Whispers of the Unknown

Posted on Mon Sep 30th, 2024 @ 3:25pm by Captain Thomas Chandler & Lieutenant Alz Zata & Lieutenant Jackson Walker
Edited on on Wed Dec 18th, 2024 @ 6:02pm

1,211 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Rebirth
Location: Enterprise-F / Spacedock
Timeline: 77849.2 (Tue Apr 16 2403 08:00:00 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time) )

The corridors aboard the newly-refitted USS Enterprise-F were bustling with activity. Crew members, both new and familiar (mainly new), hurry about and engage in various tasks to prepare for the ship's upcoming mission. Captain Tom Chandler stands in the center of the bridge, overseeing the final preparations with a sense of quiet determination.

A bright light shines into his face as he gives an annoyed look at the floating camera with a small bank of lights attached to it. There are four JOURNALISTS clustered around the command station on the bridge. One is associated with the camera, the others use PADDs to make notations.

Chandler presses a control on his chair opening the ship-wide channel. "Attention, everyone. As you all know, we've endured a long and challenging journey to reach this point. But today marks a new beginning for us all. The Enterprise-F has undergone extensive upgrades and repairs, and she stands ready to embark on her next chapter. Departure stations." he said as he took his seat for the first time. Now he was truly in command of the Enterprise.

Walker came out of the turbolift and took over Tactical. He did a system check on his end.

Rodriguez who was sitting at operations spoke up excitedly. "Captain, all systems are green across the board. We're ready for departure."

"Excellent, Lieutenant. Signal Starfleet Command that we are prepared to set sail." Chandler ordered.

"Control Tower now online sir." Rodriguez updated.

"Control, this is Enterprise requesting permission to depart," Chandler said.

/\ This is Control Enterprise. Permission to depart granted. /\

"Clearing all moorings." Lt. Jaya Thorne said as she went through her procedures.

/\ All moorings cleared. /\

"Aft. thrusters, one-quarter impulse power," Chandler ordered.

Thorne nodded and tapped in the commands into her station and then looked up as the Enterprise sped her way out of spacedock. The doors fully opened just before the ship reached them.

As the Enterprise emerged from the newly repaired Spacedock fireworks were going off as part of the celebration of Federation Day. The Enterprise turned slightly fully restored to her former glory as it slowly orbited the massive station. Once its orbit had been completed she altered course again as all of her impulse engines went to full power and the mighty vessel headed out towards the asteroid belt.

"All weapons and shields functioning, Sir," Walker said as he did a system check.

Normally, Chief Engineer Alz Zata would have preferred to have been in Engineering. Given the pomp and circumstance, not to mention the terrible flashbacks from what happened just a short time ago, he figured the best place to be was the bridge. He turned from the readouts on his station to face the Captain. "Impulse engines are operating at full efficiency," the Bajoran reported. "Warp drive will be available as soon as we clear the solar system."

Chandler nodded as he continued getting reports from all departments. If this new warp drive worked, what would have taken 7 1/2 days to get to Alpha Centauri would now take 15.26 hours. A little over half a day. It still surprised him.

It had been a day since the Enterprise-F had begun its journey. This was the rough part about doing everything by the book was that everything took time. they still had a little over a day and half at full impulse before they reached the edge of the solar system and can test the new warp engines.

At the Ops station was Lieutenant Rodriguez monitoring the ship's systems. At the helm was Lieutenant Jaya Thorne. At science was Lieutenant Commander Asra Tek. All were running testing on the ship's systems. As they did this the alert on status changed automatically and consoles started to beep indicating a priority hail from Starfleet Command.

Walker looked at his console, "Captain. We are receiving diversion orders to P-463 to assist in resettlement efforts." He ran his fingers across the keypad pulling public data.


Captain Chandler's expression shifts, a mixture of curiosity and concern crossing his features. "Understood. Mister Walker get all relevent information on that mission from Starfleet Command so we can find out what the hell is going on there. Helm plot a course for..." Chandler stopped as he couldn't believe that the colony didn't even have a name yet. Made him think that maybe the Federation was expanding too quickly. "... to P-463."

Walker nodded, "Yes, Captain. Contacting command and intelligence."

Zata, having taken the engineering station on the bridge instead of finding refuge in Engineering, cocked his head slightly at the Captain's order. Out of curiosity, he called up the star charts on his station and compared the colony's location with where the Enterprise currently rested.

"Captain," the engineer called out and turned around to face Chandler. "Sir, at maximum warp, it's going to take two and a half months to reach P-463. This would be a good opportunity to test the slipstream drive. Cut the seventy-odd days down to under 30 minutes."

“You read my mind, Lieutenant.” The Captain said with a smile. “Prepare for the transition to slipstream,” it was time to see what this newly refitted Enterprise could do. “Once Mister Walker has all the intel from Starfleet we’ll go,”

"Aye, Captain," Zata said, turning to his console. With a few swift keystrokes, he informed the engineering team below to activate the slipstream drive and perform a diagnostic on the propulsion drive.

Turning around from Operations, Lt. Rodriguez spoke. "Captain, the XO hasn't reported on board yet. She wasn't supposed to join us until next week."

Chandler called up a hologram from his chair in order to refresh himself on what ship she was on. He then turned to Walker. “Mister Walker please send a message to the Captain of the Emmet Till. He’s not too far from our destination, see if he’ll be willing to drop off our new XO. It should save him about a week on his schedule,”

Walker's fingers ran across the console. "Message sent to the Emmett Till. No response yet. My contact at Intel got back to me. Above my pay grade and clearance. There is a file. He sent the file to the Captain's Console to Unlock. "Command got back to me too." He put the stuff from Command on the main viewer. "Emmett Till is getting back to us."

The engineering station let out a series of beeps, and Zata took a look at the propulsion monitors to see the results of the diagnostic test. "Captain," Zata called out from the engineering station as he turned to face the center chair. "Engineering reports that the slipstream drive is online and ready for use."

"Engage." Chandler said.

End Scene

As the Enterprise-F engaged the slipstream drive, a shimmering, iridescent field would envelop the starship. The field rapidly intensifies, warping the light around the vessel and creating a mesmerizing visual distortion.

For a brief moment, the starship would seem to stretch and elongate, as if being pulled through a cosmic taffy puller. The stars in the background would streak and blur, creating a sense of incredible speed and motion. Then, in a flash of blinding light, the Enterprise-F vanished entirely, leaving behind only a faint, residual energy trail that would quickly dissipate into the void of space.

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