Reflecting on Things to Come

Posted on Fri May 27th, 2016 @ 4:41am by Captain John Theisman

646 words; about a 3 minute read

John leaned back and watched the stars streak by as the Hyperion cruised along at warp speed towards the last place any Starfleet captain had thought his or her ship would be heading to. Romulus. Center seat of power for the entire mighty and secretive Romulan Empire. Where the shadows literally had a pulse as well as claws and a very long memory that would twist everything against you. Like every other officer in Starfleet, John had grown up hearing of the Romulans in whispers. Most everything about them was a mystery, and even today mystery themed holonovels were still being written with the Romulans as a shadowy and secretive power.

For John, he was more interested in the secrets that the Hyperion and her impressive sensor array systems would uncover. The Longbow and daVinci arrays had never been fielded before, and the Argus array had never been fielded on a starship before, and those three arrays alone were impressive. And added to the Hyperion's problems. Each array was new, and other than the parts that were in general use by sensor platforms everywhere else, were mostly without replacements. True enough the Hyperion still had an impressive number of lateral sensors and even a number of the high powered platforms, but the three experimental arrays were Hyperion's largest weapons when it came to exploration and as long as they worked they gave the ship and her crew an edge in their mission.

Taking a sip of the depleted Crown Royal whiskey he and Divaro had enjoyed some weeks back, John turned back towards his desktop monitor and the information displayed there. Starfleet Command had sent everything they could on the Romulan Empire, but there was very little information to begin with and almost none of it was on exploration matters. Romulus was on the western edge of the Romulan Empire, and that expanded far beyond even Starfleet's estimated guesses. Everyone knew that, but what John wished he knew was exactly how far the wing of the raptor extended. No one in the Federation knew the answer to that, and it was an unofficial part of his mission to find out along with trying to extend the Federation's presence in that direction. It was almost enough to make him want to take a deep breath and pass it on to someone else, but the chance to fly a Luna class ship through uncharted space was too much for any old school Starfleet officer to pass up.

"Bridge to the captain," the voice of the officer on duty said from the comm badge.

"Go ahead," John said as he finished his drink and shut off the monitor, automatically closing the files.

"Sir, you wanted to be informed when we were almost to the Romulan Neutral Zone. We'll be there in about five hours. Long range sensors detect several Romulan ships in the vicinity of our flight path, but we can't get an accurate reading at this distance."

Instinct took over and John could feel a tingle of excitement. Mystery and danger were what called officers and crew to the RNZ patrol assignments, and even though he had spent a number of years there already he couldn't help but feel a tiny bit excited and worried as his ship drew even closer to that invisible line in space. It didn't help when he also realized that his ship was going to not only arrive at that line in five hours, but continue on over it and enter a realm of mystery and danger. "Acknowledged. Pass it on to Commander Jayde and let her know that I'd like her to be present on the bridge when we arrive if possible," he said before he signed off. Standing, he decided that he needed a short nap and maybe even a light lunch before they arrived.

Captain John Theisman
CO, USS Hyperion

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