Lieutenant Austin Peters headed toward the junior officer's lounge. At
just under six feet, he had dark brown hair and brown eyes, one could swear
that he could see into your very soul with them, and he had been know to
make quite a few colleagues uncomfortable with them. 'Damn, I'm late', he
thought to himself
"Late, as usual," commented Ensign Vivian Talsy as he entered into the lounge. Fresh out of the academy, like everyone else in the room, she had graduated at the top of her class, and was quickly making her way up the ranks. At a little over 5 feet 3 inches, she had a petite frame and flowing black hair; but her appearances were deceiving and she was an excellent hand-to-hand fighter.
"Ha ha, we found a pretty interesting nebula in the Jerome Sector, Captain wanted us to check it out," Austin replied with a smile on his face.
"Of course, we should be honored that an all mighty senior officer would even consider playing poker with us," retorted Austin's good friend, Benjamin Waters. Ben stood tall at 6 feet 2 inches. His had short, brown hair, and was quick at solving problems, but had an even quicker wit.
"Keep practicing Ben, I almost didn't hear the sarcasm."
"Shut up"
"Hey, I'll get you for insubordination and have u thrown in the brig," he retorted
"Jeez, you two, why don't we start another game up," said Elizabeth Flowers, "I could defiantly use another hand, this one sucks." Liz Flowers was the medic of the group. After being forced to take combat training, she quickly realized that she was not inclined in killing, and had taken medicine. With black hair that reached her waist, she had large brown eyes. Perhaps one of the more mature ones of the group, Liz had graduated second in her class, and was extremely adept as a surgeon.
"Right then, Vivian, why don't you deal this time," said Ben.
Austin looked at his cards and tried to suppress a grimace, 'ugh, never can seem to get a good hand' He still wasn't too good at poker; then again, this was his 5th time playing the game, so he figured he wasn't to bad.
"You know Austin, you're what 16?" asked Chris Sullivan. As a junior engineer, Chris and Ben were constantly competing with one another, in almost every aspect, from work to girls. They had been tied in their class ranks, and had been high school friends.
"I'm 17 in a month, why do you ask?" replied Austin
"Cause I can't figure out some things. Let's see now, you're about 4 years younger than all of us, you should be in High School, let alone a senior officer on a modified Galaxy-Class ship! Not trying to sound arrogant or anything, but all of us graduated the Academy at the top of their respective fields, Ben and I at engineering, Vivian at Ops, Andy at the helm, John in security, and Liz in medicine," he said pointing at everyone in the room, "and here you are, a kid, who should be in high school, and you outrank all of us; AND you're the Senior Ops officer, for crying out loud, you've got people 5 or 6 year's older than you reporting to you! Its been, what, a month since we set off? You still haven't told us how the hell you've pulled that off!"
"Yeah, you never did tell us you did that," said Andrew McKinley. Andy was a pilot, and a damn good one. He had set records throughout the Academy, but unlike most hotshot pilots, he didn't boast about it. At 5 feet 9 inches, he had a sprinter's frame (coming from the fact that he was arguably the best sprinter the Academy had ever seen) blondish-brown hair, and piercing blue eyes.
Austin looked at Chris and Andy, not keen at telling anyone what had happened to him, and how he had pulled this off. He didn't want tell anyone what had happened, the only two people who knew were was Captain Bates and Counselor Hambrick, and he didn't feel any need to tell anyone else. Shifting uncomfortably in his chair, he looked at everyone, seeing how eager they were for him to tell his story, and he knew that curiosity would quickly change to horror.
"BOOM!!" The entire ship tilted to the right, causing the table to fall over.
"SENIOR OFFICERS REPORT TO THE BRIDGE!"
Austin shot up, "That's my cue, I'll talk to you guys later," and with that, he fled the lounge and practically sprinted to the turbolift in his haste to get to the bridge. "Bridge," he ordered.
"CRASH" This one was even worse than the first, 'C'mon, c'mon,' urged Austin to the turbolift. Finally the doors opened; the bridge was a mess, consoled were blackened and medical teams were taking care of injuries. Austin relieved the Ensign at ops.
