New Horizons

The morgue was both cold and clinical, the lighting far too bright. In one corner of the room was an open torpedo casing containing the body of Lieutenant Zack Dare. His body had been transferred down to the morgue from the medical centre above and a detailed autopsy performed, which had show up nothing unusual. As far as anyone could ascertain, there was no explainable cause of death. Now his lifeless body lay in the torpedo casing, waiting for it to be transferred to a vessel and shot into space.

An orderly walked into the room and across to the casing. Picking up the top of the casing, he put it in place and secured the torpedo. Pressing his comm. badge, he acknowledged that everything was ready and moments later the torpedo disappeared. Then the comm. panel on the wall beeped, the orderly walking across to it and opening the channel.

“Morgue here.” The orderly stated.

[This is Yellowstone runabout two.] A voice on the other end announced. [Is there a problem with the transporter system ?]

“Negative.” The orderly replied. “Transport was successful, why do you ask ?”

[The torpedo casing has not arrived onboard.] The runabout stated.

The orderly moved across to a console and double checked the transporter logs, before returning to the comm. Panel.

“All our records show that the torpedo was transported to the runabout.” The orderly reported. “I’d suggest you check your own transporter logs.”

[We’ll run a full diagnostic on our systems, I suggest you do the same.] The runabout officer stated. [Runabout two out.]

Above Serenity a small vessel, cloaked and totally unnoticed was in a stationary orbit above Serenity City. Onboard was the single pilot and the torpedo casing containing the body of Lieutenant Zack Dare.

“Prepare to break orbit.” The female pilot ordered. “Set co-ordinates for home.”

<Acknowledged.> The male voice of the vessels central intelligence replied. <Setting temporal co-ordinates, Earth, Stardate 3265256.2.>

“Let’s just hope we can save Zack before it’s too late.” Azri remarked. “He maybe our only chance of survival.”

<And if we do manage to revive him, what then ?> The computer asked. <He will be a man out of his own time. You can’t return him to this time, because he’s dead.>

“We’ll have to cross that bridge when we arrive at it.” Azri replied.

Azri walked forward to the command deck and took the pilot’s seat.

"Let’s get back home, engage temporal drive."

The USS Freedom disappeared into the depths of space and time, leaving just a slight temporal wake, which soon dissipated.