Chief Medical Officer's Personal Log, Stardate 88123.5. After several months of repair and retrofitting at Utopia Planetia, the Pandora
is finally ready to resume active service. The other senior officers and I are currently en route to Utopia Planetia from Earth Spacedock to give the ship a once-over before the rest of the crew arrives. I’m excited to see what upgrades necessitated her extended time at the shipyard... as well as the fact that War wouldn’t tell me anything about the he was overseeing the last few weeks.Dr. Chet Redwing ended the recording as he looked out the window next to his seat. A sea of empty stars greeted him. It was a tribute to the vast, empty distances of space, given that he was currently traveling between Earth and Mars, one of the most highly trafficked intrasolar routes in the Federation. He stood and turned away from the window impatiently, glancing at the only other two of his fellow officers in the yacht's cockpit.
Ensign William Lacera, seated at the helm, yawned as he gazed out at the same sea Red had been looking at. The
Pandora’s helmsman, Will was one of the most promising pilots in Starfleet, something that surprised his peers when they saw he also wore a VISOR to see.
“What’s our ETA?” asked Red.
“Oh, about two minutes shorter since the last time you asked me,” replied Will. “You’re worse than my two nieces when I took them to Vulcan.”
“Just excited to get back on the
Pandora, that’s all. I’ve been away from my Sickbay for too long.”
“Yeah... it will be good flying her again, that’s for sure.”
Will looked to his right at the other officer in the room, Lieutenant Shrel Efos. The Bajoran, who was in charge of tactical and security on the
Pandora, was sitting in the copilot’s chair and going over a padd.
“And I bet Shrel here can’t wait to get back to firing torpedoes at the first ship we see.”
Shrel gave Will the briefest of annoyed looks before returning back to the padd. Red and Will exchanged glances as the cockpit fell back into anxious silence. Fortunately, it was soon broken by the sound of the comm chirping.
“Everyone, please report to the dining room for the briefing. Oren-De, out.”
Red sighed with relief at the tedium finally breaking and made a beeline for the cockpit’s exit. Shrel rolled his eyes and, much more calmly, followed suit. Will chuckled again as he put the yacht on autopilot and left with him.
The three entered the dining room of the
Pandora’s captain’s yacht, which was the largest room on the small ship. Already seated were the
Pandora’s Chiefs of Engineering and Science, Lieutenant Commander War’en Sadda and Lieutenant Margaret Matoya. Maggie gave them a smile as they entered. Red noticed War looked rather anxious as he sat down next to him.
“You alright? I’m sure the Pandora’s warp core is still intact. You’ve only been away for a day.”
War gave Red a look that said ‘not now’, which only served to pique Red’s curiosity. However, before he could ask what was wrong, the door at the other end of the room opened. Captain Oren-De Saam Emun entered and, after quickly glancing at the table and seeing all of his officers present, gave a quick nod of satisfaction and took his seat at the end of the table.
Even with the months that had been put between the crew and their last mission, the sight of Oren-De’s discolored skin still gave Red a pang of guilt. When Oren-De had first assumed command of the
Pandora, his skin and hair had been a strong, healthy blue. The vanadium-based blood of Oren-De’s race, the Enhasans, gave its members a wide range of colorful and vibrant skin tones. However, Oren-De’s brief assimilation by a rogue Borg during their last mission had turned his skin a muted grey. Even his hair, which flared out in a sort of mane around the bone ridges on the side of his head, had lost its color. While it was a purely cosmetic problem, Red still wished he could think of a way to repair that aspect of the damage.
“I have to say, it’s good to see us all seated together again,” began Oren-De. “It’s unfortunate that Lieutenant Roberts will not be joining in this reunion. She will, of course, be missed. Dr. Redwing, can you provide us with an update on her husband’s condition?”
Red nodded, pleased to see that Oren-De was asking after their former Ops officer.
“Commander Roberts is making a good recovery at Starfleet Medical, but his extended time of assimilation will, of course, require a longer period of mental recovery. However, when I checked in on them before I left, Talona and Michael both seemed in good spirits.”
