Today, like every other day for the past three weeks, the Banshees were sitting in their favorite booth in their favorite restaurant -- the El Taco -- perched upon the upper precipice of Starbase 901's glittering Promenade, listlessly gnawing on Mucho Macho Hasperat Burritos and washing them down with paper cartons of schplict, all the while gazing wistfully out the restaurant windows into the endless megaplex beyond, watching the busy shoppers, business people, and school children scurry to and fro.
It had been three weeks since the villainous Vince Kelly had dropped that nova bomb into Serenity's gas giant, but to the women of Banshee Squadron it seemed more like three hundred years. Marooned on Starbase 901, pride of the Serenity system, ostensibly on extended leave, Wing Commander Lee Carter couldn't help suspecting that Starfleet had forgotten all about them. After the total loss of their starfighters while saving Txamsem from being blown to smithereens and the inevitable debriefing at HQ, they had been cut loose pending Starfleet Command's decision on the fate of the entire experimental Banshee Starfighter program, not to mention the fates of the pilots of those fighters, Banshee Squadron. The situation seemed hopeless.
Commander Carter looked around the table at her people. Jo Schmidt, ever the scientist, was trying to analyze the chemical composition of her schplict with her ever-handy tricorder, while the dour Max Vasser sat sullenly picking under her fingernails with a large combat knife. Bookish Sam Beckett was engrossed in the fine print on the burrito wrappers, and was completely ignoring the ruggedly handsome El Taco manager guy. Normally the two of them flirted relentlessly, but apparently even that had become mundane. Carter suddenly envied Alex Dalton, who had announced that morning that she was going to go exploring around the gargantuan station. She decided she had better find something for her crew to do before they all went stir crazy from boredom. Even jobs shuttling tourists back and forth between the starbase and planet Serenity below would be better than this!
Max now harrumphed abruptly and clattered the blade down on the tabletop, startling Carter from her recollections and Sam and Jo from their ennui. "Say, where's the nearest park from here?" she asked no one in particular. "I have a sudden urge to do something a little more exciting so I thought I'd go watch the grass grow!"
"Yeah, I never thought being on shore leave could be this boring!" said Jo. She snapped her tricorder shut and tucked it back in its belt pouch, abandoning the schplict analysis for the time being.
"I wish Starfleet would just let us know one way or the other what's going to happen to our Squadron," complained Sam timidly. Never one to voice strong opinions, hers was practically an incitement to riot.
"I know how you guys feel," commiserated Carter. "Tomorrow I'll go talk to Captain Mallory and see if she can't get our status changed, at least temporarily, back to active duty."
"Good!" said Max. "This is a great place, but I don't think I can handle one more hasperat burrito!" She lanced a half-eaten burrito with the tip of her dagger and expertly flicked it into the waste disposal chute by the door, demonstrating the likely fate of the next hasperat burrito that had the misfortune of crossing her path.
"Nice shot!" said a chipper voice from the door. It was Alex, returning from her adventures. "Betcha can't do it again!" she goaded cheerfully.
Never one to pass up a challenge, Max immediately began scrounging the mess on the table for another half-eaten bit of food, but came up empty. "Slide over," she ordered Jo brusquely. "I have to go buy another burrito."
"Never mind about that," said Alex, rushing over to the table. Carter thought she was being unusually bold in answering back to Max that way; she seemed terribly excited about something. Throwing herself into the seat beside Sam, Alex blurted out, "I've found something!"
"Well, huzzah for you," grumbled Max irritably. After her food flicking fun had been foiled, she had gone back to applying her knife to the undersides of her fingernails.
Sam took pity on the rookie though, and asked, despite a dirty look from Max, "What did you find?"
Alex's reply was an impish grin. She answered, barely able to contain herself: "You'll never guess! But you're gonna love it!"
"What? What is it?" demanded Sam. She was becoming infected with the youngster's enthusiasm.
Suddenly, unexpectedly, Alex hesitated and a look of almost-guilt wrinkled her angelic face. Carter could almost see the gears in Alex's head turning as she struggled to decide whether or not she should confess to her friends -- and her commanding officer -- what she'd been up to for the entire morning, and what sort of mischief she'd gotten into. It didn't taker her long though; her natural outgoing nature couldn't keep it a secret, and the consequences be damned!
"I can't tell you; I have to show you," she said.
Fifteen minutes later, five women with Alex Dalton in the lead, were wending their way through the innards of the mighty starbase's outer personnel accommodation sectors. As they walked, Max grumbled, Sam and Jo were silently curious, and Carter slowly began suspecting where they were headed. "Uh... Alex?" she queried. "Are we going where I think we're going?"
"I don't know, Commander," Alex answered innocently. "Where do you think we're going?"
"Never mind." Carter kept walking.
Moments later, it dawned on the other three Banshee members where they were going. Max said to Alex, "Say, kid, we haven't lived here since the war, two years ago." Alex had stopped just outside the door to what used to be the main entrance to 'Banshee Country' -- their old living quarters and staging area during the First Mulluran War.
"I know, Max," she admitted, then turned to Carter and explained. "But I just had to find out some more of the squad's history, you know? Where you guys are coming from, what you're like... I'm the new gal in the group, remember? I've only been flying with you for a few months. I just wanted to get a little closer to y'all. Up 'til now I've felt like an outsider around all you old-timers... never really part of the team, y'know what I mean?" she ended, looking to Carter hesitantly, seeking the thing she most desperately wanted -- acceptance into their elite cadre.
