Disclaimer: Once again, obviously don't own StarTrek or any of its characters. Don't own Wesley (damn!), don't own starfleet/starfleet academy (double damn!), don't own the Enterprise (triple damn!), and don't own a starbase (wouldn't that be fun?).
Chapter 2: A Call in the Night
Wesley awoke to the sound of a beeping consol. He looked up to see Jenna piloting the shuttle with a confused look on her face. She was furiously pushing buttons checking and rechecking the sensors for something amiss.
"What's going on?" Eddie asked groggily. He had also been awoken by the beeping and was obviously annoyed to have his few hours of sleep cut short.
"Don't know," she responded. "I'm running a diagnostic on the sensors to see if they are malfunctioning.
"Well what do you THINK is going on?" Eddie moodily asked as he got up and walked up to the consol, too intrigued now to go back to sleep.
"Two coffees, black, hot," Wesley told the replicator. He handed one to Eddie as he joined them who responded with an appreciative nod.
"Well, according to the sensors, nothing at all." To this statement, Jenna received only confused looks from her fellow cadets. She decided to elaborate. "Well, we're about twenty minutes away from Starbase 41…" She turned to Eddie, "So you can stop giving me dirty looks for waking you up." Eddie only responded with a further deepened glare while Wesley smirked at the two. "ANYways, I sent a transmission informing the base of our arrival about an hour ago. I received no response but since the base is located in a magnetically charged area that tends to interfere with transmissions, I figured either our message hadn't gotten through or they were having trouble responding."
"Yeah, they mentioned that earlier in our mission briefing that we might run into some communication problems," said Wesley.
"Yes, well, that's what I assumed, but now that we're within hailing range we shouldn't be having any problems. The magnetic energy levels are low enough that they only tend to interfere with long range transmissions. We shouldn't be having any problems with our short range."
"So what's wrong with them?" Wesley asked.
"Nothing. That's the thing. I've run a diagnostic of them and nothing's wrong. Nor is ther anything wrong with the communication systems on the base, at least not according to our sensors. I've hailed the base three times now with no response. I've confirmed that they are receiving our hails, they're simply not responding."
They all sat there for a moment thinking the situation over in silence. They looked amongst each other and had all come to a similar conclusion. One of two things had happened. The first, most likely conclusion was that this was a test. They had found at the academy that many of the tests they were given were unannounced and unexpected. Sometimes they didn't even know they were being tested. Wesley could still remember vividly his psych test. He'd been so nervous and had no idea what to expect. They told him to wait in some little room, all alone where he'd wait to be tested. When he was in there he heard an explosion. The next thing he knew he was dragging some man with a broken leg out of a room. There had been another man that he'd had to leave behind. He remembered feeling so guilty about leaving him but he had only been scared and the other man was hurt and not able to help himself. When he got out, Wesley was greeted by his examiner who, a little too calmly, told him that that had been the test. The man with the broken leg stood up, shook his hand, and walked away, and the man he'd left behind came out without a scratch, nodding at Wesley as he walked by. Wesley had been in a daze for hours after that, still trying to figure out what happened, or how he hadn't seen that coming.
The first conclusion was a more relieving one as no one ever got hurt or killed in these tests. Heck! They were never even in any real danger, they just thought they were.
The second conclusion was the one they were going to have to base their decisions on. It was that something has happened on the base that was preventing them from responding, Even if they suspected the situation to be set up, they had to treat it as a real emergency. What worried the cadets the most though was that if it really was a real situation and a real emergency, that meant that the possible danger they faced was real as well. It also meant that it was possible that one of the reasons they weren't able to respond was because the people of Starbase 41 were dead. Wesley had seen it before. More than once the crew of the Enterprise had encountered ghost ships, with the entire crew dead floating silently in space. He had seen ruins of entire civilizations. He had even piloted through a grave yard of ships when the Borg attacked. The Borg had taken out an entire fleet leaving no survivors. He knew the risks. He had seen this happen several times before and would most likely see it again in his life. It was unfortunate but always a possibility.
Wesley looked at his fellow cadets. He could tell that they weren't ready to accept such a morbid idea as a possibility. They still treated the universe as if it followed the same gentle, civil laws of earth where life was fair and the innocent were protected from the violence of unknown aggressors. He doubted they even realize how many aggressors there were. It didn't matter. They would discover this for themselves eventually. For now, he figured, taking a more optimistic approach was probably in their best interest anyways.
"Scan for life signs," Wesley said. Jenna, who usually did not appreciate taking orders from fellow cadets, responded immediately.
"Anything?" Eddie asked. Wesley could hear the growing concern in his voice and could see his knuckles turning white as they gripped the consol more tensely.
"Scanning…" Jenna burrowed her eyebrows in concentration. They all stood tense with anticipation as Jenna's hands flew back and forth across the consol, checking, comparing, and rechecking her readouts. Her look of concentration was slowly turning into one of confusion and both Eddie and Wesley could tell something was wrong.
"Well?" Eddie asked impatiently.
"I'm checking…"
"That's it! Let me do it. Scanning doesn't take his long." Pushing his way into the seat beside Jenna, Eddie impatiently began running his own scan. Jenna raised her hands in surrender as she watched Eddie slowly come to the same conclusion she had in her past two scans. "This can't be right!"
"That's what I though, but I ran the scan twice."
"What is it?" Wesley asked. He knew now for sure that something was wrong..
"Maybe our sensors are misconfigured. A self diagnostic wouldn't pick that up."
"They were reconfigured right before we left. It's not the sensors."
"What's wrong? What are you reading?" Wesley asked again.
"Well maybe we're running into some unknown interference. Either way, this can't be right."
"I don't think so. As much as I don't want to admit it, I'm pretty sure these read outs are correct."
"But how can that be? Where did they all go?"
"Uh, guys? Are you listening?" Wesley was starting to get annoyed.
"I don't know, but according to our scans, their obviously somewhere other than there."
"GUYS!" Wesley yelled. Both Jenna and Eddie jumped at Wesley's sudden outburst. They turned to see an annoyed Wesley obviously awaiting their response.
"What is it Wesley?" Jenna asked.
"What do the readings say? Wesley asked looking fairly exasperated.
"Oh! Sorry. Well, according to our sensors-"
"Which must be wrong," added Eddie.
"Yes, well, according to them, there are absolutely no life signs coming from Starbase 41."
To be continued...
Ohh! A cliff hanger! And look! Only one day later do I post chapter two! Yeah me! Man, am I a fast typer or what?
ALSO: Guess what? Chapter 3 is almost done too. It should be posted within the next few days. Hope you are enjoying the story thus far. The beginning of the mystery is just starting to be introduced so watch out for more future, soon to come, twists. (The story pace will pick up! Promise! ; )
Once again! Please read and review! You're input, whether it is good or bad, fabulous or flaming, is always appreciated! Just be honest! That's all I ask! Thanks!