"REPORT" yelled Captain Bates.
Austin looked at his console, "What the hell? Sir, we seem to be caught in some sort of gravimetric eddy, at least that what it looks like, I've never seen one of this type of configuration, in fact, it shouldn't be possible for one to be so close to this type of nebula..."
"Whatever it is, hull stress in increasing exponentially, we've gotta get out of here," reported the first officer.
Austin looked at his console, "Sir, impulse engines won't be able to get us out of this, and for some reason, this eddy is becoming larger.
The Captain looked over the data, "we'll have to go to warp. Helm, get us out of here, warp one!"
Austin looked at his data, "Oh my god! NO, don't engage the warp engines!
The helmsman looked at him in horror, "Too late."
BOOM! and everything went dark......
'Oh my aching head, what happened, where are we?' With that, Austin opened his eyes, and looked up to see...nothing. It was dark, except for flickering emergency lights giving sporadic lighting throughout the bridge. "Is everyone ok?" There was no answer. He got up and tried to convince his console to work. "Peters to sickbay, we have a medical emergency on the bridge," No response, "Peters to engineering," There was still no response. 'Internal communications must be down'
"Lieutenant, over here."
"Captain, are you ok?"
"I can't breathe, my entire chest.......it.....I must have broken a rib.....or something" he gasped. "What's our status?"
"Looks like power's out, I can't get a reading on any of the systems"
"What about the crew?"
With his eyes finally adjusting to the dark, he could see that there were others, on the ground, "Looks like everyone's unconscious sir," he replied, praying that they weren't all dead.
With that final thought, emergency power came online. Austin looked around the bridge, and to his horror, he could see that it was completely devastated. Consoles had exploded, bulkheads were everywhere.
"Engineering the Bridge."
"Peters here, Chris, is that you?"
"Austin, am I glad to hear you're voice! Commander Melo is severely injured; right now I'm in command of engineering. Where's the captain?"
"The Captain is hurt, and it looks like the rest of the senior staff is also, what's our status?"
"We're setting up medical facilities throughout the ship, warp core is offline, along with everything else, we're lucky to have life support, but that's about all we've got."
"I hear you Chris, see what you can do, Peters out"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------
Senior Ops Officer's Log-stardate- unknown
It's been three days since the disaster. Chris has been working round the clock and we now have main power, however, engines, shields, weapons, and most importantly, sensors are offline, and we are unable to determine our position. Our subspace antenna was damaged, and therefore we are unable to send a distress call. The Captain along with the rest of the staff is in critical condition. With our chief medical officer also hurt, it's fallen upon Ensign Elizabeth Flowers and our EMH to treat the wounded, which unfortunately is quite high. We've already recoded over 50 casualties with over 200 other wounded to some extent, and nearly 80 of those are critical.
Austin rubbed his eyes, ever since the "incident" he had been involved in three years ago, he didn't require much sleep, and thus, he had been working almost around the clock but it was still tiring.
"Lieutenant, take a look at this. We just got sensors working, and we're over 100, 000 light years from the Alpha quadrant."
"Holy...."
"Sir, that's not the worst part, from what I can make out with the chronometric particles, we're also a few millennia in the past, if not more, I can't make out for sure; also, I'm reading something strange about those particles, but I can't determine exactly what it means... sensor's still aren't fully repaired so that's all I can tell you."
Austin tried to not show the fear, not only were they away from home, they weren't even in there time period, "Ensign, keep working on this, I need the exact place and time, and I need it now!
"Yes sir"
"Flowers to Peters, please report to sickbay immediately"
"On my way"
Austin headed to the turbolift, he was extremely worried. They were far from home, and he was the only active senior officer. With almost the entire bridge crew dead, it was only the Captain and him who were still alive from the original senior staff, and the Captain was in critical condition. Arriving at sickbay, he could immediately tell something was wrong. It was deathly quiet, and it was obvious that the medical staff was exhausted.
"What is it Liz?"
"It's the Captain, Austin, his injuries are too extensive; there's nothing I can do."
"Does he know?"
