Needle in a Haystack

Posted on Sat Oct 27th, 2018 @ 9:38am by Admiral Zachary O'Connell

Mission: Alrakis Updates
Location: Starbase 72, Admiral O'Connell's Office
Timeline: April 27, 2389

As spacious as Admiral O’Connell’s office was, in the several months he’d owned it, he rarely used anything more than the desk and viewscreen. One wall in particular had been recently remodeled with several screens with one in the center featuring an up-to-date map of the Inconnu Expanse. The formation of the Alrakis Pact had alarmed everyone, and while Zachary awaited word from Palais de la Concorde, the seat of the Federation Council, he had no choice but to continue moving forward to prepare for an evacuation.

Evacuation.

It was a word he hated with unsurmountable passion. Memories of the Consortium Plight were still fresh in his mind, being holed up in Starbase Unity, a former Dominion processing plant, for several months before finding a window to strike back. This Pact was undeniably different than the former crisis. There was no threat of war, no threat of annihilation, just the promise of losing the last couple years of exploration in the Inconnu Expanse.

Zachary now stood with folded arms in front of the map. Commander ch’Rhalos, the Task Force Chief of Intelligence, had been feeding updates in real time to the map with markers for every known Federation starship, colony and asset in the Expanse, each marked with the symbol of the Federation or a Starfleet Delta. Many of these detlas clogged the mouth of the Expanse near Garen Empok, the former home of Roosevelt Station before the designation was shifted to a Nor station near the Ferengi border.

What concerned him were several red deltas buried throughout the Expanse. His earlier conversation with Commander Hayes gave him great concern for the Starfleet Corps of Engineering Team, Hazard Team Valkyries, that had disappeared inside the Expanse. To him, every life was important, regardless of rank, class or position. This SCE team, however, was a critical asset that had disappeared. Lieutenant Waltz and her crew had been officially listed as missing-in-action that morning as Commander Hayes and his vessel were detected near the Federation border. Part of him hoped the team was still alive.

The Valkryies were not the only asset lost in the expanse. In addition to a special operations team that had disappeared on assignment, they hadn’t heard from the USS Hope in several weeks either. At last report, the ship was headed for a place called Tshuud. No information about Tshuud was contained in the report, but the lack of contact for several weeks could mean anything. Perhaps the Hope experienced an accident like the Pandora. Captain Temple’s journey had been obstructed by an unusual phenomenon, trapping several crew members, including the captain, in a bubble universe. Temple’s report had been most interesting, and as a former engineer, Zach certainly planned to dissect Temple’s report on the experience in great detail. If he ever had the time, anyway. The Pandora was again underway, now headed to investigate a trading port called “Paradise” where intel from a Ravager vessel now pointed them for further answers.

Several other assets and starships had gone dark in the Expanse, more than what Zachary could review at this moment. He could only hope that the Victorious and Magellan could come up with answers. The Victorious, at last report, was following the path of the lost Hope, hoping to learn more about its journey and the Ab’Tzent, a society of Tzenkethi outcasts. The Magellan, on the other hand, was officially diving into the Expanse to check on the remote colonies and out-of-touch vessels. Unofficially, he hoped they would find more clues and information on the Alrakis Pact.

Time, however, would tell. Since their announcement, the Alrakis Pact had remained quiet, though Tzenkethi and Breen presence had ramped up significantly in the Expanse. In fact, it seemed there was a Pact cruiser within a lightyear of every starship or colony. This led Zachary to conclude that the Pact meant business. He didn’t have to imagine what life would be like in two months when the deadline came due. His faith in Palais was practically non-existent. If anything, he could hope for an extension of the deadline, but since they’d been silent on the whole affair, he wondered if the Council saw any value in Federation interests at all.

Admiral O’Connell lifted a mug of tea to his mouth and sipped. This would be a long two months.