Pt 9 -- There is no place like home...or is there?

Posted on Tue Apr 14th, 2026 @ 1:08am by Commander David Wallace

Mission: SHAKE DOWN IN A NEBULA
Location: USS Cascade
Timeline: ====

On:

For over ten hours the Cascade had made it's way through space at slipstream speed, the crew while tense knowing that the run in with the surplus bird of prey has caused the red alert then the abrupt high speed run nearly half way across the quadrant many were more cautious to break the slowly developing code of silence when it came to the ships missions. David had spent the long haul either with Sara or on duty,

David had decided too take a break before they arrived at the destination of this secretive mission, he was making the short walk to his quarters when he saw Sara coming from the opposite direction, "Hey..." she said with some slight weakness in her voice.

"Hi" David said slightly awkwardly "How are you doing?"

Sara looked up at David, "I don't know why this feels more intense than other situations, how do you manage to keep calm?"

"I don't" David started, "There isn't always time to think beyond each move that has to be made, it's usually after the situation is over that I can finally decompress, today was just the exception."

Sara sat down on the couch draping her uniform coat on the back of it, "So what's the next move?"

"Intel says this guy and his family are in a witness relocation situation so we have too move the family with all of our original orders being over ridden and void." David said as he walked over to get a drink from the replicator "Truthfully you should ditch the science blues if we have to go on another away mission."

Wanting to change the tone of the moment she promptly took off her top off throwing at him "Yes Captain." she said sitting there in a bra top and pants.

David smiled as he walked over too the couch, smiling, "That kind of uniform is more appropriate for...." the moment was broken by the intercom.

"Captain, I have a Captain Dunnigan on subspace."

"Send it down here to my terminal" David said while he was making a keep it quiet motion to Sara.

David keyed in a security code too his terminal, David's face went white, "Bridge! Time to arrival?"

"four hours." someone said

"Closest starbase to our present location?" David asked

"Starbase three seven five."

"Drop out of slipstream, set a course too the following location." David said putting in some coordinates.

"Aye sir."

David closed the intercom and looked too Sara, "Get dressed, we've got a very big problem."

Sara grabbed her shirt from the bed, "I assume this is bad?"

"Very bad..." David said grabbing his sidearm "Someone has compromised our little mission."

"That's bad." Sara said tossing aside her normal division uniform shirt, "Duty black?"

"Yeah..." David said pulling out a black shirt of his own, "Let's go."

The two officers entered the bridge, "Mission's been compromised, we're going to one of Admiral Wallace's fall back plans, all mission logs, all personal logs, all computer logs are classified and restricted, this location is top secret and we are in black operations from here on."

The bridge crew started pocketing their rank pips and mission patches jamming them in pockets or trash receptacles, David keyed in a code sequence, "Cloak the ship."

==Two hours later==

As the Cascade dropped out of warp, she was little more than a ripple in the vastness of space, on the bridge the ship had moved to yellow alert, the crew were tired now as they had been on alert in one form or another for six hours, David was starting to feel the exhaustion himself. He looked at the view screen, the numerous tactical overlays and other data feeds combined gave David the information he needed...Nothing, no sign of his rendezvous, no indicator of what he was supposed to do, let alone what he was supposed to find.

The ship started to coast at impulse speed, David looked over to Sara who again was at the science station, "Anything?"

"Nothing, the coordinates will put us in an asteroid belt in a dead solar system." Sara said

David sat upright in the chair, "Computer, historical record for destination coordinates."

After a few seconds of electronic noises "These coordinates have no historical files, all other data is restricted."

"Override, Wallace one seven six three."

"This system once housed a forward operations base in use during the four years war, the base was reduced in operational status in twenty three sixty and reactivated in twenty three seventy four."

David thumped his hand on the command chair, "Bingo!"

Sara started a passive sweep in the direction of the asteroid belt, "I found a navigation buoy, zero three three."

"Lock on too that buoy." David said

David saw a navigation guide signal appear on the main viewer, David wondered what was awaiting them as they navigated through the asteroids, "Scan?"

"I'm getting some low level signals through the interference in the asteroid belt, it appears to be the navigation beacon." Sara said

"Lock on, let's get some answers." David said leaning forward.

As the Cascade glided through the asteroid belt the crew were still on edge, as they approached the coordinates it became clear where they were going, David broke the silence "A base of some kind..."

"We're being hailed!" Chen called out

"Open channel." David said

"About time David." The image of Admiral Wallace said

"Thanks, so what's going on?"

"not over subspace, pull into the dock...Wallace out."

End