"Ops to Admiral Jade."

Admiral Jeremy Jade rolled over in his bed, ruffling his sheets. He prayed that he was only dreaming.

"Ops to Admiral Jade. Urgent, please respond."

Jade grunted and rolled back. He nudged his way slowly to his bedside desk, slapping the com panel. "Jade here," he growled.

"Sir, we've picked an urgent sub-space distress beacon coming from the Denab system. So far its nothing but static, but we're decoding it now, but the beacon is Starfleet in origin. It may be from–"

Jade's eyes opened alertly, but he remained under the covers. "The Enterprise," he finished. "Keep decoding it. I'm on my way, and Lieutenant," he continued as he rose from his bed. "Stop using run-on sentences. Jade out."

He threw back the covers and sat up on the bed, opening the bedside drawer containing his clean uniform, thinking I hate Starfleet.

Admiral Jade strode into the large operations center, still half-asleep but in his uniform. Ops wasn't that lively at this time of night, but the Omega shift made it seem like it was morning. Each of the third-string shift officers were silently sitting at their stations, lively though unoccupied. One man, rookie Ensign Paddler, was the only one that seemed relatively tired. Either that, or he was sick of being on this shift. This was evident in the way he grabbed a steaming mug out of the second level replicator. He closed his eyes and took a sip out of the mug, but didn't seem satisfied with it. Nevertheless, he took it with him.

Jade strode down the stairs to the lower level of ops. He stole a glance out at the central viewscreen. The Trigon system's sun was just starting to appear from behind the primary planet in the system, casting a dark, ecliptic shadow over the planet and its one moon. It reminded Jade of the time of day, and he yawned. It was okay, though. The Enterprise could be in trouble.

Lieutenant Irons, the middle-aged woman who's light voice had just recently woken him up, stepped forward to greet him. "Admiral, we've made some progress in the decoding. The signal isn't very long, but we've managed to carve out a few words, but no voice identification yet, but I'm sure it's the Enterprise." She turned her head to the panel next to her. "Computer, replay modified recording from start."

The computer made technical noises of acknowledgment. A second later, Irons's panel played the recording, which at first seemed to be nothing but static. However, as Jade listened more closer, he could faintly hear distant words amongst the noise. The voice was severely garbled, not even sounding human, pinched and mechanical by the contour of the transmission.

...is is...uc Picard o...s..rprise...der att...cies...our e...omised...are...eed of...immediately...ny...p ca...ssist at...eat...please assist...urry......

Static filled the speakers again. It continued for a few moments before the computer finished it.

Jade nodded. "I heard 'picard.' It has to be the Enterprise. They sound like they're in trouble; are there any otherships near that sector?" Jade knew that Starbase 23, here, was remote. No ships were docked, and none would be for another two weeks.

Irons tapped in commands on the panel. "No. The closest ship to the Enterprise's last known position is the U.S.S. Kaughlin. It's a day away at warp eight."

The older human gently rubbed his beard with two fingers. The Kaughlin was a Galaxy-class starship cataloguing a recently discovered comet near Wolf 234. There was something about that ship that was nagging the back of Jade's mind, but it had nothing to do with anything going on now.

So Jade forgot about it. "Ensign Lowmiller, transmit a sub-space message to the Captain the U.S.S. Kaughlin. Send them the entire distress signal, and ask them if they would kindly investigate it. Send them all data on the Enterprise's mission in the Denab system, last known position, and the last time it reported to Starfleet."

"Aye, sir," the tall man responded.

"Speaking of which," Jade continued, turning back to Irons. "What was the Enterprise's mission in the Denab system?"

Irons once again checked the central panel. "Exploration. The Denab system was discovered by a probe one year ago. Charting planets and moons, searching for life, cataloguing any anomalies. That was the Enterprise's initial mission."

Jade smirked and made a guttural noise, staring out the viewscreen as more of the sun peeked from behind Trigon. "With that ship's luck, its no wonder their in trouble again. What do you think they screwed up this time?" His sarcastic gaze fell on Irons, who looked down and smiled slightly. The other officers within earshot mimicked her, not seeming that amused at all by the sarcasm. Jade shrugged. He had tried.

One woman, a Vulcan science officer, Ensign T'Rik, responded to the off-hand remark by twisting her body away from her panel and blinked once, content, at Jade. "Excuse me, Admiral, but was your previous remark about the Enterprise referring to the event known as the Rashanar Incident, when the Enterprise fired on and destroyed what they thought was a matter imitation of the Ontailian flagship Vuxhal?" she asked dully.

