Haven

"Haven" from Star Trek: The next Generation
Word Count = 2,455

Haven

     A Laser Ball struck the side of a SpaceShuttle. Three more balls struck it a second later near the last one. Then seven more all hit it from the other side. The lopsided SpaceShuttle dipped down even further. Within only a few seconds that SpaceShuttle was getting hit from every angle by six spaceships.

     After almost ten minutes of non-stop battering, there wasn’t any part of that SpaceShuttle wasn’t hit by a Laser Ball. All the Laser Balls exploded, popped, upon impact which left burnt marks or streaks wherever they struck. Most of them didn’t penetrate that SpaceShuttle. The last one that did didn’t explode until after it entered it.

     “Stop the attack.” The disembodied voice of Vancant echoed just outside one of the attacking spaceships.

     A few seconds later all the Laser Balls about to strike that SpaceShuttle stopped – then exploded. One of them was so close to its spaceship it scorched the name on its side – The Vancant.

     Vancant walked toward his Scanner. His metal square boxed head, and body, clanked when he walked. “That wasn’t a normal explosion. What did that Laser Ball hit? Was it something important?”

     Scora kept her bugging eyes on the Data Monitor in front of her. “It struck the engines. That SpaceShuttle is going to be destroyed within a few minutes.”

     “That’s great news.” Vancant turned slightly and walked toward his Communicator and put his large three finger green webbed hand on Naskin’s shoulder. “Naskin, contact the others. Tell them this enemy has been eliminated. We still have about twelve others to eliminate before they destroy us.”

Eighteen Years Later

     “We have just entered The Borron Sector.” Everyone in Control Central turned and stared at Corrale when the Data Information System made that announcement. She also had a shocked look on her face.

     “How did this happen? Get us out of here before it’s too late. If it’s not too late already.” Corrale walked up and stood behind her Navigator. “I knew we were getting close to this sector, but not this close. What happened? Why are we here.”

     Fanani glanced down at her control panel then up at the Main Monitor in front of her. “I don’t know Commander. According to our readings, we didn’t do anything. The ship did it on its own.”

     “I think I know what happened.” The Data Information System Analyst, Hoon, pushed a button on his control panel in front of him. “I’m picking up a Help Signal near here within The Borron Sector. The ship might have responded to that signal.”

     “That could be what’s going on.” Head of Security, Wallim, stood behind everyone else in Control Central. “We are supposed to answer Help Signals if we come across them.”

     “The big question is what should we do about it. After all, this one is in The Borron Sector.”

     “I don’t think we have any choice about that Commander. I’ve been trying to navigate us out of here, but I can’t. The ship won’t let us.”

     “It sounds like a trap to me.” Wallim started pushing buttons on the control panel in front of him.

     “You could be right about that. No one has heard from the Borrons in almost twenty years. Maybe they have been spending all that time preparing for war. This could be their way to start it because we entered their part of this Sector.”

     “Whether it’s a trap or not, we are about to find out. We should be coming up on that Help Signal any time now.”

     “Scan for any ships in the area. Are we close enough to see what we are headed for?”

     Hoon spoke first. “No ships anywhere near us. Except for whatever we are headed for. That doesn’t mean they couldn’t be invisible or fast enough to get here in only a few minutes.”

     “We should be close enough.” Fanani pushed several buttons in front of her. A few seconds later an image of a SpaceShuttle came onto the main monitor.

     “It looks too small to be a spaceship and too big for a shuttle. My guess is that it’s a SpaceShuttle. I don’t recognize it. Does anyone else here?”

     Everyone responded negatively one way or another. The only one who spoke was Hoon. “There’s nothing in our Data Stream either.”

     “Contact the rest of the ship. We have about two hundred and fifty thousand people on this ship. Let’s see if at least one of them knows what we might be dealing with.”

     After waiting impatiently for several minutes for a response ship-wise, and getting none, Corrale continued. She leaned her head back toward Wallim. “Arm all weapons. Use them all if we have to.”

