....Middle.....

Posted on Thu Sep 15th, 2016 @ 2:40pm by Major David Lorenz & James Holbridge

JIM HOLBRIDGE’S PRIVATE QUARTERS
STARBASE 900

Dave Lorenz had been a busy man. His conversation with Commander Nalas had been entertaining and informative, and the Marine commander had been very busy preparing orbital defense networks and organizing fighter and gunabout patrols for the absent Major Smith. Harrison had taken over the training of the ground troops, conducting drills in the training holodecks and even scaring the Hell out of some civilians on the Promenade with a real-time practice deployment.

It was early in the evening and Dave needed something from his friend. He rang the bell and was surprised when Rhona answered the door. “Good evening to you, major. Please come in, and wipe your boots!”

Lorenz grinned and walked into his friends large home, wiping his feet as he entered. “Where is he?”

“He is in his study, and he wants to talk to you.” Rhona sighed sadly. “I hope you can help him, David. He is taking this pretty hard.”

“It’s about to get harder, honey. I just got word from HQ that Command dispatched a special investigator to look into the breach at the shipyards and munitions factory. It didn’t help that Jim initiated TAPDANCE. It makes him look guilty.”

Rhona smiled sadly. “You know James, he does things his way.”

Dave nodded and went into the study. He saw a disheveled Jim hunched over a terminal feverishly entering data. The man looked as if he hadn’t slept in days. “Hiya, Dave! Long time no see! Pull up a chair and have a sit-down. I’ll be with you just as soon as I finish this line of code.”

Lorenz sat down, studying his friend. The man looked unbalanced, and was working unusually hard on something. “Hey, bud, you are really working your ass off! I thought you were outta business.”

Jim nodded,still inputting data. “Yup, TAPDANCE’d the servers clean so IAD and the Fleet can’t prosecute. It worked for Hillary Clinton in 2016, so I figured I’d give it a shot!” Jim laughed heartily, knowing Dave would understand he was joking.

“Look, man, Starfleet won’t care if you delete the info, they will just want backups to look through, and from what I hear, the guy they sent is Chief Frost, a real sonofabitch in Internal Affairs. He won’t quit until he has looked in every nook and cranny.”

Jim looked up. “My ex-roommate, who deserted the Fleet in his Academy days, ruined me on orders from some asshole Cardassian I stole a bunch of data from! That’s the way the game is played, but Boroca didn’t play by the rules. So,now i have no businesses left and I am looking at the ass-end of an investigation for allowing espionage agents access to restricted Starfleet engine data and maintenance protocols.It was only dumb luck that our guys caught him!”

Dave put his hand on Jim’s shoulder. “Buddy, we been through worse than this…”

“No, this is it, pal. I have had enough. Everytime I get ahead, life, luck, or some dickhead kicks me hard in the goodie back and I go right back down to the fucking basement with the rest of the slime! No more! I have had enough!”

“What about your kids?” Dave demanded.

“Kim’s okay. She’s back on the station. As for my son, it seems he doesn’t approve of my love life and hasn’t spoken to me since I got back.”

Dave shook his head. “He’s upset, but he will come around….”

Jim shook his head. “Dave we’ve been friends forever and gone through a lot of shit together, but this time I am not taking you with me. I am working on something here that will take care of everything. Be a good lad and scurry out the door. I’ll call you when it’s time.” Jim looked back down at his terminal and resumed his furious typing.”Oh yeah, backups are in the ship. Nested files three-oh-six-eight-alpha.”

Lorenz simply rose from his chair and walked out of the apartment, straight past a startled Rhona, who had never seen the major look so agitated.

Back in his office, Jim looked up from his typing. The shields Sybok invented will protect the Specter just long enough for us to enter the energy field’s perimeter. “Holbridge to Collins, I am uploading the shield specs to your PADD. How long to reconfigure the shield emitters?”

=/\=Five hours, give or take,=/\= Matt replied over the com-link

“Excellent. Tell Sam and Amanda the operation is a go. I have a fix on our taget, and we leave in ten hours. Let’s get cracking.” Jim opened a new file, and began typing again. The will needed to be completed and notarized before he left.

********************************

James Holbridge
Not Right In The Head

&

Major David Lorenz
Concerned Brother-In-Arms