==Begin log==
Ahrund and me will be arriving at the famous Federation Starbase Memory Alpha in a short while. I've been neglecting my log lately, ever since the day my wife died really. I didn't really see a point to it. All i had to say was that i missed her and i was miserable.
I must confess though that, now the reality of my new posting starts to come nearer and i realize Arehnd and me are at the beginning of a completely new life, i feel something akin to excitement. I only wish i could've found out sooner i was born to be a pilot.
Part of me feels like i've wasted the best part of my life crawling around in the dirt, always being the first one to get shot at and the last one to leave the battlefield. The past few months have been a real roller coaster ride for me and my son both.
The memorial service, the first night without her, the first weeks alone with Ahrund. The first time in a cockpit without it being a desperate attempt at saving my son's life, and without someone trying to kill me, the connection Ahrund and me made that was unlike we had before. The despair at having to return to duty and the fear of being forced to leave Ahrund behind somewhere when the core would've assigned me somewhere dangerous.
Then the elation at hearing they were giving me a fighter pilot position and that i could take Ahrund with me. The worry at the war, and the fear it would eventually catch up to Ahrund and me after all. Considering resigning from the Marines and Fleeing the war. The emotions that i experienced... that i endured over the past few months are many and intense. I'm surprised none of the Officers i've spoken to so far have brought up counseling or something like it.
==Pauze log==
"Ahrund... Whatever made you think i'd like you to throw the content of that cup over the cleaned and pressed uniform Daddy has laid out on the bed?""Smooi!" the little tike exclaims with a smile that lit up like a supernova. "Ennouw?" Ahrund said spreading his arms out like there was something he didn't know. With a sigh Zoteke got up from behind the computer console and inspected the damage.
"Patient pronounced dead at 13:01 UT" he said more to himself than his son and threw the dirtied uniform in to the reclimator. He moved over to the replicator and ordered a fresh uniform which promptly appeared neatly folded in the devices slot. He took it out and laid it out on the bed like the previous one had been.
He turned to his son who had watched Zoteke's every move. He crouched down and brought his face down to the little guy's level. He looked into those wonderfully innocent and lively eyes making sure Ahrund's attention was on him. "Don't do that again, do you understand? Daddy is not happy when you do that, and i know you want to make Daddy happy. Maybe as much as Daddy want's to make you happy riiiiight?" Zoteke said.
The little boy frowned for a moment, looked at the cup he had emptied onto the bed, then to the bed and finally back to Zoteke. "Owkaaaaay!" the little one exclaimed with a smile that could melt even the coldest emotionless vulcan heart. Even though Zoteke doubted Ahrund completely understood or meant what he promised he decided not to go on about it. He kissed his little superman quickly saying "Daddy stole a kiss from you!" and got back up. Ahrund put up his shocked imitation saying "ooooohoooooo!!"
==resume log==
My orders are to go to Memory Alpha and perform flight tests on the new Sparrow Midrange Attack Fighter until the arrival of the USS Redshirt three days from now. Then i am to report to Captain Ehkneewahnn for duty as one of the ship's fighter pilots. The scant information i've been given on that new fighter tells me that this flight testing may be more difficult, and even dangerous, than it may sound. The power that the little core puts out is twice that of the Delta class shuttle and as far as i can tell it's all pumped into either the weapons, the shields or the propulsion systems.
I can't imagine a ship that size has the mass with which the dampeners can counter the acceleration the fighter must be capable of. It does sound like one heck of a ride though.My only worry is if what I'm doing is the right thing for my son. I mean taking him with me on the Uss Redshirt. We are at war, and the Uss Redshirt is a Starfleet ship. But is leaving Ahrund anywhere in the Federation any safer in this war? I don't think so.
The best thing I can do for him is to keep him with me where I can fight to keep him safe myself. At least when something happens he'll have his father he can count on.I can see Memory Alpha growing in the distance out my window. T
ime to pack up our things and get ready to disembark. I've never been to a station the size of Memory Alpha before. I am eager to explore it. I know Ahrund is going to have an excitement overload. He's never been to anywhere with MA's size, cutting edge technology or the amount and variety of lifeforms. He'll love this!==End Log==
Two days into their stay on Memory Alpha Zoteke and his son are exploring a part of the space-station they hadn't seen yet and having a wonderful time of it.
Zoteke had flown 2 sorties in the Sparrow Fighter in the past two days and he had fallen in love with the little powerhouse from the moment his buttocks had touched the pilot seat. Unlike most fighters before the Peregrine the cockpit didn't feel cramped and while still keeping all the controls the pilot needed within easy reach.
