FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

File #3

The inner workings of Starbase 248 had always been a thing of wonder. The station resembled a giant "mushroom", with a huge north section that was capable of housing many different starships, with ships constantly coming and going.

The Ournal Class had always been a mainstay of Starfleet, based on the original design of Earth Spacedock and then extended to become the prominent symbol of the Federation's protection and influence.

The interior of the station, took on a resemblance of a traditional city, with lights covering all four internal walls and a distinctive blue hue inside the station. Tiny shuttlecraft wizzed about inside the colossus, servicing the many different ships that were docked there. Many different vessels of various classes sat silently inside, creating a sense of awe and wonder for any of the stations thousands of inhabitants if they looked through a window and into the dock.

The Federation had perfected this design over time, learning the lessons from constructing the colossal Earth Spacedock in orbit of their own planet. The design was incredibly intricate, with multiple redundancies to support the population numbering in the thousands. There were commercial, residential and educational districts within this massive station which provided a platform and home base for the entire 12th Expeditionary Fleet.

One of the slightly larger ships docked there was the U.S.S. Warrior, a Sovereign Class starship, which was slowly being serviced by many tiny yellow worker bees around it and tiny people in spacesuits, which could not even be seen from the windows of the massive starbase.

"Do you have any idea what the Captain wanted?" asked Doctor Kylen Tao, as he walked down the corridor of the Warrior, ignoring a bunch of Ensigns in the corner who were trying to bring a newly installed plasma conduit online.

Beside him walked a female, she had soft pale skin and would have been mistake as a human, except for the feline ears and tail which differentiated her from that species. Her lips trembled a bit as she considered how to respond to the Chief Medical Officer.

She shook her head, her long black hair fluttering about beside her. Kylen had once remarked how she looked like a character in an ancient twentieth century Earth media, called Morticia, in a movie known as "The Addams Family". Despite being a skilled Doctor, he also enjoyed researching the entertainment and culture of other worlds, including Earth.

However she had not been impressed when he had shown her the comparison and had thrown water over him.

"I don't know..." replied the female as they continued to a dead end in the corridor. Kylen reaching out to press a button and call the turbolift.

Kylen felt slightly frustrated by this response. After all, Captain Greyfell had assured everyone on the ship would have a significant amount of shore-leave to recover from the Romulan incident which the entire crew had been through. Kylen himself, had spent about a week treating the minor injuries of the crew and Captain Greyfell's own hand, which had been severed during the rescue attempt to retrieve him from the Romulan captors.

"Well..." Kylen sighed, getting into the turbolift when it arrived, with the female getting in with him after he had stepped inside. "I was planning a trip to Trill..." he paused for a second and then called out to the computer. "Bridge..."

The turbolift whirled to life and both people felt it shudder slightly as the clamps released and the turbolift began its ascent through the ship towards Deck One.

"I thought you didn't get on with your parents..." replied the female after a few seconds in silence. Kylen turned round to face her in a bit of shock, that seemed like an oddly personal thing to say.

"When did I ever say that?" replied Tao, his voice rising a little in annoyance.

The female smirked and crossed her arms, forming a bridge underneath her considerably large breasts, which garnered her with far more male attention then what was deemed acceptable by Starfleet regulations. "You didn't have to..." she chuckled.

"Damn telepaths..." remarked the Doctor. "Don't you have anyone better to psychoanalyse Mewsin?"

Counselor Mewsin could not help herself. "Empathic... Doctor..." she corrected him.

"Then you can probably tell that I'm rather pissed off..." quipped Doctor Tao, with a biting sting which would have wounded anyone.

"But you never talk about your parents... what did they..?"

"Mewsin..." interrupted Kylen in a calm voice. "Unless you want to disable the stabilisers on your next turbolift journey... shut up..."

"Alright..." replied Mewsin with a slight chuckle.

"Oh and..." chimed Doctor Tao, turning to look at the Counselor beside him. "Stay... out of my head..."

The counselor could not help but smile, she had always known that the Tao line of Trill symbiotes were particularly grumpy. She had spent many years alongside Kylen's predecessor, Jorian Tao, on the U.S.S. Republic and she had repeatedly teased him as well, especially after he remarked that;

"Psychology was not a real science".