The reported elicited grins from the officers, even Shrel. However, Red noticed that War and Maggie both immediately turned their attention to Oren-De. Something was up... and it was about to go down.
“Thank you for the report, Doctor. Now, onto the business at hand.”
Oren-De stood and proceeded over to a nearby viewscreen. “As you know, the
Pandora has undergone a substantial upgrade in addition to the necessary repairs. Most of the upgrades are standard regulation and bring
Pandora’s systems up to date. You’ll find a list of the ones relevant to your departments once we board the ship. However, there are two upgrades that I must make specific mention of.”
“The first,” continued Oren-De, “is that the
Pandora is now capable of Multi-Vector Assault Mode. This is an invaluable addition to our ship’s tactical capabilities.”
In a rare event, Shrel’s grin actually increased into a fully-fledged smile.
“However, it’s the second upgrade that is the main purpose of this briefing. What I am about to say is not to leave this room under any circumstances.”
Maggie and War glanced at each other as Oren-De continued.
“The
Pandora’s computer has been outfitted with a new experimental module, codenamed ‘The Partition’. When put into use, it will enhance the Pandora’s computational capabilities considerably.”
Red blinked in surprise. This news had come coming completely out of left field and it certainly wasn’t what he had been expecting. Of the newcomers to the room, Will was the first to speak.
“Sir,, why has Starfleet outfitted the
Pandora with this? This seems like something that would be better suited on a long-range cruiser or science vessel. We don’t really conduct many experiments that would require this.”
“Not yet,” said Maggie, just loud enough for everyone to hear.
Oren-De continued. “The Partition’s primary purpose isn’t scientific, Mr. Lacera. Instead, it will greatly enhance the
Pandora’s ability to defend its own computer systems as well as initiate attacks and infiltration on external systems. Starfleet is hopeful that the Partition will give us an advantage over the espionage tactics of the Romulan Empire as well as provide for more effective defense against the Borg. Additionally, the ability to bring down an enemy ship’s offensive capabilities without resorting to weapons fire is in keeping with Starfleet’s primarily defensive ethos.”
Red raised an eyebrow. That had sounded like a rehearsed speech or, at the very least, something Oren-De was just repeating.
“Captain, what is it about this module that’s so experimental? It’s obviously more than just a standard upgrade, but what made this possible in the first place?”
Oren-De frowned. “Unfortunately, Dr. Redwing, that is confidential and on a need-to-know basis, by order of Starfleet Intelligence and the Corps of Engineers.”
War looked down while Maggie suddenly seemed intently interested on the table’s surfacing. Red, while taken aback by the sudden blockade, simply nodded and gave a “understood, sir”.
The air suddenly took on an uncomfortable feel, as the senior staff had now been obviously divided into two groups with regard to this ‘Partition’. War and Maggie were obviously in on the details, while Red, Shrel, and Will were not. Red couldn’t help but feel slighted by it.
Oren-De pressed on with the briefing. “In keeping with this policy, we have been asked to conduct a test of the Partition’s capabilities with as minimal of a crew as possible. The six of us should be sufficient, especially given that many basic ship functions can now be automated since the installation of the multi-vector assault module. The test will be using the Partition to interface with this Borg conduit.”
With a tap of a panel, the viewscreen blinked to life and displayed an image of a large Borg transwarp gate. The hexagon structure slowly rotated on the screen, with various technical specifications posted along the side, too small to read from where the crew was sitting.
“This was captured during a recent engagement between the Omega Strike Force and the Borg. It’s one of the few Borg pieces of technology that has been captured intact and, as such, should make a decent test for the Partition’s system infiltration capabilities.”
“Where is the gate located?”
Oren-De paused. “It is actually being kept under extremely tight surveillance at Utopia Planetia.”
Will’s jaw practically hit the table. “That thing is in the solar system!? What happens if the Borg suddenly start pouring out of it!?”
Oren-De, despite the outburst, answered the question simply. “The gate has been lined with a sufficient number of explosives to immediately destroy it should it ever come online or act in any way that is suspicious. Starfleet has deemed the gate too sensitive to risk conducting this test outside of the security provided by the Sol system.”