     “I already have Commander. If this is a trap, I don’t want to go out without a fight either.”

A Few Minutes Later

     The Ovvol Explorer Seven, according to the wording on the side of it, suddenly stopped it sailing through the Borron Sector. About a mile in front of it laying almost bottom up floated a dead looking SpaceShuttle.

     Corrale and the others in Control Central started picking themselves off the deck. “What happened now? Why did we stop like that?”

     Fanani sat down in her chair still shaking. She glanced at her control panel. “I don’t know what happened. It wasn’t me. The spaceship must have done it on its own.”

     “It was the Data Information System.” Hoon propped himself up on the edge of his control panel by his four arms.

     “Scan the area. Are we still the only two ships in this area?”

     “I have already started.” About a minute after hitting buttons and looking at his Data Monitor Hoon responded. “We are still the only ones here.”

     Corrale still stood behind Fanani staring at the SpaceShuttle on the monitor. She turned to face Hoon. “Have you scanned that SpaceShuttle yet?

     “I’m doing that now.” Hoon’s head turned toward Corrale with a shocked look on his face. “There isn’t anyone living over there. But there is something strange about it. A small area of it I can’t scan. It’s being blocked somehow. Reason unknown at the moment.”

     “I think the first thing we need to do is find out who sent out that Help Signal and why. We also need to disconnect that Help Signal. If this turns out to be a trap, I don’t want anyone else being pulled into it.” Corrale twirled around as she spoke. She stopped spinning when she came face to face with Wallim. “I want a Research Team to go over there as soon as possible.”

     “My team is almost complete. I started contacting them when we first saw that SpaceShuttle.”

About an Hour Later

     A panel under the Ovvol Explorer Seven slid open so that a MiniShuttle could lower itself. Once clear of that opening the panel slid back and the MiniShuttle sailed over to the SpaceShuttle. The MiniShuttle turned around so it could connect to the top of that SpaceShuttle. Which was now on its bottom.

     The SpaceShuttle puffed out a big gust of smoke that hit Wallim in the face as he crawled through the small Connection Opening. As he swatted the smoke out of his face he looked at the small rectangular oval red pulsating gem on his wrist.

     Mavne entered that SpaceShuttle next. She held a small rectangular box in her hand that she used to scan that area they were in. keeping her three eyes on it. “It’s a bit stale in here. But the air is breathable for Ovvols.”

     “Where did that smoke come from?” Wallim tapped the red gem and it stopped pulsating. A white light appeared around Wallim, then it disappeared a few seconds later. He saw the same thing happen to Mavne. Kengi and Addic also did it as they stood next to Mavne.

     Wallim faced Mavne, Kengi, and Addic. “Kengi, you and Addic go to Control Central or whatever it’s called and disconnect that Help Signal. Also, try to find out what happened to this ship. There should be some kind of a leadership entry.”

     “Mavne, you and I will go check out that area that we couldn’t scan.” Wallim turned and started walking down the corridor. Kengi and Addic headed down that corridor in the other direction. Mavne hesitated for a second. Then practically ran to catch up to Wallim.

     A few minutes later a finger hit a button on a control panel. The large beeping sound got even louder. Another button got pushed after the finger roamed around them. “I know it’s one of these buttons. This is where that Help Signal is coming from.”

     The beeping sound increased even more. “You are supposed to be turning that off, Addic. Not shattering our hearing.”

     Addic looked at Kengi pushing buttons on the arms of a command chair in the center of that square room. She sat in it that chair while doing it. “I am trying to stop it. What about you? Have you found the leadership entries yet?”

     “I’m still working on it. The power coming on when we stepped aboard was easy. Finding any entries in their Data Information Systems isn’t. From the way, this looked on the outside and inside there’s probably at least ten, maybe fifteen, years worth of digging before I find out anything.”

     Kengi looked up at Addic while she continued hitting buttons. Addic had also returned to hitting buttons. His inner mouth protruded out as he screams when the beeping sound increased again. He punched his four fists into that control panel. Covering almost every button when he did it.