The canopy provided an almost 360 degree vision while the eyepiece that the pilot slid on like a pair of glasses provided the pilot with any display he could possibly want projected right in-front of him wherever he was looking. A lot of the commands that could be given manually could be called up by voice as well. Only the precise flying and tweaking of the fighters systems required the pilot control but otherwise all the pilot had to do was tell the ship what he wanted it to do. The performance was off the scale as well. Almost into the ridiculous.
The amount of power that was available could, when used without restraint and caution, tear the ship apart just by slamming on the throttle. To be hones, the ship was overpowered but Zoteke had already suggested some buffer technologies they could use to have more control over the fighter's power and bleed off power surges that crossed the capacity threshold into capacitors for later use. The only problem they had on that front now was that the capacitors either filled up to fast or didn't have enough capacity.
The odd looking duo, a big heavy built man 2 meters tall holding hands with a 88 cm. High, 2 year old, little boy locked in intense conversation."OOOOOH!! PAPAS MOOOI!!!" Ahrund exclaimed for the gazillionth time pointing at an ornate and colorful shop display. "You think that's pretty Ahrundje?" Zoteke asked as if it was the first time. "Yah.. Mooi!" Ahrund mumbled softly while keeping his eyes on the many odd and alien objects spread out in front of a small kiosk.
Some of the items seemed to have movement in them and just in case that meant something alive was in there as well Zoteke protectively made sure there was always two meters distance between Ahrund and anything he didn't recognize. When Ahrund began looking around again it signaled to Zoteke the kid had lost interest and was looking for something else to stimulate his senses. Just as Zoteke wanted to continue their stroll and look for a turbo lift to take the duo back to their quarters a mechanical sounding voice blasted forth from the station's emergency broadcast system.
"Attention! All hands to your duty station. Visitors and civilians go to the emergency centers or your quarters until further notice. I repeat, all hands to your duty stations, Visitors and civilians go to the emergency centers or your quarters until further notice"The message was immediately followed by the shrieking sound of a red alert. Lights dimmed everywhere and red emergency lighting came on to cast everything and everyone in an eary angry reddish glow.
Ahrund's face contorted as he looked up at his dad conveying his dislike of the loud noise, the red lights and the hectic panic everything and everyone seemed to erupt into. Scooping the little guy into his arms Zoteke tried to remember the general layout of the starbase so he could head for the nearest turbo lift when the station shook with a rumbling sound coming from everywhere.. "NEEJ!" shouted Ahrund as is that could be enough to stop whatever it was that was happening. Deciding on a route that would take him to a turbolift Zoteke tried to stay calm and reassure his kid.
"SsSSsshhhhh Ahrundje, there's nothing wrong, there are just some older people who are a bit deaf, just like grandpa used to be remember? They can't hear everything we can and that's why those sounds are so loud." he said while stroking the kid's back. "oh.." was all Ahrund said at that. Approaching the turbolift an electronic sign above it flashed the message that as a safety measure the tubolifts were out of order during emergency situations and an arrow pointing at the nearest shelters or the stairs with which to decend to the levels below on foot. "Damm.... building bevers... " Zoteke exclaimed.
He had started to curse but cought himself just in time to turn it into a harmless outcry. He was sure that Ahrund would learn to curse with the best of them soon enough, he didn't need to speed up that particular learning process.Zoteke turned towards the inner core of the space-station figuring that if something was hitting the station hard enough for them to feel and hear, it had to be either huge ow powerful.. like a weapon. Suddenly fear ripped through him. "oh please no. please no.." Zoteke muttered as he went to a computer console. He tapped in a few keys, Tapped some sequences of keys in a specific order and was rewarded by a command line shell.
There he went on to wrestle the information from the system he needed to tap into the internal and external sensor arrays. As he needed two hands for this he had put Ahrund down onto his feet for just a second which apparently was not what Ahrund had in mind at that moment. Grabbing hold of his left thigh with both his little arms and wrapping his little leg around his lower legs made it clear that whatever was going on, Daddy wasn't going anywhere without Finally the hack into the root prompt of the main computer system was providing Zoteke with useful information.
One of the running subroutines in the core memory was the feed from the visual and audio sensors that covered most part of the Station. Now all he had to do was copy that code the subroutine and run it under a virtual host, directing the output onto one of the viewers that were available. Directly ahead of him a mega viewscreen lit up and started showing the outside of the ship right now. What it showed was unmistakable and it was Zoteke's greatest fear.... a Borg cube and some other Borg vessels, and they were attacking.
