The Silent Night

Posted on Tue 22nd Nov, 2016 @ 9:15pm by Commander Zachary Hunt & Colonel Horatio Drake

636 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Murder on the Silent Night Express
Location: Deck 12: Main Operations
Timeline: MD-01: 0635

The Alpha Shift had begun five minutes ago... Drake had been in Main Operations for the past hour. Not through any eagerness or enthusiasm, just because of the sheer workload he now found himself with. Delta shift was slowly being taken over by more senior officers, relieving personnel at consoles all around Ops. Drake busied himself at a console in the command centre section.

Most starships operated on a three shift rotation - Alpha, Beta and Gamma. A day shift, a night shift and a graveyard shift, as they were colloquially known in Starfleet. However, starbases had infinitely more personnel so more flexibility was required, hence the addition of a forth shift - Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta. Alpha remained as the day shift, Beta became a swing shift (taking place after days but before nights), Delta became the night shift and Gamma, the graveyard.

He had been back on Vanguard for just over three weeks and was slowly settling into station life - he had taken an active interest on overseeing repairs on the Warspite - it would take some time yet, but he was determined to return the ship to it's former glory... and then some. The report he sent to Starfleet had been sketchy, at best... after all there was very little to report back with. The mystery ship was still a mystery, sensor readings were inconclusive and the Romulans couldn't help much more either. For now, the seemingly random, attacks had stopped, so Starfleet Command was putting it on a back burner.

Hunt was watching Drake. Three weeks had gone by, since he had been back, he had been quiet. Almost thoughtful. Hunt didn't like it, he preferred him showing his anger, least he knew there was still some human inside him. Since Drake had been back, he rarely spoke about what actually happened on the Warspite. Hunt however managed to get a better brief from Graves, whom he had promised he would catch up with when time allowed.

He had briefed Drake on the events on Vanguard as well, although he seemingly didn't care. Hunt continued to watch as an Ensign approached Drake.

"Sir, sensors are picking up a Federation Passenger Ship entering the system... Sydney Class... registry identifying her as the SS Silent Night"

Drake looked up from his console... why was he being told this? Hundreds of ships docked at Vanguard on a weekly basis, why was this one different? Something about the name... why did it stick out in his head? He cleared what he was working on and pulled up a docking manifest for Alpha Shift... no Silent Night. He retrieved the manifest for Delta Shift, there she was... arriving six hours late. This wasn't particularly unusual in and of itself... many ships got delayed due to a late departure, engine problems etc. But, most ships would have alerted Vanguard to this.

"Have we had any communications from them?" He asked.

The Ensign replied to the negative.

Hunt continued to observe, he was close enough to hear the Ensign and Drake speaking. He slowly walked over, "Are you thinking something fishy is going on?" After listening to the conversation himself, Hunt was thinking there something wrong with it. "Any way we can hail it?"

The Andorian Lieutenant who had just taken over on the communications console turned in his chair with a raised eyebrow, "They, are hailing us."

"On screen" Drake moved towards the main viewscreen.

A middle aged Dopterian filled the screen... clearly distressed.

"Greetings... I'm Colonel Horatio Drake of Starbase Vanguard." He paused and smiled, trying to allay the panic of the man on the viewscreen. "We were expecting you..."

He was cut off my an even more panicked voice, "Colonel... we need your help... there's been a murder."

 

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