Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Startrek or else I wouldn't be writing fan fiction for it. Duh! I don't own Starfleet/Starfleet academy (who needs more school anyways?), don't own Wesley (although that is a fantacy of mine) and I don't own a starbase.(Although I do have a figurine of one. Does that count?)

For reviewing thanks a bazzilion to:

Star trek freak: Cadets rock! I know! It would be cool to have a series about them! By the way, I happen to enjoy the romances too! I've certainly had a fantasy or two (staring moi!) about having various adventures with the Startrek gang. That Wesley's a cutie and he seriously needs a girl! (like moi! which is why I truly enjoyed Till death due us part. Just take out Katherine and put in me and its all good! lol!)

itsonlyme: If only! If only! We all wish we could own Wesley... and our own star base. I too am a sucker for romances, I'm just not good at writing them and got a little tired of them after reading 2 million of them in the Wesley section. (We all have dreams!) Thanks for the support.

Chapter 3: Dead men tell no tales

"None?" Wesley asked. "No life signs at all?"

"None that the sensors are showing," Jenna responded.

"You're right Eddie. That is strange."

They all sat in silence for a moment, unsure of what to do next. What does someone do in a situation like this? None of them were sure. It was not something they had a standard procedure for like they would if they were under attack. After sitting there for several more moments Wesley finally broke the silence.

"Well… I guess we have two options," he said tentatively. "We can turn around and go back to the academy or the nearest starbase and wait for further orders. That is what most people would probably expect us to do in a situation like this."

Both Jenna and Eddie nodded in agreement with this option. They certainly didn't know how to deal with this. They were only second year cadets. Most third and fourth year cadets would probably do the same and with no other starships in the area to call on for help, it didn't make sense for them to stay in a possibly hostile situation.

"What is the second option?" Jenna asked. She was curious of what else Wesley had in mind that they do. She certainly couldn't think of anything.

"Well, our only other option that I can see is that we investigate this ourselves." Both Jenna and Eddie's jaws simultaneously dropped. "We could just send Starfleet a message informing them of our situation and what we plan to do. I mean all we really know is that we can't detect any lifesigns. That doesn't mean there is no one there or that we're in any danger. Like Eddie said, this could just be a technical problem."

Once Eddie and Jenna recovered from their initial shock, they began to let the logic of Wesley's arguments sink in. They eyed Wesley curiously as they consider the prospect of them actually attempting to investigate. The idea of them trying to solve this mystery by themselves seemed a little iffy, but then again, it wasn't completely out of the question. This was what they were training at the academy for and there wasn't any actual danger that they could see. They could end up flying all the way back to the academy just find out it was just some technical problems and they could have delivered their cargo all along. All in all, it did make some sense to them. Besides, they might get bonus marks for this, especially if they do manage to figure out what is going on.

"Yeah, well I am usually right about these things," Eddie said as Jenna rolled her eyes.

"Both options seem fairly logical," Jenna said. "But I don't know. We might be in more danger than we think. This is a shuttle pod, not a science vessel. Our scanning ability is fairly limited. I say we vote on it. Who wants to investigate and who wants to go back? I say go back. This situation is too big for us. We could be getting ourselves in over our heads."

"Well I say investigate. Us MEN aren't afraid to take a few risks, eh Wes?" Eddie said nudging Wesley.

"He hasn't voted yet Eddie," Jenna said sending him a lethal glare. "And it appears that you have the deciding vote Wesley. They were both your ideas. What one do you believe more?" Jenna asked eyeing Wesley challengingly.

Wesley fidgeted. He was beginning to feel extremely uncomfortable under both their gazes (particularly Jenna's which could be very scary some times). Wesley swallowed hard as he contemplated his choice. He finally spoke. "Well… I guess we should investigate. I mean, if the situation does get dangerous we could always just leave. At least this way if we do leave then we can give Starfleet a better reason as to why we left."

By this point Eddie was smirking quite openly at Jenna who only responded with a glare directed at both Eddie and Wesley as well. With a sigh, Jenna relented to the fact that there was no way of changing either boy's minds, but she still didn't like it, which was why she was certainly not going to make it easy for them. She turned to Wesley and smiled.

"Well then Wes, since you're the idea man, where do you propose we start this little investigation?" Jenna asked, obviously going out of her way to get back at Wesley for not siding with her.

Eddie sent Wesley a questioning look. He had assumed since it was Wesley's idea, he might actually know how to conduct this investigation and would be seriously annoyed if Jenna ended up getting her way making them both look like fools.

"Well, I…" Wesley didn't know what to say. Without his consent, they had both simultaneously elected Wesley team coordinator (even if it was for different reasons) and were now expecting him to give them some idea of where to start. Wesley hated taking command, so he just said the first thing thought that came to his head. "Uh, I suppose we should start with the obvious stuff. If there was an attack or some sort of emergency there would be physical evidence of that. We could check for that." Wesley looked to Eddie as he said this who nodded in approval. He continued. "Also, since we aren't reading any life signs we should check for any escape pods in the area and see if any are missing from the base. If we can we could even check their transporter records to see if anyone beamed off the base onto another ship." By this point Jenna's gaze was starting to soften as realized he did have some idea of what he was doing. The look on her face told him that he should continue before she changed her mind. With this Wesley decided to be bold enough to assign tasks while silently praying no one objected. "So… to start maybe, Eddie, you could make the initial scans of the base. Check for any damage or signs an attack, any missing escape pods, and check for debris as well."

"Sure thing," Eddie responded enthusiastically. He made a point to send Jenna one last cocky smile before starting on the scans.

One down, one to go. Wesley turned to Jenna, "Jenna, maybe you could check our computer records? Find out anything you can on the base, like what they were working on recently. All they said at the briefing was that it's a scientific research base. They might have been working with some dangerous substances and had to evacuate because of an accident. Also, maybe you could check out their crew compliment too. It'd be good to know just how many people are missing. I could send the message to Starfleet while you do that and see if I can tap into the base's computer system and access some of their records."

Jenna paused for a moment. Wesley could only assume it was to savor the memory of Wesley's pleading look while giving her the commands. Finally she relented, nodding to Wesley in agreement and went off to get started. Wesley sighed in relief as he watched her go. He wasn't exactly sure what he would have done if she had said no. Luckily for him, he ended up not needing to find out. It certainly would have made things a lot more challenging.

With that, Wesley got started as well. He could already tell that this would be one of his easier tasks for him to face in the times to come. "Well, this should be fun," he thought cynically to himself. "I can hardly wait. Then again, you know what? I think I can!" Although he doubted either way he would end up getting much choice in the matter. He sighed once more and then dove determinedly into his work for at themoment it was all he could think of to do.

To be continued…

Oh! The sound of foreboding mystery! Don't you just love it? And here you see, one day later is chapter three. (go me with the rhyming! eh?) Chapter four is in the works and should be out in the next few days. No worries people! I have no life giving me plenty of time to write and update. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and the story so far. More to come soon!

Please, once again, review! Whether good or bad, helpful or horrifying! All reviews are greatly appreciated, exspecially if they are honest ones! I like to know what people like and don't like about the story! Thanks again!