Pulling his arms around Ahrund a little tighter having his greatest fear confirmed he decided that whatever was going to happen, they weren't gonna get their dirty nannite infested grubs on his little superman. No way.In a running pace he headed for the jeffries tube he knew should be close by and was met by an Ensign frantically banging the panel covering the access to the tube with crowbar. "Ensign!" Zoteke snapped causing the cadet to whip around ready to strike with his metal rod. "Oh, sorry sir, I... I.... " the ensign started to tremble then doubled over and started to vomit. Luckily away from him and Ahrund. The young ensign, probably fresh out of the academy, was obviously panicking in the worst possible way. Pushing the ensign aside and grabbing the edges of the panel he pushed the panel in before pulling on it. This magically released the magnetic seal on the panel and it came away with ease. Looking inside Zoteke had to do a double take.
A tiny row of footholds went down and up as far as he could see and beyond. If he went down there he would have to secure Ahrund to himself somehow, knowing Ahrund wouldn't be able to climb those steps or hold on to Zoteke himself for long enough. Just meters away a shop selling belts and belt buckles had a display showing its goods to potential customers and Zoteke took a few of the belts.
With them he secured his son to his chest as secure as he could and swung one foot into the tube and onto one of the tiny steps sticking into the jeffris tube wall. Just as he was going to duck his head and go inside of the tube with the rest of his body a warped kind of transporter hum sounded nearby. "We are the Bo...." KZAPSSZHTHHH!!!The usual speech the borg gave was silenced by a well aimed shot from a phaser rifle located somewhere on a higher level. Screams started to well up from more and more places around him and quickly Zoteke ducked inside the jeffries tube descending the stairs as quickly as he could with a 2 year old scared little boy strapped to his chest.
He hoped the Borg drones hadn't noticed him going into the tube and he would have time to come up with some kind of plan. He decided against in trying to get to the bridge. Even though its usually the last place to be capture by enemy but it was also one of the most like targets on the Borg's target list. He kept stepping farther and farther down the little steps while his mind raced to come up with a way to stay alive.
Then he noticed a little marker telling him he was now down to lever 21. Then it hit him! The Sparrow Fighters! They were on this very level and so were not that far away. Hoping the Borg wouldn't have yet reached this far down into the station kicked out the jeffries tube cover and swung out of the tube and onto the floor with a stumble. He scanned his surroundings. Completely deserted.
No human or cybernetic life anywhere in site. Kissing his son a couple of times and giving him another close hug Zoteke made his way into the bay where the Sparrow fighter had been operating their test flights from. That bay was as deserted as the rest of this level seemed to be to Zoteke's relief. He noticed that Ahrund, even though no sound escaped from him, had tears streaming down his cheeks. The boy was scared but knew that irritating the hell out of daddy wasn't a smart move at that time and so cried his tears in silence.
Pride welled up inside Zoteke at that realization inexplicably. What a perfect little boy Ahrund was. And for the gazillionth time he wondered what made him deserve such a good mannered, happy, easy sweet boy that Ahrund was. Setting Ahrund down on a chair near the Sparrow the engineers had worked on last Zoteke began clearing the ship of all umbilical and diagnostic devices, and then started to prep the ship for a quick power up and scramble before he picked up his son once again.
Perching his son up on a tool cart he looked his son in the eyes and said "Daddy is going to put you in the nice cockpit with all the shiny buttons and screens honey and then he is going to see if he can make the bad men go away." Ahrund's face lit up at that. "eye light men gaway... yeah...." he repeated "they not nice" he added. While he strapped Ahrend into the co-pilot seat In the sparrow's cockpit the knot in his stomach grew tighter and tighter, but he knew this was the best thing he could do right now. He knew that the little hanger bay was shielded from sensors because the fighters were still in the development phase and therefore one of the most secret secrets in the fleet.
No-one knew the fighters were there except the Captain of the Uss Redshirt, the project engineers and him. Not even the station's commander was aware of these babies. So putting his precocious son in the cockpit of one must be the safest thing to do. The canape closed at his command and Ahrund disappeared from sight. It was impossible to look inside from the outside with all this light reflecting off the gleaming canape.
With only a second more of doubt and hesitation overcome Zoteke stepped down from the ladder and went back out of the hanger bay. He had to go find someone in charge and see if the station could be defended. If not, he'd head back here and jump into the sparrow his son was in and, as he had primed the sparrow and put it on standby, would be off the station in seconds.
Deciding to stick to more common travel-ways i.e. the corridors he began to cautiously search the station for other starfleet personnel. It was four levels up before he noticed any movement and it was definitely not the movement he wanted to find, or be found by. Ducking behind a science console he waited while a lone drone thumped past and onward into a corridor opposite to the one he had come from. Zoteke was confused.
There had been over 23.000 people on this station not more than an hour ago. Now it seemed they were all gone. Even with all nonessential people inside quarters or secure areas there should be dozens of starfleet personnel milling about to keep the starbase going. Where was everyone?
To be continued in part II
wow nice content.