The Continuing Story of Deep Space 2: Page 52
A few minutes later, with a hissing sound, Wim's turbolift arrived first at his engineering stop. The lift slowed down as if it was in doubt on whether to stop or just continue on its way. The door slid open, in a strange, silent way.
The first thing that the chief scientist saw, when exiting the small lift, was the humongous anti-matter intermix chamber. No matter how many times he came down here - no matter on how many ships he served or visited - every time the look of the giant powercore of DS2 took his breath away. The red and green lights of the matter/antimatter flow (because of the breaking of light through the containment fields) gave, combined with the high ceiling, a dramatic touch to the whole, especially since the whole engineering division was usually somewhat less illuminated than on the other decks, and so adding to that dramatic touch. Plus the fact that the use of some Borg devices, for the bigger efficiency of the flow regulators, enhances that greenish glow.
"I must say…the Borg have flair for drama" Wim thought while crossing the hall to meet LT Louis van Rhee. Louis was talking (hammering … some might say) to the six cadets, who where helping him a hand. Luke and Geert noticed a week ago, while working on a subspace-antenna, that the training of these cadets lacked some basic engineering skills, and what better way of learning than 'on the job experience', supervised by an engineer as skilled as Louis. Besides…The cadets where to leave for San Francisco in a month, to start the new semester. So they could use every help they could get their hands on, especially since they didn't have that much starship-experience as the other students, who could work on different assignements on different ships in different areas of the UFP.
"Hey Louis, what's up ? What's the emergency ?" Wim said with a necessary louder voice than Louis, because he knew that when Louis focused on a job - in this case supervising the cadets - he sometimes forgot his surroundings. The rest of the crew also suspected Louis of having a 'selective' hearing problem. Sometimes Louis gave the impression that he didn't understand immediately a command, and then, on another occasion, he could follow a, whispering, conversation between two crewmates, meters away. But we all new that Louis, as loyal as a pitbull, was a true - and especially old-fashioned - starfleet engineer, hardheaded, and chewing nails for breakfast.
"Oh…Yes.. Sir, just a second Sir." Louis answered as if he was cought in the middle of doing something he wasn't supposed to.
"What's wrong Louis ? Why the rush ? Did someone died ? Is the station about to blow up ? ! ! ? ! !" Arthur yelled, coming from the other turbolift-entry, opposing the one where Wim came from. "My head still hurts from falling against that table, and off course, none of our medics where present and all the pills and drinks where locked away, and, on top of all this, our EMH developed an 'attitude' I didn't like coming from a damn hologram ! Well, anyway, Louis sounded somewhat distressed and therefore I didn't want to wait any longer and came down here. That's way I am a couple minutes later."
"Cadets, you are dismissed. Go to your quarters and study the diagrams we drew. You'll need it next month. And, to remind you, I will test your skills tomorrow ! Count on it !" Louis said to the cadets, but now on a more fatherly tone.
"Look Arthur, Wim. Watch the screen in the middle." And he pointed toward the biggest screen in the middle of a wall filled with numerous lights, buttons, screens (some bigger, some smaller).
"Look Sirs, I am now powering up the cloaking device and the new phasers."
Nothing special happened, not counting the faster pace of the pounding sound of the intermix chamber (tower). Right now, that sound became more of a hartbeat, fast beating, like the heart of an atlete whom was running the 100 yards at the maximum of its pace. As if a little more, a little faster, would cause a failure…
"You See Sirs, finally, the energy-supply to the phasers and cloak are balanced, and the powerdrain of these new systems stay within limits. But, earlier this morning, when I was working with the cadets on the alignment of the phantom-device, with the cloak and phasers, a power surge happened and for a moment the main- and secondary powerconduits from the intermix-chamber short-circuited, causing a safety shutdown and the taking over of the backup-systems. Now, nothing was seriously damaged, and after some minor repairs we, again, started the phantom device and the cloak, and now Sir, see what happens on the screen…"
The three men awed at the screen, with their mouths opened of surprise, of disbelieve…The large screen in the center had become black and a face appeared, somewhat familiar, but because of the interference not quite recognisable. Louis began tampering with the computer and adjusted some relays, and, suddenly, the face became completely visible.
"Crew of DS2. My name is Major Arhur van Rhee, and the man standing behind me is Capt Jan Theys. This message is a warning. I repeat …this message is a warning. It is stardate 150185 …"
"Almost 15 years ago… " Arthur said. (Wim always knew that Arthur was a mathematical genius)
"We must warn you concerning a breach in space-time originating from t..h..Eeeee ; ; ; ;/ If all goes well then…..Warning…..immine…Jumpgate collapse…DS2…Vorl… ."
Arthur and Wim stood there, not able to speak a word for moments.
"Well, it is all we could get out of all that rubble. It must have been put there 15 years ago, and probably got lost in all these systemchanges. Hell, I even need sometimes a moment,just to concentrate on where everything went." Louis said and so breaking the tense. "It happened just after the short-circuit and it was auto-logged by the computer. Now, I am working on an idea to get more out of the message, but it might take some time and we are already running behind with the alignment of the phantom device, unless…" Louis looked at Arthur and the CO knew immediately.
"OK Louis, put the cadets on the phantom-device. I will assign ensig Joost Dierckx to help them finishing the alignment. And You, you will extract as much of the message as you can !"
Arthur had that puzzled look on his face. "I can't remember recording that message, not even beeing on DS2 fifteen years ago…Not ever with Jan Theys…Perhaps he knows more ? !"
"Louis, can you relay that part of the message to the viewer in my ready-room ?"
"Arthur to Jan Theys," Arthur said, after tapping his comm badge , "Drop everything you are working on RIGHT NOW and join me in my ready-room …and Wim … work with Louis !"
"Very well." Wim said while looking at Louis and the screen, and joined Louis in his efforts.
"Acknowledged, on my way." said Lt Col Jan Theys via his commbadge.
"Oh.. Wim, are Luke and Marianne still on that patrol in the Vega-sector ?" Arthur asked, as if he already knew the answer.
"Yes, but I believe they were joined by Nadine." Wim answered, while bending over behind a console.
"Excellent….Ops, this is the CO, when is the Conovoloph due back ?" Arthur asked via his commbadge when entering the same turbolift he used to get to engineering.
"Tomorrow Sir." A heavy, tenor-like voice, as if spoken by a computer, replied through hidden loudspeakers.
The turbolift stopped with that familiar hissing sound and the door slid open. When Arthur, two minutes later entered his ready-room, he saw his old collegue and dear friend Jan Theys, and in a corner of the room, for the first time in almost a month, the Vorlon ambassador…