The Continuing Story of Deep Space 2: Page 61
... Spacedock DS2….
"Damn Joeri, why do we have to miss all the fun ? I hate it when this happens. They allways get the goodies. Aren't we supposed to be a team ? Is it just because we came later to the station than they did ? Why them ? Don't you find it suspicious that, first of all Necheyev is here, that second of all, Jan Roel went over the edge, took that singularity-device, or whatever he calls it, and third of all, that thing with these Elder. How do we know that this is not just an excuse for something else ? Have you seen or heard something from them ? That Vorlon keeps babbling about it, but I still have to see the first of them. And what about all the activity at headquarters hah ? What about that ? I have eyes you know, I can see the numerous changes, the promotions, demotions, transfers…Excellent, highly trained and motivated officers who have to retire or get reassigned to some outback outpost in the middle of nowhere ? How did we get out here ? I didn't request that transfer, and I am damn sure that you didn't either."
"Ah, put a sock in it, Geert. Stop nagging about it. The admiral gave an order and we obey. It is that simple. Why do you allways make everything so complicated ? Everywhere you go you see a conspiracy. Sometimes I think that you are just an inch from where Jan Roel is. In fact, why don't you join him, take the hammerhead, it's faster. And the sooner you are of my back. I had enough as it is right now. I am going to Ops to relieve Helena. You should do some maintenance or prep some of these old androids. Make yourself useful for a change, the more of these androids are fit for work, the more relaxed we get, instead of nagging all the time."
Joeri turned his back and went to the nearest turbolift. He couldn't help cursing himself though. Deep down an irritating voice kept telling him that, at least partially, Geert might have a point. Of course, he allways was a kind of a conspiracy-theorist, but he never saw him as intense as now. Was it stress ? No, he would never get an assignement to an outpost station like this one if he hadn't been thoroughly tested. I must have a word with Admiral Arthur and Admiral Necheyev when or if they ever get back here. Jan Roel's condition was unexplainable. He never saw someone loose it like him.
The doors slid open and a few meters in front of him he saw Helena. She was leaning back in a somewhat comfy chair, reading the two monitors in front of her and changing some info on the main viewer.
"Helena," She reacted scared as she hadn't hear Joeri arriving "Can you display the tactical situation as it is right now, centralised on the Nemesis ? I would like to now the status between them and the USS Gandhi. Show the course of the Gandhi with the last known headings and project every star and/or planetary-system or starbase he passes. There might be a clue as to why he took that singularity-device with him. Jan must know that it won't be very effective when those 'Elder' show up and are as powerful as everybody says."
Now Joeri turned his face down, then looked up again and now he stared right into Helena's eyes. They both had a shiver running down their spine and stood there doing nothing, looking at each other for almost a minute. With a softer voice he asked her to check on the USS Elltuhs. He had this nagging gut feeling. Something felt wrong.
"Very well. I will have a long range sensor-beacon locked to the transpondersignal of the Elltuhs. But if they are still in the neighbourhood of Vega then they are too far for us to receive the signal. On the other hand, if really something happened, the only way to assist in time is via another starship, preferably a fast one. That is, if they have time and power to send a May-Day or launch a emergency-beacon. I will see if there is any other ship in the proximity of Vega."
"Thanks Lieutenant. You have quite a talent for depressing people. Let's just hope for the best, shall we ?" Joeri replied immediately with his renowned sarcasm. But he was faking it. The bad feeling just kept getting worse.
Joeri touched a button on the console in front of him…"Geert, check with Louis and some of the remaining cadets. See to their current status. Then take a quick peek at the Ajax. See that she is on full standby. Also, keep the battledrones powered-up and ready to be launched. Get all the androids, who are in working condition and not yet assigned to engineering, activated, programmed with the necessary knowledge and assign them to the Ajax. We are heavily understaffed right now. Get, if there are enough of them, some assigned with guard-duty on the primary sections of the station. Understood ! ?"