"Yes, I just told him, he said he needs to speak with you immediately."
Austin walked up to the Captain, full of concern, but putting about an air of joviality
"How ya doin, Captain?" he said with a smile.
"No need for the fake cheer, Austin, you know as well as I do. I'm dying. I need you to do one last thing, get us to a starbase, we can't be that far away."
"Actually sir, uhm, I don't know how to put this....." stammered Austin, shifting in place uncomfortably.
"What is it Austin?"
"Well, we've just gotten partial sensors, and from what we can determine we're no where near federation space sir."
"How far?"
"Sir, we're thousands of light years away sir, and possibly thousands of years in the past.... I'm sorry sir."
"My god....!" he replied, becoming pale in the process, "You have nothing to be sorry for Lieutenant. It was my call to engage the warp engines, you tried to warn us all." Captain Bates tried to comfort the young Lieutenant, but knew an enormous burden was about to be placed upon him, "I've been told by the Ensign Flowers that the entire senior staff is dead."
"Yes sir"
A look of pain came across Captain Bates's face, "Promise me you'll get us home, Austin"
"Yes, sir."
"You're a good officer Peters, I have no doubt you would have made Captain before you were thirty. With the senior officers all gone, and with me probably not surviving for to long, you have to take command. I know you may not be ready, but these are extreme circumstances, and its times like these that people like you step up. Therefore, on this stardate, with Ensign Flowers as a witness, I hereby give you the rank of Captain, with all the rights and privileges thereby. Computer, transfer all command codes to Captain Peters, authorization Bates Omega Charlie 13."
"Authorization accepted, all command codes have been transferred."
"There you have it Austin; you'll have to make yourself a senior staff. She's a good ship, treat her well."
"I will sir," he stammered. How could he possibly get this crew home? He was younger than all the officer and crewman on the ship, and he was now Captain. His shoulders tensed, as he realized the burden that was being placed on him. 'All my life I wanted a command, and now that I get one, I'd rather I was still a student at the Academy.' Attempting to conceal his apprehension he responded by saying, "I'll get them home sir, you have my word."
"I have no doubt that you will, Austin"
And with that, Captain Bates passed into unconsciousness; never to regain it again......
"Late, as usual," commented Ensign Vivian Talsy as he entered into the lounge. Fresh out of the academy, like everyone else in the room, she had graduated at the top of her class, and was quickly making her way up the ranks. At a little over 5 feet 3 inches, she had a petite frame and flowing black hair; but her appearances were deceiving and she was an excellent hand-to-hand fighter.
"Ha ha, we found a pretty interesting nebula in the Jerome Sector, Captain wanted us to check it out," Austin replied with a smile on his face.
"Of course, we should be honored that an all mighty senior officer would even consider playing poker with us," retorted Austin's good friend, Benjamin Waters. Ben stood tall at 6 feet 2 inches. His had short, brown hair, and was quick at solving problems, but had an even quicker wit.
"Keep practicing Ben, I almost didn't hear the sarcasm."
"Shut up"
"Hey, I'll get you for insubordination and have u thrown in the brig," he retorted
"Jeez, you two, why don't we start another game up," said Elizabeth Flowers, "I could defiantly use another hand, this one sucks." Liz Flowers was the medic of the group. After being forced to take combat training, she quickly realized that she was not inclined in killing, and had taken medicine. With black hair that reached her waist, she had large brown eyes. Perhaps one of the more mature ones of the group, Liz had graduated second in her class, and was extremely adept as a surgeon.
"Right then, Vivian, why don't you deal this time," said Ben.
Austin looked at his cards and tried to suppress a grimace, 'ugh, never can seem to get a good hand' He still wasn't too good at poker; then again, this was his 5th time playing the game, so he figured he wasn't to bad.
"You know Austin, you're what 16?" asked Chris Sullivan. As a junior engineer, Chris and Ben were constantly competing with one another, in almost every aspect, from work to girls. They had been tied in their class ranks, and had been high school friends.
