Summations and Spiders
Posted on Fri Oct 21st, 2011 @ 7:53am by Lieutenant James Holbridge
HOLBRIDGE FAMILY QUARTERS
DECK 13
Jim, Tricia, and the children were seated at the table for dinner. Tricia was a replicator mom in that she loved how easy making food her family would eat. Jim was a meat and potatoes man, and he liked his meat medium-rare and lots of cheese on his potatoes. Occasionally he threw a salad down his throat to please her, but deep down Tricia loved his carnivorous ways. The children were exploring what they liked and didn't like, and JJ was a 4-year-old boy who ate like a wolf. Tricia herself was a moderate eater, but she liked to try various planetary cuisines.
Tonight she had treated herself to
"I like this flavoring and it wouldn't hurt you to try something new!"
Jim made a face at his wife, then went back to eating his dinner, grunting like a pig and eliciting smiles from his son and gasps of disgust from his girls.
After the meal had been cleared away and JJ was being given his bath, Jim went into his secure study and locked the door. There had been a deluge of new information downloaded into the system and Jim wanted to see the raw data before Intelligence whitewashed it. Nothing new from Divitia save a few troop movements. Holbridge sent a quick message to qeraQ' warning him to keep his now-leaderless marines close by.
The hunt for Kh'ali had fared no better. A curious development had occurred with some sort of rock in the possession of Li Hawke. Jim looked down ad saw that the rock had been stored in one of his secure facilities, but before he had been named strategic ops officer. "Computer, access secure chamber 147 camera." The camera showed a jewel-looking object suspended in midair. "State the reason for the protective forcefields,"
=^=Object in suspension is thought to possess telepathic properties.=^= the computer replied.
"Notify me if anyone accesses that chamber, let affected officers know I was looking at it."
Jim read the rest of the intelligence reports, noting with interest that a cloaking device had been stolen from Romulus and that the Tal'Shiar had mobilized in an effort to find it. There were several small mercenary groups headed for a system embroiled in a long-standing war, but that didn't affect Starbase 900. Maybe he and Li could come up with a way to get more information on the bad guys later on. Tonight was family night.
THE NEXT DAY
STRATEGIC PLANNING OFFICE
The staff briefing was an informal thing; there were several hundred strategic ops officers and crew on the station, but they mainly kept out of the way. Jim's new initiative called for four long-range tracking stations placed at the edge of the station's sensor range and tied into the sensor net, thus expanding the base's detection range. What made it better was that the crew of the tracking stations would be made up of strategic ops crew supplemented with Marines and a squadron of fighters for each station.
The fabrication of the stations would take some weeks, and Jim's people had already submitted designs to Engineering for fabrication. Runabouts fitted for long-range deployment would be used until the stations were built and towed into place. Strategic Ops had already commandeered four of the several dozen runabouts in the station. The centerline modules had been fitted with four extra sensor packages and the aft cabins converted into living quarters for the crewmen manning them.
The other matter of the entrance to the Jenaran Arm of the Delta Quadrant was Jim's problem as well. There was no war on, so a minefield would not work. Jim knew that Federation ships had to be specially fitted to use the transit corridors....
Holbridge looked up to see one of the biggest spiders he had ever seen lowering itself towards him. Jim didn't like spiders and immediately moved to grab a padd to squash it.
Here, now! I mean you no harm! I am Oz's companion! Jim heard a voice in his head.
"You can talk?" Jim asked, perplexed.
In a manner of speaking, sir...
The conversation was interrupted by a loud wheezing and the sound of microhydraulics out of tune. "By the saints, is that you, ye eight-legged pustule?"
Mr. Quentin! How wonderful to see you! I came here because Mr. Holbridge here knows another Betazoid telepath...
"Mr. Lorenz," Jim finished the thought. "Dave is no longer in the quadrant. What did you need with him?"
I was informed, don't ask me how, that Mr. Lorenz had a vision of Li Iggy thought, looking at the wasted form of Harrison. I say, lieutenant, you look bloody awful!
"I'm dying, you arachnid! But since ye say Oz is in danger, maybe I can help..."
Jim turned to face Quentin. "Sir, you are in no shape to help anyone. Please return to your quarters and get some rest."
"That's all I do is bloody rest on this damn station!" Quentin growled, then coughed hard as he shuffled away.
When the sick man had left, Jim turned to face the spider. "Lorenz is in the Alpha Quadrant...." Iggy was gone.
Jim turned his attention back to the padd in his hand. Was I just talking to a spider?
A short post by
LT James Holbridge
Chief Strategic Operations Officer
Starbase 900
With appearances by:
Quentin Harrison
Dying Recluse
And Iggy
Oz's Wayward Pet
