Personal log, stardate 59115.11. Today is another ordinary day. Just routine work in engineering.
Xan said as he walked through corridors on Deck 15. He could find nothing different and he liked this.
He arrived at main engineering and attended the mission briefing just in time. He was assigned to realign the magnetic capacitors. A work that he was capable of, he liked this.
As he started to work on the second magnetic capacitor, he found some officers in the engineering chatting quietly. It’s not they were talking that caught his attention, it was their facial expressions. Some of them seemed thrilled, others concerned. When he finished his work on the fourth capacitor, he could no longer supress his curiosity. He left his station and approached a workmate who in his memory usually enjoyed exchanging gossip.
The officer named Vinnie was talking with another officer. They stopped when Xan approached them.
“What’s up?”Xan asked.
“Didn’t you hear? Two agents from the department of temporal investigation beamed aboard midnight.”
“Midnight? I thought these guys who deals with time should be more time-conscious.
“That’s not the point. It’s said that they had a meet with the senior officers and assigned Expedition to a special, dangerous, top-secret mission!”
“I don’t think so. There are starships more advanced than Expedition and crew more experienced than us in the fleet. If they do have an important assignment, why would they come to us?”
“No one knows…But the guy who told me about this swore that he would attend next pie competition upside down if he was wrong.”
“Oh I look forward to that.”Xan smiled and went back to work.
But rather than quieting down, the rumors proliferated extnsively. He overheard another two workmates’ conversation, which was not difficult for his new ears. One said that the Expedition would abort all current missions and set course for a secret starbase. The other insisted that he saw a starfleet officer who looked like a wolf on the Captain’s ODN interface before Captain shut it off when he came into Dravenn’s ready room. Xan’s furry ears twitched slightly. The latter one’s words aroused Xan’s interest. He wanted to ask about the details but eventually gave up.
On 1100, Capt.Dravenn opened a ship-wide channel.
“Attention, all crew, this is the Captain. The department of temporal investigation has assigned the Expedition a high-priority mission. We are going to travel back in time, year 2025, to be exact, to carry out a special mission in Sector 001. The details of the mission will be sent to your PADDs. Dravenn out.”
Dravenn’s voice disappeared, but everyone in the engineering was still frozen until their PADD started beeping. For a moment, there was no other sound in the engineering, just clicks on PADDs.
Xan was doing the same when a message poped up on his PADD silently. It was from Capt.Dravenn asking him to come to Captain’s ready room after his shift. “Why not just hail me?”Xan was a little confused.
Personal log, supplemental. Today was supposed to be an ordinary day. But our routine jobs were interrupted by a secret mission, which I cannot detail it in my log. Now the Captain has ordered me to his ready room, I presume it’s about the mission.
1700 U.S.S. Expedition Deck 1
Xan walked out of the turbolift, took a brief look at the quiet bridge and then stepped towards the ready room. He paused a moment before ringing the bell of Dravenn’s ready room.
“Come.”Dravenn’s flat voice came from inside. Xan walked inside cautiously with his tail pressed flat against his leg.
“Er… Captain, you wanted to see me?”
“Yes, Lieutenant. Take a seat.”Draveen looked up from a pile of PADDs.
“I suppose you’ve read the information about our misson?”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Then you should know about Capt.Huanxing.”
“Yes, he is an excellent captain and in charge of this mission.”
“There is more information you need to know.”Dravenn said,”computer, grant Lt.Xan’s access to classified database 718, captain authorization. Take a look.”
Xan took out his PADD and opend the database. At the first glance, Xan was stunned to see a picture of a furry officer wearing some type of Starfleet uniform that he hadn’t seen before. A siberian wolf, to be exact. He has white fur, blue-red eyes, and a Starfleet emblem on his forehead. The upper half of his white ears is blue.
Then Xan began to review the service record of Huanxing. It was quite impressive.
He wanted to see you once we rendezvous with the Kardashev.”Dravenn suddenly said.
“Captain, may I ask…why he wanted to see me?”Xan was a little hesitant.
“Because you will join him in the away mission on earth.”Dravenn replied briefly,”the details of the away mission are also in the database. If you have no other questions, dimissed.”
“Aye sir.”Xan stood up and left the ready room.
On his way to mess hall, Xan was still reading the information absorbedly so that he walked into Cole in front of the mess hall. “Hey, nerd,”Cole greeted him,”you really have so much work to do that you can’t spare some time to watch where you’re going?”
“Ahh…not really. I’m just reading some materials.”
“What material could fascinate you so much?”
“Configurations of NX-Alpha.”
“Boo…Alright, remember to join me in Grace’s room for poker game on 1930.”
“Sorry, I’m not coming this night. I have some work to do.”
“Alright.”Cole disappeared in the turbolift.