| Author | Message | ||
     RAdm. J.D. |
================================ Alpha Quadrant, Milky Way Galaxy U.S.S. PANACHE NCC-98347 Approaching Hayashi Star System ================================ "Um,... Admiral..." Rear Admiral J.D. "Dev" Wallace looked up from the padd he was reading over. The young man at the science station - Ensign Reed, Wallace was thinking his name was - was looking up at Wallace rather wide-eyed. Wallace shook his head. Newly minted ensigns these days. "Yes, Ensign?" Wallace tried to come across as fatherly as possible. Of course, when one had killed - and nearly been killed himself - as often as Wallace had in his younger days, one tended to lose that paternal gentleness. One of the carry-overs from his days in the Dominion Wars - and with the Section. There was definitly a gruffness to his tone and bearing. "Um, I'm getting some odd readings from the hypergate." Wallace grimaced. "And the warning beacons we left behind?" "Oh, well, they're still working. Broadcasting on all standard frequencies - and even those not-so-standard ones that you told us to use. But frankly, I don't see what good those would do. I mean - " "Ensign!" Wallace glared at Reed. The boy was babbling. The Admiral felt a hand rest lightly on his and looked over into the smiling face of Panache's commander, Captain Beth Wallace, his own little sister. Her gentle smile stabbed through his hard exterior. Shaking his head with a smile, Wallace turned back to Reed and sighed, the smile still curling the edges of his lips. "Ensign, the odd readings. If it's not too much trouble." "Oh, right, sir. So I noticed that there appeared to have been some activity from the hypergate - there are a number of tachyon traces active around it. So I started scanning, and sure enough there's a warp signature entering the system. It's Federation, so I just ran a search of all vessels that've come this way while we were out on patrol, and I came across this one ship - Thunderchild. And she's not reported back in to Starfleet since she came out this way. And - " Wallace held up his hands and finally got Reed to stop talking. He sighed and rubbed his temples. "Dammit, I would have thought Drake Vertigo smarter than that." "Maybe," said the younger Wallace softly, "they came to relieve us out here and accidentally got pulled in." Wallace stroked his chin in contemplation. "Perhaps. Still. I never took Drake for a fool. Coming here without authorization was damn foolish. Unless he had authorization. In which case I can't decide who was the more foolish - the fool, or the fool who ordered him to be a fool?" Captain Wallace merely shook her head. ======================= Christian D. Clem '01, aka "Aggie" RAdm. J.D. "Dev" Wallace, Section 31 Commanding Officer, Starfleet Task Group 5.3 U.S.S. PANACHE NCC-98347, Flagship |