Chapter Two

The next two days until she started work at the museum, Juanita realized that the Starfleet officers who worked there, at least the ones she met, seemed very secretive. She didn't have much to do until she started her new assignment, so she spent a lot of time thinking about it. Why are they so secretive? Are they hiding something? she kept asking herself. Max doesn't seem to be very secretive, she thought, but then he's not in Starfleet. He's the receptionist at the museum, so he probably doesn't know what the secret is, if there is one.

After a few days of working at the museum, she started realizing who the people she was working with were. The finest officers of Starfleet were posted at a Museum, and their careers seemed to be going nowhere. Why are the best officers Starfleet has spending the rest of their time in a museum, of all places? Why was I posted here? I should be out piloting starships, not talking about them!

When she got the chance, she went up to her commanding officer, Commander Sam Stevenson.

"Sir, I would like to ask you a few questions," she said.

The commander straightened up from bending over the console he was working at, and turned to look at Juanita. "Go ahead and ask, then, Lieutenant."

"It's about what we're doing here, Commander. At the museum." Commander Stevenson didn't seem to be affected by what she said. "Why are so many of Starfleet's finest officers doing here? When we could be out helping the Federation elsewhere?"

He took a deep breath and let it out. "I think it's time for us to meet with Admiral Zackirya. There's something important you should know."

The commander led her to Admiral Zackirya's office. He sounded the doorbell. When the door opened to admit them, they entered.

"What is it, Commander?" Admiral Zackirya asked. "Why did you bring Lieutenant Paris Worf?"

Commander Stevenson looked the admiral straight in the eye. "I think it's time that she finds out exactly what we are doing here, Sir."

The admiral looked down at his desk. "Very well, then. Commander, you can stay if you want to, but I expect that you've grown tired of hearing this."

"I would stay and listen, but I have work to do. Thank you anyway, sir." Commander Stevenson then left.

"You might as well sit down, Lieutenant. This might take a while." The admiral rummaged in one of his desk drawers, then took something. "How much do you know about Ambassador Spock?" he asked.

"Not much, sir. Only that he used to be the science and first officer aboard the Enterprise, under Captain Kirk, and that the two were best friends." She started thinking a little more. "I heard something somewhere that Ambassador Spock disappeared, and that his body was later found. Is that true?"

Admiral Zackirya nodded sadly. "Yes, it is. We never found out where he disappeared to. The Federation lost a fine man." The admiral was affected by this. He shook his head, then took the object he had taken out and pressed a button. A holographic image of Spock appeared.

"Is that what I think it is, sir?" Juanita asked.

"Yes. I think it's time you watched this, Lieutenant." He pressed another button, and the holographic version of Spock started speaking.

"A few days ago, I stumbled upon a rather surprising discovery about subspace. My discovery is that a people from another galaxy, perhaps even another universe, uses subspace for energy. They, unfortunately, also feed off anything that was created around the same time as the discovery of subspace frequencies. Not surprisingly, they destroy whole worlds, solar systems, and at times, whole civilizations. I have reason to believe that they have entered the Milky Way and are headed in a direct course for Earth. If Earth is destroyed, billions of lives will be lost, and the Federation will be in turmoil. Unless they are stopped, this corner of the galaxy will be destroyed, which will eventually lead to the rest of the galaxy collapsing. According to my calculations, they will arrive on October 31st, 2575. Unless Earth is protected, total devastation in the Milky Way will begin on that day. The hologram then turned itself off.

"That's in just over three months! How will we be able to prevent it?" the lieutenant demanded of the admiral.

"We've been working on a solution since we found this in a storage capsule about eight months ago," said Admiral Zackirya.

"What is it?" Juanita demanded.

"I presume that you've seen the NCC-1701 Enterprise on display?" he asked.

"Of course! I went to see it during my lunch break on my first day. I go see it almost every day now," she said. "Does it have something to do with the solution?"

"Yes. I must tell you that the NCC-1701 Enterprise on display is not the original. That is hidden in a safe canyon not too far from here."

There was a moment of silence before she responded. "But...Why?"

The admiral was silent for a second, as if listening to something in the distance. Juanita knew better than to think that. She knew that it was one of the implanted combadges. Then she realized that Max used a combadge that was pinned to his tunic. "Alright. I'll be there in a minute." He looked at Juanita. "I'm sorry, Lieutenant, but Captain Roswell needs a bit of help, and seeing as we all will be going home soon for the night, I will have to your question later." The admiral motioned to the door, for her to exit.

Juanita got up, but didn't head to the door immediately. She asked, "Doesn't Max have an implanted combadge?"

Admiral Zackirya looked over. "I'm afraid you'll have to ask him that, Lieutenant." With that, they left the office, but before they went their separate ways, the admiral said, "Why don't you come to my office when your shift starts tomorrow, Lieutenant?"

Juanita nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Alright then. I'll see you tomorrow, and don't worry; I'll tell Commander Stevenson where you are." With that , they left each other's presence.

Even though the museum had already closed, Juanita still had 15 minutes before her shift ended. So, she helped with closing down the museum for the night.

When she was leaving, she saw Max just ahead of her. Juanita hurried up to catch up with him. "Hi Max!" she said.

"Oh! Hi! I didn't see you coming up," he said, surprised.

"I was wondering, why are you using an exterior combadge, instead of having an implant?" she asked.

"Well, I just didn't want to have one inside my head, I guess. It sorta creeped me out," he said, shrugging.

"Oh. I found kinda strange that you use the one pinned on your tunic," Juanita said. "I guess I've never seen people wearing those except for in photos, or holograms."

"Not a lot of people use these anymore, you're right. I had this one made specially for me, since I'll be working in the museum with Starfleet officers," he said. "It's rather handy, really," Max added.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow, then?" Juanita asked.

"Yeah. Hey, do you mind if I call you sometime?" asked Max.

"Oh, of course not. But only if you allow me to call you after you call me," she said.

"Alright then, we have a deal." With that, they went home.

Juanita still couldn't stop thinking about what Admiral Zackirya was going to tell her, even after a few hours.