Captain’s Log, Stardate 78857.38

The Century has just finished a refit cycle after our first long duration exploration mission beyond the Thomar Expanse. With our business complete here in the shipyards, we will be making preparations to depart once the crew who opted to take some well-deserved shore leave return to the ship. I am looking forward to continuing our deep space exploration, and I believe the crew is also ready for another year in deep space after being allowed this brief respite.

Captain Gar’rath ended the brief log entry and leaned comfortably in his chair, his reptilian eyes slowly closing as the Gorn contemplated their next adventure. The return to the Federation’s core had been something of an unscheduled one, brought about by the discovery of some major structural issues that the ship had experienced while out in deep space. Lieutenant Commander Brak had, at first, been confident that he and his engineering crew could handle the repairs and that the mission would be able to carry on just fine without returning to a drydock. The Tellarite’s signature stubbornness delayed the crew’s departure from deep space for nearly three months before he finally admitted the issue was too large to tackle without physically removing whole sections of the ship to make the repairs required.

Another two months passed by them before the ship made its return to Federation controlled space, and almost as long to return to the 40 Eridani A shipyards to begin the needed refit. It was fortunate, at least, that the initial flaws discovered by Lt. Cmdr. Brak and his team were the only major issues plaguing the still relatively new vessel, which allowed repairs to be completed in just shy of three months.

The sound of footfalls on the floor of his Ready Room spurred Gar’rath to open his eyes again, finding the form of his Executive Officer, Commander Abigail Peters standing before him with a somewhat pensive expression on her face.

“Is something amiss?” the Gorn inquired.

“I’m… not entirely sure. I’ve been going over the manifest, and I’ve noticed a large chunk of our crew that requested leave outside of the local cluster haven’t made it back yet. That isn’t so worrisome on its own, but there’s been a handful of folks that went as close as Earth who have failed to report back,” Abby responded.

“That is certainly unusual,” the Captain said, leaning forward toward his XO, “Have any of them communicated why they are being delayed?”

“Oddly, no…” Peters remarked with a frown, “And I didn’t think much of it until I started trying to send messages to them. Not a single transmission sent out comes back as having been received.”

“Could it be that our communications array is still offline from the refit?”

“That’s what I’d thought at first myself, so I tried using a comms terminal at shipyard control, and I got the same results. So, it isn’t the ship, it’s something else entirely,” the woman explained.

“That’s even more unusual… I haven’t gotten anything about a communications blackout…” Gar’rath said, bringing up his holographic console. A quick scan of the publicly available information network showed hints that others had encountered an issue, but nothing beyond ‘it was being investigated’ had been put out by the local Starfleet station or the local Vulcan government. With a reptilian scowl, the Gorn decided to check with the station using his privileged access level to look beyond the public facing information screen. Even with that, there was little in the way of answers.

“According to what I can glean even with my access, there is an issue with long-range communications, but the cause and how far it reaches is currently under investigation. Shipyard command has a science team working on it, but they’ve only gotten as far as outlining just how far communications and sensor scans reach before they hit some sort of barrier that stops further investigation.”

“I’m assuming the information blackout on this is to prevent people from panicking if this turns out to be just a temporary phenomenon or something of the sort,” Abby commented.

“Perhaps,” Gar’rath said grudgingly, “But something about it doesn’t seem… right.”

Peters’ eyebrow floated upward as she asked, “Oh? How so?”

The Gorn gave her a vague shrug, “Nothing specific… Just an odd sense of discomfort. I don’t even know why I feel that way, exactly. I would blame it on my hunter’s instincts, but we aren’t looking at a fight breaking out here, of all places.”

“No,” Abby nodded, “I can’t imagine that happening. Maybe it’s just that feeling you get when someone is talking bad about you somewhere in the universe. My grandmother used to say that now and again when I was a little girl. Used to get this weird shiver and say ‘someone must be talking about me’ when she did it.”

“I can’t imagine I’ve left a bad enough impression on anyone in the last few years to warrant something like that,” the Captain smirked.

“You’d be surprised how petty people can be,” Peters quipped.

Again, the Gorn shrugged, “I doubt that, but perhaps there is some weight to your words nevertheless. Philosophical musing aside, would we be able to depart with the people we still have either aboard or currently down on Vulcan?”

“Some departments would be somewhat understaffed, the science department most notably. Lieutenant James is one of the people who left for Earth and hasn’t returned. His deputy stayed behind, likely because our Security Chief wasn’t going to go all the way to Klingon Space just to have to turn around and come right back. But more than a third of the department followed Brian’s lead and took this time to go do whatever it is scientists do with off time,” Abby reported.

“I take it Engineering and Operations will be mainly intact,” Gar’rath remarked.

“You’re spot on with that guess,” the woman nodded, “I think there was only a half dozen people in engineering that left the ship, never mind the system. Medical is actually the second most impacted department. Thankfully Dr. Odaim didn’t leave us to go to Betazed, but more than half her department took some time away while we were in the dock.”

“And Security?”

“I think they’re missing two. Which is actually the lowest number out of all the departments ship-wide.”

Gar’rath couldn’t help but grin a little at that. He hadn’t spent a great deal of time interacting with the Security department on the Century, partly out of respect for Lieutenant Khar but also because he knew if he did, he might forget that he wasn’t a security officer anymore. He was, however, proud of the dedication that his former department had for their duty and their ship. He made a mental note to express that to his Klingon subordinate when next they spoke.

“So, it would be an inconvenience to those left aboard for a time, but it wouldn’t cripple us,” the Captain inquired.

“That’s one way to view it,” Abby said after giving it a second’s thought, “I’m more inclined to suggest we simply wait for them, since we don’t know how wide-spread this comms issue extends.”

Gar’rath’s chest emitted a low rumble as he tapped a clawed finger against his desk in thought, “I suppose there’s no harm in delaying our departure for a few days, just to see if things clear up.”

“That sounds more than fair. In the meantime, I’ll do some digging of my own and see if I can get some on the sly information from some folks I know who might be in a good place to get me some details that aren’t for public consumption,” Peters said with a sly smirk.

“I wasn’t aware you had contacts in Starfleet Intelligence,” the Gorn said, his brow rising in interest.

“Technically I don’t…” the woman said with a wink, “Technically.”

“I see…” the Captain nodded, “Then technically I didn’t hear that.”

Abby chuckled playfully, “Glad we’re on the same page. I’ll keep you updated if I hear anything… you know… in passing.”

“Understood. Thank you for the update, Commander.”

The XO nodded sharply and turned to depart the same way she’d entered, through the still opened door. Gar’rath pushed his large frame out of the chair and walked over to the window that was adjacent to his desk to look out at the shipyard docks that were scattered around them in space. The nagging feeling that something was amiss hadn’t left him, but he wasn’t so focused on it anymore…