     Sparks and electricity flew out of that control panel. That room spun around. Kengi and Addic grabbed a hold of their chairs to keep from hitting the ceiling. They looked up at the Main Monitor in front of them and saw that SpaceShuttle was now upright again.

     Wallim and Mavne bounced off the ceiling to land hard on the floor. “It would have been nice if they had warned us before doing that.”

     “Mavne, you know Addic. It was probably an accident. He probably got mad and lasered it. At least he stopped the beeping sound.”

     Once back on her feet, Mavne pointed the portable scanner at a large frosted glass windowed door in front of them. “This is definitely the area we couldn’t scan from our ship.”

     Wallim pushed a button next to the entrance. Nothing happened. He wiped the glass with two of his hands. With the other, two by his face, he peered through that glass. “There are about a thousand people in glass tubes. And two in front of a long table of some kind. It looks like they froze the others in the tubes then froze the whole room to freeze themselves.”

Back On The Ovvol Explorer Seven

     Fanani looked at Corrale with two big smiles on her face. “We have control back. When the Help Signal stopped sending the Data Information System must have given us back our ship.”

     Corrale continued looking at the upright SpaceShuttle on the main monitor in front of her. “Good. Get up in closer. I want to see what happened to this ship.”

     Returning to her control panel, Fanani started pushing buttons.
She also looked up at the main monitor as their ship started going around that SpaceShuttle. After only a few seconds Corrale hit a big red button on the front of one of the arms of her chair. Their ship suddenly stopped.

     Both Fanani and Corrale pitched forward a little. Fanani patted the formed leg covers on her legs. “Thank you for protecting me again.” She swiveled in her chair to face Corrale. “Why did you do that?”

     “Fill the monitor with those words on the side of that ship and you will see why.” Corrale straightened up in her chair then glanced around the room at the other there. They all seemed to be okay too. She returned her head to the main monitor just in time to see two words filled the monitor. Those words were Haven Sent.

     Corrale pushed another large red button on the other arm of her chair. “Wallim, you and your team need to get back here. And you need to get back here now.”

     A few seconds later the face of Wallim appeared on the main monitor. “What happened? Why do you want us to leave here? We still aren’t finished with our information gathering yet.”

     “You have to get off that ship before it’s too late. If it’s not already too late. You’re on a death ship.”

     “Haven! We are on a Haven ship. I didn’t think there were any of them left. Weren’t they all destroyed several decades ago?”

     “Apparently, not all of them obviously. I didn’t think they ventured that deep into our area of space. But it looks like we were wrong about that too.”

     “According to legends, the people of the SpaceCity Haven left their dying planet to travel the universe on half an asteroid. Why they named it Haven no know knows. That wasn’t the name of their home planet. Anyway, they sailed around in their SpaceCity for several thousand of years without too many problems they could handle. Then it happened.”

     Corrale interrupted Wallim. “No one really knows exact what happened. All we know is that a plague broke out that killed about half the population instantly. The rest panicked and took off in the SpaceShuttles attached to the asteroid not knowing, or caring, that they carried the plague too.” Corrale sighed. “We all know the legend. The big question is what are we going to do about this ship.”

     “There’s only one thing we can do. I don’t think we have been exposed to it. But we can’t take any chances on releasing this plague on our sector of space. We have to destroy it.” Wallim turned to whoever was beside him for a few seconds before returning to face Corrale. “How did you know what the name of this ship was?”

     “It’s on the side of the ship. Why did you ask me that question?”

     “Then you have control of our ship again. You have to get away from here as fast as you can. Once you are clear we will destroy this ship.”

     Corrale started to speak. Then bowed her sad looking face with a slight nodding of her head.

     A few seconds later the Ovvol Explorer Seven turned and headed away from Haven Sent. Haven Sent got smaller and smaller the further Ovvol Explorer Seven got from them until it disappeared completely. Only a large red ball a few minutes later indicated that Haven Sent had been destroyed once and for all.