What just happened?

Posted on Tue Aug 22nd, 2023 @ 7:19pm by Lieutenant Commander Nicholas Coleman

851 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Episode 117 - "Returning to the Mirror"
Location: Science Lab 4
Timeline: MD1, 2200

[ON:]

Commander Coleman was working with some complex experiments in Science Lab 4 and had come down here late in the evening, since they had to be checked every two hours. He didn't want anyone else to be bothered with having to keep checking in on them and wanted to be there when the final set of datapoints were collected.

However, as soon as Coleman walked into the Science Lab, he noticed someone sitting in one of the free chairs with their backs towards the doors. Without missing a beat, as soon as the doors parted way and let Coleman inside, the person turned around and Coleman noticed that it was his half Trill/half El-Aurian cousin, Andrinn Orin.

The spots were unmistakable, even if they were slightly dimished. Andrinn's mom and Nick's mom were technically first cousins, but they were close after the fall of the El-Aurian homeworld that they were basically sisters by this point. Thus, why Nick and Andrinn called each other cousins.

Turning back around to see the doors close behind him, Nick turned back to Andrinn and said, "What are you doing all the way out here? I thought that you were onboard the Elysium? Being mister diplomat and all that jazz?"

Andrinn got up from the chair and shrugged his shoulders before replying, "I actually got some time away from the ship. You know that I work way too hard and it's only hurting if I didn't take a bit of time away for myself. Plus, I wanted to see one of my two favorite cousins!"

Andrinn came up and gave Nick a big old bear hug. It took Nick a moment to comprehend because while Andrinn was a hugger, he wasn't this much of a hugger. However, Nick replied in kind and gave Andrinn a bear hug in return. The two men came out of the hug and Nick offered Andrinn a seat at the table he was just sitting at.

However, Andrinn didn't take a seat, but rather talked again and began by asking a question. A rather...odd question, even for Andrinn. While Andrinn and the Elysium had been on the edges of known space, exploring the universe, the two men stilled talked fairly regularly in communications. Not only that, but the Elysium still got information about the happenings of the universe.

"I've just got a silly little question for you. You're still in command of that little Nova-Class Starship....the Endeavor, right?" Andrinn asked, raising his eyebrow as though he mad a logical statement. Nick went over to sit down in one of the chairs before looking up at Andrinn with a puzzled look. Nick replied back to Andrinn and said, "No, that ship was destroyed several years ago. It was replaced by an Athena-Class starship. Even then, though. I'm no longer in command of that vessel. I'm commanding a new starship called the USS Visionary. It's one of those new Sagan-Class starships. I thought I told you all this in one of our last communications?"

Andrinn playfully knocked himself in the head and said, "Oh, that's right! I'm such a doof sometimes. Work has really gotten me all out of sorts, especially with the Diplomatic Corp. I must've forgotten. But, I wanted to just stop by and surprise my big cousin and let him know that I'll be around on the station for a few hours at least before heading back out to the Elysium. Want to meet up for breakfast?"

Nick just shook his head in the affirmative and Andrinn replied, "Okay, lovely. I'll call you in the morning with the time and the place that we can go off to. I saw this lovely little Bajoran place on the promenade that I think you'll like. So, I love you cousin and we'll see each other soon."

With that, Andrinn headed out of the Science Lab without another word. The whole exchange just left Nick puzzled. However, before he could question it more, he looked down at the experiment and saw that it was ruined. Tapping his combadge, Coleman said, "Computer, besides myself, who was in this lab within the last two hours?"

The computer ran through the records for a moment to reply back to Coleman's inquiry, "Nobody has been in the science lab since you left it two hours ago." Nick scratched his chin and asked the computer, "Computer, what's the status of Andrinn Orin onboard the Starship Elysium?"

The computer ran through a few more records before replying back, "Andrinn Orin and the Federation Starship USS Elysium have been listed as MIA currently. Their last known coordinates were near the Federation/Romulan boarder."

Nick got up from his seat and ran out into the hallway to see if he could see or find Andrinn. However, it appeared that he was gone before Nick could get out into the hallway. Nick went back into the lab and grabbed a PADD, gathered the information from the lab, and ran to the nearest turbolift to get to operations.

Something

Wasn't

RIGHT

[OFF:]

Lieutenant Commander Nicholas Coleman
Chief Science Officer
Starbase 400

RSS Feed