"Yeah, yeah. Understood Sir. Your 'drone' is on it's way" Geert had perhaps an even greater ability for sarcasm than Joeri, but then off course, he never got involved in high profile missions, unlike other of his crewmates.
"I must ask Wim to finally start seriously working on these obsolete androids. A few of them are already excellent performers in various tasks, with a lot of independence and they have even developed neural networks of themselves. A simple learning proces which, eventually, will make it on DS2 for all of us a lot easier. But then, Wim has to start working seriously on the rest of them. First thing after all clears up, I will take it up with Admiral Arthur and the Commander." Joeri didn't got more time to ponder because Helena just finished part of the tactical sweap and came up with preliminary results. "I have the relative position of the Gandhi to the Nemesis. Necheyev is on its tale and closing in fast. That sure is a hell of a ship. The Gandhi's probable course is straight to…the Vega sector. According to the calculations, and if Jan Roel keeps at this speed, he will reach Vega 12 minutes before the Nemesis catches him. That leaves the Gandhi enough time to launch the device, that is, if that is his plan. They should have taken the Ajax, but why didn't they ? Why did she had to take the nemesis ? The Ajax has the capability of using transwarp conduits. It's hard to accept that she didn't know that. Or, what if she didn't intend to catch Jan Roel ? That she took the Nemesis on purpose ? Or perhaps she didn't trust us ? But then, who says that Jan Roel will trigger that singularity ?"
…Meanwhile on the USS Nemesis the group entered, finally, the readyroom of Necheyev and everybody sat down, in a seat around the too large conferencetable, but then, everything on this ship was 'too much'. There weren't enough superlatives to describe this class of new ships.
"Very well, Admiral, let's have it. What's with all the mistery and where are we going ?" Jan Theys asked with a somewhat irritated tone to his voice.
"Okay, listen up. I will clarify some things, but first of all, everything said between these walls is highly classified and will NOT be discussed with anyone." And as the last of them Necheyev sat down.
"Nadine, no sign of a ship yet ? I will settle for any kind." Luke asked but already knew the answer. Nadine wanted to reply but…"Nope, don't say it. A lot of dust, and a beautiful sighting, isn't it ? Is that beacon operational ? Even in our situation, with more than half the ship destroyed and the other half kept together with some 'ropes and chewing gum', we should be making contact with someone ?" he sighed while continuing on his efforts to seal some breaches next to the section where the wing was ripped off.
Marianne turned around from the left seat and made the remark Nadine wanted to say "The heavy gravimetric distortions from the singularity bend and decrease the wavelength of the commsignals. There is, in our condition, absolutely no way around it. We are even lucky that the beacon isn't torn apart." But then a small indicatorlight went on and an alarm sounded. "Sir" Nadine began gasping for air "short-range sensors detected, via the beacon, a ship heading our way. It is…it is the USS Gandhi, yes, YES, transpondersignal is definately correct, Luke, the Gandhi is heading our way. Thank God"
"OK, Nadine, do that when we are safely back at the station. First of all, focus all the signaloutput that you can get from the beacon and point it at the Gandhi and transmit our status, audio only, so the signal is more compressed."
"Very well sir, give me a minute, interface is slow. OK, there we are, signaloutput at maximum. They should be receiving it right now."
"Sir, the Gandhi isn't responding. ALL the readings show that they are receiving our signal, but there is no reply, just static. They arent' even slowing down but are headed to the singularity. SIR, behind it is another ship, closing fast ! ! !" Now Marianne seemed gasping for air." It is an Akira-class vessel, the USS Nemesis, and it seems in pursuit of the Gandhi ? ? ! ! They are closing much faster now and…what now ? The Nemesis stopped ?"
Next the surroundings of the Elltuhs began fading and the next they knew was that they were standing in the transporterroom of the Nemesis.
A medic began checking them out and some ten minutes later they were taken to the ready-room where they saw some familiar faces.
"Welcome Admiral, Lieutenants, have a seat next to your colleages." And Necheyev turned her face back to the table and, at last, began clarifiyng some issues.