Carter understood the rookie's feelings perfectly; she'd been in Alex's shoes at one time -- a long time ago. Starting at any new job; being a lone stranger among a group people who have known each other for years was difficult. Still.... "Uh... Alex... This might be a big deal to you, but to us it's just our old quarters. We know we used to live here. Why have you dragged us all this way? This place has been sealed ever since the end of the war, two years ago. No one's been allowed in, including us."
In answer Alex smiled that impish grin again, and turned towards the door. She produced a small sonic screwdriver from within her sleeve and set about prying at the magnetic lock securing the portal. As she worked, she explained. "After the First Mulluran War, these quarters were sealed and y'all were reassigned to the USS Hornet. But you've been back for four months! Didn't you wonder why you weren't given your old quarters again?"
Carter shrugged.
Just then there was a small spark and a plaintive squawk from affronted circuitry, and the doors to Banshee Country parted with a grinding hiss, their gears and sliders forced to traverse over several years worth of undisturbed dust and age.
Alex stepped back in reverence, allowing her wing commander to precede her into the holy sanctum.
Carter stepped forward, drawn in despite her earlier objections, crossing the threshold into what had once been the sovereign territory of her fighter squadron. The room was dark, and a thin layer of dust permeated every surface, rendering everything in shades of gray. Aside from that, it was just as they had left it two years go when the call had come in to transfer immediately to the USS Hornet. They had barely had time to gather their personal effects before the starship had set out on its mission. Everything they had left behind was still here, collecting dust.
"Lights," she ordered. Obediently, the large room's lights came on, dispelling all the shadows that had been lurking within, revealing a gaily decorated room. There were chairs and sofas, a wet bar and game tables; the perfect place to throw a party. The room was oval-shaped, and the many doors around the periphery led to the individual Banshees' quarters, all except the large, impressive-looking doors at the far end which led to the briefing room. Max, Jo and Sam sidled in after Carter, but remained milling about near the door, hesitant about proceeding further.
"Come on!" coaxed Alex, heading for the briefing room doors.
Carter hesitated. They weren't supposed to be in here; this place had been sealed by Starfleet. She and her team had been assigned new quarters. This was just wrong. "Alex..."
But it was too late. Alex was already through the double doors into the briefing room beyond. Carter frowned but followed, intending to have a long talk with her newest team member when this was over about her impulsiveness and going out on her own. Upon passing the smaller door labeled with her name, rank and serial number, she had to fight the urge to turn aside and pay a quick visit to her old living area, but decided there would be time for a peek later. For now, Alex was standing just inside the briefing room, urgently waving her sluggish companions on. If Carter thought Alex had seemed excited back in the El Taco, she was several orders of magnitude beyond that now; the kid looked as energetic as a raw pile of antimatter.
"Finally!" she exclaimed when Carter, Max, Sam and Jo eventually sauntered in.
Carter took a brief look around. This room too had been preserved exactly the way they had left it two years ago. The large conference table was still littered with empty coffee mugs and a couple of PADDs that probably still retained in memory their last mission briefing. Across the table, on the far end of the room were the brass fire-poles (or bat-poles, as Jo insisted on calling them for some weird reason), that they used to use to slide down to the hangar level below where their starfighters were kept. Other than these features the room was empty.
Carter was just about to object again that they shouldn't be in here, but when she turned towards Alex, it was just in time to see the last wisps of her golden-blonde hair disappear down one of the bat-poles.
That got Jo excited. "C'mon, Sam!" she cried. "It's been too long since we got to do this!" With one smooth motion, and before Carter could do anything to stop her, she dashed over to a pole and hopped into the void, wrapping her legs and arms loosely around the shiny brass beam. Sam was right on her heals. That left Carter and Max standing in the briefing room.
Carter looked over at her second-in-command, intending to make some scathing remark on the immaturity of junior officers, but she caught that devil-may-care look in Max's eye and knew beyond doubt that in three seconds she'd be the only one still standing here in the briefing room. There was only one thing she could do about that...
Max caught the look in her commander's eye too. Together, they sprinted for two of the bat-poles and launched themselves bodily through the air at the brass fixtures, and a moment later were through the floor to the deck below, leaving only the old coffee mugs and PADDs up in the briefing room.
Max beat Carter to the bottom by a split second, and together they walked a few strides away from the base of the poles. The Banshee hangar level was dark, but Carter could see the forms of Sam, Jo and Alex a short distance away. They seemed to be standing still, facing away from them deeper into the cavernous spacecraft maintenance facility. As Carter came up even with them she saw what they were all staring at. At her side, Max whistled appreciatively, and Carter fully shared her sentiment.
There, looming before them in the gloomy hangar, were five huge shadowy forms, exceedingly familiar to the five women, yet lent an aura of excitement and sinister deadliness by the pervading darkness. Since the squad's forced inactivity after the destruction of their starfighters at Txamsem, Carter had wondered if they'd ever get replacements, and now she had her answer. Stored down here in this forgotten hangar were the new warships of Banshee Squadron!
Seeing the expression on Carter's face, Alex smiled in satisfaction and knew she'd done the right thing by bringing the others here. "Told you you'd like it," she said proudly.
Yes, Carter liked it. Now she was definitely going to ask Captain Mallory to reactivate their status. No, not 'ask' -- demand! With tensions in the sector at an all-time high, there was no way the Banshees were going to sit things out on the sidelines, especially with brand new fighters just sitting here gathering dust while Starfleet decided what to do with them!
At long last, the Banshees had hope again!
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