"I'm 17 in a month, why do you ask?" replied Austin
"Cause I can't figure out some things. Let's see now, you're about 4 years younger than all of us, you should be in High School, let alone a senior officer on a modified Galaxy-Class ship! Not trying to sound arrogant or anything, but all of us graduated the Academy at the top of their respective fields, Ben and I at engineering, Vivian at Ops, Andy at the helm, John in security, and Liz in medicine," he said pointing at everyone in the room, "and here you are, a kid, who should be in high school, and you outrank all of us; AND you're the Senior Ops officer, for crying out loud, you've got people 5 or 6 year's older than you reporting to you! Its been, what, a month since we set off? You still haven't told us how the hell you've pulled that off!"
"Yeah, you never did tell us you did that," said Andrew McKinley. Andy was a pilot, and a damn good one. He had set records throughout the Academy, but unlike most hotshot pilots, he didn't boast about it. At 5 feet 9 inches, he had a sprinter's frame (coming from the fact that he was arguably the best sprinter the Academy had ever seen) blondish-brown hair, and piercing blue eyes.
Austin looked at Chris and Andy, not keen at telling anyone what had happened to him, and how he had pulled this off. He didn't want tell anyone what had happened, the only two people who knew were was Captain Bates and Counselor Hambrick, and he didn't feel any need to tell anyone else. Shifting uncomfortably in his chair, he looked at everyone, seeing how eager they were for him to tell his story, and he knew that curiosity would quickly change to horror.
"BOOM!!" The entire ship tilted to the right, causing the table to fall over.
"SENIOR OFFICERS REPORT TO THE BRIDGE!"
Austin shot up, "That's my cue, I'll talk to you guys later," and with that, he fled the lounge and practically sprinted to the turbolift in his haste to get to the bridge. "Bridge," he ordered.
"CRASH" This one was even worse than the first, 'C'mon, c'mon,' urged Austin to the turbolift. Finally the doors opened; the bridge was a mess, consoled were blackened and medical teams were taking care of injuries. Austin relieved the Ensign at ops.
"REPORT" yelled Captain Bates.
Austin looked at his console, "What the hell? Sir, we seem to be caught in some sort of gravimetric eddy, at least that what it looks like, I've never seen one of this type of configuration, in fact, it shouldn't be possible for one to be so close to this type of nebula..."
"Whatever it is, hull stress in increasing exponentially, we've gotta get out of here," reported the first officer.
Austin looked at his console, "Sir, impulse engines won't be able to get us out of this, and for some reason, this eddy is becoming larger.
The Captain looked over the data, "we'll have to go to warp. Helm, get us out of here, warp one!"
Austin looked at his data, "Oh my god! NO, don't engage the warp engines!
The helmsman looked at him in horror, "Too late."
BOOM! and everything went dark......
'Oh my aching head, what happened, where are we?' With that, Austin opened his eyes, and looked up to see...nothing. It was dark, except for flickering emergency lights giving sporadic lighting throughout the bridge. "Is everyone ok?" There was no answer. He got up and tried to convince his console to work. "Peters to sickbay, we have a medical emergency on the bridge," No response, "Peters to engineering," There was still no response. 'Internal communications must be down'
"Lieutenant, over here."
"Captain, are you ok?"
"I can't breathe, my entire chest.......it.....I must have broken a rib.....or something" he gasped. "What's our status?"
"Looks like power's out, I can't get a reading on any of the systems"
"What about the crew?"
With his eyes finally adjusting to the dark, he could see that there were others, on the ground, "Looks like everyone's unconscious sir," he replied, praying that they weren't all dead.
With that final thought, emergency power came online. Austin looked around the bridge, and to his horror, he could see that it was completely devastated. Consoles had exploded, bulkheads were everywhere.
"Engineering the Bridge."
"Peters here, Chris, is that you?"
"Austin, am I glad to hear you're voice! Commander Melo is severely injured; right now I'm in command of engineering. Where's the captain?"
"The Captain is hurt, and it looks like the rest of the senior staff is also, what's our status?"
"We're setting up medical facilities throughout the ship, warp core is offline, along with everything else, we're lucky to have life support, but that's about all we've got."
