Star Trek The Laredo Crystal Pt3

Chapter 3

Just outside the Solar System of Earth...


“Captain?!?” Lt. Commander Fabyana’s green skin, makes her stand out among the other bridge officers. The sound of her voice when she is afraid, is just as unique., “If we don't disengage the warp static shell in five minutes the haul will breach! Captain..!”

“I hear you Fabie!” Answers the Captain., “Are we having any effect on the S.D. Crystal?”

Fabyana Answers., “Yes Captain. It has come to a full stop but it has not begun to reverse course yet.”

The Captain turns her attention to the Helmsman., “Renner pull back, thrusters only, 1000 meters!”

“Yes Captain” replies the First Officer., “and I take it you want that in lock step with putting the ship about ?”

“Only the Renner way will do!” Answers the Captain.,
“Sims!”

“Yes Captain?” replies the Tactical officer.

The Captain then ask., “How goes the dog fight between the Romulans and Klingons?”

Sims answers., “A few more shots from the Romulan Warbird and the Klingon ship will be disabled. Believe it or not the Romulans seem not to want to destroy the Klingons!”

“CAPTAIN!?!” Yells Fabyana., “There is another ship dropping out of warp! Its Andorian!”

The Andorian ship immediately fires on the Romulan Warbird!

“Maybe we are not done talking, Says the Captain., Fabie open a channel!”

The Andorian commander appears on the main view screen and says., “Focus on getting the S.D. Crystal to turn about! We will handle the Romulans!”

Commander Renner then says., “Captain we have pulled back 1000 meters as ordered, but our sensors are reading we are 1100 meters from our previous proximity of the Crystal. Fabie., Sims., who’s on Tactical?”

Fabyana answers., “Oh sorry Commander, we got a little caught up in All The ALIENS who keep Popping up SHOOTING at each other!”

Sims interrupts., “ Commander, Captain, the S.D. Crystal has begun to reverse course its slowly picking up speed! But the pull of the crystal is working our engines over time.”

“Renner go to impulse power” Orders Reyes.

Just then the voice of Chief Engineer Vorkel..,

“Engineering to Bridge, We only have 30 seconds until the S.D. Fragment powering our engines cracks. If that happens, do to all the stress, we will not have primary, secondary or auxiliary power. Only life support and a few essential systems will be operational.”

Then 1st Officer Renner says.,
“Captain Impulse power is only keeping us 1755 meters away from the S.D. Crystal. We’re stuck. If the crystal begins to travel at its previous speed, we will be ripped apart in minutes!”

The captain bows her head and says., “Understood.”

Then she glances over her left shoulder at Fabyana. The two give each other a long ugly stare. The last thing these two women want to do is die together. Fabyana’s mind begins to drift back to eight days earlier.


8 days ago. 1 day into the Maiden voyage of the USS Laredo...

Inside Captain Rosalind Reyes personal Quarters.

Captains Log 226007.21
The Laredo is headed for a survey point, outside the Selcundi Drema sector. The sector itself is too remote and too unstable to allow any manned vessels in, although it is suspected that Romulans have recently attempted to explore the sector, with disastrous results.
On the Bridge of the Laredo I find myself dealing with an unstable situation with my Command Crew. Particularly with Lieutenant Commander Fabyana, an Orion female who is very competitive. I would assume that it has to do with the fact that she was once traded on the Orion Syndicate slave trade market. She feels at every point she needs to prove herself superior to human females. Why did Admiral Cove insist that she be a part of my crew?

End of Log Entry.

