Golden Corral

Posted on Tue Aug 16th, 2022 @ 2:46pm by Captain William Maddox & Lieutenant Commander Javiylah MacArthur

1,387 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Song Of Silver Wings
Location: Earth
Timeline: Sometime in 2404

"And just one more I think."

The flunky, because that was what he was, looked at his palm where a fuzzy holographic display apparated. It was the sort of overdone hyper-tech wear that was becoming all the rage among the upper class, which was something to see when you lived in a society bereft of hierarchies of wealth. But when you were the Chief of Staff to the Federation Council Deputy Head Of Resource Allocation, you apparently got to be a little bossy.

"Yes, yes time for one more before we have to transport to Brisbane for the opening of the new Civilian Mass Fabricator," the flunky beamed. "Now, Commander MacArthur if I could have to the right-hand side of the Deputy Head, your left shoulder in line with the Federation flag behind you? And can we do something with the lights? Is that the lowest polarisation setting your windows go to?"

Managing not to sigh in exasperation at the pomp of it, Javi did as asked, moving so her shoulder was in the right spot while adjusting both the lighting and the opacity of her office viewports. She hoped that this "meeting" would be short.

"I really must thank you again," the Deputy Head said again. If there was a god looking down upon this slice of purgatory, they would have noted they now had to take off their shoes to count the times he'd said that. "For this opportunity to meet and be seen with the commanding officer of STAR-One! Oh yes! My consitituants no doubt are huge fans of the hard work you and your team do."

Translation: this would be going on his ego wall as the new hotness. Alongside the signed hologram of him and the Grand Nagus. The little holo recording drone beeped happily and the flunky looked to their palm again.

"I think that's all we have time for," they said and began to usher the councilman out of the office. "As always the Deputy Head appreciates and thanks you for your service Commander. We'll be sure to CC you a copy of the holorecordings, but would insist on first refusal of their use in the public data sphere."

Javi frowned as she watched both of them go, shaking her head as she reset her lighting and windows. “Ridiculous…” she muttered to herself after she noticed the hatch was closed.

Maddox poked his head in after the duo left. He then titled back out to read the nameplate on the door again.

"Either your sign is missing a letter on the door, or someone elected a moron to a position of civilian power," Maddow quipped.

“Perhaps, Sir” she replied as she looked at the newcomer, noting the four pips of a Captain, her answer not indicating if she meant one or both. Javi wondered just what the officer wanted; it seemed to be the day for unexpected and unwelcome interruptions.

"Perhaps. Of the two of them, I don't think the Deputy Chief was the one doing the thinking," Maddox mused. "I was wondering if I could borrow a moment of your time Commander MacArthur? Before the next photo-op rolls in to be seen with the head of Starfleet's prestigious Search And Rescue team."

At least the man had asked instead of just demanding, Javi thought with some sarcasm. "Of course, Captain. How might I be of assistance?" She certainly hoped that he wasn't searching for more PR stunts.

"Actually, I'm thinking it'll be the other way around." Maddox, who held up his hands. "No fly-by's or visits to the high and mighty. I come to you with an offer to get SAR-1 off the political party circus and back to where it belongs, helping people in their direst of straits."

"Is that so?" Javi couldn't keep the skepticism out of her voice despite the interest the idea prompted. She had become resigned to the fact that the brass, and politicians, loved what her team and program accomplished. They still managed to do what they were supposed to, rescue those who needed them regardless of where they were in Federation space.

"Very so," Maddox said before pursing his lips. "SAR-1 gets the tough cases, the ones no one else is equipped for or prepared for. I have one. A year ago a project I'm involved with successfully launched a ship into the Reef Stars, the tightly packed girdle of stars around the Galactic Centre. USS Icarus. Five-year mission plan, carrying a cherry-picked crew of the best and brightest."

He tapped his comm badge, projecting a data pane into the air. An audio waveform began to flicker and dance over it, and a small waterfall of ancillary data cascaded alongside it. Beneath layers of burbling static, and the white noise voids that suggested some serious data scrubbing had gone into getting the recording to this point, were the tri-tone buzz of a Starfleet crash beacon.

"We got lucky with the Emerson Array just happened to be pointed at the wrong patch of sky. Normally the crash beacon's transmission carries a snapshot of the ship's logs and telemetry from the moment before it's activated. As you can tell from the quality, we have partials on all of it but nothing concrete. Except the warp core hasn't breached, nor have the antimatter bunkers." Maddox explained and then paused. "Sorry this is driving me crazy, have we met? I have a thing for faces but names are a blind spot for me."

"I can't say if we have, Captain," Javi remarked, most of her attention on the data pane and what it represented. Intriguing if rather vague from the presentation. "Have you an idea when you might have?"

"I have three very smart brothers working on filtering more noise from the crash beacon, but we're bumping right up against what the techies call the Hard Data Frontier. They'll probably have more when I get back, but what we know is this: they still have power, life support. The snapshot gave us a good idea of the scale of the damage. We have reason to believe they can survive for a protracted period of time. Enough time to mount a search and a rescue effort," he gestured towards Javi. "Enter yourself and your merry band of misfits."

"I see and when would this mission deploy?" Javi inquired, not particularly liking the sound of the spiel. She locked her console while she waited for an answer, knowing that she was due to leave in a few moments.

"Deployment would ideally be inside of a month. Not a lot of time, but there are astronomic events occurring that will endanger a launch window outside of that time frame," Maddox explained. The display pane flickered showing what at first glance looked like a simplistic model of an atom: small spheres orbiting a larger central one. Except these were orbiting erratically, moving around the centre and being affected by others as they passed. "The Reef Stars are a cluster of stars surrounding this thing, the Sagistarius-A black hole at the centre of our galaxy. What you see orbiting it are stars travelling at an appreciative fraction of the speed of light. As they move they shift the gravity waves that plague the Reef Stars, forming rip tides and eddies. In a month the shifts will make an easy entry into the area we need to be terminally dangerous. We'd need to entre at another point in the Reef Stars and transit, and projections don't make for a rosey timeline."

“Understood,” Javi was relieved to hear that she wasn’t expected to scramble the team immediately. “Unfortunately, I must leave for an appointment, Captain. I am happy to discuss further details after I return from leave in two weeks. Good day.” She gave him a polite nod as she stepped past him.

"Two weeks?" Maddox asked. "And you think the following two weeks will be time enough to get your team together and prepared?"

Javi stopped just short of the hatch at the question and turned her head as she answered,” My team is able to deploy within 24 hours, Captain. Yes, it shall be.”

Maddox gave Javi a nod as she departed, and looked back to the empty office.

"Two weeks," he said to the empty air.

 

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