Garek Loran's Personal Log.
Women... What's wrong with them? Who would've thought that being in love could be so hard? I remember my mom saying, "Being in love is like being in trouble. You just know you are when something happens." Thanks Mom. Well, she was right, I know I am. The problem is, how does Kim feel? If the one you love doesn't understand she's the only one in your mind all the time, then where does that leave you? I don't know, and I don't know if mom knows either. Well, that's one that I'm just going to have to work out on my own.
End Log.
Garek sat back in his chair and pushed the computer terminal screen down into the desk. He looked out into space momentarily and then shook his head as if reorienting himself back to the real world. Garek had searched the entire starbase after Kim's disappearance. He had finally given up, and headed back to his office in Engineering to clear his mind. The time was now 0800 hours, and he had been on shift for what appeared to be ages.
Commander Loran to Command please, the intercom announced.
"On my way," Garek replied. He slowly rose from his seat, rubbing his eyes.
Minutes later, the lift dumped him onto the mighty starbase's expansive Operations Command Center.
On seeing the Chief Engineer, the petty officer sitting at Operations brought up some data on a view screen. "Sir, we had an unauthorized launch at approximately 0645 this morning."
"Why wasn't I notified sooner?" Garek asked.
"I apologize, sir. I just discovered this now. The ship was able to hide its warp signature by piggy-backing on a freighter that left at the same time." The petty officer shifted in his seat uneasily, feeling he had failed and his career was on the line.
"Have you been able to identify the ship that left?"
"That's affirmative." He slid in his chair along the fixed rail on the floor to the right side control panel. The ship was a YF-6100 starfighter designated NX-6105." He looked up at Garek who was standing behind his seat.
That's the Manticore's registry. That's Kim! was all Garek could think. He stood quietly, mentally calculating if he would be able to locate a fighter with an hour-and-fifteen-minute head start. Coming to a decision, he dashed back into the turbolift and disappeared.
The Lambda Flier accelerated quickly in the direction of the Manticore's almost-undetectable warp particle trail. Garek powered up the transwarp core and brought long-range sensors online. It was bad enough Kim was mad at him, it was worse that she decided to leave the station to go out by herself. He adjusted the tactical readout to superimpose the warp particle trail on top of the sector map, then plotted a course to follow it. A transwarp conduit opened, and the 'Flier disappeared into the swirling green and yellow cloud.
The 'Flier dropped out of the conduit minutes later into the midst of a debris field. Dread suddenly filled Garek's mind and the pit of his stomach; Kim's Banshee was nowhere to be seen. He pushed forward the throttle control, easing the 'Flier into the field.
He didn't have the chance to worry though, because a klaxon then went off. The long-range sensors detected an incoming vessel -- Nausicaan configuration. It appeared to be a light cruiser, and would be arriving within the next half hour. Not great news.
Garek powered up the Lambda Flier's impulse engines and moved the craft into a shallow orbit of a nearby planetoid. The atmosphere and Van Allen belts would offer some protection from the scanners of the pirate vessel, but it wouldn't do a lot to protect from the enemy's weaponry. His only hope would be to solve this mystery before they arrived, or he'd have problems.
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