"I hear you Chris, see what you can do, Peters out"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------
Senior Ops Officer's Log-stardate- unknown
It's been three days since the disaster. Chris has been working round the clock and we now have main power, however, engines, shields, weapons, and most importantly, sensors are offline, and we are unable to determine our position. Our subspace antenna was damaged, and therefore we are unable to send a distress call. The Captain along with the rest of the staff is in critical condition. With our chief medical officer also hurt, it's fallen upon Ensign Elizabeth Flowers and our EMH to treat the wounded, which unfortunately is quite high. We've already recoded over 50 casualties with over 200 other wounded to some extent, and nearly 80 of those are critical.
Austin rubbed his eyes, ever since the "incident" he had been involved in three years ago, he didn't require much sleep, and thus, he had been working almost around the clock but it was still tiring.
"Lieutenant, take a look at this. We just got sensors working, and we're over 100, 000 light years from the Alpha quadrant."
"Holy...."
"Sir, that's not the worst part, from what I can make out with the chronometric particles, we're also a few millennia in the past, if not more, I can't make out for sure; also, I'm reading something strange about those particles, but I can't determine exactly what it means... sensor's still aren't fully repaired so that's all I can tell you."
Austin tried to not show the fear, not only were they away from home, they weren't even in there time period, "Ensign, keep working on this, I need the exact place and time, and I need it now!
"Yes sir"
"Flowers to Peters, please report to sickbay immediately"
"On my way"
Austin headed to the turbolift, he was extremely worried. They were far from home, and he was the only active senior officer. With almost the entire bridge crew dead, it was only the Captain and him who were still alive from the original senior staff, and the Captain was in critical condition. Arriving at sickbay, he could immediately tell something was wrong. It was deathly quiet, and it was obvious that the medical staff was exhausted.
"What is it Liz?"
"It's the Captain, Austin, his injuries are too extensive; there's nothing I can do."
"Does he know?"
"Yes, I just told him, he said he needs to speak with you immediately."
Austin walked up to the Captain, full of concern, but putting about an air of joviality
"How ya doin, Captain?" he said with a smile.
"No need for the fake cheer, Austin, you know as well as I do. I'm dying. I need you to do one last thing, get us to a starbase, we can't be that far away."
"Actually sir, uhm, I don't know how to put this....." stammered Austin, shifting in place uncomfortably.
"What is it Austin?"
"Well, we've just gotten partial sensors, and from what we can determine we're no where near federation space sir."
"How far?"
"Sir, we're thousands of light years away sir, and possibly thousands of years in the past.... I'm sorry sir."
"My god....!" he replied, becoming pale in the process, "You have nothing to be sorry for Lieutenant. It was my call to engage the warp engines, you tried to warn us all." Captain Bates tried to comfort the young Lieutenant, but knew an enormous burden was about to be placed upon him, "I've been told by the Ensign Flowers that the entire senior staff is dead."
"Yes sir"
A look of pain came across Captain Bates's face, "Promise me you'll get us home, Austin"
"Yes, sir."
"You're a good officer Peters, I have no doubt you would have made Captain before you were thirty. With the senior officers all gone, and with me probably not surviving for to long, you have to take command. I know you may not be ready, but these are extreme circumstances, and its times like these that people like you step up. Therefore, on this stardate, with Ensign Flowers as a witness, I hereby give you the rank of Captain, with all the rights and privileges thereby. Computer, transfer all command codes to Captain Peters, authorization Bates Omega Charlie 13."
"Authorization accepted, all command codes have been transferred."
"There you have it Austin; you'll have to make yourself a senior staff. She's a good ship, treat her well."
"I will sir," he stammered. How could he possibly get this crew home? He was younger than all the officer and crewman on the ship, and he was now Captain. His shoulders tensed, as he realized the burden that was being placed on him. 'All my life I wanted a command, and now that I get one, I'd rather I was still a student at the Academy.' Attempting to conceal his apprehension he responded by saying, "I'll get them home sir, you have my word."
"I have no doubt that you will, Austin"
And with that, Captain Bates passed into unconsciousness; never to regain it again......