That Can't Be Right

Posted on Fri Jul 3rd, 2020 @ 9:37am by

Mission: Season 3: Episode 4: Cause and Effect
Location: Atlantis-C
Timeline: Queen's Bounty +4 hours
1247 words - 2.5 OF Standard Post Measure

Taam Sor'el slept soundly, well, as soundly as a man with his past could, in his quarters, his wife, Merella, wasn't feeling well, and decided to take up a space in an unoccupied guest quarter rather than risk giving him her illness. He'd begun to have a dream, a dream of people long gone, of Romulus, of the nightmare that had taken place there, when he was blessedly rescued from these nowhere near fuzzy enough memories by a ringing chime. He opened his eyes slightly and shook his head, seeing it was nearly two in the morning, "No way this is good." He muttered, standing to answer he door, where he found his communication's officer, Ensign Terry, standing with a look of panic on her face, "What is it, Ensign?" He asked, putting his right hand comfortingly on the young woman's shoulder, she was shaking like a leaf.

"Sir, I don't know how to tell you this, but those encrypted messages you asked me to send to Cdr. Taylor on Elysium from Admiral Zhukov, they bounced." Terry replied, using a comms slang term for when messages can't reach their intended recipient, "We even tried raising the Elysium directly in case it was a problem with that channel. Nothing."

"That can't be right, Ensign." Taam shook his head, "Did you do a diagnostic on the comms system? Or try to raise anyone else?"

"Yes, sir." Terry nodded, "We raised Enterprise and our diagnostic showed nothing out of the ordinary. Captain, Elysium simply isn't out there."

"What do you mean isn't out there?" Taam asked, this girl was making no sense whatsoever, "Maybe they're the ones having comm troubles."

"Then the comm troubles spread to your friend's personal channel, sir." Terry reported, no way this was comms trouble, something much worse had happened to Elysium.

"Have you spoken to the Admiral about this yet?" Taam asked, though he figured knowing Terry she went straight up the chain of command and wouldn't go to the Admiral until he told her to.

"No, sir." She replied, "First I went to Lt. McReynolds, then to Cdr. Hillerman, now to you." She related, listing the Gamma Shift OIC, the XO, and then the Captain, proper chain of command was a blessing when followed.

"Okay, you did fine, Terry." Taam smiled, "I'll go talk to the Admiral, go tell Lt. McReynolds be prepared for a change in orders." If he knew the Queen, and he did, she was going to set them off to wherever Elysium was last seen at maximum warp.

"Yes, Sir." Terry nodded, about facing and scrambling back to the bridge.

For his part, Taam shaved, brushed his teeth, and put a fresh uniform on, he'd not see her majesty unless he could be received by actual royalty, as far as they were concerned, she was. Fifteen minutes later she stood in front of the VIP quarters and rang the chime, hoping she was still up. When the door whooshed open on it's own, he knew she was and had opened the door via remote, probably sending poor Stafford into a panic attack.

"DAMN IT, MADAM AMBASSADOR!" Stafford shouted from somewhere yet unseen, "You have got to stop doing that! That could've been a psycho of some variety, or an assassin."

"An assassin? On a Federation ship of the line, Becca?" Zhukov laughed audibly, "I think you're stretching the concerns a bit, my dear."

"Just me, Admiral." Taam announced as he entered the living area, "Got a minute?"

Stafford made it to him before the Ambassador did, frisking him for weapons before acknowledging him, "Captain Sor'el is here, Madam Ambassador."

"Send Taam in to me, Becca." Zhukov sighed, "And it's Admiral until this mission concludes."

"As you wish, Amb...admiral." Stafford replied, rolling her eyes, the old woman was getting nuttier by the day it seemed.

Now convinced Sor'el was unarmed, Stafford escorted him in to the Ambassador, who was sat at the desk of her temporary office going over padds of unknown content, "Captain Sor'el, Admiral." She informed her boss.

"I know, you told me he was here, I've been expecting him." Zhukov laughed, poor Becca was so serious sometimes, so like Kerri in a lot of ways, "What took so long for you to get him in here, Becca?"

"I had to frisk him for weapons, Admiral." Stafford replied quickly, "You're a Federation Ambassador, people want to kill you."

"Taam? Taam who I've known and worked with for a quarter century is a danger to me?" Zhukov asked, no longer able to keep her laughter soft, "Becca, darling, you've got to learn how to trust the people around you or this is going to be a very long career for you."

"Or very short if you don't learn how not to trust everybody, Admiral." Stafford sighed, that tore it, the old woman was nuts, there was no other answer now.

"Now, Taam, what brings you here at two fifteen in the morning?" Zhukov asked, putting down her padd and her drink, "Someone else see the ghost of Capt. Tracy on the Exeter?"

"No, ma'am, nothing that low key." Taam laughed, though there had been multiple reports from the engineering team at the ship storage facility below them of seeing the ill fated Capt. Tracy on Exeter as they were bringing it back online, "I sent your messages to Elysium, they bounced. We've checked our systems, they're functioning perfectly, but Elysium and Taylor's channels both got no return."

"That's not possible unless they were...." Zhukov began, stopping when she couldn't say the next word, though it was the only logical conclusion.

"Destroyed, yes, ma'am." Taam finished the thought for her, "We were able to raise Enterprise, Capt. LaForge reported having seen Elysium at Deep Space Nine a little over eight days ago, but nobody has heard from her since, they were headed to the void, Admiral."

"The void?" Zhukov raised an eyebrow, "What in Stalin's ghost for?"

"Research mission according to Command." Taam replied, he'd already done some due diligence while getting ready to see her, "Admiral, if you feel it needed I'm ready to let you assume command."

"No, no. I'm sure it's nothing. Probably interference from the Void." Zhukov declined.

"And if it is, we're better off having it and not needing it." Sor'el counterpointed, "Admiral, take the ship, it's not going to bruise my ego."

"Right, if you're sure." Zhukov nodded, "I'll leave Hillerman here to oversee the reactivation project, you can take his place as my First Officer."

"And what are my orders, Captain?" Taam asked, though he already knew.

"We're going to the last known location of Elysium at Maximum Warp." Zhukov answered instantly, "And we're searching for traces of Romulan presence."

"You don't think Mishka...." Taam began, though it had occurred to him as well, maybe she knew about the bounty and was pissed and sending a message.

"That's what we're going to find out." Zhukov replied.

A few minutes later the change of command was officially in the computer and Anje Zhukov found herself somewhere she hadn't been since turning over Enterprise-C to Rachel Garrett, in the captain's chair of a starship. She ordered a course and speed change and start to reacquaint herself with the center seat, the tech had changed so much but it wasn't all new by any means, she'd have the hang of it in no time. She just hoped she still had time to save Elysium.