Will opened his mouth to speak, but Oren-De cut him off.
“Once we arrive at Utopia Planetia and board the
Pandora, you will each have an hour to familiarize yourself with the upgrades of your departments. We will then proceed to the gate and begin conducting the test, which only involve interfacing with the gate and accessing its systems. We will not activate it or travel through it. Are there any questions regarding this mission?”
No one said anything, just some shakes of the head. The message was clear: this was not something that could be discussed. Red had so many questions, but he knew it wouldn’t do any good to answer them. He only hoped that, once the Pandora was ready for active service, he would receive more information about this mysterious Partition that they had now been trusted with.
“We should be arriving at Utopia Planetia shortly. Dismissed.”
When no one immediately got up, Oren-De headed toward the cockpit. The collectively held breath was released as soon as the door closed behind him.
“Does this seem nuts to anyone else?” asked Will the table of officers.
“We have our orders, Ensign, as does the Captain,” responded Shrel curtly.
“He has a point, Shrel,” Red interjected. “Starfleet installs a new critical component on the ship, keeps us in the dark, and then orders us to point it at a Borg gate they’ve hauled into the Sol system as a test. I’d say that falls under the ‘nuts’ category.”
“Red, we’re not in the dark. Maggie and I know how the Partition works and we can shut it down immediately if it starts malfunctioning,” said War.
“That makes me feel a lot better, War. Hopefully nothing happens to the two people Starfleet Intelligence has trusted with the knowledge of the ‘off’ switch,” Red replied, not bothering to suppress the irritation out of his voice. “After all, the last time Intelligence started keeping secrets, it worked out so well for us.”
With that, Red stood up and walked out of the room for the cockpit. War watched him leave with an annoyed frown.
“I hate it when he gets like this.”
“He’s got a point though, War,” said Will as he stood to follow Red out. Shrel, more out of a desire to get back to reading his padd, followed.
War’en, with an exasperated sigh, looked at Maggie. “Great. We’re not even on the ship yet and half the staff is angry.”
Maggie shrugged. “They’ll get over it. Besides, that’s not the problem. The problem is that they’re right. This is nuts. See, I told you working with Intelligence was fun,” she said as she stood up from the table.
“Says the Intelligence specialist,” War responded with a smirk.
The two left the dining room and entered the cockpit to find Mars now looming in the upperportion of the viewfield. The massive Utopia Planetia Shipyards were directly ahead and steadily growing closer. By this point, the yacht had automatically slowed to one quarter-impulse and was maneuvering into a docking trajectory. Will was seated at the helm again and Oren-De stood behind him.
“Hail the shipyards and let them know we’re ready to board the
Pandora.”
“Aye, sir,” Will responded as he tapped a few commands into his console. However, instead of receiving a standard response within moments, it took nearly a full minute.
“Sir... they’re ordering us to open hailing frequencies immediately.”
Everyone looked at Oren-De.
“Do it, send it to my personal screen.”
Oren-De turned to his right just as the image of an admiral appeared. To Oren-De’s surprise, he looked very irritated.
“Captain, I trust you can explain to me why you’ve brought five people with you on such a highly classified test. You were ordered to conduct this mission with only your senior staff aboard.”
Since War doubled as the
Pandora’s first officer, he was standing closest to Oren-De when the hail came. He noticed confusion registering on the Enhasan’s typically stoic face.
“Admiral, this is my senior staff on board with me. Has Starfleet changed my roster? If so, I wasn’t informed.”
The Admiral studied Oren-De closely before looking off-screen. Someone was obviously talking to him, but doing so in a way that they couldn’t hear. Finally, the admiral said something that sounded like “are you sure?”. After getting a response, he turned back to Oren-De.
“Captain, we seem to have a problem on our hands. If your entire senior staff is with you on that yacht, can you explain to me how they arrived and boarded the
Pandora thirty minutes ago?”
//Star Trek: Pandora Theme ("Chrono Trigger" by Yasunori Mitsuda)