She enjoyed teasing him and they had cultivated an unusual friendship ever since. He had once expected her to move a biobed with her mind until she reminded him that the ability to look into other people's emotions, did not include being able to move things with her mind. She after all... was not a witch.

The turbolift came to a halt and both officers stepped out onto the bridge, which only had a few relief staff and engineers on it, making adjustments to various systems, including several odd look modifications to the Captain's chair.

"What are they doing?" asked Mewsin, as they strode past a few feet to the entrance to the Observation Lounge, at the back of the bridge.

The bridge itself was reminiscent of most Starfleet designs, almost like a classical Roman amphitheatre with various levels that descended down to the large viewscreen station. Various stations were on different levels for many of the different ship functions with a number of pillars, embedded with lights holding up the room.

"Probably lowering the Captain's chair..." replied Kylen, trying to keep a straight face. "Alex is kind of short after all..."

"I'm surprised they didn't add a salt lick as well..." retorted Mewsin.

The entered the Observation Lounge and were surprised to find that all the senior officers of the Warrior were already there, with Captain Greyfell at the head of the table.

"Doctor... Counselor..." remarked Greyfell, bearly looking up at them from the pad that his equine fingers held in his hand. "Have a seat..."

There was a couple of seconds of murmurings while Doctor Tao and Counselor Mewsin sat down at the regular positions and the rest of the senior staff talked amongst themselves until Captain Greyfell got up to address them.

"First off... I have been reprimanded by Fleet Admiral John Hartman..." announced Captain Greyfell, to the surprise of nobody in the room, the nine people continuing to stare at him and allow him to continue.

"I am sorry to pull you all off leave... but the Warrior has been given an assignment..."

"Captain..." asked a hulking purple mass sat at the far corner of the huge table. His species looked so powerful that he could easily tear a Klingon apart, resembling a Earth lycan with considerably larger muscle mass, to the point where he bearly was able to fit in his seat.

"Yes Muraco?" responded Captain Greyfell. He had always preferred using the first names of his crew and forming a bond with them. Starfleet regulation was usually against this but Greyfell had established a reputation in Starfleet for being somewhat of a maverick with protocol.

"Well... the Warrior needs about two weeks for complete repairs..."

"I'm aware of that..." replied Greyfell, cutting him off astutely. "However unfortunately, this cannot wait... The Warrior must be ready to launch in twelve hours... I expect you to do the best you can."

Muraco looked as if he had swallowed a lemon. Unlike most Starfleet engineers... he did not exaggerate his repair times. He would have jury rig and bypass a lot of damaged systems in order to make the ship spaceworthy in time for launch.

"What's so important then?" asked Commander Tempest, who had been quietly sipping on a glass of water since this briefing had begun.

Captain Greyfell walked over to the replicator and retrieved a mug of black coffee just before he stood there to address his crew. "12th Fleet Command has gone over our sensor readings of our last mission and they had discovered that the Warrior recorded a Federation beacon transmission from inside the Romulan Neutral Zone."

There was a small murmur from various different crew members.

"Why didn't the computer alert us?" asked Lieutenant Commander Yusa Kakariko, the Chief Science Officer.

"It probably did..." replied Muraco, speaking before Captain Greyfell, who had always been happy to promote free discussion amongst his senior officers. Something that most Starfleet commanding officers would scold him for. "Half the major systems were down when the Romulans attacked us..."

"Precisely" replied Captain Greyfell.

"So what did this transmission contain?" asked Lieutenant Commander Nova Storm, Chief Tactical Officer.

"12th Fleet cryptologists have been able to decode the signal, its an old pre-Federation type transmission, used when subspace communications were in their infancy. 12th Fleet Command has verified that this signal is a distress call from the Atlantis NX-05."

There was a hushed silence in the room.

"The Atlantis went missing at the end of the Earth-Romulan War" replied Shon Tempest finally. "This could be a big find..."

"I'll bet..." replied Yusa. "It's one of the biggest unsolved mysteries of the 22nd Century!". His eyes were brimming with the excitement of scientific discoveries.

"Along with the disappearance of the NX-02, Columbia" remarked Commander Tempest.

"So Starfleet want to cut my shore leave short so that we can chase an obsolete rust-bucket?" sighed Doctor Tao. He realised that he may need to save his trip back to Trill for another time, not that he was particularly looking forward to the Zhian'tara anyway.

He could afford to put it off for another month...