Ships that Pass in the Night

Posted on Sun Dec 1st, 2013 @ 7:18am by Commodore Samantha York & Commander Alexandra Vance

764 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Tabula Rasa
Location: Space

ON

Felix sat in the pilot's seat, feet on the console as he half-dozed, half-monitored the conn. It wasn't his favorite job, hauling cargo, but it paid the bills. And he had lots of time to play hologames -- when he wasn't making sure all systems were operating properly.

Still, it was a boring job, hour after hour of nothing but space. Dark, boring, empty space.

A light began to flash a proximity warning. There was another ship in the sector. It took Felix several minutes before he noticed.

With a thud his feet landed on the deck and he sat up. "Whoa! There's someone out here!"

Ginger was sent flying from her seat at the center chair along with a PADD and a coffee. "What the hell?! What'd we hit?" she asked recovering from the deck.

"We didn't hit nothing," Felix replied. "But there's another ship out here. Starfleet. Galaxy class. I wonder what it's doing out here in the middle of nowhere?"

"Are you messing with me?" Ginger asked confusedly. "Cause that was like....a double negative. Did we just run into a Galaxy-Class starship?"

Felix sighed. "No. But look at this." He pulled up an image of a Galaxy-class starship orbiting a planet. "I wonder what they're doing out here?"

"How would I know? I'm not Starfleet." Ginger said looking over the readings.

"Hmm, this is odd, the ship's shields are up, but I am reading no lifeforms."

"Really?" Felix looked at the readout. "Wow. You're right. What would cause everyone on a Starship to disappear?" He looked at Ginger. "Or are they all dead? Maybe they all died of some virulent plague or something and they're all lying there, bloated and pussy..."

"Really? Of ALL the possibilities THAT's what you came up with? Were you sheltered as a child, or dropped perhaps?" Ginger said shaking her head.

"Of course not. Don't you ever read up on the history of space travel? On Terra, the first Apollo mission rocket caught fire. All three astronauts suffocated because they couldn't get out. And then, when we developed Warp, ships disappeared or blew up as we tried to perfect FTL travel. How many diseases, plagues and epidemics have we uncovered because of Starfleet's desire to explore the universe? I'm not being morbid. There are only a few reasons why every soul on that ship is gone. One is they were forced off by a stronger force, which is unlikely, or everyone's dead. That's odds-on the most likely. I'm not gonna beam over and take a look. If they are all dead, then I'll catch whatever they have and bring it back to you." He grinned fiendishly at her.

Ginger put her hands on her hips. "Um first of all you can't beam over fool their shields are up. Secondly next time just say they are dead! I don't need all the gory details geez!"

"That is why you are boring, Ginger," Felix said. "You have no imagination and you want nothing but facts. Look, their shields are up and there's no one on board. So, if I can't beam over, they also can't beam off. So, they're all dead. Dead, dead, dead. And if they're dead, they're all bloated and pussy and oozing and wreaking of death. It would be perfect for some creature to burst out of a dead body and attack, don't you think?"

"Well then MAYBE it would be a good idea for us to put our shields up? I mean you never know when a torpedo with a body bomb could come crashing into our hull. What if the creatures start jumping into our bodies? They could come for any of us....or worse yet all of us..." Ginger replied in a frantic tone.

"Good point. I saw this vid once where this alien creature piggybacked on the outside of a ship...Can't be too careful." He raised the shields. "I'll alter course so we can avoid that planet, too. Don't want to get too close. Those things might jump."

He heard a squeal from Ginger and laughed. "Buckle up, baby, this thing is about to go into overdrive!" He hit a switch and rock music began to play over the comm system.

Get your motor runnin’
Head out on the highway
Lookin’ for adventure
And whatever comes our way…

The engines whined as he pushed them to their maximum and the freighter bypassed the empty Starship and its missing -- or dead -- crew.

OFF

Felix
NPCd by
Commodore Samantha York

Ginger
NPCd by
Commander Alexandra Vance

 

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