Bygone Ghosts

Posted on Mon Feb 27th, 2023 @ 1:35pm by Ensign Edg'rrr Anisu

967 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Episode 115 - Planting for the Future
Location: Starbase 400, Section C-1 Level 2440
Timeline: MD1, 2142 hrs
Tags: Edg'rrr, communication array, temporal ghosts

A noise echoed throughout the maintenance tubes faintly but ghostly as well. A voice on top of electrical zapping somewhere in areas just big enough to sit or lay down in but not much else. "Starbase 400 is built in orbit of Kaleb IV in 2369, set to be decommissioned and scrapped in 2380, rebuilt and recommissioned by 2381 with ship construction restarting the following year. In 2396 the station was attacked by the Typhon Pact and subsequently repaired sometime afterwards. Other minor repairs and updates have been assigned." Said the station's computer to which Edg'rrr rolled his eyes.

"With another history lesson down yet still no answers as to what, who, or why this looks like some patch job!" Said Edg'rrr starring at the various circuitry and isolinear chips before him tucked into the wall. On the surface it all worked, that was easy, however the how was bothering him. "Grrrr!! How is this stuff even functioning?!" He checked his pad going through several notes before tapping a finger on his leg.

"Are you in distress? The nearest medical personnel can be contacted." Asked the computer as Edg'rrr rolled his head back frustrated by what was going on anyways before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath before reopening his eyes.

"No. No, thank you however." Said Edg'rrr rubbing his eyes. He'd been at this for hours and days at a time. Getting one small section done getting farther little by little before a new problem arrose making him go back to every other location before the one he was at. "This needs to work. The repetitiveness needs to end someday. Guuaaahhhhh." He slumped more towards the floor.

"You are the final upgrade for this area." Said the computer as Edg'rrr rubbed his head.

"Doesn't mean I'd have to go all the way back tot he beginning if this gets a bug or glitch where all this patch work doesn't want to work with the new stuff." Said Edg'rrr before remembering something from a class of his before the academy. "Wait a minute." He stated in a hushed tone before readjusting himself on the floor and going through his notes. "Nah nah nah nah ah-ha! That's it." He checked his notes and rearranging a few of the chips, a bio-gel pack, and the new components the pad displayed that everything was running smoothly. "YEAH HOO!" He exclaimed collapsing fully onto the floor starring at the ceiling.

"Systems online. Time for upgrade-" said the computer before Edg'rrr cut it off.

"I don't wanna know how many hours that took. Final thing the cmo wanted me to do for this week. Related to this project at least." A beep came from his pad as he held it up to view it. His heart sank. He gripped the pad shaking for a moment reading what it was. It was a link to some of the station's inner workings. Inside the lump dropped like a hammer and a giddiness arose provoking his curiosity. "New tech works but they're not gonna like a new back door. Hmm. What can we learn though?" With some craftiness he accessed the comm system. "I'll seal it when I'm done but any chance to take a peak at what I need will be helpful." He whispered scrolling through various channels. He clicked on one as the audio rang out from his pad.

"Come on down to Quarks!" Said the voice as he clicked off it looking for a new one.

"No thank you. Not dealing with that." Said Edg'rrr as a new one caught his eye.

"...oosevelt checking sector for hostile..." said the voice as Edg'rrr shook his head exiting and scrolling to what looked like a backlog of recordings. Before he thought more about it he clicked on it.

"...et history...rise..." said another voice that caught Edg'rrr's attention. It was familiar. Kind of like someone he remembered from history class at the academy actually. He tuned it further as it felt garbled.

"...rebrand systems critical! Multiple decks damaged! SHE'S..." Said some feminine voice as a static burst made Edg'rrr turn down the volume but for a moment as his heart skipped a beat as well. He could've sworn he heard the word "firebrand". Edg'rrr sat up trying to get the wavelength more secure.

"...rgazer, this is Reliant, we're holding position in front of the anom..." Said a masculine voice but Edg'rrr couldn't quite place anything from it.

"Computer, inquiry, ship names; Firebrand and Reliant." Asked Edg'rrr sitting back.

"USS Firebrand, NCC-68723, destroyed during the Battle of Wolf 359. USS Reliant, NCC-1864, destroyed during hijacking conflict." Said the computer as Edg'rrr thought back to that last message.

"Find ship with partial match; r-gazer." Said Edg'rrr as the computer worked.

"USS Stargazer. Multiple entries found." Said the computer as Edg'rrr thought for a moment.

"Might be from some really old battle or something then. I mean I can't think of any other USS Reliant or USS Stargazer around the same time. I wonder if the station might've picked up these partial recordings from that anomaly I ran into. Meaning it was some kind of temporal anomaly? Surprised no one noticed these I guess. I can definitely make use of them. Hmm, time's almost up before any alarms trigger." Edg'rrr tapped a button and downloaded every recording he could from the backlog before deleting the file and securing the breach. "Plus for good measure in case someone metal with green lights tries anything, there. Might keep one system open at least." Edg'rrr looked down the tube one way and then the other before flipping through the pad and finding a song hit play before swiping and beginning to work on schematics to a very big gun with others relating to stun weaponry. "Hopefully they won't mind a few minutes to myself."

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