Jade fixed her with a blank stare. He didn't like Vulcans. He couldn't understand how a species could simply suppress and not use their emotions; Jade considered emotions to be an essential part of every species, man, woman, and child alike. They were a part of memories, a part of everyday living, a part of life itself. It was almost surreal how they could easily abandon the one part of themselves that often made a species what it was. "Yes, Ensign, but I was only being sarcastic. I have a great respect for Picard and the Enterprise."

The Vulcan raised a quizzical eyebrow. "Do you believe that Captain Picard was wrong to fire on the Vuxhal?" She said in a calm monotone.

"Ensign," Lieutenant Irons cautioned the Vulcan.

Klingons were aggressive, fearless, and bold. The Romulans were spiteful, intimidating, and confident. Cardassians were headstrong and ruthless; Tholians were quick and deadly; The Borg, though eerie in their own resilience, were cold-hearted and un-daunting. The Jem'Hadar, though relatively emotionless themselves, were still murderous butchers and conquering. Their emotions and attitudes made them what they were. Why couldn't Jade know what the Vulcans were. He could see, touch them, talk to them, but he could never tell what they were thinking; could never see how they reacted to certain things. It drove him crazy sometimes the blandness and dullness of their species.

Jade waved Irons off and smiled ever so slightly at T'Rik.

"I mean no aggravation, Admiral. I am simply curious." she continued, nevertheless aggravating Jade with her voice once again.

The Admiral stood tall. "Nonetheless, my opinions of Picard and his crew shouldn't matter now," he said, being careful with his words to her. "What is important is that we find them. Even better if we find them safe and sound. Understood?"

Her neutral, aggravating, facial expression remained. "That is logical sir. Understood." The Vulcan rotated herself back to her post.

Logic. After years of several different posts, and several different Vulcan shipmates, Admiral Jade had come to hate that word.

Jade stepped to the central console. "Computer, bring up the star charts to sector 064. Highlight the Denab system." The computer activated the monitor in front of Jade, following his exact commands. In a moment, a star chart of the remote Denab system appeared, eleven red blips and one white blip on a black and yellow grid. Jade was about to give the computer another command, when he suddenly felt sleep tugging at his sinuses and, on top of that, his entire head.

"To hell with it." He switched off the computer monitor. "The Kaughlin can handle the rest of this search." He yawned. "I'm going back to bed, Lieutenant."

The Admiral started back for the turbolift. But as he reached the top of the stairs, he stopped. The back of his mind began to nag at him again. There was something about the Kaughlin that was keeping his mind occupied.

"Lieutenant?" He asked, spinning on his heels to face her. He thought long and hard about how to phrase his next question. "Did the Kaughlin ever have another name?"

Irons's brandy-brown eye blinked. Her body language said that she had been caught off guard significantly. "Um, I...don't know sir. Would you like me to check?"

"If you would please, Lieutenant. It's bothering me."

"Aye, sir." She swiftly entered the commands. "Hmm," she said after a moment. "Yes, sir, it did have another name. It was originally registered as the U.S.S. Daniel Kaughlin NCC-5881. The name was changed to just the U.S.S. Kaughlin on Stardate 4456.7." She grinned at the monitor. "Apparently, StarFleet thought the name was too long."

"Ah," Jade said simply. "The Daniel Kaughlin. Daniel Kaughlin..." The name sounded quite familiar, but Jade couldn't place it.

Irons took the hint. "Daniel Kaughlin was the Hero at Brita III, a turning point battle in the Earth-Romulan War of 2162. Captain Kaughlin's ship, the Intrepid, held off an entire squadron of Romulan battlecruisers while the colony on Brita III was evacuated."

Jade's mind finally recognized the same. "That's right. Daniel Kaughlin. Is that spelled C-o-u-
g-h-l-i-n?"

The woman shook her close-cropped red hair without looking at the monitor. "No, sir. It's spelled K-a-u-g-h-l-i-n. Also, I think it's pronounced Kay-lin, with a silent "u."

Jade smiled graciously at Irons, now understanding what his mind was telling him. "Thank you Lieutenant. Good night."

Irons returned the smile. "Good night, sir."

The Admiral entered the turbolift. "Crew quarters," he ordered the computer. The turbolift hummed to life and moved. Jade's mind was still on the name Daniel Kaughlin. But not the one Irons had talked uselessly about. The Daniel Coughlin he was thinking about with spelled with the C-o-u. That Daniel had served under Jade when he was a Commander on post at Deep Space Seven. Good, young officer.

Why am I thinking about these things? He thought as the turbolift switched shafts. From lack of sleep, probably.

As the thought of Daniel disappeared and sleep began to get the best of him again, another good, young officer took his place is Jade's mind.

I hope my son is having a better day than I am.