The Continuing Story of Deep Space 2: Page 35
With the away team now safely on the relay station, and the Alpha relaying all communicator messages to the station: Arthur ordered Luke to take a 1 hour break, sighting that Luke had been working straight for the last 28 hours. Luke considered pointing out that Arthur had been doing much the same thing, but decided to put it off, knowing that the Captain would
refuse to leave ops at a time like this, something Luke was also reluctant to do. They both knew it was not enough time to get any real sleeping done, but Luke obtained something effective from the Doctor, and did manage a few moments of unconciousness.
When Luke returned to ops, and releaved the computer from communications duty, he found Starfleet Intelligence had sent him another data package. There was also a sealed order from Admiral Korrelayme himself.
Arthur was talking to Jan on remote comm about something which Luke could review later, so he erected a privacy field around his station, and examined the Adm's message ...
The message was an order to report to the Admiral -- who would have an aid standing by at all times for this reason -- on the exact status of the relay station, and how exactly DS2 managed to find it, considering that it was supposed to be cloaked. A quick examination of the other files sent, revealed that they were mostly technical data on the station, and a list of personnel. These he put aside for later reading, and next read Jan's first report on the relay station. It did not look good.
When the lieutenant was beamed aboard runabout Beta, nurse Nadine got mad because he wouldn't stay still while she was giving him first aid. Lieutenant-colonel Jan stayed on the relay station as long as possible.
The young lieutenant was so frustrated and confused because he couldn't remember anything except last week. Nurse Nadine said that they had a treatment on DS2 to stimulate his brain and hopefully it would all come back to him. Although those promissing words, he didn't know if he could take this much longer. He had to know who he was and what he
was doing on that station.
Several areas of the medium-sized station were open to space, much of the computer had been damaged, and bodies were everyware. The only survivor seemed to be a human, who had lost all of his memories during whatever had happened to the station. After watching the report, Luke wrote a short summary covering the main points, and sent it on high-speed encrypted subspace link directly to the Admiral. He then began reviewing the other files he had been sent on the station, while awaiting a responce from the Admiral.
Ten minutes after he made his report, Luke received a text-only, encoded message from the Admiral. It was only a few lines, and simply said:
"You are ordered to perform the following operations, via what ever means are necessary and available to you, and report upon completion. From the enclosed information: perform a ID code 22 on operative 16-25r. Perform a directive seven twelve on relay station 4465-A. Ensure continued silents by any and all persons with any knowledge of same."
Luke pondered the message for a moment, then read it a second time, and deleted it. The first 2 directives from the Admiral were doable, assuming he could find a reason, and a way, to go out to the station, but the third order was a bit different. Luke knew the Admiral, and it was unlike him to deliver orders of this nature in text messages. Luke doubted the Admiral much liked giving that last order -- hense his use of text-only. Luke did not like the order much him self, and had no intention of carrying it out to the fullest extent.
Commander Luke had spent nearly 30 minutes reviewing the 4465-A's specialized technical systems, and he had locked on to one of particular interest.
"Davis to away team. I have found something about that station, in which I believe you will be most interested, assuming it still works.", he said into the comm system, making sure the Captain could hear.
"We're Listening", came Jan's voice over the comm unit.
"On level 2, in equipmentbay four, I believe you will find a subspace transporter, with enough range to reach DS2.", was Luke's response.