS NILE - NCC 42945, Comet Class, Temporary Quarters
The young Ensign had been onboard this ship for just over 4 hours… leaving her with still about 10 hours to go before they would arrive… or at least that had been what she had been told. Susan had been awake for about 20 hours, and yet she could not sleep having found it difficult to get used to the shadows dancing in the room that she had been assigned to. Although she had served on the USS LIONHEART for an extended period of time, and had become accustomed to space travel because of this, there had been something strange about the way the stars had been passing by the small window overlooking her bed. As hard as she tried Mei could not put her finger on the reason why she felt that way… but at least it gave her something to focus on. The Ensign could have easily requested for the blind to be closed, but Susan could not bring herself to stop looking at the streaking lights… as if at any moment one of them would give the Cns an insight into her destination.
It felt as if she had been on the bed for only a few minutes when something brought the Ensign out of her thoughts. As she looked with disbelief straight ahead of her, Susan noticed that the stars visible throw the window above her head had become still meaning that they had dropped out of warp… but where? According to the time frame given to her the unknown destination still rested almost half a day's travel away.
Just as she sat up on the bed, the voice of the NILE's CO pierced the darkness of her quarters prompting the Ensign to her feet a little faster than she would have otherwise done.
=/\= Bridge to Ensign Mei… you might be interested in seeing this. =/\= The Klingon announced, sounding uncharacteristically pleasant for someone of his heritage.
"I'll be right there Sir." The Ensign replied without hesitation… unwilling to go against the recommendation of a superior officer… even less that of a Klingon Captain.
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Stardate: 60301.1516
Setting: USS NILE - NCC 42945, Comet Class, Bridge
It had taken Susan a little longer than she might have liked it too to arrive to the USS NILE's command deck thanks to her unfamiliarity with the ship's layout. Eventually though she had made her way to one of the turbolifts and instructed the computer to bring her to the Captain.
As soon as the doors opened the Ensign was greeted with a sight like no others… a large nebula with deep shades of purple and blue appeared on the main view screen, a large triangular shape easily visible within the clouds of noble gases.
"Welcome to the GIZA Nebula." Cpt. Stoba offered as he nodded to his ExO who immediately jumped in with a routine that the Ensign recognised although she had never experienced before.
"Helm, set vectors for standard approach… quarter impulse."
A similar line had been used over and over again back on the LIONHEART indicating that the ship had arrived at one of the outposts that it frequently visited… the only problem had been that Susan could not see any outpost or planet. The only thing aside from the impressive nebula had been an asteroid field that appeared to be surrounding the multicolour clouds, and judging by the way some of these floating rocks had been moving, it would have been sheer lunacy to go any closer.
"Captain? If I may… where are we?" The Ensign inquired, wondering as to the reason for this unexpected stop. Had they been responding to some sort of emergency or had there been another reason for this delay.
"I am disappointed in you Ensign… don't they teach stellar cartography anymore?" The Klingon CO growled, for the first time sounding like the warrior that his heritage had made the Cns believe him to be.
Frantically reviewing what she could remember of the information dispensed during her classes Susan's eyes suddenly widened.
"The GIZA nebula? But that's impossible… it would take a ship days to reach this out of the way sector even travelling at full warp speed." The Ensign announced, bluffing that no one would actually challenge her calculations as to the amount of time that it would require a ship to make it here. Although she could not specifically where the nebula had been said to be within Federation space, Mei did remember that it had been said to be 'out of the way'.
"It should have taken us longer to get here… but we received orders and had to use our 'slipstream drive' to bridge the space between where we were and where we needed to be." The CO admitted with a hint of mischievousness in his voice.
"Slipstream drive? Never heard of it." The Ensign countered with wondering if the Klingon had been playing games with her.
"Good, I would imagine that Admiral Koneki would be most unhappy if an Ensign knew about something that doesn't exists and can be found on only *2* ships in the fleet. You better get used to things like this… because there is a great deal that you are about to be made aware of and that the greater majority of people are not aware of." Stoba offered as he focussed all of his attention to the main view screen which now displayed the outer edge of the asteroid field in full view.
"We have received navigational information… shields have been taken offline… inertial dampeners working at maximum… initiating final approach." The ExO announced confirming what Susan had feared… they were heading *into* the asteroid field.
Self preservation demanded that she voice some sort of objection or maybe point out the obvious to those around her, but in the end the Ensign remained where she had been… completely frozen. Even if she had been able to pry her legs from the stop they had been in, where would she have gone to? The only thing Susan could do was to wait and hope that the entire crew of this ship had not gone completely mad.
Slowly the ship made its way deeper into the asteroid belt, rocks the size of buildings floating past them with such closeness that the Cns had felt the need to take a few steps in the opposite direction. After several repeated close calls, the Ensign felt her throat tighten as the largest of the asteroids she had see so far stood squarely in their way. During the eternity of each second that passed by the Ensign expected someone to order a course correction to avoid them running into the rock that had grown to completely fill the view screen. When no such order came, Mei decided that she should saw something… after all being court-martialled would be better than becoming a frozen pancake splattered on a rock hundreds of light-years away from anything.
"Captain… with all due respect… maybe we should change or maybe even reverse course?"
"Steady as she goes Helmsman…" Cpt. Stoba said, shooting a menacing glare back to the Ensign who felt her knees almost give out from under her as his gaze met hers.
"2000 meters and closing… 1800... 1600... 1400... 1200... 1000 meters." The ExO reported, weakening the Ensign's knees more with each announcement. Just as Susan had been ready to resort to praying for their souls she saw something that she could not believe… the asteroid that they were about to run into had split open revealing what appeared to be some sort of secret base hidden inside.
"She is still standing… looks like you owe Quint a bottle of your best wine." The ExO grinned as he looked back at the Ensign who appeared as if she had been ready to faint at any moment.
"Inform NEW ALEXANDRIA that we have arrived and will be requiring repairs to our engines due to the use of the Sliptream Drive… also inform base personnel that Ensign Mei will be disembarking as soon as we dock." Stoba ordered in a low growl obviously less than happy to have lost the wage made with someone named Quint, an officer the Ensign did not know but suspected she would get to meet very soon as well as several others who called the place named NEW ALEXANDRIA home.
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Sabrina Jones {sabrina_sweet@hotmail.com}
Commander Sabrina Rikar
Executive Officer
USS ANUBIS, NCC-18501
"We are Grey, we stand between the Candle and the Star, between the Darkness and the Light" 2005 post #075
-Entilza Delenn, Babylon 5