As the captain makes her rounds before heading to the bridge, on the bridge we find a very disgruntled officer. Her name is Fabyana or Fabie as most people have come to know her. She is unhappy for two reasons. 1. She is the Second officer and she believes she should be First officer. 2. She sees that there are only two males on the bridge crew. One of them is a friend of hers , Lt. Sims who is is Married. The other, Chief O’Leary the Navigator, is rumored to be in a secret relationship with Commander Brooke Renner, the ships First Officer. Renner is sitting in the Captains chair until Reyes arrives on the Bridge. Fabie stares at Chief O’Leary, tempted to release her infamous Orion Slave Girl Pheromones on him to get his attention. No human male can resist its effect. But due to the very bad side effects it has on human women, she knows that she would be discovered quickly by Renner, so she decides to daydream instead. Until that daydream is disturbed by a text only message to her work station form Lt. Sims..

‘WkUp’
Translated meaning ‘Wake Up’.

Sims and Fabie are aware that personal messages during work time is against the rules. So they often run the words of a sentence together leaving out some of the letters to somewhat disguise that the conversation is not official business.

Just then the turbo lift doors open and Captain Reyes enters the Bridge.

“Captain on the Bridge” Sims says to the crew.

Commander Renner exits the captains chair and takes her place as Pilot of the Helm seated next to Chief O’Leary.

As the Captain takes the center seat, Fabie notices a smile on the Captains face. Fabie also sees Lt Sims has a similar smile while working at his station.

Fabie now sends Sims a text..,

‘UgotHing4er’

Sims replies
'Imarried'

Fabie replies
'iNosheliksU'

Sims replies
'ShejusFlirty'

Fabie replies
'I OverHerdSheAndRennr. SheWntsU'

Sims Replies
'MindJaBidness'

Out of anger and feeling that her friend, Sims,is putting himself in harms way, Fabie stops using the code and types..,

‘Well I will say this! If you just cant resist her, then do her the way Admiral Cove did her. He Dogged and then Dumped her! I cant stand Human Females!!!’

Its not until she hits ‘send’ that she realizes that in typing too fast and angry, she sent the message, not to Sims, but to Captain Reyes!

The Captain leans to her right to read the new text only message she has received from her second Officer. After she reads it she gets up, restraining her anger as best she can, walks over to the turbo lift and orders Fabie.,

“In the turbo, NOW!”

As the two get into the turbo lift and head in a down, Renner walks over to take the center seat and sees the message. Realizing that it could have only been intended for Sims she looks up at him and says.,

“Rob, you got too many women.”


Inside the turbo lift...


Reyes says to Fabie., “If anything remotely like that happens again you will be off this ship with a disciplinary action on your permanent file Lt Commander. Do you understand me?”

“Yes Captain”. Fabie Answers. Standing at attention., “permission to speak freely?”

“Granted!”

Fabie continues., “Lt Sims is a hard worker. I feel he should be the Captain of this ship and that I should be his First Officer instead of you and your girlfriend!”

Reyes replies with., “Funny, Sims isn't complaining and he is the one who has lost the most. He was a captain before Space Fleet was dissolved and now he is third officer. You, Fabyana have only been a Lt. Commander for six months! You just graduated the academy last year and you’re the Second Officer on a new ship! Those green skinned pheromones sure get the job done don’t they?!

“What?” Fabie says in shock., “what are you trying to imply?”

“Your typical that's what implying.” Replies Reyes., “You are a typical Orion opportunist whore! How dare you accuse me of sleeping with Admiral Cove and you put it in a message to someone under your command! Fabie you know good and well that it was you who was messing around with the Admiral!”

Fabie laughs and then says., “You know, I know what this is really about Captain. You’re mad because my cousin took your boyfriend. Admit it. You have a prejudice when it come to Orion women don't you?”

Captain Reyes says., “Well at least I wasn't stupid enough to put, what you put in that message. You said ‘I cant stand human females' and when we get back to the Bridge, that little running conversation will go in your file!”

Just then, the Yellow Alert flashes and the com link on the wall sounds.Captain Reyes answers.,

“This is Reyes.”

The voice over the com link is Renner’s.,

‘Captain we have been met by an Andorian Battle Ship and they are requesting you personally!’

To be continued...